Botswana Targets Rich Young Americans With Big, Natural Diamonds
By , William Clowes, and Mbongeni Mguni
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Botswana, the world's largest diamond producer, is betting that selling big gems to rich young Americans will ease its economic woe and it is trying to catch their eye via Instagram and TikTok.
That gamble saw it dip a toe into the world of luxury advertising last week, wining and dining social media influencers at a Michelin star restaurant in New York's Greenwich Village to pitch affluent 20- and 30-somethings on natural rocks over lab-grown rivals.
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36 minutes ago
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Don't Get Scammed: 5 Ways To Outsmart Today's Most Costly Online Fraud
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Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Mom who launched own cola company donates profits to Palestine
By Robert White A British businesswoman who launched a rival to Coca-Cola from her kitchen has sold nearly two BILLION cans worldwide in just over 18 months. Aykiz Shah, 27, launched Salaam Cola in October 2023 without any capital investment, spending a mere £160 on some sample cans. The mom reached a turnover of €6 million in Europe in 2024 - including £1.6m from the UK alone - selling her 66p cans and bottles for £1. She previously worked in recipe development for a drinks company and used her experience to create the original formula and find a manufacturer in Turkey. Describing how the recipe does not include aspartame, Shah said: "I wouldn't put in something that would damage people's health." The mother-of-three, from Brentford, west London, pitched the concept to distributors across the UK and found four willing to pay up-front to get the first batch made. She used TikTok and Instagram to spread the word about the brand and its charitable mission to help displaced and injured Palestinians. Saleem - a commonly-used greeting in Muslim countries - was soon stocked by grocery stores, fast food suppliers and ethnic minority retailers across the UK. It is now a global brand, selling more than 1.9 billion cans of pop to date in 16 countries across four different continents, with several unique recipes for a variety of drinks. Part of Salaam's appeal is that it donates 10 percent of all proceeds to charitable causes, and in 2024, the company was able to donate £250,000 to charity from UK sales alone. And Aykiz believes it is the charity work that the company embraces, which has been the most crucial element to the company's expansion. She said, "We wanted to create more of an ethical drink for people who are going through poverty or malnutrition to be able to give back and help vulnerable people. "It sent a powerful image to our consumers as we are partnered with 'Muslims in Need' a registered charity. "Every month we calculate the proceeds that need to go to the projects and we transfer them the money. "But it's not just the money, we actively work with the charity too, to do things like open schools for Palestinian children who were displaced to Egypt. "I do think that a lot of people were looking for ethical companies because of the BDS [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions] movement against Israel and the ICE situation with Coca Cola in the US, with immigrant workers – there's been a lot of problems with the legacy companies. "But we've created a brand which proves we're here for the people, and distributors and consumers seek us out for that. "Giving back is in our DNA as Muslims and my clients who work with us give back an extra 10 percent on top of that, which is really making a difference. "Every month we provide a video on social media to show where the profits are going and for a lot of people they don't feel guilty for buying a can which backs causes that they believe in – it's a no brainer for a nice drink and the charity work we do. "And that's why I think Salaam Cola has become a movement and a household name. "For me personally, it's turned my life upside down - people work years and years to establish things that Salaam has managed to do in such a short space of time." Yet, despite employing a second member of staff in the UK in August 2024, Aykiz still works from home at her kitchen island. She is now overseeing the company, creating other flavours of fizzy pop, each with a twist on the country it supports. Salaam Cola was originally for Palestine, with the diet version – Seriously No Sugar – raising money for Syria. The company has also developed 'Yemonade' to help malnourished children in desperate need of medical assistance and food. Salaam has added 'Lebanorange' as its most recent addition – set to come out over the next few weeks – which has been designed to support Lebanon. Despite principally focusing on the Middle East, Aykiz has been pleasantly surprised that the product has been supported by all kinds of people across many countries, including Coronation Street actor Sean Ward. She said: "I initially thought it would be a predominantly Muslim-backed product, but really everyone's on board. "We have distributors, which are businesses that are run by Muslims, but equally we have lots of non-Muslim supporters who believe in the message too. "When you step back, you see that there's actually a lot of love in the world, despite all the negativity. "We have been able to provide 10,000 Palestinians medical aid - we did that primarily for children in Al-Nasr hospital in Egypt who were victims of severe burns. "In Syria, we sponsor orphans through school, and we are rebuilding a mosque that was bombed. "And we have a community kitchen in Yemen which provides food for families because there is such a problem with malnutrition - I believe it is the highest amount of poverty in the world. She added: "We've even had celebrity backers, such as Sean Ward, who has been a massive supporter of our work, and volunteers regularly to overlook and visit the Salaam charity projects." Despite the success, Aykiz still feels very fortunate and grateful towards the four companies that originally backed her product. She said: "We originally sold the product to four distributors across the UK, in Lancashire, the Midlands, London and Glasgow. "They prepaid for a full container of Saalam and bought the stock to resell. "I was lucky – four buyers was still a relatively low number of backers, and the business all depended on how it went with them, but it's crazy that it took off straight away." 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"The meetings with Canada and the US can be in the middle of the night – at the start, I was sleeping about two or three hours a day because it went viral straight away. I was living on coffees. "I didn't know what I was doing, every day was a learning curve and I was making it up as I went along." She added: "I don't know how I did it or how it happened – I guess it's God's plan." The post Mom who launched own cola company donates profits to Palestine appeared first on Talker. Copyright Talker News. All Rights Reserved.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
States are regulating AI when Congress won't. Don't take away their power.
U.S. lawmakers are close to taking drastic and ill-advised measures in the name of competitiveness and innovation. The Senate is currently considering a reconciliation bill that includes a rule that would ban state-level AI regulation for 10 years. Their objective is to speed up the United States' AI development and help American AI technology get ahead, and stay ahead, of the rest of the world. However, if Congress imposes this moratorium, it will effectively shoot itself in the foot by stifling U.S. AI innovation and even endangering national security. The reality is that AI governance infrastructure is necessary for both objectives, and states are well-equipped to contribute to infrastructure — indeed, they are already building it. The ban has been hotly debated in a variety of forums. To be sure, some may argue that AI regulation should be significantly limited to avoid harming innovation, and in those rare cases when AI regulation is needed, the federal government, rather than state governments, is the right actor to impose that regulation, since AI governance will affect U.S. national security. Some may criticize the emerging patchwork of state laws, which can complicate compliance for firms that operate across state lines and leave gaps in protections for state residents. However, congressional gridlock and partisanship, and the failure to pass meaningful tech regulation for over a decade, mean that state laws are necessary. States are more strongly incentivized to address their constituents' concerns about AI, and states face fewer partisan barriers to implementing policy — take, for example, state laws protecting Americans' privacy and digital rights. While these debates are worth having, they miss a key component of why this moratorium is a bad idea: State governments are essential for building the United States' AI governance infrastructure. What's more, this infrastructure is necessary to achieve the moratorium's stated policy goals of enhancing AI innovation and promoting national security. AI governance goes beyond placing concrete demands on AI developers and deployers. It includes strengthening workforce capacity, sharing information and gathering evidence about emerging risks and building shared resources to facilitate AI experimentation. These activities enhance developers' abilities to build performant systems, engender consumer trust and preserve U.S. national security interests. For example, a robust system of third-party auditors can help AI companies detect emergent security risks, prevent AI failures and streamline internal testing. Similarly, strong information sharing between developers, users and government actors can aid in rapidly triaging and responding to AI risks and harms. This frees up time for developers to continue innovating and builds consumer trust, making it more likely that people adopt the technology and developers accelerate their learning through real-world deployment. Information sharing between government and industry also helps policymakers prioritize the most pressing national security risks and ensure that the U.S. models maintain an edge over their competitors. Finally, shared resources such as computing clusters can help academic and research communities conduct security research that developers may overlook and enable smaller developers to contribute to the innovation ecosystem. The proposed moratorium could very well foreclose progress in these key areas, and current and future state bills that touch on these governance activities may no longer be in force if the moratorium passes. This is a problem because states are currently well-positioned — better positioned than the federal government — to support AI governance infrastructure that enables innovation and enhances U.S. national security. States are already working on components of AI governance infrastructure, including talent, computing infrastructure and regulatory frameworks. Nearly every state has registered AI apprenticeship programs and related skills-based training to ensure that the United States has a workforce capable of building, testing and overseeing AI systems. States have also taken the initiative to build out hardware infrastructure; New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) recently announced a consortium to launch an AI computing center in the state to promote research and development and create job opportunities. Finally, AI bills are already in the works in several state legislatures, and in some cases have already passed into state law. State-level governance is also advantageous for the U.S. because it serves as a sandbox for experimentation and debate, allowing for innovation in governance approaches. Individual states can experiment with policies that may eventually be taken up by other states, such as how California's environmental laws became a model nationwide. This will be particularly important for AI, which intersects with many other policy and regulatory concerns. State lawmakers can coordinate their approaches, learn from each other's experiences and try to build consensus to minimize fragmentation across state lines. Organizations and networks already exist to bring government employees together to share ideas, and policymakers have previously coordinated to try and reduce fragmentation on previous issues such as consumer data privacy. By imposing this moratorium, Congress would act in direct contravention of its stated objectives of supporting U.S. innovation and national security. Effective AI governance, including state-driven governance, is necessary for a maximally innovative and secure AI ecosystem. As such, Congress should remove this moratorium from the bill. Jessica Ji is a research analyst at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), where she works on the CyberAI Project. Vikram Venkatram is a research analyst at CSET. Mina Narayanan is a research analyst at CSET.
