NEWS ANALYSIS

Kananga, DR Congo | AFP | A war of words has broken out between the United Nations and the DR Congo government which is shunning a donor conference in Geneva to raise $1.7 billion to tackle a humanitarian crisis that Kinshasa says has been vastly exaggerated by aid workers. Prime …

Washington, United States | AFP | By tapping conservative firebrand John Bolton as his national security chief and hardliner Mike Pompeo as his top diplomat, US President Donald Trump has dramatically raised the stakes in world affairs. Now, if Trump decides to abandon the Iran nuclear deal he has an adviser …

New York, United States | AFP | The use of Facebook data to target voters has triggered global outrage with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. But the concept is nothing new: Barack Obama made extensive use of the social network in 2008 and stepped up “micro-targeting” in his 2012 re-election effort. …

Today the Commonwealth exists as an organisation in search of a rationale Kampala, Uganda | MICHAEL WESLEY | Anyone interested in power must visit Persepolis. Its ruins stand defiantly in a parched valley in southern Iran, the ultimate statement of the capacity of humans to dominate vast multitudes of their fellow …

Beijing, China | AFP | President Xi Jinping delivered a blistering nationalist speech Tuesday, warning against any attempts to split China and touting the country’s readiness to fight “the bloody battle” to regain its rightful place in the world. Xi’s address capped an annual session of the National People’s Congress …

Reformist pope Paul VI will soon be a saint Kampala, Uganda | AGENCIES | Pope Paul VI, who oversaw the sweeping “Vatican II” reforms of the Catholic Church in the 1960s, will soon be made a saint, the Vatican announced on March 07. Pope Francis signed decrees on March 06 giving …

Separating fact from fiction Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | According to official figures, tourism contributed up to US$1.35 billion into Uganda’s export basket in 2016, and was the single highest foreign exchange earner; contributing 23.5% of total exports. Based on those figures, the tourism lobby; which has advocates on …

Paris, France | AFP | China was the first world power to react Monday to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s re-election, vowing to push ties to a “higher level”, but Germany questioned the fairness of the vote and warned that Moscow would remain “difficult”. And 24 hours after Putin’s victory, there …

Moscow, Russia | AFP | In power for almost two decades, Vladimir Putin predictably won a fourth Kremlin term in Russia’s presidential election on Sunday, extending his long rule for another six years. With no successor and no political competition, what are the possible scenarios when his term ends in …

Critics say shelving the proposed pension liberalization bill exposes the Shs 9 trillion fund to political and corporate governance risks Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Uganda’s National Social Security Fund finally won the battle to retain its status as a mandatory scheme for all employees in informal and formal …