EM News: Your Weekend Headlines

Ready to start another week and need a quick wrap-up of what happened in the news this weekend? We picked out five of the biggest headlines for the weekend of 15-17 January.

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SA’s Covid recovery rate shows slight increase

According to Health Minister, Dr Zwelin Mkhize, more than a million South Africans have recovered from Covid-19, pushing the country’s recovery rate to 82.1%.

 

 

 

 

“Those declaring that they have beaten Covid on social media need to know that such statements are dangerous and even insensitive at a time where so many people are in mourning, having lost their loved ones. They are dangerous in a sense that they create a false sense of security that implies that when people recover from Covid-19, they will not contract the virus again. We believe this is reckless because there is a growing body of scientific evidence and living examples that prove that it is possible to get re-infected.”

-KZN Premier, Sihle Zikalala

Read more at IOL.

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‘Clashes kill 48 people’ in Sudan’s Darfur region

Forty-eight people have been killed in a violent clash in El Geneina, West Darfur, after a man was stabbed to death on Saturday. More than 100 people have been injured during the clash between ethnic groups.

“Saturday’s violence comes less than three weeks after peacekeepers from the United Nations and African Union handed over security to the Khartoum authorities after 13 years there.”

-Youssef Taha.

Read more at BBC

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Eskom warns of more loadshedding for the week ahead

Eskom announced on Sunday that the generation some of its units have been delayed and the country has now been moved to stage two on the loadshedding schedule.

 

 

 

 

“Regrettably, as the return to service of some generation units has been delayed, as well as the need to manage the emergency generation reserves and identified risks to the power systems, Stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented from 5am tomorrow morning.”

-Eskom statement

Read more on IOL or TimesLIVE.

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Brazil approves and rolls out AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines

Brazil, which has the second highest Covid-19 death toll in the world, has green-lighted the distribution of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines to all 27 states.

 

 

 

“The pandemic has become deeply political in Brazil. President Bolsonaro continues to present himself as a vaccine sceptic and he was notably absent as the vaccines were approved. Instead, Monday’s newspapers will no doubt have São Paulo’s governor João Doria slapped on their front pages.”

-Kay Watson

Read more on BBC.

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Kremlin critic Navalny detained as he returns to Russia

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned and nearly died last August due to his criticism of the Kremlin, has returned to Moscow and was swiftly detained. He could face a sentence of three-and-a-half years. However, President Vladimir Putin would prefer not to set off a fresh wave of Western criticism.

“Detaining Alexei Navalny by the Russian authorities is completely unacceptable. We demand his immediate release,” said the minister,

“EU should act swiftly and if he is not released, we need to consider imposition of restrictive measures in response to this blatant act.

-Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign affairs minister

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That’s all the weekend news neatly package for you to check out. Check back later today for Monday’s news headlines.