Social media giants, Facebook, has concluded plans to launch a dedicated news tab that would enable its subscribers to source for news on the platform.

To that end, the Mark Zuckerberg- led social media platform has apparently struck a deal with news providers that would let it display headlines in a dedicated news tab.

That’s as per a report from the Wall Street Journal, which said licensing fees and other details have been worked out with the WSJ, the New York Post, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, and Business Insider.

Reports said News Corp. and Facebook managed to reach this deal after overcoming a few obstacles along the way.
For example, the two companies had to work around difficulties presented by WSJ’s subscription business model.

Despite this, the two firms have agreed on a licensing fee that would be paid by Facebook in order to include news from the publications on the social media website.

Russian hackers have allegedly hid their efforts to attack organisations in the UK and other countries around the world by pretending to be a rival Iranian hacking group.

A Russian hacking group dubbed “Turla”, which has been linked to Russia’s FSB agency, hacked into Iranian servers to mask attacks against more than 35 different countries over the last 18 months, British and American security officials have said.

The hacking campaign was revealed on Monday by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) along with the American National Security Agency.

The Russian hacking group’s targets were not disclosed by the security services, but the NCSC said that the group has previously hacked into “government, military, technology, energy and commercial organisations.”

Most of the victims of the hacking campaign were in the Middle East, security officials said on Monday.

The security officials also added that hacked organisations included universities and scientific organisations.

Reports say disguising the origin of cyberattacks is a common tactic used by hacking groups to avoid political responses such as sanctions and to cause further confusion amongst their targets.

One of the most senior politicians in South Africa’s historically white main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), Herman Mashaba,  has resigned his post and quit the party over how it handles race.

Mashaba was mayor of Johannesburg for three years.

The BBC reports that the election of a black mayor from the DA was seen as a sign that the party could potentially threaten the ruling African National Congress (ANC)’s grip on power at the national level.

But at a press conference on Monday, Mr. Masaba said: “I cannot reconcile myself with people who believe that race is not important in their discussion of inequalities.”

The Mayor said his decision was sparked by the re-admission of Helen Zille, a white politician who provoked widespread anger in 2017, when she praised aspects of colonialism, to the party’s high ranks:

“The election of [Helen] Zille as chair of the federal council is a victory for people who are opposed to my belief systems,” Mashaba added.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) notified the general public on Sunday about a partial disconnection of Glomobile by Airtel Network Limited over non-settlement of interconnect charges.

A statement signed by NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Henry Nkemadu, said partial disconnection would commence October 28.

The statement read: “The Commission has approved the partial disconnection of Glomobile by Airtel in accordance with Section 100 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 and the Guidelines on Procedure for Granting Approval to Disconnect Telecommunications Operators.

“At the expiration of 10 days from the date of this notice, subscribers on the network of Glomobile will no longer be able to make calls to Airtel but will be able to RECEIVE CALLS.

“The partial disconnection, however, will allow in-bound calls to the Glomobile network.”

The implication of this is that from October 28,  Glo subscribers won’t be able to call subscribers from Airtel but can receive calls from the network.

Airtel had dragged Glomobile to the NCC over non-payment of interconnect charges. Interconnect charge is a charge paid to a receiving network by the mobile network operator a call is coming from.

The NCC notified Glomobile of the Airtel’s application and was given the opportunity to state their case.

The NCC discovered that Glomobile had no sufficient reason for not paying the interconnect charges. As such the regulator approved the disconnection from Airtel in accordance with section 100 of the Nigeria Communications Act of 2003.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed its free fall in the first trading day of this week, closing the All Share Index at 26,390.08, down by 0.22%. Year to date the market is down by 16.04%.

Top 5 trades

245.9 million shares worth N1.4 billion exchanged hands in 2,514 deals during Monday’s trading session.

Omoluabi Mortgage Bank top the 5 most traded stocks by volume with 110 million shares valued at N60.5 million exchanged 1 deal. This might be as a result of an investor leaving or taking a position.

Fidelity Bank followed with 25.4 million shares worth N43.2 million traded in 97 deals. 14.4 million Transcorp shares valued at N14.7 million were traded in 63 deals.

FBN Holdings traded 14.4 million shares worth N75.3 million in 163 deals. GTBank rounds up the top 5 most traded stocks by volume with 13.6 million shares valued at N357.8 million traded in 234 deals.

Top 5 gainers

On the gainers’ chart, May & Baker Nigeria Plc led with a 9.50% gain to close at N2.19. Cornerstone Insurance followed with a 9.37% gain to close at N0.35.

Union Diagnostic & Clinical Services Plc Trans Nationwide Express Plc both gained 9.09% to close at N0.24 and N0.84 respectively.

Law Union and Rock Insurance rounds up the top 5 gainers closing at N0.51 to gain 8.51%.

Top 5 losers

On the flipside, NEM Insurance was the biggest loser. The stock lost 9.57% to close at N2.08. Wapic Insurance was next with an 8.57% loss to close at N0.32.

Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc closed at N0.37, losing 7.50%. Omoluabi Mortgage Bank Plc, one of the largely traded stocks for today, closed at N0.55, losing 5.17%.

United Capital Group closed the top 5 losers with a 1.96% loss to close at N2.