Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Egypt&rsquo;s Foreign Minister, Dr Badr Ahmed Mohamed Abdelatty, called on Pakistan&rsquo;s Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, in Rawalpindi on Monday, the military said.&nbsp;According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military&rsquo;s media wing, the meeting reviewed the state of bilateral relations, with a particular focus on defence and security cooperation, military-to-military engagement, training collaboration, and regional peace and stability.&nbsp;Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening coordination and further deepening long-standing ties between Pakistan and Egypt, especially in defence and other strategic areas.&nbsp;The Egyptian foreign minister conveyed warm greetings from Egypt&rsquo;s leadership and reiterated Cairo&rsquo;s interest in expanding cooperation with Pakistan across all sectors.&nbsp;The two sides also highlighted the importance of sustained high-level exchanges to address emerging regional challenges and evolving security dynamics.&nbsp;Dr Abdelatty is on a two-day official visit to Pakistan. During his earlier engagement with Foreign Minister Dar on Sunday, both sides agreed to revive stalled institutional mechanisms and expand cooperation across multiple sectors.

Security

Both sides reaffirm commitment to strengthening coordination and further deepening long-standing ties between Pakistan and Egypt.

Field Marshal Munir, Egyptian foreign minister review defense ties, regional security

ISLAMABAD: As governments crack down on online platforms from social networks to porn sites, business is booming for one sector offering AI age checks based on selfies. The technology promises speed and accuracy in implementing laws like Australia&#39;s social media ban for under-16s&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;in force from December 10. As a user, verifying your age with the technology is a breeze. All it requires is taking a head-on selfie with a phone or computer camera, and an automated decision is made within a minute. &quot;We estimated your age is 18 or older,&quot; read a pop-up window on the Roblox gaming site. At startup Yoti&#39;s spacious London office, mannequin heads &mdash; some fitted with wigs or masks &mdash; are lined up along one of the windowsills for testing. Their AI is not fooled by them. &quot;We can&#39;t be sure that the image was of a real face,&quot; said one test platform installed on a smartphone. Over time, &quot;the algorithm got very good at looking at patterns and working out, &#39;this face with these patterns looks like a 17-year-old or a 28-year-old&#39;... it just got very good at estimating age&quot;, said CEO Robin Tombs. Data privacy fears Today, the startup runs around one million age checks a day, including for big-name clients like Meta, TikTok, Sony and Pinterest, Tombs said. Yoti began turning a profit this year after booking $26 million&nbsp;in revenue in the 12 months to March. The company forecasts a 50% increase in sales in its current financial year. Competitors are also doing well, with 34 companies like Persona, Kids Web Services, K-id or VerifyMy tallied among the members of the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA). In 2021, the AVPA forecast annual revenue of almost $10 billion for the sector across the 37 countries belonging to the OECD club of wealthy nations for the 2031-36 period, although it has not issued any more recent outlooks. AVPA director Iain Corby is wary of predicting exactly what lies ahead. &quot;There&#39;s so much that can happen. Regulation is moving very fast, technology is moving very fast,&quot; he told AFP. AI-powered age verification methods have raised questions over potential bias and privacy impacts. The tools are &quot;potentially a bit intrusive or dangerous to people&#39;s private life,&quot; said Olivier Blazy, a cybersecurity professor at Polytechnique, the prestigious French engineering school. But it also depends on the information that sites share with their third-party age verification provider, he added. &quot;I think the ecosystem is tilted towards AI at the moment, but there may be a pull-back in the coming years to better protect users&#39; private life,&quot; Blazy suggested. Make-up tricks Blazy pointed out that the systems still have weak points, noting that &quot;just with normal makeup, it&#39;s relatively easy to make yourself look older or younger&quot;. Others have pointed to biases in the age-verification algorithms, which can be less accurate in their estimates when presented with non-white faces. One report from an independent Australian body found that &quot;underrepresentation of Indigenous populations remains a challenge&quot; &mdash; albeit one &quot;that vendors are beginning to address&quot;. Yoti boss Robin Tombs acknowledges that less data was available to train the company&#39;s model for some age groups or skin colors. But he insists their tool can &quot;check to see whether we think people are using false accessories or they are using makeup and other such things&quot;. On privacy, he said Yoti&#39;s tool immediately removes all data after carrying out its analysis. Platforms that deploy the selfie analysis tools from companies like Yoti can adjust settings for the evaluations, leaving some margin of error. For example, sites barring under-18s often require the system to judge that visitors are over 21. Those in the grey zone may find themselves asked to fall back on a more traditional verification method &mdash; such as pulling an official ID out of their wallet to snap or scan.

Gadgets

AI age verification tools are booming as governments enforce age limits online. Concerns about privacy, bias, and makeup tricks persist, despite accuracy improvements.

Selfie-based age checks boom as governments push for online controls

ISLAMABAD: A major political row intensified on Monday after India&#39;s Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Maulana Mahmood Asad Madani questioned recent Indian Supreme Court verdicts, prompting sharp reactions from political leaders and triggering street protests by right-wing groups. Madani, while addressing a national meeting of the JUH on Saturday, a video of which was released earlier today, said that recent judgments, including those related to the Babri Masjid and triple &quot;talaq&quot;, or divorce, cases, had created a perception that the judiciary was working &ldquo;under government pressure.&rdquo;<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 744px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1995322073502319024&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Fdashboard%2F&sessionId=c49b397a72c6432666d3a69d5ed829c1cf6dd49d&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div></div>Madani said the Supreme Court was &ldquo;supreme only if it upheld the Constitution.&rdquo; He also said that anti-Muslim hatred was being deliberately spread and criticized the use of terms such as &ldquo;Love Jihad&rdquo; and &ldquo;Land Jihad.&rdquo; Madani said the Islamic concept of &ldquo;jihad&rdquo; referred to a struggle against injustice and oppression, not violence. The Jamiat chief opposed government moves to regulate Waqf properties and accused authorities of allowing targeted actions such as economic boycotts, mob lynching, and bulldozer operations. He further criticized the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls, saying the process had created fear in Muslim localities. Madani reiterated the community&rsquo;s opposition to singing Vande Mataram. The remarks have sparked strong reactions from the Bharatiya Janata Party. The party&#39;s national spokesperson, Sambit Patra, said the Supreme Court should take suo motu notice, while Madhya Pradesh minister Vishwas Sarang described the comments as an attack on the Constitution.

India

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Maulana Mahmood Asad Madani says recent judgments, including those related to the Babri Masjid and triple talaq cases, have created the perception that the judiciary is working 'under government pressure.'

In India, Muslim organization chief says Supreme Court functioning 'under government pressure’

CARACAS: US President Donald Trump confirmed on Sunday he had recently spoken with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro amid soaring tensions between the two countries, while Caracas slammed what it called US preparations for an attack. The United States is piling the pressure on Venezuela, with a major military buildup in the Caribbean, the designation of an alleged drug cartel run by Maduro as a terrorist group, and an ominous warning from Trump that Venezuelan airspace is &quot;closed.&quot; Washington says the military deployment launched in September aims to curb drug trafficking in the region, but Caracas insists regime change is the ultimate goal. &quot;I wouldn&#39;t say it went well or badly. It was a phone call,&quot; Trump told reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One. The New York Times reported on Friday that Trump and Maduro had discussed a possible meeting, while The Wall Street Journal said on Saturday that the conversation also included conditions of amnesty if Maduro were to step down. Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin said Sunday on CNN&#39;s &quot;State of the Union&quot; talk show that the United States has offered Maduro the chance to leave his country for Russia or elsewhere. The United States accuses Maduro, the political heir to Venezuela&#39;s late leftist leader Hugo Chavez, of heading the &quot;Cartel of the Suns&quot; and has issued a $50 million reward for his capture. But Venezuela and countries that support it insist no such organization even exists. Several Venezuela experts say what Washington calls the Cartel of the Suns refers to the corruption of senior officials by criminal gangs. The United States also does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate winner of last year&#39;s presidential election. Though Trump has not publicly threatened to use force against Maduro, he said in recent days that efforts to halt Venezuelan drug trafficking &quot;by land&quot; would begin &quot;very soon.&quot; Aid from OPEC?&nbsp;Venezuela says it has requested assistance from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which it is a member, to help &quot;stop this (American) aggression, which is being readied with more and more force.&quot; The request came in a letter from Maduro to the group, read by Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who is also Venezuela&#39;s oil minister, during a virtual meeting of OPEC ministers. Washington &quot;is trying to seize Venezuela&#39;s vast oil reserves, the biggest in the world, by using military force,&quot; Maduro wrote in the letter. Since September, US air strikes have targeted alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 83 people. Trump&#39;s administration has offered no concrete evidence to support the allegations underpinning its campaign, and numerous experts have questioned the legality of the operations. US media reported on Friday that in one strike in September, the US military conducted a follow-up strike that killed survivors of an initial attack. The Washington Post and CNN said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had issued a directive to &quot;kill everybody,&quot; but Trump said Sunday that Hegseth had denied giving such an order. &quot;We&#39;ll look into it, but no, I wouldn&#39;t have wanted that &mdash; not a second strike,&quot; Trump told reporters. &quot;Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.&quot; &#39;Extrajudicial executions&#39;The head of Venezuela&#39;s legislature, Jorge Rodriguez, said he met on Sunday with relatives of Venezuelans killed in the strikes. He would not comment on a possible Trump-Maduro call. But when asked about the report about the Hegseth order, he said: &quot;If a war had been declared and led to such killings, we would be talking about war crimes.&quot; &quot;Given that no war has been declared, what happened ... can only be characterized as murder or extrajudicial executions,&quot; he added. The steady US military buildup has seen the world&#39;s largest aircraft carrier deployed to Caribbean waters, while American fighter jets and bombers have repeatedly flown off the Venezuelan coast in recent days. Six airlines have canceled flights to Venezuela, but on Sunday, the airport in Caracas was operating as usual.

Americas

The US is piling the pressure on Venezuela, with a major military buildup in the Caribbean, the designation of an alleged drug cartel run by Maduro as a terrorist group, and an ominous warning from Trump that Venezuelan airspace is 'closed.'


Trump confirms call with Maduro, Caracas slams US maneuvers

ISLAMABAD: Former South African captain Faf du Plessis has announced he will join Pakistan&rsquo;s premier Twenty20 tournament, the Pakistan Super League (PSL), next year, bringing his 14-year Indian Premier League (IPL) career to a close. In a post on X earlier this week, the former Proteas skipper said he had chosen not to enter this year&rsquo;s IPL auction. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big decision, and one that comes with a lot of gratitude when I look back,&rdquo; he wrote. Du Plessis, who appeared in 154 IPL matches, said the tournament had been &ldquo;a massive part&rdquo; of his cricketing journey. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been lucky to play with world-class teammates, for amazing franchises, and in front of fans whose passion is like nothing else,&rdquo; he said, adding that his time in the league had given him &ldquo;friendships, lessons, and memories&rdquo; that shaped him both as a cricketer and as a person. While acknowledging that 14 years was a long time, he stressed it was not a farewell. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll see me again,&rdquo; he said. The former South African captain confirmed that he will take on &ldquo;a new challenge&rdquo; next year by joining the upcoming PSL season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an exciting step for me, a chance to experience something new, to grow as a player, and to embrace a league filled with incredible talent and energy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A new country. A new environment. A new challenge. I&rsquo;m looking forward to the Pakistan hospitality. See you all soon,&rdquo; du Plessis added.

Cricket

Former South African skipper says he had chosen not to enter this year’s Indian Premier League auction; 'looking forward' to Pakistani hospitality; 'A new country. A new environment. A new challenge.

Faf du Plessis ends IPL stint, confirms debut in Pakistan’s PSL

LOS ANGELES:&nbsp;Four people, including three children, were killed and 11 more were wounded in a shooting at a birthday party in California, authorities said on Sunday, calling it a targeted attack that may have involved multiple gunmen. The shooting took place Saturday evening inside a banquet hall in Stockton, a city northeast of San Francisco, where between 100 and 150 people had gathered for the celebration. The four victims were aged eight, nine, 14, and 21, San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow told reporters on Sunday. At least one of the 11 wounded was in critical condition, he said, adding he did not have more information about the others. &quot;We believe, from what we&#39;ve gathered so far, that it appears to be multiple shooters,&quot; Withrow said. He called on the public to remain cautious as the investigation unfolds. Earlier, his spokeswoman Heather Brent said it appeared to have been a &quot;targeted&quot; shooting. The sheriff&#39;s office urged anyone with information or video footage to come forward. So far, no one has been taken into custody. &quot;These animals walked in and shot children at a children&#39;s birthday party, and none of us should stand for that,&quot; Withrow said. &quot;And so if you know anything about this, you have to come forward and tell us what you know.&quot; $25,000 reward&nbsp;Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi said a $25,000 reward would be given to anyone providing information that led to the arrest of the assailants. While the sheriff said he could not yet confirm if the incident was gang-related, Fugazi did not hold back about who she believed to be responsible. &quot;Let us call this what it is. Gang violence exists in cities across the country, but this act was a pure act of terrorism,&quot; she said in a post on Facebook. Withrow said firearms were found on the roof of the building where the shooting occurred, but it was not clear if they were related to the crime. California Governor Gavin Newsom was briefed on the shooting, his office said on social media. There have been 504 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, including the Stockton incident, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.

There have been 504 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, including the Stockton incident; four slain victims are aged eight, nine, 14, and 21.


Four dead, including three children, in California party shooting

HALLANDALE BEACH: US President Donald Trump said on Sunday there was a &quot;good chance&quot; of a deal to end the war in Ukraine after the latest US negotiations with Kyiv, as his envoy prepared to travel to Russia for follow-up talks. After hours of what both sides called &quot;productive&quot; discussions in Hallandale Beach, north of Miami, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that more work was required, and a source in Kyiv&#39;s delegation characterized the discussions as &quot;not easy.&quot; The talks, which come as Kyiv battles military pressure and reels from a domestic corruption scandal, set the stage for a visit to Moscow by Trump&#39;s envoy Steve Witkoff, who is expected to discuss Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Washington has put forward a plan to end the nearly four-year conflict and is seeking to finalize it with Moscow and Kyiv&#39;s approval. &quot;Ukraine&#39;s got some difficult little problems,&quot; Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, referring to a corruption probe that recently forced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sack his chief of staff and top negotiator. &quot;But I think that there&#39;s a good chance we can make a deal.&quot; Earlier, Rubio told reporters the Florida talks &mdash; also attended by Witkoff and Trump&#39;s son-in-law, Jared Kushner &mdash; were &quot;very productive&quot; but &quot;there&#39;s more work to be done.&quot; &quot;This is delicate. It&#39;s complicated,&quot; Rubio said. &quot;There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there&#39;s another party involved here that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week when Mr Witkoff travels to Moscow.&quot; Ukraine&#39;s security council secretary Rustem Umerov led Kyiv&#39;s delegation, which also included Andrii Hnatov, the chief of staff of Ukraine&#39;s armed forces, and presidential adviser Oleksandr Bevz. Umerov wrote on Facebook that he had briefed Zelensky on the &quot;substantial progress&quot; made in the talks. &quot;It is important that the talks have a constructive dynamic and that all issues are discussed openly and with a clear focus on ensuring Ukraine&#39;s sovereignty and national interests,&quot; Zelensky wrote on X after the talks. Flurry of diplomacy&nbsp;An initial 28-point US proposal &mdash; drafted without input from Ukraine&#39;s European allies &mdash; would have required Kyiv to withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region, and the United States would then have de facto recognized the Donetsk, Crimea, and Lugansk regions as Russian. The United States pared back the original draft following criticism from Kyiv and Europe, but the current contents remain unclear. A source close to the Kyiv delegation in Florida told AFP on Sunday that &quot;the process is not easy because the search for formulations and solutions continues.&quot; Another source briefed on the developments told AFP that &quot;the Americans really want the final points to be agreed upon&quot; ahead of the US talks in Moscow. Following the Florida negotiations, French President Emmanuel Macron is set to host Zelensky in Paris on Monday for talks. Rubio is set to skip a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels, despite allies&#39; concerns about the US plan for Ukraine. But Witkoff will head to Russia on Monday and is expected to meet Putin on Tuesday. The flurry of diplomacy comes as the war &mdash; which has killed tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel and displaced millions of Ukrainians &mdash; shows no sign of easing. Russian oil terminal hit&nbsp;Ahead of the Florida talks, Russia&#39;s forces targeted Ukraine&#39;s capital and the region for two nights in a row as they advanced on the front line. A drone attack on the outskirts of Kyiv killed one person and wounded 11 late on Saturday, the regional governor said. Hours earlier, a Ukrainian security source said Kyiv was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in the Black Sea that it believed were covertly transporting sanctioned Russian oil. One of Russia&#39;s largest oil terminals halted operations on Saturday following a drone attack. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, a group that includes US oil majors Chevron and ExxonMobil and which owns the terminal, called the strike a &quot;terrorist attack.&quot; Ukraine, which did not comment on the incident, regularly targets Russian energy facilities in a bid to sap the country&#39;s war chest.

Europe

US secretary of state says more work is required; a source in Kyiv's delegation characterized the discussions as 'not easy.'


Trump optimistic after Ukraine talks as Rubio says 'more work' needed

ISLAMABAD: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday claimed that the corruption cases against him were &ldquo;tearing the country apart,&rdquo; hours after he submitted a formal request for a pardon in the years-long proceedings.&nbsp;&ldquo;The continuation of the trial is tearing us apart from within, arousing fierce divisions, intensifying rifts,&rdquo; Netanyahu said in a video statement, insisting that &ldquo;an immediate end to the trial will greatly help to lower the flames and promote the broad reconciliation that our country so desperately needs.&rdquo;&nbsp;Netanyahu&rsquo;s critics, however, say the embattled premier is attempting to shield himself from accountability after years of corruption allegations, including fraud, bribery, and breach of trust, rather than seeking national unity.&nbsp;The pardon request also lands at a moment of mounting international scrutiny.&nbsp;The United Nations has noted that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.&nbsp;&nbsp;The political reverberations have even reached the United States.&nbsp;During an interview with ABC News, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani stated that he would order Netanyahu&rsquo;s arrest if the Israeli leader attends the UN General Assembly in the city next year, citing the ICC warrants.&nbsp;&nbsp;Mamdani was unequivocal: &ldquo;New York enforces international law, and that means international law must be respected, including the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court, regardless of whether they target Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, or anyone else.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;It does not matter if they are against Benjamin Netanyahu or Vladimir Putin,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;We are required to show our values.&rdquo;&nbsp;Netanyahu&rsquo;s effort to secure a pardon, while still in office and without a conviction, has drawn sharp criticism at home and abroad, with opponents arguing that the attempt undermines Israel&rsquo;s judiciary and deepens the political rifts the prime minister claims to lament

Middle East

Netanyahu seeks a pardon to halt corruption trial, while critics accuse him of avoiding accountability. ICC warrants add pressure, and NYC’s Zohran Mamdani says Netanyahu would face arrest if he visits the UN General Assembly.

Netanyahu seeks pardon as critics decry bid to evade accountability

JERICHO: Three Italians and a Canadian were treated at a Jericho hospital on Sunday after being attacked by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, one of the group told AFP.&nbsp;The Palestinian official news agency Wafa described them as &quot;international activists&quot;.&nbsp;In Rome, the foreign ministry said in a statement that &quot;three Italian international volunteers were attacked last night by Israeli settlers&quot;, adding that they were &quot;still in shock from the incident&quot;.&nbsp;Riyad Eid, director of the Jericho government hospital, told AFP: &quot;Four foreigners arrived at the hospital this morning after being beaten by settlers, according to what they reported.&nbsp;&quot;They were suffering from bruises on the face for some of them, and on the chest, and one of them was beaten in a sensitive area.&nbsp;&quot;They were examined, given X-rays and ultrasound scans, provided with the necessary treatment and then discharged.&quot;&nbsp;More than 500,000 Israelis currently live in settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, as do around three million Palestinians.&nbsp;Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023.&nbsp;The United Nations said that October had been the worst month for settler violence since it began recording incidents in 2006, with 264 attacks that caused casualties or property damage.&nbsp;One of the four, who had visible bruising and did not wish to be identified, told AFP that they were three people from Italy and one from Canada, staying in the Duyuk area on the western edge of Jericho in the central West Bank.&nbsp;&quot;We were asleep at night... 10 masked settlers came; two of them had guns, some of them had sticks,&quot; they said.&nbsp;&quot;They kicked me multiple times in the face, in the ribs, in the hip.&nbsp;&quot;It lasted about 10 to 15 minutes. And then they took all of our things. They stole my passport, my phone, my wallet, my bank cards, and then they left.&nbsp;&quot;We had to have X-rays, painkillers. Our friend was beaten more severely than we were.&quot;&nbsp;Italy&#39;s foreign ministry also said in its statement that &quot;the settlers reportedly entered their home, attacked the volunteers, and stole all their personal belongings&quot;.&nbsp;Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani &quot;is following the incident&quot;, in close contact with Italy&#39;s consul general in Jerusalem, the statement said.&nbsp;

Four foreign volunteers, three Italians and a Canadian were beaten and robbed by masked Israeli settlers near Jericho. They sustained bruises, received treatment, and were discharged as officials condemned rising West Bank settler violence since 2023.

Four foreigners hurt in 'settler attack' in West Bank

DOHA: Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday to set up a final race title showdown with McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.&nbsp;The Red Bull driver kept the wheels on his quest for a fifth successive crown after pole-sitter Piastri finished second and standings leader Norris came only fourth.&nbsp;Verstappen&#39;s remarkable late season surge has lifted him past Piastri and into second in the championship.&nbsp;The Dutchman now goes into the season-closer next weekend only 12 points behind Norris with Piastri 16 points behind his teammate.&nbsp;Verstappen has fond memories of the last time the title went down to the wire when he beat Lewis Hamilton on the last lap of the last race in Abu Dhabi in 2021.&nbsp;This was a race McLaren should have won, with Piastri heading the grid and Norris alongside him on the front row, only to be overtaken by Verstappen at the start.&nbsp;Red Bull pitted Verstappen under a safety car, unlike McLaren who kept their two drivers out on the track.&nbsp;&quot;Clearly we did not get it right tonight,&quot; conceded Piastri.&nbsp;&quot;I drove as fast as I could but it wasn&#39;t to be. In hindsight it is pretty obvious what we should have done, but we&#39;ll discuss that as a team. (It&#39;s) a little bit tough to swallow at the moment,&quot; the Australian added.&nbsp;Verstappen said: &quot;An incredible race for us, we made the right call to box under that safety car. A strong race for us on a weekend that was tough.&quot;&nbsp;Carlos Sainz of Williams completed the podium under floodlights at the Lusail International Circuit in the Doha desert.

Racing

Max Verstappen won the Qatar GP, boosting his late-season comeback and setting up a final-race title fight with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. A strategic call under the safety car secured victory, while McLaren admitted tactical mistakes.

Field Marshal Munir, Egyptian foreign minister review defense ties, regional security

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Latest News

Field Marshal Munir, Egyptian foreign minister review defense ties, regional security

Selfie-based age checks boom as governments push for online controls

In India, Muslim organization chief says Supreme Court functioning 'under government pressure’

Trump confirms call with Maduro, Caracas slams US maneuvers

Faf du Plessis ends IPL stint, confirms debut in Pakistan’s PSL