From deposit-takers to partners — how banks can rescue SA’s municipalities
South African banks are shifting from viewing municipalities primarily as sources of transaction fees to becoming strategic partners supporting local government. This change reflects municipalities' deteriorating financial condition marked by technical insolvency, revenue collapse, and governance failures that make the traditional banking model unsustainable.
Bitcoin Faces $69,000 Test as ETF Inflows Meet Professional Caution
Bitcoin rose above $66,800 this week, its strongest level in over a month, before declining as consecutive ETF inflows brought money back into the market. Professional traders remain cautious about whether this represents a sustained recovery or another temporary rally that will fade.
Scientists use brain scans to show love and heartbreak actually rewire your brain
Brain scans reveal that love and heartbreak physically rewire neural pathways, with romantic attachment triggering similar brain regions as hunger or thirst. The research demonstrates that being in love reorients brain activity entirely toward another person.
Agentic coding goes hands-free as OpenAI brings GPT-Live's full duplex voice control to Codex and ChatGPT on the desktop
Full-duplex voice control now powers ChatGPT's desktop application on macOS and Windows, enabling software engineers to use natural voice commands for coding tasks like orchestrating multi-threaded jobs and debugging applications. GPT-Live's simultaneous listening and speaking capabilities eliminate rigid turn-taking while delegating reasoning to background models like GPT-5.5.
AngelList Introduces Agentic AI Fund Management
AngelList added agentic AI capabilities allowing users to access fund information through Claude, ChatGPT, and Codex. Investors can now query financials, documents, capital calls, and distributions directly from these AI assistants.
Defoe leaves Woking after 'eye-opening' first managerial role
Jermain Defoe left his managerial position at Woking after four months and nine matches, describing the role as eye-opening. The former England and Tottenham striker departed the National League club following what he characterized as a valuable first managerial experience.
Employers may no longer have to disclose race and gender data
The EEOC voted 2-1 to eliminate mandatory EEO-1 reporting that has required employers with 100 or more employees to disclose workforce breakdowns by race and gender since 1966. The proposed rule would end these confidential reports to the government after a 30-day public comment period.
Ford is switching from Google to Apple Maps for its next-generation EVs
Ford is replacing Google Maps with Apple Maps as the built-in navigation system in its next-generation electric vehicles starting in 2027. The integration uses Apple's MapKit for Automotive SDK and will debut in Ford's $30,000 midsize electric pickup.
Crypto Sector Delivers Substantial Economic Value Despite Modest Direct Employment in the US
The cryptocurrency sector directly employs approximately 34,000 workers across the United States. Despite this modest workforce size, the industry contributes substantial economic value to the American economy.
Bitwise CIO Foresees Hyperliquid -Style Protocols and Robinhood Markets-Like Platforms Driving Next Bitcoin and Crypto Surge
Bitwise's CIO expects specialized cryptocurrency protocols and retail-focused trading platforms to drive the next market surge as Bitcoin shows recent gains and ETF inflows return. He identifies specific investment categories, including Hyperliquid-style protocols and Robinhood Markets-like platforms, as the primary beneficiaries of anticipated cryptocurrency growth.
Musk says Optimus will be the hardest product Tesla has ever scaled
Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot will require building an entirely new supply chain with custom-made components. Elon Musk warned investors that scaling Optimus manufacturing will be harder than any previous Tesla product because every component is new.
Fintech Funding Holds Strong in Q2 2026 as Valuations Hit New Peaks
Fintech venture capital deal value reached $13.3 billion in Q2 2026, demonstrating double-digit growth compared to the prior year and quarter. The number of transactions declined despite this valuation increase, indicating investors became more selective during the period.
Disney layoffs hit Pixar employees, even after the success of ‘Toy Story 5’
Pixar laid off 108 employees from its Emeryville headquarters, with cuts occurring between September and January affecting editors, technical directors, and software engineers. The layoffs occurred despite Toy Story 5 approaching one billion dollars in box office sales.
AMD unveils Helios rack and MI455X accelerator in bid to close the gap with Nvidia
AMD released the MI455X accelerator and Helios rack containing 72 of these chips per system for data centre AI workloads. The company claims these products will outperform Nvidia's competing hardware for both AI training and inference tasks.
Layoffs just hit a 57-year low. So why does the job market feel so tough?
First-time unemployment benefit applications dropped by 22,000 to 187,000 claims for the week ending July 18, reaching a 57-year low not seen since September 1969. Continuing unemployment claims stayed at 1.8 million, declining by only 2,000 claims during the same period.
Oil prices just hit $100 a barrel again. Here’s what that could mean for consumers
Brent crude oil reached $100 per barrel Thursday after Houthis attacked Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, while West Texas Intermediate futures broke $90 at $92.25. Average U.S. gasoline prices climbed to $4.09 per gallon and diesel to $5.20 per gallon.
Intuit Enters the Corporate Card Market with a Data Advantage
Intuit launched the Intuit Business Credit Card, a Mastercard designed to help small businesses manage spending and access credit. The card allows QuickBooks to extend its services upstream from bookkeeping into the moment business expenses are authorized.
The problem with AI becoming our easiest colleague to talk to
Workday's Human Connection Workplace Index found that employees increasingly turn to AI for advice and mentorship rather than colleagues, with many reporting reduced personal interactions and work-related loneliness. The data reveals that AI's constant availability and lack of power dynamics make it an easier confidant than human coworkers in many workplace cultures.
Andrew Ng Just Released OpenWorker: An Open-Source, Local-First Desktop AI Coworker That Returns Finished Deliverables Instead of Chat
A desktop AI agent called OpenWorker returns finished work deliverables instead of chat responses, running locally through a Python server within a Tauri shell. The system supports 30 tool-calling models plus local Ollama, and requires approval for all write operations, shell commands, and external actions through a risk engine.
Stay visible in the era of AI search
More than eighty percent of searches now end without clicking through to a website, as people increasingly get answers directly from AI language models instead of visiting company sites. Companies must shift from optimizing for keyword rankings to ensuring their content appears in AI-generated answers by being relevant to the actual questions buyers ask.
ANNA Money Acquires Business Data Group, UK Business Forums
ANNA Money acquired Business Data Group and UK Business Forums to expand its AI-powered operating system for business management. The acquisition provides ANNA access to BDG's firm formation agents.
Chelsea paid Aston Villa £117m for Morgan Rogers. Is he the right fit?
Chelsea paid Aston Villa £117 million for Morgan Rogers, making him the most expensive British player ever. The 23-year-old England attacker thrives when galloping into space, but Xabi Alonso's best team built attacks slowly.
Four former DOGE staffers raised $160 million at a $1.4 billion valuation for an AI military cyber startup
Four former DOGE staffers founded Cathedral, a military cybersecurity startup that raised $160 million at a $1.4 billion valuation. Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital led the funding round and each took board seats.
Black Forest Labs launches FLUX 3 capable of generating images and 20-second video with audio — but in limited release to start
Black Forest Labs launched FLUX 3, a multimodal model generating images and video with audio up to 20 seconds from single prompts through jointly trained architecture rather than separate models. FLUX 3 Video and FLUX 3 Action entered gated Early Access requiring approval, with no current public API availability.
Jeff Bezos has been approached to buy a stake in Liverpool FC. Amazon already holds the Premier League TV rights.
A consortium led by Amit Bhatia has approached Jeff Bezos to buy a 30% stake in Liverpool FC for £1.35 billion. The offer would be made to current owner Fenway Sports Group, while Amazon already holds the club's Premier League television rights.
Travis Kalanick raised $1.7B for his robotics comeback, and Uber chipped in
Travis Kalanick raised $1.7 billion for Atoms, an industrial AI and robotics company, with Andreessen Horowitz leading the funding round. Ben Horowitz joined the company's board as part of the investment.
Multi-turn attacks broke AI models 88% of the time — single-turn testing missed it, Cisco AI security lead warns at VB Transform 2026
Multi-turn attacks broke through 15 flagship AI models 88.3% of the time when attackers adapted across conversations, while single-turn testing missed these vulnerabilities. Only 32% of enterprises surveyed give every agent its own scoped, managed identity, and 30% isolate high-risk agents in sandboxes.
AMD is investing $5 billion in Anthropic and deploying 2 gigawatts of Helios GPUs to run Claude
AMD is investing up to $5 billion in Anthropic and deploying up to 2 gigawatts of Instinct MI450 Series GPUs to run Claude. The first gigawatt of Helios rackscale solutions will begin deployment in the first half of 2027.
Reddit may cut Google off from its content, and it isn’t the only one
Reddit is considering blocking Google from accessing its content through web crawling. The company's stock price dropped approximately 9 percent following reports of these negotiations about restricting Google's access.
The agent security gap: 54% of enterprises have already had an AI agent incident, and most still let agents share credentials
More than half of 107 surveyed enterprises experienced confirmed AI agent security incidents or near-misses, with only about one-third assigning each agent its own scoped identity. Most agents still share credentials, only 30 percent isolate high-risk agents, and enterprises rely on security tools borrowed from model providers rather than purpose-built agent controls.