News 13:00

BULLETIN 22 March 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The NSPCA calls for government action amid a warning of a threatening avian flu disaster
# Trump revokes Biden, Harris and Clinton’s security clearance in a sweeping order
# And rugby: Eight Springboks start for the Stormers against Scarlets

# The National Council of SPCAs warns South Africa is on the brink of an avian flu disaster due to government inaction. Senior inspector Nazareth Appalsamy says another outbreak could devastate the poultry industry and threaten wild birds. He urges Agriculture minister John Steenhuisen to revise vaccination policies. Appalsamy emphasises that without urgent intervention, an outbreak is inevitable, with dire economic and animal welfare consequences:

# Two suspected drug mules were arrested at OR Tambo International Airport in Gauteng after arriving from São Paulo, Brazil. A 24-year-old Brazilian man and a 51-year-old South African woman were found with cocaine worth 1.2-million-rand, some ingested as bullets. Police spokesperson Amanda van Wyk says heroin worth 200-thousand-rand was also seized in a separate shipment:

# US president Donald Trump has revoked security clearances for his predecessor, Joe Biden, former vice president Kamala Harris, and several former officials, including former ministers Hillary Clinton and Antony Blinken. The executive order targets political opponents who traditionally retain clearance as a courtesy. Trump, who still claims the 2020 election was stolen, ordered agencies to block their access to classified material and government facilities. Critics see this as political retaliation, while Trump defends it as a national security move.

# Rugby: Flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is one of eight Springboks in the Stormers’ starting-15 for this afternoon’s United Rugby Championship match against Scarlets in Wales. The other Boks are Herschell Jantjies, Frans Malherbe, Joseph Dweba, Damian Willemse, Evan Roos, Deon Fourie and captain Salmaan Moerat. The Stormers are currently 12th on the log after seven defeats in their previous 12 matches. Scarlets are tenth. The match at Parc y Scarlets kicks off at 5 this afternoon.

# And finally: A man described as Britain’s most valuable spy inside Russian intelligence agencies has died in Surrey, aged 86. Oleg Gordievsky was a colonel in the KGB when he passed vital intelligence to Britain’s security and intelligence agencies, M-I-5 and M-I-6. He lived under police protection since Moscow became suspicious of him in 1985, but was smuggled across the border to Finland before he could be arrested. Queen Elizabeth honoured Gordievsky with the Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George in 2007.

Stay tuned for more news………….