Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa): President Donald Trump mostly stifled his fury toward the impeachment witnesses who detailed, over hundreds of hours of testimony, the turmoil wrought by his handling of Ukraine policy. Now that he’s been acquitted of two impeachment charges, they’re bracing for payback. It’s not just the witnesses — such as Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council analyst — who could face retribution for speaking out. The deeper anxiety among many career national…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa): The White House is weighing a plan to dismiss Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council after he testified in President Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry, preparing to position the move as part of a broader effort to shrink the foreign policy bureaucracy, two people familiar with the matter said. Any moves would come after the Senate on Wednesday acquitted Trump on a near party-line vote at the conclusion of the two-week…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Over the past couple of weeks, Chinese citizen journalists Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin have served as the world’s eyes and ears inside the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, the city of Wuhan. Broadcasting via their mobile phones, they’ve offered a glimpse of how dire things have been. Many of those videos have been posted to Twitter and reposted on YouTube. Now one of them is missing. Chen has…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Donald Trump’s acquittal by the Senate delivered an expected yet exhilarating victory to the White House, freeing a president who has for years operated under the threat of impeachment and longed for vindication. The vote by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday provided Trump another last-hour escape from a mortal threat to his presidency, even though the outcome was tarnished when Mitt Romney became the first senator ever to vote to…

SUDAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Sudan appeared to back away from any rapid move toward normalization with Israel, less than two days after the military leader who heads the power-sharing government held a historic meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu. “The transitional government as a whole must ensure accountability, responsibility, and transparency in all decisions made,” Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said Wednesday on Twitter. Under a new pact agreed after the ouster of longtime President Omar…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – President Donald Trump’s inevitable acquittal in the Senate’s impeachment trial on Wednesday has some House Democrats fretting that they should have delivered a more complete case to argue for his removal. Trump is emerging from the two-week Senate trial looking as strong as ever, barely wounded by the relentless details of his efforts to force Ukraine to investigate one of his main political rivals. Instead, the Republican base appears…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Pete Buttigieg maintained his lead in the Iowa caucuses after the second tranche of results was released on Tuesday, cementing his status as a credible contender after an extraordinary rise from the little-known mayor of a small Indiana city to the top tier of the presidential race. With 71% of precincts reporting, Bernie Sanders was a close second with his promises to deliver Medicare for All and lead a political…