Profile avatar
phillipdewet.bsky.social
Ex News24 foreign editor, staying-on News24 columnist. Ex Business Insider SA, ex Mail & Guardian, ex Daily Maverick. Living in Canterbury, thinking about AI, advocating risk-adjusted writing.
85 posts 68 followers 77 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
Posts 27 Comments 23

Everything else is new, but America's descent into kleptocracy is all but a cliche at this point. Ask any South African about The New Age and its business breakfasts to see what comes next.

submitted 11 hours ago • 0 comments

South Africans don't think of their country as an aid recipient. And it isn't, really – not directly. But it would be hard to overstate how much it has benefitted from aid to its neighbours over the years.

submitted 13 hours ago • 0 comments

A timely reminder. The debate in the UK this week includes how cutting foreign aid allows transnational crime to flourish, by providing safe havens for organised crime – in failed states. Meanwhile, in Europe...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

You and me both, buddy, you and me both. (Actual page from a genuine children's book.)

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Local reporting on public housing in New York that is really valuable to a homeowner in Canterbury. (Which is only fair, because heat pumps are divisive in England, driven in part by politics rooted in America.) (1/8)

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Estonia is one to watch. It has been building digital and education infrastructure in a determined fashion for decades now, beyond the occasional headline-grabbing stunt. Giving off strong Singapore vibes – but with greater geographic advantage.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

On this day 173 years ago, the HMS Birkenhead sank and the protocol "women and children first" was born. Today the UK starts slashing its foreign aid budget to the bone as Europe rearms in a hurry. Something has gone terribly wrong.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Remember when we talked about Elon Musk becoming US President, and you said Americans would never allow that constitutional change? No, seriously, I'm not (just) stirring, I'm trying to recall who I was talking to – and if we made an actual bet. Because I'm feeling better and better about my odds.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

In today's column, I argue that South Africa has it pretty good amid Donald Trump's rampage. Relatively speaking, and with other caveats. In Europe, America's military ally, the disruption will bring disunity. For South Africa, a recipient of US aid and trade, it could be a unifier.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

RIP AMERICAN HEGEMONY. Died 23 February 2025 with this remark from Germany's incoming leader Friedrich Merz: "My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA."

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Students of history (2022) may recall how the South African government took some pain for trying to refer to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a "conflict" rather than a "war", and refusing to describe Russia as the aggressor. Flash forward to 2025:

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Donald Trump really brings profound change faster than anything we've ever seen. UK: *edges towards America* Let us be your bridge to Europe! Trump: *embraces Putin* Down with Ukraine! Long live Russia! UK: ... So, about post-Nato defence of Europe. We can kick in £100 billion by lunchtime...

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Perplexity has a new trick – and it is good. Very, very good. Pro mode needed some work on complex topics, multiple questions to get to the right source, then going back and asking better-informed questions. Deep Research is doing that as a one-shot, fire-and-forget kind of service.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

The UK's new approach to being seen to deal with illegal immigrants - under a non-right-wing governing party - has political implications for South Africa, I argue today.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

It is easier to connect this TV to YouTube - which is in frigging Trumpistan - than to run it from the laptop or phone I have right here. Right here!

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Money is weird. Law is weird. Mix them together, and some super weird stuff can happen, entirely unintentionally, that you then need to unpick ever so carefully. (This is not a post about the administration of Donald Trump, but the lesson is universal.)

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Oh man, this could be such a boon for online publishers. Especially if Roost were to build some real-names tools.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

I reckon we can call the Central African Republic's memecoin experiment. American celebrities can cash in that way, poor African countries not so much.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

The only problem, @jemcollins.co.uk @journoresources.org.uk, is the anxiety about how to use my one (1) magic "you must respond within a day" coupon. I kinda want to spend it just to stop worrying about it. But what if I really really need it later?

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

I'm still going on about Goma – and what was arguably a genocide-aftershock atrocity – but this time featuring Donald Trump and Gaza. Maybe one can provide some perspective on the other.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Not that we need it, but more proof rich != smart. "While many were imme­di­ately sus­pi­cious, at least one was per­suaded to trans­fer €1mn to over­seas bank accounts after being falsely reas­sured that he would later be reim­bursed by the Bank of Italy." www.ft.com/content/8e91...

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Oh, probably worth stating the obvious. I am an Afrikaner (or, more accurately, a self-declared former Afrikaner) who grew up in farming communities. This is not a group of powerless, persecuted people who need to flee their homeland with only the clothes on their backs.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

The flaw in Trump's Afrikaner resettlement plan.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

We anticipated some of what The Age of Donald Trump would bring, but I entirely forgot how good he makes other world leaders seem by comparison.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

I see people driving 4-year-old Teslas and I just want to give them a hug and whisper: "There was no way you could have known". But they get skittish if you so much as make eye contact these days; chances are it will go very badly indeed if I run over and knock on the window.

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

The world may have changed recently, but it is still cool to wear sunglasses indoors. Except when you're Anna frigging Wintour – in which case taking them off is the headline.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

UN agencies have documented cases of gang rape and executions by both DRC army troops and M23. Several thousand civilians are dead, including children. But this atrocity stands out even against that backdrop.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments