Author: i2wtc

Listen to article ISLAMABAD: Veteran politician and PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has urged his party leaders to actively highlight the role of Pakistan’s armed forces in their political programs, stressing that the military remains a cornerstone of national unity, defence, and resilience. He was addressing senior party leaders on Monday during an important huddle attended by Dr Muhammad Amjad, Mustafa Malik, Mehreen Malik Adam, Dr Raheem Awan, Anila Chaudhry, Atif Mughal, Rizwan Sadiq, and Chaudhry Jahangir. Chaudhry Shujaat underscored the pride the nation holds for its military leadership, stating, “The Pakistani nation is proud of its brave forces and its commanders…

Investment to pour into nuclear warheads, submarines and munitions to confront the ‘most immediate threat since the Cold War’.The United Kingdom has announced a major boost to its defence infrastructure to confront a “new era of threats” driven by “growing Russian aggression”. The package, unveiled on Monday, includes huge investments in a nuclear warhead programme, a fleet of attack submarines and munitions factories and is part of a Strategic Defence Review that Prime Minister Keir Starmer said will shift the country to “war-fighting readiness”. “The threat we now face is more serious, more immediate and more unpredictable than at any…

Private equity firm Roark Capital has bought a majority stake in Dave’s Hot Chicken, the company announced on Monday.Financial terms were not disclosed, but Dave’s CEO Bill Phelps said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the reported $1 billion valuation for the deal is “pretty close.”Since its founding in a Los Angeles parking lot in 2017, the fast-growing chicken chain has expanded to more than 300 locations by franchising its restaurants. Dave’s U.S. sales soared 57% last year and surpassed $600 million, according to data from market research firm Technomic.Roark’s investment follows a boom for chicken-focused restaurants, fueled by the so-called…

Listen to article ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) can summon the prime minister if local bodies’ elections are not held in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja on Monday. “Barring Punjab, all provinces have held the LB elections,” he further said, adding that it would be embarrassing for Punjab if the ECP passed an order regarding LB elections. “We will pass an appropriate order. The commission cannot sit idle with its eyes shut,” said CEC Raja, the head of a five-member bench, which was hearing the case regarding LG elections in Punjab on…

Ukrainian drones struck multiple military airbases deep inside Russia on Sunday in a major operation a day before the neighbours held peace talks in Istanbul. The Russian Defence Ministry said Ukraine had launched drone strikes targeting Russian military airfields across five regions, causing several aircraft to catch fire. The attacks occurred in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. Air defences repelled the assaults in all but two regions – Murmansk and Irkutsk, the ministry said. “In the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, the launch of FPV drones from an area in close proximity to airfields resulted in several aircraft…

Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesElon Musk’s brain tech startup Neuralink has closed a $650 million funding round, the company announced on Monday.ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and other firms participated in the round, according to a release. Neuralink said the fresh capital will help the company bring its technology to more patients and develop new devices that “deepen the connection between biological and artificial intelligence.”Neuralink is building a brain-computer interface, or a BCI, which is a system that translates brain signals into commands for external technologies. The company’s first system, called Telepathy,…

After several years of deep distress, the beleaguered U.S. office market has reached an inflection point. This year, office conversions and demolitions will exceed new construction for the first time in at least 25 years.Simply put, more office space is being removed than added, shrinking the overall office footprint, according to exclusive new data from CBRE Group. The commercial real estate services firm has been tracking this since 2018, but estimates it may be the first time such a dynamic has played out this century, and likely longer.CBRE found that across the largest 58 U.S. markets, 23.3 million square feet…

Listen to article RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s incarcerated founder Imran Khan has refused a polygraph test (lie detector test) requested by the Lahore police investigation for the fourth time, delaying progress in the probe into the May 9 riots case. A police investigation team, headed by DSP Asif Javed from Lahore, arrived at Adiala Jail on Monday to conduct a polygraph test, photogrammetric test, and voice matching test in connection with 11 cases registered in Lahore related to the events of May 9. Members of the Punjab Forensic Unit were also part of the team, which included Inspectors Muhammad Aslam, Tasaduq, Saleem, and Naveed,…

Ukraine carries out large-scale drone strikes on multiple Russian airbases.Eighteen months in the making, Ukraine’s Operation Spider’s Web saw hundreds of AI-trained drones target military aircraft deep inside Russia’s borders. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Sunday’s attacks will go down in history. He followed them up with a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire as the two sides met in Istanbul. The European Union is preparing its 18th package of sanctions on Russia, while US President Donald Trump has threatened to use “devastating” measures against Russia if he feels the time is right. So, is the time right now? And after…

Just 40 countries representing 3.5 percent of the world’s population respect all civil liberties, a new study has found, warning that “democracy and human rights are under attack worldwide in a way we have not seen for decades.” The Atlas of Civil Society report published by the German relief organisation Brot fur die Welt (Bread for the World) on Monday said only 284 million people living in “open” countries – including Austria, Estonia, the Scandinavian countries, New Zealand and Jamaica – enjoy protection of unrestricted civil rights and liberties. The nongovernmental organisation defines a country as “open” if it allows…