Zoom boom doom: Big Tech layoffs after making a killing when Covid pandemic ravaged the world
Layoffs continue to hit the tech industry, and this week they came for one of the pandemic’s biggest winners: Zoom. Yesterday, the video conferencing platform cut 15 per cent of its staff or about 1,300 people. That came after Zoom had tripled its head count in two years. “We didn’t...
Covid lessons: WHO drafts new code to help world to better prepare for future pandemics
The global response to Covid-19 represented a “catastrophic failure of the international community in showing solidarity and equity”. This frank assessment and admission comes in the opening line of the first or ‘zero’, draft of a new international pandemic agreement, published by the World Health Organization (WHO) last week. The...
New evidence details how drug made by Merck pharmaceuticals triggers Covid mutation, resistance
A drug widely used to treat Covid-19 might be spurring the evolution of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. The drug, molnupiravir, works by introducing a flurry of mutations to the viral genome; this helps to clear infections. But a study of more than 13 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences has uncovered sequences that bear...
NBA giant LeBron James erases basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s points record, vows to carry on
NBA superstar, LeBron James has vowed to keep playing after surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time leading points scorer. The Lakers forward, 38, went into the match-up with Oklahoma City needing 36 points to take the scoring record, and he finished with 38 points in a 133-130 loss....
Uganda says it won’t renew UN human rights office mandate citing own capacity to cope
Uganda has said it will not renew the mandate of the United Nations’ human rights office in the East African country, citing the development of its own sufficient capacity to monitor rights compliance. In a letter by Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Ministry sent to Office of the UN High Commissioner for...
Britain promises Ukraine increased military firepower to fend off increased Russian attacks
Britain announced an immediate surge of military deliveries to Ukraine to help it fend off an intensifying Russian offensive and pledged to train its pilots as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in London on a rare visit abroad. Zelenskiy was due to travel onto Brussels on Thursday where the European...
Burundi meet: Attempt by eastern Congo rebels to down South African airforce helicopter aborts
A weekend attempt to shoot down a South African military transport helicopter in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a further example of what the senior United Nations (UN) representative in the country called “a dramatic deterioration” in security. The words were used by MONUSCO head and UN Special...
Death toll in Turkey earthquakes rising rapidly towards 12,000 as seismologists warn of more quakes
The number of people known to have died in Syria and Turkey has surpassed 11,000 as rescue attempts continue for a third day. Two earthquakes that struck on Monday have quickly become the deadliest in Turkey since 1999, when 17,000 died, and the number is expected to continue rising. The...
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...
Kenyan court rules Facebook can be sued for exposing staff to mentally harmful social media posts
A worker who alleges reviewing graphic social media posts harmed his mental health can sue Facebook owner Meta, a Kenyan labour court says. Daniel Motaung claims he was paid about $2.20 (£1.80) per hour to review posts including beheadings and child abuse. He is also suing his then employer Sama,...
