141 articles from MONDAY 1.11.2021

‘We are protected by prayers’: the sects hampering southern Africa’s vaccine rollout

With millions of followers, the stance of some Apostolic church leaders threatens to undermine fight against CovidHymnal melodies reverberate around the hillside in Kuwadzana, a Harare suburb. On a blisteringly hot Saturday, members of the Apostolic church, dressed in white, hum and sing together.Songs, long prayers and a little Bible reading punctuate the outdoor service. It’s a spectacle for...

Can you solve it? The playful genius of Hungarian puzzles

Logic puzzles in three dimensionsWhen it comes to the world of mathematical puzzles, Hungary is a superpower. Not just because of the Rubik’s cube, the iconic toy invented by Ernő Rubik in 1974, but also because of its long history of maths outreach.In 1894, Hungary staged the world’s first maths competition for teenagers, four decades before one was held anywhere else. 1894 also saw the...

Panic, lockdown and a rush to vaccinate in Tonga as first Covid case recorded

Pacific country has made it through nearly two years of the pandemic Covid-free, but a repatriation flight from New Zealand has led to the country’s first caseEarly on Monday morning, the normally quiet capital of the Pacific country of Tonga, Nuku’alofa city, was packed with cars.There were long queues outside vaccination centres, as well as banks, Western Union outlets and shops as people...

Cop26: it’s finally here

The Science Weekly podcast is in Glasgow where we will be bringing listeners daily episodes from Cop26. Each morning you will hear from one of the Guardian’s award-winning environment team. Today, environment correspondent Fiona Harvey explains why this climate summit is so criticalFor almost three decades, world governments have met nearly every year to forge a global response to the climate...

The regrets of the unvaccinated: why Covid-bereaved families are speaking out

The majority of those dying of Covid-19 in the UK and the US are have not been vaccinated. Bereaved relatives are telling their stories to try to convince others to get their jabsPhil Valentine was a Tennessee-based conservative talk radio host who was sceptical about the US government’s response to the coronavirus crisis. He was not completely ‘anti-vax’, but he did not think he was...