Содержание выпуска: 2022-10-10 — Mercury

FINANCIAL-services group INN8 expects merger and acquisition activity in the investment platform industry to accelerate as companies seek to bulk up in size and improve earnings. “South Africa has space for two, maybe three, dominant platforms, given the size of assets in the country,’’ INN8 executive Mickey Gambale said. About 400 investment platforms operate in SA. They vary from those targeting boutique asset managers and large asset managers to those seeking to accelerate the development of women. “Not only are there too many platform providers, but a potential global recession, a moribund local economy, and uncertain financial markets deepen the need to consolidate,” Gambale said on Friday. “Platforms cost a significant amount of money to build. It helps if you have a significant scale to make real profits. The South…

DUE TO THE Covid-19 pandemic and the difficult economic times, the quest to remain afloat and competitive in a digitalised world has made digital transformation a hot topic of discussion. However, research indicates that the construction industry has been relatively slow in embracing the opportunities presented by emerging technologies to improve operational excellence, productivity, cost efficiency and customer engagement, and therefore ranks very low in terms of digital maturity. This has led to dissatisfaction among clients, partly due to the fragmented nature of project delivery, labour intensive processes and the apparent difficulty in adopting new technologies. This problem is further exacerbated by the complexity of the construction industry due to competition, availability of resources, logistical problems after the Covid-19 pandemic, and the disruptive nature of technological innovation. Digital transformation is…

IN RESPONSE to the killing of George Floyd by a white policeman in the US, technology’s biggest companies and their leaders made public statements expressing solidarity with black communities. Some promised to address challenges faced by black communities and people in the African continent. Some went further by committing to support black communities with tangible interventions. In 2020 Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google’s parent company Alphabet, announced that Google would invest $1 billion (R18.08bn) in Africa over the next five years to support a range of initiatives, from improved connectivity to investment in startups, to help boost Africa’s digital transformation. Last week, Google delivered on some of these promises by announcing their intent to establish a Google Cloud region in South Africa – their first on the…

IF YOU are between 12 and 20 and apply these principles, in a few short years you will reap quantum, lifelong benefits: Save a fixed amount of money in a reputable financial institution every month and let it stack up. Increase the monthly amount annually. Talk to your parents about things important to you and important to them. Be very intentional or it won’t happen. Two or three device-less “check-ins” a week are probably sufficient. When it comes to friends and romance, trust your parents. If your parents are uncomfortable with you spending time with any particular person, honour and respect their intuition. Accept it without adopting an oppositional stance. Commit to keeping “clean” habits. Don’t begin activities (smoking, vaping, drinking, gambling) other people are in rehabilitation facilities struggling to…

AS THE war-torn planet inches towards World War III, we as citizens of this planet, must strive to prevent an inferno that no human being on earth will ever witness again. In 2021, raging global wars, displaced 84 million people. The chilling massacre of innocent civilians in occupied conflict zones in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and Europe, must be condemned by the global community. If we want to reduce the levels of conflict or even contain it, we will have to deal with its manifestations and its underlying causes. The poignant fact is that global peace has become a subject at the UN and all endeavours to have it have been futile as unrestrained violence has made its way to establish its diabolical might. Terror against innocent civilians…

The latest exit of yet another high-ranking official of the DA should ring alarm bells for the party that prides itself as “the government in waiting”. The party’s chief whip in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature and its former provincial leader, Zwakele Mncwango, tendered his resignation, stating that “the DA has moved from the centre to the right and no longer represents the aspirations of the majority of South Africans”. Former DA leaders, John Moodey, Mmusi Maimane, Makashule Gana, Phumzile van Damme, Herman Mashaba, Mbali Ntuli and now Mncwango, all have two things in common. They quit their DA sponsored senior government positions earning comfortable salaries and, they happen to all be black. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that any political party that wants to…

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a campaign to raise awareness and spur action for suicide prevention in the African region, which has the world’s highest rates of death by suicide. About 11 people in 100 000 a year die by suicide in the African region, higher than the global average of nine in 100 000 people. This is due in part to insufficient action to address and prevent the risk factors, including mental-health conditions which currently affect 116 million people, up from 53 million in 1990. The social-media campaign, launched ahead of World Mental Health Day, marked today, aims to reach 10 million people across the region to raise public awareness and galvanise the support of governments and policymakers to increase focus and funding for mental health programming,…

After being in custody for over a month, suspended Mhlathuze Water CEO, Mthokozisi Duze is now a free man, albeit with strict bail conditions. Duze was freed late on Wednesday after his legal team, led by lawyer Phila Magwaza, applied to the Durban High Court seeking to appeal the bail ruling that went against him in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. Duze was arrested by the Hawks with five others late in August in relation to an alleged corrupt tender issued by the Mhlathuze Water board in Richards Bay where he worked. Among those who were arrested and released on bail were the water board’s chief financial officer, Babongile Mnyandu, KwaZulu-Natal director-general Dr Nonhlanhla Mkhize and Siphiwe Mabaso, a Hillcrest-based debt collector and attorney, Sthembelo Mhlanga. Mabaso allegedly…

FORMER DA KZN leader Zwakele Mncwango has rubbished allegations made by his former party that he has joined ActionSA after his resignation from the party last week. However, Mncwango admitted that he had had preliminary talks with ActionSA, and the party yesterday said that it would pursue Mncwango to be one of its leaders in the province. Mncwango first resigned as a DA member of the provincial legislature (MPL) last week on account of no longer being able to defend some of the party’s policy positions in public but remained as a party member. But he soon after resigned as a member of the DA as he said he received a letter from the national leadership that reinforced his belief that the party no longer tolerated differing views or criticism.…

MOST branches in KwaZulu-Natal are expected to confirm the nominees announced by the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) for the top six leadership positions of the party at the upcoming elective conference. This despite delays in holding branch general meetings (BGMs) in many regions due to go-slows by ANC workers who are engaged in a dispute with the party over non-payment of salaries and issues with the scanning machines meant to capture the branch voting process. The ANC in KZN last month said it would back Dr Zweli Mkhize for president, ANC treasurer Paul Mashatile for deputy, Stanley Mathabatha for national chairperson, Phumulo Masualle for secretary-general and Nomvula Mokonyane for deputy secretary-general, while the treasurer-general nominee has yet to be determined. Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma also…

JUST as South Africa is on the verge of joining the cohort of countries in the world that has eliminated malaria, identified by reporting zero indigenous malaria cases in a year, a new invasive vector, Anopheles stephensi, is spreading like wildfire with Africa the hardest hit. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this species of mosquito, first identified in parts of South Asia and the Arabian Peninsula a decade ago, has been migrating rapidly into Africa, especially in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Djibouti. Unlike the other mosquito vectors of malaria in Africa, Anopheles stephensi thrives in urban settings. With more than 40% of the African population living in urban environments, its spread poses a significant threat to the control and elimination of malaria. The fact that large-scale surveillance…

Hanoi: Two police officers in Vietnam have been arrested for negligence over a karaoke bar fire that killed 32 people last month, the authorities said. Fire ripped through a three-storey entertainment venue in the residential neighbourhood of Thuan An city last month. Police in Binh Duong province said in an online statement that an officer had been taken into custody, while a second was under house arrest. The two are under investigation for alleged negligence, the statement said, without providing further details. The bar owner, 42-year-old Le Anh Xuan, was also arrested. |…

Indian authorities are investigating cough syrups made by a local pharmaceutical company after the World Health Organization said these could be responsible for the deaths of 66 children in Gambia. The UN health agency issued an alert last week that four cough remedies made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals could cause acute kidney injuries. Laboratory testing had found unacceptable levels of potentially life-threatening contaminants, the WHO said. India’s health ministry said the company was not licensed to distribute the products in India and had only made and exported them to Gambia. Maiden Pharmaceuticals did not respond to AFP requests for comment. Meanwhile, Gambian President Adama Barrow promised to boost health measures, including better quality control over imported medicines after the death of dozens of children in the past three months. The Gambian…

New York: Con artist Anna Sorokin who posed as a German heiress and whose breathtaking deception of New York’s financial elite inspired a hit Netflix series Inventing Anna, was released on Friday from an immigration detention centre but still faces deportation from the US. Sorokin, who used the name Anna Delvey while scamming over $250 000 (R4.5 million) from hotels, banks and friends, was granted conditional release by a judge after posting a bond, a spokesperson for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said. The 30-year-old German national was released in February 2021 for good behaviour after serving part of a four-to-12-year jail term, only to be arrested again the following month for overstaying her visa. Sorokin, who will be confined to her home in New York for a…

Mamelodi Sundowns have all but qualified for the CAF Champions League group stages, while Royal AM’s fate in the CAF Confederation Cup is still up in the air. The two teams played the first legs of their respective qualifiers yesterday as Sundowns drubbed La Passe 7-0, while Royal AM drew 0-0 with Zesco United. The Brazilians will also play the second leg against La Passe at Loftus Versfeld in a week’s time - a quirk of the tournament that sets them on track for a hefty aggregate score. Although an easy victory, they will have to build on this momentum going into the group stages of the tournament, if they want to win it and end a six-year continental drought. The closest Sundowns have come to winning the crown since…

Chiefs centre Anton Lienert-Brown has been recalled for the All Blacks’ northern hemisphere tour after coach Ian Foster named a 35-player squad for the four-match trip. Lienert-Brown, who has played 56 internationals, has been included after missing the All Blacks’ defence of their Rugby Championship title last month, as the New Zealanders continue their preparations for next year’s World Cup in France. Foster's team have struggled for form throughout this year, losing a home series against Ireland for the first time in July before slipping to defeats against the Springboks and Argentina in the Rugby Championship. New Zealand will travel to Tokyo to meet Japan on 29 October before moving to Europe to take on Wales on 5 November in Cardiff. They face Scotland at Murrayfield on 13 November and…

A DISPUTE between Mpact and major shareholder Caxton took a new turn on Friday when Mpact urged its shareholders not to place “any reliance” on an announcement by Caxton about alleged customers threatening to desert the paper, plastics and recycling group. Mpact said on Friday that claims that the Competition Tribunal had concluded that the commission was “wrong” to refuse to permit Caxton to make a separate merger filing, and that Caxton’s actions are “proof enough that is serious about an offer” was “incorrect.” In June 2021 Caxton had applied to the commission for permission to make a separate filing for a merger, to acquire majority control over Mpact – it had already gained a 34% stake in Caxton. Mpact did not support the merger, and refused to agree to…

TRANSNET plans to open up capacity allocation for emerging miners through the Ports of Gqeberha and Saldanha from April, 2023, when its current long-term contracts come to an end. In a statement, Transnet said it had issued a formal communique to all 10 manganese exporters recording the expiry of current contracts, which are set to wrap up on March 31, 2023. “New contracts will be entered into with new and existing miners, effective from April 1, 2023,” it said. According to Transnet, new contracting and capacity allocation processes have commenced, with the intent to enable the emerging miner to ramp up. “Transnet hopes to increase the current number of emerging miners that have access to rail and port capacity from the current four to 11, through introducing seven new entrants…

RATEPAYER organisations have launched a scathing attack on eThekwini Municipality for its plans to borrow R1.5 billion to fund the repairs to its infrastructure that was ravaged by the recent storms. They argue that there is no need for the city to keep borrowing as there is enough money coming from ratepayers in the form of revenue for rates and services, and that these funds should be used to finance these programmes. The city took out a public notice indicating its intention to borrow R1.5bn. In the notice, the municipality said it intended to enter into a funding arrangement through the following mechanism: bond issuance, raising of a loan from a financial institution such as a bank or raising of a loan from a development finance institution. The municipality said…

Workers at Wyatt Bassett’s furniture factory in Virginia, in the US, use powerful tools to churn out the company’s trademark dressers and headboards, so screening new hires for drugs is a no-brainer. Or it used to be. Virginia last year fully legalised marijuana – the first state in the South to do so. The upshot is that “being positive for cannabis does not necessarily disqualify you for employment,” said Bassett, CEO of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co.,which has 575 employees. Faced with a shortfall in applicants, employers across the US are balancing pressure to ease up on testing for a legal drug with concerns that this could impact safety and raise issues of liability. The US jobless rate ticked up to 3.7% last month, but it remains near a five-decade low. “With…

The report by the auditor-general that the Department of Basic Education had irregular expenditure of some R1.4 billion during the period 2021–2022, is shocking, coming from a department responsible for educating children. The minister should be fired with immediate effect. How can she not have control over her staff to allow such expenditure to occur? Does she not keep her finger on the pulse, so to speak? It boggles the brain that any minister can allow irregular expenditure of R 1.4bn to incur in a year. Where are the checks and balances? If this was in the private sector the minister would have been fired but, because she is in the ANC government, it seems that anything goes. Worst of all, do they not teach basic education items relating to…

It’s not often that one would agree with Farouk Araie (The Mercury, October 6) “World developed a tolerance for tragedy”. With mention of Masha Amini, an Iranian woman killed by morality police, he deflects from any other refer ence to the brutality of that theocracy, which according to Amnesty International executed 246 people in 2020. Most known executions took place in China and Syria. Egypt executed 107 people, Iraq 45, and Saudi Arabia 27 in 2020 – however, Saudi Arabia publicly executed 81 people in a single day in February this year. Then, of course, there are the extra-judicial executions in Gaza. Five Palestinians were executed on September 4, 2022 by Hamas, two for “collaborating” with Israel and the others for murder and robbery. Since January this year a further…

Facebook parent Meta has warned 1 million users that their login information may have been compromised through malicious apps. Meta’s researchers found more than 400 malicious Android and Apple iOS apps this year designed to steal the personal Facebook login information of its users, it said on Friday in a blog post. Meta spokesperson Gabby Curtis confirmed that Meta is warning 1 million users who may have been affected by the apps, listed in Apple’s app store and Google Play Store as games, photo editors, health and lifestyle services and other types of apps to trick people into downloading them. It said often the malicious app would ask users to “login with Facebook” and later steal their username and password. “To cover up negative reviews by people who have spotted…

FEATHERWEIGHT boxer and KwaZulu-Natal sportswoman of the year Phiwokuhle Mnguni – who hails from the coal-mining town of Dundee – says she wants children from rural towns to know that anything is possible. The 21-year-old said she first entered the ring when she was 10 and since then has won a gold medal in a competition in Maputo, a bronze at the Commonwealth Games and another bronze at the All Africa Games. Mnguni became the biggest winner at the 2022 KZN Sport Awards held on Saturday evening at the Durban International Convention Centre. She walked away with Sports Personality of the Year as well as Sportswoman of the Year, two coveted awards that netted her R100 000 as well as a vehicle. The winner of the Sportsman of the Year…

ONE can hardly blame frustrated South Africans for feeling aggrieved by the government’s reactionary stance at the killing of a German tourist last week. So many of their loved ones have died at the hands of criminals, with no such “urgency” displayed by officials, let alone Cabinet ministers. It did not have to take the loss of someone’s life for Police Minister Bheki Cele and his top brass to visit this stretch of road near Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga when residents and local businesses have been complaining and even introduced security measures at their own cost. In their world it was a tragedy waiting to happen, and their plight with crime is something that is echoed around the country. The incident last week has once again exposed this government’s…

DESPITE boasting an abundance of biodiversity, Africa has not capitalised on its rich tapestry of plant and animal life when solving the world’s problems through science, producing a mere 2% of the global research output. The picture looks worse when you consider that this meagre output makes up only 1.3% of spending on research, resulting in only 0.1% of all patents being registered. For all the natural wealth in resources, this is a poor contribution from the continent. One of the reasons for the low research output lies in the inadequate funding for research and development (R&D) by governments on the continent. With the poverty and inequality gap widening between the haves and have-nots, science may be considered a luxury, given that food, water, sanitation, education, housing, and social welfare…

Dublin: At least 10 people have been killed in an explosion at a petrol station in County Donegal in Ireland’s north-west region, police said on Saturday. The Garda Siochana police force said eight people had been hospitalised as “the search and recovery for further fatalities continues” in the village of Creeslough. The blast ripped through a petrol station forecourt and a nearby residential complex. Many emergency services vehicles remained at the scene, including fire services from both sides of the border with British-run Northern Ireland. |…

Voters draped in traditional shepherd’s blankets cast their ballots on Friday in parliamentary elections in Lesotho, but observers saw little prospect of an end to the country’s long-running political gridlock. Polls closed at 3pm and counting started shortly afterwards. The result is likely to be announced this week. The kingdom has been governed for the past decade by frail and fractious coalitions, with no premier serving out a full five-year term. The outgoing government is led by the All Basotho Convention (ABC). But Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro did not seek another term, after being ousted as party head earlier this year. His predecessor, Thomas Thabane, was forced to step down in 2020 after being accused of the murder of his estranged wife. Charges against him were dropped in July. The…

The Sharks arrive home from Dublin today having achieved their pre-tour goal of harvesting at least 10 points from their three games, but perhaps more important than the log points is the belief they have engendered that they can more than mix it with the best in Europe. As coach Sean Everitt said, it is very seldom that Leinster at full strength — as they were on Saturday — concede five tries or 34 points, and the Sharks’ attack was indeed breathtaking at times, but now they have to brush up on their defence. It was a touch ironic that the two Sharks players, who each scored a brace of tries, were also guilty of one-on-one defensive errors and as Nick Mallett and Breyton Paulse said in the SuperSport…

A THIRD union, the Revolutionary Transport Union of South Africa (Retusa) has served Transnet notice to embark on strike, widening the cracks in the country’s logistics and ports as the State utility lost a court interdict and stands accused of refusing to sign picketing rules with the unions. The South African Transport Workers Union (Satawu) has joined the fray as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) today will make a last ditch effort to bridge the gap of labour’s 12% wage demand against Transnet’s 4% tops counter offer. Retusa, which represents 1.5% of workers served Transnet with a regulatory notice to join the strike as reports emerge of total shutdowns at Transnet’s ports, including the waterside and the landside at Durban, Durban Container Terminal Pier 1…

SOUTH Africa will not need any new coal baseload electricity until 2030 if it can get renewable energy online quicker to plug the ongoing power supply deficit. This is the view of Hilton Trollip, an independent consultant in energy research and a research fellow in the Global Risk Governance programme at the University of Cape Town. Trollip’s views are aligned with those of activists and European countries who want to see South Africa accelerate its just energy transition programme and dump fossil fuels for its baseload electricity generation. Speaking at the Heinrich Böll Foundation webinar on the costs of electricity from Koeberg nuclear power station, Trollip said on Friday that South Africa’s baseload electricity was at least 85% dependent on coal power, which was an enormous amount of fossil fuels.…

Community Policing Forum (CPF) members, church leaders and other stakeholders in Clermont, said the area was under siege due to drug turf wars which were leading to other crimes, including murder. The residents were speaking at a meeting with Police Minister Bheki Cele and provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi yesterday. Cele said the issues would be addressed and also promised there would be 1 000 more police officers deployed to the province. “In South Africa, we have a ratio of one policeman to 450 people. This is not something I take lightly, it’s something that is being addressed. I promise that before the end of the year we will have at least 1 000 more KwaZulu-Natal police officers in our community.” Mfaniseni Ngcobo, from a school governing…

AGRICULTURE is crucial to KwaZulu-Natal. Food security is reliant on it and it is a massive driver of the provincial economy. Yet, despite this, the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development continues to be a cash cow and a farce, while failing to take its mandate seriously. The department’s handling of the spread of disease among livestock in our province is testimony to this. The disastrous foot and mouth outbreak that has spread like wildfire – and is now in eThekwini – poses a social and economic crisis for our farmers and our communities. Yet, while the department and the provincial government see what is going on, they lack the capacity and the motivation to do anything. Simple interventions such as sufficient vaccinations, ear tags and veterinary services have…

The Black Business Council is gunning for Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter. He seems to be a square peg in a round hole – a white face among a mass of black Eskom employees. But it’s not just his race. He has the unenviable reputation as the worst Eskom CEO. It’s under him that the country has suffered the worst load shedding. Who would have expected him to plunge the country into stage 6 load shedding? De Ruyter has given all sorts of excuses: insufficient coal in a country where there’s an abundance of it, poor-quality coal, breakdowns of ageing plants, power stations shut for maintenance, lack of spares, worker negligence, shortage of skilled and experienced personnel, sabotage, theft of copper cables and spares, political meddling and lastly, shortage of…

ON A JAUNT in the Midlands at the weekend, I made acquaintance with a splendid pointer, the pure-bred gun dog that is such a feature of country life. Its ability to point with its snout at a game bird hidden in the long grass, one paw raised to alert the shootist, is something uncanny. Then the way it dashes in to seize the bird when it is brought down, with an ever so gentle mouth – no savaging of the unfortunate bird, which would make it an unattractive item for the dinner table. It is, of course instinct, in-bred over generations, plus rigorous training from the time it is a pup. This particular pointer brought back memories of old Chalky, a magnificent specimen owned by a friend in Maritzburg in…

IN LAW, it is impossible for a couple to proceed with artificial fertilisation and then cryopreserve the embryos until they have identified a suitable surrogate mother. A Gauteng couple, only identified as MCM (the woman) and D, the man, intend to have children of their own, but via a surrogate mother, due to MCM suffering from an irreversible condition which may render her infertile. The couple said they had not yet found a suitable candidate. To preserve MCM’s current health and fertility, the applicants would like to proceed with artificial fertilisation. They intend to utilise MCM and D’s gametes, but will use those of an anonymous egg donor should MCM not produce sufficient gametes. The applicants said the gametes (oocytes) of either the woman or the anonymous donor would…

THE second chapter of the “trial of the plant” is due to be heard in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. This time, the focus would be on ensuring that anyone who wishes to, is allowed to earn a living through using cannabis. In 2017, three plaintiffs – Julian Stobbs and his partner Myrtle Clarke, dubbed “the dagga couple”, together with Clifford Thorp – met seven government departments, and Doctors for Life in court in a case dubbed, “the trial of the plant”. Following a few months of evidence, the matter was postponed indefinitely and rendered part-heard, because the State parties and Doctors for Life submitted thousands of pages of evidence which had to be analysed by the applicants. Clarke, a member of the organisation Fields of Green for All, has…

I AM perplexed by the lack of urgency in solving the country’s energy crisis. Maybe the appointment of the new board will help us elevate the problem and get the necessary solution – the sooner, the better. A quicker solution that is sustainable is needed, especially since the load shedding problem is not new; it started as far back as 2007 and it still kills business, economic growth and contributes to the country’s worsening unemployment. At some point, there was the construction of Medupi and Kusile, which was intended to help with extra energy production. One can see from the current load-shedding programme that the Kusile and Medupi projects did not live up to expectations. It is essential to note the importance of governance oversight as we solve Eskom’s current…

OTTAWA: Canada said it would ban the top leadership of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from entering the country and promised more sanctions over the treatment of women in Iran and the downing of a civilian airliner in 2020. Ottawa is also pressuring Iran over the Ukrainian International Airlines plane shot down in January 2020. As many as 138 of the 176 people killed on the flight had ties to Canada. Canada plans to expand targeted sanctions measures and establish a sanctions bureau, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland announced at a news conference. |…

Iranians enraged over the death of a young woman in police custody braved bullets and tear gas on Saturday, a human rights group said, pressing ahead with protests against clerical rulers facing a relentless popular uprising. An Iranian state coroner’s report denied that Mahsa Amini, 22, had died due to blows to the head and limbs while in police custody and linked her death to pre-existing medical conditions, state media said on Friday. The death of Amini, an Iranian Kurd, has ignited national and world- wide protests, marking the biggest challenge to Iran’s clerical leaders in years. Women have removed their veils in defiance of the clerical establishment while furious crowds called for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. After a call for mass demonstrations on Saturday,…

Los Angeles: Harvey Weinstein’s next sexual assault trial is set to begin today in Los Angeles, almost five years after allegations of sexual misconduct against the Hollywood mogul launched the #MeToo era. The 70-year-old Pulp Fiction producer was already serving 23 years in jail in New York when he was brought across the country last year to face further sex crime charges in a city where he once forged lucrative film deals with A-listers and hoarded Oscars. The trial will begin with the selection of the jury.…