News 16:00

BULLETIN 17th October 4 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Mchunu says Mkhwanazi threatened to fight back over his disbandment of the political killings task team
# Russia says many questions need to be resolved before Putin meets Trump
# And motorsport: The F1 US Grand Prix is declared a heat hazard race

# Police minister Senzo Mchunu told Parliament’s ad hoc committee that KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi threatened a fight back after receiving the letter disbanding the political killings task team and freezing crime intelligence appointments. Mchunu said Mkhwanazi expressed his anger through WhatsApp and via his chief of staff, Cedrick Nkabinde, demanding that the letter be withdrawn and warning that it could disrupt police operations and impact his family: 

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says the National Development Plan enshrines social justice as a right, not a privilege. However, progress toward achieving it and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals is off track. Ramaphosa highlighted gaps between policy and practice, with rising food insecurity and malnutrition cases up 26-percent in five-years. He warned that global hunger and climate change continue to threaten equitable growth and human rights:

# G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank governors have endorsed the 2025–2030 G20 Africa Engagement Framework, to boost growth and development across Africa. Chaired by South Africa’s deputy Finance minister, David Masondo, the meeting in Washington DC addressed sustainable development, debt sustainability, and artificial intelligence regulation. Masondo says the framework ensures consistent engagement with Africa’s economic challenges. Meanwhile, South African Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago called for transparency from credit rating agencies, urging developing nations to challenge flawed methodologies.

# Russia says many questions needed resolving before president Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump could meet, including who would be on each negotiating team. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will begin working on this. According to Peskov the meeting between Trump and Putin could take place within two weeks or a little later.

# Motorsport: The International Motoring Federation has declared this weekend’s Formula One United States Grand Prix a heat hazard race amid high temperatures in Austin. Temperatures in central Texas are forecast to be above the 31 degrees Celsius threshold set by the governing body during tomorrow’s sprint and Sunday’s race. This will be the second successive race where drivers will have the option of using cooling vests after the Singapore Grand Prix earlier this month. Cooling vests are scheduled to be a mandatory feature at heat hazard races next year.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-40-cents and the euro at 20-rand-31-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-35-cents and Bitcoin trades at 105-thousand-837-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-297-dollars-55-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 60-dollars-87-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….