One of the most amazing experiences in 16 visits to the World Economic Forum in Davos was witnessing how the global elite was awed by former US president Donald Trump. Participants stood five-deep to catch a glimpse of the controversial businessman-turned-politician’s arrival. Silently straining ears to catch his greeting. Quite surreal. Trump is once again dominating headlines after this week’s issue of legal papers against Silicon Valley’s social media giants. He explains his reasoning in the Wall Street Journal this morning.
* Here in South Africa, it may have taken a quarter century but there’s now clear evidence rational South Africans have cottoned onto their country’s reality. RW Johnson’s follow-up on Politicsweb to yesterday’s brilliant treatise brutally unpacks how SA got here. On BizNews, Piet Viljoen explains why a rational approach to the true situation in his homeland also opens up opportunities.
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* When Discovery appointed Mark Tucker as its chairman, the globalising SA group acquired a heavyweight international leader plus an in-situ pair of eyes on its 25% Chinese associate Ping An Health. But with Beijing tightening its neck-lock on capitalists, Tucker, CEO of Hong Kong-based HSBC, is coming under fire for backing the wrong side. He is being accused of collaborating with Xi’s regime and “attacking democracy in Hong Kong” by, inter alia, freezing the accounts of pro-democracy activists.
* While evidence from the UK and Israel proves jabs make a dramatic difference to Covid mortalities, our family is among thousands in South Africa who know first-hand that vaccines are not absolute protection. Especially against the Delta variant running rampant in right now, not just in SA. It is starting to worry Americans where they has been a significant increase in hospitalisations. On the plus side, Pfizer has asked US regulators to approve a vaccine booster which specifically addresses Delta. Click here for the story in today’s Wall Street Journal. Also from our partners this morning is a report confirming that the risk of children under 18 dying from Covid is virtually non-existent – now quantified at 0.005% which is even lower than previously thought.
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