TECH NEWS

Entebbe, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Uganda started 57th Independence Day celebrations two days early today with the arrival of the national team from the World Athletics Championship hours before two new Bombardier planes landed to join its national airline. Gold medalists Halimah Nakaayi and Joshua Cheptegei led the national …

Maastricht, Netherlands | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s two new Bombardiers, flights UR474 and  UR470, have landed in Netherlands and Belgium, after leaving their manufacture base in Canada earlier on Saturday. The two CRJ-900s planes will spend the night there, before starting a day and night flight Sunday for Entebbe, where they …

Washington, United States | AFP |  The US government on Friday urged tech giants to allow police to read encrypted messages, saying access was essential to prevent serious crime despite privacy concerns. After Facebook rejected giving access to law enforcement agencies, US Attorney General William Barr upped the pressure by …

San Francisco, United States | AFP | Pioneering digital payments firm PayPal on Friday said it is abandoning an alliance intended to oversee the Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency, which has come under attack by regulators. “PayPal has made the decision to forgo further participation in the Libra Association at this time,” …

San Francisco, United States | AFP | The United States, Britain and Australia have called on Facebook to give authorities the ability to circumvent encryption used in its messaging services — a measure opposed by the social media giant. Facebook has been dogged by several privacy scandals in recent years and …

    Seoul, Republic of Korea | THE INDEPENDENT | Ugandan innovators Kimuli Fashionability are one of the three winners of the 2019 Greenpreneurs Business Pitch Competition. The winners are Kimuli Fashionability that aims to transform waste into up-cycled fashion while providing employment opportunities to people with disabilities;  Rento-Rewa (India), an online platform to facilitate the …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT & AFP | A day after Uganda’s Finance Minister Matia Kasaija warned about the use of crypto-currencies, European governments are asking questions about Libra, forcing Facebook’s partners to reconsider. Mastercard, Visa and other financial partners being enlisted to oversee Facebook-backed cryptocurrency Libra are having second thoughts …

The Hague, Netherlands | AFP |  Thousands of Dutch farmers drove their tractors on Tuesday to a huge protest against government climate policies, causing the country’ biggest ever traffic jams, officials said. The farmers travelled from all over the country to The Hague for the four-wheeled demonstration, saying they had …

Chéserex, Switzerland | AFP | A Swiss auction of 25 supercars seized from the playboy son of Equatorial Guinea’s president fetched 21.6 million euros ($23.6 million) Sunday — substantially more than expected. The money made from the Geneva auction will go to charities helping the poorest people in the tiny …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Local Government has rolled out the automated Revenue Management System, e-logRev aimed at increasing revenue collections. The online tool is used for local taxpayers’ registration, payment assessments, e-payment, reconciliation, enforcement, reporting and integration with other government agencies. The system was launched …