The International Health Regulations Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization has said COVID-19 is no longer a global public health emergency. The global health body, about six weeks before describing it as a pandemic, had declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern in January 2020. During that time, there were more than 10,000 cases of the virus, most of them in China. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General at...
Amid the global conversation on returning artworks and artefacts that were pillaged from Africa during the colonial era, South Africans are calling for Britain to return the world’s largest diamond, known as the Star of Africa. The diamond is set in the royal sceptre that King Charles III will hold at his coronation on Saturday. Officially known as Cullinan I, the diamond in the sceptre was cut from the Cullinan diamond, a 3,100-carat stone that...
Amid protracted conflict in Sudan, the United States should work to lower the temperature amongst external actors, and support Sudanese citizens, who remain steadfast in their aspirations for a civilian-led government. Sudan’s suffering deepens by the hour, as self-serving army and militia forces battle for supremacy in a struggle totally divorced from the aims of the 2018-2019 revolution, in which the people of Sudan bravely stood up to one of the world’s most brutal...
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that 6.2million children are zero dose (unvaccinated), a consequence of the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 to 2021 in Nigeria. WHO also noted that the Africa Region estimates show that the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine immunization services has driven up the number of zero-dose and under-immunized children, rising by 16% between 2019 and 2021 and pushing the cumulative total (2019–2021) to around...
A most-wanted Nigerian human trafficker in Italy has been extradited from Abuja to Rome to serve 13 years imprisonment. According to reports, the 48-year-old woman, identified as Joy Jeff, has been wanted in Italy since 2010 for crimes including human trafficking and running a prostitution ring. She had been sentenced to 13 years in prison in absentia by the Italian authorities. Jeff played a leading role in trafficking women to Italy, Spain and the Netherlands,...
The Spanish parliament has approved a three to five days menstrual leave for women, making Spain the first European country to do so. The Economic Times reports that the law was passed on Thursday, February 16, 2023. The bill got 154 out of 185 votes cast during the parliamentary session. Irene Montero, the nation’s equality minister, lauded the support the bill enjoyed from the parliament. She noted that the law is momentous in terms of...
Culled from the Conversation | Lorna Grisby (Senior Politics & Society Editor) The year 2022 has been full of confounding events. Russia invaded Ukraine. The Supreme Court overturned a 50-year precedent guaranteeing the right to abortion. Midterm election results overwhelmingly contradicted pundits’ predictions. And so much more. But, as regular readers, you know the politics editors and the scholars we collaborate with provided deep analysis and explanation to help you make sense of it all....
Argentina led France 2-0 at half-time with a 23rd-minute penalty from Lionel Messi and a 36th-minute strike from Angel Di Maria. However, Kylian Mbappe’s double goals in the 80th and 81st minutes, gave the defending champions hope of lifting the cup once more and secured France in the game. Messi poked in a goal to put Argentina 3-2 ahead in the 108th minute before Mbappe completed his hat-trick two minutes before the end of extra...
Time announced on Wednesday, hailing the 44-year-old Ukrainian president for his courage in the face of Russia’s invasion and for inspiring Ukrainians to remain steadfast and resist Russia’s full-scale invasion, which it launched in late February. In a feature story on Zelensky, the magazine said: “Zelensky’s success as a wartime leader has relied on the fact that courage is contagious. It spread through Ukraine’s political leadership in the first days of the invasion, as everyone realized...
The federal government has raised alarm over the high rate of theft of valuables, including passports of Nigerians in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe. “It has come to the attention of the government that Nigerian travellers to the US and some countries in Europe are having their belongings, especially money and international passports, stolen at an increasingly high rate,” the minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, said at the fifth edition of...
