Via The Africa Report, a report on why – despite Barrick’s woes – miners are unlikely to quit the Sahel: The Mali junta is seizing control over its mineral wealth, perhaps freeing up cash to spend on Russian mercenaries. But how much more are mining companies willing to take? Mining company Barrick Gold has suspended […]
Read more »Via Wired, an article on Tahnoun bin Zayed al Nahyan—the UAE’s chess-obsessed, jiujitsu-loving intelligence chief—controls vast sums of sovereign wealth. America’s AI giants are scrambling for a piece of it. For a while in the mid-2000s, a refrigerator-sized box in Abu Dhabi was considered the greatest chess player in the world. Its name was Hydra, and it was a […]
Read more »Via Modern Diplomacy, a report on the Dubai Chocolate Bar which – starting from early 2024 – has been an internet and social media phenomenon: Starting from early 2024, the internet has gone wild and curious about the chocolate bar that went viral on social media platforms, especially TikTok, which is a platform for sharing […]
Read more »Via Nikkei Asia, a look at how growing casino industries in Thailand and Philippines are threatening Singapore’s regional leadership in the space: When Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands (MBS) integrated resort went almost completely dark during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, the absence of guests in the three gleaming towers, with their casinos, hotels, malls and event spaces, symbolized the […]
Read more »Via The Africa Report, a report on how the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX) aims to ‘buck the trend’ among African bourses, where listings and liquidity are often lacking: A new stock exchange officially opened in Ethiopia is the country’s first since the fall of Haile Selassie’s imperial regime in 1974. Government officials say the launch of ESX […]
Read more »Via Bloomberg, a report on Mali’s mining sector: Cash-strapped junta brought miners to the negotiating table Miners had already paid 500 billion CFA francs by December Mali is set to get 750 billion CFA francs ($1.2 billion) from miners in the first quarter this year following an overhaul of its mining sector. In late December, […]
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