- TLDR Weekly
- Posts
- 👔 Business as usual
👔 Business as usual
TLDR Weekly
July 03, 2023
Good morning 🌞 After several failures to launch, Virgin Galactic launched its first commercial space flight, and you can join the next space expedition for only $450,000. Too soon?
We’re officially in the second half of the year. Time to revisit those resolutions, indulge in a little self-loathing and hit the gym for a few days before reverting to your usual self. Rinse, repeat.
— Gloria Mbabazi, Shem Opolot
Want to reach thousands of readers weekly? Here’s your chance
Headlines
🛫 Flight risk
You should be vigilant at all times, especially in crowded areas and public places like hotels, transport hubs, restaurants and bars, and during major gatherings like sporting or religious events and when in close proximity to government buildings or security installations such as police stations.
BaSummer booked their plane tickets to the motherland. The UK issued a travel advisory labelling Uganda as a highly likely place for terrorist attacks. (Rewrite beginning: “No sooner…than…”)
The advisory advised foreign nationals to avoid crowded public places like bars, restaurants, hotels, etc., and to that, we say to the Brits (all 3 of them 👋🏾) reading this—the most likely thing to blow up is your budget, innit? (Did we use that correctly?)
👔 Business as usual
Source: Daily Monitor
Like mock exams, the results from the most contentious stories from the first half of the year are in, and the results are as underwhelming as they are unsurprising:
The NSSF saga
The IGG, Betty Kamya, issued a report absolving former NSSF boss Richard Byarugaba of mismanagement, abuse of office, and corruption allegations, convicting him only of insubordination and those pesky irregular payments of up to Shs. 2.6Bn, which he has been ordered to refund or face prosecution. Meanwhile, Gender Minister Betty Amongi wasn’t charged. (The full rap sheet)
Mabaati gate
The DPP, Jane Frances Abodo, closed investigative files on Vice President Jessica Alupo, Prime Minister Robina Nabanja, Parliament Speaker Anita Among, and Finance Minister Matia Kasaija regarding the iron sheets scandal.
Other headlines
New Islamic banking law on interest-free loans
Uganda to develop a 308km power line to S. Sudan | Govt suspends rollout of digital number plates
Ugandans sue Total Energies | Smile Communications explains outage
Why BOU doesn’t have a governor | Is Western political correctness crippling Uganda?
❤️ Enjoying TLDR Weekly? SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND
AD: Say goodbye to basic weekend plans
You could have another basic weekend spent binge drinking and arguing about the government, OR… you could hire incredible outdoor games from Zzimba Games and awaken the child in you. Call +256781128451 today!
Photo by Eric Tompkins on Unsplash
Beyond Borders
🌍️ Africa
A pump attendant in Abuja, Nigeria | Source: Reuters
🇳🇬 No more discounts. Now is the time to start that jerrycan-selling business you’ve always dreamed of. Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu removed a long-standing gas subsidy, resulting in long queues at fuel stations and a surge in solar power demand in the country. The fuel subsidy, which was introduced in the 1970s to cushion the impact of rising global oil prices, became a heavy burden on the Nigerian government due to corruption. While the removal of the subsidy could curb Nigeria's economic challenges and debt burden, the Nigerian government is urged to begin charity at home by reducing wasteful spending and improving infrastructure (sound familiar?) to alleviate the impact of the subsidy removal (Background).
🇪🇹 BRICS by BRICS. Ethiopia has requested to join the BRICS bloc, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The country, one of Africa's fastest-growing economies, hopes for a positive response to their request. However, since BRICS has no formal application process, we hope Ethiopia’s email found China the member states well. Despite having the second-largest population in Africa, Ethiopia's economy ranks low and is smaller than the smallest BRICS member, South Africa.
🇲🇱 The Mali exodus. The UN Security Council in Mali (MINUSMA) decided to end its peacekeeping mission after Mali’s ruling military booted them out. The resolution adopted by the council asked MINUSMA to stop its operations and withdraw its personnel by December 31, 2023. While MINUSMA has played a crucial role in protecting civilians against an armed rebellion in Mali, the withdrawal could strain an under-equipped ruling military that’s overly reliant on Russia’s Wagner group.
Other headlines
Over 50 die in Kenya in truck accident | Zimbabwe inflation hits 175%
UK backs Africa Security Council Seat | Data centres and Africa’s tech boom
Tanzania lifts night bus travel ban | 4 blocs want DRC rebels out
Rwanda’s push to be Africa’s financial hub | The impact of Russia-Wagner tension
Sierra Leone election update
🗺️ The rest of the world
Photo by Olena Sergienko on Unsplash
🥤 Sweet and sour. Make sure that auntie who forwards before fact-checking doesn’t read this: Mobile phones, alcohol, drinking coffee, putting baby powder on your nether regions, carpentry, etc. All those things appear on WHO’s ‘possibly carcinogenic’ list. And now—Aspartame. Aspartame, the artificial sweetener used in most diet sodas, some teas, chewing gums, yoghurts, etc., will be classified as “possibly carcinogenic” by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) based on a review of published evidence. However, the IARC’s ruling doesn’t consider safe consumption levels, and corporations (of course) accused the IARC of being alarmist.
🇨🇳 🇺🇸 Compartmentalization is key. This is why you shouldn’t invite all your friends to the barbecue at the same time. International companies are separating their Chinese operations from their headquarters as US-China tensions and pessimism about their prospects in China grow. Sequoia Capital is fully separating its American and Chinese businesses; Salesforce is walling off its China operations; Volkswagen is keeping technology developed within China in-country; and a Japanese bathroom products maker is reorganising its supply chains.
Nn’ebigenderako
Politics and Government
Greece PM gets kisanja | Guatemalan first lady leads presidential polls
Ukraine war update | The end of affirmative action
S.Koreans got younger | Australia legalises psychedelics for mental health
Bolsonaro barred from running for office | Netanyahu trial continues
Business and Finance
Apple reaches $3Tn market valuation | Silicon Valley is on drugs
Cocaine sales are at record highs | The Air Jordan that dismantled an $85Mn Ponzi scheme
Lebanese are stealing from themselves | Bow for Barbie’s marketing team
Science and Technology
The colossal cost of Mars samples | The world’s tallest tree
The inventor of the battery in your phone died
Clinical trials begin for AI-designed drug | Exploring dark matter
Virgin Galactic’s first space flight | Progress towards editing your genes
Debris from the Titan submersible
Scientists turn wastewater into winedrinking water | A new TB vaccine?
Sports
Tiger Woods’ new golf league | The Enhanced Games for athletes on steroids
ESPN lays off 20 on-air positions
Lifestyle and Entertainment
Elton John retires?
Paris Men’s Fashion week | Harvard’s AI computer science teacher
A world without antibiotics | Why Swiss cheese has holes
Procrastination corner
Games and Puzzles
From Braingle
What's so peculiar about this sentence?
I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting; nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality, counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalizes intercommunications' incomprehensibleness.
Answer at the bottom
Our picks
🍲 150 iconic restaurant dishes from around the world
⏳ A scale model of the history of the universe
💔 The world’s most expensive divorces
Games answer
Answer: Each word in the sentence is one letter longer than the word before it!
Have a good week!
— Too Long; Didn’t Read (TLDR)
Reply