SINCERETALK

Siviwe Gwarube and her family were crushed on Saturday night when India beat South Africa at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final. But on Sunday, it was a presumably different picture as she was appointed Minister of Basic Education. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/9NblskR via sinceretalk

South Africans had to wait for nearly an hour on Sunday night for President Cyril Ramaphosa to finally name his new Cabinet. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/M9hveuj via sinceretalk

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his government of national unity (GNU) Cabinet on Sunday. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/hG2pQPt via sinceretalk

How the club boss dribbled the league to buy Swallows using his daughter’s name. from News24 news24/topstories/rss https://ift.tt/9yZnO3L via sinceretalk

The 2024 election will likely be decided by 70,000 to 80,000 voters in a small handful of battleground states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And one swing state voter recently told CNN that she feels even more determined to vote for President Joe Biden in spite of his lackluster debate performance on Thursday night. Following the debate, many of Biden's supporters were reportedly in a state of panic, with cable news panels reading text messages sent by Democratic Party operatives on the air openly pondering whether the president was physically able to carry out the duties of his office until 2029. But one Georgia voter CNN spoke with was notably stoic when asked about whether she still planned to vote for Biden a second time in November. "I care about where our country is going to be rather than who delivered the most stellar debate onstage," she said. "And I care about who tells the truth, who is going to keep me safe, and

President Joe Biden's performance at Thursday night's debate has prompted head-scratching and hand-wringing from Democrats. But one of former President Donald Trump's most outspoken Republican critics thinks Biden will be just fine if his staff sets him up to succeed. During a Friday night interview with MSNBC host Joy Reid, Michael Steele – who chaired the Republican National Committee between 2009 and 2011 — opined that Biden's naysayers are overreacting to his widely panned debate performance. When Reid asked him if Biden's surrogates need to hit the road and make a more convincing argument to re-elect the 46th president of the United States, Steele countered that Biden should actually be the one to make the case for himself. "It has to be him, and I think it has to be him in a big way," Steele said, praising Biden's far more energetic speech at a rally in North Carolina on Friday afternoon. "Folks just need to calm the hell down. Democrat

On Friday, a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump issued a ruling in favor of a Republican congressman suing President Joe Biden's administration over a foreign policy issue, and one legal expert is questioning the judge's competency. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas sided with Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) by striking down the Biden administration's motion to dismiss. In 2022, Jackson and other plaintiffs sued over federal funding of the United Nation's Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The plaintiffs‚ notably assisted by the pro-Trump group America First Legal, cited a Trump-era law to justify the lawsuit that cuts U.S. funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has jurisdiction over the Palestinian-controlled West Bank territory in Israel. UNRWA was recently named in another lawsuit alleging that the agency had knowledge that funds allocated for humanitarian aid in Gaza were being sip

While June is typically celebrated as LGBTQ+ Pride month, Colorado Republican Party chairman Dave Williams has spent the last several weeks bashing the LGBTQ+ community. And on Tuesday night, Centennial State Republicans handed him a major loss. The Advocate, which covers LGBTQ+ news, reported Thursday that Williams lost his bid for the Republican nomination in Colorado's 5th Congressional District race to Jeff Crank, who is a conservative talk radio host. Williams' loss is notable, given that he's chaired the Colorado Republican Party since 2023, and was a state representative from the Colorado Springs area in the six years prior. Williams' loss wasn't even remotely close. According to Politico's final tally , Crank trounced Williams by more than 30 points, garnering more than 54,000 votes to Williams' 30,000. He will face off against Democrat River Gassen in November and is heavily favored to win in the reliably red district. The seat became open afte

The State of Oklahoma appears to be poised to outdo Louisiana in its effort to inject Christianity into public schools, after a new announcement by the state's superintendent of public instruction. On Thursday, ABC affiliate KOCO 5 News reported that Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters is now requiring all K-12 public school classrooms keep a copy of the Bible on hand , and to give it the same regard as a history textbook. The new policy is to be implemented "effective immediately." "The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone,” Walters said in the announcement. “Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation which is why Oklahoma educational standards provide for its instruction. This is not merely an educational directive but a crucial step in ensuring our students grasp the core values and historical context of our country.” READ MORE: (Opinion) MAGA state superintenden

A month after Absa was robbed of nearly R103 million, allegedly by the bank's IT specialist Xolela Masebeni, more than R59 million was transferred to his best friend’s Absa account. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/8qPyl7x via sinceretalk

Donald Trump has been preparing for his first debate by accusing the president of being on drugs. This is not new. He did it to Hillary Clinton in 2016. He did it to Joe Biden in 2020. The GOP leadership, including the House speaker, is backing up the lie. “Everybody wants to know,” Mike Johnson said . “Which Biden is going to show up? It doesn’t matter if he drinks a whole gallon of energy drinks. He’s not going to be able to match the acumen and the readiness of Donald Trump.” This is being interpreted as a confession – that Republican elites are worried that, on Thursday, their nominee is going to get smoked. They should be worried. Trump’s habitual incoherence has been obvious to those of us who have been paying attention. It was abundantly clear to America’s top CEOs during a recent meeting. And it will become more obvious, as millions of people who have not been paying attention will be checking in on politics for the first time since the last election. The hope is that

Billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban — a stanch Donald Trump critic — issued this week four reasons why he refuses to vote for the former president in November's election. Cuban's latest criticism of the MAGA hopeful comes after business expert and Yale School of Management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld earlier this week revealed in a New York Times op-ed that Trump has the "lowest level of corporate support" in the Republican party's history. In his Trump takedown, Cuban was replying to Canadian author and marketing at Concordia University marketing professor Gad Saad, who wrote via X (formerly Twitter): Me: Why do you hate Trump? Progressive: He is a threat to democracy. Me : How? Progressive: He has yet to relinquish power. Me: Really? He's still occupying the White House? Progressive: No, but he's not conceded. Me: Has Hillary not repeatedly stated that Trump was an illegitimate president? Progressive: Well yes, but sh

US District Judge Aileen Cannon's handling of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago classified documents case has resulted in many former federal prosecutors, judges, and other legal experts to call for her to be removed from the case. Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner emphasized in a Wednesday op-ed published by MSNBC that he cannot stress enough "how unusual" it is that Cannon has yet to set a trial date for the ex-president's case. Kirshner pointed to retired federal judge Shira Scheindlin's assertion earlier this month regarding Cannon. Scheindlin said: "I think she is inexperienced, and I think it makes her insecure in her rulings. But the motivation may be mixed in with intentionally delaying enough to make sure this doesn’t go before the election. READ MORE: 'Don’t interrupt me': Judge Cannon scolds prosecutor at hearing to defund Jack Smith Kirschner emphasized, "When such concerns and criticisms of a judge’s suitability to presid

After losing his bid to fill the congressional seat in the Colorado district ditched by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) — Ron Hanks is tossing a lit match at the GOP tinderbox. "I don’t take anything that happens personally. But what I do see is the Republican Party has basically made itself irredeemable,” the MAGA hardliner who served as a combat veteran for 32 years told The Independent . The choice of words was curious as it harks back to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's nose-pinching remarks disparaging MAGA and Trump's base of supporters back in 2016 . “Just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables, right” she said to laughs and claps. She considered those who fit in the basket and saluted Trump's rhetoric on social media to be "irredeemable." The candidate who ran on his Jan. 6 attendance bonafides in the state's 3rd district was outdone on Tuesday with a double dig

The first debate is Thursday, so naturally, the Washington press corps is busy setting expectations for Joe Biden, most of them high enough to match the feeling of suspense that editors and producers want to create to attract that most coveted of all commodities: your attention. MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace offered a representative sampling of what’s been offered so far this week: “He has to come in there and punch [Trump] in the face with his own boasts. Trump boasts about things that are traitorous. Trump boasts about things that are disgusting. Trump boasts about grabbing women between the legs. And if Biden doesn’t go in there and punch him in the face, with his own things that he’s proud of, the [debate] is lost before it starts.” Yeah, no. To win, the president doesn’t have to do anything as theatrical as (metaphorically) punching Trump in the face. He doesn’t have to stage low drama for CNN’s cameras. He doesn’t even have to be the hero of the republic. All he has to do is act

One expert researcher of far-right media is raising red flags about how former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign is being associated with religious overtones heading into November. During a Tuesday interview with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, Angelo Carusone – who is the president of progressive research group Media Matters for America — warned that conservative media is showing a growing propensity to tie religious themes to Trump. He said that for some of Trump's most diehard followers, this could be later used to foment another insurrection in the event of another Republican loss this fall. "Every single primetime host at fox News has claimed that Democrats are going to cheat in order to steal the election in 2024," Caruso observed. "They've introduced a lot more religious language. So, they keep referring to Election Day as a 'blessed event.' They keep referring to Trump as somebody who is a vessel of Jesus Christ." READ MORE: Trump

MSNBC's Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday interviewed two longtime business executives — Yale School of Management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, and Donny Deutch, chairman of the advertising firm, Deutsch Inc. — about American CEOs' decline in support for Donald Trump. Wallace wondered if so many chief executive officers of American companies are critical of the former president — as Sonnenfeld stated in a recent op-ed — and if they believe American democracy would be at stake under a second Trump presidency, why have they not voiced their concerns more? "You cannot get hired at any of the companies run by a fortune 500 CEOs if you're a convicted felon," Wallace said, asking Sonnenfeld, "If they really don't want to see Trump as America's next president, why aren't they fighting like their businesses depend on the re-election of Joe Biden?" READ MORE: CEOs left 'remarkably meandering' Trump event 'less p

Another person has died of Mpox in KwaZulu-Natal, raising the death toll to three since the outbreak of the disease in May. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/UZzAvxP via sinceretalk

Former President Donald Trump's lawyers in his Mar-a-Lago classified documents case are arguing Jack Smith's appointment as special counsel in the case was not constitutional, as a part of their efforts to have the case thrown out all together. Presiding Judge Aileen Cannon — who was appointed to the bench by Trump — is strongly considering the argument. Conservative lawyer George Conway on Monday spoke with CNN's Erin Burnett about a pitch Conway's fellow legal expert, George Washington University law professor Randall Eliason made to the DOJ for how the department should move forward in handling the baseless argument against Smith. READ MORE: Cannon’s latest moves leave analyst 'gobsmacked' "I know that if she were to rule against Jack Smith in these cases, or his appointment, that would give him a chance to move to have her removed," Burnett said, "he might succeed, and this case could continue." The CNN host then pointed to a twee

To hawk limited edition coffee mugs as merch, former President Donald Trump complained about being "tortured" when he was arrested. The black mugshots lure potential donors with a penchant for Trump with the question: "Do you like coffee?" It then features a pair of "limited edition" mugs with the black and white version of Trump's mugshot snapped when the 45th president was booked into Fulton County Jail last August. It has since become a searing image and rallying cry for MAGA diehards, emblazoned on T-shirts, mugs and can sleeves under the banner "Never Surrender." “President Trump’s mugshot serves as a reminder to the American people that Joe Biden is weaponizing our Justice Department against his opponent, and that despite enduring these unprecedented political attacks, President Trump continues to fight to secure our border, rebuild our economy, and end the chaos that Biden’s weakness has created around the world,” Trump campaign

Former President Donald Trump's top three contenders in the running to be his vice president if elected in November are North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Bergum, US Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), and JD Vance (R-OH). In a Monday, June 24 op-ed published by MSNBC, columnist and author Paul Waldman suggests that out of the three right-wing lawmakers, Vance would be "the most dangerous" choice. "Vance has developed his own ideas about the kind of revolution he’d like to see, and Trump is clearly his vehicle to achieve it," Waldman writes. READ MORE: Vance emerges as top VP choice for Trump — but Senate GOPer says he has one major 'drawback' The MAGA hopeful "wouldn’t have to cajole or beg or threaten JD Vance to subvert democracy. He’d eagerly say yes, in pursuit of his own authoritarian dreams," the White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy author adds. Waldman notes: Like Rubio and Burgum, he has repented for his former cri

Last week, the New York Times reported that business expert and Yale School of Management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, "who is in frequent contact with corporate leaders, said most chief executives he had spoken to preferred" President Joe Biden to ex-President Donald Trump, "some of them enthusiastically and some of them biting their lip and holding their nose." Sonnenfeld expanded on his assertion in a Sunday, June 23 op-ed published by the Times, adding, "Trump continues to suffer from the lowest level of corporate support in the history of the Republican Party." The Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute president noted that some "chief executives resented Mr. Trump’s personal attacks on businesses through divide-and-conquer tactics, meddling and pitting competitors against each other publicly." READ MORE: Trump’s latest flip-flop shows his propensity to bend to 'views of wealthy donors': report The School of Management

Experts have warned that the lack of registration for an Mpox vaccine and treatment could become problematic should cases grow exponentially. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/UoPyw7K via sinceretalk

To believe that the DA will get into government and bulldoze its way back to apartheid is absurdly fanciful and condescending, writes Mondli Makhanya. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/QJhCsx8 via sinceretalk

Intense haggling over sharing of powerful portfolios, including the deputy presidency, threaten to derail the precarious deal. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/L5sji73 via sinceretalk

A political scientist and author is warning that former President Donald Trump is already laying the groundwork for what could be another violent insurrection if he loses the November election. In a Friday night interview with CNN , Barbara F. Walter — who wrote the book How Civil Wars Start — said Trump has so far been repeating the same rhetoric from his 2020 campaign. She observed that unlike most conventional presidential candidates, Trump is literally running for office to remain a free man. According to Walter, this means doing whatever it takes to win, including fomenting political violence. "He wants to stay out of jail and he wants to get in the White House," Walter told CNN host Pamela Brown. "And this is sort of classic, mob-style bullying tactics. He's trying to intimidate jurors, intimidate judges, intimidate anybody who might have an influence on what the repercussions of this past trial are going to be." READ MORE: Trump fanning flames of Ja

Michigan state representative Neil Friske, who is a freshman Republican lawmaker representing a rural district in the northern part of the state, is now being held without bond, and potentially faces three felony charges. The Washington Post reported that Friske was arrested at approximately 3 AM Eastern Time on Thursday morning, following a "late-night incident" involving a man with a gun chasing a woman, and potentially shots fired. While Friske hasn't yet been formally charged, police are reportedly requesting that prosecutors file charges of sexual assault, along with a separate assault charge and a gun charge. In a statement posted to Facebook, Friske's campaign appeared to not dispute that the lawmaker was armed, saying that he "is always exercising his 2nd Amendment right." But the statement also suggested that the arrest was politically motivated, given that absentee ballots are about to be released and the fact that a pollster using an unknown

Former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign is reportedly now applying pressure to delegates ahead of the Republican National Convention (RNC) next month as he aims to officially lock up the GOP's presidential nomination. NBC News reported Friday that the Trump campaign has been working behind the scenes to apply pressure to Republican delegates from Arizona amid rumors that they may not be completely loyal to the MAGA agenda. This reportedly included reaching out to "alternate" delegates who told the network that the former president's team was attempting to head off any attempts to thwart the nomination of both Trump himself and his preferred vice presidential pick. "[The Trump campaign] felt there was a credible threat to the convention and a disruption to the convention," one alternate delegate told NBC. READ MORE: RNC makes preparations for national convention where its nominee may be behind bars According to NBC, that "credible threa

We should talk about the cultivated naivete of the Washington press corps. We have discussed at length the makebelieve that animates so much of political reporters’ coverage of the 2024 presidential election, especially Donald Trump’s campaign. But we haven’t begun to discuss the kind of childlike wonder that characterizes them, as individuals. What is cultivated naivete? The first thing to say is once you see it, you can’t stop seeing it. It is everywhere you look in political journalism. The second thing to say is it’s the opposite of what you’d expect from reasonable and fully developed adult humans. It treats politics as if it had no history. It treats Republicans as if they were children. And it treats Democrats as if they were the only grown ups in Washington. I say cultivated because members of the press corps are not naive. If anything, they are cynical, so cynical that they don’t believe anyone means anything they say. The naivete I’m talking about is learned. It is