Initiative aimed at shielding young people from economic impact of Covid-19 will provide 750,000 paid placements
Nigeria has launched a much-delayed programme that promises to provide jobs for more than 750,000 young people amid worsening youth unemployment.
The scheme, launched this month, is being hailed by government officials as the largest job creation initiative in the country’s history.
Continue reading...WHO team touches down in Wuhan; pharmacies in England begin vaccine rollout; New York Mayor warns city will fall short of its inoculation goals unless it gets more vaccine
Pre-prepared disaster plans for handling pandemics, natural disasters and terrorist attacks show London had 3,500 mortuary spaces. But the capital braced for the virus with an additional 12,000 mortuary spaces.
If cemeteries could not cope, bodies would be frozen to await their final committal. There were plans to transport scores of bodies at a time between storage locations in trucks, the official said, a practice that risks misidentifying or even losing the dead:
Related: Dealing with death: Covid's toll on UK crematoria and morgues
England’s high street pharmacies will begin rolling out Covid vaccines, as the virus death toll across the UK climbed above 100,000.
Boots and Superdrug branches will be among the six stores across England which will be able to administer the jabs from Thursday while the Government aims to hit its target of vaccinating all people in the four most vulnerable groups by the middle of next month.
Andrews Pharmacy in Macclesfield, Cullimore Chemist in Edgware, north London, Woodside Pharmacy in Telford and Appleton Village pharmacy in Widnes will be in the first group to hand out the injections, alongside Boots in Halifax, and Superdrug in Guildford.
Boris Johnson also told MPs that distribution “will be going to 24/7 as soon as we can” but said supply of doses remained the main barrier.
The Scottish Government published its vaccine delivery plan on Wednesday evening, including details of how many doses it expects to receive for each week until the end of May, prompting a row with London, which has declined to publish its numbers.
The six pharmacies have been picked because they can deliver large volumes of the vaccine and allow for social distancing, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was “fantastic” that jabs would be available on the high street.
“Pharmacies sit at the heart of local communities and will make a big difference to our rollout programme by providing even more local, convenient places for those that are eligible to get their jab,” he said.
By the end of the month more than 200 community chemists will be able to give vaccines, according to NHS England.
The pharmacies join the 200 hospitals, around 800 GP clinics and seven mass vaccination centres where jabs are already being handed out.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged ministers to go further and use England’s 11,500 pharmacies to deliver round-the-clock vaccinations by the end of next month.
The expanded vaccination service in England comes as the daily reported UK death toll reached a new high on Wednesday, with 1,564 fatalities recorded within 28 days of a positive test.
The latest figures meant the grim milestone of more than 100,000 deaths involving coronavirus has now been passed in the UK, according to official data.
Bobi Wine’s challenge to Yoweri Museveni seen as emblem of Africa-wide generation gap
Ugandans have cast their votes after one of the most keenly watched and violent election campaigns in a generation, as the pop star turned politician Bobi Wine tries to unseat Yoweri Museveni from his 34-year rule.
Delays were seen in the delivery of polling materials in some places, including where Wine voted in the capital and opposition stronghold of Kampala. After he arrived to the cheers of a crowd and cast his ballot, Wine made the sign of the cross and then raised his fist and smiled. He said he was confident of victory.
Continue reading...Stella Nyanzi is Uganda's most outspoken, self-described radical queer feminist. She has been imprisoned for her activism and is known for her attention-grabbing naked protests and poetry. In an election campaign that has become increasingly violent, Nyanzi is standing to be the elected MP for Kampala, as part of the growing nationwide opposition to the 35-year presidency of Yoweri Museveni.
With most attention focused on Museveni's presidential challenger Bobi Wine, Nyanzi is on the streets and in the media campaigning for her own votes. She vows that, unlike other women who have been elected, she will not forget her commitment to feminism if she wins
Continue reading...A dealer who dreams of discovering the source of a mystical substance that lets you see the future heads deep into Africa
Drug smuggler Hugo (Nicolas Fagerberg) has “the connect”. Or he’d like to think he does. Certainly this debut feature from British director Dan Moss knows several good spots, guiding us through a series of impressive locations with the confidence of a seasoned traveller. After Hugo’s big-money hashish deal in a partly flooded Mumbai building site goes wrong, he’s introduced to Bulu, a blue-powdered hallucinogen with mystical properties. “They say it makes you see the future,” says his go-between (Ashish Verma). Could this mysterious substance make Hugo enough money to satisfy his UK-based bosses? He’ll have to track down a supply source first.
Everything about the London drug world that Hugo then stops off in – from the 80s punk get-ups of the big players to the readiness with which these supposedly shrewd operators approve Hugo’s wild goose chase – is risibly unrealistic. But he’s soon en route to “Fort Lugard, Uganda”, where the plot is on safer ground.
Continue reading...One of Africa’s most prominent literary figures says the election will be crucial for the continent
Global outrage at the storming of the US Capitol risks diverting attention from repression by Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, the Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka has said on the eve of Uganda’s election.
Soyinka, a Nobel laureate and one of Africa’s most prominent literary figures, described Thursday’s election as “crucial for the African continent”, and called for the 76-year-old Museveni and other older African leaders to step aside for a younger generation.
Continue reading...US plans to open a consulate in Western Sahara mark a turning point for the disputed territory. US recognition of Morocco’s authority over the land frustrates indigenous Sahrawis seeking independence but others see the future US consulate as a boost for Western Sahara cities like Dakhla
Continue reading...Amid rising infection rates, authorities suppress efforts to discuss levels of vital supplies, as relatives’ claims fuel concerns
Filming on his phone inside Egypt’s Hussainiya hospital, Ahmed Mamdouh pans around the ward to show beds occupied by motionless bodies. “All the people are dead,” he says. Mamdouh’s own relative had just died, for which he blames a lack of medical oxygen.
In another video, a screaming woman at Zeftah hospital in Gharbiyeh governorate demands nurses help resuscitate a relative. In a third, a man in Damanhour, in the Nile delta, gasps for air, glassy-eyed as he holds an oxygen mask in his hand. “There is a lack of oxygen,” he says, extending an invitation for local health minister to come and witness the problem. “Join us, minister.”
Continue reading...French president vows to overhaul France-Africa event to help mobilise Africa’s young people
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has pledged to invite young Africans rather than their political leaders to a key France-Africa summit in a video call with the actor Idris Elba.
The Élysée Palace said Elba, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ international fund for agricultural development, had asked to speak to the French leader. The Guardian was the only newspaper invited to attend the discussion at the Élysée, which marked the start of the One Planet biodiversity summit in Paris.
Continue reading...If we use this pivotal moment to shift funding to grassroots groups we could unlock transformational change
While the US continues to reckon with its long-simmering struggle against racial injustice, it is important to remember that racism is not just a homegrown problem – we are also exporting it.
As we begin 2021, global philanthropy has an opportunity to address this.
Continue reading...The death toll of animals and humans is mounting as herders seeking dwindling reserves of pasture clash with farmers
In February last year, Sunday Ikenna’s fields were green and lush. Then, one evening, a herd of cattle led into the farm by roving pastoralists crushed, ate, and uprooted the crops.
“I lost everything. The situation was sorrowful, watching another human being destroy your farm,” says Ikenna, a father of 10 who farms in Ukpabi-Nimbo in Enugu state, southern Nigeria. “I farmed a smaller portion this year because I am still scared of another invasion.”
Continue reading...Presidential challenger Bobi Wine has been protesting against corruption and youth unemployment
As Uganda readies for an election on Thursday, President Yoweri Museveni is doubling down on his main rival and preparing himself for a sixth term in office.
After 35 years in power, he faces a powerful opponent, the popular singer Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, 38, known by his stage name Bobi Wine, who has captured the hearts of a new generation by protesting against corruption and youth unemployment.
Continue reading...Previous attacks against rangers blamed on militias fighting to control land and natural resources
Armed men have killed at least six rangers and wounded several others in an ambush in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga national park, a sanctuary for endangered mountain gorillas, the park said.
The identity of the assailants was not immediately clear, said Olivier Mukisya, a Virunga spokesman. Previous attacks against the rangers have been blamed on various militias who fight to control land and natural resources in eastern Congo.
Continue reading...Covid fatigue, super-spreader events and a virulent local variant of the virus put economy and healthcare in crisis
South Africa is struggling to contain a second wave of Covid-19 infections, fuelled by a virulent new local variant of the virus, “Covid fatigue” and a series of “super-spreader” events.
On Thursday health officials announced 844 deaths and 21,832 new cases in a 24-hour period, the worst toll yet. Experts believe the second wave has yet to reach its peak in the country of 60 million, and fear healthcare services in the country’s main economic and cultural hub may struggle to cope with the influx of patients.
Continue reading...As a campaign marred by violence comes to an end, Bobi Wine warns President Museveni to learn from history
Millions of voters in Uganda will cast their votes this week in an election pitting a 76-year-old president seeking his sixth term against a former popular musician half his age.
The contest between Bobi Wine, 38, and Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, is being keenly watched across the continent, where veteran leaders are coming under pressure to give way to politicians more representative of Africa’s increasingly youthful, urban and educated population.
Continue reading...Chin’ono tweeted that police had taken him from his home, charged with ‘communicating falsehoods’
Police in Zimbabwe have arrested the prominent journalist Hopewell Chin‘ono, for the third time in six months, his lawyer said.
Doug Coltart said he was en route to the police station to confirm the charges against his client.
Continue reading...WHO urges rich countries to stop making bilateral deals with manufacturers; Denmark to restrict entry from all countries after today
The United States has set a new daily record for new coronavirus cases, with 290,000 cases reported in 24-hours, according to the Johns Hopkins global tally.
Some 3,676 people in the US died with the virus in the same period.
Mexico has reported 14,362 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 1,038 deaths.
It is one of the highest daily case increases and brings the total number of cases in Mexico since the pandemic began to 1,507,931, with 132,069 deaths.
Continue reading...Rise in cases reported after workers returned from South Africa for Christmas, with many crossing illegally to avoid tests
A Covid-19 disaster is threatening the small southern African kingdom of Lesotho after revelations that the government released people who had tested positive for the virus from quarantine early.
Government sources this week said they had been sending Covid-19 patients home from as far back as last June over cost concerns.
Continue reading...Country accounts for less than 0.1% of global emissions but suffers disproportionately from related disasters, say new report
Kenya needs $62bn (£46bn) to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis in the next 10 years, according to a government document sent to the UN framework convention on climate change. It equates to almost 67% of Kenya’s GDP.
The report illustrates the scale of the challenge as the country aims to cut greenhouse gases by 32% within the next decade. It will rely on international sources to fund close to 90% of the expenditure. Securing such a colossal amount of often contentious climate financing from rich countries yet to honour their commitments to the $100bn target pledged during the 2015 Paris agreement will be a tall order.
Continue reading...Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, known as Bobi Wine, is the Ugandan presidential hopeful trying to unseat the long-serving president, Yoweri Museveni.
The candidate was dragged from his car as he announced a petition to the international criminal court to investigate rights abuses in the country
Continue reading...