Dutch health institute says Omicron variant was already in Europe before South African scientists flagged it
Dutch health authorities announced have that they found the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus in cases dating back as long as 11 days, indicating that it was already spreading in western Europe before the first cases were identified in southern Africa. The RIVM health institute said it found Omicron...
China’s minerals-for-infrastructure policy oiled former DR Congo president’s gravy train – Sentry report
When the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government handed a no-bid contract to a subsidiary of China Railway to rebuild and maintain the road from the mining hub of Lubumbashi to the border with Zambia, with tolls charged to fund the work, it opened further taps for free flow of...
As Western firms give DR Congo’s minerals wide berth, China’s rivers of dollars fill ex-president’s accounts
A leak of 3.5 million documents shows how a Chinese-run company moved millions of dollars to former Congo President Joseph Kabila’s family and allies. The Chinese businessman had walked out of a bank in Kinshasa with 13,624 hundred-dollar bills, 10,001 fifties and 43,000 smaller US notes, despite explicit instructions to...
Omicron threat: Scientists urge patience as they investigate ‘This variant (that) is completely insane’
At 7:30 am on November 24, Kristian Andersen, an infectious disease researcher at Scripps Research, received a message on Slack: “This variant is completely insane.” Andrew Rambaut of the University of Edinburgh was reacting to a new SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence found in three samples collected in Botswana on November 11...
The time when you eat affects your health, but also raises questions about whether fasting is like eating less
One of the first hints that pauses in eating are healthy in and of themselves came from a 2003 mouse study led by neuroscientist Mark Mattson, who at that time was working at the US National Institute on Aging. Mattson and his colleagues fed one group of mice every other...
Catastrophic obesity: Studies show adults are eating more than six times, and some up to 15 times per day
The world is getting fatter. It’s a general trend, but one that’s especially well illustrated in the United States. As of 2018, 42 per cent of US adults were obese – almost three times more than in 1980 and prior decades, according to government statistics. With that comes rising rates...
Discovery of heavily mutated coronavirus variant in South Africa puts world on high alert
Researchers in South Africa are racing to track the concerning rise of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes Covid-19. The variant harbours a large number of the mutations found in other variants, including Delta, and it seems to be spreading quickly across South Africa. A top priority...
Wildfires smoke more poisonous than other forms of pollution, responsible for thousands of premature deaths
On a cool September morning in San Francisco, a group of firefighters packed their gear into a bright red van. The sickly-sweet odour of pine resin from a distant blaze hung in the air as the crew prepared to battle the rapidly growing Dixie fire, on its way towards becoming...
One day, the neglected Mt Nyiragongo volcano in DR Congo will kill thousands in 30 minutes – expert
In October, one researcher said institute didn’t have enough funds to afford a drone to take high-resolution photos of the May Mount Nyiragongo eruption site, while in July staff said the Volcano Observatory centre in Goma, east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was struggling to raise money for...
Underpaid and under fire: The risky business of monitoring Congo’s volatile Nyiragongo volcano
Editor’s note: The second of two stories on the aftermath of the May volcanic eruption in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The New Humanitarian spent three weeks interviewing displaced people, aid workers and employees at a local observatory tasked with monitoring the volatile Mount Nyiragongo. Read part one here. This...
