As a child growing up in northern Nigeria, Dr. Funmi Adewara experienced a severe hand injury that required multiple surgeries and frequent hospital visits.

These visits exposed her to the harsh realities of the country’s healthcare system. “I remember sitting in overcrowded waiting rooms, watching doctors stretched thin, unable to meet the needs of so many patients,” Adewara recalls.

This formative experience ignited her passion for transforming healthcare in Africa.

Growing up with a mother who worked as a nurse, Adewara’s understanding of healthcare challenges deepened through her mother’s stories.

“I knew early on that healthcare wasn’t a privilege — it was a necessity, and I wanted to be part of changing the system,” she explains.

After training as a physician, Adewara worked for 15 years in the UK’s National Health Service before founding the telemedicine platform Mobihealth in 2017.

Since its launch, Mobihealth has impacted thousands of lives, connecting patients with doctors and healthcare professionals across Nigeria and beyond.

The platform has 20 integrated telehealth clinics that offer remote consultations, diagnostics, and access to specialist care via digital health tools. Located primarily in Nigeria, these clinics are accessible to patients through various subscription plans, and are often financed through partnerships with global donor organizations and private donors.

In addition to the clinics, Mobihealth has partnerships with over 200 hospitals, labs, and pharmacies, Adewara says.

The company has earned global recognition, including a $1 million grant from the US Trade and Development Agency in 2022. Adewara was also one of the World Bank’s seven 2020 SDGs & Her award winners, selected from over 2,400 entries worldwide.

Connecting rural patients

Across sub-Saharan Africa, millions struggle to access basic healthcare. According to the World Health Organization, the region bears 25% of the global disease burden but has only 3% of the world’s healthcare workers.

“In rural Africa, a trip to the nearest hospital can mean the difference between life and death,” says Adewara.

Mobihealth’s latest initiative offers healthcare for $1 a month for rural and underserved populations. It allows Africans in the diaspora — and global supporters — to sponsor essential services like doctor consultations, diagnostic tests and access to telemedicine clinics. The scheme is not solely based on donations; individuals can also subscribe to the service for themselves.

“Healthcare systems across Africa are under immense pressure,” Adewara explains. “Our initiative is a direct response, using technology to connect rural patients with doctors thousands of miles away.”

For Adewara, Mobihealth’s telemedicine platform is not a temporary fix; it represents the future of healthcare in Africa.

“This is about creating a resilient, sustainable and inclusive system, where people, no matter where they are, can access the care they need,” she says.

“Telemedicine brings doctors to people, wherever they may be. By integrating AI and remote monitoring, we are improving the speed and accuracy of care, saving lives in the process,” she adds.

A number of African companies provide telemedicine services, but researchers have pointed out that there are obstacles that could hinder the growth of telemedicine in the continent. Rural areas can have an unreliable electricity supply and poor internet connectivity, and there is often a lack of government policies and funding around virtual healthcare.

“A healthcare system for the future”

Adewara envisions scaling her company’s model to reach millions more across Africa, particularly in countries like Ghana, Kenya and Ivory Coast.

“Our work is just beginning,” she says. “We are building a healthcare system for the future — one that is resilient, inclusive and capable of meeting Africa’s growing population’s needs.”

However, partnerships are crucial to achieving this vision. “We can’t do this alone. Our collaborations with the African diaspora, hospitals, governments, and international organizations allow us to reach more people and ensure that healthcare is affordable, efficient and accessible,” Adewara adds.

A Russian man has been rescued after 67 days adrift on a small boat in the bitterly cold Sea of Okhotsk, Russian authorities said Tuesday.

The man’s brother and his teenage son died in the ordeal, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti, who named the survivor as 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin.

Video of the rescue released by Russian prosecutors shows a bearded man in an orange lifejacket floating on a small catamaran-type vessel with a red flag raised on a pole, as emergency responders work to reach him.

The Sea of Okhotsk is mostly enclosed by Russia’s eastern Siberia and the Kamchatka Peninsula. It usually freezes over between October and March, and it ranks as the coldest sea in East Asia.

Two adult men and the 15-year-old son of one of them set off on the catamaran on August 9, prosecutors said.

“After some time, contact with them was lost, their location remained unknown,” a spokesperson for Russia’s far eastern transport prosecutor’s office, Elena Krasnoyarova, said.

“On October 14, around 22:00 the catamaran was spotted by a fishing boat passing in the Sea of Okhotsk near the Ust-Khayryuzovo settlement in the Kamchatka region,” she added.

Prosecutors said they are still working to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident and investigating charges of water traffic safety violations, resulting in the death of two or more people through negligence.

The rescued man’s wife told Russian state media that his weight could have played a role in his survival, given he weighed about 220lbs (100 kg). She told RIA that Pichugin and his late brother and nephew had enough food to last for about two weeks.

Pichugin will be taken to a hospital for medical treatment in the town of Magadan, in Russia’s far east, RIA reported.

He is “in serious condition, emaciated, but conscious,” the director of the fishing company that stumbled upon the adrift boat told RIA.

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Twin bomb threats hit Indian airliners on opposite sides of the globe on Tuesday, forcing an emergency landing in the Arctic and fighter jets to scramble in Asia – the latest in a series of similar hoax scares for the country’s airlines.

Indian airlines have faced “a number of threats in recent days,” all of which have been found to be hoaxes, flag carrier Air India said in a statement Tuesday, as authorities in New Delhi and around the world investigate the string of false bomb warnings.

On Tuesday, an Air India flight from New Delhi to Chicago made an emergency landing in Iqaluit, Canada’s northernmost city. All 211 passengers and crew were relocated to the airport, Canadian police said.

Air India flight 127 was the “subject of a security threat posted online” and diverted “as a precautionary measure,” the airline said.

In a separate incident Tuesday, Singapore scrambled two Air Force F-15 fighter jets to escort an Air India Express passenger plane away from populated areas before landing at the city state’s Changi Airport, the Singaporean defense minister said on social platform X.

Flight AXB684 was enroute to Singapore from the southern Indian city of Madurai when the airline received an email that there was a bomb onboard, minister Ng Eng Hen said.

The threat prompted Singapore to activate its ground-based air defense systems and explosive ordnance disposal, and the plane was handed to airport police upon arrival, Ng said, adding that investigations are ongoing.

Multiple flights by Indian carriers have been delayed or diverted due to false bomb threats since Monday. They include domestic flights on low-cost airlines as well as international flights. The threats have appeared to come from emails or social media posts.

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet also said it received a bomb threat to a flight to Mumbai from the northern city of Darbhanga on Tuesday.

“The aircraft landed safely at Mumbai Airport and was directed to an isolation bay as a precautionary measure,” SpiceJet said in a statement, adding that after security checks the flight was cleared for further operations.

Though it remains unclear whether the threats are connected, or what the motive may be, Air India said they could not be dismissed.

“As a responsible airline operator all threats are taken seriously,” the airline said, adding it was working with authorities to ensure the perpetrators are “held accountable for the disruption and inconvenience caused to passengers.”

The Air India emergency landing in Canada comes as tensions rise between the two countries after Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner, on Monday.

Canada has accused agents of the Indian government of being linked to homicides, harassment and other “acts of violence” against Sikh separatists in the country. India called the accusations “preposterous” and in turn expelled six Canadian diplomats.

While there is no indication that the bomb hoaxes are linked to the diplomatic spat, threats to Air India flights in Canada have revived painful memories of the 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182 by Sikh extremists, the worst terrorist attack in Canada’s history. The flight from Montreal to New Delhi exploded off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people on board, including more than 250 Canadians.

Chinese and Russian defense officials vowed to strengthen their cooperation during meetings in Beijing this week – in the latest sign of deepening alignment between the neighbors that’s been closely watched by the US and its allies.

The two countries have “common views, a common assessment of the situation, and a common understanding of what we need to do together,” defense chief Andrey Belousov told Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, according to Russian state media Tass.

Their task is to “strengthen and develop” their strategic partnership, the Russian defense chief added.

The visit has been cited by Russian state media as Belousov’s first to China since his appointment in May and comes days ahead of an expected visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Russia.

Russia and China have been bolstering their security coordination in the face of shared frictions with the West. That’s included ramping up joint military drills in recent months – part of what experts say is an effort to signal to Washington that, while the two are not allies, neither stands alone.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Zhang repeated rhetoric voiced by Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for the two militaries to “deepen and expand military-to-military relations, safeguard their respective national sovereignty, security and development interests, and jointly safeguard international and regional peace and stability,” according to a readout from China’s Defense Ministry.

Belousov also held talks a day earlier with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun, who ranks below Zhang in China’s military hierarchy.

The Russian defense chief’s trip comes ahead of an expected visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Kazan, Russia next week for a summit of BRICS, an economic grouping Moscow and Beijing see as their answer to the US-backed Group of Seven (G7).

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not confirmed Xi’s travel plans, but the Kremlin last month quoted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as confirming the leader’s attendance. The trip would be Xi’s second to Russia since Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the fifth face-to-face with Putin in the same period.

Regular high-level diplomacy and increased security coordination between China and Russia have come under close scrutiny from the US and its allies, who have accused Beijing of enabling Russia’s war through the provision of dual-use goods like machine tools and microelectronics.

Joint patrols

Beijing has defended what it calls its “normal trade” with Russia and claims neutrality in the conflict. The two countries reached record levels of trade last year as China emerged as a key economic lifeline for Russia, which is strapped by war-related international sanctions.

In recent weeks, Chinese and Russian coast guards conducted what Beijing described as their first joint patrol in the Arctic Ocean, while their navies separately practiced anti-submarine warfare in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, Russian state media said.

The patrol followed a raft of joint exercises over the summer, including near Alaska – where US and Canadian forces intercepted Russian and Chinese bombers together for the first time – and in the South China Sea, a vital waterway claimed almost entirely by Beijing in which geopolitical tensions are rapidly rising.

Belousov’s arrival in Beijing Monday coincided with China’s military flying a record number of fighter jets and other warplanes around Taiwan during large-scale military drills.

China said the drills were intended as a “stern warning” to what it described as pro-independence forces in Taiwan. The drills came days after the island’s new president, Lai Ching-te, gave a speech vowing to protect Taiwan’s sovereignty in the face of challenges from Beijing, which claims the self-ruling democracy as its own.