Monthly Archives: August 2025

Vocal Image is using AI to help people communicate better

[ad_1] With 4 million app downloads, Estonia-based startup Vocal Image aims to help people improve their voice and communication skills with AI-powered coaching. But out of its 160,000 active users, it may be its CEO, Nick Lakhoika, who best embodies its mission.  Lakhoika was born in Belarus, didn’t speak English …

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Vandalism hobbles Nigeria’s mobile telephone services

[ad_1] A telecoms antenna downed by Boko Haram Islamists in Nigeria’s Borno state in 2017. Photo: FLORIAN PLAUCHEUR / AFP/FileSource: AFP When cell phone and internet networks went down across nine states in Nigeria earlier this summer, leaving millions without service, telecoms officials pointed to an increasingly familiar culprit: vandalism. …

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Japan seeks record defence budget, to triple drone spending

[ad_1] Japan in recent years has been shedding its strict pacifist stance, moving to obtain ‘counterstrike’ capabilities and doubling military spending to two percent of GDP. Photo: Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP/FileSource: AFP Japan’s defence ministry is aiming for a major boost to its drone arsenal as part of another record …

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Cash-strapped Taliban look to airspace for windfall

[ad_1] A view from inside a commercial plane flying over Kabul city in November 2021, after the Taliban takeover in August of that year. Photo: Hector RETAMAL / AFP/FileSource: AFP Far above Kabul, the cash-strapped Taliban government has located a potentially lucrative revenue stream: Afghanistan’s airspace. As Israel and Iran’s …

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Ecuador Eyes FDI Revival Amid IMF Deal and Reforms

[ad_1] With an economic restructuring in the works, Ecuador is positioning itself to ride the tensions between the US and China to an economic rebound in 2025. While many of its Latin American neighbors are benefiting from post-pandemic tailwinds—including surging commodity prices and a nearshoring boom driven by the US—Ecuador …

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Trump thumbs nose at decades of India courtship

[ad_1] Activists burn an effigy of Trump to protest against tariff hikes during a demonstration in Kolkata. Photo: Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP/FileSource: AFP India once united US policymakers like few issues. For nearly three decades, US presidents of both parties courted New Delhi as an emerging ally, politely overlooking disagreements …

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