Covid control dilemma: Should we send the less-effective vaccine to Africa?
Yusuff Adebayo Adebisi knows that a vaccine that offers 70 per cent protection against Coovid-19 could be a valuable tool against the coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria – especially if that vaccine is cheap and doesn’t have to be stored at extremely cold temperatures. But what if another vaccine — one...
Facebook ‘re-friends’ Australia after revenue sharing law standoff
Facebook announced it would reverse its decision to block Australian news from the platform after a breakthrough in negotiations with Australia’s government over its proposed News Media Bargaining Code, the International Federation of Journalists reports (IFJ). In response, the IFJ and its Australian affiliate the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance...
Backslash from publishers as Facebook shuts out Australia over revenue
Facebook has faced a backlash from publishers and politicians after blocking news feeds in Australia in a surprise escalation of a dispute with the government over a law to require it to share revenue from news. Facebook wiped out pages from Australian state governments and charities as well as from...
High school in US sued for firing football coach who queried racist curriculum
An American civil society, Judicial Watch, has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of David Flynn, the father of two Dedham Public School students, who was fired from his position as head football coach after exercising his right as a citizen to raise concerns about his daughter’s seventh-grade history class...
Tale of Kilkenny cats: How Kenya opposition was captured by the state
Often hurriedly assembled to the sole purpose of winning elections, political coalitions in Kenya have never had a façade of ideology, but regional or ethnic conglomerations that come off the hinges as rapidly as they were crafted once elections are over. As the row among former National Super Alliance (Nasa)...
World to wait longer to know if Pfizer vaccine is effective against Covid variants
An unpublished study by the Israel’s health ministry and Pfizer says the latter’s vaccine is around 93 per cent effective in preventing symptomatic covid-19. Pfizer and its partner, the German biotechnology firm BioNTech, had found 95 per cent effectiveness in their clinical trials carried out in 2020. Researchers are, in...
Leaked report shows Pfizer’s vaccine is conquering Covid in its largest real-world test
A leaked scientific report jointly prepared by Israel’s health ministry and Pfizer claims that the company’s covid-19 vaccine is stopping nine out of 10 infections and the country could approach herd immunity by next month. The study, based on the health records of hundreds of thousands of Israelis, finds that...
Kagame regime in eye of a storm as human rights body questions death of activist
Often cited as a paragon for countries emerging from bloody past of human rights violations, the killing of gospel singer and human rights activist Kizito Mihigo has restored the searchlight on President Paul Kagame government’s willingness and ability to break with the era of repression. Human Rights Watch, an international...
Fifa plans African schools football competition that’ll kick off in DR Congo
Fifa and the African Union have agreed to launch African schools football competition following a meeting in Kinshasa between world football governing body President Gianni Infantino and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Félix Tshisekedi, who is also the current chairperson of the African Union (AU). The two presidents,...
After years of defying Cites, China finally has its own list of endangered species
Thirty-two years after first publishing its List of Wild Animals Under State Priority Conservation, China has finally made an update, more than doubling the size of the list. Key additions include wolves and many endangered bird species. “At last,” the post began, “I hope in the years to come, they...
