Índice para 2023-11-13 em Mercury

THE SOUTH Africa Israel Chamber of Commerce (Saicc) has warned that the US government could remove South Africa from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) due to the country’s stance on the ongoing geopolitical conflicts. Saicc on Friday said that it was concerned that the South African government’s decision to depart from its policy of non-alignment and openly side with Russia and more recently, Iran, could have a negative impact on its relationship with the US. Agoa is currently valid until 2025, but its extension depends on opinions within the US Congress. “We speak on behalf of a group of prominent South African business leaders and urge President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister (of International Relations) Naledi Pandor to reassess the situation as a matter of urgency, in light of…

OIL PRICES gained about 2% on Friday as Iraq voiced support for Opec+’s oil cuts ahead of a meeting in two weeks and as some speculators covered massive short positions ahead of weekend uncertainty. Still, prices settled with weekly losses of 4%, their third straight weekly decline. “This was the perfect technical storm. We came into this week with an almost record short position and now we’re seeing some short covering going into the weekend,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group. Flynn noted that in addition to Iraq’s comments, Saudi Arabia and Russia confirmed this week that they would continue oil output cuts through to year end. In the US, energy firms cut the number of oil rigs operating for a second week in a row to…

THE eThekwini Municipality’s consumer debt continues to increase and it is now standing at close to R27 billion. However, the City said there was no reason for alarm. The report detailing the City’s finances ending in September showed the debt was R27bn – an increase of R5.6bn from the same period last year and R2bn more than in June this year. But in response to questions, the municipality said the picture had changed marginally because some parastatals that had contributed to the debt were now up to date. The September report had shown that parastatals were contributing around R354 million to the debt, with Transnet owing R271m and Prasa owing R41m. “We do not discuss customer-related matters with a third party. However, the response is positive among some. Transnet is…

I WAS, if I am brutally honest, more than just a little miffed to read (The Mercury, November 10) that a chap named Patrick Dempsey has been voted Sexiest Man of the Year by People Magazine, which leads to the inescapable conclusion that my own entry has somehow been mislaid by the judges. I rushed to the bathroom mirror and was relieved to see that my redeeming features are all still present and correct: the roguish good looks, the hint of a smile flickering across sensuous lips, the laugh lines (uncharitably referred to by my late wife as vulture’s claws) accentuating my piercing brown eyes. Why, in a romance novel, I would undoubtedly be called Miles Standish. And then there’s the wheelchair. Not, I’ll grant you, everybody’s favourite fashion accessory,…

While the rise in malaria cases is of great concern (The Mercury, November 8), what may be more alarming is the malaria vaccine being promoted by the Gates Foundation. On October 9 the Gates Foundation announced that it had funded the development by BioNTech of an mRNA-based (Messenger RiboNucleic Acid) malaria vaccine. This development has been hailed by the WHO as a promising advance in combating malaria which claimed the lives of 600 000 children last year. Whether this vaccine is successful in reducing malaria cases remains to be seen. But of its side-effects there is no doubt. Mounting information about the life-threatening effects of mRNA should alert health authorities against promoting it. Here’s why: Canada’s Health Authority has confirmed DNA contamination in mRNA vaccines which modify the human…

The Chief of the SA Navy, Vice-Admiral Monde Lobese, has accepted the request to extend the board of inquiry (BoI) into the fatal incident out at sea which claimed the lives of three SA Navy sailors in September. The inquiry was expected to be completed this week. Acting senior staff officer for Navy public relations, Commander Theo Mabina, said the authorisation to postpone the outcome was agreed to. “Following a fatal incident out at sea off Kommetjie near Cape Town on September 20, 2023 that claimed the lives of three SA Navy sailors, a board of inquiry was instituted to investigate all events that led to the tragic incident,” he said. “The board of inquiry has requested an extension of the time allocated in order to successfully complete its work.…

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has proposed new measures aimed at strengthening the laws around the granting of citizenship, immigration and refugee permits in the country. Yesterday the minister released the proposed White Paper on the draft policy framework on citizenship for public comment. He said the aim of the White Paper was to provide a framework for granting residency to foreign nationals while also dealing with the protection of refugees and asylum seekers. Addressing the media, the minister gave some details of the proposed policy, saying section 4.3 of the Citizenships Act must be repealed to give way for inclusive legislation that deals with immigration, citizenship and refugee protection. “The current SA Citizenship Act is a relic of the colonial era and a replica of the 1949 Citizenship…

Counselling is being offered to traumatised students after a University of Western Cape (UWC) student allegedly stabbed a fellow student at her South Point residence at the weekend. Footage widely shared on social media shows the perpetrator stabbing the woman, who is reportedly his wife and a student at the neighbouring Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Police said a 30-year-old man was arrested and is now under police guard in hospital. “Belhar police registered an attempted murder case following a stabbing on Saturday at a student accommodation in Belhar, where a 26-year old female student was injured. “The injured victim was transported to a nearby medical facility for treatment.” CPUT spokesperson Lauren Kansley said: “The incident happened at a privately owned residence. The female student sustained serious injuries and…

ABOUT 1.3 million children globally die every year due to diseases related to poor hygiene practices, according to the World Health Organization. More than 60 percent or at least 800 000 of these are children under the age of 5. Simply put, these deaths occur as a result of not washing hands with soap and water. If nothing drastic is done, this number could rise in the next coming years. The question is why is this happening when the recent outbreak of the Covid pandemic taught us that washing hands with soap and water can prevent the spread of diseases? The answer to that is simple. We don’t integrate enough of our efforts to increase awareness about the importance of hand washing as one of the most effective strategies for…

San Francisco, with a population of about 810 000 people, has a homeless population exceeding 7 000. Encampments and open-air drug markets have crowded some city streets, tarnishing the city’s reputation around the world. One of the most expensive cities in the US is moving homeless people and destroying their encampments in an attempt to clean the parts of the city that will host more than 20 world leaders for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Week 2023 summit that kicked off on Saturday. According to reports describing the raids, officials are targeting several areas in the SoMa district of San Francisco, sometimes asking the homeless not to return until after the conference is over and utilising “night ambassadors” to keep the area clear. US President Joe Biden and Chinese…

TerminallY ill British girl Indi Gregory had her life support removed yesterday after the 8-year-old’s parents lost their legal battle to have her moved to Italy for treatment, according to charity Christian Concern. The emotive case is the latest in Britain pitting parents against the country’s legal and health-care systems. Baby Indi was born on February 24 and diagnosed with mitochondrial disease, a genetic condition that prevents cells in the body producing energy. There is no cure and her parents, Claire Staniforth and Dean Gregory, wanted her to be treated at the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu hospital. But a British court ruled against transferring her despite the government in Rome awarding her citizenship. Her father, Dean Gregory, said his daughter was “fighting hard” despite no longer being on life support and…

Dhaka: Hundreds of Bangladeshi garment workers rallied yesterday, demanding fair wages after dis-missing a pay offer as too small, as the death toll from the violent protests last month rose to four. Bangladesh has been rocked by the worst labour unrest in a decade with tens of thousands of workers clashing with police, demanding a near-tripling of the minimum wage to 23 000 taka (about R3 900). Scores of factories have been damaged. Bangladesh’s 3 500 garment factories account for about 85% of its $55 billion in annual exports, supplying many of the world’s top brands including Levi’s, Zara and H & M. But conditions are dire for many of the 4 million workers. | AFP…

Sydney: Ports operator DP World said yesterday it had made “significant strides” to resuming normal freight trade at major gateways into Australia, crippled for two days by a cyber incident. Government agencies held crisis talks at the weekend in response to a “serious and ongoing” breach that has disrupted operations at key ports. “DP World manages almost 40% of the goods flowing in and out of our country,” Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil said. The port operator halted internet connectivity at its terminals in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle on Friday to prevent “any ongoing unauthorised access” to its network. | AFP…

Quantum Foods Holdings said on Friday that the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak will push the company into the red in the year to September 30. The company, the largest egg producer in South Africa and an animal feed and poultry product producer for several African markets, had said in September that an HPAI outbreak had been detected at several of its farms in Gauteng and in North West Province, but at that point the full financial impact on the company was unknown. At that stage, the outbreak appeared to be confined to the northern parts of the country, and Quantum’s farms in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape were unaffected. By that time, the financial impact was expected to be at least a 100 percent decline in headline…

RICHEMONT shares tumbled 5.5% on Friday after the Cartier owner reported a 2% slow-down in operating profit from continuing operations for the half year to end September, a period in which the company faced “uncertain macroeconomic and political environment” and “adverse foreign currency movements” in some of its major markets. Operating profit at ¤2.7 billion (about R54bn) for the six months was 2% lower compared to the year earlier, on an actual exchange rate basis, although this was 15% firmer on constant exchange rate basis. Stronger sales and gross profit that was up by 5% for the period, coupled with controlled operating expenses, was not enough to stem the slide in operating profit at actual exchange rates for the company. Against the backdrop of stronger capital expenditure of €378…

THE CONTINUING dissonance of priorities in South Africa begs a number of questions that remain unanswered. It raises a deep-seated concern of the extent to which the Constitution manages to define who a person referred to as a South African should be. To date, using the lens of priorities, South Africa seems to be a country at odds with itself, where the urgent have mutated in a violent way to become important. The urgent is what now drives policy and national psyche, leaving the triple challenge in the back banner. It is now common cause that for attention to a problem to be raised, deterioration on a path should reach rock bottom. This practice has become a national pastime and has become what frames and informs our priorities. A non-issue…

Congestion at South African ports is having a severe impact on the shipping industry with two major companies now taking action in a bid to recover losses. Shipping company Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) recently announced that it was imposing a congestion surcharge for cargo from any destination, except east and west Africa, to all South African ports. MSC said the congestion in South African ports was generating difficult conditions to operate and therefore the surcharge was to be applied from December. “As from December 3, 2023 (bill of lading date) onwards, the CGS (congestion surcharge) will be charged (at) $210/TEU (about R3 900) for dry cargoes only.” It has also been reported that shipping company Maersk will be implementing a congestion fee destination for all dry containers, excluding those…

Four people were arrested in Sea Point, Cape Town, yesterday, when pro-Palestine and pro-Israel supporters confronted each other on the promenade. Hundreds of police officers formed a barrier between the pro-Palestine and pro-Israeli supporters. But scuffles broke out and pro-Palestine supporters were seen in confrontations with police. The pro-Israel supporters had arranged for a “Prayer for Israel” gathering. In response, thousands of pro-Palestine protesters gathered at the same venue, to counter demonstrate. As outbreaks of violence increased, the pro-Israeli group moved their gathering to a different area. The pro-Palestine protesters remained in the presence of five nyalas, dozens of police vehicles, and hundreds of police. Several police removed Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education member and former head of the Parliamentary Protection Services Zelda Holtzman. She was manhandled and her cellphone…

LAST Wednesday, Deputy President Paul Mashatile appeared before Parliament to answer questions about the criminal justice system. Mashatile was evasive, as usual. When asked if he’s happy with Bheki Cele’s performance as a minister of police, he said he’s satisfied with the minister’s performance. In other words, he is saying Cele is doing well in terms of combating crime. I’m sure Mashatile lives under a rock. In South Africa, crime has spiralled out of control. Criminals are doing as they please. Even the police are afraid of them. If this is a good performance of a police minister, then I don’t know what good performance is. But the truth is Cele’s performance is lukewarm. Recently, Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chukunga was robbed and the guns of her bodyguards were stolen. That’s…

A LITTLE book comes this way, titled Between You and I: A little Book of Bad English. It’s written by Penguin editor James Cochrane and deserves to be read by every journalist, newsreader and pontificator. It catalogues the linguistic/grammatical horrors that are being perpetrated these days in English usage. Take the word “decimation” (sportswriters, please note) that is often used to denote total defeat. Actually it means “one in 10” or 10% loss. “Decimate. The word is obviously related to decimal, both being based on the Latin word for number 10. “The ancient Romans dealt with mutiny or cowardice in the army by selecting one man in 10, chosen by lot, for punishment that normally meant death.” Yes, I recall a cartoon that showed the Roman army drawn up in…

A wife who made it clear that she was not prepared to tighten her belt, pending the divorce between herself and her husband because she was accustomed to a certain lifestyle, has turned to court to demand the husband pay her R84 000 a month in maintenance. She told the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, that her husband and the new love in his life lived a good life, while she struggled to make ends meet. During their marriage, she was used to eating out at restaurants and going on local and overseas holidays. She was not about to give that up, she said. As such, the wife said she needed R84 000 a month, pending their divorce. She also wanted R180 000 in arrears maintenance. When they had broken up,…

More than 15 000 adoptions have taken place in South Africa in the past decade. November is World Adoption Month. The National Adoption Coalition of SA said that, according to the UN, an estimated 260 000 adoptions take place worldwide each year. The coalition said that, based on statistics from the Department of Social Development, 15 068 adoptions were registered in South Africa from April 2010 to March 2020. Many South African children grow up in families that face poverty, exposure to domestic violence, neglect, abuse, exploitation, lack of parental care, abandonment, unplanned crisis pregnancies, substance abuse and mental health issues. Katinka Pieterse, chairperson of the coalition and CEO of Abba Specialist Adoptions and Social Services, said these children “should be entitled to responsive services to protect them and…

RESIDENTS living in the South Durban Basin area may finally get some relief from the traffic congestion and other issues brought on by the influx of trucks in the area. The DA, through a motion tabled during a council meeting last Thursday, called for more law-enforcement officials to be deployed to the area. The motion was supported unanimously. The sponsor of the motion, councillor Gavin Hegter, said the party was pleased with the support. The party’s motion requested the council to increase the number of metro police officers in the Clairwood trucking unit, increase the number of metro police vehicles, and to approach the KZN Department of Transport for additional enforcement agents stationed around the Durban harbour. It also called on the City to urgently finalise a metro police…

THE Eastern Cape Education Department has confirmed that a case has been opened with the police in which it is alleged that seven boys, aged 10 to 13, raped three girls under the age of 10 at a school in the province. Eastern Cape Education Department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said the department had enlisted the assistance of counsellors after the incident. “A case has been opened with the police and the department has instituted an investigation to determine the extent of the situation, so that a sanction can be equivalent to the extent of the crime committed. “We want to call on parents to work with us so issues of this nature are reported.” Javu Baloyi, spokesperson for the Commission for Gender Equality, said violence begets violence. “Children are witnessing…

THE glaring inconsistencies in how the law-enforcement agencies and financial regulators have treated President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm break-in saga are too obvious to dispute. Take the recent arrests of the three suspected thieves by the Hawks to illustrate our argument. The breakthrough is commendable, but neither Ramaphosa nor those he tasked with running the farm reported a case of theft and break-in to the police when the incident took place in early 2020. Only after former State Security head Arthur Fraser blew the lid two years later about the theft of US dollars stashed in furniture at Phala Phala was a case reported to the police. Subsequently, the Hawks took over the investigation. Months later, we have arrests and the accused must now answer to charges. Equally and…

As the world’s nations enter another round of talks this week on creating a first-ever treaty to contain plastic pollution, officials are bracing for tough negotiations over whether to limit the amount of plastic being produced or to focus on the management of waste. Working with a document called a “zero draft” that lists possible policies and actions, national delegates to the weeklong meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, will be debating which of those options to include in what eventually would become a legally binding treaty by the end of 2024, officials said. “We are at a pivotal moment,” said David Azoulay of the Center for International Environmental Law who is an observer to the negotiations. The world is currently producing about 400 million metric tons of plastic waste every year,…

LONDON: Idris Elba is releasing a rap track to raise money for knife crime charities. The actor has recorded a video in East London for the single Knife Bill, which sees him take aim at politicians for their lack of action on the issue. Idris has been calling for harsher measures against knife crime after 15-year-old Elianne Andam was stabbed to death in the city in September. Elba, 51, said: “It is a shame our country still mourns the deaths of children at the hands of knives. “We need to enforce tougher deterrents and punishments to those carrying weapons.” Elba previously discussed getting youngsters involved in boxing in his TV series Idris Elba’s Fight School. | Bang Show…

Bangkok: A Myanmar military jet has crashed in the east of the country where fighting is ongoing, the junta said yesterday, with anti-coup fighters claiming they had shot it down. The country has been riven by conflict since the 2021 military coup, with multiple armed ethnic groups battling the junta on different fronts. In the last two weeks fighting has intensified in northern Shan state, near the Chinese border, in what analysts say poses the biggest military challenge to the generals since they seized power. The light fighter jet, carrying two pilots, came down on Saturday between the eastern Kayin and Kayah states. | AFP…

EASTERN Platinum said Friday that it intends to raise capital for its projects following a sharp surge in revenues in the third quarter from its chrome mining operations. Revenue increased by a massive 505.6% to $21.8 million ($3.6m) in its third quarter to September 30, with the year-on-year increase driven mainly by an increase in chrome prices. Year-to-date (YTD) revenue increased 94% to $80.5m from $41.5m, the miner said on Friday in a statement about its third quarter results. “Although chrome production decreased this quarter, we are still encouraged by revenue generated from the tailings storage facility. “As we have started blasting activities at the Zandfontein underground section of the Crocodile River Mine, (CRM) we expect to process the underground ore in the first quarter of 2024,” chief executive…

IN HIS FAMOUS “I am an African” speech, former president Thabo Mbeki says: “I owe my being to the Khoi and the San, whose desolate souls haunt the great expanses of the beautiful Cape, they who fell victim to the most merciless genocide our native land has ever seen, they who were the first to lose their lives in the struggle to defend our freedom and independence and they who, as a people, perished in the result. “Today, as a country, we keep an audible silence about these ancestors of the generations that live, fearful to admit the horror of a former deed, seeking to obliterate from our memories a cruel occurrence which, in its remembering, should teach us not and never to be inhuman again. “I am formed of…

While the police are in the process of recalling detectives who have either retired or moved on, the investigative capacity of the SAPS is severely affected due to a shortage of more than 8 000 detectives, resulting in delays in investigations. In response to a question about the capacitation of the detective services during a Peace and Security National Assembly parliamentary meeting last week, Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale said the government is in the process of enlisting detectives. “We have come to the realisation that the number of dockets that our detectives have at hand are more than what they are supposed to do,” he said. He said this issue lay not only with detectives, but with the police service as a whole, as the number of officers had…

WHEN all is said and done, the dust settled, the dead buried, we all want to go home feeling a little less guilty. A little better that although we did not actually participate in some evil act, we did not sympathise with it either. Before 1994, while holidaying or studying abroad, I was often asked to explain what the policy of colour bar or apartheid really meant. It was a strange idea. Forcefully accepted by us South Africans but totally foreign to foreigners. Unheard of elsewhere in the world. The white people of this country, in attempting to make black people, coloureds and Indians classified as a "lower caste" therefore themselves became known overseas as pariahs. People to be shunned by the international community. Of course, there would always…

LAW enforcement agencies, especially the SAPS, have come under criticism recently for shoddy work, stagnant progress and their inability to make arrests. The media recently highlighted how the family of murdered actor and show promoter Pranesh Maharaj only received the results of DNA analysis in early October this year confirming his death. What an agonising wait for a family who desperately sought closure. Maharaj went missing in 2021. Seelan Pillay, a former policeman and community police forum head in Bayview, was gunned down more than a year ago in a drive-by shooting but still no arrests have been made. His family are distraught that no tangible progress has been made in the case. Are the police adopting a willy-nilly and perfunctory attitude? Just look at the glaring inconsistencies and contradictions…

How is your heart? What or where is the human heart? Clearly this is not about the physical beating organ in our chest, as powerful and as necessary and as crucial as each of ours is. I think of it as the seat of emotion, the mind, intellect, spirit, soul, the essence, the cross-section of mind and body and spirit and soul – is the heart. It’s the core or the essence of our individual beings. And, it can be broken. And, it can be shattered. And, it can be healed. Taking care of your heart is about a lot more than eating well and watching your cholesterol. Your heart (my heart) can go from bruised or broken to bold and on to being even more beautiful and bold than…

The SAPS is set to increase the death grant, which is paid to the families of cops who die on duty, up to R300 000. At the beginning of September, President Cyril Ramaphosa honoured 34 officers who were killed in the line of duty in the 2022/23 financial year. Under the SAPS Educational Trust, discretionary payments towards primary, secondary and tertiary education fees can be made by the trust to the children of slain police officers. The trust relies on donations. National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola, who was addressing the 10th National Congress of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) last week, announced the intention to increase the grant. Popcru is a major stakeholder in the law enforcement sector, representing more than 155 000 police, traffic, and…

THE Sekunjalo Group and Nedbank are set to face off in court again as Nedbank seeks to challenge an interim interdict granted by Judge Mokgoatji Dolamo in the Western Cape High Court sitting as the Equality Court. Dolamo’s ruling in June last year interdicted Nedbank from closing the bank accounts of the Sekunjalo Group and ordered it to reopen those bank accounts of the remaining respondents that it had closed by the time that the matter was heard. Meanwhile, Nedbank wants the appeal to be upheld and that the Equality Court’s order be set aside and replaced with an order dismissing the application with costs, including the costs of two counsel. In its papers, Nedbank states: “Nedbank would have been entirely within its rights, purely on the basis of the…

SOUTH African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) has announced that major construction and upgrading of the N3 from Murray Road (Gladys Manzi Road) to the New England Road Interchange in Pietermaritzburg has begun. The parastatal warned motorists that they will experience traffic disruptions in that section of the highway. “Construction on Gladys Manzi Road to New England Road Interchange will upgrade the existing cross-section of the N3 from two northbound and three southbound lanes to four northbound and five southbound lanes per carriageway,” it said. Hugh Brooks, Sanral’s Eastern Region project manager, said the impact of the construction on traffic would be significant. “We will endeavour to always keep a four-lane single carriageway shared by both the northbound and southbound traffic within the project limits. “A two-lane traffic flow in…

Israel’s army said it was ready to evacuate babies from Gaza’s largest hospital yesterday, but Palestinian officials said people inside were still trapped, with two newborns dead and dozens at risk from a power outage amid intense fighting nearby. Al-Shifa and other hospitals in northern Gaza, the focus of Israel’s month-old war to wipe out Hamas and free hostages held by the militants, were barely able to care for patients. More people are wounded daily by fierce Israeli bombardment. Speaking from inside the biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israeli fire had not hit it directly overnight but was “terrorising medical officials and civilians alike”. Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said on Saturday that Israel’s military would help evacuate babies from the hospital…

King Charles and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak led Britain in remembering the country’s war dead yesterday, seeking to unify communities a day after a large pro-Palestinian march was marked by skirmishes between far-right counter-protesters and police. At a solemn ceremony at the Cenotaph war memorial on Whitehall in central London, Charles, Sunak, other politicians and senior members of the royal family held a two-minute silence and then laid wreaths to honour those killed in war. On Saturday, the annual Armistice Day commemoration marking the end of World War I saw more than 300 000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators march through central London, with police arresting more than 120 people as they sought to stop far-right counter protesters from ambushing the main rally. After opposition politicians blamed Suella Braverman, the interior minister, for…

Dehradun: At least 40 construction workers were trapped yesterday after the road tunnel they were building collapsed in northern India, with rescuers scrambling to reach them beneath piles of debris. The cave-in occurred early yesterday in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand when a group of workers were moving out and replacement workers were going in. “About 20m of the tunnel have collapsed,” a state disaster response official said. “Oxygen is being supplied through the debris, but more rubble is coming down.” The 4.5km tunnel is being constructed between Silkyara and Dandalgaon to connect two of the holiest Hindu shrines of Uttarkashi and Yamnotri. | AFP…

PARIS: Tens of thousands were to attend a march against anti-Semitism in Paris yesterday amid bickering by political parties over who should take part and a surge in anti-Semitic incidents across France with nearly 1 250 such acts. Tensions have been rising in the French capital, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities, in the wake of the October 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by a month of Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. More than 3 000 police and gendarmes were deployed to maintain security yesteday. President Emmanuel Macron said the march should show France as “united behind its values”. | AFP…

The Sharks have two matches at home to find some positive results in the United Rugby Championship (URC) before their South African derbies start against the Bulls, Stormers, and Lions. After losing the first four matches of the new season, they’ve only picked up one point so far and find themselves at the foot of the URC log. They face Connacht at the Shark Tank on Saturday, and after losing to two Irish sides already, they will want to make up for that in front of their fans. Kick-off is at 5pm. The Sharks had a disappointing end to their tour on Friday, going down 12-10 to Zebre to add to defeats against Munster, Leinster, and the Ospreys. “We will reset and work hard to get some momentum going…