Breaking News Today – Thursday 10 July 2025

Business & Tech News 

AI driven Search Engine – Comet Launched

Perplexity, the AI development tech company, that last month completed a funding round that valued it at $14 billion, has shaken up the browser market with its AI web browser Comet launched yesterday. The start-up willl seek to challenge Google’s dominance in the search browser market. According to Perplexity, Comet integrates the company’s AI search engine as the default search provider, positioning AI-generated search summaries prominently within the browsing experience. The browser runs on Chromium architecture and supports Chrome extensions while allowing users to import existing settings and bookmarks seamlessly from their current browsers.

The browser is available to subscribers of Perplexity’s $200-per-month Max plan, along with a limited group of users who joined the waitlist. some of the features of the new AI browser are: Summarising videos you’ve watched, will close files and tabs you haven’t touched in days, will highlight interesting news from your feeds, group your research tabs into collections, list your action items for the day and show you who you’re meeting with among other features.

Bitcoin Hits new High

Bitcoin’s price just hit a new all-time high this morning, jumping to briefly hit the $112000 level. The coin traded as high as $111885 according to Trading Economics and has settled at just above the $111000 level currently. Bitcoin has been on an upward trajectory for the past three weeks after dropping below the $10000 mark in June. Year to-date, Bitcoin has seen a rise of 18,6%, while in the past year it has surged by over 93%. Ether prices are also moving upwards with a 7.25% growth in price this week. Crypto has gained investor confidence with a far more stable price range emerging this year, despite global trade uncertainties, and seems to be emerging as a new “safe-haven” category of investment that is not radically influenced by policy, geopolitical instabilities or trade changes.

Chinese Vehicle Sales Surged in June:

Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), indicate that vehicle sales in China, surged by 13.8% year-on-year for the month of June 2025, following on from an 11.2% increase in May. Sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) surged 26.7% in June, marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase. In the first half of 2025, total vehicle sales increased by 11.4%, while NEV sales jumped 40.3%. For the full year, car sales are projected to grow by 4.7% to reach 32.9 million units, with NEV sales expected to rise by 24.4% to 16 million units.

Business, Tech & Market News Shorts:

• Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, has stepped down from her role as of yesterday morning, after a two year stint at the helm of the global social media platform owned by Elon Musk. Yaccarino leaves the business in a stronger position than when she first joined, with advertising revenues up 65% and a user number of around 135 million people.
• Microsoft has apparently claimed that AI has saved the company over $500 million in the past year in its call centres alone, amidst a large global layoff programme. Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff announced that tools are boosting productivity in all operations from sales and customer service to software engineering, according to a person familiar with his remarks. 
• Tesla’s Robo-Taxi service is set to expand its automated vehicle mobility service to the San Francisco Bay Area “in a month or two”, depending on regulatory approvals, CEO Elon Musk said yesterday, after a successful test period of the service in Austin Texas.
• Chip Giant Nvidia is now the first company ever to hit a total valuation of over $4 trillion. The share price for Nvidia jumped by 2,8% yesterday reaching an all-time high of $164.42 per share, pushing it’s market valuation briefly above the record mark.
  

Markets by Numbers 

Currencies: 

Currency markets indicate the US Dollar is fairly flat against the Euro at 1.17387 and against the Pound at 1.36084. The Yen is currently at 146.24 to the dollar, with the rand currently at R17.78 to the US dollar. 

Commodities:

• Gold futures prices are trending upward this morning, and are currently at $3320 per ounce.  

• Copper prices are trending over 1,3% higher this morning, and are currently at $5.706  

• Silver futures prices are trading marginally higher this morning, and are currently at $36.432 

• Platinum futures are trading upwards this morning, and are currently trading at $1370.50. Palladium prices are trading higher this morning and currently at $1143,

• Brent crude oil prices are holding above the $70 per barrel mark, and currently at $70.21, with WTI trading at $68.35. 

• Cocoa futures have surged by more than 3% this morning and currently at $8228 per ton. 

• Coffee futures have found some traction again and currently at $286.01

Crypto Currencies:

• Bitcoin prices are currently at $111145

• Ether prices are currently up more than 0,4% at $2783

• $Trumpcoin has jumped by over 6% this morning and currently trading at $9.20

(All prices quoted at approximately 08H00 Central African Time) 

Other Breaking News in Africa Today 

Political Battle Over Police Commissioner Claims

The recent revelations by the KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, in South Africa, regarding political interference and obstruction of justice by senior politicians, is turning into a political cliff edge for the coalition government (GNU). Yesterday saw one of the GNU partners – the Democratic Alliance, requesting the Speaker of parliament, Thoko Didiza, to hold an urgent debate on the allegations. the allegations are wide ranging and include the minister of police, Senzo Mchunu and the former Chief of police of obstructing investigations into political murders in the country. The speaker has denied the request saying that it was pre-emptive and needs to be fully investigated first. Parliament issued a statement saying: “The speaker believes that it would not be appropriate to hold such a debate, as these allegations remain unsubstantiated at this stage,”

US Tariffs Drive Lesotho to Announce a State-Of-Emergency

Lesotho, the small Southern African mountainous country, yesterday declared a national state of disaster over the 50% tariff rate imposed by the US and the country’s “high rates of youth unemployment. The declaration, in line with the country’s Disaster Management Act, allows the state to “take all necessary measures to… minimise the effects of disasters” among others. Various administration departments have already introduced several measures such as dropping business registration fees for small and medium-sized start-ups. Officials believe that the move will allow the government to quickly divert funds to programmes aimed at getting young people into work and helping the economy to recover. Lesotho’s Deputy Prime Minister Nthomeng Majara said the state of disaster would be in force until 30 June 2027.