There were some big squad numbers on display at Anfield for Liverpool A total of 132 team changes were made by the 19 Premier League sides in FA Cup third-round action this weekend. Sheffield United, eighth in the top flight, fielded an entirely different s…
Read More »Australian sport rallies behind bushfire relief
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian sports stars, sparked in part by a call to action from tennis player Nick Kyrgios, have rallied to raise funds in support of relief and recovery efforts for victims of the country’s bushfire catastrophe. Hundreds of wildfires h…
Read More »FIFA Exposes a Chink in the ANC’s Control of Government
By ALEXANDER O’RIORDAN Last night Sepp Blatter resigned after 17 years in the position as president of football’s global governing body, FIFA. The resignation was to be expected since American criminal investigators last week indicted a host of FIFA executives on charges related to corruption and wire fraud. Notably, these charges …
Read More »Is South Africa the World’s Most Generous Donor?
South Africa transfers just over R50 billion a year to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland with no strings attached By ALEXANDER O’RIORDAN The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is most easily identifiable in Botswana’s, Lesotho’s, Namibia’s and Swaziland’s (BLNS) use of the South African Rand as the basis for their …
Read More »Laughing President: The Real Reason Jacob Zuma Can’t Stop Smiling
By ALEXANDER O’RIORDAN What happened in the South African Parliament last week was a carefully engineered spectacle of power Last week’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) and the subsequent fallout is being voraciously dissected in the press. Most of the analysis, however, is on what the media presumes are …
Read More »Will the Greek Elections Strengthen the Hands of the Global South?
Now that Greece has the political endorsement to do so, it can quite legitimately threaten the EU with an intentional default. By ALEXANDER O’RIORDAN, Brussels This week in the Greek elections, Greece elected into power the left-wing political party, Syriza, headed by Alexis Tsipras, who led the party to victory on …
Read More »Green Energy: Sacrificing Poverty Alleviation for Climate Financing?
By ALEXANDER O’RIORDAN Green energy could be something of a magic bullet for social and economic justice because it will inevitably erode elites’ grubby hold on energy resources such as coal, oil and gas in much of Africa. Small-scale and affordable green energy solutions democratise access to energy because instead …
Read More »