The British government will launch a pilot anti-obesity Health Incentives Scheme in January 2022 via an app that will offer financial rewards in exchange for exercising and eating healthy.

The app will help people track their diet and physical activity, and will be linked to a Fitbit-style device that can make health suggestions, like increasing a person’s number of steps and eating more fruit and vegetables.

The app will enable people to earn points for increasing their level of exercise, by walking to work for example or going for a run. It will also enable people to track their supermarket shopping, and give rewards to people who buy fewer calories and more healthy food.

These points can then unlock rewards such as food vouchers, clothes, and gym passes, as well as discounts for shops, cinemas, and theme parks.

The pilot will run for six months in England at a location yet to be announced, after which point the government aims to roll out the scheme nationally.

The private health-tech firm HeadUp won the tender to deliver the scheme, and the government’s Department of Health will invest £3 million (over $4.1 million).

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “I want to ensure we’re doing as much as we can to tackle health disparities across the country, and this new pilot will pave the way for developing innovative ways to improve the lives of individuals, and also help to reduce strain on the NHS.

“The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is driving forward our levelling up agenda for health and ensuring prevention is a vital part of everything we do. This pilot is an excellent opportunity to find how best to inspire people to make small changes to their daily lives that will have a lasting positive impact on their health.”

The government has brought in Sir Keir Mills, who devised the Air Miles scheme, as an adviser.

Mills said: “This scheme is a fantastic opportunity to explore how government, business and the third sector can work together to deliver a new and engaging way of supporting the public to make healthier choices.

“Through the pilot we will have exciting and innovative partners on board will help motivate people to want to earn incentives, but also should help them overcome barriers to making healthy decisions in future. I’m looking forward to seeing how this scheme develops.”

According to local media, the government believes that the evidence suggests financial incentives can encourage people to eat more healthily and exercise more.

Around two-thirds of UK adults are overweight or obese, and one-third of children are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school.

Obesity-related illnesses cost the NHS £6 billion per year, and the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the obese were at far greater risk of serious disease and death, further highlighted the importance of tackling Britain’s obesity crisis./agencies

Russia on Friday saw new records in coronavirus spreading as daily fatalities hit a peak for the fourth consecutive day while daily cases exceeded 35,000.

According to a report by the country's emergency task force, 1,064 people died of the disease, raising the total death toll to 228,453.

A total of 37,141 people tested positive for COVID-19 over the past day, taking Russia's caseload to 8.16 million and active cases to 822,792. The overall recoveries stood at 7.11 million after 25,453 more people recuperated.

Commenting on the situation in the capital, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said the city can face a pandemic peak by the end of the week.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the situation with the virus' spread "extremely difficult," expressing hope for the upcoming nationwide non-working period to help slow down the pace.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 4.93 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with over 242.6 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University./agencies

Turkish exporters are aiming to increase annual bilateral trade with Africa from $25 billion to $50 billion, the head of the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TIM) said on Friday.

Free trade deals and reciprocal investment protection agreements, along with enhanced cooperation in agriculture, industry, construction, textile, and health sectors are essential in this regard, Nail Olpak said on the last day of the two-day Turkey-Africa Economic and Business Forum in Istanbul.

Speaking about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to three African countries this week, Olpak said Turkey has taken important steps to boost cooperation with African nations, striking dozens of deals with governments and public and private sector firms in fields such as mining and energy./aa

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky gave final approval Thursday evening to ensuring millions more Americans can receive COVID-19 booster shots and can choose from any of the three available jabs. 

Certain individuals who already received the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine were already eligible, but Walensky approved a recommendation issued just hours earlier from a CDC vaccine panel to agree with the Food and Drug Administration to expand the pool to include the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Individuals who received either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna two-round initial dosage are now eligible to receive a booster if they are 65 years of age or older, have underlying health conditions or live or work in high-risk settings.

The roughly 15 million individuals in the US who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are eligible for a booster if they are 18 or older and received their first dose two or more months ago.

It is up to the individual to determine which of the three boosters they receive in what the CDC is describing as "mix and match" booster dosing. All three of the vaccines remain highly effective in reducing the risk of severe health outcomes, hospitalization and death, the health authority said in a statement.

"These recommendations are another example of our fundamental commitment to protect as many people as possible from COVID-19," Walensky said.

"The evidence shows that all three COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States are safe – as demonstrated by the over 400 million vaccine doses already given. And, they are all highly effective in reducing the risk of severe disease, hospitalization and death, even in the midst of the widely circulating Delta variant,” she added.

Weekly coronavirus deaths and cases have been on the decline since September as the US continues its vaccine push.

To date, over 77% of people in the US 12 years of age or older have received at least one vaccine shot with over 57% of the American population fully vaccinated. Wide disparities persist, however, in vaccination levels with some states, particularly those in the south and Midwest, having very low rates compared to the rest of the nation./aa

Forty-three UN nations on Thursday called for "immediate" access to Xinjiang -- the autonomous Muslim majority region in northwestern China where Uyghurs and other ethnic groups are facing alleged rights abuses.

A statement issued by the Third Committee -- the UN's committee on human rights -- said the member states were "particularly concerned about the situation" in Xinjiang, referring to China's treatment of the minorities.

The statement cited reports of a large network of "political re-education" camps, systematic human rights violations, forced sterilization and "severe restrictions" on freedom of religion.

"We thus call on China to allow immediate, meaningful and unfettered access to Xinjiang for independent observers, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and her Office, and relevant special procedure mandate holders, as well as to urgently implement (Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) CERD’s eight recommendations related to Xinjiang," said the statement.

"We urge China to ensure full respect for the rule of law and to comply with its obligations under national and international law with regard to the protection of human rights," it said.

The countries include Australia, Canada, Germany, Honduras, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Northern Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK, US, and France, among others.

According to UN data, at least 1 million Uyghurs are held against their will in places Beijing calls "vocational training centers," which the international community defines as "re-education camps."

China does not provide information on how many camps are in Xinjiang, the number of people held or how many have returned to social life.

While the UN and other international organizations reiterated demands that the camps be opened for inspection, China has allowed a few designated centers to be partially viewed by a small number of foreign diplomats and journalists.

Several countries have accused China of ethnically cleansing Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Beijing has denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the allegations as "lies and (a) political virus."/aa

The Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya said Thursday that scientists working to save the endangered northern white rhino have retired the older of the two remaining females – Najin, at age 32.

The Conservancy, spread over 360 square kilometers (223 square miles), is home to the last two northern white rhinos in the world.

The BioRescue consortium team of scientists said it places the highest value on respecting the life and welfare of the animals and agreed to stop after making an ethical risk assessment.

“This leaves the ambitious programme with just one female that can provide oocytes (eggs cells), Najin’s daughter Fatu,” Ol Pejeta said in a statement.

Minister of Tourism and Wildlife Najib Balala said, “Najin has not produced any viable ovum compounded by its advanced age. We have no choice but to accept the fate of having to retire her from the program. We are however encouraged that she will be around long enough to have a positive impact on the next Northern White Rhino generations through offspring from her daughter Fatu.”

Jan Stejskal. one of the chief scientists in the projects, said the procedure of harvesting donor eggs from the rhinos is new and although it is performed by world-leading scientists and veterinarians from the BioRescue team in the most professional and reassuring manner, there are risks involved to the animals.

“Oocyte collections in Najin have yielded only a few eggs and none of them could be fertilized successfully to become an embryo. Weighing this outcome with potential risks, it is the most responsible decision to cease any further intervention on Najin and to stop using her as a donor of oocytes. She will remain a part of the programme, for example by providing tissue samples for stem cell approaches, which can be performed with minimal invasion,” said Stejskal.

Scientists plan to use embryos multiple times to create a herd of northern white rhinos, which will be reintegrated into the wild.

About 500 northern white rhinos were roaming in several countries in East and Central Africa, south of the Sahara Desert until 1970.

Poaching reduced their population to 15 by 1980 and then 32 in 2003. The two remaining females were born in captivity./aa

The US trucking industry is 80,000 drivers short to support the nation's massive supply chain, according to a report on Thursday.

While the figure is a record, it is also a 30% increase compared to the pre-pandemic level when the industry had a labor shortage of 61,500 drivers.

"That's a pretty big spike," American Trucking Associations (ATA) President and CEO Chris Spear told CNN.

He noted that truck drivers move 71% of the goods in the American economy but represent just 4% of the vehicles on all roads.

The shortage of truck drivers comes as some are leaving the sector or retiring, against the rising demand for consumer goods and their transportation.

Supply chain bottlenecks have become a major issue in the post-pandemic period, while US ports are also backlogged with fewer drivers.

The ATA announced Tuesday its advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 2.4% in September -- the largest gain in 2021.

"The drivers of truck freight, including retail, construction, and manufacturing, plus a surge in imports, are helping keep demand high for trucking services," ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said in a statement.

Without any more driver additions, the US trucking industry is on track to have a shortage of 160,000 drivers by 2030, while the sector will need 1 million more drivers in the next decade, according to ATA./aa