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Under a scorching sun at a trading post in Malawi, Chikumbutso Chekeni and his wife head to their tobacco sheds to dry their newly harvested leaf.

Nambuma, 35 kilometres (20 miles) northwest of the capital Lilongwe, used to be a thriving farming town, buoyed by vast tobacco farming businesses.

Today, even during harvest season the town is sleepy, leading some farmers to think about switching from tobacco to the newly legalised marijuana.

Malawi is one of the world’s poorest countries but a major tobacco producer, ranking first in the world for burley and seventh for overall production.

No other economy is more dependent on the leaf. Government statistics say over 70 percent of the nation’s export income comes from tobacco.

“The main challenge we face as farmers is the issue of low pricing, which is really killing us,” said Chekeni, who has been farming tobacco for 22 years.

Returns from tobacco, dubbed the ‘Malawi’s Green Gold’, have dwindled over the past decade due to declining global demands driven by anti-smoking campaigns.

Despite the low prices, he sees no other option but to continue farming. This is the only business he knows.

This year has particularly been bad. Low volumes and low prices at the auction floors in Lilongwe forced the Tobacco Commission to cut trade to three days a week.

Even on those three days, sales last only an hour.

“The future of tobacco farming is bleak,” said grower Yona Mkandawire. “By now we should have a lot of tobacco in the warehouses and more trucks at the receiving bay, but there is a lot of empty space here.”

Despite a sharp decline of tobacco earnings over the years, Malawi’s government still calls it a “strategic crop” and defends the country’s continuing investment in its production.

Last year tobacco earned Malawi $173.5 million, down 27 percent from the year before, the Tobacco Commission said.

– ‘Malawi Gold’ –

Tobacco Commission chief executive officer Joseph Chidanti Malunga told AFP that this year’s harvest will be 50 million kilogrammes short of what the buyers are looking for.

But he insisted Malawi needs tobacco because it’s the only crop earning foreign currency.

“We cannot abandon this no matter how,” he said. “All we do now is to make sure that we produce tobacco that is compliant with what the customers want.”

During the first week of sales, prices were down more than 20 percent from last year, according to local media.

The price drop has seen some farmers try out new crops, including the recently legalised cannabis.

Malawi legalised cannabis farming for medicinal and industrial use in February 2020.  

Falice Nkhoma, who is part of the Tilitonse Cooperative for Cannabis Growers, has dumped tobacco because of falling prices.

“I have been growing burley tobacco from 2014… but with very little benefit because the prices were always low,” said Nkhoma. She has little to show for producing the so-called green gold.

“So this year, when I heard that some people would be growing cannabis, I was really excited. I have bought the seeds, and hopefully cannabis farming will bring me good returns,” she said.

It’s about time Malawi diversified its economy, said Betchani Tchereni, economics professor at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences.

“We just have to restart the economy. If it’s soya, then let’s do soya. If it’s cannabis, then let’s concentrate on cannabis,” he said.

But cultivation licences could be prohibitive for some aspiring farmers.

Growers, who operate in groups of around 30, have on average to cough out $10,000 per collective in farming licence fees alone. 

Easing the process of obtaining cannabis licences would give farmers an immediate boost.

“It takes just about three months to mature, and then boom, we have the forex,” said Tchereni. 

“Licences can’t be this expensive.”

Cannabis growing is not new in Malawi, but has yet to develop to industrial scale.

According to a 2011 World Bank report, Malawi’s hemp, known locally as ‘chamba’ or ‘Malawi Gold’ is among “the best and finest” sativas in the world.

India seized $725 million from the local bank accounts of Xiaomi after a probe found the Chinese smartphone giant unlawfully sent money abroad in the guise of royalty payments, authorities said Saturday.

India’s financial crime investigations agency began investigating the company in February and said it seized the money from the firm’s local arm after discovering it had made remittances to three foreign-based entities.

“Such huge amounts in the name of royalties were remitted on the instructions of their Chinese parent group entities,” the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.

Xiaomi India has denied the allegations, saying late Saturday that its “operations are firmly compliant with local laws and regulations”.

“We believe our royalty payments and statements to the bank are all legit and truthful,” Xiaomi India tweeted.

“We are committed to working closely with the government authorities to clarify any misunderstandings.”

The firm’s India office was raided in December in a separate investigation over alleged income tax evasion. 

Other Chinese smartphone makers including Huawei also had their Indian offices searched at the time.

Relations between New Delhi and Beijing have been at a low ebb since a deadly Himalayan border clash between soldiers from both countries in 2020. 

In the aftermath, India’s home ministry banned hundreds of mobile applications of Chinese origin, including the popular social media platform Tiktok. 

The government justified the bans on the apps as safeguarding against threats to India’s sovereignty.

Anti-China sentiment has grown in India since the fatal 2020 troop clash, sparking calls for consumer boycotts of Chinese goods.

China continues to be a key economic partner for India, with more than $125 billion in bilateral trade last year according to media reports.

Three young Israelis formerly serving in military cyber units have figured out how to locate your digital footprint — and give you the tools to delete it.

The company Mine, co-founded by Gal Ringel, Gal Golan and Kobi Nissan, says it uses artificial intelligence to show users where their information is being stored — like whether an online shoe store kept your data after a sneaker purchase three years ago.

Ringel said Mine’s technology has already been used by one million people worldwide, with over 10 million “right to be forgotten” requests sent to companies using the firm’s platform.

Mine launched after the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — now an international reference point — set out key rights for users, including the deletion of personal data that was shared with a site for a limited purpose.

The company’s AI technology scans the subject lines of users’ emails and flags where data is being stored.

Individuals can then decide which information they want deleted and use Mine’s email template to execute their right to be forgotten.

It means they can delete their digital footprint “with a click of a button”, Ringel said.

“We’re not telling people to not use Facebook or Google. We say: go ahead, enjoy, use whatever you want,” he said. 

“But as you enjoy using the internet, we’ll show you who knows what about you, what they know about you… what is the risk” and how to remove it, he added. 

– ‘Challenging’ –

Last year, hackers broke into the database of Atraf, an Israeli LGBTQ dating website, using the personal information there for extortion.

The year before, Shirbit, a major insurance company, was hacked and troves of data stolen.

Despite those and smaller breaches, Naama Matarasso Karpel from advocacy group Privacy Israel said the public was relatively indifferent.

She also criticised Israel’s privacy legislation as inadequate for tackling today’s online challenges.

“Privacy is a bit like health or air — we don’t really feel the need for it until we really see how much we lack it,” she said.

While public awareness on privacy rights has been slow on the uptake, she said many corporations were realising that better privacy practices made for good business.

“Nobody wants to be caught off-guard,” Matarasso Karpel said.

Companies are starting to see privacy “as a value that has to be maintained in order to establish trust with customers”, she added.

Mine’s co-founder Ringel said companies had contacted his firm for help with the “challenging and cumbersome” process of locating and removing information, in line with the right to be forgotten.

“We help companies to automate that process without any human involvement,” he said, reducing their efforts and costs.

But lawyer Omer Tene, co-founder of the Israel Tech Policy Institute, cautioned that deleting specific individual requests was “a complicated technical exercise”.

Some companies and organisations cannot legally delete information like blockchains or records of financial interactions needed for tax purposes.

Even information that can be deleted is often kept in varying degrees of identifiability, Tene said. 

“All of this nuance makes it difficult to deliver on a promise from both the consumer side and the corporate side, to enable deletion by pressing a button,” Tene warned.

First it was Covid, then riots and now floods: KwaZulu-Natal (NZN) province, South Africa’s gateway to the Indian Ocean, is reeling from a unpredented string of disasters.

Here is factfile on the region:

– Economic giant –

KZN employs 2.4 million out of 14.5 million workers in South Africa’s formal economy and accounts for more than a sixth of national GDP.

It is the second-largest GDP contributor after the economic hub of Gauteng which houses Johannesburg, according to global auditors PwC.

The port of Durban is the country’s biggest trade platform for the agricultural, automotive and mining sectors.

Durban is the largest and busiest harbour in South Africa, handling over 60 percent of its container traffic, says PwC senior economist Christie Viljoen.

– Flood bill – 

Estimates of the cost of the floods that struck KZN this month, fuelled by record-breaking rains, are sketchy.

Many flooded areas remain inaccessible due to road damage.

The mayor of greater Durban, Mxolisi Kaunda says lost production alone will cost 740 million rand ($47.3 million / 44 million euros), according to preliminary estimates.

Most of the region’s 1,150 businesses are located on a flood plain and were badly battered.

But these “operational losses” do not include the cost of fixing roads, railway lines, bridges, power line, water pipes and sewerage, or damage to homes — a bill that will be many billions of rand.

Economists and business leaders say the floods could have a potentially crippling impact on growth in 2022.  

“The city will take about three months to get back to where it was to pre-flood levels and it should reduce the city’s annual GDP by about 1.8 percent,” said Ajiv Maharaj, a senior official in charge of local economic development.

– Pressure on exports – 

Experts say damage to businesses and the port of Durban, adding to the impact on the supply chain from the Ukraine war, will dampen exports.

Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Palesa Phili said road freight between Durban and Gauteng was currently at half of normal levels.

“Export shipments and revenues will be under pressure in the short term,” said Viljoen.

“Damaged goods in warehouses and at ports cannot necessarily be replaced and will result in weaker export revenues.”

The Durban region makes food, beverage and tobacco products, textiles and leather goods and petroleum and chemical products.

Its automotive industry is also a big employer. 

Toyota has temporarily suspended operations at its Durban plant, warning of delays in delivering popular models such as the Hilux pickup — or “bakkie,” as these trucks are dubbed here.

– Agriculture hit – 

The province is a key farming region, known chiefly for its sugarcane fields in the Tongaat region. 

Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza has estimated losses in the agriculture sector to be more than 500 million rand ($32 million).

Around half of those losses will be incurred by cane farmers, although no shortages of sugar are expected.

– Tourism worried – 

Durban is a leading tourism destination, favoured for its warm subtropical climate, idyllic beaches and nearby wildlife sanctuaries.

The region had been hoping for a rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic for the upcoming northern hemisphere summer, but is now bracing for cancellations from both local and international travellers.

A crucial test will come next month when Durban stages an annual trade conference — the Africa Travel Indaba, for which 6,000 people had been expected.

“The show is going ahead as we had planned,” said Themba Khumalo, head of SA Tourism.

“In times of crisis such as this, it is not time to lean back… it’s time for us to show our economic support for Durban,” he said.

Italian luxury carmaker Ferrari has issued a recall plan with Chinese regulators over potential brake problems in its vehicles, an official notice said Friday.

The recall affects 2,222 vehicles over a brake fluid issue, said a notice by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR).

This figure is almost the total number of cars Ferrari sold in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan over the past three years, based on the company’s annual report.

“Vehicles covered by this recall… could see a higher risk of brake fluid leakage, resulting in reduced braking performance or brake failure, posing a safety hazard,” SAMR said.

The recall covers a portion of imported 458 Italia, 458 Speciale, 458 Speciale A, 458 Spider, 488 GTB and 488 Spider series cars that were made between March 2, 2010 and March 12, 2019, the regulator said Friday.

It added that these vehicles should be driven with caution, and should be stopped immediately if a low brake fluid level warning light appears.

Ferrari will replace the problematic car parts free of charge for the cars covered by the recall, the notice said.

The recall starts on May 30.

The state market regulator this month also announced US electric car giant Tesla’s recall of nearly 128,000 vehicles in China over a fault that could raise the risk of vehicle collision.

As dawn breaks, foreign tourists gather by the ancient towers of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, some of the lucky few to see the World Heritage Site with the crowds thin as the country recovers from the coronavirus.

Hopes are high that the temple complex, recently revitalised from repair work, will spearhead a recovery in tourism after the Southeast Asian nation began re-opening to travellers last November.

A handful of overseas visitors are once again roaming the sacred site, with many calling it a unique opportunity.

“I think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience to really see it with such few tourists,” Belgian holidaymaker Marjan Colombie told AFP. “It’s so different.”

On previous visits to the 12th-century ruins she had been forced to jostle with others and endure long queues, she said.

Despite the huge economic cost for Cambodia, the pandemic has been a boon for renovations and conservation work at Angkor Wat.

The government agency that manages the UNESCO site says the shutdown allowed extra time and space for repair work, maintenance and gardening.

“Our temples could rest too,” APSARA Authority spokesman Long Kosal said.

Workers fixed crumbling towers and installed a water system to keep the grass green during the dry season.

Local businesses in Siem Reap are now seeing an uptick in bookings after Covid-19 decimated tourism.

Chea Sokhon, general manager of Sarai Resort and Spa — which closed in April 2020 and laid off its 100 employees — is rehiring as foreign tourists return.

“It’s like we are starting from zero,” he said, laying out the challenges he faces.

The businessman, who also sits on the tourism board for Siem Reap, said about 20 percent of hotels in the city have re-opened this year and about 30 percent are preparing.

But he cautioned it would take at least another year for a full recovery.

– ‘Overwhelming’ –

“Our tour guides have hope again,” said local guide Meth Savutha, back on the job after spending the past two years teaching English online to support his family.

Border closures and travel restrictions knocked Cambodia’s income from tourism down to just $184 million last year, a far cry from the nearly $5 billion in 2019.

Foreign tourists nosedived to below 200,000 in 2021 from roughly 6.6 million pre-pandemic.

But a comprehensive vaccine rollout and a retreat of the virus have enabled Phnom Penh to resume issuing visas on arrival.

Numbers are now slowly climbing again but remain a long way from pre-Covid figures.

Officials expect 700,000 international visitors this year, fuelled by new daily flights to Siem Reap from Singapore.

For German tourist Hanna, visiting Cambodia for the first time this month, the renovations to Angkor Wat and lack of crowds made it an “overwhelming” experience.

“It’s absolutely beautiful and stunning,” she told AFP as the sun rose over the historic complex.

“It’s just a very unique experience.”

More than a dozen Chinese coal power projects overseas were cancelled after a ban last year on funding such plants, but loopholes could allow 18 others to still go ahead, according to a study published Friday.

China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases driving global warming. It has vowed to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon-neutral by 2060, but these do not include its fossil-fuel investments abroad.

It is also the largest public funder of overseas coal plants, and was planning to build 67 in more than a dozen countries when President Xi Jinping announced a ban on financing “new projects” in September.

Since then, Chinese developers have cancelled 15 overseas coal projects as funding dried up and host countries demanded greener alternatives, a study by the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said.

The cancelled projects would have generated 12.8 gigawatts of electricity — or the total power generation capacity in Singapore, the think tank added.

But a lack of clear rules has allowed Chinese developers to continue to build new coal power projects, it warned.

“The key concern is that China will continue to fund or build new coal projects to power industrial parks under the Belt and Road Initiative,” said Isabella Suarez, a researcher at CREA, referring to Xi’s $1 trillion global infrastructure push.

“The loophole is that because the industrial parks have been years in the making, additional coal on these projects would not be considered new, even if… tenders are happening after the pledge to ban coal funding.”

– Deadly impact –

China’s top economic planner issued vague guidelines in March, telling developers to “proceed cautiously” on coal plants that were in the final stages of planning.

These could potentially stop Chinese funding for 32 planned coal plants and prompt the “reexamination” of 36 others that are under way, according to the CREA report.

However, “about 18 coal projects (in the pipeline) that can generate 19.2 Gigawatts of power have already secured financing and permits… and could still go ahead,” Suarez said.

AFP has sought comment on the report from the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s economic planner.

Most of these projects are in Indonesia, where China is investing billions to mine nickel and other minerals needed to build electric vehicles, according to data from the Global Energy Monitor.

Vietnam and Bangladesh have in recent months requested China to build gas projects instead of the agreed coal projects, according to government notices.

The deadly impact of climate change — from extreme heatwaves to more intense superstorms — is already being felt across the world.

Experts say emissions must be halved within a decade to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) or ideally to 1.5C as stated in the Paris climate accord.

Crisis-hit Sri Lanka’s inflation hit a record high for the sixth consecutive month, official data showed on Friday as the government asked the IMF for an urgent bailout.

The broad-based National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) rose 21.5 percent year-on-year in March, more than four times the 5.1 percent inflation of a year earlier.

Food inflation in March stood at 29.5 percent, according to the latest data from the Department of Census and Statistics.

The figures are likely to rise further: the state-run oil company has subsequently raised the price of diesel, commonly used in public transport, by 64.2 percent.

The worsening economic crisis has led to clashes at nationwide demonstrations calling on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down over mismanagement and corruption.

Sri Lanka asked the International Monetary Fund this week for emergency assistance, but was told that the South Asian nation’s $51 billion external debt was “unsustainable” and must be “restructured” before any help.

“When the IMF determines that a country’s debt is not sustainable, the country needs to take steps to restore debt sustainability prior to IMF lending,” the Fund’s country director Masahiro Nozaki said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Approval of an IMF-supported program for Sri Lanka would require adequate assurances that debt sustainability will be restored.”

The government has announced a default on its foreign debt and said precious foreign exchange will be reserved to finance essential food and medicines.

Police clashed with protesters in central Sri Lanka on Tuesday, killing one of them and wounding nearly 30.

At least eight people have also died waiting in long lines for fuel in the past six weeks.

The country’s foreign exchange shortage has led to a slowing down of imports, including essentials. 

Shops have rationed the quantity of rice, milk powder, sugar, lentils and tinned fish sold to consumers.

Sri Lanka’s economy has collapsed since the onset of the pandemic, with a nosedive in tourism revenue as well as foreign worker remittances.

Elon Musk has lined up $46.5 billion in financing for a possible hostile takeover of Twitter and is “exploring” a direct tender offer to shareholders, according to a securities filing released Thursday.

Musk’s filing pointed to a $13 billion debt facility from a financing consortium led by Morgan Stanley, a separate $12.5 billion margin loan from the same bank, as well as $21 billion from Musk’s personal fortune.

The Tesla chief, who has been rebuffed by the Twitter board, is “exploring whether to commence a tender offer… but has not determined whether to do so at this time,” the filing said.

Still, shares of Twitter did not rise significantly, suggesting skepticism that a deal will happen.

The world’s richest man on April 14 launched an unsolicited bid to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, saying the influential microblogging platform had fallen short of free-speech imperatives.

The following day, Twitter moved to defend itself against the $43 billion takeover effort, announcing a “poison pill” plan that would make it harder for the billionaire to get a controlling stake in the social media company.

Despite Musk’s great wealth, the question of financing had been seen as a potential stumbling block because much of Musk’s holdings are in Tesla shares rather than cash.

Shares of Twitter fluctuated Thursday, finishing at $47.08, up 0.8 percent but far below the $54.20 price in Musk’s offer. That suggests investors remain skeptical a deal will happen, said Eric Talley, a professor a Columbia Law School specializing in corporate law and mergers.

“I think a lot of people feel like either the board isn’t going to start talking to Elon Musk, or that Elon Musk might just decide to chase a different rainbow the day after tomorrow, and this will all have been a big fever dream,” Talley told AFP.

– Closer to deal? –

Analysts noted that Twitter’s poison pill poses a big challenge to any effort not backed by the board.

The defense established by Twitter kicks in if an investor buys more than 15 percent in shares without the directors’ agreement. Musk holds nine percent.

The manuever makes it harder for a buyer to build too big of a stake without board approval, by triggering an option that allows other investors to buy more of a company’s shares at a discount.

CFRA Research Angelo Zino said Musk’s effort still faces significant hurdles in light of the Twitter board’s opposition to his proposal and the poison pill mechanism.

“Despite the filing, we don’t believe it puts Musk any closer towards reaching a deal,” Zino said. 

“We think Musk could look to increase his stake closer to 15 percent to put additional pressure on Twitter, but we think he will ultimately need to have constructive conversations with the board to be successful.”

Musk’s efforts have raised hopes about the commercial potential of Twitter, which has struggled to achieve profitable growth despite its influential spot in culture and politics. 

But the polarizing Tesla CEO’s campaign also has sparked concern among technology and free-speech experts who point to Musk’s unpredictable statements and history of bullying critics, which contradict his stated aims.

Under Parag Agrawal, who took over as Twitter CEO late last year, the company has made progress on new monetization features, such as subscription products, said a note from Truist Securities, adding that “short-term, Musk’s involvement at this stage runs the risk of disrupting those efforts.”

Talley noted that Musk thus far has not released a “creative revenue generation plan,” adding that Musk may have such a document, “but he certainly hasn’t unveiled it.”