Plight of asylum seekers: Libyan centre manager withheld food to punish detainees, 22 people died
After years of Libyan reticence, human rights groups and aid organisations say European Union calls to improve detention conditions are increasingly tone-deaf to the reality asylum seekers and migrants face in Libya detention camps. “The protection response cannot be just about distributing food and relief items,” Lucie Eches, from the...
Defeated on battlefront, Ethiopian army turns to profiling ethnic Tigrayans
Witnesses say thousands of Tigrayans are being detained and their businesses closed in cities across Ethiopia in a new wave of ethnic targeting by authorities over the eight-month conflict in the Tigray region. The detentions follow the dramatic turn in the war last month when resurgent Tigray forces marched into...
When Ethiopian army quit Tigray, it left behind empty banks, looted shops and frightened people
Aid agencies say they’re baffled at the contradiction between the Ethiopian government’s stated commitment to let relief into the Tigray region following its recent ceasefire, and the lack of progress on humanitarian access they’re seeing on the ground. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared a unilateral ceasefire last month after...
Quarter-dose of Moderna Covid vaccine rouses big immune response
Two jabs that each contained only one-quarter of the standard dose of the Moderna Covod-19 vaccine gave rise to long-lasting protective antibodies and virus-fighting T cells, according to tests in nearly three dozen people. The results hint at the possibility of administering fractional doses to stretch limited vaccine supplies and...
Fears Covid will hit children harder has lowered vaccination age limit
On 21 June, Israel’s Ministry of Health recommended that all individuals aged 12-15 be vaccinated against Covid-19 – making the nation one of the few that have so far approved vaccinations for younger adolescents. The decision came in response to a trend that many countries with high rates of vaccination...
Ordinary Chinese drive ecotourism, central government provides incentives to create jobs
Terry Townshend, a wildlife conservationist and biodiversity adviser to Beijing’s government, has since 2017 been training yak herders in Qinghai in the kinds of skills that ecologists hope could be a model for sustainable development since 2017. In 2016, he met the official responsible for Zaduo, a county in Qinghai...
Tigray crisis: UN agency apathetic as trucks ferry Ethiopian refugees to Libyan horror camps
A donor letter that highlights the plight of Tigrayan refugees in Sudan lays the blame more squarely on UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which it accuses of having failed to ensure the presence of experienced, senior staff members in the camps and transit sites. The staffing problems have led...
Deepfake technology concerns trigger urgent search for answers among journalists, crime investigators
Deepfake video methods can digitally alter a person’s lip movements to match words that they never said. As part of an effort to grow awareness about such technologies through art, the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality created a fake video showing former US President Richard Nixon giving a speech about...
Scientists probe immune systems of bats to fathom how they host lethal viruses
For several weeks in March, Arinjay Banerjee would eat breakfast at 6am and then drive the empty roads of Toronto to a restricted-access lab. Then he’d ready himself for work, donning three layers of gloves, a helmeted mask kitted with an air-purifying respirator, and a surgical-style gown. The interlocked doors...
Massive tree projects must address scientific, political, social and economic concerns – experts
Trees are symbols of hope, life and transformation. They’re also increasingly touted as a straightforward, relatively inexpensive, ready-for-prime-time solution to climate change. When it comes to removing human-caused emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere, trees are a big help. Through photosynthesis, trees pull the gas out...
