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Bread up 50%, electricity up 15%: Mauritius starts paying the Middle East bill

Pain maison goes to Rs 3.90 from this Saturday. The 100g loaf had not moved from Rs 2.60 in fourteen years. Overnight: a 50% jump, and it's just the beginning.

Electricity tariffs go up 15% from May 1. Petrol and diesel prices are heading north too, with revised pump prices expected once the next cargo shipment docks at Port Louis. A logistics dispute has already created a shortage of 25kg flour sacks from the State Trading Corporation (STC), squeezing bakers from two directions. "A surge, not a domino effect," analyst Ibrahim Malleck said of the spreading ripple effects.

The government cushioned some of the blow. Around 60,000 households on the Social Register of Mauritius get an extra Rs 121 a month. The electricity hike exempts about 128,800 consumers, including social register households and small businesses. Cabinet also approved nine extra weekly flights for tourism, an SME relief package, a Crisis Solidarity Fund for vulnerable groups, and a Golden Visa scheme to attract wealthy investors.

The bakers accepted "under protest." Fourteen years waiting, and the number still fell short of what the industry wanted.

Chagos bill pulled from King's Speech after Trump's reversal

No Chagos bill will appear in King Charles's Speech next month. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer suspended the sovereignty transfer treaty after Donald Trump called it "an act of total weakness" and urged Starmer to walk away. The UK also lacks the formal letter from Washington the deal legally requires, and Parliament dissolves too soon to pass the necessary legislation.

No timeline. No Washington sign-off. Mauritius's Attorney General Ritesh Ramful was measured: "Mauritius will exclude no avenue, diplomatic or legal, to complete decolonisation." The deal sits in cold storage.

Ramgoolam opens 9th Indian Ocean Conference at Balaclava

Twenty-five countries gathered Friday at the InterContinental Resort for the 9th Indian Ocean Conference, co-hosted by Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam and Indian Foreign Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. The theme: Collective Stewardship of a shared ocean.

Ramgoolam told delegates: "We should not be lulled into complacency," a pointed remark given the Middle East conflict is already reshaping Indian Ocean shipping routes. The conference runs through Sunday. Opposition leader Pravind Jugnauth also met Dr Jaishankar separately on Friday, calling it "very cordial."

Interpol called in to find fugitive religious school leader

Police have initiated formal procedures with Interpol to locate Mufti Azhar Peerbocus, Acting Principal of the Tawfeeq Islamic school, who left Mauritius before prosecutors could file child abuse charges against him. Officers are simultaneously tracking two other fugitives: Angelo Thomas and Vida Loca.

India completes its gift of 100 electric buses to the NTC

India formally handed over 90 electric buses to the National Transport Corporation (NTC) at a ceremony in Rose Belle yesterday, completing a 100-bus donation. Dr Jaishankar symbolically passed the keys to PM Ramgoolam. Transport Minister Osman Mahomed confirmed bus ticket prices won't increase even as diesel costs climb.

📰️ SHORTS

Chikungunya count climbs – 67 new cases in 24 hours, bringing this year's total to 1,067 since January.

Taxi drivers take Alalia to court – 243 taxi drivers filed a Supreme Court challenge against the legality of the "Taxi by Alalia powered by Uber" platform.

FCC targets former regime figure – the Financial Crimes Commission (FCC) is investigating Vinash Gopee, a businessman linked to the previous government, over alleged financial crimes.

IBL joins the WFH push – following Mauritius Telecom, the IBL Group adopted three days of remote work per week amid the energy crisis.

Agéla's oil factory still dark – coconut oil equipment at Agéla, damaged by Cyclone Chido in December 2024, remains unrepaired 16 months on.

Rs 3.90 new price of pain maison. From Rs 2.60 this morning, the 100g loaf jumped 50%, ending a fourteen-year price freeze. Government cut its direct subsidy of Re 0.24 per loaf and trimmed flour subsidies, giving bakers a Rs 1.30 increase. Sixty thousand Social Register households receive an extra Rs 121 a month.

15% electricity tariff hike from May 1. Around 128,800 of Mauritius's 541,127 consumers are exempt, including social register households and small businesses. Decorative lighting, illuminated billboards, and inefficient commercial air conditioning face new usage restrictions. Government is fast-tracking 405 MW of new renewable energy projects.

USD 4,749 per ounce of gold, up 8.2% in the latest reading. Gold's surge tracks directly with war risk in the Middle East and a weakening dollar. For Mauritius, which imports almost everything, that level signals what's coming on shipping insurance and commodity costs. When gold moves this fast, imported goods prices tend to follow within weeks.

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Six terms, 97.8%: meet Djibouti's forever president

Ismaïl Omar Guelleh claimed a sixth consecutive presidential term in Djibouti on Saturday with 97.8% of the vote. His only opponent took the remaining 2.2%. Turnout was low.

Constitutional amendment last November quietly removed the upper age limit of 75 for presidential candidates, clearing Guelleh's path to stand again at 78. Djibouti sits at the mouth of the Red Sea, where France, the US, China, Japan, and Italy all base military forces, making its leader one of the most strategically valuable figures in African politics.

A sixth term. With 97.8%. Guelleh has now ruled Djibouti for longer than most of its citizens have been alive.

Russia and Ukraine halt for Orthodox Easter

A 32-hour truce between Russia and Ukraine began Saturday afternoon, covering 4pm Saturday through the end of Sunday. Moscow cited Orthodox Easter. Kyiv said it was ready to reciprocate, nobody is betting it holds.

Both sides were trading drone strikes right up to wire, with Russian drones hitting Sumy and Odesa just hours before the ceasefire began. US diplomats have been pushing the pause as a stepping stone toward a longer agreement.

Harry's own charity sues him for defamation

Sentebale, the charity Prince Harry co-founded in Lesotho to support young people living with HIV, filed a defamation lawsuit against him in London's High Court last month.

Harry stepped down as patron in 2025 alongside Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, after a very public falling-out with board chair Sophie Chandauka. Chandauka accused Harry of orchestrating a campaign to force her removal. A UK Charity Commission investigation found no systematic bullying but criticised both sides for publicly damaging the organisation. The case proceeds.

JD Vance arrives in Islamabad for landmark US-Iran talks

Day 43 of the US-Iran conflict, and the two sides finally sat across a table in Pakistan. Vice President JD Vance led the US delegation, joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Iran sent Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

Pakistan locked down its entire capital for the occasion. Schools closed. Pakistan sealed off Islamabad's red zone with military patrols at every checkpoint.

Iran came in with two firm demands: a parallel ceasefire in Lebanon to halt Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, and the immediate release of frozen Iranian assets held abroad. Trump told reporters Iran "has no cards," warned US warships are "reloaded" for strikes if talks fail, and pledged the Strait of Hormuz will reopen "regardless." Araghchi described the opening session as "cautiously promising."

Artemis II splashes down after first lunar flyby in 50 years

Four astronauts returned to Earth on Friday, completing the first crewed flyby of the Moon since the Apollo era. Among them: Christina Koch, the first woman to travel around the Moon; Victor Glover, the first Black astronaut to do so; and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, the first non-American on such a mission.

NASA called it "almost flawless." Getting to actually land on the Moon is considerably harder.

Can Péter Magyar end Orbán's 16-year run? Hungary votes Sunday

Can anything stop Viktor Orbán? Hungary finds out tomorrow. Opposition leader Péter Magyar's Tisza party is leading in several polls, and tens of thousands filled Budapest's Heroes' Square this week in anti-Orbán rallies.

Orbán's Fidesz party deployed AI-generated attack videos against Magyar in the campaign's closing days, with EU observers flagging widespread disinformation on TikTok and Facebook. Since 2010, Orbán has shaped Hungary into what the European Parliament calls a "hybrid regime of electoral autocracy," with close ties to Vladimir Putin complicating EU unity on Ukraine.

Uganda's chimps have been at war for eight years

A community of chimpanzees in Ngogo, Uganda, once known for its unusual size and relative peace, fractured about eight years ago. Since then, rival male factions have been running coordinated raids into each other's territory, carrying out ambushes and killing rivals.

Researchers describe the violence as strikingly organised: patrols into enemy territory, silence, coordinated attacks, rapid withdrawal. It is among the longest observed periods of intra-group chimpanzee conflict ever recorded.

The upside: no social media.