World News – 3 October 2025

• Trump’s regulators are gutting bank rules, with Wall Street’s Basel Endgame nightmare turning into a dream: capital surcharges cut, leverage caps eased, stress tests softened. Big banks expect flat or lower buffers—freeing billions for lending and buybacks.
• Tesla smashed its third quarter delivery forecasts with buyers rushing to grab R129 902 ($7,500) EV tax credits before expiry. But with Europe weak, China competitive, and credits gone, analysts warn sales may cool—shares slipped despite Musk’sR8.5-trillion ($500bn) net worth milestones.
• After five years of grounded skies, India and China will resume direct flights this month—Kolkata to Guangzhou first—signalling a cautious thaw. Modi and Xi call themselves partners, not rivals, even as a R1.7-trn ($99-bn) trade gap looms.
• Minister of Social Development Sisisi Tolashe’s controversial senior appointment has been rescinded – but young Lesedi Mabiletja still holds a job in the department that she remains unqualified for.
• A report by the nonprofit Open Secrets has condemned the ‘financialisation’ of healthcare in South Africa, arguing that a small group of powerful actors benefit at the expense of affordability and access for patients.
• A district court in Florida on Monday ruled that the Escambia County school board had not violated the First Amendment rights of students or authors when it removed a children’s book from its school libraries called And Tango Makes Three, which is about two gay male penguins raising a penguin chick.
• On 30 September, for the first time since the story broke in the early 2000s, an officer of the law ruled that Mpumalanga strongman David Mabuza — South Africa’s former deputy president, who died in early July — was a primary architect of the land claims scam.
• Apple has removed ICEBlock and other similar apps from its App Store after pressure from US President Donald Trump. The app helps users track US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in the area. The claims were that it could increase the risk of assault on agents.
• Trump’s administration is continuing to put America first by sending $230-million to Lebanon’s security forces in an attempt to disarm Hezbollah.
• Drone sightings on Thursday evening near Munich’s airport saw 17 flights cancelled, and disrupted travel for nearly 3,000 passengers. A bad day for whoever was working at the customer service desk.
• The UK is spending about £500,000 on bolstering its space satellite defences against potential attacks and lasers that opponents could use to blind satellites.
• Mozambique’s president says the coast is clear for TotalEnergies to restart its R346-billion ($20-billion) LNG megaproject paused since 2021 militant attacks. With rivals like Shell ahead, Total eyes a comeback as Europe hunts non-Russian gas to fuel its future.
• France’s central bank chief warns Europe: move fast on new trade deals or miss the chance to boost the euro’s global clout. With US tariff chaos rattling markets, he urges deadlines, less dithering and more trade invoicing in euros – especially with America’s tariff-hit partners.
• Orion Minerals has pulled in R89-million from investors after strong demand for its share sale, up from the R57-million it first targeted.
• The JSE slapped Trustco with a R5-million fine for breaking the rules: Trustco sold most of its stake (from 65% down to 19.5%) in a Sierra Leone diamond mine (Meya Mining), but didn’t ask shareholders, even though the rules say big deals need their vote.
• Monde Bala has been confirmed as the CEO of NTCSA, Eskom’s new transmission company, from 1 October 2025.
• Capitec Connect, the bank’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), experienced a 76% jump in clients for the six months to the end of August. Data usage in that time was about 15 petabytes – the equivalent of streaming 4.3 billion songs.
• In 2024, the auto industry contributed more than 5.2% to SA’s GDP and accounted for 22.6% of the country’s total manufacturing output. But positive conversation was overshadowed by the ongoing theme of concern for the automotive sector in South Africa, particularly growing threats to job security and Nelson Mandela Bay’s attractiveness (or lack thereof) to global investors.
• Despite promises from outgoing acting city manager Ted Pillay, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s phone lines and call centre remained down this week — leaving residents unable to report service delivery failures for more than a month.
• UK police have named Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, as the perpetrator of yesterday’s attack on a Manchester synagogue that killed two people and injured three others. Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned about the threat of rising antisemitism, and authorities are treating the attack as a terrorist incident.
• German air traffic control said it suspended flight operations at Munich Airport last night after several drone sightings, affecting multiple departures and thousands of passengers at the country’s second-biggest hub. Seventeen departures were grounded, and 15 incoming flights were diverted to Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Vienna and Frankfurt.
• French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu will meet with lawmakers for crunch talks today as he struggles to pass the budget and remain in office. The nation’s fifth premier in two years is seeking the tacit support of some opposition groups to avoid being ousted by a fractious National Assembly during debate on the 2026 finance bill.
• Swiss voters reckon their government is being too amenable to the US after Donald Trump imposed an outsized tariff on their goods. Some 80% of respondents in a poll for public broadcaster SRG SSR said that Switzerland is “too friendly” to the world’s biggest economy.
• UBS Funds Face $500 Million Exposure in First Brands Bankruptcy.
• Boeing 777X to Slide Into 2027, Driving Billions in Charges.
• Trump Eyes Firing Thousands of Federal Workers Over Shutdown.
• A British man will plead guilty to US charges that he swindled nearly $100 million from investors through a fake rare wine scheme. James Wellesley and co-defendant Stephen Burton claimed their company brokered loans backed by valuable vintages, but the wines were nonexistent.
• The attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur yesterday was among the worst acts of antisemitic terrorism in modern British history. The perpetrator, wearing what appears to have been a fake explosive device, drove a car at members of the public and stabbed others before seeking entry to the synagogue, where a large number of Jewish congregants were inside; even with armed police arriving and killing him within minutes, the attack claimed the lives of two people and seriously injured three others.
• Gaza – Hamas will demand key revisions to Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire proposal but is likely to accept the plan in coming days as a basis for renewed negotiations, analysts and sources close to the group say.
• Economy – Rachel Reeves could raise as much as £45bn in taxes without breaking Labour’s manifesto promises, according to a City report. Economists at the US investment bank Morgan Stanley said they expected the chancellor to use next month’s budget to announce billions of pounds in tax increases to cover a potential £30bn shortfall in the public finances.
• Conservatives – Kemi Badenoch is expected to announce a plan this weekend to leave the European convention on human rights if the Conservatives win the next election, as the party attempts to halt a loss of support to Reform.
• Health – At-home abortions should be allowed for up to 12 weeks of pregnancy across the UK, according to academics, after a study found they were just as safe and effective as hospital care.
• Business – The Asahi group, Japan’s biggest brewery, is reportedly just days away from running out of its most popular beer, as it struggles to recover from a cyber-attack that caused a system outage.
• Refugees who left Darfur and Khartoum for South Sudan are being targeted by both sides of the horrendous civil war. Carlos Mureithi’s piece is a difficult but important read on the shocking number of refugees who have been killed, abducted, and brutally maimed.
• At the Labour conference, Andy Beckett felt a “more urgent, potentially more realistic approach” to power. His column is a smart study of how crises can energise governments – but notes that if Labour’s more self-critical moment does not translate into a more coherent vision, “[this] may turn out to have been the first phase of a post-Starmer age”.
• When someone next tells me they’re going to see the pyramids, I’ll now ask them to clarify whether they mean the ones in Egypt, or the 75 pyramid structures one man found in the US.
• Robert Topinka, who we spoke to about the “Boriswave” coinage on the far right last week, now has a great piece about how Donald Trump mastered shitposting – a mode of discourse that presents as satire, but amounts to “an incoherent politics of cruelty”.
• The United States government has shut down. Finally, as Robert Reich argues, the Democrats have leverage over the Trump administration. They must not squander it.
• Eskom’s new existential crisis is out of its control: Eskom’s mounting municipal debt crisis, already exceeding R100 billion and projected to hit R300 billion by 2030, is largley out of its control as it cannot implement traditional credit controls.
• Why Ramaphosa can’t save South Africa: President Cyril Ramaphosa has things the wrong way round in thinking that a search for consensus within his party and South Africa is what will lead to decisions being made to save the country.
• Capitec’s R40 billion secret weapon: Capitec is heavily investing in its rapidly growing Enterprise Payments segment as a key strategy to succeed in South Africa’s increasingly competitive business banking market.
• One million South Africans applied for only 5,000 jobs: Over a million people applied for 5,000 jobs advertised at SAPS, reflecting the country’s deepening unemployment crisis.
• Big changes for Discovery Bank customers in South Africa: Discovery Bank appears to be actively discouraging Discovery Miles customers from transacting using their physical bank cards.
• The ultra-secure estate in South Africa with its own schools, shopping centres, hospitals and churches: With a plan to create a self-sufficient, exclusive village amid service delivery and crime in Gauteng, Midstream Estate was born, giving its residents no reason to leave its highly protected walls.
• South African airline adding more flights: Airlink is looking to add more routes as it adds a group of new Embraer jets into its fleet.
• Chinese and Indian carmakers coming to South Africa’s rescue: South Africa has secured commitments from Chinese and Indian car companies to upgrade their semi-knocked-down vehicle assembly operations to full-scale manufacturing.
• Godongwana calls for tax increases on alcohol and tobacco: Africa faces a “distressing decline” in foreign health aid and should raise more money domestically, including via taxes on tobacco and alcohol, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said.
• One thing South Africa can do to avoid financial disaster: A credible fiscal anchor, such as a debt or deficit ceiling, is essential to restoring South Africa’s financial sustainability, curbing rising debt and servicing costs, and improving investor confidence.
• Eskom CEO warns of higher electricity prices in South Africa: Eskom CEO Dan Marokane warned that while electricity prices have risen sharply over the past decade, they are still not cost reflective.
• The US government may begin permanently firing federal workers—estimated to be in the thousands—as soon as today, as the government enters its third shutdown day. The firings would be in addition to the hundreds of thousands of workers who are typically furloughed during temporary closures.
• “Peanuts” marked its 75th anniversary yesterday, honoring the 1950 debut of Charles Schulz’s iconic comic strip. The series introduced Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and their friends, who became international figures through newspapers, television specials, books, and more.
• Sean “Diddy” Combs to be sentenced today in New York for his July conviction on prostitution-related charges; prosecutors are seeking an 11-year prison sentence.
• Heart Disease Linked to Common Problem: The American College of Cardiology recently released recommendations indicating that inflammation should be considered when trying to predict heart disease.
• White House Announces Layoff Figures.
• What Do Democrats and Republicans Want in Government Shutdown Dispute?
• FDA Approves Another Generic Abortion Pill.
• Trump Notifies Congress of ‘Armed Conflict’ With Drug Cartels.
• Captain of Russian Shadow Fleet Ship Detained off Coast of France.
• Six South Africans now in Israeli custody after being abducted off humanitarian flotilla.
• Ramaphosa demands Israel free South African activists seized on Gaza flotilla.
• Perplexity AI launches artificial intelligence-powered web browser, Comet, for free worldwide; startup initially offered browser to select users for $200 monthly (More)
• Paleontologists revise evolutionary timeline for freshwater fish after analysis of 67-million-year-old ear bone fossil suggests they inherited their powerful hearing from marine ancestors.
• Researchers determine costly, deadly wildfires have increased more than fourfold from 1980 to 2023; 43% of the most damaging fires occurred between 2013 and 2023, including 43 wildfires that each caused over $1B in damage.
• US stock markets close up (S&P 500 +0.1%, Dow +0.2%, Nasdaq +0.4%).
• OpenAI raises valuation to record $500B after completing $6.6B secondary share sale, surpassing SpaceX as the world’s most valuable startup.
• Tesla reports record 497,099 deliveries in Q3, a 7.4% rise from a year ago; sales data comes as a $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles expired.
• Berkshire Hathaway to pay $9.7B for Occidental Petroleum’s chemical unit; deal is Berkshire’s largest since 2022 when it paid $11.6B for insurer Alleghany.
• White House asks nine colleges to agree to “compact” banning race and gender in admissions, freezing tuition, and capping international enrollment in exchange for federal funds.
• President Donald Trump says the US is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
• Eiffel Tower closes as thousands of people strike across France to demand higher taxes on the rich and denounce budget cuts and a hike in the retirement age.
• Israel to deport hundreds of activists, including Greta Thunberg and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, who were detained after Israeli navy intercepted 40 vessels attempting to deliver aid to Gaza.
• Prime Minister Keir Starmer took to the podium at the Labour conference to lay out his vision ahead of the next general election in 2029.
• Seven London boroughs and two neighbourhoods will receive millions of pounds from the government to revive high streets and public spaces.
• The White House has unveiled its peace plan for Gaza, including a temporary administration led by Donald Trump with help from Sir Tony Blair.
• An EU-style free movement agreement came into force in four Caribbean countries to let citizens work freely across borders.
• Copenhagen has begun rewarding travellers with museum tickets and other cultural experiences for eco-conscious choices, like arriving by train or litter picking.
• An AI-generated actor named Tilly Norwood has been created using advanced modelling techniques to play film roles without a human actor behind her.
• Red Bull and Prada have teamed up to turn a Brazilian skyscraper into the world’s largest skate ramp.
• Taylor Swift released her 12th studio album – The Life of a Showgirl – this morning.
• One in four job seekers in 2025 have had a career break of a year or more, a recent report by LiveCareerUK has revealed.
• Human eggs have been successfully created from skin cells, potentially transforming IVF treatments.
• 42% of Gen Z workers say they’re turning to blue collar work with the top two motivators being avoiding student debt and not being replaced by AI, a survey has shown.
• The results of Alaska’s Fat Bear Week 2025 are in! Chunk is walking away with the gold after receiving the most votes for exemplifying “fatness and success”.
• The United Nations World Food Programme has said 466 million children now receive meals in school.
• Primatologist Jane Goodall’s “extraordinary legacy” is being celebrated around the world, as people unite to honour her life’s work for animals and the planet following her passing.
• The Senate will vote again on dueling Democratic and Republican plans to end a government shutdown now entering its third day, though there is no sign that either plan will win passage.
• Democrats in Congress have rallied around healthcare as their top policy issue, hoping a focus on Americans’ concerns over access and affordability could help them in next year’s midterm elections.
• After attempting to bludgeon colleges and universities into complying with its ideological mandates, the Trump administration is trying a new tactic: using financial incentives to encourage schools to comply.
• A massive fire erupted in a jet fuel production unit at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery near Los Angeles, sending flames and smoke into the sky and raising questions over supply in California’s isolated energy market.
• Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Europe blocked traffic and vandalized shops and restaurants after Israeli forces intercepted a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla. In Italy, tens of thousands took to the streets across the country.
• Britain appointed Sarah Mullally as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the first time a woman has been named leader of the Church of England in the 1,400-year history of the role.
• The British government vowed to redouble its efforts to tackle antisemitism as the Jewish community reeled from an attack at a Manchester synagogue that killed two people.
• Drone sightings overnight at Germany’s Munich airport led to the cancellation and diversion of dozens of flights, leading politicians to call for a tougher response to drone threats, potentially including shooting them down.
• Indonesia’s nuclear agency is still determining the size of the area affected by radioactive contamination linked to a scrap metal plant, with 10 points in an industrial zone near Jakarta found with high levels of exposure, officials said.
• Alternate data from public and private sources, a substitute for official statistics delayed by a government shutdown, showed the US job market likely remained stalled in September with sluggish hiring.
• Japanese restaurants, bars and stores are running low on beer and other beverages from industry leader Asahi Group as the impact from a cyberattack entered a fifth day, with no resolution in sight.
• Alphabet’s Google said hackers are sending extortion emails to an unspecified number of executives from various companies, claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle business applications.
• Armani representatives have approached potential buyers over a minority stake in the renowned Italian fashion group, starting a de facto auction, for a slice of one of the world’s best-known fashion empires weeks after the designer’s death.
• Artificial intelligence startups are attracting record sums of venture capital, but some of the world’s largest investors warned that early-stage valuations are starting to look frothy.
• The US Supreme Court is set to scrutinize presidential powers in major cases during its new term opening on Monday, including the legality of Trump’s tariffs and his move to fire officials from the Federal Reserve.
• Japan stands a good chance of having its first woman prime minister or its youngest leader in the modern era after a vote to pick the head of the nation’s ruling party.
• Syria will hold an indirect vote to establish its first parliament since Bashar al-Assad was ousted, a key step in the transition from his rule but one that has stirred concerns about political inclusivity under the country’s new leaders.
• Czechs are likely to oust their center-right government in an election, with polls favouring populist billionaire Andrej Babis to return to power on pledges to raise wages and lift growth while reducing aid for Ukraine.
• In markets news, the OPEC+ group meets at the weekend and is expected to accelerate the pace at which it is unwinding the curbs on oil output that it imposed during the pandemic.
• The winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced next Friday.
• Top bank closing ATMs across South Africa: Standard Bank is reducing ATM numbers as digital adoption among its customers accelerates and due to the increased availability of alternative cash access points.
• Sewage spilling from the sinks: Department of Defence’s HQ swamped: Videos and photos show water pouring from the ceilings, sewage pooling in bathroom basins, and brown water pouring from the taps.
• September proved to be an incredible month for car sales in South Africa.
• Major carmaker cuts jobs at South African factory: Ford South Africa is planning to retrench hundreds of workers.
• New agreement with an American company to export South African IT skills: The agreement is the start of a project to establish an entire sector through which South Africans can export their skills to the United States while continuing to live in South Africa.
• Capitec’s R40 billion secret weapon: Capitec is heavily investing in its rapidly growing Enterprise Payments segment as a key strategy to succeed in South Africa’s increasingly competitive business banking market.
• Great news for people with expired driving licences in South Africa: A Department of Transport spokesperson revealed important information about temporary driving licences in South Africa.
• Trevor Manuel’s warning for South Africa: Old Mutual Chairman Trevor Manuel has warned South Africans about an investment scam that uses a Deepfake of him.
• Eternal enemies – the ‘best network’ battle between Vodacom and MTN: Vodacom and MTN have been engaged in yet another battle about who has the best network. This has been raging on for three decades.
• The Constitutional Court has ruled that fathers are now entitled to the same parental leave as mothers. The court, in its judgment, found the law at present to be discriminatory to fathers and unfair and unconstitutional. Following this judgment, mothers and fathers will be able to split their four months of leave post-birth equally.
• The ANC has distanced itself from Brown Mogotsi, saying he’s no longer a party member. Mogotsi has made headlines following allegations that he acts as a middleman between the underworld and Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.
• For the first time in 1,400 years, the Church of England has elected its very first female archbishop. Sarah Mullally will be the first female head in her role as the Archbishop of Canterbury. Her appointment, in breaking tradition, has drawn criticism from conservative Anglicans mainly based in Africa.
• Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said that Donald Trump’s 20 points under his plan to end the war in Gaza were not in line with a draft presented to him by a group of Muslim-majority countries.
• Venezuela Alleges 5 US Fighter Jets Approached Its Coastline.
• October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time dedicated to education, support, and action in the fight against cancer. It serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of early detection and access to healthcare, especially for vulnerable communities.
• With a plan to create a self-sufficient, exclusive village amid service delivery and crime in Gauteng, Midstream Estate was born, giving its residents no reason to leave its highly protected walls.
• South Africa lost about 230,000 jobs this year. The DA attributes this to BEE laws, while Parliament says high electricity costs and poor economic decisions are to blame.

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