Police in Brazil turn to forensic technology aids to crack down on illicit Amazon gold trade
Once dominated by prospectors with gold pans, artisanal mining in Brazil has become an industrial-scale activity with heavy excavating machinery and million-dollar river dredgers. Criminal organisations fly people, equipment and gold into and out of the region with helicopters and planes that land at clandestine airstrips.
President-elect Trump’s pick for US health and human services is openly anti-Big Pharma, but will he rein in drugmakers?
After endorsing Trump, Robrt F. Kennedy Jr launched the Make America Healthy Again campaign, which focuses on combatting chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and laid out a handful of policy ideas to do that in a September Wall Street Journal editorial. Some of those policy proposals take direct aim at the pharmaceutical industry, including reforming the Prescription Drug User Fee Act or PDUFA, and reviewing direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ad guidelines.
Trump transition recommends scrapping car-crash reporting requirement opposed by Tesla
In one example, NHTSA fined Cruise, the self-driving startup owned by General Motors $1.5 million in September for failing to report a 2023 incident in which a vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian who had been struck by another car. GM this week said Cruise will stop development of self-driving technology.
Niger junta suspends BBC accusing it of ‘spreading false news’ in coverage of attack
The British broadcaster had reported on its website in Hausa on Wednesday that gunmen had killed more than 90 Nigerien soldiers and more than 40 civilians in two villages near the border with Burkina Faso.
Designer babies: While fertility businesses are selling better chance of domestic bliss, families are feeling cheated
I’ve counselled a number of those families in the past 10 to 15 years. People who have children this way often place too much importance on genes while ignoring the environment. It’s like, “This is what our family is going to look like. We’re going to pick a kid, and this is how we’re going to put it together. Mom’s going to be in charge of the whole thing.” It’s like a project or building a company. People don’t always realize they are creating a human being and not a piece of furniture.
Depletion of flora and fauna in Congo Forest worries greens as Chinese gold mining threatens protected UN heritage site
Spanning more than 13,000 square kilometres (5,000 square miles), the Okapi Wildlife Reserve became a protected site in 1996, due to its unique biodiversity and large number of threatened species, including its namesake, the okapi, a forest giraffe, of which it holds some 15 per cent of the world’s remaining 30,000. It’s part of the Congo Basin rainforest – the world’s second-biggest – and a vital carbon sink that helps mitigate climate change. It also has vast mineral wealth such as gold and diamonds.
World Bank cuts Kenya’s 2024 growth estimate to 4.7 per cent on fiscal challenges
Although the growth estimate for this year is lower than last year’s rate of 5.6 per cent, it will still be higher than the sub-Saharan Africa average of 3.0 per cent, the bank said.
Nile perch: How world’s ‘smallest war’ is fought in Kenya on world’s most densely populated island in Lake Victoria
Since 1926 official maps have shown that the island is 510 metres east of the border, putting it firmly in Kenyan waters. But Lake Victoria is, of course, the colonial era monicker for the inland sea, which has many other names in local languages and dialects. And it may be that poor or thoughtless map drawing by the colonial powers in Africa has contributed to the dispute.
Africa makes step forward as continent seeks break from Big Parma on medical imports after Morocco produced first mpox tests
When mpox cases were found in some Western countries like the United States in 2022, some companies began developing rapid test kits that don’t require lab processing. But they shelved those efforts when the virus was largely contained.
Delay, defend and deny: US insurance catchwords that might unravel motive behind murder of UnitedHealth CEO
Brian Thompson was killed in an attack police called targeted as he was about to enter the Hilton hotel for the company’s annual investor conference. The gunman, whose crime was recorded on video, is at large and the New York City Police Department said there was no known motive for the murder.
