FIFA has written to the teams competing in the World Cup, imploring them to keep their attention on soccer and not allow it to be drawn into ideological or political “battles” in Qatar.
The international soccer federation FIFA has written to World Cup teams, asking them to keep the tournament’s focus on soccer rather than allowing it to be used as a platform for ideological or political “battles.”
After several World Cup teams protested over problems ranging from LGBTIQ rights to the treatment of migrant workers, FIFA president Gianni Infantino and secretary general Fatma Samoura sent an open letter.
As the coach pleaded, “Please, let’s now focus on the football!” What Infantino and Samoura wrote in their open letter to all 32 World Cup teams was reported by Sky News.
“We are well aware that football is not apolitical and that there are numerous obstacles and difficulties of a political nature in many parts of the world.
However, football shouldn’t be used as a weapon in every political and ideological conflict.
The World Cup, the first held in the Middle East, starts on 20 November as host nation Qatar faces Ecuador.
Australia’s soccer team last week spoke out against Qatar’s record on human rights and same-sex relationships.
Denmark’s players will travel to the World Cup without their families as a protest against the country’s human rights record, the Danish FA (DBU) told local media last month.
Football Australia confirmed the receipt of the letter from FIFA on Friday but declined further comment. Reuters also contacted the DBU for comment.
World Cup organizers have said that everyone, no matter their sexual orientation or background, is welcome, while also warning against public displays of affection.
Despite “gaps” in its labor system, Qatar has made improvements to worker rights in time for the World Cup.
“At FIFA, we aim to accept all perspectives and beliefs, without handing out moral lessons to the rest of the globe,” Infantino reportedly wrote in the letter obtained by Sky.
It’s been said that the world’s diversity is one of its greatest assets and that if inclusion means anything, it means appreciating and valuing that asset. There is no such thing as a “better” people, “better” culture, or “better” country.
“This is the cornerstone of equality and inclusion. That’s right, it’s also one of the game’s fundamental principles. Remember that, and let the football take center stage.
Imran Khan, the chairman of the PTI, finally chose to speak out after being shot and hurt in an attempt on his life while perched atop a container during a long march. He said that he had been made aware of the impending danger in advance.
While still a patient at the Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore, where he is receiving medical attention for his wounds, Khan remarked during a televised address, “I had already discovered that there was a plan in place to assassinate me somewhere between Wazirabad and Gujrat.”
Khan began his speech by criticising the current administration and bemoaning the fact that his administration was overthrown by a resolution of no confidence.
Turkey’s President Erdogan and Russia’s President Putin had an agreement to provide Russian grain to underdeveloped nations in Africa.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan meet on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA), in Astana, Kazakhstan October 13, 2022. Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
ISTANBUL, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that he and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had agreed that poor African countries should get Russian grains for free as part of the Black Sea export deal.
“When I talked to Vladimir Putin on the phone, he said, ‘Let’s send this grain for free to places like Djibouti, Somalia, and Sudan,'” Erdogan told businesspeople in Istanbul.
This comment came after Moscow rejoined the grain deal brokered by the U.N. and Turkey on Wednesday. This ended four days of non-cooperation, during which exports from Ukrainian ports still went on.
This week, Putin said that even if Russia left the agreement again, it would give the “poorest countries” all of the grain from its own stock for free.
Imran Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is receiving treatment at Shaukat Khanum Hospital. The former prime minister was checked by a medical board, which determined that all of his medical reports were satisfactory.
Imran Khan has been given permission by the medical board to walk and use the restroom, but the PTI chairman insists on his release today despite the doctors’ advice to take a day off.Imran Khan is not in need of more testing, according to hospital staff, and he is still allowed to eat and drink.
The chairman of PTI, Imran Khan, underwent a two-hour operation on his right leg, suffering four injuries, but no bone damage, according to medical board sources.
The medical board reports that even though the operation was brief, it took time to conduct a thorough inspection since all types of particles had to be removed and it was important to evaluate the patient from every angle.
According to The News, the cost of producing power in Pakistan is projected to drop by Rs0.5-1.5/kWh as a result of a drop in coal prices globally.
According to estimates, the power sector uses about 9 million tonnes of coal annually compared to a total demand of about 28 million tonnes.
Pakistan relies on coal for 12% to 32% of its electrical production. Given that the cost of producing electricity from coal was higher, it depended on the availability of inexpensive hydropower (third most expensive fuel after furnace oil and LNG).
According to the most recent data from the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), the cost of producing power from coal in September 2022 was approximately Rs. 18 per kilowatt hour, while the average price of coal was approximately US$310–320 per tonne.
Accordingly, Farhan Mahmood, head of research at Sherman Securities, thought that if coal prices remained at their current level, the cost of producing energy across the board may drop by Rs0.5-Rs1.5/kWh.
Recently, coal prices in the international markets fell to their lowest point in eight months, largely as a result of sluggish global demand driven by rising inflation and a slowdown in construction in China, the world’s largest coal consumer. The price of coal and other alternative fuels was also influenced by Europe, which had already secured its energy needs for the next winter through the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The process has been overseen by the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB). According to preliminary studies, Thar Coal might be used by some imported coal power plants without requiring any modifications to their power plants, according to PPIB. To lessen dependency on imported fuel, it is necessary to promote the greatest use of local coal. The report stated that it is necessary to hurry up the commissioning of the remaining Thar coal-based power projects.
Energy produced from imported coal now costs between Rs4 and Rs4.5 per unit of fuel, while energy produced from indigenous Thar coal still costs between Rs20 and Rs29 per unit.
Since a U.N.-brokered agreement in July restored supplies that had been halted by Russia’s war, Ukraine has exported 10 million tonnes of grain and other food, according to U.N. chief Antonio Guterres, who on Thursday urged Russia and Ukraine to continue the cooperation.
“I urge everyone to focus their energies on two things. First, the Black Sea Initiative needs to be renewed and fully implemented. Second, removing the last remaining barriers to Russian food and fertiliser exports, “He informed the press.
If Russia or Ukraine disagree to the prolongation, the agreement might end on November 19. This week, Russia temporarily halted participation after accused Ukraine of exploiting the agreement as a pretext to attack Russian ships in Crimea. Ukraine has not admitted responsibility for the attack or denied it. The value of the Black Sea Grain Initiative has, in my opinion, been better understood and appreciated by the globe in recent days, according to Guterres. “in order to stop the food crisis. for lowering costs and relieving burden on people everywhere. in order to lessen the dangers of hunger, poverty, and instability.”
The July agreement also intends to make it easier for Russia to export grain and fertiliser. Guterres urged the full utilisation of Russian export capacity, which is crucial for that reason, when he stated on Thursday that coordinated measures were required to alleviate the global fertiliser market bottleneck promptly. “Farmers all across the world are already being impacted by high fertiliser prices. We cannot allow issues with access to fertiliser globally to develop into a global food scarcity “he said.
In a move that offers some respite to exporters struggling with new government restrictions, India said that it will let the shipment of white and brown rice cargoes supported by letters of credit issued before September 9 to other countries.
The largest rice exporter in the world attempted to increase domestic supply and stabilise local prices on September 8 after planting was hampered by below-average monsoon rains by banning the sale of broken rice and imposing a 20% levy on exports of various grades.
Almost 1 million tonnes of rice were either stuck at ports or in route as a result of the government’s unexpected action.
Since September 9, Indian white rice export prices have increased by 12%.
In its late-Monday notification, the government also announced that it would permit the sale of 600,000 tonnes of unmilled rice to Nepal, a country that often depends on India to meet its needs for food grains.
India competes with Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Myanmar for more than 40% of world rice shipments.
Last month, 397,267 tonnes of broken rice were permitted for export by New Delhi.
In order to close at 41,808.69 points, the KSE-100 index increased 544.03 points, or 1.32%.
Despite the fact that the consumer price index inflation for October came in at 26.6%, which is higher than market expectations, Topline Securities said the day began on a good note at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The PTI’s slow march toward Islamabad appears to have been taken in by the market.
According to the brokerage, however, investors were seen moving into the technology sector in the second half, when TRG Pakistan and NetSol Technologies reached their price ceilings and Avanceon Limited and System Limited also closed higher.
About 65 points were also supplied by the oil and gas exploration industry.
190.53 million shares, up 95%, and Rs6.29 billion, up 1.5 times, respectively, were traded during the day. The company with the most shares, 22.93 million, was WorldCall Telecom.
In a report, Arif Habib Ltd (AHL) said that while the cement industry benefited from weak global coal markets, stocks rose in anticipation of the Prime Minister’s visit to China.
The AHL report stated that “the bulls made a comeback after consecutive dry sessions, reaching an intraday high of 568 points and giving investors much-needed confidence.”
It further stated that although mainboard volumes significantly increased, third-tier stocks remained to dominate the volume board.
Technology and communication (+131.2 points), cement (+83.7 points), electricity generation and distribution (+41.8 points), exploration and production (+64.7 points), and fertiliser (+42.6 points) were the primary sectors to boost the index.
In the interbank market, the Pakistani rupee resumed its downward trend versus the US dollar as continuous political unrest dampened investor confidence.
The rupee dropped in value from yesterday’s close of 220.65, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and closed the day at 221.43 after losing Re0.78, or 0.35%, in the interbank market.
In a note, Arif Habib Limited stated that recent exchange rate volatility was the norm due to debt obligations over the next 12 months and the still challenging global economic environment.
Effective negotiation with bilateral and multilateral partners, especially following the floods, will particularly benefit in stabilising the parity, according to the brokerage.
Additionally, as investors wait for the US Federal Reserve’s policy announcement amid expectations that it will signal a delay in future rate hikes, the US dollar fell on the global market.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the inflation rate based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 26.6% year-on-year in October 2022 from 23.2% in September and 9.2% in October 2021, which could lead to further depreciation of the currency.
According to the UN nuclear watchdog, it found no evidence of “undeclared nuclear operations” at the three locations in Ukraine that it examined at Kiev’s request after Russian charges over a fictitious “dirty bomb.”
The Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in Zhovti Kody, the Production Association Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant in Dnipro, and the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv have all granted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “unrestricted access,” according to a statement released on Thursday.
The Vienna-based organisation stated: “Based on the assessment of the results to date and the information given by Ukraine, the agency did not identify any signs of undeclared nuclear activity and materials at the locations. According to the statement, inspectors also collected environmental samples that will be submitted to a facility for study. The IAEA will then provide a report on the findings.
Russia had previously made reference to all three of the locations in conjunction with its baseless allegation that Ukraine intended to use a dirty bomb, a type of conventional explosive device contaminated with radioactive, biological, or chemical ingredients.
After purchasing Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk, the company’s new CEO, recently made a shocking announcement that accounts with verified badges will have to pay to maintain the privilege. This announcement caused people with verified accounts to fear.
Initially, Musk stated that users would need to pay $20, but after some users attempted to bargain with him, Musk agreed to lower the price and stated that the verified account would cost $8. However, Twitter users were still unconvinced by the offer.
As a result, several of them began tagging the Twitter CEO in their complaints and justifications for not paying verified accounts. Musk initially modified his Twitter bio to read “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator” in retaliation.
China gave Pakistan the reassurance that it would continue to support the nation’s sustainable economic and strategic projects, including the expansion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Main Line-1 (ML-1) rail track, in addition to providing an additional assistance package of RMB 500 million for the country’s flood relief efforts.
Pakistan and China have agreed to expand and accelerate CPEC.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang reportedly made these assurances during separate meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the People’s Great Hall in Beijing, according to the Prime Minister Office (PMO).
A number of agreements covering bilateral cooperation in the fields of e-commerce, the digital economy, agricultural product export, financial cooperation, cultural property protection, infrastructure, flood relief, post-disaster reconstruction, GDI, animal disease control, livelihood, cultural cooperation, space, geosciences, as well as law enforcement and security, were signed and finalised by the two sides.
Prime Minister Sharif returned to his country on Wednesday night after his two-day first visit to China was over.
In their discussion with President Xi, the two leaders reaffirmed their shared commitment to the CPEC and decided that, in order to start ML-1 as an early harvest project within the CPEC framework, both nations will work together.
The two leaders talked about ways to work together on a variety of areas, including defence, trade and investment, agriculture, health, and disaster preparedness.
They also discussed how the swift change in the global environment has made it more difficult for poorer nations to address their economic problems. They reaffirmed their common conviction that communication and collaboration based on respect and mutual gain are essential for world peace and development.
They concurred that governments must cooperate fully to address current issues like climate change, health pandemics, and escalating inequities in conformity with the goals and tenets of the United Nations Charter.
Russia stated that preventing a conflict between nuclear-armed nations should be the top concern for the entire world since it may have “catastrophic consequences.”
The Foreign Ministry stated, “We are strongly persuaded that the top priority in the current tough and turbulent scenario is to avert any military conflict of nuclear powers. This situation is a result of irresponsible and shameless measures aimed at undermining our national security.
The Foreign Ministry’s remark came amid growing concerns that nuclear weapons could be used in the protracted conflict in Ukraine, which is now in its ninth month.
The statement stated that “Russia rigidly and continuously adheres to the principle that a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought.”
The Kremlin is only permitted to use nuclear weapons in the event of nuclear invasion or “when the very existence of our state is threatened,” according to Moscow’s nuclear doctrine, which is described as “purely defensive in nature.”
Russia has consistently asserted that its nuclear strategy protects the Ukrainian territory it claims to have annexed.
The United States, Britain, France, and China were urged to “operate together to address this important challenge,” together with all other nuclear-armed nations in the world.
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday requested that the Centre provide evidence supporting its request to have PTI leader Azam Swati’s bail revoked in connection with the case involving the contentious tweet.
In the instance of the contentious tweet, Justice Aamer Farooq of the IHC heard the Center’s petition against the trial court’s decision to grant Swati bail.
The federal government’s legal representative, Advocate Raja Rizwan Abbasi, contended during the hearing that the special courts could only handle charges filed in accordance with the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA).
ISLAMABAD: In relation to the PTI’s long march on the federal capital, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday requested a timeline and signed affidavit from PTI leadership.
After hearing the PTI’s complaint against the government for failing to provide the PTI a no-objection certificate for its sit-in in Islamabad, Justice Aamer Farooq of the IHC announced the order that had been reserved earlier today.
“Let the learned counsel for the petitioner seek directions as to the date, time, and execution of the undertaking/affidavit by a fully authorised person of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf,” the court instructed in its written ruling.
Celebrities and athletes denounced the attack on PTI Chairman Imran during the lengthy march in Gujranwala and extended the former premier their best wishes.The PTI head is unharmed despite the fact that the bullets reportedly passed through his body but missed his bones. After receiving treatment earlier at an undisclosed location, he was sent to Shaukat Khanum, Lahore.
The colourful captain of Pakistan, Babar Azam, vehemently denounced the “heinous attack” on Khan and requested that Allah save both him and Pakistan.
Wasim Akram, a former cricket player who teamed up with Khan when they won the 1992 World Cup, expressed his shock at what had happened.”We are sending up prayers for Imran bhai and everyone present. We must unite as a nation and thwart any attempts to undermine our sense of oneness.”
Elon Musk pledged to protect Twitter from becoming a “free-for-all hellscape” to advertisers. Advertisers have started asking for information on how he intends to maintain the agreement this week.One significant advertising agency’s media buyer, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said the company would meet with Musk this week to discuss how the Tesla CEO intends to combat false information on social media.
The buyer reportedly asked clarification on how Musk’s promise fit with his own behaviour, including a weekend tweet that spread a hoax about the assault on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul.
Other issues include who will act as the point of contact for advertisers after a string of senior employees, including Twitter’s head of advertising, left the firm since he took over, as well as Musk’s proposal to increase the price of Twitter’s subscription service and show “half as many adverts.”The media buyer stated that the agency’s key clients are anticipated to attend the conference.A request for response was not immediately answered by Musk or Twitter.
NAIROBI: According to Nairobi businessman Waqar Ahmed, Tariq Wasi, the CEO of Karachi Kings, asked him to support Arshad Sharif’s trip to Kenya, which he set up out of politeness.During an interrogation, Waqar disclosed this to Pakistani investigators Athar Wahid, the director of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and Omar Shahid Hamid, the deputy director general of the Intelligence Bureau.Waqar is the brother of Khurram Ahmed, who was driving Sharif when they came under fire, killing the journalist. Sharif was travelling in a Toyota Land Cruiser at the time.
Waqar said the investigators that Wasi had asked him to house Sharif throughout his stay in Kenya and to assist him in any manner he could, in addition to arranging for a sponsorship letter to send Sharif from Dubai to Kenya.According to a source, Waqar told the investigation team that Wasi frequently contacted him to inquire about Sharif’s health and daily activities. Waqar informed the detectives at his residence, “I arranged for Sharif’s stay at my penthouse at Wasi’s request.
In the wake of the US Federal Reserve‘s aggressive rate decision last night, the dollar launched a rebound versus other international currencies. The Pakistani rupee lost 0.23% on Thursday, extending losses for the second day.To end the day at 221.95, the rupee dropped Re0.52. On Wednesday, it lost Re0.78 or 0.35% and finished at 221.43 against the US dollar.
The country’s merchandise trade deficit for the first four months of the current fiscal year decreased by 26.6% to $11.47 billion from $15.62 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, although this was insufficient to stop the depreciation of the rupee.A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on establishing RMB (Chinese currency) clearing arrangements in Pakistan was signed by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Peoples Bank of China (PBoC), which is another significant development.
Sonakshi Sinha recently discussed acquiring 15 kg for her next movie Double XL.There are two ways to achieve it, Sonkashi said when discussing her physique transformation in an interview. Either you carry it out properly or you don’t. Due to a schedule crunch that is exceedingly unhealthy, it took me two months to gain the weight.
“However, I lost it in a healthy way. To lose the weight I had gained, it took me more than a year. I’ve now reached my previous weight. The Dabangg actress continued, “At that time, I didn’t have the time to acquire weight healthily and gradually.
LAHORE: The authorities have determined that there will be no change in the threat level despite the fact that Cricket Ireland on Thursday taken note of the attack on PTI leader Imran Khan.In a statement released in this respect, the PCB stated that Cricket Ireland is aware of an incident involving the former prime minister that happened roughly 150 miles outside of the Lahore location of the three ODIs and three T20Is between Ireland Women and Pakistan Women.
“Cricket Ireland is in contact with the PCB, local security advisors, and diplomatic agencies at this time,”It said that PCB CEO Faisal Hasnain had met with Cricket Ireland CEO Warren Deutrom and Team Manager Beth Healy directly and had given them an updated assessment of the situation on the ground.
It was also indicated that Cricket Ireland’s current advice is that the threat level won’t change as a result of this occurrence.The statement said, “The Ireland Women’s squad has been briefed, and Cricket Ireland’s security advisers will continue to review protocols and keep an eye on the situation.”
The Pakistan Army “strongly criticised” the incident that resulted in Imran Khan, the chairman of the PTI and a former prime minister of Pakistan, being shot during his long march.Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) reported that the military expressed genuine prayers for the lost lives as well as for Imran Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, and all those hurt in this tragic occurrence.
Politicians and government officials have denounced the act in the “strongest words,” including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari, and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, among others.
Gunshots were fired at Khan at around 4:25 p.m. on Thursday, causing chaotic scenes to erupt close to the PTI’s welcoming camp at Allahwala Chowk in Gujranwala.According to the police, the guy who fired on Khan’s container has been detained. He got bullet wounds to his leg.
Ex-wife of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, Jemima Goldsmith, praised the young man who stopped the onslaught on Imran Khan on social media.At the Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore, Khan is receiving treatment for a leg wound caused by a gunshot.Goldsmith, who broke up with Khan in 2004, praised God for ensuring his safety and added that the news was terrible.
Khan’s boys, according to her, were appreciative of the “great man” who dealt with the shooter and preserved their father’s life.She even shared a photo of Ibtisam, the young man who prevented Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, from being killed.
The filmmaker said when he was speaking at the British Film Institute Southbank that the United Kingdom instead excelled in the field of theatre and produced “amazing” pop music.
During a discussion that took place at an event held at the BFI Southbank in London, film director Danny Boyle voiced his lack of faith in the accomplishments of the British film industry.
Boyle said the following in statements that were published by the Daily Mail: “It’s a terrible thing to say at the home of British film but I am not sure we are great film-makers, to be absolutely honest.”
He continued by saying, “As a nation, our two art forms are theatre, in a middle-class sense, and pop music, because we are extraordinary at it.”
The filmmaker was speaking after a screening of the zombie thriller from 2002 titled 28 Days Later, which was a part of the British Film Institute’s (BFI) In Dreams Are Monsters horror film season. The film was written by Alex Garland.
Boyle has garnered a number of accolades for his work in the film industry, including the Academy Award for Best Director in 2009 for his work on the film Slumdog Millionaire as well as the Bafta Award for Best British Film in 1995 for his work on the film Shallow Grave.
Pakistan and South Africa T20 World Cup, Pakistan won by 33 runs.
The match between Pakistan and South Africa The 36th match of the Twenty20 World Cup in 2022 will be played in the Super 12 group. An all-around display by Pakistan, both with the bat and the ball as well as on the field. Throughout the entirety of the innings, Babar’s men were successful in taking wickets at a consistent rate. The performance of Shadab Khan with the bat and the ball was outstanding today. In both innings, the game was turned around by him. Temba Bavuma, who had scored 36 and 19, and Aiden Markram, who had scored 14, were both out in the ninth over when the leg-spinner took both of their wickets.
Temba Bavuma was in fantastic touch at the time, while Aiden Markram is in good form. Because of this, the required DLS score for the side following the rain break was changed as a result. Earlier in their innings, Pakistan was in a precarious position with 47/4. Iftikhar Ahmed 51 (35), who batted first, and Muhammad Nawaz 28, who batted second, helped steady the ship with a partnership of 52 runs for the fifth wicket.
Then, Shadab Khan, who was 22 at the time, and Iftikhar put together an 81-run partnership for the sixth wicket in only 35 balls, which completely dismantled the South African bowling attack. The proteas continued throwing away their opportunities, which didn’t make the situation any better.
Match EndedICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Australia, 2022 – Super 12 – Match 24
Pakistan
185/9 (20.0)
vs
South Africa
108/9 (14.0)
Match Ended ( Day – Super 12 – Match 24 ) Pakistan beat South Africa by 33 runs (D/L method)
Crypto mining has been hit severely by the digital asset market crash.
The digital asset decline this year is putting a significant strain on the cryptocurrency mining industry, as the high cost of electricity and the stagnating price of coins are bringing more and more enterprises to the brink of insolvency.
Core Scientific, which is traded on the Nasdaq, issued a warning last week that it may seek bankruptcy protection because it expects to run out of money by the end of the year. On Monday, Argo Blockchain, a company listed in London, expressed similar pessimism, warning it would be forced to shut down if a crucial fundraising effort failed.
These cautions arrived on the heels of a bankruptcy filing by US-based data center services provider Computer North, which owed up to $500mn and blamed the current market climate for its demise.
These miners’ precarious financial conditions demonstrate how the recent price drop of major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin has already begun to affect the industry that generates and verifies this currency and transactions.
The decline has already claimed some major cryptocurrency companies, including the loan platform Celsius Network and the hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.
Miners are just one part of the ecosystem that has been negatively affected by the crypto winter. Managing Director at Wedbush Securities Dan Ives described the current crypto market situation as “a chain reaction” as the “long frigid crypto winter” continues.
As leading token prices have remained relatively stable since June, analysts and executives in the industry have begun to question the long-term viability of mining. Since its late 2017 high of nearly $70,000, Bitcoin has hardly ever traded for more than $21,000.
Bitcoin and other “proof of work” tokens would not function without the efforts of miners. In a system that does not rely on intermediaries like banks or exchanges, these individuals check the validity of new blocks on blockchains, thereby playing the function of a trusty guarantor for transactions. Miners receive newly created tokens as payment for their efforts. Recently, Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency in the world, made the switch away from a mining-based structure.
The steadily increasing value of coins attracted a large number of miners. Before the bitcoin price crisis of 2021, businesses were investing heavily in mining hardware including powerful yet energy-hungry computers. In the first three months of 2022, Hut 8, a mining company, increased its capacity by roughly a third by adding 9,592 mining machines.
Since the additional mining capability entered the market at the same time that the price dropped, miners are now competing more fiercely for the token. Hashrate Index reports that in the past year, Bitcoin’s total hash rate—the computer power dedicated to mining—has climbed by 57%, reaching a new all-time high of 260 exahash (or quintillion) operations per second.
However, many miners’ dreams have been dashed by the unexpectedly high cost of energy. Bitcoin is the reward for solving difficult mathematical puzzles, and miners compete to be the first to do it. No of who gets the bitcoin first, the miners put in a lot of effort. Argo has acknowledged that the energy costs at its Texas operation were nearly three times the national average for the month of August.
The potential for nationwide power outages in the United States has made the situation worse. Texas companies Argo, Core Scientific, and Riot Blockchain reduced their activities in July due to rising energy consumption.
Reproducibility problem: The Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California has come up with a revolutionary approach to evaluating the reliability of scientific research by combining AI with knowledge graphs.
What Is Reproducibility?
What holds all scientific inquiry together is the scientific process. The problem-solving method is used by everyone from third-grade science students to Nobel laureates. In addition, the reproducibility of findings is essential to the scientific method.
A definition, please. For our purposes, “reproducibility” refers to the ability to produce the same output under identical conditions, including but not limited to the same input data, computational steps, methodologies, and code.
If you set out to test X in conditions Y and found that it performed as expected, you should be able to replicate your results. And if another scientist attempts to test X in Y conditions, they should receive the same result Z. That’s the way science goes, baby!
That’s not always the case, though; in fact, it’s rarely true.
The Big Problem in Science Right Now
The scientific world has realized over the past two decades that much scientific research is difficult or impossible to precisely repeat, a problem dubbed “the reproducibility dilemma.” Seventy percent of researchers in a 2016 study of over 1500 scientists conducted by the newspaper Nature said they have attempted and failed to repeat another scientist’s experiment, and more than half said they have attempted and failed to reproduce their own experiments.
This is problematic in and of itself since it casts doubt on the veracity of the findings, but it becomes catastrophic when one considers that subsequent research is based on the foundation laid by the original. If we can’t guarantee that testing X in Y conditions will always yield Z, then we can’t rely on Z to determine anything else.
The director of USC’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI), Jay Pujara, stated it plainly: “People will not believe in science if we can’t demonstrate that scientific research is reproducible.”
In 2019, Pujara was a part of an ISI team that received funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The team’s principal investigators (PIs) were Kristina Lerman and Fred Morstatter. SCORE (Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence) was a DARPA initiative to create and distribute automated tools for assigning “confidence scores” that would measure the likelihood that a given scientific finding might be replicated.
Assessing Reproducibility
Manually evaluating a paper’s repeatability is doable, but it is time-consuming and costly. And in many scientific domains, new results are more important than repeating previous experiments when it comes to advancing one’s career. Thus, researchers have little incentive to conduct time-consuming replication experiments in an attempt to manually duplicate outcomes linked to their study due to restricted resources. SCORE set out to discover a method for automatically evaluating the scalability of research reproducibility, a much-needed service for the scientific community.
Machine learning methods have recently been used by researchers on the issue, with the goal of understanding which factors in an article have the most bearing on its repeatability. Ph.D. student in Pujara’s lab, Kexuan Sun, pushed these approaches further by looking at the correlations across publications rather than just the variables within them (which had never been done).
Instead of simply reading a document or analyzing its individual elements, “we had new ideas on how to measure reproducibility using knowledge graphs,” Pujara explained. To understand as much as possible about a publication, “we weren’t going to only look at sample size and p-values, for example.”
The unique method was created and evaluated, and the results were presented in a paper titled “Assessing Scientific Research Papers using Knowledge Graphs” at ACM SIGIR 22 (Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval) in July 2022.
From the Micro to the Macro
In order to create a massive knowledge graph (KG) [a representation of a network of real-world entities that depicts their interactions] the ISI team collected massive amounts of data from over 250 million academic papers. The KG was built using a synergistic approach to data collection and analysis at the micro and macro scales.
They examined more closely, at the level of individual articles, factors such as sample sizes, effect sizes, and experimental models that have been found to impact repeatability. These minute characteristics were incorporated as supplementary data for entities like authors and books.
In addition, the team took a broad view, zooming out to include metadata about the connections between entities, such as authorship and citations. The network’s framework was built on the back of these overarching connections.
So, Did It Work?
In a word, yes! As it turned out, the unique approach was remarkably synergistic. The micro-level findings were aided by the relationship information gleaned from the macro-level study. Similarly, the macro KG analysis benefited from the insights provided by the micro text analysis. Among the study’s most important conclusions are that the procedure yielded insights that transcended the simple addition of the two perspectives on the data.
Pujara called their result “state-of-the-art performance on predicting repeatability,” saying, “We found that if we could put both of these things together, combine some data from the text and some features from the knowledge graph, we could do considerably better than either of those methods alone.”
From here, the group intends to expand the KG to incorporate more papers and conduct more in-depth research into certain aspects of it. A report based on the team’s usage of the knowledge graph to examine the correlation between citations and gender was published in PNAS on September 26, 2022.
Additionally, they hope to release their software to the general public. Pujara has stated, “We’re attempting to construct portals where anyone can evaluate research and its reproducibility,” describing a website where users “could enter in papers and explore the knowledge graph and some of the features.”
Settling the Score with Science
Pujara envisions applications for the findings, which would ultimately be “reproducibility scores” assigned to pieces of study, by students, the scientific community, and the general public.
“If you’re a freshman in college, this might shed light on how to conduct research more effectively.”
In addition, it has the potential to improve the current system used to evaluate scientific studies. There may be tens of thousands of papers submitted to a conference or publication before organizers make their final decisions on which ones to accept, reject, or send back for revisions. Consider the time and effort required to go over all of those. Here’s how to sort through those 20,000 papers and determine which ones are most important.
Finally, the public could benefit from the approach they’ve established by increasing their faith in the system, which, as we witnessed during the COVID-19 epidemic, has important consequences for public health. When asked about the scientific credibility surrounding the pandemic, he responded, “There was phony research, and then there was genuinely good science.”
Pujara elaborated, saying, “Perhaps we would be able to prevent that type of disagreement if we were able to use these kinds of automated methods to recognize what research was trustworthy and what research we should take with a grain of salt.”
The scientific reproducibility dilemma may not be over, but it is being addressed thanks to Pujara and the ISI team’s persistent efforts. Furthermore, in the future, we will know how reliable Z is if we put it to the test under Y’s conditions.
Imran Khan was reportedly hurt while in his shipping container, and the police have already detained a suspect in the case.
Scene of PTI Chairman Imran Khan being evacuated in a bulletproof vehicle after a man opened burst fire at his container.
Imran Khan, chairman of the PTI, is currently conducting a protest march from Rawalpindi to Islamabad, and he has declared that the march will continue for another 10 months, or until the election date is announced.
An earlier goal had been to reach the nation’s capital by November 4. First, it was moved to November 8-9, then it was moved to November 11. Fawad Chaudhry, leader of the PTI, then declared that the party would keep moving the dates to “wear the administration out.”
After being removed from his position earlier this year by a vote of no confidence, the PTI chair is making his second march toward Islamabad.
International rating agencies are dubious that the current government in Pakistan can sustain tough economic measures in the face of political pressure and upcoming elections, adding to the economic uncertainty already present in the country due to its political instability.
Faisal Javed, among other PTI leaders, was injured during the firing incident.
Four or five other politicians, including PTI leader Senator Faisal Javed, were injured in the shooting that occurred near party president Imran Khan’s container.
Imran Khan sustains an injury on the right legand was shifted to the hospital.
After a guy opened burst fire on Khan’s container near Allahwala Chowk in Gujranwala, the PTI chairman was shot in the right leg and taken to the hospital.
Geo News reports that Khan was taken in a bulletproof car to the hospital.
Khan is currently being sent to an area hospital for emergency care.
New Delhi, the capital of India, is suffocating under the weight of toxic air.
Thursday, smoke from thousands of crop fires in northern India mingled with other pollutants to form a nasty grey cocktail that engulfed the megacity of New Delhi, reaching “hazardous” levels of smog.
On Thursday morning, IQAir reported PM2.5 levels of 588 parts per cubic meter. PM2.5 particles are the most harmful since they are so small that they can penetrate the bloodstream.
Nearly 40 times the daily maximum set by the WHO. According to IQAir, the air quality is currently “dangerous.”
“Right now is the absolute worst time to be in Delhi. Hem Raj, a 42-year-old police officer, complained to AFP about the city’s pollution.
“In the mornings, the body is groggy and exhausted. After hours of driving around New Delhi, “the eyes are always moist and the throat is always scratchy,” he remarked.
There is a lethal haze that blankets the city of 20 million people every winter due to a combination of factors including lower air, smoke from farmers burning stubble, and emissions from vehicles and other sources.
According to a study published in the Lancet in 2020, air pollution killed 1.67 million people in India in 2019, including nearly 17,500 in the capital.
The government of New Delhi frequently announces new strategies to mitigate air pollution, such as temporarily suspending buildings.
Despite efforts to persuade farmers in Punjab and other states to switch to other ways, they continue to burn rice paddies after harvests every year.
The Aam Aadmi Party, an opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, currently controls both the national capital and the state of Punjab, making this an especially contentious political issue (BJP).
Punjab, a state ruled by the AAP, has seen an over 19% increase in farm fires over 2021, tweeted BJP environment minister Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday.
To this, he continued, “There is no debate over who has turned Delhi into a gas chamber.”
I’ve been here for a while, and things have only gotten worse in that time. Brij Lal, 54, another policeman, commented on how difficult it is to work the 8-10 hour shifts on the New Delhi highways due to the widespread effects of pollution.
However, there is little that can be done because police officers must constantly patrol the streets and interact with the public.
