News 14:00

BULLETIN 7 March 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Load-shedding returns this weekend
# Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is to visit South Africa next month
# President Cyril Ramaphosa proposes a presidential working group for Johannesburg to tackle the city’s challenges

# Eskom has announced Stage 3 load-shedding starts at 2 pm today, and will last until 5 am on Monday.

# The Presidency has confirmed that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky will visit South Africa on 10 April. The announcement follows a tense meeting between Zelensky and US president Donald Trump, which led to a temporary suspension of over a billion dollars in US military aid to Ukraine. Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya says the visit is part of president Cyril Ramaphosa’s peace efforts with Zelensky and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, Ramaphosa has proposed the establishment of a presidential working group for Johannesburg to address the city’s financial instability, infrastructure decay, and service delivery issues. Speaking at a meeting between the national executive and Johannesburg’s leadership, Ramaphosa said the working group will focus on improving governance, accelerate service delivery, and rejuvenate the inner city ahead of the G20 leaders’ summit in November:

# Deputy Defence minister Bantu Holomisa has stressed that implementing the 2015 Defence Review is a national security priority. Speaking at the CSIR International Convention Centre in Pretoria, Holomisa highlighted the Defence Force’s funding shortages, aging equipment, and internal security threats. Financial constraints have stalled the review’s progress, posing risks to national security. Holomisa urges stronger disaster response, security operations, and public-private partnerships to modernise the Defence Force:

# Traffic at the Paris Gare du Nord train station was halted today after a World War Two bomb was found on tracks leading to France’s busiest terminal. The unexploded bomb was found in the middle of the tracks about 2.5-kilometres from the station overnight during maintenance work. The station lies in the north of the capital and is the country’s busiest train hub, hosting the Eurostar trains in addition to regional and suburban service, and seeing some 700-thousand passengers daily.

# Soccer: World governing body FIFA says it is reviewing a proposal to expand the men’s World Cup to include 64 teams in 2030, when it will be hosted by Morocco, Spain and Portugal, with matches in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The tournament has already been expanded from 32 to 48 teams for next year’s edition in the US, Mexico and Canada. FIFA president Gianni Infantino says expansion raises revenue and gives more teams the chance to qualify, citing a need to develop the sport globally.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-7-cents and the euro at 19-rand-63-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-37-cents and Bitcoin trades at 89-thousand-100-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-919-dollars-75-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 70-dollars-18-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….