THE LOCAL

The meeting, which took place from 9-10 March, was dedicated to identifying a clear set of annual objectives and deliverables for the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) in 2023. It brought together the PAVM’s secretariat and representatives from partner organizations including the African Union Development Agency, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank), the Africa Vaccine Manufacturers Initiative (AVMI), and members of academia. The lead partners reviewed the eight bold programs outlined in the PAVM Framework for Action, prioritized a set of practical actions and defined a collaboration framework that enables implementation, effectiveness and quick results in support of African vaccine manufacturing. The Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing was established by the African Union, under the Africa CDC, in 2021, to...

When the first Bitcoin split took place in August 2017, there was a lot of excitement in the community.  Meanwhile, there are already some offshoots of the most popular cyber currency - and it could be in the near future significantly more. The digital currency  Bitcoin  , which was publicly tradable in 2009 as the first cryptocurrency, is no longer alone.  In the meantime,  Ethereum  ,  Ripple  ,  Litecoin  and Co. have numerous other digital thalers based on blockchain technology.  But in addition to such independent crypto currencies, investors are also finding more and more tokens that  boldly demonstrate a kinship to Bitcoin, such as  Bitcoin Cash  ,  Bitcoin Gold  or  BitcoinDark  . In contrast to the former group of digital currencies, they were created by a split or so-called fork from Bitcoin.  Such spin-off currencies share most of the software with the origina...

Commerce Minister Rose Denies Raising the Trade Widow but "Fights China's Protectionism" Following Washington's announcement of a new trade relief tariff this week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Rose at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, criticized China for being a long-term disguised under the banner of "free trade." However, "A high degree of protectionism." The United States has not set off a trade war, but instead is a direct threat to China's protectionism and high-tech products.  U.S. President Trump will also make a speech at the WEF today, stating that "U.S. priority" can coexist with globalism and that the United States seeks more fair and mutually beneficial trade with the allies. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Rose attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, criticizing China's long-term disguise under the banner of free trade but adopting a "high degree of protectionism," arousing f...

SAN JOSE — Customer privacy concerns led to sales delays for most businesses last year as fears escalated in the wake of massive data hacks at Equifax, Yahoo and other companies. About 65 percent of businesses say privacy concerns impacted how quickly they were able to sell their products and services, according to a Cisco study released Thursday. The average length of a sales delay was nearly 8 weeks. “We’re seeing that good privacy, mature privacy, well measured and studied privacy is good for business, and we have the data to show it,” said Michelle Dennedy, Cisco’s chief privacy officer, in an interview. Companies could lose money from delayed sales, especially if a customer switches to a competitor during that time, according to the study. More government regulation, including in Europe, and consumer awareness may explain why privacy concerns delayed sales, Dennedy said. Cisco, which sells security products, also found that businesses with be...

Keep your eyes peeled for a white Lexus SUV with a weird robotic crown on its head in Silicon Valley. Apple has expanded its autonomous driving fleet from three last year to 27 in early 2018, by registering 24 more Lexus RX450h sport-utility vehicles with the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Apple has been beefing up its self-driving car inventory since last July, according to the Verge. Apple added two in July, seven in October, two in November, six in December and seven in January, the Verge reported. Apple’s path to self-driving cars has been a rocky one. In 2014, media reports revealed Apple’s then-secret operation to build a self-driving car called Project Titan. However, by 2016, Project Titan’s wheels began to fall off, as hundreds of employees were reassigned, laid off or left to join other competitors. In April 2017, Apple received its official permit from the California DMV to operate self-driving te...

The flagship phone launch of Mobile World Congress 2018, the Samsung Galaxy S9 is going to set the agenda for Android phones in 2018. Rumors are already beginning to fly about the Galaxy S9's design and features, and we're rounding them up in preparation for the phone's launch on the evening of February 26 in Barcelona Rumors for Now As always, there are already a bunch of videos on YouTube claiming to give you the final lowdown, the complete set of leaks, or the total story on the Galaxy S9. They're probably wrong. While there are plenty of leaks out there to be sure, it's my experience over the past 14 years of covering phones that everyone always gets some things wrong in advance — and it's the people who most bombastically say they're right who get things the most wrong. The Galaxy S9 is not expected to be a radical upgrade from the Galaxy S8. If Samsung is doing anything radical this year, it's going to be the rumored Samsung Galaxy X F...

Making changes to your business network can be a headache, to put it mildly. Take adding a new branch office, retail outlet or restaurant expansion. Every growing business is looking to ensure top productivity and communication across its divisions, whether they are across the street or on the other side of the world. But making that connectivity happen can quickly become complicated and expensive — especially when the sites are remote and involve various service providers. It’s little wonder why so many Canadian businesses are turning to a new generation of cloud-based network technology for the solution. Known as SD-WAN (short for software-defined wide area network), the technology is already being embraced by Canadian organizations, with an estimated 70 per cent of businesses using or planning to use SD-WAN within two years, according to IDC Canada. So just what is this new networking solution, and what makes it so different from what we’ve been used to? The k...

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple, which had long deferred paying taxes on its foreign earnings and had become synonymous with hoarding money overseas, unveiled plans on Wednesday that would bring back the vast majority of the $252 billion in cash that it held abroad and said it would make a sizable investment in the United States. With the moves, Apple took advantage of the new tax code that President Trump signed into law last month. A provision allows for a one-time repatriation of corporate cash held abroad at a lower tax rate than what would have been paid under the previous tax plan. Apple, which has 94 percent of its total cash of $269 billion outside the United States, said it would make a one-time tax payment of $38 billion on the repatriated cash. For years, Apple had said it would not bring its foreign earnings back to the United States until the corporate tax code changed, because such a move would be too costly. Now Apple’s bet to hold back on paying such taxes...