Tom Hanks remembers Apollo 13 hero Jim Lovell
The incident took place in the late 1990s while Thompson was filming Primary Colors, the political satire inspired by the Clinton era. She was in her trailer when the phone rang and what happened next was so surreal she initially thought it was a prank. 'A phone rang in my trailer, and it was Donald Trump,' she said. 'I thought it was a joke. 'Hi, it's Donald Trump here.' I said, 'How can I help you?''
Trump, who at the time was a high-profile real estate mogul and tabloid fixture, offered to take Thompson to dinner. He also extended an invitation to stay in one of his 'beautiful' properties. The timing was uncanny; Thompson had just finalised her divorce from Kenneth Branagh. She joked that perhaps this was why Trump thought she might be interested.
With her signature wit, Thompson told the crowd, 'I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump. I could have changed the course of American history!' It was a line that drew gasps and laughter, a reminder of the strange intersections that occur between celebrity and politics.
Reflecting further, Thompson admitted she had no real intention of accepting the offer, but she can't help but imagine the ripple effects had she done so. Would the evening have been awkward small talk? Would it have become a strange friendship? Or might it have altered Trump's trajectory entirely?
The story, told with warmth and comic timing, fits neatly into Thompson's long history of candid, self-deprecating anecdotes. It's also a small glimpse into the unpredictable, sometimes absurd, situations that come with fame and how a single phone call could, in theory, rewrite history.
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Express Tribune
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The offer has fallen on deaf ears in Delhi, irrespective of the fact that Islamabad was hoping to see light at the end of the tunnel. India's premise of hiding behind bilateralism when it comes to multilateralism is a ploy, and has hampered any headway in normalising relations to this day. To count a few irritants, Pakistan is facing a water embargo as Delhi unilaterally abrogated the 1960 Indus Water Treaty. The flow of water to the lower riparian state is now politicised, in contravention of International Law, and could be a prelude to another military brawl as it is a matter of life and death for 240 million subjects. Last but not least is the pestering mistrust wherein each side is blaming the other for cross-border terrorism footprints. The revoking, likewise, of Articles 370 and 35A on August 5, 2019, which granted special rights to the people of Jammu & Kashmir, has jeopardised ties, and nothing seems to be plausible until the same is rescinded by India. 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Express Tribune
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Money Just Went Digital, Bitcoin Ethereum Stablecoins and CBDCs, Pakistan's Moment
Most people felt the shift without seeing it. Payments got faster, crypto stopped feeling fringe, and a new rulebook started to settle in. What changed is simple, and profound. The world is moving money onto programmable rails. Some countries are building central bank digital currencies, CBDCs, and the United States is embracing fully reserved dollar stablecoins through a clear federal framework. Two paths, one destination, a digital monetary system that settles in seconds, speaks to software, and reaches anywhere a network can go. The new American playbook, regulated stablecoins In the United States, private companies can issue fully reserved dollar tokens under federal oversight. These tokens must be backed one to one by cash and short duration United States Treasuries, they must meet strict disclosure and compliance standards, and they must redeem at par. That single design choice matters. 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Europe and China, public money on new rails Europe is preparing a digital euro, China has piloted the e CNY for years. These are retail CBDCs, digital legal tender issued by a central bank, designed to work like cash in your phone, with strong privacy controls and offline features. Different governance, same purpose, fast settlement, clear rules, programmable money for a networked economy. Bitcoin's role, digital gold for the digital rails Bitcoin has fortified its place as digital gold. It plays for the digital financial system the role gold has long played for the traditional one, a neutral, scarce, non sovereign store of value. This does not replace gold, it complements it. With each halving, new issuance slows, and over the next cycles supply becomes even more scarce. In a world where money moves on programmable rails, a widely held reserve asset that sits outside any single government's control provides a familiar anchor. Bitcoin fills that role for a growing share of portfolios, treasuries, and long term savers. Real world assets, the other half of the story If stablecoins are digital cash, real world assets are the digital bonds, bills, and funds that sit beside that cash. Treasuries, money market funds, repo, and even slices of private credit are moving onchain. When a dollar token and a tokenized Treasury live on the same ledger, collateral moves instantly, settlement becomes one click, yield pays straight into a wallet, and portfolios behave more like software. This is why Wall Street cares. Not because of slogans, but because the plumbing is better, the audit trail is stronger, and the cost is lower. Why Ethereum matters so much Ethereum is where much of this tokenization is happening today. The network has been live for nearly a decade, has weathered real stress, and has not suffered a catastrophic protocol failure. It is programmable, mature, and well understood by developers, auditors, custodians, and large institutions. That makes it a natural home for tokenized Treasuries, tokenized funds, and fully reserved stablecoins. The standards are stable, the tooling is robust, and the network effects are real. When large issuers and asset managers choose a settlement layer for real world assets, they tend to choose the chain that has run reliably for years and already speaks the language of finance. This does not mean there is only one chain. Solana has become a serious option for high throughput consumer payments and trading. Other networks bring useful tradeoffs, lower fees, faster finality, and different security assumptions. What matters is simple, cash and assets must sit on programmable rails, and moving between chains should feel as seamless as moving between bank accounts. Bridges, custody networks, and common token standards are improving that experience month by month. Fintech and traditional finance, the glue that makes it usable Wallets make this simple for people and for businesses. Fiat on ramps and off ramps connect salaries, invoices, and subscriptions. Banks, trust companies, and qualified custodians hold reserves and run attestations. Fund administrators and transfer agents bring regulated structure to tokenized funds. Payment processors and card networks add merchant acceptance. Compliance analytics and identity providers monitor flows in real time. The result is a stack that looks familiar to CFOs and regulators, only now it runs in real time, shows its work on chain, and can be programmed to fit policy and business logic. AI, robotics, and machine to machine money Over the next fifteen to twenty years, AI agents and robots will transact constantly. A car pays for charging, a device buys compute, a factory orders parts, a supply chain reconciles in the background. These are machine to machine payments. They need instant settlement, clear identity, and embedded rules. CBDCs and stablecoins both fit that need. Bitcoin sits beside them as a neutral reserve asset, and Ethereum provides a widely adopted environment for contracts, identity, and tokenized collateral. Together, these layers give automated economies the financial plumbing they require. Geopolitics and global connectivity The Middle East is already active in cross border CBDC projects, Europe is building a digital euro, Asia has large pilots, and the United States has chosen a regulated private issuance model for digital dollars. Over time these networks will interoperate. A merchant in Dubai, a freelancer in Karachi, and a manufacturer in Vietnam will settle with each other in seconds, with finality, and with rules that satisfy local regulators. Pakistan's moment, from undocumented to digitized Pakistan is taking bold steps to bring crypto and blockchain into a regulated framework. The authorities are setting out clear guardrails for responsible innovation, and the direction is visible. Build the rules, connect to global rails, invite capital and talent, and protect consumers. This shift can do more than modernize payments. Pakistan has a large undocumented economy. As the country adopts digital payment rails, tokenization, and compliant crypto activity, everyday transactions become easier to trace, taxes become simpler to collect, and credit can flow based on real data rather than guesswork. Documentation is not a punishment, it is how small businesses graduate into formal finance, how exporters settle faster, and how households build a verifiable economic record. If Pakistan keeps moving with clarity and care, this effort can become a real engine for growth, jobs, and trust in the system. The takeaway Money is becoming a digital platform. Stablecoins create a steady bid for dollars and bills. Bitcoin provides a scarce, neutral reserve for the digital age. Ethereum anchors tokenized assets and programmable settlement, with other chains adding speed and choice for specific use cases. CBDCs bring public money onto new rails. Fintech glues the experience together, from wallets to on ramps to acceptance. The public sector keeps the core safe, the private sector builds great user experiences, and the economy finally runs on rails designed for the internet. If you build, focus on wallets, identity, and the integrations that make this invisible for users. If you invest, understand how Bitcoin and real world assets fit into a digital portfolio that settles in seconds. If you regulate, treat CBDCs and stablecoins as complementary tools that strengthen policy transmission and improve market plumbing. The shift already happened, now the work is to scale it with care. Faisal Aftab is CEO of Zayn VC , the most active investor into the Pakistani financial infrastructure especially on the intersection of Finance, AI and Blockchain.
