The company awarded large government personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts after an introduction by the Conservative peer Michelle Mone has declined to say how it would repay millions of pounds of public money for unused equipment if ordered to do so following a dispute with the government. The Guardian reported this week that leaked documents … Read more
Abandoned infrastructure projects funded by the National Lotteries Commission, including four old-age homes and a drug rehabilitation centre, will finally be completed, years after tens of millions of rands intended for their construction were looted. The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) has allocated nearly R65 million to finish several multi-million rand infrastructure projects that were left … Read more
Scandals over the alleged misuse of money within the Gauteng Health Department seems to have no end, as Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Gauteng spokesperson for health Jack Bloom alleges that the department’s top legal head is being paid R4.7 million while sitting at home. The department’s chief director of legal services Advocate Lebeloane Mpelegeng is currently … Read more
It was Mother’s Day in May 2020, and an elderly woman lay dying in a Rhode Island nursing home. Her children couldn’t visit because of Covid, and as much as Adelina Ramos, her certified nursing assistant, longed to provide comfort from her bedside, she had to leave, even though she could see the woman was … Read more
Two million people in Japan were told Saturday to seek shelter before the arrival of Typhoon Nanmadol, national broadcaster NHK said, as the weather agency issued a rare “special warning” about the powerful storm. NHK, which compiles alerts issued by local authorities, said level four evacuation instructions — the second highest — were in place … Read more
We’ve all seen the headlines about labor shortages, worker attrition, or – as many mainstream media outlets refer to it – “the Great Resignation”. It’s true: since 2020, a record number of people have quit their jobs. The trend is ongoing, and some argue quitting is contagious. But, there’s another contagion that’s probably causing people … Read more
The first Covid lockdown proved a mixed blessing for the banking platform Tide. The government’s first stay-at-home orders, in March 2020, sparked fear throughout the City, and fintech firms such as three-year-old Tide were no exception. The pausing of an entire economy threatened to decimate demand for its services. But opportunities started to unfold when … Read more
Engineers breached Pakistan’s biggest freshwater lake to drain water threatening nearby towns, officials said Monday, as heavy rain poured misery on millions affected by the country’s worst floods in history. Nearly a third of Pakistan is under water — an area the size of the United Kingdom — following months of record monsoon rains that … Read more
Millions were stuck at home in China’s Chengdu on Friday after a handful of Covid-19 cases brought the megacity to a standstill. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare this week as locals in the city — a powerhouse economic hub in China’s southwest that is home to 21 million people — feared a repeat of the … Read more
Tens of millions of people across swathes of Pakistan were Monday battling the worst monsoon floods in a decade, with countless homes washed away, vital farmland destroyed, and the country’s main river threatening to burst its banks. Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said a third of the country was under water, creating a “crisis of … Read more