Air pollution tied to 15 per cent of Covid-19 deaths
Long-term exposure to air pollution may be linked to 15 per cent of Covid-19 deaths globally, according to a new study. Published in the journal Cardiovascular Research on Tuesday, the research from German and Cypriot experts analysed health and disease data from the United States and China relating to air...
When self-styled global police turn guns on self
City and state officials in the United States should review their laws, policies and practices ahead of the next week’s general elections to ensure that they protect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. Five international human rights organisations say in letters to over 3,500 mayors and city council members...
If Trump wins, LGBT asylum seekers have no room in US
When Pricila, a 32-year-old trans woman, fled El Salvador in February 2019, she had good reason to fear for her life. Police had beaten and sexually assaulted her, telling her they would make her a man. Gang members attempted to forcibly recruit her. They extorted her, burned her, beat her,...
African finance institutions call for collaboration in development activities
Africa’s largest development finance institutions have emphasised the need for a sustained and collaborative approach among development partners to scale up project development activities. It is expected the approach will boost the number of bankable projects attracting investor interest and contribute to closing the infrastructure finance gap in Africa. The...
Fifth Africa fintech summit to be held virtually
The fifth Africa Fintech Summit will be hosted virtually this year through the Accelevents platform from November 9t-12th, 2020. The Summit takes place at the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic that has brought unprecedented need for digital trade & finance and positioned fintech as key to economic recovery. This...
Push to save giraffes gets political in the US election
The economic and political setbacks triggered the coronavirus has thrown into disarray conservation of the giraffe, faces threats from poachers for skins and other body parts. Conservation charity Space for Giants is teaming with The Independent newspaper of Britain to protect wildlife at risk of being wiped out by poachers...
Julian Assange: Governments selectively enforcing laws to punish those who provoke their ire
As the extradition hearing for Wikileaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange unfolds, it is increasingly clear that the prosecution of Assange fits into a pattern of governments selectively enforcing laws to punish those who provoke their ire, reports freedom of information defenders Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). EFF now wants computer crime laws...
Cambridge Analytica neither misused data nor colluded with Russia, watchdog finds
Infamous now-defunct data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica did not directly misuse data to shift votes in the Brexit referendum, nor did it work with Russia to meddle in the vote, a three-year UK investigation has found. The organisation, which has in the past 10 years been blamed for electoral mess in...
Transformation index finds most of 15 largest tobacco companies don’t advance harm reduction
The first Tobacco Transformation Index (www.TobaccoTransformationIndex.org), released this week and made possible with funding from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, finds that most of the 15 largest tobacco companies are not making substantive progress in phasing out cigarettes and other high-risk tobacco products and transitioning smokers to reduced-risk alternatives....
Al Shabaab kills 55 as it expands its terror scope beyond East Africa
After more than two decades of waging terrorist attacks in Kenya, Al Qaeda-affiliated Somali cell Al Shabaab is apparently widening its scope following the killing of over 55 people in Democratic Republic of Congo precious mineral-rich eastern region of Ituri. According to Reuters, the group said to have Ugandan roots,...
