SINCERETALK

Professor Rachel Jewkes’ colourful office on the first floor of the Gauteng branch of the South African Medical Research Unit (SAMRC) pays homage to the three main roles she has had over the years, activist, researcher, and as the coffee cup next to her proclaims: “badass mother”. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/gtFev1G via sinceretalk

Soweto’s Nokuthula Tshabalala can recall the moment that inspired her to start her own business: she realised how much waste was being dumped in landfills while many people in her community struggled to make a living. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/ARm2Bui via sinceretalk

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim admitted the weight of pressure is affecting the entire squad. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/p65u3yd via sinceretalk

The Springboks have turned to experience as they prepare for a testing two-week tour of New Zealand in the Rugby Championship, with seasoned scrumhalf Faf de Klerk drafted into the squad as additional cover in a crucial position. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/igICGB8 via sinceretalk

President Donald Trump isn't just attempting to fire or remove government officials who have served under his predecessor. — he's also set his sights on people he himself nominated to their roles. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the Trump administration has seen multiple leadership shakeups in recent weeks that increasingly involve Trump's own second-term picks. Lately, this has included former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez , who Trump fired after she refused orders from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to fire experienced scientists and adopt unproven theories about vaccines as official policy. Monarez was fired just weeks after she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Trump has also seen a revolving door of multiple Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioners after just seven months in office. Former IRS commissioner Billy Long was reportedly forced out of his role after disputes wi...

Shortly after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the bulk of President Donald Trump's tariffs were unconstitutional , the president posted a lengthy rant on his social media platform slamming the decision and the judges. Some conservative and libertarian commentators responded to his statement with mockery. On Friday, after the 7-4 decision was made public, Trump tore into the "highly partisan" judges who upheld a lower court ruling striking down most of his "Liberation Day" tariffs announced in April. He insisted that his unilaterally imposed import duties were both lawful and necessary for the safety of the country, and bemoaned the "enormous Trade Deficits" used to justify his tariffs. "If allowed to stand, this Decision would literally destroy the United States of America," the president wrote. READ MORE: 'Big blow to the president's agenda': NYT's Haberman details major Trump setback in co...

On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a previous decision by a lower court that the vast bulk of President Donald Trump's tariffs — which he imposed by claiming emergency powers — were unconstitutional. And according to New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, it's one of the biggest legal setbacks yet for Trump's second administration. During a segment with CNN host Jake Tapper , Haberman said that the decision was highly anticipated by everyone in the administration who works on trade issues. She added that administration officials had been fearing that it would be "difficult" to defend Trump's assumed emergency powers before the federal judiciary. "The U.S. is going to end up in a position, if the Supreme Court upholds this ruling, and it's almost certainly going to go to the Supreme Court, the U.S. is now going to be in a position to pay people — countries, excuse me — back, for tariffs. That get...

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) took several veiled jabs at President Donald Trump, as their public feud continues to dominate headlines. The Daily Beast reported Friday that Pritzker — who was visiting Wagoner Elementary School in Sauk Village (roughly 30 miles south of Chicago) — was simultaneously complimentary to young students while trolling the president. In a post to his official X account , the two-term Illinois governor didn't mention Trump directly but wrote: "Our leaders in Washington could learn a thing or two from some of the best elementary school students here in Illinois." "I just got to meet a group of kindergarteners and second graders, and they are really smart kids, and it was great to spend time with them," Pritzker said. "They get to learn every day about these classroom rules, and they follow them. And I have to say, there are a few in here I think the leaders in Washington ought to learn like, for example, 'listen carefu...

On Thursday, Lisa Cook – a member of the Federal Reserve board of governors — officially sued President Donald Trump over his attempt to remove her from her job . And former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is wondering why the leader of the nation's central bank has so far kept quiet. Before interviewing Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman on his MSNBC show "The Weeknight," Steele tore into Fed chairman Jerome Powell for not defending his fellow Fed member. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 stipulates that a president can only remove a Fed governor "for cause," and Steele asserted that Trump's stated cause of Cook allegedly committing mortgage fraud didn't hold water. "We have been making this point since this story broke that the Fed chair, in my estimation, needs to step up —needs to man up — and stand with one of his governors who's under attack because he knows damn well what Donald Trump is up to," Steel...

A landmark trial has concluded in London, England, with the conviction of a father and his two adult children for their roles in inciting racial hatred through neo‑Nazi music. The case shines a spotlight on how extremist ideologies exploit cultural events. The Independent reported Thursday that 59-year-old Robert Talland, known as “Ginger Rob,” along with his son Stephen, 36, and daughter Rosie, 33, were found guilty of conspiracy to incite racial hatred following a nine‑week trial at Woolwich Crown Court. Stephen and Rosie were convicted of inciting racial hatred directly. Robert faced further convictions for possessing racially inflammatory material and disseminating terrorist publications, per reports from the UK media. READ MORE: Trump drops 'atomic bomb' on DOJ: analysis The case centers on a gig held at the Corpus Christi Club in Leeds in September 2019, organized by Robert Talland. There, his children — members of a band called Embers of an Empire — performed so...

One longtime Republican strategist is now warning that President Donald Trump may be contemplating deploying the U.S. military as a means of disrupting next year's pivotal midterm elections. During a Thursday appearance on MSNBC , Rick Wilson — who is a co-founder of the anti-Trump Republican group The Lincoln Project — weighed in on California Governor Gavin Newsom's (D) comments that Trump may attempt to stay in power beyond 2028 in defiance of the U.S. Constitution and whether Newsom's concerns were legitimate. He said that while Trump has a history of "trolling," the president is also a "gambler" who has a pattern of taking big political risks for large payoffs. "If it had gone just slightly differently on January 6th, 2021, and Congress refused to certify the election, Donald Trump would have returned to the White House," he said. "He is a guy who will gamble and push and use that that shamelessness and that transgression that...

Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele strongly criticized on Wednesday what he described as inaction regarding gun violence in the United States. During a segment on MSNBC , Steele decried the Minneapolis, Minnesota school shooting Wednesday morning, which claimed the lives of two children and injured at least 17 others. “The 'thoughts and prayers,' I’m so beyond, so beyond that nonsense — the lie of that — because what we have are people who continue to stand in the way of actually doing something to stop the violence against their own kids. It is amazing to me. We watch young kids die in classrooms and now in church, and all we get are thoughts and prayers,” Steele said to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) prior to his interview with her. Omar appeared during the segment to discuss the tragedy that impacted her constituents. Steele told Omar: “Your leadership right now is important, in this moment, not just because of what you can say or do legislatively, ...

66‑year‑old James Edwin Yokeley Jr. — the Republican chairman of the Surry County, North Carolina Board of Elections — now faces serious criminal charges after authorities in Wilmington, North Carolina, revealed he allegedly slipped illegal drugs into his granddaughters' ice cream. According to Raleigh, North Carolina NBC affiliate WRAL News , on August 8, Yokeley approached a Wilmington police officer and claimed his two juvenile granddaughters had discovered two suspicious pills in ice cream they’d purchased from Dairy Queen on Oleander Drive. However, surveillance video later revealed that Yokeley himself was seen placing the pills into both of the girls’ treats. The pills reportedly tested positive for MDMA and cocaine, as noted in an arrest warrant. The authorities said they have evidence he slipped drugs into the girls' ice cream. READ MORE: 'Worst case': Conservative worried Trump does not intend 'to ever vacate the White House' According to the re...

One journalist suggested to MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace that President Donald Trump wasn't totally in the wrong in sending the military to occupy Washington D.C. Wallace didn't let the point stand without interjecting. During the Wednesday broadcast of her show "Deadline: White House," Wallace played a clip from a town hall that Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) hosted this week. Brecheen defended Trump's federal takeover of Washington D.C. law enforcement operations by telling assembled constituents that Trump was the "chief law enforcement officer" of the United States and that sending the military to U.S. cities was within his purview. After the clip, Sam Stein — who is managing editor of anti-Trump conservative website The Bulwark — suggested to Wallace that it was important to apply "nuance" to what Trump was doing. He argued that crime was an important issue to Americans and that while Trump may be taking a political risk by using the mili...

Jack Scarola, attorney for victims of convicted child predator Jeffrey Epstein, said Epstein was "given an incredible sweetheart deal" during his 2008 prosecution by then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta (who later served as Trump's secretary of labor) and also "provided with a non-prosecution agreement that immunized named coconspirators and unnamed coconspirators from federal prosecution from any crime they may have committed." During an appearance on CNN Tuesday evening , Scarola called this action a "totally unjustifiable concession to a criminal defendant that has never been explained." He continued: "And I don't know how it could ever rationally be explained. In addition to that, the terms of that agreement were actively concealed from the victims, when federal law required them to be informed of the agreement and to have an opportunity to be heard about it. Those are questions that need to be explained." READ MORE: Not 'a single...

President Donald Trump may be too mentally compromised to hold the nation's highest office, according to one national security expert. In a Tuesday post to her X account , journalist Juliette Kayyem — who is a CNN analyst and professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government — quote-posted a video of Trump's comments in the Oval Office about sending National Guard troops to Chicago, Illinois. In the video, Trump was asked about the legality of such a move, prompting him to respond that he had ultimate legal authority given his position. "I would have much more respect for [Illinois Governor JB] Pritzker if he called me up and said 'I have a problem, can you help me fix it,' I would be so happy to do it," Trump said . "I have the right to do anything I want to do, I'm the president of the United States. If I think our country is in danger — and it is in danger in these cities — I can do it." READ MORE: (Opinion) Inside Trump...

A mounting battle over the legitimacy of Alina Habba’s appointment as acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey has paralyzed federal criminal proceedings across the state, prompting at least a dozen judges to pause trials, plea hearings and sentencings amid uncertainty. Last week, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann ruled that Habba had been serving unlawfully in the position since July 1, declaring her de facto appointment invalid. Although Brann stayed his decision to allow for an appeal, the legal cloud has already cast a shadow over dozens of proceedings. READ MORE: Not 'a single Trump voter in favor of this': MAGA explodes at latest reversal Politico reported Tuesday , citing a new legal filing, that these delays include a high-profile triple-homicide trial rescheduled for November after a career prosecutor was replaced to accommodate Habba, as well as the sentencing of a CEO convicted of pandemic-era investor fraud. That sentencing, originally slated for early September,...

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez‑DeRemer is facing backlash over her "sycophantic" remarks made to President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting Tuesday. “Mr. President, I invite you to see your big beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor because you are really the transformational president of the American worker," she said, while referencing a new banner unveiled on her department's headquarters. The massive banner was unveiled on the Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Monday morning. It features Trump’s second inaugural portrait, the “America 250” logo, and the slogan “American Workers First.” It spans three stories of the building’s windows and sits beside an American flag and a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt bearing the same motto. READ MORE: Not 'a single Trump voter in favor of this': MAGA explodes at latest reversal This is not the first federal building to host such a display. In May, a similarly style...

Conservative attorney and political analyst George Conway said Monday President Donald Trump’s takeover of blue cities is a “prescription for disaster,” adding that “somebody is going to get hurt.” During a segment on MSNBC Monday evening , Conway went on to say cops are acting like “thugs” and it’s becoming hard to tell the difference between security personnel and thugs because the cops cover their faces while making arrests. Earlier on Monday, Trump announced plans to deploy the National Guard to Chicago as part of a broader federal crackdown on crime in Democratic-led cities, after already taking similar actions in Washington, D.C. READ MORE: 'A dangerous message': Retired general blasts Trump admin in scathing op-ed Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) slammed the proposal, denouncing it as unconstitutional, politically motivated, and an abuse of power — accusing Trump of "manufacturing a crisis." He emphasized during a presser that Illinois hasn’t requested f...

As President Donald Trump threatens to use his authority to deploy more National Guard units to various U.S. cities, one expert on authoritarian regimes is sounding the alarm that Trump could end up irreparably damaging the U.S. military's reputation as a result. While speaking to MSNBC host Jason Johnson , New York University professor and author Ruth Ben-Ghiat said Trump's use of the military to perform domestic law enforcement duties was a page out of the playbook of some of the world's most notorious far-right dictators. She argued Trump was attempting to condition the population to seeing the military on their streets on an everyday basis. "Part of this is, of course, intimidation. And the optics of it are very important to this administration," she said. "They want Americans — starting with [Los Angeles, California], where you had actual Marines as well as National Guard there — they want Americans to become habituated to the idea of state security ...

President Donald Trump's maneuvers to keep loyalists in key decision-making roles in defiance of traditional checks and balances could backfire when the pendulum swings back in Democrats' favor, according to a new Wall Street Journal editorial. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal's (WSJ) editorial board argued that Trump's efforts to keep Alina Habba — his former personal attorney — in her role as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey stretch the boundaries of the law and could one day be weaponized against the GOP. The WSJ criticized the administration's moves to extend Habba's temporary 120-day "acting" role as "bureaucratic jiu jitsu." "Ms. Habba resigned as interim U.S. Attorney, and her nomination to the Senate was withdrawn. The Justice Department instead named Ms. Habba as a 'special attorney,' while designating her as the New Jersey office’s new first assistant," the editorial explained. "Voilà...

After his Friday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump bragged that the dictator had backed one of his conspiracy theories. According to Trump, Putin said , “You can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting.” (You don’t need to be a former KGB agent to know how to woo our chief executive.) Then on Monday, perhaps emboldened by his encounter with a real-life autocrat, Trump announced a major effort to seize control of American elections. In a Truth Social post, he declared that he would sign “an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections” and “lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS.” We’ve all grown used to the president’s wild claims about elections. We might be tempted to roll our eyes now, but we shouldn’t. It’s appalling. If we do not act against these threats, free and fair elections in 2026 could be at stake. So, what can be done? The order would likely purport to ban or seriously limit mail voting, ...

Arnold Schwarzenegger, a lifelong Republican , has benefitted the world in immeasurable ways. As California’s 38th governor, he reduced the state's greenhouse gas emissions by moving the state away from fossil fuels and toward renewables , particularly hydrogen and solar. He sought and obtained a waiver to allow California to adopt more stringent greenhouse gas emissions standards for passenger vehicles than those mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He’s been named an EPA Climate Change Champion for his work in green energy, clean technology and the overall struggle against climate change. Schwarzenegger’s climate progress is even more impressive considering the size of California’s economy, now the fourth-largest in the world . With a $4.1 trillion GDP, California’s economy is larger than that of almost all countries, including Japan , Russia , and India . Only the economies of China , Germany , and the US are larger. Given the cost and complexity of tra...

Numsa has announced it has agreed to an above-inflation wage increase on behalf of 90 000 members in the motor industry. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/OJkrYSA via sinceretalk

Last week, Donald Trump directed hundreds of masked agents and soldiers, who may soon be armed , to “ do whatever the hell they want ,” presumably to whomever the hell they want, on the streets of the US capital. Someone should do Trump a solid and explain, slowly, that when ICE starts murdering civilians on his request, he will be criminally liable for the bloodshed, and the Supreme Court's immunity ruling won’t save him. US soldiers, trained to kill, are also trained to obey. But when a Commander-in-Chief authorizes clear violations of federal law , soldiers have a legal duty to dis obey . The good news is that four out of five troops who were recently polled said they understand their duty to reject illegal commands. The bad news is human nature. As Trump sends more and more newly minted ICE agents marching across the streets of Washington D.C. and other Democrat-run cities , along with the FBI, the DEA, U.S. Marshals, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, on...