News 07:00

BULLETIN 21 November 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The White House says the US will not participate in official talks at the G20 Leaders’ Summit
# The DA says the interest rate cut is a positive sign for the economy
# And, Ukraine confirms receiving the draft US-Russia peace plan

# The White House says the United States will not participate in formal discussions at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg this weekend. However, its Chargé d’Affaires at the Embassy in Pretoria, Marc Dillard, will attend the Presidency handover ceremony as a formality on Sunday. This comes after president Cyril Ramaphosa stated that they had received a notice from the US indicating it had reconsidered its decision to attend the summit. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says Ramaphosa’s statement is false:

# The DA says the South African Reserve Bank’s decision to cut the interest rate shows that the new inflation targeting regime is a welcome reform by the government of national unity. SARB’s monetary policy committee has cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.75-percent. The DA’s Wendy Alexander says much more still needs to be done, as the country continues to face an anaemic growth forecast, requiring urgent fast tracking of job creation reforms:

Meanwhile, North-West University Business School professor, Raymond Parsons, says the South African Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee’s decision is the right one. This takes the prime lending rate to 10.25-percent. Parsons says the number of recent favourable financial developments has created the space to ease further borrowing costs for business and consumers, which is encouraging:

# Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office has confirmed receiving a new draft plan, which it says the US believes could unlock peace talks with Russia. The plan is reportedly drafted by Kirill Dmitriev, a close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, and US president Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. The proposal would require Ukraine to cede territory it controls in the east of the country and halve the size of its military. Zelenskyy’s office says Ukraine supports all meaningful proposals capable of bringing true peace closer.

# Golf: South Africa’s Christiaan Burke leads the Vodacom Origins of Golf Final after the first round at the Pezula Golf Estate in Knysna. He shot a nine-under-par 63 to lead by one stroke over compatriots Keenan Davidse and CJ du Plessis, and German Alexander Knappe. Twelve-time winner South Africa’s Jean Hugo is three shots off the lead. Burke says he is playing off a lot of confidence at the moment, and his game is feeling good:

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-22-cents and the euro at 19-rand-87-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-53-cents and Bitcoin trades at 87-thousand-105-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-63-dollars-54-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 62-dollars-24-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Scientists have discovered a giant spider web in a cave on the border between Greece and Albania. It spans about half the size of a tennis court and with some 111-thousand spiders. The web in the “Sulfur Cave” in the Vromoner Gorge covers some 106 square metres. According to the study in Subterranean Biology, the web contains about 69-thousand domestic house spiders in addition to over 42-thousand dwarf weavers. Researchers call the discovery the first documented case of colonial web formation of two species that are normally solitary.

Stay tuned for more news………….