Author: admin

  • Wahab Riaz to replace ex-PCB selector as Pakistan Women’s head coach: Reports

    Wahab Riaz to replace ex-PCB selector as Pakistan Women’s head coach: Reports


    Wahab Riaz in line for coaching role [Source: @dhillow_/X.com]

    Former Pakistan fast bowler Wahab Riaz is reportedly set to take on a new challenge as the head coach of the Pakistan women’s cricket team. According to reports, the PCB is finalising…

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  • At UN, Pakistan assails India over ‘weaponisation’ of Indus Water Treaty

    At UN, Pakistan assails India over ‘weaponisation’ of Indus Water Treaty

    Pakistani Ambassador to the United Nations Asim Iftikhar Ahmad speaks during a UN Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, June 20, 2025. — AFP
    • Indian acts threaten millions’ livelihoods:…

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  • A&O Shearman represents banks on groundbreaking post-IPO financings

    A&O Shearman represents banks on groundbreaking post-IPO financings

    The financings included a EUR950million multicurrency revolving credit facility, EUR1.215bn Term Loan A and EUR1.25bn Term Loan B, as well as EUR1bn senior secured PIK toggle notes. The term loans refinanced existing debt, and the PIK notes funded a distribution to sponsor Hellman & Friedman. The revolving credit facility will provide Verisure with additional flexibility and liquidity going forward.

    Verisure is the leading provider of professionally monitored security services in Europe and Latin America, and a portfolio company of Hellman & Friedman.

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  • The artist Luke Jerram on the tree-planting project he’ll never see finished | Art

    The artist Luke Jerram on the tree-planting project he’ll never see finished | Art

    Luke Jerram – whose art installations have travelled the world – is philosophical about his latest project bearing fruit beyond his time on earth.

    Known for his “Play Me I’m Yours” street pianos project and his Museum of the Moon artwork…

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  • A&O Shearman represents banks on groundbreaking post-IPO financings

    A&O Shearman represents banks on groundbreaking post-IPO financings

    The financings included a EUR950million multicurrency revolving credit facility, EUR1.215bn Term Loan A and EUR1.25bn Term Loan B, as well as EUR1bn senior secured PIK toggle notes. The term loans refinanced existing debt, and the PIK notes funded a distribution to sponsor Hellman & Friedman. The revolving credit facility will provide Verisure with additional flexibility and liquidity going forward.

    Verisure is the leading provider of professionally monitored security services in Europe and Latin America, and a portfolio company of Hellman & Friedman.

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  • NASA confirms long spaceflights harm astronauts’ eyes, jeopardizing Mars missions

    NASA confirms long spaceflights harm astronauts’ eyes, jeopardizing Mars missions

    NASA confirms long spaceflights harm astronauts’ eyes, jeopardizing Mars missions

    A comprehensive National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) study has found that space missions of six months or more…

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  • Why human-shaped robots loom large in Musk’s Tesla plans

    Why human-shaped robots loom large in Musk’s Tesla plans

    It has appeared in Tesla showrooms, on its factory floors and has even posed with Kim Kardashian.

    But Elon Musk’s vision for his human-like robot Optimus is much grander than that.

    Since first unveiling it at a Tesla showcase in 2022, the tech billionaire has suggested his company’s droid could play a huge role in the homes and lives of people all over the world.

    Along with self-driving robotaxis and Cybertrucks, Musk believes Tesla robots are key to establishing a foothold in the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape.

    And investors who signed off on his $1tn pay package on Thursday would appear to agree.

    One of the many tasks Musk must complete to get his whopping pay deal is to deliver a million AI bots over the next decade.

    But is Tesla’s big bet on humanoid robots rooted in science fiction or reality?

    Silicon Valley is gunning hard for humanoids.

    A report released by Morgan Stanley on Friday predicted Apple, which is reportedly looking into the robots, could potentially earn $133bn a year from them by 2040.

    Foxconn is reported to be deploying them at its Nvidia factory in Texas.

    The idea of advanced AI within a human-shaped shell is an astonishingly powerful combination in theory. It would let the tech interact with the physical world around it – and yes that includes us.

    While many companies have sought to develop human-like robots for factory and industrial use – such as UK robotics firm Humanoid – some are already looking to insert the tech in homes.

    The highly-publicised Neo from tech firm 1X, slated to launch in 2026, can do menial chores like emptying the dishwasher, folding clothes and fetching you items.

    It will cost $20,000 but it does come with a caveat – the WSJ reported it was actually controlled by a person wearing a virtual reality headset.

    Forrester analyst Brian Hopkins said the falling costs of components, combined with improvements to robot dexterity and AI, was helping to make humanoid robots feasible for a variety of different settings.

    “From warehouses and restaurants to elder care and security, new use cases are gaining traction fast,” he wrote in a blog post.

    “If current trajectories hold, humanoid robots could disrupt many physical-service industries significantly by 2030.”

    Musk previously told investors his robots had “the potential to be more significant than the vehicle business, over time”.

    He went one step further after his pay package deal was approved on Thursday, saying he believed it could be “the biggest product of all time by far, bigger than cell phones, bigger than anything”.

    He has also suggested it might boost Tesla’s AI ambitions – particularly in advancing artificial general intelligence (AGI) systems capable of matching human abilities.

    “Tesla AI might play a role in AGI, given that it trains against the outside world, especially with the advent of Optimus,” he wrote on X in 2022.

    Elsewhere in the space, Boston Dynamics’ hydraulic humanoid Atlas has captivated millions on YouTube with its gymnastics and dance routines.

    Viral videos of its leaps, bounds, somersaults and backflips have shown the advances in robotics over the years – with scientists now seizing upon the AI boom to boost their capabilities with systems enabling them to undertake more complex tasks.

    When it was retired last year, it was replaced with a newer, fully electric model developers said could contort its metal frame in even more ways.

    But many of the roboticists the BBC has spoken to over the years have rolled their eyes about tech firms shaping robots like humans.

    Practically, there is little reason for robots to have legs.

    The mechanics and hardware involved in creating machine legs are far more intensive.

    As one scientist put it – “wheels are so much more efficient”.

    And don’t get them started on why a robot doesn’t need to have a head.

    Psychologically though, humanoids have long been a human fascination – and something reflected decades of sci-fi.

    You need only look to the legacy of characters such as Star Wars’ C-3PO, Futurama’s Bender or the Terminator to see humans might sometimes feel more comfortable around something closely resembling us.

    Back in reality, humanoid machines have been often far less polished and more gimmicky, clumsy and buggy than their fictional counterparts.

    But that appears to be changing with the likes of Optimus and sleeker droids which edge us closer to living in an uncanny valley.

    Tesla’s droid has been appearing in more public settings as of late – serving burgers and popcorn to customers at the company’s Hollywood diner.

    Sam Altman, boss of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, said in May he doesn’t think the world is ready for humanoids, while simultaneously describing it as an incoming moment.

    There’s no love lost between him and Elon Musk but on this occasion they seem to be on the same page that the robots are on their way – and Musk certainly has the power, the influence and the cash to make it happen.

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  • IPC announces Professor Brendan Burkett as VISTA 2025 keynote speaker

    The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has confirmed Professor Brendan Burkett as the fifth featured speaker to deliver a keynote address at VISTA 2025, the IPC’s leading sport science conference. This year’s conference will take place…

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  • Pakistan slams India over ‘unilateral’ suspension of IWT

    Pakistan slams India over ‘unilateral’ suspension of IWT

    Pakistani Ambassador to the United Nations Asim Iftikhar Ahmad speaks during a UN Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New…

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  • Multiple explosions shake a mosque in an Indonesian high school and injure 55

    Multiple explosions shake a mosque in an Indonesian high school and injure 55

    JAKARTA, Indonesia — Multiple explosions shook a mosque at a high school during Friday prayers in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, injuring at least 55 people, mostly students. Police tried to dissuade speculation that the blasts were a terror…

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