News 13:00

BULLETIN 6 July 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa congratulates the UK’s new prime minister
# Iran gets a reformist as new president after a run-off election
# And, rugby: The SABC won’t broadcast the Springboks’ Tests against Ireland on TV

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has congratulated Keir Starmer on his appointment as new prime minister of the United Kingdom. The Labour leader assumed office after Thursday’s general elections, taking over from Rishi Sunak, who has since resigned as leader of the Conservative Party. Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya says Ramaphosa looks forward to enhancing the strong, historic relations between South Africa and the UK:

# New minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment Dion George has mapped out his priorities in office, including climate change and evergy financing. George, who replaced now Transport minister Barbara Creecy, praised her legacy in the portfolio. He seeks to ensure a seamless transition to a low-carbon economy, and job-generating growth. George underscores the importance of sustainable development for South Africa’s economic future:

# A heart surgeon described as a reformist has been elected as Iran’s new president. Seventy-one-year-old Massoud Pezeshkian beat hardline conservative Saeed Jalili in the run-off election after no candidate secured a majority in the first round. He secured 53.3-percent of the vote to Jalili’s 44.3-percent. Pezeshkian will take over from Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May. He is reportedly critical of Iran’s notorious morality police, and promised an end to his country’s isolation from the rest of the world.

# The Roman Catholic Church has excommunicated an ultra-conservative Italian archbishop for branding Pope Frances a servant of Satan. Eighty-three-year-old Carlo Maria Vigano was the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States from 2011 to ’16, but went into hiding later after accusing the pontiff that he knew about US cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual misconduct and did nothing about it. The church denied this. The Vatican says Vigan, who has built a following of his own, refused to recognise and submit to the head of the church.

# And, rugby: The SABC has confirmed it won’t broadcast the two Tests between the Springboks and Ireland on television. The public broadcaster says in a statement this follows the recent litigation at the Competition Appeal Court over broadcast rights, which necessitated it to review its decision to continue with the sub-license agreement concluded with MultiChoice. It says it remains committed to broadcasting sports of national interest, and several radio stations will broadcast all local Springbok Tests. Today’s match in Pretoria kicks off at 5pm.

Stay tuned for more news………….