Kenya and the United States formally launched negotiations on Wednesday for a bilateral trade pact that the two economies hope could serve as a model for additional agreements across the African continent.

In a joint statement, trade ministers for the two countries, Betty Maina and Robert Lighthizer, said they were holding an initial round of talks virtually over the next two weeks due to the coronavirus.

Maina and Lighthizer said they believe this agreement with Kenya will complement Africa’s regional integration efforts, including in the East African Community and the landmark African Continental Free Trade Area.

Two-way goods trade between the United States and Kenya totaled $1.1 billion in 2019, up 4.9% from 2018.

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Aston Martin 's first sport utility vehicle rolled off the production line on Thursday, key to hopes of a turnaround at the luxury carmaker which has seen changes in management and ownership over the last few months amid a torrid performance.

Since then it has announced job cuts, is replacing its boss and has picked a new finance chief among a series of changes as it also responds to the coronavirus pandemic.

Aston's Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman said the DBX has become the car that will drive Aston Martin into a bold new era.

The DBX vehicle is the company’s first foray into the lucrative sport utility vehicle market, a late entrant compared to many rivals such as Volkswagen-owned Bentley and BMW’s Rolls-Royce.

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Two French industrial giants say they’ve found the right project to rapidly scale up the nascent industry as the European Union launches a new push to make hydrogen one of the clean fuels of the future

Engie SA and Air Liquide SA want to build solar farms big enough to power 450,000 homes in France’s sun-drenched Provence region, with enough electricity left over to produce hydrogen by electrolyzing water. Some of the clean-burning gas would be sold to refineries and chemicals makers in Fos-sur-Mer, curbing their emissions of carbon dioxide.

Gwenaelle Avice-Huet, Engie’s head of renewables, said for the project to work, they need support from the state and incentives for companies to switch to green hydrogen. They also need to scale up with projects of significant sizes to lower costs.

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Australia has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in response to fears over a new national security law imposed by China.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new law undermined Hong Kong's own basic law and the territory's current level of autonomy from Beijing.

He said Australia planned to extend visas for Hong Kong residents and encourage businesses there to relocate.

In a statement by its embassy in Australia, it said China has criticised the move as gross interference in its domestic affairs.

China said Australian shoud immediately stop meddling otherwise it will lead to nothing but lifting a rock only to hit its own feet.

Critics say the law makes it easier to punish protesters and critics of the Chinese government.

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South African Airways (SAA) will provide a year’s training for up to 1,000 employees, revisions to its restructuring plan show, in a concession to trade unions angered by thousands of looming job cuts.

Creditors are due to vote on the plan on July 14, which envisages scaling back SAA’s operations before ramping them up gradually as disruption linked to the coronavirus pandemic eases.

In proposed changes published on Wednesday, SAA’s administrators kept the number of staff needed in the restructured SAA at 1,000, from around 4,600 currently.

2,600 will lose their jobs and up to 1,000 will be placed on a training layoff scheme where SAA will contribute up to 4,650 rand ($270) a month in pension, unemployment and healthcare benefits for each employee.

The public enterprises ministry said those on the training scheme would remain SAA employees but not receive salaries.

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The World Bank said Ugandan economic growth is set to plunge to as low as 0.4% in 2020 from 5.6% last year as the coronavirus crisis batters the east African economy ahead of presidential elections set for 2021.

A report released on Wednesday said the pandemic is expected to hit tourism, exports, and remittances. It is also likely to damage investments in the country where long-awaited oil production could commence by 2022.

The report added that the fiscal deficit would rise to between 7% to 8.9% of GDP next year from pre COVID-19 levels of 5.8%, fuelled by a steep drop in tax revenues.

The report said, COVID-19 was resulting in lower exports, tourism, remittances, as well as a sizable deceleration in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows and government project financing.

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The governor of the Bank of South Sudan has warned that the coronavirus pandemic means the country needs to find a "plan B" for making money.

The global oil prices plummeted earlier this year in the wake of the pandemic spreading across the world.

The Governor of the Bank of South Sudan, Gamal Abdalla Wani, said the country’s economy had been severely hit by coronavirus pandemic because the government did not have "plan B" and "plan C" apart from oil revenue.

He said the coronavirus pandemic had forced South Sudan to try and work out where else to make money apart from oil.

He suggested that the central bank could buy and refine gold.

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State statistics agency CAPMAS on Thursday said Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation increased to 5.6% in June from 4.7% in May.

The agency said Month-on-month headline inflation stood at 0.1% in June, from 0% in May.

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South Africa’s rand backtracked early on Thursday after gaining ground in the previous session as investors opted to take profits ahead of local manufacturing data expected to highlight the weakness of the real economy.

At 0700 GMT the rand was 0.12% weaker at 16.9400 per dollar.

The currency advanced more than 1% against the U.S. currency on Wednesday as concerns about rising coronavirus infections globally and in the United States prompted a selloff in the dollar as investors looked for yield in higher-risk emerging market assets.

Demand however subsided overnight with key data releases domestically, in Europe, and a weekly jobs report in the United States making investors more cautious.

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A government statement on Wednesday said Malawi’s new President Lazarus Chakwera has appointed Wilson Banda, a former central bank official, as its new governor.

Chakwera, sworn in in June, also appointed a number of other individuals to his 31-member cabinet though key positions like the finance minister had already been announced.

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