(2021-11-28). Turkey's Expansion into Central Asia Intensifies. journal-neo.org 
Under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, claiming the role of a new regional superpower, Turkey has been increasingly active in recent decades pursuing an independent foreign policy with an attempt to position itself as the key state of the so-called "Afrasia," that is, as a link between Africa, Asia, and Europe. Recently the Turkish …
(2021-11-27). What we know so far about Omicron. asiatimes.com 
Since early in the COVID pandemic, the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa has been monitoring changes in SARS-CoV-2. This was a valuable tool to understand better how the virus spread. In late 2020, the network detected a new virus lineage, 501Y.V2, which later became known as the beta variant. Now a new SARS-CoV-2 …
(2021-11-27). Health Agency: New COVID Strain Poses 'High to Very High Risk' to Europe. sputniknews.com The new variant was initially reported in South Africa and Botswana, and in Europe, Belgium was the first to detect it.
(2021-11-27). United States: John Deere workers win. greenleft.org.au In the United States, John Deere workers began militant strike action in the country's mid-west in October, reports Malik Miah. They stood up against a powerful employer — and, when necessary, their own national union leadership — and won.
(2021-11-27). [Perspectives] Pascale Ondoa: strengthening laboratory medicine in Africa. thelancet.com "Our core aim is to build laboratory systems to address the health agenda as defined by Africa", says Pascale Ondoa, who for the past 5 years has been Director of Science and New Initiatives at the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM). Part of this role is to direct technical advice and provide leadership to help shape health strategy and laboratory medicine improvement at the country level. "A lot of our work involves the coordination of partners and experts, so that investments from agencies like PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Fleming Fund, and others generate sub…
(2021-11-27). [Correspondence] Beyond COVID-19: scaling up and sustaining mobile health in Africa — Authors' reply. thelancet.com We thank Yap Boum for taking the time to respond to our Perspective.1…
(2021-11-27). [Correspondence] Beyond COVID-19: scaling up and sustaining mobile health in Africa. thelancet.com In their Perspective,1 N Hélène Sawadogo and colleagues highlight the challenges of mobile health care in Africa with the MOS@N project, which provided medical support to pregnant women but ran out of funding 3 years into operation. Securing longer-term funding to sustain mobile health is a challenge in Africa.2 Social innovations such as BIMA (Ghana), AccesAfya (Kenya), Idocta (Cameroon), and Healthforce (South Africa) use telemedicine to improve access to quality health care but have not managed to scale up.
(2021-11-27). CAR is Fighting against Both the Domestic and Foreign Enemies. journal-neo.org 
For four centuries African nations suffered from the evils of the slave trade, until, in the mid-19th Century Europeans discontinued this commerce, no longer seeing it as profitable. But the decline of the slave trade saw the dawn of another terrible time for Africa — the colonial period. African warriors were unable to resist attacks …
(2021-11-27). Algerian President Says Syria Should Take Part In Next Arab League Summit. southfront.org 
The official flag of the Arab League. | On November 26, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said that Syria should return to the Arab League during the next Arab summit which will be held in Algiers upcoming March."Syria is supposed to be present," the President told reporters when asked if the next Arab summit in Algeria will see Syria's return to the Arab League. | The President stressed that the upcoming Algiers summit should be inclusive in order to help reunify the Arab world once again."When we organize an Arab…