ISLAMABAD:

Fortinet, the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, presented its Sovereign SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) solution on its third Fortinet Security Day on September 16, 2025 in Pakistan.

Through SASE solution, Fortinet demonstrates how organisations can address data residency, privacy and operational requirements without compromising security, user experience or scalability.

Besides, Fortinet’s Sovereign SASE solution enables businesses to securely connect and protect users, applications and data, regardless of location. It aims to guarantee that data resides and is processed within specific geographical boundaries, giving organisations complete control over their sensitive information while respecting their compliance of regional and local regulations.

According to Fortinet spokesperson and Senior Regional Director Shadi Khuffash, SASE is envisaged for a range of industries and is ideal for organisations operating in highly regulated verticals with sensitive data like government, finance and healthcare, or any business that handles classified information and critical infrastructure.

Fortinet Regional Director for Pakistan Saqib Ishfaq commented: “In today’s interconnected global economy, organisations face a growing and constantly evolving array of cybersecurity threats and compliance complexities. At the same time, local data protection regulations create strict requirements around data governance that organisations in Pakistan must navigate. Fortinet’s Sovereign SASE helps organisations to proactively detect and respond to threats.”

US President Donald Trump has said he will sue the New York Times for $15bn (£11bn) over what he called defamation and libel.

“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Monday.

He singled out the Times’ endorsement of Kamala Harris in the last presidential election in 2024, saying it had become a “mouthpiece for the Radical Left Democrat Party”.

A spokesperson for the newspaper said the suit was “an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting”, adding it “has no merit”.

“The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics,” the spokesperson added.

Trump said that his lawsuit was being launched in Florida, a Republican stronghold.

He has long expressed displeasure at what he bills left-leaning media outlets unfavourable to his presidency.

In a post late on Monday, Trump took issue at the Times’ endorsement of his election rival, saying: “Their Endorsement of Kamala Harris was actually put dead center on the front page of The New York Times, something heretofore UNHEARD OF!”

In the post he also accused other media outlets or TV programmes of “smearing” him through “a highly sophisticated system of document and visual alteration”.

ABC News and Paramount’s CBS News both agreed to multimillion-dollar payouts to Trump to settle lawsuits brought by the president in recent months.

He has also launched a case against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on the Epstein scandal.

This is not the first time Trump has sought to sue the New York Times.

In 2023, a judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by him, then an ex-president, against the New York Times, saying the claims in the lawsuit “fail as a matter of constitutional law”.

The $100m (£79m) lawsuit accused the newspaper and Trump’s estranged niece, Mary Trump, of “an insidious plot” to obtain his tax records.

It was filed in 2021 and relates to a Pulitzer Prize-winning series on Trump’s financial affairs.

Trump also lost another defamation bid in 2023, when he sought in vain to sue CNN for allegedly likening him to Adolf Hitler. A federal judge later threw out the $475m (£369m) lawsuit.

Clarification: This story has been updated to include the lawsuits against ABC News and Paramount which ended with settlements in Trump’s favour.

The UK boss of drugs giant Merck has said the UK operating environment for pharmaceutical firms is “difficult” and “needs to be addressed”, a week after it axed plans for a £1 billion site in London.

Ben Lucas, VP managing director UK and Ireland for MSD, Merck’s business in the UK and Europe, told MPs at the science, innovation and technology committee that its “ability to do end-to-end business” in the UK contributed to its decision.

Last week, MSD said it will move its life sciences operation to the US in a move that will impact around 125 British jobs.

It had been planning to open a research centre in London’s King’s Cross, which was already under construction and due to open in 2027.

Days later, rival AstraZeneca announced it paused plans to invest £200 million at a Cambridge research site in the latest major blow for the sector.

Bosses for both firms told MPs on Tuesday that there have been constructive talks with Government but that more is needed to address the environment for investment and innovation in the UK.

Mr Lucas said the withdrawal from the London plans had “has been a fair while in the making” and was linked to a wider group restructuring.

But he added that the operating environment in the UK was also a factor.

He said: “My research lab colleagues have made the decision that in terms of their early lab discovery research, they would no longer pursue what had been a long-in-the-making investment here in London and on that basis, we will see and put at risk nearly 125 of our scientists.

“Our plan had been to build up 200 scientists and occupy this new facility.

“But at this moment in time, the decision both strategically from a company perspective and where we find the UK in terms of just an ability to end-to-end business here, from a life sciences side of things, were both influential in this decision.”

The pharmaceuticals boss stressed that its decision was not simply driven by a current shake-up of the drugs sector in the US, with President Trump recently calling for European countries to pay more for medication.

“It would be unfortunate for any of these decisions to be explained away as simply a function of what’s going on in the US,” Mr Lucas said.

“The UK commercial operating environment does need to be addressed and we find that difficult.”

Meanwhile, Tom Keith-Roach, the UK president of drugs-maker AstraZeneca, told MPs the UK is an “increasingly challenging” environment for innovation.

Mr Keith-Roach said the company faces particular challenges in bringing innovation in medicine through the Nice (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) and into the NHS.

He added: “There have been an increasing number of site closures, research and development withdrawals and investments that are put on pause.

“I think that is simply a response to the economic gravity of reward for innovation in other jurisdictions compared with headwinds here.”