Author: Rahsaan Grant

Shares in Donald Trump’s media company soared as the firm made its formal debut on the stock market. Shares surged past $70 in early trade, giving the firm a market value of more than $9bn. They ended the day at about $58, still up more than 16%. The long-awaited moment will inject more than $200m into Trump Media & Technology Group and hands the former president a stake worth more than $4bn. Analysts say that is far more than the firm’s performance warrants. Trump Media’s Truth Social, a Twitter-like service, brought in just $3.3m in revenue in the first nine…

A Pole, a German, a Frenchmen, and a Swiss meet in a bar, or was it a Swiss, a French, a German, and a Slovak, I forgot. However, what otherwise sounded like the beginning of a quirky joke was in fact an informal luncheon by some of the brightest analysts of the European Union in early December last year. Nationalities aside, the topic of the lunch was, of course, the Ukraine. The basic question was simple, Are We at War? Will Russia win? What’s the consequence for Europe if Russia wins? What is the European Union willingness to defend the…

MOGADISHU, Somalia, January 7, 2024/APO Group/ — As part of its ongoing efforts in humanitarian aid, the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) on Thursday donated relief food to households in Bulobarde, Central region of Somalia, who were affected by the  recent El Nino-induced floods. The donations, which included essential items such as sugar, rice, wheat flour and cooking oil, among others, were provided by Djibouti Armed Forces troops serving with ATMIS. Col. Said Waberi Harour, the Sector Four Commander who presided over the food distribution, lauded the Djibouti Armed Forces soldiers for their commitment to supporting affected families in the…

Somalia was on Friday formally admitted as the 8th member state of the East African community (EAC), three weeks after being approved at a leaders’ summit in Arusha, Tanzania. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed the Treaty of Accession in the presence South Sudan President Salva Kiir, the current chair of the East African Communty and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni at a ceremony held in Entebbe, Uganda. The EAC is a trade bloc as well as a customs union. But the region’s biggest economies – Kenya and Tanzania, have been accused of attempts to stifle free trade. The bloc has been…

Jakarta, Surakarta, Berlin (7/12 – 11) Amid a generally declining period for Germany’s national football team, the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia has been a shining light for them. Germany is one of the most successful national teams ever in international competition. They have won four World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014), three European Championships (1972, 1980, 1996), and a Confederations Cup (2017). Nevertheless, in recent years, Germany is suffering a horrid fate. In 2018, Germany suffered their first-ever first-round exit from the World Cup, since 1938. Germany became the fifth defending champions to be eliminated in the…

This integration will enhance international connectivity in Ghana and Senegal, giving access to 66 additional data centres, 8 Over-the-tops (OTTs)/ Content delivery networks (CDNs) and 21 Internet exchange points (IXPs). Customers will benefit from a range of secure digital solutions and managed services through these state-of-the-art facilities. This is part of Onix’s commitment to build a dense ecosystem of partners. “Our intent has been to develop a reliable facility that can accommodate and deliver secure services to hyperscalers and carriers supporting terrestrial networks as well as existing and new subsea cables planned for the region,” said Michael Nahon, CEO of…

Marwa Al Aqroubi, President of the UAEBBY, participated in a dialogue session on reading experiences among children and youngsters, during which she reviewed the UAE’s efforts to encourage reading through the board’s initiatives and projects. The Morocco Board’s establishment yielded in the wake of the first Arab regional meeting of the International Board on Books for Young People, held by the UAE Council on Books for Young People last May in Sharjah, with the participation of 10 Arab countries, intending to expand the Arab presence in the International Board on Books for Young People. A delegation from the UAEBBY visited…

Frankfurt (3/12 – 12) The relatively rapid cohesion of disparate nations, historically competitive or even at war with one another, into the European Union came about in part because of the ongoing threat from the Soviet Union. The specter of a tank invasion from Warsaw Pact nations, today forgotten, was such a reality that the German government kept a major portion of its gold bullion across the Atlantic. The USSR, an ally in World War II after being double-crossed by Hitler – remember the “Non-Aggression Pact signed in Moscow by von Ribbentrop and Molotov – was soon appraised as a…

One April morning, medical student Asjad Yousif Abdalrahman Bushra awoke to the sound of bombs exploding in Khartoum. He was planning to attend a funeral that day and then start preparations for celebrating Eid. But war had erupted between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force called the Rapid Support Forces. As of 22 September, the war had forced more than one million people to flee Sudan; at least 4.3 million have been displaced within the nation, according to the United Nations. Prominent scientists, young researchers and students are among them. More than 100 universities have been destroyed, looted or…

Angola should let its currency float, International Monetary Fund officials said on Tuesday during a visit to the southern African country, where authorities have kept the kwanza in a tight range for months. The government let the kwanza drop by more than one-third over May and June, with analysts linking the move to lower oil revenues and a resumption in external debt payments making it harder for it to prop up the currency. But since early July the kwanza has traded in a narrow range around 830 against the U.S. dollar . Bloomberg News reported last week that the central bank had stepped up…