News 08:00

BULLETIN 7 November 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Ukrainian Embassy is not aware of the South African men trapped in Donbas
# The former teacher and alleged paedophile, Iain Wares, faces cross-examination today
# And the Trump administration is ordered to fully fund food stamps for November

# The Ukrainian Embassy in South Africa says it is looking at reports that 17 South African men are trapped in Ukraine’s war-torn Donbas region. The men, aged between 20 and 39-years-old, were apparently lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Russia-Ukraine war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts. Ukraine’s Ambassador to South Africa, Olexander Scherba, told the SABC that they would never encourage anyone to go to the combat zone:

# AfriForum says a new report by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs confirms widespread breakdown in municipal governance across the country. The 2023 to 2024 performance review shows that many municipalities entered the current financial year with unfunded budgets, rising debt to Eskom and water boards, and failing infrastructure. AfriForum’s Lambert de Klerk says residents are facing unreliable water supply, sewage spills and collapsing roads as political capture and mismanagement deepens:

# Former teacher and alleged paedophile, Iain Wares, will return to the stand in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court in Cape Town today for cross-examination. This is for the ongoing criminal case concerning the sexual abuse of a pupil at Rondebosch Preparatory School in the 1980s. The 86-year-old is also facing a UK extradition process in Simonstown, where he is wanted on over 90 charges, including rape and sexual assault of at least 65 boys at elite Scottish schools between 1968 and 1979.

# A US federal judge in Rhode Island has ordered president Donald Trump’s administration to find the money by today to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme, also known as food stamps, for November. This comes after the Department of Agriculture took the unprecedented step of halting benefits for this month, saying the programme had run out of funding amid the government shutdown. More than 42-million Americans receive SNAP benefits. Vice president JD Vance says the ruling is absurd:

# Soccer: South Africa were held to a 1-1 draw in their second Under 17 World Cup match against hosts Qatar in Doha. Qatar took the lead through Yazan Mohamed. Player of the match, Emile Witbooi, scored the equaliser in the 16th minute to keep South Africa’s hopes of progressing to the knockout stages. Amajimbos are now second in Group A with four points, following their opening victory over Bolivia. Three teams have secured their passage to the knockout stages: Argentina, Italy and Portugal.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-39-cents and the euro at 20-rand-6-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-81-cents and Bitcoin trades at 102-thousand-149-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-991-dollars-31-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 63-dollars-45-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….