san francisco

san francisco police department

sfpd

board of supervisors

preston

Last month the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) sought permission to use robots to kill criminals and other suspects (terms and conditions apply). At the beginning of December, that permission was granted. In the latest twist of this particular roller coaster, killer robots are no longer allowed to kill human beings in San Francisco.
No more killer robots
In a complete reversal, the Board of Supervisors just voted for a military equipment policy that bans police from using robots to kill. Thank you to all the residents and civil rights advocates who made their voices heard!
— Dean Preston (@DeanPreston) December 6, 2022
The proposed “Law Enforcement Equipment Policy” always had to clear two hurdles in order to come into being. Extensive protests met the initial approval on 1 December, which may or may not have had an effect on the second vote.
The second vote, taken earlier this week, has put an end to the SFPD rolling out one of its bomb disposal robots and repurposing it as a bomb distribution robot.
Read More: Watch Xiaomi’s CyberOne humanoid robot playing the drums
Several civic groups opposed the policy prior to the repeal, saying that “SFPD’s proposal would allow officers to send these robots to all arrests and all searches with warrants, and to protests if police decide that ‘exigent circumstances’ or other flexible justifications in the policy apply”.
The cancellation is perhaps not that surprising. Sending a robot to end a human life is a much more considered position than a cop whipping out a gun to end a standoff (the latter of which is a different conversation entirely). Even if there’s a human remotely piloting the ‘bot, it may be a short step to switching to an autonomous system. Because that would be ‘more humane’ for human operators, who may feel guilt about killing another human being in such a calculated manner.
Source: ABC News

StuffSA

San Francisco cancels its killer robot approval following protests

UKULINGISA kwi-eHostela nakwiMbewu: The Seed uthi kumsebenzele ekubeni nabalandeli abaningi emculweni wokholo, uSkhulu Ngcobo.
USkhulu ungumculi wokholo odabuka eDududu, eMkhomazi. Uthe akanaso isikhathi eside eqalile ukuqopha kodwa usenenqwaba yabalandeli abeseka umsebenzi wakhe.
“ Ngingumculi ongenaso isikhathi eside eqopha umculo kodwa indlela engesekwa ngayo kwenza ngilibone ikusasa emculweni. Ngiqale ukuqopha umculo wami ngonyaka owedlule. Ngithe ngiqala ukuqopha kwaphoqeleka ukuthi ngikhiphe i-albhamu ngenxa yokuthi bese ngivele nginabalandeli abangazela ekulingiseni. Ngonyaka odlule ngikhiphe i-albhamu yami yokuqala esihloko esithi: Mbulali. Indlela okwenzeke ngayo izinto, nami angikholwanga. Ngizithole sengiqoqa izindondo komasipala basoGwini emincintiswaneni yomnyango wezobuCiko namaSiko kubona omasipala," kusho uSkhulu.
Ukwenzeka kwezinto ngokushesha, uthi yikhona okumnike ugqozu lokuthi angabe esapholisa maseko njengoba esephinde wakhipha enye i-albhamu nonyaka. Isihloko se-albhamu yakhe entsha iSihamba noJesu. Uthe nayo ikhombisa ukuthakaselwa kakhulu abantu abalandela umculo wakhe nabangakubo.
Echaza ngohambo lwakhe emculweni, uthe usenesikhathi aqala ukucula, isikhathi esiningi ubebhulela abaculi asebephumelele amazolo emicimbini eyahlukene. Esafunda uthe wayecula kodwa wayesagxile emculweni weClassic wagcina esephendukele kowokholo ngokuhamba kwesikhathi. Ukushiyelana inkundla nabaculi asebevelele uthe ngezinye zezinto ezimgqugquzele emculweni njengoba namanje eqopha umculo wakhe.

Isolezwe section feed for All Content

Unekusasa emculweni owayelingisa kweyethelevishini

chile

peru

quellaveco

profiledata

sunday times

kumba

Companies / Mining Anglo American expects production boost over next three years The fundamental demand picture for mined metals and minerals is ever stronger, says CEO Duncan Wanblad B L Premium 09 December 2022 - 11:44 Nico Gous
Anglo American expects its production to increase 5% annually over the next three years despite a decrease for its current financial year, the diversified mining giant said on Friday in a production guidance.
Overall production for the company, valued at R941.45bn on the JSE, fell by about 3% in 2022 despite the ramp-up in production at its Quellaveco copper mine in Peru and strong diamond production. This was due to the grade of its ore from Chile and lower production from Kumba and platinum group metals (PGMs)...
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Bloomberg

Anglo American expects production boost over next three years

national sa

ronald lamola

National SA asked to comment on bill to decriminalise sex work The bill promotes access to healthcare and protection by law-enforcement agencies for sex workers 09 December 2022 - 11:39 Kgaugelo Masweneng Picture: SUPPLIED South Africans have until the end of January to comment on whether sex work should be decriminalised.
Justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola said the draft bill, which aims to decriminalise the sale and purchase of adult sexual services, would also destigmatise sex work.
The bill promotes access to healthcare and protection by law enforcement agencies for sex workers. Last week, the cabinet approved the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill for public comment.
The bill repeals the Sexual Offences Act (previously the Immorality Act) and section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act to decriminalise the industry.
“Criminalising sex work has not stopped the selling or buying of sex. If anything, it has led to higher levels of violence against sex workers. In addition, criminalisation affects predominantly women, with the female sex worker usually the one confronted by law-enforcement, but the male client isn’t,” Lamola said.
“The National Prosecuting Authority has also indicated a very low percentage of cases or prosecutions for such transgressions,” Lamola said.
At the time of the release of the SA Law Reform Commission report in 2017, the cabinet decided not to make a policy choice and that the issue of sex work should be debated further.
The governing ANC, in its 54th national conference resolutions, also resolved that “the calls to decriminalise sex work must be subjected to a high-level discussion and engagement with relevant multiple stakeholders and to continue to engage society on this to determine the societal norm. Sex workers must be protected.”
“It would also afford better protection for sex workers, better working conditions and less discrimination and stigma,” said Lamola.
“The bill follows a two-step approach to sex work. It does not decriminalise and regulate the industry at once. It deals with decriminalisation only, with regulation to follow later.
“It was important to deal with decriminalisation first to ensure sex workers are no longer criminally charged,” he added.
The cut-off date for comments is January 31.
TimesLIVE

BusinessLIVE

SA asked to comment on bill to decriminalise sex work

america

us news sa

agoa

bloomberg sa

prinesha naidoo

News SA could lose its preferential market access to US AGOA is due to expire in 2025 and US officials have previously said the qualifying criteria for beneficiaries could be revised or the programme may be replaced 09 December 2022 - 11:31 Prinesha Naidoo SA could lose part of its preferential access to the US if its trade policies disadvantage American exporters relative to their developed-nation counterparts, according to people familiar with the matter. Picture: BLOOMBERG SA could lose part of its preferential access to the US if its trade policies disadvantage American exporters relative to their developed-nation counterparts, according to people familiar with the matter.
Thousands of South African products enter the world’s biggest market duty free under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, and the so-called Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP. SA shipped goods worth more than $15bn (R257bn) to America last year, with $2.7bn (R46.3bn) worth cleared under the two accords, US government data show.
AGOA is due to expire in 2025 and US officials have previously said the qualifying criteria for beneficiaries could be revised or the programme may be replaced. It would be surprising if SA’s trade terms remain as favourable as they currently are, said the people who are familiar with the talks about the accord’s future and spoke on condition of anonymity as the discussions are private.
US lawmakers’ concerns that SA is taking advantage of its preferential market access while imposing tariffs that render American goods uncompetitive could trigger the change, the people said. AGOA’s eligibility requirements include eliminating or working towards scrapping barriers to US trade and investment.
‘Completely Crazy’
SA’s Department of Trade, Industry and Competition didn’t respond to calls and text messages seeking comment.
Former US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told a House Ways and Means Committee hearing in 2020 that an increase in SA poultry tariffs gave European exporters an unfair advantage over their American competitors. Given the benefits SA enjoys from its duty-free access to the US, the move struck him as “completely crazy,” he said. His successor, Katherine Tai, is due to participate in a US-Africa leaders’ summit that President Joe Biden will host in Washington next week.
America maintains a close relationship with SA, said Constance Hamilton, the assistant US trade representative for Africa.
“Our ministers have a lot in common in terms of aspirations for these trade relationships. SA qualifies for AGOA because it meets the criteria that was set out in the legislation,” she said in a phone interview on Thursday. ‘“There is nothing they have done that says they are not meeting that criteria.”
Poultry Levies
In 2015, the US threatened to exclude SA from a preferential trade agreement after a disagreement over poultry levies. It also warned that proposed changes to legislation that would limit foreign ownership of private security companies in the country may affect its inclusion in AGOA.
SA’s status as one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s most-developed nations may also allow it to graduate out of AGOA or exclude it from future iterations, the people said.
Together AGOA and the GSP give about 40 sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, duty-free access to the US market for almost 7,000 products.
SA’s market access under the GSP, America’s oldest and largest trade-preference programme for the world’s poorest economies, has been under review since 2020. That’s after the authorities accepted a complaint from a US private-sector group alleging that proposed changes to SA laws fail to provide for adequate and effective protection of American copyrights.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
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SA could lose its preferential market access to US

china

asia china

beijing

wuhan

josh horwitz

martin quin pollard

ryan woo

World / Asia China’s Covid-19-zero retreat leaves many residents uneasy Businesses are expecting to have to grapple with long periods of absence by sick workers that could hamper operations, perhaps for months 09 December 2022 - 10:46 Ryan Woo, Josh Horwitz and Martin Quin Pollard People wait in line to get their swab test as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue in Beijing, December 9 2022. Picture: REUTERS/THOMAS PETER Beijing — Judging by Friday’s quiet streets in the heart of China’s capital and city eateries adherence to virus curbs, the anxieties created by the “zero-Covid-19” regime could hinder the world’s second largest economy's return to health.
Though the government on Wednesday loosened key parts of the strict controls that kept the pandemic largely at bay for the past three years, many people and businesses appear wary of being too quick to shake off the shackles.
In the central city of Wuhan, where the pandemic erupted in late 2019, there were more signs of life with some areas busy with commuters on Friday. But locals say a return to normal is still a long way off.
“They've relaxed the measures but still, there’s nobody about,” said a taxi driver surnamed Wang, who didn ’ t want to give his full name.
“You see these roads, these streets ... they ought to be, busy, full of people. But there’s no-one. It’s dead out here.”
Yet China has been anything but placid during the past few weeks, with protests against the stifling Covid-19 curbs in many cities across the country that marked the biggest show of public discontent since President Xi Jinping came to power a decade ago.
Changing mindset
Little more than a month after the National Health Commission stressed commitment to its strict virus containment policy, saying it was “putting people and lives first”, it has sounded a retreat from “zero-Covid-19” and officials are now telling people they have less to fear.
Zhong Nanshan, a leading Chinese epidemiologist famed for combating the 2003 SARS epidemic, said that 99% of people now infected with the virus would recover in 7-10 days, in comments reported by the People’s Daily, controlled by the ruling Communist Party.
But there are signs the reassuring new message has still to convince many of the country’s 1.4-billion people.
With the need for tests dropped and most infected people now being allowed to isolate at home, some have embraced new found freedoms. For others, habits formed under months of stifling lockdowns, are proving hard to break.
There were several empty seats in what should have been peak rush hour for commuters on the Beijing subway on Friday morning, even though the city this week dropped the need to show negative tests to ride trains or enter offices.
‘Chaos ahead’
Manufacturers and eateries remain cautious too, retaining Covid-19 curbs until they get a clearer picture of just how workplaces will be affected by the easing of stringent measures.
Businesses told Reuters they are expecting to have to grapple with long periods of absence by sick workers that could hamper operations, perhaps for months.
In downtown Beijing on Friday, a restaurant at a mall that serves local cuisine still doesn’t offer dine-in service while others on the same floor do.
“Although we are now allowed to resume eat-in service, our staff are sick and are still at home, so we haven't got enough hands to serve meals,” a staffer told Reuters, requesting anonymity.
China ’ s current tally of 5,235 Covid-19-related deaths is a tiny fraction of its population of 1.4-billion, and extremely low by global standards. Some experts have warned that toll could rise above 1.5-million if the exit is too hasty.
Analysts expect China's economy to rebound late next year as it follows the rocky path trodden by the rest of the world to open up and live with the disease. But a surge in infections will probably depress growth in the next few months.
A Reuters poll forecast China’s growth to slow to 3.2% in 2022, far below the official target of around 5.5%, marking one of the worst performances in almost half a century.
“China ’s three years behind, so what's going to happen in China is what happened in the rest of the world,” said Jeffrey Goldstein, a China-based consultant who helps foreign brands manufacture goods in Asia.
“There's going to be chaos.”
Reuters

Politics

China’s Covid-19-zero retreat leaves many residents uneasy

markets jse

us federal reserve

’s federal reserve

lindiwe tsobo

Markets JSE firmer as investors focus on Fed’s policy meeting next week Risks are ‘skewed to the downside in our view amid uncertainty over inflation, rising interest rates and expectations for a recession’, say RMB analysts B L Premium 09 December 2022 - 10:34 Lindiwe Tsobo
The JSE was firmer on Friday morning, while its global peers were mixed as investors await next week’s Federal Reserve policy meeting.
This week investors have been weighing the odds of a recession amid prospects that the US Federal Reserve will need to raise interest rates for longer than expected...
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JSE firmer as investors focus on Fed’s policy meeting next week

asia

south korea

seoul

tokyo

spacex

maezawa

yusaku maezawa

steve aoki

elon musk

jeff bezos

World / Asia Japanese billionaire chooses K-pop star and DJ to join SpaceX moon trip Yusaku Maezawa has bought every seat for the maiden lunar voyage on one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets 09 December 2022 - 10:10 Rocky Swift K-pop star TOP, Seoul, South Korea. File picture: GETTY/HAN MYUNG-GU/WIREIMAGE. Tokyo — Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa disclosed on Friday that K-pop star TOP and DJ Steve Aoki would be among the eight crew members he plans to take on a trip around the moon as soon as in 2023, hitching a ride on one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets.
Maezawa bought every seat on the maiden lunar voyage, which has been in the works since 2018 and would follow his trip on a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) for a 12-day stint in 2021.
The picks were announced by Maezawa on Twitter and at a website for what he dubbed the #dearMoon Project.
The fashion tycoon and his crew would become the first passengers on the SpaceX flyby of the moon as commercial firms, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, usher in a new age of space travel for wealthy clients.
The mission aboard SpaceX's Starship vehicle is scheduled to take eight days from launch to return to earth, including three days circling the moon, coming within 200km from the lunar surface. Though the flight was scheduled for 2023, it is facing delays due to ongoing tests of the spacecraft and its rockets.
Like fellow billionaire Musk, Maezawa has a flare for promotion and an infatuation with Twitter — he has boasted that he holds the Guinness world record for the most retweeted post, when he offered a cash prize of ¥1m ($7,300) to 100 winners for retweeting it.
Maezawa used the microblogging site to recruit eight crew members from around the world to join him on the moon trip, saying 1-million people had applied.
TOP, the stage name of Choi Seung Hyun who broke out with the K-pop group Big Bang, is among the higher profile members selected, along with Aoki, a Japanese-American musician and DJ whose father founded the Benihana restaurant chain.
“I feel great pride and responsibility in becoming the first Korean civilian going to the moon,” TOP said in a video posted after the announcement.
Indian actor Dev Joshi was also among the picks for the group, comprising largely artists and photographers. US Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu were named as backup crew members.
Maezawa flagged an update to the lunar expedition on Monday, tweeting he’d held an online meeting with Musk and was readying a “big announcement about space”.
Maezawa made his fortune founding the online fashion retailer Zozo, in which Softbank’s internet business is now the top shareholder.
Reuters

Japanese billionaire chooses K-pop star and DJ to join SpaceX moon trip

south africa

international telecommunication union

united nations

khumbudzo ntshavheni

ntshavheni

Communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has set a new analogue switch-off date for terrestrial television broadcasting services in South Africa: 31 March 2023.
Whether this new date will again be challenged in court by broadcasting players remains to be seen, but the minister declared on Friday that enough has now been done to ensure set-top boxes are rolled out to indigent households under a government subsidy scheme.
The minister’s new analogue switch-off (ASO) date comes a year after she had originally wanted to terminate analogue terrestrial broadcasts in South Africa and is eight years beyond the date the country committed to the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the United Nations, to get the job done.
The migration from analogue to digital TV is a critical component of ensuring mobile operators get access to spectrum suitable for deploying broadband services.
Court battle
Ntshavheni earlier this year lost a high-stakes battle in the constitutional court with free-to-air broadcaster e.tv over her plans to conclude ASO. The country’s apex court set aside a decision by the high court that analogue broadcasts could be switched off by end-June.
The constitutional court ruled that the minister had to consult with affected industry players before she could set a new date for ASO, something she promised she would do.
On Friday, Ntshavheni said she has written to affected industry stakeholders advising them about the new switch-off date and asked them to provide input on the decision by no later than 27 January. The minister said her department expects to conclude the installation of the remaining set-top boxes in indigent households within the next three months. – © 2022 NewsCentral Media
- This is a developing story

TechCentral

South Africa gets new analogue TV switch-off date

bloomberg twitter

twitter

sheila dang

Companies Twitter rejigs ad placements to lure back advertisers New controls will allow companies to prevent their ads from appearing above or below tweets containing certain keywords 09 December 2022 - 09:42 Sheila Dang Picture: BLOOMBERG Twitter will roll out new controls as soon as next week to let companies prevent their ads from appearing above or below tweets containing certain keywords, the social media platform told advertisers in an email on Thursday.
The new controls are part of Twitter's effort to reassure and lure back advertisers that have pulled ads off the platform since it was purchased in October by billionaire Elon Musk, amid reports from civil rights groups that hate speech has risen since the acquisition and after several banned or suspended accounts were reinstated.
Twitter earns nearly 90% of its revenue from selling digital ads. Musk recently attributed a "massive drop in revenue" to civil rights organisations that have pressured brands to pause their Twitter ads.
In a call on Thursday with an advertising industry group, a Twitter representative said the platform was considering bringing its content moderators, many of whom are contracted through third-party vendors, in-house, according to a source familiar with the remarks.
The Twitter representative said bringing content moderators in-house would allow the platform to invest more in moderation for non-English languages, according to the source.
The comments come after Twitter’s new head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, told Reuters that the platform would lean more heavily on automated content moderation. Irwin also said that Twitter's recent layoffs, which cut 50% of staff, did not significantly hurt its moderation team and those working on critical areas such as child safety.
The email to advertisers on Thursday, which was reviewed by Reuters, said a revamped version of Twitter’s subscription service called Twitter Blue would begin rolling out on Friday.
The subscription will allow accounts to receive a verified check mark. Accounts for individuals will get a blue check, while gold and gray check marks will denote business and government accounts, according to the email.
The subscription price will be $7 per month on the web and $11 per month on Apple devices, the email said.
Twitter also told advertisers that it removed ads from profiles mentioned in a Washington Post article on Tuesday, which reported that ads had appeared on the Twitter accounts of white nationalists.
Snap, which owns photo messaging app Snapchat, has paused its advertising on Twitter while it investigates the issue, a spokesperson told Reuters.
The accounts were not part of “amnesty reinstatements,” Twitter’s email said, referring to Musk’s tweet last month that Twitter would reinstate suspended accounts that have not broken the law.
“We will not be reinstating bad actors, spam accounts and users that engaged in criminal/illegal activity,” Twitter’s note to advertisers said.
Twitter, which has lost many members of its communications team, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters

Twitter rejigs ad placements to lure back advertisers

cfo companies / financial services jse

fawzia suliman

carmini kander

Companies / Financial Services JSE appoints new CFO Bourse says Fawzia Suliman will replace acting CFO Carmini Kander on January 9 B L Premium 09 December 2022 - 09:12 Nico Gous
The JSE has appointed a new CFO who will take over in January after the acting CFO stepped into the role in May 2022.
In a brief statement, the local bourse said Fawzia Suliman will become the new CFO and an executive director from January 9 and will replace acting CFO Carmini Kander...
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JSE appoints new CFO

mongolia

papua new guinea

australia

companies webuild

murray & roberts

clough group

murray & roberts holdings

clough

sameer manekar

webuild

navya mittal

Companies Webuild funds wages for Clough employees Italian group steps in after Australian engineering firm was placed into voluntary administration after a divestment deal by parent Murray & Roberts 09 December 2022 - 09:02 Navya Mittal and Sameer Manekar Picture: 123RF/SONDEM Bengaluru — Italian construction group Webuild said it had provided funds for payment of wages to cash-strapped contractor Clough Group’s employees involved in Australia's biggest hydropower project Snowy 2.0.
Australian engineering firm Clough was placed into voluntary administration earlier this week, after a divestment deal by its SA parent Murray & Roberts Holdings with Webuild fell through, leaving more than $8bn worth of gas, power, rail and mining projects in Australia, Mongolia and Papua New Guinea facing delays.
“Webuild’s funding will ensure that works will continue on this project and that all of the workers and contractors involved in the Snowy 2.0 project continue to be paid and supported,” Webuild said in a statement on Thursday.
Webuild and Clough are partners on the A$5bn expansion of the Snowy 2.0 project, which is already facing a delay of nearly two years into 2028.
Administrator Deloitte said in a separate statement its discussions with key parties resulted in resolution of funding crunch on an interim basis, making sure project work continued and employees, sub-contractors and suppliers were paid.
“We can now also focus on recapitalisation and sale of business opportunities, a key components of our strategy,” Deloitte Australia national turnaround and restructuring leader Sal Algeri said.
“We’ve already fielded multiple inquiries from interested parties, and with this immediate funding issue resolved, we can now pursue discussions with these groups, look to find a new owner, protect jobs and provide continuity and certainty for stakeholders.”
Reuters

Webuild funds wages for Clough employees

southern drakensberg

umzimkhulu river

bridgitte hartley

abby solms

hartley

Olympic sprint medallist Bridgitte Hartley will return to the foothills of the Southern Drakensberg for her seventh N3TC Drak Challenge on 28 and 29 January with a totally new outlook on the challenging two-day canoeing race on the uMzimkhulu River.
Since she started taking river marathons seriously she has been a continual threat to the women’s podium, with a second and three third place finishes in the last five editions of the race, but the prized Drak women’s title has somehow eluded her.
After her debut in the full river in 2004 as a river novice Hartley then made an impressive comeback to the event when she finished runner-up to Abby Solms in 2017, and has not missed a Drak Challenge since then and featured on the women’s podium four times.
A determined competitor Hartley does the hard yards tripping the river prior to the race and learning the subtle lines that separate the champions from the other serious contenders, and she is sure to do the same in the build-up to the next Drak at the end of January.
However adding a new spring in her step is her enthusiasm for coaching the talented group of paddlers from Maritzburg College that are also hoping to make an impression at the event.
“I am really enjoying coaching the College boys, and we have the Drak Challenge and the Dusi as priorities this season,” said Hartley. “It adds a new dimension to my Drak experience this year.”
The 2012 London Olympic 500m women’s K1 bronze medallist has had a very busy year, assuming a key role as the chair of the athletes commission at the International Canoe Federation, while maintaining her high level of river marathon racing.
She won the national K1 river crown in impressive fashion at the recent Fish River Canoe Marathon, establishing herself once again as a serious Drak title contender.
While she shrugs off the bad luck that has dogged her over the years, preferring to list them as learning experiences and heaping praise on Abby Solms and Jenna Ward who have shared the last five Drak women’s titles, few will forget her 2020 charge.
After a miserable first stage that left her way back in sixth place, Hartley posted the fastest women’s time over the tough final stage as she charged through the field to edge Tamika Gandar off the women’s podium.
With a passionate fondness for the uMzimkhulu River and the Underberg community, a relaxed and engerised Hartley will travel up the R617 with her contingent of Maritzburg College hopefuls as a serious contender to return to the women’s podium.
Photo 1 Caption: After finishing in the top four in the last five races Bridgitte Hartley will be back to challenge for the women’s title at the N3TC Drak Challenge on 28 and 29 January 2023. Photo: Anthony Grote/Gameplan Media
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gsport4girls

Bridgitte Hartley Set to Return to Challenge Drak Podium

samsung odyssey ark

sony

samsung

While the Samsung Odyssey Ark is mighty impressive on paper, it is simply too much monitor for all but a few use cases. The price is too steep to have to deal with the limitations of the flagship's features and as a result, you end up losing functionality if you replace your multi-monitor setup.
- Design
- Display
- Performance
- Features
- Value
It’s been a pretty good year for gaming monitors. We had the first QD-OLED gaming monitor in the Dell Alienware AW3423DW, we saw Sony enter the monitor space with its Inzone range, and now Samsung is trying something new with a big format gaming display (BFGD) that seems like it’s trying to bridge the gap between TVs and gaming monitors.
When the Samsung Odyssey Ark showed up at our office for review, we were excited. That quickly faded when we saw the box. It is gigantic. Was it even going to fit? Well, usually the best way to find out is to just do it. So we did and it fit.
Don’t skip leg day
Samsung recommends that you rope in a buddy for the assembly and setup process but it took three of us to assemble and set it up. The location we chose might have had something to do with that. But so did the weight. With the stand attached, this tips the scales at 41.5kg. So do yourself a favour and just stick it on the desk in front of you instead of trying anything fancy.
Or you could wall mount it if you wish. The Odyssey supports a VESA 200 x 200 mount. But then you’ll lose half of what makes this display unique. The height-adjustable stand allows for a decent amount of manoeuvrability, 27cm up and down when in landscape mode, and 3cm when in Cockpit mode (more on that later). There are roughly 10 degrees of tilt in both orientations.
No matter the orientation, you’ll need to be sitting directly in front of the Odyssey Ark to get your money’s worth. The aggressive 1000R curve might mimic the curve of the human eyeball but it also means that if you’re off to the side, even by a little, your content will look washed out. This is the first of many reasons that make the Odyssey Ark ill-suited for use in place of a family TV. Unless you are a family of one.
Let’s get technical
As far as the spec sheet goes, what you’re getting here is impressive. And not just because it’s a bloody great big 55in behemoth. The VA panel also features a 3840 x 2160 (4K) resolution and will manage up to 165Hz refresh rate with AMD Freesync Premium Pro as well as generic Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) for consoles.
This panel uses Samsung’s Quantum Matrix tech and is mini-LED backlit with 1,056 local dimming zones. This makes average-looking games look half-decent and good-looking games pop. You certainly aren’t getting OLED-level inky blacks but colours are still rich enough without being overly saturated.
This couldn’t really be called a gaming monitor without the standard 1ms advertised response time. You’ll no doubt have to switch to the ‘fastest’ setting to come close to this but then you’ll have to put up with some ghosting artefacts because the backlight isn’t keeping up with what’s being displayed. So we’d suggest sticking with the default setting.
As mentioned, this is a mini-LED backlit display so it gets plenty bright enough. Samsung lists peak brightness at 1,000 nits. We didn’t test that but even if the real number doesn’t get there, you probably won’t be disappointed.
We had it set up in our office which is rather bright for most of the day and we didn’t once find the Odyssey Ark lacking. Having said that, it would be best suited in a dark environment. But, if you dim the lights, be prepared to notice some blooming around bright objects in dark scenes.
The 1000R curve isn’t the only aggressive feature. The anti-glare coating on the Ark might be considered aggressive. We found it rather off-putting when the monitor was switched off. But if you can’t help but have your back to a light source you’ll probably welcome its ability to diffuse reflections.
It’s all connected
The Odyssey Ark makes use of Samsung’s One Connect box to handle all but a few connections. On the display itself, you’ll find the proprietary connection for the One Connect box, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB-C port. Unfortunately, the USB-C port is only there to provide a means of power (15W) to a peripheral device, like a webcam.
On the box, you’ll find four HDMI 2.1 ports with one supporting eARC, an Ethernet 10/100 port, two USB-A 2.0 ports for more peripherals or storage devices, a USB-B port, an optical audio port, and the One Connect port for sending data to the display.
Here’s the next puzzling case of this supposedly being a gaming monitor but not offering basic gaming monitor functionality. There’s no Display Port. Not even one. Sure, you get four 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 ports that will manage a 4K / 165Hz signal from a PC. But then you’ll need to make sure your GPU supports HDMI 2.1. So you’re limited to the RTX 30-series from Nvidia or the RX 6000-series from AMD. Not exactly ideal but if you can afford the Ark that probably won’t be a problem.
Dialling things in
For controlling everything, the Odyssey Ark ships with two remotes, which is one too many in our book. The first will look familiar if you’ve ever used a Samsung TV. The second, the Ark Dial, is unique to the Ark and features a large dial (go figure) with a few directional and settings buttons.
You’ll need to familiarise yourself with the second as that is how you’ll manage the Ark’s many display features. Both come equipped with a solar panel and the TV remote features a USB-C port for charging if you live in parts of the world where sunlight is absent for weeks on end.
A couple of things to note here. Firstly, if you’ve got another Samsung display in the same room, whether that be a TV or monitor, and it also runs on Tizen OS, you’re not going to have a good time. The remotes for either display will end up pairing with both. Then, when you pick up either, they’ll start controlling both displays.
With a bit of fiddling, we managed to separate them but we could only do that for advanced remote features, like changing the volume or selecting a source. The power button of any Samsung remote will work for any Samsung Tizen display. This can prove to be really annoying if you work with a bunch of clowns who hose themselves when they switch off both your monitors mid-sentence.
You have been warned.
Are you ready for the “Sound Dome”?
On most of the displays we review, TVs or monitors, that come with integrated speakers, it almost always feels like the speakers were included as an afterthought. We were expecting the same with the Odyssey Ark but in this case, we were pleasantly surprised.
We’ll start by saying you’ll still get much better performance from a separate system, but the four included speakers on the Odyssey Ark offer a surprising amount of oomph. Samsung rates it as a 60W system with a speaker in each of the four corners and two woofers in the centre.
The inherent size of the display, aggressive curve, speaker layout, and inclusion of Dolby Atmos support work well together to create a relatively decent soundstage – the width, depth and height of the projected stereo image. This makes for a rather immersive movie or series-watching experience. But again, you’ll need to be sitting relatively close and straight down the middle for the most enjoyment.
Can your other screen do this?
On to the list of features that sets the Odyssey Ark apart from the rest, for better or worse. One of the angles Samsung is pushing with the Ark is that you can replace your multi-monitor setup.
The large screen size means you can theoretically fit four 27in displays onto a single screen in landscape or three 31in inputs in portrait. Or as Samsung likes to call it – Cockpit Mode. In this orientation, the Odyssey Ark becomes even more of a spectacle. This mode makes for great YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels viewing.
Next up is something called Flex Move Screen. This allows you to adjust the size of your content and where it sits on the display with the Ark Dial. Don’t feel like craning your neck while playing a first-person shooter? Enable Flex Move and shrink the picture down to a more manageable size and move it to the middle of the screen.
But having a shrunken picture in the middle of your 55in screen might feel like a waste. That’s where Multiview Mode comes in. This gives you a daunting amount of options for splitting the screen up into smaller tiles and you can save up to three custom layout presets.
Picture-in-picture is supported so you can have the YouTube guide for a particularly tough level open while playing a game. Alternatively, you can put the game and the YouTube app side by side so you don’t obscure anything important.
Downhill from here
Unfortunately, as nice as the feature may seem, it is marred by a puzzling amount of limitations that mean it fails to properly meet Samsung’s pitch to “deliver more possibilities on a single screen”.
The big catch here is that, despite having four HDMI ports, you’re only able to view one source at a time, no matter your choice of layout or screen orientation. Where’s the fun in that?
You’re also limited in your choice of apps with which you can multitask. Your choices are one of the four HDMI inputs, YouTube’s app, Samsung’s bare-bones Tizen web browser, mirroring your cellphone or laptop screen, and other less-than-useful Tizen apps like a timer.
And the disappointment doesn’t stop there.
We managed to get a semi-usable layout of a game in the centre, the Tizen web browser displaying the current FIFA fixtures on top and a mirrored laptop with our live Twitter feed below. But then, with Multiview enabled, the maximum refresh rate of the game (Rocket League) dropped to 120Hz, variable refresh rate was disabled, and the image quality dropped noticeably.
These really shouldn’t be limitations you have to work around for the amount of money you’re paying.
Samsung Odyssey Ark verdict
The price of the Odyssey Ark is the biggest limiting factor. For the recommended retail price of R62,000, any reasonable person would expect only the best experience from this undeniably impressive (at least on paper) gaming monitor.
If you approach the Ark from an early-adopter frame of reference, it makes a little more sense. But that also implies Samsung plans to make another one, learning from the downfalls and shortcomings of the first and improving things for a more compelling offer. From what we’ve heard from Samsung South Africa, that may well be the case with the entire first batch of orders selling out rather quickly.
If that is the case, we’d suggest waiting for the Ark 2.0 to avoid being Samsung’s guinea pig. If the company opts not to continue with this product line and focuses on, say, a range of QD-OLED displays, we’d suggest waiting and throwing your (bags of) money at those.

Samsung Odyssey Ark review – This is not the TV you are looking for

sana-ullah bray

companies / financial services sanlam

sanlam

adela fortune

nico gous sanlam

Companies / Financial Services Sanlam group company secretary resigns Sana-Ullah Bray will become the group executive of human capital while the current deputy company secretary will be promoted B L Premium 09 December 2022 - 08:53 Nico Gous
Sanlam group company secretary Sana-Ullah Bray has resigned to take up another position inside the insurance group at the start of next year, the company announced in a brief statement on Friday.
Bray will become the group executive of human capital while the current deputy company secretary, Adela Fortune, will be promoted...
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Sanlam group company secretary resigns

forrester consulting

forrester

fortinet as

john maddison

fortinet

Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, has announced a business benefit analysis of Fortinet Secure SD-WAN and its ability to support large enterprises by delivering a 300% return in investment over three years and payback in eight months.
“Large enterprises around the world continue to turn to Fortinet to achieve their digital acceleration goals with solutions that converge networking and security. We’re pleased that Forrester has quantified both the network and security benefits of Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, which will advance our commitment to helping customers make informed decisions with validated solutions.” — John Maddison, executive vice president of products and chief marketing officer at Fortinet
As one of the top SD-WAN vendors, Fortinet commissioned a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study by Forrester Consulting to analyse the value that Fortinet Secure SD-WAN can provide to large enterprises, examining both the network and security impact on customers’ businesses.
As part of the independent study, Forrester interviewed business decision makers with experience across industries and geographies, including retail, healthcare, financial services and manufacturing. Collectively, the organisations deployed Fortinet Secure SD-WAN and other Fortinet products, such as switches, wireless LAN and wireless WAN, and have more than US$1-billion in annual revenue, up to 8 500 sites, and up to 133 000 employees.
Based on customer feedback, Forrester developed a composite model for the study and built out a three-year financial model to reflect the costs and benefits of the investment.
Key findings from the study and benefits for customers include:
- Eight months payback and 300% ROI: Customers deploying Fortinet Secure SD-WAN achieved a 300% return on investment over three years with payback in eight months. These benefits include a reduction in communications costs, increased productivity of security and network teams, improved network and security performance, and increased productivity of deployment teams.
- 65% reduction in network disruption: With enhanced network performance enabled by Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, business users experienced a 65% reduction in the number of network disruptions.
- 50% improvement in resolving issues: Fortinet offers increased visibility and effective, broad protection, allowing security and network teams to identify and remediate network issues more quickly. Improving time to issue resolution by as much as 50% enabled the composite organisation to reassign security and network team resources to higher value activities, resulting in a three-year, risk-adjusted productivity benefit of $1.4-million.
- Increased productivity of deployment team: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN enabled the composite organisation to save time by 75% per new deployment, resulting in significant efficiencies for the deployment team.
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN transforms and secures WAN
Prior to implementing Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, the organisations used a combination of technologies and vendors to manage, maintain and monitor their networks. These solutions, which relied on MPLS, Internet and assorted hardware, lacked visibility and adequate security coverage, forcing network engineers and administrators to spend excessive time identifying and resolving unanticipated problems on an ad hoc basis. Additionally, scaling and modifying existing solutions became increasingly cost-prohibitive and time-consuming.
To learn more about the additional benefits of Fortinet Secure SD-WAN based on real customer feedback, download The Total Economic Impact of Fortinet Secure SD-WAN study.
Additional analyst recognition and customer validation of Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
In addition to these findings from the independent Forrester study, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN has received industry recognition and momentum throughout the year. Fortinet was named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN for the third consecutive year, placing highest in the quadrant for its ability to execute.
Furthermore, Fortinet is the only vendor to have been ranked first in three of the five use cases in the 2022 Gartner Critical Capabilities for SD-WAN report for the past two years for Remote Worker, Security-Sensitive WAN and WAN for Small Branches.
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN also received positive validation from its customers. Fortinet was named a Customers’ Choice in the March 2022 Gartner Peer Insights “Voice of the Customer”: WAN Edge Infrastructure report — for the third year in a row — in recognition of the reviews that customers voluntarily submit about their experience with Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution.
- This promoted content was paid for by the party concerned

Fortinet Secure SD-WAN delivers 300% ROI over three years

africa

africa us

morocco

democratic republic of the congo

washington

joe biden

nelson banya

helen reid

World / Africa US climate law could sideline Africa miners The law sets out incentives for US carmakers sourcing battery materials from trade partners 09 December 2022 - 08:41 Helen Reid and Nelson Banya Picture: GETTY IMAGES/CHRISTOPHER FURLONG Mining companies and governments in Africa are calling for stronger trade ties with the US after a new climate law set out incentives for US carmakers sourcing battery materials from trade partners.
The $430bn Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been criticised by the EU and South Korea, who say it could hurt their car industries.
It could also negatively impact African nations that produce battery materials.
The US has a free-trade agreement in place with only one African country, Morocco. Yet the continent is a key copper producer and the Democratic Republic of the Congo produces most of the world’s cobalt.
Battery materials and trade are set to be a focus at next week’s US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington where President Joe Biden will meet presidents of African countries including the DRC.
“The IRA was intended to push out China, and what it’s ended up doing is pushing out the DRC, the EU, and South Korea,” said Indigo Ellis, MD at consultancy Africa Matters, who will attend the December 13-15 summit.
Under IRA, US carmakers will get tax credits if they source at least 40% of battery materials domestically or from American free-trade partners. This risks carmakers replacing Congolese cobalt with Australian, Canadian, Moroccan, or US cobalt.
The DRC produced 74% of the world’s mined cobalt last year while the next-biggest single producer, Australia, was responsible for just 3%, according to a Cobalt Institute report.
An adviser to DRC President Felix Tshisekedi said a US-DRC free trade agreement “is an option for the medium to long term, but in the short term other avenues will be explored”.
A spokesperson for the US Trade Representative (USTR) said “we look forward to discussing ways to strengthen and deepen our trade and investment ties with our partners throughout Africa” during the summit.
The IRA aims to boost US mining and processing, which some companies fear could come at the expense of value-added processing in Africa.
“The West needs to work with us to build some value-add,” said George Roach, CEO of Premier African Minerals, which has a lithium project in Zimbabwe.
His is one of many projects across Sub-Saharan Africa aiming to produce battery materials such as lithium, nickel and graphite.
Joe Walsh, MD at Australia-listed Lepidico , which is building a lithium mine in Namibia and chemical plant in Abu Dhabi, said the IRA makes the US a more attractive location for a planned second plant.
“The US is not going to be able to incentivise the development of a significant battery raw material production base of its own without ruffling a few feathers along the way.”
Reuters

US climate law could sideline Africa miners

xiaomi

Earlier this year Chinese tech maker Xiaomi took the wraps off CyberOne, its upcoming humanoid robot. The ‘bot only offered a limited demonstration in August but it’s back for something a little more impressive.
Specifically, the robot has turned up in a video where it plays the drums. And yes, it really appears to be doing so. But as impressive as the demonstration is, it also shows just how far we have to go before robotic humanoids are really a thing.
Which drummer? The CyberOne
The first thing that you’ll note in the video above, once you look past the fact that CyberOne (also known as ‘Metal Bro’ — seriously) really is playing the drums, is that he’s not moving at all. Which makes sense — it’s very hard to play a drum kit and walk at the same time. It’s not impossible. It’s just impractical. But the seated position helps to disguise the fact that CyberOne… doesn’t walk all that well yet.
The other interesting point is the drum kit itself. Xiaomi’s robot is certainly playing the kit throughout but take a closer look. It’s a digital set rather than an old-school analogue setup. That’s because the robot is able to hit its (very likely preprogrammed) targets and operate the kicks as required. But the force and angles required to operate a more conventional setup aren’t present in the robot’s motions.
In short, CyberOne’s performance looks good because it’s been set up that way. But unless you’re looking to automate your drummer in a four-player game of Rock Band, this demo is supposed to make you go ‘ooh, shiny’ without really looking much further. Still, it’s yet another step along the road that leads to Will Smith, ‘retro’ sneakers, and an awesome robot named Sunny.
Source: IEEE Spectrum

Watch Xiaomi’s CyberOne humanoid robot playing the drums

howick

battery energy storage system eskom

hyosung heavy industries

eskom

bess

battery eskom

eskom hld soc ltd

Eskom has begun construction on its first Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project, with the team breaking ground for the first time at BESS’s Elandskop site yesterday. The power provider has teamed up with Hyosung Heavy Industries – one of the service providers the utility appointed to the job.
The project is expected to take between seven and twelve months to complete. Keep in mind, this is Eskom we’re talking about. Expect delays to slow down production significantly over the coming year.
#EskomMediaStatement
Construction of Eskom’s first battery energy storage project begins pic.twitter.com/u63SN9Nutu
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) December 8, 2022
Charged with Battery
Eskom’s BESS will have a capacity of 8MW, equivalent to 32MWh of distributed electricity – a number sufficient enough to power a small town (e.g., Howick) for four hours when the grid goes offline. It’ll also relieve pressure from the grid when it isn’t being used during peak hours.
Throw in 2MW of solar photovoltaic capacity and the expansion of 833MWh across eight Eskom Distribution substations around the country and you’ve got a decent phase 1. The real trouble is actually completing phase 1.
“The beginning of the construction of the Elandskop BESS is a positive development in our efforts to alleviate the pressure on the national electricity grid,” says CEO, André de Ruyter. “This is a direct response to the urgent need to address South Africa’s long-running electricity crisis by adding more generation capacity to the grid and also to strengthen the grid by adding more storage and transforming capacity.”
Read More: Eskom delays scheduled maintenance for Koeberg station to avoid Stage 7 load shedding
Phase 2
Once phase 1 wraps up, the state-owned power utility can begin work on expanding BESS’s storage capacity even further. This includes the installation of another 144MW of storage across four of Eskom’s substation sites. A further 58MW of solar photovoltaic capacity is also being added.
“Eskom has identified distributed storage as an alternative to support renewable energy expansion in South Africa, and we have taken the necessary steps to ensure the successful implementation of the BESS project,” said Velaphi Ntuli, Eskom’s General Manager.
The entirety of the BESS project is expected to cost R11 billion. Funds are coming in the form of concessional loans from the World Bank, African Development Bank and the New Development Bank. All the sites across phase 1 are expected to reach commission by the end of June 2023, with phase 2 expected to complete by the end of 2024.

Eskom breaks ground on first R11 billion Battery Energy Storage System

kubernetes

google

Your product teams shouldn’t care about Kubernetes. In fact, they shouldn’t care about DevSecOps, at least not when building and maintaining the complex tooling needed to drive CI/CD automation.
This may sound bizarre, especially coming from someone who works for a company specialising in Kubernetes and cloud-native technology. To explain the rationale, I’ll provide an example of a common pattern we’ve seen when helping teams to modernise over the last half a decade:
“We need to move faster! I want so many new features in our customers’ hands that they’ll be sick of app updates! And scale! I want Google to be in awe of how many transactions we’re handling every nanosecond!”
And with this aspirational call to action, our modernisation journey begins. I won’t delve into the 5 Rs of application modernisation (although I would propose a 6th “R”: resign, which is what you do after an expensive modernisation project fails).
For the sake of our example, let’s assume what follows is a complex refactoring exercise. Architects speak loftily about domain-driven design. Contexts are bounded. Squads are selected. What emerges is a brand-new microservices architecture. Did someone say smaller codebases, improved fault isolation and independent scalability and releases? You bet they did!
A few iterations into the project, our devs, who’ve been using containers to package microservices, realised that running containers across a few VMs simply won’t pass muster in production.
This Kubernetes thing
The team needs machinery to handle high availability, graceful deployments, resource isolation, networking, health monitoring and autoscaling. And so, with our go-live date looming, an industrious senior developer starts digging into this Kubernetes thing. Emerging red-eyed after late nights pouring through Kubernetes the Hard Way, a Kubernetes cluster is built, demoed and heralded as the platform du jour — ticking all the container orchestration boxes and then some.
Over the following weeks, it becomes clear that without a consistent way to build, test, secure, version and deploy containers to our recently minted Kubernetes substrate, the product team will be cursed to toil in release automation purgatory, wrangling unknowable artefact versioning spreadsheets and running arcane bash scripts to get their code deployed (true story!).
And so, with the dictums of full-stack DevOps in mind, two more developers are tasked with engineering CI/CD automation capable of handling our elaborate build process, rapidly executing myriad test cases, scanning code and container images for vulnerabilities, cryptographically signing container images, and deploying and promoting containers from development to production.
Fast-forward through multiple sprints and many gallons of coffee, and we are post-go-live. The launch was a resounding success and our refactored microservices app is performant and stable. Worryingly, our feature backlog is growing, and several release dates have been missed.
The reason for this loss of cadence and a product team that looks like they’ve gone a few rounds with a (young) Mike Tyson? Well, it so transpires that keeping our production Kubernetes cluster operational, not forgetting the diaspora of supportive technologies running within it, from ingress controllers to logging and monitoring stacks, has become a full-time job for a handful of senior developers, often having to work in late-night maintenance windows.
Worse yet, maintaining our CI/CD automation toolchain has become an exercise in quantum mechanics, consuming many developer hours in fixing integrations and pipelines, which frequently block releases. There must be a better way.
And there is! The answer lies in the emerging practice of platform engineering and creation of internal developer platforms (IDPs). Many highly successful engineering organisations, such as Spotify, Netflix and Twilio, have established centralised platform engineering teams whose primary mandate is to eliminate developer toil, a metric Twilio measures as “time spent outside of code”.
This extends beyond centralising DevOps, but rather creating a laser focus on building and evolving an IDP that can be consumed across the organisation. IDPs are designed to abstract the underlying machinery and infrastructure developers require to build and deploy their applications, creating a “golden path” that product teams can follow to accelerate velocity and reduce cognitive load. Notably, the make-up of IDPs may vary drastically between organisations, but should be consistent when it comes to the following tenets:
- IDPs should be treated as an internal product, with a defined product road map, versioning and customer feedback.
- Developers should be able to self-provide everything they require through an established service catalogue, whether it’s a software library, CI/CD pipeline, Kubernetes cluster, etc.
- An IDP should impose standards from a technology and tooling perspective that align with organisational requirements. Mature IDPs strike a good balance between enabling consumers’ flexibility and diverse options while maintaining guardrails to drive consistency and supportability. This extends across governance, access control and security standards.
- Documentation on how the IDP is consumed should be extensive and updated. Teams should go from zero to up and running by simply following the docs.
- Ideally, consuming teams should be able to interact with the IDP using their preferred means, whether it’s through a Web UI, CLI tool or API.
The rationale for investing in an IDP is simple: let product teams focus on delivering better digital experiences to customers and enable them with a consistent delivery process while addressing their specific needs.
As organisations converge on modern application architectures and cloud native ecosystems, IDPs create soft landings for developers whose time is better spent building new features than reading Kubernetes the Hard Way.
About LSD Open
LSD was founded in 2001 and wants to inspire the world by embracing OPEN philosophy and technology. LSD is your cloud-native acceleration partner that provides managed platforms, leveraging a foundation of containerisation, Kubernetes and open-source technologies. We deliver modern platforms for modern applications.
For more, visit www.lsdopen.io, e-mail or visit us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
- The author, Julian Gericke, is chief technology officer at LSD
- This promoted content was paid for by the party concerned

The rise of internal developer platforms

nasa

fermi gamma-ray space telescope

neil gehrels swift observatory

A highly unusual blast of high-energy light from a nearby galaxy has been linked by scientists to a neutron star merger.
The event, detected in December 2021 by NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, was a gamma-ray burst – an immensely energetic explosion which can last from a few milliseconds to several hours.
This gamma-ray burst, identified as GRB 211211A, lasted about a minute – a relatively lengthy explosion, which would usually signal the collapse of a massive star into a supernova. But this event contained an excess of infrared light and was much fainter and faster-fading than a classical supernova, hinting that something different was going on.
In a new study, published in Nature, an international team of scientists showed that the infrared light detected in the burst came from a kilonova. This is a rare event, thought to be generated as neutron stars, or a neutron star and a black hole collide, producing heavy elements such as gold and platinum. Thus far, these events, called kilonovae, have only been associated with gamma-ray bursts with durations of less than two seconds.
The work was led by Jillian Rastinejad at Northwestern University in the US along with physicists from the University of Birmingham and the University of Leicester in the UK, and Radboud University in The Netherlands.
Dr Matt Nicholl, an Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham, modelled the kilonova emission. “We found that this one event produced about 1,000 times the mass of the Earth in very heavy elements. This supports the idea that these kilonovae are the main factories of gold in the Universe,” he says.
Although up to 105 of long gamma-ray bursts are suspected to be caused by the merging of neutron star or neutron stars and black holes, no firm evidence – in the form of kilonovae – had previously been identified.
Dr Gavin Lamb, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Leicester, explains: “A gamma-ray burst is followed by an afterglow that can last several days. These afterglows behave in a very characteristic manner, and by modelling them we can expose any extra emission components, such as a supernova or a kilonova.”
The kilonova generated by GRB 211211A is the closest to have been discovered without gravitational waves, and has exciting implications for the upcoming gravitational wave observation run, starting in 2023. Its proximity in a neighbouring galaxy only 1bn light years away gave scientists the opportunity to study the properties of the merger in unprecedented detail.
A related paper from the same collaboration in Nature Astronomy, led by Dr Benjamin Gompertz, Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham, describes some of these properties.
In particular, the team identified how the jet of high energy electrons, travelling at almost the speed of light and causing the gamma-ray burst, changed with time. The cooling down of this jet was shown to be responsible for the long lasting GRB emission.
In the paper, the team also described how close observation of GRB 211211A can offer fascinating insights into other previously unexplained gamma-ray bursts which have appeared not to fit with standard interpretations.
Dr Gompertz comments: “This was a remarkable GRB. We don’t expect mergers to last more than about two seconds. Somehow, this one powered a jet for almost a full minute. It’s possible the behaviour could be explained by a long-lasting neutron star, but we can’t rule out that what we saw was a neutron star being ripped apart by a black hole.
“Studying more of these events will help us determine which is the right answer and the detailed information we gained from GRB 211211A will be invaluable for this interpretation.”
The work was funded by the European Research Council under the KilonovaRank project, which harnesses the power of Big Data in investigating large cosmic events.
Featured picture credit: Soheb Mandhai / @TheAstroPhoenix

IT-Online

Gamma-ray burst could be key to finding neutron star collisions

international data corporation

International Data Corporation (IDC) Future of Intelligence predictions for 2023 and beyond show that maturity in enterprise intelligence makes a material difference to business outcomes.
Top-quartile enterprise intelligence performers are 2,7-times more likely to have experienced strong revenue growth over 2020-2022 and 3,6-times more likely to have accelerated their time to market for new products, services, experiences, and other initiatives.
Improving enterprise intelligence performance will often require concerted investment and action at multiple levels: from data platforms (to enable more openness, flexibility, scale, and connectivity) and pipelines and processes (to enable more effective, consistent processing of data to make it “insight ready”) to tools (to build and deliver analytics and insights), decision-making and action-taking processes, and culture.
Organisations that invest in enterprise intelligence will find that they are more digitally resilient, agile, innovative, and dynamic than their peers.
“Enterprise intelligence allows organizations to thrive in all macroeconomic conditions. Predictions in this IDC FutureScape detail key trends that are going to occur in the next one to five years that executives should be aware of as they strive to increase their enterprise intelligence,” says Chandana Gopal, research director: Future of Intelligence at IDC.
The following 10 predictions represent the trends IDC expects to see across the four pillars of enterprise intelligence: data culture, information synthesis, information delivery and collective learning.
* Prediction 1: By 2024, organizations with greater enterprise intelligence will have 5-time institutional reaction time, resulting in persistent first-mover advantage in capitalizing on new opportunities.
* Prediction 2: By the end of 2025, vigilant C-suite leaders of G2000 will invest 40% more on enterprise and market intelligence, helping them counter the recession and slice through the storms of disruption.
* Prediction 3: By the end of 2024, 30% of enterprises using video surveillance technologies will also be using video data analytics to support operational decision making requiring more oversight.
* Prediction 4: By 2024, 80% of G2000 companies will increase investment in intelligence about threats/opportunities to local operations posed by external threats such as supply chain disruptions.
* Prediction 5: 30% of G2000 organisations will fail to deliver on their enterprise intelligence goals by 2026 because they have not centered trusted capabilities in their efforts to develop data culture.
* Prediction 6: By 2025, real-time intelligence will be leveraged by 90% of G1000 to improve outcomes such as customer experience by using event-streaming technologies.
* Prediction 7: By 2027, 66% of large enterprises will make major investments in data control plane technologies that can measure the risk inherent in data and reduce risk through security and screening.
* Prediction 8: By the end of 2025, more than 50% of G2000 organisations will face penalties if they do not use AI for detection and automatic remediation of data due to growing complexity, volatility, and resource scarcity.
* Prediction 9: Facing increased demand for enterprise intelligence skills and to meet employee expectations, 70% of G1000 will have formal programs fostering data literacy and upskilling by 2028.
* Prediction 10: By 2026, 30% of G1000 companies will extend investments in AI infrastructure to performance-intensive computing to solve the most complex problems using HPC-driven simulations to improve outcomes.

The is what the future holds for intelligence

This is what the future holds for intelligence

experian africa

jaco van jaarsveldt

South African consumers remain under financial pressure.
This is according to the Experian Consumer Default Index (CDI), produced on a quarterly basis, which shows a deteriorating trend when compared to the prior year.
The CDI deteriorated at both a Composite level as well as across all individual credit products. The Q3 CDI showed a Y-o-Y decrease of 4% overall, moving from 3.53 in September 2021 up to 3.66 in September 2022.
“This movement suggests that the CDI has now returned to its former trajectory of long-term deterioration,” says Jaco van Jaarsveldt, head of commercial strategy and innovation at Experian Africa. “This return to the former trend, although expected, has to some extent been expedited by the rapid increase in living expenses experienced by South African consumers across the board.
“During this unpredictable financial environment, consumers are encouraged to build a budget that will provide a layout of what their financial situation will look like post-credit repayment. In order to navigate the current environment, consumers are advised to focus on developing positive, lifelong financial habits that will see them through volatile times. This includes understanding one’s credit report and as well as the behaviours that may impact one’s credit score,” he advises.
Consumer default performance by product type
From a product perspective, the worst relative deterioration was seen for Retail Loans, where Experian saw a YoY deterioration from 10.69 in September 2021 to 12.76 in September 2022.
However, it is important to note that the Retail Loan CDI is more volatile than the other products reported, partly due to the nature of the product, but also due to the more balanced representation across consumer segments – particularly regarding the representation of lower affluence groups.
Qualification for credit is still not back to pre-Covid levels and Personal and Retail Loan volumes still have some way to go in returning to former levels.
Consumer default performance by Financial Affluent Segments (FAS)
Q3 2022 continued to show that the most affluent consumers remain under more financial strain (relatively speaking) than their less affluent counterparts with FAS Group 1 (Luxury Living) showing a Y-Y deterioration in CDI of 16%.
Interestingly, FAS Groups 5 (Laboured Living) and 6 (Yearning Youth), the least affluent consumer segments – also showed a significant deterioration in CDI YoY, after the improving trend that followed in the two years after the initial Covid lockdown conditions.
The credit consumer within the greater context of the South African economy
“Although there has been a temporary slowing in the rate of increase in CPI and fuel costs, the cost of living remains on an upward trend,” Van Jaarsveldt says. “Market appetite for credit remains very high as consumers look to credit to help bridge the gap in covering living expenses.
“The increased cost of living also leads to decreased consumer affordability, which gives rise to low approval rates of credit applicants on the one hand, and increased inability of consumers to meet debt obligations on the other.
“Both consumers and businesses need to exercise caution. For consumers, using credit loans to supplement monthly cash flows could result in a debt cycle as payback obligations rise. Lenders should effectively leverage data and insights in order to conduct accurate affordability evaluations and predict future changes across all consumer categories,” he concludes.

Consumers must develop positive financial habits in challenging times

michendorf

dakar

senegal

johannesburg

phala phala

berlin

ukraine

england

hamburg

russia

lisi

nasrec

cyril ramaphosa

ramaphosa

santa claus

nicholas

Life The week in pictures Cyril Ramaphosa comes out swinging, World Cup fever, China eases Covid restrictions, Christmas comes early to Hamburg’s zoo, Eskom escalates load-shedding to stage 6, and more 09 December 2022 - 08:04 December 4 — President Cyril Ramaphosa leaves the ANC national working committee meeting at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg. Ramaphosa on Monday afternoon filed legal papers seeking to have the recommendations by the parliamentary report into theft at his Phala Phala game farm declared unlawful and invalid.
Picture: SUMAYA HISHAM/REUTERS December 4 — People dressed as Santa Claus take part in the Nikolauslauf (Saint Nicholas run), in the streets of Michendorf on Sunday. It is not the only German city to host the annual race, with Berlin having had a similar event on Saturday.
Picture: LISI NIESNER/REUTERS December 4 — A Senegal fan watches the Fifa World Cup 2022 England vs Senegal match, in Dakar, Senegal.
Picture: ZOHRA BENSEMRA/REUTERS December 4 — A woman walks past graffiti painted on a wall, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, outside a coffee shop in Kyiv.
Picture: SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS December 4 — Epidemic control workers walk in the street by a closed shop near a community with residents under health monitoring for Covid-19 in Beijing, China.
Picture: KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES December 4 — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, centre, rides a horse as he visits battle sites at Mount Paektu, Ryanggang.
Picture STR/KCNA VIA KNS/REUTERS December 5 — People take shelter inside a metro station amid Russian missile attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Picture: SHANNON STAPLETON/ REUTERS December 5 — A protester waves an LGBTQ rights flag outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, the US.
Picture: KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS December 5 — Signatory parties stand with raised copies of an agreement between military rulers and civilian powers in Khartoum, Sudan.
Picture: EL TAYEB SIDDIG/REUTERS December 5 — Tigers Maruschka and Yasha open up Christmas presents in their enclosure in Hagenbeck zoo in Hamburg, Germany.
Picture: FABIAN BIMMER/REUTERS December 6 — Protesters chant slogans during a rally in support of the ongoing strike by South Korean truckers in Uiwang, south of Seoul, on Tuesday. Bloomberg reported that a major umbrella union joined the protest by the truckers, broadening a work stoppage that is disrupting global supply chains and hitting local exporters.
Picture: SEONG JOON-CHO/BLOOMBERG December 6 — Morocco’s Hakim Ziyech, left, and Achraf Hakimi, who both scored from the penalty spot, celebrate victory over Spain at the Fifa World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
Picture: CATHERINE IVILL/GETTY IMAGES December 7 — A traffic jam in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Wednesday as Eskom put in place another round of crippling power cuts. Eskom escalated load-shedding to stage 6 for the fourth time this year, reporting that 47% of the total system was down.
Picture: ANTONIO MUCHAVE December 7 — Supporters of Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga cheer at a rally to protest the government’s “hounding” of four election commissioners, in Nairobi, Kenya.
Picture: THOMAS MUKOYA/REUTERS December 8 — Participants from the Newar community, dressed in traditional attire, take part in the parade to mark Jyapu Day and Yamari Puni festival in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Picture: MONIKA MALLA/REUTERS December 8 — US President Joe Biden hugs Cherelle Griner in the White House after the release of her wife, WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner by Russia in exchange for arms trafficker Viktor Bout, in Washington, the US.
Picture: THE WHITE HOUSE/REUTERS December 8 — A nativity scene, designed by local grocer Francesco Orazio, brings Christmas and climate change awareness to Burano island near Venice, Italy.
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The week in pictures

dell technologies

tarsus distribution

In a post-pandemic world, having the right people, processes and technology in place are key to delivering solutions that can have a meaningful impact on South Africa’s economy.
This was one of the key discussion points raised at a recent TechCentral roundtable event, hosted in partnership with Tarsus Distribution and Dell Technologies.
During the event, several of South Africa’s top small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the education, agricultural, broadcast and tourism industries shared their views on the challenges they face, as well as what can be done to address them.
Technology as an enabler
While SMEs had to rethink their cloud infrastructure, security and compliance postures during the pandemic, this wasn’t their only focus. They had to figure out how to do more with less, gain the skills they needed to thrive, and meet the needs of a wide range of users – all while working remotely.
Amid this juggling act, they still needed to help their clients harness the power of technology to improve their businesses.
Examples of how they are doing this included digitising check-ins at hotels, apps to connect farmers to markets to sell their produce, and optimising digital over-the-top (OTT) services across broadband connections.
Digital transformation
While the digitisation of businesses, the use of hyperscale cloud services, and “everything as a service” are key to success in this digital age, SMEs say they are being grilled by boards and executives. The C-suite wants to measure the business outcomes of their substantial IT investments — and whether they are making a difference to the bottom line.
It also emerged that having a solid strategy in place, proper planning, the appropriate skills, and the right partnerships are also key to implementing technology in a way that helps the business achieve tangible results, without adding too much complexity.
Co-operation and culture are key
This led to a discussion around the importance of building a culture of digital transformation that is infused throughout the business, its users, customers and partners. Attendees believe that this will ensure that all stakeholders follow a shared set of digital values and behaviours. Getting everyone on board with the vision was seen as critical for SMEs when it comes to using technology for the benefit of themselves, their verticals, and the country as a whole.
For SMEs to grow at a sustainable pace, all agreed that knowledge sharing and co-operation between companies from the same industries were key, and a pathway to solving common problems.
Data
Using data more effectively to gain real business insights was another issue that all agreed was integral to future growth and success.
Drilling down into specific verticals, some SMEs said the understanding of geospatial data was crucial to the agricultural, educational and business sectors.
Others claimed that given the challenges in the transport sector, and the growing penetration rates of fixed-line and high-speed mobile broadband in informal settlements, raised questions about how services could be more effectively delivered to these communities.
SMEs in the education sector had a common goal of delivering more affordable educational services to lower-income communities, which could ultimately help these communities through outsourcing opportunities as well as remote working options.
Get in touch
SMEs that would like assistance with their technology road map or modernisation or digital transformation strategies, can contact Tarsus Distribution here.
- This promoted content was paid for by the party concerned

Roundtable: How SMEs are coping in a post-pandemic world

middle east

turkey

lenovo

dell

hp inc

worldwide quarterly pcd tracker

fouad charakla

The Middle East and Africa (MEA) personal computing devices (PCD) market, which is made up of desktops, notebooks, workstations, and tablets, posted a year-on-year decline of 12,8% during the third quarter of 2022, according to the latest industry analysis conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC).
The global technology research and consulting firm’s newly updated Worldwide Quarterly PCD Tracker shows that shipments across the region totaled 5,4-million units in Q3 2022.
“As demand continues to normalize following the exceptionally high sales witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic, shipments continue to undergo a considerable decline,” says Fouad Charakla, IDC’s associate research director for client devices in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. “However, the market’s performance is on par with pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019.”
From a product category perspective, PC shipments were down 12,3% year on year. Lenovo maintained top position with a moderate decline, while HP Inc suffered a sharp decline, coming second. Dell, on the flip side, experienced healthy growth to rank third.
|Middle East & Africa PC Market Vendor Shares – Q3 2021 vs. Q3 2022|
|Company||Q3 2021||Q3 2022|
|Lenovo||23.0%||24.4%|
|HP Inc.||25.2%||21.8%|
|Dell Technologies||14.0%||17.6%|
|Others||37.9%||36.2%|
The tablet market experienced a steep decline of 13,6% year on year. Samsung continued to lead the market by a significant margin, while Apple and Lenovo maintained their respective positions in second and third. Shipments of Samsung and Apple tablets remained close to flat year on year, while Lenovo shipments suffered a steep decline.
|Middle East & Africa Tablet Market Vendor Shares – Q3 2021 vs. Q3 2022|
|Company||Q3 2021||Q3 2022|
|Samsung||37.0%||42.7%|
|Apple||11.6%||13.8%|
|Lenovo||10.6%||7.3%|
|Others||40.8%||36.2%|

MEA PC demand drops as market normalises

acy securities

federal reserve

clifford bennett

Markets Gold creeps higher as spotlight falls on Fed’s rate hike decision Spot gold and US gold futures rise as the dollar loses ground 09 December 2022 - 07:51 Ashitha Shivaprasad Picture: SUPPLIED Bengaluru — Gold prices ticked up on Friday helped by a softer dollar, while investors braced for key US inflation data and Federal Reserve’s rate hike decision due next week.
Spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,793.16/oz, at 2.41am GMT, but fell 0.3% so far this week. US gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,804.80.
The dollar index was down 0.1%. A weaker dollar makes gold more attractive to buyers holding other currencies.
There is a real chance of upward accretion in gold as we head into next week’s Fed meet and consumer price index (CPI) data, said Clifford Bennett, chief economist at ACY Securities.
Market participants now expect a 93% chance of a 50 basis point rate hike at the Fed’s policy meeting on December 13-14. Investors will also watch out for the US CPI report for November due on December 13.
If the Fed slows the pace as per expectations, along with a relatively moderate CPI print, "then the dollar might weaken and all of a sudden you could see a perfect storm rushing over gold’s horizon,” Bennett added.
Lower interest rates tend to be beneficial for bullion as they decrease the opportunity cost of holding the non-yielding asset.
"Traders will care to see what the Fed has to say about the trend of inflation and where rates could peak,” Edward Moya, senior analyst with Oanda, said in a note.
"Gold looks like it will find a home at around the $1,800 level, until we have further indications.”
The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits increased moderately last week, pointing to a still-tight and strong labour market despite growing fears of a recession.
Spot silver edged 0.6% higher to $23.20/oz, platinum rose 0.4% to $1,006.91. Palladium lost 0.4% to $1,918.50, but was headed for a second straight weekly gain.
Reuters

Gold creeps higher as spotlight falls on Fed’s rate hike decision

while africa

While Africa is witnessing its lowest level of new Covid-19 cases since the onset of the pandemic, a recent four-week rise – the first such sustained increase in four months – underscores the criticality of maintaining vigilance as the end-year holiday seasons sets in.
The continent recorded a four-week long rise until 20 November, but the number of new cases dropped slightly in the past two weeks ending on 2 December breaking the upward trend. However, the new cases reported in late November account for less than 10% of cases recorded in the same period in 2021 and 2020.
While deaths rose by 14% in the week ending on 27 November from the week before, they were low at 53 – approximately 4% of the deaths recorded in the same period in 2021 and 2020. The current Covid-19 caseload is not exerting any significant strain on health facilities, with hospitalisations remaining low.
“Despite the recent uptick, there is hope that Africa will be spared the challenges of the previous two years when surging cases and deaths withered normal life and caused deep devastation. While the current trends keep the pandemic under control, we are carefully monitoring its evolution. We must remain vigilant, continue to increase vaccination coverage and be ready to adopt more stringent preventive measures, if necessary,” says Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for Africa.
“The investments made in the Covid-19 fight over the last three years are paying off, with the region better able to cope with the virus and its health emergency response systems bolstered.”
In 2022, the overall decreasing pandemic burden in Africa is easing pressure on national public health resources, allowing countries to further bolster disrupted health services and increase focus on other health priorities such as routine immunization, disease surveillance and response to other outbreaks.
With revamped surveillance, the region has so far this year reported 106 outbreaks and health emergencies linked to humanitarian crises, almost 17% more compared with 2021 and nearly the same as the pre-pandemic level in 2019. Around 25 vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks have also been reported in 2022. Thirteen were reported in 2020 and 19 in 2021, according to a WHO tally.
Response to the Covid-19 the pandemic across Africa has helped countries to reinforce key public health emergency response measures including diagnosis and testing, critical care, and infection prevention and control. The improvements can help the continent handle not only Covid-19 but other outbreaks.
At the onset of the pandemic, the average number of intensive care unit beds was around three per 100 000 people, below the WHO recommendation of a minimum of five per 100 000. With the support of WHO and partners, 70% of countries in the region have met the standard of intensive care unit beds.
Medical oxygen production has also been boosted. Medical oxygen production has also been boosted. In 2019, the continent had 2600 oxygen concentrators and now has 6901.
In addition, WHO has supported nine countries to set up and maintain oxygen production plants, increasing the region’s production by 7,9-million litres a day – enough to treat 1 130 critically care patients per day.
While care of critically ill Covid-19 patients has improved, countries need to further strengthen their capacities to cope with a sudden surge in cases sparked by a new lethal and transmissible variant.
]A WHO assessment of more than 5 100 health facilities in 18 countries on 14 infection prevention and control indicators (such as Covid-19 screening at facility entrance, isolation of suspected cases and use of personal protective equipment) found a significant improvement, with a score of 67% in November 2022, up from 54% in July 2020.
WHO recommends that facilities score above 75% and with sustained effort this is possible in 2023. Strong infection, prevention and control in health facilities is critical for preventing the spread of a range infectious pathogens such as Ebola and Covid-19.
Africa has made huge improvements in genomic sequencing. Around 105 000 sequences were produced in 2022 compared with 58 610 the year before.
With new cases at a low level in recent months testing and genomic sequencing have dropped. As part of a move to integrate Covid-19 into routine health services, WHO is recommending that countries adopt testing strategies that focus on detecting new cases, particularly in vulnerable populations such as the elderly or those with comorbidities to reduce severe disease; and detecting new cases to limit transmission and to monitor viral epidemiology and evolution.
Only 26% of Africans are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and while countries such as Cameroon continue to carry out mass vaccination campaigns, others have begun integrating Covid-19 vaccination into routine immunisation and primary health care services.
“As we move into 2023, it is time to bring Covid-19 out of an emergency response mode and integrate into routine health care,” says Dr Moeti. “We are already seeing countries such as Ghana and Nigeria taking the lead on this, and I encourage others to do so as well. Covid-19 is here to stay.

Covid burden lessens in Africa, but numbers are creeping up

canada

argentina

vaca muerta

patagonian

Markets Oil slides to December 2021 lows after leak in Keystone pipeline Oil prices set for biggest weekly drop in months as closure of a Canada-to-US crude pipeline disrupts supplies 09 December 2022 - 07:47 Florence Tan Oil pump jacks are seen at the Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas deposit in the Patagonian province of Neuquen, Argentina on January 21 2019. File Picture: REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian Singapore — Oil prices bounced on Friday as closure of a major Canada-to-US crude pipeline disrupted supplies, but prices remained near December 2021 lows on concerns over slowing global demand growth.
Brent crude futures were at $76.74 a barrel, up 59c, or 0.8%, at 1.15am GMT after dropping 1.3% on Thursday.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 68c, or 1%, to $72.14 a barrel after settling 0.8% lower in the previous session.
News of an accident closing Canada’s TC Energy’s Keystone pipeline in the US prompted a brief rally on Thursday, but prices finally eased as the market took a view that the closure would be brief. More than 14,000 barrels of crude oil spilt into a creek in Kansas, making it one of the largest crude spills in the US in nearly a decade.
The news appears “to be only short-term negative for supplies but doesn’t change anything with the deteriorating crude demand outlook”, Oanda analyst Edward Moya said in a note.
WTI prices are close to the $70 level, which is where the Biden administration is expected to start to consider refilling the strategic petroleum reserve, he added.
Previous spill-induced outages are typically rectified in about two weeks, RBC Capital analyst Robert Kwan said, though the latest outage may prove longer given that it involves a spill into a creek.
Oil prices are set to post their biggest weekly drop in months, since traders expect it will be months before the benefits of China easing Covid controls feeds through to demand.
Surging infections are likely to depress China’s economic growth in the next few months, bringing a rebound only later in 2023, economists said.
Reuters

Oil slides to December 2021 lows after leak in Keystone pipeline

south-africa-technology-news-api