💼 Budget Blues

 ☀️ صباح الخير

Ahem! Sorry, that’s good morning in Arabic. With all the money the Saudis are throwing around lately, we want to make sure we’re ready when they’re in the market for a witty newsletter for their image-cleansing campaigns. Wish us well.

Estimated read time: 6 minutes; 7 if you didn’t go to Safari Kindergarten 😅.

— Gloria Mbabazi, Shem Opolot

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Headlines

🙏🏾 The Lhubiriha massacre

The terrible news of an alleged ADF attack at Lhubiriha Secondary School in Kasese district on Friday night shocked the nation. New Vision reported that the attack, perhaps the worst of its kind since the massacre at Kichwamba Technical College in 1998, left 42 people dead, with the boys burned alive and the girls hacked to death. There are numerous questions and only a handful of answers; not least of which is how—with UPDF bases close by—the rebels infiltrated Kasese and established a camp for two nights before launching the raid. (About ADF here).

💼 Budget Blues

The Parliament approved a budget of Shs. 52.7 trillion for the financial year (FY) 2023/24, an increase of Shs. 4.6 trillion from the previous year.

The key takeaways:

1. Uganda's public debt has increased, and the money spent on servicing it goes up each year due to the high risk of defaulting

2. A current account deficit indicates that Uganda is spending beyond its means (shocker!), causing inflation and a drop in incomes

3. Deficits in revenue collected and international reserves, economic growth exaggerated by inflation, and increasing national debt/interest payments spell dark times ahead for Uganda's economy.

4. Uganda’s low tax revenue-to-GDP ratio means it doesn't collect enough resources to improve infrastructure, health, and education

5. We’re f**ked

You can read the full budget speech with a box of tissues.

Other headlines

Infamous Subaru driver turned himself in | King Mumbere is officially free

Eritrean found with 80 passports at Entebbe Airport

Ham Kiggundu’s case moves to re-trial | NGOs face the heat on Twitter

102 suspected robbers arrested | 6 accused OPM staff granted bail

Bodyguards snitch on bosses | Pompi to kick off album tour in Uganda

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Beyond Borders 

🌍️ Africa

🌍 To Russia with love. African leaders, including the presidents of Comoros, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia, Egypt’s prime minister and top envoys from DRC and Uganda travelled to St. Petersburg to meet President Vladimir Putin and clamour for an end to the Ukraine war. The leaders had met Ukrainian President Zelensky the day before and urged him to consider peace talks with Russia, a suggestion Zelensky met with as much enthusiasm as a teenager being told to clean their room.

🇳🇬 In Bola we trust? Like naive two-week-old lovers, the markets reacted positively to [new] Nigerian President Tinubu's early economic reforms, which included the removal of costly fuel subsidies, unification of the foreign exchange market, and removal of the central bank's governor. Tinubu was elected with a weak mandate, but his background as a former Lagos governor gives investors hope.

Other headlines

Sudan war update | Mali boots out UN peace-keeping force

Over 100 die in boat accident in Nigeria | Kenyan content moderators sue Meta

Ethiopian officials and Eritrean troops implicated in the theft of Tigray food relief

Shakahola cult death toll passes 300 | Ramaphosa’s security team held back in Poland

🗺️ The rest of the world

🇬🇷 Another migrant boat capsizes. At least 78 migrants travelling from Libya to Italy drowned on Wednesday after their boat capsized off the coast of Greece. Though 100 people were rescued, the death toll is expected to rise. This was the deadliest event on the Central Mediterranean migrant route this year, where 27,000 migrants have gone missing since 2014. The UN describes the route as the most dangerous in the world.

🏀 Make me like Mike. In the definition of “failing” upwards, Michael Jordan is selling his majority stake in the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets for $3 billion despite the team never having won a playoff series and boasting the 5^th worst winning percentage in the NBA. The ~$2Bn Jordan will make in the deal is more than he has made from his lifetime deal with Nike in 40 years according to Joe Pompliano. According to CNBC, Jordan bought the team for $275M in 2010 and was the NBA’s only Black majority owner.

🇨🇳 Business in the front. China President Xi Jinping welcomed Bill Gates to China for the first time since before the pandemic. While Gates is the first known American business leader to meet with Xi this year, US CEOs have flooded China’s DMs recently to slow-pat tensions with the US. However,...Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to receive a frostier welcome to China as China/US diplomatic relations soured after China rejected nuclear talks.

Nn’ebigenderako

Politics and Government

Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian PM dies | The EU 🤝🏾 South America 

Ukraine war update | Details of the India train crash

Trump arraigned | Honduras denounces Taiwan; opens embassy in China 

Thousands evacuated as Cyclone Biparjoy hits India and Pakistan

Business and Finance

Illumina CEO steps down | Will the UK become the next Crypto hub?

JPMorgan agrees to pay Epstein victims $290 million

Mistral AI, a 4-week-old startup, raised Europe’s biggest seed round ever

Netflix is opening a restaurant in LA (Yeah, we also have questions…)

Sonos lays off 7% of its staff | Twitter sued for $250M

The richest lunch in the World | EU accuses Google of ad tech monopoly

Science and Technology

Space-based solar power? | New dinosaur species discovered

SpaceX hired a 14-year-old | 3-D printed schools in Madagascar

Reddit-ers ghost the platform | Don’t use ChatGPT to write your thesis

Sports

Djokovic won Grand Slam #23 | The Denver Nuggets are NBA Champions

Ja Morant suspended for 25 games | Inside the PGA Tour/LIV Golf deal

Lifestyle and Entertainment

AI 🤝🏾 the last Beatles record | Spotify end Harry & Meghan podcast deal

The Grammys add an Afrobeats category

Bill Cosby has now been accused of sexual misconduct by over 60 women

Procrastination corner

Games and Puzzles

From Braingle.

Each sentence below uses two words which are synonyms of each other, but in these sentences, they are not used with the same meaning. Can you find the words?

1. You cannot ______ to imagine what a _____ you gave me.
2. Service is my ______ name, you will always find me in the community _____.
3. The cook used the largest ______ to make a stew for the full compliment of the _____.
4. They agreed to meet outside the _____ of justice for their _____.
5. I know you will _____ me for this purchase, but I cannot _____ you.
6. The ______ of bids for the ______ of Eros was unparalleled.

Answer at the bottom

Our picks

🦧 Watch this orangutan ask for candy

🙊 Follow Merriam-Webster’s Twitter account if you’re a logophile

🐦 Watch your favourite apps on a factory assembly line

🤯 Watch: a Rubix cube solved in 3 seconds

Games answer

Answer:

1. You cannot BEGIN to imagine what a START you gave me.
2. Service is my MIDDLE name, you will always find me in the community CENTER.
3. The cook used the largest VESSEL to make a stew for the full compliment of the SHIP.
4. They agreed to meet outside the COURT of justice for their DATE.
5. I know you will CHARGE me for this purchase, I cannot BLAME you.
6. The NUMBER of bids for the FIGURE of Eros was unparalleled.

Have a good week!

— Too Long; Didn’t Read (TLDR)