Features

ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Days of protests and violence in Ethiopia following the assassination of a prominent musician in June likely caused a spike in coronavirus cases, prompting the government to start a month-long testing campaign. The government plans to carry out 400,000 tests in the next month. Ethiopia has done close to 430,000 tests since the first case was reported in the country in mid-March. “Following the conflicts and protests of…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Recovering from Covid-19 may not offer much lasting protection from future infections for those with only mild cases, according to a report that suggests caution regarding so-called herd immunity as well as the durability of vaccines. The correspondence in the New England Journal of Medicine outlined research on antibodies taken from the blood of 34 patients who had recovered after suffering mainly mild symptoms that didn’t require intensive care. Just two…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — In early February, just after leaving the European Union and before Britain was engulfed by the coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared his country ready to make its mark on the world again. The U.K. was embarking on a “great voyage” to champion free trade, he said in a speech in London. While not wishing to exaggerate British influence, he warned against downplaying “the eagerness of our friends around the world…

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Elon Musk may help sanctioned Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler get a little richer. Tesla Inc., the company Musk runs, struck a deal last month with Glencore Plc to buy as much as 6,000 tons of cobalt annually for use in the rechargeable batteries that power its electric vehicles. Glencore, in turn, is obligated to pay Gertler about 2.5% of sales from its mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo – royalty rights he…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Dipak Patel can still recall the dizzying grandeur of his 2003 visit to Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People: the rows of stern guards all the same height, the state dinner that included stewed shark fin and bird’s nest soup, and the People’s Liberation Army band playing songs from Patel’s native Zambia—even singing in one of the African country’s scores of dialects. As Zambia’s minister of commerce at…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — President Donald Trump is escalating tensions with state and local authorities by seeking to deploy more federal agents into cities gripped by protests and spikes in crime, a policy that appeals to his base ahead of the election but faces legal challenges. Twice in recent days, Trump has said he wants more federal law enforcement officers sent to cities such as Chicago and New York following the dispatch…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Harvard University can’t argue that foreign students taking online-only classes in the U.S. will get a lesser education if they continue those studies from abroad because Americans on its campus this fall will basically be learning the same way, the government said. The Trump administration on Monday fired back at a lawsuit filed last week by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The two sued over a new ban…