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A United States federal judge on Wednesday ruled in favour of tech giant Meta in a closely-watched copyright lawsuit, finding that the company’s use of copyrighted books to train its artificial intelligence (AI) model constituted “fair use” under US law. The decision, delivered by District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco, dismissed claims brought by a group of authors, including comedian Sarah Silverman and novelist Junot Díaz, who accused Meta of illegally using pirated versions of their works to train its open-source LLaMA generative AI system. Judge Chhabria noted that although the authors raised important concerns about potential market harm,…

Champions England remain optimistic about retaining their Women’s Euro crown when the 2025 tournament kicks off in Switzerland on July 2, though Spain enter as bookmakers’ favourites following their recent international successes. Spain, reigning world and Nations League champions, are priced at 2/1 to win the tournament, ahead of England at 4/1 and perennial contenders Germany and France, both at 5/1. Chloe Kelly’s extra-time winner against Germany in the 2022 final at Wembley gave English women’s football a huge boost, propelling the top-flight Women’s Super League (WSL) to new heights. France and Germany continue to boast strong domestic leagues, while…

Meta announced that it is introducing an AI-powered message summary feature on WhatsApp, designed to help users catch up on unread messages without compromising their privacy. According to the company, the new feature — dubbed “Message Summaries” — leverages Meta AI to generate concise summaries of chats that a user hasn’t yet read. The summaries will be visible only to the user, and not to any other participant in the conversation. “This is an optional feature and is turned off by default,” Meta said in a blog post, adding that users will see a small icon when the feature is…

In a solemn and revered tradition, the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque completed the ceremonial changing of the Kiswa, the black silk covering of the Holy Kaaba, on Thursday. The ceremony marks the beginning of the Islamic year 1447 AH. The new Kiswa, meticulously crafted over nearly 11 months at the King Abdulaziz Complex for Holy Kaaba Kiswah in the Umm Al Joud district of Mecca, was installed in the early hours of Muharram 1, coinciding with the start of the Hijri New Year. The process of changing the Kiswa is…

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on Israeli authorities to cancel the ongoing corruption trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or grant him a presidential pardon, describing the legal proceedings as a “witch-hunt”. Posting on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump lavished praise on Netanyahu, referring to him as a “Great Hero” and “warrior”, while sharply criticising the Israeli justice system for pursuing what he claimed was a politically motivated case. “Bibi Netanyahu’s trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State (of Israel),” Trump wrote,…

For the first time since last month’s brief but intense military standoff, the defence ministers of Pakistan and India are attending a high-level summit under the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Qingdao, China — raising the possibility of a bilateral meeting between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh are both participating in the two-day SCO defence ministers’ conclave hosted by Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun in eastern China’s Shandong province. However, officials have so far downplayed the possibility of a scheduled one-on-one between the two. According to diplomatic sources…

A fresh spell of monsoon rains has begun across several parts of the country bringing relief from the sweltering heat but also raising fears of urban flooding and rising water levels in rivers. In Lahore, torrential rains accompanied by thunder lashed various parts of the city including Harbanspura, Taj Bagh, Jail Road, Gulberg, Canal Road, and Mall Road. The downpour significantly dropped the mercury and brought pleasant weather. However, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast intermittent rainfall throughout the day, warning of potential waterlogging in low-lying areas. Similarly, Rawalpindi and Islamabad experienced heavy rainfall early on Wednesday. WASA Rawalpindi…

Change will be a key theme for both the West Indies and Australia in their upcoming three-test series in the Caribbean with the visitors set to field a remodelled batting line-up and the hosts being led out for the first time by Roston Chase. Pat Cummins suggested Australia were due a top-order reset after their loss to South Africa in the World Test Championship (WTC) final earlier this month and the skipper said their line-up to face West Indies shows they are looking to the future. Australia have brought in teenager Sam Konstas to open the batting with Usman Khawaja…

At least 627 people were killed in Iran during the war, reportedly by Israeli strikes, according to Iranian health ministry. According to details surfaced on Wednesday, the spokesperson for the health ministry has issued an updated death toll following Israel’s attacks on Iranian territory. In a post on X, Hossein Kermanpour stated that at least 627 people were killed and 4,870 wounded in the Israeli strikes. He said that Tehran recorded the highest number of casualties, followed by Kermanshah. Significant losses were also reported in Khuzestan, Lorestan and Isfahan. “I pass no judgement,” Kermanpour wrote. “I do not describe the…

The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has awarded Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem Rs2 million over his success at the Asian Athletics Championship.  According to details surfaced on Wednesday, in addition, the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) was granted Rs10 million to support Arshad Nadeem’s training. Coach Salman Butt was awarded Rs600,000 as an incentive. Snooker players Muhammad Asif and Ahsan Ramadan each received Rs500,000, while Naseem Akhtar was awarded Rs100,000. The Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) received a grant of Rs2.1 million and the Bodybuilding Federation was granted Rs2.5 million. The Handball, Volleyball and Squash federations were collectively awarded a grant…