Still Wednesday

10.  Southern hemisphere excitement via haiku

From the American south:

Lord have mercy, I had never seen anything quite as wonderful as Chinatown. A guy could spend his whole life there and still only see half of it.

Today I heard on the radio that before the pandemic there were roughly 300 restaurants operating in Chinatown. After the devastating lockdowns, some 60 restaurants remained.

So my old photos prove that everything has changed. They prove that I’ve changed.

I’m not even the same guy I used to be. I used to pump gas without wearing a hazmat jumpsuit. I went to parties. I drank from public water fountains.

That one took some getting the head around.  Ok, try this one - Joburg nightlife under Covid:

The South African conducted a physical survey of bars and restaurants in Sandton’s trendy nightspots to establish compliance with COVID-19 regulations, albeit under lockdown Level 1 [which] still prohibits the operation of nightclubs while social distancing measures also still apply.

The actions here of a guilty cad?   

Australia’s attorney general has been accused by a dead woman (suicide) of raping her 33 years ago. He said on tv today that he didn’t do it.

Quite like this one - via South Africa, a Canadian article on Britain.  Uh huh, why not?

Brexit has crystallized the question of what rights and duties accrue to EU member states. The issue remains fiercely contested and divisive. In Unherd, Larry Siedentop argues that the liberalism that long provided the EU’s raison d’être may no longer be viable.

9. Anything interesting for us in today's budget?

The Chancellor is expected to unveil the Budget in the House of Commons at around 12.30pm on Wednesday, March 3. He will then later lead a Downing Street press conference which usually takes place at 5pm.

Breitbart:

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, is expected to announce new immigration routes to the United Kingdom in the coming budget, at a time when many Britons are out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic and legal and illegal immigration are already running at or near record highs.

The changes are supposedly designed to boost “international competitiveness” by making it easier for bosses to recruit “high-skilled” foreign workers, particularly in the tech sector, rather than training local people.

That one's clear enough.