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Africa

Google sets up shop in Nairobi. Google’s parent company Alphabet announced the launch of its first product development center in Africa on Tuesday. The announcement marks the second major investment by the tech giant in Africa, following the development of an artificial intelligence and research center in Ghana in 2019.

The move comes amidst a flurry of technology migration to Nairobi. Earlier this month, Microsoft and Visa announced the opening of their own centers in the Kenyan capital. In 2019, Microsoft announced it would spend $100 million and hire hundreds of engineers to open Africa technology development centers in Kenya and Nigeria, Africa News reports.
google logo
Last October, Google announced a $1 billion commitment to investment in Africa over the next five years. The company expects 300 million people to come online in Africa in the same time period. By the end of the decade, the company anticipates Africa will be home to 800 million internet users and a third of the world’s youth population, Reuters reports.
—Noah Berman

Italy beefs up gas supplies from Africa. Italy signed import agreements with Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo this week, further cementing Rome’s commitment to diversifying its suppliers of natural gas. The accords, which follow similar deals with Algeria and Egypt, come as Europe scrambles to wean itself off Russian oil.

The deal with DRC will see liquified natural gas (LNG) supplies to Italy increase by over 4.5 billion cubic meters a year, Reuters reports. Angola will supply between 1 billion and 1.5 billion cubic meters a year.
eni logo for italy gas deal
Italy currently depends on Russia for 29 billion cubic meters of natural gas, equivalent to about 40% of its imports, Bloomberg reports. Italian Minister for Ecological Transition Robert Cingolani has called the need to halt gas imports from Russia an “ethical duty.” He expects Italy to achieve gas independence from Russia by the second half of 2023.
—Noah Berman
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Asia

China-Solomon Islands deal announced. After weeks of back-and-forth and last-ditch attempts by Australia and the United States to prevent a security agreement between the Solomon Islands and China, Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Manasseh Sogavare officially announced the signing of the accord to his parliament on Wednesday.

Details of the signed agreement have not been released, but a leaked version emerged last month. The draft agreement would allow China to dock naval vessels in the Solomons and deploy police to help maintain “social order” at Honiara’s request. The nation is just 1,200 miles from Australia and in the middle of shipping lanes connecting the United States to the Asia Pacific, and Western officials worry that the deal could broaden Chinese projection of power deep into the Pacific.
china solomons australia april 22
Australian Federal Police officers after protesters burned part of Chinatown in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, in November. Photo: Gary Ramage, via AP

Critics of the deal also fear it could establish a playbook for would-be authoritarians in small states. Sogavare has indicated a desire to delay next year’s election to rewrite the country’s constitution, and under the signed security arrangement, he could conceivably bring in China to squash protests.

Opposition leaders in the Solomons worry that challenging the Prime Minister with a vote of no-confidence could create protests that would provide a pretense for Chinese intervention, the New York Times reports.

The deal with the Solomons follows a growing trend of coupled economic and security agreements between China and frontier markets states, including Djibouti, Pakistan and Cambodia.
—Noah Berman

Wave of violence rolls through Afghanistan. Explosions tore through Afghanistan this week, with seemingly unaligned perpetrators targeting mosques, schools and town centers. On Tuesday, explosions erupted in an education center and public high school in Shiite neighborhood of Kabul. On the same day, a bicycle bomb in the northern city of Kunduz killed four and wounded 18, France24 reports.

On Thursday and Friday, separate blasts targeting Shiite mosques killed at least 45 in the country’s north, the Washington Post reports.
afghan girls
Last week the Taliban announced girls’ schools across the
country will be closed. Photo via BBC


This week’s violence is the latest setback for the hardline Sunni Taliban’s attempt to achieve political legitimacy across the nation, which has been hampered by the deterioration of the Afghan economy since they seized power. Last year, the United States froze over $9 billion in Afghan foreign reserves, and foreign grants that used to account for 75% of government spending have shrunk to nearly zero.

A Pakistani air raid targeting the armed militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) went awry last weekend, killing 47 civilians and portending the violence to come. Afghan officials claim that a Pakistani jet entered Afghanistan, where TTP shelters in sanctuaries. Pakistan denied carrying out the air strikes, Deutsche Welle reports.
—Noah Berman

Timor-Leste elects president. Nobel laureate and former president Jose Ramos-Horta coasted to victory in the presidential election in Southeast Asia’s youngest nation. The 72-year old won with 62% of the vote, easily defeating incumbent Francisco Guterres, who finished with 38%. Over 75% of the country’s eligible voters turned out, Agence France-Press reports.
east timor election april 22
Jose Ramos-Horta won East Timor’s presidential election in a landslid.e Photo: Valentino Dariel Sousa/AFP

Ramos-Horta previously served as president between 2007 and 2012. He will face the formidable task of lifting an estimated 42% of the country’s population out of poverty.

Ramos-Horta has suggested that he will dissolve parliament and call for a general election next year, Australian broadcaster ABC news reports. The small nation also hopes to join ASEAN by the end of 2023, Kyodo news reports.
—Noah Berman

Middle East

Saudi Arabia ‘pushed Yemen’s elected president to step aside.’ Saudi Arabia pushed Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to step down earlier this month, and Saudi authorities have largely confined him to his home in Riyadh and restricted communications with him in the days since, Summer Said reports in the Wall Street Journal. According to Saudi and Yemeni officials, on April 7 Mr. Hadi handed power to a council of eight representatives of different Yemeni groups, as Saudi Arabia looks for ways to end a seven-year civil war in Yemen that has caused a humanitarian crisis and damaged the kingdom’s relations with Washington.
saudi yemen leader
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, meets with Rashad al-Alimi, a member of Yemen's new leadership council, in Riyadh.
Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

On the sidelines of talks among Yemeni politicians in Riyadh that week, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s day-to-day leader, presented Mr. Hadi with a written decree delegating his powers to the council, according to the Saudi and Yemeni officials. Prince Mohammed told him the other Yemeni leaders had agreed it was time for him to relinquish power, those officials said.

Saudi officials, who have backed Yemen’s government in its fight against Houthi rebels allied with Iran, threatened to publicize what they said was evidence of corruption allegedly committed by Mr. Hadi as they sought to get him to give up power, the Saudi and Yemeni officials said.

Europe

Russian oil imports increase despite sanctions. Russian oil exports to Europe have increased markedly in recent weeks, rising to an average of 1.6 million barrels a day in April from just 1.3 million in March, the WSJ’s Anna Hirtenstein reports. The resurgence in oil purchases reflects the emergence of an opaque market forming to obscure the origin of that oil.

Unlike before Russia invaded Ukraine, now oil buyers are worried about the reputational risk of trading crude that is financing a government that Western leaders accused of war crimes. In response, marking tankers “destination unknown” has become an increasingly common method of delivery for new Latvian and Turkmen blends of petroleum which include substantial amounts of Russian oil.
uk russia oil
Tugboats escorted a tanker following a delivery of Russian diesel to a fuel terminal in Purfleet, UK, in early April. Photo: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg News

The rise in shipments to Europe in April, as well as those marked without a destination, points to the availability and attractiveness of workarounds. A popular grade of Russian crude known as Urals is being priced at between $20 and $30 below the Brent benchmark, according to traders. Before the invasion, it was typically in line with the benchmark or a dollar or two below.

Latin America

Social unrest begins to affect the bottom line in region’s biggest miners. Chile, which produces around 30% of the world’s copper, is facing a production crisis as social unrest, Covid-19 absenteeism, and anti-mining sentiment generates instability for mining operations, reports the FT’s James Fernyhough. BHP, the world’s biggest miner, reported that copper and nickel output had fallen 10% and 13%, respectively. In quarterly statements, the company suggested that such disruptions are likely to continue throughout 2022.

Meanwhile, in Peru, protests that had engulfed the capital since early April have spread to the countryside, disrupting mining, tourism, and trade, the FT reports. Two mines which account for nearly 3% of global copper output and one fifth of Peru’s total production, were shut down in a rare move amid large community protests.
arg supply chain april 22
A truckers’ strike in Argentina, April 14, 2022. Photo: Reuters

Such protests have become more common, albeit more isolated than in Peru, with Argentina and Brazil also experiencing sporadic protests and strikes. Social disruption reflects broad dissatisfaction with record inflation and government corruption. Such protests risk further snarling key supply chains and exacerbating inflation in key agricultural goods while disrupting critical sources of revenue for the cash-strapped countries.
—Ken Stibler

Global

Authoritarianism on the rise. Only six of 29 countries between Central Europe and Central Asia maintained a “consolidated” democracy last year, with most others drifting toward authoritarianism, according to a new report by Freedom House, a nonprofit that tracks democracy and political freedom. The diverse region extends from democratic Czechia in the west to autocratic Tajikistan in the east.
democracy april 22
The report highlighted the 18th year of democratic decline in the region and the first year in the 21st century with more hybrid regimes than democracies. Citizens in seven of the 10 countries in the region classified by Freedom House as democracies reported dissatisfaction with the way democracy works, the report said.

“In this emerging era, liberal democracy no longer prevails as the assumed goal of national political development,” the report says. “Increasingly, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia are headed toward two different destinations: the abyss of full-blown autocracy and the gray zone of hybrid governance, where ostensibly democratic structures belie undemocratic practices.”
—Noah Berman

What we’re reading

Households across Africa rely off-grid electricity sources. (WaPo)

Central African Republic to adopt bitcoin as a payment currency. (Forbes)

Mali receives two Russian military helicopters. (Africa News)

Nigeria plans second overseas bond sale since Russia’s war. (Bloomberg)

After waiting for eight years, Angolan exchange to get first IPO. (Bloomberg)

Zambia asks G-20 to meet promises on debt restructuring. (Bloomberg)

African startups drew record $5.2 billion in venture capital last year, industry group says. (Reuters)

Ukraine war offers Malaysia a chance to reduce debts, says finance minister. (FT)

Thai energy company Gulf ventures into crypto market via Binance tie-up. (Nikkei)

Myanmar exempts foreign investments from currency conversion rule. (Nikkei)

Sri Lanka reels from fertilizer ban. (The Guardian)

Pakistan cabinet sworn in as Sharif’s coalition fights calls for early polls. (FT)

Turkey launches new ground and air offensive in northern Iraq. (AP)

Turkey faces worst property price crisis on record. (Middle East Eye)

NFT grab: Georgians sell off Russian territory to raise money for Ukraine. (Radio Free Europe)

Top US officials meet with Zelensky in Kyiv. (WSJ)

Russia’s war in Ukraine could have environmental impact that lasts decades. (WSJ)

Russia closes consulates of three Baltic states, expels staff members. (Radio Free Europe)

Cyprus counts cost of weaker Russia ties after Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. (FT)

US and Cuba hold first migration talks in four years. (Foreign Policy)

Rights commission urges El Salvador to respect rights. (AP)

Crypto millionaires are pouring money into Central America to build their own cities. (MIT Technology Review)

Colombian candidate says he won’t nationalize property. (AP)

Uruguay and Ecuador discuss possible bilateral trade agreement. (MercoPress)

Argentina has too many pensioners, according to an IMF report. (MercoPress)

Argentine government proposes new tax to alleviate burden on the neediest. (MercoPress)
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