How Covid abetted poaching: Tourists provide funds to guard parks, their extra eyes and ears keep poachers at bay
Authorities in Zimbabwe caught four smugglers trying to ship 26 great apes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to South Africa. In Zambia, the slaughter of animals for bushmeat skyrocketed. In Botswana, lawmakers debated whether to arm park rangers to defend themselves from poachers. In Uganda, a poacher desperate...
Kinshasa’s smuggler-in-chief Albert Yuma makes it look like all DRC mineral wealth belongs to him
When a top American diplomat was sent to meet with Albert Yuma at his home in Kinshasa to make clear that the United States strongly objected to the plan, according to an interview with the diplomat, J. Peter Pham. After pulling out a bottle of Cristal Champagne, Yuma talked with...
Irony of DR Congo owning world’s largest mineral deposits, yet ranks among poorest nations on Earth
The huge mining agency where Albert Yuma Mulimbi is chairman was nationalised and renamed under President Mobutu Sese Seko after Congo gained independence from Belgium in 1960. Gécamines once had a monopoly on copper and cobalt mining and, by the 1980s, was among the top copper producers in the world....
How unregulated artisanal mining attracts trespassers who often scavenge on DR Congo’s mineral wealth
Players in the clean energy revolution are increasingly caught in a cycle of exploitation and greed over resources. At the centre of it is the quest for a prized metal: cobalt, a key ingredient in electric cars. It’s a different story for the artisanal sector, where Albert Yuma Mulimbi –...
Cash transfers: Poverty isn’t just about the lack of money, it’s about the lack of opportunity, basic services
A basic-income experiment carried out by Finland in 2017-18 found that recipients felt more economically secure than a control group. Scores for days of employment, life satisfaction and self-reported depression were also slightly better for recipients than for controls. Since 2017, Niehaus has been part of a team of researchers...
Astronomers discover another Earth-sized exoplanet in ‘habitable zone’ that’s closest yet to our world
Astronomers have discovered a world only a little bit bigger than Earth, whirling around a bright star about 31 parsecs from our planet. The world, known as TOI 700 d, orbits in its star’s ‘habitable zone’ – the region in which liquid water could exist. Astronomers know of only a...
Afghan academics feel marooned and abandoned by international community after Taliban takeover
Four months after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, academics say they feel marooned, and abandoned by the international community. With limited prospects for research, many scientists have left or are still trying to find routes out, so they can continue their careers. Researchers say they have been stripped of...
New independent review finds evidence of endemic racism at prestigious London university
Evidence of racism and inequality at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) – prestigious 120-year-old research university – has been reported in an independent review that was commissioned by the institution last year. The LSHTM says it is “determined to do better” after the review found that...
Cash transfers: Free money discourages work, rewards bad choices, creates a culture of dependency
Kenya’s political elite have listed cash transfers to poor households to ameliorate up to two million people pushed into financial doldrums by a dysfunctional economy, made worse by coronavirus pandemic and effects of climate change. The cash transfer proposal – bait for votes – has been well-received by the electorate...
Germ warfare: No animal host of Covid has been pinpointed, China now suspected to have lab engineered coronavirus
A lab leak in Wuhan is still thought to be the most likely origin of Covid because an animal host has not been found after two years of searching, top scientists believe. Dr Alina Chan, a specialist in gene therapy and cell engineering at MIT and Harvard, said there was...
