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Tehran, Ankara agree to begin construction of cross-continental rail corridor Iran and Turkiye have agreed to begin constructing a new joint rail link to serve as a strategic gateway between Asia and Europe, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday. The planned route, known in Iran as the Marand-Cheshmeh Soraya railway transit line and running towards Turkiye’s Aralik border region, will cover around 200 kilometres (120 miles}. It will cost roughly $1.6 billion and is expected to take three to four years to complete, Iranian authorities have said. Earlier this month, Iran’s transport minister Farzaneh Sadegh said the rail line would transform the southern section of what was once the Silk Road into an “all-rail corridor ensuring the continuity of the network between China and Europe”. Read More: Iran offers Pakistan diplomatic 'blank cheque' It would also ensure “fast and cheap transport of all types of cargo with minimal stops”, she added. At a joint press confere...

From robots to green energy: students showcase innovations at Karachi sci-tech festival From robots to hybrid green energy solutions to insects that break down garbage, students from all over Sindh have come to Karachi to showcase their innovations at the three-day Youth Science and Technology Festival. Inaugurated on Friday by the Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, Sardar Muhammad Bakhsh Mahar, the festival features 70+ students from around 40 institutions showcasing their projects. For those with the best projects, prize money exceeding Rs200,000 has been allocated, with Rs100,000 going to first place. Mahar explained that to ensure the quality and transparent evaluation of projects, a panel comprising professors, experts, and professionals has been formed to assess each project fairly and on technical grounds. When I spoke to the students yesterday, almost everyone stated that the work on display was the culmination of months, or even a year, of research and work. There we...

AI helps drive record $11.8 billion in Black Friday online spending AI-powered shopping tools helped drive a surge in US online spending on Black Friday, as shoppers bypassed crowded stores and turned to chatbots to compare prices and secure discounts amid concerns about tariff-driven price hikes. US shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion online, up 9.1% from 2024 on the year's biggest shopping day, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks 1 trillion visits that shoppers make to online retail websites. The AI-driven traffic to US retail sites soared 805% compared to last year, Adobe said, when artificial intelligence tools such as Walmart's Sparky or Amazon's Rufus had not yet been launched. "Consumers are using new tools to get to what they need faster," said Suzy Davidkhanian, an analyst at eMarketer. "Gift giving can be stressful, and LLMs (large language models) make the discovery process feel quicker and more guided." Nearly half of respondents t...

Human washing machine goes on sale in Japan After wowing World Expo visitors, a human washing machine is now on sale in Japan, a company spokeswoman said Friday. Users lie down in the pod, close the lid and get cleaned like clothes in a washing machine -- but without the spin -- while music plays. A prototype of the device, called the human washer of the future, attracted long queues at the six-month Expo that wrapped up in Osaka in October after welcoming over 27 million people. Made by Japanese firm Science, the device is an update of a product displayed the last time Osaka hosted the event, in 1970. "Our (company) president was inspired by that as a 10-year-old boy at the time," Science spokeswoman Sachiko Maekura told AFP. The machine "not only washes your body but also your soul," she added, while also monitoring users' heartbeats and other vital signs. After a US resort company contacted Science to see if the prototype would be commercialised, the firm d...

Meta is shutting down third-party AI chatbots on WhatsApp Meta is kicking out ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, and other outside AI chatbots from WhatsApp starting January 15, 2026. If you're using any of these tools through WhatsApp, they'll stop working. Meta’s updated policy prohibits “general-purpose” conversational bots from external providers, shutting down any AI assistant not built using Meta’s own tools. Large language model (LLM) powered assistants operated through OpenAI, Microsoft Azure or other platforms will be restricted. Developers using these integrations will lose access as the API will automatically block third-party AI traffic. According to reports, this policy does not affect rule-based bots (old-school chatbots that follow fixed scripts instead of using AI), custom business flows or non-LLM automations, as these remain fully supported under WhatsApp’s Business API, which continues to serve as a core tool for customer service and sales communicatio...

Alibaba unveils Quark AI glasses in China to challenge Meta’s lead in wearables Alibaba released on Thursday its new Quark artificial intelligence glasses in China, heralding the Chinese tech company's efforts to break into the AI wearables market dominated by Meta. Prices will start from 1,899 yuan ($268.25) for the headset that will be powered by Alibaba's Qwen AI model and app. Unlike other headsets made by the likes of Meta, the Quark glasses look like regular eyewear, with a black plastic frame. Alibaba said the glasses would be deeply integrated with its apps, including Alipay and its shopping site Taobao, with wearers able to use them for tasks such as on-the-go translation and instant price recognition. Also Read: AI and apps reshape global shopping "Alibaba's strengths are shopping, payments and navigation, so its AI glasses function more like a life assistant," Li Chengdong, a Beijing-based electronics industry analyst said. The company is pushing into...

EU could hit X with fine before 2025 ends The European Union could fine Elon Musk's X platform for breaking its digital rules by the end of 2025 -- two years into a probe that has tested the bloc's resolve to police the online space. X was the target of the EU's first ever investigation under a major new online content law in December 2023 but after saying it breached the rules and risked a fine, a year later nothing has materialised. Weighing on the EU's mind is the picture in the United States -- starkly different today from 2023 -- with Big Tech cultivating close ties with the current White House. When Donald Trump returned as president with Musk by his side at the start of the year, Brussels faced the sobering prospect that any fine on X would fan tensions with the combative US leader. Since then, top US officials have made plain their distaste for the bloc's tech rules. Speaking in Brussels this week, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged the EU to loose...

FIA ends paper summons, rolls out digital attendance-notice system with QR codes In a decisive push to curb forged summons and restore trust in its communications, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has officially discontinued all manually issued attendance notices under Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) Section 160, replacing them with electronic notifications bearing unique QR codes. What changed: how the new system works Effective immediately, any summons or attendance notice from the FIA must be generated through its secure e-office system. Manual, hand-signed, or “printed on paper” notices are no longer valid.  Each valid notice will include a unique, verifiable QR code that citizens can scan to confirm authenticity. Notices lacking such a QR code should be treated as suspicious. The FIA has urged the public to report any suspicious notices via email at complaints@fia.gov.pk or by contacting its helpline at 1991. According to the agency’s spokesperson, this step against ...

Google to retire Assistant in March 2026 as Gemini takes over Google has confirmed it will phase out Google Assistant, with full retirement scheduled for March 2026. The company disclosed the timeline through notices appearing on its support forums, stating that the service will continue operating until that date before being gradually wound down. Google Assistant was introduced in 2016 at Google I/O as the successor to Google Now, launching later that year on the first Pixel phones and the Google Home speaker. It later expanded across billions of devices, including smartphones, smart speakers, wearables, televisions, and in-car systems. Over the years, it added notable features such as Continued Conversation, Duplex voice calls, Interpreter Mode and proactive Memory reminders. By 2023, Google had begun integrating the on-device Gemini Nano model for privacy-focused tasks, and in 2024, it started shifting the platform’s backend to Gemini. Transition to Gemini The retirement marks Goo...

Zong 4G partners with JDC Foundation to offer free diagnostic services in Karachi Zong 4G has joined hands with the JDC Foundation to expand access to free medical diagnostic services for underprivileged communities in Karachi, in a move the company says reflects its broader commitment to community health and welfare. Under the partnership, Zong 4G will bear the cost of medical tests conducted at JDC’s diagnostic facilities. The arrangement enables JDC to increase its testing capacity and offer a wider range of services at no cost to patients who cannot afford routine screenings. According to the company, the support is aimed at ensuring that low-income individuals have access to accurate and reliable diagnostics, a cornerstone of early detection and treatment for a range of illnesses. The initiative includes commonly required investigations such as blood tests and other routine screenings. JDC Foundation operates one of Karachi’s busiest free diagnostic centres, where thousands ...

Sindh launches Pakistan’s first ever million-rupee esports championship In an initiative for competitive gaming in the country, the District Sports Officer South, in collaboration with Vidermedia, organised the Sindh Esports Championship 2025. The event was promoted as the “First Time Ever In Pakistan” esports tournament. The championship boasted a considerable prize pool of Rs1,500,000. The competition was structured in two stages: online qualifiers followed by an in-person, LAN Grand Finals event in Karachi. The tournament focused on two major competitive titles: CS2 (Counter-Strike 2) and Valorant. Participating teams and players chose only one title in which to compete. The event was open to all players residing in Pakistan. The registration process for teams closed on November 5, 2025, at 9:00pm. Following registration, the online qualifiers were scheduled to run from November 7 to 12. The tournament culminated in the Grand Finals, taking...

Amazon to invest up to $50b to boost AI, supercomputing for US govt Amazon.com said on Monday it would invest up to $50 billion to expand AI and supercomputing capabilities for Amazon Web Services US government customers, in one of the largest cloud infrastructure commitments targeted at the public sector. The project, expected to break ground in 2026, will add nearly 1.3 gigawatts of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing capacity across AWS Top Secret, AWS Secret and AWS GovCloud regions by building data centers equipped with advanced compute and networking technologies. AWS cloud regions for US government are based on increasing levels of data sensitivity. The cloud unit currently serves more than 11,000 U.S. government agencies. "While Amazon still leads the cloud market, it has lost ground on AI-related cloud growth as Google and Oracle speed up, making large-scale infrastructure commitments necessary strategies," said Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne. Te...

Pakistani fintech ABHI expands operations to Saudi Arabia Pakistani fintech ABHI has signed an agreement with Bayt, a Saudi real estate broker. Under the agreement, ABHI will facilitate salary payments for Bayt’s employees in Saudi Arabia, allowing employees to receive their wages on time and access a specific portion of their salary in advance. Founded in 2021, ABHI is a Pakistani early wage access platform that lets salaried employees access a portion of their earned salary before the next payroll cycle, Earned Wage Access (EWA). The platform works to assist employees in avoiding paying late fees on bills and accessing emergency cash. The company operates across Pakistan as well as in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bangladesh, providing its credit-bridging products (such as EWA), which are systems that provide short-term financing solutions designed to help those in need of immediate funds. ABHI's co-founder and CEO, Umair Ansari, said their mission is to enhance financial inclusio...

Malaysia to ban social media for under 16s from 2026 Malaysia plans to ban social media for users under the age of 16 starting from next year, joining a growing list of countries choosing to limit access to digital platforms due to concerns about child safety. Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said on Sunday the government was reviewing mechanisms used to impose age restrictions for social media use in Australia and other nations, citing a need to protect youths from online harms such as cyberbullying, financial scams, and child sexual abuse. "We hope by next year that social media platforms will comply with the government's decision to bar those under the age of 16 from opening user accounts," he told reporters, according to a video of his remarks posted online by local daily The Star. The effects of social media on children's health and safety have become a growing global concern, with companies including TikTok, Snapchat, Google and Meta Platforms - the operat...

Pakistan's solar output said to exceed grid demand in some hubs next year Pakistan's rooftop solar generation will, for the first time, exceed power demand on the country's electrical grid during daytime hours in some major industrial regions next year, a senior government official told Reuters. The outlook reflects a record boom in the country's solar panel installations in recent years that has delivered lower emissions and reduced power bills for some, but also disrupted the finances of debt-laden utilities due to a protracted decline in demand for grid-based electricity. "Pakistan will experience negative grid-linked demand during certain daytime hours because behind-the-meter solar is offsetting grid consumption completely," Aisha Moriani, secretary of Pakistan's climate change ministry, told Reuters on the sidelines of the COP30 climate conference in Brazil. While regions in Europe and Australia sometimes experience negative electricity prices due ...

Meta buried 'causal' evidence of social media harm, US court filings allege Meta shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook and Instagram after finding causal evidence that its products harmed users’ mental health, according to unredacted filings in a class action by US school districts against Meta and other social media platforms. In a 2020 research project code-named “Project Mercury,” Meta scientists worked with survey firm Nielsen to gauge the effect of “deactivating” Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta documents obtained via discovery. To the company’s disappointment, “people who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness and social comparison,” internal documents said. Rather than publishing those findings or pursuing additional research, the filing states, Meta called off further work and internally declared that the negative study findings were tainted by the “existing media narrative...

Pakistan’s quiet tech turning point Pakistan enters each new economic year with the same uneasy mix of hope and exhaustion. Inflation continues to unsettle households, foreign reserves rise and fall without warning, and policymakers describe recovery in terms that feel more like survival than growth. In offices across Karachi and Lahore, young engineers look for jobs that are not always there, while factories in Faisalabad run below capacity. The country is still trying to find its footing after years of volatility, yet trying just as hard not to fall behind in a world moving at a faster digital pace. On one side, Pakistan’s IT sector has become a rare source of optimism. Freelancers have quietly placed the country among the world’s top remote-work hubs. Software exports have grown, crossing three billion dollars a year. Startups, though slowed by funding shortages, have created pockets of innovation in logistics, fintech and commerce. And on the other side, the country remains almos...

Faster internet, improved connectivity for users as new submarine cable lands in Karachi A new South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 6 submarine cable system is being deployed at Karachi’s Hawkes Bay. The development is expected to expand Pakistan’s international bandwidth capacity and strengthen support for cloud services, data centres, fintech, e-commerce, streaming, and the broader digital economy. According to the Ministry of Information Technology, the deployment of the SEA-ME-WE 6 cable, a 19,200-kilometre high-capacity fibre network will connect the country to destinations between Singapore and France. Offering more than 100 Tbps of total capacity, SEA-ME-WE 6 will provide one of the lowest-latency routes between Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Western Europe, the ministry stated. The consortium involved in the system includes Transworld Associates (Pakistan), Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, Bharti Airtel, Dhiraagu, Djibouti Telecom, Mobily, Orange, Singtel, Sri ...

Chinese experts gather to explore space science development Over a thousand Chinese experts and scholars convened on Saturday for the Fourth China Space Science Assembly, engaging in discussions on the latest advancements, major achievements, and emerging trends in space science. The four-day conference features an opening ceremony, 14 invited reports, a roundtable on international cooperation, an international symposium, and close to 50 specialized academic sessions. During the invited reports segment, 14 academicians and senior experts presented updates on China's manned space program, lunar and deep space exploration projects, space science satellite missions, and future development roadmaps. A highlight of the conference is the roundtable on international cooperation. Panelists emphasized that international collaboration is essential for the advancement of space science. They acknowledged China's breakthroughs in multiple space science fields and called for enhanced globa...

Don't let AI do your homework, Pope Leo tells US youth Artificial intelligence may be a useful tool for learning, but don't use it for your homework, Pope Leo told about 15,000 US youth during a question-and-answer session on Friday. In a live video transmission from the Vatican to a national Catholic youth conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, Leo told the young people that AI is "becoming one of the defining features of our time." "Using AI responsibly means using it in ways that help you grow," said the pope. "Don't ask it to do your homework for you." Leo, the first US pope, spoke for about 40 minutes with the youth in the first such event of his six-month papacy, answering questions about the Catholic faith and giving advice on how to make friends in school. Read More: To preempt state AI laws, Trump considering executive order The pope, who has been ramping up criticism of US President Donald Trump's anti-immigration policies, also b...

Uber to launch robot deliveries in UK with Starship Technologies Uber will partner with Starship Technologies to launch autonomous robot deliveries in the UK in December, with plans to expand to additional European markets next year and the US in 2027, the ride-hailing firm said on Thursday. Initially, Uber Eats customers will be able to receive Starship's robot deliveries in the Leeds and Sheffield areas, Uber said. The tie-up is the latest in a long line of deals Uber has struck with autonomous vehicle and technology companies as the company doubles down on automating various aspects of its business to boost growth. Uber already has partnerships with Avride and Serve Robotics for robotic food delivery in the United States. San Francisco-based Starship's robots will operate at Level 4 autonomy, which means they can operate without human intervention within a specified area.

To preempt state AI laws, Trump considering executive order US President Donald Trump is considering an executive order that would seek to preempt state laws on artificial intelligence through lawsuits and by withholding federal funding, according to a draft of the order seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The move, which is likely to face pushback from states, shows how far Trump is willing to go to help AI companies overcome a patchwork of laws they say stifle innovation. A White House official told Reuters that until officially announced, discussion of potential executive orders was speculation. The order would task Attorney General Pam Bondi with establishing an "AI Litigation Task Force whose sole responsibility shall be to challenge state AI laws, including on grounds that such laws unconstitutionally regulate interstate commerce, are preempted by existing federal regulations, or are otherwise unlawful," according to the document. It would also direct the Department of ...

Epic, Unity strike partnership to bring Unity-made games into Fortnite Epic Games is partnering with Unity Technologies in a move that will allow developers to bring games made with Unity’s engine directly into Fortnite. The integration will place Unity titles alongside Epic’s own experiences and third-party creations built with the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, significantly expanding the range of playable content inside the platform. In a statement, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said the collaboration reflects the company’s push toward an “open metaverse”. “Companies need to work together to build a metaverse that is interoperable and fair,” Sweeney said. “Working alongside Unity, we’re helping developers build fun games, reach larger audiences and find success.” Sweeney, speaking onstage at Unity’s Unite conference, said Fortnite will be opened to “all Unity games” through new network technology developed by Unity that connects external engines via a specialised protocol. From next yea...

Google rolls out Gemini 3, its most advanced AI model yet Google began rolling out its next generation of artificial intelligence models on Monday, introducing Gemini 3 as the company’s “most intelligent” and “factually accurate” system to date. The launch marks a significant step in Google’s bid to regain momentum in the AI race after OpenAI’s troubled debut of GPT-5. For the first time, Google is making its flagship model, Gemini 3 Pro, available to all users on day one through the Gemini app. The company is also integrating Gemini 3 Pro into Search for subscribers. Tulsee Doshi, senior director and head of product at Google DeepMind, said the new system moves the company closer to its longstanding goal of making information “universally accessible and useful” as the search experience shifts beyond text-only results. “One really big step in that direction is to step out of the paradigm of just text responses and give you a much richer, more complete view of what you can ac...

Google plans data hub on Christmas Island with green energy goals Australia's remote Indian Ocean outpost of Christmas Island has enough power to support a new Google data centre without depriving locals, but its arrival could spur a push to renewable energy, the island's biggest employer and the tech giant said. Alphabet's Google announced on Monday it will build a data hub on the tiny island located 350 km (220 miles) south of Indonesia, confirming a Reuters report. It said it would also build a subsea cable system connecting Christmas Island to the Maldives and Oman, with two new data hubs to "deepen the resilience of internet infrastructure in the Indian Ocean Region". Google's plans had raised concern there would not be enough power to meet the needs of locals, the island's phosphate mine and the data centre, but Phosphate Resources chief executive, Nicholas Gan, said supply was ample for now. The phosphate company, which employs half the island...