Buenos Aires, Argentina | AFP | US President Donald Trump headed to Argentina Thursday for a fractious weekend of G20 summitry, cancelling planned talks with the Russian leader and boasting that his trade war with China was paying off. Rumblings of resistance to Trump’s assault on the international order were …
Read More »What next for France’s ‘yellow vest’ protests?
Paris, France | AFP | Protests by people clad in luminous vests have played havoc with traffic across France and prompted violent clashes in Paris in recent days. But who are the “yellow vest” protesters, and what will become of them? What are these protests about? The movement sprang up …
Read More »Trump attacks Fed chief, ‘not even a little bit happy’ with Powell
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump once again blasted his hand-picked chief of the US central bank Tuesday, saying he was “not even a little bit happy” with his selection of Jerome Powell. The Federal Reserve chairman has presided over three interest rate increases this year, and …
Read More »‘Green fuel’: Bananas to help wean Angola off oil
Caxito, Angola | AFP | Boxes of still-green bananas were shifted one-by-one from a towering stack of crates into a refrigerated shipping container. Stamped “From Angola, with love”, the fruit is shipped to consumers 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles) away and are part of Luanda’s drive to diversify its economy …
Read More »BUDGET: Zimbabwe to cut govt salaries to curb spending
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s new finance minister Mthuli Ncube announced a five-percent cut to senior government officials’ salaries on Thursday in a bid to mend the shattered economy. Ncube’s budget also set out plans for the biometric registration of civil servants to weed out “ghost” workers who …
Read More »DOS SANTOS: I did not leave the Angola state coffers empty
Former Angolan president rejects he left state coffers ’empty’ Luanda, Angola | AFP | Former Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Wednesday refuted allegations by his successor Joao Lourenco that he left the country’s finances “empty”. The row comes just over a year after Dos Santos stepped down in …
Read More »Angola still waiting for promised ‘economic miracle’
Luanda, Angola | AFP | “Things are going badly,” said Delta, sitting on a stool and glancing at a bag stuffed with Chinese mobile phones. As one of scores of traders trying to legally sell her wares in one of Luanda’s most famous markets, known as “The Congolese”, the 32-year-old …
Read More »Now, S.Africa’s ex-president Zuma backs fired tax boss
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma on Tuesday threw his weight behind the ex-head of the country’s tax collection agency who was recently sacked by President Cyril Ramaphosa. The move pitted Zuma directly against his successor Ramaphosa, who came to power in February when …
Read More »Lives at risk as drug prices soar in crisis-hit Zimbabwe
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Since starting treatment five years ago, 50-year-old Alice Chenyika kept her blood pressure under control by adhering to doctors’ strict instructions to take two daily doses of nifedipine. Now Zimbabwe’s worsening economic crisis has pushed prices up, and the medicine is far beyond her reach …
Read More »Cash-strapped Libyans sceptical ahead of peace talks
Tripoli, Libya | AFP | Queueing up outside banks in Tripoli, Libyans say they have little hope of an end to the political and economic turmoil shaking their country, on the eve of international crisis talks in Italy. Accompanied by his five-year-old son, architect Mohamad Kredigh was hoping to get …
Read More »
The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price