Snap settles during Los Angeles trial over addictive app claims
Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, settled during the second Los Angeles state court trial over claims that social media platforms were built to addict young people. Meta, TikTok and YouTube had already settled with the plaintiffs.
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Two teenagers brought the case. Plaintiff S.J. is 16 and from Illinois. Plaintiff K.D.B. is 18 and from Mississippi. Their attorneys say the platform was designed to be addictive and caused depression, anxiety and eating disorders.
The plaintiffs say they began using YouTube as early as age 3 and the other platforms around age 9. They blame compulsive habits on features such as autoplay and infinite scroll. The companies reject the claims and say they have acted to make their apps safe places for young people.
Attorneys John Morgan and Emily Jeffcott act for K.D.B. They said the settlements let them keep building toward holding social media companies accountable for the effect on children. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel had been expected to testify. A Snap spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the first case, which ended in March, a Los Angeles jury awarded a young woman $6m (R100m) in damages against Meta and YouTube. In August, Meta settled with nearly every US state and territory over teen harm lawsuits, worth up to $18bn. About $5bn of that depends on states reaching similar settlements with Snap, TikTok and YouTube.
CrimePolitics
MK Party organiser Lastborn Shazi shot dead in Umzumbe
The MK Party said its regional organiser was shot at his home on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast on Monday night. The party wants the provincial police killings task team to investigate, two days before local government elections.
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The party said Shazi was shot at his homestead in Umzumbe, in the Ugu area. Police did not immediately respond to queries and had not given further details. One report called him a regional coordinator and said he was in a virtual meeting on election plans.
Party spokesperson Mkhuseli Mlengane said KwaZulu-Natal has a painful history of political killings. The party said anyone who planned or helped with the killing must be identified and brought to justice. One report said the party also asked the Independent Police Investigative Directorate to investigate.
ActionSA representative Zwakele Mncwango said the motive is not known and that people must rely on police investigations. He said it is hard to call the killing political if Shazi received no threats. The elections take place on 4 November 2026.
TechEconomy
Apple's inventory jumps 154% as memory chip costs rise
Apple's inventory climbed to $14.5 billion. The company says memory chip costs are unprecedented and will keep rising, which raises questions about the price of its future devices.
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Apple made the statement about rising memory chip costs. The company did not say how it will change device prices.
The figures come from a single outlet's account, published on 3 November.
TechCrime
New York Times and other outlets sue browser maker Brave
The outlets allege that Brave scraped their copyrighted content and unlawfully passed it to customers, including Anthropic and Perplexity. Brave makes a privacy-focused web browser. The lawsuit was filed on Monday.
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The New York Times and other news outlets are the plaintiffs in the case. They claim Brave distributed their copyrighted content to its own customers without permission.
The outlets named Anthropic and Perplexity as customers that allegedly received the content. These are claims by the plaintiffs, and Brave is the defendant.
Crime
Rival Cape Town taxi groups agree to seven-day truce
The Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (CATA) and the Cape Organisation for the Democratic Taxi Association (CODETA) agreed to stop fighting, Western Cape Mobility MEC Isaac Sileku said. The turf war has claimed about a dozen lives.
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The provincial taxi registrar suspended the CATA Langa Intertownship Taxi Association for at least six months. Mediators will meet the two associations separately. Further talks are planned for next Tuesday.
Sileku said both associations committed to ending the killings and working with government. He said they are committed to what they agreed, and there will be no fighting or killings. He added that court interdicts are in place to hold operators accountable.
Sileku said police and law enforcement are deployed at taxi ranks. "We will continue monitoring the situation on a daily basis."
Economy
Proxy advisers urge Shoprite investors to reject CEO pay plan
Proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis oppose a R36.4 million incentive for Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht. Several large investors say they will vote against it at the annual general meeting on 6 November.
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ISS also recommends that shareholders reject the implementation report. It says a special modifier let a short-term incentive metric pay out in full, although performance was below threshold. ISS said Shoprite had not given a sufficiently compelling rationale for adding another substantial incentive.
Funds under the New York City Comptroller, KLP and other investors say they will vote against the pay proposals. Together the institutions oppose the plan while overseeing almost $2 trillion in assets. Shoprite's largest shareholder is the Public Investment Corporation.
Engelbrecht earned R117.8 million in the latest financial year, up 35%. The plan for CFO Anton de Bruyn is worth R14.2 million. Last year the implementation report won 95.61% support, but the 2024 report won 74.3%, below the 75% engagement trigger.
Board member Christo Wiese defended the award. He said: "This isn’t something that was just decided in two seconds". ISS says Wiese controls about 41% of the voting rights. Shoprite declined to comment beyond its remuneration report and AGM notice.
Politics
Five parties clash over housing and crime in Cape Town debate
Opposition parties accused the DA of failing poorer communities in a CapeTalk debate held a day before the local government elections. The DA defended its record in Cape Town, and parties also argued over possible coalitions.
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The debate brought together the DA, ANC, EFF, GOOD and the National Coloured Congress (NCC). Lester Kiewit moderated it. Parties discussed the housing crisis, gangsterism, policing and service delivery.
Francine Higham of the DA said the city had invested more than R40 billion in infrastructure over five years, with more spending planned. She also said suspects return to communities soon after arrest, and that residents live in fear.
Carl Niehaus of the EFF said the DA had upheld divisions in Cape Town after 20 years in control of the City. He said: "The answer to crime is socioeconomic development." Brett Herron of GOOD said boots on the ground are not solving crime.
NCC leader Fadiel Adams said backyard dwellers in coloured communities are being overlooked. Opposition parties also said the DA is wrong to warn of a "coalition of chaos". ANC mayoral candidate Jerimia Thuynsma also took part.
World
Russia says it downed nearly 500 drones headed for Moscow
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defences downed the drones as fighting flared after a truce in the Kherson region ended on Sunday. Ukrainian officials said overnight Russian strikes killed at least 26 people in a Zaporizhzhia village.
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Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, said a strike hit a passageway between buildings at a medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district. Ukrainian authorities said the strike wounded 25 people. Synegubov said 200 patients will be evacuated to other medical facilities.
Kharkiv's mayor, Igor Terekhov, warned on Telegram that the city was "under a combined attack by ballistic missiles and guided aerial bombs".
The strikes came as talks between Russia and Ukraine, led by Washington, were set to resume next week, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said. The flare-up has dashed hopes of progress towards peace.
Crime
David Mmelesi faces sentence for 2023 crash that injured Mokgoro
The Northern Cape High Court is due to sentence David Mmelesi on Tuesday. He is the former partner of the late Constitutional Court Justice Yvonne Mokgoro, and the court convicted him of culpable homicide in September.
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The crash happened in April 2023 on the N12 between Warrenton and Kimberley in the Northern Cape. Mokgoro was injured in the collision and died a year later. Mmelesi and Mokgoro had a partnership of 14 years.
A truck driver involved in the crash testified at the trial. He said Mokgoro's driver was parked on the side of the road without hazard lights on. He also said the driver then failed to indicate before making a U-turn.
Politics
Special voting enters second and final day in local elections
Voting stations are open from 8am to 5pm for special votes in the 2026 Local Government Elections. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said close to 99% of voting stations opened on time on Monday, the first day.
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Special votes are for registered voters who are physically infirm or disabled, or who cannot get to their voting station on Election Day. Election officials also visit some of these voters at home on 2 and 3 November.
The Commission said ballots for special votes reached some areas of the Western Cape late, which it called an unforeseen delay. Michael Hendrickse is the Western Cape Provincial Electoral Officer.
The Commission said voters who miss the home visit are not disenfranchised. They can still vote at their voting station on 4 November 2026. It also said the first day created a solid basis for better performance on day two and on election day.
PoliticsCrime
Police send over 800 officers to OR Tambo for elections
The South African Police Service is moving the officers from Nelson Mandela Bay Metro ahead of the Local Government Elections. Provincial Police Commissioner Vuyisile Ncatha said the district was identified as a hotspot and three voting stations there are high risk.
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OR Tambo District Municipality has over 1 000 voting districts and over 1100 voting stations. Police said the district has limited police officials for that number of sites.
Ncatha said the three high-risk voting stations are linked to the number of officers to be deployed. He said a police chopper has been made available.
Ncatha explained how the district was categorised. He said: "The categorisation was done and concluded by our intelligence community."
Science
Study maps gene changes behind the evolution of the human skeleton
Gokhman, Inoue and colleagues built a genome-wide atlas of human-specific changes in gene regulation, using cartilage cells called chondrocytes. The work appears in the journal Nature.
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The atlas also lists the DNA sequence variants that drive these changes. The researchers aim to explain how the human skeleton evolved, including the adaptations for walking upright. The work is peer-reviewed. The details given here come from a summary of the study, not the full paper, so the findings and methods need checking against the paper itself.
Politics
Researcher says local government is mixed before 4 November vote
Thembelani Mazibuko, a researcher at ACCORD, says some neighbourhoods get efficient municipal services while poorer township communities often do not. He expects more hung councils after the 2026 Local Government Elections, especially in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
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Mazibuko works in the coalitions programme at the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD). He also expects hung councils in parts of Mpumalanga, the Free State, the Northern Cape and the southern Eastern Cape.
Turnout in the 2021 Local Government Elections was 45.86%. Mazibuko says turnout has continued to decline. He said same-day voter registration is one reform the National Assembly could consider in future. He warned that online voting carries a risk of hacking and should be avoided.
Mazibuko said bad actors find WhatsApp, X and Facebook easier to infiltrate to spread false information. He said: "This is an issue the IEC is seized with".
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs proposes the Municipal Structures Amendment Bill, 2026, known as the Coalition Bill. Mazibuko said the bill is at an early stage and needs more work.
Politics
IEC approves 362,878 special votes in KwaZulu-Natal
Provincial Electoral Officer Ntombifuthi Masinga said at a briefing in Durban on Monday that 211,449 approved applications are for voting station visits and 151,429 for home visits. Special voting runs on 2 and 3 November.
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The province has 5,028 voting stations. Of these, 4,988 received special vote applications. Masinga said the other 40 stations will not open for special votes.
The municipality of eThekwini has the most approved special votes, at 101,470. Newcastle has 16,307 and Msunduzi has 14,603.
Masinga said ballot boxes and a training module were stolen at Zambeni, Amahlongwa Community Hall. She also said members of the MK Party went to the Umzinto Town Hall voting station to ask about the distribution of election materials.
Masinga said a person at Umzinto Town Hall claimed to be a member of the Political Liaison Committee, but had not taken part in earlier committee meetings. She said late police escorts and a vehicle breakdown caused delays.
Politics
South Africans vote in local government elections on Wednesday
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) says 29.2-million people are registered to vote. Voting stations open from 7am to 9pm, and President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared Wednesday a public holiday so people can vote.
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The IEC said 2.6-million people were expected to vote during special voting on Monday and Tuesday. It deployed 127,000 officials to oversee that voting.
IEC official Kgosietsile Tshoke said voters must check their voting station and bring an accepted ID. He also told voters to arrive on time and follow the Electoral Code of Conduct.
Voters can check their station details by SMS to 32810 at R1 per SMS, or by WhatsApp on 0600 88 0000. Parliament's Presiding Officers, Speaker Thoko Didiza and NCOP Chairperson Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, urged people to vote.
Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth asked employers to release workers so they can vote.
Politics
Johannesburg Mayor Morero casts special vote, backs ANC support
Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero voted at Laerskool Roodekraans on the West Rand on Tuesday and said he was confident the ANC would keep its support. He made the remark despite service delivery problems in the city.
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Morero cast his special vote in the local government elections and said he voted for the African National Congress (ANC). Over 2 million voters registered for special votes in the elections.
He said the ANC had done a lot of campaigning work in the last 18 months and that its support base remained strong. He said the last three weeks had been tough.
Asked about water and waste problems in Johannesburg, Morero said some systems in Soweto had recovered. He said this showed the interventions and work under way.
PoliticsCrime
Cachalia recommends Mkhwanazi as new Hawks head
Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia sent a memorandum to cabinet seeking approval for Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi to replace Godfrey Lebeya. The appointment still needs cabinet and parliamentary approval before it takes effect.
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Lebeya retired as Hawks head in May 2025. Cachalia said his decision does not stop cabinet from exercising its mind. He said the decision needs a cabinet process and a parliamentary process to be complete.
Cachalia also defended announcing the appointment. He said the police service is criticised for being indecisive and for having too many acting appointments.
Mkhwanazi joined the South African Police Service as a student constable in 1993. He became KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner in December 2018. At a media briefing on 6 July 2025, he alleged that criminal syndicates had infiltrated law enforcement and that senior political and police figures had interfered in sensitive investigations.
Politics
96-year-old lawyer votes early in Pretoria municipal election
John Price, a retired constitutional lawyer, and his wife Jennifer voted at Waterkloof Marina Retirement Estate in Pretoria on Monday, the first day of special voting. Price said he is confident newly elected municipal leaders will put citizens' needs first.
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Price said he expects the parties and people elected to lead municipalities to put the needs of citizens first. He named an improvement in service delivery as one of those needs. He also said he and his wife were excited to cast their votes.
Price also spoke about government and the constitution. He criticised the African National Congress (ANC) while he voted. He said: "I think the ANC has disappointed us a bit, but I hope we are going to be able to do a lot better".
Politics
IEC bans photos of marked ballots at voting stations
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) reminded voters of the rules at voting stations ahead of Wednesday's Local Government Elections. Voters must mark ballots in private, and campaigning or intimidating voters inside voting stations is not allowed.
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Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Masego Shiburi spoke at the IEC Results Operations Centre in Midrand. He also responded to concerns about the position of voting booths and the privacy of voters.
Shiburi said booths should stand in an "ATM position", so the voter's body hides the ballot paper from anyone behind them. He explained the idea this way: "You obscure the keypad, in this instance the ballot paper, with your body."
Shiburi said this placement is critical to protect the right to vote in secret. He said it also stops people from inducing voters to make a mark, take a picture or hand over a ballot in exchange for something.
WorldPolitics
US strikes Iran's Qeshm Island before midterm elections
US forces hit targets on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz overnight, and Washington described the action as defensive. The strike came as the Republicans struggled to defend the war against Iran on the campaign trail.
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The strike took place on 2 November, on the eve of the US midterm elections. Washington said the move was defensive.
President Donald Trump and the Republicans have found it hard to defend the war against Iran in their campaigns. Reports say the war is unpopular.
Politics
IEC apologises for late ballots and sets new measures
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says it has put measures in place for the second day of special voting. Late delivery of ballot papers delayed the opening of some voting stations on Monday, and voting did not take place at 12 stations in Limpopo.
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Nkaro Mateta, the IEC's Provincial Electoral Officer in Limpopo, spoke about the 12 stations. They include one at Ga-Chokoe outside Mokopane. He said voter intimidation was reported at Ga-Chokoe during the last voter registration period.
Mateta said the intimidation meant some residents did not register or apply for special votes. He said some voters were threatened during the registration weekend. For two days, he said, no one came to check details, register or re-register.
Mateta spoke about election day, which is on Wednesday. He said: "We are hopeful that perhaps on election day, which is on Wednesday, this will be the last opportunity for them to decide who will lead their areas".
Science
Early humans settled where water and tool stone met
A research team surveyed about 1,500 km of the Rub' al Khali, the world's largest sand sea, and modelled the Arabian Peninsula. They suggest early human settlement followed places with both water and stone suitable for tools.
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The study is peer-reviewed and appears in the journal Nature. The team found almost no stone tools around ancient lakes, which led to the idea that water alone did not decide where people lived. This may matter for how researchers read dispersal routes, including those out of Africa. The survey was a single 35-day transect in 2023, so the conclusion rests on missing evidence plus modelling.
CrimePolitics
Court sets aside Sizekhaya's national lottery licence award
The high court in Pretoria ruled that Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau must reconsider his award of the national lottery licence to Sizekhaya Holdings. The court suspended its order, so the lottery keeps running for now.
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Ithuba Lottery and Ringeta Consortium brought the review. The court declared the licence agreement invalid but suspended that declaration for two consecutive six-month periods. It told Tau to reconsider the award without the report of the ministerial committee.
The court found that Tau acted unfairly in procedure and in substance. It said he secretly appointed a separate ministerial committee to re-evaluate the bids outside the Request for Proposals process. One report said the National Lotteries Commission must pay costs.
Sizekhaya said the decision concerned a technical issue in the award process. It said the court made no adverse findings against it on any of the grounds Ithuba and Ringeta raised. The company said tickets are still on sale, draws will go ahead and prizes will be paid.
Sizekhaya said the court suspended its order to protect the public interest, because good causes depend on the lottery running without interruption.
Politics
IEC gets just over R3 billion for 2026 local elections
The money includes a special appropriation of about R1 billion. It will pay for voter registration, logistics and other operating costs of the 2026 Local Government Elections, which the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will run.
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Terry Tselane, a former IEC commissioner and vice chairperson, explained why the elections cost so much. He said the technology used is not cheap and needs a lot of resources.
Tselane said the voting machine now in use cost a lot of money. He said the fleet of machines must also be maintained.
He recalled that opening voting stations for a registration weekend a few years back cost about R360 million. He said that sum covered stations, infrastructure, electoral staff and stipends.
Economy
Survey finds 65% of South Africans struggle every month
A JustMoney survey says 47% of respondents have lost money to scams, as Black Friday nears on 27 November. JustMoney's Sarah Nicholson warned shoppers against overspending and taking on debt for discounts.
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The Money & Me survey says 65% of respondents find every month financially difficult, up from 61% last year. It found 43% need to borrow money before month-end. Also, 83% could not pay an unexpected R10,000 expense from savings.
The survey says 51% of respondents spend more than 40% of take-home pay on debt repayments, compared with 38% in 2025. About 37% do not know the interest rate on their biggest loan. Also, 69% shopped based on special offers.
Nicholson is head of customer experience at JustMoney. She said spending R1,000 on an item you would not otherwise buy does not save you R1,000. She said store accounts, credit facilities and buy-now-pay-later offers can make purchases look affordable while adding to monthly commitments.
Nicholson said countdown clocks and messages that only a few items remain create urgency and push shoppers into quick decisions. Her advice: "If a deal doesn’t match your budget, walk away." Under the Consumer Protection Act, consumers can generally return defective or unsafe goods within six months of delivery.
CrimeTech
VAST AI investment scheme collapses, leaving members unable to withdraw
The scheme recruited South Africans on TikTok, Facebook and Telegram with promises of profit from renting out AI chips. It went offline on Friday 30 October after withdrawals marked approved did not arrive, according to a news investigation.
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The investigation found that VAST AI never rented out anything and that its list of verified withdrawals was fake. The finding came from an analysis of the platform's code. The scheme's pitch promised to turn R50 000 into R350 000 in two days.
Products cost from R100 for two days to R40 000 for 400 days. At the top VIP10 level, the scheme promised a salary of R300 000 a month. VAST's Telegram channel had 16 400 subscribers.
The operators told members they faced a financial audit. They said the "National Treasury of South Africa" told them to withhold funds for Personal Income Tax. Quentin Peason, named as a manager of a WhatsApp group called AI Working Group, blamed a compliance review and delays in cross-border settlement. He promised 10 times compensation.
A journalist who investigated the scheme said the payment gateway appears to be Chinese-operated and illicit. The journalist also said the platform looks like a reusable system built in Chinese for many countries. It may be run by a syndicate like Morita Forestry, an earlier scheme that used similar tactics.
Crime
Court convicts two over Phala Phala farm cash theft
The Modimolle Regional Court found Imanuwela David and former temporary cleaner Froliana Joseph guilty of stealing $580 000 hidden in a couch at President Cyril Ramaphosa's farm. Joseph's brother, David Joseph, was found not guilty on all charges.
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Magistrate Peter Manthata handed down the judgment on Monday. The court found David and Froliana Joseph guilty of conspiracy to commit housebreaking with intent to steal, and of theft of the dollars. David was also found guilty of housebreaking and money laundering.
David calls himself a "diamond boy". The court accepted that he used the money to buy luxury vehicles. They were a VW Golf R7, a BMW M5, two Mercedes-Benz G63Ses and a Porsche Carrera.
The cash was stolen in February 2020 from the Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo.
Crime
Investigator describes evidence found in alleged AKA getaway car
Crime scene investigator Silindile Dlamini told the Durban high court she collected DNA, fingerprints, cartridges and matchsticks from the Mercedes-Benz the state says was used after the shooting. The defence suggested the team had the wrong car.
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Seven men are on trial for the murder of rapper Kiernan "AKA" Forbes. The state alleges the Mercedes-Benz was the getaway car after the February 2023 shooting outside Wish restaurant. Dlamini also said she collected a piece of clothing.
The defence asked Dlamini whether she knew that many cars in the Morningside area looked the same. It suggested the team had collected evidence from the wrong car.
The state also alleges that accused Mziwelithini Gwabeni leased a grey VW Polo and a Hyundai Grand i10 from Sonwabile Bani. It says spotters used the cars to track AKA's movements. Cross-examination of tracker expert Carel Rothmann did not go ahead on Monday because the defence was not ready.
Science
New extinct crocodile found in the rock of the Sphinx
Palaeontologist Karim Zanaty and colleagues describe Herugavialis cairensis, a new extinct gavial crocodile. The fossil came from the Mokattam Formation in Egypt, the rock used to carve the Great Sphinx of Giza.
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The team, led by Paul Burke of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, used CT scans to re-examine a skull first described in 1927. They found differences from Tomistoma, including raised rims around the eye sockets. Zanaty says the work may help explain how gavials once lived across the globe, while only two endangered species survive. This account is a first-person piece by the researchers, not the peer-reviewed paper.
Economy
Motorists buy 33% less fuel as prices rise
Discovery Insure data from more than 200,000 clients shows motorists made only 6% fewer trips in October. They cut how much fuel they buy each time, with the average purchase falling from about 36 litres to 31 litres.
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Discovery Insure CEO Robert Attwell discussed the findings on The Money Show. He said long-distance trips are the first to go. Data showed a 30% decline in long-distance trips during the winter months.
Small purchases are now more common. Transactions of less than 20 litres make up 36% of fuel purchases, up from 25% in 2025.
Average monthly fuel spending was approximately R1,750 at the start of 2025. By mid-2026 it was between R2,500 and R2,700.
Attwell said everyday commuting and school runs stay essential, which makes it hard to cut transport costs. He also said: "Really, people are just trying to save a few hundred rand, and we see this through the smaller fuel purchases."