Zimbabwe: cholera outbreak
The word cholera doesn’t strike much fear in countries with vaccines and clean water. However a Zimbabwe cholera outbreak is serious, often killing within hours. Cholera is a bacterial disease contracted by ingesting contaminated water or food. It is prevalent in places with poor sanitation, unclean water, and inadequate hygiene. Symptoms of acute watery diarrhoea, vomiting and leg cramps appear within two or three days of infection, leading to severe dehydration and shock. Unless fluids are replaced quickly, death occurs within hours. In the week beginning 9 July there has been a spike in cases and a spread of outbreaks in known hotspot areas in Harare Province. Robust response measures, particularly for strengthening surveillance, risk communication, case management, and provision of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene services are urgently needed to control the outbreaks On 28 June 3,000+ cases were reported: updated totals are not currently available.
India: Delhi hit by massive monsoon floods
In Delhi, floods from the Yamuna river caused roads to turn into rivers and water gushed into houses, medical facilities, crematoriums and shelter homes. It is impairing normal life and causing immense hardship for the people in the national capital as the river water level rose to a record high. Amid the flooding, the city is staring at a shortage of drinking water after the government decided to cut down supply by 25 percent following the closure of three water treatment plants due to the rising level of the Yamuna. It swelled to a staggering 208.62 metres at 1 pm on 13 July, smashing the previous all-time record of 207.49 metres set 45 years ago. Rescue teams have been deployed, and administration and agencies are also working together. At the time of writing they have evacuated around 2,500 people from different areas.
Egypt: murdered because he was a Christian
A young architect in Egypt was tragically murdered on a building site by a colleague in a bulldozer who later told police, ‘I hate Christians; I killed him because he is a Christian.’ After confessing to Fadi’s murder, Mohammed spent four days in prison before being sent to a mental health hospital for treatment. It is unclear to what extent, if at all, psychological issues contributed to this attack. They are often cited by Muslim extremists to explain their attacks against Christians to avoid prosecution - and it works. Like so many families who’ve been affected by persecution in Egypt, there is no guarantee that Fadi’s family will receive justice from the legal system. Despite this uncertainty and the anguish they are in, they have already decided to forgive Mohammed. This incident reminds us how for many Christians the workplace is not safe - either because of overt attacks like this one or more subtle forms of discrimination.
AI-related Bible translation
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, uses the Bible to train its artificial intelligence (AI) speech tool. The project includes recordings of Bible stories, evangelistic messages, Scripture, and songs in more than 6,255 languages and dialects. In a sense, the Bible is helping AI learn other languages. Wycliffe USA Bible Translators have been using machine-assisted drafting for two decades, changing and modifying it as time goes on. Using technology to accelerate Bible translation is a priority. AI is notably beneficial in sign language Bible translation. Less than 2% of the world’s deaf population can access the Gospel in a known sign language, but that is about to change for deaf people in sensitive countries. Putting a deaf believer on camera is too risky in some countries. That’s where the Chameleon avatar project comes in. AI is not perfect yet, but the problems are being corrected to make the avatar smoother and more accurate.
