Newsletter Archive

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Malawi’s opposition alliance is claiming victory for its candidate, Lazarus Chakwera, in the country’s unprecedented rerun of last year’s presidential election. The electoral commission has released only a partial selection of official results, but state television reported Thursday that Chakwera is leading incumbent President Peter Mutharika nationwide with nearly 60 percent of the vote. If Chakwera’s win is confirmed, it would be historic, marking the first time in sub-Saharan Africa that an opposition party has democratically taken power after an election was […]

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. American video-conferencing company Zoom recently admitted that it crossed a line by temporarily closing the account of a group of U.S.-based Chinese activists last month after they held a virtual event to commemorate the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Zoom insisted that it did so in order to “comply with local law,” but without stating which law it had violated. Zoom has since pledged that censorship requests from the Chinese government will no longer affect users […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Kenya won a surprisingly contentious race for a rotating seat on the United Nations Security Council, defeating Djibouti in a run-off vote Thursday. Djibouti’s loss was an unlikely blow to China, which appeared to have encouraged Djibouti’s unprecedented candidacy in order to increase its influence on the Security Council. Africa is guaranteed three of the council’s 10 elected seats, which rotate every two years and supplement the five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. African countries […]

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. A deadly clash Monday between hundreds of Chinese and Indian soldiers dramatically escalated a weeks-long standoff along the two countries’ disputed border in the Himalayas. At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the fight with Chinese troops in the treacherous mountains of Ladakh—the first combat deaths along India’s border with China since 1975. New Delhi and Beijing both appear to want to avoid a war like the one they fought near this remote frontier in 1962, but the […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Burundi’s outgoing president, Pierre Nkurunziza, who took power in 2005 promising to unify a country emerging from civil war, only to oversee an increasingly brutal crackdown against his regime’s opponents, died suddenly Monday at the age of 55. Officials said he suffered a heart attack, but there is speculation he may have died of complications from COVID-19 after he spent months downplaying the risk of the coronavirus. Nkurunziza’s death ahead of the August inauguration of his hand-picked successor has officials in Burundi […]

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. The coronavirus pandemic has brought tensions between the United States and China to a boiling point. But before the global health crisis, relations between Washington and Beijing were already heated on the tech front. The Trump administration’s latest moves in its campaign to stymie Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei have only stoked this “tech war.” Last month, the Commerce Department imposed new restrictions on Huawei that prevent the firm and its suppliers from using American technology and software. In response, […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. The president of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, was set to sail through his August reelection and secure a second term running the multilateral lender. Now his future is less clear after the United States—the institution’s second-largest shareholder—rejected the findings of an inquiry that exonerated Adesina of allegations of corruption and favoritism. The bank’s Board of Governors has now agreed to launch its own independent investigation. Beyond raising questions about Adesina’s future, the new investigation creates turmoil at a time when […]

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized China after police in Hong Kong barred an annual vigil in the city scheduled to mark the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. “If there is any doubt about Beijing’s intent,” he wrote on Twitter, “it is to deny Hong Kongers a voice and a choice, making them the same as mainlanders.” Hong Kong authorities cited public health concerns due to the coronavirus pandemic to justify banning the event, […]