Flash Briefing: Facebook caught cheating advertisers; GameStop's Roaring Kitty exposed; interest rates; Covid vaccines

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* Inflationary pressures and currency weakness could force central banks in some key African economies to tighten monetary policy, even as the slow rollout of coronavirus vaccines and new mutations of the disease pose risks to economic growth.
* The South African government had been counting on the Pfizer shot, developed with German partner BioNTech, to step up its vaccination programme after administering the first Johnson & Johnson (J&J) doses on Wednesday. But, new research suggests (in the New England Journal of Medicine) it may only have very limited protection against Covid-19.
* Namibia has Namibia plans to go ahead with the roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine even after neighbor South Africa stalled its use.
* Sinopharm vaccines from China arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday. The new coronavirus strain first detected in South Africa is estimated to account for about 61% of cases in Zimbabwe.
* A Facebook employee warned that the company reported revenues it “should have never made” by overstating how many users advertisers could reach, according to internal emails revealed in a newly unsealed court filing, reports the London-headquartered Financial Times.
* In Australia, Facebook blocked news in an unexpected retaliation to a proposed law that will force the company and Google to pay Australian publishers for news content.
* Keith Gill, one of the most influential voices that pushed GameStop on the WallStreetBets Reddit forum, was hit with a lawsuit that accused him of misrepresenting himself as an amateur investor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
18 Feb 2021 7AM English South Africa Investing · Business News

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