Powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebukes claims she is open to more “communication”. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has rebuked claims from the South Korean government that Pyongyang was leaving room for more “communication” following an incident involving drones on the border between both countries. “As far as Seoul’s various hope-filled wild dreams called ‘repair of relations’ are concerned, they all can never come true,” she said on Wednesday, according to North Korean state media. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung described the incident as a “serious crime that threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and national security”. South Korea’s Ministry of Unification interpreted the message as a sign that Pyongyang was open to more “communication”, the country’s Yonhap News Agency said.

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:Chennai Central MP Dayanidhi Maran’s remarks on Tuesday that women in northern India were told to stay in the kitchen, while women in Tamil Nadu were told to pursue studies, has stirred a controversy. “In Tamil Nadu, we keep telling you should pursue studies. What are they saying in North India? You stay in the kitchen. He was speaking at a function in Quaid-E-Millath Government College for Women, where Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin distributed laptops to students.

News FinancesEIB Global invested $80 million in RMBV North Africa III, becoming the fund’s anchor investorThe fund targets more than $300 million in total investments across Egypt and North AfricaAt least 30% of investments will support gender equality, including women-led businessesThe European Investment Bank, through its international development arm EIB Global, announced a $80 million investment in RMBV North Africa III Fund to expand its support for Egypt’s private sector. The fund represents the first vehicle managed by RMBV as an independent fund manager. The initiative aims to boost growth and resilience in a key segment of the Egyptian economy while generating spillover effects across North Africa. The fund will target high-potential local companies operating in strategic sectors including consumer goods, healthcare, and education. The fund also committed to allocating at least 30% of its investments to initiatives that directly promote gender equality, including support for women-led businesses.

Morocco's head coach Walid Regragui observes during the Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal match between Cameroon and Morocco, in Rabat, Morocco on January 9, 2026. Regragui’s team reached the semifinals of the 2022 World Cup but disappointed at the last Africa Cup in Ivory Coast. It is under huge pressure to win the tournament as host and end a 50-year wait since Morocco won its only Africa Cup title in 1976. But Regragui can only focus on the field, where he expects an exhibition on Wednesday with the continent’s best teams and players competing in ideal conditions. “Good stadiums, good playing fields, good climate, and I think the players you should have in the semifinals: Salah, Ballon d’Or, Hakimi, Ballon d’Or, Lookman, Ballon d’Or, Osimhen, Ballon d’Or, Mané, Ballon d’Or,” Regragui said, referring to all the African Footballer of the Year awards they had won.

The project originated from a discussion in the Genome Analysis Working Group of H3Africa and supported by the National Institutes of Health NHGRI and coordinator of the H3Africa consortium, who helped us successfully navigate the intricacies of the project. Each of the participating centres generously contributed time, expertise and samples collected under other projects, and persevered through delays and many difficulties. The AWI-Gen Collaborative Center and its supplements were funded by the NHGRI, grant number U54HG006938 as part of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa Consortium. The National Research Foundation of South Africa funded the collection, transport and DNA extractions with the African Origin Platforms grant 136511 to M.E.D. Gates Foundation, grant investment ID INV-036801, supported some of the AGenDA work in Zimbabwe.

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Morocco’s Ministry of Health and Social Protection is implementing a collaborative information system designed to centralize, secure, and disseminate national protocols for prevention, screening, diagnosis, and patient care. The digital transformation of the healthcare system extends to how medical protocols are designed, disseminated, and adopted by field professionals. The ministry’s project targets conception and implementation of a collaborative information system dedicated to managing and distributing health program protocols. The project relies on creating a native mobile application enabling structured protocol consultation by health program, pathology, and procedure type. Through this collaborative information system, the ministry establishes foundations for modernized health protocol management oriented toward usage, coordination, and medical information security.

Tunisia boasted strong organizations, led first and foremost by the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), which helped facilitate both the revolution and political transition. Saied has imprisoned the leaders of all major political parties and sidelined parties more generally in his “bottom-up” political process. Revolution under new constraintsNone of this is to say that a revolution today would not succeed. Meanwhile, existing political parties and civil society organizations must reinvent themselves, offering new faces and new ideas, to win back their public support. While licensing new political parties is unlikely in today’s repressive environment, organizing into more informal, social movements—such as the anti-pollution protest movement that rocked Gabes last fall—can offer similar organizational advantages.

Our prehistoric human ancestors relied on deliberately modified and sharpened stone tools as early as 3.3 million years ago. This persistence suggests that these early humans had developed a successful survival strategy that worked across a wide range of ecological settings. Nearby outcrops offered a variety of raw materials, but early humans selected the most suitable types of rock for their needs. Understanding the functional importance of these stone tools from this site is crucial to evaluating their evolutionary significance. One clue comes from a fossilised animal bone found at the site, bearing cut marks made by sharp-edged stone tools.

#AI SolvFast to Launch AI-Powered Digital Transformation Platform in Egypt and Saudi Arabia in 2026 The platform delivers an integrated suite of more than 50 business applications unified within a single ecosystem. SolvFast, an AI-powered digital transformation platform, is preparing to officially launch its operations in Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2026, marking a strategic expansion aimed at accelerating digital transformation across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The platform delivers an integrated suite of more than 50 business applications unified within a single ecosystem. He added that the company aims to support digital transformation efforts, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises, helping them transition from fragmented legacy systems to integrated, intelligent solutions. SolvFast positions itself as an end-to-end digital transformation platform, enabling organizations to adopt AI-driven business environments without complex programming.

They are subject to long-term customer trust issues as supply chain disruption becomes a permanent feature of global trade. The report is based on a survey of 680 senior logistics and supply chain decision-makers across eight industries and nine regions. Clear geographical fault lineThe data reveals a sharp geographical divide in how logistics disruption is experienced. In the UK, just 17% of firms report disruption costs at that level. Between 80% and 95% of respondents globally say logistics disruption has increased customer complaints.

Check Point Research, the Threat Intelligence arm of Check Point Software Technologies, has released its December 2025 Global Cyber Attack Statistics, revealing a cyberthreat landscape increasingly defined by ransomware growth, regional concentration of cyberattacks and rising data exposure linked to enterprise use of Generative AI. Regionally, Latin America saw the sharpest increase in cyberattacks worldwide with organisations experiencing an average of 3,065 cyberattacks per week, representing a 26% year-over-year increase, the highest growth rate of any region. Africa saw a year-on-year decline, indicating a shift in criminal focus rather than a reduction in threat levels. The most attacked industries in Africa in December were financial services, transportation and logistics, and government. “The data highlights how attackers are expanding operations into fast-digitising regions where security maturity varies significantly,” said Hendrik de Bruin, Head Security Consulting, Check Point Software.

Reading Time: 2 minutesCoimbatore-based wind turbine operations and maintenance (O&M) company, GreenTech, has raised INR 30 crore in its first funding round, led entirely by Transition VC through a mix of equity and debt. Founded in 2018, GreenTech specializes in multi-brand wind asset management, offering integrated solutions ranging from full-scope O&M and predictive maintenance to SCADA modernization, component repairs, and crane-less major component replacement. Traditionally, wind O&M in India has been dominated by OEMs using reactive maintenance models, often leading to delayed fault detection, higher operational costs, and underperformance. GreenTech’s technology-driven platform addresses these inefficiencies through real-time anomaly detection, failure forecasting, advanced blade inspection, and remote turbine monitoring, allowing a shift from time-based to condition-based predictive maintenance strategies. Commenting on the funding, Daniel Raj, Founder of GreenTech, said, “GreenTech is committed to elevating wind asset management through data-driven maintenance, predictive analytics, technology-driven operations, and comprehensive multi-brand expertise that enhance turbine performance and reduce downtime.

New Delhi: To ease documentation requirements for exporters trading with West Asia and North Africa (WANA), the government has authorised the India & Arab Countries Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (IACCIA) to issue non-preferential certificates of origin, according to a government order. In FY25, India’s merchandise exports to key WANA markets were over $64 billion, while total bilateral trade with the region exceeded $216 billion, the commerce ministry data showed. The largest export destination in the region continues to be the UAE, where India’s exports rose to $36.64 billion in FY25, up from $35.63 billion in FY24. India’s exports to Kuwait declined to $1.93 billion, and those to Bahrain fell to $0.80 billion during the year. Exports to Qatar, where India has begun discussions to explore a free trade agreement, were valued at $1.68 billion in FY25, broadly flat year-on-year.