--- title: "While you were sleeping: 23rd February 2017" description: "NASA makes major announcement, Ranjeni Munsamy to interview Mncebisi Jonas, and Mexico says no to Trump policies." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "Newsdeck" author: "John Stupart" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/johnstupart/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-02-23-while-you-were-sleeping-23rd-february-2017/" published: "2017-02-23T05:57:45" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 761 --- # While you were sleeping: 23rd February 2017 > NASA makes major announcement, Ranjeni Munsamy to interview Mncebisi Jonas, and Mexico says no to Trump policies. By John Stupart · Published 23 February 2017, 07:57 SAST ## Content **Thursday, 23rd February 2017** *“You can tell how smart people are by what they laugh at.”* **Tina Fey** ![Image](https://i2.createsend1.com/ei/d/D3/746/E93/csimport/849x493q70Ranjeni-Budget2017-analysis1.051432.jpg) STORY OF THE DAY [Pravin’s World: A new moral vision and power play in a time of disorder](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-htdymd-l-u/) By RANJENI MUNUSAMY The 2017 Budget was extraordinary in various ways. In post democratic South Africa, never has the finance ministry been on such shaky political ground. Never has the National Treasury faced so much hostility from within the party that runs government. And never has there been so much global uncertainty, mostly due to a powerful new world order driven by irrationality, resentful of the poor and marginalised, and driving humanity to turn on itself. South Africa’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan did not present a national budget as much as a new political vision. This is what makes him and his team so much more of a threat to those heavily invested in the current system. [Nasa discovers seven exoplanets](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-htdymd-l-o/) Nasa has revealed a stunning discovery: seven earth-sized, possibly habitable exoplanets. Situated in the Aquarius constellation, the discovery has been named as the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, after the TRAPPIST observatory. The discovery gives a very good justification for the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to take a closer look when it comes online in 2018. [DM knuckles down with Mcebisi Jonas on post-Budget analysis](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-htdymd-l-b/) Make sure today you don't miss Ranjeni Munusamy's interview with Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas at 11am today at UCT's Graduate School of Business. If you can't make it there, you can watch the live stream on Daily Maverick website, YouTube [here](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-htdymd-l-n/) and Facebook [here](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-htdymd-l-p/). [Mexico refuses to co-operate with Trump](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-htdymd-l-x/) Mexico's foreign minister has rejected Donald Trump's deportation policy, indicating that it won't take back deported immigrants. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray stated blunted on Wednesday: "We are not going to accept that because we don't have to and it is not in the interest of Mexico." It's not entirely clear that Mexico actually has to co-operate in Trump's ongoing immigration crusade. [US drops transgender student protections](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-htdymd-l-m/) Not to be wobbled by Mexico, the Trump administration has announced that it has overturned protections for transgender students. These allowed for the students to use whichever public school bathroom that they identified with. The move was a major failure by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who despite her profound inexperience for the job was a staunch pro-LGBT rights supporter. Now forced to sign off on this revocation, her principles appeared outweighed by her desire to hold office. — IN NUMBERS 28bn The amount in dollars that Bill Gates has given away since 2007. FACTS OF THE DAY Today in 1945 saw US Marines and a US Navy corpsman raise the infamous **flag atop Iwo Jima**. **Magenta has no physical wavelength.** It thus does not "exist", strictly speaking. Rather our brains are telling us that we are seeing "not green". 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