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Bitcoin dropped on Thursday below $108,000 amid mounting tensions in the Middle East, but corporations continued to build up their bitcoin holdings.   Risk Appetite Suffers   Bitcoin dipped on Wednesday and closed below $109,000 and extended the losses on Thursday, after reports that Israel is preparing for a military operation against Iran.   Such geopolitical tensions pushed investors toward safe havens, in turn underpinning bitcoin, which has become a favored alternative investment in recent weeks.    Russia escalated its attacks on Ukrainian targets, describing it as retaliation against recent Ukrainian attacks, with Russian drones targeting major Ukrainian cities in…

Federal ministries for Commerce and Information Technology & Telecommunication have jointly proposed to revise taxation framework announced for the e-commerce sector in the budget for the financial year 2025-26. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced Pakistan’s federal budget 2025-26 “for a competitive economy” on Tuesday, targeting a modest 4.2% growth for the coming fiscal year, compared to 2.7% expected in the outgoing FY25. In the budget proposals, the government also announced to impose taxes on e-commerce, for which the federal ministers, Jam Kamal Khan and Shaza Fatima Khawaja called for a revision to support the country’s e-commerce sector and small and…

Shoppers browse the frozen food cases at WinCo.Joe Jaszewski | Idaho Statesman | Tribune News Service | Getty ImagesDespite widespread fears to the contrary, President Donald Trump’s tariffs have yet to show up in any of the traditional data points measuring inflation.In fact, separate readings this week on consumer and producer prices were downright benign, as indexes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that prices rose just 0.1% in May.The inflation scare is over, then, right?To the contrary, the months ahead are still expected to show price increases driven by Trump’s desire to ensure the U.S. gets a fair…

Despite an invitation from his American counterpart Donald Trump, sources indicate that Chinese President Xi Jinping will not travel to the United States in September for the UN General Assembly, which would be the earliest opportunity for such a trip.Instead, China will send Premier Li Qiang to represent the country at the event in New York, according to several diplomatic sources.The bilateral relationship seems to have improved following a phone call between Xi and Trump on June 5. The US president later said he had received an invitation to visit China, which he then reciprocated. 02:09China, US top negotiators agree…

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – MARCH 26, 2025: Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves leaves 11 Downing Street ahead of the announcement of the Spring Statement in the House of Commons in London, United Kingdom on March 26, 2025. (Photo credit should read Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)Wiktor Szymanowicz | Future Publishing | Getty ImagesBritain’s government is planning to ramp up public spending — but market watchers warn the proposals risk sending jitters through the bond market further inflating the country’s $143 billion-a-year interest payments.U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves on Wednesday announced the government would inject billions of pounds…

China’s artificial intelligence (AI) market sees heightened competition, as various model providers – from SenseTime to ByteDance – step up efforts to enhance their services.Hong Kong-listed SenseTime has upgraded its Cantonese-speaking chatbot, Sensechat, with a comprehensive set of new features that include real-time audio and video-interaction capabilities, according to the company’s announcement on Thursday.Other enhancements include visual reasoning capabilities, which allow Sensechat to “see” and “think” while engaging with users. The feature was made possible by the multimodal reasoning capabilities of SenseTime’s SenseNova V6 AI model, the company said.Multimodal models are designed to understand multiple types of input data such…

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang said his company’s technology remained a generation ahead of those developed by China, but warned that Huawei Technologies was in a position to expand its semiconductor business should US chip export curbs stay in place.Ren, however, added that using methods like “stacking and clustering [on Ascend-powered machines], the computing results are comparable” to the most advanced systems in the world.“AI is a parallel problem, so if each one of the computers are not capable … just add more computers,” Huang said in response to a question about Ren’s comments. “What he’s saying is that…

China said it was willing to promote better relations with the Vatican after the appointment of the first Chinese bishop under the new pope.On Wednesday, the Vatican said Pope Leo had named Joseph Lin Yuntuan, 73, as an auxiliary bishop in Fuzhou, capital of the southwestern province of Fujian, on June 5.The appointment continues an agreement reached under Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, that bishops must be approved by both sides.The announcement was made on the same day that Beijing recognised the appointment.The Vatican described Chinese recognition of the bishop as “a further fruit of the dialogue between the Holy See…

MADRID (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Thursday asked the nation for forgiveness after a close confidant in his Socialist Party was put under investigation for his alleged participation in a kickback scheme.The damaging case is the latest legal scandal — none of which have gone beyond the preliminary investigation phase — that have dogged Sánchez’s inner party circle and his family for the past year. Sánchez himself hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing.¨I want to ask forgiveness to the public because the Socialist Party and myself as its general secretary not should have trusted him,” he said,…

Chinese companies, including Huawei Technologies and Unitree Robotics, are grabbing plenty of attention at one of Europe’s largest technology shows in Paris this week, as Beijing commits to deepen technological ties with France amid an intensifying rivalry with the US.In a speech at the China Pavilion of the VivaTech trade show on Thursday, Chinese ambassador to France Deng Li said the country would continue to promote “open cooperation” and “peaceful development” in global technology, adding that Beijing was ready to collaborate with Paris to enhance scientific and technological exchanges.The China Pavilion, organised by the China Council for the Promotion of…