Point One

 Ebola is back in Nigeria. Twenty-two years after the last epidemic, the viral disease has made a re-ingress into the country. Unlike the last outbreak that was of Zaire strain, for which there is an approved vaccine, the present epidemic is of Bundibugyo strain with no licensed vaccine or treatment, although trials are reportedly being conducted on inventions. As with the last epidemic, the new case in Nigeria is imported, making it the fifth country to detect the virus since an outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on 15th May, 2026.  In Africa, the epidemic had hit Uganda and Kenya before surfacing in Nigeria. Uganda reported 20 cases and two deaths, but declared itself free of the disease in late August after its last patient was discharged; while Kenya had recorded nine cases as at Tuesday, last week. Outside of the continent, a doctor who returned to France in June from Congo tested positive, but there was no further spread of the virus ther...

On Sunday, October 25th, Brazil will hold a run-off election brought on by the inconclusiveness of its presidential poll that took place on October 5th. Left- wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will square off with right-wing Flávio Bolsonaro, who led in the first round but fell short of prescribed victory threshold of more than 50 percent of votes cast.  Flávio, 45-year-old son of imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro, finished ahead of Lula with 47 percent of the votes despite that polls had forecast he would come in second place. Lula, 80-year-old, who was projected to win, came second with 44.9 percent of the votes according to data published by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court. Voting is compulsory in the world’s fifth-largest country, and turnout is typically among the highest in the Americas. Lula, who is running on the platform of Workers’ Party (PT), is seeking a fourth and likely his last term after having been elected in 2002 and 2006, and later for a non-con...