News 13:00

BULLETIN 22 January 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Four people are shot and killed in Motherwell in the Eastern Cape
# Tennis: Elena Rybakina is searching for a new coach after her Australian Open exit
# And a third of the Arctic now emits more carbon than it absorbs

# Four people were shot and killed and one was injured when three unknown men entered a house and opened fire on a group of friends in Motherwell in the Eastern Cape last night. Police spokesperson Siphokazi Mawisa says three men aged between 20 and 25, as well as a 16-year-old girl, were fatally shot, while a 24-year-old man was injured. She says the motive is not clear and forms part of the investigation:

# The Public Servants Association has expressed concern about the payment of university application fees, resulting in institutions making vast profits even when rejecting these applications. One university reportedly received over 600-thousand applications with applicants each paying a 200-rand application fee, meaning the university made a profit of 150-million-rand. The association’s spokesperson, John Teffo, says minister of Higher Education, Nobuhle Nkabane, needs to abolish these non-refundable application fees and allow learners to freely apply at universities:

# FNB senior economist, Thanda Sithole, says they expect the continued suspension of load-shedding and gradually stabilising logistic systems to support mining production over the near-to-medium term. After three consecutive months of growth, South Africa’s mineral output took a turn for the worse in November, decreasing 0.9-percent year on year, driven mainly by the gold sector. Sithole says excluding gold, mining output expanded by 0.7-percent year-on-year over the same period:

# Tennis: World number seven, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, is searching for a new coach after her trial contract with 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic ended following her exit from the Australian Open. She lost to American Madison Keys in the fourth round in Melbourne. Rybakina and the Croatian started working together last month after he previously coached 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia. Rybakina is reportedly contemplating bringing back her previous coach, another Croatian, Stefano Vukov.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-46-cents and the euro at 19-rand-25-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-79-cents and Bitcoin trades at 104-thousand-953-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-756-dollars-51-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 78-dollars-92-cents a barrel.

# And finally: A third of the Arctic’s forests and wetlands now emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb. A new study in Nature Climate Change has attributed this to longer growing seasons, increased microbial activity, and an uptick in the frequency and intensity of wildfires. Over 40-percent of the Arctic ecosystem, spanning Siberia, Alaska, the Nordic countries and Canada, acts as a net carbon source. Co-author of the study, Marguerite Mauritz, says there is an urgent need to continue monitoring the Arctic ecosystems.

Stay tuned for more news………….