Reminder of the information that matters

The Texas Handmaidens join a group gathered to protest abortion restrictions at the state Capitol in Austin, Texas in May 2019. Photo: Keystone

Texas governor signs ‘heartbeat’ abortion ban into law. Greg Abbott has signed into law an abortion ban which bars abortion at six weeks of pregnancy with no exception for rape or incest, and despite strong opposition from the medical and legal communities. The law also absolves the state of enforcing it through delegating authority to private citizens and allowing them to sue abortion providers, even outside of their state.

Turkey is banning the importation of plastic waste. Following an investigation by Greenpeace which revealed that British recycling was left to burn or dump by the roadside, Turkey is banning the importation of most plastic waste. The ban involves polyethylene plastic used in 94% of the UK waste exported to Turkey. It includes yoghurt pots, salad bags and plastic film and will take effect in 45 days.

Malawi burns nearly 17’000 expired AstraZeneca vaccines. 17’000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine which expired in mid-April were destroyed yesterday with Malawi’s health minister blaming ‘propaganda’ which led to reluctance by Malawians to receive the vaccine. Malawi has received three batches of the AstraZeneca vaccine amounting to 452’000 doses in total. The destruction comes at a time of global vaccine shortages, with some countries struggling to access vaccines.

Il est temps de raconter le monde

📵 Razzia sur nos data. Nos données personnelles sont recueillies chaque jour par Facebook ou Google, mais aussi par des entreprises qui sont beaucoup plus proches de nous, comme Coop, Migros, la Poste ou les CFF. Que font ces sociétés de cette montagne d’informations? Où ces données sont-elles stockées? Jusqu’où peut aller cette curiosité pour nos comportements? Heidi.news a mené l’enquête.

On the radar today

European parliament to vote on freezing China deal. The motion which is expected to be passed today will suspend Europe’s investment agreement with China. It follows what Members of the European parliament have described as China’s ‘baseless and arbitrary’ sanctions on EU lawmakers this year. The motion also proposes that trade deals with Taiwan not be ‘held hostage’ because of the China deal.

UN General assembly to meet regarding Israel’s ongoing offensive on the Gaza strip. The meeting is expected to address ‘the grave situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,’ according to the assembly’s president. It follows a similarly themed meeting last Sunday by the UN security council which ended with no ‘concrete outcome’. At least 200 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1305 people injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since last week.

Japan to decide on Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccine approval. The health ministry is holding a panel today to decide whether to approve the two COVID-19 vaccines. Pfizer is currently the only COVID-19 vaccine approved for use in Japan but the Moderna vaccine is expected to be used at mass vaccination sites in the country from next week, in order to accelerate Japan’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

Nigerian newspapers digitised by the members of the project. Credit: Archivi.ng/Reuters Institute

How a group of Nigerian journalists are digitising thousands of old newspapers. What if there was an archive for all Nigerian newspapers from 1960 till 2010? A group of volunteers journalists in Nigeria want to answer this question. The Tracking Archiv.ng project is hoping to archive 18’627 days of newspapers – one newspaper for each day from 1 January 1960, the country’s year of independence, to 31 December 2010.

In the African lab

Telda Team. Credit: Tech Crunch.

One month old Egyptian digital bank raises $5m in pre-seed round. Two out of every three individuals are currently unbanked in Egypt, despite the country’s youthful population. Telda, a one month old digital bank that wants to change this statistic by digitizing how Egyptians save, send and spend money, has just raised $5m in a pre-seed round, led by US based, Sequoia Capital, alongside Berlin-based Global Founders Capital and Class 5 Global.

African rainforests continue to slow climate change despite drought. Rainforests in six African countries have been found to be more resistant to extra heat and drought than tropical forests in the Amazon and Southeast Asia. The discovery made in a new study conducted by a team of researchers from Britain and Cameroon also revealed that forests across Africa still removed 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, which is equivalent to three times Britain’s CO2 emissions in 2019.

Rwandans born of genocidal rape have poorer health outcomes. The health of children conceived by women who survived the genocide in Rwanda is poorer when compared to children conceived by Rwandan mothers living outside the country at that time, and children conceived by genocide survivors who were not raped, according to a new study. The study was led by Glorieuse Uwizeye, who is a Rwandan genocide survivor and anthropology professor at Darthmouth university.

La suite de notre série béton!

Préparation de murs de paille en Suisse. (c) Damian Poffet

La résistance s’organise - en bois et en paille. Pas de fautif désigné sans proposer des alternatives! Car il en existe. Si 1 m3 de béton émet 250 kg de CO2 dans l’atmosphère, 1 m3 de bois en stocke jusqu’à 700 kg. Bois et paille sont renouvelables et peuvent transformer nos architectures en puits de carbone. Alors pourquoi ne pas les utiliser davantage? Vous verrez, on est loin du mythe des trois petits cochons.

It may surprise you

Co-wives of Ugandan member of parliament fight on stage during swearing in ceremony. In a viral video, the two co-wives of Moses Attan, an MP in Uganda’s Soroti East shoved each other during the swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday while arguing about who gets to stand next to him, with each saying ‘I am his wife». Attan looked on as the two women hustled for the position without intervening.

Nigerian governor’s aide arrested over $350 million fraud. Abidemi Rufai, a senior special assistant to the governor of Ogun state in Nigeria, has been arrested in the US for using an alias Sandy Tang, to steal over $350,000 in unemployment benefits from the Washington State Employment Security Department. Rufai stole the identities of more than 100 Washington residents to file fraudulent claims with ESD for pandemic-related unemployment benefits.

Wine safe to drink? Maybe not. There’s no safe amount of alcohol consumption for your brain. A UK study of 25’000 people has revealed that any amount of alcohol consumption is harmful to the brain, with even «moderate» drinking adversely affecting nearly every part of it. The study postulates that the more alcohol one drinks, the lower the brain volume which means the worse off the brain becomes, adding that wine and spirits both have the same effect on the brain.

Le certificat d’immunité est en développement, mais ses conditions d’usage en Suisse n’avaient pas encore été définies. C’est chose faite avec le projet présenté le 19 mai par Alain Berset.

L’ouverture de la vaccination dès 18 ans, effective dans le canton de Vaud depuis le 26 avril, a sonné le coup d’envoi pour la mise à l’essai du dispositif itinérant et en partie sans rendez-vous.

Barton Haynes, auteur principal de l’étude et immunologiste à l’université Duke: «Si nous avions un vaccin préapprouvé contre toutes les espèces de beta-coronavirus, nous pourrions couper court aux épidémies en le déployant rapidement, dès les premiers signes».