Tue, 21-Oct-2025

Tokyo 2020 trims cost estimate for pandemic Olympics

Tokyo

TOKYO: Tokyo Olympics organisers revised the estimated cost of the Covid-postponed Games downwards on Wednesday, but the figure was still around double the budget proposed in the city’s original 2013 bid. Despite losing out on ticket sales due to a near-total ban on spectators, organisers said they had saved cash by simplifying events and avoiding the … Read more

ADB approves $300 million loan to strengthen Pakistan’s energy sector

ADB

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday approved a $300 million policy-based loan to support financial, technical, and governance reforms to strengthen Pakistan’s energy sector and improve its financial sustainability. The financing is part of the second sub-programme of the ADB’s Energy Sector Reforms and Financial Sustainability Programme, which aims at improving the governance … Read more

Which is the most-watched film in Netflix’s history?

Red Notice

Netflix announced Red Notice to the all-time viewers’ most-watched movie declared in the streaming giant’s history, reported CNN. The action and thriller movie has been watched for 328.8 million hours around the globe. Earlier in 2018, Bird Box secured this position with 282 million hours of viewership. Read more: Dwayne Johnson is ecstatic following Red … Read more

Saudi e-gamers begin battle for $1.1 million prize pot

Saudi e-gamers

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s top gamers have begun battling it out for a share of a SR4 million ($1.1million) prize pot at the kingdom’s e-League Champions event, Arab News reported. Winners from two other e-sports events held this year have come together for a final competition in Riyadh’s Media City, which kicked off on Friday, November 26 and … Read more

Pakistan exports 3.6 million tonnes rice last year: Reap

Pakistan

LAHORE: Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) chairman Ali Hussam Asghar has said that the commodity’s exports reached 3.6 million tonnes last year. Talking to a delegation of the Lahore Economic Journalists Association, he said, the country earned $2 billion from rice exports. Hussam suggested the use of technology for increasing rice production and urged … Read more

One year from World Cup, clock ticks ever louder for Qatar

World Cup

DOHA: After upending the football establishment by winning the right to host the World Cup, Qatar’s preparations are heading into overdrive with a year to go as they rush to welcome more than a million fans and prove their critics wrong. The tiny Gulf state has a reputation for punching above its weight but challenges do … Read more

Football industry embraces crypto as Messi helps ‘fan tokens’ take off

PSG

PARIS: When Paris Saint-Germain signed Lionel Messi, the salary package included something previously unheard of for a player — a one-off payment, understood to be worth around one million euros ($1.15m), made in PSG ‘fan tokens’. It was the result of a partnership signed by the French giants in 2018 with Socios.com which sees fans … Read more

Binance get order to identify and freeze hackers accounts

Binance

Binance has been ordered by the high court of the UK to investigate the hackers who robbed $2.6 million from Fetch.ai and freeze their accounts.

The amount of money is lesser than the amount compared to the recent hack of Poly Network, it is one of the first public cases involving Binance and will be a litmus test for English courts and their abilities to combat fraud on cryptocurrency platforms

A spokesperson from Binance confirmed that the company was helping Fetch.ai to recover its assets. They went on to say:

“Binance routinely freezes accounts that are identified as having suspicious activity occurring in line with our security policies and commitment to ensuring that users are protected while using our platform.”

Binance warned Fetch.ai that it had seen strange activity on their account. Binance already freezes some of the money for safety, the hacker was able to sell some of the assets, but only for a third of the original amount.

The result of the hack on the Poly network and this case shows that it is becoming extremely hard for hackers to hack into accounts, rob cash, and keep it.

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PayPal Teases a Future With “Interesting DeFi Apps”

PayPal

PayPal provided investors with an update on the progress of its new consumer wallet “super app,” as well as a suggestion that smart contracts could be used for “interesting DeFi applications.”

PayPal may begin to integrate DeFi in the future.

The payments giant revealed details about its new consumer wallet “super app” in development during its Q2 earnings call on Wednesday. According to the company’s president and CEO Dan Schulman, the new wallet will contain high-yield savings, improved bill pay capability, and other crypto possibilities.

PayPal has announced various steps to help integrate cryptocurrencies into its platform in recent months. The company started allowing customers to pay using crypto money at over 29 million retailers in March. Recently, the corporation revealed that cryptocurrency withdrawals to off-site wallets will be possible. PayPal teases additional crypto capabilities in its forthcoming “super app,” but no details have been confirmed.

PayPal’s earnings call, however, revealed that the business is studying decentralized financing in relation to its products, in addition to outlining its new crypto-friendly wallet. Schulman responded when asked how the company plans to expand its engagement with the crypto ecosystem:

“We are clearly thinking about what the next generation of the financial system looks like… How can we use smart contracts more efficiently? How can we digitize assets and open those up to consumers that may not have had access to that before? There are some interesting DeFi applications as well.”

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Murabaha: UAE banks raise $350 million for Pakistan

Pakistan UAE

DUBAI: The Ajman Bank and the Commercial Bank of Dubai have raised $350 million (Dh1.28 billion) in Murabaha syndicated financing for the government of Pakistan, Khaleej Times reported on Wednesday. The two UAE banks acted as mandated lead arrangers and book-runners for the facility on behalf of Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance. The Shariah-compliant Ajman Bank also acted … Read more

Gold imports fall 22.79% to $8.97 million in FY21

Gold

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s gold imports decreases  22.79 per cent to $8.977 million during the fiscal year 2020/21, compared with the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported. The gold imports during July-May 2019/20 stood at $11.627 million. In terms of quantity, Pakistan imported 148 kilogrammes of gold during the period … Read more