Weather events, linked to a changing climate, brought misery to millions around the world in 2021 according to a new report. The study, from the charity Christian Aid, identified 10 extreme events that each caused more than $1.5bn of damage. The biggest financial impacts were from Hurricane Ida which hit the US in August and […]
The world is reflecting on the legacy of South African anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who died Sunday. The Nobel Peace laureate was known worldwide as a champion of human rights. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is being remembered for his efforts in transforming South Africa into the free Rainbow Nation it is today. “The […]
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace prize laureate who helped end apartheid in South Africa, has died aged 90. President Cyril Ramaphosa said the churchman’s death marked “another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans”. Archbishop Tutu had helped bequeath “a liberated South Africa,” he added. Tutu was […]
Millions of people are facing travel disruption and increased Covid restrictions over Christmas, as the surging Omicron variant sees safety curbs tightened and flights cancelled. Italy, Spain and Greece have made face masks compulsory outdoors again. Catalonia, in northern Spain, has imposed an overnight curfew, and the Netherlands is in a strict lockdown. Despite early […]
More than a dozen Western powers on Thursday expressed anger that Russian mercenaries working for the controversial Wagner Group have started to deploy in Mali, accusing Moscow of providing material backing for the fighters. The powers involved in the fight against an insurgency in Mali, including Canada, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, said they […]
The World Health Organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Wednesday that blanket COVID-19 vaccine booster programs will not bring a definite end to the global pandemic, but prolong it, as poorer countries struggle to vaccinate their populations because of unequal access to immunizations. While U.S. health officials urge citizens over the age of 16 […]
In the December holiday season of giving, undocumented immigrants in South Africa are getting the gift of COVID-19 vaccinations. The government, with the help of nonprofit groups, is offering the vaccine to the country’s estimated 2 million undocumented in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Until now, many could not get vaccinated […]
A US congresswoman has had her car and possessions snatched from her at gunpoint in a daylight carjacking in the city of Philadelphia. Mary Gay Scanlon’s government phone and ID were among belongings that the two robbers took. The Democrat was not injured, her office said. The FBI is assisting in the hunt for the […]
British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca and Oxford University say they are developing a new version of its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine that will provide protection specifically against the new omicron variant of the coronavirus. The vaccine is an adenovirus-based vaccine which, according to the Mayo Clinic, has been altered so it cannot integrate into a person’s DNA and […]
South African medical experts say a drop in coronavirus cases indicates the country has passed the peak of a fourth wave of infections driven by the omicron variant. Health officials say the omicron variant spreads faster than previous variants but has hospitalized far fewer patients. The number of new coronavirus cases in South Africa’s most […]
