Blaze News - Pakistan

For years, the race to build ever-more powerful artificial intelligence followed a well-worn Silicon Valley principle: move fast and break things. But in a series of cascading events over a 10-day stretch, the largest AI labs found themselves reeling as their own creations threatened to break humanity itself. An Anthropic researcher quit the firm, warning that the pace of AI development poses an ​existential threat, possibly within a decade. Another researcher at the firm said the odds of human extinction exceeded 10%. Reports emerged of swarms of AI agents colluding, breaching computer systems and evading safeguards. In a rare show of unity, the CEOs of rivals Anthropic, ‌OpenAI, Google’s DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI called to slow the development of increasingly capable AI systems. Not since the invention of the nuclear bomb more than 80 years ago has humanity grappled so seriously with its own demise, according to some AI safety advocates and researchers. At a New ...

A five-month-old Afghan baby suffering from a heart condition has been allowed to enter Pakistan for treatment without documents on humanitarian grounds, after authorities granted the child and the family special permission to cross the Torkham border. The baby was shifted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) in Peshawar, where the child has been admitted and is receiving treatment. According to Khyber district social worker Islam Badshah Afridi, the baby and the parents were allowed to enter Pakistan through the Torkham gate with special permission from the relevant authorities on humanitarian and goodwill grounds. Afridi welcomed the move, saying this was the second child to be allowed entry into Pakistan through the Torkham gate without documents on special humanitarian grounds so that timely medical treatment could be provided. Since February, the Torkham border — a key trade route between Pakistan and Afghanistan — has been closed due to tensions and intermit...

Lambeth Palace, the London residence and office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, has withdrawn the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation 2026, days after presenting it to Pakistan Ulema Council Chairman Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, citing previous comments over Osama bin Laden. Ashrafi was presented with the award on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 at a ceremony held at Lambeth Palace in London in recognition of his services to interfaith reconciliation and cooperation. Read: Tahir Ashrafi receives Hubert Walter Award for reconciliation, interfaith cooperation in London The comment that led to the withdrawal dated back to 2007, when Ashrafi said he would confer the title “Saifullah”, meaning “Sword of God”, on then-Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden — the orchestrator of the Sept 11 attacks — in protest against Britain awarding a knighthood to writer Salman Rushdie, whose book he described as blasphemous. In a vi...

Paris prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into suspected sexual harassment involving smart glasses, while French data protection authorities have received complaints from businesses, as countries around the world grapple with the devices' social impact. There are several smart glasses available, but US ​tech giant Meta's glasses made in collaboration with Essilor Luxottica are the market leader, with a roughly 76% share globally. Meta's AI-enabled glasses, which ‌have a small embedded camera allowing the wearer to record discreetly, have been a global hit, selling 7 million units last year. Essilor's latest sales figures point to "exponential growth" in 2026. But their success has led to growing international scrutiny from prosecutors, regulators, rights groups and companies over issues including sexual harassment, corporate wrongdoing and illicit surveillance. Some UK cinemas ​have banned smart glasses, and a German consumer advocacy group h...

A lightning advance by Yemen's Houthi group has brought the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait under its control, making the once ragged highland militia a regional player with global clout. This is how the group evolved into a formidable fighting force with Iranian support that can disrupt vital shipping and strike critical oil and gas facilities in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Who are Houthis? Starting out in the late 1990s as a Zaydi Shia Muslim revival movement in ​north Yemen under the Houthi family, the group waged six wars against the government, building a strong local militia. When Yemen's central state disintegrated during the 2011 Arab Spring, the Houthis took advantage, ‌gaining more ground and developing a relationship with Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah. In 2014, they seized the capital Sanaa, ousting the government and halting a Gulf-backed political transition. That prompted a Saudi-led military intervention to support the government, leading to ...

A major scandal involving the alleged "plunder, illegal extraction, and cross-border smuggling" of placer gold along the Indus and Kabul rivers has engulfed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), raising questions over the regulation and protection of the province’s mineral resources. According to a first information report (FIR), hundreds of heavy excavators were being used for unauthorised extraction of gold along stretches of the Indus and Kabul rivers, particularly in Nowshera, Swabi and Kohat districts. The FIR alleged that more than 1,500 heavy excavators were operating along the riverbanks, with each machine allegedly generating between Rs500,000 and Rs700,000 a week through the illegal activity. Based on these figures, the FIR put the estimated proceeds from the operations at around Rs750 million per week. It further alleged that the gold extracted through these operations was untaxed and was subsequently channelled through international smuggling networks into ...