By Alec Hogg
In today’s global business headlines:
- Pound Sterling gained more than one percent against the US Dollar yesterday after fears of a No Deal Brexit evaporated. It followed British prime minister Theresa May telling parliament if her reworked Brexit proposal did not pass on March 12, MPs would be given the option of voting to extend the EU divorce deadline beyond the current March 29. Her announcement puts pressure on her own Conservative Party rebels, the hardliners who voted with the opposition to inflict a humiliating defeat of Mrs May’s proposal last month. They will now have to decide whether to back their leader or face the possible abortion of the entire Brexit project. This comes after the opposition Labour Party said on Monday it would support a second Brexit referendum which opinion polls suggest would result in Britons choosing this time to remain in the EU.
- On the other side of the Atlantic, US president Donald Trump is about to be publicly accused of criminal conduct by his long-time lawyer and confidant Michael Cohen. The Wall Street Journal quotes sources close to the action who say in his appearance before the House Oversight Committee today, Cohen will confirm the president ordered hush money payments to a porn star and a Playboy model who threatened to go public about affairs at a critical stage of the 2016 presidential election. Cohen, who has been sentenced to three years in prison, will also make public Trump’s private financial statements showing how figures were manipulated to avoid tax and another criminal offence. The White House has branded Cohen “a disgraced felon”.
- Pop star Michael Jackson’s “Neverland” ranch, where he lived for 15 years, is now being offered for sale at an almost 70% discount to the $100m it was listed at in 2015. The asking price was dropped to $67m two years ago, but with not so much as a nibble, the property is now back on the market at a relatively modest $31m. Neverland boasts a 1,100 square metre home on over 1,000 landscaped hectares. It is 40km from Santa Barbara in California and boasts multiple guesthouses, a train station, basketball court and spectacular gardens. Despite the lower price, there is unlikely to be a rush of buyers. This week US movie channel HBO plans to air a documentary entitled “Leaving Neverland” making fresh allegations against Jackson, who died ten years ago.
- In South African related news, well sort of, the country’s most famous entrepreneurial export Elon Musk yesterday slammed the US’s Securities and Exchange Commission after it accused him of breaking an agreement made last year. The SEC claims that tweets posted by Musk last week around Tesla’s 2019 production volumes were in contempt of the ruling to prevent him distributing share price-sensitive information. Musk responded by saying “something is broken with SEC oversight” and that it was the Commission’s complaint about him, rather than his tweet itself, which moved the market. A federal judge has given Musk two weeks to explain himself.
Visited 58 times, 1 visit(s) today
