Author: i2wtc

BARCELONA: Barcelona stripped Marc-Andre ter Stegen of the captaincy on Thursday as a feud escalated between the Germany goalkeeper and the club over his injury status amid the Catalans’ attempts to register new signings. Ter Stegen’s place is under threat from one of the summer signings, 24-year-old Joan Garcia, and 35-year-old Wojciech Szczesny, the Polish veteran who has been rewarded with a contract extension for taking over during last season’s Liga title-winning campaign. Barca were likely expecting to sell Ter Stegen, 33, to make space in their wage bill for Garcia and Manchester United loanee Marcus Rashford. However, Ter Stegen…

Listen to article ISLAMABAD: The GSMA has noted that despite Pakistan’s digital ambitions and talent, the country risks falling behind in the region if urgent telecom policy reforms are not introduced. Without reform, investors may leave and citizens will suffer, it warned. At the GSMA Digital Nation Summit 2025, Julian Gorman, Head of Asia Pacific at GSMA, identified three key obstacles to Pakistan’s digital growth: high taxes, limited spectrum, and policy inconsistencies. It is pertinent to note that IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja skipped the high-profile GSMA conference, sparking frustration among telecom industry leaders. “It is unfortunate that the minister is not…

TAROUBA: Pakistan will enter the territory they reportedly tried their best to avoid recently when they take on the West Indies in the opening fixture of the three-match One-day International series in Tarouba, Trinidad and Tobago on Friday. The format hasn’t been Pakistan’s cup of tea lately. They had a disastrous run in the 2023 World Cup before they bounced back to beat Zimbabwe, Australia and South Africa on the road under Mohammad Rizwan’s captaincy. But failing to register a victory in the ICC Champions Trophy earlier this year before getting whitewashed by New Zealand away from home restored Pakistan’s…

Listen to article KARACHI: The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decreased by $72 million, reaching $14.23 billion, primarily due to scheduled external debt repayments, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday. Meanwhile, the net foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks remained stable at $5.26 billion, bringing the country’s total liquid foreign reserves to $19.50 billion. Moreover, the Pakistani rupee posted a marginal gain against the US dollar, appreciating by 0.04% in the inter-bank market. By the end of trading, the local currency closed at 282.56, marking an improvement of Rs0.11 from the…

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakistan will face hosts Kyrgyzstan, Yemen, Laos, Cambodia and Guam in the six-team Group ‘B’ in the qualifiers for next year’s AFC Under-17 Asian Cup after the draw was conducted in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. Matches will be held from Nov 22 to 30 in a single league format with the group winners of the seven qualifying groups progressing to the tournament finals in Saudi Arabia, where they will join the nine AFC representatives from the FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2025 who have automatically qualified, namely Qatar, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Korea Republic, DPR Korea, Japan, Tajikistan, United…

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday termed Pakistan’s annual population growth rate of 2.55 per cent, an alarming trend requiring immediate and coordinated policy action at the national level to address the issue. The prime minister chaired a high-level meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office to review the challenges posed by Pakistan’s rising population and to deliberate on effective strategies to manage it, a Prime Minister’s Office news release said. “We need comprehensive planning to ensure our growing population, especially the youth, becomes a productive part of the economy,” he stressed. “A large segment of our population comprises young…

Tesla’s vice president of hardware design engineering, Pete Bannon, is leaving the company after first joining in 2016 from Apple, CNBC has confirmed.Bannon was leading the development of Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer and reported directly to Musk. Bloomberg first reported on Bannon’s departure, and added that Musk ordered his team to shut down, with engineers in the group getting reassigned to other initiatives.Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Since early last year, Musk has been trying to convince shareholders that Tesla, his only publicly traded business, is poised to become an an artificial intelligence and robotics powerhouse, and not…

Listen to article ISLAMABAD: In an unprecedented development, the federal government on Thursday approved 27 projects worth over Rs1.5 trillion in just a few hours, without much scrutiny. Most projects were related to Sindh and Balochistan. Key schemes include the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway, the reconstruction of a National Highway in Sindh, and upgrades to the dangerous N-25 road in Balochistan. Several Sindh-focused projects were also approved, despite these violating the National Fiscal Pact signed under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, approved 28 projects spanning energy, infrastructure,…

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesThe launch of an Instagram feature that details users’ geolocation data illicited backlash from social media users on Thursday.Meta debuted the Instagram Map tool on Wednesday, pitching the feature as way to “stay up-to-date with friends” by letting users share their “last active location.”  The tool is akin to Snapchat’s Snap Map feature that lets people see where their friends are posting from.Although Meta said in a blog post that the feature’s “location sharing is off unless you opt in,” several social media users said in posts that they were worried that was not the…

Listen to article With fresh records unfolding each day, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued its remarkable ascent on Thursday as the KSE-100 Index surged 0.39% to an all-time high of 145,647 points. The rally was propelled by strengthening sentiment, robust corporate earnings, and improving macroeconomic fundamentals, cementing the market’s role as a key barometer of investor confidence. The momentum followed the government’s move to ease tax enforcement through mandatory consultation with the business community prior to arrests in tax fraud cases—a step seen as fostering a business-friendly environment. Also Read: Khawaja Asif rebuffs resignation rumours KTrade Securities, in its market wrap,…