Honey laundering is one of the mega food trades in the world today
In 2020, 13 honeys were subjected to another battery of tests. Nine of the products contained psicose, the rare sugar which would not typically be found in honey. Ten of the 13 honeys tested positive for the presence of enzymes indicating that they may be “adulterated with syrup”. All of...
Google’s new workers’ union is already addressing political and racism issues
The Alphabet Workers Union is not seeking better pay and benefits. It wants to influence the company’s policies on social and other issues. On January 4, a group of workers at Google parent company Alphabet said they had formed a union to influence the company’s approach to political and social...
Mauritius and Morocco are new members of ADB Bloomberg bond index
Mauritius and Morocco have joined the African Development Bank’s Bloomberg African Bond Indices, further expanding the bank’s portfolio on the continent. The addition of Mauritius and Morocco to the fold marked a steady progress in ADB’s efforts in deepening the continent’s local currency bond market. The African Development Bank administers...
A third of Covid patients discharged from hospital are readmitted in five months
A study has found that almost a third of patients who have recovered from Covid-19 are re-admitted to hospital within five months. The research by Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics also found that up to one in eight die of Covid-related complications. It found that out of...
‘Most of honey exported by China is blended with syrup’
Shortly before dawn most days, José Eduardo Moo Pat sets out from his home in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with a protective suit and his metal smoker for calming honey bees. He drives six miles through low-lying tropical jungle to tend to his 30 hives nestled in a clearing. His work...
HRW: Fighting inequality central to post-coronavirus economic recovery
Coronavirus has widened inequalities further in countries and societies that were already grappling with the social and economic vice, which for long time has been a trigger of inter-class hostility, Human Rights Watch has documented in its December 2020 report. Based on data collected in some of world’s megacities like...
Bali’s extortionist monkeys can spot high-value items, then ‘demand’ ransom
At the Uluwatu temple in Bali, monkeys mean business. The long-tailed macaques who roam the ancient site are infamous for brazenly robbing unsuspecting tourists and clinging on to their possessions until food is offered as ransom payment. Researchers have found they are also skilled at judging which items their victims...
Opinion: Facebook founder Zuckerberg can’t fix what he won’t own up to
In June 2017, Mark Zuckerberg changed Facebook’s mission. Speaking at the company’s first Community Summit in Chicago, he explained that the best part of Facebook is its “meaningful groups,” those that address a user’s passions or needs and connect them with others who share those interests. At the time, there...
Election of a black president created violent backlash we’re witnessing in the US
Watching the storming of the Capitol last week, many progressive critics of American foreign policy concluded that the country’s chickens were finally coming home to roost. This was the blowback from America’s many military interventions, forever wars and coup attempts. Regime change had returned to Washington. For these critics, the...
Covid re-infections are rare, but can still spread the virus
Most people who catch and recover from Covid-19 are likely to be immune for several months afterwards, a study of more than 20,000 health-care workers in the United Kingdom has found. The study – called SARS-CoV-2 Immunity and Reinfection Evaluation (SIREN) – concluded that immune responses from past infection reduce...
