A decade after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), development is facing serious headwinds – including what UN officials describe as a “silent crisis” of surging debt service payments in low-income countries. On Friday, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed launched a new report, Confronting the Debt Crisis: 11 Actions to Unlock Sustainable Financing. She…
US Treasury says it removed 518 Syrian individuals and entities from its list of sanctions after president’s decree. Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle a web of sanctions against Syria, a move that will likely unlock investments in the country more than six months after the…
South Africans’ heavy reliance on cash, instead of using advanced digital payment rails, costs the economy more than R30-billion/year. This is according to Tim Masela, head of the National Payments System at the Reserve Bank, whose commentary in the Payments Association of South Africa’s (Pasa’s) annual report notes that positive strides taken to digitise the…
Funding cuts to international development have cast a pall over a major UN-led international conference set to address the huge challenges faced by countries in the Global South. Despite this sobering backdrop, Eva Granados, Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation, insists that global solidarity is still alive, despite indications to the contrary. For decades,…
ADDIS ABABA – Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) yesterday called on Ethiopians to take pride in their nation’s reforestation efforts by planting trees. Ethiopia’s 2025 Green Legacy Initiative (GLI) was launched under the theme : ” Renewal Through Planting ” as a symbol of environmental stewardship and unity. Speaking at the official launch of the…
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during the Meta Connect event on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Meta shares hit a record high on Monday, underscoring investor interest in the company’s new AI superintelligence group. The company’s shares reached $747.90 during midday trading, topping Meta’s previous stock…
This matters not just for academics, but for anyone relying on trustworthy information, from journalists and policymakers to educators and the public. Ensuring transparency in how AI is used protects the credibility of all published knowledge. In education and research, AI can generate text, improve writing style, and even analyse data. It saves time and…
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), has called on African countries to embrace nuclear energy as a strategic solution to the continent’s deepening energy crisis. In a statement on Saturday, Executive Secretary of ECA, Claver Gatete, said that it was unacceptable that over 600 million Africans still lacked access to electricity. Gatete described the…
Newly elected president of the Board of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Dr. George Elombi, has hinted of plans to lead the bank to change the structure of African trade with a focus on developing the continent to favourably compete with other continents. The president said his key priorities will be to “change the structure of…
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka wouldn’t want women’s tennis to move to best-of-five-set matches at Grand Slam tournaments — like the men play — fearing higher injury risks. “Probably physically I’m one of the strongest ones, so maybe it would benefit me. But I think I’m not ready to play five sets,” Sabalenka said following her two-set…
