Transgender ban confuses and outrages

[Daily Maverick] FIRST THING with JOHN STUPART Thursday, 27 July 2017 “We accept the love we think we deserve.” Stephen Chbosky A meaningful conference about the state of our media. Cape Town International Convention Centre, 3rd August. [Click here]( for speaker line-up and ticket info. STORY OF THE DAY [Scorpio & amaBhungane #GuptaLeaks: Let’s hear it for the good guys]( By SCORPIO & AMABHUNGANE The revelations contained in the #GuptaLeaks emails may give the impression that everyone the Guptas encountered rolled over to do their bidding – either through pressure from above, or a desire for personal enrichment. Happily, this was not the case. Throughout the emails there is evidence of people who stood up to the Guptas or thwarted their intentions in some way. We take a look at some of those who held the line. [Administration befuddled at transgender ban]( Both the Secretary of Defence and the Pentagon were left utterly blindsided by President Donald Trump's ban of transgender military personnel. Reversing an Obama-era bill to allow transgender Americans to serve in all aspects of the military, the Trump decision was either aimed at distracting everyone from the dumpster fire called the Senate, or a genuine attempt to unravel another strand of Obama-era policy. [Facebook reports record profits]( Facebook took a break from its social media war with Elon Musk to announce a major surge in profit. Surpassing two billion users, the social media juggernaut announced a 71% increase in profit this year, making a whopping net profit of $3.9-billion. This was largely due to new paid-ads integrated into Facebook's systems. The majority of said revenue, Facebook noted, came from users on mobile phones. [Teen killed in new Venezuelan riots]( A resurgent spate of Venezuelan protests has left two people dead, including a 16-year-old boy. Officials have not revealed the boy's identity, but his death brought the number of anti-Maduro protesters killed to a shocking 105. With no end in sight to the unrest, more dead are an unfortunate probability. [Finish your antibiotics? Think again]( Researchers have announced a new finding that the "finish your course" approach to antibiotics is not evidence-based. Claiming it also fueled drug resistance among patients, the British disease experts argued on Wednesday that doctors are far too quick to over-prescribe. Instead, the group advocated for a new set of tailor-made antibiotics prescription guidelines to avoid the looming drug resistance crisis. — A meaningful conference about the state of our media. Cape Town International Convention Centre, 3rd August. [Click here]( for speaker line-up and ticket info. PICTURE OF THE DAY By EPA/SERGEI ILNITSKY The Soyuz booster rocket FG with Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft is rolled out to the launch pad by train at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, 26 July 2017. Expedition 52-53 crew members Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos, and Randy Bresnik of Nasa are scheduled to launch on the Soyuz MS-05 to the International Space Station (ISS) on 28 July 2017. The Expedition 52-53 crew will spend more than four months together aboard the orbital complex before returning to Earth in December. IN NUMBERS 6 The number of lowest-scoring documentaries on IMDB that involve Justin Bieber. FACTS OF THE DAY Today is National Sleepy Head Day in Finland. It ought well to be a global holiday. Game of Thrones author George RR Martin bought the first ticket to attend the first comic con in New York in 1964. A meaningful conference about the state of our media. Cape Town International Convention Centre, 3rd August. [Click here]( for speaker line-up and ticket info. 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