Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Africa Tech News

Amazon alleged in a legal filing published that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional.
SpaceX and companies that, like Amazon, have repeatedly faced labor law violations from the federal agency have recently made similar attacks that threaten national worker protections.
Amazon claims that the NLRB’s structure is unconstitutional because administrative law judges are insulated from presidential oversight, thus violating the separation of powers. The company also argues against the structure of NLRB itself, as well as its ability to fine a company for unfair labor practices after a hearing, rather than a full jury trial.

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Partech has closed its second Africa fund, Partech Africa II, at $300 million+, just one year after reaching its first close.
Partech Africa, which originally targeted €230 million before its fundraising efforts started, solidifies its position as the largest fund dedicated to African startups.
Amidst a backdrop of global VCs and institutional investors pulling back from Africa, Partech Africa’s recent fund closure is significant.
The continent witnessed a notable decline in investor activity, with a 50% decrease in 2023 compared to the previous year, as highlighted in a Partech report.
This retreat, influenced by global economic shifts and local challenges, translated into reduced venture capital inflows for African startups, totalling between $2.9 billion and $4.1 billion last year, down from $4.6 billion to $6.5 billion in 2022.

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African fintech giant Flutterwave is seeking to retrieve $24 million illegally transferred in October 2023 through a combination of a technical glitch and potentially fraudulent activity by POS merchants.
The fintech company will reach out to over 6,000 account holders across 35 banks and financial institutions involved in unauthorised transactions.
A recent High Court ruling will allow Flutterwave to contact account holders via email, SMS, and WhatsApp messages, with assistance from a recovery agency to recover the funds, according to court documents

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A group of traders are threatening to sue the Uganda Communications Commission if it does not reopen Facebook within two weeks.
The notice states that the traders have lost approximately 3,874,000 clients who were active Facebook subscribers in Uganda at the time of the closure, along with 2.9 billion potential clients in the global market.
Per Luyimbazi Nalukoola, the lawyer representing the traders, the continued closure of Facebook has resulted in significant financial losses for its members, estimated at around UGX 66 billion, it also extends to their supply chain, affecting 650 boda bodas, 88 lorries and pickups, and 180 taxis.
Ugandans now use VPNs to access Facebook, while many have stopped using the platform altogether.

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Tech firms in the UK will have to take more responsibility for the content on their platform.
The UK government has passed an Online Safety Bill that places immense responsibility on tech giants to ensure children’s safety in the digital world.
Social media platforms must ensure that age limits are enforced and that children are protected from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content.
The Act also creates new offenses, like addressing cyber-flashing and deepfake pornography, which utilises AI technology.
Companies that fail to adhere to these regulations would face fines of up to £18 million ($21.7 million) or 10% of their annual global earnings, potentially amounting to billions of pounds for major corporations.

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Nigerian commercial bank, Fidelity Bank, has quashed its qualms with neobanks and reinstated customer transfers to OPay, Moniepoint, Palmpay and Kuda.
Fidelity claimed that the removal was due to ongoing upgrades, other sources stated that it was due to KYC violations from the neobanks.
Neobanks saysthat they had been in contact with the commercial bank to resolve all concerns. The reinstatement however was also due to one regulator, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, expressing displeasure at Fidelity’s move.

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Paddy Cosgrave has stepped down as CEO of Web Summit, the 14-year-old conference business that he cofounded and which has gone on to host one of Europe’s biggest annual tech events, along with four other events around the globe.
Following a week of controversy surrounding comments Cosgrave made about Israel and Palestine.
The conference organizers say they will be appointing a new CEO as soon as possible and that Web Summit 2023 in Lisbon will go ahead as planned.
The move comes on the heels of a series of remarks from Cosgrave in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which set off a chain of angry responses from Israelis and increasingly a wider swath of people throughout the technology community.

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Sony has launched the Sony Innovation Fund to support the growth of entertainment startups on the continent.
Sony will invest about $10 million in seed to early-stage startups across gaming, music, movie and content distribution sectors.
Gen Tsuchikawa, CEO of Sony Ventures, says that in addition to the fund’s seed and early-stage investment strategy, it will offer follow-on investments to its portfolio companies.
Sony is also collaborating with the International Finance Corporation, the largest global development institution focused on the private sector.
The partnership will support the growth of the entertainment industry in Africa by leveraging the strengths of both parties.

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Kippa, the Nigerian fintech, which provides bookkeeping and finance management tools for small businesses, is discontinuing its agency banking business, KippaPay.
The startup also plans to lay off 40 employees associated with the product.
The company declared that KippaPay would be discontinued starting November 15. Sources also claim layoff notices have been sent out to affected staff, with their final day set for November 30.
The company however, says the decision to discontinue KippaPay is part of a strategic effort to streamline its product offerings and focus on the most financially viable and successful aspects of its business.

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The World Bank is flexing Kenya’s data protection laws. The international financial organisation suggested changes to the Kenyan Data Protection Act of 2019, advising the Kenyan government against the localisation of data.
The global lender has asked Kenya to revoke a law that forces companies to store sensitive personal data on servers located within the country.
The World Bank says the law is limiting cross-border trade in digital services.
It’s asking Kenya to upgrade its current Data Protection Act and adopt compatible and interoperable standards. It also adviced the scrapping of data localisation requirement for the Kenya’s Health Information System Policy.

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Amazon, the e-commerce giant will launch its online shopping service in South Africa in 2024. South Africa will become the second African country, after Egypt, to host a locally-dedicated Amazon shopping website.
Amazon says that independent sellers in South Africa could register their businesses on its marketplace website—Amazon.co.za—starting next year.
The launch of Amazon’s service comes at a time when South Africa has seen a sharp rise in online shopping after the pandemic brought an opportunity for e-commerce to finally take hold and contribute meaningfully to traditional sales.
Amazon’s platform in South Africa is still being finalised, as it must comply with local competition laws requiring online retailers to separate their retail and marketplace businesses.

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The country’s Competition Commission has launched a Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry to scrutinise the distribution of media content on South African digital platforms.
The inquiry follows a complaint lodged by Publisher Support Services in 2021, an industry association representing several South African news publishers.
PSS has argued that the transition to digital news consumption and advertising has had a negative impact on news media businesses, with many seeing a decline in advertising revenue and an increase in costs.
The investigation will specifically assess how these markets affect the online presence and competitive stance of smaller news entities, such as community and African language news outlets.
It will also evaluate the variety of news accessible to the public; search engines, social media sites, video-sharing platforms, news aggregators, and ad-tech market participants will all be under scrutiny.

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Vodacom agreed to pay a R1 million fine levied by South Africa’s National Consumer Tribunal.
Vodacom violated the Consumer Protection Act by imposing substantial penalties on customers who wished to cancel their fixed-term contracts.
These penalties amounted to 75% of the remaining contract balance, effectively preventing customers from exercising their right to terminate their contracts early.
The Consumer Protection Act in South Africa allows subscribers to cancel such contracts before their designated end dates, provided they give a 20-day notice to the network operator and are subject to a reasonable cancellation fee.

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MTN-owned fibre solutions Bayobab announced that its subsea internet cable, 2Africa, has landed in Nigeria and Ghana.
TechCabal reports that the cable was set to land in Nigeria in November 2023.
The 45,000-kilometre cable is being hailed as the world’s largest subsea cable project, and Bayobab, which is backed by Meta, says the cable will provide Ghanaian and Nigerian internet providers with more capacity and fairer access to data centres, leading to faster, more reliable internet for businesses and individuals alike.

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The Nigerian government has reintroduced a bill aimed at regulating digital platforms, including social media.
The bill proposes a number of measures, including requiring social media users to register with the government and giving the government the power to censor social media content.
The commission’s director-general, Balarabe Ilelah, referred to social media as a monster and emphasised the need for regulation.
NBC says it is engaging Google and TikTok regarding the upcoming social media regulation bill, aiming to examine the legal and regulatory structures that apply to social media platforms in Nigeria.

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Trezor, a hardware crypto wallet company, debuted two new products this week at the Bitcoin Amsterdam conference.
Trezor Safe 3, a hardware crypto wallet, and Trezor Keep Metal, a “mistake-proof” backup solution for wallet passwords, launched in celebration of the company’s 10-year anniversary.
Matěj Žák, CEO of Trezor, says the new crypto wallet is designed specifically for new digital asset entrants with a focus on maximum safety and ease of use.
Also it’s arguably better sometimes to keep cryptocurrencies on a wallet instead of a centralized exchange, where they can be frozen and withheld like Celsius did in June 2022, because it gives you total control over the tokens.

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Airtel Uganda has shifted the closing date for its initial public offering from October 13 to October 27.
The company will begin trading its shares on November 7 instead of the initial November 3.
Airtel is offering 20% of its total stock, 8 billion shares, on the main investment market segment of the Uganda Securities Exchange at Shs100 ($0.0269) per share.
Airtel opened its IPO for subscription on August 30, 2023, and was expected to close by October 13. T
he company expects to raise Shs800 billion which would value the telecom at Shs4 trillion.

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Rida Nigeria is gearing up to unveil an ambitious and exciting helicopter taxi service for Lagos commuters.
The helicopter tariff programme aims to help commuters to break free from the shackles of Lagos commercial traffic
Rida Nigeria’s simple, yet revolutionary idea is aimed at elevating daily commutes by providing an unparalleled air travel experience, transcending the limitations of traditional land-based transportation.
Although the proposed launch date has yet to be confirmed, Rida Nigeria remains steadfast in its commitment to providing innovative ride-hailing solutions, and the possibility of a helicopter service is not far-fetched.

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Zimbabwe launched a new gold-backed digital currency in an effort to halt re-dollarization, which the administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa worries could destroy the country's already struggling economy.
The digital tokens, also known as Zimbabwe Gold which are primarily measured in milligrams, can be used for transactions by both private individuals and businesses.
They can be purchased via banks in ZiG, while bank customers can make purchases with ZiG accounts through POS systems or online payments.
Zimbabwe introduced gold coins in July 2022 to be used in peer-to-peer and peer-to-business transactions, as well as serve as a store of value as the local currency continued to depreciate against major currencies.

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The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority banned the use of VPNs without a permit in the country.
The TCRA clarified that using VPNs is not prohibited, but users must report the VPNs they use and provide necessary information.
Residents and citizens must fill out a form available on the TCRA website by October 30, 2023, providing their individual user IP addresses and specifying whether the VPN is for individual or company use.
Tanzania has become the second East African country to implement regulations on VPN usage.

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Onsurity, an Indian startup that offers monthly subscription-based insurance solutions to micro, small and medium enterprises, startups and growing businesses, has raised $24 million in a funding round led by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.
India has over 63 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), covering close to 400 million employees and supporting 675 million families.
Onsurity aims to fill the gap with its suite of offerings designed specifically for MSMEs enterprises and emerging businesses.
It also integrates healthcare and wellness benefits to let enterprises — irrespective of their size — allow their employees to access health checkups, fitness membership.

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Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, has teamed up with US billionaire investors to back a $500 million Africa-focused fund.
The investors, Alterra Capital Partners, an Africa-focused private equity firm, has ambitious plans to raise up to $500 million in the coming months and has already secured $140 million in its initial closing.
The firm’s investment strategy is centred around critical sectors, including telecommunications, technology, logistics, healthcare, consumer services, and retail.
The firm has invested approximately $1 billion across 23 companies in Africa, indicating a significant track record in the region.

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An industry group representing several major U.S. tech companies has opposed the Indian government’s proposal against dark patterns and said the move would adversely affect the state promise of enabling ease of doing business in the economy and bring regulatory overlap with existing laws.
Asia Internet Coalition has suggested that the proposed rules may stagnate the growth of the country’s digital economy and urged the Indian government to consider the current self-regulatory framework as the primary measure to restrict the use of dark patterns.
The industry group also says online platforms are already regulated in the country under various existing laws.

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Telkom reportedly lost 1.6 million subscribers in one year, according to a report by tech publication Business Daily.
Telkom had 2.25 million active Kenyan subscribers in June 2023, a 39% drop from March 2022’s 4.14 million subscribers.
The Communications Authority of Kenya earlier began switching off inactive and irregularly registered SIM cards in the country.
Other Kenyan telecoms were also affected by the deregistration exercise with Safaricom and Airtel—who lead Kenya’s telecoms market—reporting slow growth since last year.

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The Space X-owned service which kicked off in Nigeria has snaked its way across the continent, launching in Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia even eSwatini, all while avoiding South Africa.
Starlink won’t acquiesce to South Africa’s equity requirement: that 30% of its company or any foreign company launching in the country must be owned by South Africans.
South Africans are however using Starlink though via resellers like IT Lec and StarSat.
Starlink says resellers are violating its terms of use, and its copyrights by using the Starlink logo for their marketing.
The SpaceX-owned company has also asked resellers to cease all unauthorised resales immediately.

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Google has introduced its inaugural Africa AI First accelerator programme.
Google says eleven startups were selected to address Africa’s challenges and broader global issues.
These startups will undergo a 10-week accelerator journey, gaining access to Google’s AI expertise, receiving $350,000 in Google Cloud Credits, benefiting from mentorship, technical guidance, and extensive networking opportunities.
The selected startups are; Avalon Health (South Africa), Chatbots Africa (Ghana), Dial Afrika Inc (Kenya), Famasi Africa (Nigeria), Fastagger Inc (Kenya), Garri Logistics (Ethiopia), Izifin (Nigeria), Lengo AI (Senegal), Logistify AI (Uganda), Telliscope (Ethiopia) and Vzy (Nigeria).

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Twiga has confirmed that it is in talks with Incentro Africa, a Google services reseller, to resolve their ongoing legal tussle.
Twiga was taken to court by Incentro to recover a $261,878 debt. Incentro Africa asked the court to give a liquidation notice to Twiga if the debt remained unpaid.
Twiga appealed the notice, arguing that Incentro’s court filing was in bad faith. The startup also confirmed that it is in talks with Google Ireland over the cloud service bill. Twiga objected to the liquidation demand, citing that it was made in bad faith. It is currently engaged in discussions with Google Ireland Limited, the primary provider of Google Cloud Services.

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Volkswagen’s $2.1 billion plan to launch a dedicated electric-vehicle factory in Wolfsburg, Germany is kaput.
The automaker instead reportedly plans to modify its existing plants in Zwickau and Wolfsburg to handle production of a new flagship EV — the postponed Project Trinity — and an all-electric Golf hatchback.
VW passenger cars boss Thomas Schaefer says VW’s roof is on fire in a meeting with senior leaders, citing the company’s need to overhaul its “complex, slow, and inflexible” processes.
VW still hasn’t really proved itself in electrics due to decreased demand.

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Some digital lenders have resumed harassing borrowers on their platform, even in cases where laws protect them against personal data abuse.
The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has fined three entities a total of KES 9.3 million in a move set to further enforce sanity in the online lending space in the country. Mulla Pride Ltd, which operates two online credit platforms, KeCredit and Faircash, has received a KES 2.9 million million penalty.
The ODPC, the company used personal contact information from third parties to shame borrowers into paying their loans.
The two lenders – KeCredit and Faircash – do not appear in the approved list by the Central Bank of Kenya.

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Kenya has officially joined the Pan African Payments and Settlement System.
The service was launched in January 2022 and is currently used by commercial banks and payment service providers in nine African countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Djibouti, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.
Kenya became the tenth country to join the service.
Trade Secretary Moses Kuria noted that the Central Bank of Kenya had signed the agreement and completed all the necessary formalities.
Kenyan companies can trade with their peers from other African member states using our local currencies, a major boost for the African Continental Free Trade Area

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inDrive has responded to calls for its banning in Botswana following complaints by local public transport operators.
The taxi association claimed that inDrive, launched in Botswana in December 2019, is operating without the necessary licences.
The taxi association argues that inDrive operators should be subject to the same regulations; the DRTS confirmed that it is investigating the complaint.
InDrive says that it is aware of the complaints levelled against the service. Vincent Lilane, the company’s business development rep for Southern Africa, says the Ministry of Transport in Botswana currently does not have a specific registration requirement for companies operating under this particular mobility category.

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The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, met with M.M. Tripathi, the Director-General of India’s National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology on the sidelines of the G20 Summit. The meeting was aimed at fostering a deeper understanding of the Indian digital economy and exploring avenues for knowledge sharing and collaboration.
Nigeria’s minister of communications, innovation, and digital economy, Bosun Tijani—underscored the importance of leveraging India’s vast expertise in digital technologies to bolster Nigeria’s digital economy.

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MTN has launched payments and remittance features within its MoMo app, doubling down on its fintech and mobile money play in South Africa.
The services will enable MTN users to send cash abroad and businesses to accept payments at a 4% service fee, which the company claims is half of what incumbents currently charge.
It has partnered with fintech platform Clicksendnow to provide the service in Zambia, Ghana, Cameroon, Rwanda, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Congo-Brazzaville, Benin, Guinea Conakry and Guinea Bissau.

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The United States Millennium Challenge Corporation has signed a $60 million deal with Kenya.
The agreement, known as the “Kenya Urban Mobility and Growth Threshold Program,” will support four mobility projects: the Integrated Transport Planning project, the First and Last Mile Connections project, the Detailed Land Use project, and the Bus Rapid Transit project.
The US will also finance the purchase of climate-friendly vehicles powered by electricity, hybrid, and biodiesel for the BRT network.
Kenya is committed to transitioning fully to zero-emission vehicles by 2040. So it has been welcoming a lot of mobility startups that are providing motorcycles, cars, shuttles, and buses.

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The Nigerian government, through the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, plans to team up with the Nigerian Exchange Limited to encourage startups to go public on the new NGX Technology Board.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, called for more investments in these startups, saying Nigeria has been too cosy with oil, and it’s time to spice things up and boost productivity in other sectors.
He stated that his ministry will work to make this happen by creating fintech-friendly regulations, facilitating access to funding, improving digital infrastructure, and supporting the export of tech products and services—all factors that will enhance startups’ scalability and profitability.
The NGX has also promised to further soften listing rules and improve the board for startups.

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The Central Bank of Nigeria eliminated the cap on exchange rates quoted by International Money Transfer Operators.
CBN previously controlled the exchange rate at which International Money Transfer Operators like Western Union and MoneyGram could sell foreign currency to Nigerians.
The CBN previously allowed the IMTOs to deviate from the official rate by a maximum of 2.5% (-2.5% to +2.5%).
The new development is in response to the suspected hoarding of foreign currency by Nigerian commercial banks.
The FG earlier gave a directive to commercial banks to release non-essential foreign currencies—currencies not needed for legitimate import payments, overseas travel allowances, or student tuition fees—to tame the naira’s depreciation against the dollar.

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East Africa’s private equity market has experienced significant growth in recent years.
Per the East Africa Venture Capital Association, a total of 478 deals worth $8.6 billion closed over the past decade. The region also recorded a jump in exit activity in FY 2022, marking the highest numbers in a decade.
The financial services sector recorded 14 exits, while the healthcare and energy sectors had nine and seven exits, respectively.
Kenya led with 36 exits, followed by Uganda with eight, and Rwanda with three. Tanzania and Ethiopia reported two and one exit, respectively.

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Amazon has agreed to invest up to $4 billion in the AI startup Anthropic as the e-commerce group steps up rivalry against Microsoft, Meta, Google and Nvidia in the fast-growing sector that many technologists believe could be the next great frontier.
The e-commerce group says it will initially invest $1.25 billion for a minority stake in Anthropic also operates an AI-powered, text-analyzing chatbot.
Amazon says it has an option to increase its investment in Anthropic to a total of $4 billion.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required a human safety operator to be present any time a self-driving truck operated on public roads in the state.
The win for the autonomous trucking industry comes after the California Senate passed the bill in mid-September.
The bill would have effectively banned driverless autonomous heavy-duty trucks from operating in the way they were designed.
Companies have to go through many rounds of permits in order to test and deploy in the state, per the rules set out by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

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South Africa’s electricity utility Eskom has stated that loadshedding is projected to be worse than it has ever been over the next 52-week period.
Eskom’s Week 36 system status report that the South African power utility projects that over the next 52-week period, rolling blackouts, known as load-shedding, will be much worse than it has ever been.
The report states that electricity generation capabilities will fail to meet the demand for all 52 weeks, the first time in the 15 years of load-shedding that this will happen.
The projection comes at a time when South Africa’s high-ranking officials have been promising less load-shedding in the coming months.

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U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema declined to order a Justice Department official to stay out of the government's advertising antitrust lawsuit against Google but said the department should think about it.
Google asked the Justice Department to consider requiring Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general in charge of antitrust, to recuse himself because of his work for a long list of Google critics.
The government has argued that Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite. Google has denied any wrongdoing. The Justice Department filed the advertising lawsuit in January in Arlington, Virginia, along with eight states, and nine other states joined in April.

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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan it plans to invest $2 billion in Turkey.
Michael Evans, president of Alibaba, made the comments in a meeting with Erdogan, according to a statement from the company's Turkish unit. It did not specify when the investment would be made.
Evans says Alibaba has invested $1.4 billion in Turkey through its unit Trendyol, one of Turkey's best-known e-commerce platforms.
Evans shared details about new investments such as a data centre and a logistics centre in Ankara and an export operation centre at Istanbul Airport.

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TikTok has been fined 345 million euros for breaching privacy laws regarding the processing of children's personal data in the European Union.
Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner says the Chinese-owned short-video platform breached a number of EU privacy laws between July 31, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020.
The DPC says TikTok's breaches included how in 2020 accounts for users under the age of 16 were set to "public" by default and that TikTok did not verify whether a user was actually a child user's parent or guardian when linked through the "family pairing" feature.
TikTok says it plans to further update its privacy materials to make the differences between public and private accounts clearer and that a private account will be pre-selected for new 16-17-year-old users when they register for the app from later this month.
The DPC gave TikTok three months to bring all its processing into compliance where infringements were found.

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Kenyan mobile money provider Safaricom is working on a partnership with Apple Inc. to integrate MPESA.
M-Pesa executed a similar move by integrating with the American payment platform PayPal, enabling customers to deposit funds from M-PESA into the American payment system.
Users had the option to transfer funds from PayPal into their M-PESA accounts.

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Ethiopia has partnered with Madras Security Printers Private Limited to produce new digital IDs, known as Fayda, for its 120 million people.
The government initiated Fayda ID enrollment last year, and since then, over 1.4 million Ethiopians have registered. Fayda IDs will incorporate biometric information, ensuring secure access to various public services and streamlined identity verification when opening new bank accounts.
Notably, the National Bank of Ethiopia, the nation’s central bank, will use Fayda as the primary ID for banking operations.
This ID system will rely on unique personal identifiers using iris and facial biometrics along with fingerprint identification.

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Flutterwave has launched Swap, a new product that will digitise the process of getting foreign exchange for Nigerians with the backing of the CBN.
The fintech is leveraging a partnership with Wema Bank, a commercial bank, and Kadavra BDC, a bureau de change, to provide liquidity and foreign exchange for the product.
Mr Folashodun Shonubi, the acting governor of the CBN, says that Swap could solve two major problems facing Nigeria’s foreign exchange market: the lack of collaboration between institutions and the dependence on cash.
Flutterwave will leverage its International Money Transfer Operator license from the CBN to bring in the foreign currency, Kadavra will use its BDC license to sell it, and Wema Bank will support the entire process.

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The European Union’s AI Act, a risk-based plan for regulating applications of artificial intelligence, has passed what looks to be the final big hurdle standing in the way of adoption after Member State representatives today voted to confirm the final text of the draft law.
The development follows the political agreement reached in December — clinched after marathon ‘final’ three-way talks between EU co-legislators which stretched over several days.
The work to turn agreed positions on scrappy negotiation sheets into a final compromise text for lawmakers approval kicked off — culminating in today’s Coreper vote affirming the draft rules.
The planned regulation sets out a list of prohibited uses of AI (aka unacceptable risk), such as using AI for social scoring; brings in some governance rules for high risk uses (where AI apps might harm health, safety, fundamental rights, environment, democracy and the rule of law).

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Elon Musk has confirmed that he in essence scuttled a Ukrainian military strike on Russia by refusing to allow Starlink to be used in the process.
The billionaire claims the decision was made to avoid being complicit in a major act of war,but it also raises serious questions regarding the role of oligarchs in military matters.
Musk says when Ukraine made an emergency request to activate it, he refused, and the drones lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly, obviously leaving the Russian ships untouched.

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Flutterwave is teaming up with India’s IndusInd Bank to launch its Send App remittance product right into the heart of India.
IndusInd Bank boasts an impressive 35 million customers. This strategic alliance is all about connecting Flutterwave which already has a firm footing in 30 African countries to the economic powerhouse that is India.
Flutterwave has been on a roll, securing a payment services license in Egypt in June and obtaining name approval for its remittance business in August.
Flutterwave edging closer to acquiring a money remittance license from the Central Bank of Kenya.

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California is set to pass the country’s first legislation that aims to increase diversity in venture capital.
The bill requires venture capital firms operating in California to report the diversity breakdown of the founders they fund to the state; this includes reporting on the gender and ethnic and racial background of the founders, in addition to the dollar amount given to them.
Senator Nancy Skinner, the bill’s sponsor, says that she’s very optimistic that Newsom will sign the bill.
Founder and tech activist Allison Byers, who helped ideate and draft SB 54, says bills like this have precedence in California.

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