Step in the mind: Humanitarianism is in trouble, needs urgent reforms for impact
The Grand Bargain, a sweeping reform deal between donor nations and the main international aid organisations, was intended to allow a more efficient and effective response to emergencies around the globe. But five years on, the plan is due for a rethink, and signatories are preparing to hammer out the...
Scientists warn Tokyo Olympics may become new staging ground for Covid spread
A group of Japanese scientists, including some of the nation’s most senior advisers on the Covid-19 pandemic, is warning that allowing spectators at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will help the virus spread domestically and internationally. Their recommendation to bar or at least limit spectators, not yet formally published but...
Covid vaccination: Malaysia government told journalists’ safety, health come first
Malaysia’s national journalist union is urging media companies to put journalist safety as a priority as the country continues to face huge numbers of Covid cases. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the National Union of Journalists Peninsular Malaysia (NUJM), urge the Malaysia’s coordinating minister for the...
Cameroon women trounce Burkina Faso on return to international rugby action
The Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon whitewashed hosts Burkina Faso on June 9, 2021, to mark an emphatic return to international action in a match played at the August 4 Stadium. Visiting Cameroon scored 37 to the good in a match that took place on the side-lines of Rugby Africa Cup...
US President Biden wants full probe into claims Covid-19 was bioengineered
As for finding an intermediate host animal, researchers in China have tested more than 80,000 wild and domesticated animals, but none have been positive for SARS-CoV-2. But this number is a tiny fraction of the animals in the country. To narrow the search down, researchers say, more strategic testing is...
Chicken egg, 1,000 years old, found intact by Israel archaeologists in Yavne city
In the latest instalment in the eternal debate over which came first, an intact chicken egg dating from roughly 1021 CE was discovered in Yavne, a city in central Israel, archaeologists announced on Wednesday (June 9). Found protected in a cesspit, the gem was discovered by Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists...
Covid lab-leak hypothesis: No animal has been identified as transmitter of the virus to humans
Debate over the idea that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus emerged from a laboratory has escalated over the past few weeks, coinciding with the annual World Health Assembly, at which the World Health Organization (WHO) and officials from nearly 200 countries discussed the Covid-19 pandemic. After last year’s assembly, the WHO agreed...
Jupiter’s Ganymede, largest moon in solar system, looks amazing in NASA’s photos
On June 7, NASA’s Juno probe zoomed within just 1,038 kilometres of Jupiter’s enormous satellite Ganymede, which is bigger than the planet Mercury. It was the closest any probe had come to Ganymede since May 2000, when NASA’s Galileo spacecraft got within about 1,000 km of the moon’s icy surface....
World Rugby, Mastercard seal deal to speed up growth of women rugby
World Rugby has unveiled details of a transformative five-year partnership with Mastercard to accelerate the development of Women in Rugby and supercharge the international federation’s ambitious Accelerating the Development of Women in its 2017-25 strategic plan. The record-setting partnership will deliver a series of firsts with Mastercard becoming the founding...
World media censure Indonesian government for draconian internet regulation
Media organisations in the world have written a joint letter to Indonesia’s minister of Communication and Information Technology calling on him to rescind Ministerial Regulation 5/2020 (MR5) that allows media companies and owners to monitor content. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Alliance of Independent Journalists...
