Battling coronavirus misinformation in the age of social media
Myths and falsehoods spreading quicker than officials can provide updates
Public health professionals trying to provide the nation with facts about the spread of coronavirus are battling a wave of misinformation, as they wrestle with the first major British health crisis of the smartphone era.
Officials are providing regular updates to the media on the spread of the infection, but at the same time half-truths about the best way to treat the illness are already going viral on WhatsApp and other messaging services.
Some are suggesting dubious herbal remedies, while one viral message – which claims to be advice from an uncle who is a Chinese doctor – mixes standard best practice with unverified claims about how best to kill the germs.
Trump administration quietly cuts funding to the nation’s poorest schools
Money for services like anti-bullying programmes and English language lessons will now be harder to obtainAndrew Naughtie
Thanks to an under-the-radar bookkeeping change at the Department of Education, hundreds of rural schools across the US are set to lose vital funds.
As reported in the New York Times, the department has changed the eligibility criteria for the Rural and Low-Income School Programme, which provides funding for school districts in some of the poorest parts of the country.
The change will make it harder for districts to demonstrate their eligibility, meaning hundreds of them will lose tens of thousands of dollars – and in some cases much more.
Cinema taken back to its popular rootsWakaliwood forever
A small studio is making action movies that reflect the violence of Uganda yet are full of humour. Low-budget, egalitarian, it has fans around the world.by Daniel Paris-Clavel
Hajj Ashraf Ssemwogerere’s Feelings Struggle, the story of a little girl stolen from her parents for ritual sacrifice, is credited with being Uganda’s first locally made film and was released in 2005. Since then the movie industry, ‘Kinna-Uganda’, has grown despite a severe lack of funding and infrastructure, but as yet has gained little recognition beyond the country’s wealthiest: half the population live below the poverty line and prefer escapism to the neorealist themes favoured by local directors.
The typical Ugandan cinema is an ordinary room with chairs, a television set and a video cassette recorder, but it was in places like these in the slums of Wakaliga, a southern district of Kampala, that future kung fu master Robert Kitizo watched the exploits of Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bud Spencer, Roger Moore, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee in movies mostly from the US or Hong Kong. Afterwards, Kitizo told the stories to his younger half-brother Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana (IGG) who, though he never saw any of the films himself, decided he would be a director when he grew up.
Refugee crisis in Greece: Anger and foreboding grow on Lesbos
Turkey is letting refugees leave the country for the EU. Many travel via the Greek island of Lesbos, where some locals are up in arms: They do not want more asylum seekers. DW's Florian Schmitz reports from the island.
Locals on the Aegean island of Lesbos blocked the road to the Moria refugee camp on Sunday. They are fed up and don't want even more migrants on their island, crammed into an already overcrowded camp in disastrous conditions. But boats from Turkey carrying many new arrivals landed on the island on Sunday morning — several hundred people, according to Greek media. Why Turkey launched a major offensive against the Syrian government
Ankara has escalated its response after Syrian regime attacks on Turkish forces in Idlib.
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Turkey has launched a military offensive against the Syrian regime in direct retaliation for the killing of about three dozen of its troops last week in Idlib, Syria.
As part of Operation Spring Shield, as the offensive is being called, Turkey has already shot down two Syrian warplanes and killed more than 2,000 Syrian regime troops, according to Turkey’s defense minister, Hulusi Akar. Akar also said Turkey destroyed 103 tanks, 72 artillery and rocket launchers, and three air defense systems.
Turkey escalated its operations in northeastern Syria last week amid the Syrian regime’s push to reclaim the last rebel-held territory in the country, in Idlib province.
After more than 240 days, Australia's New South Wales is finally free from bushfires
Updated 1138 GMT (1938 HKT) March 3, 2020
The Australian state of New South Wales is officially free from bushfires for the first time in more than 240 days, according to the area's fire service.
Months of devastating fires in Australia left at least 28 people dead, about 3,000 homes destroyed and up to a billion animals affected.
On February 13 the fire service said all of the fires in New South Wales had been declared contained for the first time this season.
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