Nike gives extra week off to HQ office staff as UK unions call for more bank holidays

The holiday was granted only to head office employees, so all Nike staff in shops and other offices will have to carry on working as normal

Nike Inc has given an extra week off to office staff at its US headquarters, while UK unions have called for more bank holidays.

The athleisure designer let its Oregon workers take time off until next week “to unwind, destress and spend time with your loved ones" after a tough year, head of insights Matt Marrazzo posted on LinkedIn.

READ: Bumble closes for a week to help employees with workplace stress

“In a year (or two) unlike any other, taking time for rest and recovery is key to performing well and staying sane. This past year has been rough - we're all human! and living through a traumatic event!,” he said.

“It's not just a "week off" for the team... it's an acknowledgement that we can prioritize mental health and still get work done.”

However, all Nike staff in shops and other offices will have to carry on working as normal.

The move comes after similar initiatives from dating app Bumble Inc (NASDAQ:BMBL) and social media network LinkedIn, which gave employees a week off in June and April respectively citing mental health reasons.
More bank holidays

Meanwhile, UK unions said English and Welsh workers should get as many bank holidays as their counterparts.

The current number is for fewer than the European average and half of what’s granted in Japan.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) noted the huge gap between the August Bank Holiday and Christmas and said it’s because “we get is so stingy compared to other nations".

"The August Bank Holiday will be a welcome break for everyone working hard to get us through the pandemic - especially those on the front line,” TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady was reported as saying by the BBC.

However, a government spokesman said: "The current pattern of public and bank holidays is well established and whilst an additional bank holiday may benefit some communities and sectors, the cost to the economy of an additional bank holiday is considerable."

WRASSLING

NOTHING FAKE
WWE fans convinced Charlotte Flair and Nia Jax had a real fight during match on RAW, Mick Foley reacts: ‘WTF?’

Alex McCarthy
31st August 2021, 

Professional wrestling doesn’t always go according to plan and that was certainly the case with Charlotte Flair and Nia Jax on Monday Night Raw.

The women met in a non-title match last night and Twitter has been lit up with clips from the match that featured a series of obvious and, in most cases, painful errors.


Charlotte Flair and Nia Jax traded some stiff blows

WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley is more qualified than the fans to know what was going on in that matchup and even he was bemused.
Foley tweeted: “Just wondering…WTF was up with that #CharlotteVsNia match?”

As you can see from the clips below, the ladies were not on the same page.

A moonsault from Flair to the outside saw a waiting Jax eat a boot to the head. Whether Jax should have been closer in order to ‘base’ for Flair – which essentially means break her fall – isn’t clear.

Jax also went to land a shoulder breaker on the RAW Women’s champion, but ended up dropping Flair on her head.

With both women failing to get on the same page, things broke down in the middle of the match where they started just slapping each other about and it looked extremely messy.

Fans on Twitter believed that Flair and Jax might really have gotten into it:

Charlotte then tried to run the ropes and presumably get into the next spot, but Jax held her in the Samaon Drop position and clearly neither woman really knew what was going to happen next.

Eventually, Jax got the win over the champion – which is annoying in and of itself, but a trademark WWE habit at this point – and it seems to suggest she’s in line to face Flair for the title.

It’s hard to know exactly what happened here and it’s unlikely either woman will make a comment on it.


The struggle between Charlotte Flair and Nia Jax appeared real


Nia Jax would pick up the victory over the champion

Chances are things just didn’t click in the ring on the night. If there are to be more Jax and Flair matches, it will be interesting to see what direction they go in and if indeed that will remain the plan.

Alexa Bliss is also feuding with Flair at the moment with an eye on the title, so they could pivot away with Jax if needed.

Scotland a world leader on climate change? Absolutely not, says Greta Thunberg

Michiel Willems

The 18-year-old was also sceptical of the Scottish Government’s new power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens which will bring Green representatives into government for the first time in the UK.

Scotland should not be seen as a world leader on climate change, as the Scottish Government claims, according to climate activist Greta Thunberg.

The Swedish teenager said she has not yet decided whether she will travel to COP26, the global UN climate conference in Glasgow next month, but will do if it is “considered safe and democratic” – including ensuring participants from poorer countries are fully vaccinated and able to travel.

Questioned this morning by BBC Scotland on whether Scotland is a world leader on climate change, she said: “No… I mean, there are some countries that do a bit more than certain others, but then if we look at it from a broader perspective then I think we can safely say there are no countries – at least in the global north – that are even doing close to what would be needed.”

Scotland’s climate change legislation includes a target to reach net zero by 2045, which the Scottish Government has said is “world-leading”.

Also Read:
Cop26 is our last chance to tackle climate change as extreme weather takes hold

The 18-year-old was also sceptical of the Scottish Government’s new power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens which will bring Green representatives into government for the first time in the UK.

Thunberg told the broadcaster: “Of course there might be some politicians that are slightly less worse than others. That was very mean, but you get the point.”

“It’s a hopeful sign that people want something that’s more ‘green’ – whatever ‘green’ means – but in order to solve this, we need to tackle this at a more systemic approach,” she added.

Return to school

Having returned to school after a year out leading young people in school strikes for climate change, Thunberg said the conference falls in her school holidays, and if she does attend she plans to travel by train.

On whether the conference should be in person or virtual, she said: “We get much more results when we meet in person, it’s hard to argue against that, but of course if it’s not considered safe then we have to go for the safest option.

“To be honest, I don’t think that either one will lead to much results. A physical meeting will probably bring more results, but still nowhere close to what’s needed.”

Asked if she was optimistic for the future, she said: “I don’t know whether ‘optimistic’ is the right word, but it gives me at least hope to see we have a huge potential of achieving change.

“We know that change will not come from the Cop, from within these negotiations. The change will come when there are enough people outside on the streets demanding change.”

Questioned on the controversy over plans for the new Cambo oil field west of Shetland, she said: “I think that maybe summarises the whole situation we are in – the fact that these kind of countries who are actually hosting the Cop is planning to actually expand fossil fuel infrastructure, to open up new oil fields, and so on.

“But also it’s a bit strange that we are talking about single individual oil fields.

“It’s not just that we need to stop future expansions. We also need to scale down existing ones if we are to have a chance of avoiding the worst consequences.”

Sturgeon deal with Scottish Greens brings green politicians into govt for first time in UK


Michiel Willems

Sturgeon said the “historic cooperation agreement” between the two parties was founded on “a shared drive to work together in the Scottish Government to build a greener, fairer, independent Scotland”. (Getty Images)

The Scottish Government’s new power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens will bring Green representatives into government for the first time anywhere in the UK.

Nicola Sturgeon plans to set out details of her government’s deal with the Greens as Holyrood returns after the summer recess.

The first day of business is also expected to see Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater formally appointed as junior ministers in the Scottish Government, the first time ever Greens have held such positions anywhere in the UK.


It comes after a co-operation agreement between the two pro-independence parties was endorsed by the members of both organisations this weekend.

As a result, Harvie will become the minister for zero carbon buildings, active travel and tenants’ rights, while Slater – a renewable energy expert who was became an MSP in May – will take on the role of minister for green skills, the circular economy and biodiversity.

Sturgeon said the “historic cooperation agreement” between the two parties was founded on “a shared drive to work together in the Scottish Government to build a greener, fairer, independent Scotland”.
Independence debate

Meanwhile SNP MSP Neil Gray said the deal could see the people of Scotland given the chance to vote again on the issue of independence.

He stated: “Our Scottish Parliament was built on the founding principles of working together and collaborating and we should all come together for the future of Scotland.


“As we recover from the pandemic we can focus on creating good, green jobs to support our just transition.

“We can build a social security system that is built for the people of Scotland, not against them. And we can give the people of Scotland a choice over their future in an independence referendum.”

But Scottish Conservatives have vowed to vote against the appointment of the two Green Party co-leaders to the government.

Tory Covid recovery spokesman Murdo Fraser said: “In the middle of the biggest economic crisis in our lifetime, it’s deeply worrying that Nicola Sturgeon is turning to anti-jobs, anti-business extremists.

“It is pure economic vandalism to hand power to Green MSPs who have admitted they want tolimit growth and hold back Scotland’s economy.

He added: “Nicola Sturgeon is taking a nationalist gamble with people’s jobs. She is bringing in radicals, all in the hopes of ramping up her push for another divisive referendum.

“Only the Scottish Conservatives will stand up and challenge this divisive coalition of chaos and provide a real alternative to end the obsession with independence.”

Percentage of Americans who say they won't get vaccinated drops to record low in new poll

BY DOMINICK MASTRANGELO 

- 08/31/21 

The percentage of Americans who say they will never get vaccinated against the coronavirus has dropped to a new low, according to a new poll.

The Axios-Ipsos poll published on Tuesday found 20 percent of Americans said they either are not very likely or not likely at all to receive a vaccine. That represents a new low in the survey and is down from a combined 34 percent in March and 23 percent two weeks ago, Axios noted.

The factors driving down vaccine hesitancy, the survey found, were a surge in delta variant cases, the return of children to schools in recent days and the Food and Drug Administration's granting of full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier this month.

"Schools, organizations, companies, governments implementing mandates are forcing people to deal with them," Cliff Young of Ipsos said in an analysis published with the survey's results. "That's what going on."

Overall, 68 percent of Americans with K-12 children said they have either already vaccinated their children or are likely to do so as soon as it's approved for their age group. That represents a new high in the poll, up double digits from 56 percent from the middle of July.

A total of 19 percent also indicated their employers are mandating vaccines, a slight increase from 16 percent two weeks ago.

The poll was conducted Aug. 27-30 among 1,071 respondents. It has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.

More K-12 parents lean toward mask mandates than oppose them: Gallup

BY LEXI LONAS - 08/31/21 



More K-12 parents support mask mandates in schools than oppose them, but support for mask mandates fails to reach a majority level, according to a new Gallup poll.

The poll shows 48 percent of parents believe students should have to wear masks regardless of vaccination status while 41 percent say no student should have to wear a mask.

Only 11 percent of K-12 parents believe only unvaccinated students should have to wear the masks.


Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask while indoors.

Mask mandates in schools have led to numerous fights across states and in courts with some parents battling against Republican governors who have banned mask mandates and some Democratic governors who have required masks in all schools regardless of their COVID-19 status.

Mask mandates also fail to reach a majority of support among parents for teachers and staff in schools.

The poll shows 48 percent of parents believe teachers and staff members should have to wear a mask and 38 percent say there should be no mask mandate for teachers.

Mask mandates for only unvaccinated teachers are supported among 13 percent of parents.

The poll shows vaccinations have risen in those above the age of 16 and above the age of 12 in the last month.

The poll comes as delta variant cases have caused spikes in states around the country and many students have had to quarantine after the first week of classes due to exposure to the virus.

However, it is shown that children have a lower death and hospitalization rate than other age groups from the virus.

K-12 parents were shown to be less concerned about people choosing not to get vaccinated than the general public with 51 percent of parents and 60 percent of the general public worried about individuals not getting vaccinated.

The poll shows 48 percent of parents are not worried and 37 percent are “not worried at all” about people in their local area not getting the vaccine.

The poll was conducted between Aug. 16-Aug. 22 with 674 parents surveyed. The margin of error is plus or minus five percentage points.

Why the COVID origin report came up inconclusive

BY REID WILSON - 08/31/21 

© iStock/Madeline Monroe

The U.S. intelligence community was unable to reach a conclusion about the origins of COVID-19 after a 90-day review of available data and interviews with top health experts and officials.

If anyone was surprised about the inconclusive results, it was not those same health experts and officials. Those with experience hunting viruses in their natural habitats know just how difficult it is to track their origins.

Many had said from the beginning that there is insufficient evidence to pinpoint the moment in which the coronavirus infected its first human victim — and, based on experience with previous novel pathogens, the evidence is almost certain never to be found.

“It was obvious to many of us that based on the information they had, it was going to be incomplete,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Prevention at the University of Minnesota. “The level of information you need from the time that a spillover might have occurred or the time a leak might have occurred is in relatively short supply.”

The review by American intelligence agencies will be unsatisfying for everyone, whether they are inclined to believe the virus came from an animal known as a reservoir host and infected the first humans in a natural setting — something most health experts believe is the most likely explanation — or that the global pandemic is the result of a lab leak at a Chinese facility in Wuhan.

The Chinese government has not helped, either with the American review or a separate investigation undertaken by the World Health Organization, criticizing those inquiries as efforts to cast blame for a pandemic that has killed millions across the globe. But even with full cooperation, finding the true origin of the novel pathogen would have been highly unlikely.

“We will likely be left in suspension on this for years, unfortunately,” said Eric Topol, an expert in molecular medicine at the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California.

The moment when a virus jumps from an animal to a human, known as a spillover event, is almost impossible to identify. If the virus itself is unknown to science before it infects its first victim, health care professionals do not have the ability to test for it; if the victim is treated in a hospital setting, the doctors do not know what they are looking at.

Even in retrospect, once a pathogen becomes a global public health threat, finding evidence of its origins rarely occurs. After half a century of occasional outbreaks in African nations, scientists have never firmly established the reservoir host of the Ebola virus, though a certain species of bat is the likeliest suspect. Decades of investigation have not uncovered the spillover event that started the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.

More recently, Osterholm pointed to SARS, which killed at least 770 people in the early 2000s, or MERS, which killed at least 880 people a decade ago, mostly on the Arabian Peninsula.

In both cases, the viruses — also coronaviruses — much is known about how they spilled over into humans: SARS in China’s Guangdong Province, MERS from camels in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. But the exact moment of spillover in each case are events lost to history.

In the case of COVID-19, also known as the SARS-CoV-2 virus, there is evidence that the pathogen was circulating and infecting people months before the first recognized outbreak in Wuhan in late December. But there is no set of blood samples to test in hindsight, or evidence of widespread outbreaks of a particularly suspicious respiratory disease that might act as a blinking red light.

“We’ll never know. No one has test results from back then. No one has a smoking gun set of outbreaks,” Osterholm said. “This surely needs more study, and hopefully more info forthcoming from the Chinese lab experts, from the people involved in the community-based studies.”

Public health experts say the lack of conclusive evidence should not take away from the persistent threat of lab leaks, which exist around the world. Scientists in both the United States and Russia have been infected in the past with deadly diseases like Ebola because of accidental needle pricks and other causes.

“No matter what actually happened, it’s kind of besides the point,” said Tom Frieden, who led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Obama administration and now runs Resolve to Save Lives, the global health nonprofit.

“We know that lab accidents happen and we need a better global approach to reducing the risk,” Frieden said. “We know that spillover happens and we need a better global approach to reducing the risk. Not nearly enough is done on either of these. No matter what happened or didn’t happen in Wuhan, we need to do better at preventing both lab releases and spillover all over the world.”

Scientists detail role of climate change in Ida's intensity

BY ZACK BUDRYK AND RACHEL FRAZIN - 08/31/21 

© Getty Images

A combination of climate-related factors such as warm ocean temperatures and increased sea level rise helped fuel Hurricane Ida and its path of destruction, scientists said.

The deadly storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, hitting Louisiana and Mississippi and leaving more than 1 million people without power as of Monday morning.

According to a recent United Nations report on climate change, hurricanes like Ida are likely to continue to intensify as the planet keeps warming.

Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist and dean of the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability, told The Hill that the warm ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico appeared to cause Ida to strengthen in such a short amount of time.

“Those warm ocean temperatures are the fuel for these big tropical storms. So with Ida you saw it intensify rapidly to a Category 4 storm, and that’s a real classic climate change signal,” Overpeck said.

Ocean heat causes evaporation, he said, and that plays a major role in how storms form and their level of intensity. Two other factors are precipitation brought by a warmer atmosphere and storm surge exacerbated by rising sea levels.

“I would be willing to bet money that once the ... research is done, it will become clear that this storm was supercharged by climate change in all three ways,” said Overpeck.

Those factors are part of a larger pattern, said John Nielsen-Gammon, a professor at Texas A&M University and climatologist for the state of Texas.

“We can’t tell with one hurricane, but the records show that — in the Atlantic basin at least — major hurricanes have become more common, rapid intensification has become more common, intense rain from hurricanes has become heavier and the sea level has risen, which makes storm surges higher,” Nielsen-Gammon said.

President Biden on Monday spoke with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R), as well as local leaders like Jackson, Miss., Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba (D) and Baton Rouge, La., Mayor Sharon Weston Broome (D).

“I know you’re busy as the devil. I know you’ve got a lot to manage in your states,” Biden said at the White House. “We know Hurricane Ida had the potential to cause massive, massive damage and that’s exactly what we saw.”

The storm, which has killed at least one person in Louisiana, follows stark warnings from the U.N. on hurricanes.

A report from its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released earlier this month said that overall, hurricanes have probably become more intense over the past few decades and will continue to worsen.

The proportion of hurricanes with the highest wind speed categories — categories 3 through 5 — has likely increased over the past four decades, the report said, adding that human-caused climate change has increased the heavy precipitation associated with hurricanes.

And as temperatures rise, the overall proportion of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes are expected to increase, according to the report. For the U.S. Gulf Coast, North America’s East Coast and the Caribbean, more extreme hurricanes are projected.

“One of the common misconceptions is with climate change we’re going to get more storms,” Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, told The Hill.

Instead, he said, “climate change tends to load the dice, so to speak, for more intense storms” and increases the odds of any given storm becoming a powerful hurricane.

“If you look at the number of storms, the number of hurricanes” in recent decades, “it’s actually down, but you do see increases in the highest of the high,” he added.

“One of the most robust projections of climate change is that we will have an increase in the occurrence of the most intense storms (cat 4 and cat 5),” said Suzana Camargo, a professor at Columbia University’s Division of Ocean and Climate Physics, in an email. “Multiple studies have analyzed this issue for the historical data, and found that we are already seeing an increase in the occurrence of the most intense storms.”

In the Atlantic Ocean, she added, the hurricane season this year has been quite busy in terms of storm numbers, especially with the formation of Ida, Julian and Kate today.” In prior years, very few seasons had so many storms this early in the season, with the peak tending to fall around Sept. 10, she said.

Hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.

The 2021 season is also ahead of the typical season by other measurements, she said, such as those based on storm duration and intensity.

“We are still early in the season to know how the full season will pan out, but the seasonal forecasts are for an above normal season,” she said.

Lebanon's 'new poor' pull children out of private school

Lebanon's financial crisis has forced Rawad Mrad's family to move him from private to public school 

Anwar AMRO AFP

Issued on: 31/08/2021 - 
Beirut (AFP)

Roula Mrad wanted to give her children a head start in life with a private education, but Lebanon's economic crisis is forcing her to move them to the substandard state system.

"My children have always been educated privately," said Mrad, who works at the finance ministry.

But "now we can no longer afford that privilege."

She is just one of thousands of newly impoverished parents in the Mediterranean country pulling their children out of private classrooms because they can no longer pay the fees.

More than 90,000 Lebanese students have already been moved since the crisis broke out in 2019, says the education ministry, which is bracing itself for many more when schools start re-opening from September 27.

Since 2019, Lebanon's financial meltdown, one on the planet's worst since the 1850s, has decimated the country's middle class.

Entire families have seen their savings all but vanish and salaries dwindle to barely a tenth of their previous dollar values.

The UN says poverty now affects more than three quarters of the population.

Unable to keep up with ever-rising private school fees, last year Mrad moved her eldest son to a state facility to finish his last year of high school.

The move slashed 18-year-old Rawad's fees from around $3,000 a year to just $170 -- and suddenly the books were free.

This year his 14-year-old brother Rayan will follow suit. But the family will try desperately to keep their youngest daughter in the private system a little longer.

- 'The new poor' -

Sami Makhlouf, a 55-year-old plumber, says he used to spend the equivalent of $13,000 a year on private education for his four children.

But as his earnings plummeted last year, he was forced to uproot the whole family from a Beirut suburb back to his home village in Lebanon's east.

Rawad is to finish his last year of high school at a state facility 

Anwar AMRO AFP

He says life is cheaper in the village of Qaa, where he has planted a vegetable garden and enrolled his children at a government school.

"This crisis has decimated the middle class," Makhlouf said.

"We've become the new poor."

The coronavirus pandemic has compounded the problem.

More than a million children in Lebanon have been out of school since Covid-19 arrived in Lebanon in February 2020, according to aid group Save the Children.

Now the country is set to return to nationwide in-classroom learning, after months of battling to implement distance learning despite petrol shortages and never-ending power cuts.

Rawad's brother Rayan, 14, is also set to move to the public school system

 Anwar AMRO AFP

The education ministry says it is doing its best to adapt.

With international assistance, it has provided solar panels to 122 schools and hopes to equip 80 more soon, caretaker education minister Tarek Majzoub said last week.

Hilda Khoury, who heads the ministry's counselling and guidance department, said the influx of new students from the private sector was a "huge challenge".

But, she adds, it is also an "opportunity" for the public school system, which already accommodates more than 383,0000 students, to prove it is fit for task.

- 'Even education is collapsing' -

Meanwhile, private schools are hiking fees, cutting costs or even closing.

Better-off pupils are emigrating with their families, while those with poorer parents are moving to cheaper private institutions or state schools.

The country's network of Catholic schools, which used to educate 185,000 pupils, last year lost 9,000 of them and was forced to close 14 of its 321 facilities.

"If the private sector is not supported, it will be the end of quality education in Lebanon," warned the network's former secretary-general Boutros Azar.

Lebanon once provided the fourth-best maths and science education in the world, according to a 2016 World Economic Forum report. The country has long been known for its well-educated, multilingual citizens.

Lebanese state schools have seen an influx of students whose parents can no longer afford private school fees

 Anwar AMRO AFP

"But that could all soon change," said Rodolphe Abboud, head of the private school teachers' union.

He said a few thousand of the union's 43,000 members had already joined the country's brain drain.

Lama Tawil, a representative of parent committees at private schools nationwide, said parents earning in Lebanese pounds could barely keep up with old tuition costs, let alone afford the 30-percent fee hike announced by some private schools.

Many have already emigrated to Europe, the United Arab Emirates or Cyprus, she said.

"We've never seen anything like it," she added.

"Even education, the cornerstone of our society, is collapsing."

© 2021 AFP

Bangladeshi vaccine scientist wins Asia's 'Nobel Prize'

Bangladeshi scientist Firdausi Qadri won the Ramon Magsaysay Award - 'Asia's Nobel Prize - for her work on creating more affordable cholera and typhoid vaccines 

MUNIR UZ ZAMAN AFP/File

Issued on: 31/08/2021 -
Manila (AFP)

A Bangladeshi scientist who helped develop a cheap oral vaccine against cholera, a Pakistani microfinance pioneer and a Filipino fisherman were among Tuesday's winners of Asia's equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

Firdausi Qadri, 70, was one of five recipients of the Ramon Magsaysay Award -- named after a Filipino president killed in a plane crash -- for her "life-long devotion to the scientific profession" and "untiring contributions to vaccine development".

Working at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, Qadri had a "key role" in creating more affordable vaccines to combat cholera and typhoid, the Manila-based award foundation said in a statement.

Qadri was also cited for her leading role in a mass vaccination effort in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh's southeastern district of Cox's Bazar in recent years that prevented a cholera outbreak.

The disease causes acute diarrhoea and spreads through contaminated food and water.

Qadri was also cited for her efforts to build up Bangladesh's scientific research capacity.

"I'm overwhelmed, extremely delighted but also humbled," Qadri said in a video message shared by the foundation.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award was established in 1957 to honour people and groups tackling development problems.

It was held virtually this year after the event was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pakistani development worker Muhammad Amjad Saqib, 64, was also a winner for his "first-of-its-kind" interest- and collateral-free microfinance programme that has helped millions of poor families.

Nearly two decades after its launch, Akhuwat has grown into the nation's largest microfinance institution, distributing the equivalent of $900 million and boasting an almost 100 percent loan repayment rate, the award foundation said.

Saqib, who uses places of worship to hand out money, was cited for "his inspiring belief that human goodness and solidarity will find ways to eradicate poverty."

Another winner was Filipino fisherman Roberto Ballon, 53, who was recognised for helping "revive a dying fishing industry" on the southern island of Mindanao where abandoned fishponds had destroyed mangrove forests.

With government backing, Ballon and other small-scale fishermen replanted 500 hectares (1,235 acres) of mangrove forests by 2015, boosting their fish catch and quality of life.

"What was once a desert of abandoned fishponds is now an expanse of healthy mangrove forests rich with marine and terrestrial life," the award foundation noted.

American Steven Muncy, founder of the Philippines-based NGO Community and Family Services International, was recognised for helping refugees, assisting victims of natural disasters and getting former child soldiers back to school in Asia.

Indonesian documentary maker Watchdoc, which focuses on human rights, social justice and the environment, also won recognition for its "highly principled crusade for an independent media organisation".

© 2021 AFP

Old bike and farm motor bring light to Malawi village

Issued on: 31/08/2021 - 

Green power: Colrerd Nkosi uses a pipe from a stream to drive a turbine salvaged from a piece of old farming equipment AMOS GUMULIRA AFP

Yobe Nkosi (Malawi) (AFP)

Fifteen years ago, when darkness used to fall in Yobe Nkosi, a remote village in northern Malawi, children did their school homework by candlelight: there was no electricity.

But that started to change in 2006, when villager Colrerd Nkosi finished secondary school in Mzimba, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) away, and returned home -- and found he could no longer live without power.

Aged 23 at the time, Nkosi soon figured out that a stream gushing past the house where he grew up had just enough force to push the pedals on his bicycle.

He created a makeshift dynamo that brought power into his home.

Word spread quickly among the cluster of brick houses and neighbours began paying regular visits to charge their mobile phones.

"I started getting requests for electricity (and) decided to upgrade," said Nkosi, now 38, sawing through machinery on his verandah in blue overalls.

- Hydro power -

With no prior training, he turned an old fridge compressor into a water-powered turbine and put it in a nearby river, generating electricity for six households.

Nkosi's hydro turbine was scavenged from the motor of a machine designed to skim kernels from corn cobs 

AMOS GUMULIRA AFP

Today, the village is supplied by a bigger turbine, built from the motor of a disused maize sheller -- a machine that skims kernels of corn off the cob.

The gadget has been set up on the village outskirts. The power is carried along metal cables strung from a two-kilometre (one-mile) line of tree trunks topped with wooden planks.

The users pay no fee for the power but give Nkosi some money for maintenance -- slightly more than $1.00 (0.85 euros) per household per month.

"The electricity is basically free," Nkosi said, speaking in local Chichewa.

He admitted that the maintenance income was too small to cover repair costs, which he mainly funded from his own pocket.

Metal cables strung along the top of tree stumps take the power from the tiny hydro plant to the village 

AMOS GUMULIRA AFP

Despite the challenges, he is determined to expand his mini-grid to surrounding areas.

"Once more villages and schools have electricity... people will no longer cut down trees (for) charcoal," he said.

Students "will have a lot more time to study," he said.

- 'Changed my life' -

As dusk settles over Kasangazi Primary School, perched on an adjacent hilltop, chatty groups of learners file into a classroom for a night-time study session.

Fiat lux: Thanks to Nkosi's gadget, a primary school now has electric light 

AMOS GUMULIRA AFP

"Before we had electricity here, we used to use candles to study," said student Gift Mfune, sorting through a heap of text books on his desk.

"Now... we all have no excuse but to pass our examinations," he exclaimed.

Courtesy of Nkosi, the building is the only school with power out of 17 others servicing the area.

Only around 11 percent of Malawi's 19 million or so inhabitants have access to electricity, making it one of the world's least electrified countries, according to Sustainable Energy for All, a campaign group backed by the UN.

Malawi Jean Michel CORNU AFP

Just four percent of the southern African country's rural population is connected to power, compared to 42 percent in urban centres.

Local councillor Victor Muva pointed out that none of the constituency's more than 18,000 inhabitants were on the national grid.

He has been lobbying the government to help Nkosi expand his work.

The ministry of energy has promised to help "design a system that produces adequate power" and "construct power lines that are safe and reliable," he said.

Screen time: There's even enough power left over to drive a small television

 AMOS GUMULIRA AFP

Across the valley, loud laughter erupts from a house in which Nkosi's cousin Satiel and several relatives are watching a Zambian comedy show on a small television.

Young and old cluster around the screen, teenagers wincing at embarrassing comments from their elders.

"I cannot ably explain in words how this has changed my life," Satiel said. "I am now able to do so many things."

© 2021 AFP

Kenya hails anti-poaching efforts in first wildlife census

Issued on: 31/08/2021 - 

Kenya has a total of 36,280 elephants, a 12-percent jump

 from the figures recorded in 2014

 Tony KARUMBA AFP/File

Nairobi (AFP)

Kenya has hailed its efforts to crack down on poaching as it released the results of the country's first-ever national wildlife census, calling the survey a vital weapon in its conservation battle.

According to the census released late Monday, the country has a total of 36,280 elephants, a 12-percent jump from the figures recorded in 2014, when poaching activity was at its highest.

"Efforts to increase penalties on crimes related to threatened species appear to be bearing fruits," the report, which counted 30 species of animals and covered nearly 59 percent of Kenya's land mass, said.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned in March that poaching and habitat destruction, particularly due to land conversion for agriculture, was devastating elephant numbers across Africa.

The state-funded census also counted 1,739 rhinos including two northern white rhinos TONY KARUMBA AFP/File

The population of African savanna elephants plunged by at least 60 percent in the last half century, prompting their reclassification as "endangered" in the latest update to the IUCN's "Red List" of threatened species.

The census said the numbers of lions, zebras, hirolas (Hunter's antelopes) and the three species of giraffes found in the country had also gone up, but did not provide comparative figures from earlier years.

The state-funded survey counted 1,739 rhinos including two northern white rhinos, 897 critically endangered black rhinos and 840 southern white rhinos, and said the tourist magnet Maasai Mara National Reserve was home to nearly 40,000 wildebeest.

Kenya is trying to strike a balance between protecting its wildlife while managing the dangers they pose when they raid human settlements in search of food and water

 TONY KARUMBA AFP/File

"Obtaining this level of information... allows for better policy, planning and assessment of areas that require focus in our interventions to maintain or improve our national conservation efforts," Wildlife Minister Najib Balala said in the report.

President Uhuru Kenyatta applauded conservation agencies for successfully clamping down on poaching and urged them to find newer, inventive approaches to protect wildlife.

"The reduction in losses in terms of elephants, rhinos and other endangered species is because of the great work that KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service), its officers and men are doing", he said late Monday.

- 'Our children's legacy' -

Special attention should be given to antelope species such as sable antelopes and mountain bongos which already number less than 100 each, the report said, warning that they could become extinct unless urgent action was taken.

Exponential growth in human population and the accompanying rise in demand for land for settlement as well as activities such as livestock incursions, logging and charcoal burning are threatening to put brakes on the recent gains, it added.

The census said the numbers of lions, zebras, hirolas (Hunter's antelopes) and the three species of giraffes found in the country had also gone up 

Tony KARUMBA AFP/File

Kenya, like several of its African peers, is trying to strike a balance between protecting its wildlife while managing the dangers they pose when they raid human settlements in search of food and water.

"(Wildlife) is our heritage, this is our children's legacy and it is important for us to be able to know what we have in order to be better informed on policy and also on actions needed as we move forward," Kenyatta said.

"It being a national heritage, it is something we should carry with pride", he added.

© 2021 AFP