IMF engages in debt restructuring talks to assist economically struggling nations

Morning! Good news for those who snagged PSL tickets for the Lahore leg matches 'cause PCB and Punjab Government finally sorted things out and decided to stick to the original venue. But for those who take the Qaddafi Stadium route to work every day, sorry fam, it's gonna suck for the next few days.

In this week’s edition:

🍕 Domino’s pizza shares plummit

💢 Lenders worry about their lent money

💬 Meta’s entry to the AI contest

💩 Pak’s way towards using poop water in agriculture

- The Itla Squad 💼

Business

Global 🌎️

Domino’s shares tumble like dominos

It looks like more moms are winning the “we have food at home” debate with their children. Domino's Pizza Inc. experienced a huge stock price drop, the largest in over ten years, due to delivery issues and lower demand causing weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter sales.

What’s to blame? People seem to have discovered their inner Gordon Ramsey after the pandemic. The pizza chain, with 19,500+ global locations, attributes the drop in sales to customers preferring "carryout, sit-down meals, and home cooking" due to rising inflation. It also claims to be facing a driver shortage problem. Moreover, Domino's strict delivery strategy (not opening its business to third-party apps) did not help the company in combating this challenge.

The domino effect: The negative vibes of Domino’s influenced its competitor too. The stock of Domino's experienced a decrease of over 11% in its closing value, whereas Papa John's stock dropped by 6%. However, while Papa John's plans to incorporate more third-party apps to help itself, Domino's is seeking to solve the dilemma within its stringent-delivery strategy.

TLDR: Domino's stock plummeted due to delivery issues and weaker sales caused by rising inflation and a preference for home-cooked meals. The impact also affected competitor Papa John's. While Papa John's plans to use more third-party apps, Domino's seeks to solve the dilemma within its delivery strategy.

What else is new in news

✶ No more Adderall from the couch for Americans as Biden Administration pushes the consumers to make physical doctor visits for prescriptions for some drugs.

Local 🇵🇰

Lenders to low-income countries ♫ Bi*ch better have my money ♫

Lenders must be blasting Rihanna because they are shocked to discover that low-income countries are not great at paying back their money. China, which is the biggest creditor country in the world, called on the G20 nations to perform a thorough assessment of the reasons behind the global debt problems.

What happened? This action by China is due to the increasing demand for lenders to take a significant reduction in the amount owed or accept losses on loans as the borrowing countries ( 👀 Pakistan) are struggling to pay back their loans due to the impact of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

So, what’s the fix: The World Bank is considering debt restructuring to help countries with struggling economies. However, on the sidelines of a G20 meeting, the IMF head stated that there were disagreements over how to restructure the debt. Despite this, there is a commitment to finding common ground. The IMF also suggested banning crypto to tackle global debt issues.

What is IMF’s beef with crypto? IMF is worried about crypto being used for illegal activities due to its anonymity and easy transferability across borders. Also, the high volatility and lack of transparency in the crypto market can create risks for investors and financial stability. To tackle these issues, IMF suggests policymakers create regulatory frameworks, including regulating crypto exchanges.

TLDR: Low-income countries, struggling to pay back loans, have led China to call for a thorough assessment of global debt problems. Apart from debt restructuring, the IMF also suggested banning crypto to address concerns over its use for illegal activities and risks to investors.

News Flash

✶ Imagine fasting for 13+ hours and still not getting to eat samosas and pakoras. Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association Secretary General Umer says that “consumers should make up their minds for fresh price hikes amid serious shortages of oil and ghee in Ramazan”.

Tech

Global 🌎️

Meta aims to join the cool AI kids club with its new large language model “LLaMa”

*Mark Zuckerberg enters the AI chat* Meta was feeling a bit left out so it is releasing LLaMa: a new large language model (LLM). It will be capable of mining huge amounts of text to produce summaries and generate content with the ability to answer questions in a way that resembles human writing.

So another chatbot? Not really. The newest contestant to the game “has shown a lot of promise in generating text, having conversations, summarizing written material and more complicated tasks like solving math theorems or predicting protein structures,” Mark Zuckerberg announced. Moreover, unlike its rivals:

1) LLaMa will be available under a non-commercial license to researchers and its inner workings will be visible to them

2) LLaMa is less resource intensive as it requires “far less” computing

What is a large language model? Large language models like GPT-3 generate human-like text based on input, using machine learning algorithms trained on vast amounts of data. They are useful for language tasks like translation, summarization, and answering questions. AI chatbots, on the other hand, simulate conversation with humans and use natural language processing and machine learning to provide responses for specific purposes like customer service.

Way forward: Although LLaMA is not currently utilized in Meta products, there is potential for it to be implemented in the future. At present, Meta relies on AI for various tasks such as moderating content and organizing user feeds.

TLDR:  Meta is releasing a new large language model called LLaMa that can generate text, answer questions, and summarize written material. It is available to researchers under a non-commercial license and is less resource-intensive.

What else is new in news

✶TechGiants continue their forbidden love with politics. In response to a Canadian bill - that requires the tech giants to compensate journalists for using their work - Google tests blocking news content for some Canadians.

Local 🇵🇰

From poop to produce: Pak’s agriculture experts urge for treated wastewater tech

Get ready for some extra "flavor" ✨ in your veggies because treated wastewater technology in agriculture might be sooner than we thought. Yeaaah, we're taking our poop water and turning it into plant food.

What happened? During a conference held at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, specialists urged the implementation of treated wastewater technology in agriculture as a solution to address drought and water scarcity in irrigation. Since the country's inception, the amount of water available per person has decreased significantly from 5000 cubic meters per year to 900 cubic meters, placing the country among the list of nations facing water scarcity.

Turns out some of us might already be familiar with the extra “flavor”. Many major cities have established wastewater treatment plants to irrigate nearby agricultural lands. However, the demand for water greatly outweighs the supply, which calls for the expansion of this tech, particularly in other water-scarce regions.

TLDR: Specialists at a conference at the University of Agriculture called for the use of treated wastewater technology in agriculture to combat water scarcity and improve food production. Many major cities have already implemented this technology, but further expansion is needed, especially in water-scarce regions.

Tech tour of news

✶ From exporting mangoes to software: Pakistan strives for trade breakthroughs in high-level talks with the US.

More interesting Itla (اطلاع) we consumed:

🎵 We can die for the remix version of the popular “Die For You” song by the The Weeknd feat. Ariana Grande.

🎥 How to actually gain self-esteem (it goes much deeper than saying “just be confident”)