Can a $40 smartphone bring Africa online? On March 3, the GSMA, a global advocacy and lobby group for the mobile communications industry, announced partnerships to pilot $40 smartphones in Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda in 2026. “Affordable 4G smartphones at scale could bring tens of millions of people online, unlocking access to […]
The best and worst countries in Latin America and the Caribbean this year. BY JOHN PRICE Homegrown political transformation, record metals prices, the energy sector, and yes, Donald Trump, are all playing a role in shaping the economic opportunities to be found in Latin America this year. Compared to the last time we evaluated LatAm […]
When scientist Catherine Nakalembe set out to map crop types in western Kenya, she had plenty of data from satellite images, but couldn’t use artificial intelligence to analyze it because the data could not recognize local crops. She decided to collect her own data, fitting GoPro cameras on the helmets of dozens of volunteers, and […]
The U.S.-Iran conflict is beginning to reshape how people work across Asia. On March 10, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade urged employers to allow remote work where possible to reduce transportation needs and fuel consumption. Vietnam has one of the region’s smallest oil reserve buffers, with supplies estimated to last less than 20 days. […]
Six competing projects backed by Gulf nations are racing to build overland data routes to Europe through Syria, Iraq, and the Horn of Africa, aiming to give the region an alternative if the subsea cables it depends on are damaged. The scramble has accelerated since Iran’s retaliatory strikes hit Amazon facilities in the Gulf and […]
Meta allowed an artificial intelligence-generated video to go unchecked on Facebook during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025, according to a new ruling published by the Oversight Board today. The fabricated video, posted by a user in the Philippines posing as a news source, showed extensive damage to buildings in Israel’s […]
Since the start of the year, China’s humanoid robots have made waves at home and abroad — from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to China’s Lunar New Year Spring Gala — fueling bold claims about a new industrial revolution that would make it impossible for the U.S. to catch up. Chinese companies now […]
The first thing I look at each morning is not the headlines; it’s two check marks on my phone. They sit under the message I sent hours earlier to my family in Tehran. If they are blue, my shoulders drop. If they are gray, something in me tightens. My body prepares for a scenario my […]
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has brought artificial intelligence and the technology behind unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, into sharp focus. The U.S. military is using the most advanced AI it has ever used in warfare, with Anthropic’s Claude AI reported to be assessing intelligence, identifying targets, and simulating battle scenarios, even as […]
As the worlds of social media and artificial intelligence collide, Meta’s Oversight Board is rethinking how it can best execute its regulatory role. Meta’s Oversight Board is an independent, external regulatory body established in 2018 to review content moderation decisions across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The 21-member global team acts like a “supreme court” making […]