Breaking News Today – Friday 27 February 2026

Business News Today 

New Oil Refinery Development For Lobito Port

Angola’s state-owned oil company Sonangol has announced it is negotiating a $4.8 billion loan with Chinese financial institutions to partially finance a new refinery in the Atlantic port of Lobito, marking the country’s first such borrowing from China since 2017. CEO Sebastião Gaspar Martins told reporters the company is in talks with “financial institutions in China” to secure funding for a project phase estimated to cost around $6.2 billion, with support from a Chinese contractor. The terms of the loan will not include oil as collateral, indicating a shift from previous loan terms. Angola has reduced exposure to resource-backed loans from China since 2017 amid volatile commodity prices. Chinese lending to Africa peaked in 2019 but declined sharply during the pandemic, leaving projects like a Kenyan railway unfinished. 

Warner Bros Deal Struck

The bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery is over. David Ellison-owned Paramount will acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.After a string of offers and counter offers over months, Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that Paramount Skydance’s newest offer of $31 a share was a “superior proposal,” giving Netflix four business days to counter. Netflix then said it would not raise its $82.7 billion all-cash-bid for the major movie studio, and would walk away from the deal. “The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval,” said Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters in a statement yesterday. “However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.”

The deal would still subject to a $7 billion reverse termination fee from Paramount if regulators block it, the execution of a definitive merger agreement plus regulatory approvals (U.S. antitrust review by the DOJ/FTC, potential state AG challenges like California’s, and European regulators).

Smartphone Shipments Set for Biggest-Ever Decline in 2026

The International Data Corporation (IDC), a leading global market intelligence and advisory firm focused on technology, telecommunications, and consumer tech markets, has warned that the global smartphone market faces a 12.9% drop to 1.12 billion units in 2026. This would be the steepest ever fall in units, driven by surging memory chip prices inflating device costs. Low-end Android makers are likely to be hit the hardest. Apple and Samsung are however expected to gain share as smaller rivals struggle or exit the market. This ties into broader consumer tech reset, with growth in the smartphone market in 2025 only seeing around a 3% lift to $1.3 trillion, and expected to level off or drop slightly in 2026.

Dorsey Dumps Human Staff For Tech

Jack Dorsey announced on X yesterday, that his payments company, Block, would be reducing their global staff by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. Dorsey stressed that the company was not making this decision because the business was in trouble, but that the AI technology developed in the company, “was enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that’s accelerating rapidly” he said. Dorsey also acknowledged the contribution the staff had made towards building the company. “To those of you leaving…i’m grateful for you, and i’m sorry to put you through this. you built what this company is today”. “That’s a fact that I’ll honour forever. this decision is not a reflection of what you contributed, Dorsey Stated.

Breaking News Shorts:  

• Chinese social media and gaming group Tencent Holdings, is reported to be in talks to buy a minor stake in Hungry Studio, a gaming developer that developed the in-demand game Block Blast!, according to a report on Bloomberg. The gaming platform has over 300 million monthly players and 70 million daily active users as of the end of 2025.
• South Africa’s Discovery Bank moved into profit in the six months to December 2025, according to their reported earnings in a trading update yesterday. The release showed earnings of between R210 million and R230 million after a loss of R145 million in the prior period, Discovery’s share price lifted to a 52-week high as investors reacted positively to the improved trading statement.
• India’s BSE Sensex index fell around -0.4% to 81,899 this morning, falling to its lowest since early February following a muted session, as selling pressure weighed across most sectors, with only technology posting modest gains. Investors remained cautious ahead of today’s release of Q4 GDP data
• AI Company Anthropic has said it will not back down in a fight with the US Department of Defense (DoD) over how its artificial intelligence (AI) technology is used. The firm’s chief executive Dario Amodei said on Thursday that his company would rather not work with the Pentagon than agree to uses of its tech that may “undermine, rather than defend, democratic values.”

Markets by Numbers 

Currency markets indicate the US dollar trading flat against major currencies today, with the Greenback trading against the Euro at 1.18017 while trading against the Pound at 1.34905. The Yen is currently trading at 155.72 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR) is currently trading stronger at around R15.90 against the US dollar.

Commodities:  

• Gold futures are steady today, rising marginally this morning, and currently trading at around $5187.09 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are trending marginally lower today, with prices currently around $5.9674 per pound
• Silver futures are up over 1% today, and currently trading around $89.892 per ounce.
• Platinum futures have dropped by -2.5% this morning, and currently trading at $2271.80, While Palladium prices are trending around -3.3% lower this morning, and currently trading around $1774.50 per ounce.
• Brent crude oil prices are trending lower today, and currently at $70.87 with WTI trading at $65.45
• Cocoa futures have gained modestly today, and currently trading around $3059 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are currently trending lower today, and trading at around $2.8126 per pound

Crypto Currencies: 

• Bitcoin prices have lifted this morning, with a gain of 0.5%, and trading at around $67817 per coin currently 
• Ether prices are also up by around 0.9% today, and are currently trading around $2044.47.
• $Trumpcoin are currently trading around $3.417

(All prices quoted at approximately 07H30 Central African Time) 

Africa News Briefs:

• Zambia has halted a proposed $1 billion US health funding agreement over clauses tying aid to mining partnerships, joining Zimbabwe and Kenya in pushing back against what African nations view as sovereignty-compromising conditions. The five-year deal with Zambia, intended to combat HIV/AIDS and malaria, stalled after the US linked funding to a “bilateral compact” involving copper and cobalt access. “This deal would slash US funding to life-saving programs while prioritising mining corporations over Zambians with HIV,” said Health GAP’s Asia Russell. This has coincided with the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States, agreeing on a $1.2 billion strategic health partnership, announced by the two governments in a joint statement yesterday.
• Tragedy has struck with a 14-year old student shot in a taxi violence case in the Western Cape South Africa. The attack took place Wednesday, as students at Atlantis Senior Secondary were leaving school, when gunshots rang out and sparked panic. Police investigating, found a minibus taxi outside the school, with the body of a 42-year-old a taxi operator inside. He had multiple gunshot wounds. The body of a 14-year-old girl who had been shot multiple times in the chest was found inside the school. Police said she had been shot while attempting to run from the gunfire.