News by Publication

Railway Splits Kenya’s Parks, Threatens Wildlife

National Geographic

Andrew Renneisen

As dawn breaks, nine Kenya Wildlife Service rangers dressed in camouflage and brandishing rifles assemble at an airstrip. They are equipped with a Cessna, a helicopter, and a caravan of Toyota Land Cruisers. Their mission: find, tranquilize, and collar Tsavo’s savanna elephants to see how well they traverse a new rail line that has recently split their habitat in two. It is the first time in history that elephants are being collared specifically to study how they interact with human infrastructure.

Read: English | Spanish

How Africa’s vaccine hesitancy came from the West

BBC

Immunologist Fatiha El Hilali started trying to counter fake news about vaccines after seeing a close friend die from Covid-19 (Credit: Kang-Chun Cheng)

“If I can be provocative, shouldn’t we be doing this study in Africa, where there are no masks, no treatments, no resuscitation?” said Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at Cochin hospital in Paris. “A bit like as it is done elsewhere for some studies on Aids. In prostitutes, we try things because we know that they are highly exposed and that they do not protect themselves.”

Read: BBC Future

With support from the Pulitzer Center

Into Africa

Tortoise

Cancel The Museum?   |   Germany’s Game of Thrones

If restitution advocates have their way, Berlin’s new Humboldt Forum may mark the beginning of the end of an era in which western museums served as humble custodians of other peoples’ things.

“Hermann Baumann wasn’t yet a Nazi when he set sail to Angola in search of Chokwe treasure.”

Read the full feature story: Tortoise

Kenya’s railway to nowhere

Articles, The Dial Mag

One morning in March, a Chinese-built train departed the Kenyan capital of Nairobi and headed to the middle of nowhere.

The World Bank warned that building the new SGR would cost 18 times as much as simply rehabilitating damaged or neglected sections of the old one. But Kenya’s leaders cared more about grandiosity than fiscal responsibility. Generations of Kenyans will be paying the price.

Read: The Dial Mag

Vaccinate the Monkeys.

BBC

That’s how to prevent the next pandemic–if these scientists are right.

Move over, Covid-19. Another, far more lethal disease is in danger of erupting once again. Yellow fever infects some 200,000 people and kills 30,000 of them each year–more than terrorist attacks and plane crashes combined. Stopping the next outbreak from jumping from monkeys to humans may require a novel approach: vaccinating our hairy, banana-loving brethren.

Part of our BBC Future series, Stopping The Next One, with Harriet Constable and The Pulitzer Center.

Read: BBC

The coronavirus 10 times more deadly than Covid

Articles, BBC

In northern Kenya, researchers are working to prevent a dangerous coronavirus – MERS – from jumping from camels to humans. But climate change is complicating their task.

Part of our BBC Future series, Stopping The Next One, with Harriet Constable and The Pulitzer Center.

READ: BBC

A U.S. State Department Travel Warning for Visitors to the United States [Satire]

Vocativ

Vigilantes go on patrol in September near the U.S.-Mexico border outside Brownsville, Texas.
Reuters/Rick Wilking

“Visitors belonging to a minority race should use particular caution when traveling to areas of the United States where police officers may be present.”

“LGBTQ travelers should instead consider going to Uganda, where only one targeted murder of an LGBT individual occurred in 2011, compared with 30 that year in the United States.”

“Muslims traveling to America should be aware that federal operatives routinely attempt to entrap Muslims into terrorist plots.”

“Violent and sometimes fatal attacks, including armed carjackings, drive-by shootings, burglaries, and kidnappings can occur at any time and in any location, particularly in cities. Travelers to big cities should therefore avoid crowds.”

Read the full satire – originally published by Vocativ.

The New Vaccine you Haven’t Heard Of

New Scientist

Eight-year-old Trizah Makungu sits on the bed she shares with her parents, protected by a mosquito net. These nets, which cost about $5 in the local market, have helped save millions of lives. / Lena Mucha

While most of the world is focusing on new vaccines for the coronavirus, thousands of Kenyan children are finally receiving a longed-for malaria vaccine, 37 years after development on it started.

Read: New Scientist
May 1, 2021 edition 

With Support from the European Journalism Centre