Meta Platforms is testing a paid consumer subscription tier for WhatsApp, a significant pivot for a messaging service that has defined its global dominance through a strictly free-to-use model. Read: Bandwidth Blog & Smile 90.4FM Tech Tuesday: Apple smart glasses! The new offering, titled WhatsApp Plus, was first spotted in recent Android beta builds and…
More than 20 years after an unsuccessful attempt to record a commercial oil discovery within the Nigeria-Sao Tome & Principe Joint Development Zone (JDZ), the two countries are calling for willing investors, particularly independent producers in Nigeria, to go into aggressive search for hydrocarbon in the ultra-deep frontier basin. The Nigeria-Sao Tome & Principe Joint…
Extreme heat is pushing global food and farming systems to the brink, threatening the livelihoods of over a billion people as rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves redefine how food is produced worldwide, a new UN report warns. The joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) finds…
United States President Donald Trump has claimed that a new nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran will be “far better” than the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which the US withdrew from in 2018 during his first term. On Tuesday, Trump extended the two-week ceasefire with Iran a day before it was set…
A safety and security reporting feature has been added to the city’s app. (Image: supplied) Cape Town’s safety and security directorate has added emergency reporting to the city’s mobile application. The functionality, developed by the emergency policing incident control team within the safety and security directorate, allows the public to report by-law and criminal acts….
Climate change is reshaping what childhood looks like. We’re seeing it across Eastern and Southern Africa, with children paying the highest price for a climate crisis they did not create. In Kenya, floods are pushing girls out of school. In Somalia, repeated shocks have displaced millions of children. In Mozambique, cyclones have destroyed thousands of…
ABUJA, Nigeria / NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 22 2026 (IPS) – In many countries across Africa, people have recently lined up to vote. But in country after country, there has been no real choice on offer. As CIVICUS’s 2026 State of Civil Society Report documents, what has frequently been on display is a procedural ceremony of…
Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 19, 2026. Daniel Heuer | Bloomberg | Getty Images A Houston federal court judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by FBI Director Kash Patel alleging that former FBI official…
Eskom CEO Dan Marokane. Image: Eskom Eskom has firmed up the timing of its long-awaited decision on the future of five of South Africa’s oldest coal-fired power stations, saying it will decide by the end of September on whether to proceed with their orderly shutdown, repowering or repurposing — with the call hinging on whether…
As progress on malaria stalls, the case for local research in Africa is stronger than ever, write Edwine Barasa of KEMRI-Wellcome Research Programme and David Mukanga at the Gates Foundation. [SciDev.Net] As we mark World Malaria Day (25 April), Africa finds itself at an uncomfortable crossroads. After two decades of measurable progress in public health,…
