Reminder of the information that matters

Russian police officers block a street during an opposition rally in Moscow, Russia, 21 April 2021. Photo: Keystone

Russian Police arrest more than 180 people at Navalny demonstrations. The demonstrations in support of imprisoned opposition leader, Alexei Nalvany, were called following reports that Navalny’s health was deteriorating because he embarked on a hunger strike which began on March 31. Many of the protesters were arrested before the protests began and comprised of two top Navalny associates in Moscow.

Indonesian Navy submarine missing with 53 people onboard. The vessel which went missing on Wednesday north of the resort of the Island of Bali was rehearsing for a missile-firing exercise that was to take place on Thursday when it missed a scheduled call. The navy which is currently searching for the submarine believes that it sank into a trough with a depth of 700 metres (around 2,300ft).

Ghanian actress who posted nude photo freed on bail. Rosemond Brown who was convicted last week for posting nude photos of herself beside her son on social media was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Brown was found guilty on Friday on charges of publishing obscene materials, domestic violence, and undermining the privacy and integrity of another person. The photo was shared on social media back in 2020.

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On the radar today

China’s president to attend Biden’s climate change summit. President Xi Jinping is attending a two-day meeting on climate change in the US, which will begin today. This is the first time the two leaders will participate at the same event since Joe Biden became US president and it comes amidst growing tensions between Beijing and Washington, both of whom are the world’s largest greenhouse gases emitters.

Trial of South African girl accused of assaulting Lufuno Mavhunga continues. The 14-year-old girl who appeared before the Thohoyandou magistrate court on Tuesday for a bail application that did not proceed is set to appear before the court again today and before a new magistrate. Lufuno Mavhunga died in an apparent suicide following bullying she suffered at her school. In a viral video on social media, Mavhunga is seen being slapped repeatedly by a pupil.

Delhi court likely to provide verdict on Whatsapp and Facebook’s pleas against a privacy probe. In March, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had ordered a probe into Whatsapp’s new privacy policy but separate pleas from both Facebook and Whatsapp have contended this, saying the CCI has ‘drifted far away’ from the competition aspect and was looking into privacy.

Moleskine Foundation

Africa’s Wikipedia editors are changing how the world sees the continent. There’s more information about the country of France than the entire continent of Africa on Wikipedia and so since 2018, the WikiAfrica Education initiative has been working to change that by mobilizing a new generation of Africa-based Wikipedia editors.

In the African lab

Nigerian Fintech startup Okra raises $3.5m seed round. Barely one year after it’s $1m seed round, the API fintech solution has raised $3.5m in a new round led by US-based Susa Ventures, with participating partners including Accenture Ventures and TLcom Capital, among others. Okra intends to use this round to scale its Open Finance-as-a-service operations.

Drug-resistant malaria gaining foothold in Africa. A new study published in The Lancet is the first clinical evidence researchers have that drug-resistant mutations of the parasite which causes malaria are increasing in Africa. This has been a long concern for experts on the continent which accounted for 90% of the malaria deaths in the world in 2019. 10 mutations in one of the parasite’s genes have been confirmed as markers of partial resistance.

Amazon to set up African headquarters in South Africa. US multinational company Amazon has announced that it would set up it’s African headquarters in Cape Town. This comes barely a week after Twitter announced it was opening an office in Ghana, a move many described as shunning Nigeria for what they said were ‘hostile’ business policies. Amazon intends to create a 150,000 square metre mixed-use space in Cape Town, divided into commercial and housing uses across two precincts.

It may surprise you

Skip work for 15 years but continue to be paid a salary? It’s possible if you’re in Italy. A 67 year old man which the Italian press is calling the ‘King of absentees,’ is believed to have broken the national record for allegedly skipping work for 15 years, while continuing to earn a monthly salary. The man who was an employee at Pugliese Ciaccio hospital in the Calabrian city of Catanzaro had not shown up for work since 2005. Since then, he’s been paid a salary amounting to around £464,000.

The restuarant only employing formerly incarcerated individuals. Two friends from Philadelphia are determined to reduce the city’s recidivism rates by running a pizza shop that is staffed exclusively by formerly incarcerated men and women. After seeing how incarceration impacted their families and how many of their loved ones couldn’t find employment after leaving prison, Evans and Abdul-Hadi knew the pizzeria was the perfect way to help reduce Philadelphia’s recidivism rate.

Your short sleeping durations may lead to dementia later in life. A new long-term observational study is reporting a nexus between short sleep durations of under six hours in midlife and an increased risk of dementia in old age. The 25-year-long research is one of the longest studies to pinpoint this link. The study found late-life dementia risk increased by 30 percent in people with persistent short sleep durations across their 50s and 60s of less than six hours a night.