After more than a decade of planning, the launch of the African Medicines Agency (AMA) is being celebrated in Mombasa, Kenya, this week at the Seventh Biennial Scientific Conference on Medical Products Regulation in Africa. From a report: The agency's establishment marks a pivotal moment in Africa's public health, at a time when the need for biomedical research conducted in Africa, focused on African health problems, has never been greater. Africa holds higher levels of human genetic diversity than anywhere else on Earth, but this diversity has not been adequately studied. And many globally approved treatments and vaccines for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are less effective, and can even be harmful in some people of African ancestry.

This year, cuts of billions of US dollars in international funding for biomedical research and health services in Africa have left millions of people without access to life-saving treatments or, in the case of researchers and health-care workers, unemployed. This demonstrates the immense vulnerability that comes with relying on funding from external donors.

What's more, Africa's phenomenal population growth and pace of urbanization is bringing fresh challenges -- as well as opportunities -- around health and disease. In Africa's cities today, the inhabitants of increasingly affluent neighbourhoods are demanding high-quality medicines and health care. But in low-income areas, high population density, inadequate housing and poor sanitation are facilitating the spread of respiratory and diarrhoeal infections. And everywhere, inadequate diets, air pollution, smoking and physical inactivity are driving increased rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. By 2100, Africa is expected to host 13 of the world's 20 largest cities, and such inequalities are likely to worsen.

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Two of the world's biggest data center developers have projects in Nvidia's hometown that may sit empty for years because the local utility isn't ready to supply electricity. From a report: In Santa Clara, California, where the world's biggest supplier of artificial-intelligence chips is based, Digital Realty Trust applied in 2019 to build a data center. Roughly six years later, the development remains an empty shell awaiting full energization. Stack Infrastructure, which was acquired earlier this year by Blue Owl Capital, has a nearby 48-megawatt project that's also vacant, while the city-owned utility, Silicon Valley Power, struggles to upgrade its capacity.

The fate of the two facilities highlights a major challenge for the US tech sector and indeed the wider economy. While demand for data centers has never been greater, driven by the boom in cloud computing and AI, access to electricity is emerging as the biggest constraint. That's largely because of aging power infrastructure, a slow build-out of new transmission lines and a variety of regulatory and permitting hurdles. And the pressure on power systems is only going to increase. Electricity requirements from AI computing will likely more than double in the US alone by 2035, based on BloombergNEF projections. Nvidia's Jensen Huang and OpenAI's Sam Altman are among corporate leaders that have predicted trillions of dollars will pour into building new AI infrastructure.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Spotify is the most popular music streaming service in the world. While its algorithmic recommendations aren't necessarily the reason, its reach has meant that hundreds of millions of people are being fed a steady diet of music curated by a machine. Spotify's goal is to keep you listening no matter what. In her book Mood Machine, journalist Liz Pelly recounts a story told to her by a former Spotify employee in which Daniel Ek said, "our only competitor is silence."

According to this employee, Spotify leadership didn't see themselves as a music company, but as a time filler. The employee explained that, "the vast majority of music listeners, they're not really interested in listening to music per se. They just need a soundtrack to a moment in their day." Simply providing a soundtrack to your day might seem innocent enough, but it informs how Spotify's algorithm works. Its goal isn't to help you discover new music, its goal is simply to keep you listening for as long as possible. It serves up the safest songs possible to keep you from pressing stop.

The company even went so far as to partner with music library services and production companies under a program called Perfect Fit Content, or PFC. This saw the creation of fake or "ghost" artists that flooded Spotify with songs that were specifically designed to be pleasant and ignorable. It's music as content, not art. [...] Artists, especially new ones trying to break through, actually started changing how they composed to play better in the algorithmically driven streaming era. Songs got shorter, albums got longer, and intros went away. The hook got pushed to the front of the song to try to grab listeners' attention immediately, and things like guitar solos all but disappeared from pop music. The palette of sounds artists pulled from got smaller, arrangements became more simplified, pop music flattened.

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Urker Anja Keuter, fractievoorzitter van de BBB in Flevoland, is veroordeeld voor het beschikbaar stellen van een kotter die zonder vergunning uitvoer. De BBB zette haar in 2024, hangende deze strafzaak, ‘gewoon’ op de lijst voor de Europese verkiezingen.

Verkenner Koolmees proefde de nieren van de partijen en gaat voorstellen doen voor een vervolg van de formatie. Wordt het doorpraten met een 'motorblok' van D66-CDA?

Een bijeen geknipt citaat leidde tot het vertrek van twee topfiguren bij de BBC. Maar de kwestie is groter dan één incident: er woedt een hevige storm rond en binnen de Britse publieke omroep.

Het verwijderen van panelen over zwarte bevrijders op de begraafplaats Margraten, heeft geleid tot brede afkeuring in Limburg. De burgemeester, commissaris van de koning en elf partijen in de Provinciale Staten dringen aan op actie. „Het weghalen is onfatsoenlijk en onacceptabel.”

Belinde Bakker is vanaf 1 februari 2026 de nieuwe algemeen directeur van Diergaarde Blijdorp. Ze zal, als eerste vrouwelijke directeur van Blijdorp ooit, het stokje overnemen van Ron Voskuilen, die op zijn beurt de opgestapte Erik Zevenbergen tijdelijk verving. Er zijn gelijk genoeg uitdagingen voor Bakker: in 2024 schreef de dierentuin nog een verlies van 5,5 miljoen euro.

Hee ja leuk daar hebben we weer zo'n typische bankier in krijtstreeppak hoodie die een oudje oplicht, het oudje zijn bankpas meekrijgt met een babbeltruc en daarna met het oudje zijn bankpas het oudje zijn geld pint in allerlei gehuchten des lands. Uden, Reek (REEK!), Velp, Grave, Overasselt en Geffen (bekend van GS lol), het zijn de inmiddels schuldige plaatsen waar de licht behuidskleurde nepbankier van tussen de 20 en 25 toesloeg en gestolen bejaardencentjes in zijn zak stak via een evenzo maar altijd al schuldige Geldmaat. Gelukkig staat deze laagvlieger uit roversland er pontificaal alsook keurig alsmede glashelder evenals duidelijk op. Help de politie dus een handje bij het ZoekZoekZoeken naar dit stinkende stuk vreten.

ZoekZoek

SALT LAKE CITY (ANP) - Schaatsster Joy Beune is voldoende hersteld om vrijdag bij de eerste wereldbekerwedstrijd in Salt Lake City van start te gaan op de 3000 meter. Dat meldt schaatsbond KNSB.

Beune meldde zich anderhalve week geleden op de tweede dag van de NK afstanden af voor de 3000 meter vanwege ziekte en ging ook een dag later op de 5000 meter niet meer van start. De regerend wereldkampioene op de 3000 meter van team IKO X2O kreeg van de selectiecommissie van de schaatsbond een aanwijsplek voor de 3000 meter in Salt Lake City. De bond meldde dat op 9 november nog werd gekeken of Beune voldoende hersteld was.

De schaatsster start in Salt Lake City ook op de 1500 meter waarop ze zich al had gekwalificeerd en op de ploegenachtervolging.