News 17:00

BULLETIN 29 January 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA calls for the suspension of Armed Forces Day amid military losses
# Tennis: An injured Novak Djokovic will miss the start of Serbia’s Davis Cup campaign
# And Monte Cristo and Emilia Perez tops the nominations for France’s version of the Oscars

# DA Defence spokesperson Chris Hattingh is urging the immediate suspension of the celebration of Armed Forces Day on 21 February, and Air Force Day on 8 October, following the deaths of 13 South African soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hattingh has criticised military festivities as disrespectful, demanding national mourning and accountability, instead of celebrations while soldiers remain in crisis:

# Eskom is enforcing stricter regulations on grid-tied solar power systems. The power utility has declared that all unregistered connections are illegal, even if they do not feed electricity back into the grid. According to spokesperson Daphne Mokwena, Eskom seeks to ramp up efforts to regulate all the solar systems connected to the network. She told SABC News that less than two thousand customers are currently registered:

# Junta-led countries Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso officially left West Africa’s main political and trade group today after more than a year of diplomatic tensions. The withdrawal has shaken the Economic Community of West African States that many consider to be the continent’s most important regional group and which this year marks its 50th anniversary. The rupture was sparked by the July 2023 coup in Niger, after military leaders in Burkina and Mali had also seized power since 2020.

# Tennis: Serbia will start its Davis Cup campaign without world number six Novak Djokovic. The country’s tennis federation says the 37-year-old sustained a hamstring injury that forced him to retire from his Australian Open semifinal match against eventual losing finalist Alexander Zverev of Germany last week. Djokovic was part of the team that won the Davis Cup in 2010. Serbia will play Denmark in Copenhagen in the first qualifying round from Friday. Captain Victor Troicki says Djokovic’s absence will definitely weaken the team.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-67-cents and the euro at 19-rand-38-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-15-cents and Bitcoin trades at 101-thousand-893-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-755-dollars-94-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 76-dollars-20-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Home-made hit “Monte Cristo” tops the nominations for France’s version of the Oscars, the Cesars, followed closely by international awards season frontrunner “Emilia Perez”. “Monte Cristo”, a high-budget French adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ epic novel “The Count of Monte Cristo”, was the second most-watched film in French cinemas last year and leads the Cesars nominations with 14. “Emilia Perez”, directed by Frenchman Jacques Audiard and the most-nominated film for the Oscars, was picked in 12 categories for the Cesars, including best film and best director.

Stay tuned for more news………….