--- title: "While you were sleeping: 15 December 2017" description: "Net neutrality rolled back, school bus crash in France kills 4, and Airbus lands massive order with Delta." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "South Africa" author: "John Stupart" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/johnstupart/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-12-15-while-you-were-sleeping-15-december-2017/" published: "2017-12-15T05:29:54" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 785 --- # While you were sleeping: 15 December 2017 > Net neutrality rolled back, school bus crash in France kills 4, and Airbus lands massive order with Delta. By John Stupart · Published 15 December 2017, 07:29 SAST ## Content **TGIF, 15 December 2017** *“Look... to go through life and call it yours - your life - you first have to get your own pain. Pain that's unique to you. You can't just dip into the common bin and say 'That's enough!'...”* **Peter Shaffer** ![Image](https://i2.createsend1.com/ei/d/5F/292/052/csimport/849x493q70Poplak-abouttime1.050527.jpg) STORY OF THE DAY [TRAINSPOTTER: About time – the ANC’s fight to the death is finally upon us](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-uutrwy-l-x/) By RICHARD POPLAK One hundred and six years of history have nudged the African National Congress towards this moment, their very own Battle of Helm’s Deep, where all of the organisation’s internal contradictions – to say nothing of the terrible legacy of South Africa itself – will play out over the course of five long days (if we’re lucky). South Africans have been in the midst of this war for so long that perspective is nearly impossible – the ruckus has stolen our brains. At the core of this melee is the Congress’s failure to construct a cohesive, comprehensive nation out of the ruins of apartheid. And in the middle of the molten jumble, we find Jacob Zuma, post-apartheid South Africa’s emblematic figure. (You thought that was Nelson Mandela? Nah.) What happens to Zuma and his faction this weekend determines not just the future of the party, but of the country. WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING [Net Neutrality dies a slow, lobby-infested death](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-uutrwy-l-m/) A proposal by Republican Ajit Pai to roll back Obama-era restrictions on what ISPs can do to the internet in America has been passed. With net neutrality now dead on the floor, ISPs have zero incentive not to throttle, degrade, paywall or generally screw with their consumers. Pai published perhaps the single-most condescending video in reaction to the rollback, showing if anything that American liberties seem to be dying not with a bang, but with a disappointing, turpid whimper. [Train collision with school bus in France killed four](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-uutrwy-l-c/) Four children have been killed and 20 injured in a tragic accident in southern France. A train collided with the rear of a school bus in Milas, near the Spanish border. Severed in two, 95 rescue workers rush to the bus' wreckage. Both bus and train driver are being questioned, tested for alcohol and drugs, and an investigation was launched immediately. [Similar solar system discovered by AI](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-uutrwy-l-q/) An artificial intelligence has discovered a solar system with as many planets as our own. NASA's Kepler telescope and the AI uncovered the eight planet system orbiting a star named Kepler 90, 2,545 light years away. It is not expected that any of the planets would be habitable. [Delta makes massive Airbus order](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-uutrwy-l-a/) Delta Airlines has ordered 100 Airbus A321neo aircraft in a deal worth over $12 billion. The order for the new aircraft, to be delivered from 2020-2023, looks set to ruin rival Boeing's day. Boeing had previously launched a trade dispute with Delta, quite possibly souring the aerospace milk in the process. — IN NUMBERS 1 The number of submarines sunk while submerged by another submarine. FACTS OF THE DAY **Today is International Tea Day.**Unless you live in Boston. **Wild rats** still enjoying running wheels. 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