The contribution, provided through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), comes at a critical time in Zimbabwe. It will be used to provide participants under WFP’s Food Assistance for Assets activities with food assistance in return for work, support the creation or rehabilitation of small-scale farming infrastructure, village savings and lending groups, as well as provide training on business management in Kariba, Masvingo, Mwenezi, Rushinga and Zvishavane districts.

“Our longstanding funding for the Food Assistance for Assets program demonstrates the U.S. government’s commitment to tackling food insecurity in Zimbabwe,” said Ramses Gauthier, USAID acting Mission Director. “We are happy to work with a ready, willing, and capable partner, the World Food Programme, to accomplish this vital task.”

Under the initiative, which is designed to meet immediate food needs through food distributions while investing in productive assets, participants receive monthly food allotments consisting of maize meal, pulses, and cooking oil for the duration of the work while the entire community benefits from the completed assets. Participants also receive training on insurance and financial inclusion and food processing and are linked to nearby markets.

“We are grateful to the U.S. government for its continued support in enabling vulnerable communities in Zimbabwe to withstand the negative impact of climate change and recurrent economic shocks,” said Christine Mendes, WFP acting Country Director. “The beauty of transformational activities lies in empowering communities not only to have food today and tomorrow but also to prevent and mitigate future food crises, as well reduce humanitarian needs over time, while paving the way toward self-sufficient futures.”

The United States’ support comes at a critical time, as farmers across the country harvest their cereals. Although the country has received good rains this agricultural season, many families still face food insecurity. Some smallholder farmers live hand-to-mouth due to the cumulative effects of droughts, insufficient livelihood opportunities, and economic shocks.

Since 2011, through its resilience building activities, more than 1.2 million people in 30 districts have benefitted from WFP-supported productive assets. WFP has created approximately 400 small dams and 80 irrigation systems, helped establish 520 hectares of vegetable gardens, and drilled more than 60 mostly solar-powered boreholes.

USAID remains the largest donor of humanitarian assistance in Zimbabwe and supports sustainable solutions for communities affected by food insecurity.

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

HARARE — Zimbabwe’s central bank sees “near convergence” of the country’s official and black-market foreign-exchange rates, after a currency rout led to a 58% slump against the US dollar this month.

Measures announced by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube this week are expected to help provide stability to the exchange rate, according to John Mangudya, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor.

“We see this happening in the shortest period,” he said Tuesday in an interview by phone from the capital, Harare. “As of this week, we have already seen a softening of the parallel exchange rate, which was running away.”

The local currency has fallen to officially trade at 2,577 per US dollar, which compares to a still much weaker 3,200 to 3,600 on the unofficial market. The official rate is set at weekly auctions, where the central bank will start capping dollar sales to $5 million.

The limited dollars at the auction will force companies seeking US currency to place “realistic” bids, Mangudya said. “We see near convergence of rates, that’s because I am mindful that a parallel market exists worldwide,” he said. “Anything under 20% is acceptable.”

The International Monetary Fund recently urged authorities to free-float the local currency, but Mangudya ruled that out, saying it would be difficult to achieve in a dual currency system. Three-quarters of transactions in the country use US dollars.

Read: Zimbabwe Rules Out Free-Floating Currency After 26% Slump

Instead, the southern African nation intends to stick with its unconventional policy of issuing gold coins and gold-backed digital tokens as it remains cut off from access to lines of credit from international financial institutions including the IMF, World Bank and Paris Club. The digital money move has been criticized by the IMF.

“We are customizing our policies,” said Mangudya. “We don’t get IMF support and have limited foreign credit, so we need to think outside the box and maximize the tools at our disposal.”

A second phase of the digital currency, which allows for everyday transactions between ordinary people and businesses, is currently in a “testing environment” and will be launched in mid-June. “People will be able to swipe in the realm of gold and also send transfers,” said Mangudya. – Bloomberg

Rapper Ice Cube is the latest high profile figure to speak out against generative Artificial Intelligence (A.I.).

The veteran Compton, California, rapper recently responded to a Tweet challenging his point of view by doubling down on his recent claim that A.I. was demonic.

Samples are approved or denied by the song owners. Totally different than taking a dead artist and making a new song they never approved and saying things they may not agree with. That’s evil and demonic to me. https://t.co/xLKHIOdDdG

— Ice Cube (@icecube) May 24, 2023

After a Twitter user by the name of David Robbins cited an article by Fortune magazine that sought to make a case that Cube was a hypocrite for criticising A.I. during an interview on the Full Send podcast on the basis that Cube has a history of sampling other music, Cube fired back.

Samples are approved or denied by the song owners. Totally different than taking a dead artist and making a new song they never approved and saying things they may not agree with. That’s evil and demonic to me. https://t.co/xLKHIOdDdG

— Ice Cube (@icecube) May 24, 2023

“Samples are approved or denied by the song owners,” he said. “Totally different than taking a dead artist and making a new song they never approved and saying things they may not agree with. That’s evil and demonic to me.”

Previously, during the aforementioned interview, Cube had sparked controversy online when he shared his controversial views on the matter, “I think A.I. is demonic. I think there’s gonna be a backlash because of A.I. I think people are gonna want things organic and not artificial.”

Samples are approved or denied by the song owners. Totally different than taking a dead artist and making a new song they never approved and saying things they may not agree with. That’s evil and demonic to me. https://t.co/xLKHIOdDdG

— Ice Cube (@icecube) May 24, 2023

His tweet drew a range of responses:

“So the dead artists you’ve sampled who don’t own their songs due to slave contracts and may not agree with what you are saying on the record; yet you got the greenlight to sample it,” said @360_karma.

“But the beef is with A.I. music ? Run that back one more time and make it make sense.”

Samples are approved or denied by the song owners. Totally different than taking a dead artist and making a new song they never approved and saying things they may not agree with. That’s evil and demonic to me. https://t.co/xLKHIOdDdG

— Ice Cube (@icecube) May 24, 2023

@visisyd added: “agree to a point,.. depending on the context of lyrics and intent tho. I had the idea years ago before the technology existed,.. wanting something creative for my vocals and it actually work with the concept behind my music.”

@reallythough described A.I. tech as inevitable. “Nothing demonic about simply using new tech to play around with voices you love from artists who put out recordings O.G. Completely inevitable actually. Dead that weird thinking.”