Author: i2wtc

Israel is attending talks on Thursday with the Palestinian group Hamas on moving to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreed between the two in January, according to Egypt, which is hosting the talks. But even as the talks get under way, Israeli officials have made it clear they are seeking to change the terms of the agreed-upon three-phase deal, jeopardising its success. Under the terms of the deal, the first six-week phase – scheduled to end on March 1st – would see the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza’s main population areas, an increase in humanitarian aid…

A view of the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, on April 16, 2024.Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu | Getty ImagesGoogle told staffers in its “People Operations” and cloud organizations this week that it plans to cut employees as a part of internal reorganizations, CNBC has learned.The company will offer a voluntary exit program to U.S.-based, full-time employees in People Operations, Google’s human relations division, starting in early March, according to a memo issued by HR chief Fiona Cicconi on Tuesday that was viewed by CNBC. The latest cuts come after finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said one of her top priorities would…

An American Airlines Airbus A319 airplane takes off past the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, January 11, 2023Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty ImagesElon Musk said Thursday that he’s sending his Starlink satellite internet terminals to the Federal Aviation Administration while saying, without providing evidence, that current technology poses a risk to air travel safety.The billionaire and top advisor to President Donald Trump, who has been tasked with cutting costs throughout the federal government, posted the claims on his social media platform, X.Executives at major airlines told CNBC on Thursday that they…

Singapore’s trucking industry was weighed down by manpower shortages, high operational costs and wasted trips. Here’s how artificial intelligence helped change that.Efficiency should be everything at the one of the world’s busiest shipping hubs. And yet, until recently, Singapore’s haulier industry was weighed down by manpower shortages, high operational costs and wasted trips. Up to 35% of trucks leaving the port were empty, burning fuel and wasting resources.A partnership between port operator PSA International and Dutch multinational HERE Technologies has tackled the problem by leveraging artificial intelligence.”For complex operations like this, one of the fundamental problems is efficiency. Our shared vision…

Listen to article ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Wednesday referred the issue of 600 Iranian trucks stranded at the Pakistan-Iran border to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, recommending that the matter be reviewed by the federal cabinet. Iranian diplomats raised concerns that Pakistan’s imposition of a bank guarantee requirement on Iranian trucks has led to daily losses of $2.2 million. During a meeting chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla at Parliament House, Iranian diplomats informed the committee that Pakistan had reinstated a bank guarantee requirement for Iranian trucks despite its removal in a 2008 agreement. The diplomat pointed out that while…

An advertisement for Venu Sports, the sports streaming venture by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, hangs at the Fanatics Fest event in New York City on Aug. 16, 2024.Jessica Golden | CNBCWith Venu done before it even got out of the starting blocks, Fox Corp., Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have been mapping out how to go it alone in live sports streaming.Last month the media giants called off the launch of Venu — a planned direct-to-consumer streaming offering of the entirety of the three companies’ live sports — in the face of headwinds, including cost sensitivity and legal…

Listen to article ISLAMABAD: In a concerning lapse in security protocols, it has been revealed that officials at the Islamabad International Airport have been allegedly allowing passengers to enter through a gate designated exclusively for staff entry. This deviation from standard procedure has raised significant concerns about passenger safety and operational integrity. According to reports, security personnel have permitted travellers to bypass the designated passenger entry points and access restricted areas through the staff-only gate. The reasons for this leniency remain unclear, but some sources suggest it may be due to overcrowding at regular checkpoints or a lack of proper enforcement of…

Trump’s comments Thursday clarified confusion he sowed on Wednesday when he seemed to suggest tariffs would be pushed back to April.United States President Donald Trump has said that his proposed 25-percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods will go into effect on March 4 and threatened an extra 10-percent duty on Chinese imports because, he claims, deadly drugs are still pouring into the US from those countries. Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site on Thursday that he would impose the additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods on March 4. This would come on top of the…

A mysterious viral disease has emerged in parts of western Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in recent weeks, resulting in at least 53 deaths, officials say. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), clinicians are particularly concerned about the short period between the onset of what appear to be symptoms of a “hemorrhagic fever” and death – around just 48 hours – prompting fears that there could be a high number of deaths if the outbreak continues. This is the latest viral epidemic to hit the East African region in the past year, following outbreaks of Marburg and mpox…

At the Meta Connect developer conference, Mark Zuckerberg, head of the Facebook group Meta, shows the prototype of computer glasses that can display digital objects in transparent lenses.Andrej Sokolow | Picture Alliance | Getty ImagesMeta on Thursday revealed the latest version of its experimental smart glasses intended to help bolster research into artificial intelligence, robotics and machine perception.The Aria Gen 2 glasses, as they’re called, are designed for researchers to use as tools to assist with their studies into robotic systems, advanced sensors and other technologies, Meta said in a blog post. For instance, the startup Envision is using the…