BULLETIN 18 June 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# COPE says the preparations for the next local government elections have started
# The Israeli army creates a division for retirement-age reserve members
# And soccer: Johannesburg will host the draw for the Afcon 2025 qualifiers

# COPE says its preparations for the next local government elections have started. The party’s acting general-secretary, Erick Mohlaphamaswi, says during a workshop in Bloemfontein over the weekend COPE drew lessons from past mistakes and put mitigating plans in place. He says the party did not perform well in the elections, which accounts for its lack of representation in Parliament and provincial legislatures:

# Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink says the city is determined to step up by-law enforcement, as well as environment regulations, across the metro. Tshwane recently enforced noise pollution bylaws in Plastic View and Cemetery View. Brink says by-laws are passed by the council to regulate the affairs and services the municipality provides in its area of jurisdiction:

# Two Western Cape high school learners have been selected for the SEAmester programme and will be participating in an exciting research voyage on board the SA Agulhas II for 10 days. The Western Cape Department of Education’s spokesperson, Bronagh Hammond says Aimee Stollie, a Grade 12 learner at Môrester Akademie, and Akhona Zondo, a Grade 12 learner at Simon’s Town High School, will join oceanographic, fisheries, biogeochemical and biological experts on the SA Agulhas II from today until next week Friday:

# The Israeli army is creating a new division for reservists over the retirement age of 40 to meet the “urgent need for more troops”. Aljazeera quotes an Israeli Army Radio correspondent as saying the division will draw on other Israelis who were previously exempt from serving. Israeli military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi recently said enlisting draft-age ultra-Orthodox Jews was “an obvious necessity” while visiting the site of a deadly Hamas ambush on Israeli troops in Gaza.

# Soccer: Johannesburg will host the draw for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers early next month. Continental governing body CAF says it will be conducted at SuperSport’s studios in Randburg on the fourth of July. The qualifiers start in September to determine the 24 countries taking place in the tournament in Morocco in July and August next year. Bafana Bafana won the bronze medal in the previous tournament in their best performance in 24 years. It was won by hosts Ivory Coast.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-17-cents and the euro at 19-rand-51-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-8-cents and Bitcoin trades at 65-thousand-479-dollars-72-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-318-dollars-65-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 84-dollars-13-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….