Headlines

The ambush took place in the restive northeast of the country.  

Kano, March 24.– At least 70 Nigerian soldiers were killed in an ambush on their convoy by jihadist fighters in the restive northeast of the country, military and security sources said Tuesday.

Two military officers told that Islamist insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and heavy guns at a truck carrying troops as it travelled near Gorgi village in Borno state on Monday.

Until recently, women in the United States were only able to enlist in military support or intelligence positions and couldn’t physically serve in combat. In 2015, the U.S. Pentagon opened all combat jobs to women, and in 2016, the ban on women serving in close combat roles in the British military was lifted. (In other countries, like Israel, women have been allowed to serve in combat units for much longer). While many people believe that allowing women to serve in combat units is a positive step towards gender equality, there are concerns that it is inappropriate, if not dangerous.

Here are three reasons why women should be able to serve in combat units, and three reasons why they should stick to other military units.

Women Deserve a Chance in Combat

 The bar is high – for everyone

Just like men, women should be allowed to choose how they fight for their country based on their strengths. Joining a combat unit requires meeting high demands regardless of gender; if there are women who are able to meet the same training standards as men, they can only be an asset to their team. Having female troops in every combat role is crucial for intelligence gathering, because they’re naturally able to navigate cultural differences when interacting with local populations.

If the military is looking for the creme de la creme to serve in their units, then why give up on 51% of the candidates upfront? 

 The WHO head, Fabrice Coffrini, declared that Europe is reported “with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China.”

Geneva, March 13.– “More cases are now being reported [in Europe] every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the U.N. global public health agency, said Friday at a press conference at WHO’s headquarters in Geneva.

“China has certainly peaked and there is certainly a decline, but there’s always a chance” that could rise again, said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, who heads the agency’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, according to CNBC.

This week’s topics are dominated by covid-19. The pandemic, as the World Health Organisation has officially declared it, is spreading fast, with almost 45,000 cases and nearly 1,500 deaths in 112 countries outside China. Politicians are belatedly realising that, as health systems buckle and deaths mount, they will have to weather the storm. America, despite its wealth and the excellence of its medical science, has squandered its chance to prepare for the pandemic, and China’s president, Xi Jinping, celebrated a precipitous fall in cases with a victory lap in Wuhan, where the disease first took hold.