Egypt gets €83m AfDB loan for electricity sector to spur economic recovery
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved an €83 million loan to finance the second phase of Egypt’s Electricity and Green Growth Support Programme. The funding is part of the bank’s budget support to the Egyptian government to strengthen its electricity infrastructure to bolster the private sector and accelerate recovery...
AfDB approves $1.4 million for Zambia to improve household food security
The African Development Bank has approved a $1.4 million grant from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme to reduce malnutrition among the Southern African nation’s most vulnerable households. The Mitigating Impacts of Covid-19 on Household Food Security Project will create about 150 permanent skilled or semi-skilled positions and 40...
America grapples with millions of people with organ transplants who need extra Covid vaccination
Covid vaccination in the US has been framed as a binary: People either seek out the inoculation, or they distrust the formula or the politics that produced it and reject the shot. People who accept the vaccine get to return to normal life. For the people who don’t, “Your health...
Press freedom: Killing a journalist is the world’s ‘safest crime’
A new report on the murder of Pakistani journalist Zubair Mujahid finds significant errors in the official police investigation. Leading press freedom organisations now call for an independent re-investigation of the case to bring the killers to justice. The report “Breaking the Silence: An Investigation into the Murder of Zubair...
Tokyo Olympics: World Rugby to ruck up fans with ‘This is How We Sevens’ campaign
World Rugby has launched a major new rugby sevens campaign, “This Is How We Sevens,” as excitement builds towards the Olympic Games in Tokyo, which kicks off in under 50 days. The campaign is aimed at showcasing the vibrancy, excitement and breadth of personalities involved across rugby sevens, supporting World...
Myanmar court releases one of two detained American journalists
A Myanmar court has dismissed a criminal case against US journalist Nathan Maung and freed from detention, where he has been since March. The release comes on the back International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemnation of use of the Penal Code to detain journalists and urged the military junta to...
Global Y-chromosome database solve sex crimes, problem is in obtaining informed consent
In May 1999, a disturbing crime shocked the inhabitants of Kollum, a small village in the Netherlands. A local 16-year-old girl was found raped and murdered in a field nearby, and some people said that Iraqi or Afghan residents at an asylum seekers’ centre in the village could be to...
Equatorial Guinea petroleum minister pulls out of Africa Oil Week in Dubai in protest
Equatorial Guinea Minister for Mines and Hydrocarbons Gabriel M. Obiang Lima has announced that his country will not participate in this year’s edition of Africa Oil Week that is scheduled to be held in Dubai. Mr Obiang Lima made the announcement on Tuesday June 15 in the capital Malabo in...
Tokyo Olympic committee’s decision to track foreign journalists elicits strong opposition
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) wants the Olympic Organising Committee’s (OOC) reverse a decision that subjects foreign journalists to mandatory monitoring during the period of the games in Tokyo, Japan. IFJ says the regulation is a complete disregard for privacy and it is an impediment to the freedom of...
Rattled by thinning sign-ups, WhatsApp goes on charm offensive to regain users
Government attacks on WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption are akin to demands that an Orwellian telescreen be installed in every living room, the app’s head has said as it launches a major advertising campaign in defence of privacy. Will Cathcart told the Guardian in an interview that the abstract nature of digital...
