<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/sam-meredith/">By Sam Meredith</a>



<a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/united-kingdom/">Britain</a> is scheduled to leave the <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/european-union/">European Union</a> at the end of March but, as the country’s deadline for departure creeps ever closer, what will actually happen on that day remains far from certain.



Embattled Prime Minister&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/theresa-may/" class="">Theresa May</a>&nbsp;is struggling to overcome deep opposition to her proposed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/brexit/" class="">Brexit</a>&nbsp;plan, opening up a range of possibilities from Brexit without a trade deal to the whole process being scrapped altogether.



With less than 75 days to go until the U.K. is due to end its four-decade-long membership of the EU, CNBC takes a look at what to expect over the coming weeks.



What are the most likely options?



British lawmakers resume the fourth of five days of debate over May’s proposed Brexit deal on Monday, with the all-important parliamentary vote expected to take place on Tuesday.



Westminster must decide whether to accept May’s plans for a structured exit and relatively close economic ties, or reject it and spawn massive uncertainty over the country’s next steps.



The prime minister <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/10/uk-government-delays-parliaments-vote-on-brexit.html">abruptly postponed a planned vote</a> on her draft withdrawal agreement in December, after admitting defeat was all but certain.



Since then, in an effort to win enough support from lawmakers across the political spectrum, May has sought “legal and political” assurances from EU leaders — most notably on the so-called ‘backstop’ arrangement for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/11/brexit-what-is-the-irish-backstop-and-why-does-it-matter.html" class="">Irish border</a>.



So far, there has been little sign of any willingness from Brussels to offer May the legal cover she has been seeking.



Sterling has fallen more than 10 percent against the U.S. dollar since reaching a peak of $1.4335 in April 2018, in part due to rising fears over the course of the Brexit process. The U.K. currency was trading at around $1.2838 Monday morning.



Some of the most likely options include: May’s vote securing parliamentary approval, no-deal Brexit, a major renegotiation to a new Brexit deal, calls for a general election, a vote of no confidence in the government or another referendum.



Deal approved



Parliamentary opposition to May’s deal looks daunting, but the prime minister appears hopeful some headway with EU leaders could make it easier to get the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) on side.



Support from the DUP is critical to May, because the party formed a power-sharing agreement with the prime minister in order to form a minority government after a snap election in 2017.



Arlene Foster, the head of the Northern Irish party has said she would prefer no Brexit deal to a bad deal, previously describing May’s current plans as amounting to “the annexation of Northern Ireland” by the EU.



 No-deal



If May’s proposed Brexit deal is rejected and nothing else happens over the coming weeks, the default position would be a no-deal Brexit.



Such a scenario could send the U.K. currency sharply lower and trigger a worse recession than the financial crisis, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/id/10000704" class="">Bank of England</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/reuters-america-update-4-carney-warns-of-no-deal-brexit-house-price-crash--newspaper.html" class="">(BOE) warned in November</a>.



The BOE also said it could shrink the U.K. economy by 8 percent in the immediate aftermath if there was no transition period, while house prices could collapse by almost a third.



Renegotiation to a new Brexit deal



If May’s Brexit deal is rejected by lawmakers this month, the government could propose to negotiate a new withdrawal arrangement.



With a parliamentary vote necessary to sign off on any future clarifications from London and Brussels, minor tweaks to the current deal seem unlikely with time running out before the U.K. is set to leave the bloc.



May has repeatedly insisted the alternative to her proposed Brexit deal is not having a deal at all. Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, has also frequently said there is “no room whatsoever” to renegotiate the Brexit deal.



In theory, there could be a complete overhaul but that would take some time to complete.



It may also require an extension of Article 50 to push back the March 29 deadline. That is no simple task either — all EU countries would need to agree to a deadline extension at a vote of the EU Council.



On Tuesday, Britain’s Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay ruled out the possibility of the U.K. government seeking to extend the March 29 deadline.



His comments followed <a class="" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/01/07/british-officials-putting-feelers-article-50-extension-discreet/">reports</a> that suggested U.K. and EU officials had discussed whether extending the negotiating period might be possible.



General election



In order to bolster her political mandate, May could decide the best way to break the current deadlock would be to hold an early general election.



This would require Westminster to vote for an early election under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act and if two-thirds of all lawmakers supported the idea, the earliest date for a vote would be around 25 days after that.



As with the renegotiate option, it could also require a request to push back the current Brexit deadline.



Vote of no confidence



If May’s proposed Brexit deal is rejected, the opposition Labour Party could push for a vote of no confidence in the government. The prime minister could also theoretically do so herself in a somewhat dramatic bid to reassert her authority.



If a no confidence vote in the government is tabled, May’s administration would need to win the vote — potentially by offering some new concessions — within a 14-day period in order to carry on.



Second referendum



The U.K. government could decide to hold a second referendum.



But this cannot just happen automatically, and with the Brexit deadline drawing ever nearer, the referendum would almost certainly be unable to take place before March 29.



Therefore, this option would also most likely need the permission from other EU states to delay the current Brexit deadline.



Brexit scrapped



At the start of December, the European Court of Justice&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/10/ecj-confirms-that-uk-can-stop-brexit.html" class="">ruled</a>&nbsp;Britain could cancel Brexit without asking for permission from other European Union (EU) member states.



The case was brought by a group of Scottish lawmakers who sought a legal ruling on whether the U.K.’s request under Article 50 to leave the EU could be unilaterally revoked before the Brexit deadline of March 29, 2019.



The House of Commons would still need to vote to stop Article 50 but those against Brexit can highlight that, beyond Westminster, there is now no legal impediment to stopping the divorce.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/04/brexit-explained-heres-where-we-stand-and-what-could-happen-next-.html and is republished with its permission.

What you need to know about Brexit

Zimbabwean protesters took to the streets of Bulawayo on Monday morning. The protests come after Zimbabwe&#8217;s government announced a hike in fuel prices of more than 100%. 



President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced an increase of petrol prices from $1.24 a litre to $3.31, with diesel up from $1.36 a litre to $3.11. This came to effect on Sunday, 13 January 2019. 



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">There is a thug in civilian clothes roaming around with an AK47 (reportedly Bulawayo Road near Kuwadzana). Unclear whether he is really a civilian or military/police in plain clothes, but what is certain is that there is absolutely NO place for this in Zimbabwe. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shutdownZimbabwe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#shutdownZimbabwe</a> <a href="https://t.co/AzhVzX8iiD">pic.twitter.com/AzhVzX8iiD</a>— Doug Coltart ✊??? (@DougColtart) <a href="https://twitter.com/DougColtart/status/1084761894307708929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Situation in Bulawayo right now.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShutDownZimbabwe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ShutDownZimbabwe</a> <a href="https://t.co/DrcAVW6UGT">pic.twitter.com/DrcAVW6UGT</a>— Privilege Makuvire (@privilege_mufc) <a href="https://twitter.com/privilege_mufc/status/1084722559776706560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">I hope we won’t be helped when it’s too late ???<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShutdownZimbabwe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ShutdownZimbabwe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bulawayo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bulawayo</a> <a href="https://t.co/Le0FXPdvbC">pic.twitter.com/Le0FXPdvbC</a>— TinasheTK (@TinasheTK18) <a href="https://twitter.com/TinasheTK18/status/1084772836739371008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShutdownZimbabwe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ShutdownZimbabwe</a> Current situation in Bulawayo, Jason Moyo St and 9th Ave <a href="https://t.co/vFJEi1OOUw">pic.twitter.com/vFJEi1OOUw</a>— real_mthae (@MthabisNdebele) <a href="https://twitter.com/MthabisNdebele/status/1084748220528496640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Bulawayo protesters marching turning away cars. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shutdownZimbabwe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#shutdownZimbabwe</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ZimShutDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ZimShutDown</a> <a href="https://t.co/vRnSZOcNbp">pic.twitter.com/vRnSZOcNbp</a>— Open Parly ZW (@OpenParlyZw) <a href="https://twitter.com/OpenParlyZw/status/1084727607252451328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Armed soldiers deployed. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bulawayo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bulawayo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shutdownZimbabwe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#shutdownZimbabwe</a> <a href="https://t.co/7Yuxhtc3n7">pic.twitter.com/7Yuxhtc3n7</a>— Kgosi Nyathi (@kgosinyathi) <a href="https://twitter.com/kgosinyathi/status/1084721129044860928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Protestors have reached Bulawayo CBD. So far they have remained peaceful, although police are firing tear gas. Chants of “siyangena siyangena”. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShutdownZimbabwe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ShutdownZimbabwe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bulawayo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bulawayo</a> <a href="https://t.co/ewTYfG51aa">pic.twitter.com/ewTYfG51aa</a>— Doug Coltart ✊??? (@DougColtart) <a href="https://twitter.com/DougColtart/status/1084730964973105154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">When people are fed up they take to the streets and that the only language politicians understand ✊? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shutdownZimbabwe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#shutdownZimbabwe</a>— Nomzamo (@tryzamo) <a href="https://twitter.com/tryzamo/status/1084787968798265344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">No change will come on a silver platter.Let&#8217;s go warriors? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shutdownZimbabwe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#shutdownZimbabwe</a> <a href="https://t.co/wwBtQLjIZK">pic.twitter.com/wwBtQLjIZK</a>— retlaW (@WWolta) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWolta/status/1084787744776306688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ZimbabweShutDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ZimbabweShutDown</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ZimbabweOnFire?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ZimbabweOnFire</a> looting galore! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bulawayo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bulawayo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shutdownZimbabwe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#shutdownZimbabwe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Asakhe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Asakhe</a> <a href="https://t.co/P013z9Pjn5">pic.twitter.com/P013z9Pjn5</a>— HON KIBUCHI MWAI (@kibuchimzito) <a href="https://twitter.com/kibuchimzito/status/1084787740162646017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">This woman was on her from work, when she was shot near a police station. (Pic by ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/NewsDayZimbabwe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NewsDayZimbabwe</a>⁩ Aaron Ufumeli) <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shutdownZimbabwe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#shutdownZimbabwe</a> <a href="https://t.co/WSUFaVQfWP">pic.twitter.com/WSUFaVQfWP</a>— Nqaba Matshazi (@nqabamatshazi) <a href="https://twitter.com/nqabamatshazi/status/1084770207112011778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[IN TWEETS] Zimbabwean protesters take to the streets for #ShutdownZimbabwe

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/sarah-berger/">By Sarah Berger </a>



For many, tipping workers such as waitstaff, hairdressers or taxi drivers is expected. But one airline is asking passengers to tip their individual flight attendants, too.



When passengers on budget carrier Frontier Airlines buy in-flight food or drinks, they’ll now find a space on their payment tablet to leave a tip for the flight attendant that served them. This change was <a class="" href="https://thepointsguy.com/news/airline-with-happy-hours-and-tips/">effective Jan. 1</a>. Previously, any tips were pooled.



Tipping flight attendants is uncommon, JT Genter of travel site The Points Guy tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/" class="">CNBC Make It.</a>&nbsp;On a recent flight on Frontier, Genter was surprised when he was prompted to tip on the digital tablet after purchasing a can of ginger ale.



“I’ve flown more than 350 flights on 51 different airlines in the past three years, but I’d never experienced an airline ask for a tip,” Genter says.



Flight attendants at United Airlines are not allowed to accept tips, and American Airlines crew members are instructed to decline tips,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/should-you-tip-your-flight-attendant-it-all-depends-on-the-airline-2019-01-08'" class="">Marketwatch reports</a>. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines discourages tipping, but flight attendants are allowed to accept voluntary tips if the customer insists.



“It was considered inappropriate and undignified and most airlines forbade tipping or soliciting tipping, although of course it did happen now and then,” George Hobica, travel expert and founder of Airfarewatchdog.com tells CNBC Make It. “Most cabin crew would far prefer that a passenger write a letter of commendation to the airline to reward excellent service.”



Cabin crew is primarily there for passenger safety, points out Hobica. Shifting that focus could lead to mixed messages and strain the passenger-crew relationship, he says.



Hobica recalls one incident in first class on one major carrier where a passenger rudely demanded a flight attendant’s attention. “When [the passenger] wanted a refill of his cocktail he bellowed to a passing flight attendant, ‘More ice!,’” Hobica says. “The flight attendant said, ‘Sir, what’s the magic word?’ And he replied: ‘Don’t teach me manners just give me more ice.’”



Explains Hobica, “I worry that if a flight attendant accepts a tip, then passengers will treat [that attendant] like a servant and not as someone who might save [their] life in an emergency.”&nbsp;



Complicating matters is the guilt that can come along when passengers are prompted to give a gratuity for yet another service after they’ve already paid a lot of money for a ticket. That can put passengers in an uncomfortable position.



“Tipping is one of the most stressful and confusing aspects of etiquette today. It is a significant way to show appreciation for a job well done; however, treating the person who has served you with respect is every bit as important,” The Emily Post Institute, a popular etiquette resource,&nbsp;<a href="http://emilypost.com/advice/finer-points-of-tipping/" class="">says on its site</a>. (The site does not offer recommendations for how much to tip flight attendants, though it does suggest anywhere from 10 percent to 15 percent for food service. However, as Hobica points out, flight attendants are not waitstaff in the sky.)



Frontier’s tipping policy has been met with backlash from the Association of Flight Attendants, an organization that represents 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines, including Frontier. The organization opposed the tipping function altogether when it was introduced around three years ago, with AFA president Sara Nelson&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afacwa.org/afa_statement_on_frontier_tipping_policy" class="">saying in a statement</a>recently that it was an effort used to “dissuade Flight Attendants from standing together for a fair [compensation] contract — and in an effort to shift additional costs to passengers.”



Genter of The Points Guy, an avid traveler, says he’s not a fan of Frontier’s tipping policy after learning that it was initially introduced as an alternative to increasing flight attendant wages according to the Association of Flight Attendants. A Frontier spokesperson has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-travel-briefcase-frontier-tips-20190104-story.html" class="">argued</a>, “We view tips as additional compensation over and above flight attendants’ contractual wages.”



“I don’t mind travelers tipping flight attendants, but it comes across as unprofessional for flight attendants to be requesting tips and for their pay to be not-insignificantly tied to their on-board tips,” Genter says.



In 2017, flight attendants made a median pay of $50,500 per year,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/transportation-and-material-moving/flight-attendants.htm#tab-1" class="">according to data</a>&nbsp;from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the BLS notes that the lowest 10 percent earned less than $26,680 while the highest 10 percent earned more than $79,520.



Those worried flying just got more complicated, should note that experts doubt tipping will spread to other airlines. That said, Frontier’s passengers are tipping on paid food and drink — offerings that used to be free on many airlines not that long ago.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/11/budget-airline-frontier-asks-passengers-to-tip-their-flight-attendant.html and is republished with its permission.

Would you tip your flight attendant? Here’s why this airline is asking passengers to do so…

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe will introduce a new currency in the next 12 months, the finance minister said, as a shortage of U.S. dollars has plunged the financial system into disarray and forced businesses to close. 



In the past two months, the southern African nation has suffered acute shortages of imported goods, including fuel whose price was increased by 150 percent on Saturday.



Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency in 2009 after it was wrecked by hyperinflation and adopted the greenback and other currencies, such as sterling and the South African rand.



But there is not enough hard currency in the country to back up the $10 billion of electronic funds trapped in local bank accounts, prompting demands from businesses and civil servants for cash which can be deposited and used to make payments.



Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told a townhall meeting on Friday a new local currency would be introduced in less than 12 months.



“On the issue of raising enough foreign currency to introduce the new currency, we are on our way already, give us months, not years,” he said.



Zimbabwe’s foreign reserves now provide less than two weeks cover for imports, central bank data show. The government has previously said it would only consider launching a new currency if it had at least six months of reserves.



Locals are haunted by memories of the Zimbabwean dollar, which became worthless as inflation spiralled to reach 500 billion percent in 2008, the highest rate in the world for a country not at war, wiping out pensions and savings.



A surrogate bond note currency introduced in 2016 to stem dollar shortages has also collapsed in value.



President Emmerson Mnangagwa is under pressure to revive the economy but dollar shortages are undermining efforts to win back foreign investors sidelined under his predecessor Robert Mugabe.



Mnangagwa told reporters on Saturday that the price of petrol had increased to $3.31 per litre from $1.32 from midnight but there would be no increase for foreign embassies and tourists paying in cash U.S. dollars.



Locals can pay via local debit cards, mobile phone payments and a surrogate bond note currency.



With less than $400 million in actual cash in Zimbabwe according to central bank figures, fuel shortages have worsened and companies are struggling to import raw materials and equipment, forcing them to buy greenback notes on the black market at a premium of up to 370 percent.



The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries has warned some of its members could stop operating at the end of the month due to the dollar crunch.



Cooking oil and soap maker Olivine Industries said on Saturday it had suspended production and put workers on indefinite leave because it owed foreign suppliers $11 million.



A local associate of global brewing giant Anheuser-Busch Inbev said this week it would invest more than $120 million of dividends and fees trapped in Zimbabwe into the central bank’s savings bonds. [L8N1ZA595]



Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Edmund Blair

Zimbabwe plans to introduce new currency in the next 12 months, what you need to know

By Chris Bishop, CNBC Africa&#8217;s head of programming 



How many of South Africa&#8217;s rising entrepreneurs remember
where they were on that warm August day, in 1997, when their countrymen made history
with style and swagger? The streets were deserted on that day &#8211; they always
were when South Africa played in those heady days &#8211; with 80,000 people crammed
into the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg and millions more crowded around
television sets. &nbsp;



South Africa had to beat Congo-Brazzaville to qualify for
the FIFA&nbsp;World Cup, in France, for the first time.



For millions, 10 seconds in the 14th minute of that historic
game will live in the memory for ever.&nbsp;



Time almost stood still as South Africa won back possession
in midfield and played a through ball to the muscular Phil Masinga, charging
down the right. He treated the last defender with disdain before unleashing a
rocket into the top right hand corner. Masinga sprinted behind the goal in
celebration, turned his shirt back-to-front and pointed to his name with his
thumb, to the heaving crowd, in unbridled joy. He said afterwards the greatest
feeling he took from that historic goal was seeing his fellow South Africans
united.



When the cameras went into the victorious dressing room
after the game, there were no cell phones, nor cynicism, just smiles and
optimism.



&#8220;For years I have heard about this World Cup, now I am
going to go there!&#8221; were the first apt, everyman, words spoken by
midfielder John &#8220;Shoes&#8221; Moshoeu &#8211; another of the talented class from
&#8217;98 who died cruelly young. &nbsp;&nbsp;



These were indeed better, more hopeful, times in the early
days of democracy in South Africa, when our football team had talent to burn.
The team was African champions and looking forward to qualifying for the World
Cup every four years, instead of fretting over playing&nbsp;the Seychelles.



Masinga, big confident and robust, was a larger-than-life
part of this feeling that South Africa was of the people and destined for
better times. Hours after that stunning goal Masinga drove back to his home
town of Klerksdorp, in North West province, to have a beer with his mates who
couldn&#8217;t afford to travel to the game. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;



The&nbsp; passing of Phil &#8220;Chippa&#8221; Masinga&nbsp; &#8211;
who died from cancer aged just 49 on January 13 &#8211; also brings into sharp focus
the steady decline of the once shimmering&nbsp; game in South Africa as well as
the life of one of its shining stars.



By 2011, South Africa was losing to minnows like Niger and
Masinga was back in Klerksdrop and broke, living in the back room of his
mother&#8217;s house. Newspaper reports told of how he was forced to sell his
football memorabilia, in a garage sale, to keep body and soul together. Sadly,
the man with the golden boot became a cautionary tale for sportsmen
contemplating life after their playing days.&nbsp;



In his prime, Masinga, who won more than 50 caps for his
country,&nbsp;was one of the first African footballers to break into the
European&nbsp; game. He played for Leeds United and also in Italy and Switzerland.



The ruling African National Congress lauded Masinga as a
true patriot who represented his nation with pride.



Many football fans will never forget that moment of magic
from Masinga&#8217;s right boot that sent his country to the World Cup for the first
time.



It is a pity his countrymen could not do more for him when
he fell on hard times. &nbsp;

Phil “Chippa” Masinga: The man with the golden boot, who signified the rise & decay of SA

At a company-wide town hall in early October, numerous <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=FB">Facebook </a>employees got in line to speak about their experiences with sexual harassment.



The company called the special town hall after head of policy Joel Kaplan&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/04/facebook-employees-reportedly-outraged-at-exec-at-kavanaugh-hearing.html" class="">caused an internal uproar</a>&nbsp;for appearing at the congressional hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh. A young female employee was among those who got up to speak, addressing her comments directly to COO Sheryl Sandberg.



“I was reticent to speak, Sheryl, because the pressure for us to act as though everything is fine and that we love working here is so great that it hurts,” she said, according to multiple former Facebook employees who witnessed the event.



“There shouldn’t be this pressure to pretend to love something when I don’t feel this way,” said the employee, setting off a wave of applause from her colleagues at the emotional town hall in Menlo Park, California.



The episode speaks to an atmosphere at Facebook in which employees feel pressure to place the company above all else in their lives, fall in line with their manager’s orders and force cordiality with their colleagues so they can advance. Several former employees likened the culture to a “cult.”



This culture has contributed to the company’s well-publicized wave of scandals over the last two years, such as governments spreading misinformation to try to influence elections and the misuse of private user data, according to many people who worked there during this period. They say Facebook might have have caught some of these problems sooner if employees were encouraged to deliver honest feedback. Amid these scandals, Facebook’s share price fell nearly 30 percent in 2018 and nearly 40 percent since a peak in July, resulting in a loss of more than $252 billion in market capitalization.



Meanwhile, Facebook’s reputation as being one of the best places in Silicon Valley to work is starting to show some cracks. According to Glassdoor, which lets employees anonymously review their workplaces, Facebook fell from being the best place to work in the U.S. to No. 7&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/04/facebook-is-no-longer-glassdoors-best-place-to-work.html" class="">in the last year</a>.



But employees don’t complain in the workplace.



“There’s a real culture of ‘Even if you are f&#8212;ing miserable, you need to act like you love this place,’” said one ex-employee who left in October. “It is not OK to act like this is not the best place to work.”



This account is based on conversations with more than a dozen former Facebook employees who left between late 2016 and the end of 2018. These people requested anonymity in describing Facebook’s work culture, including its “stack ranking” employee performance evaluation system and their experiences with it, because none is authorized by Facebook to talk about their time there. This stack ranking system is similar to the one that was notoriously used by Microsoft before the company abandoned it in 2013, the former Facebook employees said.



Facebook declined to comment on former employees’ characterization of the work place as “cult-like.”Inside the bubble



Former employees describe a top-down approach where major decisions are made by the company’s leadership, and employees are discouraged from voicing dissent — in direct contradiction to one of Sandberg’s mantras, “authentic self.”



For instance, at an all-hands meeting in early 2017, one employee asked Facebook Vice President David Fischer a tough question about a company program. Fischer took the question and answered, but within hours, the employee and his managers received angry calls from the team running that program, this person said.



“I never felt it was an environment that truly encouraged ‘authentic self’ and encouraged real dissent because the times I personally did it, I always got calls,” said the former manager, who left the companyin early 2018.



The sentiment was echoed by another employee who left in 2017.



“What comes with scale and larger operations is you can’t afford to have too much individual voice,” said this person. “If you have an army, the larger the army is, the less individuals have voice. They have to follow the leader.”



In this employee’s two years at Facebook, his team grew from a few people to more than 50. He said “it was very much implied” to him and his teammates that they trust their leaders, follow orders and avoid having hard conversations.



The company’s culture of no-dissent prevented employees from speaking up about the impact that News Feed had on influencing the 2016 U.S. election, this person added.



The message was clear in August 2016 when the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/leifwalcutt/2016/08/26/facebook-lays-off-journalists-from-trending-topics-replaces-with-algorithm/#2d7e6ec34f8c" class="">laid off the editorial staff of its trending news team</a>, shortly after some workers on that team leaked to the press that they were suppressing conservative-leaning stories. Employees were further discouraged from speaking up following the election, when&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/10/13594558/mark-zuckerberg-election-fake-news-trump" class="">CEO Mark Zuckerberg brushed off</a>&nbsp;the accusation that Facebook could have impacted the election, calling that idea “crazy.”



The former employee described “a bubble” at the company in which employees are dissuaded from giving managers critical feedback or challenging decisions.



“I’m pretty disappointed in that because I have a lot of respect for Sheryl, and she preaches about giving hard feedback,” the employee said.



“All the things we were preaching, we weren’t doing enough of them. We weren’t having enough hard conversations. They need to realize that. They need to reflect and ask if they’re having hard conversations or just being echo chambers of themselves.”Show no weakness



Many former employees blamed the cult-like atmosphere partly on Facebook’s performance review system, which requires employees to get reviews from approximately five of their peers twice a year. This peer review system pressures employees to forge friendships with colleagues at every possible opportunity, whether it be going to lunch together each day or hanging out after work.



“It’s a little bit of a popularity contest,” said one manager who left the company in 2017. “You can cherry-pick the people who like you — maybe throw in one bad apple to equalize it.”



Peers can provide feedback directly to their colleagues, or they can send the reviews to the employee’s manager. That feedback is typically treated as anonymous and cannot be challenged.



“You have invisible charges against you, and that figures mightily into your review,” said an employee who left in October. “Your negative feedback can haunt you for all your days at Facebook.”



Several former employees said that peers and managers iced them out because they had personal commitments or problems that required significant attention outside of work.



For instance, one employee who left in recent weeks said a manager was critical in a public team meeting because the employee didn’t attend a team-building event outside work. At the time, this person was going through a divorce.



“She definitely marked me down for not attending those team-building events, but I couldn’t attend because I was going through my own issues and needed work-life balance,” said the employee.



Employees are not required to attend after-hours events, according to a Facebook spokeswoman, adding that collaboration is important at the company.



Another manager who also left the company in recent weeks said she once took multiple weeks of vacation instead of going on medical leave to treat a major illness. She says she did this based on advice from her supervisor.



“I was afraid that if I told too many people or took too much time off, I would be seen as unable to do my job,” the former manager said. “I was scared that if I let up in any way, shape or form they would crumble me, and they did.”



Ironically, one of the best ways to see the desperation to be liked is to follow Facebook employees on Facebook itself.



Employees parade the company’s projects and post any report on the benefits of working at the company or the positive impact the company is making on the world. This is in part a show for peers and managers, former employees said.



“People are very mindful about who they’re connected with on Facebook who they also work with and how what they’re posting will put them in a favorable light to their managers,” an employee who left in 2016 said.



As with many social media users, the online content does not always reflect the offline emotions.



“There’s so many people there who are unhappy, but their Facebook posts alone don’t reflect the backdoor conversations you have with people where they’re crying and really unhappy,” she said.How employees are graded



Twice a year, this peer feedback comes into play in so-called calibration meetings, where employees are given one of seven grades.



Managers deliberate with their peers to grade employees in all levels below them. As the review process moves up the chain over the course of multiple weeks, lower-level managers gradually leave the room, until the company’s vice presidents finish the calibration. At this point, Zuckerberg and Sandberg sign off that their vice presidents have done due diligence, and each employee’s grade for the past six months is finalized.



But there’s a companywide limit on the percentage of employees who can receive each grade. So during the reviews process, managers compete against their peer managers to secure strong grades for their direct reports. Managers are compelled to vouch fiercely for their favorite employees, but don’t speak up for employees they don’t like or who have previously received poor ratings.



“There’s a saying at Facebook that once you have one bad half, you’re destined for bad halves the rest of your time there. That stigma will follow you,” said a manager who left in September.



According to two former executives, the grade breakdown is approximately as follows:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>&nbsp;“Redefine,” the highest grade, is given to fewer than 5 percent of employees</li><li>&nbsp;“Greatly exceeds expectations”: 10 percent</li><li>&nbsp;“Exceeds”: 35 percent</li><li>&nbsp;“Meets all”: 35 to 40 percent</li><li>&nbsp;“Meets most,” a low grade that puts future employment at risk, goes to most of the remaining 10 to 15 percent</li><li>&nbsp;“Meets some” grades are extremely rare and are seen as an indication that you’re probably getting fired, according to multiple employees.</li><li>&nbsp;“Does not meet” are exceptionally rare, as most employees are fired before they get to that level.</li></ul>



The distribution of these grades are not a hard limit but rather a recommended guidance for managers to follow, according to a Facebook spokeswoman.



Facebook isn’t the only tech company to use a performance evaluation system where a percentage of employees is pegged to each performance grade, meaning that there’s always a fixed population at risk of being fired. Pioneered by Jack Welch at General Electric in the 1990s and sometimes known as “stack ranking,” this method is fairly common in Silicon Valley and was most notoriously used by <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=MSFT">Microsoft</a> until the company <a class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-abandons-8216stack-ranking8217-of-employees-1384279446">got rid of it in 2013</a> after widespread employee complaints.



Stack ranking systems work well at companies with competitive environments that compare employees on objectively measurable performance, according to Alexandra Michel, professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies work culture. However, the system tends to break down and cause distrust among employees and create a political atmosphere when applied by companies that measure performance subjectively, or companies that demand employee loyalty in exchange for benefits and the promise of career advancement, Michel said.



“If you have an environment that is completely cutthroat like Wall Street, this system works pretty well,” Michel said. “But if you have employees who come in and want to be taken care of, want to learn, want to be part of a warm group and people who care about them — that’s a very jarring mismatch.”



Since early 2017, Facebook has become more rigorous in distributing grades by specific percentages, according to multiple former employees.



“I had a boss literally say to me ‘You don’t have enough people in ‘meets some,’ ‘meets most,’ and ‘meets all,’” said a former director who left earlier this year. “I was finding myself making up things to be hypercritical of employees to give them lower ratings than they really deserved.”



These twice-yearly reviews encourage employees to be particularly productive around June and December, working nights and weekends as they race to impress bosses before reviews, which are typically completed in August and February. It’s especially true in December, the half Facebook predominantly uses to determine which employees will receive promotions.



This rush causes employees to focus on short-term goals and push out features that drive user engagement and improve their own metrics without fully considering potential long-term negative impacts on user experience or privacy, multiple former employees said.



“If you’re up for promotion, and it’s based on whether you get a product out or not, you’re almost certainly going to push that product out,” a former engineer said. “Otherwise you’re going to have to wait another year to get that promotion.”



As employees begin gathering peer reviews and buckling up for their next round of calibrations in February, the process will reveal how employees are thinking of the company after a bruising 2018, according to employees who left recently.



There will be an extra level of anxiety around the process this time, one person said. Folks who have been wanting to leave will be hoping to notch a high rating so they can depart on good terms. Others who are committed to the company will be torn between speaking up about their concerns or staying in line for the sake of their careers. Any changes to company’s grading process this time could reveal whether Facebook is taking special steps to keep valued employees around, or continuing along the same lines.



“This review cycle will be particularly colorful for them,” according to a director who left recently.

Here’s a look at Facebook’s ‘cult-like’ workplace, where dissent is discouraged and employees pretend to be happy all the time

<figure>
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 Guinea-pig farming is popular in Peru and is an option for African farmers.
 dubes sonego/Shutterstock
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brigitte-maass-615272">By Brigitte Maass</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/georg-august-universitat-gottingen-1320">Georg-August-Universität Göttingen </a>

For thousands of years South Americans have farmed guinea pigs &#8211; but this hasn’t taken root in most other parts of the world, including Africa. We spoke to Brigitte Maass about the opportunities that they offer as livestock and what challenges there are in producing them.

What are guinea pigs?

Guinea pigs are native to South America. In Peru they call them “cuyes”, but the animal has many different names all over the world. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), farmers call them “dende”, and we think this comes from the French name “Cochon d’Inde”, meaning “pig from India”. But they are not pigs, or from India or Guinea. We therefore prefer to call them “domestic cavies”. 

Cavies have many uses. They were domesticated thousands of years ago as a small livestock species and <a href="http://www.bioline.org.br/pdf?la07058">continue</a> to be farmed. They’ve also been <a href="http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/animals/numbers-animals/guinea-pigs-in-medical-research/">used by</a> medical researchers to investigate diseases and, mostly in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2016.1215524">western society</a> – like Europe or northern America – they’re kept as pets. 

But traditionally they were used for meat. And they still are today, <a href="http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd30/6/ayagi30105.html">all around</a> the world, with demand <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/10/17/497978232/peruvian-farmers-chefs-yes-chefs-cash-in-on-guinea-pig-craze">peaking</a> in South American countries like Peru and Ecuador. Cavy farming can be a lucrative business. <a href="http://elcomercio.pe/economia/negocios/exito-cuy-restaurantes-peruanos-noticia-1712352">Some farmers</a> even give up dairy farming because raising cavies is more economical. In Peru, for instance, the <a href="http://www.oxbridgeapplications.com/kyc/guinea-pig-farming/">average</a> peasant farmer earns about US$30 a month, while cavy farmers earn as much as US$130. 

Why should they be considered as a source of meat?

Domestic cavies <a href="https://academic.oup.com/af/article/4/4/25/4638808">produce</a> high-quality meat, similar to chicken, with high protein content. Their fat is also high in healthy poly-unsaturated fatty acids.

Cavies can also be eaten as an <a href="http://www.darwininitiative.org.uk/project/23015/">alternative</a> to bushmeat. A big problem for biodiversity conservation in the forest areas of central Africa.

But the most important reason is that cavies do not compete with humans for their food. When you raise chickens, for instance, you need to feed them with grains that people could eat. Cavies are almost like little cows: they feed on all types of green forage and are fairly easy to keep. They <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231886177_Reducing_food_insecurity_in_developing_countries_through_meat_production_The_potential_of_the_guinea_pig_Cavia_porcellus">are not</a> picky in what they eat and also don’t fall sick easily. Finally, they are shy animals and less likely to escape like rabbits <a href="http://www.rabbitfreeaustralia.com.au/rabbits/the-rabbit-problem/">might do</a>, which can damage native ecosystems.

Are they currently being farmed in Africa?

Yes, <a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/v6200t/v6200T08.htm">they are</a> being farmed in many African countries, and being eaten by millions of people. There’s the possibility that missionaries <a href="http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd30/6/ayagi30105.html">introduced them</a>, but we don’t really know when or how they came to Africa. Today they are reared in various countries including Benin, Cameroon, Côte d&#8217;Ivoire, DRC, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Togo. 

But this isn’t well known and could be because they’re predominantly kept in houses or kitchens. It’s only in Tanzania that they are counted in the national livestock census where they’re <a href="http://www.nbs.go.tz/nbstz/index.php/english/statistics-by-subject/agriculture-statistics/261-livestocksector-national-report-census-of-agriculture-2007-2008">estimated</a> to number 600,000. But this number is probably far too low. We <a href="http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd26/8/maas26151.htm">estimate</a> that the DRC has about two million cavies, and that there are at least another half million in Cameroon. 

In countries where cavies are raised to produce meat, we’ve <a href="http://www.scholarly-journals.com/sjas/archive/2014/May/pdf/Herman%20et%20al.pdf">found</a> that it’s often women and young boys who raise and sell them. And the incomes are used to pay school fees. 

Another highly appreciated product from raising cavies is their manure. Farmers <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00s1ZlbFsQg">like it</a> because it’s higher in nitrogen than manure from other livestock, and also lighter to carry as it’s relatively dry. 

What should be done to support guinea pig farming as an industry?

For decades researchers and producers in South America <a href="http://www.tropentag.de/2016/abstracts/full/1114.pdf">have improved</a> cavy production and marketing, and they are now <a href="https://academic.oup.com/af/article/4/4/25/4638808%5D">frequently</a> sold in supermarkets. By contrast, throughout sub-Saharan Africa, there’s been almost no research or information on how to raise, produce or use cavies. 

It’s important that the whole value chain is developed, meaning markets must be developed too. To start with, more people on the continent need to consume more meat. 

In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMQ-K9ueGM0&amp;feature=youtu.be">cavy project</a> <a href="https://www.ileia.org/2014/12/20/guinea-pigs-small-livestock-big-potential/">conducted</a> in Cameroon and DRC from 2012 to 2014, we helped to develop these value chains. We established stakeholder <a href="https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/34157">platforms</a> which connected cavy producers, traders and restaurateurs. We also invited <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/9174380215">researchers</a>, reporters, bankers and politicians to several community meetings. 

Platform members got technical training and their problems were taken note of by researchers. Producers were registered as legal groups and were able to open bank accounts. Animals are now sold more expensively and, in some towns, cavy meat can be ordered in a few restaurants. In eastern DRC, vegetables produced with cavy manure <a href="http://www.darwininitiative.org.uk/project/23015/">are fetching</a> better prices in the market. 

Another opportunity is cross-continental learning. We <a href="https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/90288">brought together</a> people from African and South American countries. This allowed African cavy producers to piggyback on the experiences and advances in South America and save time in improving cavy production and marketing.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108477/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brigitte-maass-615272">Brigitte Maass</a>, Associate Professor, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/georg-august-universitat-gottingen-1320">Georg-August-Universität Göttingen </a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-more-people-in-africa-should-farm-guinea-pigs-for-food-108477">original article</a>.

Here’s why more people in Africa should start farming guinea pigs for food

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Kenya’s budget deficit is forecast to fall to 5.0 percent of gross domestic product in the 2019/20 (July-June) fiscal year from revised deficit of 6.3 pct of GDP in 2018/19, the Finance Ministry said on Friday.



The ministry said in a draft budget policy statement that the deficit was forecast to drop to 3.0 percent of GDP in 2022/23.



Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Andrew Heavens

This East African country’s budget deficit is forecast to fall

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s net foreign reserves rose to $43.091 billion by the end of December from $42.577 billion a month earlier, the country’s central bank said on Tuesday.



Gross reserves rose to $51.641 billion from $50.672 billion over the same period.



The forward position, which represents the central bank’s unsettled or swap transactions, shrunk to $145 million by the end of last month from $1.073 billion at the end of November.



Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Sunil Nair

South Africa’s net foreign reserves rose to $43.09 billion in December

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/emmie-martin/">Emmie Martin</a>



You don’t have to be an expert to handle your money well. Even a few easy tweaks to how you save, spend and invest can help you build wealth.



To get you started, CNBC Make It rounded up five simple facts about money, all of which have been vetted and endorsed by experts, that can help you manage your finances like a pro in 2019.





Start investing in your 20s if you can



The earlier you begin saving and investing,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/18/suze-orman-invest-more-in-your-20s-than-your-30s.html" class="">the better off you’ll be</a>. “The truth of the matter is, you should be investing more in your 20s than you do in your 30s if you can,” personal finance expert Suze Orman tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/" class="">CNBC Make It</a>. That’s because the younger you are, the more time your money has to compound.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/27/nerdwallet-charts-show-the-power-of-compound-interest.html" class="">Compounding</a>&nbsp;means that, in addition to earning money on your contributions, you also earn on returns on those returns over time. Because of this, your money grows exponentially. So if you invest a small amount and let it grow for decades, it will generally amount to much more than if you had invested a larger amount later.



Orman gives the example of a 25-year-old who invests&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bankrate.com/calculators/retirement/roth-ira-plan-calculator.aspx" class="">$100 a month in a Roth IRA</a>&nbsp;for 40 years and earns a 12 percent annual return. When that person retires at age 65, their investment will be worth just over $1 million. If the same person were to start investing $100 per month at age 35, they’d only have around $300,000 by the time they reached 65. “Those 10 years cost you $700,000,” Orman points out.



All investments carry some risk, and you’re never guaranteed to earn a 12 percent rate of return. But even at lower rates, the difference between starting at 25 and 35 is significant.





Don’t focus too much on saving



If you’re just saving and not investing, you’re setting yourself up to lose money in the long run, says Danielle Town, author of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062672650/invested" class="">“Invested: How Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Taught Me to Master My Mind, My Emotions, and My Money (with a Little Help from My Dad).”</a>&nbsp;That’s because inflation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/21/life-is-much-more-expensive-for-you-than-it-was-for-your-parents.html" class="">causes prices to rise</a>, which makes money less powerful over time. While a $20 bill will always be worth $20, what you’re able to buy for that amount dwindles.



If you had stuffed $1,000 in cash under your mattress 50 years ago, today it would have the&nbsp;<a href="https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=1,000.00&amp;amp;amp;year1=201803&amp;amp;amp;year2=196803" class="">same buying power</a>&nbsp;as only $137.45 did in 1968. However, that same amount&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/free-financial-planning-tools/compound-interest-calculator" class="">invested with compound interest</a>&nbsp;would have grown to about $20,000, assuming a 6 percent rate of return. Even if you only earn a 4 percent rate of return, it still grows to around $7,000.



Although experts advise having three to six months’ worth of living expenses stashed away in a liquid savings account, it’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/americans-are-wrong-about-the-best-way-to-invest-money.html" class="">smart to put any extra cash to work</a>. “The antidote to losing money on inflation is investing,” Town says. “You’ve got to do something with your money.”When the market tanks, stay calm



The stock market has had a volatile year. But for the average person,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/27/betterment-cfp-explains-why-stock-prices-rise-and-fall.html" class="">shifts in the market</a>, even dramatic ones, shouldn’t be cause for panic. In fact, legendary investor Warren Buffett says that the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/06/warren-buffett-and-ray-dalio-agree-on-what-to-do-when-the-market-tanks.html" class="">best thing you can do when the market tanks is to ignore it</a>.



“The money is made in investments by investing and by owning good companies for long periods of time,” the Berkshire Hathaway CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/04/warren-buffett-buy-hold-and-dont-watch-too-closely.html" class="">told CNBC</a>&nbsp;in 2016 amid wild market fluctuations. “If they buy good companies, buy them over time, they’re going to do fine 10, 20, 30 years from now.”



Billionaire Ray Dalio agrees. Though it might be tempting to sell when the market drops, he says, you shouldn’t base your investing decisions on fear or emotion.



“You can not possibly succeed that way,” Dalio said at the <a class="" href="http://www.iop.harvard.edu/forum/pursuing-truth-global-economy">Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics</a>. “You’ve got to do the opposite. It’s when you’re not scared you probably want to sell, and when you are scared, you probably want to buy.”





Realize you don’t need a perfect credit score



If you want to get the best rates on mortgages, car payments and other types of loans, you need a solid credit score. But you&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/09/going-higher-than-this-credit-score-is-a-waste-of-time-expert-says.html" class="">don’t need to worry about earning a perfect 850</a>.



“Once you’re above 760 you’re getting the best rates,” says Greg McBride, chief analyst at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bankrate.com/" class="">Bankrate</a>. “That’s why obsessing over a score of 800 versus 820 is largely a waste of time.”



For John Ganotis, founder of&nbsp;<a href="http://creditcardinsider.com/" class="">CreditCardInsider.com</a>, the number to aim for is 750. Anything above that will “likely qualify you for some of the best rates and offers.”



Earning an “excellent” score that’s higher than 750 or 760 makes a difference. You could score a lower interest rate on your mortgage or qualify for the best credit cards. But stressing over a score of 780 versus 800 isn’t worth the effort.Understand how debt holds you back



Debt doesn’t just cost you money. The side effects of being in the red can affect other important parts of your life,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/03/suze-orman-pay-off-debt-asap-and-not-because-it-costs-you-money.html" class="">keeping you from earning more and getting what you want</a>&nbsp;professionally, says Suze Orman.



“When you are in debt, you feel it,” she says, and “your boss can feel that,” too. In essence, “you render yourself powerless.” Carrying debt can make you feel out of control and dependent on other people: “You walk into an interview and you need that job because you have to pay for your debt.”



That’s why Orman advocates making debt repayment a top financial priority. Once you’re out of debt, you exude confidence, she says: “You attract people to you. And guess what? Then you attract money. So get yourself out of debt and stay out of debt, the sooner the better, if you ask me.”



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/14/5-ways-to-be-smarter-with-money-in-2019.html and is republished with its permission.

5 simple ways to be smarter about money in 2019

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwean teachers will strike from Tuesday to press for U.S. dollar salaries as talks with the government failed to bring a breakthrough, a union said, adding pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa to contain a runaway currency crisis.



Cash shortages have plunged Zimbabwe’s financial system into disarray, threatening social unrest and undermining Mnangagwa’s efforts to win back foreign investors sidelined under his predecessor Robert Mugabe.



With not enough hard currency to back up funds showing in bank accounts, the value of electronic money has plummeted, prompting businesses and civil servants to demand payment in U.S. dollars they can withdraw.



Just over four months into Mnangagwa’s contested presidency, the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Union (ZIMTA) said its members would strike as spiralling inflation has left them unable to buy basic goods and fuel that are in short supply. Government doctors have been on strike for more than a month over the same issue.



ZIMTA president Richard Gundani told Reuters a meeting between public sector unions and acting Labour Minister July Moyo only resolved to re-start talks, but teachers would not report for duty from Tuesday.



“We were very frank to each other and all the unions agreed that workers are incapacitated and we provided sufficient justification that they are unable to work,” Gundani said.



“ZIMTA’s declaration of incapacitation stands and teachers will not go to work.”



Moyo did not immediately answer calls to his mobile phone.



The government employs more than 100,000 teachers and ZIMTA has 44,000 members.



On Monday police arrested and later released 9 members of the smaller Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe who were picketing at a park in central Harare, their lawyer said.



There was a heavy presence of police with water cannon elsewhere in the capital.



As doctors continue their strike, Zimbabwe’s public hospitals have been left short of drugs and reliant on patients to buy them. Pharmacies have stopped accepting insurance policies for purchases and demand payment in dollars.



Zimbabwe is also struggling with acute shortages of fuel, forcing motorists to queue for hours.



Civil servant salaries accounted for 90 percent of the budget last year but Mnangagwa’s government has made an ambitious pledge to cut this to 70 percent in 2019 as part of reforms aimed at boosting growth and investment.



Mnangagwa came to power in November 2017 after Mugabe was forced to resign following an army coup. He was declared president in August 2018 after a presidential vote that his main opponent says he won fraudulently.



Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Joe Brock and Andrew Heavens and Andrew Cawthorne

Here’s why Zimbabwean teachers are planning to strike

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Kenya’s earnings from tourism jumped by almost a third in 2018 from the previous year to 157.4 billion shillings ($1.55 billion), after the number of visitors rose by 37 percent, the tourism ministry said on Monday.



($1 = 101.7500 Kenyan shillings)



Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Toby Chopra

This East African country’s tourism earnings rose by 37 percent

By Abigail Hess



The United States is currently experiencing <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/18/alan-greenspan-this-is-the-tightest-labor-market-ive-ever-seen.html">one of the tightest labor markets in</a> history and many say that <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/13/the-10-cities-with-the-largest-skills-gaps.html">the country is currently facing a skills gap</a>. According to the <a class="" href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, the U.S. currently has over 7 million unfilled jobs.



This tight labor market has led many companies to become more open-minded when considering candidates. Companies including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/16/15-companies-that-no-longer-require-employees-to-have-a-college-degree.html" class="">Google, Apple, IBM and Bank of America</a>&nbsp;no longer require applicants to have a college degree.



Instead of emphasizing the need for specific titles and experience, organizations are shifting towards a focus on the skills that a potential employee may bring. At tech companies like Facebook, this is especially true.



“Skills really matter the most,“<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/janelle-gale-b205341/" class="">Janelle Gale</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/27/how-to-land-a-job-at-facebook.html" class="">Facebook’s</a>&nbsp;vice president of human resources, tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/" class="">CNBC Make It</a>.



Her advice for workers interested in landing a job at an organization like Facebook is to focus on skills and apply — even if your resume does not exactly match the job description.



“We actually value skills over experience in the grand scheme of things,” she says. “Apply if you have the relevant skills even if you don’t have the right experience, because we’re looking underneath the surface for what’s really going to matter here and that’s what skills you can bring to the table.”



<a class="" href="https://learning.linkedin.com/blog/top-skills/the-skills-companies-need-most-in-2019--and-how-to-learn-them">LinkedIn</a> recently analyzed hundreds of thousands of job postings in order to determine which skills companies need most in 2019. They found that employers are looking for workers with both soft skills and hard technical skills and matched these skills with <a class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC">LinkedIn Learning</a>courses that are free for the month of January.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Here are the 5 most in-demand soft skills in 2019:</h2>



5. Time Management



Recommended courses:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/tony-schwartz-on-managing-your-energy-for-sustainable-high-performance/spiritual?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Tony Schwartz on Managing Your Energy for Sustainable High Performance</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/finding-your-time-management-style/find-your-time-management-style?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Finding Your Time Management Style</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/time-management-for-managers?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Time Management for Managers</a>



4. Adaptability



Recommended courses:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/strategic-agility/welcome?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Strategic Agility</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/developing-adaptable-employees/welcome?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Developing Adaptable Employees</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/developing-adaptability-as-a-manager/adapt-to-change?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Developing Adaptability as a Manager</a>



3. Collaboration



Recommended courses:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/collaboration-principles-and-process?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Collaboration Principles and Process</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/being-an-effective-team-member/be-a-strong-teammate?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Being an effective team member</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/business-collaboration-in-the-modern-workplace?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Business Collaboration in the Modern Workplace</a>



2. Persuasion



Recommended courses:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/persuading-others?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Persuading Others</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/becoming-a-thought-leader-2?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Becoming A Thought Leader</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/advanced-consumer-behavior?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Advanced Consumer Behavior</a>



1. Creativity



Recommended courses: <a class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/creativity-bootcamp/defining-creativity?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC">Creativity Bootcamp</a>, <a class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/the-five-step-creative-process?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC">The Five-Step Creative Process</a>, <a class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/creativity-generate-ideas-in-greater-quantity-and-quality/introduction?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC">Creativity: Generate Ideas in Greater Quantity and Quality</a>







<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Here are the 5 most in-demand hard skills in 2019:</h2>



5. UX Design



Recommended courses:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/ux-foundations-multidevice-design-2/welcome?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">UX Foundations: Multidevice Design</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/ux-design-1-overview-2/understanding-the-benefits-of-user-centered-design?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">UX Design: 01 Overview</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/ux-research-for-agile-teams/welcome?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">UX Research for Agile Teams</a>



4. People Management



Recommended courses:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/motivating-and-engaging-employees-2/welcome?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Motivating and Engaging Employees</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/managing-team-conflict/how-to-be-both-assertive-and-cooperative-in-team-conflict?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Managing Team Conflict</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/leading-with-purpose/next-steps?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Leading with Purpose</a>



3. Analytical Reasoning



Recommended courses:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/making-decisions/conclusion?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Making Decisions</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/decision-making-strategies/choosing-a-decision-making-style?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Decision Making Strategies</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/executive-decision-making/welcome?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Executive Decision Making</a>



2. Artificial Intelligence



Recommended courses:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/artificial-intelligence-foundations-neural-networks/next-steps?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Artificial Intelligence Foundations: Neural Networks</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/artificial-intelligence-foundations-machine-learning?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Artificial Intelligence Foundations: Machine Learning</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/machine-learning-and-ai-foundations-classification-modeling/classification-problems-in-machine-learning?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC" class="">Machine Learning and AI Foundations: Classification Modeling</a>



1. Cloud Computing



Recommended courses: <a class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-cloud-computing-networking-2?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC">Learning Cloud Computing: Networking</a>, <a class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-amazon-web-services-aws-for-developers/how-to-get-started-developing-on-aws?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC">Learning Amazon Web Services (AWS) for Developers</a>, <a class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/aws-for-architects-advanced-security?trk=lilblog_01-01-19_skills-companies-need-most_tl&amp;cid=70132000001AyziAAC">AWS for Architects: Advanced Security  </a>



Creativity and cloud computing came in first as the most in-demand soft and hard skills in 2019, according to LinkedIn.



According to Paul Petrone, editor of LinkedIn Learning, this year’s list reflects a change in employers’ priorities.



“Interestingly, the newcomers to our list were uniquely human traits: Among soft skills, creativity and adaptability joined the list for the first time, and among hard skills, people management was a new addition,” he tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/" class="">CNBC Make It</a>&nbsp;via email.



“While digital skills like cloud computing and artificial intelligence topped the list of hard skills companies need most, the emergence of these three new skills suggests that employers recognize the importance of embracing modern technologies as well as recognizing those things technology can’t do: connect with other people, engage in out-of-the-box thinking and quickly adapt to new priorities or problems.”



By paying attention to in-demand skills like these, workers can make sure they remain in-demand among employers.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/04/the-30-most-in-demand-skills-in-2019-according-to-linkedin-.html and is republished with its permission.

The 10 most in-demand skills of 2019, according to LinkedIn

KINSHASA (Reuters) &#8211; Preliminary results from Democratic Republic of Congo’s tumultuous presidential election will be delayed past Sunday’s deadline, the head of the election commission told Reuters.



The commission, known as CENI, had received only 47 percent of vote tally sheets as of Saturday, said its president, Corneille Nangaa, and it was not yet clear when the results would be ready.



The delay is the latest setback in a disorganised poll to pick a successor to President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the country of 80 million people since his father was assassinated in 2001.



The Dec. 30 vote could mark Congo’s first democratic transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. But tensions rose after observers reported a litany of irregularities that the opposition says are part of the ruling party’s effort to steal the election.



The opposition, represented by its two main candidates Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi, and the ruling coalition all say their candidates have won.



“It will not be possible to announce the results tomorrow,” Nangaa said.



A CENI spokesman later said that the commission was holding a meeting on Sunday to decide when they will be announced.



Worried that disputes and delays could spark the kind of violence seen after the 2006 and 2011 elections, the United Nations Security Council met on Friday to discuss how to react, but was unable to reach an agreement, according to an internal report seen by Reuters.



The United States condemned a lack of transparency in the contest, while China, a major investor, lauded the process.



“Tensions were mounting while the CENI tabulated the results, notably in light of posturing by parties and candidates,” Leila Zerrougui, head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, told the meeting, according to the internal report.



But the 15 council members “differed in their appreciation of the problems that beset the process and were divided over the question of whether the Council should issue a press statement”, the report went on to say.



A negative international reaction could be problematic for Kabila, whose government has defended the election’s organisation, and could weaken the legitimacy of Kabila’s hand-picked successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, should he be declared winner.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">INFLAME THE SITUATION</h3>



In the meeting, France pushed for the publication of a statement that recognised that Congo’s election had allowed people to exercise their democratic right and called for calm, but criticised the government’s decision to cut access to the Internet and some media outlets.



The United States, which has threatened to impose sanctions against those who undermine the election process and has deployed troops to Gabon in case its citizens need rescuing from any violence, backed the statement, alongside Britain, Ivory Coast, Belgium and others.



South Africa, long a Kabila ally, said the statement could “inflame” the situation if issued before the results, the report said. Russia said it could be seen as an attempt to skew public opinion. China “lauded the manner in which elections were conducted”, the report said, and said a statement should not be published before the results.



Congo’s Catholic church body, CENCO, said this week that it had identified the victor based on its own tallies collected by 40,000 observers, though it did not name the winner. The declaration was widely seen as a warning to authorities against rigging the vote.



Additional reporting By Aaron Ross; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Kevin Liffey

Here’s why DRC’s presidential election results have been delayed past Sunday’s deadline

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) &#8211; Military officers in Gabon staged an apparent coup early Monday morning, seizing the state radio station and declaring their dissatisfaction with President Ali Bongo, who is recovering from a stroke in Morocco.



A New Year’s eve address by Bongo “reinforced doubts about the president’s ability to continue to carry out of the responsibilities of his office,” said Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang, the leader of the self-declared Patriotic Movement of the Defence and Security Forces of Gabon.



The radio message was broadcast at around 4:30 a.m. local time (0530 GMT). A source close to the government said there were gunshots around the national television station, but that the plotters appeared to be a small group of soldiers.



A spokesman for the presidency told Reuters he would make a statement shortly.



Bongo, 59, was hospitalised in October in Saudi Arabia after suffering a stroke. He has been in Morocco since November to continue treatment.



In his speech on New Year’s, Bongo acknowledged health problems but said he was recovering. He slurred some of his words and did not move his right arm, but otherwise appeared in decent health.



The Bongo family has ruled the oil-producing country for nearly half a century. Bongo has been president since succeeding his father, Omar, who died in 2009. His re-election in 2016 was marred by claims of fraud and violent protest.



Reporting By Geraud Wilfried Obangome; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Raissa Kasolowsky

Soldiers in Gabon stage an apparent coup, what you need to know…

By Jared Jeffery, Political analyst at NKC African Economics 



Popular protests, which began in mid-December and spiked on December 19 after bread prices tripled and queues for petrol began to stretch around city blocks, are expected to increase in intensity over the week ahead. 



On Thursday, January 3, an opposition coalition called for nation wide demonstrations on Friday, a march on the presidential compound on Sunday, and another march on Wednesday to call for regime change. Footage shared over Twitter showed demonstrations already on Thursday in Port Sudan. 



President Omar Al-Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP) have responded to the civil disobedience with characteristic force: rights groups estimate that around 40 people have been killed in protests so far. Curfews are being enforced in some cities and classes at schools and universities have been suspended in many areas. 



While the tipping point that led to unrest may have been the worsening economic plight of citizens, the government’s promises that the 2019 budget would maintain many state subsidies, raise wages and assist the poor are unlikely bring an end to the anger. 



Furthermore,Mr Bashir’s promises of better days ahead, with greater “transparency,effectiveness and justice in all our national institutions”, made at independence day celebrations on January 1, are likely to fall on deaf ears. 



The president – in power for 30 years this June, if he makes it – and his government have lost the credibility to make such promises. To stay in power,they will have to use violence or the threat thereof. 



A sign that the NCP ship may really be sinking is the fact that a coalition of opposition parties that took part in the 2016 ‘National Dialogue’ has decided to drop all ties to the government and to call for a transfer of power to an interim authority so that a democratic transition can be organised. The group calls itself the National Front for Change (NFC). 



Other opposition groupings – the National Consensus Alliance, Sudan Call, the Unionist Gathering, and the Sudanese Professional Association – have welcomed the defection of these opposition parties, but they want regime change rather than a gradual transfer of power. The schism in the opposition between gradualist parties looking to change the system from within and more revolutionary parties has existed for some time, but it appears the groups are coming together to take advantage or the public’s current discontent. 



They seem to sense that this time is different – especially with the election in 2020 and Mr Bashir looking to change the constitution so he can run again factoring into their calculations. 



For its part, the NCP has downplayed the defection of opposition parties from the National Dialogue; the ruling party’s Political Secretary Abdel Rahman Al-Khider says that only eight parties have defected rather than the 22 reported. 



Among the parties in the Sudan Call coalition is the National Umma Party of Sadiq Al-Mahdi – the prime minister Mr Bashir overthrew in a coup in 1989. Mr Mahdi returned to the country in December just as protests began. His daughter,Zainab Sadiq Al-Mahdi was reportedly among those detained during protests on Monday, December 31, in Khartoum. 



Reports from Associated Press state that almost two dozen other opposition leaders have been rounded up by security forces. The Sudan Tribune has reported that arrests of civil society activists and journalists took place on Thursday, December 3. 



However,the protests have been driven by grassroots organisers for the most part and so it is unclear that the arrest of opposition figures or these activists will slow their momentum. Authorities are well aware of this grassroots nature of the protests, and so popular social media platforms like Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook have been blocked to top such bottom-up organisation. 



Posts on Twitter, however, confirm that many have been able to work around the blocks using a virtual private network (VPN).



Momentum behind the protests has not dissipated despite promises that the economic situation will improve and threats of violence. While the security service shave used lethal force in attempts to keep order, the death toll remains lower than during protests in 2013. 



Whether this is due to greater restraint is difficult to determine, but commentators have noted that the demographics of those protesting is different this time around. While in 2013 the demonstrators were mainly the youth and marginalised groups (like Darfuris), this time they are reportedly drawn from a broader cross-section of society (women, children and the elderly have reportedly participated in scenes reminiscent of the Arab Spring uprisings, according to the Financial Times). 



That may make authorities pause before granting the use of deadly force.



Bloomberg reports that the government is desperately looking for foreign help to gain access to hard currency to mitigate the economic crisis (Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations have aided in the past), but even if such loans could be made in time to make a difference to the weakening pound and rising prices, there is no guarantee that this would convince citizens to call off their protests. 



One key factor to watch out for remains the loyalty of the military and other security services. So far, we have only come across one report of soldiers siding with protesters. Neutrality by the military may be enough to spell the end of the regime. 



Should protests dwindle and stability under Mr Bashir and the NCP be restored, there is no guarantee that it would last. 



With the president attempting to change the constitution so that he can stand for election again in 2020, it seems instability is on the cards over the short- to medium-term no matter what.

Op-Ed: Sudan protests are set to intensify, here’s why

LUSAKA (Reuters) &#8211; The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) said on Friday an audit shows mining companies owe the government more than the state is due to pay them in tax refunds.



Mining companies have been demanding Zambia pay the $550-$600 million due to them in Value Added Tax (VAT) refunds.



“When we put together what we owe the mining companies compared with what they are owing, you find that on the balance of numbers they are actually owing more,” ZRA Commissioner-General Kingsley Chanda said at a media briefing.



Chanda did not say how much mining companies owed the state but said it included penalties and interest. Mining companies pay government royalties and tax.



Reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by Joe Brock

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