Breaking News Today – Tuesday 29 July 2025

Business & Tech News 

Wall Street Journal’s Price Hike Comparison Debunked

Amazon has lashed out at the Wall Street Journal for irresponsible reporting on price increases. In a media piece last week, The WSJ’s article indicated that prices of essential goods had increased substantially since Trump became president, despite Amazons promise to keep prices low. Amazon claims that the WSJ’s pricing comparison, isn’t just flawed, but that it appears to be deliberately misleading by design. In their response, Amazon pointed out that they offer over 6 million everyday essential items, yet the WSJ focused their story on less than 0.04% of their everyday essentials selection. This appears to be “surgical cherry-picking” with the view to obtain a pre-determined outcome.

The comparison done by the WSJ was also based only on two specific dates, January 20 and July 1, which is counter to good practice in statistics that would look at an average price over a period of time. There were other irregularities such as the comparison of prices against goods out of stock at other retailers that were likely to be old prices.

South African Fintech now offers Bitcoin Payment Service

Leading payment services provider Peach Payments has partnered with South African Bitcoin and crypto payments solution provider MoneyBadger to enable its merchants to accept payment in Bitcoin and other crypto assets. MoneyBadger, in 2023 enabled Pick n Pay to be the first retailer in Africa to offer Bitcoin and crypto payments to its customers. With the new partnership, Peach Payments and MoneyBadger are making Bitcoin and crypto payments available to a much wider group of consumers. TicketPro, the online ticketing vendor, who is a Peach Payments merchant, is the first online ticketing company that has introduced MoneyBadger as a payment method in South Africa. Payment via Bitcoin or other crypto assets is seamless for Peach Payments’ merchants, with a simple Bitcoin QR code scan on PC or in-store, with merchant’s paid out in Rands on the next business day.

SAA to Introduce new Cape Town Mauritius Flight Route:

South African Airways (SAA) has announced that it will launch its first-ever direct service between Cape Town and Mauritius in December. The new route will commence flights on Tuesday, 9 December 2025, and will have three flights a week on every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The outbound flight departs Cape Town at 09h25, arriving in Mauritius at 16h30, with a total flight duration of approximately five hours, with the return leg departing Mauritius at 17h20, arriving back in Cape Town at 21h30.

Business, Tech & Market News Shorts: 

• Julius AI, the AI data analyst start-up, have announced they have raised  $10 million in a seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Other investors include Horizon VC, 8VC, Y Combinator, the AI Grant accelerator, as well as Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, and Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson, among others.
• Thailand has indicated that they expect to reach a trade deal with the U.S. before the 1 August deadline, and that the U.S. tariffs are unlikely to be 36%, Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira said Tuesday.
• World Bank President Ajay Banga has stated that  Zimbabwe’s best chance of exiting their debt default is to engage the Group of 20 nations to help formulate a solution. Zimbabwe owes the World Bank and other creditors a total of $21 billion and has tried numerous unsuccessful strategies to restore its access to global capital markets.
• Uganda’s central bank, has announced that is set to offer a new 25-year bond for the first time. This will be the longest-dated debt instrument yet (previously – 20 year bond), as it seeks to extend the maturity of its debt portfolio and limit cash flow pressures. It will be taken to market next week according to a statement by the central bank yesterday.
• Cocoa futures have jumped by almost 3% this morning, to hit $8,575 per ton, the highest price in almost a month, driven by ongoing supply issues despite recent improvements. While crop estimates for the current season are positive, there are concerns about supply chain issues.

Markets by Numbers 

Currencies: 

Currency markets today indicate the US Dollar has strengthened further this morning, and trading against the Euro at 1.15629 and against the Pound at 1.33307 The Yen is currently at 147.10 to the dollar. The rand is currently at R17.64 to the US dollar. 

Commodities:

• Gold futures prices are currently trading fairly flat and currently at $3320 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are trading lower today, and currently at $5.5709 
• Silver futures prices are also trading lower today, and currently at $38.167
• Platinum futures are marginally lower this morning, and are currently trading at $1401 While Palladium prices are trading 1,6% lower this morning and currently at $1274
• Brent crude oil prices are currently at $70.12, with WTI trading at $66.79. 
• Cocoa futures have spiked by over 2.9% this morning, and currently at $8575 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are currently trading at $300

Crypto Currencies:

• Bitcoin prices are trending around 0,8% higher today, and currently at $118991
• Ether prices are trending around 1% lower this morning and currently at $3824.40
• $Trumpcoin is currently trading around $9.76

(All prices quoted at approximately 08H50 Central African Time) 

Other Breaking News in Africa Today

Mali’s Former PM Under Investigation

Mali’s former Prime Minister, Choguel Maïga is reportedly under investigation, following allegations of financial misconduct during his tenure as the head of state. in office. The Auditor General, has submitted documents to the judiciary citing irregularities and suspected embezzlement of state funds under Maïga’s leadership. Judicial sources have confirmed the existence of what is now being referred to as the “Choguel Maïga Files”. The investigation focuses on two key incidents. The first involves questionable expenditures related to the inauguration of a public project, while the second concerns allegedly unjustified mission-related payments. At the centre of the inquiry is the spending of around $3.3 million USD by the Prime Minister’s Office that is seen as irregular spending.