News 11:00

BULLETIN 21 November 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Presidency says Ramaphosa won’t hand over the G20 presidency to a junior US diplomat
# Retail sales rose by just over three-percent in September
# And motorsport: Leclerc and Norris set the pace in the practice session in Las Vegas

# The Presidency says South Africa will not hand over the G20 presidency to the US’ Chargé d’Affaires, Marc Dillard, who, in diplomatic terms, is considered a junior embassy official. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced yesterday that Washington was reconsidering its decision to skip this weekend’s G20 leaders’ summit. The White House dismissed this, stating that the US would not participate in any discussions, but Dillard would attend the declaration handover ceremony on Sunday as a formality.

Meanwhile, RISE Mzansi says South Africa is more than capable of hosting a successful G20 leaders’ summit. A total of 42 countries and organisations will participate in the event in Johannesburg this weekend, the first-ever hosted on African soil. RISE Mzansi’s Makashule Gana says the summit is an opportunity for both the country and Africa to stand among other countries as leaders in the spaces of finance, agriculture, innovation and technology, the arts, and medicine:

# Statistics South Africa says retail trade sales rose 3.1-percent in September compared with last year. The biggest growth came from general dealers, clothing and footwear stores, and furniture and appliance retailers. Stats SA’s Raquel Floris says month-on-month sales were flat compared with August, following a 1.6-percent drop the previous month:

Moving abroad:

# Ukraine’s representative to the United Nations, Khrystyna Hayovyshyn, says there is only one realistic path to ending the war: Russia must be compelled to retreat, economically, politically and militarily. Ukraine has received the draft peace plan that was negotiated between US president Donald Trump’s administration and Russia. The plan would reportedly require Kyiv to give up parts of eastern Ukraine and shrink the size of its army. Hayovyshyn says these are not concessions the country is willing to make:

# Motorsport: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was the fastest in the first practice session for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, while championship leader McLaren’s Lando Norris topped the timesheet in practice two. Leclerc finished ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda. Norris finished 0.029 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, with Leclerc in third in an interrupted second session. Norris heads into this weekend with a 24-point lead over teammate Oscar Piastri in the championship, with three races remaining.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand–25-cents and the euro at 19-rand-92-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-57-cents and Bitcoin trades at 83-thousand-386-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-and-37-dollars-51-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 61-dollars-90-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….