News 12:00

BULLETIN 25 July 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# BetterBond expects a repo rate cut as inflation eases
# Soccer: Banyana coach will decide on her future when they return from Morocco
# And a Cape Town hippo finds a new home in Plettenberg Bay

# BetterBond says interest rate relief could boost growth in the property market even further. The home loan company reports bond approvals rose by 13.6-percent over the past year, with applications also up by 7.4-percent. The company’s Bradd Bendall says lower interest rates have strengthened buyer confidence, and a possible rate cut next week could drive further growth in the housing market:

# National Treasury says operations remain unaffected following a malware intrusion on its Infrastructure Reporting Model website. Treasury says affected servers were isolated to determine the extent of the breach. It is working with Microsoft to address potential vulnerabilities within its Information and Communication Technology environment. Treasury confirmed that ICT systems block approximately five-thousand-800 daily threats, including phishing and malware. It has underscored its commitment to cybersecurity and the protection of critical infrastructure data.

Moving abroad:

# Firefighters are battling multiple wildfires across Turkey and Cyprus that have scorched swathes of land, killing 10 firefighters in central Turkey amid a searing Mediterranean heatwave. It also forced the evacuation of towns and villages. At least six separate wildfires were burning across Turkey. Turkish Agriculture and Forestry minister Ibrahim Yumakli warned that strong winds and blazing heat were creating extremely dangerous conditions. In the northwestern province of Bilecik, fires raged for a fourth straight day, as firefighters struggled to contain them. Residents were evacuated from fire-threatened areas of all three provinces.

# Soccer: Banyana Banyana’s head coach, Desiree Ellis, says she will contemplate her future after they return from the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco next week. The defending champions were knocked out by Nigeria in the semifinal and play Ghana in the third-place play-off tonight. Nigeria and the hostesses will play in tomorrow’s final. Ellis, who had been with Banyana since 2016, admits it would be difficult to lift her players’ spirit after the semifinal loss and the horrific leg injury to attacker Gabby Salgado.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-73-cents and the euro at 20-rand-82-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-87-cents and Bitcoin trades at 115-thousand-789-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-350-dollars-38-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 68-dollars-72-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The City of Cape Town’s Biodiversity Management branch has successfully relocated a hippo bull from the False Bay Nature Reserve to a reserve in Plettenberg Bay. Hippos are very sensitive animals, and notoriously difficult to capture and transport because of their size, strength, potentially dangerous nature and sensitivity to stress. Deputy mayor, Eddie Andrews, says over the past ten-years, the metro has successfully translocated three hippos as part of ongoing wildlife management efforts:

Stay tuned for more news………….