A cyberattack, a political tantrum and BRICS in the wall — my fave reads in our print edition this week

Dear DM168 readers,

Phew! It feels like the world went stir-crazy this week and I just stepped off the mother of all roller coaster rides. No wonder my blood pressure went on red alert.

On Tuesday, 22 August, our Daily Maverick website practically collapsed because of a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack from India. It came after we published a report by Peter Fabricius that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had refused to disembark from his plane at Waterkloof Air Force Base because President Cyril Ramaphosa wasn’t personally there to meet him. Eventually, President Ramaphosa sent Deputy President Paul Mashatile to fetch Modi and massage his giant ego. 

We had to protect our site by preventing access to our website’s visitors in India — a bummer for those who wanted to be informed. Fortunately, DDoS can’t touch old-school printing presses, so DM168 is alive and well, and will be available on retail shelves on Saturday morning.

On Wednesday, former US president Donald Trump came up tops as Republican supporters’ favourite candidate even though he did not participate in the Republican debate with his opponents. Like our very own Jacob Zuma, people can’t help loving fat cat, populist, sexist, ethically questionable geriatric bad boys like Zuma and Trump.  

As we know, Zuma got his get-out-of-jail-free card because our prisons are too full. Trump got the thumbs-up from Republican fanboys and girls even though he faces criminal charges for trying to overturn the 2020 US election result, his alleged mishandling of classified material after he left the White House, as well as felony charges for falsifying business records.

Also on Wednesday, the world was speculating whether that other old bad boy, Russian President Vladimir Putin (Trump and Zuma’s good friend), had finally got his revenge against his hired gun, Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led the failed uprising against the Kremlin two months ago. Prigozhin and his lieutenants were on board his private jet when it mysteriously exploded and fell from the sky near Moscow. Trump and Zuma should be wary; Prigozhin was also once a great mate of Putin’s.

Adding to the insanity, around midweek North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, flexed his military muscle by testing his latest spy satellite rocket, causing Japan to order residents of its southern island of Okinawa to evacuate to safe places.

The supreme leader is probably really mad that he is not as popular as the South Korean K-pop boy band BTS, or indeed all the other bands in that country’s vibrant youth music scene that have conquered the world. Maybe Kim needed to convince himself that, even though he may not have as good a haircut or millions of young girls and boys screaming adoringly at him, it’s might that matters. Not quite — the rocket failed. And K-pop is still flying through the stratosphere.

I concede that you may not have waited with bated breath for the next mad move by a big man politician — and instead chose to make like an ostrich and get on with what matters most to you in your daily life. Taking a break from the social streams of news noise is a definite tick for good mental health. 

That’s where our weekly newspaper DM168 comes in to ensure that your blood pressure remains stable while you are well informed, inspired and entertained. Here are my five favourite stories in this week’s edition, which I suggest you page through, pause and revisit, with your feet up and your beverage of choice in hand.

1. Cyril shines at BRICS

2. Prof Thuli Madonsela’s long walk to free students from debt

3. Satirically speaking

4. Southern African escape

5. Good news for salary earners