Islamist rebel attacks linked to soaring mental disorder cases in troubled eastern DR Congo – reports
The M23 insurgency has absorbed the attention of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s government and led to a flurry of regional peace efforts over the past year. Yet the conflict is just one of many driving humanitarian needs in the country. Of the more than 300 armed groups active...
Details emerge of how retired US institute infectious diseases boss clandestinely talked Chinese scientist accused of developing Covid
As the Covid-19 pandemic emerged, Anthony Fauci met with a US collaborator of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) about his gain-of-function research, emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests suggest. On February 11, 2020, Fauci met with US virologist Ralph Baric, according to a copy of his...
Why China fined GlaxoSmithKline $500 million, deported top executive for bribing doctors to prescribe cancerous drug Zantac
Nevertheless, the warning signs continued to build up. A 1980 report titled “Glaxo, Ranitidine – Cause for Concern,” found that ranitidine could potentially form a potentially dangerous, and cancerous, compound in the stomach. Glaxo, which was seeking FDA approval for Zantac, prepared for “defensive action” to protect itself from the...
How basic human resource issues, recruitment competition hamper essential aid operations in Ukraine
A lack of flexibility among leading humanitarian agencies has led to waste and needs being left unmet in Ukrain. According to Iana Dashkovska, of children’s cancer charity Zaporuka, some international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) did not budget enough money for blankets last year and were unable to adjust their budgets when...
Wary minorities say ‘Ethiopia is a federation of ethnicities and everyone deserves to feel safe’
When war broke out in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region in November 2020, residents of the town of Adebay, close to the Eritrean border, woke to the sounds of gunfire and revving engines. Eritrean soldiers were beating up civilians and forcing them onto military trucks, two witnesses say. They estimated that...
One year after Russian invasion, Ukraine exposes the limits of well-funded international aid
As the power returns following one of the now frequent electricity cuts that ripple across Ukraine, Kylyna Kurochka logs on to her laptop and finds herself faced with dozens of messages, each one begging for help. “I’m 73 years old, my husband 78. We are IDPs (internally displaced people) …...
Made to kill: How Big Pharma make and sell cancer – case of GlaxoSmithKline’s Zantac cancer drug
Amid tens of thousands of lawsuits that are pending in state courts all across the US, a new report based on evidence discovered in these court cases reveals Big Pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) had, for decades, concealed evidence showing that Zantac could cause cancer. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, GSK –...
Broken bones, eye trauma, brain injuries – how America’s sketchy ‘less-lethal’ weapons export violence abroad
A crowd of protesters was squaring off against a battalion of riot police on a city boulevard as plumes of tear gas and dust clouded the afternoon light. It could have been Hong Kong or Santiago in 2019, Minneapolis or Portland in the summer of 2020, Tehran or Shanghai in...
Vaccine safety advocate Brandy Vaughan mysterious death sums up Africa’s ‘suicide’ via ‘dirty’ drugs
When Covid ravaged the world between from late 2019 to 2022, Africa looked destined for what had been cast as imminent Armageddon in Africa, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa raised a key concern that African scientists have yet to address: To what extent should Africans trust vaccines manufactured by Big...
State capture to mafia state: Interlinking politics and business in South Africa’s evolution into organised crime centre
A report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (Gitoc) released in September 2022 argues that South Africa has increasingly become a centre of organised crime, transcending national boundaries. The picture emerging from the report is that there are organised networks inside and outside the state that enable, facilitate...
