Reminder of the information that matters

A Muslim woman walks past a sign reading ‘Stop killing Muslims Army’ on the walls in Kano, Nigeria. Credit: Keystone.

Court frees Nigerian minority Islamic leader and wife after six years in custody. Ibrahim Elzakzaky, leader of the Shiite Islamic group, and wife, Malamah Zeenah were discharged and acquitted by a Kaduna court in a ruling that lasted over eight hours on Wednesday. The duo had been tried on an eight-count charge including culpable homicide by the state government who accused them of causing the death of a soldier when soldiers massacred over 300 protesting Shiites in 2015.

England scraps quarantine for fully vaccinated EU, U.S. visitors. The new rule takes effect from the 2nd of August and comes amidst criticism from Britains Travel Industry which accused the government of being too slow to open up. It applies only to travelers who have taken US and EU approved vaccines and they will still be mandated to take a covid test before departure and shortly after arrival in England.

Astronomers detect light behind black hole for first time. Researchers spotted ‘luminous echoes’ which unlike regular Bright flares of X-rays that break out from a black hole are smaller, later, and of a different color. The discovery confirms Albert Einstein’s theory on general relativity, in this case, that black holes because of their gravitational pull bend light around themselves.

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Forum Mobilité. La 2e édition du Forum Mobilité se tiendra le 16 septembre à Genève et aura pour thème «La mobilité à l’heure post-Covid». Inscrivez-vous dès maintenant à cet événement et bénéficiez d’un tarif spécial abonnés Heidi.news.

On the radar today

White House to announce vaccine requirements for federal employees. President Joe Biden is expected today to make the announcement that will mandate federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing. It will come as part of a remark by Biden where he will lay out steps to increase vaccination rates as the Delta variant spreads across the country.

Chinese city set to issue first heavy ozone pollution alert. An air quality forecast from the ecological environment bureau of the city shows that Chengdu, the capital city of Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, will suffer from a moderate or higher risk of ozone pollution beginning today and which is expected to last for three days or longer.

Minority Africa

A board game for refugee children in Uganda is bridging the education gap. Uganda is one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world, yet the quality of education in refugee settlements is still lacking. Schools closures across the country in the past year have made the gap even clearer with refugee children unable to adopt newer and technology inclined forms of learning like their counterparts. A board game is changing that.

In the African lab

People walk along flooded streets after a heavy downpour in Ikorodu in Nigeria’s megacity of Lagos. Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. Credit: Keystone.

Eight of the 10 nations most at risk from climate and toxic pollution are in Africa. This was revealed by a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE. The study which considered 176 countries across the world also disclosed that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, and the Central African Republic are the worst off among the 10 nations most at risk.

South African payment platform Yoco raises $83m in Series C funding. The latest round is the largest single investment raised by a payments company in South Africa and the largest ever by a small business-focused payments platform in the Middle East and Africa. It brings the total funds raised by Yoco to $107 million and the platform says it will use this round to extend digital payments to 1 million SMEs.

Covid-19 to create 60 million more poor Africans by 2030, according to a new report. The study by the Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa (SDGC/A) revealed that when Covid-19 hit, Africa had 400 million people living in poverty, adding that the pandemic is likely to catapult that to 460 million people within the next decade. This would mean that 8 out of 10 of the world’s poorest people will be living in Africa.

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Anti-vaccine protesters march during a rally in Strasbourg, Saturday, July 17, 2021. Image: Keystone

Death of 22-year-old Frenchman crystallizes tensions around vaccination. In a viral video on the French web, the father of the 22-year-old Maxime Beltra, who died suddenly from an «allergic shock» on the evening of July 26 blames Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine and calls for a boycott of the vaccination. His son died at 11 p.m. after receiving the first dose at 2 p.m. But a new explanation for his death is emerging, and it is not related to the vaccine.

Not enough Swiss fruits and vegetables to meet demand. Vacationers are not the only ones who have to suffer the effects of the rainy July weather. So will lovers of Swiss fruits and vegetables will now have to fall back on imported products, with Swiss harvests having been severely affected by the bad weather.

The Swiss ‘James Bond’, his Vatican trial and his ‘Liechtenstein connection’. Ten people appeared before the criminal court of the Holy See on Tuesday this week for their involvement in alleged embezzlement, connected to the acquisition of a building in London that made the papacy lose 300 million euros. The London deal was made possible with a 200 million euro loan from Credit Suisse and involved a Ticino-based fiduciary.

It may surprise you

Pexels

Always wanted to share a cocktail with your dog? This London bar is now serving ‘puptails’. The bar called the ‘After Bark’ cafe opened in June and serves drinks such as a Bloodhound Mary or Barkarita to dogs brought along by their owners for a drink. These drinks are plant-based and free of alcohol and range from carrot juice, to shots of apple and beet juices.

Lion strays into Kenyan streets during morning rush hour. The male cat which escaped from the Nairobi National Park into a crowded neighborhood in the Kenyan capital caused panic for residents on Wednesday. It was eventually sedated by officials of the Kenyan Wildlife Service. Stray lions from the park are not unusual, in December 2019, a lion mauled a man to death just outside of the park.

Drinking a little each week actually protects your heart if you have a cardiovascular condition. Consuming up to 105 grams of alcohol each week which is the equivalent of just over a bottle of wine or a six-pack of medium-strength beer — appeared to protect people who had already suffered a heart problem from having another occurrence or early death, a new study from the Institute for Health Metrics has revealed.