The World Health Organization (WHO), on Monday, said that persuading people on the merits of a COVID-19 vaccine would go a long way rather than trying to make it mandatory. AFP reports that the global health body said it would be down to individual countries as to how they want to conduct their vaccination campaigns … Read more
Joe Biden President-elect Joe Biden on Monday named the team tasked with turning around the United States’ floundering efforts to quell the Covid-19 pandemic, nominating Xavier Becerra as his secretary of health. When Biden takes office on January 20, his health team will be immediately responsible for rolling out a historic immunization drive set to … Read more
The United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), on Monday, requested for $2.5 billion in new funds for 39 million children impacted by war, poverty and the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa. UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Ted Chaiban, said the regions are home to the … Read more
More than 60,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Italy since the pandemic hit early this year, according to the latest official toll published Sunday. AFP reports that restrictive measures aimed at stemming the spread of the virus were nonetheless eased in several regions as the rate of infections stabilised and pressure eased on hospitals. … Read more
Donald Trump President Donald Trump says his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for Covid-19. The president wrote in a tweet: “Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!” Mr Giuliani, who has been leading the Trump campaign’s legal challenges to the 2020 election results, is the latest person in the president’s inner circle … Read more
Brexit British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen will hold talks Saturday to try to break the deadlock in post-Brexit trade deal negotiations, with time running short. The crunch phone call, expected during the afternoon, follows UK and European Union envoys pausing last-ditch talks late Friday and acknowledging that the … Read more
President-elect Joe Biden says Americans won’t be forced to take a coronavirus vaccine when one becomes available in the US. BBC reports that it comes as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the first time urged “universal mask use” indoors, unless when Americans are at their own home. The CDC said the US had … Read more
A 15-year-old Czech boy, on Friday, survived a fall from the 19th floor of a block of flats in Prague. Czech police and media said the boy was lucky his fall was broken by the roof over the building’s entrance. “We were called following the fall of a person most probably from the 19th floor,” … Read more
Yellow fever A yellow fever outbreak in Nigeria has killed 172 people so far, the World Health Organization said Friday. The outbreak poses an extra challenge to the country’s health system as Africa’s most populous nation deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, several concurrent disease outbreaks and a humanitarian crisis in the northeast, the WHO said. … Read more
Over 1.5 million COVID-19 deaths have been recorded worldwide from nearly 65 million cases, according to an AFP tally on Thursday based on official statistics. There have been 1,500,038 fatalities from 64,774,705 cases since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China in December. The worst affected region is Latin America and the Caribbean with … Read more
US President-elect Joe Biden has said he will ask Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office to curtail the spread of coronavirus. He told CNN he believed there would be a “significant reduction” in Covid-19 cases if every American wore a face covering. Mr Biden also said he would order masks … Read more
Mali Mali’s interim government on Thursday announced the composition of a new legislative body for the West African country’s transition to civilian rule, with the military retaining a strong role. Young army officers in the conflict-ridden Sahel state toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18 after weeks of anti-government protests. Under the threat of … Read more
Online piracy remains widespread all over the world, including African countries. The Nigerian Copyright Commission, which is trying to curb this problem, has estimated that over $1 billion is lost due to piracy per year. To help local authorities fight back, the U.S. embassy in Nigeria has donated 50 laptops and other gadgets, Ekohotblog gathered. … Read more
The United States will block imports of cotton it says are harvested with “slave labor” in China’s Xinjiang region, authorities have announced. Beijing has come under intense international criticism over its policies in the resource-rich territory, where rights groups say as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in … Read more
Donald Trump Still irate and bitter one month after his election defeat to Joe Biden, Donald Trump is openly musing about a second run at the US presidency in 2024. Refusing to accept defeat, Trump’s lawyers and supporters continued Wednesday to file lawsuits and even call for extraordinary intervention, such as martial law, to force … Read more
Valery Giscard d’Estaing dies of coronavirus Former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing, a leading advocate of European integration who led his country into a new modern era, has died of Covid-19, his family said. He was 94, Ekohotblog gathered. Giscard, who had been in the hospital several times in recent months for heart problems, died … Read more
Mexico has announced it signed an agreement on Wednesday with US pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer to buy 34.4 million vaccines against the coronavirus. Mexico To Procure 34.4 Million Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccines, with a first batch due to arrive this month. The Latin American nation has reported almost 107,000 Covid-19 deaths – one of the world’s highest … Read more
As well as rendering global economic activity vulnerable, the Coronavirus pandemic has also dragged down wages, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) disclosed on Wednesday in a report. The ILO found “the crisis is likely to inflict massive downward pressure on wages in the near future” in a report issued weeks after it estimated the pandemic … Read more
Boris Johnson Prime Minister Boris Johnson is “optimistic” about striking a post-Brexit deal with the European Union but ready for Britain to trade on new terms without one, aides said on Wednesday. “He is optimistic but he’s also always said that he is confident and comfortable that we would be OK without a deal,” Johnson’s … Read more
Joe Biden President-elect Joe Biden formally introduced on Tuesday the officials who will lead his economic team, which is poised to take the helm of the federal government as the nation grapples with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Joined in Wilmington, Delaware, by each of the six future nominees and appointees as well … Read more