🔑 Keeping up with the Politicians

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Good morning 🌤️ For over 10 years, US Department of Defense staff sent millions of emails associated with the US military to Mali.

Because of a typo.

In lieu of appending the US military’s .MIL domain to their recipient’s email address, the staff frequently typed .ML, the country identifier for Mali.

O’ to be a fly on the wall in that HR exit interview.

— Gloria Mbabazi, Shem Opolot

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Headlines

🔑 Keeping up with the Politicians

Much to the delight of the ruling party, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party dominated this past week’s news cycle. And not in a Barbenheimer sort of way:

First, in-fighting among the FDC leadership erupted after Spokesperson Hon. Ssemujju Nganda accused Secretary General Nandala Mafabi of receiving large sums of money from the state.

Then, goons from inside FDC headquarters attacked journalists who camped outside the offices for a press conference called by the FDC’s National Chairman, Wasswa Biriggwa.

But there was more: Wasswa Biriggwa, who failed to address the media due to the deployment of [the same] goons allegedly hired by Nandala Mafabi to foil any documentation of the happenings at the Party offices, was held hostage and forced to scale the fence of the party headquarters to escape.

The drama climaxed on the NBS Frontline political show, where Ssemujju and Nandala faced off with barely restrained civility and tempers as short as Nandala’s shirt sleeves.

It might be too soon to call, but it appears the FDC party has completed its story arc from hero to villain (Read Andrew Mwenda’s take).

💰 BS standards

What can Shs. 100 Million buy you? You could build a small house, buy a car or two, start a business, send transport money to all five of your girlfriends over a period of three months, etc. For David Livingston Ebiru, the Executive Director of Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), Shs. 100 million buys job security. While speaking in a hearing of the House Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE) to examine the queries into the UNBS raised by the Auditor General in his FY2021/2022 report, Ebiru admitted to offering Shs. 100 million to members of the National Standards Council (NSC) to retain his job.

Ebiru, who later recanted his wild confession, is accused of masterminding an expenditure of Shs. 12.5Bn without approval from the Ministry of Finance and Parliament and has [again] been placed on a forced six-month leave (for real this time) while investigations continue.

Other headlines

Hussein Kyanjo dead

Mukono school closed after food poisoning furore

Doctors give the government 15 days to deploy interns

Grain consignments to South Sudan pass aflatoxin test

Mwiru-Bobi alliance kicks up a political storm

Army moves to private security deals | TotalEnergies start drilling

Money-laundering: Uganda remains graylisted

27m litres of fuel move from Kisumu oil jetty to Uganda

Cross-border merchant payments launched by Airtel and TerraPay

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Beyond Borders 

🌍️ Africa

🛢️ Arab money. The UAE is the latest in line to mine the DRC after signing a $1.9Bn partnership with Sakima, a state mining company in the DRC, to develop at least four mines in the eastern part of the country. The deal covers tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold mining concessions. However,…some civil society groups in the EAC have expressed concerns over the deal, questioning its transparency and legality; and saying it would affect the bloc’s trade and industrialisation agenda; and to this, the DRC probably says: haters gonna hate 🤷🏾‍♂️.

🌽 Grain pains II. The failed Black Sea grain deal (more on this later) between Russia and Ukraine has caused quite the “cornundrum” in East Africa and other parts of Africa. The combination of cereal production in the region declining by 4% due to inclement weather and the dead grain export deal between Russia and Ukraine leaves the region facing a steep grain deficit and high food prices.

Furthermore, at the risk of sounding like your favourite question on a secondary school History exam, erratic rain distribution, floods, drought, crop and livestock diseases, and civil insecurity have affected crop and livestock production in several countries, such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, DRC, and South Sudan.

Elsewhere, Nigeria declared a state of emergency due to a rise in malnutrition caused by record inflation. This is partly due (at least in the short term) to President Tinubu’s removal of fuel subsidies but is also linked to the global increase in hunger caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, worsening climate change conditions, and—you guessed it—the dud of a deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Other headlines

Israel recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara

RwandAir to launch daily flights to London

Lusaka’s “Supa Team 4”—the first African animated show on Netflix

MSF: Operations at Khartoum Hospital may cease

Top 10 African countries facing record-breaking heat waves in 2023.

Four Indian medicines responsible for 70 child deaths in Gambia.

🗺️ The rest of the world

🌾 Grain pains I. More important stories could fit in this slot, but this story portends a chapati shortage, so obviously, nothing could be more important. The Black Sea Grain Initiative that allowed Ukrainian vessels to move grain through a Russian-blockaded Black Sea corridor expired on Monday as Russia chose violence. Despite UN officials' willingness to partially restore Russian access to SWIFT, the international finance system, Russia suspended the deal, claiming the UN violated provisions of the agreement intended to speed up Russian fertiliser and grain shipments.

Furthermore, after pulling out of the deal, Russia reportedly attacked Ukraine’s seaports, destroying agricultural infrastructure and burning tonnes of grain in a move likely to force nations that rely on Ukrainian grain to turn to Russia—the world’s top wheat exporter.

🔥It’s lit. While Ugandans are used to braving the heat like rotisserie chickens, the rest of the world is experiencing heat waves that would make climate scientists smirk if they weren’t too busy fixing their AC units and wiping their foreheads. Extreme heat waves are affecting Europe, North America, and Asia, with temperatures nearing 40°C in some locations and record-breaking temperatures in Japan.

Scientists posit several reasons for the wild weather—heat waves caused by soaring atmospheric pressure, El Nino, climate change, etc. But the only fact is we’re getting cooked, and it doesn’t look likely to change soon.

Nn’ebigenderako

Politics and Government

At least 31 people died after floods in S. Korea

Iran’s morality police persists with patrols

Saudi Arabia allows Israeli officials to attend the UNESCO meeting in Riyadh

Iraq in a diplomatic duel with Sweden

Business and Finance

Visit Anthropic, the benevolent ChatGPT competitor

Kim K’s Skims soars to $4Bn valuation

Disney looking to sell minority stake in ESPN

Read: McKinsey’s report on the future of work

Science and Technology

New Alzheimer’s treatment slows cognitive decline by 35%

Meta is giving away its AI for free | Apple’s secretly building it’s own AI

Google’s AI platform for news articles | Metals can heal themselves

7 tech companies agree to AI safeguards

Sports

Messi arrived in Miami and things got Messi

The Women’s World Cup began on Thursday

Lebron James switches from #6 to #23 to honour Bill Russell

Lifestyle and Entertainment

Nolan wants Oppenheimer to be a cautionary tale for Silicon Valley

The first-ever “Golden Bachelor”

Procrastination corner

Games and Puzzles

From Puzzle Prime

One night a king and a queen stayed in a hotel. On the next day, three people checked out. Who was the third person?

Answer at the bottom

Our picks

💪🏾 An archive of motivational videos on various topics

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💸 Call these guys if you want to start investing your money*

📽 The best TV shows of the year so far

*This is sponsored advertising content

Games answer

Answer:

The puzzle reads: “One knight, a king, and a queen stayed in a hotel…” Thus, the third person was the knight.

Have a good week!

— Too Long; Didn’t Read (TLDR)

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