our next story is about Africa and a battle taking place over the continent a shadowy battle for influence now as most of you know Africa suffered under European colonization it was known as a Scramble for Africa the continent was carved up by Western powers and mercilessly exploited even today the scars of that colonization are very visible but before the Old Wounds could fully heal a new scramble has already begun the key players are Russia China and the US they're not looking to colonize Africa this time what they are doing is expanding their influence by offering economic assistance it's an old trick come in with Promises of Aid and then stick around for the resources the entire African continent has seen this before but they clearly haven't learned from history this week the US sealed two deals in two different corners of the continent Tanzania in the East and Ghana in the west let's start by looking at Tanzania it is in East Africa the largest city there is Dar Salam it is home to the nation's largest port in fact it is Africa's fourth largest port on the Indian Ocean Side making it extremely important for trade and the US wants to take advantage of this so it is offered to pay $250 million to develop a railway line through Tanzania now a quarter of a billion dollars is no joke so why is the us being so generous two reasons first it will help American Trade why the lito corridor lito is a port city on the other side of Africa in Angola the US is developing a port there too and creating a rail Corridor that begins there this Railway line will pass through four African nations Angola the Democratic Republic of Congo Zambia and then finally Tanzania the corridor will cut through the entire African continent connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans and that's not all it will also link ports with mines the ports of lito and Dar Salam with mines in the DRC and Zambia now when you join the dots what do you see a grand plan to exploit Africa's mineral wealth this is America's plan and tan and Tanzania was the last part of the puzzle hence the $250 million investment this is the first reason the second reason is the scramble the Scramble for influence in Africa and here the US is competing with China China already has a strong presence in the region it has multiple mines in Zambia it is also investing in Railway stations and Renovations so the US is basically playing catchup and with this latest move Washington will be hoping to one up Beijing how will China respond well it already has you see for years China was pouring money all over Africa approving loans worth over $10 billion every year but those loans dried up they were on the decline since 2016 but recently that trend has changed a new study is out it says last year China increased its lending to Africa it is definitely wary about losing influence meanwhile the US is doubling down on its Africa plans I mentioned their second victory in Ghana look at this press release from the US state department it announces a landmark commercial agreement with Ghana for a small nuclear reactor project now Ghana has been trying to get a nuclear reactor for a while now and it has been weighing up offers from five countries China South Korea France Russia and the US companies from these five countries were bidding for the contract now it seems the American company has won the agreement was signed yesterday this is a major win for the US it has been lagging behind in African in the African new nuclear race it's been losing out to Russia in a number of countries at one point Moscow looked unbeatable in Africa but now Washington has pulled off an upset Russia and China won't take this line down though Beijing is already handing out more loans Moscow may take similar actions the only thing we can say for sure is that the new Scramble for Africa is on climate change is on our doorstep it's time for a revolution to take Route and it starts with 1.4 billion Indians it starts with one tree one tree for Humanity one tree for Mother Earth one tree for a future project one tree a news 18 Network initiative [Music] on T20 World Cup bang move across to the West IND e and expect hello I'm Alex coming to you from South Africa today we have a special we start with an report on India for the first time off hello and welcome to First H America I'm Eric ham coming to you live from the nation's capital in Washington DC