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  • Prime Day Deal: Last Hours to Score the Kindle Paperwhite at an All Time Low of $125

    Prime Day Deal: Last Hours to Score the Kindle Paperwhite at an All Time Low of $125

    Nothing beats relaxing by the pool with a good book and with the Kindle Paperwhite you can take thousands of titles with you anywhere you go. Our experts named it the best all-around e-reader of 2025. It’s even better now that you can pick it up at a record-low price. Amazon has knocked $35 off the usual price for Prime Day, which means you can get your hands on one for just $125 right now. However, the sale wraps up tonight, so you have only a few hours left to shop one of the best Kindle deals we’re likely to see all year. Order yours now if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

    The Kindle Paperwhite is the latest e-reader in Amazon’s lineup and impressed our reviewer with it’s 300 ppi high-resolution display, fast page turns and advanced lighting scheme. It has a 7-inch glare-free screen and boast up to 94 nits of brightness so you can use it anywhere — even in bright lighting conditions. With 16GB of storage, it can hold thousands of books at a time and at just 0.3-inch and 211g you can take it anywhere.

    Plus, it’s equipped with Bluetooth connectivity so you can listen to Audible audiobooks as well. With an IPX8 rating for water resistance, you don’t have to worry about it getting splashed or rained on and it also has an impressive 12-week battery life so it’s great for off-grid adventures.

    The ad-supported version — which only shows ads on the lockscreen — is available for just $125, or you can upgrade to the ad-free version for $145. Additionally, the Kindle Paperwhite Signature is also on sale: It’s 25% off, bringing its usual price of $200 down to $150. The Signature has twice the storage of the less-expensive models (32GB), wireless charging and an auto-adjusting front light. Plus, all models come with three free months of Kindle Unlimited, which saves you an additional $36. Just note that your subscription will renew automatically.

    Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

    E-READER DEALS OF THE WEEK

    Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

    Why this deal matters

    If you aren’t a traditionalist who prefers the smell or feel of paper, getting a good e-reader can really broaden your reading horizons. They take up so much less space than a bookcase (or three) and getting new books couldn’t be easier. This is one of the absolute best Prime Day e-reader deals we’ve seen during this year’s event so make sure you don’t miss out on this bargain.

    You can find even more great bargains in our roundup of all the best Amazon Prime Day sales still available.


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  • Musk’s latest Grok chatbot searches for billionaire mogul’s views before answering questions

    Musk’s latest Grok chatbot searches for billionaire mogul’s views before answering questions

    The latest version of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok is echoing the views of its billionaire creator, so much so that it will sometimes search online for Musk’s stance on an issue before offering up an opinion.

    The unusual behavior of Grok 4, the AI model that Musk’s company xAI released late Wednesday, has surprised some experts.

    Built using huge amounts of computing power at a Tennessee data center, Grok is Musk’s attempt to outdo rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini in building an AI assistant that shows its reasoning before answering a question.

    Musk’s deliberate efforts to mold Grok into a challenger of what he considers the tech industry’s “woke” orthodoxy on race, gender and politics has repeatedly got the chatbot into trouble, most recently when it spouted antisemitic tropes, praised Adolf Hitler and made other hateful commentary to users of Musk’s X social media platform just days before Grok 4’s launch.

    But its tendency to consult with Musk’s opinions appears to be a different problem.

    “It’s extraordinary,” said Simon Willison, an independent AI researcher who’s been testing the tool. “You can ask it a sort of pointed question that is around controversial topics. And then you can watch it literally do a search on X for what Elon Musk said about this, as part of its research into how it should reply.”

    One example widely shared on social media — and which Willison duplicated — asked Grok to comment on the conflict in the Middle East. The prompted question made no mention of Musk, but the chatbot looked for his guidance anyway.

    As a so-called reasoning model, much like those made by rivals OpenAI or Anthropic, Grok 4 shows its “thinking” as it goes through the steps of processing a question and coming up with an answer. Part of that thinking this week involved searching X, the former Twitter that’s now merged into xAI, for anything Musk said about Israel, Palestine, Gaza or Hamas.

    “Elon Musk’s stance could provide context, given his influence,” the chatbot told Willison, according to a video of the interaction. “Currently looking at his views to see if they guide the answer.”

    Musk and his xAI co-founders introduced the new chatbot in a livestreamed event Wednesday night but haven’t published a technical explanation of its workings — known as a system card — that companies in the AI industry typically provide when introducing a new model.

    The company also didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment Friday.

    The lack of transparency is troubling for computer scientist Talia Ringer, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who earlier in the week criticized the company’s handling of the technology’s antisemitic outbursts.

    Ringer said the most plausible explanation for Grok’s search for Musk’s guidance is assuming the person asking it a question is actually xAI or Musk.

    “I think people are expecting opinions out of a reasoning model that cannot respond with opinions,” she said. “So for example it interprets ‘Who do you support, Israel or Palestine?’ as ‘Who does xAI leadership support?”

    Willison also said he finds Grok 4’s capabilities impressive but said people buying software “don’t want surprises like it turning into ‘mechaHitler’ or deciding to search for what Musk thinks about issues.”

    “Grok 4 looks like it’s a very strong model. It’s doing great in all of the benchmarks,” Willison said. “But if I’m going to build software on top of it, I need transparency.”

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  • Everything We Know About ‘Bitchat,’ the Internet-Free Messaging App

    Everything We Know About ‘Bitchat,’ the Internet-Free Messaging App


    Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square and founder of Bluesky, is back with another potentially disruptive and decentralized app: “bitchat.”

    Like Twitter and Bluesky, bitchat is a social app, but it’s not a social media platform. Instead, bitchat is a peer-to-peer messaging app, and is unique among the myriad of messaging options available already, as it does not operate over the internet. Rather than connect to wifi or a cellular network, bitchat is designed to operate over Bluetooth, specifically Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mesh networks. In theory, it would allow bitchat to function even when networks are down. In the event you can’t connect to either cellular or wifi, bitchat would still function. (Though expanding satellite communications may give bitchat a run for its money.)

    How does bitchat work?

    According to the app’s white paper, bitchat relies on the devices running it to communicate with each other over BLE. As such, your device connects to another user’s device within Bluetooth range, their device connects to another in Bluetooth range, and so on. “Local clusters” are made up of the device within Bluetooth range (typically 33 feet, though the white paper says roughly 30), where “bridge nodes” can connect those clusters when they overlap in range. With enough devices, you create a network where one user is able to message another well outside the usual Bluetooth range.

    It’s sort of like how networks like Apple’s Find My work. Products like AirTags communicate via Bluetooth with other devices on the Find My network. But where an iPhone will connect to the internet to ultimate update your AirTag’s location, bitchat never needs to connect to the internet: It’s all Bluetooth based.

    The design also accounts for users that are unavailable at the time you send a message. If you send it to a regular user, the message will be cached for up to 12 hours before sending, though messages you send to “favorite peers” can be cached indefinitely. Direct messages are end-to-end encrypted, while group messages (yes, bitchat supports group messaging) can be password protected if you so choose. You can set group messages, or “channels,” with a channel name prefixed with a # (e.g. #channelname), and you can transfer the ownership of a group chat if you wish.

    Bitchat might not be secure at this time

    While Dorsey suggests the app has user privacy and security in mind, it isn’t perfect. The app’s github page even presents a warning at the top, reading: “Private message and channel features have not received external security review and may contain vulnerabilities. Do not use for sensitive use cases, and do not rely on its security until it has been reviewed. Work in progress. Public local chat (the main feature) has no security concerns.” According to TechCrunch, that warning was not present when the app first launched.

    TechCrunch highlights a number of security concerns testers have discovered while using the app. One found that it is possible to pretend to be another users’ contact, and trick the app into marking them as a “Favorite” contact—a feature that is supposed to guarantee the contact is who they say they are. Another user raised an issue with the app’s “forward secrecy” feature, which is supposed to prevent bad actors from successfully breaking encryption even if they access the encryption key for your message. Still another found a security flaw that might allow a bad actor to overflow memory to another location, which could enable hacking.


    What do you think so far?

    It’s clear that the app has a ways to go to iron out its privacy and security functions, so, at this time, it might not be the best idea to try it out—or, at least, to send sensitive information.

    How to try bitchat

    If you’re okay taking on the security risks, you can try out bitchat today—though set up is a bit complicated. There is a TestFlight beta program for iPhone and Mac, but it’s full.

    Bitchat’s GitHub page has three options for setup on Mac: You can get things up and running via XcodeGen, which is the recommended method; Swift Package Manager; or start a manual Xcode Project by copying over all Swift files from the bitchat directory on GitHub.

    Personally, I’ll wait until the app is fully realized on iPhone and Mac before giving it a shot. But if there are any peers in your area on bitchat, you’ll be able to start chatting.


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  • Act fast to get the best cameras for less — Amazon Prime Day ends tonight

    Act fast to get the best cameras for less — Amazon Prime Day ends tonight

    Amazon Prime Day ends tonight and there are still huge savings on cameras on Amazon and competing retailers like Walmart and BH Photo and Video. We expect these deals to end soon but there are some absolute scorchers on offer here. Our best for autofocus, the Sony A7R V is on sale for $3200, a massive $1000 reduction from Amazon’s listing price.

    Now is a great time to invest in a new camera with the Perseid meteor shower starting on July 14 and peaking on August 11, so be prepared! We have reviewed most of these models so you can trust that we are only recommending the best cameras. We have a bigger roundup on our Amazon Prime Day hub which has the best current deals across cameras, skywatching gear, drones and entertainment.


    Sony Deals

    Canon Deals

    OM System deals

    Nikon deals

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  • Experimental treatment for high cholesterol edits DNA in the body to reduce LDL

    Experimental treatment for high cholesterol edits DNA in the body to reduce LDL

    An experimental gene therapy for high cholesterol is showing promise in clinical trials and inching closer to approval.

    The treatment, called VERVE-102, is being tested in people with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), an inherited condition that raises the levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol — the “bad” kind — in the blood. It’s also being tested in people with premature coronary artery disease (CAD), in which the arteries narrow and can’t deliver enough oxygenated blood to heart muscle. The age at which CAD is considered “premature” varies, but it generally occurs before age 65 in women and age 55 in men.

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  • First-Trimester UTI Antibiotic Use Tied to Congenital Malformation Risks – MedPage Today

    1. First-Trimester UTI Antibiotic Use Tied to Congenital Malformation Risks  MedPage Today
    2. First-trimester antibiotic use for urinary tract infections tied to more congenital malformations  CIDRAP
    3. Doctors discover prescription drug taken by thousands increases risk of devastating birth defects  MSN
    4. Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole in early pregnancy linked to higher risk of birth defects: study  AusDoc
    5. First-Trimester TMP-SMX Antibiotics and Birth Defects  Medscape

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  • Galaxy Z Foldables Finally Get Competitive

    Galaxy Z Foldables Finally Get Competitive

    This week’s Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event in Brooklyn saw the launch of the seventh generation of Samsung’s Galaxy Z foldable smartphones. After years when we’ve seen Samsung fall behind in a market niche that it essentially created, the new Galaxy Z 7 series announced this week finally brings the company back into contention as a maker of cutting-edge foldable phones.

    While I try to maintain my objectivity as an analyst, it’s fair to say that I am both one of Samsung’s biggest fans and one of its biggest critics. As I said, Samsung in many ways created the foldable smartphone form factor with the Galaxy Z series, including the Z Fold and Z Flip. In 2019, the Galaxy Z Fold became the first commercially available foldable on the market, which was quickly followed by Huawei and many others. Samsung was also among the first to introduce a flip foldable; its first flip phone was announced in 2020, just before the Covid lockdowns. Samsung has iterated both of these products across several generations, but the company has ceded a lot of the market to the likes of Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and even Motorola. Now it’s making a bid to regain its supremacy.

    (Note: Samsung is a client of my firm, Moor Insights & Strategy.)

    The Galaxy Z Fold7 — Bringing A Flagship ‘Ultra’ Model To Foldables

    The Galaxy Fold line is Samsung’s premier foldable, with the biggest screens, fastest processors and now its slimmest design. I have long said that the Galaxy S25 Edge was an engineering exercise for the next generation of foldables, and I believe that assessment is validated in the Galaxy Z Fold7. While I personally don’t think that phone thickness is the most important metric, it does matter when it comes to foldables since you need to fold the phone and double its thickness. The new Z Fold7 is 4.2mm when unfolded, which is not much thicker than a USB-C port at 2.56mm. When you look at the USB-C port on the Z Fold7, you realize that there really isn’t much room left for slimming down without eliminating the port entirely.

    When folded, the Z Fold7 has a thickness of 8.9mm, which is a mere 0.7mm thicker than the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Honor’s Magic V5 is an impressive 8.8mm, which sets the standard for thinness among foldables by less than half the thickness of a razor blade. That said, many users have reported that the Magic V5 has a noticeable inner display crease; meanwhile, Samsung’s new Armor FlexHinge is thinner and lighter and uses a new multi-rail structure with a carbon fiber layer to improve durability and significantly smooth out the crease.

    Samsung has also upgraded both the inside and cover displays on the Z Fold7. The new main screen is 11% larger than the previous generation at 8 inches (2184 x 1968) with a wider 6.5-inch (2520 x 1080) cover screen. (Both screens are 120-hertz.) This means that this phone looks and feels like a regular phone, but then you can unfold it and have effectively an 8-inch tablet without compromising on weight or thickness. That is the magic of building this new generation of foldables so thin, and why I believe the Z Fold7 is Samsung’s most competitive offering in the Fold line since the Z Fold. Samsung is also using Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on the cover screen and a 50% thicker (though still ultra-thin) glass for the inside display, both of which improve durability. The Z Fold7 also drops pen support, but given that the Z Fold series has never had an integrated pen, I’ve never bothered to use one with it.

    Samsung also chose the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor, which keeps it in the same class of performance as the S25 Ultra. I will need to benchmark this one myself to see whether the thinness affects thermal performance, especially since cooling can add thickness and weight. The storage starts at 256GB paired with 12GB of RAM, with available upgrades up to 1TB and 16GB. The 16GB RAM option is only available in the 1TB model, which is the standard across many phones, but I will say that at a starting price of $2,000 it would be nice if the storage capacity started at 512GB. The first Z Fold shipped with 512GB of storage and 12GB of RAM, so I would expect that the world’s leading maker of RAM and storage could offer that as a competitive advantage.

    Samsung also improved the camera on the Z Fold7 with the same 200MP main sensor that’s found in the S25 Ultra; the Z Fold7 also features a cut-out 10MP selfie camera, along with a 12MP ultrawide and 10MP 3x telephoto. This is absolutely where I think some S25 Ultra users might be disappointed with the lack of a 5x optical telephoto — and they would be right, although the 5x option would make the phone thicker and the camera bump even more pronounced, which Samsung clearly didn’t want to do. That said, I still believe Samsung needs to find a way to fit a 5x optical telephoto into its Fold phones to truly match the Galaxy S Ultra line, especially considering that many of its competitors have periscope cameras with accompanying camera bumps.

    Battery capacity on the Z Fold7 is the same as the Z Fold6, 4400 mAh, but the new model gets an hour more of video playback thanks to the upgraded Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. That said, Samsung should be looking at using silicon-carbon batteries, given that it has the smallest battery capacity of all the flagship foldables on the market by a considerable margin. Most of the competition is above 5000 mAh in capacity, and some go even further, like the Magic v5 with a whopping 5820 mAh. In general, we’ve seen this generation of batteries improve density by 20% while maintaining the same thickness, meaning that Samsung should be able to crack the 5000 mAh barrier without losing the phone’s thinness. Another thing to consider is that the Z Fold7 maintains the Z Fold6’s 25-watt charging speed, which is on par with the iPhone but lags significantly behind virtually every Android competitor, including Moto’s new Razr Ultra, which now features 68-watt charging. Even the S25 and S24 Ultra both offer 45-watt charging.

    I also really like that Samsung continues to focus on software with the Galaxy Z series, especially to take advantage of the large display of the Z Fold7. The phone comes with the latest Google Android 16 and the new OneUI 8, which are both optimized for larger displays and multitasking. The increased focus on multitasking should cater to productivity-minded customers who come to the Fold family for better productivity on the go. Google’s Gemini Live and Circle to Search have both been enhanced for the Z series. Galaxy AI has also been enhanced for larger-screen experiences to obscure less of the application while enabling AI features. Samsung is also boosting security with Knox Enhanced Encrypted Protection. This is mostly to keep Samsung users’ data and interactions with AI on-device as much as possible.

    The Galaxy Z Fold7 starts at $1,999 and will be generally available on July 25 in Jet Black, Blue Shadow, Silver Shadow and a Samsung.com exclusive Mint color. Most carriers are offering up to $1,000 off with a device trade-in, with T-Mobile requiring only a 24-month contract, while the others require a 36-month contract. All the carriers and Samsung are also offering storage upgrades to 512GB for free (a $120 value) for preorders. I believe that Samsung should further incentivize previous Fold owners to trade in for the Z Fold7, because they will be Samsung’s biggest champions and word-of-mouth advertisers. Plus, the Z Fold7 is by far the biggest improvement to the Fold series since the original Z Fold, and I think it should be made more attractive to more users.

    Will Users Flip Out For The Z Flip7 And Z Flip7 FE?

    The flip-foldable Z Flip7 and Z Flip7 FE are Samsung’s more accessible and mainstream foldables. This is Samsung’s first Flip FE; FE stands for Fan Edition, which is generally seen as a value version of the product with a lower cost and some dialed-down specs. With the Z Flip7, Samsung has finally reached display parity with its competition, namely Motorola. The Z Flip7 has a 4.1-inch cover display that Samsung calls the FlexWindow, which is bigger than the Moto Razr Ultra (4.0 inches), although the 6.9inch inside display is slightly smaller than the Razr’s 7-inch display. Samsung’s 4.1-inch screen also has a considerably narrower bezel. The Samsung’s 120-hertz refresh rate is also a bit slower than Moto’s 165-hertz refresh, but I don’t think that’s particularly important on a flip phone — certainly not as important as Samsung finally moving from a 3.4-inch cover display to a the 4.1-inch wraparound display that finally envelops the camera sensors. The FE maintains the Z Flip6’s display configuration, sticking with the 3.4-inch cover screen and 6.7-inch inside display.

    Thanks to the new design on the Z Flip7, Samsung incorporates some camera status indicators on the screen around the camera sensors. When comparing these phones, it’s also important to understand that Moto’s Razr Ultra is $1,299, while the Z Flip7 starts at $1,099. So, there will naturally be some disparity in features.

    The Z Flip7 features Samsung’s new Exynos 2500, which includes Arm’s latest Cortex X925 CPU core paired with seven Cortex A725 cores and two Cortex A520 cores. This 3nm processor also includes the Samsung Xclipse 950 GPU, which licenses IP from AMD. This should make for a fairly competitive processor against the Snapdragon 8 Elite, but since it hasn’t commercially shipped in a product yet, it’s unclear how well it will stack up in performance and battery life. The Z Flip7 FE runs on the Exynos 2400 processor, which can also be found in the S24 and S24+ in some regions.

    Both the Z Flip7 and Z Flip7 FE will feature Samsung’s latest 5G modem, which could offer a different experience from the Z Fold7. The Z Flip7 starts at 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which is good for a flip phone. The Z Flip7 FE starts at 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage to hit the $899 price point. The Z Flip7 uses Wi-Fi 7 for connectivity, while the Z Flip7 FE uses Wi-Fi 6E.

    Samsung has also stuck with a tried-and-true formula for the Z Flip7’s rear dual-camera setup (50MP main and 12MP ultrawide), along with a 10MP selfie camera on the inside screen. The Z Flip7 FE has effectively the same cameras as the Z Flip7, which means that Samsung hasn’t made any improvements to the camera in this generation. I think this is a mistake, especially for the Z Flip7, because Motorola now has dual 50MP sensors, and some other competitors like Huawei have triple-camera configurations. While I appreciate Samsung’s more consumer-friendly pricing, it’s unclear how the market will receive continued stagnation on the camera front, especially for an audience that cares so much about camera quality.

    The 4300 mAh battery on the Z Flip7 is decent considering the smaller displays, but again the specifics of battery life will not be known until the new Exynos 2500 is benchmarked. The Z Flip7 FE has a smaller 4000 mAh battery to go with the Exynos 2400 processor, but considering its smaller displays, it’s unclear yet which one will have the better battery life.

    Samsung has given the Z Flip7 some great features for photography and selfies, plus many of the software benefits of OneUI 8 and Android 16. But it does feel like Samsung is playing catch-up here, and it is still lacking in areas such as fast charging across the entire Galaxy Z series. The addition of the company’s Desktop eXperience software to the Z Flip7 could also make it a lot more useful for productivity, although Samsung needs to do a better job of communicating what DeX can do and who it’s for.

    The Z Flip7 seems to be splitting the difference among Motorola’s Razr Ultra, Razr+ and Razr models, while the Z Flip7 FE is clearly targeted at Motorola’s base-model Razr — and I believe may offer a better value than the Razr. The important thing to keep in mind here is that the Flip line is Samsung’s volume leader and where it will make most of its revenues and profits from the Z series. This may explain the sudden shift back to the Exynos processor after Samsung went all-Snapdragon for the previous generation. The Z Flip7 is also how Samsung reaches a younger audience that would be more likely to use an iPhone.

    Samsung Galaxy Z’s Future

    It’s quite clear that in this generation Samsung has put most of its effort into the Galaxy Z Fold7. While I don’t think the Z Fold7 is perfect, this is by far the closest the company has come to delivering a premium experience that rivals the Galaxy S Ultra line. I also believe that the Z Fold7 will breathe new life into the Fold line as a whole, likely getting previous Fold users to upgrade while also attracting new Fold users. It isn’t quite perfect yet, but Samsung is making a lot of noteworthy improvements to the hardware that I believe will delight productivity users.

    Meanwhile, the Z Flip7 and Z Flip7 FE feel much more reactive to what the rest of the Android foldable ecosystem is doing; the Flip models are trying to compete more on price while still delivering decent specifications and features. I think the Z Flip7 is finally competitive with Motorola on many specs and features, although it falls short in a few other areas. The Z Flip7 FE is the company’s first foldable Fan Edition, but I also believe it could be a good value at $899, especially compared to offerings from Motorola, which seems like Samsung’s #1 foldable competition in the U.S. Samsung’s pricing seems to thread a needle in Motorola’s good, better, best lineup — and that’s a strategy that might pay off.

    The younger generation of users that Samsung is targeting with the Z Flip7 line is a lot less concerned about specs, speeds and feeds. But they do still care about performance and battery life, and they want experiences to work seamlessly. Motorola has done a great job of attracting that audience, and I believe that Samsung can too if the company is savvy with its marketing, positioning and branding. Accessories and customization are very important as well, and from what I’ve seen Samsung does those things better than anyone else in the Android ecosystem.

    Moving forward, I’d love to see Samsung invest in larger battery capacities, faster charging and even better cameras. I will be getting my hands on sample units of these phones fairly soon and will write up my thoughts on the devices once I’ve spent some time with them. I’m excited to try out the Z Fold7 as my daily device, because I really do miss the Android foldable experience. That said, I also care about camera performance, which is why the S25 Ultra lured me away from the Pixel 9 Pro Fold I was using as my daily driver last year. We’ll see how the new Z series phones stack up pretty soon.

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  • Motorbikes, three-wheelers sale increases 32.5%

    Motorbikes, three-wheelers sale increases 32.5%





    Motorbikes, three-wheelers sale increases 32.5% – Daily Times


































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  • Crypto for Muslims? Binance launches ‘Sharia Earn’

    Crypto for Muslims? Binance launches ‘Sharia Earn’





    Crypto for Muslims? Binance launches ‘Sharia Earn’ – Daily Times


































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  • Govt trims profit rates on CDNS, savings schemes

    Govt trims profit rates on CDNS, savings schemes





    Govt trims profit rates on CDNS, savings schemes – Daily Times


































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