SINCERETALK

What began as a simple WhatsApp message among a handful of Bible study women in Mossel Bay has turned into a milestone journey stretching from the shores of Cape Town to the heart of Johannesburg. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/CHxwWYJ via sinceretalk

Green Scooters founder Fezile Dlamini alleges the Industrial Development Corporation unfairly rejected his electric vehicle company’s funding applications over eight years while approving R69 million for a white-owned competitor. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/kVaUdKQ via sinceretalk

This week, Trump said that he’d do whatever is necessary to ease the oil crisis. He also assured America that the crisis “will be over soon.” Bull----. The problem isn’t just that Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz . It’s also that Iran, Israel, and the United States have all inflicted — and continue to inflict — serious damage to the oil and gas infrastructure of the Middle East. This damage will take months if not years to repair. At one point on Thursday oil prices jumped to $119 a barrel before falling back to around $111 a barrel — all but guaranteeing that the price of gas at the pump will continue to rise, as will the prices of many other products and services indirectly affected by oil prices. What we are now witnessing is one of the grossest military and political blunders in modern history. It’s not hard to understand why Trump is trapped in Iran. He doesn’t listen to anyone outside his small circle of sycophants who tell him what he wants to hear. But there’s some...

Everything from this week’s edition of City Press in one convenient place. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/b9msfJz via sinceretalk

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice wasted no time filing charges against podcaster and former CNN anchor Don Lemon and other people for daring to interview a pastor at an anti-ICE protest inside a Minnesota church. A mere two days after a Jan. 18 protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, the DOJ filed a criminal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, on Jan. 20. Those charges targeted eight protestors (later expanded to 30 defendants) with violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and conspiracy to violate rights. On March 18, the court sought to delay the trial, designating it “complex within the meaning” of the law, and excluding the Speedy Trial Act to give the parties adequate time to prepare. But now Trump’s perpetually understaffed attorneys are seeking to delay information submission deadlines an additional 90 days. This, said Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko, is surprising. “… [The] Court is troubled...

After being President Donald Trump’s “bestie” for ages, British leaders are trying to leap out the window at his approach, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde . Parliament member Nigel Farage’s, is trying to “consciously uncouple from Donald Trump,” despite being “most firmly lodged ” up his backside for “the past decade,” said Hyde. “Nigel’s made such a massive, self-satisfied show of his real estate in the presidential large intestine for 10 years now that I actually don’t think non-surgical extraction is possible at this stage. He doesn’t just get to walk away whistling. The only way out is a full Faragectomy. I’ll give the president a piece of drone fuselage to bite down on,” Hyde said. Hyde said Farage is not the only British leader trying to duck the U.S. president “ as Operation Epic Facepalm rapidly unspools .” “A whole posse of Britain’s political and pundit class greeted Keir Starmer’s failure to jump two-footed into Israel and the US’s Iran operation as a truly calam...

When award-winning journalist and media founder Katherine Couric drops a bomb, she can do it with minimal investment and maximum understatement, reports the State . The target of her derision this week was the fawning adoration from a Melania Trump fan who posted a clip from the First Lady’s maligned “Melania” documentary. The clip depicts Melania riding in her car while singing along to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." The person who posted the video claimed the sing-along clip, with its overlong shaky interior car-scene footage of Mrs. Trump’s feeble voice trickling out karaoke from a back seat, was the poster’s "favorite" part of the movie. He added that the scene of Melania’s uncommitted performance — interspersed with its camera phone-style shots of the rear bumpers of Trump’s expensive security detail — made her look like “a real person.” To this, Couric, delivered the one-word response: "Riveting." “Couric's cheeky one-liner garnered a...

President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles , announced on Monday through the president that she was diagnosed with breast cancer — and reports indicate the White House is worried about how it will get by without her. “Wiles’ diagnosis has generated fresh anxiety among aides and allies who describe her as perhaps the sole irreplaceable figure in Trump’s orbit — and the only one capable of imposing order on a White House led by a famously unmanageable commander in chief,” CNN reported on Thursday. One longtime Trump adviser told the publication, “She’s basically doing what we were told was impossible. I don’t know what any of us — especially the president — would do without Susie.” CNN described Wiles as a “constant presence” in Trump’s White House, frequently attending his sensitive meetings and high profile public events. In a White House where Trump wishes to be the center of attention, Wiles is skilled at staying out of range of the cameras, providing assistance while n...

President Donald Trump’s 19-year-old son Barron is reportedly close friends with Justin Waller, an influencer in the so-called “manosphere” who preaches mistreatment of women. In the new Netflix documentary Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere , the 40-year-old Waller bragged that he had befriended Barron and in general joined Trump’s “inner circle.” “I had dinner with Barron at Mar-a-Lago,” Waller said. “I met Donald that night. I’ve been to Mar-a-Lago four or five times.” Manosphere influencers like Waller preach the belief that men are inherently superior to women and should be able to control women’s lives. They argue for patriarchal values in which women exist only to serve men domestically and sexually. Waller specifically advocates one-way monogamy wherein women are expected to be faithful to men but men are socially permitted to sleep with as many women as they desire. Waller is not the only manosphere influencer to find his way into Barron Trump’s good graces. In Decembe...

Former George H. W. Bush campaign field director Rick Wilson says there’s no reason to wait for the moment when President Donald Trump tumbles from his throne. The tumbling’s already begun. “There’s a moment in every failed strongman’s story when the noise fades, the flunkies fall silent and slip from the throne room one final time before the shooting starts,” said Wilson, who is currently a pundit, media consultant and Florida author. “There’s a moment where the court jesters stop laughing at the Dear Leader’s every joke, and when reality comes crashing through the gilded walls like a breaching charge. There’s a moment when the loyal bodyguard’s eyes flicker with some new signal, and the dictator wonders if the tools of oppression and brutality will be turned on him.” And for Trump, Wilson said that moment isn’t a “someday” thing. It’s a “ now ” thing. “Nothing will save you now, Donald,” said Wilson. “Not the war. Not the lies. Not today’s loyalists, tomorrow’s traitors. Not th...

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) claims President Donald Trump is in denial when it comes to the price of oil. And the congressman doesn’t understand if Trump even has a vision for ending the conflict. Speaking with host Tim Miller on The Bulwark podcast , Khanna was asked to espond to a presidential statement where Trump mused that the U.S. should finish off what’s left of the “terrorist state,” and then let the countries that need the Strait of Hormuz deal with getting it back up and running. Khanna said “the president doesn’t understand global supply and demand for oil.” Stopping the oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, “It’s going to push prices up for everyone.” Although, he conceded, “Great for Midland.” “Just go to your gas pump and you’ll see prices are up,” Khanna said. As the war appears to be dragging on and the Iranian regime shows no signs of surrender, Trump has also shown no signs of a master strategy to turn that around. “There’s no coherence to the policy,” Khanna sai...

President Donald Trump is denouncing Joe Kent, his former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, for resigning in protest over his invasion of Iran. Now a respected columnist is warning Trump’s critics that although Kent may be correct in opposing the Iran war, that does not mean he is on the side of anti-Trumpers. It just means that “it’s getting crowded under” the bus under which Trump keeps throwing people. “How does media ― legitimate media ― cover a story in which a bad person does the right thing?” wrote Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Republic. “File under: A stopped watch is right twice a day. And more chaos from the Donald Trump era, and how that has affected media coverage.” Goodykoontz then praised CNN anchor Dana Bash for explaining when covering the news that “Kent is not a typical intelligence official. He is a Trump appointee known for his ties to White nationalists, Nazi sympathizers and an embrace of the Jan. 6 conspiracy theories that we have seen so ...

In its desperation to replace fleeing prosecutors and defectors , President Donald Trump’s DOJ is now loosening hiring requirements for federal prosecutors. Trump’s DOJ says new applicants no longer need have any attorney experience to get a job. They can be fresh out of college, and CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid says Americans can probably expect predictable results. “They have redesigned this agency to try to pursue MAGA priorities and in some cases, pursue the president's adversaries. And they've lost a lot of people in the process,” said Reid. “Some people have objected and walked out. Some people have been fired …” Reid said the DOJ is undeniably having trouble managing its own caseload, with judges complaining about agency lawyers not meeting deadlines, as well as the shoddy quality of their work. “That’s something you don't hear about with federal prosecutors. These are supposed to be the best of the best, which is part of why most offices h...

One of President Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters has a warning for him: Americans will not support his war against Iran “forever.” “I think they will back him for a little while, but they will not back him forever,” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) told Fox Business’ “Kudlow” on Monday . He went on to identify “three huge challenges” facing the administration including keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, stabilizing the global economy and dismantling the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. If he succeeds in all three, he will be regarded as a “genius,” Gingrich argued, but if he fails it will be “a step into quicksand.” Gingrich, despite supporting Trump in all three of his presidential campaigns and generally aligning with him ideologically, has occasionally parted ways with his fellow Republican. After Trump’s immigration authorities killed two innocent people in January, Gingrich warned that Trump risked squandering his popularity on the immigration issue by being ...

With internet reception being unreliable in the Cederberg area, Michael Stephenson opted to have Vox Telecom install a satellite connection at his farm. But he cancelled that contract in November 2024 due to very slow internet speeds. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/mul0OC5 via sinceretalk

“One Battle After Another” emerged as the big winner with six awards, followed by “Sinners” with four. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/sR9t25w via sinceretalk

Jobs. Equality. Solutions. News24’s On the Record summit happening in Cape Town in March will deliver practical answers to SA’s biggest challenges. Get to know some of the panellists ahead of the summit. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/mQgBo3J via sinceretalk

Today I want to talk about who’s getting the most out of Trump’s war. That war is costing the U.S. about $1 billion a day. The Pentagon’s budget is around $1 trillion this year, and Trump wants an additional $500 billion. Because of the war, the cost of oil has topped $100 a barrel, and the price of a gallon of gas at the U.S. pump now averages $3.67 — up from $2.92 before the war. The strain on the federal budget has given Republicans an excuse to demand further cuts in federal assistance to people in need. JD Vance recently kicked off a “war on waste and fraud” by announcing suspension of Medicaid payments to Minnesota, charging that the program is rife with fraud perpetrated by “ bad actors in our society … [who] decide to make themselves rich .” But if you want to find real waste and fraud, look no further than Pete Hegseth’s “Department of War.” A new analysis by government watchdog Open the Books found that as the 2025 fiscal year was ending, Hegseth’s Pentagon spent: n...

The Palestinian Iran-aligned militant group Hamas has called on Iran not to target neighbouring countries, while still reaffirming Tehran’s right to respond to the US-Israeli ‌attacks. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/4fJzDgR via sinceretalk

Celebrated actor Zenande Mfenyana was still coming to terms with taking home her very first South African Film and TV Awards (Safta) honours after a career spanning nearly two decades. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/qn7XMg2 via sinceretalk

Rachael Bade reports that Trump is done with demoted Homeland Security head Kristi Noem. “A week after ousting his Homeland Security secretary, President Donald Trump has made it clear to staff and associates: Kristi Noem is not welcome,” reports Bade on her “Inner Circle” substack. “The president has told confidants and staff that he doesn’t want to see Noem. “He’s p——ed at her and Corey [Lewandowski], and did not want her at the event yesterday,” an anonymous source close to the White House inner circle told Bade. The former Politico writer and ABC News correspondent reports the former secretary and her team have already been informed in recent days that she is “not on the guest list for a couple of events at the White House, including Thursday’s Women’s History Month celebration, as well as today’s event for rodeo champions.” The snub allegedly arrived on the heels of that Thursday meeting Trump had with “the most powerful women in his orbit in the East Room” in relation to a...

The New York Times reports a Rhode Island federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore a union contract that President Donald Trump tried to bust with Veterans Affairs Department workers. Doug Collins, the V.A. secretary, moved to nullify the agreement with more than 300,000 last August, as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to fire thousands of U.S. employees. “In a 29-page opinion , Judge Melissa R. Dubose wrote that the union, the American Federation of Government Workers National V.A. Council, had made clear that the termination of the contract was retaliatory — and therefore in violation of the First Amendment — given the opposition to the Trump administration’s labor policies mounted by the union’s umbrella group, the American Federation of Government Employees,” reports the Times. The decision to end the agreement, she wrote, “seems substantially motivated by the plaintiffs’ history and frequency of vocally opposing changes to labor policies.” Dubo...

The Pentagon is still tamping down press access even as President Donald Trump engages a chaotic war on Iran, and one Republican speechwriter believes he knows why. “They're covering this stuff up,” said Bulwark podcaster and GOP strategist Tim Miller . “They've kicked [Politico Pentagon reporter] Paul [McLeary] and others out of the Pentagon. We live in a free country. It's ridiculous that reporters are being escorted in and out of the pentagon during wartime. Reporters should have access to other members of the military, not just the secretary spokesperson, who's a former TV host who wants to spin them.” “The American people deserve to know what's actually happening in this war, and they're also obviously covering stuff up,” Miller told MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace, and then cited how pertinent wartime information was getting fed to MAGA podcasters faster than legitimate media outlets with a history of complete and fair reporting. McLeary confirmed to W...

George Conway, the ex-husband of President Donald Trump’s first term senior counselor Kellyanne Conway (now Fitzpatrick), posted on the social media platform X that members of Congress need to show “courage” against the Republican agenda. “The spirit of liberty requires moral courage among the people who are elected to Congress — who take the oath to serve as members of Congress under the Constitution, to uphold the constitutional laws of the United States,” Conway said in a video posted to X on Wednesday . “But it also requires all of us. It requires us to speak out without fear. It requires us to tell others unpleasant truths that they do not want to hear. It requires us to march in the streets, to vote, to organize, to ensure that the spirit of liberty spreads and lives and finds its way into the Congress of the United States.” Conway added that in addition to engaging in activism and organizing, people need to display both humility and empathy. “This rekindling of the spirit o...

President Donald Trump is trying to win his war in Iran using geopolitical tactics not employed since World War I, according to a foreign policy expert. “Mr. Trump, however, operates from an older playbook” than the one used in the prevailing geopolitical order, “one in which tariffs, embargoes and the application of economic power were far more common,” Josh Lipsky, chairman of international economics at the Atlantic Council and senior director of the council’s GeoEconomics Center, wrote for The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday . These tools include using the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. to insure ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz and threatening Spain with an absolute trade embargo “based on the government’s refusal to allow U.S. aircraft to use Spanish bases as a staging location for attacks” by relying on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Lipsky suggested the administration is also considering using the Defense Production Act “to direct the priva...

An international policy expert says it’s no longer a matter of which direction President Donald Trump plans to take his self-started Middle Eastern war — it’s about a president desperately trying to hide the truth of his stupidity. “… [E]ven the war supporters are realizing that this was a horrible idea ,” Duss told Wajahat Ali on Ali’s “Left Hook” podcast. “And I think this is a particularly dangerous moment because now they're frantically trying to find ways not to have to admit that they're a bunch of morons, which means that they're going to argue for escalation. There's no other option.” “I mean, the other option is admitting that they were wrong. And as we know, that is something that does not happen when you're a Washington war hawk who loves war. The only answer is more war. If the war didn't work, it's because we didn't war hard enough,” said Duss, who served as president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and later as foreign policy a...

President Donald Trump’s former DHS Chief decried Trump 2.0 imploding the U.S.’s intelligence community at a time when Trump has single-handedly incited war with a historic catalyst for terrorism. Miles Taylor could not stop himself from piling onto the concerns of MS NOW guest speaker Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who warned MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace that Trump officials have hollowed out U.S. intelligence’s counterterrorism wing with dismissals and firings. “[FBI Director] Kash Patel, over the last year, has waged war on our counterterrorism capabilities at the FBI. He has summarily dismissed some of our top people who hunt terrorists domestically right now, CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), which is the agency that protects us from cyber threats, is closed,” said Murphy. “… So not only are they not starting up protection against terrorist attacks, they are weakening our ability to find those plots and stop them. And the plot and the threat is going to...

Steve Schmidt, a former Republican strategist who once worked for President George W. Bush , posted on his Monday Substack that President Donald Trump’s entire administration is “barbaric.” “Things are rotten in America,” Schmidt said. “The president is rotten, and so is his villainous Cabinet.” He cited as one example the fact that Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended the “Shield of the Americas” summit with Enrique Tarrio, a “Proud Boy terrorist” who was convicted of conspiracy for Trump’s attempted coup after the 2020 presidential election. “It is a sickening picture — an MRI — that exposes the rot of Rubio’s character,” Schmidt argued. “The scripture-quoting hypocrite is directly, personally and morally responsible for the destruction of American aid programs that will cause the deaths of 14 million human beings by 2030 before the bell tolls at the end of these rotten years.” Elaborating on the “barbaric” administration, Schmidt wrote of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth th...

President Donald Trump declared on Monday that although America has "won" in the Iran war he started, it has not yet "won enough" — and his wishy-washiness is being noticed and mocked online. For example, an X user who goes by Adam Langriyal posted that he did not accept Trump's attempts to play up the Iran war. "Trump was the first President of the USA dumb enough to bomb Iran for Israel," Langriyal said. "The Epstien files indicate rhat they had some pretty damning stuff on him that made it impossible for him to say No." Another X user, going merely by WM, shared a meme from the 2012 movie "Django Unchained" in which Leonardo DiCaprio laughs at a joke. "Hanging on the daily word of Trump still 😔," WM posted. The shared post noted that Trump seems to be withdrawing "in a rush from yet another conflict without a strategy." These comments reacted to Trump's Monday speech to Republican lawmakers at a ...

Thousands of commuters in Nyanga are expected to be stranded on Monday after taxi operators decided to halt services over safety fears. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/1jhiLtC via sinceretalk

Iran on Monday named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father, Ali Khamenei, as supreme leader, signalling that hardliners remain firmly in charge, as the week-old US-Israeli war with Iran pushed oil above $100 a barrel. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/B0h5TEJ via sinceretalk

When Gilly Walters first failed at an attempt to make “Mozart’s favourite dessert” for party guests at her home, she did not give up. Today, Wedgewood is a premium confectionary brand with listings in all major retailers, 180 staff and seven emporiums around the country. This is its origin success story. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/OxzHdDj via sinceretalk

Wednesday was historic. Not inspiring. Not admirable. Just…historic. In the most “nothing to see here” political maneuver imaginable, Sen. Steve Daines waited until the final minutes before the filing deadline to drop out of his race for a third term in the U.S. Senate. Minutes. Then—almost magically—another candidate appeared. A chosen one. Republicans instantly fell in line. Like dominoes. Or perhaps like pre-written press releases waiting in a folder labeled “In Case of Emergency: Install Replacement Senator.” Who endorsed the mystery candidate? Let’s see. Senator Steve Daines. Representative Ryan Zinke. Senator and wrist breaker, Tim Sheehy. Governor Greg Gianforte. And, naturally, Donald Trump. The endorsements came fast, very fast. Almost as if everyone (except the public) already knew what was about to happen. And the new candidate? Kurt. Who? A man who has never run for office, never held elected office and never campaigned statewide. But suddenly—within minut...

Jared Kushner grew up sleeping in Benjamin Netanyahu’s bed. That isn’t a metaphor or hyperbole. Netanyahu, during his visits to New York over the decades, was close enough to the Kushner family that, as the New York Times reported, he slept in Jared’s childhood bedroom . Jared Kushner didn’t grow up watching Netanyahu on the news the way the rest of us did. He grew up knowing the man as something close to a family institution. And that man, who has said publicly that he has “yearned” to destroy Iran’s military and political leadership “for 40 years,” is the same man whose government may have been coordinating directly with Kushner in the days before the most consequential American military action since the invasion of Iraq or the Vietnam War. We need to ask the question that official Washington is too timid, too compromised, or too captured by the moment’s war fever to ask: “Was Jared Kushner sitting across from Iranian negotiators in good faith? Or was he trying to get the Irani...