News 13:00

BULLETIN 6 May 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The PSA calls for an integrated legal framework to address sexual misconduct in education
# Over 200 members of Colombia’s biggest drug cartel are arrested
# And Olympic Games: The IOC replaces a former swimmer’s ten medals that were lost in the LA fires

# The Public Servants Association says it is alarmed by ongoing sexual misconduct by educators in South African schools, and the failure of existing legislation to adequately protect learners. The association’s Claude Naiker says recent reports have highlighted significant gaps in the legislative framework that allow sexual predators to continue working in educational environments, placing learners at risk. He adds that schools should be safe havens where children can learn and grow without fear of abuse:

# The South African Medical Research Council welcomes Science, Technology, and Innovation minister, Blade Nzimande’s plan to set up a science and innovation funding group after the US government pulled out major health research programmes. The council states this sudden funding loss threatens vital work on diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and other diseases. The council’s spokesperson, Tendani Tsedu, says the research council is also working to raise two-billion-rand to strengthen local health research:

# Colombian authorities have arrested 217 members of the country’s biggest drug cartel, the Gulf Clan. The arrests come as the country suffers its worst outburst of violence since 2016. The cartel is accused of murdering two dozen security force members in the past month alone. During the arrests, 6.8 tonnes of drugs, 123 firearms and more than 15-thousand rounds of ammunition were seized. President Gustavo Petro has accused the group of devising a strategy to systematically murder members of the security forces.

# Olympic Games: Former American swimmer Gary Hall Junior promised to take better care of his ten Olympic medals after they were lost during the recent wildfires in Los Angeles. He was ecstatic after the International Olympic Committee replaced the medals, with the former president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, handing them over during a ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland. Fifty-year-old Hall clinched five gold medals, three silver and two bronze during the Games in Atlanta in 1996, in Sydney in 2000 and in Athens four years later.  

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-26-cents and the euro at 20-rand-67-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-30-cents and Bitcoin trades at 94-thousand-155-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-374-dollars-16-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 61-dollars-77-cents a barrel.

# And finally: For more than a decade, a pair of Hobbit-inspired eagle sculptures have cast a watchful eye over visitors at New Zealand’s Wellington Airport. The giant birds will be unfastened from the ceiling on Friday to make way for a new mystery exhibit. The eagles appear as messengers in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, which were adapted to film by New Zealand’s Sir Peter Jackson. Each eagle has a wingspan of 15 metres. Riding on the back of one of the birds is a sculpture of the wizard Gandalf.

Stay tuned for more news………….