Apple and Microsoft Raise Prices as AI Squeezes Memory

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Apple and Microsoft Raise Prices as AI Squeezes Memory

Apple and Microsoft have raised prices on laptops, tablets and Xbox consoles, blaming a memory shortage driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, reversing the usual fall in gadget prices.

Apple moved first this week, lifting prices across its MacBook, iMac and iPad lines by as much as $200, while leaving the iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods untouched. “We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” Apple said. Hours later, Microsoft followed: from 1 August, Xbox consoles rise by $100 for 512 gigabyte models and $150 for one terabyte models, its third increase in about a year.

The Apple move unsettled its own investors. The company’s shares fell about 6% on Thursday, their worst day in more than a year, erasing roughly $265 billion in value. Analysts were caught off guard, noting that Apple rarely raises prices outside the launch of a new model.

At the root is a scramble for memory. AI data centres need huge volumes of advanced chips and memory, and the handful of firms that make it, among them Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron, are steering supply to AI companies under long term deals, leaving consumer electronics makers competing for what is left. Memory prices have soared, with one type jumping about 98% in the first quarter, according to the research firm TrendForce, in a crunch the industry calls Ramageddon. The research firm International Data Corporation expects the shortage to last well into 2027.

Consoles are taking the hardest hit. Microsoft said memory and storage costs have more than doubled and could double again by late 2027, and because consoles are usually sold for less than they cost to make, the company has little room to absorb the rise. The repeated increases drew anger online, where players complained that years old machines are growing dearer rather than cheaper and questioned whether a future Xbox would be affordable.

The squeeze is spreading. Higher memory costs are now pushing up the price of personal computers for the first time in decades, and both firms expect further increases as the shortage runs on.

Schnabel Warns ECB May Need to Raise Rates Further

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Schnabel Warns ECB May Need to Raise Rates Further

European Central Bank (ECB) board member Isabel Schnabel said more interest rate rises are likely needed to tame inflation, even after a US Iran ceasefire eased energy prices.

Schnabel, one of the bank’s leading hawks, spoke on Saturday at the Petersberger Summer Dialogue in Germany. Her warning follows the ECB’s decision on 11 June to raise its three key rates by a quarter point, taking the deposit rate to 2.25%, as a Middle East energy shock pushed prices higher.

She said the ceasefire reached between Washington and Tehran on 12 June had reduced the risk of severe disruption to global energy supplies, and oil has come off its recent highs. Even so, she expects prices to stay elevated as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz normalises only gradually. Costly energy, she said, can still feed into the prices of goods, food and services, leaving inflation risks tilted to the upside.

The pressure is already showing. Euro area inflation reached 3.2% in May, its highest since September 2023 and well above the ECB’s 2% target, with energy costs up about 11% on the Middle East conflict. Core inflation, which strips out energy and food, stood at 2.5%. A flash estimate for June is due on 1 July.

Schnabel said consumer inflation expectations have risen, though wage growth has yet to accelerate. She also flagged risks to financial stability from high asset valuations and rising borrowing across markets.

On the economy, she said growth is still supported by government investment, strong spending on artificial intelligence and a labour market that remains firm even as demand for workers cools, while higher energy costs weigh on household confidence and spending.

Ghana Face Colombia in World Cup Round of 32

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Ghana Face Colombia in World Cup Round of 32

Ghana will face Group K winners Colombia in the World Cup Round of 32 in Kansas City on Friday, their first knockout tie since 2010.

The match is set for Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Friday, July 3, at 9:30 pm Eastern time. For viewers in Ghana that means a start in the early hours of Saturday, July 4, at about 1:30 am.

Ghana reached the last 32 by finishing third in Group L on four points, enough to advance as one of the best third placed teams across the tournament. Carlos Queiroz’s side beat Panama, drew goalless with England and lost to Croatia in their final group game. It is Ghana’s first World Cup knockout appearance since the 2010 quarterfinal run, and their first knockout match at any major tournament since the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Colombia arrive in stronger form. Los Cafeteros won Group K with seven points, beating Uzbekistan and DR Congo before a goalless draw with Portugal. That draw secured top spot and left them above Cristiano Ronaldo’s side. The South Americans carry a reputation for attacking football and will start as favourites.

A win would carry Ghana into the Round of 16, with Switzerland a possible opponent there. Ghana’s defence, which kept clean sheets against Panama and England, will need its best night yet against a side with more knockout experience.

Queiroz Third Coach to Take Ghana Beyond World Cup Group

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Queiroz Third Coach to Take Ghana Beyond World Cup Group

Carlos Queiroz has become only the third coach to lead Ghana out of a World Cup group stage, ten weeks after taking the job as an emergency hire.

The 73 year old steered the Black Stars into the Round of 32 of the expanded 48 nation tournament, their first knockout appearance since 2010. Ghana finished third in Group L and went through as one of the best third placed teams in the wider field, after beating Panama, drawing with England and losing to Croatia in their final match. The milestone puts Queiroz alongside two Serbs, Ratomir Dujković and Milovan Rajevac, as the only men to carry Ghana past a World Cup group.

Dujković did it first, on Ghana’s debut at Germany 2006. His side lost to Italy but recovered to beat the Czech Republic and the United States, reaching the Round of 16 before a defeat to Brazil. Four years later in South Africa, Rajevac took Ghana through a group with Germany, Serbia and Australia to the quarterfinals, matching the best run by an African team at a World Cup, alongside Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002. A Luis Suárez handball on the line and a missed penalty ended their push for the semifinals against Uruguay.

The campaigns in between brought little. Ghana exited in the group under Kwesi Appiah in 2014 and again under Otto Addo in 2022, and the slump deepened after Qatar. The Black Stars crashed out in the group at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and then failed to qualify for the 2025 edition, finishing bottom of a group with Angola, Niger and Sudan.

Queiroz inherited that wreckage in April, after the federation parted with Addo on 31 March and turned to the veteran on 13 April. He built a guarded, well drilled side that kept clean sheets against Panama and England before Croatia broke through. It is his fifth straight World Cup in the dugout, following Portugal in 2010 and Iran in 2014, 2018 and 2022, a sequence matched only by Bora Milutinović.

Ghana now meet Colombia in the Round of 32 on July 4. Queiroz’s own World Cup record is thin, with three wins from his previous 13 matches, and the knockout rounds will show whether this side can reach for the runs of 2006 and 2010.

Venezuela Quake Toll Passes 900 as US Aid Arrives

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Venezuela Quake Toll Passes 900 as US Aid Arrives

At least 920 people have died in twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on Wednesday, officials say, with rescuers digging by hand and the United States flying in aid.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez put the toll at 920 dead and thousands injured, most of them in the coastal state of La Guaira, with more than 50,000 people reported missing. The count is almost certainly incomplete. The United States Geological Survey warned through its modelling that the death toll could rise significantly, and tight government control over Venezuela’s media has slowed information from the worst hit areas.

The disaster began on Wednesday evening when a magnitude 7.2 quake near San Felipe was followed 39 seconds later by a magnitude 7.5 mainshock. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Venezuela since 1900, flattening buildings across Caracas and along the coast.

Anger has grown over the pace of the response. In La Guaira, residents dug through collapsed apartment blocks with their hands amid a shortage of heavy machinery. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez was heckled during a Friday visit to a ruined neighbourhood, and authorities later sealed off parts of La Guaira state. Yessica Mendoza told the AFP news agency she carried her daughter’s body to a Caracas morgue herself after the young woman, 25, and her husband, 26, died in their collapsed home. “No help ever came,” she said.

Help has begun to arrive from abroad. Washington said it was sending more than 250 disaster response personnel and search teams with sniffer dogs, US transport planes have started landing after a runway reopened at Simón Bolívar International Airport, and a navy vessel reached waters off the coast. Convoys from Mexico, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic have already crossed in, and the United Nations (UN) humanitarian office said teams from at least 17 countries were being readied. Rodríguez said she had spoken with US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who pledged support.

The catastrophe has hit a country in deep upheaval. US forces seized President Nicolás Maduro in a raid in January, leaving Rodríguez as acting head of state, and years of economic collapse had already hollowed out hospitals and pushed millions to emigrate. Aid groups say that even before the quakes, millions of Venezuelans lacked food, healthcare and basic services.

Rescuers are still finding survivors. A Salvadoran team reached a 15 year old girl trapped in a collapsed building in La Guaira, and aid workers stress that the first hours offer the best chance of pulling people out alive. The UN estimates that nearly seven million people may need shelter, clean water, sanitation and medical care.

Neves Still Messages Late Teammate Diogo Jota on WhatsApp

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Neves Still Messages Late Teammate Diogo Jota on WhatsApp

Portugal midfielder Ruben Neves says he still messages former teammate Diogo Jota, almost a year after the Liverpool forward died in a car crash, in an interview aired this weekend.

Neves told the Portuguese channel SIC’s programme Alta Definição that he, his wife Débora and Jota’s widow, Rute Cardoso, keep a WhatsApp group that still carries Jota’s account. He said he saves their old conversations and writes to his friend whenever something special happens. “I still talk to him. Few people know this,” Neves said.

The interview reached Portuguese screens days before July 3, the first anniversary of the crash that killed Jota, 28, and his younger brother, André Silva, in Spain’s Zamora province. Reports at the time linked the accident to a tyre blowout.

Few in Portugal’s squad knew the player as long as Neves, who lined up beside Jota at FC Porto, Wolverhampton Wanderers and for the national team across 164 games. He carried Jota’s coffin last July and has since described the day he learned of the death as the hardest of his life. A tattoo of the two friends, etched into his calf, marks the bond.

Portugal have carried that memory into the 2026 World Cup. The squad is wearing commemorative wristbands bearing every player’s name alongside Jota’s, presented to the team by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and designed for use during matches. Vitinha said the band keeps Jota close on the pitch. Jota won 49 caps and scored 14 goals for his country.

Neves spoke days after Rute Cardoso marked what would have been the couple’s first wedding anniversary by sharing the speech Jota gave on their wedding day.

Ghana Reach World Cup Knockouts, First Since 2010

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Ghana Reach World Cup Knockouts, First Since 2010

Ghana reached the World Cup knockout round for the first time since 2010 on Saturday, beaten by Croatia in Philadelphia but still advancing from Group L.

The defeat cost the Black Stars little. They had already done the hard work, beating Panama and holding England to a goalless draw to reach four points and all but secure their place before kickoff. Croatia’s win, by two goals to one, at Philadelphia Stadium lifted Zlatko Dalic’s side above Ghana into second behind England, leaving the Black Stars third. Ghana went through anyway, as one of the best third placed teams in the expanded 48 nation field.

The milestone vindicates a risky bet. Ghana’s federation parted with Otto Addo about ten weeks before the tournament, after friendly defeats by Austria and Germany, and handed the team to Carlos Queiroz, the 73 year old Portuguese now at his fifth straight World Cup. His side reached the last 32 having kept clean sheets in its opening two games, at Ghana’s fifth World Cup appearance.

Croatia struck first in the 31st minute. Petar Sucic drove a long range shot past Benjamin Asare from outside the box, ending Ghana’s run of clean sheets at the tournament. Queiroz reshaped his attack at the break, sending on Abdul Fatawu and Kojo Peprah Oppong, and Ghana grew into the contest. The pressure told in the 73rd minute, when defender Derrick Luckassen, brother of Netherlands forward Brian Brobbey, volleyed home Ernest Nuamah’s free kick to level the score.

The parity lasted ten minutes. Nikola Vlasic slipped free at a Luka Modric corner in the 83rd minute and headed Croatia back in front off the inside of the post, settling the game.

Ghana now turn to the Round of 32, where they face Colombia on July 4. A group written off after a grim build up heads into the knockout rounds with a defensive identity and plenty still to prove.

Court Voids NDC Registration, INEC Awaits Certified Copy

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Court Voids NDC Registration, INEC Awaits Certified Copy

A Lokoja court has voided the order that registered the Nigeria Democratic Congress, throwing Peter Obi’s planned 2027 platform into legal limbo, while INEC withholds action pending the certified judgment.

Justice Isah Dashen of the Federal High Court in Lokoja set aside on Friday the same court’s December 10, 2025 judgment, which had compelled the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC). He ordered all parties back to the positions they held before that judgment and directed a fresh hearing with every necessary party joined.

The reversal turned on the Peace Movement Party (PMP), which says it owns the logo the NDC used to win registration. Because the PMP was not joined in the original suit, the court held that the December ruling affected its rights without giving it a chance to be heard, breaching the rule of fair hearing.

The practical effect is sweeping. INEC must now treat the NDC as if the December judgment never happened, leaving the party’s certificate and its place on the register exposed at a critical point in the electoral cycle. The NDC, which named former Anambra governor Peter Obi as its presidential candidate for 2027, says it has concluded primaries and is preparing to submit candidate names to INEC.

INEC said little. In a statement on Saturday, its chief press secretary, Adedayo Oketola, said the commission had seen the media reports but had not received the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the order and could not comment until its legal department obtained and reviewed it. The commission said it would then take a lawful decision in line with the court’s directives.

The NDC rejected the ruling and is heading to the Court of Appeal. “There was no order directing our deregistration,” the party said, insisting it remains a legal political association. Its lawyers argue the trial court became functus officio after delivering its final judgment in December and lacked jurisdiction to revisit the matter, and that anyone aggrieved should have appealed within the time set by law. The party also questions the PMP’s standing, calling it an unregistered body that is not part of the current exercise.

For the PMP, counsel C.S. Ekeocha said his client went to court after finding that the NDC’s registration rested on a logo it had submitted to INEC before the case began. He cast the ruling as a procedural reset to ensure a fair hearing rather than an end to the NDC’s ambitions.

Obi and other opposition figures, including the NDC’s national leader, Senator Henry Dickson, have described the decision as a threat to Nigeria’s multiparty democracy and vowed to pursue every legal remedy. The ruling lands amid other recent court disputes over party registration ahead of 2027.

Greece Launches Bounty on Toxic Pufferfish Damaging Nets

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Greece Launches Bounty on Toxic Pufferfish Damaging Nets

Greece has launched its first paid bounty for the toxic silver cheeked toadfish, offering fishermen €5.33 a kilo to thin a species shredding nets off Crete and the South Aegean.

The pilot took effect and pays professional fishermen up to €5.33 for every kilogram landed, a rate the ministry says runs as much as 52 percent above the bounty in Cyprus. The catch will be frozen and incinerated at state facilities. Margaritis Schinas, Minister of Rural Development and Food and a former European Commission vice president, called it the first scheme of its kind in Greece and said it would likely widen from Crete and the South Aegean to all Greek waters.

Money, not panic, is driving the response. The fish tears through nets and eats trapped catch, leaving crews to repair gear for days after a single trip. “They eat our catch and damage our nets, that’s very costly,” Giorgos Kyriakakis of a Cretan fishermen’s association told Greek public broadcaster ERT. The losses land as the islands enter peak tourist season and a sector already strained by fuel costs.

Lagocephalus sceleratus is native to the Indian Ocean and reached the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, moving north as sea temperatures rise. A member of the pufferfish family, it carries tetrodotoxin in its flesh and organs, a neurotoxin that can cause cardiovascular and respiratory failure and makes the fish unsafe to eat. Its sharp, human like teeth have drawn attention through viral clips of it biting through soda cans and wood.

Health worries grew after an elderly woman was bitten while swimming off Varkiza, near Athens, and needed stitches, according to local reports. The Greek Red Cross issued first aid guidance and warned of the deadly toxin. Nota Peristeraki of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research said most injuries happen when people try to handle or feed the fish, and that severe cases stay rare. She added that a swimmer is likelier to meet a shark than be hurt by the toadfish.

Officials report no sightings in designated bathing areas at island resorts. Sixteen medical and tourism associations on Crete went further in a joint statement, saying marine predators pose no imminent threat to bathers and that public debate tends toward exaggeration.

Greece is following a path set by Cyprus, which began a comparable subsidy in June 2024 and has since removed close to 103 tonnes of the fish. That programme runs to 2029 and has paid roughly €487,000 to about 150 fishermen.

Kwamigah-Atokple Markets Volta Region to US Investors in Chicago

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Kwamigah-Atokple Markets Volta Region to US Investors in Chicago

Council of State member Gabriel Tanko Kwamigah-Atokple pitched the Volta Region as Ghana’s next investment frontier at a Chicago diaspora forum, urging foreign capital toward its planned port and farmland.

He spoke at the fifth Annual Business Exchange Forum, billed as an Invest in Ghana Dialogue, sharing the platform with Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Chief Executive Simon Madjie and Illinois State Representative Sonya Harper before an audience of investors and members of the African diaspora.

Most of his address centred on the Volta Region, which he called one of Ghana’s most promising but least explored destinations for capital. He pointed to fertile land, water resources, tourism sites and a planned port and harbour that he said could turn the area into a trade gateway for Ghana and West Africa. He named commercial agriculture, agro processing, fisheries, manufacturing and hospitality as open fields for investors.

The pitch carries more weight than a typical promotional speech. GIPC’s Investor Opportunities Mapping Project has already profiled more than 190 investment ready opportunities across six regions, Volta among them, giving the region a documented pipeline rather than a list of aspirations. The drive also lands as Parliament has passed a Ghana Investment Promotion Authority Bill to replace the GIPC Act and cut delays for foreign firms.

Kwamigah-Atokple set the regional case inside a national one. He said Ghana remains Africa’s leading gold producer and ranks among the world’s top six, shares top place in cocoa output with Côte d’Ivoire, and hosts the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Accra, opening access to a continental market of more than 1.4 billion people. Those strengths, he argued, create room for investment in value addition, industrialisation, agribusiness, logistics, tourism, technology and manufacturing.

He framed the appeal as a call for partnership rather than aid, telling the gathering that Ghana wants business, not charity, and pressing investors to move before the field crowds. “Fortunes are rarely made by following the crowd,” he said.

Organised in part by Chicago’s Progressive Minds Show, the forum drew investors, development partners and industry figures to deepen economic ties between Ghana and the United States. Kwamigah-Atokple closed by reaffirming Ghana’s openness to business and to public private partnerships, with the Volta Region, he said, ready for investment.

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