News 16:00

BULLETIN NEWS AGENCY 3 January 4 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Government urges Grade 12 learners to stay positive ahead of matric results release
# The DA requests a government reward for a successful conviction in the murder of a Nelson Mandela Bay police constable
# And, motorsport: Red Bull assures Carlos Sainz all options remain open for him

# Government is urging  the Grade 12 class of 2024 to stay positive and trust themselves as they await the release of their results. The National Senior Certificate results will be released on 13th of this month and all the provinces are expected to announce their top performers on 14 January. Learners are ad vised to take a moment to reflect on their hard work, dedication and resilience that has brought them to this point. Government says no matter what the results say, they have already proven their strength and determination.

# The DA in the Eastern Cape says it has requested government to allocate a sizable reward for the successful identification and conviction of those responsible for the murder of a Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality police constable. The DA’s Yusuf Cassim says Callan Andrews was attached to the Gelvandale police station and was tragically gunned down on Tuesday:

# UNISA researcher Sipho Mantula cites Uganda’s regional peacekeeping contributions in the East Africa region as a factor in its selection to the expanded BRICS partnership. Uganda officially joined BRICS on 1 January, as the only African partner among nine new members, including Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Mantula told the SABC this alignment is a step toward stronger economic ties with emerging markets:

# China says it would take “all necessary measures” in response to the United States announcing it was considering restrictions on commercial Chinese drones for national security reasons. Yesterday, the United States Commerce Department said it was considering new rules to address risks posed by drones made with technology from foreign adversaries such as China and Russia. The efforts could lead to regulations or bans on Chinese drones, which dominate the global market.

# Motorsport: Despite rejecting Carlos Sainz in favour of promoting Liam Lawson for this year’s Formula One season, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is not ruling out potentially signing the former Ferrari driver in future. The 30-year-old Sainz had been rumoured to partner with Max Verstappen at Red Bull before eventually signing with Williams. Sainz was also overlooked by Mercedes to replace Lewis Hamilton, who took his spot at Ferrari. Sainz finished fifth in the drivers’ standings in 2024.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-74-cents and the euro at 19-rand-30-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-25-cents and Bitcoin trades at 96-thousand-717-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-656-dollars-90-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 75-dollars-61-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….