Daily News Pakistan

Tesla has begun trial production at its new Shanghai megafactory, which is dedicated to manufacturing Megapack energy storage batteries. The mass production is expected to start in the first quarter of 2025 – less than a year since construction started. The new megafactory is located near Tesla’s existing vehicle gigafactory in the Lingang area and marks the company’s first energy storage plant outside the US. The groundbreaking ceremony occurred on May 23, and the construction was completed in seven months, Tesla China told the state-owned Xinhua agency on Tuesday. The plant construction set a new record of “Tesla speed” in China, as Tesla’s first Shanghai plant was built within a year in 2019, Chinese Xinhua notes. Tesla’s stationary energy storage products include the Powerwall, Powerpack, and Megapack. The second Tesla factory in China will mainly manufacture Megapacks for the domestic market and export. The factory is designed to produce 10,000 Megapack units annually, equiv...

The death toll from a road accident in southern Ethiopia has risen to at least 71 after a vehicle carrying a wedding party veered into a river, a local official said. The truck careered into the water at around 5:30 pm local time on Sunday some 300 kilometres south of capital Addis Ababa in Sidama state. The Sidama Police Commission Traffic Prevention and Control Directorate put the death toll “so far” at 68 men and three women. “The accident was especially horrific as the river had a lot of big stones so most passengers, including the driver, were killed due to the impact,” Wossenyeleh Simon, an official with the regional communications department, told AFP. “Among the deceased are four people from the same family,” he said. He said that the driver had lost control of the “freight truck” — which was carrying 76 people, including those heading to the wedding and day labourers — when trying to turn a tight bend ahead of a bridge. “It was possible the truck was carrying people bey...

The head of the United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) called Monday for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safia, director of the war-torn Gaza Strip's Kamal Adwan Hospital, who is being held by Israel's military following a major raid on the facility. The Friday-Saturday assault on Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahia left northern Gaza's last major health facility out of service and emptied of patients, the WHO said. According to international media reports, The director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, whose whereabouts have been unknown since he was detained by Israel after a raid on the facility last week, is allegedly being held at an army base doubling as a detention facility. Hussam Abu Safia, 51, is reportedly being held in the Sde Teiman base in Israel’s Negev desert, according to former Palestinian prisoners cited by the network, who had been released over the weekend from the controversial facility known for its extreme abuse of detainees. “Two Palestin...

Ukraine's leading mobile operator Kyivstar has signed an agreement with Elon Musk's Starlink to introduce direct-to-cell satellite connectivity, its parent company VEON announced on Monday, according to a recent report by Reuters. As per the report, the new service will allow smartphones to connect directly to satellites equipped with modems, bypassing traditional cell towers. Kyivstar expects to launch messaging functionality by the fourth quarter of 2025, with voice and data services following in subsequent stages. Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, states the report. Starlink, which already provides crucial internet connectivity to Ukraine amid ongoing conflict, began rolling out satellites with direct-to-cell capabilities earlier this year. The service has been expanded to other countries, including the US, Japan, and New Zealand. As per the report, Ukraine is set to become one of the first nations globally to adopt direct-to-cell satellite conne...

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter delivers a lecture on the eradication of the Guinea worm, at the House of Lords in London, Britain February 3, 2016. The earnest Georgia peanut farmer who served as the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, passed away at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday at the age of 100. In recent years, Carter faced significant health challenges, including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. He opted for hospice care in February 2023, choosing not to undergo further medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on November 19, 2023, at 96, and the couple’s enduring love story was a testament to their commitment to one another and their shared values. The Carter Center announced that public observances will be held in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., followed by a private interment in Plains. Final arrangements for the former president’s state funeral are still pending. After leaving office, Carter transformed his post-presiden...

Finnish police on Saturday moved a ship held over suspicions it sabotaged an undersea power cable between Fin­land and Estonia to help with their investigations. Since Thursday, Finnish authorities have been investigating the Eagle S tanker, which Helsinki suspects of having Russian connections, as part of a probe into the “aggravated sabotage” of the Estlink 2 submarine cable in the Baltic Sea. That cable’s disconnection on Christmas Day was the latest in a spate of incidents Western officials believe are acts of sabotage linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Cook Islands-flagged ship was then escorted towards the Finnish coast near Porkkala in the south of the Nordic nation. Finnish police reported the tanker was moved under escort on Saturday to an inner anchorage in Porvoo, a town some 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of Helsinki. “The reason for the transfer is that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has seized Eagle S.”, the police said in a statement. Investiga...

A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea crashed on arrival Sunday, smashing into a barrier and bursting into flames, leaving all but two feared dead. A bird strike and adverse weather conditions were cited by authorities as likely causes of the crash that flung passengers out of the plane and left it "almost completely destroyed", according to fire officials. Video showed the Jeju Air plane from Bangkok landing on its belly at Muan International Airport, skidding off the runway as smoke streamed out from the engines, before crashing into a wall and exploding in flames. "Passengers were ejected from the aircraft after it collided with the wall, leaving little chance of survival," a local fire official told families at a briefing, according to a statement released by the fire brigade. "The plane is almost completely destroyed, and identifying the deceased is proving difficult. The process is taking time as we locate and recover the...

A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea crashed on arrival Sunday, smashing into a barrier and bursting into flames, leaving all but two feared dead. A bird strike and adverse weather conditions were cited by authorities as likely causes of the crash that flung passengers out of the plane and left it "almost completely destroyed", according to fire officials. Video showed the Jeju Air plane from Bangkok landing on its belly at Muan International Airport, skidding off the runway as smoke streamed out from the engines, before crashing into a wall and exploding in flames. "Passengers were ejected from the aircraft after it collided with the wall, leaving little chance of survival," a local fire official told families at a briefing, according to a statement released by the fire brigade. "The plane is almost completely destroyed, and identifying the deceased is proving difficult. The process is taking time as we locate and recover the...

SpaceX began their count down to the New Year with the launch of the first of three rockets planned to end the year 2024. From Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Saturday, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 of the company’s satellites lifted off. The mission was launched at 8:48pm from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E), reported Space.com. As to plan, about 65 minutes later, the satellites were on track to be deployed into low Earth orbit. With two still scheduled over the next, it was SpaceX’s 132nd Falcon launch this year. The two launches include a commercial communications satellites mission and another batch of Starlink satellites. “We’re now targeting 134 launches — two shy of our last goal — to finish 2024 strong," wrote Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice president of launch. The vice president added: “Here’s to an awesome last couple of days in 2024 and an even better 2025!” About eight minutes after liftoff, Saturday’s Falcon 9's first stage came back to Ea...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologised to his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev for what he called a “tragic incident” following the deadly crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane this week in Kazakhstan. The plane was flying on Wednesday from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, when it turned towards Kazakhstan and crashed while attempting to land. Thirty-eight people were killed. In a statement on Saturday, the Kremlin said Russian air defence systems were firing near Grozny due to a Ukrainian drone strike, but stopped short of saying one of these hit the plane. “Vladimir Putin apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” the Kremlin said. “At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russ...

Israel’s army has detained the director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, as the World Health Organization said Israeli assaults on medical facilities are a “death sentence” for thousands of Palestinians. An Israeli military assault on the Kamal Adwan Hospital on Friday put the last major health facility in northern Gaza out of service, the WHO said. “Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burned and destroyed during the raid,” the WHO said in a statement on X on Friday evening. The Israeli military said in a statement that it had launched a raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital as it “serves as a Hamas terrorist stronghold”, but failed to provide any evidence for this claim. Hamas said it “categorically” denied the claim. Gaza health officials said on Saturday that Israeli forces had detained the director of the hospital. “The occupation forces have taken dozens of the medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital to a detention centre fo...

OnePlus has unveiled its latest series of smartphones in China called Ace 5 and Ace 5 Pro, which will sport improvements in battery capacity and processing power. The company skipped the number 4 from its nomenclature, as the Chinese do not like using the number. The flagship model, the OnePlus Ace 5 Pro, packs Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. It also boasts a 6,100 mAh silicon carbon battery with support for 100W fast charging. On the front side, there is a 6.78-inch AMOLED display at 2780×1264 resolution with 4,500 nits peak brightness. Mobile gamers get specialized features such as "double ice core VC" cooling system and dedicated gaming chip for stable 120 FPS at 1080p resolution on the Pro variant. It has also collaborated with Genshin Impact to promote the gaming experience. The camera system includes a 50MP main sensor with optical image stabilization, accompanied by an 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro lens. The device also has AI-powered features for remov...

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced the dissolution of the Bundestag, the country’s lower house of parliament, on Friday, paving the way for early elections scheduled for February 23. In a speech, Steinmeier emphasized the importance of political stability, stating, "I have decided to dissolve the 20th German Bundestag to fix the date for an early election for February 23rd. Political stability in Germany is a precious asset." The decision follows Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s loss of a vote of confidence in the legislature on December 16. The Social Democrats (SPD) and the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) agreed on the February election date. Challenges Ahead for the SPD Opinion polls indicate that Friedrich Merz’s CDU holds a lead of around 10 points over Scholz’s SPD, making the re-election bid for Scholz particularly challenging. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, led by Alice Weidel, has also been polling strongly. However, Weidel’s c...

Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, who governed the country for two terms and liberalised its economy in an earlier stint as finance minister, has died at the age of 92, local media reported on Thursday. Singh, an economist-turned-politician who also served as the governor of the central bank, was ailing and admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, local media reported. He was very keen to convert Siachen into “a mountain of peace” after visiting the glacial heights in June 2005.

WhatsApp has added a new shortcut to its interface that enables users to open a conversation with Meta AI from the chats tab, improving its visibility and accessibility for users. According to WABetaInfo, the new shortcut, unveiled by the Meta-owned instant-messaging app in the latest WhatsApp beta for iOS 24.25.10.79 update, replaces the previous shortcut at the top of the navigation bar. With this placement, Meta's popular instant-messaging app aims to improve the feature's visibility and accessibility, especially on larger devices where reaching the top of the screen may be inconvenient. Additionally, the app aims to encourage more users to explore AI-powered features and experiment with functionalities such as generating personalised images, through the new shortcut. This change reflects a thoughtful adjustment that caters to user experience, particularly in the Android version, where the shortcut resembles the floating action button. However, it's important to n...

Gaza health authorities say new Israeli strikes have killed more than several people, including five journalists, and wounded several more in the besieged Palestinian territory. In one of the latest attacks on Thursday morning, five journalists were killed after Israeli warplanes struck a vehicle carrying a press crew in front of Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza. The journalists worked for the Al-Quds Al-Youm television channel. The vehicle was marked as a media van and was used by journalists to report from inside the hospital and Nuseirat camp, Palestinian media and local reporters said. Earlier, at least five people were killed and 30 others were injured after Israeli warplanes bombed a Palestinian home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood, the medics reported. They warned the death toll could rise as many remained trapped under the rubble. Another strike on a residential apartment in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City killed ten citizens. Israeli forces also con...

Richard Grenell, who has been picked by United States (US) President-elect Donald Trump as presidential envoy for special missions, said he would like to see Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former Prime Minister Imran Khan out of jail. Speaking to a US news outlet, Richard Grenell said, “There are a lot of the same allegations just like President Trump, where the ruling party put him in prison and created some sort of corruption allegations and false allegations.” “I would like to see Imran Khan be released from jail,” Richard Grenell said in the interview. The special envoy of President-elect Donald Trump was of the view that the people of Pakistan should decide if Imran Khan wants to run for office. “[The US] had a much better relationship with Pakistan during the Trump administration when Imran Khan was the leader because [he] was an outsider. He [Imran Khan] was a former cricket player, he wasn’t a politician and he spoke in very common sense language, and he and D...

A Nasa spacecraft is attempting to make history with the closest-ever approach to the Sun. The Parker Solar Probe is plunging into our star's outer atmosphere, enduring brutal temperatures and extreme radiation. It is out of communication for several days during this burning hot fly-by and scientists will be waiting for a signal, expected at 05:00 GMT on 28 December, to see if it has survived. The hope is the probe could help us to better understand how the Sun works. Dr Nicola Fox, head of science at Nasa, told reporters: "For centuries, people have studied the Sun, but you don't experience the atmosphere of a place until you actually go visit it. "And so we can't really experience the atmosphere of our star unless we fly through it." P arker Solar Probe launched in 2018, heading to the centre of our solar system. It has already swept past the Sun 21 times, getting ever nearer, but the Christmas Eve visit is record-breaking. At its closest approach, ...

An Embraer passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with 62 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced, saying that 28 people had survived. Unverified video of the crash showed the plane, which was operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick black smoke then rising. Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact. Kazakhstan's emergencies ministry said in a statement that fire services had put out the blaze and that the survivors, including two children, were being treated at a nearby hospital. The bodies of the dead were being recovered. Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 jet, with flight number J2-8243, was flying from Baku to Grozny, capital of Russia's Chechnya region, but had been forced to make an emergency landing around three kilometres from Aktau in Kazakhstan. The city i...

A powerful blast ripped through an explosives plant in northwestern Turkiye on Tuesday killing 12 people and injuring five others, officials said. Footage showed shards of glass and metal scattered outside the plant, where ambulances stood by. “According to initial reports, 12 employees died and four were taken to hospital with injuries as a result of the explosion” in the Karesi district of Balikesir province, local governor Ismail Ustaoglu said. “I wish God’s mercy upon our deceased citizens and a speedy recovery to our wounded,” he added. Officials later revised the number of the injured as five and added they were not in a serious condition. There were no staff members left inside the factory and the blaze was put out, they added. The blast took place at 8:25am (0525 GMT) at a section of the plant which local officials said collapsed under the force of the explosion. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the cause of the blast at the factory, which is located away from resi...

Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk’s startup xAI said it had raised $6 billion from investors in its latest funding round, as it battles stiff competition in the artificial intelligence market. The firm, whose flagship product is the Grok chatbot, garnered support from US venture capitalists, chipmakers NVIDIA and AMD, and investment funds from Saudi Arabia and Qatar among others. Musk has repeatedly warned that AI poses a risk to human civilisation, but he is pushing hard for a bigger slice of investment in the sector and xAI already raised $6bn in May. The company is now one of the world’s most valuable startups with an estimated $50bn valuation, though still dwarfed by chief competitor OpenAI’s estimated $157bn. Despite the sky-high estimates, critics have pointed out that AI firms are burning through cash and still have no clear path to profitability. Announcing the funding on Monday, xAI said it would use the cash injection to “ship groundbreaking products that will be used b...

A Russian cargo ship called Ursa Major sank in the Mediterranean Sea overnight after an explosion ripped through its engine room and two of its crew are still missing, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. The vessel, built in 2009, was controlled by Oboronlogistika, a company that is part of the Russian Defence Ministry’s military construction operations, which had previously said it was en route to the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok with two giant port cranes lashed to its deck. The Foreign Ministry’s crisis centre said in a statement that 14 of the ship’s 16 crew members had been rescued and brought to Spain, but that two were still missing. It did not say what had caused the engine room explosion. Russia’s embassy in Spain was cited by the state RIA news agency as saying it was looking into the circumstances of the sinking and was in touch with the authorities in Spain. Oboronlogistika and SK-Yug, a company LSEG lists as part of the group and the ship’s direc...

As the festive season approaches, WhatsApp is introducing an exciting update by adding the Party Popper emoji as the seventh default reaction in the reaction tray. This change in Meta's popular instant-messaging app allows users to celebrate the joyous moments of Christmas and the New Year in the most accessible way by making it readily available in the reaction tray, WABetaInfo reported. The Party Popper emoji is a universal symbol of celebration which also makes it a perfect addition to the reaction tray, eliminating the need for users to sift through the emoji picker to select a relevant holiday emoji at a time when celebratory messages are more frequent. It's important to mention that this feature is consistent across all platforms, including iOS, Android, individual chats, group chats, and even channels, so that users can have the same enhanced experience regardless of the device or context in which they are using WhatsApp. The decision to include the Party Popper em...

Bangladesh has told India that it wants former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to New Delhi after being ousted in August, returned to the country for the “judicial process”, the acting head of the country’s foreign ministry said on Monday. Additionally, Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission said on Monday that it has launched a probe into allegations of $5 billion embezzlement by Hasina and her family in connection with a Russian-backed nuclear power plant. “We sent a note verbale to the Indian government saying that the Bangladesh government wants her (Hasina) back here for [the] judicial process,” Touhid Hossain told reporters, referring to diplomatic correspondence between the two countries. Hossain did not specify what the judicial process was connected to. India’s foreign ministry and Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests seeking comment. Along with the ex-premier, those subject to the commission’s inquiry include Joy and ...

Saudi Arabia on Sunday announced the resumption of activities at its embassy in Kabul, more than three years after withdrawing its diplomats during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. “Based on the desire of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people, it has been decided to resume the activities of the mission of the Kingdom in Kabul starting on December 22,” the embassy posted on social media site X. The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the level of Saudi representation in Kabul. Riyadh announced on August 15, 2021 that it had withdrawn its diplomats from the Afghan capital because of the “unstable situation” created by the Taliban’s return to power. Later in November, Saudi Arabia said it was resuming only consular services in Afghanistan. It also provides humanitarian aid in the country through its KSRelief organisation. Earlier this month, Russia moved a step...

Israel pounded Gaza overnight with deadly attacks targeting displaced people in two camps and a school, as it ordered the forced evacuation of one of the last hospitals barely operating in the enclave’s besieged north. The military launched a wave of attacks on the so-called “safe zone” of al-Mawasi in the south, setting refugee tents ablaze in a drone attack that killed seven people, with further strikes on a civilian car and a vehicle carrying security personnel killing four others. In separate attacks, the military targeted a school housing displaced people in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing one person. It also killed four people in an area north of the camp, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. The raids capped a bloody 24 hours in the Strip, with medical sources telling Wafa news agency that a total of 50 people had been killed since early Sunday. As the attacks continued, the military ordered the closure and forced evacuation of Kamal Adwan Hospital in ...

Japanese automakers Nissan and Honda on Monday announced they had entered into official talks to merge and create the world’s third-largest automaker by sales. In a press conference on Monday, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said the companies needed greater scale to compete in the development of new technologies in electric vehicles and intelligent driving. A business integration would give the companies an “edge that will not be possible under the current collaboration framework,” Mibe said, according to a translation. The deal would aim to share intelligence and resources and deliver economies of scale and synergies while protecting both brands, he said. A holding company would be formed as the parent company of both Honda and Nissan, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The larger Honda will nominate most of the integrated entity’s board members. The merged group has the potential to deliver revenue of 30 trillion yen ($191.4 billion) and operating profit of over 3 trillion yen, he sa...

United States President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to demand control of the Panama Canal after accusing Panama of charging excessive rates on US ships passing through one of the busiest waterways in the world. “Our Navy and Commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday. “This complete ‘rip-off’ of our Country will immediately stop.” The US largely built the canal in 1914 and administrated territory surrounding the passage for decades. But Washington fully handed control of the canal to Panama in 1999 after a period of joint administration. Trump also hinted at China’s growing influence around the canal, which connects the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. “It was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else,” he said. “We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands!” The post was an exceedingly rare example of a US leader saying he ...

A US judge ruled on Friday in favour of Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp in a lawsuit accusing Israel’s NSO Group of exploiting a bug in the messaging app to install spy software allowing unauthorised surveillance. US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, granted a motion by WhatsApp and found NSO liable for hacking and breach of contract. The case will now proceed to a trial only on the issue of damages, Hamilton said. NSO Group did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, said the ruling is a win for privacy. “We spent five years presenting our case because we firmly believe that spyware companies could not hide behind immunity or avoid accountability for their unlawful actions,” Cathcart said in a social media post. “Surveillance companies should be on notice that illegal spying will not be tolerated.” Cybersecurity exp­erts welcomed the judgment. John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher with Canadian internet wat...

The United States military said it mistakenly shot down one of its own fighter aircraft over the Red Sea early on Sunday, forcing both pilots to eject. Both were rescued, one with minor injuries, after the "apparent case of friendly fire," which is being investigated, US Central Command said in a statement. The fighter was an F/A-18 Hornet flying off the aircraft carrier Harry S Truman. One of the carrier's escort ships, the missile cruiser Gettysburg, "mistakenly fired on and hit" the plane, the statement said. The Red Sea has been a hotbed of military activity for more than a year as US forces battle Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi fighters, who have carried out attacks against shipping in the region. The US military said it had fired on Houthi drones and missiles over the Red Sea on Saturday, and had attacked command-and-control and missile storage sites in Sanaa.

Israeli forces have shot and wounded a Syrian protester demonstrating against the army’s presence in a border village in southern Syria, the Israeli military says. Israeli fire injured the man, identified by local media as Maher al-Hussein, in the leg on Friday as protesters gathered in the town of Maariyah to demand an end to the Israeli military presence in the area. According to media reports, Maher al-Hussein was transported to a nearby hospital for medical treatment. Since opposition forces toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on December 8, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syria in what it said is a bid to prevent military equipment from falling into hostile hands. In a move widely condemned internationally, Israel also sent troops into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights and beyond, calling it a defensive and temporary measure. “During a protest against [Israeli military] activities in the area of Maariya in southern S...

OpenAI said on Friday it was testing new reasoning AI models, o3 and o3 mini, in a sign of growing competition with rivals such as Google to create smarter models capable of tackling complex problems. CEO Sam Altman said the AI startup plans to launch o3 mini by the end of January, and full o3 after that, as more robust large language models could outperform existing models and attract new investments and users. Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI released o1 AI models in September designed to spend more time processing queries to solve hard problems. The o1 models are capable of reasoning through complex tasks and can solve more challenging problems than previous models in science, coding and math, the AI firm had said in a blog post. OpenAI's new o3 and o3 mini models, which are in internal safety testing currently, will be more powerful than its previously launched o1 models, the company said. The GenAI pioneer said it was opening up an application process for external resea...

An Israeli air strike has killed 12 members of a family, including seven children, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Civil Defence rescue agency has reported. A video posted by the agency on its Telegram channel on Friday evening showed its staff retrieving victims from under the rubble of the Khallah family home in Jabalia. “All of the martyrs are from the same family, including seven children, the oldest aged six,” civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal told the AFP news agency. Basal added that the air raid injured 15 other people. Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the bombing of children in Gaza as “cruelty”. “Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” he said. “I want to say it because it touches my heart.” Israel continued its attacks across the Gaza Strip on Friday, more than 14 months into its assault on Gaza. At least eight people were killed by a drone missile that hit a residential building in the market street of Nuseira...

Meta-owned WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature known as playback speed for videos which will let users view content efficiently as well as tailour the viewing experience to their needs. Users will be allowed to watch videos at different speeds with the assistance of this new feature. It is worth noting that some beta testers can already explore this new feature, reported WABetaInfo. In order to ensure easy access for users while watching videos, the new playback speed control is conveniently located next to the video progress bar. Without interrupting their viewing experience, this button allows users to switch speeds quickly. Moreover, users have the flexibility to choose the speed that best suits their preferences with three playback speed levels available. These include normal, 1.5x and 2.0x. This feature is expected to significantly enhance user convenience, particularly for longer videos that might otherwise feel time-consuming to watch at normal speed, according to WABet...

The US Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to hear TikTok’s appeal of a law that would force its Chinese owner to sell the online video-sharing platform or shut it down. The top court scheduled oral arguments in the case for January 10, nine days before TikTok faces a ban unless ByteDance divests from the popular app. The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, would block TikTok from US app stores and web hosting services unless ByteDance sells its stake by January 19. TikTok is arguing that the law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, violates its First Amendment free speech rights. “Congress has enacted a massive and unprecedented speech restriction,” TikTok, which claims to have more than 170 million monthly US users, said in a filing with the Supreme Court. Should the law take effect it would “shutter one of America’s most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration,” TikTok said. “This, in turn, will sile...

Gold prices in Pakistan experienced a significant drop on Thursday, following trends in the global market. According to the All-Pakistan Gems and Jewellers Sarafa Association (APGJSA), the price of 24-karat gold decreased by Rs2,600 per tola, bringing the total to Rs273,300. Meanwhile, the price for 10 grams of 24-karat gold fell by Rs2,229, now priced at Rs234,311. In the international market, gold also saw a decline, dropping by $26 to $2,621 per ounce, with an additional premium of $20.   Silver prices in the local market remained stable, with a slight decrease of Rs50, now standing at Rs3,350 per tola. This fluctuation in gold prices marks a notable shift after a recent period of slight increases.

Two bus accidents involving a fuel tanker and a truck on a highway through central Afghanistan killed 52 people and injured 65, the Taliban government spokesmen said Thursday. The accidents happened in Ghazni province on the same highway between the capital Kabul and southern Kandahar city late Wednesday, provincial head of information and culture Hamidullah Nisar said, without specifying how many people were killed and injured in each accident. "We learned with great regret that two fatal traffic accidents occurred on the Kabul-Kandahar Highway, in which 52 of our compatriots were killed and 65 others were injured," said chief government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. One bus collided with a fuel tanker near Shahbaz village in central Ghazni while the other hit a truck in the eastern district of Andar, Nisar said. Rescue teams rushed to the site and transported the injured to hospital, with some in "serious condition", he added. Traffic accidents are common i...

WhatsApp Business is enhancing its features with the latest beta update for Android, version 2.24.26.16. The update, available via the Google Play Beta Programme, introduces AI-powered replies and a business platform connection, along with refreshed theme colours for a more user-friendly experience. The new update brings updated light and dark theme colours to the app, replacing the old light blue accents with black for the light theme and white for the dark theme. These changes align the Android app with recent updates to the iOS version, making it easier to differentiate between WhatsApp Messenger and WhatsApp Business. The most significant addition is the integration of AI-powered replies. Businesses can now use AI to respond to customer messages, particularly during times when human staff are unavailable. The AI can handle common questions, guide users through the purchasing process, and even manage complex queries using machine learning models customised to the business’s need...