ANGOLA AND US ANALYSE EDUCATION COOPERATION

 Angola and the United States of America (USA) on Wednesday in Luanda assessed cooperation strategies between the higher education institutions of both countries, particularly in this period of pandemic.

The assessment took place during an online University Conference, on the occasion of International Education Day, promoted by the Ministry for Higher Education, Science and Technology and Innovation (MESCTI) and the US Embassy in the country.

The conference, which took place under the motto: Engagement - Global - Resilience, essentially aimed at reflecting on the internationalisation of higher education.

The event assessed how Angolan universities are dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, and touched on the issue of experience with international institutions.

It also allowed discussion on how to rethink higher education from an international point of view, and to evaluate Angola's vision regarding international partnerships, specifically concerning universities in the United States.

Speaking at the ceremony, US Ambassador Nina Fity said that American universities are interested in exchanging experiences with their Angolan counterparts in the areas of agriculture, food safety, science and technology.

According to the diplomat, the universities interested in exchanging experiences with Angola are of the cities of Washington and Philadelphia.

"We want to invest in partnership in these areas, because they are critical and are for transformation and lever for the development of a society", expressed the Ambassador.

In her turn, the Minister for Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Maria do Rosário Bragança, said that Angola was ready to implement this partnership in 2021.

COVID-19: ANGOLA REPORTS 104 NEW INFECTIONS, FOUR DEATHS

 One hundred and four new infections, four deaths and 41 patients recovered is the balance presented on Wednesday in Luanda by the health authorities.

According to the Secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda, who was speaking at the usual update session, the cases are of 58 citizens from Luanda, 20 from Benguela, 14 from Huambo, 4 from Cabinda, 4 from Uige, 3 from Cuando Cubango and one from Bengo.

The new patients, he said, are between 1 and 70 years old, 63 of them male and 41 female. The deaths, he said, were registered in Luanda, with two, Uíge, with one, and Benguela, with also one.

Among those recovered, 27 were registered in Luanda, 8 in Huila and 6 in Huambo.Angola has 13,922 positive cases, with 332 deaths, 6,623 recovered and 6,967 active patients. 

Of the active people, nine are in a critical state with invasive mechanical ventilation, 10 severe, 187 moderate, 393 mild and 6,398 asymptomatic symptoms.

Green is the new black in boom for clean energy funds

Investors are pouring money into green funds, banking on a Joe Biden presidency in the United States for a further boost to the renewable and alternative energy industry at the expense of traditional oil and gas businesses.

Shares in solar and wind energy businesses, electric vehicle companies and environmental technology pioneers have been on the rise for months, widening their lead over fossil fuel rivals since the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3.

Even without U.S. President-elect Biden’s win, investors have been positioning for governments worldwide to enact more climate-friendly legislation. The UK, for instance, announced this week that it would ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2030 to cut carbon emissions.

Data from research firm Morningstar shows that investors plowed 1.9 billion euros ($ 2.3 billion) into European renewable energy investment funds in the July-September period, 11 times the amount for the same months last year.

In contrast, European conventional energy funds tracked by Morningstar achieved third-quarter inflows of less than 115 million euros.

Globally, traditional energy funds have been haemorrhaging cash in recent years, halving assets under management here (AUM) since 2018.

Morningstar does not track U.S. alternative energy funds, but in Europe the August-September inflows to such vehicles touched their highest in at least three years, taking AUM to a record 9.8 billion euros.

That’s more than double 2018 levels here

AUM at European funds investing in oil and gas, meanwhile, dwindled to 4.85 billion euros.

POLICY SHIFT

Investors were loading up on green energy holdings in the run-up to Biden’s victory.

Though U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to concede the Nov. 3 election, Biden has pledged to tie the U.S. economic recovery to tackling climate change in a significant policy shift from Trump’s easing of regulations on fossil fuel. He has also vowed to rejoin the Paris climate accord that Trump exited.

October energy fund flow data is not yet available, but provisional numbers suggest a big swing towards funds that claim to meet environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, though that includes investing in conventional energy companies.

Net flows into all energy funds deemed ESG-compliant topped a record $ 1.79 billion in October, against $ 871 million for traditional energy funds, according to EPFR fund tracker.

The centerpiece of Biden’s climate plan is a target of net zero carbon emissions for the U.S. economy in later than 2050.

Analysts at financial advisory firm Raymond James noted that getting there would require a dramatically different pace of decarbonisation. They warned that Republican control of the Senate would “make it difficult, if not impossible” for Biden to enact major climate reforms.

“Investors looking for such reforms will need to focus on Europe rather than the U.S.,” they wrote.

However, many fund managers are undeterred by legislative roadblocks in Washington.

Guillaume Mascotto, head of ESG at American Century Investments, said the appeal of investing in renewable energy assets would continue irrespective of regulatory developments as understanding of the technology improves.

STEAMING AHEAD

The RENIXX Renewable Energy Index, which tracks the 30 largest renewable energy companies worldwide, has more than doubled in 2020, including a 9% gain in November.

The S & P500 energy sector index meanwhile is down 41%, hurt by a slump in oil prices.

NextEra Energy, an American renewable energy company, this month briefly overtook U.S oil majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron in market capitalization after a 28% rise in its shares since January.

Other strong performers include Invesco’s Solar Exchange Traded Fund, up 143% in 2020, and First Solar, which has registered a 46% gain.

Among Europe’s top-performing greener energy companies are Vestas Wind Systems and EDP Renovaveis. Vestas shares have risen by 72% this year while Spanish renewables business EDP has gained 62%, lifting its market value to 15 billion euros.

Graphic: Renewables steam ahead in 2020, traditional energy slumps -

Five dead, many wounded in suicide bomb attack in Somalia

At least five people have been killed in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant near a police academy.

Mohamed Abdirahman, a police officer at the scene, said two of the victims of Tuesday’s attack were police personnel.

More than 10 people were wounded and rushed to hospital, some in serious condition, Abdirahman told AFP news agency.

Witness Abdukadir Hussein said there had been dozens of people in the restaurant when the attack took place.

“Many of the people inside were wounded and I personally saw the… dead bodies of two people,” he said. “The whole area was in a mess as the blast destroyed everything.”

Another witness, shopkeeper Mohamed Ali, told Reuters news agency police opened fire after the blast went off. He said he could see huge clouds of smoke rising above the restaurant and ambulances trying to reach the site, in the city’s Hamar Jajab district near Mogadishu port.

Another witness, Mohamud Ahmed, said heavy rain had sent a lot of people into the restaurant to seek shelter.

“As I was sipping tea and looking down, [a] blast occurred. From there I don’t know what happened, ”he told Reuters. His legs, hands and head had been hit by shrapnel from the explosion, which he said had also given him concussion.

The al-Shabab armed group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement carried by the SITE intelligence agency.

The al-Qaeda-linked group frequently carries out bombings and gun attacks on military and civilian targets, including at hotels, intersections and checkpoints, as part of its campaign to topple the country’s internationally recognized government.

Thousands of people have died in the fighting between the fighters and government forces.

At least 13 Somali soldiers were killed by al-Shabab in October near the district of Afgoye.

In August, 10 civilians and a police officer were killed in a gun-and-bomb attack by al-Shabab on an upscale beachfront hotel in the capital.

US COVID-19 death toll hits quarter of a million

 A quarter of a million Americans have died from COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The milestone reached on Wednesday follows a stunning surge in cases this fall, with the country repeatedly shattering records for daily new case numbers and several states reporting record high hospitalization rates.

President Donald Trump’s unwavering insistence that the coronavirus is on its way out couldn’t be further from the truth. Less than two weeks after Trump lost his bid for a second term to President-elect Joe Biden, the U.S. surpassed 11 million cases - about a fifth of all infections worldwide.

“We're still facing a very dark winter,” President-elect Biden warned Americans last week, predicting that the death toll will climb as people congregate indoors more and Trump finishes his final weeks in office while downplaying the severity of the disease, dismissing the need for masks and other basic safety measures, refusing to issue national guidelines, insisting that states reopen their economies, and blaming testing for the high rate of cases.

The 250,000 dead-and-counting are the Trump administration’s legacy: America’s grim mortality statistics are the direct result of political decisions by the country’s leaders. Every non-political explanation has steadily fallen away as other countries proved this disease could be managed.

Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong, among the most densely populated places in the world, have had vanishingly small outbreaks and are now returning to their pre-coronavirus activity. Within the United States, the severe initial outbreak in New York City seemed to indicate that density was to blame, but the country’s second densest city, San Francisco, had a much smaller outbreak. Caseloads have spiked in states that are heavily suburbanized and rural, including Idaho, North Dakota and Arkansas.

And while America’s status as a transportation hub did indeed result in the early arrival of the virus, other countries even closer to the genesis of the outbreak in China have fared far better. Mongolia, which shares a border with China, hadn’t reported a single COVID-19 death by November. Vietnam, China’s neighbor to the south, had recorded just over 30 fatalities. Germany, Australia and Japan also host large numbers of international travelers, and all have had far less severe outbreaks than the United States.

Since the first confirmed case in late January, Trump has alternated between pretending the virus doesn’t exist, downplaying its significance and blaming others for its effects. While the country was under quarantine - an act of collective self-sacrifice unparalleled in post-World War II history - Trump did next to nothing to develop testing and contact tracing infrastructure.

The incoming Biden administration has its work cut out. Trump has spent most of his final year in office discrediting public health experts, refusing to wear a mask and holding large super-spreader events at the White House. He led by example, and America followed. Biden has vowed to deploy a national mask mandate, but how effective will that be when Trump has politicized safety measures and convinced so many Americans - including state and local leaders - that masks aren’t important?

Hope for recovery in the U.S. now almost entirely hinges on the development and deployment of a coronavirus vaccine. There’s a lot of optimism around trials showing that Pfizer’s vaccine is 90% effective, and public health experts say that some people could receive it by the end of the year.

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Michael B. Jordan named People magazine’s ‘sexiest man alive’

 “Black Panther” actor Michael B. Jordan was named People’s magazine’s ‘sexiest man alive’ on Tuesday, the third Black actor in a row to be given the annual pop culture honor.

Jordan, 33, who is single, said the title gave him “a cool feeling.”

“It's a good club to be part of,” he told People in an interview.

Jordan began his career as a child actor in TV shows like “All My Children” and rose steadily though Hollywood until a breakout performance in the 2013 social justice drama “Fruitvale Station.” In 2015 he starred in the “Rocky” boxing sequel “Creed” and three years later took on villain Erik Killmonger opposite the late Chadwick Boseman in “Black Panther.”

Jordan, whose title was announced on TV show “Jimmy Kimmel Live !,” follows singer John Legend and British actor Idris Elba, who were named sexiest man alive in 2019 and 2018.

The actor has been vocal in calling for greater diversity in Hollywood. His production company in 2018 was the first to publicly adopt inclusion riders, which stipulate that a film employs a diverse cast and crew.

Earlier this year, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests over racial injustice, Jordan teamed up with nonprofit Color of Change and launched an initiative outlining concrete ways in which Hollywood could invest in Black stories and anti-racist content.

Jordan said the women in his family are proud of his People magazine title.

“When my grandmother was alive, it was something that she collected, and then my mom naturally reads it a lot and my aunts as well. This is one that they’re definitely going to have a special place for, ”he told the magazine.

Jordan appears on the cover of the People magazine double issue appearing on newsstands on Friday.