🎯 Taxing Times

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Good morning 🌤️ For the first time since 2007, Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook have a new default font. Microsoft replaced Calibri—a decision we welcome gladly—with Aptos, a new sans-serif font that’s nothing to write home about either. But none of this matters to you because you use a bootleg version of Microsoft Office.

— Gloria Mbabazi, Shem Opolot

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Headlines

🛢️ Gifts galore; no oil refinery score

Reeling from years of economic sanctions, Iran embarked on a three-nation Africa tour to boost diplomatic relations with the continent, and Uganda made the shortlist. Iran’s president, Seyyid Ebrahim Raisoldati came bearing gifts that culminated in four Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) between Uganda and Iran. The MOUs are expected to foster cooperation and knowledge-sharing between the two countries in the areas of visa exemptions, agriculture, fisheries, animal health, and livestock production.
However, the burning question on everyone’s minds (except yours) is—can Uganda enlist Iran’s expertise and support in developing Uganda’s delayed oil refinery project?

💰 Money moves

PostBank and MTN Uganda teamed up to launch Wendi, a mobile wallet platform for the government’s Parish Development Model (PDM) funds. In any other country and at any other time, this would be great news, but this is Uganda, and the PDM is still struggling with basic accounting (See our previous write-up here).

But let’s not let the truth get in the way of a good story:

*Clears throat*

With the overall goal of promoting financial inclusion, convenience, security, and economic development in Uganda, Wendi allows users to save, transfer, deposit, and withdraw money; pay for various bills and services; and enable SACCOs to use smartphones to receive and distribute PDM funds.

🎯 Taxing Times

Parliament's Committee on Public Accounts—Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE) is scrutinising irregularities in URA’s land procurement process, including instances of direct procurement without proper approvals, acquisition of land without confirmation of funding, and failure to get necessary clearances from the Attorney General. Like your ex’s friends when asked where your ex was, URA officials had several inconsistencies in their stories and were kicked out of a hearing and asked to return at a later date. But wait, there’s more—The committee also raised issues of corruption, nepotism, and discrimination in URA’s recruitment and promotion processes; and summoned the URA board of directors and the minister of Finance to appear before the committee this week to address these concerns.

Other headlines

UBOS asks to postpone national census | Uganda Airlines to start direct flights to India

PAU rejects Human Rights Watch report on Uganda oil

Senior Counsel John Winston Katende launches autobiography

Government tackles stationary trucks | How the UNRA merger collapsed

Legalise medical cannabis — Minister Otafiire

Mao starts massive reforestation drive in Northern Uganda

NWSC wins prestigious global award in Brussels

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🌍️ Africa

🇰🇪 No Retreat, No Surrender. Kenyans defied a protest ban and took to the streets to protest the steep costs of living, exacerbated by a recent hike in taxes. Tragically, 9 people are reported to have died and over 300 arrested in the ensuing street warfare. The protests dovetail ironically with the impending pay rises for President William Ruto and a few other senior officials.

🏦 StanChart exit. Pending regulatory approval, Standard Chartered Bank, in an effort to improve profits by focusing on faster-growing markets in the region, will sell its subsidiaries in five sub-Saharan African countries (Tanzania, Angola, Cameroon, Gambia, and Sierra Leone) to Nigeria’s Access Bank. The deal is expected to be completed in the next year and will help Access Bank build a strong global franchise focused on Africa. While Uganda isn’t on the list and StanChart hasn’t indicated the desire to sell their business in Uganda, you might soon have to shop around for another bank to tell you “the system is down.”

🇪🇬 🇪🇹 Dams, deadlock, and diplomacy Egypt and Ethiopia have agreed to finalise a deal on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) within four months, after years of tension and stalemate. The GERD is a massive hydroelectric project on the Blue Nile that Ethiopia says is crucial for its development; however, Egypt has long feared the project would reduce its share of Nile water. The two leaders sidebarred at a summit of African leaders in Cairo and decided to initiate expedited negotiations to reach an agreement on the filling and operation of the dam.

Other headlines

BRICS Summit to be held physically in S. Africa | Egypt attempts to mediate Sudan Conflict.

Google adds Swahili to AI chat service | The cost of flying in Africa

Top European court favors Caster Semenya | Passenger plane crash-lands at Mogadishu airport

Former Mozambique minister extradited to US over $2Bn scandal

Nigeria's Tinubu elected ECOWAS chairperson

Iran looks to Africa | Khartoum telecoms fail as fighting flares

M23 rebels warn DRC over Bunagana border

Read: Is a global debt bomb about to explode?

🗺️ The rest of the world

🎬 To act or not to act. The battle for America’s capitalist soul has a new stage—Hollywood. The Hollywood Actors union (SAG-AFTRA) joined writers (who have been on strike for over 3 months now) and other entertainment industry professionals on strike as their unions failed to reach deals with studios.

What you need to know:

• The combined strike—a first since 1960—is a response to issues of better pay after the advent of streaming and actors’ and writers’ concerns about AI replacing them

• The SAG-AFTRA strike rules also prevent actors from participating in promotional activities; therefore, movie premieres and award shows are likely to be as sparsely populated as your local influencer’s meet and greet.

• The strike will also keep members from filming projects overseas, so highly anticipated productions like House of the Dragon and part two of Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning will likely halt filming

• Deadline reported that Studios are inclined to wait out the strike until writers become financially desperate, but the Studios denied these allegations

• Overall, don’t expect new episodes of your favourite show to air anytime soon

🇨🇳 China’s economic woes. Inflation in China hit zero last month, raising concerns about a possible economic slowdown and deflation.

Why is deflation bad?

Let’s say you want to buy toys. When prices are falling, it can make you think, "Maybe I shouldn't buy the toys right now because they might get even cheaper later." So you decide to wait and not buy the toys yet.

The same thing can happen to businesses. They might say, "Since prices are going down, it might be better for us to wait before buying new machines or hiring more people because it could be cheaper in the future." So they also delay making investments, which means they wait before spending money on things that can help their business grow.

When lots of people and businesses delay their purchases and investments, it can cause a problem. When people don't buy things, the companies that make those things don't make as much money. And when businesses don't invest, they don't create new jobs or make their companies bigger. This can hurt the economy.
If you’re wondering why you should care about China’s economy, check the tags on all your shirt collars.

Nn’ebigenderako

Politics and Government

Ukraine war update | NATO Summit update

The Dutch grapple with the influx of immigration

The US Treasury Secretary's visit to China

US drone strike kills ISIS leader in Syria

Uruguay’s capital is running out of drinking water

China opens up bomb shelters to offer shelter from heat

Business and Finance

The US government to introduce a 24/7 instant payment service

Foxconn (the maker of most iPhones) dumps $19Bn India deal

The Microsoft-Activision deal will proceed | Elon Musk launched a new AI company

Open AI gets sued | Associated Press signs deal with Open AI

Twitter launches ad-revenue share for tweet replies | DHL invests in Latin America

Read: the unravelling of India’s most valued startup

Science and Technology

Google's AI chatbot is training at major hospitals | Claude 2 released

Insights into cancer’s origin story | The debate on deep-sea mining

The whitest paint in the world | India’s going to the moon

Humans can hear silence | More evidence of life on Mars

Sports

Carlos Alcaraz beat Djokovic in a 5-set thriller to win Wimbledon

Lifestyle and Entertainment

Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon? Yes.

Aretha Franklin’s estate settled by a note found in her couch

This cruise ship is longer than the Eiffel Tower and has a water park

Emmy nominations are out | The famous Hollywood sign is 100 years

What’s going on with the weather?

Procrastination corner

Games and Puzzles

From Braingle

Rebus brain teasers use words or letters in interesting orientations to represent common phrases.

What's the rebus here:

J, ____ , & Titanic

Hint: See the first two items (“J” and “___”) in terms of what they look like and not necessarily what they are as keyboard characters.

Answer at the bottom

Our picks

🍦 The history of ice cream flavours

🫑 The journey of a bell pepper

🚜 Watch this

Games answer

Answer: Hook, line, and sinker.

Have a good week!

— Too Long; Didn’t Read (TLDR)

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