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KARACHI: Ahtesham Humiyun and Hassan Usmani registered convincing wins to set up the 21st Westbury National Tennis Championship final in the Under-18 category here at the Karachi Club on Tuesday. Ahtesham swept aside Muzammil Bhand 6-2, 6-3, while Hassan downed Muhammad Yahya 7-5, 6-0 to book their spots in the final. Romaisa Malik, meanwhile, routed Safa Afzal 6-1, 6-0 in the girls U-18 semi-final. In the men’s quarter-finals Kashan Tariq overpowered Asif Ali Bachani 8-2 and Ismail Aftab beat Taimoor Ansari with the same score. Eschelle Asif delivered a flawless 8-0 victory over Taiba Yar Baig in the women’s last-four…

MANAMA: Pakistan’s campaign at the IBSF World Masters Snooker Championship saw contrasting fortunes on Tuesday as Mohammad Asif stormed into the last 16 while compatriot Shahid Aftab bowed out following hard-fought battles. Asif, who won the Saarc Championship last year, delivered a masterclass in the last 24 round, dismantling Wales’ Tony Morgan 3-0. The 42-year-old displayed formidable break-building, sealing victory with runs of 55 [74(55)-10], a near-perfect 90 [106(90)-0] and 61 [89(61)-11]. Asif now faces Mohamed Shehab of the UAE in Wednesday’s last 16 round. Earlier, current national champion Shahid exited the championship after a 4-2 defeat to Qatar’s Bashar…

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday announced a revamped three-tier departmental cricket structure for the 2025-26 domestic season, marking a significant development in the country’s domestic setup. Set to commence in August and conclude in May 2026, the season will feature over 40 departmental teams divided across three grades — I, II and III. The structure introduces promotion and relegation mechanisms aimed at enhancing competitiveness. Grade-III, a new addition to the structure, will feature a two-day tournament scheduled for March-April 2026. Teams in this tier have been selected based on their performances in the 2024-25 President’s Trophy Grade-II.…

Customers line up at the check out booth on April 18, 2025 at a Costco branch in Niantic, Connecticut.Robert Nickelsberg | Getty ImagesThe annual inflation rate ticked higher in June, in line with expectations, as lower prices at the gasoline pump somewhat offset higher prices at the grocery store.Economists said they expect the full impact from the Trump administration’s tariff agenda to raise consumer prices more in the months ahead — but they said trade policies have already started to noticeably affect inflation.The consumer price index, a key inflation barometer, rose 2.7% in the 12 months through June, up from 2.4% in May, the Bureau…

Washington CNN  —  President Donald Trump said Tuesday the United States has reached a trade agreement with Indonesia, but he offered no details, including how comprehensive a deal might be, any possible terms or when any provisions might take effect. “Great deal, for everybody, just made with Indonesia. I dealt directly with with their highly respected President,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “DETAILS TO FOLLOW!!!” This marks Trump’s fourth trade agreement announcement in three months. He had previously promised dozens of deals with US trading partners over that time frame, but that has proven tough to reach. One…

Vithun Khamsong | Moment | Getty ImagesAmerican workers who participate in a retirement plan expect to need an average $1.28 million set aside to retire comfortably, according to a new survey from investment management company Schroders.Yet just 30% of workers say they expect to have $1 million or more by the time they retire, the survey found. About half, 48%, expect to have less than $500,000, and 26% expect to have less than $250,000.Other studies point to similar challenges, with Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies reporting that 68% of workers say they could work until retirement and still not have…

CNN  —  US inflation heated back up in June, rising to its highest level in four months, as price increases — including those from tariffs — packed a bigger punch. Consumer prices rose 0.3% last month, pushing the annual inflation rate higher to 2.7%, the highest since February, according to the latest Consumer Price Index data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Tuesday’s data came right in line with what economists were expecting, as gas prices rose for the first time in five months and other prices increased in key services and goods categories. Excluding gas and food,…

CNN  —  “Never mind. Pretend like nothing ever happened.” That might as well have been the text of one provision in President Donald Trump’s mega tax-and-spending-cuts package that reverses more stringent tax-reporting requirements for payment apps when it comes to telling the IRS how much small businesses and freelancers are taking in via business transactions on their platforms. The package also contains a new measure for all businesses that issue 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms to report to the IRS how much non-employee compensation they pay to vendors and contractors. It’s a change that upends decades of practice. But we’ll get…

India’s Fauja Singh, believed to be the world’s oldest distance runner, has died in a road accident aged 114, his biographer said on Tuesday. Singh, an Indian-born British national, nicknamed the “Turbaned Tornado”, died after being hit by a vehicle in Punjab state’s Jalandhar district on Monday. “My Turbaned Tornado is no more,” Fauja’s biographer Khushwant Singh wrote on X. “He was struck by an unidentified vehicle… in his village, Bias, while crossing the road. Rest in peace, my dear Fauja.” Singh did not have a birth certificate but his family said he was born on April 1, 1911. He…

LOS ANGELES: Organisers of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics on Monday released the first look at the Olympic competition schedule, highlighting a historic reshuffling of key events and the most ambitious sports lineup in Games history. The announcement comes as the city marks three years to go until the Opening Ceremony and celebrates a major legacy milestone: more than one million enrolments in the PlayLA youth sports programme. For the first time in nearly three decades, the Summer Olympics will return to the United States, with Los Angeles hosting for the third time after 1932 and 1984. The 2028 Games…