Alarm as execution looms for scientist on death row in Iran
A medical researcher sentenced to death in Iran three years ago on a charge of spying, which he denies, is under threat of imminent execution, Nature has been told. Ahmadreza Djalali, a scholar in disaster medicine who has dual Iranian-Swedish nationality, is nearing the end of a week of solitary...
How coronavirus vaccines are being divvied up around the world
Vaccine developers who have already reported promising phase III trial results against Covid-19 estimate that, between them, they can make sufficient doses for more than one-third of the world’s population by the end of 2021. But many people in low-income countries might have to wait until 2023 or 2024 for...
South Sudan: For Juba, $7.22m water project means better health and peace
Access to drinking water in South Sudan is a crucial issue for peacebuilding and dealing with community disputes that could undermine the country’s emergence from conflict and crisis Farida, her school bag on her back and her face betraying a hint of a smile, sings softly on her way to...
Samoura: Fifa keen to save football from coronavirus
Fifa Secretary General Fatma Samoura took part in the closing session of the World Football Summit today to discuss issues that ranged from disruption, wokeness and the impact of the Fifa Covid-19 Relief Plan on global football. In an interview with South African broadcaster Carol Tshabalala, Fatma Samoura spoke about...
Firing director of Homeland Security crosses a line – even for Trump
Within minutes of Donald Trump tweeting that he had fired Christopher Krebs as the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency on Tuesday night, Twitter slapped on a warning label that the accompanying claim about electoral fraud “is disputed.” The disinformation warning was, in some ways, a fitting...
Ghanaian environmentalist bags this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize
The world’s foremost award honouring grassroots environmental activists, the Goldman Environmental Prize, was this year bagged by Ghanaian environmental champion Ezekiel Chibeze. The selection panel cited Chibeze’s commitment to pushing for good governance in Ghana’s environmental sector and leadership in Ghana, across Africa and globally. The Goldman Environmental Prize is...
Forgetting may make your mind more efficient
Memory palaces provide imaginary architectural repositories for storing and retrieving anything you would like to remember. Sixteen centuries ago, St Augustine spoke of “treasures of innumerable images” stored in his “spacious palaces of memory.” But twenty-first century scientists who study memory have identified an important point to remember: Even the...
‘This is Your Brain on Music’: How human mind and body respond to the beat
Music and dance are so deeply embedded in the human experience that we almost take them for granted. They’re distinct from one another, but intimately related: Music — arrangements of sound over time — causes us to move our bodies in space. Without knowing it, we track pulse, tempo and...
Yippies or disgusting yobs: Spectre of drunk and disorderly Kenyan yodellers
The arrest of 20 teenaged children in Nairobi’s Kahawa Sukari and at least 40 others in Webuye, western Kenya in just one week, sheds more light on a phenomenon that began unfolding since schools closed indefinitely following the outbreak of coronavirus more than nine months ago. The story despondent youth...
Like it or not, Trump’s election attacks end December 14
Despite the Trump campaign’s fight to overturn the election, the wheels of American democracy keep turning. In the weeks since his loss to Joe Biden, President Donald Trump and his re-election campaign have attempted to cast doubt on the validity of the 2020 election and filed numerous unsuccessful lawsuits in...
