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While you were sleeping: 21st February 2017
Trump names new adviser, plane crashes in Melbourne shopping mall, and gene editing to carve a future in livestock.
FIRST THING with JOHN
Tuesday, 21st February 2017
“If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.”
Cardinal Richelieu
STORY OF THE DAY
House of Cards: Did SAPS Commissioner Phahlane mislead Parliament?
By MARIANNE THAMM
The fallout surrounding acting police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane, who is being investigated by IPID on charges of defeating the ends of justice and possible corruption related to his R8-million home, continues. Did Phahlane mislead Parliament when he claimed he did not know IPID was investigating him and also when he stated that a CPN independent forensic report into corruption while he headed SAPS forensic division had “cleared him of all wronging”? There is much still to be unpacked in the CPN report including an illicit birthday party thrown for Phahlane in 2009 and involving Major-General Sandra
Trump names new national security adviser
A week-long scramble by President Donald Trump to elect a new national security adviser has yielded Army Lieutenant General HR McMaster with the top job. Seen as an outspoken revisionist, McMaster has been scathing of America’s handling of the Vietnam war. How he handles the 21st century, however, remains to be seen.
Aircraft
A light aircraft has crashed into a shopping mall in Melbourne, exploding into a “massive fireball” according to eyewitnesses. The Beechcraft plane veered sharply after take-off today at the Essendon Fields airport. All five passengers on board are believed dead.
Mugabe turns 93, vows to rule on
Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe has turned 93 today while remaining insistent that he will rule on. Mugabe will spend the day in a private Harare ceremony, possibly rejuvenating in Darth Vader’s own personal meditation chamber. State media, meanwhile, are expected to festoon the headlines with optimism.
Gene editing a possible future for agriculture
The use of gene editing is now being seriously considered in American agriculture, particularly for livestock. Scientists announced their belief that the cutting edge form of biotechnology could help create supremely efficient livestock breeding methods. Fewer cows producing more milk — and producing less methane — is one example mentioned. In the not-so-far distance: the rattle of pitchforks and the whiff of flaming torches.
IN NUMBERS
1.8 million
The number of deaths believed to have been prevented by reduced coal power usage due to the advent of nuclear power production.
FACTS OF THE DAY
Today is International Mother Language Day.
There is a video game called Lose/lose, where the player has a random file deleted every time they kill an enemy.
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