DR Congo, Gaza, Qatar
Today's three stories you should know
DR Congo
Scientists at the University of Oxford in Britain have been cleared to begin human trials of a new vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which has been spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for at least two months. Unlike the more common Zaire species, which has been responsible for most previous outbreaks, Bundibugyo has no approved vaccine. The vaccine has so far been tested on mice and macaque monkeys and around 620,000 doses have already been stockpiled in India by the world's largest vaccine manufacturer. The official death toll has now passed 600, according to the DRC health ministry, with the number of cases confirmed in laboratory tests standing at 1,792.
More from BBC here.
Episode 7 of The Proximities Podcast is now live. This week, I spoke to investigative journalist Mohamed Gabobe about a U.S. drone strike in Somalia that killed 12 civilians, including eight children. But the U.S. military, which has been waging a covert war in Somalia for decades, will not admit that a single civilian was killed that day.
It’s on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.
Gaza
Eight people have been killed, including a 9-year-old girl, in an Israeli strike on Gaza, according to local health officials. Medical sources told the New Arab that Israeli fire targeted a refugee camp in central Gaza, killing the girl, named as Tala Abu Matar. Residents reported they then received phone calls from the Israeli military ordering them out of the area ahead of further strikes. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and another 3,507 wounded since an ostensible ceasefire began last October, most of them women and children.
More from the New Arab here.
Qatar
The influential former emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, has died at 74. Sheikh Hamad is credited with transforming Qatar from a poor Bedouin society into a regional powerhouse. He leaned into liquefied natural gas production and turned the small nation into a serious diplomatic player through the development of the Al Jazeera television network, which earned Qatar significant soft power in the Arab world and beyond, and with a successful bid to host the World Cup soccer tournament in 2022. Sheikh Hamad handed power to his son in 2013, in a rare abdication for a Gulf Arab hereditary monarch. Sheikh Hamad had himself overthrown his father in a bloodless coup in 1995.
More from Reuters here.