TikTok is the world's new most popular online destination over Google
Cloudflare, an IT security company says the viral video app gets more hits than the American search engine,The rankings show that TikTok knocked Google off the top spot in February, March and June this year, and has held the number one position since August.
Cloudfare says it tracks data using its tool Cloudflare Radar, which monitors web traffic.
It is believed one of the reasons for the surge in Tiktok's popularity is because of the Covid pandemic, as lockdowns meant people were stuck at home and looking for entertainment.

China’s central bank has vowed to promote the healthy development of the country’s real estate market, saying it will safeguard the legal rights of home buyers and better satisfy their reasonable living needs.
The statement from the People’s Bank of China says it will prioritise economic stability, amid an increasingly severe external environment and the unrelenting global pandemic.
The PBOC said it will keep its monetary policy flexible and appropriate, and liquidity reasonably ample. It will strengthen support to the real economy, with a bias toward small companies.

Russia has received a NATO proposal to commence talks on Moscow’s security concerns on Jan. 12 and is considering it.
Russia unveiled a wish list of security proposals it wants to negotiate, including a promise NATO would give up any military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine The United States and Ukraine say Russia may be preparing an invasion of its ex-Soviet neighbour.
Russia denies that and says it is Ukraine’s growing relationship with NATO that has caused the standoff to escalate. It has compared it to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the world came to the brink of nuclear war.
President Vladimir Putin says Russia wanted to avoid conflict but needed an immediate response from the United States and its allies to its demands for security guarantees.
Moscow says it expects talks with U.S. officials on the subject to start in January in Geneva.

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has welcomed the Constitutional Court judgment dismissing an application challenging the cancellation of an R1.5 billion Electronic Document Management System contract.
The Department of Home Affairs said the matter started when it wanted to digitise its records.
The department says in terms of the law, SITA had to issue a tender looking for a service provider on behalf of the department.
The tender had initially been awarded to three companies - New Dawn, Valor IT and Ideco.
The department says as long as a public institution had contingent liability on its books, the Auditor-General would flag it each year as a risk.

Cassava Smartech now trading as EcoCash Limited saw its six months to August 2021 revenue grow to $11 billion representing a 36 per cent increase from the same period last month.
The company said growth was driven largely by an increase in transactional volumes for the fintech business units. Cassava's fintech business remains the largest contributor to revenue, constituting 80 per cent of the total.
Cassava's management said it will continue to focus on revenue diversification as a strategy for revenue growth.
The Cassava board Chairperson, Sherree Shereni, in a statement says insurtech businesses implemented various initiatives to reach previously uninsured communities, and the business section revenue contribution grew from 14 per cent in the same period last year to 19 per cent on the back of the growing strength of our short-term insurance corporate book.

Petroleum Minister Tareq el Mulla and CEO of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation Abed Ezz el Regal and CEO of Natural Resources Activities at the Italian company Eni Alessandro Politi signed a deal on oil exploration and exploitation in the Gulf of Suez and the Nile Delta, with total investments exceeding dlrs 1 billion.
The Petroleum Ministry says that under the deal, Eni company is abiding by spending at least additional dlrs 20 million to dig four wells.
The ministry says the deal falls within the Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry's strategy on increasing production rates and facing the natural decline in the wells via using the latest technologies in oil-producing areas.
The ministry's strategy also aims at encouraging partners to pump more investments into the field of oil and gas exploration and back the country's proven oil reserves.

The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN has pledged commitment to continuous advocacy and enlightenment towards achieving an efficient and effective tax system in the country.
President of CITN, Adesina Adedayo stated that the institute had always contributed to the country’s fiscal policy measures which have so far resulted in tax development.
He also emphasized the need for continuous learning on the field for both administrators and professionals, reiterating that taxation is a dynamic field.
Adedayo in his address to the newly inducted fellows tasked them with good behaviour and ethical practices that will advance the image of the Institute.

The Federal Government says that it expects Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product per capita to rise to $3,706.29 by 2025.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Niyi Adebayo, says the country’s GDP which currently hovers around $500bn was experiencing steady growth, projecting that the GDP per capita would rise to $2,300 by the end of the year.
He says it shows that the county’s diversification agenda is working, the oil sector now only contributes to approximate 14 per cent of the GDP.

The Federal Executive Council meeting has approved N65.39bn in foreign and local denominations to execute power projects in the country.
The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, says the extraordinary session was to ensure the country begins 2022 on a clean slate in the area of electricity supply.
Aliyu says the Buhari regime had done more than its predecessors to ensure that Nigerians experience improved electric power supply.

The U.N. Human Rights office says Belarus and Poland are pushing refugees back and forth across their border and leaving them with little if any food, clean water or shelter urging both countries to address this appalling situation.
Refugees and migrants interviewed said they had suffered violence or threats in Belarus and been left hungry and cold.
Thousands of migrants are stuck on the European Union’s eastern frontier.
Poland and the EU accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging the migrants to travel to Belarus and cross the border illegally as revenge for sanctions imposed on Minsk over human rights abuses.
Stanislaw Zaryn, a spokesperson for Poland’s special services, said his country’s actions were legitimate and aimed to protect the country’s borders.