AI Slop Map of Africa at AIDS Conference

A US State Department map of Africa mislabeled every country they depicted during a presentation at the AIDS 2026 conference (July 26-31, 2026) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

The slide was so egregiously wrong that multiple attendees whipped out their phones to get a shot of it; Emily Bass, a writer and AIDS expert, wrote about it at length. 

"The US government's failure to catch this error before displaying the slide at the top international AIDS conference in the world, in a session that featured the Director General of Nigeria as an invited guest, is not only disrespectful to African collaborators, it's also a significant tell", wrote Bass.

Senior officials from several African governments were reportedly among those present. 

The map shows six countries receiving US health funding and none of them are correctly named or placed. Nigeria has migrated north to become landlocked in the Sahara. Mozambique has roughly replaced Ethiopia. The Ivory Coast was placed in southern Africa, far from any coast, its name an ignored clue. Uganda and Malawi are not so far off, but drawn with wrong borders. Cameroon was named but assigned no territory at all. While one country on the Gulf of Guinea – a hypothetical union of Ghana, Benin and Togo? – went unnamed. Perhaps that is Cameroon now. 

The speaker was Jeff Graham, the US health envoy who oversees PEPFAR (⁠President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), a United States government initiative.

Whoever ⁠created and approved this slide did not know where countries in Africa are and did not care to check their work. And Reuters reviewed video of the presentation and concluded that the map was AI slop. 

A Reuters analysis found the image of the map included in the presentation contained an artificial intelligence watermark that signals it was made with OpenAI tools. 

The company said they were investigating the report. The State Department said they took "full responsibility" and blamed a staffer who changed the slide deck shortly before the event. 

This sort of thing is normal in the Trump administration. Last year, the White House's "Make America Healthy Again" report cited studies that did not exist, with fabricated references and other hallmarks of AI slop.

Containment Efforts Race the Clock in the DRC

Health authorities across Africa are struggling to contain an Ebola outbreak, centered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). 

There are now more than 1,000 suspected Ebola cases in the DR Congo, and at least 246 deaths. Neighbouring Uganda has reported nine confirmed cases and one death. 

The current outbreak, a rare strain of Ebola known as Bundibugyo, has no proven vaccine and kills about a third of those infected.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said response efforts are being hampered by delays in identifying cases, warning that health authorities are effectively being forced to “play catch-up” as the outbreak expands. Suspected deaths linked to the virus have already surpassed 220. 

Although the WHO continue to assess the international threat level as low, they have raised the risk assessment inside the DR Congo from “high” to “very high”. The latest outbreak has primarily affected eastern regions of the DR Congo, where healthcare systems already face pressure from armed violence, mass displacement, and limited infrastructure. 

The WHO have classified the outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern, reviving memories of past Ebola epidemics that overwhelmed fragile healthcare systems and triggered international alarm. 

The current epidemic, officially declared on May 15, is the DR Congo’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak since the virus was first identified in 1976. 

Governments across Africa and beyond have introduced measures aimed at preventing the virus from spreading across borders. Rwanda has temporarily closed its border with the DR Congo, while Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, and Burkina Faso tightened health screening and sanitary monitoring procedures. Uganda also suspended flights to neighboring DR Congo following the outbreak. 

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have also expanded their Ebola response operations in eastern DR Congo and neighboring countries, deploying 200 volunteers. They are going door-to-door in communities to explain how the virus spreads, counter misinformation, and encourage early treatment. 

The UN allocated $60 million from their emergency response fund to help contain the outbreak. The WHO have reported the delivery of eleven tonnes of emergency medical supplies to support Ebola response operations in the DR Congo and have already allocated $3.9 million from their Contingency Fund for Emergencies.

Donald Trump Really Believes He is Peacemaker-in-Chief

US President Donald Trump really believes he is the “peacemaker-in-chief”, even boasting he has ended six wars since he became president. Of course lah, Trump is playing fast and loose with the truth. As he often does. 

Trump and his administration have claimed to have helped settle the conflicts between Israel and Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Cambodia and Thailand, India and Pakistan, Serbia and Kosovo, and Egypt and Ethiopia. 

Yet the claim to have settled those conflicts is egregiously embellished and in some cases contradicted by continued violence in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where both its government and Rwanda-backed rebels, M23, failed to sign a final peace accord in Doha, Qatar scheduled for Monday. 

In Iran, the US carried out its own strikes using bunker-buster bombs against military and nuclear facilities before strong-arming Iran to accept a ceasefire in June. The border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia saw a ceasefire reached in July that was mediated by Malaysia. India has denied that Trump played any role in reaching a ceasefire deal with Pakistan to end days of strikes over the disputed Kashmir territory in May. Egypt and Ethiopia have no deal to settle the root of their quarrel – a Nile River dam constructed by Ethiopia that would divert water from Egypt. And Serbia has denied it had any plans to pursue a war with Kosovo, although Trump took credit for preventing one. 

I've no doubt he is seriously eyeing the Nobel Peace Prize. In fact, he covets it!

May 09 is Russia’s Victory Day

Foreign leaders from 27 countries graced Russia’s Victory Day parade on Friday. 

[Two Heads of State, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Laotian President Thongloun Sisoulith did not turn up – the former pulled out at the last minute and the latter due to illness]. 

As well as military contingents from 13 countries – Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Egypt, Laos, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam – joined in to march alongside Russian forces on the day of the parade. 

The May 09 event commemorates 80 years since the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany in the Second World War (referred to by the Russians as the Great Patriotic War). 

[Notes: The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the Great Patriotic War (40% of all human losses in World War II), with civilian deaths accounting for the larger part of these losses. According to data of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of Atrocities of the German Fascist Invaders, the German troops destroyed fully or partially over 1,700 cities and towns, more than 70,000 villages and settlements in the USSR. 

And Western revisionists are deliberately downplaying the USSR's vital contribution to World War II. Partly because of the Cold War rivalry but more due to a Western bias to focus on the Western front and American and British victories]. 

The twenty-seven leaders who came: 

In case you're wondering, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are "separatist" regions of Georgia in the Caucasus. Most countries recognise them as part of Georgia, while Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria regard them as independent.

Russia Reveals Condition for Joining BRICS

BRICS applicants can’t join in sanctions against any of the economic bloc’s member states, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday, outlining a key condition for joining the grouping.

 

The group that started as an informal association of Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2006 have since expanded to nine member states – including South Africa on December 24, 2010 and Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and UAE on January 01 this year. Note that Argentina rejected the membership while Saudi Arabia has kept the decision to join pending. 

 

And in the BRICS 2024 Summit in Kazan, Russia later this month, they're expected to discuss further expansion.

 

"One needs to pursue a sovereign policy, have a significant role in international and regional affairs, build good-neighborly and friendly relations with the BRICS countries, and not join in illegitimate sanctions against members of the association", Ryabkov (left) emphasized, when asked about conditions for aspiring members.

 

"The doors to BRICS remain open, but expansion should not become an end unto itself. Russia’s objective this year has been to 'ensure organic and full integration' of the recently accepted members into the 'multifaceted architecture of the BRICS partnership', while maintaining the dynamics and effectiveness of the international association’s mechanisms and formats", he added. 

 

Methinks, Malaysia will be accepted.

Durians To Blame For Making Coffee More Expensive

How much is too much for a caffeine fix?

 

Prices like £5 in London or $7 in New York for a cup of coffee may be unthinkable for some – but could soon become a reality thanks to a "perfect storm" of economic and environmental factors in the world's top coffee-producing regions.

 

The cost of unroasted beans traded in global markets is now at a "historically high level", says analyst Judy Ganes. And experts blame a mix of troubled crops, market forces, depleted stockpiles – and the world’s smelliest fruit.

 

So how did we get here, and just how much will it impact your morning latte?

 

In 2021, a freak frost wiped out coffee crops in Brazil, the world's largest producer of Arabica beans – those commonly used in barista-made coffee. This bean shortfall meant buyers turned to countries like Vietnam, the primary producer of Robusta beans, that are typically used in instant blends. But farmers there faced the region’s worst drought in nearly a decade. 

 

Climate change has been affecting the development of coffee plants (Genus: Coffea; family: Rubiaceae), according to Will Frith, a coffee consultant based in Ho Chi Minh City, in turn impacting bean yields. And then Vietnamese farmers pivoted to the durian (Genus: Durio).

 

The fruit is proving popular in China and is in high demand. And so, Vietnamese farmers are replacing their coffee crops with durian to cash in on this emerging market. In fact, Vietnam's durian market share in China almost doubled between 2023 and 2024, and some estimate the crop is five times more lucrative than coffee.

 

"There’s a history of growers in Vietnam being fickle in response to market price fluctuations, over-committing, and then flooding the market with quantities of their new crop", Frith says. As they flooded China with durians, Robusta coffee exports were down 50% in June compared to the previous June, and stocks were now "near depleted", according to the International Coffee Organisation.

 

Exporters in Colombia, Ethiopia, Peru and Uganda have stepped up, but have not produced enough to ease a tight market.

 

"Right at [the] time when things started to rev up for demand of Robusta, is right when the world was scrambling for more supply", explains Ganes. This means Robusta and Arabica beans are now trading at near-record highs on commodity markets.

 

But industry figures caution that a high market price for coffee may not necessarily translate into higher retail prices.

 

Felipe Barretto Croce, CEO of FAFCoffees in Brazil, agrees that consumers are "feeling the pinch" as consumer prices have risen. But he argues that is "mostly due to inflationary costs in general", such as rent and labor, rather than the cost of beans. 

 

Consultancy Allegra Strategies estimate beans contribute less than 10% of the price of a cup of coffee. "Coffee is still very cheap, as a luxury good, if you make it at home".

 

Besides, the cost of lower-quality beans rising means high-quality coffee may now be seen as better value. "If you go into a specialty coffee shop in London and get a coffee, versus a coffee in Costa Coffee, the difference [in price] between that cup and the specialty coffee is much smaller than it used to be".

 

From what I've read, don't expect price relief anytime soon. It is already said that in the long term, climate change already poses serious challenges for the global coffee industry.

 

A 2022 study "Expected global suitability of coffee, cashew and avocado due to climate change" by Roman Grüter et al, affiliated with the Institute of Natural Resource Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Wädenswil, Switzerland and published in Plos One had concluded that even if we drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the area most highly suited for growing coffee could decline by 50% by 2050.

 

One measure to future-proof the industry that has the support of Croce is a "green premium" – a small tax levied on coffee given to farmers to invest in regenerative agricultural practices, which help protect and sustain the viability of farmlands.

 

So while the durian is partly responsible for price rises now – a changing climate may ultimately strain the affordability of coffee in the years to come.

 

EVs Begin to Overtake Petrol-driven Cars in Ethiopia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long lines have been forming at gas stations in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, amid fuel shortages and a price spike in recent months. 

 

But electric vehicle driver Mikial Belayneh avoids them completely. 

 

“I no longer line up for petrol on the road”, Belayneh, an Addis resident, told CNN. A full charge of his imported Toyota bZ4X – a popular EV in the country – “is more than enough for two days”. 

 

Belayneh, who charges his car at home, is part of rapid transition to EVs in Addis Ababa, a fast-growing city in the horn of Africa at the center of Ethiopia’s goal to hoist millions of people out of poverty.

 

In addition to the polluting cars and trucks rumbling along the roads, cleaner – and quieter – vehicles are joining the traffic. Electric buses, smaller 15-seat minibuses, cars and motorbikes are popping up on the streets of the capital.

 

There are around 100,000 EVs in Ethiopia so far. 

 

The Ethiopian government estimate that number will more than quadruple by 2032. That’s largely because the national government took the extraordinary step of banning the import of all gas-powered passenger vehicles in January this year – becoming the first nation in the world to do so.

 

They also effectively slashed the customs tax on imported cars: The tax on gas vehicles was up to 200% before they were banned, while the import tax for fully assembled EVs is just 15%, according to the country’s finance ministry.

 

It’s part of a government-led effort to get more EVs on the streets.

 

The lower rates are also spurring more local EV manufacturing. Hundreds of the vehicles were assembled by Ethiopia-based Belayneh Kindie Group using parts imported from China. Besufekad Shewaye, manager at the company, told CNN that import tariffs are “almost zero percent” for EV parts that are assembled in Ethiopia. 

 

Ethiopia is leaning hard into EVs in part because importing fuel is expensive, and 96% of the country’s electricity comes from clean hydropower – a dual win for the country’s finances and the environment. 

 

“They really are a clean-energy country”, said Jane Akumu, a Kenya-based program officer at the United Nations Environment Program. “Why are you importing oil while you have local electricity that you can actually use for your vehicles?” 

 

The government recognized they had a bountiful renewable energy source in the country when they started shifting towards EVs, said Assefa Hadis Hagos, a transportation adviser for the Ethiopian Ministry of Transport and Logistics.

BRICS: From 5 To 9

BRICS are already a force to be reckoned with.

 

In 2024, they expanded their membership from 5 countries to nine. 

 

The four new members include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE. Note: Saudi Arabia has yet to officially join. I understand that work on the integration of Saudi Arabia with the BRICS countries is still continuing.

 

Another prospective member, Argentina, made an abrupt U-turn on its accession plans after the presidential election in the country was won by Javier Milei late last year.

 

Moscow assumes the one-year rotating presidency of the group, with President Vladimir Putin pledging to “facilitate the harmonious integration” of new partners. Some 30 other countries have already expressed their intent in participating in the group’s activities in one form or another, Putin noted.

 

According to the IMF figures, the expanded BRICS now surpass the G7, an informal group of leading Western countries, in terms of GDP at purchasing power parity, accounting for 36% of the world total.

 

Expanding BRICS

A data-driven overview of how the BRICS expansion will grow the group’s influence and reach (re: "BRICS 2023 To Add 6 New Members" published August 24, 2023).

The original five BRICS members are expected to have a combined GDP of $27.6 trillion in 2023, representing 26.3% of the global total. With the new members included, expected GDP climbs slightly to $30.8 trillion, enough for a 29.3% global share. 

The following table includes GDP projections for 2023, courtesy of the IMF:

 

BRICS 2023 To Add 6 New Members

This year’s BRICS summit is being held from August 22 to 24 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with over 40 foreign leaders taking part – and of course, including South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Russia is represented in person by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while President Vladimir Putin is taking part via videolink. 

 

The South African president today announced that six nations will become full-fledged members of the BRICS group of nations starting January 01, 2024, after their candidacies were approved by leaders of the current member states: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. 

 

And Russia will assume the rotating BRICS chairmanship in 2024. The next BRICS Summit will be held in October in the Russian city of Kazan, President Vladimir Putin announced via videolink on Wednesday. 

 

If you don't already know, the current BRICS 2023 Summit sets the stage for what is potentially a seismic shift in the global economic landscape. 

 

The leaders of the five emerging economies that form BRICS came together in South Africa, not just for a diplomatic tête-à-tête, but to discuss a game-changing proposal – the complete de-dollarization of their economies. 

 

This move towards ending Dollar dominance is another significant step in their journey towards establishing a new economic order – one that's more inclusive and reflective of the emerging economies' clout. 

 

As Putin declared on Tuesday, de-dollarization is “gaining momentum” and it is “irreversible”. According to him, the share of the Dollar in export-import transactions within BRICS is declining: last year it was only 28.7%”.

‘Crime Victims’ Status in Boeing 737 MAX Crashes

A United States federal court judge has ruled relatives of the 346 people killed in the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia are representatives of crime victims under federal law and should have been told about private negotiations over a settlement that spared Boeing from criminal prosecution. 

The full impact of the ruling on Friday is not yet clear, however. The judge said the next step is to decide what remedies the families of victims should receive for not being told of the talks between the US government and Boeing. 

The first Boeing Max 737 crashed in Indonesia in October 2018, killing 189, and another crashed five months later in Ethiopia, killing 157. 

All Boeing 737 Max jets were grounded worldwide for nearly two years. They were cleared to fly again after Boeing overhauled an automated flight-control system that activated erroneously in both crashes. 

Next of kin are pushing to scrap the US government’s January 2021 settlement with Boeing and have expressed anger that no one in the company has been held criminally responsible for the two crashes. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the judge’s ruling. 

Boeing, which misled safety regulators who approved the Max, agreed to pay $2.5bn including a $243.6m fine. The US Justice Department, in return, agreed not to prosecute the company for conspiracy to defraud the government. 

The Justice Department, in explaining why they did not tell families about the secret negotiations with the company, argued the relatives were not crime victims. 

However, US District Judge Reed O’Connor (left) in Fort Worth, Texas, said the crashes were a foreseeable consequence of Boeing’s conspiracy, making the relatives representatives of crime victims. 

“In sum, but for Boeing’s criminal conspiracy to defraud the FAA, 346 people would not have lost their lives in the crashes”, he wrote. 

Boeing did not disclose key details to the Federal Aviation Administration of a safety system called MCAS, which was linked to both fatal crashes and designed to help counter a tendency of the MAX to pitch up.

“Had Boeing not committed (the) crime” pilots in Ethiopia and Indonesia would have “received training adequate to respond to the MCAS activation that occurred on both aircrafts”, O’Connor ruled. 

Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, said the ruling “is a tremendous victory” and “sets the stage for a pivotal hearing, where we will present proposed remedies that will allow criminal prosecution to hold Boeing fully accountable”. 

A sweetheart deal cannot absolve Boeing of criminal misconduct, period.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Complains of Double Standard

WHO’s Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (left) has come out to complain that the world does not give equal attention to emergencies affecting black and white people. 

He voiced out that only a fraction of the help given to Ukraine was given to other humanitarian crises. 

Assisting Ukraine is "very important" because it "impacts the whole world" – but Tigray province in Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan or Syria are not receiving the same attention, he said. 

"I need to be blunt and honest that the world is not treating the human race the same way. Some are more equal than others. And when I say this, it pains me. Because I see it. Very difficult to accept but it's happening", he added. 

Tedros, who is from Tigray referred to the fact that the United Nations had determined that 100 trucks per day of life-saving supplies were needed for the northernmost regional state of Ethiopia. If you don’t know, there is an ongoing civil war that broke out in Tigray between the TPLF, a group that dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades and the government in November 2020. The fighting has seen thousands killed – including civilians – while millions are in desperate need of humanitarian aid, with the federal government accused of hampering relief efforts. 

And there’s another civil war in Yemen, one of the Arab world's poorest countries with the UN already calling it the world's worst humanitarian crisis. 

In Afghanistan, the UN says 24 million people need humanitarian assistance to survive. 

And Syria has been at civil war for 11 years. Around half a million people have been killed and millions have been displaced in the conflict. 

This appalling double standard is an indictment of western powers’ hypocrisy, given their absolute spotlight on Ukraine as compared to conflict zones elsewhere. 

But things are not what they seem. The “help” given to the country by the US and its NATO collaborators are actually weapons of war and which they generously supplied, rather than humanitarian relief. Clearly, it is evident that they have no intention to bring about an end to the fighting because they're not interested at all in promoting peace talks. 

Anyway, why should they? They are the ones who sowed the seeds of this conflict between Ukraine and Russia in the first place. And in the other countries too, if I may add.

Liverpool secured a two-legged Champions League semi-final – but only after they surrendered a two-goal lead and drew with Benfica 3-3 to earn a 6-4 aggregate win yesterday. 

The Reds knew a fast start would all-but secure their progression and they got just that, with Ibrahima Konate nodding in from a Kostas Tsimikas corner after just 21 minutes. Benfica weren’t to be deterred however, and levelled the score eleven minutes afterward. 

Roberto Firmino re-established Liverpool's healthy lead with a brace – a tap-in followed by a volley – in the fifty-fifth and sixty-fifth minutes. Again, Benfica were undeterred and Alisson was beaten twice – in the seventy-third minute, and eight minutes later. Another episode of defensive uncertainty from Jürgen Klopp’s team.

Anyway, the Reds will be up against surprise package Villarreal on April 27 – which presents them with a massive opportunity to fly straight into the European Cup final again. 

It is noteworthy to mention that on the same day too, Manchester City will face Real Madrid in the other semi to complete an all Spanish-English line-up in the last four. 

But before that, all eyes to return to the FA Cup where both Reds and Citizens confront each other in a Wembley semi-final on Saturday.

Perceived Corruption Worsens in Malaysia

The 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index released yesterday by Transparency International shows that corruption levels remain at a standstill worldwide, with 86 percent of countries making little to no progress in the last 10 years. 

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). 

The CPI global average remains unchanged at 43 for the tenth year in a row, and two-thirds of countries score below 50. 

And Malaysia garnered 48 points, the first time the country’s score dropped below 50 since 2012. Undoubtedly, perceived corruption in Malaysia has worsened – and we are placed 62nd in 2021, or five rungs lower than the previous year. 

FYI, Denmark, Finland and New Zealand are top of the index with 88 points each as “clean countries”, while Somalia, Syria and South Sudan are at the bottom of the index, with 13, 13 and 11 points respectively.

Covid is hurting education.

The scale of the number of children who have lost out on their schooling during the pandemic is “nearly insurmountable”, according to UN data released on Monday. 

Globally, disruption to education has meant millions of children have significantly missed out on the academic learning they would have acquired if they had been in the classroom. 

Up to 70% of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries cannot read or understand a simple text, up from 53% pre-Covid, the research suggested. 

Classroom closures continue to affect more than 616 million children globally, with younger and more marginalised children facing the greatest loss in learning after almost two years of Covid, according to children’s agency UNICEF, which called for intensive support to help students recover. 

Across the world, from Ethiopia and South Africa to Brazil and the US, children have lost basic literacy and numeracy skills and their mental and physical health has suffered. It is a worrying situation.

Raise a Glass to Sparkling Mead

Mead is sparking earnest enthusiasm among drinkers! 

Thanks to the likes of "Game of Thrones" and the surge in popularity of other fantasy series, mead, the ancient alcoholic beverage made from honey, is making a comeback. 

Meet Bulles de Ruche. Water, honey... and bubbles! That's the recipe for this brand-new drink that refreshes an age-old tipple dating back to bygone days.  What's different about this 2021 take on mead is the addition of a light fizz, as well as a lower alcohol content, at no more than 4.5°.

Created by Paul-Augustin Delattre, Beeche's Bulles de Ruche mead brand has chosen three types of honey to create versions of the drink with different aromatic profiles: lychee honey sourced in south-eastern Madagascar; and lavender honey harvested on the Valensole plateau in Provence, and lime honey gathered in the Forest of Halatte in the Oise region of France. 

What’s special about this honey wine is that it has a tremendous amount of versatility – like craft beers, you can make different styles with different flavors. You can add spices, fruits, vegetables, grains and/or hops. It’s its own distinct category, somewhere between beer and wine. You’d sip/drink/guzzle it like a wine, cider or beer. 

These substyles include braggot, which is mead mixed with beer or malt and hops; melomel, which is mead with added fruit; hydromel, which is watered-down melomel (popular in Spain and France); and Great Mead, which is mead intended to be aged. Like wine, it can be still or sparkling and range from crisp and dry to rich and sweet. 

In case you didn’t know, mead was one of the very first alcoholic beverages ever made, predating beer and wine – as far back as 3,000 BCE. It’s thought that mead was first created when rain dropped into a pot of honey, and that the first people to start drinking and making it were those of China’s Henan province. 

Mead then became a staple for the Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Vikings (to which it also has a strong bond in pop culture references), Poles, Russians, and Ethiopians, who have their own form of mead called tej. 

As Vogue points out, you can find mead shout-outs everywhere from the bible to Chaucer to Aristotle to Beowulf. 

Mead was associated with good health and vitality in timeworn cultures and called “the drink of the gods” in Greek mythology. Do those claims hold up today? Maybe. 

It’s believed that mead has some health benefits because of its star ingredient, honey. Healthline says that according to research, honey has strong antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. However, there’s not enough evidence yet to support that honey still has these magical vibes once it’s been fermented. 

The fermentation aspect may be a health plus of its own, though. Those helpful little living microorganisms called probiotics can exist in this naturally fermented beverage, but again, it’s unclear how effective or concentrated they are since other ingredients possibly used in a certain mead could affect or even kill the bacteria. 

Basically, the jury’s still out, but at worst, mead isn’t less healthy than beer and at best, it could have some positive healthy powers. 

Anyway, I’ll have to wait for Bulles de Ruche to land on our shores before I can have a quaff of it.  

Boeing's 737 MAX Can Resume Flying

The ban on the 737 MAX is now lifted when, on Wednesday, the US Federal Aviation Administration approved commercial flight operations of the plane. 

Boeing’s best-selling aircraft was grounded worldwide last year following two crashes that killed 346 passengers. 

But the Civil Aviation Administration of China are not buying it – they are seemingly not ready to allow Boeing’s troubled jet to fly in the company’s biggest market owing to lingering safety concerns. 

I applaud China’s zero tolerance policy – it’s better to err on the side of caution. More so, given Boeing’s previous shenanigans. 

FYI, China was the first to suspend flights of the aircraft. 

Anyway, the CAAC said on Friday that there was “no set timetable” for the resumption of flights, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The regulator added that the results of investigations into the deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia “must be made clear” and that the aircraft design improvements must be “effective” and “receive (proper) approval”.

I'm doubly sure Ethiopia and Indonesia would also be cautious, maybe even extra cautious. 

Yesterday, Malaysia’s new Covid-19 cases dipped again to just below a thousand – although Sabah and Selangor still see infections in the 3-digit range.

The largest concentration of new cases came from the Sri Jujur cluster in Selangor with 41 positive cases involving five locals and 36 foreign workers.

Today, the Conditional Movement Control Order ends for 4 states: Johor, Kedah, Melaka and Terengganu, ahead of the original expiry on December 09. Also today, Kelantan starts a two-week CMCO. 

The country’s cumulative cases which added up to 52,538 have propelled us to position # 84 amongst coronavirus-affected countries.

A Violent World

Today’s world is not only sick – it’s also violent! 

According to the World Health Organization, each year, over 1.6 million people worldwide lose their lives to violence. Violence is among the leading causes of death for people aged 15–44 years worldwide, accounting for 14% of deaths among males and 7% of deaths among females. 

For every person who dies as a result of violence, many more are injured and suffer from a range of physical, sexual, reproductive and mental health problems. Moreover, violence places a massive burden on national economies, costing countries billions of dollars each year in health care, law enforcement and lost productivity. 

Just look at this month – only seven days but already, there's been plenty of bloodshed. 

Last Sunday, armed men in western Ethiopia rounded up and executed dozens of men, women and children in a schoolyard, in a “brutal” attack officials blamed on an armed group that is active in the Oromia region. It is believed at least 54 members of the Amhara ethnic group – Ethiopia’s second-largest – were murdered. 

On Monday, gunmen stormed Kabul University in Kabul, Afghanistan and killed at least 22 and wounded just as many. All three attackers were killed in a six-hour gun battle with government forces.

 

On the same day too, four people were killed and 23 others wounded in a gun attack in the Austrian capital, Vienna. The perpetrator, who was armed with an automatic rifle, a pistol and a machete, was shot dead by police. 

The dismembered bodies of at least five adults and 15 boys were discovered on Monday in Muidumbe district in insurgency-hit northeastern Mozambique. The victims were participating in a male initiation ceremony when they were set upon by suspected militants. 

And on Thursday, Bolivia’s president-elect Luis Arce survived a dynamite attack in La Paz city. Happily, there were no injuries. 

The above are just those which made the big headlines in November todate.

It's time to recognize that violence is not an intractable social problem or an inevitable part of the human condition.

19 Million Cases

Yesterday, the world hit 19 million cases. And a day earlier, the coronavirus pandemic death toll had passed 700,000. 

I suppose this is what is commonly referred to as the ‘second wave’. Again, if we examine the twelve worst-affected countries, they have combined to contribute 72.7% of the world total cases.

 

Two countries, the United States and India stuck out like sore thumbs. 

SARS-CoV-2 continues to plague the US as the number of cases went beyond 5 million. And India has become the third country to pass two million cases. 

In fact, it has taken 20 days for the country to progress from a million to two million cases. That is faster than the time the US (43 days) and Brazil (27 days) took to double from a million cases. The only saving grace is that India recorded fewer fatalities than both these countries.

I wish the country would focus on fighting Covid-19 rather than fighting China. 

Africa has a million people now been confirmed to have had the coronavirus – and 87.5% are coming from these 12 countries:

Mary Stephen, technical officer at the WHO's regional office for Africa warns: "We haven't seen the peak in Africa yet".