All posts tagged: delivering

Pope Leo XIV Challenges Angola’s Leaders While Delivering a Message of Encouragement for Its People

Pope Leo XIV Challenges Angola’s Leaders While Delivering a Message of Encouragement for Its People

Published by Sam Flores

LUANDA, Angola (AP) — Pope Leo XIV challenged Angola’s leaders to break the “cycle of interests” that have plundered and exploited Africa for centuries as he arrived in the southern African country on Saturday with a message of encouragement for its long-suffering people. Leo, history’s first U.S.-born pope, said that it was “not in my interest at all” to debate Trump, but that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace, justice and brotherhood in Africa. U.S. Vice President JD Vance later wrote on social media that “I am grateful to Pope Leo for saying this.” Vance, a Catholic convert, suggested earlier in the week that Leo “be careful” when speaking about theology. In Angola, Leo met with President Joao Lourenco and delivered his first speech to Angolan government authorities, in which he referred repeatedly to Angola’s tortured history of colonial plunder and civil war. “I desire to meet you in the spirit born of peace and to affirm that your people possess treasures that cannot be bought or stolen,” he said. “There dwells …

An irresistible adventure activity for New Zealand visitors? Delivering the mail by boat | New Zealand holidays

An irresistible adventure activity for New Zealand visitors? Delivering the mail by boat | New Zealand holidays

Published by Sam Flores

For a travel destination famous for offering the adrenaline rush of extreme sports, from bungee jumping to the parachute drop, it’s an unlikely tourist activity – but an irresistible one. If you’re travelling in New Zealand, don’t miss out on the chance to deliver the mail. By boat. It happens in the Queen Charlotte Sound, part of the Marlborough Sounds in the stretch of water that separates New Zealand’s North and South Islands. For over 160 years, New Zealand Post has ensured the handful of families who live on the bays and inlets of the sound receive the same mail service as every other resident of the country, no matter that they live in isolated homes accessible only by boat. Six days a week, the mailboat leaves from Picton, the skipper doubling as postman for the three- or four-hour voyage – and these days passengers can come along for the ride. The truth is, it’s the passengers who make it possible. If it weren’t for them, the mailboat run would have been abandoned decades ago, …

How NiCE Cognigy envisions the human-agent balancing act for delivering top customer service

How NiCE Cognigy envisions the human-agent balancing act for delivering top customer service

Published by skeptic

J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways NiCE Cognigy has outlined its strategic direction and innovations.  The firm is building an orchestration layer for AI and human agents. Human agency is still crucial to success in an age of agentic AI. This month’s NiCE Cognigy Nexus 2026 offered enterprise CX leaders a valuable preview of agentic AI at scale and the freshly merged companies’ unified platform vision. The March 11-12 showcase in Munich, Germany, was the first combined customer event since NiCE acquired Cognigy in 2025. Initial joint events following major acquisitions tend to be revealing: they typically indicate whether a deal has a coherent strategic logic or the underlying rationale is still being worked out internally.  Based on two days of keynotes, customer presentations, product demonstrations, and direct conversations with executives and practitioners, the integration has a clear strategic direction that is ahead of comparably complex deals at this stage. Also: 5 ways to use AI when your budget is tight The observations below cover …

AI Agents are delivering real ROI — Here’s what 1,100 developers and CTOs reveal about scaling them

AI Agents are delivering real ROI — Here’s what 1,100 developers and CTOs reveal about scaling them

Published by skeptic

Presented by DigitalOcean From refactoring codebases to debugging production code, AI agents are already proving their value. But scaling them in production remains the exception, not the rule. In DigitalOcean’s 2026 Currents research report, based on a survey of more than 1,100 developers, CTOs, and founders, 67% of organizations using agents report productivity gains. Meanwhile, 60% of respondents say applications and agents represent the greatest long-term value in the AI stack. Yet, only 10% are scaling agents in production.  The top blocker? Forty-nine percent cite the high cost of inference. It’s not just the price of a single API call. It’s the compounding cost as agents chain tasks and run autonomously. Nearly half of respondents now spend 76–100% of their AI budget on inference alone. This is a problem DigitalOcean is working to solve. What’s needed is infrastructure designed around inference economics: predictable performance, cost control under load, and fewer moving parts. That’s how 2026 becomes the year agents graduate from pilot to product. 52% of companies are actively implementing AI solutions (including agents) Just …

Overwatch’s New Season 1 Launches Today, Delivering on Decade-Long Potential

Overwatch’s New Season 1 Launches Today, Delivering on Decade-Long Potential

Published by skeptic

In late January, I was among a group of journalists from around the world, packed into the Blizzard Theater in Irvine, California, to watch the 40-minute Overwatch spotlight and hear from Blizzard execs about where the game was headed next. I was not prepared for what we saw. Nor were the other journalists, who gasped, laughed and sometimes comically swore as the video showed us what’s coming next for the hero shooter franchise — which turns a decade old later this year. What stirred up such audible reactions? An ongoing story that’s reflected directly in the game. New subroles with distinct passive abilities. Ten new heroes are coming this year, five of which arrived with the new season. One of the later heroes is freaking Jetpack Cat, who was dreamed up in concept art and scrapped before the game was even released. And maybe most surprisingly, dropping the 2 so the game returns to simply being Overwatch.  One of the first questions to that group of execs was about changing the title from Overwatch 2 back to …

Politics Home | Labour Must “Start Delivering For Working People”, Says Head Of Firefighters’ Union

Politics Home | Labour Must “Start Delivering For Working People”, Says Head Of Firefighters’ Union

Published by Sam Flores

FBU general secretary Steve Wright (Photography by Dinendra Haria) 3 min read52 min Exclusive: Steve Wright, general secretary of the Labour-affiliated Fire Brigades Union, has declared that Keir Starmer’s government “needs to start delivering for working people”. In an interview with The House magazine, the union leader – a firefighter who was newly elected as general secretary last year – said Starmer was now being given his “last chance”. “There have been a lot of own goals,” Wright said, pointing, for example, to the government’s original refusal to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which is now set for removal in April. The FBU head described Reform UK as “the real threat”, saying: “I want to see Labour in a position to fight that off. And I’m not sure who’s best to do that at the moment.” Asked whether all 11 of the affiliated trade unions could come together and tell Starmer it is time for him to go if the May elections are as painful for the party as predicted, Wright replied: “I …

Tracking the ships delivering sanctioned Russian LNG to China – The Observers

Tracking the ships delivering sanctioned Russian LNG to China – The Observers

Published by Sam Flores

Since late August 2025, China has taken delivery of at least 24 liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from two sanctioned Russian facilities, Arctic LNG 2 and Portovaya. This underscores increased cooperation between China and Russia as the Kremlin seeks to boost LNG exports in order to fund its war in Ukraine. A cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s Portovaya plant was delivered to the Beihai terminal in China on December 8, 2025.  This shipment to China was highly significant: it was the first delivery since the Portovaya plant was placed under US sanctions in January 2025. It’s also a sign of increased cooperation between China and Russia. LNG is natural gas that is cooled to minus 160 centigrade for transportation in liquid form. Russia has large reserves of natural gas and is making a major effort to boost its exports.  These exports are an important source of funding for Russia’s war on Ukraine. That is why the United States has imposed sanctions on certain Russian LNG plants, including Portovaya and the major project …