Month: November 2023

There has been a surge in pneumonia in China

A study by a University College London’s Computational biologist, Francois Balloux, has found that infections with Mycobacterium pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes pneumonia, are increasing in China. “Since China experienced a far longer and harsher lockdown than essentially any other country on Earth…it was anticipated that those ‘lockdown exit’ waves could be substantial in China,” Balloux said.

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RememberingRosalynn Carter; Sam Altman heading to Microsoft

A joint United Nations humanitarian assessment team has gained the first outside access to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. The team, led by WHO, is working to safely evacuate the remaining patients at the hospital, as the Israeli military has told Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate further south along a so-called safety corridor.

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Scientists say progress on the treaty is too slow

The Centre for International Environmental Law (CILE) said lobbyists from fossil fuel and chemical industries registered for the latest round of negotiations. The increase of 36% from the last round of talks that ended in June is evidence of governments allowing fossil fuel companies to shape the negotiations, it added. “It’s clear the present process cannot overcome the coordinated opposition,” it further said.

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Is Israel’s military strategy to eliminate Hamas working?

The UN has said that it has received the first outside access to Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa Hospital, which was recently seized by Israel. A UN humanitarian assessment team visited the hospital on Saturday and saw first hand the dire circumstances of the facility, the groups said. Israel had ordered 2,500 people to leave the hospital grounds by the time the team arrived.

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Netanyahu won’t say who the new government is for Gaza

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country wants to do three things in Gaza: destroy Hamas, free the hostages it’s holding and give Gaza a different future. Israel is responding to an attack by Hamas on October 7 which killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. Israeli troops this week took over a major hospital centre in northern Gaza.

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Biden and China’s XI did agree on a few things, but they did not hit a reset

Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden held their first face-to-face meeting in over a year on Wednesday in San Francisco. Biden urged Xi to continue to withhold military support to Russia. The issue of Taiwan featured prominently at Wednesday’s meeting. Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong said ” the entire country” was tuning in to the meeting.

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The UK’s huge programme to lower blood-sugar levels really worked

Many participants in a UK national diabetes prevention programme who do not participate in the programme are members of minority-ethnic communities that are at particularly high risk of diabetes and its complications, scientists have said. Eligibility for the programme is determined by blood sugar level. The researchers said there was a correlation between drops in blood sugar and improvements in cardiovascular health.

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Israeli troops enter Gaza’s largest hospital and find Hamas weapons

Israeli forces on Wednesday entered Gaza’s largest hospital Al-Rantisi Hospital after the final blast of the conflict, officials said. The military claimed it had proof that Hamas tunnels were under the hospital. The analysis of video footage showed three projectiles were fired into the hospital from the north and south, contrary to the map released by the I.D.F.

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I am optimistic about COP 28

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres has said that over the past six years, the world has “failed to live up to the commitments” it made during the Paris Climate Agreement. “The US and other nations still have a long way to go,” she added. Figueres had earlier said that the world is on track to exceed the target of 2.6C of warming.

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Gaza’s largest hospital digs a mass grave

Gaza City’s largest hospital has said that it has buried “more than 100 people in a mass grave” amid the ongoing conflict with Israel. It added that bodies decompose in its courtyard and infants are dying because their incubators have no power. A statement by Gaza’s Ministry of Health said more than 12,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict.

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