Newsdeck
While you were sleeping: 30 March 2017
Britain begins Brexit unravelling, Trump hires daughter in White House, and PwC spared Oscars firing.
Thursday, 30 March 2017
“Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back! Surely, comrades.”
George Orwell
Ahmed Kathrada could not have scripted his send-off any better. The planet seemed to pause on its axis as he disappeared into the red earth after a spectacular farewell that will be a marker in South Africa’s history. As his favoured son, former President Kgalema Motlanthe said in his eulogy, “for better or for worse, what he stood for never changed according to the fluidities of history”. In death, as throughout his life, Kathrada was a revolutionary and an activist. His funeral opened a new struggle for the liberation of his country, and in his name, another evil system must and will fall.
With the Brexit notice now in EU hands, British lawmakers have begun the tedious task of unravelling its own legislative framework from the EU’s. That said, Theresa May also noted an emphasis would be on then reintegrating itself into EU law thereafter. May had taken a reconciliatory tone on Wednesday evening, shying away from her talk of “no deal is better than a bad deal”. Some deal, apparently, is better is than no deal now.
Ivanka Trump takes unpaid job in White House
President Donald Trump’s daughter is now an adviser to the president. Joining her husband Jared Kushner, a senior aide to her father, the pair apparently have successfully dodged federal anti-nepotism laws. Trump (senior) argued that working for the executive meant that such laws don’t apply. Because in some cases in politics, a mild case of nepotism is evidently A-Okay.
US diplomat arrested for China links
Candace Marie Claiborne, a 60-year-old career diplomat, has been arrested over her long-standing relationship of feeding intelligence to two Chinese spies. Claiborne allegedly took bribes, electronics and various other perks in exchange for information. Nearly half the fraudulent loot from the Chinese pair went to Claiborne’s partner, who evidently had his fashion school tuition and vacations paid for by Beijing.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has been spared the chop after its inglorious mess-up at this year’s Oscars. The awards organisation announced that PwC’s “services” would be retained following a serious review. Major revisions will be included in PwC’s oversight process, including most critically the banning of electronic devices, and tweeting, by its auditors backstage.
IN NUMBERS
3.6
The average times higher drunk driving fatality rate which “dry” countries – where no alcohol is sold – experience.
FACTS OF THE DAY
Today in 1981 Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest by John Hinckley Jr.
Asparagus has a higher carbon footprint than pork or veal (per kg)
FEATURED ARTICLES
Interview: Eskom’s chief nuclear officer on renewed interest in the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor
BY CHRIS YELLAND & PIERRE POTGIETER
OPINIONISTAS
For renewal and relevance, let’s shine a light into the dark corners of the soul of the ANC
A column by JESSIE DUARTE
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