News Bulletin of 16 June 2025, 8am

A 16-year-old learner from Curro Waterfall is turning heads with a bold vision to improve cancer care in South Africa through innovation and entrepreneurship. Kaleb Naicker, deputy prefect and debater, is behind The Entrepreneurial Pulse of Medicine. This is a project that explores how startups and tech-driven solutions can reshape cancer treatment. Naicker argues that traditional healthcare alone isn’t enough to meet the needs of a diverse and unequal country. He adds that Cancer is one of the countries biggest public health challenges and that people must think differently. The learner points to examples like mobile chemotherapy units, AI-powered screening, and tele-oncology platforms connecting rural patients to specialists.

The Metropolitan Collective Shapers programme is helping young entrepreneurs in Sandton by providing mental, emotional, and financial support not just capital. Metropolitan’s marketing head Phumla Mavundla, says the programme builds resilience to help entrepreneurs handle both business and personal challenges.With 60% of South African youth needing mental health support, MCS integrates coaching and peer learning alongside financial literacy and strategic training. SOUND

The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft has captured and transmitted the first-ever images and video of the Sun’s elusive south pole. New images reveal a superheated atmosphere where temperatures soar to around one million degrees celsius. Contrasting these brilliant regions are darker, cooler clouds of gas, which still blaze at an astonishing 100,000 degrees. ESA’s Director of Science Professor Carole Mundell says these images are the most detailed ever taken of the sun. The Sun undergoes an 11-year cycle of solar activity, fluctuating between intense storm periods and relative calm. Understanding the polar regions is key to decoding this cycle, which has direct implications for life on Earth. Solar storms can interfere with satellite communications, GPS systems, and even knock out power grids.