Features

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa)- Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon vowed to maintain pressure on the U.K. for another referendum on independence and said the standoff with Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the issue is just a “phony battle.” In an interview with Bloomberg Television in Brussels on Monday, she also repeated the possibility of asking the courts to decide whether the Scottish Parliament already has the power to hold a consultative vote. That, though, is not the preferred…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Irish stocks slid on Monday after polls put Sinn Fein in place for a possible role in government, fueling declines in banks and property shares given that the party’s policies include a wealth tax and a freeze on residential rents. The benchmark ISEQ Index slid as much as 1.4%, with Bank of Ireland Group Plc and AIB Group Plc falling as much as 7.8% and 6%, respectively. Among real estate…

ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – In Ivory Coast, where big-man personalities dominate and switching allegiances is par for the course, Guillaume Soro — former student leader, rebel chief and prime minister — seems a perfect fit to one day lead the world’s biggest cocoa producer. His loyalties have zigzagged over the years, from being a supporter of Laurent Gbagbo, the man who led Ivory Coast into a civil war, to backing Alassane Ouattara, who defeated Gbagbo in elections…

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…