The trial in a federal court in northern Virginia follows a separate case where a judge last month found Google’s search business to be an illegal monopoly.

This new battle, also brought by the US Department of Justice, focuses on ad technology – the complex system determining which online ads people see and their cost.

The US government specifically alleges that Google controls the market for publishing banner ads on websites, including those of many creators and news providers.

“Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” the complaint states.

Government lawyers will claim Google has used its financial power to acquire potential rivals and corner the ad tech market, leaving advertisers and publishers with no choice but to use its technology.

They seek to have Google divest parts of its ad tech business.

‘Lifeblood’ to information

Google dismisses the allegations as “fundamentally misguided” and says they violate “principles of antitrust law that help drive economic growth and innovation.”

“The case is also wrong on the facts, which Google looks forward to demonstrating,” the company said in a court filing.

The company argues that the case is based on an outdated version of the internet, ignoring ads placed in search results, apps, and social media platforms.

Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, Senior Analyst at Emarketer, said that while the market in question is small compared to the entire advertising ecosystem, it’s “the lifeblood to a lot of important information sources for the public.”

“I’m not sure that I have a lot of sympathy…for the argument that publishers” should be satisfied with fewer options to do business, she added.

The trial is expected to last at least six weeks and call on dozens of witnesses, with Judge Leonie Brinkema presiding.

Her decision on whether Google has broken antitrust law will come months after the trial. If found at fault, a separate trial would decide how Google should comply with the judge’s conclusion.

Analysts at Wedbush Securities said that the economic impact of the trial will be limited for Google no matter the outcome.

The business that the government is asking Google to sell accounted for less than 1 percent of operating income this year, they estimated.

Similar investigations into Google’s dominance of the ad tech business are ongoing in the European Union and Britain.

Meanwhile, the earlier search case has entered the remedy phase, with the US government expected to propose an overhaul of Google’s search engine business in the coming weeks.

arp/md

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Tola clocked an Olympic record of 2hr 06min 26sec for victory, finishing 21 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Bashir Abdi, whose silver marked an upgrade from his bronze garnered at the Covid-hit Tokyo Games three years ago.

Kenya’s Benson Kipruto, winner of Tokyo, Boston and Chicago marathons in recent years, rounded out the podium, a further 13sec adrift.

“Thank you, Paris!” said Tola, the 2016 Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist who will be 33 on Sunday.

“I’m happy today, I was 2022 world champion and now I’m Olympic champion.

“It’s the greatest day in my life. This was my goal.”

Tola, a late call-up to replace injury-hit Sisay Lemma, won gold at the 2022 world championships in Eugene.

More recently he finished third at last year’s London Marathon and won the New York City Marathon in a course record of 2:04.58.

Former world record holder Kipchoge won golds in the 2016 Rio Games and in Tokyo in 2021, but the 39-year-old Kenyan pulled up late in the race.

He withdrew just after the 30km mark, at which point he was 71st, more than eight minutes off the pace.

It put an end to his ambitious attempt at a third consecutive win.

In scenes witnessed by an AFP reporter in the crowd, Kipchoge turned to fans and handed over his shoes, bib and socks to supporters, receiving a rapturous reception.

Tola’s teammate Kenenisa Bekele, who won three Olympic and five world golds over 5000m and 10,000m before turning to the marathon, finished 39th in 2:12.24.

The 42km-long marathon course headed out of central Paris to Versailles, mimicking a key moment from the French Revolution: the Women’s March on Versailles, on 5 October 1789 which led to French King Louis XVI finally agreeing to ratify the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens.

The route included a 436m climb and 438m descent. The maximum gradient on the route was 13.5 percent.

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Aviation officials in the United States briefly grounded all planes, while airlines elsewhere cancelled or delayed flights, as systems running Microsoft Windows crashed.

Microsoft said the issue began at 1900 GMT on Thursday, affecting users of its Azure cloud platform running cybersecurity software CrowdStrike Falcon.

“We recommend customers that are able to, to restore from a backup from before this time,” the US software giant said in a technical update on its website.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a post on several social media platforms that a fix had been rolled out for the problem, describing it as a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts”.

Experts suggested applying the fix would not be straightforward. And the global nature of the failure prompted some commentators to question the reliance on a single provider for such a variety of services. Shares in CrowdStrike slumped by 20 percent in pre-market trading.

Here is an overview of the main disruptions.

Airports and airlines

Airport operations and flights were a major victim of the outage, which forced delays and cancellations globally.

At Sydney Airport in Australia, flight operations and airport services were affected, creating long queues of passengers trying to reach their destinations.

Hong Kong International Airport also announced that some airlines were affected, and Singapore’s airport also said it had been impacted.

“Due to a global outage affecting IT systems of many organisations, the check-in process for some airlines at Changi Airport is being managed manually,” the airport posted on Facebook.

At Delhi airport, three Indian airlines reported major IT disruptions.

In Europe, Berlin International Airport was blocked on Friday morning before traffic partially resumed at around 11:00 am (0900 GMT).

Flight arrivals were halted at Zurich’s airport before it announced on Friday afternoon that flights could again land, while in Vienna and Budapest, the check-in systems of several airlines had to be operated manually, causing “significant delays”.

Amsterdam-Schiphol airport, a major European hub, was also affected, as were all airports in Spain, causing disruptions at the height of its summer tourism season.

In France, Air France said it was facing IT-related disruption on several of its services, but not at the Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports serving the Olympics host city Paris.

The IT systems of the ADP group, which manages the Paris airports, were unaffected but the breakdown has “had an impact on the operations of the airlines concerned at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly: slowdown in check-in, delays and temporary suspension of certain flight schedules”, the company told AFP.

But Transavia France said it had been forced to cancel nearly 40 flights.

Ireland’s Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline in terms of passenger numbers, warned that it was experiencing a “disruption across the network due to a global third-party IT outage which is out of our control”.

In North America, major airlines including Delta, United and American Airlines grounded all their planes early on Friday because of “communications issues”, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

They later said they were beginning to resume operations after hours-long delays.

Public transport

Britain’s largest rail operator said it was affected by the IT problems, leading to potential last-minute cancellations as companies were unable to access certain systems relating to drivers.

“We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network”, the four lines operated by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) posted on X.

In Gdansk, northern Poland, the Baltic Hub Container Terminal, a deep-water terminal, also reported disruption before returning to normal.

Financial sector

The London Stock Exchange was hit early by a technical problem affecting its platform for disseminating information to the market.

The FTSE 100, its main index, opened around 20 minutes late

In addition, the applications of several banks were affected in Australia, according to Australian television station ABC.

The problem also affected banks in Ukraine, including the online bank Sense Bank.

In Turkey, Deniz Bank reported disruptions to its customers.

Media

The disruptions also affected the media, such as Australian broadcaster ABC, which said its systems had been paralysed by a “major” problem.

In France, Canal+’s subscriber service explained on Friday morning that it was suffering the “repercussions of a major global technical failure”.

TF1, the leading private channel in France and Europe, was also affected, with its morning show starting several minutes late.

British television channel Sky News saw its broadcasting briefly interrupted.

The Paris Olympics

The IT outage is “impacting Paris 2024’s IT operations” just a week ahead of the opening ceremony for the Summer Games, the Olympic organising committee said.

The accreditation system has been affected, preventing some people from collecting their badges, a source within the organising committee told AFP.

Flight disruptions could also impede the arrival of athletes and delegations.

Other sectors

In Japan, some operations at McDonald’s restaurants were disrupted, and in Australia, self-service checkout terminals at one of the country’s largest supermarket chains displayed error messages.

In the Netherlands, several hospitals reported being affected by the outage, leading to the closure of an emergency department and the postponement of operations.

Britain’s government activated its civil contingencies committee as general practitioners (GPs) across Britain were unable to access patient records or book appointments.

A National Health Service (NHS) spokesperson said there was an issue with its appointment and patient record service “causing disruption in the majority” of GP services.

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The outcome of Monday’s poll was never in doubt, with Kagame ruling the small African nation with an iron fist as de facto leader then president for three decades.

Partial results issued by the election commission seven hours after polls closed showed that Kagame had won 99.15 percent of the vote — even more than the 98.79 percent he got in the last poll seven years ago.

Democratic Green Party candidate Frank Habineza could only muster 0.53 percent and independent Philippe Mpayimana 0.32 percent, according to the results issued with 79 percent of ballots counted.

In an address from the headquarters of his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the 66-year-old thanked Rwandans for giving him another five years in office.

“The results that have been presented indicate a very high score, these are not just figures, even if it was 100 percent, these are not just numbers,” he said.

“These figures show the trust, and that is what is most important,” he added.

“I am hopeful that together we can solve all problems.”

‘Safe and transparent’

Full provisional results are due by July 20 and definitive results by July 27.

“In general, the electoral process happened in a safe and transparent atmosphere for Rwandans living abroad and at home,” the National Electoral Commission said in a statement.

With 65 percent of the population aged under 30, Kagame is the only leader most Rwandans have ever known.

The bespectacled 66-year-old leader is credited with rebuilding a traumatised nation after the 1994 genocide — but he is also accused of ruling in a climate of fear at home, and fomenting instability in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Over nine million Rwandans — about two million first-time voters —  were registered to cast their ballot, with the presidential race being held at the same time as legislative elections for the first time.

“(Kagame) gives us everything we ask him, such as health insurance. This is why he wins by a big margin,” said 34-year-old mechanic, Francois Rwabakina.

Kagame won with more than 93 percent of the vote in 2003, 2010 and in 2017, when he again easily defeated the same two challengers.

He has overseen controversial constitutional amendments that shortened presidential terms from seven to five years and reset the clock for the Rwandan leader, allowing him to potentially rule until 2034.

‘Severe restrictions’

Rwandan courts had rejected appeals from prominent opposition figures Bernard Ntaganda and Victoire Ingabire to remove previous convictions that effectively disqualified them from Monday’s vote.

The election commission also barred high-profile Kagame critic Diane Rwigara, citing issues with her paperwork — the second time she was excluded from running.

Ahead of the vote, Amnesty International said Rwanda’s political opposition faced “severe restrictions… as well as threats, arbitrary detention, prosecution, trumped-up charges, killings and enforced disappearances”.

The imbalance between the candidates was evident during the three-week campaign, as the well-oiled PR machine of the ruling RPF swung into high gear.

The party’s red, white and blue colours and its slogans “Tora Kagame Paul” (“Vote Paul Kagame”) and “PK24” (“Paul Kagame 2024”) were everywhere.

His rivals struggled to make their voices heard, with barely 100 people showing up to some events.

Kagame’s RPF militia is lauded for ending the 1994 genocide when it marched on Kigali — ousting the Hutu extremists who had unleashed 100 days of bloodletting targeting the Tutsi minority.

The perpetrators killed around 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis but also Hutu moderates.

Kagame has overseen a remarkable economic recovery, with GDP growing by an average of 7.2 percent per year between 2012 and 2022, although the World Bank says almost half the population lives on less than $2.15 a day.

But abroad, Kigali is accused of meddling in the troubled eastern DRC, where a UN report says its troops are fighting alongside M23 rebels.

In the parliamentary election, 589 candidates were chasing 80 seats, including 53 elected by universal suffrage.

In the outgoing assembly, the RPF held 40 seats and its allies 11, while Habineza’s party had two.

Another 27 spots are reserved for women, the youth and people with disabilities.

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The City’s Disaster Operations Centre said informal settlements around the city, including the major township of Khayelitsha, had been particularly affected by the flooding.

Several roads, including major highways, were flooded and there were concerns about rising water levels at dams.

“We are working on between 14,000-15,000 structures that have been affected but that number keeps changing,” provincial disaster management centre spokesman Wouter Kriel told AFP.

“Some are houses, some are structures… including informal settlements which have been badly affected,” he said.

An AFP correspondent saw several houses that had lost their roofs in strong winds that also bent power lines, with electricity outages reported in several areas.

Cape Town resident Sammy Gelord said the wind ripped the roof off his home in the Wynberg suburb.

“I never saw something like that in my life — it just took the roof and everything,” he said.

The Western Cape education department ordered dozens of schools across the city and other parts of the province to close on Thursday because of severe weather warnings in place until Friday.

The South African Weather Service warned that “disruptive rain leading to flooding and possible mudslides” were expected for Cape Town as well as the Drakenstein and Stellenbosch areas beyond the city.

Several cold fronts have battered the region over the past few days, with mountainous areas experiencing rare heavy snowfalls. Authorities reported at the weekend that the extreme weather had left thousands of people homeless.

The Western Cape provincial government has appealed to national authorities for emergency aid.

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Siriati, 36, had gone missing after she left her house on Tuesday morning to buy medicine for her sick child, police said, prompting relatives to launch a search.

Her husband Adiansa, 30, found her slippers and pants on the ground about 500 metres (yards) from their house in Siteba village, South Sulawesi province.

“Shortly after that, he spotted a snake, about 10 metres from the path. The snake was still alive,” local police chief Idul, who like many Indonesians has one name, told AFP.

Village secretary Iyang told AFP that Adiansa became suspicious after he noticed the python’s “very large” belly. He called the villagers to help cut open its stomach, where they found her body.

Such incidents are considered extremely rare, but several people have been swallowed by pythons in recent years.

A woman was found dead last month inside the belly of a reticulated python in another district of South Sulawesi.

Last year residents in the province killed an eight-metre python, which was found strangling and eating one of the farmers in a village.

A 54-year-old woman was found dead in 2018 inside a seven-metre python in Southeast Sulawesi’s Muna town.

And the year before, a farmer in West Sulawesi went missing before being found being swallowed by a four-metre python at a palm oil plantation.

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It is a choice between master goal-kicker Pollard and ball-in-hand magician Libbok for a clash of the top ranked nations with the Rugby World Cup holders first.

Initially, the South African media believed Pollard was a shoo-in to start against the Six Nations champions, but recent reports suggest Libbok might get the nod.

Libbok began the 2023 World Cup campaign in the playmaker role as Pollard had been ruled out of the tournament due to injury.

But when hooker Malcolm Marx was an early injury casualty in France last September, Erasmus called up fit-again Pollard rather than a front-rower.

It was a masterstroke as Pollard started the knockout matches against France, England and New Zealand, and did not miss a kick at goal as South Africa won back-to-back titles.

Erasmus is spoilt for choice in most positions and could select 12 of the team that started the final against the All Blacks, with the fly-half decision among the most eagerly awaited.

The matchday 23 will be named on Tuesday and AFP Sport looks at the selection options available to South Africa, whose only loss at the 2023 World Cup was against Ireland in a pool match.

Forwards

Who starts at hooker and at number eight are the main talking points with experienced Test campaigners Malcolm Marx and Kwagga Smith favoured.

Marx and Bongani Mbonambi are world-class hookers and it is likely the former, who played last month for the first since the World Cup, will give way to the latter in the second half.

The choice in the middle of the back row is more clearcut — the experience of Smith versus the promise of Evan Roos, who began a 41-13 warm-up win over Wales at Twickenham two weekends ago.

Props Ox Nche and Frans Malherbe, locks Eben Etzebeth and Franco Mostert and loose forwards Pieter-Steph du Toit and captain Siya Kolisi are expected to occupy the other six positions.

Backs

Double World Cup winner Faf de Klerk is the probable starter at scrum-half provided he recovers from a leg injury sustained against Wales.

If ruled out, Erasmus can choose between experienced Cobus Reinach, one of several Springboks based in France, and the dynamic Grant Williams.

Full-back Willie le Roux is expected to be recalled as Damian Willemse is injured and Kurt-Lee Arendse and fit-again Cheslin Kolbe are set to start on the wings.

Settled 2023 World Cup centre partners Jesse Kriel and Damian de Allende should hold off the challenges of Lukhanyo Am and Andre Esterhuizen to make the starting line-up.

Bench

The composition of the bench will depend on whether Erasmus opts for a 7-1, 6-2 or the more traditional 5-3 forwards-backs split.

Whatever choice he settles on, it would be surprising if Marx or Mbonambi, props Vincent Koch and Trevor Nyakane or Thomas du Toit, lock RG Snyman and back-rower Roos were not included.

Williams (scrum-half, wing) and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (fly-half, centre, full-back) are strong backline candidates because they cover all seven positions between them.

Then there are Pollard and Libbok. Whoever does not make the starting line-up seems likely to be included among the replacements.

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Having ended a run of seven semi-final losses — in both short-form formats — with their victory over Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Proteas came agonisingly close to their maiden World Cup title.

Heinrich Klaasen’s blistering 52 from 27 balls, with five sixes and two fours, put South Africa in position to win before India’s ‘death’ bowlers turned the screw.

“Obviously gutted. It will take some time for us to reflect on this. We’ve had a great campaign but for the time being, this hurts. I am so proud of all my players and everyone involved in this team,” said Markram.

“We bowled very well, the pitch didn’t give them much to work with. We thought it was a chaseable total. It was a great game of cricket, I’m chuffed with all my guys, it’s hard not to get over the line but I’ll always be proud of them,” he said.

“We’ve seen that it’s not over until the last ball for a lot of our games. It changed quickly at the end there. But we were in a great position. We know we could’ve won the game,” he added.

Markram said he was proud that the hunger for success that his team had shown throughout their unbeaten run to the final had been evident until the very end.

“One thing you can guarantee from South African people is that they are competitive, but they are respectful. We pride ourselves on that. Hopefully moving forward we can learn from this and use it.

“This will always be a proud day for us, regardless,” he said.

South Africa’s only major honour in the game is the Champions Trophy title won in 1998 and Markram said it was too soon to reflect deeply on the positives of the campaign.

“To get to our first final, it’s something we can be proud of. Still, in our eyes, it’s not good enough. You’re not satisfied with making a final,” he said.

“I think it’ll take a bit of time for us to reflect back on all the good things that we’ve done, but obviously for the time being, it’s just hurts a lot,” he said.

Markram had spoken before the final of the unique bond within the team were there was an “extreme hunger” for victory and he said the defeat would take some recovering from.

“Its just gut wrenching – that’s really what it is. Each player has been on a different individual journey to get to this first final.

“Ultimately you become really tight as a group and you want good things to happen to this group because you know they’re great people and when you get really close like that.

“The nature of how the game went, obviously adds to the emotions and it’s one of those things but we can channel it moving forward but I think next couple of days you let it be, you let yourself feel the way you want to feel and then really start reflecting in a positive manner.

“Hopefully it’s one step closer. It’s tournament cricket, it’s tough cricket, it’s not easy to win trophies and you’ve got to take your hats off to a team like India for lifting the trophy.

“Hopefully moving forward we can get that first win and it can be a snowball effect of quite a few to come,” he said.

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The initially peaceful demonstrations were sparked last week by the 2024 finance bill — which politicians passed Tuesday — and took Ruto’s administration by surprise as rallies gathered momentum countrywide.

But the Gen-Z-led protests spiralled into violence when police fired live bullets at the crowds outside parliament, leaving the complex ransacked and partly ablaze. Nineteen people were killed in the capital Nairobi, a state-funded rights watchdog said.

“I concede and therefore I will not sign the 2024 finance bill and it shall subsequently be withdrawn,” Ruto told a press briefing on Wednesday. “The people have spoken.”

“I will be proposing an engagement with the young people of our nation, our sons and daughters, for us to listen to them,” he added, in a marked shift from his late-night address Tuesday when he likened some of the demonstrators to “criminals”.

Speaking after Ruto, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua laid the blame elsewhere, stating it had been “a failure in intelligence”.

Immediately after his speech, prominent protester Hanifa Adan dismissed Ruto’s announcement as a publicity stunt. Referring to his comments the previous night, she said on X: “He made that speech trying to intimidate us and he saw it won’t work hence the PR. The bill is withdrawn but are you going to bring everyone that died back alive?”

Ahead of Ruto’s about-turn, protesters had called for fresh rallies on Thursday. “Tomorrow we march peacefully again as we wear white, for all our fallen people,” Adan had said. “You cannot kill all of us.”

Protestors shared “Tupatane Thursday” (“we meet Thursday” in Swahili), on social media, with the hashtag #Rejectfinancebill2024.

Nelly, 26, told AFP she would be back on the streets: “We are marching tomorrow for a better future Kenya.”

Ruto came to power in 2022 promising to champion the needs of impoverished Kenyans, but tax increases under his government have only made life tougher for those already struggling with high inflation.

The Kenyan leader had already rolled back some tax measures last week, prompting the treasury to warn of a gaping budget shortfall of 200 billion shillings.

Ruto said withdrawing the bill would mean a significant hole in funding for development programmes to help farmers, schoolteachers and others.

The cash-strapped government had said previously that the increases were needed to service Kenya’s massive debt of some 10 trillion shillings ($78 billion), equal to roughly 70 percent of GDP.

Roseline Odede, chair of the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, said “we have recorded 22 deaths”, 19 of them in Nairobi. “This is the largest number of deaths (in) a single day protest,” she said, saying 300 people were injured across the country.

Simon Kigondu, president of the Kenya Medical Association, said he had never before seen “such levels of violence against unarmed people”.

An official at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi said medics were treating “160 people… some of them with soft tissue injuries, some of them with bullet wounds”.

Rights watchdogs have also accused the authorities of abducting protesters. The police have not responded to AFP requests for comment.

A heavy police presence was deployed around parliament early Wednesday, according to an AFP reporter, the smell of tear gas still in the air and dried blood on the ground.

A policeman standing in front of the broken barricades to the complex told AFP he had watched the scenes unfold on TV.

“It was madness, we hope it will be calm today,” he said.

In the central business district, where the protests have been concentrated, traders surveyed the damage.

“They didn’t leave anything, just the boxes. I don’t know how long it will take me to recover,” James Ng’ang’a, whose shop was looted, told AFP. – Dylan Gamba AFP

Silozwe, a village less than 50km from the southern city of Bulawayo, the country’s second-largest, sits in a connectivity black hole.

To an outsider, the daily stream of villagers clambering up the hill might look like a pilgrimage to a rain-making ceremony but it’s a communal trek to make phone calls, send messages and check social media.

“Grown up as I am, it’s hard for me to get up the hill, and sometimes I still fail to connect,” said Sakhile Sibindi, 60, a grandmother who walks 5km to reach the spot from her home.

Rural connectivity issues are not unique to Zimbabwe.

About a third of the world’s population, or 2.6 billion people, do not have internet access, according to the UN, which has a target to get everyone online by 2030.

“The internet is an essential tool to access information, employment opportunities and education. 

“People without meaningful access may be left behind,” the UN’s International Telecommunication Union said in a report last year.

In sub-Saharan Africa, about one in four people use cellphones to get online — but 15% of the population live in areas with no coverage, according to GSMA, a telecom industry group.

The Matobo Hills, a Unesco World Heritage site famed for its distinctive boulders, provide some relief to Silozwe’s residents. 

But it has some clear drawbacks, such as nosy fellow connectivity hunters eavesdropping on phone calls, said Sibindi.

“If you get the connection, you don’t have privacy,” she said after stopping there on her way back from a routine health check. 

“Sensitive family issues end up being known by the whole village.”

“If someone gets sick at night, you cannot come here to make a phone call. If it’s death, you will stay with a corpse in your house because you cannot reach out for help,” said Sibindi.

Some local residents have found ingenious workarounds.

Cellphones attached to sticks in yards or strapped on tree branches in a desperate search for network coverage are a common sight.

Anna Tiyo, a 42-year-old whose husband works in South Africa, used an old metal barrel to set up a makeshift network station under a fortuitously discovered, well-connected tree.

“One day, I got tired of walking in the sun across the field, so I sat here under this tree, watching some videos on my smartphone,” she said. 

“WhatsApp messages started coming in, and that’s how I found this network spot,” she said.

Others ask bus drivers and shopkeepers to deliver written or oral messages for them.

Living in an offline area can be costly for those trying to do business, in a country with high poverty and unemployment rates.

Bukhosibethu Moyo, a 29-year-old building contractor, said coverage gaps cost him clients and money, as he can’t take calls or mobile payments.

“Most of my clients say they fail to reach me for several days,” he said. “They end up hiring people from the city who are readily available online.”

Cellphone penetration is over 97% in Zimbabwe, and there are more than 14.5 million active subscriptions in a country of 16 million people, according to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe.

The government has acknowledged that connectivity is problematic in rural areas. It has promised investments and recently launched a programme to equip rural schools with computers.

“We now have a state-of-the-art optic fibre network, a National ICT policy, and a Smart Zimbabwe Master Plan,” communication minister Tatenda Mavetera wrote on X in March.

“These initiatives will transform Zimbabwe into a digital powerhouse, boost our economy, improve our lives and connect us to the world.”

But progress has been slow, leaving many villagers feeling neglected.

“We are part of this country and deserve access to the same opportunities as those in urban areas,” said Tiyo.

The country’s ministry of communication did not reply to a request for comment. — Zinyange Auntony AFP