Author: i2wtc

Shares of advertising technology company AppLovin and stock trading app Robinhood Markets each jumped about 7% in extended trading on Friday after S&P Global said the two will join the S&P 500 index.The changes will go into effect before the beginning of trading on Sept. 22, S&P Global announced in a statement. AppLovin will replace MarketAxess Holdings, while Robinhood will take the place of Caesars Entertainment.In March, short-seller Fuzzy Panda Research advised the committee for the large-cap U.S. index to keep AppLovin from becoming a constituent. AppLovin shares dropped 15% in December, when the committee picked Workday to join the…

Pakistan’s government on Friday said “we decide who stays”, after the United Nations refugee chief urged the country to pause its mass expulsion of Afghans after a major earthquake. Thousands of Afghans who were registered as refugees have surged over the border from Pakistan in recent days, with returns escalating despite a weekend earthquake that killed 2,200 people and flattened entire villages in Afghanistan. It prompted a call by Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees: “Given the circumstances, I appeal to the (government of Pakistan) to pause the implementation of the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan.” Read More: UN…

New York City Mayor Eric Adams looks on during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing to examine the jurisdiction of “sanctuary cities” on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 5, 2025. Kent Nishimura | ReutersNew York City Mayor Eric Adams on Friday said he would not drop out of the city’s mayoral race, after a The New York Times report that advisors to President Donald Trump were working on a plan to nominate Adams as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia to convince him to abandon his campaign.Trump wants two candidates to drop out of the race to make it…

With floodwaters continuing to inundate swathes of Punjab and beyond, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday directed the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination to begin preparations for the 2026 monsoon season, and submit a climate resilience action plan, within two weeks. Chairing a high-level review meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office, Shehbaz called for a coordinated and future-focused response to the country’s mounting climate vulnerabilities, underscoring that rehabilitation of flood-hit communities was now a ‘national priority’. “Flood-prone regions, especially those flanking southern riverbanks, must be fully prepared,” he said, stressing the importance of real-time monitoring of evacuation and…

Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesAnthropic has agreed to pay at least $1.5 billion to settle a class action lawsuit with a group of authors, who claimed the artificial intelligence startup had illegally accessed their books.The company will pay roughly $3,000 per book plus interest, and agreed to destroy the datasets containing the allegedly pirated material, according to a filing on Friday.The lawsuit against Anthropic has been closely watched by AI startups and media companies that have been trying to determine what copyright infringement means in the AI era. If Anthropic’s settlement is approved, it will be the largest…

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court’s senior puisne judge, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, has written a letter to Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, urging him to publicly respond to a series of pressing institutional questions at the upcoming judicial conference on September 8, 2025. The letter, titled “Pressing Institutional Concerns”, spans seven pages, raised serious concerns about transparency, judicial independence, collegiality, and the internal functioning of the apex court. Justice Mansoor emphasizes that the issues he highlights are not personal grievances, but stem from a “deep commitment to the judicial work” and the integrity of the institution. “As the senior-most Judge of this…

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai meets with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at Google for Startups in Warsaw, Poland, on February 13, 2025.Klaudia Radecka | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesFrom the courtroom to the boardroom, it was a big week for tech investors.The resolution of Google’s antitrust case led to sharp rallies for Alphabet and Apple. Broadcom shareholders cheered a new $10 billion customer. And Tesla’s stock was buoyed by a freshly proposed pay package for CEO Elon Musk.Add it up, and the U.S. tech industry’s eight trillion-dollar companies gained a combined $420 billion in market cap this week, lifting…

US President Donald Trump during a dinner with tech leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. Will Oliver | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump on Friday threatened to launch a trade investigation to “nullify” what he said were discriminatory fines being levied by Europe against U.S. tech firms such as Google and Apple.”We cannot let this happen to brilliant and unprecedented American Ingenuity and, if it does, I will be forced to start a Section 301 proceeding to nullify the unfair penalties being charged to these Taxpaying…

NFL MVP Josh Allen signs with New Balance.Courtesy of New BalanceNFL MVP Josh Allen has left Nike to sign an endorsement deal with New Balance.The Buffalo Bills quarterback announced the news on Friday in a letter to his hometown of Firebaugh, California. The deal is a major win for Massachusetts-based New Balance.Allen has been a Nike athlete since he joined the league in 2018. The swoosh has faced headwinds in recent years as innovation slowed and sales declined.Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but New Balance has committed to funding the Firebaugh community youth sports program as part of…

Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell speaks alongside Michelle Bowman (L), Board Vice Chair for Supervision, Lisa Cook (2nd R), Board Governor, and Adriana Kugler (R), Board Governor, as he chairs a Federal Reserve Board open meeting discussing proposed revisions to the board’s supplementary leverage ratio standards at the Federal Reserve Board building in Washington, DC, on June 25, 2025.Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty ImagesFormer Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler’s abrupt resignation from the board on Aug. 1 – and her unexplained absence at a key meeting two days earlier – left the financial community shocked and…