Biden positions US to retake lead role in climate agenda as he prepares for office
When Joe Biden won the US presidency earlier this month, it seemed like a huge opportunity to restore the country’s position as a leader in the fight against climate change. But whether he’ll be able to deliver on his climate agenda – the most aggressive ever put forth by a...
Senate GOP accepts Biden’s win, seals Trump’s November 3 loss
Senate Republicans are finally starting to recognise Joe Biden as the next president of the United States — even if they waited until the very last minute. When asked on Monday afternoon whether Biden was the president-elect, some GOP senators paused and asked how far along the Electoral College count...
Curtains come down on the life of Charley Pride, country music’s first Black superstar
Charley Pride, a son of sharecroppers who rose to become country music’s first Black superstar on the strength of hits including “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’” and “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone,” died on Saturday in hospice care in Dallas. He was 86. Jeremy Westby, a publicist for Mr...
Children’s immune systems can repulse coronavirus
Young children account for only a small percentage of Covid-19 infections – a trend that has puzzled scientists. Now, a growing body of evidence suggests why – kids’ immune systems seem better equipped to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 than are adults’. “Children are very much adapted to respond – and very well...
Dark side of Big Tech’s funding for Artificial Intelligence research
Last week, prominent Google artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru said she was fired by the company after managers asked her to retract or withdraw her name from a research paper, and she objected. Google maintains that she resigned, and Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a company memo on...
Antitrust litigation isn’t enough, Biden will need to go beyond the law
On Wednesday this week, the Federal Trade Commission and 46 states, the District of Columbia and Guam filed parallel antitrust suits against Facebook for the acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram, and practices that excluded competitive threats in social networking and messaging. In October, the Department of Justice and 11 states...
Corporate Council on Africa launches US-Africa health resilience initiative
Corporate Council on Africa will launch the US-Africa health security and resilience initiative at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on December 15 formally. The two-year initiative brings together US and African opinion leaders, corporations, multilateral organisations, foundations and other players in the health sector to create strategic...
US fair trade agency sues Facebook for ‘illegal monopolisation’
United States fair competition agency, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) moved to a federal court on Wednesday to seek a permanent injunction that, if granted, will among other things require divestitures of assets, including Instagram and WhatsApp. The agency also wants Facebook prohibited from imposing anti-competitive conditions on software developers besides...
Agents raid home of fired Florida data scientist for declining to manipulate Covid data
State police brandishing firearms early this week raided the Tallahassee home of Rebekah Jones, the former Department of Health employee who built the state’s much-praised Covid-19 dashboard before being fired over what she said was refusing to “manipulate data.” “They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at...
Coronavirus origin: ‘Without it, we are flying blind’
It is a big ask. Intensified detection of coronavirus in humans might require doing a thorough evaluation of any patient who comes to any hospital or clinic with the kind of symptoms that are usually dismissed. An unexplained fever or the symptoms of a respiratory infection that has no obvious...
