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China’s film industry set a new record during the 2025 Spring Festival holiday, as the box office for the period from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4 reached a staggering 9.51 billion yuan (1.33 billion U.S. dollars), the China Film Administration announced Wednesday. The number of moviegoers also soared, with 187 million people attending theaters during the holiday, marking both a box office and attendance milestone.

Hemanth Mandapati, CEO of German startup Novo AI, was an early adopter of DeepSeek chatbots, switching to the Chinese AI model from OpenAI’s ChatGPT two weeks ago. “If you have built your application using OpenAI, you can easily migrate to the other ones … it took us minutes to switch,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the GoWest conference for venture capitalists in Gothenburg, Sweden. DeepSeek’s emergence is reshaping the AI landscape, offering companies access to the technology at a fraction of the cost, according to interviews with more than a dozen startup executives and investors. It…

China is increasingly less dependent on trade with the U.S., which will lessen the shock of an additional 10-percent U.S. tariff on Chinese exports, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank. China has ramped up trade with other partners, with the U.S. dropping to third place with $688 billion in 2024, following the ASEAN with $982 billion and the EU with $786 billion. The country’s exports to the U.S. account for only 15 percent of its total exports. China has also steadily reduced the importance of trade to its economy as the country has expanded domestic…

UNITED NATIONS : UN agencies on Tuesday offered a dire assessment of the global impact of deep cuts to grassroots humanitarian funding by the incoming Trump administration and reiterated calls for US to retain its position as a global aid leader. The development follows the pause announced to billions of dollars of funding on 24 January by the US administration affecting “nearly all US foreign aid programmes, pending a 90-day review”, said Pio Smith from the UN’s sexual reproductive health agency, UNFPA, briefing journalists in Geneva. In Pakistan, the UN agency warns that the US announcement will affect 1.7 million…

RAWALPINDI : Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Asim Munir presided over the 267th Corps Commanders’ Conference (CCC) at the General Headquarters (GHQ) on Tuesday, said ISPR. According to the military’s media wing, the participants paid profound tribute to the sacrifices made by the armed forces, law enforcement agencies, and citizens who have laid down their lives in pursuit of peace and stability of their beloved motherland. The forum undertook a comprehensive review of the regional, and internal security landscape, assessing the full spectrum of threats. The prevailing situation along the Line of Control (LoC) and the working boundary was…

ISLAMABAD : Amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2025 have been challenged in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Muhammad Qayyum Khan, a citizen, filed the plea and made the president, National Assembly speaker, Senate chairman and law secretary respondents. The petitioner contends that the latest amendments to the law contravene fundamental human rights and provisions of the constitution. He said the bill had been passed by the speaker of a sham assembly and the president elected through it. Khan requested the apex court to declare the amendments null and void and form a full bench to hear…

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday attributed the ongoing sacrifices of the country’s armed forces to past “blatant mistakes and wrong decisions,” which, he said, had led to the release of thousands of terrorists. Addressing a meeting of the federal cabinet, the prime minister condemned the recent attack in Kalat, where 18 soldiers were martyred. He also visited the injured, praising their resilience and courage. “Our martyrs and ghazis are sacrificing their lives to protect Pakistan,” the premier said, adding that the country must not repeat the mistakes of the past that had enabled terrorism to resurface. He also offered Fateha for…

World Cancer Day is being observed today across the globe to raise awareness about the disease and its prevention. In South Punjab, the number of blood cancer patients has exceeded 6,000, highlighting a growing health concern in the region. According to experts, one of the major causes of cancer in the area is the excessive use of pesticides on fruits and vegetables. Assistant Professor of Pediatric Oncology emphasized that these harmful chemicals pose serious health risks, contributing to the rise in cancer cases. Dr. Usman Fawad, a specialist in pediatric oncology, revealed that approximately 300 children are diagnosed with blood…

ISLAMABAD: The government plans to issue an Expression of Interest (EoI) this month in a renewed attempt to privatise the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), with offering a clean balance sheet and protecting the buyer from an 18% GST on aircraft purchases, following the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) approval. Notably, following the national flag carrier’s privatisation, the aviation sector across the nation will likewise be eligible for this 18% GST exemption. Additionally, this will assist private operators in growing their companies and services. In a previous attempt to sell this asset, the interested parties had backed down from their plans and…

ISLAMABAD: The United States has suspended aid projects worth over $845 million in Pakistan following President Donald Trump’s directive to cut funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) projects worldwide. The abrupt suspension has halted crucial development initiatives and placed hundreds of Pakistani jobs at risk. The US has immediately frozen 39 major USAID-funded projects in Pakistan across various sectors, including energy, economic development, agriculture, democracy, human rights and governance, education, health, and humanitarian assistance. Many of these initiatives, fully or partially funded by USAID, have now come to a standstill, with local NGOs and organisations struggling…