Table of contents for CT-2021-04-23 in Cape Times

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za THE CLICKS Group restored its interim dividend after suspending it last year over Covid-19 uncertainties on its operations. The retail-led healthcare group yesterday declared an interim dividend of 142.5 cents a share in the six months to end February. Last year, Clicks declared a dividend of 450c after it reported a double-digit growth in earnings during the period. Chief executive Vikesh Ramsunder said the board approved the interim dividend as the group reported strong cash generation during the period. Clicks reported a 11.5 percent increase in cash generated by operating activities to R1.3 billion. “Last year we decided to suspend the interim dividend payment because of the uncertainty created by the Covid-19 outbreak,” Ramsunder said. “However, following an improvement in trading conditions we decided to restore…

Staff writer A PROCESS of hiring more teachers and placing 129 mobile classrooms at schools is under way to accommodate 2 550 unplaced pupils in the province. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) yesterday said it has, so far, placed 19 452 newly registered learners in 2021, most of whom are from the Eastern Cape. Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said the department has also been able to verify and place 111 learners from the illegal “Empumelelweni School” under the trees in Eerste River, with a further 99 learners having been informed of their placement. “I must go on record and be clear: Western Cape schools are full,” Schäfer said. “At this stage, we will have to plan very carefully to place those that have applied for space for 2022 given…

Baldwin Ndaba and Sihle Mavuso ANC veteran and businessman Tokyo Sexwale’s claims of theft of billions of donor funds from the Reserve Bank form part of a probe by the Hawks’ Serious Economic Offences Unit. Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya said last night Sexwale had registered a complaint with his office. “I then referred him to our Serious Economic Offences Unit. They are conducting an investigation on the matter, but no criminal case has been opened yet,” Lebeya said. On Monday, the National Treasury and the SARB denied Sexwale’s allegations. Yesterday, Sexwale called a press conference and repeated the allegations, saying that they discovered the fraud and corruption when they wanted to access the billions allegedly deposited into the central bank’s account for more than four years. He said their intention…

Rudolph Nkgadima and Staff Reporter THE temporary suspension of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the Sisonke Vaccination Programme will be lifted, the government announced yesterday. Acting Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the temporary suspension in South Africa was in line with the government’s commitment to ensure that comprehensive safety measures were in place during the vaccine roll-out. “The reviewed data had confirmed that South Africa had not experienced any rare blood clots with the already vaccinated health-care workers. The Cabinet welcomed the recommendation by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) to lift the suspension of the J&J Sisonke Vaccination Programme,” Ntshavheni said. Last week, South Africa suspended the J&J vaccination roll-out programme after six people, who received the J&J vaccine in the US, developed…

reviewer: Jennifer Crocker The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot Marianne Cronin Loot.co.za (R205) Doubleday Two terminally ill women, one a 17-year-old, Lenni, and the other Margot who is 83, and waiting out her time until she is strong enough for a potentially fatal heart operation. A surprising friendship develops between the two, even given the huge separation in their ages, when they meet up in art class. Lenni has initially been placed in the class for young people, but she can’t really find kindred spirits there, and so she asks if she can join the adult class. Between them Lenni and Margot realise that their ages add up to 100, and they start a project in something of a race against time to tell their life stories…

Francesca Villette francesca.villette@inl.co.za A CONVICTED truck hijacker will spend 25 years behind bars after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismissed his challenge against his sentence. The court found the robberies Isaac Mhlambi was involved in were carefully planned, brazenly executed and highly organised. Mhlambi was accused of being involved in two hijackings. The first was of a Hino 26-ton truck (a horse-and-trailer) and its cargo in broad daylight on June 19, 2007, in Carltonville, Gauteng. The truck was valued in excess of R1 million. Its cargo of foodstuff consisted of numerous pallets of mealie meal, samp mealies, cooking oil and rice valued at R300 000. The second incident involved a Mercedes-Benz horse-and-trailer carrying cement valued at R800 000 on July 10, 2007, in Ventersdorp. Mhlambi was convicted in the…

LITERACY is an essential skill needed to participate in today’s world. Despite efforts to promote literacy, Eric Atmore’s (2013) study on early childhood development in South Africa reminds us of the infrastructure challenges many of our schools face. There is no running water or electricity, poor sanitation, dilapidated buildings, huge teacher/learner ratios, lack of nutrition, under-qualified teachers, as well as inadequate institutional capacity and funding. Additional data from the Department of Basic Education (2008) reveals that low levels of literacy may also be exacerbated by a lack of libraries as only about 7% of our schools have functional school libraries. Moreover, some of our learners have no books at home or in the classroom. There is a scarcity in the availability of books in African languages, and the books that…

Bill Constantine | Oranjezicht I LIVE in the upper reaches of the City Bowl, in the suburb of Oranjezicht, close to the base of Table Mountain. The recent fire that swept through the UCT campus, then spread westward along the mountain, posed a threat to my neighbourhood and an even greater threat to three of the adjoining neighbourhoods, whose residents were forced to evacuate. The many firefighters "on the line", did a magnificent job of fighting the fire throughout the day and night, without help from the usual fire suppression helicopters, grounded due to high winds and poor visibility. By dawn of the second day, the winds had died and soon, the morning silence was broken by the distinctive "whop, whop" of many choppers hauling buckets of water…

A Syrian missile exploded in southern Israel yesterday, the Israeli military said, in an incident that triggered warning sirens near the secretive Dimona nuclear reactor and an Israeli strike in Syria. An Israeli military spokesperson identified the projectile as an SA-5 surface-to-air missile fired by Syrian forces against Israeli aircraft. He said it overflew its target to reach the Dimona area, 200km south of the Syrian border. The missile did not hit the reactor, exploding some 30km away, the spokesperson added. The sirens that sounded overnight in the Dimona area followed weeks of heightened tension between Israel and Iran, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, amid renewed global negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Israeli media have said air defences around the Dimona reactor and the Red Sea port…

The AU’s disease control body and World Health Organization yesterday urged African countries not to waste Covid-19 vaccines donated to them, after confusion in Malawi and South Sudan about whether doses they received had expired. Malawi has said it plans to destroy more than 16 000 doses of Astra- Zeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India because the shots were not administered before the April 13 expiry date on the packaging. The doses were supplied via the AU thanks to a donation from telecoms group MTN. South Sudan has set aside 59 000 doses supplied by the AU and is not using them because of the same expiry issue, a government official told Reuters last week. But John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and…

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has ordered an all-out effort to find a missing submarine in a race against time to save the 53 crew, whose oxygen supply defence chiefs said would last only until Saturday. Indonesia sent a helicopter and five ships to search waters north of Bali but found no signs of the KRI Nanggala-402, which went missing early on Wednesday during a drill. Yudo Margono, the navy chief of staff, said the crew’s air supply would last only until Saturday. Malaysia and Singapore have offered assistance. An aerial search found an oil spill near the submarine’s dive location. The oil slick could indicate damage to the vessel or could be a signal. | Reuters…

MOSCOW: Russia announced yesterday that it was ordering troops back to base from the area near the border with Ukraine, apparently calling an end to a build-up of tens of thousands of soldiers that had alarmed the West. The Ukrainian president’s spokesperson said this month that Russia had more than 40 000 troops deployed on Ukraine’s eastern border and over 40 000 in Crimea. Nearly 50 000 of them were new deployments, she said. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said he had ordered troops involved in exercises to return to their bases by May 1, as they had completed an “inspection” in the border area. | Reuters…

THE South African Football Association must be one of the most consistent organisations when it comes to the firing of coaches who’ve failed to deliver on the mandate to qualify for major tournaments, continentally and internationally. But perhaps it’s time for introspection, given that the association is responsible for either end: hiring and firing. Safa will hire their record eighth Bafana Bafana coach in the last 10 years by the end of tomorrow after sacking Molefi Ntseki. Ntseki was shown the exit door after failing to guide the senior men’s national team to the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon early next year, missing out on the qualification after a humbling defeat to Sudan in the last game of the qualifiers. Since firing Ntseki, the technical committee has been…

STUART HESS Cricket South Africa’s Interim Board left little doubt as to who is to blame for the crisis in the organisation’s administration - the Members Council. Or more specifically, those provincial presidents who serve on the Members Council, who voted last Saturday not to implement the Memorandum of Incorporation that will allow CSA to institute a Board of Directors comprised of a majority of independent directors. In a lengthy briefing yesterday, the Interim Board’s chair, Dr Stavros Nicolaou, outlined the numerous interactions between the Board and Members Council - CSA’s most powerful decision-making body, comprising the 14 provincial presidents - over the new MOI. On Tuesday the Members Council released a statement, that among other things said that the Council had no time to consult with provincial affiliates…

Bongani Hans bongani.hans@inl.co.za OCEANA Empowerment Trust (OET) beneficiary Sfiso Buthelezi was left disheartened and enraged with the Trust after his payout after vesting this year turned out to be a lot less than what he had expected. The 47-year-old Durban resident, who no longer works for one of the biggest fishing companies in the country, said when he was given the 10-year shareholding status in 2007, the Trust had initially promised that he would receive about R500 000 cash in 2017. However, after the company had extended the lock-in period to 2021 it paid him less than R200 000, which was far less than the expected R500 000. When the company entered into a deal with employees, some of them were given up to 6 000…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za PRODUCTION at Kumba Iron Ore, South Africa’s biggest iron ore producer, was rocked by rail constraints, as well as lower domestic offtake, in the first quarter to the end of March. Kumba, a unit of Anglo American plc, said in a production report for the first quarter that total sales had fallen by 4 percent to 10.3 million tons and export sales were down 2 percent to 10.2 million tons on the decrease in iron ore railed to port, as well as suboptimal levels of finished stock at Saldanha Port. “Rail performance deteriorated significantly during the period due to a series of operational challenges and train delays caused by severe weather conditions and a locust outbreak,” said the group. It said as a…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za IN celebration of Earth Day yesterday, more than 50 local pupils gathered at Saldanha Airfield to launch two high-pressure balloons for a scientific experiment. The project will allow them to use the latest technologies in data analysis and collection, payload launching and weight management, as well as remote sensing and tracking. The ExoLab programme currently connects more than 300 South African learners from six schools to scientists conducting innovative experiments on the International Space Station. A high-altitude balloon launch consisted of a hydrogen-inflated latex balloon with a Styrofoam box suspended from the balloon. The Styrofoam box, usually called the payload box, houses one or more experiments and some support devices. The balloon flight typically takes around 1.5 to 2 hours, and during this time, the balloon…

Jonisayi Maromo jonisayi.maromo@africannewsagency.com Two police officers in Mpumalanga are being lauded after helping a woman give birth at the entrance to their station in Bethal. Sergeant Itumeleng Motalane and Constable Tilane Lebitsa were on duty on Monday when a community member alerted them to a woman in labour crying out for help outside the police station. They rushed to the scene and found the 35-year-old Congolese woman accompanied by her husband and sister. “The woman was screaming due to excruciating labour pains. Noticing that she was about to give birth, Motalane, who at that time was joined by Constable Lebitsa, acted as midwives and assisted the woman deliver her fourth healthy baby boy,” Mpumalanga police spokesperson Donald Mdhluli said in a statement. “After the baby was born, the officers took…

ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za LAWYERS must always first ensure children are taken care of before lining their pockets, a judge has said. Judge Denise Fisher of the South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, was delivering a scathing judgment in the case of an attorney where claims were instituted against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) on behalf of children whose breadwinner had died. The judge said lawyers simply settled matters with the RAF where claims were lodged on behalf of children because their breadwinner had died. However, these had to be done with the court’s scrutiny. This, the judge said, was needed to ensure the child’s remaining parent or caregiver was using the money for the child’s needs, and to determine whether the money should not rather be held in a trust on…

JAMES Comey served as director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, appointed by former president Barack Obama. He was fired by President Donald Trump in May 2017. | Julian Richfield SAVING JUSTICE James Comey Loot.co.za (R273) MACMILLAN “It wouldn’t be long before Trump came for the entire Justice Department, which was trying to understand why all the lying, why all the links between people around Trump and Russia. “The attacks on justice and its values had just begun. It would go on for years, doing grievous damage to an indispensable American institution.” In his book, Saving Justice, Comey unpacks issues of truth and fairness in the American justice system. The book’s cover and the description of what the book is about might portend a rather heavy and dry read;…

Zanele Mvana zanele.mvana@inl.co.za AS NYANGA residents took to the streets yesterday to call for an end to hate crimes, the 17-year-old arrested in connection with the murder of a gay man was put in a place of safety. Twenty-two-year-old Lonwabo Jack’s body was discovered in Mau-Mau, Nyanga East, at the weekend, after he had allegedly been raped. The 17-year-old was arrested on Wednesday in Eerste River and appeared yesterday in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the minor faced a charge of murder. “He is charged with murder for now. His case has been postponed to April 29 for bail information. He is placed in a place of safety,” Ntabazalila said. During yesterday’s march, residents described Nyanga as a hotbed for alleged hate crimes. In…

Agi Orfanos | Blouberg AS I write this letter, I am extremely upset and disheartened. I have no knowledge of the details except for photos on social media about the fire that has destroyed one of the most historic buildings and restaurants in the country, Rhodes Memorial Restaurant. I have often written to the City of Cape Town which claims it spends over R600 million a year putting out fires. I have asked in my emails to the City, and Table Mountain National Park, as well as letters to the press previously, why they can’t have effective video surveillance as most of Cape Town is flat and smoke can be seen from 30km or more away. From Bloubergstrand there are social media photos taken hours before the fire…

The ‘hosting or transit’ houses in neighbouring countries were often SADF targets Chitja Twala In South Africa, the month of April is referred to as Freedom Month with April 27 known as Freedom Day. In celebrating and commemorating this day in 2021, it is important to acknowledge the role of the contribution of safe houses to the liberation Struggle. The safe houses were sometimes referred to as “hosting or transit” houses. The relative dearth in academic research and the scrutiny of those houses cannot be left unattended. This academic investigation attempts to contribute to the South African historiography on cross-border politics and that of liberation Struggle studies. After the banning of liberation movements/organisations such as the ANC, the PAC and others by the apartheid regime in the 1960s, these movements…

I find myself reminiscing about the song by Marvin Gaye, titled What’s Going On. I am sure this is the right question to ask those in leadership: what is going on? It is the step-aside rule that is causing this polarisation of views. I listened to Tokyo Sexwale mentioning the unknown or known Heritage Fund to help fund student financing problems. The question remains: why the revelation now… what’s going on? I also listened to Mr Gwede Mantanshe’s presentation at the Zondo Commission. What was interesting to me with his presentation was the ANC Integrity Commission’s decision to the NEC about then state president’s future (Jacob Zuma) to step aside. Still, the decision by the Integrity Commission for the then president to step down did not materialise, as explained. What’s…

In a nation where top officials can be seen pounding through the surf in skimpy Speedo swimwear, a plan to force a strict dress code on Australian civil servants has the workers fighting for the right to bare arms. An 11-page “dress and appearance” code mailed to employees of one of the country’s largest government departments in February lists Ugg boots, flip-flops and sportswear such as football jerseys among the items deemed too casual even for Casual Friday. But for people working in hotter parts of the country, a directive banning sleeveless clothing – including dresses and women’s blouses – was the one that really worked people up into a sweat. The rules at the Department of Home Affairs apply even to those working from home and taking video calls.…

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis promised Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri yesterday that he would visit the country but only after political forces put aside differences for the good of the people. The Vatican said Hariri, who will also meet with Italian leaders during a short visit, held talks with the pope for about 30 minutes. Hariri, a three-time prime minister, resigned in 2019 after nationwide protests. He was nominated prime minister again but is has been unable to form a new government. | Reuters…

New Delhi: As India faces the daunting task to make life-saving oxygen cylinders and key Covid drugs available amid the raging second wave of the pandemic, top health experts yesterday said the country needed to prepare itself for a long haul – at least 2-3 years – unless drugs that effectively kill the virus are available over the counter. The Centre and the state governments need a well chalked-out plan for the next couple of years to deal with the pandemic, which will become like a seasonal flu, they said. Covid-19 may be seasonal like flu, according to researchers from the University of Illinois, Chicago. India is now facing more lethal variants, even a triple-mutant one. | IANS…

WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives yesterday narrowly voted, for the second time in less than a year, to make the District of Columbia the 51st state, sending it to the Senate where it faces stiff Republican opposition. By a vote of 216-208, the Democratic-controlled House approved the initiative with no Republican support. The population of Washington, DC, is heavily Democratic. As a state, it likely would elect two Democratic senators, potentially altering the balance of power in the Senate. Democrats hope to admit a new state for the first time since 1959, the year Alaska and Hawaii joined the union. | Reuters…

Comment by HERMAN GIBBS THE enigmatic demeanour of Kaizer Chiefs coach Gavin Hunt at Wednesday's post-match press conference is best summed up by the saying: “Sometimes not saying anything is the best answer – you see, silence can never be misquoted!” When some of Hunt’s comments are placed under the microscope, it raises suspicions of internal strife at the club. There is nothing strange about Hunt looking crestfallen after Chiefs were defeated by Cape Town City. It is alarming when he says he cannot divulge his thoughts on the team's failures. “The bottom line is that it is not what I think. It is what the club thinks. I know what is needed and what is not needed, but right now, it doesn’t matter what I think,” was the…

Having been major players in the doomed plan to wreck the Champions League this week, Chelsea and Liverpool face a crucial weekend trying to ensure they qualify for next season’s edition via a top-four finish in the Premier League. Chelsea edged back into the top four with a draw against Brighton & Hove Albion on Tuesday, but only by virtue of goal difference over West Ham United who they face tomorrow. West Ham, were one of the most vocal clubs in criticising Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal’s decision to jump on board the European Super League ship, calling it an “attack on football”. Chelsea and the other five English renegades all made dramatic U-turns on Tuesday, effectively killing off the new 20-club league in which…

DELTA Property Fund’s re-issued and corrected audited annual financial state- ments for the year to February 29, 2020, reflected a 48.7 percent decline in distributable earnings to 34.6 cents per share (2019: 67.4c), primarily due to rental reversions on leases renewed, increased vacancies and corporate tax payable on earnings retained, a state- ment said yesterday. Net asset value per share fell 22.3 percent to R5.54 (R7.13) and was mainly negatively affected by a fair value adjustment to investment properties. The company went through significant changes post the 2020 financial year including appointment of a new board to drive a better performance. Forensic reports last year also found irregular practices such as previous executives who had “in the execution of their duties, undermined the company's governance practices, which resulted in…

AT THIS STAGE the Trustees are not aware of any legal action against the Trust. Should this arise, it will be dealt with through the appropriate legal channels. The cash payout was not subsequently converted to a loan. It was a cash payout paid to all employee beneficiaries. It was funded by a capital contribution to the Trust by Oceana. The capital contribution was referred to as a loan for ease of understanding, as the Trust had to pay it back. This is standard in trusts of this nature. The 2013/14 amendment did not result in a dilution of shares. Employee beneficiaries were fully informed about the amendment to the Trust deed. From 2013 to 2014, there was a material amendment to the Trust deed to provide for the extension…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za THE Black Farmers Association of SA (BFASA) says it will not give up until medical cannabis licences are fairly available, as it marched to the offices of the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) in Pretoria yesterday. BFASA president Dr Lennox Mtshagi said they were met by the Health Department director-general Dr Sandile Buthelezi, outside Sahpra”s offices, who received their memorandum and promised to provide feedback. The BFASA has slammed the regulator for what it alleged amounted to “handing over’’ the local cannabis industry to “white monopoly colonialists” in the way it granted medical cannabis licences. The organisation said black people, including indigenous, monarchs and traditional healers, were being excluded. “Sahpra should be criminally charged because they are not applying BEE when issuing licences. We are going…

Staff writer CAPE Town City Ballet will present the South African premiere of Mthuthuzeli November’s Olivier Award-winning Ingoma as part of its Autumn Season at the Artscape. The performances in the Artscape Opera House, on from May 19, will be strictly limited to 250 seats due to social distancing. Commissioned by Cassa Pancho for Ballet Black in London, and choreographed by South African-born November, Ingoma collected prestigious awards including the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production as well as Best Dance Production at the Black British Theatre Awards, following its 2019 premiere at the Barbican Theatre and run at the Lindbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House. Ingoma is a fusion of ballet, African dance and song, engaging in a universal theme about being human. Inspired by the…

CHULUMANCO MAHAMBA TEACHER unions and governing body organisations have welcomed the national debate on re-opening primary schools full-time, however, there is concern about under-resourced schools. This comes as the Department of Basic Education mulls over the decision to have all primary school pupils back to school full-time. Primary school learners are less likely to be hospitalised and die from Covid-19 complications. Most public schools are attending on a rotation schedule, the hybrid model. This means pupils are in school two days in one week and three days the following week – five days fortnightly. However, there have been concerns that the hybrid model was not working out. Department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said on Wednesday that there were a lot of challenges with the hybrid model. “Learning is delayed and…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za WITH more cyclists starting to train for the Cape Town Cycle Tour, a call has been made for authorities to increase patrols, especially along hot-spot routes. Cycling associations said they had noticed opportunistic criminals increasingly targeting cyclists, with pepper spray now being used in attacks. In the most recent incident near Steenberg Village, at about 6.10am on Wednesday, two men allegedly pepper-sprayed a group of six cyclists who were heading towards the US Embassy. The cyclists were pepper-sprayed, one being caught in the eye, forcing him to immediately stop riding. When the rest of the group members realised this and also stopped, the alleged perpetrators, who had started to approach the cyclist, walked away. Police spokesperson Andrè Traut said Kirstenhof police had no record of a criminal…

Odwa Mkentane odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za YET another taxi driver has been shot dead. Police spokesperson Noloyiso Rwexana said Delft police were investigating a shooting at Ifafa Crescent, Leiden, Delft on Wednesday night. “According to reports, police attended the crime scene at the address and upon their arrival they found a 21-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his face. The circumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation with no arrests so far,” said Rwexana. On Tuesday, a Khayelitsha taxi owner was the victim of suspected taxi-related violence after he was killed in a hail of bullets at the Site C taxi rank. Fifty-two-year-old Goodman Lomboza was shot and killed and a woman wounded in the shooting. Codeta spokesperson Andile Soyama said the association would pay attention to recent shootings. “I was informed…

Helen Macdonald | Rondebosch WHILE the helicopters are circling and the devastating fire continues to rage on the slopes of Table Mountain, it would be prudent to take a step back from the smoke and ash and explore the issue of homelessness in the city. One could argue that homelessness has been a contributing factor to the blaze that wreaked havoc this week. If reports are correct, the initial fire began from a small fire deserted by a vagrant near Rhodes Memorial. Reports have also claimed that one man (who lives on the mountain) has been arrested in relation to starting additional fires. The issue of homelessness in and around the city has worsened over the past few years and has been aggravated by the economic consequences of…

Mark Keohane Proteas cricket coach Mark Boucher has won three of the 13 series in all formats of the game: T20s, ODIs and Tests. He has lost at home and abroad. He has played with a full-strength side and he has also introduced second-string teams because of unavailability of players in the Indian Premier League, as just one example. His international return as a coach is dismal, but why is he seemingly exempt from criticism? And why the contempt from so many shown to the few who dare question Boucher and his role as national coach? Boucher had many glorious moments as a national player. He scored runs, took catches and made stumpings. He was a permanent fixture in the national side for more than a decade. He was considered…

us president joe Biden’s administration yesterday pledged at a US climate summit attended by world leaders to slash US greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, a target it hopes will spur other big countries to raise their ambition to combat global warming. The US, the world’s second-leading emitter after China, seeks to reclaim global leadership in the fight against global warming after former President Donald Trump withdrew the country from global efforts to cut emissions. Biden unveiled the goal to cut emissions by 50%-52% from 2005 levels at the start of a two-day virtual climate summit attended by leaders of 40 states including China, Russia and India. “This is the decade we must make decisions that will avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis,” Biden, a Democrat, said…

The UN General Assembly is debating a draft resolution on Myanmar that calls on the junta to restore democracy following a coup and free detained civilian leaders, diplomats said yesterday. Leaders and foreign ministers from the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are set to hold talks in Jakarta on the mounting crisis on Saturday. The sponsors of the text are waiting for the meeting to finish so they can “see how it goes” before committing to a vote, said a diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. Security forces in Myanmar have killed at least 741 people – including 52 children, according to UN figures – since the February 1 military coup ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The Myanmar military has stepped up the use of lethal…

LOS ANGELES: Hollywood actor Michael Keaton remembers seeing the flames of industrial plant flares from the woods where he played. Keaton, 69, said as a child he heard tales of businessmen packing an extra shirt when headed to the office because of the pollution. Pittsburgh’s steel industry collapsed a half-century ago, and since then the city has reformed itself into a cleaner and more liveable city, though the scars of industry remain. Now Keaton aims to work with a building technology company in his hometown to help drive an even greener shift by replacing a share of the traditional concrete used in construction – a major drive of global climate-changing emissions – with a lower-carbon substitute. Keaton is a founding partner in a new manufacturing plant that will produce building…

LONDON: Britain issued an apology yesterday for failures that meant “pervasive racism” might have denied a proper commemoration to as many as 350 000 Black and Asian service personnel who died fighting for the British Empire in world wars. An independent inquiry commissioned by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) found that hundreds of thousands of mostly African and Middle Eastern casualties from World War I were not commemorated by name, or at all. The CWGC will act on the report’s 10 recommendations such as seeking out new names and adding explanations at relevant sites. | Reuters…

This week, we will be taking a closer look at football’s latest boots. So this week the entire football world had a big shake-up with the European Super League announcement. Some of the world’s major clubs were prepared to join it but Fifa have since had the last say and it does not look like the league will be going ahead. The exclusion of players and clubs from domestic and international competitions also got fans and players highly worked up. It was a good wake-up call for Fifa though and will make them get out of their comfort zone. Let’s take a look at what the football brands have installed for the business end of the season as Nike, Adidas and Puma have launched new ranges of footwear. Nike has…