Reminder of the information that matters

The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines distributed by the COVAX Facility arriving at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana. Francis Kokoroko/UNICEF via AP

Ghana becomes first Nation to receive coronavirus vaccine from COVAX. The United Nations backed COVAX initiative has just granted its first delivery of coronavirus vaccines to Ghana. 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the West Africa country signaled the beginning of what might be the world’s largest vaccine supply operation. COVAX was designed with the intention to bring vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable people.

Assad regime agent convicted in Syria torture verdict. Eyad al-Gharib, a 44-year-old former colonel in the Syrian intelligence service has been found guilty by a court in Germany, for being an accomplice in crimes against humanity. Al-Gharib was sentenced to four years and four months in prison a historic first in global calls for legal accountability in Syria’s war.

Thai Ministers sent to jail for insurrection. 14 political leaders including three incumbent ministers and twelve others have been found guilty of insurrection during anti-government protests seven years ago. They received varying sentences ranging from five years to seven years and four months. The seven-month-long protests in 2014 eventually led to a military coup.

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

First foreign envoy since coup arrives in Myanmar. Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi is expected to fly to Myanmar today. It is the first known foreign envoy in the country since the coup in which the military seized power earlier in February. Marsudi is in Myanmar to discuss elections that the military says it would hold and to ensure they are ‘free and fair’.

New US Ambassador to the UN to present her credentials to the General Secretary. Linda Thomas-Greenfield who was confirmed as the new US Ambassador to the UN earlier this week is set to meet the General Secretary, António Guterres to present her credentials today. Thomas-Greenfield is the second Black woman to serve as UN Ambassador and has experience working across Africa.

Yassin Saeed 76, an Egyptian farmer sits on a plot of land in the town of Atfih, Giza, Egypt. AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty.

A new technology is helping Egyptian farmers learn more about the soil. What if there were sensors in the soil that could tell farmers when the field needs water and how much water is needed through an app? Well, there is. Farmers in Egypt, where agriculture consumes more than 85% of the country’s share of the Nile, don’t have to be on the farm to know this information, in a new move aimed at addressing the country’s water shortage challenges.

In the African Lab

A human population collapse? Yes…and it was likely caused by an epidemic in Africa. The Congo rainforest underwent a population collapse from 1600 to 1400 years ago, according to a new study published in the journal, Science Advances. The study says the collapse was likely caused by an epidemic and that significant resettlement did not start until about 1000 years ago.

South African digital bank startup raises $109 million. Tyme Bank announced a $109 million fundraise from investors, making it one of the largest raises by a digital bank on the African continent. The bank has 2.8 million customers and says it onboards over 100,000 new users each month. TymeBank which is speculated to be Africa’s fastest-growing digital bank has already received $34 million of its total investment.

Spotify is coming to 41 new African countries…it’s a big deal. Until this week, audiences in 41 African countries could not access the streaming platform Spotify, except with a VPN. The service is taking away the need to scale hurdles and is now available in 80 new countries, including 41 from Africa, where the streaming platform market continues to grow as seen with Youtube Music and Audiomack launching in Nigeria last year.

Sur Heidi.news: Covid-19: un an

La situation en EMS est-elle aussi dramatique que les médias le font croire? A Genève, les résidents en EMS de plus de 80 ans sont deux fois plus touchés que les non-résidents du même âge.

Le Conseil fédéral persiste: les magasins rouvrent au 1er mars mais pas les restaurants. Le gouvernement évoque une réouverture complète des restaurants le 22 mars, pour autant que la situation épidémique s’avère favorable à la mi-mars.

Pourquoi il faudra s’habituer à des records répétés de surmortalité en Suisse à l’avenir. 2020 a été une année où la surmortalité des plus de 64 ans a atteint des sommets. Epidémie ou pas, la Suisse devra s’habituer à enregistrer de plus en plus de morts chaque année. Explications.

Un an de crise raconté par celles et ceux qui la gèrent. Alain Kolly des HUG, Phillippe Eckert du CHUV, les professeurs et médecins Didier Pittet, Samia Hurst ou Antoine Flahault ainsi que plusieurs médecins cantonaux: retour sur une chronologie qui s’est emballée, pendant un an, avec celles et ceux qui étaient au cœur de la crise.

Pourquoi la mort a disparu à la faveur de l’épidémie de Covid-19? Entre contraintes sanitaires restreignant les adieux aux défunts et banalisation de ces décès que l’on ne veut, que l’on ne peut plus voir, la mort a quasiment disparu…

Qu’arrive-t-il aux corps des personnes décédées du Covid-19 à l’hôpital? Le Dr Johannes Alexander Lobrinus des HUG raconte le parcours des corps des patients Covid-19 dont la mort est survenue à l’hôpital et le travail abattu au sein de la morgue sur l’année écoulée.

It might surprise you

In Uganda, banana waste is being turned into rugs, fabrics..and even hair extensions. A company in Kampala, Uganda is making Uganda’s mountain of banana waste gotten from the giant stems into useful products. TexFad is converting the waste into a useful fiber, leading to decreased air pollution as the stems are usually burnt and posing the question: could banana waste be the new cotton or silk?

Long term COVID-19 sufferer? You may lose your hair in six months. Scientists have discovered that alopecia or hair loss is a long-term effect of COVID-19, especially in women. The study revealed that more than a fifth of coronavirus patients lose their hair within six months of being infected, alongside other long term effects like fatigue or muscle weakness, sleep difficulties, and anxiety or depression.

Nearly half the time, female UTI’s are treated with wrong antibiotics. Doctors gave the wrong antibiotics to nearly half of 670, 400 people diagnosed with a UTI, according to a new study. More than three-quarters of those women also received antibiotic prescriptions for longer than was medically necessary, a worrying discovery, seeing as overprescribing antibiotics is also a leading cause of antibiotic resistance for many infections.