News 13:00

BULLETIN 7 February 1pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The South African flag is flying at half-mast in honour of the fallen SANDF soldiers
# The EU warns Trump’s sanctions against the International Crimincal Court threatens the international criminal justice system
# And rugby: England picks Fin Smith at flyhalf and Marcus Smith at fullback against France

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered the national flag be flown at half-mast for a week, to honour the 14 South African National Defence Force soldiers who died in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The soldiers died while fighting Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in the eastern DRC. In his state of the nation address, Ramaphosa paid tribute to the fallen soldiers, who were part of a peacekeeping mission:

Meanwhile, agricultural organisation TLU SA says South Africa needs real economic growth, not more socialism that destroys job creation. The organisation says Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address was a disappointment as he repeated the ANC’s failed ideology and played political games. TLU SA’s Bennie van Zyl says if Ramaphosa is serious about growth, he will actively protect private ownership, and stabilise policies to encourage investment:

# The European Union has warned sanctions against the International Criminal Court threaten its independence and the wider judicial system. This follows after US president Donald Trump punished the court over its probes into America and Israel. He imposed asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members, along with anyone deemed to have helped the court’s investigations. Head of the European Council representing the EU’s 27 member states, Antonio Costa, wrote on X that sanctioning the ICC undermines the international criminal justice system as a whole.

# Rugby: Fin and Marcus Smith are both in England’s backline for tomorrow’s Six Nations clash against France at Twickenham, with Fin starting at fly-half for the first time. Coach Steve Borthwick, whose side was beaten 27-22 by defending champions Ireland last week, has moved Marcus to full-back in order to accommodate 22-year-old Fin. This means Fin will be alongside Alex Mitchell, his half-back partner at Northampton, with the full-back in their tournament opener in Dublin, Freddie Steward, no longer in the matchday-23.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-41-cents and the euro at 19-rand-14-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-95-cents and Bitcoin trades at 97-thousand-329-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-868-dollars-42-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 74-dollars-62-cents a barrel.

# And finally: A new study shows that tuberculosis patients’ cash-incentivised and counselled have a 52-percent lower relative risk of having an unsuccessful treatment outcome. The study, which was conducted across nine clinics in Johannesburg, was led by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ doctor Harry Moultrie, and Wits University’s professor Nazir Ismail. Ismail says the study also shows that pretreatment loss to follow-up, which is individuals who did not return and start treatment, was reduced from 15.8-percent to 3.9-percent.

Stay tuned for more news………….