Dr. Rita Bissoonauth - Election results

Good morning, everyone. We hope you are doing well this morning.

Dr. Rita Bissoonauth wishes to let you to know her bid to become the AUC Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation was not successful. Due to Rwanda clinching the AU Deputy Chairperson, Commissioner  all candidates from East Africa had to drop out. 

However, she is extremely grateful and humbled by your show of support and trust. Let us all continue to fight for the empowerment of girls, women, youth and Africa through quality and inclusive education. Together we can build the Africa We Want.

Do take note of AU Leadership as per the election held. The last two posts have been postponed until the next AU Executive Council Meeting. H. E Sarah Agbor Anyang continues to hold the post until then.

IITA/IFAD Agrihub Nigeria Project 2021 for unemployed Nigerian Youths.

 Application Deadline: February 27th 2021

This project is directed toward realizing IFAD’s vision in empowering African youth through the establishment of a network of youth-centered Agribusiness Hubs in Nigeria.

The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) through its Youth in Agribusiness office is collaborating with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Songhai center in Nigeria to implement the Integrated Agribusiness Hub Project. The IFAD Agrihub project in Nigeria aims to create sustainable employment and income generating opportunities for young people in agriculture and related activities in Nigeria by directly reaching 3410 young men and women within five years (30% for entrepreneurial track and 70% for employment track).

1) Capacity-building, training, and mentoring;
2) Technology testing, demonstration, and certification facilities;
3) Technology transfer;
4) International networking and collaboration;
5) Policy advocacy and market intelligence; and
6) Links to investors and other financing sources.

Click here to apply:  https://bit.ly/3rwkqlm

Pre-COP26 Youth4Climate Driving Ambition Event 2021 for youth Activists (Fully Funded to Milan, Italy)

 Application Deadline: February 28, 2021 http://bit.ly/2MJETnW

Almost 400 young people aged between 18 and 29 from the 197 member-countries of the UNFCCC (maximum limit 2 for country) will meet in 2021 in Milan, from 28 to 30 September 2021, to elaborate concrete proposals on topics that affect the negotiation process of Pre-COP26 in Milan (30 September - 2 October 2021) and COP26 in Glasgow (1 - 12 November 2021).

The meeting in Milan is part of the process of involvement of young people, which started in 2019, also thanks to the support of Italy, with the United Nations Youth Climate Summit, held in New York on 21 September 2019.

The event will offer young people from all over the world the opportunity to develop concrete proposals for Pre-COP26 in Milan and COP26 in Glasgow. The first two days will be dedicated to working groups, while the last day to a discussion between the young delegates and the Ministers attending the Pre-COP26.

Swedish Institute Scholarships for Global Professionals (SISGP) 2021/2022 for Master’s Level Studies in Sweden (Fully Funded)

 Application Deadline: 18 February 2021 

The SI Scholarship for Global Professionals aims to develop future global leaders that will contribute to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and contribute to a positive and sustainable development in their home countries and region.

Criteria

You must be a citizen of a country that is eligible for the scholarship programme.

You must be liable to pay tuition fees to Swedish universities, have followed the steps of university admission, and be admitted to one of the eligible master's programmes by the 9th of April 2021.

Benefits

SI fully covers your tuition fees to the Swedish university you are attending. This is paid directly by SI at the beginning of each semester.
You will receive a regular payment of SEK 10,000 to cover your living expenses throughout the scholarship. This payment is given monthly throughout the scholarship period.
Insurance against illness and accident.
Membership of the SI Network for Future Global Leaders(NFGL) – a platform to help you grow professionally and build your network while in Sweden.
After your scholarship period has ended, you gain membership to the SI Alumni Network. As a member, you get a unique opportunity for continued networking and to further develop yourself professionally.

This is a one-time payment and does not apply for students already living in Sweden.
For Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russian Federation, Turkey or Ukraine. The scholarship also includes a travel grant of SEK 10,000 for the entire study period.This is a one-time payment and does not apply for students already living in Sweden.

Click here to apply: http://bit.ly/3aJnT9r

IsDB-ISFD Technical Vocational, Education & Training (TVET) Scholarship Program 2021/2022 (Fully Funded)

 Application Deadline: February 28th 2021

Must be a citizen of any of the 21 IsDB LDMCs listed above.
Must have obtained a high school diploma or registered in one of the recognized TVET institutes in his/her own country.

Must have minimum of 50% in his/her high school final GPA.
Must choose a field of study listed among the approved disciplines of the programme.
Must provide evidence of language proficiency in university medium of instruction as relevant. The language proficiency must be supported by a document or certificate, e.g., for English, by a recognized language certificate such as TOEFL, IELTS or passed required level test conducted such as by British Council or equivalent system in French or other languages).

Must provide certified English or French translation of all documents in case if they are initially in other languages.
Must not be in receipt of any other scholarship at the time of application and during study.
Must be medically fit and willing to undergo medical tests after selection.

Benefits

Monthly stipends commensurate with the cost of living of the country of study.
Tuition fees as charged by the Institute and approved by the IsDB.
Cost of medical treatment at university/public hospital.
Economy class return air tickets (once at the time of joining and on completion of study) and installation and equipment allowance for the students selected to study abroad at partnered institutes/centers/countries.

Click here to apply:  http://bit.ly/3jxE6Tc

Trump lawyers blast impeachment trial as ‘political theater’

 Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday blasted the impeachment case against him as an act of “political theater” and accused House Democrats on the eve of the former president’s trial of exploiting the chaos and trauma of last month’s Capitol riot for their party’s gain.

Trump’s legal brief is a wide-ranging attack on the House case, foreshadowing the claims his lawyers intend to present on the same Senate floor that was invaded by rioters on Jan. 6. The sharp-tongued tone, with accusations that Democrats are making “patently absurd” arguments and trying to “silence a political opponent,” makes clear that Trump’s lawyers are preparing to challenge both the constitutionality of the trial and any suggestion that he was to blame for the insurrection.

“While never willing to allow a ‘good crisis’ to go to waste, the Democratic leadership is incapable of understanding that not everything can always be blamed on their political adversaries, no matter how very badly they may wish to exploit any moment of uncertainty on the part of the American people,” the defense lawyers say.

In their brief, they suggest that Trump was simply exercising his First Amendment rights when he disputed the election results and argue that he explicitly encouraged his supporters to have a peaceful protest and therefore cannot be responsible for the actions of the rioters. They also say the Senate is not entitled to try Trump now that he has left office, an argument contested by even some conservative legal scholars, and they deny that the goal of the Democrats’ case is justice.

“Instead, this was only ever a selfish attempt by Democratic leadership in the House to prey upon the feelings of horror and confusion that fell upon all Americans across the entire political spectrum upon seeing the destruction at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by a few hundred people,” the lawyers wrote.

House impeachment managers filed their own document Monday, asserting that Trump had “betrayed the American people” and that there is no valid excuse or defense.

“His incitement of insurrection against the United States government — which disrupted the peaceful transfer of power — is the most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by a president,” the Democrats said.

The trial will begin Tuesday with a debate and vote on whether it’s even constitutional to prosecute the former president, an argument that could resonate with Republicans keen on voting to acquit Trump without being seen as condoning his behavior. Opening arguments would begin Wednesday at noon, with up to 16 hours per side for presentations.

Under a draft agreement between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the proceedings will break Friday evening for the Jewish Sabbath at the request of Trump’s defense team and resume on Sunday. There will likely be no witnesses, and the former president has declined a request to testify.

This impeachment trial will be different because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Rather than sitting at their desks through the trial, senators may be spread out, including in the “marble room” just off the Senate floor, where proceedings will be shown on TV, and in the public galleries above the chamber, to accommodate social distancing, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Trump’s second impeachment trial is opening with a sense of urgency — by Democrats who want to hold him accountable for the violent Capitol siege and Republicans who want it over as quickly as possible.

Flood kills dozens in Morocco underground factory

 Rescue workers recover 24 bodies from Tangier property and rescue 10 survivors, state media reports.

At least 24 people have been killed after heavy rain caused a flood in an illegal underground textile workshop in a private house in Morocco, the state news agency reported.

Rescue workers recovered 24 bodies from the Tangier property and rescued 10 survivors who were taken to hospital, the MAP agency said on Monday, citing local authorities.

One government official at the scene said 25 people had died, 17 women and eight men, all aged between 20 and 40, according to a local journalist contacted by AFP news agency.

News footage from the site, broadcast on Moroccan television, showed emergency services carrying corpses out on stretchers under the eyes of clearly traumatized residents, as a stream of ambulances rushed to the scene.

Workers were saved thanks to a local resident who helped them out of the flooded basement with a rope, according to the journalist contacted by AFP, who spoke to witnesses.

Local media outlets indicated at least some of the victims may have been electrocuted as the incoming water interfered with power facilities, but officials had not confirmed this.

An inquiry has been launched to determine the cause of the accident and those responsible, the MAP agency added.

Morocco’s informal labour sector represents about a fifth of non-agricultural economic activity and labourers often work in unsafe conditions.

“How can dozens of workers enter the garage of a residential building for years… without the local authorities noticing?” asked local rights group the Northern Observatory for Human Rights.

Morocco registers some 2,000 deaths each year due to work-related accidents, “one of the highest figures” in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE).

The North African country has experienced heavy rains in recent weeks, after a long period of drought.

In early January, the inclement weather caused several dilapidated buildings to collapse in Casablanca, the country’s economic capital, causing at least four deaths, according to local media.

Poorly maintained drainage systems often exacerbate flooding in cities.

Fifty people died in floods in 2014 caused by heavy rains in the south of Morocco.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

Oil prices shake off COVID blues as Brent hits $60

Oil prices rose to their highest levels in over a year on Monday, as output cuts and US stimulus hopes drive crude higher.

Oil prices rose on Monday to their highest in just over a year, with Brent nudging past $60 a barrel, boosted by supply cuts among key producers and hopes for further economic stimulus measures in the United States that can boost demand.

Global benchmark Brent crude was up 68 cents, or 1.2 percent, at $60.02 a barrel by 14:42 GMT, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose 68 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $57.53 a barrel.

“Managing to breach $60 again feels like the market is finally resurfacing after the long struggle and [taking] a proper breath,” said Rystad Energy’s vice president for oil markets Paola Rodriguez-Masiu. “It offers a feeling of normality again.”

Both contracts were at their highest levels since January 2020.

“Oil prices are back close to pre-pandemic levels,” said Norbert Rucker, an analyst at Swiss bank Julius Baer.

 

“Support seems robust and the narrative sees the oil market swiftly burning through the remaining crisis surplus, potentially running into tightness later this year,” he added.The oil market continues to tighten, with Saudi Arabia pledging extra supply cuts in February and March following reductions by other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies.

In a sign that prompt supplies are tightening, the six-month Brent spread hit a high of $2.54 on Monday, its widest since January last year.

OCBC economist Howie Lee said the world’s top exporter, Saudi Arabia, sent a “very bullish signal” last week when it kept monthly crude prices to Asia unchanged despite expectations for small cuts.

“I don’t think anybody dares to short the market when Saudi is like this,” he added.

A weaker dollar against most currencies on Monday also supported commodities, with dollar-denominated assets becoming more affordable to holders of other currencies.

Investors are also keeping a close watch on a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package for the US that is expected to be passed by lawmakers as soon as this month.

And hopes that Iranian oil exports would soon return to the market have been dampened, further supporting oil prices.

President Joe Biden said the US would not lift sanctions on Iran simply to get it back to the negotiating table, while Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said all sanctions should be lifted first.

Stronger crude prices are meanwhile encouraging US producers to increase output.

The US oil rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose last week to its highest since May, according to energy services firm Baker Hughes Co.

SOURCE : REUTERS

Many die, hundreds missing as Himalayan glacier bursts in India

 Uttarakhand government officials say 26 bodies recovered while at least 171 people are still unaccounted for.

Indian rescuers are searching for more than 200 people missing in the Himalayas, including some trapped in a tunnel, after part of a glacier broke away, sending a torrent of water, rock and dust down a mountain valley.

Sunday’s violent surge below Nanda Devi, India’s second-highest peak, swept away the small Rishiganga hydroelectric project and damaged a bigger one further down the Dhauliganga river being built by state firm NTPC.

More than 2,000 members of the military, paramilitary groups and police have been taking part in search-and-rescue operations. Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar said late Monday that 26 bodies had been recovered.

Most of the missing were people working on the two projects, part of many the government has been building deep in the mountains of Uttarakhand state as part of a development push.

Videos on social media showed water surging through a small dam site, washing away construction equipment and bringing down small bridges.

“Everything was swept away, people, cattle and trees,” Sangram Singh Rawat, a former village council member of Raini, the site closest to the Rishiganga project, told local media.

Rescue squads were focused on drilling their way through a 2.5km (1.5 miles) tunnel at the Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project site that NTPC was building 5km (3 miles) downstream and where about 35 workers were believed trapped.

“We are trying to break open the tunnel, it’s a long one, about 2.5km,” said Ashok Kumar, the state police chief. He said rescuers had gone 150 metres (490 yards) into the tunnel but debris and slush were slowing progress.

There had been no voice contact yet with anyone in the tunnel, another official said.  Heavy equipment has been employed and a canine squad flown to the site to locate survivors. On Sunday, 12 people were rescued from another, much smaller, tunnel.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s Elizabeth Puranam in India reported that some rescue teams were out on the river hoping to find survivors.

“Our team is here searching. If we see anyone near the banks or in the river, our work is to recover them,” Manjari Negi of the State Disaster Response Force told Al Jazeera.

It was not immediately clear what caused the glacier to burst on a bright Sunday morning. Experts said it had snowed heavily last week in the Nanda Devi area and it was possible that some of the snow started melting and may have led to an avalanche.

Uttarakhand is prone to flash floods and landslides and the disaster prompted calls by environmental groups for a review of power projects in the ecologically sensitive mountains. In June 2013, record monsoon rains there caused devastating floods that killed close to 6,000 people.

A team of scientists was flown over the site of the latest accident on Monday to find out what exactly happened.

“It’s a very rare incident for a glacial burst to happen. Satellite and Google Earth images do not show a glacial lake near the region, but there’s a possibility that there may be a water pocket in the region,” said Mohd Farooq Azam, assistant professor of glaciology and hydrology at the Indian Institute of Technology in Indore.

Water pockets are lakes inside the glaciers, which can erupt, leading to an event like this. Environmental groups have blamed construction activity in the mountains.

Himanshu Thakkar, the coordinator of the South Asia Network of Dams, Rivers, and People, said that there had been violations of clear government recommendations against the use of explosives for construction purposes.

The latest accident had also raised questions about the safety of the dams.

“The dams are supposed to withstand much greater force. This was not a monsoon flood, it was much smaller,” said Thakkar.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

New variants raise worry about COVID-19 virus reinfections

 Evidence is mounting that having COVID-19 may not protect against getting infected again with some of the new variants. People also can get second infections with earlier versions of the coronavirus if they mounted a weak defense the first time, new research suggests.

How long immunity lasts from natural infection is one of the big questions in the pandemic. Scientists still think reinfections are fairly rare and usually less serious than initial ones, but recent developments around the world have raised concerns.

In South Africa, a vaccine study found new infections with a variant in 2% of people who previously had an earlier version of the virus.

In Brazil, several similar cases were documented with a new variant there. Researchers are exploring whether reinfections help explain a recent surge in the city of Manaus, where three-fourths of residents were thought to have been previously infected.

In the United States, a study found that 10% of Marine recruits who had evidence of prior infection and repeatedly tested negative before starting basic training were later infected again. That work was done before the new variants began to spread, said one study leader, Dr. Stuart Sealfon of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

“Previous infection does not give you a free pass,” he said. “A substantial risk of reinfection remains.”

Reinfections pose a public health concern, not just a personal one. Even in cases where reinfection causes no symptoms or just mild ones, people might still spread the virus. That’s why health officials are urging vaccination as a longer-term solution and encouraging people to wear masks, keep physical distance and wash their hands frequently.

“It’s an incentive to do what we have been saying all along: to vaccinate as many people as we can and to do so as quickly as we can,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert.

“My looking at the data suggests … and I want to underline suggests … the protection induced by a vaccine may even be a little better” than natural infection, Fauci said.

Doctors in South Africa began to worry when they saw a surge of cases late last year in areas where blood tests suggested many people had already had the virus.

Until recently, all indications were “that previous infection confers protection for at least nine months,” so a second wave should have been “relatively subdued,” said Dr. Shabir Madhi of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Scientists discovered a new version of the virus that’s more contagious and less susceptible to certain treatments. It now causes more than 90% of new cases in South Africa and has spread to 40 countries including the United States.

Madhi led a study testing Novavax’s vaccine and found it less effective against the new variant. The study also revealed that infections with the new variant were just as common among people who had COVID-19 as those who had not.

“What this basically tells us, unfortunately, is that past infection with early variants of the virus in South Africa does not protect” against the new one, he said.

In Brazil, a spike in hospitalizations in Manaus in January caused similar to worry and revealed a new variant that’s also more contagious and less vulnerable to some treatments.

“Reinfection could be one of the drivers of these cases,” said Dr. Ester Sabino of the University of Sao Paulo. She wrote an article in the journal Lancet on possible explanations. “We have not yet been able to define how frequently this is happening,” she said.