On Friday the General Assembly was briefed on the latest developments of the UN80 Initiative – a system-wide reform effort to make the organisation more effective and fit for the future – including progress on the New Humanitarian Compact and on training and research reforms. Teams under the leadership of UN Secretary-General António Guterres have…
Standard Bank’s Bill Blackie Standard Bank has rolled out a substantially upgraded business banking platform that shifts greater control to customers, allowing businesses to manage their own electronic payment limits, user entitlements and fraud protections without calling a relationship manager. The R1-billion re-platforming project, built in collaboration with vendor Backbase, represents the bank’s bid to…
The trade, industry & competition department has announced a number of measures to help South Africa’s ailing film and television industry, including raising funds and implementing an automated system to reduce processing time and improve effectiveness for financing. Minister Parks Tau and deputy minister Zuko Godlimpi briefed parliament on Tuesday on the department’s plans. This…
Rising food prices and declining farm incomes are putting increasing pressure on the global food system, with up to 720 million people facing hunger last year, and billions more struggling to afford healthy diets. These numbers point to an even deeper crisis: in 2024, an estimated 2.3 billion people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity,…
There are 1.3 million civil servants on the state’s payroll. (Image by 123RF) Government has elevated professionalising the public service workforce as a key priority for state capacity, recommendingadequate training for priority technical skills, among others. This was highlighted recently as Maropene Ramokgopa, minister in the Presidency responsible for planning, monitoring and evaluation, detailed government’s…
Following its landmark acquisition of MultiChoice Group, French media giant Canal+ is exploring a major shift in how African viewers access content. The company is considering deploying its all-in-one streaming application to MultiChoice’s vast customer base in Southern and Eastern Africa, potentially bringing global partnerships with Apple TV+ and HBO Max under a single interface….
Apple plans to revamp Siri later this year by turning the digital assistant into the company’s first artificial intelligence chatbot, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday (paywall). The chatbot, code named Campos, will be embedded deeply into the iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems and will replace the current Siri interface, the report said, citing people…
President Masoud Pezeshkian strikes conciliatory tone in interview broadcast on state TV but accuses US and Israel of fuelling unrest that has killed dozens. Published On 11 Jan 202611 Jan 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share President Masoud Pezeshkian has pledged to overhaul Iran’s struggling economy, saying his government is “ready…
Google is rolling out a new wave of artificial intelligence features in Gmail, aiming to turn the e-mail service into what it has described as a more proactive “inbox assistant” as e-mail volumes continue to grow. The updates form part of Google’s broader push to embed Gemini across its consumer products, following similar integrations in…
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech at the Meta Connect annual event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on Sept. 25, 2024. Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was so optimistic last year about his company’s Llama family of artificial intelligence models that he predicted they would become the…
