BERLIN (Reuters) &#8211; Managers at electric carmaker Tesla Inc (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/TSLA.O">TSLA.O</a>) on Thursday demonstrated new supercharger equipment on a Berlin research campus, saying they were looking at more target cities to attract potential buyers worried about access to charging.Tesla cars are seen at the V3 supercharger equipment during the presentation of the new charge system in the EUREF campus in Berlin, Germany September 10, 2020. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi



“Now, as part of our commitment to make Tesla ownership easy and convenient for everyone including those without immediate access to home or workplace charging, we are expanding out supercharging network into city centres,” said Jeroen van Tilburg, manager Europe of charging infrastructure at Tesla, the company owned by South African born Elon Musk.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="867" height="1024" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GettyImages-1175368064-scaled-e1598630665469-867x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-361863" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GettyImages-1175368064-scaled-e1598630665469-867x1024.jpg 867w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GettyImages-1175368064-scaled-e1598630665469-254x300.jpg 254w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GettyImages-1175368064-scaled-e1598630665469-1301x1536.jpg 1301w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GettyImages-1175368064-scaled-e1598630665469-696x822.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GettyImages-1175368064-scaled-e1598630665469-1068x1261.jpg 1068w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GettyImages-1175368064-scaled-e1598630665469-600x708.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 867px) 100vw, 867px" /><figcaption>SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk speaks in front of Crew Dragon cleanroom at SpaceX Headquarters in Hawthorne, California on October 10, 2019. (Photo by Yichuan Cao/NurPhoto via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



A company spokesman told reporters Tesla would open at least one more inner-city fast charging site in Germany in 2020, possibly more.



He stressed that Tesla still believed in slow workplace and residential charging as the main way to charge vehicles but wanted to offer a quicker option.



The so-called V3 charger allows Tesla Model 3 cars to charge within five minutes enough to travel 120 kilometres (75 miles).



Older Tesla models would receive relevant software upgrades.



German policymakers aim to boost demand for electric cars to cut emissions.



“We have a lot to make up for in terms of charging infrastructure,” said Germany’s Economy Minister Peter Altmaier at the event.



He reiterated pledges to speed the roll-out of public charging points and permits for private charging which had hampered sales in the past.



Latest legislation for a green-led recovery after the coronavirus crisis offers buyers incentives and helps bump up power grids.



Tesla has chosen a site near Berlin for a new factory due to start operating next year.



Separately to the event, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper said on Thursday the factory had the potential to create 40,000 jobs, citing the economy minister of Brandenburg state.

How Elon Musk Took Tesla To Hell And Back With The Model 3

African born Elon Musk’s Tesla launches fast electric car charging in Berlin, says more cities to come

NEW YORK (Reuters) &#8211; Half of Americans believe media reports that President Donald Trump referred to U.S. soldiers as “suckers” and “losers,” despite his denials, but the alleged comments do not appear to have hurt his standing among Republicans, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows.



The national public opinion poll, released Thursday, found that 50% of U.S. adults said they found the reports to be credible, while 37% said they did not and 13% said they were not sure.



Yet most Republicans still hold favorable views of Trump, and a majority of Republicans say the recent news has not influenced their choice for president.



Trump has denounced multiple news reports that he repeatedly disparaged American servicemen, including a report in The Atlantic magazine that he had once called dead U.S. marines “suckers” for getting killed, and that a cemetery of fallen American servicemen in Europe was filled with “losers.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="480" height="360" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/hqdefault-184.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-353926" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/hqdefault-184.jpg 480w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/hqdefault-184-300x225.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/hqdefault-184-80x60.jpg 80w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/hqdefault-184-265x198.jpg 265w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" /><figcaption>President Trump’s keynote address at the 2020 WEF annual meeting</figcaption></figure>



The poll shows that while public disapproval of Trump has increased slightly over the past week, it is mostly unchanged among Republicans.



Republicans have unflinchingly backed Trump since before he won the White House, with little variation in their approval of him during events including his impeachment in the U.S. House of Representatives.



The poll, conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday, showed 58% of Republicans or Republican-leaning independents said Trump’s alleged comments have had no impact on their decision to vote for him. Another 18% said they were now more likely to vote for Trump and 14% said they were less so. The remaining 10% said they are not sure.



The poll also showed that 85% of Republicans have a favorable impression of Trump, about the same as last week, and 84% said they would vote for his re-election while 8% would back Biden.



Among all likely voters, Trump trails Biden nationally by 12 percentage points.



The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,004 American adults, including 855 registered voters. It has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 4 percentage points.

gettyimages-642093036-594×594

Republicans back Trump despite reports he called soldiers ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’: Reuters/Ipsos poll

MAPUTO (Reuters) &#8211; Mozambique on Thursday denied accusations by rights group Amnesty International that soldiers had committed atrocities, saying the acts were carried out by Islamist insurgents impersonating troops.



Militants with links to Islamic State have stepped up attacks in Mozambique this year, alarming governments across southern Africa.



Amnesty said on Wednesday it had seen videos showing soldiers in the uniforms of the Mozambique Armed Defence Forces and the Mozambique Rapid Intervention Police committing atrocities against alleged fighters in the northernmost province of Cabo Delgado.



“The videos and pictures show the attempted beheading, torture and other ill-treatment of prisoners; the dismemberment of alleged opposition fighters; possible extrajudicial executions; and the transport and discarding of a large number of corpses into apparent mass graves,” Amnesty said.



Mozambique’s defence ministry on Thursday dismissed the report, saying militants regularly impersonated soldiers.



“One of the tactics used by terrorists in their macabre incursions against the population is to pretend to be elements of the FDS (Defense and Security Forces) in a veiled attempt to confuse national and international public opinion,” said ministry spokesman Colonel Omar Nala Saranga.



“The Defense and Security Forces reiterate that they do not agree with any form of torture, beheading attempts, mistreatment or illegal acts,” he added in a statement.



Militant attacks began in Cabo Delgado in 2017, and have rapidly gathered pace this year with insurgents seizing key towns for brief periods and hitting military and other key targets.



The violence has alarmed energy majors exploring huge natural gas deposits there.

Mozambique records first COVID-19 death

Mozambique denies accusations of abuses in insurgency-hit province

ZURICH/FRANKFURT (Reuters) &#8211; AstraZeneca should still know by year-end whether its experimental vaccine protects people against coronavirus, as long as it is cleared to resume trials soon, its chief executive said on Thursday amid doubts over its rollout.FILE PHOTO: A test tube labelled with the Vaccine is seen in front of AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken, September 9, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration



Governments desperate to put an end to the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused more than 900,000 deaths and huge economic and social disruption during 2020 are pinning their hopes on a vaccine.



However British drugmaker AstraZeneca suspended late-stage trials on its potential vaccine this week after an illness in a participant in Britain who was reported to be suffering from symptoms associated with transverse myelitis, a rare spinal inflammatory disorder.



The World Health Organization (WHO) has flagged the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is being developed with the University of Oxford, as the most promising for coronavirus.



CEO Pascal Soriot said during an online event on Thursday that AstraZeneca did not yet know the diagnosis of the participant who was ill, adding that it was not clear if the volunteer had transverse myelitis and more tests were needed.



The diagnosis would be submitted to an independent safety committee and this would usually then say whether trials can be resumed, Soriot said, adding it was usual for such pauses.



“It’s very common, actually, and many experts will tell you this,” Soriot said, adding: “The difference with other vaccine trials is, the whole world is not watching them, of course. They stop, they study, and they restart.”



Shares in AstraZeneca fell on Wednesday after the trial halt raised doubts about the timeline for the vaccine’s rollout.



AstraZeneca would supply vaccines to countries at the same time to ensure a fair and equitable distribution, Soriot said, reiterating that the company was close to having capacity to produce 3 billion doses at sites set up around the world to prevent governments from restricting distribution.



With up to 60,000 people set to participate in the study program, AstraZeneca’s CEO said the volume was typical of vaccine trials and large enough to spot rare side effects.



“With this you are going to pick up very rare events.” he said, adding that a planned staggered launch, prioritizing at-risk groups, would provide further assurance for the masses that are set to be covered by government plans at a later stage.



Serum Institute of India, one of AstraZeneca’s development and production partners, said on Thursday it was joining the suspension, backtracking on remarks that it did not face any issues.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">‘DIFFICULT TO BE SURE’</h3>



Transverse myelitis cases after a vaccination have been documented before, but concrete links between the condition and vaccinations have not been established, experts said.



The U.S.-based Mayo Clinic concludes that the association so far is not strong enough to warrant limiting any vaccine.



A 2009 review in the journal Lupus of nearly 40 years of English-language publications found 37 cases of transverse myelitis associated with hepatitis B vaccines, measles-mumps-rubella, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and others.



The vaccines remained on the market, Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said.



Linking such an autoimmune response to a single factor like a vaccine is problematic, he said, given the number of immunological, hormonal or environmental factors at play.



“It’s terribly difficult to be sure,” Evans said.



RBC Capital Markets analyst Bryan Abrahams cautioned the trial participant’s condition must be thoroughly investigated.



“Even a single case could possibly imply a rate or association higher in the study than what is normally observed sporadically” he wrote to investors, adding a one in 10,000 risk, if confirmed, would likely be unacceptable.



BioNTech, among the frontrunners in the vaccine race with partner Pfizer, echoed remarks by Soriot that clinical halts are a common feature of immunization trials.



“Safety is a top priority,” its CEO Ugur Sahin told Reuters.

Clarification on COVID-19 “hotspots” as SA moves to level 3 lockdown

AstraZeneca expects COVID vaccine result by year-end if trials resume

GENEVA/BRUSSELS (Reuters) &#8211; The World Trade Organization’s effort to select a leader entered a new stage this week as ambassadors from 164 member countries met with senior officials for private ‘confessionals’ to say who they support.



But the politicking in Geneva, the first in a three-stage elimination process, could be a wasted effort according to six former WTO officials and trade experts. They say the decisive developments that will shape the future of the embattled global organization are unfolding thousands of miles away in Washington.



The U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3 is overshadowing the WTO’s efforts to fill the gap left by Roberto Azevedo since he stepped down as director-general on Aug. 31 and it could end up thwarting the WTO’s aim of filling the vacant top spot within the prescribed two months.



The United States’ support for a particular candidate is critical but four trade experts including former WTO employees believe the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is unlikely to throw a lifeline to a multilateral body the president has threatened to leave, particularly during an election campaign in which trade is a hot button issue.



Trump has launched a trade war with China, imposed tariffs on U.S. allies and crushed the WTO’s ability to intervene in disputes – a key part of its raison d’etre — by blocking the appointment of members to its Appellate Body.



“I find it hard to imagine that the Trump administration would shift tack and do something very positive for the system,” said David Tinline, a former adviser to Azevedo.



The White House referred questions to the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) office. The USTR declined to comment, and referred Reuters to remarks made by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to U.S. lawmakers in June, in which he said the WTO needed a reform-driven leader and that he would veto any candidate who showed “any whiff of anti-Americanism”.



The U.S.-China economic conflict is a further complicating factor. Any candidate backed by the United States could be automatically rejected by Beijing and vice versa, former WTO officials and trade experts say.



In a statement, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would participate constructively in the selection process.



“We are willing to work closely with all parties to elect a good director-general through full consultation, ensure a smooth handover and push the WTO to play a greater role in global economic governance,” the ministry said.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">THE BIDEN FACTOR</h3>



Azevedo’s departure has left a void at the WTO amid worsening U.S.-China relations and as the coronavirus crisis accelerates protectionism and pulverises the global economy.



There are currently eight candidates in contention and they will be winnowed down to five after the first ‘confessional’ meetings conclude on Sept. 16. The field will then be cut to two, with the winner due to be confirmed by a Nov. 7 deadline.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/amina-2-1-e1594212124466.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-375888" width="507" height="811"/><figcaption>Amina Mohammed</figcaption></figure>



Many delegates perceive the main frontrunners as being two women from Africa, Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Kenya’s Amina Mohamed. Either would be the body’s first female leader.



For a Factbox on candidates click here:



The final decision is designed to be taken by consensus. The alternative, a vote, has never occurred and is described under WTO rules as a “last resort”. So, it is possible but unlikely it would anoint a new director-general without a nod from its largest paymaster, America.



Choosing a leader can be a messy process at the WTO. In 1999, countries were so evenly split that the selection took a year, creating acrimony and distracting from a global trade round which ultimately failed.



Britain’s former trade secretary Liam Fox, whom Lighthizer has described as “one of the favorites” to win the leadership race, was upbeat on Washington’s role in the selection process.



“I don’t think there is the hostility there that is sometimes mooted,” he said of the current administration, describing a “strong reservoir of support for free trade and the multilateral rules-based system” in both U.S. political parties.FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and Director-General of World Trade Organization Roberto Azevedo leave after a news conference at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst



If a favourite candidate does not emerge, some WTO members might prefer to wait until after the U.S. election in case Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic challenger, wins.



“They could play a waiting game, but that would push the decision until at least February or March,” said Peter van den Bossche, a former member of the now crippled WTO body that adjudicated on trade disputes.



Biden has said the United States needs to reduce its reliance on China but he is seen as a more WTO-friendly leader having emphasised a multilateral approach to dealing with trade issues and criticising Trump’s tariffs.



No WTO member has publicly acknowledged plans for a calculated delay although two delegates privately said it would be preferable if the U.S. election winner weighs in. WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said there were no indications of an extension to the selection process.



The WTO has already been through two months of lobbying by candidates, with COVID-19 restrictions meaning normally large hotel receptions laid on by candidates’ home countries have been replaced by lower-key functions. Nigeria’s Okonjo-Iweala did much of her canvassing online while quarantining.



Even though the WTO is member-led, a strong leader who can faciliate decision-making is seen as crucial, particularly with global trade under attack on many fronts.



This year alone, compromise will be needed to conclude negotiations to reduce tens of billions of dollars in fishing subsidies.



Then there is the budget. Last year, it snuck through after Azevedo assuaged U.S. concerns that the WTO was overspending. These are expected to resurface this year.



“You need a good person, but this is not about a superman or superwoman to save the multilateral system,” said van den Bossche.

WTO.

WTO leadership race seen as hostage to U.S. election

President Cyril Ramaphosa paid tribute to the resolute lion of the courtroom George Bizos on hearing of his passing.



Bizos died among his family at the house he built in 1959 Parktown North, in Johannesburg. It was a small home with a famous vegetable garden built by the man himself. In latter years many of Bizos&#8217;s friends told him he should move to a bigger house, but he would have none of it. Bizos was one of that generation of selfless fighters for freedom in South Africa who cared nothing for the trappings of wealth and power. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1152457961-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-374813" width="690" height="549" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1152457961-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1152457961-594x594-1-300x239.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 690px) 100vw, 690px" /><figcaption>OSAKA, JAPAN &#8211; JUNE 28: (RUSSIA OUT) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa speeches during a bilateral meeting at the G20 Osaka Summit 2019, June 28, 2019 in Osaka, Japan. Vladimir Putin has arrived to Japan to participate the G20 Osaka Summit and to meet U.S.President Donald Trump. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



&#8220;Ït is sad news for us as South Africans , George Bizos is one of those lawyers who contributed immensely to the attainment of our democracy. He worked very closely with Nelson Mandela, Arthur Chaskalson and many others and as the government we extend our condolences to his family and we extend condolences to all of us South Africans because George Bizos&#8217;s name was a well know name and he had an incisive legal mind and also was one of the architects of our constitution and contributed immensely. He will surely be missed and we dip our heads in honour that the contribution that George Bizos had made to our democracy. We shall ever remember his contribution,&#8221; says President Ramaphosa on hearing the news. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1023" height="682" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-381312" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers.jpg 1023w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers-696x464.jpg 696w" sizes="(max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 1023px" /><figcaption>Rivonia lawyers reunited Joel Jeffe George Bizos and Denis Kuny</figcaption></figure>



Bizos came to South Africa, along with his father, as a 13-year-old refugee during World War Two. The pair slipped out of their native Greece, then occupied by the Germans, on a fishing boat and made the long sea journey to South Africa. 



Decades later Bizos recalled sitting on the beach on a holiday home to Greece. He said the Greek man looked at him and his moustache and commented to his wife in his mother tongue, assuming that Bizos could not understand: &#8220;Ï want to move away from that man he reminds me of the German officer who tortured me.&#8221;



Bizos smiled at the memory but always used it as a grim reminder of the absurdity of human prejudice. This was something that he fought in the courts every step of the way from the day he joined the Johannesburg bar to almost his last breath. He represented Nelson Mandela &#8211; whom he befriended during their legal studies &#8211; at the Rivonia sabotage trial and the treason trial. More than 50 years later he represented the relatives of the victims of the Marikana massacre.

Bizos and lawyers

“We dip our heads in honour” – Ramaphosa lauds the late Bizos

The gentle lion of the courts of justice who fought for the rights of his fellow man &#8211; almost to his last breath &#8211; is gone.



Human rights lawyer George Bizos died at his Johannesburg home on the sun drenched afternoon of September 9 of natural causes, according to his family.



The last time I saw him was seven years ago at a reunion of the Rivonia Trial lawyers: Bizos; Joel Joffe and Denis Kuny at Liliesleaf, in Rivonia, where the arrest of the leaders of the underground lent the famous trial its name.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1023" height="682" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-381312" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers.jpg 1023w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bizos-and-lawyers-696x464.jpg 696w" sizes="(max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 1023px" /><figcaption>Joel Joffe George Bizos and Denis Kuny Liliesleaf 2013</figcaption></figure>



 On that day the great man asked if I could help him up a flight of stairs. He lent gently on me and with a huff there and a puff here and there we made it to the top. I felt honoured. 



Bizos has spent a lifetime fighting the good fight in court and helped save the life of South Africa’s first black president at South Africa’s trial of the century in 1964. 



Mandela and his comrades faced the death penalty on charges of sabotage in the so called Rivonia Trial at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria. To make matters even more difficult for the defence team was the fact that the accused refused to deny the charges relating to a string of attacks on government property from electricity pylons to post boxes. They argued that the apartheid state should have been in the dock instead.



Bizos was one of the junior members of a heavy weight defence team led by experienced human rights advocates Braam Fischer, Joffe and Arthur Chaskelson.



Survivors of the trial remember Bizos as a bright young man who was always quick with the sandwiches and a quip, as well as sound legal counsel. He was a shining young light in the endless hours in the bowels of the Palace of Justice as the accused waited to ascend the steep, dark, staircase to the dock each day.



It was Bizos who told me, in 2013, how he altered the world famous speech from the dock by Mandela in which he spoke for his comrades. Mandela spoke of the ideal of a free and multi-racial South Africa which he hoped to live to see.



“But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die,” concluded Mandela to a stunned court.



“There was a deafening silence at the end of the speech, you could have heard a pin drop,”&nbsp; Chaskelson told me more than half a century later.



Bizos told me at Liliesleaf on a warm summer&#8217;s evening , that he had persuaded Mandela to insert “if needs be” into the speech. It took some persuasion for the legally trained pen of Mandela to make a change, but after a burst of Bizos browbeating, he agreed.



“I felt the speech was too strong as it was. It was an invitation to the judge to hang everyone and make them martyrs, so I recommended we put in the words ‘If needs be’” says Bizos.



Joffe, a former chairman of Oxfam made Lord Joffe by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, remembered Mandela’s reaction to the change.



“I read my speech and there seems to be an error, he said, it is my sentence and I want it back!” Joffe chuckled.



Bizos also claimed he was the first to learn that the Rivonia trialists were not going to hang long before the verdict in Pretoria.



The British government had been putting pressure on the South African authorities not to hang Mandela and his comrades. It feared that they would be made martyrs and fuel unrest that could threaten British investments in South Africa.



Bizos recalled a social gathering at the embassy where the British ambassador had more than a few drinks.



“As I walked out he put his arm around me and said: ‘Don’t worry George, they are not going to hang and Rusty Bernstein will be acquitted,” Bizos said.



So it was, to the letter, weeks later in court. Even though the accused were upbeat and smiling on their way to prison following the verdict holding up three fingers to Bizos through the window of the police van.



&#8220;Three years George and we will be out!&#8221; they shouted to their lawyer.



But it was not to be so, life was to mean life for the Rivonia trialists who spent nearly 30 years behind bars. 



All of the Rivonia trialists &#8211; who have now passed on &#8211; emerged from prison to see a free South Africa. How different history could have been if it were not for a dose of timely diplomatic pressure and a canny counsel by the name of Bizos.

George Bizos- the man who helped save Mandela’s neck

By Peter Burdin, former BBC Africa Bureau Chief.



The Green Economy has long been seen as a key player in Africa’s transformation.



This week the Tenth Annual Summit of the&nbsp;<a>African Green Revolution Forum &#8211; hosted in Kigali by Rwanda&nbsp;</a>-is discussing how best to move African agriculture forward.



The farming industry hosts 60% of the continent’s workforce and creates more than 40% of its GDP. Hundreds of thousands of livelihoods depend on it.



This virtual Forum has often been described as the world’s premier forum on African agriculture and this year is meeting at a time of global crisis in which the Covid-19 pandemic threatens jobs, yields and food security.



The virus has seen food processing plants slowing production or closing down completely, while the demand for exports such as flowers and fruits have&nbsp; been hit hard bringing economic hardship to many farmers.



The pandemic disguises the reality that agriculture in Africa has much to be proud of. In South Africa, for instance, maize production this year is expected to be more than 30% higher than in previous years –and digitalisation is transforming the sector.



The impact of the African Green Revolution Forum can be seen from last year’s event when some 2,400 delegates from 89 countries took part, and $3 billion worth of deals were concluded in the wings of the Forum.



Last year Isaac Sesi from Ghana shared a $100,000 prize with Tswana Bonolo Monthe of Botswana. Isaac employed affordable technologies to help reduce post harvest losses while Tswana developed a technique to turn underused, indigenous fruits into gourmet low sugar preserves.



The Rwandan organisers hope these successes will be repeated this year – and they say the key is digitalisation as farmers&nbsp; embrace data to boost production and sales and increase yields and profits.



Pilot studies across the continent have seen yields rise between 50% and 300% through better use of information, better seed selection, irrigation and mechanisation.



The Digital revolution provides the sector with enormous opportunities.&nbsp; There are innovations to help overcome challenges in land and soil mapping, water management, pest and disease management, particularly important as climate change starts to impact on Africa with locust invasions, floods and drought becoming more commonplace.



Today, a farmer in a remote area of the country can use his or her phone to see satellite images of their farm, and select the best seeds, the best type of fertilizer, the best soil health package for their crops, and the best markets to sell their produce.



Other innovations are less widespread but could catch on soon, like the use of drones and artificial intelligence to help with pest and disease monitoring.



It is fitting that just down the road from the Forum is the home of the Agriculture Growth Network (AGN), (<a href="http://www.agnetwork.rw/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.agnetwork.rw</a>&nbsp;) a social enterprise that helps some 800 small and medium scale farmers increase their productivity while creating jobs for the youth.



AGN was founded by Daniella Uwase and her fellow students from Kigali’s African Leadership University. The students train the local farmers in the latest techniques through e-learning platforms and provide microloans while connecting them to better markets for their products.



African Green Resources (<a href="http://www.afrigreenresources.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.afrigreenresources.com</a>&nbsp;) is another leading agribusiness company that trains farmers in good agriculture practices to achieve higher yields and build a sustainable agriculture economy.



African Green Resources also provides farmers with microfinance, particularly important during the pandemic when production and sales have been hit.&nbsp;



It’s chaired by Zuneid Yousuf who also works with the Economics Association of Zambia.&nbsp; Together they support a community entrepreneur development programme&nbsp; which places great confidence in the ability of continent’s farming revolution to achieve food security, create jobs and build economic growth.



One of the long-term aim of groups like the African Green Resources, AGN and the delegates at the African Green Revolution Forum is to help millions of young Africans find meaningful employment in agriculture.&nbsp; And all are convinced that embracing digitalisation will speed up that ambition.



The World Bank has pledged to invest US $50 billion in Transforming Africa’s Digital Economy, and it’s clear that if the delegates at the Forum have their way Africa’s farmers will be at the forefront of this investment.

Peter Burdin

COMMENT: Green revolutionaries to boost African growth

WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211; U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have prepared orders to block imports of cotton and tomato products from China’s western region of Xinjiang over accusations of forced labor, though a formal announcement has been delayed.



A Trump administration announcement, initially expected on Tuesday, has been put off until later this week because of “scheduling issues,” an agency spokesman said.



The cotton and tomato bans, and those on five other imports, over alleged Xinjiang forced-labor abuses, would be an unprecedented move by the agency, likely to stoke tension between the world’s two largest economies.



The “Withhold Release Orders” let the agency detain shipments based on suspicion of forced-labor involvement under long-standing U.S. laws to combat human trafficking, child labor and other human rights abuses.



President Donald Trump’s administration is ratcheting up pressure on China over its treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, where the United Nations cites credible reports as saying 1 million Muslims held in camps have been put to work.



China denies mistreatment of the Uighurs and says the camps are vocational training centers needed to fight extremism.



In Beijing on Wednesday, a foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the orders as a pretext to target Chinese firms.



“I think the U.S. cares nothing about human rights,” Zhao Lijian said in response to a query.



“It is only using this as a pretext to oppress Chinese companies, destabilize Xinjiang and slander China’s Xinjiang policy,” he told a daily news briefing.



China will take all necessary measures to safeguard its companies’ legitimate rights and interests, he added.



CBP official Brenda Smith told Reuters the effective import bans would cover the entire supply chains for cotton, from yarn to textiles and apparel, as well as tomatoes, tomato paste and other regional exports.



“We have reasonable, but not conclusive, evidence that there is a risk of forced labor in supply chains related to cotton textiles and tomatoes coming out of Xinjiang,” Smith, an executive assistant commissioner, said in an interview.



“We will continue to work our investigations to fill in those gaps.”



U.S. law requires the agency to detain shipments in cases of forced labor accusations, such as those from non-government bodies, she said.



The bans could have far-reaching effects for U.S. retailers and apparel producers, as well as food manufacturers. China produces about a fifth of the world’s cotton, most of it from Xinjiang. It is also the world’s largest importer of the fibre, including from the United States.



The China Cotton Association, a trade body, declined to comment on Wednesday.



A Beijing-based cotton trader said the impact may be limited as China imports about 2 million tonnes a year each of cotton and cotton yarn, which may be enough to make textiles for the United States without Xinjiang cotton. Xinjiang’s output is about 5 million tonnes.



“If Xinjiang cotton goes to the domestic industry and non-Western markets, the impact may be limited, it can probably still be digested,” he said.



In the short term, it could also boost cotton imports by China, he added.



Cotton futures CCFcv1 on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange fell 4.5% to 12,365 yuan ($1,804.90) per tonne on Wednesday, though the fall was largely driven by broader macroeconomic factors, said Zhang Lei, an analyst at Zhongyuan Futures.



Graphic &#8211; Top cotton producers, consumers, importers, exports &amp; stockholders:&nbsp;<a href="https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/yzdpxxeqopx/TopCottonStats.png">here</a>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/yzdpxxeqopx/TopCottonStats.png" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img decoding="async" src="https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/yzdpxxeqopx/TopCottonStats.png" alt="Reuters Graphic"/></a></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">‘ABUSIVE WORKING AND LIVING CONDITIONS’</h3>



Legislation proposed by U.S. lawmakers in March would effectively assume that all goods produced in Xinjiang were made with forced labor and require certification they were not.



In a July advisory, Washington warned of “reputational, economic, and legal risks” to companies doing business in Xinjiang, or with entities using Xinjiang labor.



The State Department also said it sent a letter to top American firms, such as Walmart Inc (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/WMT.N">WMT.N</a>), Apple Inc (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/AAPL.O">AAPL.O</a>) and Amazon.com Inc (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/AMZN.O">AMZN.O</a>), warning them over risks from supply chains linked with human rights abuses in Xinjiang.



In a draft announcement seen by Reuters, the CBP said it identified forced-labor indicators involving the cotton, textile and tomato supply chains, “including debt bondage, unfree movement, isolation, intimidation and threats, withholding of wages, and abusive working and living conditions.”



The orders would block cotton from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and apparel from Yili Zhuowan Garment Manufacturing Co Ltd and Baoding LYSZD Trade and Business Co Ltd., which the agency says use prison labor from Chinese government administered “re-education” internment camps.



They would also block imports of items from the Lop County Industrial Park and the Lop County No. 4 Vocational Skills Education and Training Center, following the July 1 detention of products from Lop County Meixin Hair Product Co..



The CBP orders would also block imports of computer parts from Hefei Bitland Information Technology Co Ltd, based in Anhui province.

gettyimages-642093036-594×594-2

U.S. readies bans on cotton, tomato imports from China’s Xinjiang

MILAN (Reuters) &#8211; Nigeria asked a Milan court on Wednesday to order Eni and Royal Dutch Shell to pay $1.092 billion as an immediate advance payment for damages in one of the oil industry’s biggest-ever corruption scandals.



At a hearing into alleged corruption linked to Eni and Shell’s 2011 acquisition of the OPL 245 offshore field, Lucio Lucia, lawyer for the Nigerian government, called for the advance payment ahead of a broader damages package to be set by the court at a later date.



The long-running case revolves around the purchase of the OPL 245 offshore field, some 150 km off the Niger Delta, for about $1.3 billion from Malabu, a company owned by former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete.



Prosecutors allege that about $1.1 billion of that money was siphoned off to politicians and middlemen, half of it to Etete himself.



Shell says the 2011 agreement was a settlement of long-standing litigation, following the previous allocation of the block by the Nigerian government to Shell and Malabu.



In July, prosecutors in the case asked for Eni and Shell to be fined and some of their present and former executives, including Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, to be jailed.



 They also requested the confiscation of a total of $1.092 billion from all the defendants in the case, the equivalent of the bribes alleged to have been paid.



On Wednesday, Lucia joined up to the request for seizure of that amount.



Etete, Eni, Shell and the managers accused in the Milan court case, including Descalzi, have all denied any wrongdoing.

rig-drilling-drilling-rig-oil

Nigeria asks for $1.1 billion advance from Eni, Shell in graft case

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s biggest nurses union said on Wednesday it was encouraging its members to end a pay strike which started in June and which forced major hospitals to turn away patients at a time the country is fighting the coronavirus pandemic.



Inflation is running above 800%, reviving memories of the hardships of more than a decade ago when hyperinflation wiped out savings and pensions.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Emmerson_Mnangagwa_2019-01-15-748x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-375030" width="683" height="934" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Emmerson_Mnangagwa_2019-01-15-748x1024.jpg 748w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Emmerson_Mnangagwa_2019-01-15-219x300.jpg 219w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Emmerson_Mnangagwa_2019-01-15-584x800.jpg 584w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Emmerson_Mnangagwa_2019-01-15-696x953.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Emmerson_Mnangagwa_2019-01-15.jpg 790w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /><figcaption>President Emerson Mnangagwa</figcaption></figure>



The Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA), which has more than 16,000 members, called for the strike to force President Emmerson Mnanagwa’s government to pay U.S. dollar salaries, but authorities say they are unable to do so.



The strike by nurses and senior doctors has crippled public hospitals, with non-emergency patients turned away and some babies stillborn due to lack of adequate medical care.



ZINA president Enoch Dongo said nurses wanted to give Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who was in August appointed health minister, a chance to resolve the dispute.



“When you have a crisis sometimes you need to give people a chance to resolve it. After sometime we will review this decision,” Dongo told Reuters.



“So we are telling our members to report for work but only if they have transport money and if there is PPE in hospitals.”



Dongo said the lowest paid nurse earned 6,000 Zimbabwe dollars ($73) in salary and allowances monthly. The state statistical agency says an average family of five needs at least 15,573 Zimbabwe dollars to be not considered poor.



Chiwenga has said the government would soon table a pay offer for the health sector and stop paying medical bills for cabinet ministers and senior officials who seek treatment abroad to save on scarce foreign exchange.



Zimbabweans are growing impatient with Mnangagwa, who promised to revive the economy when he took over from Robert Mugabe after a coup in 2017. Mnangagwa says the economy is being sabotaged the opposition and some Western countries.

Zimbabwe tightens coronavirus lockdown in capital Harare as cases hit 203

Zimbabwe nurses end three-month strike over pay

LAGOS/LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; Four months ago, Abolaji Odunjo made a fundamental change to his business selling mobile phones in a bustling street market in Lagos: He started paying his suppliers in bitcoin.



Odunjo sources handsets and accessories from China and the United Arab Emirates. His Chinese suppliers asked to be paid in the cryptocurrency, he said, for speed and convenience.



The shift has boosted his profits, as he no longer has to buy dollars using the Nigerian naira or shell out fees to money-transfer firms. It is also one example of how, in Africa, bitcoin &#8211; the original and biggest cryptocurrency &#8211; is finding the practical use that it has largely failed to elsewhere.



“Bitcoin helped to protect my business against the currency devaluation, and enabled me to grow at the same time,” Odunjo told Reuters from his two-by-eight metre shop.



“You don’t have to pay charges, you don’t have to buy dollars,” the 30-year-old said, raising his voice above the sound of loud haggling and the honking horns of scooters.



Odunjo is one of many people at the heart of a quiet bitcoin boom in Africa, driven by payments from small businesses as well as remittances sent home from migrant workers, according to data shared exclusively with Reuters and interviews with around 20 bitcoin users and five cryptocurrency exchanges.



Monthly cryptocurrency transfers to and from Africa of under $10,000 &#8211; typically made by individuals and small businesses &#8211; jumped more than 55% in a year to reach $316 million in June, the data from U.S. blockchain research firm Chainalysis shows.



The number of monthly transfers also rose by almost half, surpassing 600,700, according to Chainalysis, which says the research is the most comprehensive effort yet to map out global crypto use. Much of the activity took place in Nigeria, the continent’s biggest economy, along with South Africa and Kenya.



This represents a reversal for bitcoin which, despite its birth as a payments tool over a decade ago, has mainly been used for speculation by financial traders rather than for commerce.



Why a boom in Africa? Young, tech-savvy populations that have adapted quickly to bitcoin; weaker local currencies that make it harder to get dollars, the de facto currency of global trade; and complex bureaucracy that complicates money transfers.



The bitcoin users interviewed by Reuters, based in five countries from Nigeria to Botswana, said the cryptocurrency was helping people make their businesses nimbler and more profitable, and helping those working in places like Europe and North America hang on to more of the earnings they send home.



Yet risks abound.



Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are unregulated in many countries and their legal status is unclear, meaning there is no safety net and little recourse if you lose funds.



For many, converting local currencies to and from bitcoin relies on informal brokers. Prices are volatile, and buying and selling is a complex process that demands technical knowledge.



In 2018, the Nigerian central bank warned cryptocurrencies were not legal tender, and investors were unprotected.

A security man administers sanitiser to a visitor to a state hospital in Lagos, on February 28, 2020. PIUS UTOMI EKPEI | AFP via Getty Images

How bitcoin met the real world in Africa

NEW YORK (Reuters) &#8211; As the ruins of New York’s World Trade Center smoldered following the September 11 attacks of 2001, skeptics doubted it could ever rise again.



Now, as the 19th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the grand vision set forth after its destruction has largely been realized. But the rebuilt World Trade Center complex is under threat anew &#8211; this time, from a microscopic virus.



“People are much more worried about someone coughing on them than someone blowing up a building,” said Vishal Garg, chief executive of mortgage refinance startup Better.com, headquartered at 7 World Trade Center adjacent to the site known as Ground Zero.



After the Twin Towers and surrounding buildings were destroyed by al Qaeda hijackers, killing 2,753 of the nearly 3,000 people who died that day, the economy of lower Manhattan was devastated.



But a plan was born, and a lengthy metamorphosis turned the disaster zone into a giant pit, then a walled-off construction site, and finally, some $25 billion later, a tourist attraction and business center with three skyscrapers, a transportation hub, a museum and a memorial.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/071-576x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-380961" width="627" height="1115" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/071-576x1024.jpg 576w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/071-169x300.jpg 169w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/071-450x800.jpg 450w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/071-768x1365.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/071-864x1536.jpg 864w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/071-scaled.jpg 1152w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/071-696x1237.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/071-1068x1899.jpg 1068w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/071-1920x3413.jpg 1920w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/071-600x1067.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 627px) 100vw, 627px" /></figure>



The coronavirus pandemic has stalled its completion, with a performing arts center under construction and a fourth and final skyscraper planned. Six months after New York City began shutting down due to COVID-19, the World Trade Center and the once-bustling Financial District are now eerily devoid of crowds.



“It’s pretty melancholy. A bit gloomy,” said James Busse, a retail stock broker taking a cigarette break nearby.



Ground Zero became both a solemn memorial and a leisure destination. Choked-up visitors to the 9/11 museum or memorial could step onto an esplanade of children eating ice cream or out-of-town visitors admiring the glass-sheathed towers.



One World Trade Center, America’s tallest building at 1,776 feet (541 meters), was built with a bomb-resistant base, as the old World Trade Center had been attacked in a truck bombing in 1993.



The vision laid out in Daniel Libeskind’s 2003 master plan drove a renaissance that has diversified the local economy, previously reliant on finance.



The public and private sectors have invested some $25 billion in reconstruction, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land.



“Everybody coming to New York wants to come to Ground Zero,” Libeskind said in an interview. “It is the center of New York. It is the great public space.”



At its heart are two reflecting pools designed by Michael Arad, marking the footprints of where the Twin Towers once stood, with a pair of four-sided waterfalls draining into an abyss. The names of the victims are etched into its bronze borders.



Pre-pandemic, hundreds of visitors would gather there. But on a recent afternoon a family from Wichita, Kansas, were the only people at the south tower pool.



(Graphic: Lower Manhattan employment &#8211;&nbsp;<a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-SEPT11/SCENE/jznpnxqrypl/employment.jpg">here</a>)



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-SEPT11/SCENE/jznpnxqrypl/employment.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img decoding="async" src="https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-SEPT11/SCENE/jznpnxqrypl/employment.jpg" alt="Reuters Graphic"/></a></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">TWIN TOWER NOSTALGIA</h3>



Nostalgia over the Twin Towers grew after they were destroyed along with so many innocent lives, but they were unloved in their time.



Completed in the 1970s, the World Trade Center replaced a neighborhood known as Radio Row with an oversized block containing the Twin Towers and little else. The site was frequently called a “windswept plaza.”



“The problem with the World Trade Center is that it never really was that good,” said Carl Weisbrod, a former city planning official who worked on the redevelopment of the new site. “What’s emerged is a central business district that is now a model for the 21st Century as opposed to a sort of a historical artifact of the 20th Century.”



Planning the new site stirred public emotions associated with the attack on the United States, the loss of life and fears of working in tall buildings again.



Critics say the end result still lacks affordable housing and lament the absence of a direct rail link to major regional airports. Architectural critics have called One World Trade Center lackluster.







But there is agreement that, considering all the interests and complexities, it works.



“They did a really wonderful job of knitting it back in the city, but still honoring that sacred site,” said Leslie Koch, president of the complex’s Performing Arts Center.



(Graphic: Lower Manhattan hotel development &#8211;&nbsp;<a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-SEPT11/SCENE/nmovaqbggva/hotel.jpg">here</a>)



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-SEPT11/SCENE/nmovaqbggva/hotel.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img decoding="async" src="https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-SEPT11/SCENE/nmovaqbggva/hotel.jpg" alt="Reuters Graphic"/></a></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">THE MOVERS ARE HERE</h3>



In New York’s vertigo-inducing real estate market, prices rarely drop except after events like 9/11 or a recession, and prices are falling again now.



Downtown Manhattan rents are down 1.4% through July, the largest annualized fall since 2010, said Nancy Wu, an economist with the real estate database StreetEasy.



As of 2019, the neighborhood’s rental market was the city’s fastest-growing. But the inventory of available apartments rose 80 percent this July from a year earlier, Wu said.



Guy Khan,  director of banking at a financial services company, said the downturn was apparent around his home near City Hall, with chain stores and mom-and-pops closing and neighbors fleeing for the suburbs.



“You see moving trucks every day,” he said.



Developer Larry Silverstein acquired a 99-year lease on the Twin Towers from the Port Authority for $3.2 billion just six weeks before 9/11. He has spent the past 19 years rebuilding.



In 2015, Silverstein forecast the entire site would be rebuilt by 2020, but that changed after the planned anchor tenant for 2 World Trade Center pulled out.







“Life is so unpredictable,” he said.



Silverstein and Libeskind, the master planner, see the pandemic as a temporary pause in downtown Manhattan’s ascendance, noting how predictions of decline after 9/11 proved wrong.



“People said New York will never come back. And it’s the same thing during the pandemic,” Libeskind said. “But I don’t believe it. New York is too resilient,” .

Rebuilt after 9/11, World Trade Center threatened anew by coronavirus

WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) &#8211; Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden accused U.S. President Donald Trump of failing to feel the economic pain caused by the coronavirus pandemic, after data on Friday showed job growth slowing and a widening racial gap in unemployment rates.Democratic U.S. presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden discusses the effects on the U.S. economy of the Trump administration&#8217;s response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., September 4, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque



The former vice president, pushing a campaign message that he is more in touch with working Americans than his rival in the Nov. 3 election, said the economic crisis has exacerbated divisions between the rich and the poor.



“The painful truth is, we just have a president who just doesn’t see it, he doesn’t feel it, he doesn’t understand, he just doesn’t care. He thinks if the stock market is up, then everything’s fine,” Biden said during a speech in his home base of Wilmington, Delaware.



As both campaigns kick into high gear for perhaps one of the most consequential presidential races in recent U.S. history, the Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls increased by 1.37 million jobs last month, fewer than in July.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/gettyimages-642093036-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-352573" width="708" height="522" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/gettyimages-642093036-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/gettyimages-642093036-594x594-1-300x221.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/gettyimages-642093036-594x594-1-80x60.jpg 80w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/gettyimages-642093036-594x594-1-570x420.jpg 570w" sizes="(max-width: 708px) 100vw, 708px" /><figcaption>WASHINGTON, DC &#8211; FEBRUARY 16: U.S. President Donald Trump stands during a news conference announcing Alexander Acosta as the new Labor Secretary nominee in the East Room at the White House on February 16, 2017 in Washington, DC. The announcement comes a day after Andrew Puzder withdrew his nomination. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



Trump and his fellow Republicans highlighted the fall in the unemployment rate in August to 8.4% as a sign that the economy is improving after the shock from coronavirus lockdowns that have devastated small businesses from restaurants to gyms and hair salons.



Yet the president still looks set to head into the election with the economy crippled and serious questions hanging over his handling of the pandemic, which has killed more than 186,000 people in the United States.



Biden, who held a seven-percentage-point lead over Trump nationally in the Reuters/Ipsos poll this week, called on the president to bring congressional leaders together to restart stalled negotiations for another coronavirus economic relief package.



“Bottom line: Mr. President, do your job. Get off your golf course and out of your sand bunker. Call your leaders together and sit in the Oval Office. Make a deal,” the Democrat said.



Another controversy around Trump broke on Thursday when the Atlantic magazine reported that the president had called fallen U.S. military personnel buried in Europe “losers” and declined to visit an American cemetery during a 2018 trip to France because he thought it unimportant. Trump vehemently denied the report.



Biden said that, if true, the comments were “a disgrace.”​



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">ECONOMIC WOES</h3>



For most voters, the economy remains a major issue. U.S. employment remains 11.5 million below its pre-pandemic level, and the jobless rate is 4.9 percentage points higher than it was in February.



Trump touted last month’s falling unemployment rate as a sign of recovery.



“Great Jobs Numbers!” he posted on Twitter. “Unemployment Rate Falls To 8.4% (Wow, much better than expected!)”



While the unemployment rate fell last month, it was distorted by people misclassifying themselves as being “employed but absent from work.” Without that error, the unemployment rate would have been about 9.1%, the Labor Department estimated.



Biden stressed the unevenness of the recovery, particularly for people of color, and noted that lower-paid employees in workplaces like factories and stores are also at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.



“Those at the top are seeing things go up and those in the middle and below are seeing things go down and get worse,” he said.



While Monday’s Labor Day holiday typically marks the beginning of a more intense phase of the White House race, both Biden and Trump got a head start in the past week with a flurry of activity following their back-to-back party conventions.



Biden traveled to Pittsburgh and Kenosha, Wisconsin, both in battleground states that help decide the election, to address the continuing and sometimes violent protests over racial injustice and police brutality.Slideshow&nbsp;(4 Images)



Trump also visited Kenosha — a flashpoint city where anti-racist demonstrators have clashed with Trump supporters after police shot a Black man in the back — and made stops in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, another key state.



Both campaigns have launched new ad blitzes in those swing states, with Trump criticizing rioters and protesters.



Trump on Friday won the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police, the United States’ largest police union with 355,000 members. Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, announced endorsements from nearly 200 current and former law enforcement officials in a challenge to Trump’s assertion that he is the candidate of “law and order.”

Biden says Trump ‘just doesn’t care’ about U.S. economic pain from pandemic

JUBA/KHARTOUM (Reuters) &#8211; Sudan’s power-sharing government and a major rebel group active in southern borderlands have agreed to hold new peace talks hosted by South Sudan, both sides said on Friday, days after Khartoum signaled a peace deal with other groups.



The Khartoum government agreed the move with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, one of the groups that did not join a deal signed on Monday to end wars stemming from the rule of ousted strongman Omar al-Bashir.



Hilu’s group has now agreed with the Khartoum government on the necessity to reach a complete political solution in Sudan and address the root causes of its conflicts, the office of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said on its website.



It said both sides had agreed to set up workshops for different issues but gave no timeframe or details.



Hilu’s group, one of the biggest rebel forces that control territory in southern borderlands, confirmed the deal.



“We will continue&nbsp;negotiation under Juba mediation. So far, there’s no agreed date for the talks,” Aman Amum,&nbsp;the group’s chief negotiator, told Reuters.



He sent Reuters a picture showing Hamdok and Hilu signing a document in English in Ethiopia on Thursday in which both sides pledged to achieve a democracy and “separation of religion and state”, a major break from Bashir’s repressive Islamist regime.



There was no immediate comment from South Sudan, which hosted the talks that led to Monday’s deal.



Hilu’s group operates in a region inhabited by minority Christians and followers of African beliefs, who complain of long discrimination under Bashir, who was ousted last year, and seek a secular democratic state for the Muslim-majority country.



Sudan has been riven by conflicts for decades. After the oil-rich south seceded in 2011, an economic crisis fueled protests which led to Bashir’s overthrow.



Three major groups signed Monday’s deal, including factions from Darfur where more than 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since 2003.



Sudan’s civilian and military leaders, who have shared power since then, say ending conflicts is a top priority to help bring democracy and peace to a country in crisis.

1280px-Flag_of_Sudan_(3-2).svg

Sudan and major rebel group agree to resume peace talks

(Reuters) &#8211; The Nasdaq was on track for its worst two-day fall since March on Friday as investors dumped heavyweight technology stocks, while concerns around a patchy economic recovery also hit the S&amp;P 500 and the blue-chip Dow.



The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell as much as 9.9% from Wednesday’s all-time record high and the S&amp;P 500 dipped briefly below its February peak.



Mega-cap companies Apple Inc, Microsoft Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Facebook Inc, were down between 1.9% and 3.6%.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/wall-street-1.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-376568" width="703" height="525"/><figcaption>Wall Street, New York</figcaption></figure>



“It’s just position squaring &#8230; not surprising since we’ve seen a pretty sizable run up in the tech space in the last three or four weeks,” said Jack Janasiewicz, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers in Greater Boston Area.



Losses were more pronounced in the Nasdaq, which have powered the stock market’s stellar recovery from the coronavirus-led crash, climbing as much as 82% from March lows. The benchmark S&amp;P 500 and Dow have surged about 60% from their troughs.



Earlier in the day, the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report showed jobless rate fell to 8.4% from 10.2% in July, steeper than economists’ forecast of 9.8%. Nonfarm payrolls, however, increased less than expected last month.



The data added pressure on the White House and Congress to restart stalled negotiations over the next coronavirus relief package to lift the economy out of the worst recession since the Great Depression.



Technology, communication services and consumer discretionary indexes posted the steepest percentage declines among the major S&amp;P sectors.







Underperforming value stocks including banks and airlines rose between 1.0% and 1.6%. Both the indexes are down more than 30% this year.



“There are segments of the cyclical trade that you might be starting to see some rotation in to, but I don’t think it’s the big picture value-growth trade reversal yet,” Janasiewicz said.



Fund managers warned Thursday’s declines may be a preview of a rocky two months ahead as institutional investors return from summer vacations and refocus on potential economic pitfalls.



The run-up to the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election is also expected to add to the volatility.



Wall Street’s fear gauge hit a more than 11-week high earlier in the session.



At 12:58 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 303.91 points, or 1.07%, at 27,988.82 and the S&amp;P 500 was down 48.08 points, or 1.39%, at 3,406.98. The Nasdaq Composite was down 261.35 points, or 2.28%, at 11,196.75.



The S&amp;P 500 and Dow were headed for their worst two-day decline since mid-June.



Broadcom Inc gained 3.5% after the Apple Inc supplier forecast fourth-quarter revenue above analysts’ estimates.



Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.26-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 2.76-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.



The S&amp;P index recorded no new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 19 new highs and 84 new lows.

wall street

Tech rout deepens, Nasdaq set for worst two-day fall since March

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) &#8211; The Black Lives Matter movement has forced South African sport to reflect on its post-Apartheid history and created fissures between former team mates in a country still trying to come to terms with its racist past.



The BLM movement has put a spotlight on the way societies treat people of colour around the world and in South Africa the debate has centred on sport.



The discussion has focussed on how opportunities were scarce for Black players across some sporting codes even after the fall of Apartheid, the system of racial segregation that existed in the country from 1948 until the early 1990s.



It has been a public debate that has often turned ugly and threatened to create further divides, including between former players from an older generation and those who currently feature in national teams.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="717" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-110168263-1-1110x717.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-380935" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-110168263-1-1110x717.jpg 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-110168263-1-300x194.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-110168263-1-768x496.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-110168263-1-1536x992.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-110168263-1-2048x1323.jpg 2048w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-110168263-1-696x450.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-110168263-1-1068x690.jpg 1068w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-110168263-1-1920x1240.jpg 1920w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-110168263-1-600x388.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /><figcaption>Happier times -South Africa&#8217;s midfielder Siphiwe Tshabalala celebrates after scoring a goal against Mexico during their 2010 World Cup group A first round football match on June 11, 2010 at Soccer City stadium in Soweto, suburban Johannesburg. NO PUSH TO MOBILE / MOBILE USE SOLELY WITHIN EDITORIAL ARTICLE &#8211; AFP PHOTO / ROBERTO SCHMIDT (Photo credit should read ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



When South Africa’s World Cup-winning former rugby captain Francois Pienaar went down on one knee in support of BLM at a cricket fixture in July, he was criticised by some former team mates.



Former Springbok prop Ollie le Roux retweeted a post that likened BLM to worshipping Satan. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Pienaar said he was showing solidarity against “any form of racism and suppression”, but the backlash from the public included death threats.



“I think a discussion must be held to fully understand the black pain, but the other side of the coin is the farm murders which have caused a lot of white pain,” Le Roux told the Sunday newspaper Rapport, referring to the regular violent attacks on usually white-owned farms in South Africa.



Shortly afterwards, eight South African members of the Premiership rugby team Sale Sharks side did not ‘take a knee’ before a game in England, though they did wear ‘Rugby Against Racism’ t-shirts.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">‘CANCER CALLED RACISM’</h3>



The country’s minister of sport, Nathi Mthethwa, asked South African Rugby to take action against the players, who included 2019 World Cup winners Faf de Klerk and Lood de Jager, in a sign of the pressure that will be put on sports federations to ensure their athletes comply with the government’s anti-racism message. &nbsp;



“Racism is no longer in the statutes books but some are practising it covertly and we are saying that we will hunt them down because we know the pain that is caused by this cancer called racism,” Mthethwa said in a statement.



“We are ready to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that people toe the line and those who are racist are taught to embrace other people.



“If that doesn’t happen‚ government is going to ensure that we do what the constitution mandates us to do.”



Cricket South Africa, the sport’s governing body in the country, has recently come under fire from various quarters, including former black players, who say black athletes were blocked from the national team.



Other allegations have concerned the poor treatment of those black players that were selected, including under the captaincy of current Director of Cricket Graeme Smith.FILE PHOTO: South African President Nelson Mandela (L) raises his arms in jubilation as Springbok captain Francois Pienaar holds aloft the Webb Ellis cup after South Africa&#8217;s victory over New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup final played at Ellis Park June 24. South Africa won 15-12 in extra time/File Photo



He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, but the current squad recently had a four-day “culture camp” where, among other things, they could air views on issues concerning race and the past treatment of players. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“It’s extremely important to have discussions around race, the country’s history and transformation,” batsman Rassie van der Dussen said in a statement from CSA after the camp.



“In South Africa, you cannot afford to be oblivious to the past and in my opinion, it almost borders on ignorance if you don’t go to the effort to research the history of our country – the good and the bad.”



Rugby and cricket in the country have been in focus without any on-field action due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they face the prospect of microscopic scrutiny when teams start playing again in the coming months.

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Tech rout deepens, Nasdaq set for worst two-day fall since March

Black Lives Matter forces South African sport to face past demons

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Advertise With Us

Newsletter

African born Elon Musk’s Tesla launches fast electric car charging in Berlin, says more cities to come

Republicans back Trump despite reports he called soldiers ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Mozambique denies accusations of abuses in insurgency-hit province

AstraZeneca expects COVID vaccine result by year-end if trials resume

WTO leadership race seen as hostage to U.S. election

“We dip our heads in honour” – Ramaphosa lauds the late Bizos

George Bizos- the man who helped save Mandela’s neck

COMMENT: Green revolutionaries to boost African growth

U.S. readies bans on cotton, tomato imports from China’s Xinjiang

Nigeria asks for $1.1 billion advance from Eni, Shell in graft case

Zimbabwe nurses end three-month strike over pay

How bitcoin met the real world in Africa

Rebuilt after 9/11, World Trade Center threatened anew by coronavirus

Biden says Trump ‘just doesn’t care’ about U.S. economic pain from pandemic

Sudan and major rebel group agree to resume peace talks

Tech rout deepens, Nasdaq set for worst two-day fall since March

Black Lives Matter forces South African sport to face past demons

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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