Cybercrime: More often in Africa, states crack down on whistle-blowers who use government data to report crime
Digital repression is on the rise in many parts of Africa. Over a dozen African countries have recently experienced politically motivated internet shutdowns. Roughly the same number have been identified as operators of military-grade spyware (such as Pegasus, RCS and FinFisher), which they use to track domestic political opponents and...
Covid boosters: Endless shots might not be a viable strategy, nor is it how vaccines were meant to be used
Late last year, studies showed that third shots (boosters) of Covid vaccines were effective at providing a little extra protection from infection – particularly in the face of the Omicron variant. Some countries are now offering fourth doses, but scientists say that endless boosting might not be a viable strategy,...
Generation of cattle raiders that rape and kill women, ransack houses and steals savings emerges in northern Uganda
Since November 2020, about 150 people in north-eastern Uganda region of Karamoja have been killed by cattle raiders, according to Michael Longole, the police spokesman for Karamoja. A further 73 raiders have been killed by security forces, he added. A government press release in September referred to 400 deaths, while...
In Uganda’s Karamoja region, rampant rustling is met with militarised response as violence returns
The stench of livestock lingered in the empty enclosure made of thorny branches where Aomet Lokong stood, a kraal head without any cows. Armed rustlers raided Lokong’s communal kraal, or cattle enclosure, in northeastern Uganda’s Kaabong district in late November and stole nearly 1,000 cows, local officials said. Six days...
Education: Investing in cell phones is helpful in refugee camps where large families share a smartphone
According to Education Cannot Wait, only 2.6 per cent of global humanitarian funding was earmarked for education in 2019, a number Yasmine Sherif estimates should be at least 10 per cent to ensure access to safe, free, and quality education. Sherif is director of Education Cannot Wait, an organisation that...
How Covid made education a humanitarian issue: Girls often lost out to boys when accessing technology
A dirt road is the only way to reach the remote Peruvian village of Tarucani, located high in the vast arid plains of the Andes, where pink flamingos paddle shallow brooks along the Bolivian border and herds of alpacas forage the dry and sparse vegetation for the few edible morsels....
New report raises alarm over rising antibiotic resistance as dangerous fungi evolve stronger defences
As rates of antibiotic resistance grow alarmingly among disease-causing bacteria, dangerous fungi also are evolving stronger defences, with a lot less fanfare. Every year, infections of moulds and yeasts such as Aspergillus and Candida kill more than 1.5 million people globally, more than malaria and on a par with rates...
Fears of deadly ‘super variant’ that combines Delta and Omicron cleared after researchers say it never existed
On January 7, virologist Leondios Kostrikis announced on local television that his research group at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia had identified several SARS-CoV-2 genomes that featured elements of both the Delta and Omicron variants. Named by them as ‘Deltacron,’ Kostrikis and his team uploaded 25 of the sequences...
UN Day of the Dead: By November 1 Covid’s true death toll was millions more than official counts
Last year’s Day of the Dead marked a grim milestone. On November 1, the global death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic passed five million, official data suggested. It has now reached 5.5 million. But that figure is a significant underestimate. Records of excess mortality, a metric that involves comparing all...
5G networks now available for millions of American but aviation firms are wary it’ll disrupt airport operations
The activation of C-Band frequencies by AT&T and Verizon means that improved 5G networks are now available for millions of Americans. The long-anticipated rollout began on January 19, but with one caveat: Both companies temporarily pushed back plans for 5G networks near certain airports after criticism from the Federal Aviation...
