BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

EDITORIAL: Comair prepares to spread its wings again

With assets exceeding liabilities and an unbroken seven-decade record of grinding out profit, Comair always stood a better chance of emerging from business rescue than its state-owned counterpart. Even though shareholders such as Allan Gray will walk off with nothing, as they would have if the company was liquidated, the…

7 Sep 2020 1PM 4 min

Homage to Achmat Dangor

In Setswana we will say: Setlhare se segolo se ole. Dibaga tsa gauta di kgaogile. Achmat Dangor appreciated languages. He tried his hand at different languages even though he was nowhere near fluent. In his honour, we must make an effort to appreciate and learn our official languages. He understood…

7 Sep 2020 1PM 4 min

SA in a rough neighbourhood and virtually unarmed

A defence force is like insurance: asking for cover when the house is burning will not work; nor can an effective military be created when a threat appears. But threats can arise quickly. Consider the 1982 Falklands war, the 1991 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the 1996 Ugandan/Rwandan invasion of the…

7 Sep 2020 12PM 7 min

Saudi court sets aside death sentence for Khashoggi killers

Riyadh — A Saudi Arabian court on Monday jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years for the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, state media reported, four months after his family forgave his killers and enabled death sentences to be set aside. Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi…

7 Sep 2020 12PM 1 min

Brexit back in crisis over Boris Johnson’s plan to override parts of exit deal

London — Britain's divorce from the European Union veered into a new crisis on Monday after London signalled it could undermine the exit agreement with Brussels unless free trade terms are agreed by October. In yet another twist to the four-year saga since Britain voted to quit the EU, Prime…

7 Sep 2020 12PM 3 min

It’s worth losing votes on the basis of principle, Gwen Ngwenya says

The DA's head of policy, Gwen Ngwenya, says losing votes is an acceptable price to pay for the party sticking to its core principles. However, she added during a media briefing on Monday that there was no evidence that voters will not support the new policies the DA adopted during…

7 Sep 2020 11AM 3 min

The quarantine that Spain’s fruit-pickers never want to end

Juneda, Spain — Moroccan fruit-picker Abdelhak el Yakoubi was dizzy and aching when he arrived at La Manreana, a farm school in Spain that has been turned into a quarantine centre for agricultural workers with Covid-19. But less than a week later the burly 46-year-old was back on his feet…

7 Sep 2020 11AM 4 min

Covid-19 shows why clean air matters, but the cash to get it is wanting

Barcelona — Development funding for efforts to tackle air pollution falls far short of what is needed in a world where nine in 10 people breathe air that is damaging their health, a problem thrown into sharp focus by the pandemic, researchers said on Monday. A report released to mark…

7 Sep 2020 11AM 4 min

Russian officials meet Bashar al Assad over ways to revive Syrian economy

Moscow — Senior Russian officials held talks in Damascus on Monday with Syrian President Bashar al Assad, as the Syrian leader grapples with a crumbling economy that threatens to undermine military successes he has achieved with Moscow's help in a decade-long conflict. Russian deputy prime minister Yuri Borisov and foreign…

7 Sep 2020 10AM 2 min

SEATTLE TIMES: Distance students also need shots

Washington state officials’ decision not to enforce immunisation requirements for students learning remotely is a mistake that only postpones the inevitable. Far from simplifying matters, delaying verification of state-mandated inoculations until the resumption of in-person learning will complicate the return to school unnecessarily. Even before this unusual semester, Washington’s public…

7 Sep 2020 10AM 2 min

Seven Clicks stores damaged as EFF protests against inflammatory advert

Seven Clicks stores have been damaged on Monday after controversy regarding a hair care advert that was published on Clicks’ website. The advert depicted a black woman's hair as dry and damaged, while a white woman’s was labelled as dull and flat, then normal and fine. This comes as the…

7 Sep 2020 10AM 3 min

Danes consider move to electric cars

Copenhagen — Denmark has long sought to brand itself as one of the world’s greenest countries. So it may come as a surprise that it is also one of the most expensive places to buy Teslas and other electric cars. Under existing Danish law, a Tesla model 3 Long Range…

7 Sep 2020 10AM 2 min

Masked men abduct Belarusian protest leader

Moscow — Unidentified masked men seized prominent Belarusian protest leader Maria Kolesnikova in central Minsk on Monday morning and drove her off in a minivan, the Belarusian Tut.By media outlet cited a witness as saying. Kolesnikova, a member of the opposition co-ordination council, is the last of three woman politicians…

7 Sep 2020 9AM 3 min

Covid surge undermines plans to get UK economy back on track

London — Two of Boris Johnson’s senior ministers laid bare the competing pressures facing the British government as it attempts to drag the economy out of its worst recession in at least a century without triggering a new wave of coronavirus infections. Hours after foreign secretary Dominic Raab on Sunday…

7 Sep 2020 9AM 5 min

Clicks should know better than to show an insensitive advert

The potential strength of consumer activism spoke loud and clear in the 6% drop in the Clicks share price in the wake of the insulting hair products advert it posted on its website last week. It sends a clear message to corporations: sensitivity to your customers is key to your…

7 Sep 2020 8AM 5 min

Gender-sensitive budgeting helps adjust priorities to advance women’s rights

Gender equality has been a burning issue for some time, with little tangible progress made. In response to growing demands for justice, organisations, have become vocal in advocating against, and raising awareness around, social challenges that oppress women. Foremost of these challenges are the scourges of gender-based violence, femicide, patriarchy…

7 Sep 2020 8AM 5 min

Reserve Bank has policy space to cut interest rates, official says

The decline in inflation has created the policy space for the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates, a senior Bank official said on Monday. The Bank has cut the repo rate by 300 basis points to 3.5% so far in 2020. This was as inflation dropped and then rose again…

7 Sep 2020 8AM 2 min

Journalists caught in visa war between US and China

Beijing — Beijing has held off renewing the expiring media credentials of journalists at US media outlets, including Bloomberg, CNN and the Wall Street Journal, the news organisations reported, amid a tussle with Washington over journalist visas. The move comes as Chinese journalists in the US wait for their lapsed…

7 Sep 2020 7AM 2 min

Donald Trump denies disrespecting US troops

Washington — US President Donald Trump was on the defensive on Sunday over what critics said was a “pattern” of disrespect towards the US military following media reports that he had disparaged fallen veterans, the fallout from which could harm his campaign for re-election on November 3. Democratic and Republican…

7 Sep 2020 6AM 4 min

ALLAN GREENBLO: Did Mboweni think this one through?

With so much on the plate of finance minister Tito Mboweni, who is trying to generate a little warmth for the SA economy, it’s perhaps unavoidable that a few crumbs will fall off. One recently did. It relates to Mboweni’s appointment of Dube Tshidi to “perform the functions of commissioner”…

7 Sep 2020 6AM 5 min