BERLIN: Bayern Munich equalled the European record for successive wins to start a season as they beat 10-man Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-0 on Saturday.In the late game, Maximilian Beier scored in the sixth minute of stoppage time to send Borussia Dortmund up to third with a 1-0 home win over promoted Cologne. RB Leipzig stayed second with a 6-0 win at Augsburg. In Moenchengladbach, Joshua Kimmich, Raphael Guerreiro and teenager Lennart Karl all scored in the final half hour as Bayern made it 13 wins from 13 games in all competitions, a feat last achieved by AC Milan at the start of the 1992-93 season. The win meant Bayern stayed five points clear of second-placed RB Leipzig at the top of the table. The home team&#39;s Jens Castrop sunk his studs into Luis Diaz&#39;s shin with 19 minutes gone and was sent off when his yellow card was upgraded to red after a VAR review. Despite the one-man advantage, Bayern&mdash;who made six changes, including Jonas Urbig replacing captain Manuel Neuer in goal&mdash;lacked fluidity against their last-placed opponents. &quot;After the red card, the entire stadium celebrated every duel won and every save by their &#39;keeper,&quot; Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said. &quot;There were a lot of emotions&mdash;we stayed calm. When we got our chances, we took them.&quot; It was only the second time this season Harry Kane, who had a goal chalked off for offside in the second half, had failed to score. Kimmich put the visitors ahead after 64 minutes, blasting through a crowded penalty box, and Guerreiro added another five minutes later, sweeping in to finish off a lovely team move. Gladbach&#39;s hopes of getting something out of the match were dashed further when Kevin Stoeger hit a penalty at the post with 15 minutes left. With nine minutes remaining, 17-year-old Karl produced a stunning curling strike to wrap up the match for the defending champions. Dortmund win late&mdash;Dortmund, who lost their first match of the season last Saturday at Bayern, looked set to lose further ground on the league leaders as the clock wound down against visiting Cologne. Dortmund were camped around the visitors&#39; goal in the last 30 minutes but could not make the pressure count, with Cologne goalkeeper Marvin Schwaebe keeping the hosts at bay. Cologne&#39;s Timo Huebers was stretchered off in the final 10 minutes with a knee injury, forcing the visitors, who had already made all of their changes, to play a man down. With the match entering the seventh and final stoppage-time minute, Beier cut a low shot across the grass and into the goal to send the 82,000-strong Westfalenstadion into raptures. RB Leipzig romped to a 6-0 win at Augsburg with six different goalscorers, tightening their grip on second spot. Yan Diomande, Romulo, Antonio Nusa, Christoph Baumgartner, Assan Ouedraogo, and Castello Lukeba all netted as Leipzig inflicted Augsburg&#39;s worst home defeat in league history. Since losing 6-0 to Bayern in the season opener, Leipzig has claimed 19 of a possible 21 points in seven games, conceding just three goals. Eintracht Frankfurt bounced back from Wednesday&#39;s 5-1 Champions League thumping by Liverpool to beat St. Pauli 2-0 at home thanks to a double from Jonathan Burkardt. Germany striker Burkardt, who also scored a double last week against Freiburg, has six goals in seven league games this season. Elsewhere, Wolfsburg won their first match since August with a 1-0 victory at Hamburg, with Adam Daghim scoring the only goal. Hamburg winger Ransford-Yeboah Koenigsdoerffer missed a first-half penalty, the third time in a row he has failed to convert from the spot. Hoffenheim beat lowly Heidenheim 3-1.

Football

Bayern Munich beat 10-man Moenchengladbach 3-0 to equal a European record with 13 straight wins, staying five points clear of RB Leipzig, while Dortmund and Leipzig also secured impressive victories

Bayern beat 10-man Gladbach to match European record

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who created the world&rsquo;s largest cryptocurrency exchange and served prison time after failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism. Zhao had asked Trump for a pardon previously. He has deep ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that the Republican president and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. launched in September. Trump&rsquo;s most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than $57 million last year from World Liberty Financial, which has launched USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar. World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates would be using $2 billion worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance. Zhao also has publicly said that he had asked Trump for a pardon that could nullify his conviction. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Thursday that the Biden administration prosecuted Zhao out of a &ldquo;desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry.&rdquo; She said there were &ldquo;no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,&rdquo; though Zhao had pleaded guilty in November to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program. &ldquo;I failed here,&rdquo; Zhao told the court last year. &ldquo;I deeply regret my failure, and I am sorry.&rdquo;

Americas

President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who served prison time for anti–money laundering failures. Zhao’s ties to Trump’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, and a $2 billion UAE investment in Binance raise major ethical questions

Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao

SAN FRANCISCO: Social media platform Reddit sued the artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI and three other entities on Wednesday, alleging their involvement in an &ldquo;industrial-scale, unlawful&rdquo; economy to &ldquo;scrape&rdquo; the comments of millions of Reddit users for commercial gain. Reddit&#39;s lawsuit in a New York federal court takes aim at San Francisco-based Perplexity, maker of an AI chatbot and &ldquo;answer engine&rdquo; that competes with Google, ChatGPT and others in online search. Also named in the lawsuit are Lithuanian data-scraping company Oxylabs UAB, a web domain called AWMProxy that Reddit describes as a &ldquo;former Russian botnet,&rdquo; and Texas-based startup SerpApi, which lists Perplexity as a customer on its website. It&#39;s the second such lawsuit from Reddit since it sued another major AI company, Anthropic, in June. But the lawsuit filed Wednesday is different in the way that it confronts not just an AI company but the lesser-known services the AI industry relies on to acquire online writings needed to train AI chatbots. &ldquo;Scrapers bypass technological protections to steal data, then sell it to clients hungry for training material. Reddit is a prime target because it&rsquo;s one of the largest and most dynamic collections of human conversation ever created,&rdquo; said Ben Lee, Reddit&rsquo;s chief legal officer, in a statement Wednesday. The lawsuit accuses the companies of unfair competition and unjust enrichment and alleges that some of them violated U.S. copyright laws. Perplexity said it has not yet received the lawsuit but &ldquo;will always fight vigorously for users&rsquo; rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge. Our approach remains principled and responsible as we provide factual answers with accurate AI, and we will not tolerate threats against openness and the public interest.&rdquo; SerpApi&#39;s customer success director, Ryan Schafer, said in an email: &ldquo;We strongly disagree with Reddit&rsquo;s allegations and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in court.&rdquo; Oxylabs said in a statement it was &ldquo;shocked and disappointed&rdquo; and &ldquo;will not hesitate to defend itself against these allegations.&rdquo; &ldquo;Oxylabs&rsquo; position is that no company should claim ownership of public data that does not belong to them,&rdquo; said a statement from Denas Grybauskas, the company&#39;s chief governance and strategy officer. &ldquo;It is possible that it is just an attempt to sell the same public data at an inflated price.&rdquo; AWMProxy could not immediately be reached for comment. Scraping for publicly available online data is a common practice used by businesses and researchers but Reddit compares the companies it is suing to &ldquo;would-be bank robbers&rdquo; who can&#39;t get into the bank vault, so they break into the armored truck instead. The lawsuit alleges they are evading Reddit&rsquo;s own anti-scraping measures while also &rdquo;circumventing Google&rsquo;s controls and scraping Reddit content directly from Google&rsquo;s search engine results.&quot; Lee said that because they&#39;re unable to scrape Reddit directly, &ldquo;they mask their identities, hide their locations, and disguise their web scrapers to steal Reddit content from Google Search. Perplexity is a willing customer of at least one of these scrapers, choosing to buy stolen data rather than enter into a lawful agreement with Reddit itself.&rdquo; Reddit made a similar argument in its lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging that the company ignored Reddit&#39;s appeals to cease using its content. That case was initially filed in California Superior Court but was later moved to federal court and has a hearing scheduled for January. Along with digitized books and news articles, websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit are deep troves of written materials that can help teach an AI assistant the patterns of human language. Reddit has previously entered licensing agreements with Google, OpenAI and other companies that are paying to be able to train their AI systems on the public commentary of Reddit&rsquo;s more than 100 million daily users. The licensing deals helped the 20-year-old online platform raise money ahead of its Wall Street debut as a publicly traded company last year.

Artificial Intelligence

Reddit sued Perplexity AI, Oxylabs, SerpApi, and AWMProxy, accusing them of illegally scraping millions of Reddit comments for AI training data. The lawsuit highlights growing tensions between content platforms and AI firms over data ownership and access

Reddit sues Perplexity for 'industrial-scale' scraping of user comments 

RAWALPINDI: The No. 11 batter Kagiso Rabada and Senuran Muthusamy hit career-best half-centuries as South Africa scripted one of its most memorable comebacks to dominate Pakistan on Day 3 of the second and final test.&nbsp;South Africa was all out Wednesday for 404 in its first innings &mdash; having resumed on 185-4 and being reduced to 235-8 and 306-9 &mdash; to take a 71-run lead. Pakistan&#39;s left-arm spinner Asif Afridi claimed six wickets and became the oldest bowler in test cricket to grab a five-wicket haul in his debut test at the age of 38.&nbsp;Pakistan collapsed to 94-4 in its second innings at stumps. Off-spinner Simon Harmer took 3-26 and Rabada had Abdullah Shafique caught in the slips cordon in his incisive opening spell with the new ball.&nbsp;Babar Azam, who hasn&rsquo;t scored an international century in more than two years, is 49 not out and wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan undefeated on 16 as the pair led Pakistan&#39;s resistance.&nbsp;South Africa earlier fought back in a match where Pakistan had won the important toss on a spinning wicket.&nbsp;Afridi (6-79) had put Pakistan in sight of a meaningful first-innings lead before the home team ran into Muthusamy and Rabada&rsquo;s electrifying 98-run last wicket stand.&nbsp;Muthusamy made an unbeaten 89 off 155 balls and Rabada smashed four sixes and four boundaries in his belligerent 71 off 61 as the Proteas bid to level the two-match series.&nbsp;Afridi&rsquo;s five-wicket haul saw World Test Championship winner South Africa slipping to 221-7 in 80 overs before Pakistan&rsquo;s ploy to finish off the innings with the second new ball misfired badly.&nbsp;Muthusamy cut Pakistan&#39;s lead to 27 when he shared a 71-run ninth-wicket stand with Keshav Maharaj, who gave at least three chances and went on to score 30. Rabada blunted the pace of Shaheen Shah Afridi and the spinners with his first test 50.&nbsp;It was only the second time in test matches that both the ninth and 10th wickets shared partnerships of 50-plus in a test innings.&nbsp;South Africa went to lunch 48 runs behind with two wickets in hand, but Muthusamy swept and reverse swept against the spinners with ease and Rabada didn&rsquo;t spare the bowlers before he holed out to long-on at the stroke of tea that ended a superb counterattack from South Africa.&nbsp;Record haulAfridi became only the sixth Pakistani spinner after Mohammad Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Bilal Asif, Noman Ali and Abrar Ahmed to grab a five-wicket haul in a debut test after South Africa resumed on 185-4.&nbsp;In doing so, he beat the test record set by England legspinner Charles Marriott, who returned 5-37 on debut against West Indies in 1933 at the age of 37.&nbsp;Afridi&rsquo;s sliders baffled the South Africa batters as he struck on the fourth ball of the day, finding the outside edge of Kyle Verreynne&rsquo;s (10) bat.&nbsp;Tristan Stubbs (76) added eight to his overnight 68 before he was undone by another straight delivery as he tried to flick the left-arm spinner off the back foot and was out leg before wicket.&nbsp;Afridi then celebrated his memorable five-wicket haul when Harmer (2) went for a sweep but was struck on the back leg directly in front of the stumps.&nbsp;Pakistan took the second new ball and Noman Ali finally got his first wicket when he had Marco Jansen lbw.&nbsp;Pakistan leads the two-match series after a win in Lahore last week.

South Africa's Kagiso Rabada, left, plays a shot as Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan watches during the third day of the second test cricket match between Pakistan and South Africa, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, October 22, 2025. (AP)

Cricket

Pakistan collapsed to 94-4 in its second innings at stumps. Off-spinner Simon Harmer took 3-26 and Rabada had Abdullah Shafique caught in the slips cordon in his incisive opening spell with the new ball.

Rabada hits first test 50 to lead South Africa's comeback vs Pakistan

RAMALLAH: Illegal Israeli settlers descended on Palestinian olive harvesters and activists this week in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, beating them with clubs in an attack Palestinian health officials said sent at least one woman to the hospital with serious injuries. The attack Sunday in the town of Turmus Ayya, which was captured in videos obtained by The Associated Press, came as Palestinians say settler violence in the region is worsening. The United Nations and rights groups have raised the alarm as harvest season begins and Palestinian farmers are at growing risk while gathering olives.&nbsp;Settler violence skyrockets&nbsp;&ldquo;Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency,&quot; Ajith Sunghay, the head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territory, said in a statement released Tuesday. &ldquo;Two weeks into the start of the 2025 harvest, we have already seen severe attacks by armed settlers against Palestinian men, women, children, and foreign solidarity activists.&quot; In one of the videos obtained by the AP, a masked man was seen running through an olive grove and beating at least two people with a club, including a woman as she lay motionless on the ground. The masked man appeared to be wearing tzitzit, a ritual fringed garment for Jews.&nbsp;The woman was hospitalized with serious injuries, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said. Torched carsIn a separate video, more than a dozen masked men were seen running down a village road alongside an olive grove, pursuing a car. One settler clubbed the car and opened the door. A passenger managed to escape and run away with the group of men running after him. A third video showed flames and smoke rising from several torched cars. Israel&rsquo;s Channel 12 reported that the head of the West Bank police force said in an internal police WhatsApp group that the footage of the masked settler beating the woman &ldquo;kept him up at night&rdquo; and instructed officers to bring the settler to justice. Israel&#39;s military and police did not respond to an AP request for comment on the attack.&nbsp;Palestinian American population&nbsp;Turmus Ayya, whose population is predominantly Palestinian American, has long been a target of settler attacks, but villagers say the violence worsened during the Israel-Hamas war. It is nestled in a valley surrounded by hilltops crowned with Israeli settlements and outposts. Since the killing of a 14-year-old Palestinian-American, Amer Rabee, by Israeli forces in the town in April, protests against settler violence and the military&#39;s perceived failure to curb it have provoked regular clashes with settlers. More broadly, settler violence is surging across the West Bank.&nbsp;Over 750 settler attacks&nbsp;The UN says the first half of 2025 has seen 757 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage &mdash; a 13% increase compared with the same period last year. The first week of olive harvest season has seen more than 150 settler attacks and over 700 olive trees uprooted, broken, or poisoned, according to Muayyad Shaaban, who heads an office in the Palestinian Authority that is tracking the violence. Israel captured the West Bank, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast War. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state. Settler advocates hold key Israeli Cabinet positions that grant them and the settlers an essential say over the West Bank.

Middle East

UN says first half of 2025 has seen 757 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage; settler advocates hold key Israeli Cabinet positions that grant them and the settlers an important say over the West Bank. 

Illegal Israeli settlers beat Palestinian farmers on video as attacks mount 

KIRYAT GAT: US Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday called progress in Gaza&rsquo;s fragile ceasefire better than anticipated but acknowledged during an Israel visit the challenges that remain, from disarming Hamas to rebuilding a land devastated by two years of war. Vance noted flareups of violence in recent days but said the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that began on Oct. 10 is going &ldquo;better than I expected.&rdquo; The Trump administration&#39;s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, added that &ldquo;we are exceeding where we thought we would be at this time.&rdquo; They visited a new center in Israel for civilian and military cooperation as questions remain over the long-term plan for peace, including when and how an international security force will deploy to Gaza and who will govern the territory after the war. Vance tried to downplay any idea that his visit &mdash; his first as vice president &mdash; was urgently arranged to keep the ceasefire in place. He said he feels &ldquo;confident that we&rsquo;re going to be in a place where this peace lasts,&rdquo; but warned that if Hamas doesn&rsquo;t cooperate, it will be &ldquo;obliterated.&rdquo; Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s son-in-law and one of the architects of the ceasefire agreement, noted its complexity: &ldquo;Both sides are transitioning from two years of very intense warfare to now a peacetime posture.&quot; Vance is expected to stay in the region until Thursday and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. On Tuesday, Netanyahu fired his national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, but gave no reason for the decision. Israeli media said Hanegbi had opposed the renewal of Israel&rsquo;s Gaza offensive in March, and Israel&rsquo;s failed attempt to assassinate Hamas&rsquo; leadership in an airstrike in Qatar in September. In a statement, Hanegbi noted &ldquo;times of disagreement&rdquo; with Netanyahu. Hamas hands over remains of 2 more hostagesLate Tuesday, Israel&rsquo;s military said the remains of two more Gaza hostages had been returned to Israel, where they would be identified. Since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the remains of 15 hostages have been returned to Israel. Another 13 still need to be recovered in Gaza and handed over. On his visit to Israel on Tuesday, Vance urged a &ldquo;little bit of patience&rdquo; amid Israeli frustration with Hamas&rsquo; pace of returning the hostages. &ldquo;Some of these hostages are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble. Some of the hostages, nobody even knows where they are,&rdquo; Vance said. Israel is releasing 15 Palestinian bodies for the remains of each dead hostage, according to Gaza&rsquo;s Health Ministry. It said on Tuesday that Israel had so far transferred 165 bodies since earlier this month. As he faced journalists&#39; questions over the ceasefire&#39;s next steps, he said &ldquo;a lot of this work is very hard&quot; and urged flexibility. &ldquo;Once we&rsquo;ve got to a point where both the Gazans and our Israeli friends can have some measure of security, then we&rsquo;ll worry about what the long-term governance of Gaza is,&quot; he said. &quot;Let&rsquo;s focus on security, rebuilding, giving people some food and medicine.&rdquo; Although some 200 US troops were recently sent to Israel, Vance emphasized that they would not be on the ground in Gaza. But he said officials are beginning to &quot;conceptualize what that international security force would look like&quot; for the territory. He mentioned Turkey and Indonesia as countries expected to participate. The flags of Jordan, Germany, Britain and Denmark were on the stage where he spoke. Britain said late Tuesday it would send a small contingent of military officers to Israel to assist in monitoring the ceasefire. While the ceasefire has been tested by fighting and mutual accusations of violations, both Israel and Hamas have said they are committed to the deal. Aid into Gaza increases, while prices riseInternational organizations said they were scaling up humanitarian aid entering Gaza, while Hamas-led security forces cracked down against what it called price gouging by private merchants. The World Food Program said it had sent more than 530 trucks into Gaza in the past 10 days, enough to feed nearly half a million people for two weeks. That&#39;s well under the 500 to 600 that entered daily before the war. The WFP also said it had reinstated 26 distribution points across Gaza and hopes to scale up to its previous 145 points as soon as possible. Residents said prices for essential goods soared on Sunday after militants killed two Israeli soldiers and Israel responded with strikes that killed dozens of Palestinians. Israel also threatened to halt humanitarian aid. At a market in the central city of Deir al-Balah, a 25-kilogram (55-pound) package of flour was selling for more than $70 on Sunday, up from about $12 shortly after the ceasefire. By Tuesday, the price was around $30. Mohamed al-Faqawi, a Khan Younis resident, accused merchants of taking advantage of the perilous security situation. &ldquo;They are exploiting us,&rdquo; he said. On Monday, Hamas said its security forces raided shops across Gaza, closing some and forcing merchants to lower prices. Hamas also has allowed aid trucks to move safely and halted looting of deliveries. Nahed Sheheiber, head of Gaza&rsquo;s private truckers&rsquo; union, said there was no stealing aid since the ceasefire started. But other significant challenges remain as Gaza&#39;s financial system is in tatters. With nearly every bank branch and ATM inoperable, people pay exorbitant commissions to a network of cash brokers to get money for daily expenses. On Tuesday, dozens of people in Deir al-Balah spent hours in line at the Bank of Palestine hoping to access their money but were turned away. &ldquo;Without having the bank open and without money, it does not matter that the prices (in the market) have dropped,&rdquo; said Kamilia Al-Ajez. Gaza doctors say bodies returned with signs of tortureA senior health official in Gaza said some bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel bore &ldquo;evidence of torture&rdquo; and called for a United Nations investigation. Dr. Muneer al-Boursh, the health ministry&#39;s general director, said on social media late Monday that some had evidence of being bound with ropes and metal shackles, and had deep wounds and crushed limbs. It was not immediately clear if any of the bodies had been prisoners; they are returned without identification or details on how they died. The bodies could include Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli custody or bodies taken out of Gaza by Israeli troops during the war. The Israel Prisons Service denied that prisoners had been mistreated, saying it had followed legal procedures and provided medical care and &ldquo;adequate living conditions.&rdquo; Israeli hostages released from Gaza have also reported metal shackles and harsh conditions, including frequent beatings and starvation. In the 2023 attack on Israel that started the war, Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people as hostages. The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza&rsquo;s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

US Vice President JD Vance said Gaza’s ceasefire is progressing better than expected but warned of “very hard” work ahead, including disarming Hamas, rebuilding Gaza, and forming an international security force to maintain peace.

US vice president optimistic about Gaza ceasefire, notes 'very hard' work to come

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted">SEOUL:&nbsp;North Korea performed its first ballistic missile tests in five months Wednesday, days before US President Donald Trump and other leaders are expected to meet in South Korea. South Korea&rsquo;s military said it detected multiple short-range ballistic missiles that were launched from an area south of Pyongyang and flew about 350 kilometers (220 miles) toward the northeast. The South&rsquo;s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn&rsquo;t release more specific flight details but said the missiles didn&rsquo;t land in the sea. The Joint Chiefs added that the South&#39;s military remains ready to repel any provocations by North Korea based on its solid military alliance with the United States. Japan&rsquo;s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters that Tokyo was closely communicating with Washington and Seoul, including by sharing real-time missile warning data. North Korea didn&rsquo;t immediately comment on the launches. Trump is to leave for Asia at the end of the week in the first trip to the region of his second term. He plans to go to Malaysia first for a regional summit, and then head to Japan before travelling on to South Korea for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, an annual summit meant to promote economic integration and trade. Trump was expected to visit the South Korean city of Gyeongju ahead of the summit for bilateral meetings with leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, but South Korean officials say Trump won&#39;t likely attend APEC&#39;s main conference set for Oct. 30-Nov. 1. Experts earlier said North Korea could conduct provocative missile tests before or during the APEC summit to underscore its commitment to gain recognition as a nuclear weapons state. Experts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would need that status to call for the UN to lift the economic sanctions punishing it for its weapons program. Wednesday&#39;s ballistic missile launches by North Korea were the first of their kind since the country on May 8 tested short-range systems that simulated nuclear counterstrikes against US and South Korean forces. They were also North Korea&#39;s first ballistic missile testing activities since Lee took office in June with a promise to push to restore peace on the Korean Peninsula. Kim has been sharply accelerating the pace of weapons tests since his high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over the U.S.-led economic sanctions. But last month, Kim suggested he could return to talks if the US drops its demand for North Korea&#39;s denuclearization, after Trump repeatedly expressed his hopes for new diplomacy. Earlier this month, Kim displayed a new intercontinental ballistic missile at a military parade attended by Chinese, Russian and other top officials. The parade highlighted Kim&rsquo;s growing diplomatic footing and his relentless drive to build a reliable arsenal of nuclear missiles targeting the US and its allies. North Korea&#39;s state media said the Oct. 10 parade featured the Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile, which it described as the country&rsquo;s &ldquo;most powerful nuclear strategic weapon system.&rdquo; Observers said the new ICBM is designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads to defeat US missile defenses and that North Korea could test-launch it in coming months.<figure class="fr-media"> </figure>

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Asia

North Korea performed its first ballistic missile tests in five months Wednesday, days before US President Donald Trump and other leaders are expected to meet in South Korea.

North Korea test-fires ballistic missiles ahead of Trump's Asia trip

<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;' id="isPasted"><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted">WASHINGTON:&nbsp;A man was taken into custody late Tuesday after driving his car into a security barrier outside the White House, authorities said.<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>The US Secret Service said the man crashed into the security gate at a White House entrance at 10:37 p.m. on Tuesday. The man was immediately arrested by officers from the Secret Service&rsquo;s uniformed division, the agency said.<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>Investigators searched his car and deemed it to be safe, Secret Service officials said in a statement.<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>Authorities did not immediately provide any additional information about the crash, the driver&rsquo;s identity or any potential motivation.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's husband George Akerlof at the East Wing of the White House in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021, across from the Treasury building. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

A man was taken into custody after driving his car into a security barrier outside the White House.

Man taken into custody after crashing car into security gate outside White House

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s plan for a swift meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin is on hold, a US official said on Tuesday, the latest twist in his stop-and-go effort to resolve the war in Ukraine.&nbsp;The meeting was announced last week and was supposed to take place in Budapest, Hungary, in the near future. However, the idea was paused after a call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to the official, who wasn&rsquo;t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.&nbsp;The decision to hold off on a meeting between Trump and Putin will likely relieve European leaders, who have accused Putin of stalling for time with diplomacy while trying to gain ground on the battlefield.&nbsp;The leaders &mdash; including the British prime minister, French president and German chancellor &mdash; said they opposed any push to make Ukraine surrender land captured by Russian forces in return for peace, as Trump has occasionally suggested.&nbsp;They also plan to push forward with plans to use billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine&rsquo;s war efforts, despite some misgivings about the legality and consequences of such a step.&nbsp;Trump has not yet commented publicly about the change in plans for his meeting with Putin. They previously met in Alaska in August, but the encounter did not advance Trump&rsquo;s stalled attempts to end a war that began almost four years ago.&nbsp;The Kremlin didn&rsquo;t seem to be in a rush to get Trump and Putin together again either. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that &ldquo;preparation is needed, serious preparation&rdquo; before a meeting.&nbsp;Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been trying to strengthen Ukraine&#39;s position by seeking long-range Tomahawk missiles from the US, although Trump has waffled on whether he would provide them.&nbsp;&ldquo;We need to end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace,&rdquo; Zelenskyy said on Tuesday in a Telegram post.&nbsp;He noted that Putin returned to diplomacy and called Trump last week when it looked like Tomahawk missiles were a possibility. But &quot;as soon as the pressure eased a little, the Russians began to try to drop diplomacy, postpone the dialogue,&rdquo; Zelenskyy said.&nbsp;On Wednesday, Trump will hold talks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, according to a White House official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official did not provide any detail about Trump&rsquo;s agenda for the talks.&nbsp;The military alliance has been coordinating deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, many of them purchased from the US by Canada and European countries. A meeting of the Coalition of the Willing &mdash; a group of 35 countries who support Ukraine &mdash; is due to take place in London on Friday.&nbsp;Trump&#39;s stance on the war has shifted throughout the year. He initially focused on pressuring Ukraine to make concessions, but then grew frustrated with Putin&#39;s intransigence. Trump often complains that he thought his good relationship with his Russian counterpart would have made it easier to end the war.&nbsp;Last month, Trump reversed his long-held position that Ukraine would have to give up land and suggested it could win back all the territory it has lost to Russia. But after a phone call with Putin last week and a subsequent meeting with Zelenskyy on Friday, Trump shifted his position again and called on Kyiv and Moscow to &ldquo;stop where they are&rdquo; in the more than three-year war.&nbsp;On Sunday, Trump said the industrial Donbas region of eastern Ukraine should be &ldquo;cut up,&rdquo; leaving most of it in Russian hands.&nbsp;Trump said on Monday that while he thinks it is possible that Ukraine can ultimately defeat Russia, he&rsquo;s now doubtful it will happen.&nbsp;Ukrainian and European leaders are trying hard to keep Trump on their side.&nbsp;&ldquo;We strongly support President Trump&rsquo;s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations,&rdquo; the leaders&#39; statement said. &ldquo;We can all see that Putin continues to choose violence and destruction.&quot;&nbsp;Russia occupies about one fifth of Ukraine, but carving up their country in return for peace is unacceptable to Kyiv officials.&nbsp;Also, a conflict frozen on the current front line could fester, with occupied areas of Ukraine offering Moscow a springboard for new attacks in the future, Ukrainian and European officials fear.&nbsp;The statement by the leaders of Ukraine, the UK, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Denmark and EU officials came early in what Zelenskyy said Monday would be a week that is &ldquo;very active in diplomacy.&rdquo;&nbsp;More international economic sanctions on Russia are likely to be discussed at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.&nbsp;&ldquo;We must ramp up the pressure on Russia&rsquo;s economy and its defense industry, until Putin is ready to make peace,&rdquo; Tuesday&rsquo;s statement said.&nbsp;

Europe

Idea paused after call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, official says.

Trump-Putin summit planned for Budapest on hold 

OpenAI said Tuesday it is introducing its own web browser, Atlas, putting the ChatGPT maker in direct competition with Google as more internet users rely on artificial intelligence to answer their questions.&nbsp;Making itself a gateway to online searches could allow OpenAI, the world&#39;s most valuable startup, to pull in more internet traffic and the revenue made from digital advertising.&nbsp;OpenAI has said ChatGPT already has more than 800 million users, but many of them get it for free. The San Francisco-based company is losing more money than it makes and has been looking for ways to turn a profit.&nbsp;OpenAI said Atlas launches Tuesday on Apple laptops and will later come to Microsoft&rsquo;s Windows, Apple&rsquo;s iOS phone operating system and Google&rsquo;s Android phone system.&nbsp;OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called it a &ldquo;rare, once-a-decade opportunity to rethink what a browser can be about and how to use one.&rdquo;&nbsp;OpenAI&rsquo;s browser is coming out just a few months after one of its executives testified that the company would be interested in buying Google&rsquo;s industry-leading Chrome browser if a federal judge had required it to be sold to prevent the abuses that resulted in Google&rsquo;s ubiquitous search engine being declared an illegal monopoly.&nbsp;But U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta last month issued a decision that rejected the Chrome sale sought by the U.S. Justice Department in the monopoly case, partly because he believed advances in the AI industry already are reshaping the competitive landscape.&nbsp;OpenAI&rsquo;s browser will face a daunting challenge against Chrome, which has amassed about 3 billion worldwide users and has been adding some AI features from Google&rsquo;s Gemini technology.&nbsp;Chrome&rsquo;s immense success could provide a blueprint for OpenAI as it enters the browser market. When Google released Chrome in 2008, Microsoft&rsquo;s Internet Explorer was so dominant that few observers believed a new browser could mount a formidable threat.&nbsp;But Chrome quickly won over legions of admirers by loading webpages more quickly than Internet Explorer while offering other advantages that enabled it to upend the market. Microsoft ended up abandoning Explorer and introducing its Edge browser, which operates similarly to Chrome.&nbsp;Perplexity, another smaller AI startup, rolled out its own Comet browser earlier this year. It also expressed interest in buying Chrome and eventually submitted an unsolicited $34.5 billion offer for the browser that hit a dead end when Mehta decided against a Google breakup.&nbsp;A premium feature of the ChatGPT Atlas browser is an &ldquo;agent mode&rdquo; that accesses the laptop and effectively clicks around the internet on the person&rsquo;s behalf, armed with what it has learned from users&rsquo; browser history and what they are seeking to learn, and explaining its process as it searches.&nbsp;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s using the internet for you,&rdquo; Altman said.

OpenAI is introducing its own web browser, Atlas, putting the ChatGPT maker in direct competition with Google 

OpenAI launches web browser to compete with Google Chrome

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday announced a 25% tariff on any country trading with Iran, ramping up pressure on Tehran over its violent crackdown on a wave of protests. &quot;Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America. This Order is final and conclusive,&quot; Trump said on Truth Social. Iran&#39;s main trading partners are China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq, according to the economic database Trading Economics. The tariffs announcement comes as Trump mulls possible military action against Iran over the protests. Rights groups have reported a growing death toll. &quot;Air strikes would be one of the many, many options that are on the table,&quot; White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier Monday. But she said Iran also had a diplomatic channel open to Trump&#39;s special envoy Steve Witkoff, adding that Iran was taking a &quot;far different tone&quot; in private than it was in its public statements.

Iran's main trading partners are China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq; tariffs announcement comes as Trump mulls possible military action against Iran over the protests.

Trump announces tariffs on countries doing business with Iran

BEIRUT: The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired near its peacekeepers on Monday, and warned that such attacks were becoming &quot;disturbingly common.&quot; UNIFIL has repeatedly reported Israeli fire near or towards its personnel in recent months, and less than two weeks ago, said gunfire from an Israeli position hit close to peacekeepers twice. &quot;UNIFIL peacekeepers observed two Merkava tanks move&quot; from an Israeli army position inside Lebanese territory &quot;further into Lebanon&quot; on Monday, the force said in a statement. UNIFIL has acted as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon for decades, and recently has been working with Lebanon&#39;s army to support a year-old ceasefire between Israel and fighter group Hezbollah. Under the November 2024 truce, Israel was to withdraw its forces from south Lebanon, but it has kept them in five areas it deems strategic and carries out regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives. &quot;The peacekeepers requested through liaison channels that the tanks stop their activity,&quot; the statement said. Later, &quot;one of the tanks fired three shells from its main gun, with two impacts approximately 150 meters away from the peacekeepers,&quot; UNIFIL said, adding that &quot;as the peacekeepers moved away for safety, they were continuously tracked with a laser from the tanks&quot;. The statement reported no casualties but noted UNIFIL had informed the Israeli army of its activities in the area in advance. &quot;Attacks like these on identifiable peacekeepers ... are becoming disturbingly common,&quot; the statement said, urging a stop to such incidents. It called them &quot;a serious violation&quot; of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and forms the basis of the current truce. Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Beirut has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and last week, Lebanon&#39;s army said it had finished doing so in the area near the border. UNIFIL&#39;s final mandate ends this year, and the force is to leave Lebanon in 2027.

UNIFIL says "attacks like these on identifiable peacekeepers ... are becoming disturbingly common"; UNIFIL has acted as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon for decades, and recently has been working with Lebanon's army to support a year-old ceasefire between Israel and the fighter group Hezbollah.

UN force says Israeli tank fired near peacekeepers in Lebanon 

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: China has confirmed that its exported J-10CE fighter jet has achieved its first combat victory, successfully shooting down multiple enemy aircraft during an aerial engagement without suffering any losses, marking a significant milestone for the Chinese-made combat aircraft. In a statement issued on Monday, China&rsquo;s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) said the J-10CE&rsquo;s battlefield performance demonstrated the aircraft&rsquo;s operational effectiveness in real combat conditions outside China. &ldquo;The J-10CE fighter jet, exported by China, achieved its first combat success abroad by downing multiple aircraft without incurring any losses,&rdquo; the Chinese defense authority said. The confirmation comes in the wake of the brief but intense Pakistan-India military confrontation in May, during which air power played a central role. Pakistan has previously stated that its air force downed several Indian aircraft during the escalation, while China&rsquo;s acknowledgement underscores the growing operational credibility of its defense exports and Pakistan&rsquo;s reliance on advanced Chinese military technology. According to the US Department of War, Pakistan is currently the only country operating the Chinese-built J-10C fighter jet. The report noted that as of May 2025, 20 additional aircraft were delivered to Pakistan, raising the Pakistan Air Force&rsquo;s J-10CE fleet to 36 jets since 2020. China&rsquo;s state news agency Xinhua described the J-10CE as an &ldquo;all-weather, single-engine, single-seat, multi-role fighter jet&rdquo; independently developed by China to meet modern aerial warfare requirements. Commenting on the aircraft&rsquo;s performance, the Chinese side said the combat outcome reflected both reliability and competitiveness. The J-10CE&rsquo;s &ldquo;combat success abroad fully demonstrates its practicality and usability, highlights its strong competitiveness compared to similar foreign equipment, and promotes Chinese aviation products in the international market,&rdquo; Xinhua quoted Chinese defense officials as saying. Pakistan has stated that during the May confrontation, it shot down seven Indian fighter jets, including three French-made Rafale aircraft. The conflict followed an attack on civilians in Indian-occupied Kashmir, an incident India blamed on Pakistan. A charge Islamabad categorically rejected and has offered &ldquo;independent investigation.&rdquo; The four-day conflict marked the deadliest cross-border fighting since 2019, involving missile, drone, and artillery strikes, before both sides agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistani forces had reduced Indian aircraft to &ldquo;scrap and dust.&rdquo; India, meanwhile, claimed it had shot down five Pakistani fighter jets. A claim Pakistan&rsquo;s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif dismissed as &ldquo;comical.&rdquo; Islamabad and Beijing are long-term strategic allies, bound by strong bilateral ties, deep defense cooperation, and a shared commitment to regional stability.

China

In a statement, the Chinese defense authority says its exported J-10CE fighter jet achieves first combat victory, downing multiple enemy aircraft without losses during combat.

China confirms J-10CE ‘first combat victory’ in Pakistan-India May conflict

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Monday strongly condemned a terrorist attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa&rsquo;s Tank district that resulted in the martyrdom of police personnel. He reaffirmed the government&rsquo;s resolve to eliminate terrorism from the country, according to an official statement.&nbsp;The attack targeted a police vehicle in the Tank area, killing five police officials, including an Additional Station House Officer (SHO). An investigation into the incident has been ordered and authorities have been directed to bring those responsible to justice at the earliest, according to Radio Pakistan.&nbsp;In his statement, the prime minister offered prayers for the elevation of the martyrs&rsquo; ranks and expressed condolences to the bereaved families.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 2;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-1" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2010691992112562181&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=8f9e95ef61cc881f44a56b9642bae75afec05f34&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 921px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;"></iframe></div></div>&nbsp;&ldquo;The Government of Pakistan remains committed to the complete elimination of terrorism from the country,&rdquo; the prime minister stated.&nbsp;President Asif Ali Zardari also expressed deep grief and sorrow over the martyrdom of police personnel in the attack, according to a separate statement on X.&nbsp;The president paid tribute to the fallen officers for their bravery and service to the nation. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 2;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2010658334727458837&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=8f9e95ef61cc881f44a56b9642bae75afec05f34&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 416px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;"></iframe></div></div>&nbsp;&ldquo;May Allah Almighty grant the martyrs an exalted place in His eternal mercy and grant fortitude (Sabr-e-Jameel) to the bereaved families,&rdquo; President Zardari said.&nbsp;Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zulfiqar Hameed said the &ldquo;cowardly terrorist attacks in Tank and Lucky Marwat cannot, under any circumstances, shake the resolve of our police personnel,&rdquo; according to KP police&#39;s official Facebook page.&nbsp;&ldquo;The martyred officers and soldiers laid down their lives in the line of duty; the entire force takes immense pride in them,&rdquo; the IGP said, adding that the morale of the police force remains high.&nbsp;He stated that the sacrifices of the martyrs would never go in vain and assured that the families of the fallen officers would be provided &ldquo;every possible cooperation and full support.&rdquo; The IGP further confirmed that investigations had been accelerated and those involved would be brought to justice soon.&nbsp;Separately, District Police Officer Lucky Marwat Nazir Khan said the police remained firm against militant elements.<div class="fr-embed"><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpakhtunkhwapolice%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0c7V4FofrVAvXESbwjqcJKcVo5Lwe6QY2crUc6zRKFoD6B2cu6f5SJumVf1FEToZtl&show_text=true&width=500" width="500" height="250" style="border:none;overflow:hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe></div>&nbsp;&ldquo;These cowardly acts by Fitna al-Khawarij cannot dampen our morale. The Lucky Marwat Police are responding forcefully to every challenge and are prepared to make every possible sacrifice for the protection of the public,&rdquo; he stated in a Facebook post by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police.&nbsp;Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also strongly condemned the blast near the police vehicle in Tank and paid tribute to the five martyred officers.&nbsp;&ldquo;The brave soldiers of the police have sacrificed their &lsquo;today&rsquo; for the peaceful &lsquo;tomorrow&rsquo; of the nation,&rdquo; the interior minister said on X, adding that the sacrifices of the martyrs would always be remembered.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-2" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2010658332152152415&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=8f9e95ef61cc881f44a56b9642bae75afec05f34&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 368px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;"></iframe></div></div>&nbsp;&ldquo;The martyrs are our pride, and the nation can never forget their timeless sacrifices,&rdquo; Naqvi stated.

Security

Pakistan’s leadership condemned a terrorist attack in KP’s Tank district that killed five police personnel. The prime minister ordered an investigation as the president, interior minister and police vowed justice and reaffirmed resolve against terrorism.

President, PM condemn attack on police, vow eradication of terrorists

Pakistan TV Satellite

ISLAMABAD: Iran&rsquo;s Ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghaddam, has said the United States and Israel are orchestrating unrest inside Iran, warning that any foreign aggression would be met with a strong and decisive response. In an exclusive interview with Pakistan TV, the ambassador thanked the government, media and people of Pakistan for closely and sensitively following developments in Iran. He said Iran&rsquo;s security was being threatened through a &ldquo;designed plan&rdquo; involving the US, Israel and terrorist elements, while Iranian security forces and the public were working to maintain law and order. Moghaddam said recent protests were rooted in economic challenges caused by decades-long US sanctions, government reforms related to foreign exchange and subsidy mechanisms for essential goods.&nbsp; He stressed that peaceful protest is a constitutional right in Iran and that the government engaged directly with traders and demonstrators, including meetings held by the interior minister, commerce minister and the president. However, he said the protests were later exploited by hostile foreign actors. The Iranian envoy said that the US and Israel facilitated the infiltration of armed groups from Syria and Iraq under the cover of protests, adding these elements targeted both security personnel and civilians. He said Iran has lost around 100 police and security personnel, adding that terrorist violence, including attacks on women and children, is unacceptable anywhere in the world. Rejecting foreign-backed opposition narratives, the ambassador said public rallies in support of Iran&rsquo;s political system were underway, reflecting what he described as the people&rsquo;s rejection of external interference. On the possibility of military aggression, the ambassador warned that Iran has proven over the past four decades that it will deliver a befitting response to any attack by the US or Israel. He said diplomatic channels with Washington remain open through the Swiss-managed interest protection office, but stressed that Iran will never recognize or negotiate with Israel.

Beyond Borders

In an Exclusive Interview with Pakistan TV, Iranian Envoy Says Security Threats Are Part of a ‘Designed Plan’.

Iranian Ambassador says US, Israel Behind Unrest, Warns of Strong Response

Pakistan TV

ISLAMABAD: The Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Dr. Musadik Malik said Islamabad was ready and willing to play a constructive role in defusing tensions between Iran and the United States, stressing that Pakistan does not seek instability in the region and will make every possible effort to help lower tensions. In an exclusive interview with Pakistan TV, Dr. Musadik Malik said Pakistan enjoyed strong relations with both Iran and the United States and believed dialogue and diplomacy remained the only viable path to preventing further escalation in the region. He said, &quot;The growing instability is being fueled by Israel&rsquo;s continued actions across Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.&quot; &quot;This is a vulgar display of atrocities,&quot; he said. He said Israel committed the genocide in Gaza. Malik questioned Israel&rsquo;s right to occupy land, seize water resources and carry out repeated military aggression across the region. He warned that such actions carry serious repercussions. The minister emphasized that Pakistan wants peace and stability across the Middle East and South Asia, adding that unchecked unilateral actions weaken the global rule-based order and threaten international peace. He said no country had the right to kill civilians, including women and children, under any pretext. Turning to South Asia, Malik strongly criticized India&rsquo;s approach to the Indus Waters Treaty, calling any attempt to control or delay Pakistan&rsquo;s water supply illegal and irrational. He said the Indus river system was the backbone of Pakistan&rsquo;s economy and livelihoods, supporting nearly half of the population and a significant share of the country&rsquo;s GDP. Malik warned that any effort by India to disrupt water flows, particularly during critical agricultural seasons, would be viewed as an act of war and met with a commensurate response. He said India was attempting to manipulate water flows through a cascade of hydropower projects in violation of the treaty. He also questioned India&rsquo;s reluctance to approach international arbitration mechanisms, saying that refusal to engage neutral forums suggests the wrongdoing. Addressing regional security concerns, Malik said Pakistan would continue to combat terrorism and urged Afghanistan to prevent militant groups from using its soil to attack Pakistan. He noted that Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees for decades and expects Kabul to act as a responsible neighbour. Malik concluded by warning that weakening multilateralism and international treaties could push the world toward greater instability, calling for renewed commitment to diplomacy, dialogue and international law.

Minister For Climate Change Talks Exclusively to Pakistan TV

Malik Says Pakistan Ready to Help Defuse Iran–US Tensions

SAN FRANCISCO: Tech giants Apple and Google announced Monday a multi-year partnership that will see Apple&#39;s next-generation artificial intelligence features, including its Siri assistant, be powered by Google&#39;s Gemini technology.&nbsp;The collaboration marks a significant shift for Apple, which has traditionally developed its core technologies in-house.&nbsp;A joint statement said Apple selected Google&#39;s AI technology after a &quot;careful evaluation&quot; determined it provided &quot;the most capable foundation&quot; for the iPhone-maker&#39;s AI ambitions.&nbsp;The announcement represents a rare alliance between two companies that have long competed in the smartphone market, where Apple&#39;s iOS and Google&#39;s Android operating systems dominate globally.&nbsp;However, the two rivals have maintained a lucrative partnership for years, with Google paying Apple billions of dollars annually to remain the default search engine on iPhones and other Apple devices.&nbsp;That arrangement has faced scrutiny from regulators, with the US Justice Department arguing in an antitrust case that the deal helps Google maintain its search monopoly, though a judge said the arrangement could continue.&nbsp;Financial details of the AI arrangement were not provided.&nbsp;Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said the partnership was &quot;a major validation moment for Google&quot; and &quot;a stepping stone&quot; for Apple to get its AI strategy on track into 2026 and beyond.&nbsp;Apple reportedly also considered partnerships with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity.&nbsp;The company co-founded by Steve Jobs is largely perceived to have stumbled in efforts to roll out AI capabilities across its products and last month announced the head of its artificial intelligence team was stepping down.&nbsp;Apple last year delayed the release of an improved Siri digital assistant and is now promising it for later in the year.&nbsp;Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other tech rivals have been releasing ever-improved AI models and features in a fierce race to lead the sector.&nbsp;Despite the collaboration, Apple emphasized that its in-house AI system, Apple Intelligence, will be used to power its iPhones and iPads at the device-only level, maintaining what it described as &quot;industry-leading privacy standards.&quot;

Apple and Google announced a multi-year partnership to power Apple’s next-generation AI, including Siri, with Google’s Gemini, marking a rare alliance as Apple seeks to catch up in AI while stressing privacy and competition pressures.

Apple chooses Google's Gemini AI to power Siri

SAN FRANCISCO: Meta on Monday appointed banker Dina Powell McCormick as president and vice chairman, tapping a former member of the Trump administration to help steer the technology giant&#39;s massive AI infrastructure expansion.&nbsp;Powell McCormick, who served on Meta&#39;s board, will join the company&#39;s management team as it scales what founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg described as &quot;the massive physical and financial model that will power the next decade of computing.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;Dina&#39;s experience at the highest levels of global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, makes her uniquely suited to help Meta manage this next phase of growth,&quot; Zuckerberg said.&nbsp;In a separate post, Zuckerberg said Powell McCormick &quot;will be involved in all of Meta&#39;s work, with a particular focus on partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta&#39;s AI and infrastructure.&quot;&nbsp;The appointment comes as Meta accelerates investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure, including data centers and energy supply.&nbsp;In her new role at Meta, Powell McCormick&#39;s banking experience will be key. She will help guide the company&#39;s overall AI infrastructure strategy and oversee its multi-billion-dollar investments.&nbsp;She will also focus on building partnerships to expand the company&#39;s investment capacity, the company said, as Meta seeks to keep up with its big tech rivals in spending massively on AI.&nbsp;An Egyptian-American, Powell McCormick spent 16 years as a partner at Goldman Sachs, serving on the firm&#39;s management committee and leading its global sovereign investment banking business.&nbsp;Sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East have become major investors in the AI infrastructure build-out and could play a role in Meta achieving its AI spending goals.&nbsp;Her last job was at BDT &amp; MSD Partners, a bank and advisory firm that has been involved in finding US investors for TikTok, according to news outlet Axios.&nbsp;Her hiring continues Zuckerberg&#39;s political pivot to the right, with Republican Powell McCormick one of the company&#39;s most visible arrivals since Sheryl Sandberg, the former chief operating officer and member of the Clinton administration who left in 2022.&nbsp;Zuckerberg has recently made a visible shift toward President Donald Trump and conservative positions, doing away with third-party fact-checking, reversing company diversity initiatives and embracing a more traditionally masculine image.&nbsp;Trump congratulated Powell McCormick on the appointment in a social media post, calling her &quot;a fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction.&quot;&nbsp;Powell McCormick served as deputy national security advisor during Trump&#39;s first term, a role in which she helped shape US foreign policy.&nbsp;She is married to the Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick.

Business

Meta names Dina Powell McCormick president and vice chairman, tasking the former Goldman Sachs banker and Trump administration official with guiding the company’s expanding AI infrastructure and global investment strategy.

Zuckerberg names banker, ex-Trump advisor as Meta president

ISLAMABAD: A high-level Indonesian defense delegation visited Pakistan on Monday to discuss expanding cooperation in defense production, the Ministry of Defense Production said in a statement. The delegates focused on establishing joint working groups and exploring collaboration between the two countries&#39; defense institutions. The delegation was led by Indonesian Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, who met with Pakistan&rsquo;s Federal Minister for Defense Production, Muhammad Raza Hayat Harraj, and senior officials from the ministry of defense production. Harraj said that Pakistan has immense potential in the field of defense production and agreed to establish Joint Working Groups for Defense Production cooperation between entities of both countries. Indonesia&rsquo;s minister for defense expressed keen interest in expediting the Joint Working Groups, as it will open doors to future collaboration and help explore and benefit from each other&rsquo;s capabilities. &ldquo;Pakistan is a very important country with rich culture, working democracy and vibrant economy. Both sides hoped the brotherly relationship is translated into long term relationship based on mutual trust &amp; respect,&rdquo; the statement added. During the meeting, Harraj extended an invitation to the Indonesian Authorities to actively participate in the Defense Exhibition IDEAS-2026 to explore defense collaboration. &ldquo;Federal Minister for Defense Production Raza Harraj stated that the bilateral relationship between the two countries is characterized by feelings of mutual trust, respect, and goodwill towards each other,&rdquo; the statement said. He further stated that recent significant interactions between the two countries have set the pace for a high-yielding relationship. Later on Monday, the Indonesian minister also met with the Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir at the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, as per a statement by Pakistan&#39;s military media wing.&nbsp; &quot;The meeting focused on matters of mutual interest, evolving regional and global security dynamics, and exploration of avenues for enhancing bilateral defence cooperation,&quot; the statement said. &quot;The visiting dignitary lauded professionalism of Pakistan Armed Forces and acknowledged their sacrifices in the fight against terrorism.&quot; The COAS &amp; CDF reaffirmed Pakistan&rsquo;s commitment to fostering strong defense relationship with Indonesia based on shared values and mutual respect. Additionally, the Indonesian defense minister called on the Chief of Air Staff and Air Chief Marshal, Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu, following the recent state visit of the Indonesian President. &ldquo;The meeting reaffirmed the historic and brotherly ties between Pakistan and Indonesia and focused on strengthening bilateral Air Force cooperation, particularly in capacity building, training, and technological collaboration,&rdquo; according to ISPR.&nbsp; During the meeting, the air chief briefed the delegation on PAF&rsquo;s modernization drive, including infrastructure development, revamped training, and induction of niche capabilities to enhance readiness for multi-domain operations. The Indonesian Defense Minister praised PAF&rsquo;s professionalism, combat readiness, and indigenization achievements under the National Aerospace Science &amp; Technology Park, and expressed strong interest in expanding cooperation in training, aviation, and aerospace domains.&nbsp; Islamabad and Jakarta underscored the strengthening trajectory of Pakistan&ndash;Indonesia defense relations and a mutual commitment to expand cooperation through continued engagement and dialogue.

Foreign Affairs

A high-level Indonesian defense delegation visited Pakistan to discuss expanding defense production cooperation. Both sides agreed to form Joint Working Groups, explore collaboration, and strengthen bilateral ties based on mutual trust, respect, and goodwill.



Indonesia delegation visits Pakistan to boost defense production cooperation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan&#39;s Minister for Information and Broadcasting of Pakistan, Attaullah Tarar, called for a united front against misinformation, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan on Monday. According to the statement, Tarar cited a World Economic Forum report that ranks false information as a bigger short-term global threat than nuclear warfare or climate change. The information minister was speaking at a dialogue organized by the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi. The event focused on &quot;Facts Survive AI: Fighting Misinformation Together.&quot; &quot;The World Economic Forum Global Risks Report of 2024 says that the biggest short-term risk to the world at large is misinformation,&quot; Tarar said, according to APP. &quot;They do not say climate change. They do not say nuclear warfare.&quot; The information minister announced the establishment of Pakistan&#39;s first Digital Communication Department under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The department counters misinformation through social media handles that verify information or label fake content, he said. The minister met with representatives of social media platforms that have started labeling AI-created content, the news agency reported. &quot;So, I think we need to have labels for AI-created content or AI-generated content,&quot; he said. Tarar praised IBA&#39;s iVerify system for its success in combating false information at the national and international levels. He called for establishing more such systems to promote responsible journalism and combat fake news effectively. &quot;The community at large, the government, media houses, academia, the civil society, everyone has a role to play in countering misinformation,&quot; Tarar said. The minister urged the Pakistan Broadcasters Association and All Pakistan Newspaper Society to join the effort. He assured them of full government support. Tarar cited Pakistan&#39;s information response during a May conflict with India as an example of effective narrative management. &quot;Pakistan won that war in a very, very effective manner,&quot; he said. The ministry, he said, is collaborating with the United Nations Development Program to address misinformation. A training workshop scheduled this week will equip Ministry of Information officers and media professionals with skills to counter false information. Tarar stated that there was a need to educate younger generations about the ethical use of AI. &quot;We need to educate all segments of society on how to use AI responsibly,&quot; he said. The minister highlighted vulnerable groups, including minorities, children, and women, as particularly at risk from misinformation campaigns. The information minister stated that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has granted the ministry full authority to combat misinformation. He expressed hope that younger generations can work together to defeat misinformation.

Tarar also urged tech platforms to cooperate on combating AI-generated fake news and disinformation campaigns.

Articles by AP