Features

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Elon Musk may help sanctioned Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler get a little richer. Tesla Inc., the company Musk runs, struck a deal last month with Glencore Plc to buy as much as 6,000 tons of cobalt annually for use in the rechargeable batteries that power its electric vehicles. Glencore, in turn, is obligated to pay Gertler about 2.5% of sales from its mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo – royalty rights he…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Dipak Patel can still recall the dizzying grandeur of his 2003 visit to Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People: the rows of stern guards all the same height, the state dinner that included stewed shark fin and bird’s nest soup, and the People’s Liberation Army band playing songs from Patel’s native Zambia—even singing in one of the African country’s scores of dialects. As Zambia’s minister of commerce at…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — President Donald Trump is escalating tensions with state and local authorities by seeking to deploy more federal agents into cities gripped by protests and spikes in crime, a policy that appeals to his base ahead of the election but faces legal challenges. Twice in recent days, Trump has said he wants more federal law enforcement officers sent to cities such as Chicago and New York following the dispatch…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Harvard University can’t argue that foreign students taking online-only classes in the U.S. will get a lesser education if they continue those studies from abroad because Americans on its campus this fall will basically be learning the same way, the government said. The Trump administration on Monday fired back at a lawsuit filed last week by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The two sued over a new ban…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — President Donald Trump on Monday said he had a “good relationship” with Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, despite evidence of a growing rift between the two men as coronavirus cases surge in several states. “I get along with him very well,” Trump told reporters during an event at the White House. “I like him, personally.” The conciliatory tone was a notable shift after White House…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — Vice President Mike Pence told U.S. governors Monday that the administration would back them on any measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic as 13 states reached an alarming rate of positive tests. On a conference call, Pence said those states have rates of higher than 10%, according to a person who listened to the private session and requested anonymity to discuss it. The vice president has consistently argued…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa ) — South Africa’s state-owned power utility has reneged on its prediction that there would be only three days of electricity rationing during the nation’s winter season. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. implemented the nationwide rotational power cuts for a fourth straight day on Monday to replenish emergency generation reserves needed during the week, the utility said on Twitter. Pump-storage plants and turbines that burn costly diesel are used to meet peak…