Scientists call for Peter Daszak to be removed as president of the EcoHealth Alliance
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 as the organisation’s president. Daszak “concealed several extreme […]
DRASTIC investigating team releases leaked documents about gain-of-function coronavirus research
This article has been updated. Latest update: 25/10/2021 (new document obtained from the National Institutes of Health). A team of scientists and other independent researchers has released leaked documents that state 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 includes information from previous articles that has been rejigged and updated. Latest update (about the proposed members of the WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, or […]
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, Part 1 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 […]
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 26/10/2021. The Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-Oxford, and Moderna vaccines are being administered under emergency use authorisations in the UK. The UK regulator has also approved use of […]
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 […]
Nóra Quoirin’s family ‘utterly disappointed’ by Malaysian coroner’s verdict
Malaysian coroner Maimoonah Aid has ruled that no third party was involved in the death of Franco-Irish teenager Nóra Quoirin. She said it was “more probable than not” that Nóra died by […]
Covid-19: new report says cognitive dysfunction strikes long haulers in all age groups
Ths is a rejigged and updated version of an earlier article. Latest update 9/1/2021. Cognitive dysfunction and memory loss affect young Long Covid sufferers as much as those aged seventy and above, […]
Covid-19: vaccine race front runners rush to obtain emergency use authorisations
This is a rejigged and updated version of an earlier article. Latest update: 29/1/2021. The FDA in the US has issued emergency use authorisations for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. The Pfizer-BioNTech […]
Covid-19: as companies vaunt vaccine trial results, concerns mount over fast tracking
This article has been updated. Latest update: 11/12/2020. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is now being given to members of the public in the UK under emergency use authorisation. The elderly are being prioritised. […]
