News 16:00

BULLETIN 25 June 4 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# South Africa hosts the third G20 sherpa meeting amid a push for practical global solutions
# Tennis: A statue of Andy Murray will be erected at Wimbledon in 2027
# And India, Poland and Hungary send a crew into space for the first time in decades

# South Africa is hosting the third G20 sherpa meeting at Sun City in North West, chaired by International Relations director-general, Zane Dangor. Delegates from G20 nations are advancing negotiations ahead of the November summit. Dangor stressed the need for practical solutions and acknowledged the importance of addressing geopolitical tensions. He urged the sherpas to guide discussions rooted in United Nations principles while technical working groups focus on economic cooperation and sustainable development priorities:

# A Gqeberha woman has been rescued and reunited with her family in the early hours of this morning after being abducted on Saturday morning from the Markman fresh produce market in Nelson Mandela Bay. During the incident, Lindsay Knowlden’s husband was assaulted with a pistol, leaving him with a laceration to his eye. She was located in Kwanoxolo near Bethelsdorp, where she was dropped off unharmed following an 89-hour ordeal. Investigations continue, and authorities urge anyone with information to come forward.

# Several Eurostar trains between London and Paris were cancelled today after more than 600 metres of cables were vandalised or stolen in northern France. The impact is essentially on high-speed train traffic. The Eurostar website showed that six trips between London and Paris, three in each direction, were cancelled. Several trains between London and Brussels in Belgium were also delayed.

# Tennis: Wimbledon will erect a statue of former world number one Andy Murray within the next two years. He became the first British player in 77 years to win the men’s singles in 2013 and repeated the feat in 2017. Before Murray, Fred Perry was the previous local champion in 1936 and is still the only player to have a full-body statue at the All England Club. Murray’s statue will be unveiled when the famous grass-court Grand Slam tournament celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2027.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-79-cents and the euro at 20-rand-63-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-18-cents and Bitcoin trades at 107-thousand-50-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-325-dollars-19-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 66-dollars-52-cents a barrel.

# And finally: A US commercial mission carrying crew from India, Poland and Hungary blasted off to the International Space Station today, taking astronauts from these countries to space for the first time in decades. The last time the three countries sent people to space, their current crop of astronauts had not yet been born. Back then they were called cosmonauts, as they all flew on Soviet missions before the fall of the Iron Curtain. They will remain at the space station for 14 days.

Stay tuned for more news…………