Breaking News Today- Friday 22 August 2025

Business & Tech News 

Botswana Interest Rate Held Steady

Botswana’s central bank continued holding its stable interest rate policy, and left its monetary policy rate unchanged at 1.90% yesterday. This marked the sixth consecutive meeting without adjustments, citing upside risks to the inflation outlook in a struggling domestic economy. Inflation in the Southern African nation is one of Africa’s lowest at 1.1%, well below the central bank’s target range of 3%-6%. The Bank of Botswana, has however revised its inflation outlook upward, projecting an average rate of 3.5% for 2025 and 5.9% for 2026, compared to 2.7% and 4.6%, respectively, in its June forecast.

The central bank widened the trading margin for the pula in July, sparking significant exchange rate adjustments by commercial banks for foreign currency transactions.“Risks to the inflation outlook are assessed to be tilted to the upside. This is primarily due to market reaction following the recent widening of trading margins of the pula, which led to an increase in prices of some goods and services,” Governor Cornelius Dekop said.

Meta Signs Google Cloud Deal Indicating AI Growth Trajectory

Google has secured a six-year cloud computing deal with Meta Platforms, valued at over $10 billion, marking one of the largest agreements in Google Cloud’s 17-year history. Announced today, the deal enables Meta to utilise Google Cloud’s servers, storage, networking, and other services to bolster its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. This partnership aligns with Meta’s aggressive AI push, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg aims to develop “personal super intelligence” and compete in the AI race. Meta, already operating its own data centers and using Amazon and Microsoft cloud services, is seeking additional computing power to support its AI-driven initiatives, including massive data center expansions.

The deal follows Google’s recent cloud agreement with OpenAI, highlighting its growing traction in the cloud market, trailing only Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Alphabet’s Google Cloud reported $13.6 billion in Q2 2025 revenue, with a 32% growth rate. Meta’s 2025 capital expenditure forecast is $66–$72 billion, largely for AI infrastructure, with plans to offload $2 billion in data center assets to fund these efforts. This rare collaboration between ad rivals, however highlights the growing demand for AI computing resources.

Google Launches Pixel Journey Journal App

Google has launched their Pixel Journal app, exclusively for Pixel 10 series devices, aiming to rival Apple’s Journal app. It leverages on-device Gemini Nano AI to enhance journaling with personalized writing prompts based on memories, past entries, or goals, fostering consistent self-reflection. Key features include: AI-Powered Prompts, that suggests topics to inspire entries, adapting to your writing habits. Multimedia Integration, which can add photos, locations, and activities to entries, plus mood tracking. Insights Dashboard, which tracks patterns like most active journaling times, total entries, and longest entry by word count, with weekly/monthly views and an emoji calendar.

The app follows Material 3 Expressive design and is currently available in English-only and is available on the Google Play Store. While exclusive to Pixel 10, APK files allow installation on Android 15+ devices, but AI features may not work on older models. Google may expand compatibility to other Pixels later, possibly with the September 2025 Pixel Drop.

Business, Tech & Market News Shorts: 

• The FTSE 100 extended its rally to close at another record high, marking a fourth straight day of gains. Sentiment was lifted by data showing a smaller public sector deficit and stronger private sector output, which reduced expectations for another Bank of England rate cut this year.
• OpenAI’s chief people officer, Julia Villagra, is set to depart the AI Tech Giant today, according to a report from Reuters. Villagra joined Open Ai’s leadership team in February as the head of human resources, and In March, had been promoted to the chief people officer role.
• Shares of Australia’s buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) company – Zip, surged over 25% today hitting their highest level in over three years after higher annual earnings reported alongside plans for a secondary U.S. listing.
• Soybean futures rallied to $10.33 per bushel, supported by short covering and bargain buying after recent price drops drew renewed interest. Strong export demand added support, with the USDA reporting net new-crop U.S. soybean export sales of 2.05 million metric tons for the week ending August 14, well above trade expectations of 400,000 to 1 million tons

Markets by Numbers 

Currencies: 

Currency markets today indicate the US Dollar is currently trading stronger against the Euro at 1.15877 and against the Pound at 1.33952 The Yen is currently trading at 148.60 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR) is currently at R17.74 to the US dollar.

Commodities:

• Gold futures prices are currently trading downwards at around $3330 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are trading marginally lower today, with prices currently at $4.4310
• Silver futures prices are edging lower today, and currently at $38069
• Platinum futures are trading slightly lower this morning, and are currently trading at $1339 While Palladium prices are a touch higher this morning and currently at $1098
• Brent crude oil prices are currently trading upwards, and currently at $67.71, with WTI trading at $63.60 
• Cocoa futures continue to fall this morning, and are currently at $7435.00 per ton. 
• Coffee futures continue to surge and are up by over 4% today, and currently at $375.25

Crypto Currencies:

• Bitcoin prices are currently at $113202
• Ether prices are currently at $4290.70 
• $Trumpcoin is currently trading around $8.45

(All prices quoted at approximately 07H50 Central African Time) 

Other Breaking News in Africa Today

Uganda to Accept Deported US Illegal Migrants

Uganda has acknowledged it has signed an agreement with the United States to take in deported migrants, on condition that they don’t have criminal records. Kampala said it would also refuse unaccompanied minors and had expressed a preference for people with African nationalities. In a statement, Uganda’s ministry of foreign affairs said the two parties are still working out the details but confirmed that the deal had been ‘concluded.’ The agreement was first reported by CBS News, which said Washington had reached a similar deal with Honduras. 

Last month, 13 men described as dangerous criminals were deported to Eswatini and South Sudan, while Rwanda has reportedly agreed to accept 250 migrants from the US. Since returning to office in January, US President Donald Trump has cracked down on undocumented migrants – a key campaign promise that drew strong support. Uganda already hosts around two million asylum seekers from neighbouring countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and South Sudan.