SEOUL: North Korea fired a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, Seoul’s military said, hours after Pyongyang sent hundreds of trash-filled balloons across the border to punish South Korea. The launch follows a failed attempt by the nuclear-armed North to put a second spy satellite into orbit on Monday, shortly after Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo held a rare summit and called for Pyongyang to give up their nukes. North Korea also hit back at the UN Security Council, which will hold a meeting on Friday to discuss the failed satellite launch, which violated a raft of UN sanctions on Pyongyang’s use of ballistic technology. Seoul’s military said it had detected the launch of what is suspected to be “around 10 short-range ballistic missiles”, fired into waters east of the Korean peninsula. Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2024

But what exactly is “impact investing”, and what forms does it take on the continent? Adegboye, then, suggests Madica is not an impact investor by the “traditional definition”, but yet it does have impact. But what about the old adage that any investment in an African startup is by definition an impact investment? “The question is how much impact does it have, and is it a positive or a negative one. I think the dimension of the impact of an investment is important – we shouldn’t try to just put that in a box, saying impact investing is about having impact, and therefore other forms of investing which are not impact investing don’t care about the impact.

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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The real politicking in South Africa may start after the final results of this week’s election are announced as the country faces the possibility of no outright winner. That means that as South Africa senses a landmark moment, there are complications coming if the ANC remains below 50%. South Africans vote for parties in national elections and not directly for their president. The national election results must be announced within seven days of polls closing on Wednesday. The independent electoral commission that runs the election says the results will be declared by Sunday, well within the time limit.

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un confirmed Wednesday that North Korea sent the balloons and attached trash sacks. Experts say the balloon campaigning is meant to stoke a division in South Korea over its conservative government’s hardline policy on North Korea. Since Tuesday night, about 260 balloons flown from North Korea have been discovered across South Korea. AdvertisementIn 2020, North Korea blew up an empty, South Korean-built liaison office on its territory in protest of South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. But observers say outside experts can get such information more easily from North Korean defectors, their contacts in North Korea and Chinese border towns, and North Korean state publications.

Mastercard and HSBC Middle East have joined forces to introduce the Mastercard Wholesale Program (MWP) in the Middle East, with a specific focus on the travel industry. By leveraging Mastercard’s virtual card innovation, the initiative seeks to streamline and secure B2B travel transactions. Khalid Elgibali, chief operating officer, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Mastercard, emphasized in the release the importance of card payments in driving the travel economy. Kyle Boag, head of global payments solutions for HSBC in the Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye region, highlighted the significance of digital tools in maximizing sales opportunities for customers. B2B payments play a significant role in powering the travel economy, and the Mastercard Wholesale Program aims to accelerate the adoption of virtual cards for travel transactions, bringing benefits across the travel value chain.

Last week, a heavy hitting consortium of companies unveiled plans for a $550 billion solar farm to be built in the sunblasted North African desert. The plan called for the biggest ever deployment of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), a massive effort that could supply 15 percent of Europe's power. CSP entails using mirrors to redirect the sun's rays to heat up water or oil with a concentrated heat beam. Ideally, this will also power large-scale desalination plants to green North Africa and stimulate agriculture. I spoke to Travis Bradford, a noted expert on solar energy and the executive director of the Prometheus Institute, about the project.

Moso Bolofo, Director of Steinmüller Africa, spoke to ESI Africa about their decades-long presence in South Africa, servicing industries where steam is used for their processes. Bolofo said the company is currently supporting 8 Eskom coal-fired power stations. Find out what other novel technologies Steinmuller Africa has introduced to the energy sector. This interview took place at the ESI Africa Studio at Enlit Africa 2024.

Microsoft announced the introduction of its first African Startups AI Fest at GITEX Africa in Marrakech, Morocco. The African Startups AI Fest will bring together founders, entrepreneurs, business decision-makers, engineers and developers in the startups space from across the continent. Legal Interact is an Independent Software Vendor that has integrated Microsoft AI into its software and recently launched the first AI lawyer in South Africa. Attendees of the inaugural African Startups AI Fest will be introduced to these and other startup success stories on the continent. The organisation aims to reach 6,000 to 10,000 of these businesses and provide them with customised support through the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub programmes.

New satellite imagery released Wednesday by Maxar Technologies shows the pier Tuesday immediately after several of the pier sections were knocked loose, and the pier as it looked Saturday prior to the damage. Aid delivery has been hampered by unreliable land routes vulnerable to the intense scrutiny of Israeli checkpoints and fighting inside Gaza. As fighting has intensified in Rafah at the southern end of Gaza, aid efforts have been effectively shut off. How the pier works:US-built Gaza pier now open, trucks deliver aid to population isolated by Israel-Hamas warWill the Gaza pier be repaired? Thus, upon completion of the pier repair and reassembly, the intention is to re-anchor the temporary pier to the coast of Gaza and resume humanitarian aid to the people who need it most," Singh told reporters Tuesday.

Visa has welcomed 22 startups from across Africa to its fintech accelerator program. This 12-week program provides mentorship, training, networking opportunities, and access to funding for the fintech startups. These startups, representing diverse solutions, will embark on the program, which aims to boost the continent's financial landscape. Selected from 28 African countries, these companies offer various solutions, from neo-banking to social commerce, poised to address the pressing challenges and opportunities in Africa's fintech Fintech Financial Technology (fintech) is defined as ay technology that is geared towards automating and enhancing the delivery and application of financial services. The origin of the term fintechs can be traced back to the 1990s where it was primarily used as a back-end system technology for renowned financial institutions.

Algeria’s state-owned energy firm Sonatrach expects to sign in the coming days an agreement with Chevron that is set to boost the country’s natural gas production, Algerian Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab has said. Algeria, the North African OPEC producer, is looking to raise its natural gas production and exports and will remain a key provider of gas to Europe, the minister said. Last week, the other U.S. supermajor, ExxonMobil, signed an agreement with the Algerian government for exploration at two natural gas fields in the North African country. Algeria holds huge conventional natural gas reserves, and it is also estimated to have the third–largest shale gas reserves in the world after China and Argentina. Most of Algeria’s gas exports are heading to Europe, which is increasingly betting on Africa to import large volumes of pipeline gas and LNG to replace pipeline gas supply from Russia, which was Europe’s top gas supplier before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

VANCOUVER, BC, May 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - TAG Oil Ltd. (TSXV: TAO) (OTCQX: TAOIF) (FSE: T0P) ("TAG Oil" or the "Company") is pleased to report the filing of its financial results for the interim period ending March 31, 2024. About TAG Oil Ltd.TAG Oil (http://www.tagoil.com/) is a Canadian based international oil and gas exploration company with a focus on operations and opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa. Actual results may vary materially from the information provided in this release, and there is no representation by TAG Oil that the actual results realized in the future will be the same in whole or in part as those presented herein. TAG Oil undertakes no obligation, except as otherwise required by law, to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors change. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tag-oil-reports-fiscal-q1-2024-results-302159215.htmlSOURCE TAG Oil Ltd.

The prospect of the ANC co-opting Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to stay in power after Wednesday’s election strikes fear into investors and the white upper-middle class he rails against. The EFF’s promises to nationalise the country’s gold and platinum mines and seize land from white farmers are among proposals they fear threaten not just their privileges but also Africa’s most industrialised economy.

In a remarkable breakthrough, a rare discovery in Florida has shed new light on the evolutionary timeline of North America’s solitary porcupine species. Evolutionary puzzle of North America’s porcupineFor years, the evolutionary history of North America’s lone porcupine has puzzled scientists. While Central and South America boast 16 porcupine species, North America has just one. Their journey to South America is marked as a significant event in mammalian history, occurring when the continents of Africa and South America were much closer together, possibly involving rafting across oceans. Ancient origins of North America’s porcupinesThe analysis of the Florida skeleton highlighted both similarities and differences with modern North American porcupines, suggesting a complex evolutionary history that predates the formation of the Isthmus of Panama.