Reminder of the information that matters

Tanzania’s President, John Magufuli. Credit: AP/Keystone

Where is Tanzania’s President? Media is swirling with speculation that Tanzanian president, John Magufuli is in a hospital abroad receiving treatment for Covid-19. The 61-year-old leader nicknamed ‘The Bulldozer’ was last seen in public in late February. From the beginning of the pandemic, Magufuli has downplayed the threat of Covid-19 in Tanzania.

Russia slows down Twitter to protect its citizens. Russia has announced that it is imposing restrictions on the social media platform Twitter for failing to remove illegal content including more than 3,000 posts with banned content from its platform. The upload speed of photos and videos to the social media platform has been slowed down in a move that is part of continuous efforts by the government to tighten control of social media.

Ivory Coast’s Prime Minister dies at 56. Hamed Bakayoko has died from cancer in the German city of Freiburg, where he was receiving medical treatment, according to the government. His death on Wednesday came two days after his 56th birthday and some eight months following the passing away of his predecessor. On Monday, President Alassane Ouattara had named his close confidant and chief of staff, Patrick Achi, as interim Prime Minister in place of Bakayoko.

Il est temps de raconter le monde

🙂 On a trouvé des journalistes heureux! A l’occasion de notre premier lustre de journalisme, nous vous proposons de découvrir une toute nouvelle Exploration très à propos: On a trouvé des journalistes heureux! Alors que la presse est à la peine, cette enquête axée solutions dresse le portrait de médias qui marchent, un peu partout. Ou comment redonner un peu d’optimisme à notre beau métier!

On the radar today

Biden to deliver first primetime address on COVID-19. The speech is designed to align with the one-year anniversary of the lockdowns prompted by the coronavirus. In his address, President Biden is expected to touch on the many sacrifices Americans have made in the past year and the great losses that communities and families across the country have suffered.

Morocco resumes discussion about legal use of cannabis. The Morocco Government Council will examine a bill to allow for the legalization of cannabis in Morocco. The draft bill which has been discussed in the last two meetings of the council but not passed proposes the use of cannabis for medical and therapeutic purposes. Should this bill go through, it will make Morocco one of the first to do so on the African continent.

Members of the Okere City community. Photograph: Katumba Badru Sultan/The Guardian

The Ugandan city built on solar, shea butter and people power. What does an inclusive and community-centric city design look like? Uganda might have the answer. Development expert and LSE graduate, Ojok Okello is transforming his village in Northern Uganda which was destroyed by the war into a green town where social enterprises responsibly harness the shea tree.

In the African Lab

Flutterwave CEO, Olugbenga Agboola. Credit: Techpoint Africa

African payment company raises $170 million in Series C funding. Flutterwave’s new round of funding was lead by New York-based private investment firm, Avenir Growth Capital and U.S. hedge fund and investment firm, Tiger Global. It also means the company is now valued at over $1 billion and is Africa’s second fintech unicorn in under two years. With over 290,000 businesses using it, Flutterwave plans to with this new funding list on the New York Stock Exchange.

How much of published COVID-19 research is relevant to Africa? Only 4%. A new study has revealed that only four percent of scientific research published on COVID-19 is relevant to Africa even though the continent makes up nearly a fifth of humanity and has over four million confirmed cases. Authors of the study which reviewed over 2’000 articles say this points to growing evidence of medical colonialism and the under-representation of African authors.

In Nigeria, Apple has a new head. Teju Ajani who was formerly a country manager for Google has joined Apple this month to head the US giant’s operations in the country. Apple has no physical office on the continent. In Nigeria, less than 10% of the population use the Apple IOS, with Android being the dominant player in that sphere.

Sur Heidi.news aujourd’hui

Coûts de la première vague en Suisse: plus de 1,5 milliards de francs. L’institut CSS d’économie empirique de la santé a présenté hier sa nouvelle étude sur l’évolution des coûts de la santé lors de la première vague de coronavirus. Principales conclusions: les mesures de lutte contre le coronavirus ont entraîné un recul des coûts de 246,4 millions de francs dans l’assurance de base de la CSS, et l’effet de rattrapage attendu pendant l’été n’a pas eu lieu. Extrapolé à toutes les assurances du pays, cela représente un manque à gagner de plus 1,5 milliard de francs pour le secteur de la santé. Tour d’horizon graphique.

Vaccin d’AstraZeneca: la Suisse a-t-elle raison de faire la fine bouche? Voici plus d’un mois que dans l’immeuble de Swissmedic à Berne, le dossier du vaccin d’Oxford-AstraZeneca dort au fond d’un tiroir. Le 3 février 2020, l’agence suisse des produits thérapeutiques a décidé de ne pas délivrer son feu vert avant d’avoir reçu de nouvelles données cliniques. Ce choix, assumé par la Confédération, fait débat. De plus en plus de voix se font entendre pour dénoncer cette situation quelque peu ubuesque, en pleine pénurie de vaccins.

Liste des dangers qui guettent l’OMS et la Genève internationale à l’épreuve du Covid. Centre névralgique de l’effort collectif sans précédent à l’échelle planétaire qu’est la lutte contre la pandémie de Covid-19, la Genève internationale a assis son statut de capitale mondiale de la santé publique. Avec son Pôle santé d’une septantaine d’entités, elle s’est retrouvée aux premières loges pour analyser les réussites et les échecs de la gestion de crise, répertoriés dans un rapport publié mardi 9 mars par la Fondation pour Genève et rédigé par Annick Chevillot, par ailleurs responsable du flux santé de Heidi.news.

It might surprise you

Impossible to decapitate oneself? This sea slug says otherwise. Scientists in Japan have discovered that the sacoglossan sea slug is able to decapitate itself and then regrow an entirely new body including a beating heart and vital organs. The process which involves shedding the previous body and then regrowing is called autotomy and took under a month to be completed.

You can taste cannabis ice cream, noodles, and drinks in Thailand. A cannabis exhibition generated a lot of interest in Thailand recently after the government unlocked hemp use in food and cosmetics in a bid to promote the crop as a cash crop. At the convention in Buriram province which was organized to sensitize the public about cannabis use, guests were able to taste hemp-based noodles, ice-cream, and drinks.

What’s worse than a shark? A glowing shark. New Zealand Researchers have discovered three new shark species that glow in the dark. The kitefin shark, the blackbelly lanternshark, and the southern lanternshark were found during a January 2020 survey off New Zealand’s east coast. The discovery is the first time scientists have been able to prove bioluminescence in sharks.