Elon Musk’s rocket company has one last, major hurdle to clear before it attempts an historic first flight of astronauts for Nasa: proving it can safely abort a mission if something goes wrong after takeoff.

Scientists believe they are a step closer to building drones that can mimic the way birds fly, after designing a robot using real pigeon feathers.

Elon Musk’s suggestion for how to fix Twitter? Identify the bots. Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO, was asked on Thursday by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey how he would fix the social network.

A major electronics manufacturing facility in East London, which until recently made decoders for MultiChoice, faces possible liquidation after it reportedly failed to make repayments on a R200-million loan.

Both the Wacs and Sat-3/Wasc cables providing international connectivity from South Africa to international markets were knocked out on Thursday, causing slow connections for some consumer and business users.

Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said on Thursday that she will meet urgently with Telkom management to discuss the company’s plan to let go of as many as 3 000 employees.

Trade union Solidarity has slammed Telkom over its plan to cut up to 3 000 jobs, or 20% of its 15 000-strong workforce, describing the move as “reckless” and “merciless”.

JSE-listed telecommunications specialist Huge Group plans to buy back its own shares, it said in a statement to investors on Wednesday.

Telkom shares jumped on Thursday after it emerged on Wednesday evening that the company plans a major retrenchment round that could see up to a fifth of its workforce let go.

The so-called phase-one US-China trade pact has done little to allay fears about Huawei Technologies’ prospects and those of its key suppliers, two analyst research reports suggest.