Daily News Pakistan

Muhammad Younas Sahil Mahay was born on August 20, 1992. He is a Pakistani businessman, TikTok star and content creator whose work includes business, digital media and community activities. He is also associated with the Mahay Welfare Organization and has taken part in efforts to help families in need. Mahay has business interests in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. He is associated with Al Brother Group, which is involved in areas including automobiles, e-commerce, digital marketing and food trading. The automotive sector is one of the areas connected with his business work. Through Brothers Motors, he has been involved in the automobile business in Pakistan. His business activities also include other commercial interests connected with the group. Mahay's work also extends to the United Arab Emirates, particularly Dubai, where he has been involved in business and trading activities. His work in Pakistan and the UAE has given him experience in both markets. Alongside his ...

Pakistani robotics data company World Context hosted its first-ever robotics hackathon at the University of California, Berkeley, bringing together 13 teams as part of its efforts to expand artificial intelligence and technology trade between Pakistan and the United States. The hackathon, held in partnership with Blockchain at Berkeley, was sponsored by Google Gemini, ElevenLabs, The Hackathon Company, Lovable, Praxis Robotics and UC Berkeley Startup. Participants used datasets provided by World Context to develop projects across hardware, software and visualisation tracks. Sortbot, a project focused on building robots capable of sorting different types of objects, won the hardware track. Reconstructors, which focused on reconstructing World Context data in the physical world, won the software track. Reconstructors also produced a simulation that won the visualisation track. The event awarded a total of $4,500 (Rs1.25 million) in cash prizes. The hackathon highlighted the growing i...

Apple could expand its newly introduced foldable iPhone lineup with additional models, including a larger iPhone Duo Max, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman suggested Apple could eventually introduce an iPhone Duo Max with a larger display, while other variants such as a Duo SE or Duo Mini could also be possible. The predictions come after Apple chose the “Duo” name for its first foldable iPhone, rather than the “Ultra” name that had been widely speculated before its launch. Why Apple chose the Duo name According to Gurman, some Apple employees had reportedly referred internally to the device as the “iPhone Ultra” in the months before its unveiling. Apple ultimately selected the three-letter Duo suffix, which fits alongside existing names such as Air and Pro. Gurman said the naming approach also gives Apple greater flexibility to introduce additional variants in the future. A Duo Max, for example, could indicate a larger-screen version...

Waliullah Sahibzada is a TikTok creator who has built a growing international following by sharing different aspects of his life with audiences around the world. Based in France, he regularly posts videos featuring his daily activities, travels and personal experiences. Born on May 5, 1999, Sahibzada has developed a varied social media presence, with content ranging from everyday moments to visits to different places. Rather than focusing on a single subject, he shares posts based on his interests, activities and experiences. His TikTok account has more than 5 million followers, while his videos have received over 170 million likes. The figures reflect the growing reach of his content and his ability to attract viewers from different countries, including Pakistan, France and other parts of the world. Life in France is an important part of Sahibzada’s online presence. Through his videos and photographs, he gives followers glimpses of the places he visits, his daily routine and activi...

Mobile operators have launched 5G services in 23 cities across Pakistan, with the PTA reporting rapid expansion of 5G sites, particularly in Karachi, during the first phase of the rollout. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) presented a report on the 5G rollout to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on IT, detailing the progress made by mobile operators and the targets set for the first phase. According to the PTA, mobile phone companies have installed the highest number of 5G sites in Karachi, where the rollout is expanding rapidly. A PTA document shows that the number of 5G sites in Karachi has increased from 90 to 279, with 189 new sites added within a month. The city currently has approximately 5,000 active LTE and 4G sites operated by mobile companies. At least 1,000 5G sites are required to be installed in Karachi by the end of the first phase of the rollout. The PTA said the significant increase in 5G sites reflects the rapid expansion of modern mobile ser...

Nasa's new flagship astronomical observatory was launched into space from Florida on Sunday on a mission to probe some of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics and cosmology. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a roughly $4 billion project, was carried aloft from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The telescope is designed to investigate cosmic enigmas such as dark energy and dark matter, while also testing gravity at vast scales and searching for exoplanets, as planets beyond our solar system are called. There were some weather concerns ahead of the launch but the rocket carried the telescope into space through blue skies and some scattered clouds. Roman will travel through space toward an orbital location called Lagrange Point 2, situated about a million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth. Its mission is planned for five years, though the US space agency said the telescope may have enough fuel for five additional years. Roman will build on...

The Government of Pakistan and Google have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote national digital transformation and innovation in Pakistan. Secretary Ministry of Information Technology Zarar Hashim Khan and Google's Senior Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy for Southeast Asia, David Weller, signed the MoU at a ceremony held in Islamabad today. Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, US Chargé d'Affaires, Natalie Baker and members of the Federal Cabinet witnessed the signing ceremony. The signing of the MoU is a significant milestone for establishing Google office in Pakistan. The cooperation between the government of Pakistan and Google will lay the foundation for a new era of digital transformation and innovation in Pakistan. The MoU aims to strengthen cooperation in Pakistan on digital skills, IT exports and innovation. Under the MoU, Pakistan and Google have also agreed to expand the Google Career Certificates programme to promote digital skills...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called for lower US barriers for open-source AI models to compete with Chinese rivals as the social media giant released a new open-weight model on Monday. The new model, Muse Glimmer, is much smaller than leading AI models from rivals and is instead designed for agentic tasks and can run on a Mac or PC with a single graphics card, aiming to tap demand for AI systems that run directly on people's devices. It comes as the social media giant seeks to strengthen its position after forming a costly, new superintelligence team last year to propel itself back into the high-stakes AI race. Zuckerberg's statement also marks the latest show of support for open-weight AI, which is gaining traction as businesses grow wary of ballooning AI bills and worry about recent cybersecurity incidents involving models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta. Hugging Face, the AI coding collaboration site that was hacked by a rogue OpenAI model, said last month that it used a Chi...

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued a security advisory urging WhatsApp users to adopt essential safety measures to protect their accounts from hacking and cyber fraud. In a statement on Saturday, the authority warned that cybercriminals continue to target WhatsApp accounts through unauthorised access attempts and advised users to strengthen their account security. PTA recommended enabling Security Notifications by going to “Settings > Account > Security Notifications” and turning on the “Show Security Notifications” option. The feature alerts users whenever there is a change to their account’s security settings. The regulator also advised users to link a secure and active email address to their WhatsApp account, saying it can help with account recovery in case of hacking or other emergencies. In addition, PTA urged users to activate Two-Step Verification, describing it as an important layer of protection that helps prevent unauthorised access by hackers...

The installation of an indoor 5G solution at Islamabad International Airport has officially commenced, marking the first comprehensive indoor 5G facility at any airport in Pakistan. A kick-off ceremony for the project was held under the supervision of the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA), which said the initiative would enhance digital connectivity and improve passenger experience at the airport. The project involves Chinese investment of $5 million and, upon completion, is expected to generate a monthly revenue of Rs600,000 for the Pakistan Airports Authority. The indoor 5G solution will provide passengers with high-speed internet services within the terminal, ensuring faster and more reliable connectivity during their time at the airport.

Elon Musk praised Pakistan's judicial system after the Lahore High Court (LHC) upheld the death sentences of two men convicted in the motorway gang-rape case and rejected their appeals. In a post on the microblogging site X, formerly Twitter, Musk expressed his wish for a similar justice system in Western countries. “Bravo, Pakistan! This is what we should be doing in the West.” He posted comments after the LHC’s Wednesday ruling in which the court decided to maintain the previous verdict that had awarded death sentences to Abid Malhi and Shafqat Baga in the high-profile motorway gang-rape case, dismissing their appeals against the anti-terrorism court’s verdict. A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Tariq Mahmood Bajwa announced the verdict after hearing arguments from both sides. The court upheld the death sentences imposed by the ATC and all other sentences handed down to the convicts. During the proceedings, counsel for the appellants ar...

Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the nineties shooter game "Doom" and say they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It's the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain's networking system. Each so-called "biological computer" contains around 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game "Pong", where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball across a screen, the brain cells have moved on to bigger things. Initially, the neurons were at the "level of a beginner who's never played a video game before," Alon Loeffler, Cortical Labs' senior application scientist, told AFP. "Doom" involves a chaotic 3D game-world where the user ...

Microsoft has updated its digital mapping services to include Palestinian place names and remove ‘misleading’ Israeli designations in the occupied West Bank, according to a digital rights group. The Arab Centre for the Advancement of Social Media (7amleh) said in a statement that the revisions affect several location-based tools, including Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Labels that previously identified West Bank locations as “Judea and Samaria, Israel” have now been replaced with “West Bank,” the statement added. “Judea and Samaria” is the Israeli administrative term used for the occupied West Bank. However, under international law, the territory — including East Jerusalem — is considered occupied Palestinian land and is widely viewed as part of a future Palestinian state. 7amleh described the update as a “necessary correction,” with advocacy manager Lama Nazeeh urging technology companies to comply with international law and avoid contributing to what she called the “digital ...

Alphabet’s Google joined a growing list of technology firms to sign a deal with ​the US Department of Defence to use its artificial intelligence models ‌for classified work, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The agreement allows the Pentagon to use Google’s AI for “any lawful government purpose”, the report added, ​putting it alongside OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI, which also have deals to supply ​AI models for classified use. Classified networks are used to handle a ⁠wide range of sensitive work, including mission planning and weapons targeting. The Pentagon signed ​agreements worth up to $200 million each with major AI labs in 2025, including Anthropic, OpenAI, ​and Google. The Pentagon is seeking to preserve all flexibility in defence and not be limited by warnings from the technology’s creators against powering weapons with unreliable AI. Google’s agreement requires ​it to help in adjusting the company’s AI safety settings and filte...

A new wave of social media accounts is reshaping how celebrity news is consumed, with creators posting round-the-clock updates on stars’ lives to millions of followers. Accounts like Buzzing Pop and Pop Crave share constant updates ranging from red carpet moments to chart rankings and viral interviews, attracting massive engagement across platforms. Jay, a 25-year-old researcher for Buzzing Pop, says the work is continuous. “We’re at this 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said, adding that the team relies on both established media sources and anonymous tips, which are checked for credibility before posting. Similar accounts have gained huge followings, while others focus on individual celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez and Zendaya. Andrei Ciprian, who runs a Taylor Swift updates page with nearly two million followers, said he began by tracking details from the singer’s Eras Tour, spending hours daily posting updates for fans. Experts say the trend has made celeb...

DeepSeek, the Chinese startup whose low-cost AI model stunned the world last year, launched on Friday a preview of a highly awaited new model adapted for Huawei chip technology, underlining China's growing autonomy in the sector. The Pro version of the new model outperforms other open-source models in world-knowledge benchmarks, trailing only Google's closed-source Gemini-Pro-3.1, DeepSeek said. The close collaboration with Huawei on the new model, the V4, contrasts with DeepSeek's past reliance on Nvidia's AI chips. Huawei said its chips were used in some of the V4's training process. "This is a big deal for China's AI industry," said He Hui, director of semiconductor research at consultancy Omdia. "Huawei's Ascend chips are the country's best homegrown alternative to Nvidia, and supporting DeepSeek V4 shows that top Chinese AI models can now run-on Chinese hardware." Most leading AI models are trained and run-on chips made by...

The Turkish parliament voted on Wednesday to prevent children under the age of 15 from accessing social media platforms, state media agency Anadolu reported, the latest country to try such a ban. Under the law, under-15s will be banned from creating accounts on social media, while digital platforms will be forced to put in age-verification systems, Turkish news broadcaster NTV reported. The vote follows in the footsteps of similar bans and proposals to limit the harms of internet use for young people, including Australia's landmark move to restrict social media to over-16s only. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to sign the legislation, which was introduced by his party. The law will enter into force six months after being published in the official gazette. If alerted to an "emergency", major social media platforms will have a duty to intervene within an hour of harmful content being posted online, NTV said. Besides Turkey, France has been spearhe...

The Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) on Wednesday announced a landmark advancement in Pakistan’s manned space mission programme as two astronaut candidates — Khurram Daud and Muhammad Zeeshan Ali — are set to depart for China to begin advanced astronaut training at the Astronaut Centre of China (ACC). In an X post, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said that this is a significant step forward in Pakistan’s space exploration journey that positions the country in the community of a select group of nations actively engaged in human spaceflight programmes. Under this collaboration, Pakistan is preparing for its first-ever participation in a mission to the China Space Station (CSS), it added. “The mission is currently planned for launch in late 2026, where a Pakistani astronaut will serve as a Payload Expert aboard the Shenzhen mission,” said the ministry. During the mission aboard the CSS, the Pakistani astronaut will conduct several scientific expe...

Meta is installing new tracking software on US-based employees’ computers to capture mouse movements, clicks and ​keystrokes for use in training its artificial intelligence models. The move is part of a broad initiative to build AI agents that can perform work tasks autonomously, the company told staffers in ‌internal memos seen by Reuters. The tool, called Model Capability Initiative (MCI), will run on work-related apps and websites and will also take occasional snapshots of the content on employees’ screens, according to one of the memos, posted by a staff AI research scientist on Tuesday in a channel for the company’s model-building Meta SuperIntelligence Labs team. The purpose, according to the memo, was to improve the company’s AI models in areas where they struggle to replicate how humans interact with computers, like choosing from dropdown menus ​and using keyboard shortcuts. “This is where all Meta employees can help our models get better simply by doing their daily work,...

South Korean battery maker Samsung ​SDI said on ‌Monday it has signed a multi-year agreement ​with Mercedes-Benz to ​supply batteries for electric ⁠vehicles, marking its ​first EV battery supply ​deal with the automaker. The batteries will feature high-nickel ​NCM (nickel, cobalt, and ​manganese) chemistry, powering Mercedes-Benz’s next ‌generation ⁠EVs, Samsung SDI said in a statement Mercedes-Benz planned to use ​the ​batteries ⁠in future compact and mid-size electric ​SUVs and ​coupe ⁠models, the statement said. Samsung SDI did not ⁠disclose ​the size ​of the deal.