🔅 Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda's Standby Generator
Plus: Burna Boy to Heat Up the UEFA Champions League, Mourners Tear-Gassed at Mozambican Rapper's Funeral, US Secretary of State in Niger, And much more... ☕
Photo of the day: Niger
Markets — Year to Date:
🔺 Nigerian SE: 54,915.39 (+7.15%)
🔻 Johannesburg SE: 72,527.92 (-0.71%)
🔺 Ghana SE: 2,712.75 (+11.00%)
🔻 Nairobi SE: 103.41 (-18.88%)
🔺 US S&P 500: 3,912.83 (+2.32%)
🔺 Shanghai Composite: 3,250.55 (+4.30%)
The Banking System: Stable Now? You must have heard the rumors about the banking system being in trouble. But US financial officials have stepped in to assure us that everything is A-OK, despite two US banks collapsing in the past week. To prove it, 11 big banks recently came together to rescue a regional lender, First Republic, which was looking shaky. That news sent stock markets soaring, but First Republic shares dropped again in after-hours trading when they announced they were suspending their dividend. Ouch. Meanwhile, emergency lending to banks is up to $318 billion—not a good sign. But the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the banking system overall is “safe and sound”, while the vice president of the European Central Bank, Luis de Guindos, said Europe’s banking sector is “resilient”.
*Data accurate as of the close of markets across the continent
POLITICS
Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda's Standby Generator
Muhoozi Kainerugaba has had some, erm, interesting tweets.
He's talked about invading Kenya, praised Putin, and offered cattle for the Italian prime minister's hand in marriage.
OK, so what's the story?
Muhoozi Kainerugaba is the son of Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni, who's been in power for 37 years. Muhoozi is a four-star general in the military, and at 48, is already six years older than his father was when he became president.
So, is he the frontrunner?
Muhoozi has certainly been making a lot of noise, staging rallies and attacking the ruling party. Some see him as an honest leader who would be intolerant of official corruption, while others say he's been "groomed" for the job with a series of military purges.
His father has made a few comments that could be interpreted as support for his son, but other officials have been quick to back Yoweri Museveni, saying he'll be running again in 2026.
So, what will happen?
Late last week, Muhoozi Kainerugaba fired another tweet:
"You have wanted me to say it forever! Okay, in the name of Jesus Christ my God, in the name of all the young people of Uganda and the world and in the name of our great revolution, I will stand for the Presidency in 2026," Kainerugaba wrote.
... And then he deleted the tweet.
For now, Uganda is in a state of limbo, waiting to see what will happen next.
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OTHER HEADLINES
Across the Continent
🖋️ Writing Back: Taking Back the Narrative of Africa | Petina Gappah, a Zimbabwean author, writes in the Financial Times about the need to 'write back' against the narratives set by white Zimbabwean authors. Growing up, she had read the works of Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Cyprian Ekwensi, Nadine Gordimer, Wole Soyinka, Peter Abrahams, and Dambudzo Marechera voraciously, and wanted to join that first generation of modern African writers. As she grew into her profession, she connected with her contemporaries, including the likes of Chimamanda Adichie, and started to discuss decolonising publishing, inventing the future, and tackling the indignities of colonialism, independence movements, and post-independence African state. Together, they aim to bring balance to the stories of Africa and to present Africans as fully formed subjects with agency in their own histories. You can read the piece here.
🇳🇪 US Secretary of State in Niger | US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been busy travelling, and after Ethiopia, his stop was in Niger. He had a few things to say about the region, namely that the Sahel should steer clear of the Russian mercenaries who have been stirring up trouble in the area. Blinken called Niger “a model of resilience, a model of democracy, a model of cooperation” in the region and warned that the expansion of Russian mercenaries in the region would not bode well for the countries embracing them. The Secretary of State also pledged $150 million in direct assistance to the Sahel. It looks like the US is stepping up to be a leader in the region.
⚽ Burna Boy Heats Up the UEFA Champions League | Nigerian Grammy Award-winning artist Burna Boy is heating up the UEFA Champions League final in Istanbul, Turkey, with his performance at the opening ceremony. The artist, known for his soulful afrobeat vibes, has been teasing the show on social media and declared, “the world isn’t ready for what we have in store.” And it’s no surprise, considering Burna Boy recently rocked the 2023 NBA All-Star halftime show with Tems and Rema. If the UEFA Champions League final is anything like that, then it’s gonna be a showstopper.
🇲🇿 Mourners Tear-Gassed at Mozambican Rapper's Funeral | It’s not every day that a funeral procession makes international headlines, but that’s what happened at the funeral of the late Mozambican rapper Azagaia. It wasn’t the celebration of his life that caught the world’s attention—it was the heavy-handed response from the police. The authorities apparently decided that the best way to deal with the crowd of thousands of Azagaia fans was to fire tear gas at them without warning. The reports from the scene tell a harrowing story: People were singing the rapper’s songs as they marched with his coffin and were suddenly confronted by heavily armed police officers and armoured vehicles. Witnesses reported that the police never explained why the crowd had to change their route; they just “nervously screamed at them and showed them their guns.”
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Proverb of the Day
“Let your love be like the misty rain, coming softly but flooding the river.”
— Liberian Proverb.