BMJ Opinion: Leaving nobody outside our healthcare systems — in Europe or elsewhere Jeffrey V. Lazarus, head of the health systems team at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and an associate professor at the faculty of medicine at the University of Barcelona; Denis Onyango, programmes director at the…

Financial Times: U.K. warns of threat from new Covid-19 variant “A new variant of coronavirus has been identified in the U.K. that could be contributing to a rapid rise in infections in some parts of the country. Researchers were urgently investigating whether the new strain was more transmissible than previous…

CIDRAP News: COVID-19 surges stretch health systems in U.S., elsewhere “COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States continue to climb, with some declines seen in some Upper Midwest states, but surging activity in states such as California. In Europe, some countries are struggling with slowing their activity in…

AP: French President Macron tests positive for COVID-19 “French President Emmanuel Macron tested positive for COVID-19 Thursday, following a week when he has met with numerous European leaders. The French and Spanish prime ministers are among those self-isolating because they had recent contact with him. Macron took a test ‘as…

Devex: Exclusive: France to launch development innovation fund chaired by Esther Duflo “France will start a Fund for Innovation in Development next year to test and scale up solutions to poverty and inequality, a move its founders hope will ‘transform’ the country’s approach to aid. The Fonds d’Innovation pour le…

Borgen Magazine: Four Companies in Developing Countries Contributing to the SDGs (Cade, 12/17). Devex: Q&A: The need for more early stage investment in RMNCAH solutions (12/18). Devex: Q&A: The value of the private sector in health system strengthening (12/18). Devex: If COVID-19 changes finance, will that help development funding? (Saldinger,…

AP: Russia and China veto cross-border aid to Syria’s northwest (Lederer, 7/7). AP: WHO says Sri Lanka and Maldives eliminate measles, rubella (Mallawarachi, 7/8). HealthDay News: Zika May Have Damaged More Infants’ Brains Than Expected (Gordon, 7/7). IPS: Non-formal Education Helps Senegalese Women Combat FGM and Harmful Practices (Paul, 7/7).…

Devex: E.U. launches another tool on pandemic’s threat to human rights “As governments claim exceptional powers to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the European Commission is spending €350,000 ($400,000) on a new platform to monitor the consequences for democracy and human rights. The online tool, prepared by the International Institute…

AFRICA AP: Africa’s confirmed COVID-19 cases now above a half-million (Anna, 7/8). AP: Zimbabwe’s health minister fired over COVID-19 graft scandal (Mutsaka, 7/7). BBC News: Coronavirus: Kenyan schools to remain closed until 2021 (7/7). New Humanitarian: In Burkina Faso, violence and COVID-19 push children out of school and into harm’s…

AFRICA AP: Oxygen already runs low as COVID-19 surges in South Africa (Magome, 7/10). Devex: African Union aims to scale up COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials (Jerving, 7/10). The Guardian: South Africa warns of coronavirus ‘storm’ as outbreak accelerates across continent (Burke, 7/9). The Guardian: Zimbabwe health minister facing coronavirus corruption…