Newscast - Africa

Amazon is preparing to cut thousands of office jobs amid slowing sales and concerns about an economic downturn.
US media reported that the reductions could affect roughly 3% of the office staff at the e-commerce giant - or about 10,000 people.
The cuts are expected to affect divisions such as personal devices and e-commerce.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
The company had already introduced a hiring freeze and halted some of its warehouse expansions, warning it had over-hired during the pandemic. It has also taken steps to shut some parts of its business, cancelling projects such as a personal delivery robot.

Google agreed to settle a landmark privacy case with 40 US states over accusations that the search engine giant misled users into believing location tracking had been switched off on their devices.
A statement says it was the largest multi-state privacy settlement by state authorities in US history and included a binding commitment for improved disclosures by Google.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin says Digital platforms like Google cannot claim to provide privacy controls to users and then turn around and disregard those controls to collect and sell data to advertisers against users’ express wishes and at great profit.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa will step aside if charged over an alleged cover-up of a robbery at his private farm, according to his spokesman.
Presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya says should the president be charged he would gladly step aside - should it be the case,"
He added that as things stand there are no criminal charges against the president and he's fully cooperating with and he will continue to do so.
The president is accused of kidnapping, bribery, and acting unlawfully by allegedly authorizing the pursuit of the suspects who stole an estimated $4m from his farm. He denies any wrongdoing.

A Commonwealth team led by Assistant Secretary-General Prof Luis Franceschi has begun a series of meetings in Zimbabwe to assess its readiness to be readmitted into the 56-member group.
Foreign Affairs Minister Frederick Shava says the country was determined to rejoin the group.
The delegation will assess the progress made in several areas, including judicial independence, electoral reforms, and the protection of human rights including the freedom of association and media freedoms.
Harare believes it has complied with the conditions.
Prof Francheschi says that Zimbabwe's readmission was not a political issue and should not be treated as such.

Tanzania’s cabinet has pledged to strengthen the country’s disaster response services a week after 19 people died in a plane crash in the north-western lakeside town of Bukoba.
The government also instructed local officials to collaborate with experts from abroad in the ongoing investigation into the cause of the crash.
The state spokesperson, Gerson Msigwa, says the emergency cabinet meeting chaired by President Samia Suluhu, issued instructions to find the cause of the crash and recommendations on changes that should be made.
Precision Air’s management says it has started compensation procedures for the affected families, and that the exercise would be conducted secretly according to national insurance procedures.

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addofired his junior finance minister over corruption allegations made in an upcoming documentary on illegal gold mining.
The president has terminated the appointment of the Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, Mr Charles Adu Boahen, with immediate effect.
The presidency’s statement says Akufo-Addo’s decision came after being made aware of the allegations against Boahen in the documentary Galamsey Economy.
Governing party lawmaker Davis Opoku however says the sacking of Charles Adu Boahen is meaningless unless it is linked to the resignation of Ken Ofori-Atta.

The governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, says he will outsource the maintenance of the newly built Dr. Peter Odili Cancer, Cardiovascular Diagnostic Treatment Centre to foreign partners.
The governor says he cannot leave the facility under the care of the state’s Ministry of health as they are not capable of managing a facility of that magnitude.
He says the Consular General of the American Embassy has agreed to partner with the state and has made contact with those who run hospitals very well overseas to come and partner with us in this.

The Debt Management Office says that it has been difficult for Nigeria to borrow from the international markets as global lenders and investors are shunning countries with Category ‘B’ economic ratings.
The Director-General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, says Nigeria must gear up its revenue drive while looking for alternative sources of funds internationally.
Oniha noted that the Federal Government had not been able to meet its external borrowing target, noting that it was now looking at lenders in the United States and Europe.

The Management of Air Peace suspended flights to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, over the non-issuance of visas to Nigerians.
Emirates, the UAE carrier, had earlier suspended its flights, citing the inability to repatriate ticket funds in addition to the reduced passengers on the route.
Nigeria’s indigenous carrier, Air Peace, however, says it would be suspending operations with effect from Tuesday, November 22, 2022, till further notice.
Air Peace says it has been operating in UAE even with the country’s recent travel restrictions, but given the heightening hurdles Nigerian travelers are facing in accessing the country, it has become imperative that we halt their operations to that destination.

Changpeng Zhao, chief executive of dominant cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has called for new but stable and clear regulations for the industry in light of recent developments and participants cutting corners.
His comments come as crypto industry peers and partners outline steps to deal with the collapse of rival exchange FTX, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.
FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday after a week of seeing customers pull assets and Binance abandoning a rescue offer.
Zhao says the industry collectively has a role to protect consumers, to protect everybody adding that regulators have a role but it’s not 100% their responsibility.