NEW DELHI: Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has revealed he was approached to be India’s next head cricket coach, but said the demands of the high-profile job meant he was unlikely to take it up. Ponting, 49, is head coach of Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League and has television commitments in Australia. He is also the head of …

OpenAI’s apparent homage to the movie Her, featuring the voice likeness of Scarlett Johansson, is fuelling a renewed round of backlash against artificial intelligence across Hollywood, executives told Reuters. Johansson’s accusation that the ChatGPT-maker copied her performance in the Spike Jonze-directed feature film, after failing to strike an agreement, rekindled the creative class’s anxiety about the existential threat posed by AI, even …

LEEDS: England’s first warm-up, against Pakistan, ahead of next month’s T20 World Cup was washed out after rain poured over Headingley on Wednesday, but captain Jos Buttler eagerly looked forward to defending the title for the side. “I’ve had a really good couple of days’ prep and everyone was really excited for the series,” Buttler said on Skysports as he expressed his disappointment over …

PARIS: Rafa Nadal was handed a tough start to what is expected to be his farewell to the French Open as the record 14-times champion was drawn against fourth seed Alexander Zverev in the first round while women’s champion Iga Swiatek and fellow four-time major winner Naomi Osaka are on a second-round collision course. Defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic will …

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission and Pakistan have made significant progress towards reaching a staff-level agreement for an extended fund facility (EFF), the global lender said on Friday. The IMF’s comments helped the benchmark share index scale a record high and breach the key 76,000 level. The IMF has opened discussions with Pakistan on a new loan programme after Islamabad last month …

Bulls dominated the trading floor at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as stocks climbed more than 900 points on Friday after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it and Pakistan made significant progress on a new loan. After the opening bell, the benchmark KSE-100 traded in the green. The index climbed 956.44 points, or 1.27 per cent, to stand at 76,070.91 points …

ISLAMABAD: After an unsuccessful voluntary registration push for the Tajir Dost Scheme (TDS), the Federal Board of Revenue has claimed that retailers’ registration reached 17,000 in six major cities during the drive that entered its 22nd day, official sources told Dawn on Thursday. The voluntary registration incentivised traders and wholesalers to register into the tax framework by the April 30 …

ISLAMABAD: China and Pakistan will hold 13th Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) virtually today (Friday) in the run-up to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s first visit to China after coming to power early this year. Pakistan is pushing for expediting approval of financing for development of $6.7bn Main Line-1 (ML-1), notwithstanding internal opposition, and about $1.9bn …

KARACHI: Without any foreign inflow, the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reserves showed a meagre increase, while commercial banks recorded a significant drop during the week ending May 17. On Thursday, the central bank reported a $22 million increase in its reserves to $9.157 billion during the week. This upward trend in reserves reflects the SBP’s strategic dollar …