Humanity faces unprecedented challenges. But nowhere else are we more resolved to solving those challenges, than right here in Africa. Stellenbosch University LaunchLab believes that the sciences hold the keys to a brighter future for Africa which is why it is hosting a science-themed startup and idea showcase in partnership with the University of Stellenbosch Science Faculty and Alphawave.
The Science Showcase will spotlight 8 – 10 of the best commercialisable ideas and existing businesses from across the continent focused on providing science-based solutions for African challenges. The winning teams will gain access to valuable prize money, mentoring sessions, focused workshops, and a spot in the February 2022 cohort of Countdown, SU LaunchLab’s flagship incubation program.
Requirements
LaunchLab is looking for entrepreneurs with commercialisable ideas or existing businesses that provide science-based solutions to African challenges in the following fields:
Physical sciences – physics, chemistry, earth, and space Life sciences – biochemistry, microbiology, zoology, botany, ecology Applied sciences – engineering, medicine Computer sciences Mathematics
Benefits
Chance to win a share of almost $ 7 000 in prize money, a spot in one of SU LaunchLab’s incubation programs, and more!
The AKU GSMC Media Innovation Centre, together with its partners DW Akademie and Media Challenge Initiative (MCI) are looking for the brightest media minds from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to join the 2021-2022 Innovators-in-Residence program, a 12-month incubation and accelerator program that provides mentorship, training and coaching to media innovators in East Africa. want to ensure innovators from both rural and urban areas get access to this program and for this reason, this year’s cohort will include a special track for rural innovators.
Requirements
Media innovators from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Journalists and innovators based in rural areas are especially encouraged to apply. • Innovators working in pre-formed teams or those applying as individuals but are willing to team up for this programme. Innovators can only apply in teams of 2-5 members.
• Projects producing content in any East African language are welcome to apply. Applications must be submitted in English. • Projects that address journalism and media challenges other than storytelling are welcome. Apps and projects that support journalists and existing media houses in their work are invited to apply. • Participants must be above the age of 18 years
FameLab Climate Change Communicators is a global online competition and training event to build trust in climate science.
British Council invite aspiring climate change communicators to submit a video giving a three-minute talk in English related to the theme of ‘Trust in Climate Science’. Whether you’re an early career researcher, working on climate change projects - or simply passionate about explaining climate science to new audiences - we would love to hear from you.
Ten finalists will be selected to go head-to-head in the FameLab Climate Challenge Communicators Online Final in September 2021 to battle it out for first place – who will wow judges and global audiences and be crowned winner?
Requirements
Aged 21 years of age or above; Based in one of the following participating countries for the purposes of study, research or long-term paid/voluntary employment: Albania, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Serbia, Turkey, Uganda or Vietnam; Studying or working in roles that relate to science, engineering, technology, medicine or mathematics. Individuals working in climate change related work in organisations such as non-government organisations (NGO) and charities are welcome to apply.
Esraa Abdelfattah was arrested in October 2019 on charges of ‘spreading fake news’ and ‘collaborating with a terrorist group’.
Egyptian activist and journalist Esraa Abdelfattah, one of the symbols of the 2011 revolution, has been freed after nearly 22 months in pre-trial detention, lawyer Khaled Ali has said.
Ali, as well as friends of Abdelfattah, posted photographs online on Sunday of her being released from prison.
Abdelfattah was among several prominent journalists and activists released ahead of Eid al-Adha, one of the most important holidays in the Islamic calendar.
In 2008, Abdelfattah created an “April 6” Facebook page in support of striking workers and to call for political reforms, at the start of the mobilisation of mass protests that would lead to the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak three years later.
Abdelfattah, 43, was arrested in October 2019 on charges of “spreading false news” and “collaborating with a terrorist group”.
Her detention sparked international condemnation, with the US calling it “scandalous”.
Abdelfattah, who was also previously jailed under Mubarak, walked free just hours after a surprise decision by the prosecution to release her.
She had opposed the Muslim Brotherhood when they took power in Egypt in 2012 and backed the 2013 protests that led to the removal of President Mohamed Morsi.
Under Egyptian law, pre-trial detention can be extended for up to two years.
Journalists, activists released
Egyptian authorities have in recent months released detainees ahead of major Muslim holidays. Several other journalists and activists were released on Sunday, two days ahead of Eid al-Adha.
Activist and lawyer Mahienour el-Masry, journalists Moataz Wadnan and Gamal el-Gammal, politician Abdel Nasser Ismail and journalist Mustafa el-Aasar were also freed, a lawyer representing them and a judicial source said. The charges against them are still pending, the lawyer added.
Wadnan was arrested in February 2018 following his interview with Egypt’s former top auditor Hesham Genena, who caused uproar after he said former military chief of staff Sami Annan possessed documents incriminating the country’s “leadership”.
Moataz Wadnan was arrested in February 2018 [File: Courtesy: International Press Institute]
El-Aasar was also arrested in February 2018. Both journalists face charges of joining a “terrorist” group, disseminating false news in separate cases.
The releases came after an outcry by rights advocates when prosecutors last week referred Hossam Bahgat, a leading Egyptian investigative journalist and human rights advocate, to trial.
Bahgat said he was accused of insulting Egypt’s election authority, spreading false news alleging electoral fraud and using social media to commit crimes.
The accusations stem from a tweet Bahgat wrote last year blaming the election authority’s chairman for allegedly mishandling last year’s parliamentary vote, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, or EIPR, the organisation Bahgat founded 18 years ago.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price condemned Bahgat’s indictment and the detention and harassment of Egyptian civil society leaders, academics and journalists under el-Sisi.
“We’ve communicated to the Egyptian government our strong belief that individuals such as Hossam Bahgat should not be targeted for expressing their views peacefully,” Price said last week. “As a strategic partner we’ve raised these concerns with the Egyptian government, and we will continue to do so going forward.”
Activist and lawyer Mahienour el-Masry was among those released [File: David Degner/Getty Images]
Also last week, an Egyptian court began the trial of six secular activists and journalists, including former politician Zyad el-Elaimy, Ali, the rights lawyer, said.
The six, who were arrested in 2019, face an array of charges including disturbing the public peace through disseminating false news about domestic affairs. The next court session is July 29, he said.
El-Elaimy and others were added by a court last year to a “terrorism list” for the next five years. The decision was upheld last week by the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest criminal court.
Among the six was jailed Palestinian-Egyptian activist Ramy Shaath, who helped establish Egypt’s branch of the Palestinian-led boycott movement against Israel, known as Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS).
Shaath, the son of a former Palestinian foreign minister, was detained in 2019 but has not been charged. His wife, a French citizen, was deported.
The Egyptian government has in recent years waged a widescale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people, mostly Islamists, but also secular activists involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.
Journalists have also been targeted, with dozens imprisoned and some foreign journalists expelled. Egypt remains among the world’s top jailers of journalists, along with Turkey and China, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Mustafa al-Aasar was arrested in February 2018 and charged with joining a ‘terrorist’ group’ [File: Courtesy: Amnesty International]
A federal judge in Texas has ruled that a programme protecting migrants who came to the US as children from deportation is illegal.
Judge Andrew Hanen said new applicants should not be enrolled in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca).
But he said the ruling does not require the government to deport any Daca recipients.
Nearly 650,000 people – known as Dreamers – are currently enrolled in the programme.
President Joe Biden has ordered his administration to strengthen the initiative. The US Supreme Court last year blocked a bid by former President Donald Trump to end Daca.
In Friday’s ruling, Judge Hanen agreed with a group of states that had filed a lawsuit arguing the programme was illegally created by former President Barack Obama in 2012.
Texas and eight other conservative states said Mr Obama had acted without due congressional authorisation.
Daca recipients are shielded from deportation, granted work authorisation, can have driving licences and apply for education financial aid.
This is the second time a federal court in Texas has dealt a blow to Mr Biden’s immigration agenda.
In January, a judge blocked the Democratic president’s attempt to impose a 100-day moratorium on deportations.
Democratic US Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey tweeted on Friday it was time for Mr Biden’s party, which commands narrow majorities on Capitol Hill, to act.
“Congress must seize the moment and any and all opportunities to finally provide a pathway to legalisation for millions of undocumented immigrants,” he said.
Mr Biden has already proposed legislation that would provide a path to US citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US.
According to the Politico website, Democrats plan to create a way to citizenship for Dreamers and other undocumented groups in a forthcoming $3.5tn (£2.5tn) spending bill.
However, it is unclear whether the immigration provisions can get by the Senate’s strict rules.
The legal blow to Daca comes on the day that the numbers of migrants arriving at the south-western border broke yet another record.
Border officials caught migrants there 188,829 times in June, the largest number in a single month in more than two decades.
Also on Friday the Pentagon confirmed to the BBC that Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas was being used by US immigration officials to fly undocumented migrants into the country’s interior.
Pop superstar, who is battling to remove father from long-running legal guardianship, tells court the arrangement was being abused.
An emotional Britney Spears scored a victory in her bid to end her father’s control of her affairs on Wednesday, as a judge ruled she could appoint her own lawyer to help end a 13-year guardianship arrangement that the pop superstar has condemned as “cruelty.”
The controversial arrangement, known as a conservatorship, stems from 2008 and gives Britney’s father, Jamie Spears, control of her business and personal affairs. He is currently the sole person in charge of her $60m estate.
“You’re allowing my dad to ruin my life,” 39-year-old Spears told the Los Angeles judge by phone. “I have to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse.”
Speaking for about 10 minutes, and by turns angry and upset, Spears said she had always been “extremely scared of my dad”.
She said she was fed up with the multiple psychological evaluations and wanted the conservatorship brought to an end without another one.
“I’m not a perfect person … but their goal is to make me feel like I’m crazy,” Spears said.
It was the second time Spears had addressed the court publicly. Last month, she called the legal arrangement abusive and stupid in a 20-minute public address that fuelled worldwide interest in the conservatorship, which her father initiated after his daughter had a mental health breakdown. Details of Spears’s mental health issues have never publicly been disclosed.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny on Wednesday approved former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart as Spears’s lawyer. The singer’s court-appointed lawyer stepped down last week.
People gathered outside the court in Los Angeles to show their support for Britney Spears [Emma McIntyre/Getty Images via AFP]
Rosengart told the AFP news agency on the sidelines of the hearing that he would file a petition “as soon as possible” to remove Jamie Spears as the conservator – and suggested the singer’s father should simply step down.“We will be filing a petition as soon as possible to move Mr Spears, subject to our formal retention,” said Rosengart, who has previously represented the likes of Steven Spielberg and Sean Penn.
“As I said in open court, a very fair question is: Why is Mr Spears not voluntarily stepping down? He does not belong in this conservatorship any more. And we believe he should voluntarily step down immediately.”
Spears, who shot to global fame in her teens, suffered a highly public breakdown in 2007 after being hounded by paparazzi.
A California court placed her under the conservatorship the following year and the singer soon returned to performing, releasing three albums, appearing on television and taking up a Las Vegas residency.
Britney Spears has continued to perform since her father instituted the conservatorship and her estate is valued at $60m [File: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters]
But in January 2019, she abruptly announced she was suspending her performances until further notice.Her case has drawn increasing public support, from fans chanting outside the courtroom – who greeted the news of her replacement lawyer with raucous cheers – to her musical peers Christina Aguilera and Madonna.
At a small demonstration in Washington, DC, 34-year-old Patrick Thomas, head of the recently formed Free Britney America group, called the singer’s situation “archaic”.
“This is not just about Britney alone. This is about every other person who is trapped in one of these, what I would call a prison,” said Thomas, whose group is pushing for a congressional hearing and federal oversight of conservatorships.
In her first comments to the court in June, Spears complained of being prevented from marrying or having more children, and said she was compelled to take medication against her will.
Spears said she had been made to perform shows under threat of lawsuit, and that she was not even allowed to get changed in privacy or drive her own car.
“I just want my life back. It’s been 13 years and it’s enough,” she said.
Since then, many of the central figures in the management of Spears’ affairs have distanced themselves including Samuel Ingham, the lawyer appointed by the court soon after her breakdown, and longtime manager Larry Rudolph.
Jamie Spears’s lawyer did not oppose the appointment of a new lawyer for his daughter, but told the court that Spears’s claim that her father is responsible for all the bad things that have happened to her is “the furthest thing from the truth”.
Signalling he would not step down voluntarily, the lawyer said Spears’s father “has been there 24/7 for the past 13 years,” and repeated a call for the court to investigate the singer’s claims of abuse.
Rwandan High Commissioner to Ghana, Aisa Kirabo Kacyra, is urging Rwandans everywhere to reflect on the of Rwanda they desire and work towards attaining them.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark 27 years since their country was liberated following ethnic genocide on ethnic Tutsis by their fellow countrymen, the Hutus, the High Commissioner urged her countrymen and women to do their part to keep Rwanda United.
In just 100 days in 1994, about 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda by ethnic Hutu extremists.
They were targeting members of the minority Tutsi community and their political opponents, irrespective of their ethnic origin.
With meticulous organisation. Lists of government opponents were handed out to militias who went and killed them, along with all of their families.
Neighbours killed neighbours, and some husbands even killed their Tutsi wives, saying they would be killed if they refused.
At the time, ID cards had people’s ethnic group on them, so militias set up roadblocks where Tutsis were slaughtered, often with machetes which most Rwandans kept around the house.
Thousands of Tutsi women were taken away and kept as sex slaves, according to the BBC.
“We must be inspired, individually and collectively, to continue to play our part and build the Rwanda we want as enshrined in our vision 2050. If one were to ask you what is the Rwanda we want, what will look it look like, how will we define it? A united Rwanda.
“A Rwanda with the people having a high income and considered a high-income country with inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development”, Rwandan High Commissioner to Ghana Aisa Kirabo Kacyra stressed.
She also expressed what she says was the gratitude of the whole of Rwanda to the Rwandan Army for liberating the people 27 years ago and continue protecting them.
A total of 93 people were indicted for the genocide, and after lengthy trials, dozens of senior officials in the former regime were convicted of genocide – all of them Hutus.
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Moataz Wadnan was arrested in February 2018 [File: Courtesy: International Press Institute]
Activist and lawyer Mahienour el-Masry was among those released [File: David Degner/Getty Images]
Mustafa al-Aasar was arrested in February 2018 and charged with joining a ‘terrorist’ group’ [File: Courtesy: Amnesty International]
People gathered outside the court in Los Angeles to show their support for Britney Spears [Emma McIntyre/Getty Images via AFP]
Britney Spears has continued to perform since her father instituted the conservatorship and her estate is valued at $60m [File: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters]
