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PYLOS (Greece): The slow-burn race for the most powerful job in world sport roared into life on Wednesday, set against the dazzling backdrop of the Ionian Sea, where the seven contenders for the International Olympic Committee presidency made their final moves ahead of a vote that will shape the sporting landscape for the next decade. Behind the gilded facades and five-star hospitality of the Costa Navarino resort in Greece’s southwestern Peloponnese, whispers of alliances and voting tactics swirled as IOC members met for the 144th Session the last with Thomas Bach at the wheel. The winner of the presidential election…

LAHORE: The Pakistan football team is set to depart for Dammam, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday ahead of their first match in the AFC Asian Cup qualifier, where they will face Syria on March 25. The match will be held at a neutral venue in Dammam, following the conclusion of the team’s training camp at the Model Town C Block ground here on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Pakistan Football Federation’s Norma­lisation Committee confirmed that all team members and supporting staff have received their visas. The squad will board a direct flight from Lahore to Dammam on Thursday night. Head coach…

PAKISTAN batter Abdullah Shafique in action during a practice session at the LCCA Ground on Wednesday.—courtesy PCB LAHORE: Pakistan opener Abdullah Shafique, who is set to make a comeback to the national One-day International side, after missing the recent ICC Champions Trophy, has acknowledged that the upcoming series against New Zealand will be held in tough playing conditions. The right-hander, however, emphasised that despite being a young side, Pakistan will give their best effort in the three-match series against the Black Caps, which starts from March 29. Speaking to reporters on the first day of a short preparatory camp at…

CHAMPAGNE, France (AP) — Across wine country in France, Italy and Spain one number is top of mind: 200%.That’s because last week U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a tariff of that amount on European wine, Champagne and other spirits if the European Union went ahead with retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. products. The top wine producers in Europe could face crippling costs that would hit smaller wineries especially hard. Europe’s wine industry is the latest to find itself in the crosshairs of a possible trade spat with the U.S. Among those concerned is David Levasseur, a third-generation wine grower and…

“The enthusiasm into AI actually carries over into everything, which effectively impacts all startups,” said AngelList CEO Avlok Kohli when asked if investors remain as excited about emerging startups outside of AI. According to Kohli, AI startups make up nearly 40% of the startups on AngelList’s platform. Today on Equity, Mary Ann Azevedo caught up with Kohli to discuss how AngelList has evolved its model — from SPVs to collaborating with larger funds, how AI is reshaping the startup landscape, and what founders need to do to thrive in today’s market. Delving into AngelList’s expansion over the past six years,…

OpenAI has launched a more powerful version of its o1 “reasoning” AI model, o1-pro, in its developer API. According to OpenAI, o1-pro uses more computing than o1 to provide “consistently better responses.” Currently, it’s only available to select developers — those who’ve spent at least $5 on OpenAI API services — and it’s pricey. Very pricey. OpenAI is charging $150 per million tokens (~750,000 words) fed into the model and $600 per million tokens generated by the model. That’s twice the price of OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 for input and 10x the price of regular o1. OpenAI is betting that o1-pro’s improved…

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed it detained and plans to deport Jeanette Vizguerra, a prominent immigration activist who has drawn attention to the plight of undocumented people in the country. Immigration advocates, lawmakers and human rights groups have decried the move, pointing to the mother of four’s deep ties to the Colorado community where she has lived for 30 years. The arrest appears to be the first time US authorities have targeted a prominent immigration activist for deportation during President Donald Trump’s second term. Supporters say Vizguerra’s detention is aimed at silencing dissent. It comes amid…

Washington, DC – Images of Palestinian children killed by Israeli bombardment are back in the news after a brief reprieve that only lasted a few weeks. Nearly two months after United States President Donald Trump took office, the ceasefire that had halted Israel’s war in Gaza has shattered, and the region is once again at war. That comes despite Trump’s own pledge to pursue peace in the Middle East and across the world. Trump took credit for the truce earlier this year, but he is now backing Israel’s renewed assaults in a conflict that he once promised to end. Analysts say…

Some users on Elon Musk’s X are turning to Musk’s AI bot Grok for fact-checking, raising concerns among human fact-checkers that this could fuel misinformation. Earlier this month, X enabled users to call out xAI’s Grok and ask questions on different things. The move was similar to Perplexity, which has been running an automated account on X to offer a similar experience. Soon after xAI created Grok’s automated account on X, users started experimenting with asking it questions. Some people in markets including India began asking Grok to fact-check comments and questions that target specific political beliefs. Fact-checkers are concerned…

Noam Brown, who leads AI reasoning research at OpenAI, says certain forms of “reasoning” AI models could’ve arrived 20 years earlier had researchers “known [the right] approach” and algorithms. “There were various reasons why this research direction was neglected,” Brown said during a panel at Nvidia’s GTC conference in San Jose on Wednesday. “I noticed over the course of my research that, OK, there’s something missing. Humans spend a lot of time thinking before they act in a tough situation. Maybe this would be very useful [in AI].” Brown was referring to his work on game-playing AI at Carnegie Mellon…