News 12:00

BULLETIN 1 October 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike survives execution despite two doses of a lethal injection
# IPID records over five-thousand cases of police misconduct
# And WhatsApp adds new parental controls for teen accounts

# Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is in hospital after officials were unable to carry out her execution in Nashville yesterday evening. The 50-year-old was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. WPLN reporter Catherine Sweeney, who witnessed the botched execution, says Pike was given two doses of a lethal drug, but was still loudly snoring:

Back home:

# The Independent Police Investigative Directorate registered five-thousand-259 cases of misconduct among police members in 2025/26. The main case drivers continue to be assault and torture, with three-thousand-468 cases registered, and 669 cases of the discharge of an official firearm and 464 deaths due to police action. The Western Cape and Gauteng recorded the most cases. Spokesperson Lizzy Suping says 332 gender-based violence and femicide and 116 rape cases were reported:

# EFF leader Julius Malema is vehemently opposed against simply dissolving the Investigating Directorate against Corruption. Political parties in the ad hoc committee investigating allegations by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi are divided over the unit’s future. The committee continues to deliberate on its long-awaited draft report. The DA wants the anti-corruption body disbanded and replaced by an independent institution outside the National Prosecuting Authority. Malema says IDAC needs more oversight:

# Soccer:  Manchester City’s main sponsor, Etihad Airways from Abu Dhabi, is considering legal action against the English Premier League. City have been found guilty of all charges related to breaches of the league’s financial rules between 2009 and 2018. An independent commission found the club arranged sham contracts with several of its commercial partners as part of a disguised funding scheme to inflate the club’s revenues. The airline rejects any suggestions it has ever been involved in improper commercial arrangements.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-60-cents and the euro at 18-rand-75-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-95-cents and Bitcoin trades at 83-thousand-311-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-156-dollars-48-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 103-dollars-87-cents a barrel.

# And finally: WhatsApp is introducing new parental controls that give parents greater control over how teenagers use the messaging platform whilst avoiding privacy invasion concerns. The new optional tools allow parents to manage several privacy settings on a teenager’s account, including who can view their profile picture, who can add them to groups and how they use WhatsApp’s Channels and Status features. Parents can also choose which status updates their teenager can view and who can see the teenager’s own updates. The controls are protected by a parent-set PIN.

Stay tuned for more news………….