Ruthless South African ‘construction mafia’ kill for 30 per cent commission on tenders
With elections a week away, attacks on ward councillors are bad for democracy and reflect the country’s organised crime problem. A growing extortion ‘mafia’ is sweeping across South Africa, crippling construction and small businesses with threats and bribes, and more recently killing political ward councillors if demands aren’t met. These...
Myanmar’s hidden hunger: We’re just eating whatever is available
Khin, a 59-year-old rice farmer, faced a distressing choice at the height of Myanmar’s monsoon season three months ago: sell a cow, a prized asset for agricultural households, or go hungry. She sold the animal for half its value. The proceeds went to buy food for her family and inputs...
Studies confirm mix-and-match Covid vaccines generate more potent body immunity responses
Combining two different Covid-19 vaccines provides protection on par with that of mRNA vaccines – including protection against the Delta variant. Study after study has shown that people who receive two different Covid-19 vaccines generate potent immune responses, with side effects no worse than those caused by standard regimens. But...
Refugees: How Ukrainian war has destroyed our plans, our future; living a quiet life on pension is pointless
For children Ukraine know just one thing: war. Not a day goes without the rumbling of bombs, gunfire and the inevitable outcome: bloodshed and death. Love and peace are remote to the point of sounding unreal. Earlier this year, Veronika and half a dozen other children spoke to photojournalist Jakub...
Children in Ukraine’s conflict regions live with wounds and need support to address emotional trauma’
On the frontline of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, nearly half a million children are living childhoods defined by war. “I see that war made people here negative, abusive, and violent,” says 12-year-old Veronika. “That used to be just an adult thing, but children are now like that too here.”...
Facebook brand crisis: New name might give the company a facelift, but that doesn’t book a rebrand
When Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, in 2004, it was a mere directory of students at Harvard: The Face Book. Two decades, 90 acquisitions and billions of dollars later, Facebook has become a household name. Now it wants a new one. Zuckerberg is expected to announce a new name for the...
How ivory trading to finance civil wars led to evolution of tuskless herds of elephants in Africa
African elephants have evolved towards tusklessness in an area where they were intensively hunted for ivory, finds a study of elephants’ traits and genetics in Mozambique. The results, published on October 21, in Science, could have implications for the recovery of elephant populations in the country. Ivory trading was used...
Vaccine boosters are contentious because they’re framed as shock additions to regimens tested in clinical trials
The US is by no means alone in its pursuit of boosters. France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates have all opened booster shot campaigns to large numbers of their residents, or announced plans to do so. However, campaigns intended to protect the most vulnerable...
Vaccine apartheid: When US says ‘Boosters for All’ it sets tone for rich countries to ignore poor world
I the next few days, an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to debate who should receive booster shots for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, a follow-up to last week’s Food and Drug Administration committee meeting. By the end of this week,...
Covid hybrid immunity studies show vaccination after infection offers stronger virus resistance
Many studies of hybrid immunity haven’t followed naive vaccine recipients for as long as those who recovered from Covid-19, and it’s possible their B cells will make antibodies that gain potency and breadth with more time, additional vaccine doses or both, researchers say. It can take months for a stable...
