News 18:00

BULLETIN 10 July 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation on national security on Sunday
# A Mexican man is denied bail after being charged with the murder of a young SA woman in the Bahamas
# And Musk and Trump make waves for all the wrong reasons

# President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to address the nation on serious national security concerns on Sunday. This comes after KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, made shocking claims linking Police minister Senzo Mchunu and top police and political leaders to drug cartels and criminal syndicates. Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya says Ramaphosa was attending a BRICS summit in Brazil when the claims surfaced:

# A Mexican crewmember of a super yacht was denied bail after he was charged with the murder of a South African colleague in the Bahamas. The body of 20-year-old Paige Bell from Johannesburg was found on the vessel on a tiny island a week ago. The 39-year-old accused, Brigido Munoz, was found nearby with wounds believed to be from a suicide attempt. Bell was supposed to return home for her 21st birthday next week. Munoz will remain behind bars until the start of his hearing in November.

# The European Union says it takes anti-Semitic comments, including praise for Adolf Hitler, by Elon Musk’s AI chatbot on the X platform extremely seriously. Screenshots showed several posts made by the bot known as Grok in which it praises the Nazi leader, who oversaw the murder of six-million Jews. There were also derogatory comments on Islam and insults directed at Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which led a court there to ban the posts. The EU’s digital affairs spokesperson, Thomas Regnier, confirmed Poland sent a letter urging an investigation into Grok.

Meanwhile, Musk’s former good friend, US president Donald Trump, praised his Liberian counterpart, Joseph Boakai, for his strong grasp of the English language. Trump met with the leaders of Liberia, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, and Senegal, praising their countries as all very vibrant places with very valuable land, great minerals, great oil deposits, and wonderful people. However, Liberians and other Africans voiced concern over Trump’s comment to Boakai, which was mostly seen as condescending and not a compliment:

# Rugby: David Havili and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto were named co-captains of a powerful Australian-New Zealand side stacked with All Blacks and Wallabies to face the British and Irish Lions in Adelaide. Coach Les Kiss picked 17 internationals in his matchday 23 for Saturday’s final warm-up game for the Lions before they face Australia in the opening Test in Brisbane next Saturday. The combined side, the first time the powerhouses have joined forces since 1989, could provide the Lions with their biggest test so far.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-76-cents and the euro at 20-rand-73-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-4-cents and Bitcoin trades at 110-thousand-854-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-315-dollars-18-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 68-dollars-55-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….