How coronavirus vaccine rollout faces a two-shot problem in the US
More than nine million shots have been given, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and just shy of 400,000 people have received the second dose that confers 95 per cent protection against the virus. That seems like good news – but just about everyone watching the process...
House passes motion to invoke 25th Amendment and kick Trump out of office
The House of Representatives passed a nonbinding measure Tuesday night calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Donald Trump from office. One Republican, Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, joined all Democrats in voting 223-205 to pass the largely symbolic measure. The nonbinding measure...
Oil industry is ready to help end violence in Mozambique
I won’t sugar-coat it: The situation in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province is dire. Armed conflicts between security forces and the militant Islamic group, Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamo (ASWJ), known locally as “al-Shabab” even though it has no connections to the Somali group with that name, have left dozens of people...
Murder of French soldiers in Mali reinforces perception of strong Al Qaeda presence
Al-Qaeda’s branch in North Africa has claimed responsibility for killing two French soldiers who died when their armoured vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in eastern Mali. The soldiers were on a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering mission in the eastern region of Menaka when the blast occurred. The attack...
Scientists worry efforts to free up limited vaccine doses driven by desperation
Amid skyrocketing coronavirus infections, some countries are attempting to stretch limited supplies of Covid-19 vaccines by reducing doses or changing vaccination schedules from those shown to be effective in clinical trials. But data are scarce on the impact of such measures and scientists are split over whether they are worth...
Land pressure, instability in eastern DRC pose a threat to Virunga national park
Six rangers working at Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo were killed in an ambush by a local militia group on Sunday, according to the park’s management and the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation or ICCN by its French acronym. The attack is the deadliest since...
Signal’s meteoric rise has WhatsApp looking over the shoulders as rivalry peaks
The number of new users installing messaging app Signal every day is on track to cross 1 million, putting it closer to levels seen by larger rival WhatsApp, following an update to the Facebook Inc-owned app’s privacy policy. About 810,000 users globally installed Signal on Sunday, nearly 18-fold compared with...
Kuwait’s Al-Sumait Prize up for grabs by outstanding Africans in health sector
Al-Sumait Prize has called for nominations for this year’s award for outstanding service in the health sector in Africa. The prize is open to individuals and organisations that have pioneered in the delivery of high-impact solutions to health in Africa. Special focus is on the 2021 cycle on the utilisation...
Plan to build a global network of floating power stations on oceans
Early last year, just a few weeks before the pandemic brought life in the United States to a standstill, Yi Chao and a small team of researchers dropped a slender metal tube into the Pacific Ocean off the Hawaiian coast. After nearly two decades as an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet...
$6.5 billion lined up for Great Green Wall initiative in the Sahel region
Barely hours after 100 actors from Africa and Europe signed a charter in support of pastoralism and livestock development in the Sahel, the African Development Bank unveiled plans to raise $6.5 billion to fund the region’s Great Green Wall Initiative. The funds will mitigate losses wrought by the coronavirus in...
