Flash Briefing: Facebook caught cheating advertisers; GameStop's Roaring Kitty exposed; interest rates; Covid vaccines

Loading player...
* Inflationary pressures and currency weakness could force central banks in some key African economies to tighten monetary policy, even as the slow rollout of coronavirus vaccines and new mutations of the disease pose risks to economic growth.
* The South African government had been counting on the Pfizer shot, developed with German partner BioNTech, to step up its vaccination programme after administering the first Johnson & Johnson (J&J) doses on Wednesday. But, new research suggests (in the New England Journal of Medicine) it may only have very limited protection against Covid-19.
* Namibia has Namibia plans to go ahead with the roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine even after neighbor South Africa stalled its use.
* Sinopharm vaccines from China arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday. The new coronavirus strain first detected in South Africa is estimated to account for about 61% of cases in Zimbabwe.
* A Facebook employee warned that the company reported revenues it “should have never made” by overstating how many users advertisers could reach, according to internal emails revealed in a newly unsealed court filing, reports the London-headquartered Financial Times.
* In Australia, Facebook blocked news in an unexpected retaliation to a proposed law that will force the company and Google to pay Australian publishers for news content.
* Keith Gill, one of the most influential voices that pushed GameStop on the WallStreetBets Reddit forum, was hit with a lawsuit that accused him of misrepresenting himself as an amateur investor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
18 Feb 2021 10AM English South Africa Investing · Business News

Other recent episodes

Fighting to save South Africa’s moral compass: Unashamedly Ethical's Gary Power

Gary Power lifts the lid on corruption, ethical collapse, and the fight to rebuild South Africa from the ground up. In this powerful conversation, the CEO of Unashamedly Ethical shares how his father transformed a major construction business, why integrity is a survival strategy, and how collective action, faith, and…
14 May 6AM 28 min

‘It looked completely real’: Another victim speaks out on alleged FXSI deepfake scam

Another victim has come forward to share her experience of allegedly being scammed by FXSI, a company accused of using sophisticated online tactics and deepfake-style advertising to lure victims into fraudulent investments. In this follow-up interview with BizNews, the victim explains how she first encountered the scheme through social media…
14 May 7AM 19 min

BN Daybreak - Thu 14 May 2026: Trump’s China summit; Viljoen vs. Heystek investment challenge; FXSI scam continues

In today's BizNews Daybreak, we feature President Trump’s high-stakes Beijing summit alongside tech titans Elon Musk and Jensen Huang. We show also analyses a sharp spike in US wholesale inflation and Cisco's major AI-driven restructuring. Piet Viljoen and Magnus Heystek discusses their million-rand investment challenge and South Africa's surprising market…
14 May 12AM 15 min