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Rwanda s President Paul Kagame arrives for the inauguration of Cyril Ramaphosa as South African president, at Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria, South Africa May 25, 2019. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
LONDON (Reuters Breakingviews) - Of all the “Africa Rising” tales of the last two decades, few are as compelling as Rwanda’s. From the ashes of genocide, the Land of a Thousand Hills emerged as a stable, thriving nation. Its president, Paul Kagame, is feted as a father figure and saviour from Washington to the World Economic Forum in Davos. The truth is more sinister. Rwanda’s miracle rebirth conveniently assuaged Western guilt over the 1994 slaughter and helped the former guerrilla leader shrug off accusations of autocracy. “Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad”, Michela Wrong’s exposé of the deadly workings of the Kagame regime, will make uncomfortable reading for his international cheerleaders.
MONEY ON THE MOVE. Africa’s mobile money revolution is attracting a big hitter. Global payments giant Mastercard on Thursday announced it’s investing $100 million into Airtel Africa’s cash-transfer unit, which lets users zap each other money via basic mobile phone handsets.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
Brookfield Asset Management CEO Bruce Flatt poses in front of the company’s logo in Tokyo, Japan, May 16, 2019.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - CANADIAN HOSPITALITY. Brookfield Asset Management is engaging in some self-serving generosity. On Thursday the Canadian property giant raised its bid to take private its listed commercial real estate arm, Brookfield Property Partners, offering minority shareholders $6.5 billion, or 10% more than January’s opening gambit.
Digging deeper is a Brookfield speciality. It similarly raised bids for GGP, Rouse Properties, Brookfield Office Properties and Canada Office Properties. This bump is bigger than usual, partly because Brookfield’s own shares have risen in the meantime. That’s despite the fact the group holds around 60% of BPP already. At Rouse and GGP it didn’t even have a majority stake.
FINE PRINT. China is sabotaging some international credit cooperation, but not in the way typically feared. An analysis of 100 of the country’s loans to poor countries over the last two decades by U.S. research outfit AidData undermines arguments that Beijing ensnares them.
6 Min Read
MILAN (Reuters Breakingviews) - Italy, the first developed nation to get thoroughly thwacked by the coronavirus, earlier this week began allowing some pharmacies to provide Covid-19 vaccines to eligible citizens. While that’s more than two months behind the UK and United States, it’s at least a step forward. So, it’s unfortunate to see Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government spending so much of its political capital arguing about another bewildering measure it unveiled this week in the name of protecting people from the virus.
A healthcare worker administers an injection at the Santa Chiara hospital as doctors begin testing phase 2 and 3 of Italy s ReiThera coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine on patients after initial positive test results, in Pisa, Italy, April 1, 2021.