Author: i2wtc

Iran’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz has raised alarms across global markets given concerns over potential disruptions to one of the world’s most critical energy corridors amid escalating conflict with the United States and Israel. The warning follows US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted in favour of shutting down the waterway — a move seen as possible retaliation. Any final decision, however, rests with the Supreme National Security Council and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow 31-mile-wide channel between Iran and Oman, is responsible for the transit…

Google could face changes to its online search services in the U.K. after regulators raised concerns over the tech giant’s dominance.The Competition and Markets Authority on Tuesday said it is consulting on a proposal to give Google “strategic market status,” a designation under new competition rules for tech firms that hold entrenched power in a certain market.The watchdog was granted expanded competition and merger control powers this year as the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act came into force.Similar to a European Union law known as the Digital Markets Act, the legislation gives the CMA the ability to directly enforce…

Oil prices fall sharply after Trump says China can buy oil from IranFILE PHOTO: An Israeli gas platform, controlled by a U.S.-Israeli energy group, is seen in the Mediterranean sea, some 15 miles (24 km) west of Israel’s port city of Ashdod, in this file picture taken February 25, 2013. Amir Cohen | ReutersOil prices have fallen sharply now that Trump says China can keep buying oil from Iran, a sign that the U.S. is easing its maximum pressure campaign on the Islamic Republic in the wake of a ceasefire with Israel.Global benchmark Brent fell $4.14, or 5.79%, to $67.34…

A Compass Realty sign is posted in front of a home for sale on June 23, 2025 in Greenbrae, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesRising supply and slowing demand in the housing market are finally causing prices to cool off, and the weakness is accelerating.Home prices nationally rose just 2.7% in April compared with the previous year, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index released Tuesday. That is down from a 3.4% annual increase in March and is the smallest gain in nearly two years.The report is slightly back-dated, as it is a three-month running average…

Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 21st, 2025. Gerry Miller | CNBCAnthropic’s use of books to train its artificial intelligence model Claude was “fair use” and “transformative,” a federal judge ruled late on Monday.Amazon-backed Anthropic’s AI training did not violate the authors’ copyrights since the large language models “have not reproduced to the public a given work’s creative elements, nor even one author’s identifiable expressive style,” wrote U.S. District Judge William Alsup.”The purpose and character of using copyrighted works to train LLMs to generate new text was quintessentially…

Parade goers hold Pride flags during the annual Pride Parade in San Francisco on Sunday, June 29, 2024. Minh Connors | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers | Getty ImagesMeta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is staying mum these days when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community. It wasn’t always that way. San Francisco Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford told CNBC she remembers when Zuckerberg personally called the nonprofit to ensure that the company then known as Facebook had a spot at the annual event. As the world’s largest LGBTQ+ parade, the SF Pride event has become a symbol representing advocacy and social…

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Monday formally unveiled a Rs36 billion mini budget in the National Assembly and announced to exclude almost the entire population from disclosing source of income before buying a big home, a car or running a bank account. The limits set for disclosing the source of income before making big purchases would now target only the users of above 1,600 cc cars, and people owning more than one-kanal residential houses in major cities and almost two-kanal houses in other cities. Effectively, this has rendered the enforcement initiative of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman…

Waymo partners with Uber to bring robotaxi service to Atlanta and Austin.Uber Technologies Inc.Uber and Alphabet’s Waymo are now offering robotaxi rides to the public in Atlanta, as the companies continue expansion of their partnership.The Waymo robotaxis available through the Uber app will cover approximately 65 square miles around Atlanta, but will not yet travel on highways or to the airport. The vehicles feature Waymo’s driverless technology, known as the Waymo Driver, integrated into battery electric Jaguar I-PACE SUVs.The companies said in September that they would be jointly bringing Waymo One to Austin, Texas, and to Atlanta. Rides became available in Austin…

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will side with peace and ready to play a constructive role in seeking a diplomatic solution to the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict that now the United States has also become part of, raising the spectre of wider regional war, officials said after a civil-military huddle on Monday. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Middle East in the wake of the US abandoning its 45-year-old Iran policy and launching direct strikes on its nuclear sites on Sunday. Senior cabinet members, military chiefs, including Field Marshal Syed…

A worker unloads boxes from an Amazon delivery van in San Francisco on Oct. 24, 2024.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAmazon is expanding its rapid delivery machine to more rural corners of the U.S.The company said Tuesday it plans to bring same- or next-day delivery to more than 4,000 smaller cities, towns and rural communities across the country “for the first time” by the end of this year.The move is part of a previously announced small-town expansion that will see Amazon spend roughly $4 billion by the end of 2026 to triple the size of its rural delivery…