ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched an ambitious programme to provide half a million Chromebooks to students nationwide over the next two years, opening new doors to digital learning for hundreds of thousands of young Pakistanis.
Prime Minister’s Youth Chromebook Scheme was formally inaugurated at a ceremony in Islamabad today, marking another step towards making tech -based education more accessible, particularly for students who cannot afford modern digital devices.
Investing in the youth of Pakistan.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif arrives at the Convention Centre for the launch of the Prime Minister’s Youth Chromebook Scheme.
#PMYouthChromebookScheme https://t.co/WBOJoQ1OmC
— Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (@PMsYouthProgram) October 25, 2026
The initiative aims to bridge technological divide between students from different economic backgrounds, enabling young people to attend online classes, access international educational resources and build the skills required to compete in an increasingly digital world.
Addressing the ceremony, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made it clear that Pakistan’s greatest investment was not in buildings or infrastructure alone, but in the education and capabilities of its young population. PM termed students country’s most valuable asset and stressed that providing them with modern educational tools was a collective responsibility of the government and the state.
Sharif led government plans to provide half million Chromebooks within two years, substantially accelerating the pace of its previous student technology initiatives.
He highlighted progress made under PML-N govt, and recalled that approximately 600,000 laptops had been distributed to students over a decade. This time, the government intends to provide 500,000 devices in only 24 months, reflecting its renewed emphasis on expanding digital access in education.
PM stressed that the distribution would recognize students’ hard work, abilities and educational achievements, reinforcing the principle that opportunities should be linked to merit rather than financial privilege. He also expressed optimism that the Chromebooks would help young Pakistanis continue their education remotely, participate in virtual classrooms and access learning material that was previously beyond their reach.
Delivering a message of encouragement to young Pakistanis, Shehbaz said that intelligence, ambition and determination were not confined to wealthy households. He stressed that students from financially disadvantaged families possessed the same potential to excel as their more privileged counterparts, provided they were given equal opportunities.
The government was committed to removing barriers that prevented deserving students from receiving quality education and preparing themselves for future challenges. Chromebook programme is intended to support this vision by bringing modern digital learning tools within the reach of students across the country.
He also highlighted the government’s continuing efforts to strengthen education through the expansion of Danish schools. Sharif announced that at least 27 such institutions were being established across Pakistan to provide modern educational facilities and essential services to deserving students completely free of charge.
Prime Minister’s Youth Programme Chairman Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, who addressed the ceremony before the premier, described the Chromebook initiative as an important development in the government’s efforts to empower young people. He revealed that the Tokyo Technology Care Foundation had taken practical steps to support digital facilities for 500,000 Pakistani students.
Only students enrolled in Government/Public Schools can apply. Private school students are not eligible.
Eligibility depends on the region:
Students must appear on the list of top performers that their education board has submitted to IBCC. There is no single nationwide marks cutoff; each board decides its own “top-performing” criteria.
Applications are submitted online only through the official portal: https://pmychromebooks.ibcc.edu.pk/
Simple steps:
You can apply only once. Once submitted, the form cannot be edited. If your record is not found, try a different number or contact your school/board. Providing incorrect information can cancel your allocation.
Prepare clear scans (each under 300 KB):
The announcement has generated interest among students seeking access to free educational devices. However, the government has not yet detailed the complete application and registration process in the information shared at the launch.
The official registration portal, eligibility conditions, application deadlines, academic criteria and province-wise distribution arrangements have yet to be clarified.
Students should therefore follow updates from the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme and other authorized government channels for information about how to apply.
The launch of the 500,000-Chromebook initiative, alongside the expansion of Danish schools, signals a broader effort to strengthen Pakistan’s education sector by connecting academic opportunity with modern technology.
For hundreds of thousands of students, particularly those from families struggling to afford digital devices, the programme could provide an important opportunity to access learning resources, develop valuable skills and pursue a more promising educational future.
The post PM Youth Chromebook Scheme 2026 Launched: Check Eligibility and Application Details appeared first on Daily Pakistan English News.
Apple’s much-awaited foldable iPhone landed in unexpected security controversy, with hackets managing to jailbreak new iPhone Duo just hours after its official launch, raising serious questions about the protection offered by the company’s iOS 27 operating system.
The breakthrough came this week, when security researchers from group known as Calif demonstrated how Apple’s software restrictions could be bypassed on the newly released device running iOS 27.1. The development quickly attracted attention because it targeted Apple’s first foldable smartphone almost immediately after its commercial debut. However, security experts distinguish the controlled jailbreak demonstration from an actual cyberattack targeting ordinary iPhone customers.
Apple unveiled iPhone Duo on September 9, opening pre-orders on October 16 before launching the device across approximately 70 countries and regions on October 23. The premium smartphone features passport-style folding design, combining a 5.4-inch external display with a 7.6-inch inner OLED screen. Powered by Apple’s A20 Pro processor, the device includes a titanium frame, dual-battery configuration and a starting price of $1,999 for its 256GB variant.
While other compatible iPhones continued running iOS 27.0.1, Apple introduced iOS 27.1 specifically for the Duo. But within hours of customers gaining access to the new handset, researchers had already demonstrated a way around its software protections.
Calif released a short demonstration showing unusual modifications to the iPhone Duo’s Home Screen. Apps icons and widgets appeared to move and bounce as the smartphone was tilted. An animated character also appeared on the display, highlighting the researchers’ ability to alter normally restricted interface elements.
The achievement followed an earlier jailbreak demonstration involving an iPhone 18 Pro running iOS 27.0.1.
Researchers reportedly identified weaknesses involving system-level protections, including potential sandbox escape and Secure Page Table Monitor bypass techniques. AI also reportedly assisted development process, although the researchers have not publicly explained which tools were used or how extensively they contributed.
iPhone Duo to cost around Rs15Lac in Pakistan, enough to Buy Used Cultus, Mehran
The jailbreak was conducted by security researchers under controlled conditions rather than through a mass hacking campaign. Such demonstrations can require specific technical circumstances, physical access or user interaction, meaning the successful compromise of one research device does not establish that millions of iPhones are exposed to identical attacks.
Another circulating claim suggests that restarting an affected iPhone cannot reverse the compromise. Although Calif’s earlier iPhone 18 Pro jailbreak reportedly survived a reboot, the iPhone Duo demonstration did not clearly establish the same capability.
Attention shifted towards Apple’s upcoming iOS 27.2 software update, which is expected to address several weaknesses linked to the jailbreak research. Security researcher Stefan Esser indicated that most of the underlying vulnerabilities had either been disclosed to Apple or were expected to be reported shortly.
As of October 25, iOS 27.2 was undergoing testing, with its public release anticipated around the final week of October or shortly afterward.
Despite speculation, iOS 28 is not connected to the incident. Claims describing the discovery as Apple’s first major security vulnerability since iOS 9 are also inaccurate, as numerous significant iPhone security flaws have been documented and patched over the intervening years.
iPhone Duo owners should follow updates through and install security fixes when available. Users should also avoid unofficial jailbreak downloads, particularly websites claiming to offer Calif’s unreleased tools.
Apple unveils first foldable iPhone Duo – Features & prices explained
The post iPhone Duo Hacked within Hours of Launch as iOS 27 Security Flaw sparks frenzy among Apple Users appeared first on Daily Pakistan English News.
Two years ago, every argument about AI was about quality. The machines hallucinated court cases, absorbed biases from their training data, misspelled words in their own images, drew hands with six fingers, and couldn’t count the letters in strawberry. The confident claims that biases and hallucination errors were inherent to machines already sound quaint. Those […]
The post From slop to non-slop: The new big AI theme is quantity appeared first on Asia Times.
But Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX owns Starlink, accuses Ukrainian military of violating the company’s terms
Ukraine’s military has a “stable connection to Starlink”, the Ukrainian government said, 10 days after its ability to use the satellite communications system was suddenly restricted.
But hours after the announcement, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose company owns Starlink, accused the Ukrainian military of violating the company’s terms. Neither Musk nor the US government, which operates Starshield using Starlink technology, took responsibility for imposing the curbs.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA
© Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA
© Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA
Undercover reporters ordered 500 drone mesh modems from a Chinese firm, which billed them to Russia’s Alabuga drone plant, investigation by The Insider found. The outlet estimates the firm makes about half the high-power mesh modems that let Russia steer its drones deep into Ukraine. The firm’s director also named US company AMD as the source of a key chip, and AMD says it has not sold to the firm.
Geran drones and Banderol drone-missiles have become Russia’s main weapons against Ukraine’s energy grid. Russia began this winter’s strike campaign against that grid in late September, ISW assessed. Ukrainians’ survival this winter depends largely on how fast the West halts mesh modem sales to Russia, the outlet argued.
A mesh modem links drones into one radio network. Each unit relays data for the others, so if one drone is shot down, traffic reroutes through the rest. Information keeps flowing even if nearly 80% of the drones are downed, Ukrainian defense adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov said in November 2025.
Range is the other half of the threat. One XK F-359 holds a line-of-sight link over 100–300 km, The Insider says. In theory, a couple of relay drones could keep a whole attack on Kyiv connected. Operators can then send new commands in flight and steer around air defenses. Russia’s Gerbera drones, first built as cheap decoys, increasingly carry these modems.
To trace the part, The Insider’s correspondent in Ukraine examined an unmarked mesh modem from an upgraded Gerbera with a vertical tail fin, a version that appeared this summer. The outlet identified it as Xingkai’s XK F-359, the part Ukrainian intelligence and earlier reporting, Euromaidan Press included, had logged as the XK-F358. The Insider calls that label a misidentification.
Next, The Insider and the Nordsint investigative project contacted Xingkai on WeChat, posing as a Russian military supplier based in Alabuga. A company employee who introduced himself as “Jack Jiang” confirmed the firm is the model’s sole maker. The Insider identified him as Jiang Qin, Xingkai’s director and owner.
The reporters then ordered 500 units for delivery to Alabuga, home to the plant that makes most of Russia’s long-range drones. Jiang invoiced 19.5 million yuan, which The Insider put at about $2.87 million. He offered two ways to pay: dollars to Xingkai’s DBS Bank account in Hong Kong, or yuan to his personal Ping An Bank account.
In the chat, the reporters said outright that the end user was a military production facility. Jiang raised no objection, The Insider reported.
Later, after the reporters asked to update the address, Xingkai sent a revised invoice with “Alabuga” spelled in Latin letters. This time, it routed payment to a China Merchants Bank account in the name of a former Xingkai manager. She left a management post at the company in 2025, according to Tesari corporate records cited by The Insider. None of the three banks answered The Insider’s requests for comment.
Jiang also claimed the modem’s programmable chip is made by AMD. Asked for an AMD license, he refused, saying Xingkai buys the chips through a middleman. AMD told The Insider that Xingkai “is not an AMD customer or authorized partner,” and said it had sold the company nothing. AMD added that it bars exports of its products to Russia that violate US export controls and sanctions.
"I think capitalism is a good thing, but I think what we need to contend with and be aware of is that a lot of people are not part of it," Tarek Mansour, co-founder and CEO of prediction market platform Kalshi, recently told Reason's Nick Gillespie. "They don't feel like they're part of it. And that's a reality."
Mansour has set out to change that by making it easier for consumers to experience and participate in financial markets. Kalshi's premise is simple: Mansour says the platform matches traders with differing opinions on the outcome of future events, aggregating the "bits and pieces of information" siloed across the country, so long as that information isn't privileged or obtained illegally.
He's up against a rising number of federal and state lawmakers—not to mention the NFL, traditional sportsbooks, casinos, and other regulated gambling operations—who view Kalshi as yet another gambling app. "As of early 2026, more than 20 lawsuits and cease-and-desist actions are pending across the country, filed by state attorneys general, gaming regulators, tribal governments and private plaintiffs," according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This includes Utah, whose attorney general, Derek Brown, escalated an ongoing legal dispute with Kalshi on Tuesday by filing a complaint against the prediction market in state district court. In his complaint, Brown called Kalshi an "unconscionable and illegal gambling operation." He accused the company of engaging in a "brazen pattern of unlawful conduct."
At the federal level, Bloomberg Law reported last Friday that Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Texas) is preparing to introduce a bill after the midterm elections that would give state and tribal governments authority to regulate sports-related event contracts offered by prediction markets.
Cruz's state-by-state regulatory regime is exactly the kind of scheme Mansour wants lawmakers to avoid. Mansour recently told Reason that, ideally, there'd be a "federal uniform set of rules that apply across all 50 states." Those rules would then "promote and foster" a "multilateral, peer-to-peer idea," where, for example, someone in California, Oregon, or Washington could trade on an event's outcome based on information supplied by someone in Texas.
Data from the Pew Research Center show Kalshi is incredibly popular nationwide; however, the platform is facing headwinds in Congress from the likes of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) and James Comer (R–Ky.) and Sens. Adam Schiff (D–Calif.) and John Curtis (R–Utah), who have questioned whether prediction market platforms can indeed self-police insider trading and market manipulation.
Mansour, who calls insider trading an "unfair dynamic that over time dries up liquidity," also argues that prediction markets are uniquely positioned to self-regulate because trades on Kalshi are "fully transparent," making it "easy to flag" suspicious trading patterns. The platform's users play a key role in that work. Mansour says that in February, when convicted fraudster and former Rep. George Santos (R–N.Y.) tried to engage in insider trading, Kalshi received "a hundred whistleblower complaints within a few minutes."
The company's public commitment to rooting out insider trading on its platform may be laudable. Still, it has done little to dispel the prevailing sentiment among state and federal regulators that Kalshi—and prediction market platforms writ large—is indistinguishable from traditional gambling markets.
Indeed, the legal cases against Kalshi are centered on state regulators' belief that the platforms' sports event contracts are the same as the bets offered by legal gambling operations like casinos and sportsbooks. Kalshi has argued that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate the kinds of contracts it can offer under federal law, preempting states from exercising any gambling authority over prediction markets.
In March, Arizona became the first state to file criminal charges against Kalshi. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes accused the company of "running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law." Not everyone in the state shares Mayes' view. One Arizona resident, Zach, a 35-year-old man who makes a living trading sports-related event contracts on prediction markets, tells Reason he'd "move to another state" if Arizona succeeds in driving out prediction markets.
"There's nothing that is excluding other people from the profits that I'm making right now," he says. "I'm under no obligation to bet on Monday Night Football….I'm able to look at all the markets and decide which ones I want; I'm setting a limit order and just saying, 'OK, if I get my price, then hooray.' If I don't, then that's not something that I add to my portfolio."
Of course, not everyone acts as responsibly. Mansour knows that in any competition, including trading, "some people are going to win," while "some people lose." He believes in "individual freedom" and in the idea that "people should be able to choose" which financial markets they engage in, with "some regulations on irresponsible use" so that companies can't target people who exhibit addictive or destructive betting patterns.
The degree to which Kalshi and other prediction market platforms should be regulated will likely be a high priority for federal lawmakers after the midterm elections and in the next Congress. Mansour appears optimistic that there's enough bipartisan support for what he calls "sensible guardrails." He says there's a "big group" on both sides of the aisle that's "actually pro" prediction market platforms. There's reason to be skeptical of Mansour's claim, given that several members of Congress—such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee—have said prediction markets need to be reined in.
In Mayes' case, her antipathy toward prediction markets might cost her at least one vote in Arizona's attorney general race. Zach says that with Mayes waging a legal battle against Kalshi, he'd have to take that into account "hypothetically, if someone knocked on my door tonight and they want me to vote for Kris Mayes to be reelected."
"If I'm not gonna vote on my own behalf, then who is, right?" he says. (Mayes might not be a fan of Kalshi, but with the platform's penchant for accurately predicting election winners, she can take solace in her current trading position, which shows an 84 percent chance she retains her position.)
Mansour says he's a "free market guy" who wants everyone to "have a shot in the competition." To succeed, he'll have to withstand a host of paternalistic government officials hell-bent on controlling financial decisions made by consenting adults.
The post Kalshi's CEO Wants 1 Set of Rules. The States Want 50. appeared first on Reason Magazine.
Even before we begin exploring the world, the brain may have a kind of internal map, “like a GPS,” ready to guide us. This hypothesis, which is still under investigation, fascinates Norwegian neuroscientist May-Britt Moser, the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate, who has spent decades trying to unravel how we know our way around.
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“It seems that we could have an internal map that is ready for us when we start moving and exploring,” Moser said in an interview with EFE, although she cautioned that the findings she is currently working on have not yet been published.
Moser refers to philosopher Immanuel Kant and the possibility that, to experience the world, the brain needs certain pre-existing structures that allow it to organize what it perceives.
"I was not always the best student… but my teachers saw something in me."
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2026
May-Britt Moser, inspired by her teachers, went on to uncover the brain’s "inner GPS," for which she was awarded the 2014 medicine prize.#WorldTeachersDay pic.twitter.com/9AeljdCWRk
But Did Those Structures Exist?
The neuroscientist is now trying to determine whether one of these structures exists before an animal — rats, in her case — begins moving around and learning about its surroundings.
The clue comes from so-called “grid cells,” which Moser discovered with her husband, Edvard Moser. Their discovery helped the couple share the Nobel Prize with British neuroscientist John O’Keefe.
These neurons fire in a highly regular “spatial pattern.” When the locations where a single cell fires as a rat moves around are plotted, equilateral triangles can be drawn between its different activity fields.
Moser said she remains surprised by this level of precision, precisely because the brain is a biological system and, therefore, one might expect much more noise and many more errors.
“Because the brain is a biological system, you would expect many errors. And if there were many errors, we would never see a pattern like the one we observe in grid cells, where equilateral triangles can fit between each activity field as the animal moves through its surroundings. It is incredible,” she stressed.
The geometry becomes even stranger when scientists simultaneously record the activity of numerous grid cells and use mathematical tools to represent it in three dimensions.
What emerges is a “torus,” a doughnut-shaped surface across which neuronal activity appears to move, a kind of map that would not switch off even when the outside world disappears.
“This internal map is active even when the animal sleeps, so it does not need any information from the outside to keep functioning. It is simply the way the cells are connected that makes this pattern possible,” she said, adding that the question remains whether this architecture, or scaffolding, exists before exploration begins.
Moser is confident that the combination of new technologies capable of recording thousands of neurons, better mathematical theories and computational models will make it possible to achieve major advances in understanding the brain over the coming years.
"This is not biology! You can't get this in biology!"
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) April 15, 2026
Medicine laureate May-Britt Moser and artist Olafur Eliasson discuss the intersection of art and science at an event in 2015 at the Nobel Week Dialogue: The Future of Intelligence.
Watch the discussion in full:… pic.twitter.com/1qDAhxUQDX
The Mystery of Feeling Alive
“But, as Professor Geoffrey Hinton, considered the ‘godfather’ of AI, said, understanding how we can come to have that feeling of being alive, of being conscious, can be quite difficult,” Moser reflected.
Artificial intelligence could become a tool for investigating this question, in part because it makes it possible to compare how a machine and a brain perform similar functions.
Asked whether she is optimistic about AI or a “doomer” — a term for someone who takes a catastrophic view of its future — Moser said that losing hope means surrendering. “But I think we need hope,” the neuroscientist replied.
In her view, tools can be used both to do good and to cause harm, and artificial intelligence does not eliminate this long-standing human trait, although it can greatly amplify its consequences, she added.
“It becomes dangerous if evil people use the tool to become even more evil. But they can also use their brains to be evil,” she said.
Against an international backdrop that she describes as “depressing” when she watches the news, Moser champions cooperation, science and education. She also points to individuals capable of mobilizing many others, from Malala Yousafzai to Greta Thunberg and Jane Goodall.
Thus, despite this depressing situation, Moser does not see machines as having intellectual supremacy, either. “For now, I think the brain is the best tool we have,” she concluded.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
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