Smokes, Trains & Goats - Conservative Hopefuls

SA’s alcohol ban explained: Why booze is barred during lockdown

When Bheki Cele announced South Africans would not be able to buy alcohol during the lockdown, our nation gasped - but there are methods behind the madness.

The Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance in South Africa (SAAPA SA) have helped us understand the regulations a little better. Police Minister Bheki Cele – enforcing his reputation as a tough, no-nonsense cop – has staunchly pursued this alcohol ban. As the alliance explain, the government do have their reasons:

https://www.thesouthafrican.co....m/news/why-alcohol-s


Sweet Farms

Sweet Farm is the first non-profit sanctuary in the world to address the global impacts of factory farming across animals, the plants and the planet. Our food web is incredibly complicated and it’s impossible to move forward without first acknowledging how these pieces are connected. By linking veganic agriculture, farm-animal rescue, education, and the technology that is revolutionizing food and agriculture production — Sweet Farm is redefining what it means to be a sanctuary.

https://www.sweetfarm.org/


84-year-old alligator rumored to belong to Adolf Hitler dies in Moscow Zoo

Saturn, an alligator of international intrigue, has died at the Moscow Zoo on Friday at the age of 84.

That in itself made Saturn unusual. In the wild, the normal life span for an alligator is 30 to 50 years.

But longevity was the least unusual aspect of Saturn's biography.

Saturn was born in the wild somewhere in Mississippi in 1936 and was shipped to the Berlin Zoo from which he disappeared on November 23, 1943, in the aftermath of an Allied air bombing campaign on Berlin. One bomb directly struck the zoo's aquarium and, according to reports at the time, all of the alligators and crocodiles in captivity there were killed.

https://abcnews.go.com/Interna....tional/84-year-allig


Devastating banana disease may have reached Latin America, could drive up global prices

In a long-feared development, an extremely damaging banana disease has apparently reached Latin America. Late last week, the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) in Bogotá confirmed that four plantations in northern Colombia have been quarantined because of suspected infection with Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4), a fungus that kills plants by clogging their vascular system. Already widespread in Asia, the disease can wipe out entire plantations.

https://www.sciencemag.org/new....s/2019/07/devastatin


Four candidates will be on ballot in Conservative leadership race as final deadline passes

Two of them, O'Toole and Sloan, have called for the race to be postponed due to the COVID-10 pandemic. MacKay has asked for an earlier vote

With the entry deadline passed in the Conservative leadership race, four candidates are on the ballot, two appear to have been eliminated, one has withdrawn his candidacy, and another is taking the party to court over being disqualified.

Candidates needed to submit $300,000 and 3,000 party member signatures by 5 p.m. on Wednesday to make the final ballot and participate in official leadership debates.

Those confirmed to have done so are Peter MacKay, Erin O’Toole, Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan. Two of them, O’Toole and Sloan, have called for the race to be postponed due to the COVID-10 pandemic. MacKay has asked for an earlier vote.

Marilyn Gladu and Rudy Husny, meanwhile, have been removed from the party’s website as candidates because they failed to meet the entry requirements. Rick Peterson was removed a few days ago after he withdrew his candidacy.

https://nationalpost.com/news/....politics/four-candid