It’s very much a real-life doco version of ‘The Lion King’, with Jon Favreau executive producing, and music from Hans Zimmer echoing themes from the Disney classic. It took Disney+ and BBC Studios’...

The post ‘LION’ – new TV series chronicles four-year journey of lion cub Kio first appeared on Science Illustrated.

Thula Solutions’ new electric safari vehicles aren’t repurposed diesels – they were engineered from the ground up as purpose-built electric safari vehicles designed to get curious tourists, scientists, and park workers closer to the action than ever before.

Senior MTN Group executives promoted the potential pan-African economic benefits of digitalisation during a meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), moves they inevitably argued are boosted by the operator’s broad footprint.

MTN president and CEO Ralph Mupita (pictured, third from right) emphasised the importance of the operator group’s scale and global clout during the meeting with IMF first deputy MD Dan Katz (pictured, centre) and various of their staff.

The conflab formed part of broader talks Katz is holding with South African authorities and private sector players.

Mupita said wide-reaching collaborations can speed “Africa’s digital transformation” and Katz’ visit is an “opportunity to engage constructively with the IMF leadership”.

The executive explained “the discussion centred on the macroeconomic outlook across our key markets of South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana”.

“In particular, we discussed the power of the digital economy to drive sustainable growth across the continent.”

MTN highlighted it is working to boost digitalisation through its Ambition 2030 programme, which includes goals of broadening consumer and business access to connectivity, expanding fintech services, and extending the reach of fibre and availability of AI data centres.

The post MTN deposits digital economy knowledge with IMF appeared first on Mobile World Live.

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New research led by the University of California, Berkeley reveals that beyond Neanderthals and Denisovans, humans interbred with two mysterious ‘ghost’ lineages: one in Africa more than 50,000 years ago, another in Eurasia over 1.7 million years ago.

The post Scientists Find Traces of Two Unknown Archaic Hominins in Human DNA appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

An international team of paleontologists has identified a new species of early sauropodomorph dinosaur in Zimbabwe, adding to growing evidence that southern Africa hosted a richer diversity of dinosaurs during the Late Triassic epoch than previously recognized.

The post New Species of Triassic Dinosaur Discovered on Shores of Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A set of 1.43-million-year-old fossil footprints preserved along the margin of an ancient lake in northern Kenya is offering paleoanthropologists new evidence about the size, gait and social lives of the beings who made them and reopening questions about which species they belonged to.

The post Ancient Footprints in Kenya Hint at Bigger Bodies and Group Behavior among Early Human Relatives appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A remarkable discovery has been made in East Africa’s Lake Malawi, one of the deepest bodies of water on the African continent.

Africa’s impressive lakes have long remained a focus of speculation for naturalists, involving folklore about strange creatures—including supposed holdovers from prehistoric times—alleged to inhabit some of their waters.

However, a much smaller discovery made by a team of researchers with the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) at Vancouver, Canada, is nonetheless challenging our past thinking on what kinds of life forms can be found lurking in the depths of some of Africa’s storied lakes.

In a remarkable discovery, a variety of lake fly larvae have been found descending into the very oxygen-deprived depths of Lake Malawi, where they hide more than 650 feet below the surface to avoid predators.

After spending their days in this deep-water “dead zone,” the larvae reemerge at night and feed—or at least some of them do, if they are lucky enough to escape the fish searching for a dinner of their own, while these tiny insects are commuting back to the surface.

A Surprising Discovery Deep in Lake Malawi

To chart the unusual daily cycle of these larvae, UBC researchers Dr. Philip Matthews and Dr. Evan McKenzie used sonar technologies, which were positioned deep within the lake.

While this provided an idea about where these tiny insects were going, it was dissecting the larvae that revealed how these remarkable little creatures have somehow evolved a respiratory system that contains two pairs of small air sacs, which function like ballast tanks, allowing the larvae to control their buoyancy.

Within these sacs, they discovered the presence of resilin, a material that can either expand or contract in proportion to changes in the pH of the sac’s walls. As a result, the larvae can change the volume of these unique air sacs, thereby controlling their buoyancy.

It is an unusual capability these creatures display, to say the least. Curious about how deep they might be able to go, the researchers placed several of the larvae within small pressure chambers to simulate the depths they might travel to before the sacs imploded.

Much to the team’s surprise, these natural buoyancy systems held out under conditions that would match depths of 400 meters (1,312 feet), which is much deeper than what the sonar data reveals about the larvae’s daily descents into Lake Malawi.

While it has long been assumed that insects, which often thrive in freshwater environments, do not live in open oceans due to such pressures associated with the depths of the world’s largest bodies of water, these African insect larvae reveal that such creatures can survive under such conditions.

Based on their findings, the UBC researchers hope to work on finding ways of simulating such capabilities, perhaps by creating pH-powered resilin smart materials, or even artificial systems that emulate the way muscles operate.

The team’s findings appeared in the new study, “Crush-resistant air sacs allow insect larvae to exploit aquatic habitats at extreme depth,” published in the journal Science.

Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.

Airtel Africa CEO Sunil Taldar announced London as the preferred location for listing shares in its mobile money division, with the IPO expected to take place later this year.

In a trading update, the chief said he believed the UK capital city would provide access to a broad international investor base and “support our ambition to unlock the long-term value of one of Africa’s leading fintech platforms”.

Talking-up the impact of the service on its markets, he noted it continues to expand financial inclusion with “strong engagement”, highlighting Airtel Africa’s growing product range and an increase in digital adoption throughout the region.

In its fiscal Q1 2027 (the quarter to end-June), it had a mobile money customer base of 56.5 million, up 23% year-on-year, and processed a total of $61.4 billion, almost 52% higher.

ARPU from the service stood at $2.40, up 14%.

Although the executive did not expand on the current status of the plan beyond the timeline and location, Bloomberg reported earlier this year the operator could net between $1.5 billion and $2 billion from the share sale.

The post Airtel Africa progresses money unit IPO appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Donald Trump approves agreement to help country make fuel for civilian nuclear programme

Donald Trump signed a nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday that could enable the kingdom to enrich its own uranium for nuclear reactions.

The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, signed “a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement” and “an accompanying bilateral safeguards agreement,” according to a statement from the US Department of Energy.

Diplomats say de-escalation talks continue as Trump vows retaliation over US soldier deaths

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

The US military said it has launched its 10th consecutive round of strikes on Iran to force the reopening of the strait of Hormuz.

Earlier on Monday, Iran’s president said the country is in a “full-scale war” after the US expanded its aerial campaign and Tehran struck Washington’s Gulf allies, even as diplomats said talks to de-escalate were continuing.