Zapiro puts on his Daily Maverick hat

[Daily Maverick] WEEKEND THING with JOHN STUPART Saturday, 17th December 2016 “The universe is not made of atoms; it's made of stories.” Muriel Rukeyser PICTURE OF THE WEEK BY EPA/STRINGER A man walks next to a destroyed building one day after a ceasefire was announced, at al-Mashhad neighborhood in the rebel-held part of Aleppo, Syria, 14 December 2016. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting erupted around the final rebel-held area of Aleppo on 14 December as the scheduled ceasefire and mass evacuation of opposition fighters from the area stalled. [Sell your car fast, easy and secure!] THIS WEEK'S WRAP-UP [Daily Maverick gets a personnel boost for 2017] 2017 will see a couple of extra hands on deck at Daily Maverick. First up is Zapiro. South Africa's foremost cartoonist will be producing four cartoons a week at DM, and is guaranteed to stir up the political hornet's nest. In addition, Daily Maverick's veteran Rebecca Davis will be returning in 2017. Stay tuned folks, because 2017 is about to get a lot more interesting at DM. [Aleppo's fate decided, messily and without mercy] The Syrian regime drove its blade deeper into rebel-held Aleppo, ultimately retaking the city and eliciting a ceasefire agreement. The truce was shortly-held, however, as regime forces attached new conditions to the peace and swiftly began shelling rebels preparing to leave the city. Mass executions, indiscriminate killing, and a global outcry was the theme of the week. As more observers now enter the city, expect more tales of war crimes to be revealed. [SABC officially loses the plot] The Parliament’s ad hoc committee inquiry into the SABC has revealed all manner of blame-shifting shenanigans in the state broadcaster. Minister of Communications Faith Muthambi furiously dodged questions relating to the inexplicable rise of Hlaudi Motsoeneng, all the while as the SABC itself revealed a web of infighting, ineptitude and, well, incompetence. [Trump's Taiwan gambit yields a bitter fruit] Ongoing threats by Donald Trump to drop the one China policy has infuriated Beijing. So much so that the Asian superpower outright threatened the incoming president that it would support anti-American agents in retaliation. By the weekend, China had reiterated that it was not playing around by capturing an American unmanned underwater drone in the South China Sea. — [Sell your car fast, easy and secure!] FACT OF THE DAY Dogs bark more than wolves. They do this because they have evolved into overgrown puppies. EDITOR'S PICKS [Smooth Operator: Gaspard leaves South Africa as he came – carrying Obama’s ‘Hope’] BY RANJENI MUNUSAMY [TRAINSPOTTER: How Hlaudi Motsoeneng stole the news] BY RICHARD POPLAK [US2016: Tovarish Trump?] BY J BROOKS SPECTOR [2016: Back from the brink – The Year of Living with Clarity] BY MARIANNE THAMM — [Video of the week] VIDEO OF THE WEEK [Kitten Academy Live Stream] By Kitten Academy IN OTHER NEWS Cuba owes the Czech Republic $276 million in debt. In order to pay this, Cuba has offered to make good on the debt in rum. The Czech Republic is open to the idea (pharmaceuticals were also okay), but would like some of the debt paid in cold hard cash. If paid in rum in full, the Czech Republic would have enough rum for over a century's consumption. [Preferences] | [Unsubscribe]