Bingeing: Has Covid-19 got the world drinking more than before?
Sourdough and baking helped many people cope with 2020 and many have found solace in family Zoom calls. But for millions around the world, the stress of the pandemic and tedium of lockdown life saw them seek the comforting embrace of another, fickle friend: alcohol. Like most social behaviours, drinking...
Black tigress: Toni Morrison made Memory sit down at the table with her audience
She did not look away. When Toni Morrison’s clear imagining gaze met uncomfortable things, she faced them down. A poisoned dog jerking round the yard like a toy. Human placenta in a field. The transparent underskin of a bobcat gutted on a kitchen table. The greyish panties, still round her...
Covid clustering: Herd immunity will be game of ‘whack-a-mole’ with outbreaks
Previous vaccination efforts suggest that uptake of Covid-19 vaccine will tend to cluster geographically, herd immunity experts explain. In the past, localised resistance to measles vaccination, for example, resulted in small pockets of disease resurgence. “Geographic clustering is going to make the path to herd immunity a lot less of...
Coronavirus vaccine hesitancy starting to make ‘herd immunity’ a remote possibility
As Covid-19 vaccination rates pick up around the world, people have reasonably begun to ask: how much longer will this pandemic last? It’s an issue surrounded with uncertainties. But the once-popular idea that enough people will eventually gain immunity to Covid-19 to block most transmission – a ‘herd-immunity threshold’ –...
‘Unregulated efforts that create ‘trade-offs’ harmful to global afforestation’
Ongoing research shows that most deforestation is man-made and that an effective global policy response is needed to address the disappearance of the world’s forests. The main problem is that there are currently too many uncoordinated regulatory processes that are creating trade-offs, conflicts, leakage effects and loopholes resulting in complexity...
Social media: What would happen if users were rewarded for reliability and accuracy?
In 2020 alone, social-media shares, likes and similar interactions with misleading online news doubled to 17 per cent of all engagements. This staggering growth has consequences: polarisation, violent extremism, racism and resistance to climate action and vaccines. Social-media companies have taken some steps to combat misinformation by using warnings and...
When humanity destroys its forests, it cries about ‘big loss’, then cuts down more
Environmental organisations and the civil society have turned the spotlight on lack of effective regulations against wanton destruction of forests, warning that humanity faces serious self-destruction. Speaking at a virtual press conference ahead of the March 21 International Day of Forests 2021 and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030,...
Tales of ‘palace’ rivalry look to dominate Tanzania President Magufuli’s death
East Africa is bracing for the first female president following the death of Tanzania President John Pombe Magufuli on Wednesday evening. For two weeks, the fallen president’s health and whereabouts have been the subject of speculation until Wednesday night, when a sombre Vice President Suluhu Samia Hassan appeared on national...
Angola’s $530m power project will grow renewable energy, regional connectivity
Angola will construct a 343km, 400kV central-south power line that will connect the north and south transmission grids in Angola and allow for the distribution of clean energy between the two regions. The project will be completed in 2023. The electricity transmission line will cost $530 million that has been...
Press Freedom bodies push for revisit of Mexican journalist’s assassination
Leading press freedom organisations in Mexican want federal authorities to re-open the case and bring the killers journalist Regina Martinez to justice. The demand follows new findings of an inquest that point to obstruction of justice by local authorities. The report, The Murder of Regina Martínez Pérez: An Opportunity for...
