Reminder of the information that matters

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France records over 200’000 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The country has surpassed infection records repeatedly over the past few days reporting 180’000 cases on Tuesday which already made it the highest for a country in Europe. Health Minister Olivier Veran described the situation as ‘dizzying’ saying recent figures mean two French people test positive every second.

31 bodies retrieved from collapsed mine in Sudan. Rescue workers retrieved the bodies from a gold mine in West Kordofan province on Wednesday. The defunct mine that collapsed on Tuesday in Sudan, a major gold producer, is estimated to have killed 38 people with around eight injured persons.

Russian court orders 2nd Ban of a major Human Rights group. The ban on the Memorial Human Rights Center, which monitors political prisoners in the country with a database of around 435 names comes just a day after the court ordered the closure of a sister human rights organization, Memorial International, and as part of a widespread clampdown on Russian rights groups, independent media, and opposition supporters.

Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of sex trafficking a minor. A jury found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty on five of six counts related to her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of minor girls between 1994 and 2004. Maxwell, 60, had pleaded not guilty to six federal charges. She faces up to 65 years in prison.

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On the radar today

Travel ban on 55 countries to be lifted in Israel. Most African countries are expected to be removed from the ban list today, alongside some European countries, including Germany, Denmark, and Italy. The ban which took effect earlier in December amidst the spread of the Omicron variant will still apply to countries such as the U.S., U.K., and South Africa with Mexico being added to the list.

USA: Court hearing of Mom and Stepmom who allegedly beat 9-year-old son to death continues. The trial of 36-year-old Jenna Miller, the biological mother of Elijah Ross who died on December 17th resumes today. Jenna has been charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death and that endangers the child while Alesha Miller, Jenna’s spouse has been charged with aggravated battery resulting in death for directly beating the victim.

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From criminal to ‘teacher’: the ex-gangster tackling crime in Nairobi. 32-year-old Peter Wainaina was introduced to crime when he was 12 years old within Nairobi’s Kibagare slum. Wainaina spent over a decade of crime until he stopped in 2009 and since then, he has guided hundreds of criminals to do the same. Through his organization, Slums Network Reform, he is using his experience in the world of crime to bridge the gap between an angry population and an often brutal police force.

In the African lab

Where was the first social network? In Africa. 50’000 years before Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, tiny beads helped humans make social connections in Africa, according to a new decade-long study of more than 1,500 beads. The beads made from ostrich eggshells and found in 31 different sites across southern and eastern Africa were used to communicate symbolic messages.

South Africa’s Planet42 raises $30M to grow its car subscription service. The company which buys used cars from dealerships and rents to customers through a subscription model raised $6 million in equity and $24 million in debt financing totaling $30M. Planet42 lists more than 7000 cars to customers in South Africa and is targeting an expansion to Mexico with this new funding.

Mummy of Egyptian pharaoh digitally unwrapped. The pharaoh, Amenhotep I, who lived around 3500 years ago was unwrapped in a milestone procedure by a team of Egyptian researchers who deployed advanced X-ray technology, computed tomography scans, and digital software. It allowed researchers to uncover Amenhotep’s face and decipher his age and health at the time of his death.

Sur Heidi.news aujourd’hui

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How late is Switzerland on the third dose of the covid vaccine? Switzerland is among the countries in Europe that have waited the longest before starting booster vaccinations against Covid-19 - the ‘third doses’. One to two months after the start of the field campaigns, where are we? Heidi.news takes stock in a few graphs.

EXCLUSIVE - A pregnant mare with the first genetically increased foal. A step has been taken in the history of genetic modification, Heidi.news has learned, and the case will make a big splash. On its farm in San Antonio de Areco, Argentina, the company Kheiron Biotech has just transferred the first embryo edited with CRISPR-Cas9 genetic scissors into a surrogate mare. The manipulation is aimed at making the horses faster.

Winter fatigue or blues? No need for food supplements. At the slightest sign of fatigue or winter blues, everyone has their little advice: ‘you should take a little magnesium cure, that would do you good’, ‘you must be starving for the sun, take vitamin D’, a touch of zinc here, a bit of vitamin C there. But is this nutrient supplementation justified?

It may surprise you

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Your love for black coffee and dark chocolate might be genetic. According to caffeine researcher Marilyn Cornelis at Northwestern University who in a recent study discovered a genetic trait resulting in a propensity for people who prefer their coffee black to also like dark and bitter chocolate.

Harmful New Year prophecies to attract a five year jail term in Ghana. The Ghana Police Service has cautioned religious leaders in the country to avoid making New Year prophecies that foresee harm, danger, or death or risk a five-year jail term. More than 70% of Ghana’s population is Christian and prophecies on New Years eve are a custom across many mega-churches in the country and the wider West African region.

What if you could taste food on a ‘TV’ screen? Soon you might be able to. A Japanese professor has created a lickable TV screen that can mirror food flavors and allow viewers to taste what’s on the screen. The device, called Taste the TV (TTTV) comprises 10 flavor tins that shoot in combination to create the taste of a particular food. This mixed flavor then rolls onto a hygienic film for the viewer to taste.