Author: Tapiwa Matthew Mutisi

Zambia’s government has just banned the imports of some farm produce as a way of promoting the growth of the agriculture sector. The Conversation Africa’s Samantha Spooner asked Calestous Juma about the impact this will have on African countries and their agricultural sectors. Which African countries are the biggest importers…

Broadcast TV’s No. 1 comedy isn’t going anywhere. CBS and producers Warner Bros. Television have officially closed a two-season renewal for The Big Bang Theory,The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Sources tell THR that co-stars Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch are still without contracts though both are expected to return once…

Elections present a milestone beyond which countries either strengthen their democratic credentials or become failed states. Often states fail when there are either perceived or blatant election malpractices. This in turn can lead to prolonged civil unrest. Numerous cases exist across the continent. But I will use the Kenyan case…

Snapchat continues to falter (SNAP). Snap is already down more than 30% from its high. Snap continues to falter, the parent company behind messaging app Snapchat. The stock briefly fell below $19.00 per share and is down almost 4% on Friday. The current price is just around $2 above its…

Let me start by setting the record straight – I am a huge Manchester United fan but Chelsea’s Kante is a beast on the pitch. 90mins clocks and he will still be running up and down the pitch like he is just starting the game. He neither tires nor is…

South Africa’s Gwara gwara dance goes international. A video of pupils at a school taking part in what looks like a dancing competition has caught the eye of US musician Swizz Beats…. The pupils are seen dancing to the song Gobisiqolo by Bhizer featuring Busiswa. Swizz Beats posted the video…

The Michael Jackson-like dance moves of Nigerian traffic policeman Umar Abubakar have earned him the nickname MJ Traffic. He keeps the cars moving in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri as he jives and gesticulates to a beat that only he can hear. https://youtu.be/qynJZHF_5vg?t=10

Competition between Amazon Prime Video and Netflix remains fierce. At the moment, both streaming platforms are doing whatever they can to gain an edge. Netflix is scooping up premium content like Dave Chappelle stand-up specials and an unfinished Orson Welles film. Meanwhile, Amazon made a move today to bring the…

It’s tough for streaming music services to stand out. Cosmetic differences aside, all of them offer virtually the same thing. Each major platform has the songs listeners want, for the most part. One method that services are using to stand out is exclusive releases — even if they’re only exclusive…

The Wednesday’s indictment of Russian hackers, including from Russia’s Federal Security Service, over cyberthefts against Yahoo and the continuing controversy around cyberattacks by Russia against the Democratic National Committee have highlighted the challenge of internet vulnerability. In France, too, the campaign of the leading independent candidate is subject to extensive…

For obvious reasons, Google has a vested interest in reducing the time it takes to load websites and services. One method is reducing the file size of images on the internet, which they previously pulled off with the WebP format back in 2014, which shrunk photos by 10 percent. Their…

Apple’s Live Photos are a neat trick when done well, but in practice they tend to be a wobbly mess. Last year, Google showed off a much more elegant solution with it’s Motion Stills app for iOS, which converted shaky Live Photos to smooth looping GIFs or movie files that…

A minor, but handy update comes to Gmail on the desktop today: videos sent as attachments can now be played right in your browser window, eliminating the need to actually download them to your hard drive and play them through a media player. Of course, you’ll still be limited to…

It seems Uber’s most recent progress down the road to autonomy has met a few safety and quality of life speed bumps, if recently obtained reports are any indications. Autonomous cars are of particular interest to Uber. Removing the human driver from the ride-hailign equation means also removing that human’s…

Google is giving thousands of contractors who normally evaluate search results a new, additional task: help the company downrank blatantly upsetting, offensive, and false content. Search Engine Land has a thorough explainer on the updated guidelines used by Google’s quality raters. Those are the people who rank the usefulness and…

Sir Patrick Stewart has opened up about his struggle with arthritis and how he turns to marijuana on a daily basis to combat its symptoms. The 76-year-old “X-Men” actor shined a light on his green regimen this week while endorsing the U.K.’s first program aimed at exploring the benefits of…

Check your kid’s phone for this app, ASAP: Wishbone, a popular quiz app for kids, tweens and teens, has been , according to a report from Motherboard out this morning. The hack involved 2.2 million email addresses as well as 287,000 phone numbers, many of which are from kids under…

Swatch Group AG said it’s developing an alternative to the iOS and Android operating systems for smartwatches as Switzerland’s largest maker of timepieces vies with Silicon Valley for control of consumers’ wrists. The company’s Tissot brand will introduce a model around the end of 2018 that uses the Swiss-made system,…

A computer security firm on Wednesday revealed a flaw that could let hackers break into WhatsApp or Telegram messaging accounts using the very encryption intended to protect messages. Check Point Software Technologies said it alerted Telegram and Facebook-owned WhatsApp last week, waiting until the vulnerability was patched before making it…

It was June 2013, and U.S. law enforcement thought they were finally getting their hands on a slippery target: Russian hacker Alexsey Belan, indicted in Nevada and California for computer intrusions at three U.S. e-commerce companies, had been arrested in Europe. Instead, Belan escaped to Russia, where the U.S. charges…