DINNER PARTY INTEL...

The topics you have to be able to discuss this week

1. China repeals rhino horn ban

China has incurred the wrath of conservationists by lifting a ban on the trade in rhino horn and tiger bones.the notice from the cabinet gave no reason for lifting the embargo, which has been in place for 25 years. It noted that trade would be allowed “under special circumstances”, and that it would apply only to rhino horn and tiger bones obtained from farmed animals, and used for “medical research or in healing”, according to a Bloomberg report. The World Wide Fund for Nature has warned of potentially “devastating consequences globally”.

“For the past three years your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement ... Yesterday’s violence is the direct culmination of your influence.” Pittsburgh Jewish leaders in an open letter to President Donald Trump after 11 people were gunned down at the Tree of Life synagogue by a shooter who said he “wanted all Jews to die”

2. Hoping for a Brexit exit

Opposition to the UK’S exit from the EU has picked up speed. On Saturday, The Independent’s “Final Say” petition, calling for a new referendum on Brexit, received its millionth signature. The milestone came a week after almost 700,000 people marched through London in support of a new “people’s vote ”— reportedly the largest mass demonstration in the UK since the Iraq War. A group of MPS is also said to be preparingto table a “killer amendment” in the House of Commons to push for a second referendum, according to The Guardian.

3. Zambia’s green lion

An emerald crystal the size of a person’s hand has been unearthed in Zambia. Gemfields, the world’s largest producer of coloured gemstones, said the 5,655ct stone weighing more than 1.1kg was found at its mine in Kagem. The emerald is being called “Inkalamu” — lion in the local Bemba language. It will be cut into smaller pieces and auctioned in Singapore this month. The company said it has “remarkable clarity and a perfectly balanced golden green hue”. It was found in an open mine last month by geologist Debapriya Rakshit and emerald miner

Richard Kapeta.