‘I’ll return to Emirates to play, prove that I’m good,’ Arsenal’s want-away centre-back warns manager Arteta
William Saliba has vowed to prove his mettle at Arsenal in a declaration that suggests he has softened his hard-line stance on returning to his parent club this summer. The defender, 21, enjoyed a brilliant season on loan at Olympic Marseille and was crowned the Young Player of the Season...
‘Great resignation’ hits academia following wave of departures by mid-career scientists at leading universities
On March 4, Christopher Jackson tweeted that he was leaving the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom to work at Jacobs, a scientific-consulting firm with headquarters in Dallas, Texas, USA. Jackson, a prominent geoscientist, is part of a growing wave of researchers using the #leavingacademia hashtag when announcing their...
Covid: Withdrawing masks, social-distancing puts more people at risk as vaccines protect only 15 per cent of vulnerable people
Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 lowers the risk of long Covid after infection by only about 15 per cent, according to a study of more than 13 million people. That’s the largest cohort that has yet been used to examine how much vaccines protect against the condition, but it is unlikely to...
US enacts law to punish Africa countries for lack of support for the Washington-led efforts to punish Russia
A United States bill that would oblige Washington to punish African governments that abet Russian “malign” activities on the continent is sailing through Congress. The Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act passed the House of Representatives on April 27 by a huge, bipartisan 419-9 majority and is now sure...
Protesters back in the streets on third anniversary of the deadly 2019 crackdown in Sudan
Khartoum residents took to the streets again last week to protest the Sudanese military regime and demand justice for the victims of a 2019 deadly sit-in Demonstrators in the eastern and southern neighbourhoods of the city blocked main roads, determined to voice their opposition. The fresh rally also came ahead...
Star Wars: When white cinema fans turn to social media to hurl racist slurs at black movie screen queens and kings
Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Jedi, a member of an old order of beings known for their stoicism. Suffice it to say, if you’ve upset one of them, you’ve made a grievous error. Yet here is Ewan McGregor, the man inside Kenobi’s robes, looking directly at the camera – and he...
How drought and food shortages are wreaking havoc on Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan…by numbers
Six million people or 40 per cent of the population in Somalia is “acutely food insecure”, according to data captured by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The number includes 81,000 people already at a “catastrophe” level of hunger, with a real risk of famine in...
Four seasons without rain puts 17 million people in Horn of Africa at risk of famine, made worse by war in Ukraine
Hammered by four droughts in a row, as many as 17 million people are going hungry in three countries in the Horn of Africa, with aid agencies warning that the hardest-hit areas are threatened by famine. In the arid pastoralist regions of southern Ethiopia, northern Kenya, and much of Somalia,...
Patience with South Sudan government’s sluggish action on peace deal waning at home and abroad
Civil society leaders, religious leaders and the international community are becoming exasperated at the listless peace deal and the increase in violence in South Sudan. “These agreements have been deliberately undermined, and the way they’re being implemented – particularly the current one – not taking the country anywhere...
South Sudan planning for elections against backdrop of crippling conflict that’s killing scores, displacing hundreds
South Sudan’s transitional government is due to wrap up in less than 10 months. Yet the country’s future looks as bleak as it did in 2018 when rival parties signed a deal to end a crippling civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people. The peace agreement was supposed to end...
