Venom from one of Brazil’s largest snakes could be used as a tool in the fight against coronavirus

The jararacussu is a highly venomous pit viper and is one of the largest snakes in Brazil. It lives in the coastal Atlantic Forest and is also found in Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina.

Snake venom could be used as a tool in the fight against coronavirus, a study suggests.

Brazilian researchers have found that a molecule in the venom of a type of snake slowed down the reproduction of coronavirus in monkey cells.

The discovery could be a possible first step towards the creation of a drug to combat the virus that causes COVID-19.

Image:A researcher works on a sample inside a laboratory at the University of Sao Paulo’s Institute of Physics

Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses that cause respiratory infections. These can range from the common cold to more serious diseases.

COVID-19 is caused by a new form of the virus known as SARS-CoV-2.

The study showed a molecule produced by the jararacussu pit viper, one of the largest snakes in Brazil, reduced the disease’s ability to multiply by 75%.

One of the scientists involved in the research, Rafael Guido, said: “We were able to show that that component of the snake’s venom was able to inhibit a very important protein of the virus.

“It’s the first step in a long journey… the process is a very long one.

“A component of the venom demonstrated in this study is that it has development potential. It’s a long road, we have taken the first steps.”

Image:A jararacussu snake

Published in the scientific journal, Molecules, the research found the fragment is a peptide, or chain of amino acids, that can connect to an enzyme of the coronavirus called PLPro.

PLPro is vital to the reproduction of the virus without hurting other cells.

The jararacussu can grow up to 2m (6ft) long and is found in Brazil, the coastal Atlantic Forest, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina.

Mr Guido added that scientists are “afraid people will go hunting for the jararacussu all over Brazil, thinking it will save the world or themselves, their family”.

He said: “That’s not the case. Is this an important discovery? Without a doubt it is, but chasing after the animal is not how it will be resolved.”

“The component that was discovered is just a fraction from inside the venom, it is not the venom itself that will cure coronavirus at this time.”

Image:The study showed a molecule produced by the jararacussu pit viper reduced the disease’s ability to multiply by 75%

Researchers will next evaluate the efficiency of different doses of the molecule and whether it can prevent the virus from entering cells in the first place, according to a statement from the State University of Sao Paulo (Unesp), which was also involved in the research.

They hope to test the substance in human cells but gave no timeline.

………………………………………………………

No Time To Die: Final trailer released ahead of Daniel Craig’s last outing as James Bond

As well as teased plot lines, the trailer has all the ingredients of classic James Bond films - gun battles, car chases, daring stunts, fisticuffs and of course - Q's fancy new gadgets.

The final trailer for James Bond film No Time To Die has been released ahead of its premiere this month.

No Time To Die, which is Daniel Craig’s final outing in the role, hits cinemas on 30 September after 18 months of pandemic-related delays.

In the clip, we see Bond talking to Spectre villain and foster-brother Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), who tells 007 that “my enemy’s your enemy”, before a shot of new baddie Safin – played by Rami Malek.

We then see M, played by Ralph Fiennes, talking to Bond about the new wave of enemy and espionage that are “just floating in the ether”.

There are also hints of trouble between Bond and lover Dr Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) and tension with new 00 agent Nomi, who took Bond’s 007 title when he left MI6.

But it is the relationship between Bond and Safin that the trailer centres on.

“James Bond, we eradicate people to make the world a better place”, Safin says.

“I just want to be a little… tidier.”

As well as the teased plot lines, the trailer has all the ingredients of classic Bond: gun battles, car chases, daring stunts, fisticuffs, and of course Q’s fancy new gadgets.

Image:Rami Malek plays new villain Safin. Pic: Nicola Dove/ DANJAQ/LLC/ MGM

Image:Lashana Lynch is among the new names in the franchise. Pic: Nicola Dove/ DANJAQ/LLC/ MGM

Ben Whishaw, who plays the MI6 quartermaster asks Bond and Nomi if he can have “one nice evening before the world explodes?”

Daniel Craig will bow out of the franchise in its 25th film, with speculation rife as to who might be picking up the keys to the Aston Martins – if anyone at all.

Venom star Tom Hardy, Hobbit actor Luke Evans and Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston, are among the names being bandied around as the next Bond.

The premiere of No Time To Die will take place at the Royal Albert Hall on 28 September, with the general release two days later.

……………………………………………………

Across Africa in five minutes or less

GHANA

The Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagements at the Center for Democratic Development has dismissed claims that the new post-election survey organised by the CSOs that saw people doubt the government’s ability to protect the public purse is influenced by propaganda.

BURKINA FASO

The delegation of police officers from Burkina Faso is composed of two groups of twenty-four police officers in total who have been trained for one month in security and protection of high officials and five others instructed on monitoring in sports to which the specialized instructors of the IRP have provided training in about 14 disciplines combining the theoretical and practical aspects.

GAMBIA

The Gambia Press Union on Thursday concluded a two-day post-Covid-19 training for 25 journalists from the print media to promote peace and positive messaging at Baobab hotel. The training was funded by the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) to promote intergenerational dialogue and maintain community peace and dialogue in The Gambia.

GUINEA BISSAU

On July 21, 2021, a Guinea-Bissau Coast Guard officer assaulted and detained Emerson Gomes, a presenter and trainee journalist at Djan-Djan Community Radio in Bubaque, a town in the country’s Bijagos archipelago, accusing the outlet of spreading false news, according to a media report and Gomes, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

COTE D’IVOIRE

The government of Cote d’Ivoire has informed the World Health Organization (WHO) that a second laboratory has tested samples from a patient suspected of having Ebola and has found no evidence of the virus.

LIBERIA

The lack of a central facility to carry out all Technical Vocational Education and Training (TEVET) for unskilled youth and school dropouts has been a major issue for Liberia’s TVET sector over the years.

But that will soon be over as the European Union (EU) and the Federal Republic of Germany have agreed to provide US$10m to construct a National TVET Center that will bring huge relief and benefit to many young Liberians desirous of obtaining TVET training and skills.

SIERRA LEONE

Sarah Tarawally from Sierra Leone has been selected as a fellow for the Class of 2021 Millennium Fellowship by the United Nations Academic Impact and MCN. The semester-long leadership development program for undergraduate leaders to help them develop their social impact to the next level they wish for. This year’s fellowship will cater for over 2,000 fellows from more than 25 countries.

NIGERIA

Nigeria has proposed stronger and ambitious targets than it last did in 2015 sequel to the endorsement of the Paris agreement.

With the submission of an updated Nationally Determined Contribution(NDC) document to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on July 2, Nigeria affirmed its pledges to follow the path of low carbon development by 2030 as enshrined in the Paris accord endorsed in 2015.

ANGOLA

The lockdown on Luanda province that had been in force in the capital to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the country will be lifted from Tuesday midnight, 1 September.

SOUTH AFRICA

As a team of South African researchers, we have identified a new lineage of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19. A lineage represents a genetically distinct virus population with a common ancestor. This virus may be designated as a variant in the future, based on significantly altered properties, but first, we need to understand it better. Our findings so far are set out in a non-pre-peer reviewed paper.

ZAMBIA

The effective functioning of the justice and its sector reforms in Zambia are the main avenues for promoting democratic governance, the rule of law, respect of human rights, gender equality, citizen security, and thereby ensuring sustainable socio-economic development.

MOZAMBIQUE

Ndambi Guebuza, the oldest son of former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, may have laid himself wide open to charges of tax evasion, given his refusal to answer questions about his financial affairs.

NAMIBIA

At the beginning of July 2021, Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) Limited communicated the need to cut the salaries of all its employees as a last resort after it had exhausted all other cost-cutting measures it had instituted over the past 16 months. Consequently, a misunderstanding was created in certain quarters that because NWR is a state-owned enterprise, this was an illegal decision being taken by the company.

ZIMBABWE

Community Based organisation (CBO), Summit Care Trust will be spearheading a Suicide Prevention Campaign starting tomorrow as a way of commemorating the Suicide Prevention month which falls in the month of September. The campaign comes as Zimbabwe’s suicide rate for 2019 was 14.10, a 0.71% increase from 2018. In the years 2020 and 2021 there is anecdotal evidence highlight an increase in suicide cases.

…………………………………………………

Outtara’s rumored illness prompts fears of leadership crisis in Cote d’Ivoire

Ivorians brace for possible power struggle as Birahima Tene Outtara, the president's brother appears to make moves to usurp Prime Minister Patrick Achi to succeed his brother.

A DNT EXCLUSIVE – Cote d’Ivoire has had a turbulent last few years losing her leaders. In July last year, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly died after a long battle with heart disease.

Five months ago, Coulibaly’s replacement Hamed Bakayoko also died in Germany after a battle with cancer. Both men are from the northern part of the country from where President Alassane Outtara also hails.

Bakayoko was appointed to replace Coulibaly ahead of then Defence Minister Patrick Achie who was considered next in line, but whose southern roots made him untrustworthy to President Outtara.

But after Bakayoko’s death, Paris leaned on Outtara to appoint Patrick Achi as the new Prime Minister because an unwelcomed trend was developing whereby all the appointed politicians to the Prime Minister position were Northern and Muslim.

Two months after being appointed Prime Minister, Patrick Achi was next to be flown to France in May for medical treatment. No information was given Achi’s health status after his four days in France, and authorities declined to comment when contacted by DNT.

Today it is President Alassane Outtara himself who is rumored to be seriously ill. He had been unseen in public for three weeks before he struggled through an appearance at a state funeral that many believed he had to attend to quell mounting rumors of his serious ailment.

Even then, eyewitnesses insist that Outtara wasn’t the same vibrant president they had grown accustomed to seeing in public. He looked frail and walked gingerly according to reports, and since then he has disappeared again.

Should the unthinkable happen and Outtara pases on, the next in line to assume the Ivorian presidency is the current southern Prime Minister Patrick Achi who is Akan and Christian.

With the world’s leading producer of cocoa politically polarized between north and south, the north-leaning ruling RHDP is suspected of exhibiting misgivings about having a southern president.

Enter Birahima Tene Outtara, defense Minister and brother to President Alassane Outtara. Birahima’s uncanny resemblance of his older brother has earned him the nickname “Photocopy.” Many Ivorians now believe that Birahima Outtara is bent on succeeding his ailing senior brother should the unthinkable happen.

This may explain why the current First Lady Dominique Outtara took her sister-in-law and wife of Birahima Tene Outtara to Paris to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron. The First Lady is a French Jew and is reported to have a close friendship with Emmanuel Macron.

Questions are now filling the Ivorian social media space as to why the First Lady would take Birahima’s wife along to meet with Macron in Paris. What role is she playing on that trip?

Cote d’Ivoire has struggled politically in recent times. It all started when President Lauren Gbagbo, an Akan, refused to yield power after the 2010 election produced opposition leader Alassane Outtara, a northerner, as winner.

Outtara had long been shielded from the presidency because his Burkina Faso roots was used to question his full Ivorian citizenship and consequently qualification to be president. France had to step in to quell another potentially costly unrest.

Outtara on his part didn’t help matters much when he began losing prime ministers and ultimately decided to seek a controversial third term after dubiously amending the constitution and wiping away his first term in office.

Between two deaths, one resignation, and two other unstated reasons, Outtara has had five Prime Ministers including the current Achi who has recently started having health problems.

One Ivorian chef joked that may be they should check what’s in the water at the Prime Minister’s residence. “It cannot be a coincidence that one country can lose so many Prime Ministers,” he wondered.

Outtara’s second re-election was marred by opposition boycott and subsequent nationwide rioting protesting what Ivorians considered his illegitimate third term. And now his health appears to be in  jeopardy and his Photocopy younger brother appears to be scheming to replace him.

DNT News, with correspondence reporting from Julius Ouya, Abijan

 

 

……………………………………………

Congolese reality singing competition winner releases first single in Belgium

Belgium – She dazzled the studio audience and television viewers across the length and breath of Belgium to win The Voice of Vlaanderen in 2020 ahead of over 3,000 competitors.

In a subsequent interview published in World News Today, she revealed that she struggled with her Congolese roots growing up in Belgium because she “wanted to be like the white girls in class.”

But today, as DNT Correspondent Nana Agyeiwaa Osei reports, Grace Khuabi’s dream has finally come true with the release in Brussels of her first single simply entitled “Freedom.”

Khuabi won the nationally televised Belgian reality singing competition three months ago and almost immediately withdrew from public appearances to write songs and finish high school.

With the release of her first single Freedom, Khuabi is scheduled to take the stage Wednesday evening to outdoor the song. “I don’t always realize that I’m also an ‘artist’ now,” Khuabi said with her signature smile.

Khuabi will be joined by stage dancers for the first time because she danced mostly alone on stage during the competition. But she is hopeful. “We can do it,” Grace assured.

khuabi’s coach Natalie is reported to be a nervous wreck as her youngest creation takes the stage to prying viewers across Belgium. All indications are that, as Khuabi transitions from competition sensation to a commercial artist, tonight’s performance would play a huge role in shaping what promises to be a long career.

DNT News, Gent, Belgium, with Correspondence reporting from Nana Agyeiwaa Osei.

 

……………………………………………………

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Will Smith reveals who will play him in show reboot

Will Smith’s successor as The Prince of Bel-Air is ready to take his throne.

The Hollywood star stunned newcomer Jabari Banks on Tuesday by revealing via a video call that he was to take on the role of Will in the upcoming reboot of the hit US TV sitcom.

The character catapulted Smith, now 52, to stardom in the early 1990s.

“It is an absolute pleasure to meet you, to be on with you, and from the deepest parts of my heart I want to say congratulations to you,” he told Banks.

“You have the role of Will on Bel-Air.”

“I’m ready, I’m so ready,” replied the actor, who revealed his father had suggested he try out for the part after reading an article about it.

“This is a dream come true,” he added.

Banks said the show had a huge impact on his life, adding that he once got his friends to join him in dressing up as characters from the TV show while he was at high school.

The reboot, which will appear on NBC streaming service Peacock, was inspired by a 2019 viral fan video by Morgan Cooper. who re-imagined the comedy as a a modern-day drama.

image caption The theme tune for the original show was performed by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince – aka Will Smith

Morgan was snapped up to work on the new project, produced by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith Westbrook Studios and Universal Television, where he will now be joined by Banks.

The original Will told the new one: “You’ve got a fantastic road ahead of you, and I’m looking forward to being an asset for you in this process as you build out your life and build out your career.

So who is Jabari Banks?

Good question.

According to US entertainment outlet Deadline, this will be Banks’ first TV role.

A resident of west Philadelphia, which is also where the titular character was famously “born and raised”, Banks graduated from the city’s University of the Arts last year.

He also an accomplished singer-songwriter, rapper, and basketball player.

What was the original show about?

image caption The Fresh Prince of Bel Air team, including executive producer Quincy Jones, take a break from filming in 1990

The hit NBC show, which ran for six seasons from 1990 to 1996, starred Smith as a fictionalised version of himself.

The premise, as described in its famous opening theme song performed by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince (aka Will Smith), was that after getting in “one too many fights” in his hometown he had been sent by his mum to go and live with his wealthy aunt and uncle in their mansion in Bel-Air, Los Angeles.

Smith’s working class west Philly attitudes were often at odds with those of his more affluent relatives- Uncle Phil, Aunt Vivian and their children Hilary, Carlton and Ashley (played by a young Tatyana Ali) – and so hilarity ensued.

He received several Golden Globe nominations for the lead role, setting him on his way to major success as both an actor and a rapper.

His subsequent portrayal of the late boxing champion Muhammad Ali saw him nominated for an Oscar in 2002, a feat he would achieve a second time five years later for The Pursuit of Happiness.

…………………………………………………