Mohamad barely looks surprised when his phone vibrates with an update on the devaluation of the Lebanese pound. “Great, now my salary is worth $60,” the 30-year-old Syrian economics teacher turned refugee said, shaking his head. In the past week alone, the Lebanese pound has lost over 40 per cent ... Read More »
Brain complications, including stroke and psychosis, have been linked to Covid-19 in a study that raises concerns about the potentially extensive impact of the disease in some patients. The study is small and based on doctors’ observations, so cannot provide a clear overall picture about the rate of such complications. ... Read More »
Nice says topic is under review, but still advises taking supplements for bone health No evidence exists to support taking vitamin D supplements to prevent Covid-19, UK public health experts have found. A rapid review of evidence for claims that the so-called sunshine vitamin could reduce the risk of coronavirus was ... Read More »
Two potential vaccines designed to tackle Covid-19 in animals have proved successful in laboratory tests, scientists say. Researchers at the Vaccine Group, which works with the University of Plymouth, said the development marks a significant step forward in eliminating Sars-CoV-2 in existing animal sources. Such vaccines could also be used to ensure that cats ... Read More »
Lebanon’s economic crisis has led to a collapse of the local currency and purchasing power, plunging whole segments of society into poverty as exemplified by near-empty fridges in many households. Earlier this year, Lebanon defaulted on its debt and, while the peg to the dollar remains unchanged, the pound has ... Read More »
The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday said it expects global trade to drop around 18.5% in the second quarter of 2020, adding that restrictions being gradually lifted to contain the Covid-19 suggest that trade may have possibly bottomed out in the second quarter of 2020. The volume of merchandise ... Read More »
Nasa is funding a major new search for alien life elsewhere in the universe. The project – which is being run by scientists at Harvard and the University of Rochester – will scan the skies for signs of life known as technosignatures. Those are indications of alien technologies, which would be revealed to us either on ... Read More »
One of the few upsides of lockdown was that, if a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square, you had a chance of hearing it. City dwellers across the globe delighted in the silence, the freedom from the incessant rumble of traffic, and the joy of birdsong. How cleaner the air seemed, ... Read More »
Event will be visible across a narrow band from Congo-Brazzaville to southern China Skywatchers along a narrow band from west Africa to the Arabian peninsula, India and southern China will witness the most dramatic “ring of fire” solar eclipse in years on Sunday. Annular eclipses occur when the moon passes between Earth ... Read More »
The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating, with Thursday’s 150,000 new cases the highest in a single day and nearly half of those in the Americas, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. “The world is in a new and dangerous phase,” Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from WHO ... Read More »
Lebanese Ministry of Information