USA Review | Pramit Pal Chaudhuri | October 2020
HIGHLIGHTS • Advantage Biden• State Of the Battleground• Surprises that may happen• Pollsters believe they are right• Ballots and Booths Advantage Biden With less than a fortnight before the United States voter goes to the polls, Joe Biden holds a narrow but steady lead among the battleground states that will determine who will be the […]
USA Review | Pramit Pal Chaudhuri | September 2020
H I G H L I G H T S • US election race is tightening• Republican campaign strategy• Race not the card it was • Covid and the undecideds• Two party conventions• Indians as future faces• Intra-party Battles US election race is tightening After months of showing US Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, comfortably ahead of President Donald […]
Intersect: Africa
COVID May Force Zambian Default Zambia may be the first African government to default on its sovereign debt because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s government is seeking “the suspension of debt service payments for a period of six months” from private creditors holding around $3 billion in international bonds. Zambia blamed “a […]
Intersect: Africa
Crises in the Sahel Mali coup. A military coup in Mali highlights the multiple challenges facing the governments in Africa’s Sahel region: multiple Islamicist insurgencies, tribal conflicts over water and land, and overall environmental degradation thanks to climate change. Mali’s embattled president, Boubacar Keita, was overthrown on August 18 by military officers who say they will […]
Intersect: Africa
Seven COVID Risk Profiles A detailed study of the Covid-19 pandemic in different African countries showed a distinct set of risk profiles as determined by four factors: international exposure, urban population, age and press freedom. Gateway countries had high levels of international engagement including tourism and trade. This group of countries, which comprise the Democratic Republic […]
Intersect: Africa
African Supply Chains Go Local The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted supply chains for foreign goods into Africa and made local entrepreneurs recognize the need to prioritize local manufacturing. Many retailers in Africa had simply imported goods, flying in products from China and India and then reselling them. British property consultancy Knight Frank showed in a […]
Intersect: Africa
Covid Helps Somalia Consolidate The Somali government is using the pandemic to strengthen its legitimacy at a time when its control of the southern part of the country is challenged by Al Shabaab, an Al Qaeda affiliate, and the northern areas of Somaliland and Puntland are quasi-independent. One, the Somali authorities, arguing they needed to […]
World Review | Pramit Pal Chaudhuri | May 2020
HIGHLIGHTS • IMPACT OF RACE PROTESTS IN US On May 25, a white police offer in Minnesota placed his knee on black American George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, asphyxiating him. The murder, caught on video, triggered widespread protests. The rioting, the worst the United States has seen since the 1960s, has spread to […]
World Review | Pramit Pal Chaudhuri | April 2020
US POLITICS AND THE PANDEMIC What If the US Cancels its Elections?There is a way Mike Pompeo could be sworn in as the next United States President. The combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and President Donald Trump’s unconcern about constitutional propriety has led to speculation that the US presidential elections in November could be cancelled. The […]
Intersect: Africa
Africa And COVID-19 First Recession in 25 Years: The Covid-19 pandemic and the commodity and tourism crash it has triggered will push Africa into a recession for the first time in 25 years, said the World Bank. Africa may be the worst-affected continent by the present crisis. The World Bank calculates sub-Saharan Africa will see growth fall […]