With over 1,000 students abducted and schools closed, Nigeria faces spike in ‘lost generation’ numbers
Yusuf Lado had not yet learned to read or write when his school closed for fear of attacks by armed gangs, which have been snatching students across northwest Nigeria in hopes of lucrative ransom payouts. The seven-year-old has now set aside his dream of becoming a doctor and is training...
Conspiracy theories: Because we know a tiny sliver of the world, we accept what we can’t verify
In a recent series of studies, Sander van der Linden and colleagues conducted online surveys of more than 5,000 Americans from across the political spectrum, asking them to rate their political preferences and respond to questions that were developed by psychologists to measure conspiratorial thinking and paranoia. One survey item,...
Claims ‘Covid vaccination kills’ force medical journal editors to quit over ‘misrepresentation’ of data
Several respected virologists and vaccinologists have resigned as editors of the journal Vaccines to protest its June 24 publication of a peer-reviewed article that misuses data to conclude that “for three deaths prevented by vaccination, we have to accept two inflicted by vaccination.” Since Friday, at least six scientists...
UN urged to speak out against Israeli violation of journalists’ rights in Palestine
Israel’s systematic targeting of journalists working in Palestine and its failure to properly investigate killings of media workers violates the rights to life and freedom of expression and may amount to war crimes, the International Federation of Journalists told the 47th Session of the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva....
Politics and conspiracy theories: A way for losers to channel their anger, close ranks and regroup
Conspiracy theories seem to meet psychological needs and can be almost impossible to eradicate. One remedy: Keep them from taking root in the first place. The United States of America was founded on a conspiracy theory. In the lead-up to the War of Independence, revolutionaries argued that a tax on...
Africa and poorest countries to wait until 2023 to get Covid vaccines – experts
Amid a Covid surge in Africa, vaccine promises from richer nations are not enough to bring an early end to the pandemic, experts say. They warn that most people in the poorest countries will need to wait another two years before they are vaccinated against Covid-19. Around 11 billion doses...
Horrors: African asylum seekers in Libyan detention camps ‘lucky to survive from Zintan’
The EU-backed Libyan Coast Guard has intercepted more than 13,000 asylum seekers and migrants at sea this year, preventing them from reaching Europe – already a greater number than in all of 2020. Those intercepted are returned to Libya and sent to detention centres where a well-documented cycle of extortion,...
Mental health: Doctorate students fear visiting counselling centres shared with undergraduates
Although some researchers have supportive mentors and colleagues with whom they can share their struggles, others experience further mental-health challenges owing to hostile work environments. In the 2019 Nature survey of PhD researchers worldwide, 21 per cent of respondents said they had experienced harassment or discrimination in their programmes. Female...
Star-crossed and lovesick Princess Diana had a habit of picking wrong men
Days after the unveiling of Princess Diana Statue in Kensington, London, on what would have been her 60th birthday, the media delved, once again, into her private life and reminded the world of her rarely talked about relationship with Hasnat Khan, a Pakistani surgeon. According to OK, an entertainment magazine,...
Report details how mental health of graduate students is sorely overlooked
Graduate students around the world need more support to manage the mental-health issues, such as depression and anxiety, that they are experiencing at worrying rates, according to a report from two US non-profit organizations. The study was co-produced by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) in Washington DC and the...
