Life Plus 33 Years In Prison For Table Mountain Killer Blessing Bveni – Knife attacks, assault and robbery crimes all added to Blessing Bveni’s life sentence. [ewn]

A Botticelli Portrait Sells For $92 Million At Sotheby’s Auction – “Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel” dates to around 1480, and its sale is the art market’s biggest test of the new year. [nyt]

Apple And Facebook At Odds Over Privacy Move That Will Hit Online Ads – Tim Cook lambasts firms ‘built on misleading users, data exploitation, on choices that are not choices at all’. [guardian]

GAMESTOP

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calls For Oversight In GameStop Saga – The Democratic congresswoman tweeted that lawmakers need to know more about Robinhood’s decision to ‘block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit’. [alja]

Robinhood CEO: We Made The ‘Correct’ Decision In Restricting GameStop Trades – As online brokerage Robinhood faces widespread backlash, CEO Vlad Tenev said Thursday he made the “correct” decision in restricting purchases of GameStop stock, while denying that the company did so because it doesn’t have enough cash on hand. [forbes]

Robinhood Hit With Class Action Lawsuit After Halting GameStop Stock – The suit says Robinhood is depriving investors access to an open market. [ign]

Robinhood Taps Banks In Rush To Restore GameStop Trading – Robinhood, the online brokerage at the centre of wild trading in equities this week, prepared to restore trading in GameStop and other hot stocks on Friday after tapping banks to shore up its financial position. [ft] Note: The ‘etoro’ trading app allows GameStop trading 

Robinhood Will Allow ‘Limited Buys’ Of Stocks Like GameStop Starting Friday – Halting purchases was ‘a risk management decision,’ the company said in a blog post. [verge]

SA’s Ginger Prices Are Shooting Through The Roof – If you’ve been to the shops lately, you might have noticed that the price of ginger is off the charts. South Africans are less than impressed. [here]

Thousands Of Restaurants Face Closure In South Africa – Franchise Body – The Franchise Association of South Africa (FASA) has warned of untold damage to the restaurant industry as a result of the current lockdown restrictions in place, which includes a ban on the sale of alcohol. [btech]

Here’s How Registration For A Covid-19 Vaccine Will Work In SA – South Africa is expected to start distributing Covid-19 vaccines next week and has developed an online registration system which will allow citizens to book their jabs. [busins]

Lewis Hamilton Contract: Toto Wolff Confirms Announcement ‘Soon’ – An announcement on Lewis Hamilton’s contract is expected soon, says Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, but it will not be a three-year deal. [express]

Stellenbosch Municipality Plans To Ditch Eskom And Find Its Own Power – The municipality says it wants to do away with load-shedding. [tlive]

Facebook Made $32 Billion Wrecking Democracy In 2020 – Having spent the last 12 months helping to fuel conspiracy theories, undermine public health, and weaken democracy, all while pocketing $86 billion in revenue, Facebook’s CEO said on Wednesday night that he now just wants his platform to be “fun.” [vice]

Google Play Allowing Android Gambling And Betting Apps In More Countries, Including US – At the moment, “real money gambling apps” are only available in the Brazilian, Irish, French, and UK Play Stores. They include online casino games, lotteries, sports betting, and daily fantasy sports. [9to5]

Toyota Invests Close To R3bn For Production Of New SUV At Its Durban Plant – The move will generate about R2.85bn in additional component purchases and create 1 500 new jobs. [mweb]

Why It’s Worth Following A Weight Loss Plan Designed By Experts – If you’ve decided it’s time to make better choices, eat healthier, and get in shape, remember that going it alone can be tough. [here]

‘They Said I Wasn’t Hot Enough’: Carey Mulligan Hits Out Again At Magazine Review – Variety review of black comedy Promising Young Woman prompts actor to speak out on industry’s institutionalised sexism. [guardian]

How To Have Good Shower Sex Without Slipping And Breaking Something – Some advice from porn performers who professionally coordinate safe shower scenes. [vice]

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DON’T SAY WE DIDN’T TELL YOU…

There are a number of ongoing deals set up at our various exclusive partners. Here they are – just for you;-)

Buy Any Product From Websites That ‘Don’t Ship To SA’ – One of our most exciting partners offers you a PO Box in US, UK or Hong Kong, for you to deliver overseas online purchases to. Postbox Courier handles it from there – getting the package to you in under a week. [more]

There Is Only One Company When It Comes To Import Export Logistics – Your freight forwarding / shipping partner is probably more important than the actual products you want to move from country to country. Choose the wrong guys and you can get stung in so many ways. Be smart, use 2ov’s partners, Berry & Donaldson. [here]

Affordable Cane Furniture – If you’re buying cane or wicker furniture anywhere else, you’re wasting a lot of time and money. These guys import directly from Malawi. Hand-Made cane furniture – buy online and have it delivered! [check it out]