How US sanctions compromised Iran’s cyberdefence, touched off hacking spree that spills out into physical world
In April 2020 hackers infiltrated the systems of an Israeli water-pumping station and tampered with equipment. Individual pumps started malfunctioning as officials scrambled to keep water supplies flowing for millions of people. After the incident, which has been linked to Iran, officials said the damage could have been much worse:...
How conflict between Yemeni government and Houthi rebels crushed the dreams of four million refugees
As fighting intensifies around the central Yemeni city of Marib, thousands of people are being forced to flee the violence each week. But for many, this is just the latest upheaval in more than six and a half long years of war. Sixty-five-year-old Salih al-Asoudi and his 14-member family have...
Why is Africa increasingly resorting to foreign militaries and mercenaries to provide security?
The African continent is in a situation where governments and states are increasingly turning to private military and security companies, and mercenaries for protection. Recent reports indicate the presence of the Russian Wagner Group in Africa, particularly in the Central African Republic (CAR), and its alleged imminent arrival in Mali....
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...
