
SARS-CoV-2: new report calls for further investigation of the lab-origin hypothesis

The Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) has submitted its first preliminary report to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and has called for further investigation of the hypothesis […]
Jaipur Literature Festival goes hybrid with a multitude of online and on-ground sessions

Conversations from JLF 2022 The 15th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival was a hybrid event, with an online programme running from March 5 to 14 and an on-ground event for five […]
MH370: eight years on from the plane’s disappearance, Ocean Infinity commits to new search

This article was updated on April 24 and on June 20, with an additional update on June 22. It’s been eight years since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people on […]
SARS-CoV-2: US congressmen call for Fauci to be questioned about lab-origin hypothesis

This article has been updated. Latest update 7/2/2022. There has been a new call for the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Anthony Fauci, to be […]
Scientists call for Peter Daszak to be removed as president of the EcoHealth Alliance

This article has been updated. Latest update: 2/12/2021 An international group of ten scientists and health experts has called on the board of the US-based EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) to remove Peter Daszak […]
DRASTIC investigating team releases leaked documents about gain-of-function coronavirus research

This article has been updated. Latest updates: 30/10/2021 (new document obtained from the National Institutes of Health) and 3/11/2021. A team of scientists and other independent researchers has released leaked documents that […]
Global Witness report: more than 200 environmental defenders murdered in 2020

At least 227 land and environmental defenders were murdered in 2020, according to a new report, ‘Last Line of Defence’, produced by the London-based non-governmental organisation Global Witness. This is the highest […]
US intelligence community says SARS-CoV-2 was not developed as a biological weapon

This report has been updated with information about the members of the WHO’s new Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) and a link to the full declassified assessment […]
Climate change is ‘widespread, rapid, and intensifying’, says new report.

Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying, according to a major new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean […]
Nóra Quoirin: judge in Malaysia overturns coroner’s verdict

This is an expanded version of my article in The Irish Times A high court judge in Malaysia has overturned the decision made by the coroner in the inquest into the death […]
Researchers predict a massive decline in the ranges of Africa’s great apes in the next 30 years

An international team of researchers are predicting a massive decline in the ranges of Africa’s great apes by 2050 because of the impacts of climate change, land-use changes, and human population growth. […]
Covid-19: pressure mounts for a full, independent investigation into the origin of SARS-CoV-2

This article has been updated. Latest update: 13/8/2021. Pressure is mounting for a full, independent investigation into the origin of SARS-CoV-2. That pressure is coming from scientists around the world and individual […]
SARS-CoV-2: WHO-China report dismisses lab-origin hypothesis as being ‘extremely unlikely’

This article has been updated. Latest update: 5/6/2021. The report of the ‘Joint WHO-China Study’ of the possible origins of SARS-CoV-2 holds no surprises. Its main messages – that a lab origin […]
MH370: seven years on, next of kin call for the search to resume

It’s been seven years since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board and the next of kin say they are no closer to knowing what happened to the plane […]
Jaipur Literature Festival engages online audiences with a stellar line-up of speakers from around the world

Conversations from JLF 2021 This year’s virtual Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) had none of the vibrant hustle and bustle of the previous on-site editions, but, over ten days, there were more than 130 […]
Freedom in the forest: ten Bornean orangutans are released into the wild

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) has released ten rehabilitated orangutans into the wild. They are the first releases the BOSF has been able to carry out since the Covid-19 pandemic began. […]
Digital Diggi: Jaipur festival transforms into a virtual extravaganza of literature, performance, and debate

The on-site Jaipur Literature Festival had to be cancelled this year because of Covid-19, but the 14th JLF is going ahead online from today (Friday) until February 28, with a stellar virtual […]
Covid-19: as billions are vaccinated, adverse effects and virus variants cause concern

This article has been updated. Latest update 6/7/2022. Statistics from the adverse event databases have been updated along with the sections about India, about vaccinating children and adolescents, about variants, and about […]
Nóra Quoirin’s parents seek high court revision of inquest verdict

This is an expanded version of my article in The Irish Times. Update: the application for revision of the verdict was filed on February 5. The parents of Franco-Irish teenager Nóra Quoirin […]
World’s rarest great ape species ‘in more trouble than previously thought’

The world’s rarest and most threatened great ape species, the Tapanuli orangutan, is in greater danger of becoming extinct than conservationists feared, a group of researchers warn in a new report. The […]