DINNER PARTY INTEL...

The topics you have to be able to discuss this week

1. Get your Tesla here

SA’S most famous tech billionaire, Us-based Elon Musk, may open a Tesla store in this country next year. Asked by a fan when one would open in the country of his birth, the electric-car maker’s founder and CEO replied on Twitter: “Probably end of next year.” If so it will be Africa’s first. It would also be a popular, confidence-boosting move, even if electric cars are not cheap and recharging stations few and far between. And it assumes Eskom can be relied on to supply uninterrupted power.

2. War on journalists

In recognition of journalists sacrificing self for subject, Time magazine has named “The Guardians” as 2018’s joint “person of the year”. The accolade has been awarded to slain Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi; the five Capital Gazette staff killed in a mass shooting; Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone (jailed for reporting on the massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar); and Maria Ressa, a fierce critic of the Duterte regime in the Philippines, “for taking great risks in pursuit of greater truths, for the imperfect but essential quest for facts … for speaking up and for speaking out”.

3. A pet is for life

A number of animal shelters in Germany have placed a temporary ban on handing over pets to new owners in the run-up to Christmas. “Animals are living beings with needs and feelings. They are not suitable as surprise gifts,” said Berlin’s shelter, the largest in Europe. The problem is that pets are often bought impulsively at the last minute then dumped back at the shelter after the holiday period. Britain’s RSPCA doesn’t quite agree, saying the person receiving the pet should be known to be willing and ready to look after a pet.