Newscast - Africa

The country’s foreign ministry says China will once again start issuing a range of visas to foreigners in a major easing of travel restrictions in place since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The move marks the latest step towards reopening China to the outside world, as Beijing breaks with the strict zero-Covid strategy that defined its pandemic response until a few months ago.
The updated policy will also allow for the resumption of visa-free travel for those arriving on cruise ships to Shanghai as well as for certain tourist groups from Hong Kong, Macau and countries within the ASEAN regional grouping.

US President Joe Biden is set to issue an executive order that aims to increase the number of background checks conducted before firearm sales.
The Democratic president will sign the measure however Action on gun control appears unlikely in a divided Washington.
Biden's call for an assault weapons ban, universal background checks on gun sales and repealing gun manufacturers' immunity from prosecution are unlikely to make headway while Republicans control the US House of Representatives.

Argentina's inflation rate has soared past 100% for the first time since the end of hyperinflation in the early 90s.
Inflation hit 102.5% in February, the country's statistics agency said, meaning the price of many consumer goods has more than doubled since 2022.
Argentina has been in economic difficulty for years, and most of the population now lives in poverty.
Argentinian media said that this increase could partly be due to a sharp hike in the price of meat, which rose by almost 20% in the space of a month.

The US has accused Russia of reckless behaviour after an American drone crashed into the Black Sea following an encounter with Russian fighter jets.
Russian jets are said to have dumped fuel into the path of the drone, which the US says was in international airspace.
The US says the MQ-9 Reaper drone was downed on Tuesday after a confrontation lasting 30-40 minutes.
Russia has denied its two Su-27 fighter jets made any contact.

The World Bank has temporarily suspended its future engagement talks with Tunisia amid uproar over recent statements by the country's president against migrants.
Outgoing World Bank President David Malpass attributed the decision to recent statements about migrants by Tunisian President Kais Saied.
The statements triggered tension between Tunisia and the African Union Commission with its chairperson terming Saied's comments as "shocking".

The Central Bank of Nigeria has scheduled the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting between Monday and Tuesday next week.
The apex bank said the 290th meeting would be held at the CBN Headquarters in Abuja.
The MPC is the highest policy-making committee of the apex bank with the mandate including to review economic and financial conditions in the economy and determine the appropriate stance of policy in the short to medium term.
It is also empowered to review regularly, the CBN monetary policy framework and adopt changes when necessary, communicate monetary/financial policy decisions effectively to the public and ensure the credibility of the model of the transmission mechanism of monetary policy.

The president of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina, says the size of Africa's digital economy will rise from $115 billion to $712 billion by 2050.
Adesina says it was estimated that the size of digital global wealth would expand from $217 billion in 2022 to over $1 trillion by 2031 with most of this growth already being driven by four countries -Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Egypt.
He says the creative industry in Nigeria is growing rapidly, in line with similar trend in Africa.
The creative industry in Africa generated over $14 billion in revenue annually between 2015 and 2018 and is projected to help create close to three million jobs by 2025.

No fewer than 12.9 million cyberattacks have been recorded from within and outside the country during the just-concluded Presidential and National Assembly polls.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami, says over 6.9 million attacks were recorded on election day alone.
Pantami says the attacks were successfully blocked owing to the sophisticated infrastructure on the ground by different agencies of government charged with the responsibility of protecting the nation’s cyberspace.
The Minister stated that in the build-up to the presidential elections, threat intelligence revealed an astronomical increase in cyber threats to Nigeria’s cyberspace.

US President Joe Biden has approved a major oil and gas drilling project in Alaska that faced strong opposition from environmental activists.
The company behind the Willow project, ConocoPhillips, says it will create local investment and thousands of jobs however the $8bn proposal faced a torrent of online activism in recent weeks, particularly among youth activists on TikTok.
Opponents argued it should be halted over its climate and wildlife impacts.
The US Bureau of Land Management estimates, that it will generate up to 278 million metric tonnes of CO2e over its 30-year lifetime - the equivalent of adding two million cars to US roads every year.

Bank shares in Asia and Europe have slumped, despite reassurances from the US president that America's financial system is safe following the collapse of two US lenders.
The falls come after authorities moved to protect customer deposits when the US-based Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed.
Joe Biden promised to do whatever is needed to protect the banking system.
But investors fear other lenders may still be hit by the fallout.