Currency collusion scandal – the Great Global Bank Heist comes to South Africa

So here’s where President Zuma’s Bell Pottinger-drafted PR bilge has landed South Africans: White people love banks; black people hate banks; the state must develop its own bank(s) that will be owned by, and lend to, black people. (By which he means the Gupta Family)… dailymaverick.co.za/

Gupta-owned newspaper in line of fire of new Nielsen report

Data gathered by global market research firm Nielsen strongly suggests that the Gupta-owned The New Age newspaper benefits disproportionately from government advertising and that its main backers are provinces perceived as aligned with President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family. Media lawyers have warned that such bias could violate both the Public Finance Management Act and media freedom provisions in the Constitution… dailymaverick.co.za/

House of Cards: SAPS Major-General, a businesswoman, implicated in Life Esidimeni tragedy

Major-General Sandra Malebe-Thema, current head of SAPS Basic Police Development has been implicated in the Life Esidimeni scandal that led to the horror deaths of 100 vulnerable and dependent patients… dailymaverick.co.za/

The full Dentons report Eskom doesn’t want you to see

Eskom has stymied all requests for the notorious Dentons report for two years. After being misled by SA’s electricity parastatal about the status of the probe, the Financial Mail published the unsanitised version of one of the earliest versions of the Dentons report… businesslive.co.za/

SADTU: Mmusi Maimane wants to de-professionalise and police teachers like HF Verwoerd

SADTU has noted, with concern, the remarks by DA leader, Mmusi Maimane in his response to the State of the Nation Address on the 14th of February 2017. The DA leader in his speech made reference to SADTU and suggested that as a union, we were “destructive” in the sector. This rented DA leader went further to comment on education policy and suggested that under his party`s leadership, he would introduce a “National Education Inspectorate” whose main task would be to “police” teachers in an effort to curtail SADTU`s influence… sadtu.org.za/

INTERNATIONAL

Never again! No Muslim internment

Most people don’t know where Rohwer, Ark. or Tule Lake, Calif. are located. I do. My parents’ families were interned in both those concentration camps during World War II. The U.S. government rounded up and jailed 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans for “posing a threat to national security.” The government knew there was no threat, but needed a scapegoat to rile up war hysteria… socialism.com/

Trump Can’t Stop the Globalization of Work—the Internet Will See to That

Donald Trump is promising to make America great again by keeping others out. That approach is already undermining the smidgen of tentative good will he had enjoyed from the tech industry. As a strategy for keeping jobs in the US, it’s also fatally flawed. Turns out that in a world connected by the internet, isolationism is just a glitch in the network that the system—in this case, the global economy—routes around… wired.com/

Welcome to the new dark ages, where only the wealthy can retire

It’s almost too easy to imagine the scenario. After spending most of our adult life in paid employment, the golden day arrives. A well-earned retirement. Suddenly we’re released from the grip of office email and that long commute. Finally we can enjoy our remaining time on Earth pursuing those interests we’d never had time for… Sadly, this probably won’t be your future … unless you’re independently wealthy… theguardian.com/

PALESTINE

ITUC Solidarity with Bongani Masuku. On trial for supporting the Palestinian Struggles

The International Trade Union Confederation [ITUC] stands in solidarity with Bongani Masuku, the International Relations Secretary of COSATU, who is facing a trial before the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg today, 14 February 2017… wwmp.org.za/

Israel minister calls for mass expulsion of Palestinian-Israelis

Israel’s minister of defence has said all Palestinian-Israelis should relocate to the West Bank so as to create an ethnically pure Jewish state… alaraby.co.uk/

Israeli torture of Palestinian children ‘institutional’

…Shin Bet interrogators subject their prisoners to torture. Methods include slapping the head “to hurt sensitive organs like the nose, ears, brow and lips”, forcing a handcuffed individual to squat against a wall for long periods of time, and placing the suspect bent backwards over a chair with his arms and legs cuffed… aljazeera.com/

More than half of NFL players booked for Israel PR trip withdraw

The Israeli government has suffered an embarrassing blow after it emerged that only five of 11 NFL players turned up for an all-expenses paid PR trip organised to improve Israel’s image… theguardian.com/