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Semiconductor decoupling. Powell's politics. Industrializing Ogaden. Free trade and the Magna Carta.
Thank you for opening your Chartbook email. Feliks Topolski, 1907-1989 8th Army’s Front, Italy 1944 Semiconductor decoupling Source: FT One thing that Jerome Powell deeply understood is that chairing the Fed under current conditions is a deeply political job. “Powell has successes and mistakes to his name. But he stands out as having thought more carefully about the Fed’s democratic legitimacy than any chair since Paul Volcker,” said Paul Tucker, a former deputy governor at the Bank of England, referring to the Fed chair who successfully fought the great inflation of the 1970s and early 1980s. … While Powell was at the Treasury in the early 1990s, he watched Alan Greenspan build relationships within the government. That convinced Powell he needed to follow the former Fed chair’s lead and spend more time in Congress than his predecessors Yellen and Bernanke. “The accountability for the Fed runs through Congress,” said Claudia Sahm, a former Fed official who is now chief economist at New Century Advisors. “That’s not just about having people on speed dial — it’s answering questions, explaining policy and getting feedback.” Source: FT Ethiopia’s PM Abiy and Nigerian business tycoon, with Chinese engineering, are driving industrialization in Ogaden/Somali region of Ethiopia. - Michael Masri’s reporting for Africa Report if fascinating. Ethiopia has launched a cluster of large industrial schemes in the Somali region, laying foundation stones for a urea plant and an oil refinery in Gode while opening the first two phases of the Ogaden LNG project. Abiy Ahmed framed the push as part of a broader strategy to link energy, agriculture and industry. “These projects embody more than industrial growth,” he said. “They represent our shared responsibility to harness opportunities, strengthen co-operation and promote peace.” The Gode urea plant, backed by Dangote Group and Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH), is designed for 3m tonnes a year. Dangote owns 60%, while EIH holds 40%. Officials say Dangote’s equity totals about $2.5bn, while the state provides land and implementation oversight. Gas from the Calub fields will be piped 108km to the site. Construction is slated for 40 months, with operations targeted for 2028. Ethiopia imports most of its fertiliser, spending more than $1.2bn a year for 1.5m–2m tonnes. Usage was roughly 1.7m tonnes in 2023, almost half of it urea, and demand for 2024–25 is put above 2.4m tonnes. If delivered on time, the Gode plant could cover domestic needs and allow exports to neighbours. Brook Taye, chief executive of EIH, called the venture “a significant milestone in the journey toward industrial self-sufficiency”. Dangote told the groundbreaking crowd that the complex would be integrated with gas supply and a polypropylene unit to support local inputs. He pointed to Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), with a capacity of more than 5,000MW, and noted his group’s cement operations and expansion plans. The Gode refinery is being developed by Golden Concord Group of China. It is designed to process 3.5m tonnes a year of crude and condensate from the Hilala field, with associated storage. Backers say it will ease foreign-exchange pressure from fuel imports and anchor further industrial activity, including a proposed steel smelting site in Dire Dawa. GCL’s chair, Zhu Gongshan, cast the project as “a key step in Ethiopia’s path to energy sovereignty”, underscoring the Beijing–Addis ties. Financing details are still being finalised, but the refinery is central to the government’s energy-security narrative. Source: The Africa Report Dangote’s Ethiopian vision: Dangote began with cement. His crown jewel, Dangote Cement, dominates Nigeria’s market and has 10 operations in other nations in Africa. The formula has been consistent: identify sectors with chronic shortages – cement, fertiliser, sugar – commit massive local investments, and scale up to serve regional demand. Ethiopia was a natural extension of that model. In 2015, Dangote launched the Mugher Cement Plant outside Addis Ababa at a cost of $600m, with an annual capacity of 2.5 million tonnes. The investment gave him a firm foothold in one of Africa’s fastest-growing construction markets. But success came with risks. In May 2018, violent unrest led to the killing of Dangote’s country manager and temporary shutdowns at Mugher. While other investors might have retreated, Dangote doubled down. Today, he is preparing to spend $400m to expand Mugher’s capacity to 5 million tonnes, alongside a new grinding unit near Addis Ababa. Cement is just one market Dangote is targeting. Ethiopia’s enormous state-controlled sugar industry, long plagued by inefficiency and debt, has struggled for years to reform. Its Omo Kuraz Sugar Development Project, touted as one of the continent’s largest initiatives, continues to face delays and mismanagement. … The most ambitious venture of all is the planned fertiliser production complex in Gode, Somali region. Publicised on 28 August 2025, the Dangote Group and Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) deal plans one of the world’s largest single-site urea manufacturing plants. The project costs an estimated $2.5bn and has an estimated capacity of 3 million metric tonnes annually, a rate that would not only render Ethiopia independent, but even a net exporter of fertiliser. EIH, the state wealth fund of Ethiopia, will hold 40%, while 60% is held by Dangote Group. … For Dangote, Ethiopia is a trifecta: Cement demand is projected to grow by 10% annually, its sugar consumption is growing with rapid urbanisation, and fertiliser demand is all but insatiable, given that farming supports the livelihood of 70% of Ethiopians. Source: The Africa Report The stakes for Abiy are high: For Addis Ababa, the $4bn fertiliser project in Ethiopia’s Somali region is no longer simply a manufacturing investment. It is increasingly being framed as a strategic state project tied to food sovereignty, import substitution and the government’s broader attempt to build economic resilience under mounting fiscal pressure. “Becoming self-sufficient in food is our main agenda,” Abiy says during the visit. “Land is needed; we have it. Water is needed; we have it. Human resources are needed; we have it.” The scale is enormous even by African industrial standards. Once operational, the plant is expected to produce three million metric tonnes of urea annually, potentially making it one of the continent’s largest fertiliser complexes. Ethiopian officials say the project now includes a 110km gas pipeline, a 120MW power plant, a polypropylene packaging facility and a two-million-tonne NPK blending plant. For a government grappling with chronic foreign exchange shortages, ballooning import bills and pressure on agricultural productivity, the numbers matter politically as much as they do economically. The decision to anchor the project in Gode is deliberate. Long viewed as peripheral to Ethiopia’s industrial economy, the Somali region is now being repositioned by the federal government as a future irrigation and agro-industrial corridor. Officials argue that the area’s vast land reserves and access to water could eventually support large-scale commercial farming capable of reshaping Ethiopia’s food economy. The government is simultaneously building housing infrastructure for about 5,000 residents near the plant, while officials project broader industrial expansion along the corridor. Abiy goes further, comparing the long-term revenue potential of the Gode development zone with Ethiopia’s flagship state enterprise. “The investments we are making in this Gode area, combined, will generate high revenue for Ethiopia, at par with Ethiopian Airlines,” he says. Source: The Africa Report Feliks Topolski 1907-1982 Topolski’s Chronicle, ‘Nazi Revival’, Vol. 8, Is. 1-2, 1960 HEY READERS, THANK YOU for opening the Chartbook email. I hope it brightens your day. I enjoy putting out the newsletter, but tbh, what keeps this flow going is the generosity of those readers who clicked the subscription button. Photo by Jakub Dziubak on Unsplash If you are persuaded to click, please consider the annual subscription of $50. It is both better value for you and a much better deal for me, as it involves only one credit card charge. Why feed the payments companies if we don’t have to. Subscribe Grim vision of drone warfare by Sylvie Kaufmann For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe The state of the art in Colbert-studies. Jean-Baptiste Colbert was Louis XIV chief minister from 1661 to 1683 and traditionally seen as an architect of absolutism and mercantilism. Alexander Hamilton later cited him as an inspiration in 1782. Now his legacy is disputed. Daniel Dessert, the chief critic, sees Colbert as the orchestrator not so much of an absolutist state as of an elite cabal. Would be great to have a good English-language review of this important debate. Source: lhistoire Didn’t know that the Magna Carta included free trade provisions Fighting for the right to the beach in Oregon in 1967: Source: Research Gate RAF Station – British and Polish Flags, c. 1940-45, The Ingram Collection Feliks Topolski, 1907-1989 ink and wash If you’ve scrolled this far, you know you want to click: Subscribe
Supreme Court lets White House continue construction on Trump's $400M ballroom
The lawsuit will return to lower courts, but documents say that key portions of the project could be complete within months
DOE Opens $400M Office of Science Funding Call for FY 2027
The annual solicitation covers seven research programs, from fusion energy sciences to nuclear physics.
7 massive box office hits that vanished from cultural memory
Movie lovers dig up the films that nobody remembers despite making $400M+ at the box office.
Defense Contract Roundup: Trideum Awarded $400M Army Cyber Contract
Trideum tops this week’s list of local defense contract awards with its $400 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract.
Still facing copyright lawsuits, AI music generator Suno raises another $400M
The prominent AI music generation startup is now valued at over $5.4 billion -- about seven months ago, it raised at a $2.45 billion valuation.
AI Giant Anthropic Leans Into Life Sciences With $400M Coefficient Bio Catch
Anthropic in October last year iterated its Claude AI model to better cater to biopharma purposes. Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, AbbVie and others already use Claude in their operations.
Neogenyx CEO talks plans for new RNG business with $400M investment
The new company spun off from Ameresco, which retains a majority stake. The fresh infusion of capital will allow a biogas developer with a long history in the industry to more aggressively pursue its project pipeline.
Supreme Court chief justice allows work on Trump’s $400M White House ballroom to continue for now
The temporary order comes hours before lower-court rulings would have forced a halt to aboveground construction.
Federal judge allows Trump’s $400M White House ballroom to move forward
Federal judge denies injunction against Trump's $400 million White House ballroom project, allowing construction to proceed on the controversial expansion.
GTCR Leans Into Youth Sports With $400M Deal for LiveBarn
GTCR, a Chicago private equity firm, is buying LiveBarn, a youth sports streaming service.
The Founders built safeguards. Our politics have rendered them useless
None of this means the republic is doomed. But we must be honest about the distance between the Founders’ safeguards and today’s political culture.
KKR to invest $1.5bn into European data centre business
US private capital group’s investment into Global Technical Realty comes alongside $400mn from Oak Hill Capital
Angle Health raises $600M, including $400M secondary
Angle's platform is designed to steer members toward less expensive care settings.
This Ultra phone is the first to use Sony's brand-new 200MP camera sensor
The upcoming Vivo X300 Ultra will be the first to use Sony's 1/1.12-inch, 200-megapixel LYTIA 901 camera sensor.
US announces $400m funding boost for science and innovation
The US has announced up to $400m to advance science and innovation, supporting research across key scientific fields and technologies.
Casino operator Jacobs Entertainment celebrates $400M completion in downtown Reno
Jacobs Entertainment officials were joined Monday by local dignitaries and community leaders to celebrate the completion of J Resort's $400 million, five-year p
Vivo's X300 Ultra goes global and gets a huge 400mm Zeiss telephoto lens
Vivo barely has a presence outside of China but that seems to be changing in a big way with the company's next flagship phone.
HSBC hit by $400m UK fraud-related charge; Rachel Reeves ‘clashed with Scott Bessent’ over Iran war criticism
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
South Florida bankruptcy filings see uptick as consumers, businesses seek relief amid war, rising prices
Amid rising inflation and surges in energy prices, South Florida many consumers and businesses are turning to bankruptcy filings for relief.
Anthropic's life sciences plans: Mystery programs, Nobel hires, M&A and big ambition
Anthropic pushes into life sciences with a $400M Coefficient Bio deal, Nobel hire John Jumper, Claude Science launch and its own drug pipeline.
Could £400m research park plan make Norwich a global science hub?
Experts hope a revamp at the Norwich Research Park could lead to more scientific breakthroughs.
Health advice from AI chatbots is frequently wrong, study shows
A new study found that chatbots were no better than Google — already a flawed source — at guiding users to correct diagnoses, or helping with what to do next.
Supreme Court lets White House continue construction on Trump's $400M ballroom
The lawsuit will return to lower courts, but documents say that key portions of the project could be complete within months
£400M Milton Park Stake Offered In Top UK Science Park Sale
A 50% stake in Oxfordshire's Milton Park is for sale, a top UK science and innovation deal.
4 People Arrested After Newlywed Bride Is Engulfed in Flames During Barbecue on Her Honeymoon
Legality of Trump’s $400M private funding for White House ballroom at issue
A federal judge weighing whether the project may proceed has focused on whether the administration can use private donations to bypass congressional approval.
DOE Announces Up to $400M for Basic Research to Advance the Frontiers of Science
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced its annual funding opportunity of up to $400 million to advance the frontiers of scientific knowledge and lay the foundation for future technologies and innovation. The funding delivers on Executive Order Restoring Gold Standard Science by supporting rigorous, transparent, and mission-driven research across […]
North Dakota Legislature prepares to spend $400M during rural health special session
Legislators will meet next week to pass bills that will let Health and Human Services spend the federal funds over the next two years.
It's official: The OnePlus 15R will pack a crazy big battery (just not as crazy as you expected)
The brand's next affordable flagship will put a lot of its rivals to shame with a 7,400mAh cell.
WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD CAPS PACESETTER SPORTS INVITATIONAL
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The IU Indianapolis women's track and field squad closed out the two-day Pacesetter Sports Invitational, hosted by Indiana State on Saturday (Apr. 4). Freshman Sarah Madi-Bouabre earned a runner-up finish in the long jump while Paige Schulte finished fifth in the 200m event and sixth in the 400m.
Here is the first leaked image of the new Sony 100-400mm f/4.5 GM lens!
This is the first leaked image of the new Sony 100-400mm f/4.5 GM lens that will be announced along the Sony A7VI in May. Kn Known Specs: internal zoom length similar to the FE 200-600mm G pricing comparable to the FE 50-150mm F2 GM The A7rVI has a new 67MP sensor and new body! Hope