South Africa’s Schoenmaker Shatters World Record To Win Gold In Women’s 200m Breaststroke – Schoenmaker timed 2min 18.95sec to better the 2:19.11 set by Denmark’s Rikke Moller Pedersen in 2013. [ht]

Rassie Erasmus Attacks Lions Refereeing Again And Offers To Step Aside – World Rugby is under pressure to intervene after Rassie Erasmus, South Africa’s director of rugby, launched another stinging attack on the refereeing of the opening Test of the British & Irish Lions series. [guardian]

Amazon Sales To Decelerate As Pandemic High Wanes – The Seattle-based company’s shares fell 6 percent in after-hours trading. [alja]

Facebook’s Slowdown Warning Hangs Over Strong Ad Sales, While Zuckerberg Talks ‘Metaverse’ – Facebook Inc (FB.O) said on Wednesday it expects revenue growth to “decelerate significantly,” sending the social media giant’s shares down 3.5% in extended trading even as it reported strong ad sales. [reuters]

The Queen Used Her Lobbying Powers To Avoid Scotland’s New Green Energy Law – New documents reveal the monarch’s private land is exempt from a major initiative to cut carbon emissions. [bustle]

Joe Biden Wants States To Pay People $100 To Get Vaccinated – The ongoing COVID-19 surge is prompting new efforts to improve vaccination rates. [verge]

Drivers For Elon Musk’s Loop Get A Script About Their ‘Great Leader’ – ‘Awesome, inspiring, motivating’ are pre-approved. [tc]

Extortion, Corruption, Violence: Western Cape Taxi Wars ‘Playbook’ – ‘They recruit municipal officials, they recruit political players, they recruit members of the SAPS.’ [tlive]

INFOGRAPHIC | South Africa’s Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout In Numbers – South Africa’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout is gaining momentum as it opens to younger age groups. A third of the country’s total jabs have been administered in the past two weeks alone. [busins]

International Space Station Thrown Out Of Control By Misfire Of Russian Module – The International Space Station (ISS) was thrown briefly out of control on Thursday when jet thrusters of a newly arrived Russian research module inadvertently fired a few hours after it was docked to the orbiting outpost, NASA officials said. [reuters] Can you guys please keep an eye on your modules?

The Creepy Far-Right Plot To Bring John McAfee Back From The Dead – Bombastic software pioneer and sometimes-yacht-based fugitive John McAfee has been dead for more than a month. His widow, his lawyer, and the government of Spain, where McAfee died in a jail cell, all confirm that he has passed away. [beast]

Facebook’s Next Hardware Launch Will Be Its Ray-Ban ‘Smart Glasses’ – A stepping stone ‘towards full augmented reality glasses,’ says Mark Zuckerberg. [verge]

Volocopter Flies At EAA AirVenture – Flight marks the first in the US of a publicly-crewed eVTOL air taxi. [flying]

Refusing A Vaccine Will Now Be Treated Similar To Smoking, Says Discovery Life – Effective immediately as of 29 July, it is now treating refusal to receive a Covid-19 vaccine similar to other health risk factors such as smoking, Discovery Life announced on Thursday. [busins]

Covid In Sydney: Military Deployed To Help Enforce Lockdown – Australia has deployed hundreds of soldiers to Sydney to help enforce a Covid lockdown. [bbc]

Mercedes: Red Bull Attempts To ‘Tarnish’ Hamilton Name Stop Now – Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen are locked in an intense battle over the 2021 Drivers’ Championship, but tensions boiled over after they collided on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix. [pf1]

Disney Strikes Back Over Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Black Widow’ Lawsuit, Reveals Her $20 Million Payday – The Walt Disney Co. has fired back at Scarlet Johansson’s lawsuit over the release of Black Widow, in a biting statement in which it said that the litigation showed a “callous disregard” to the Covid-19 pandemic and even revealed that she has so far received $20 million from the project. [dead]

Freaky ‘Penis Snakes’ Have Finally Made It To The U.S., And Of Course They Chose Florida – The legless amphibians are probably harmless, most certainly hideous—and possibly here to stay. [giz]

‘Most Beautiful Girl In The World’ – Thylane Blondeau, 20, shows off her toned figure in a mismatched bikini as she takes a dip in the sea in St Tropez. [dm]

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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]