Author: Steven Sahiounie

Australian officials extended coronavirus restrictions to the coastal region of Byron Bay on Monday morning, amid concerns that the virus has spread from the capital city of New South Wales, Sydney, to the state’s northern tip. The decision to expand lockdown measures to more areas of New South Wales comes despite Byron Bay and farming town Tamworth, which will be subject to seven days of restrictions, reporting no new cases of Covid. However, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian took the step after two infected individuals travelled to those areas. “I know they’re sick of it, I know they’re angry…

The city of Wuhan has tested virtually every resident, except for children under six and those on vacation, in a sweeping effort to prevent a new Covid-19 outbreak in the metropolis where the pandemic is believed to have started. Mass testing in the capital of Hubei province was launched on Tuesday, after authorities discovered a handful of locally transmitted cases, marking the first time that Covid-19 infection has been registered in the city since June 2020. With an army of 28,000 medical staff mobilized to test 11.28 million residents at over 2,800 sampling sites set up across the city, the sweeping…

Afghan officials have reported that Toofan Omar, a radio station manager, has been shot and killed and that Nematullah Hemat, a local journalist, has been kidnapped. They are holding the Taliban accountable for both incidents. Omar was reportedly shot by suspected Taliban fighters while on his way to Kabul on Sunday. Local officials reported the news on Monday and also disclosed the kidnapping of a journalist in the southern Helman province. Omar was the station manager of Paktia Ghag Radio and was a contributing member of the Nai Media Watch, a group that supports the rights of Afghan journalists and…

Australia’s pharmaceutical body has granted Moderna’s Covid vaccine conditional approval for use in the country in a bid to boost inoculation rates, with the first million doses set to arrive in September. On Monday, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Moderna’s Covid vaccine has been added to the country’s list of approved medicines. Australia has begun the rollout of the biotech firm’s jab to increase inoculation coverage across the country. “We have more doctors, we have more nurses, we have more pharmacists, we have more jabs in arms and now 10 million Moderna to add this year,” the prime minister said,…

The United Nations has warned there is increasing evidence that climate change is already delivering extreme weather conditions across the world. and that many changes might be irreversible for centuries or even millennia. On Monday, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a bombshell report on climate change, urging the immediate cessation of fossil fuel burning. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the report’s findings as a “code red for humanity.” “This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet,” Guterres said in a statement, adding that “the alarm bells are deafening.” The UN dossier draws…

More than 500 anti-Semitic incidents have been linked to the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany, during which Jews were blamed for both the virus and the lockdowns, a report by a watchdog group shows. The results of the study by the Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS) were reported by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. The watchdog recorded 561 pandemic-related anti-Semitic incidents across Germany between March 2020 and March 2021. The majority of them (60%) occurred during public protests, during which Jews were blamed for the coronavirus and subsequent lockdowns. In other instances, Jews described being…

Heavy rain had already cost 250 million yuan ($38.57 million) in economic losses in Sichuan, China’s southwest, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Saturday night. Floods have affected about 121,600 people in six cities across the province, according to the CCTV. In addition, 45 houses were destroyed, and 118 houses were badly damaged. China is routinely hit by heavy rainfall in the summer. Moreover, severe storms struck central China’s Henan Province last month, with the province capital, Zhengzhou, receiving the equivalent of a year’s worth of rain in only three days.

The distillation of water using solar energy is one of the most common and easy methods used today. UrFU scientists collaborated with Iraqi colleagues to create a hybrid technique that uses a spinning hollow cylinder and a solar collector to improve evaporation efficiency within a solar distiller. The new technology will reduce desalination costs and quadruple the output capacity. The method uses solar energy to distill water, possibly rendering clean water for a big part of the globe suffering from water shortages – especially in the Middle East and Africa, countries with high solar energy potential, and water shortage. It…

The United States dollar rallied to a four-month high against the euro and reached its peak in two weeks against the yen. The USD rose to $1.1742 against the EU’s euro, continuing its 0.6% gain last Friday. This comes along with a strong US employment summary report, which stoked bets that a reduction in asset purchases could start this year and higher interest rates could follow in early 2022. The employment situation summary report showed Friday that jobs increased by 943,000 in July, in comparison with the 370,000 projected by analysts in a Reuters survey. Ken Cheung of Mizuho Bank…

The Israeli occupation forces continued Sunday their assaults on Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem, where the IOF assaulted several Palestinians and arrested three of them at Damascus Gate. Videos taken at the site show Israeli occupation soldiers brutally assaulting several Palestinians and threatening those attempting to defend them with their weapons. Scores of IOF-protected settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque from Morocco Gate, who then carried out provocative tours in its courtyards and performed Talmudic rituals and prayers. Near the entrance, an Israeli settler was seen trying to uproot a tree. He then gave up and headed towards Al-Aqsa to storm the holy…