News 14:00

BULLETIN 16 January 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Health Department is encouraged to explore every avenue to ensure that young doctors are employed
# Limited spots are available at South Africa’s universities for the matric class of 2024
# And Soccer: Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti wants his team to bounce back after Barcelona drubbing

# The GOOD Party is encouraging the Department of Health to explore every avenue, working with youth structures to ensure that young doctors are employed before society suffers further. The party’s Kaden Arguile says last year, the department made headlines for leaving hundreds of trained doctors unemployed despite the country facing a shortage of doctors. He says now, they are seeing history repeat itself with approximately one-thousand-800 trained doctors still seeking placements:

# A record 337-thousand-158 matrics have qualified for university admission while only 202-thousand first-year places are available across South Africa’s 26 public universities. News24 reports that nineteen universities recorded over 4.2-million applications for 131-thousand-987 places. The University of Johannesburg, for example, received 118-thousand-629 applications for just 772 places in Bachelor of Education. Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane urged students to consider alternatives like TVET colleges, which offer 502-thousand-954 places, to address the shortage and meet the country’s skills needs.

# US president-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is calling on the International Criminal Court to drop the arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He faced questions from senators during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. In November last year, the ICC said there were reasonable grounds that Netanyahu and two others bore criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, in the Israeli-Hamas war. Rubio says the ICC has done tremendous damage to its global credibility:

# Soccer: Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has demanded a rapid reaction from his team after their capitulation against rivals Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final. The Catalans lifted the trophy on Sunday in Saudi Arabia with an emphatic 5-2 victory. Madrid’s Italian coach welcomed today’s Copa del Rey last 16 clash against Celta Vigo as a chance for his team to bounce back. Ancelotti said his team made “a heap of errors” against Barcelona but had looked for solutions in the days since, ahead of Celta’s visit to the Santiago Bernabeu.

# Financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-85-cents and the euro at 19-rand-38-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-99-cents and Bitcoin trades at 99-thousand-172-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-707-dollars-63-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 80-dollars-86-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The American Museum of Natural History has donated six shows for the reopening of the Johannesburg Planetarium. The planetarium, recently upgraded to world-class standards, reopens its doors in February, marking a new era for stargazing and science. The contribution by the museum aims to enhance the planetarium’s educational offerings and spark interest in astronomy. The partnership marks a milestone in fostering global collaboration in science education, with the shows expected to inspire and engage students, researchers, and the public alike.

Stay tuned for more news………….