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Africa’s forest elephants are just a step from extinction

Africa’s forest elephants are just a step from extinction

The New York Times reports: While some African elephants parade across the savanna and thrill tourists on safari, others are more discreet. They stay hidden in the forests, eating fruit. “You feel pretty lucky when you catch sight of them,” said Kathleen Gobush, a Seattle-based conservation biologist and member of the African Elephant Specialist Group within the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or I.U.C.N. The threat of extinction has diminished the odds of spotting one of these wood-dwelling elephants…

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The UK professor and the fake Russian agent

The UK professor and the fake Russian agent

A British professor corresponded for months with a man called only “Ivan”, seeking assistance to discredit an organisation that helps bring Syrian war criminals to justice. He also asked “Ivan” to investigate other British academics and journalists. The email exchange, seen by the BBC, reveals how, a decade on from the start of the Syrian conflict, a battle is still being waged in the field of information and misinformation. Chloe Hadjimatheou writes: One chilly December morning there was a ping…

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New data helps clarify how plate tectonics drove the evolution of complex life

New data helps clarify how plate tectonics drove the evolution of complex life

Howard Lee writes: In 2016, the geochemists Jonas Tusch and Carsten Münker hammered a thousand pounds of rock from the Australian Outback and airfreighted it home to Cologne, Germany. Five years of sawing, crushing, dissolving and analyzing later, they have coaxed from those rocks a secret hidden for eons: the era when plate tectonics began. Earth’s fractured carapace of rigid, interlocking plates is unique in the solar system. Scientists increasingly connect it to our planet’s other special features, such as…

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U.S. Covid response could have avoided hundreds of thousands of deaths, researchers conclude

U.S. Covid response could have avoided hundreds of thousands of deaths, researchers conclude

Reuters reports: The United States squandered both money and lives in its response to the coronavirus pandemic, and it could have avoided nearly 400,000 deaths with a more effective health strategy and trimmed federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars while still supporting those who needed it. That is the conclusion of a group of research papers released at a Brookings Institution conference this week, offering an early and broad start to what will likely be an intense effort…

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Stop using ‘surge’ and ‘wave’ to describe what’s happening at the border

Stop using ‘surge’ and ‘wave’ to describe what’s happening at the border

Julio Ricardo Varela writes: A flood. A wave. A surge. What’s happening at the U.S.-Mexico border is none of those things, but you wouldn’t know it from watching or reading some of the coverage in U.S. media. In recent weeks, the phrases “surge of migrants,” “migrant surge,” “the surge,” “surge at border” and other variations have all appeared in articles in the Wall Street Journal, NPR, CBS News, ABC News, NBC News, the Associated Press, the New York Times, CNN,…

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‘They are, in effect, supporting racism’: Black leaders zero in on Dems’ filibuster holdouts

‘They are, in effect, supporting racism’: Black leaders zero in on Dems’ filibuster holdouts

Politico reports: Black civil rights leaders, voting rights advocates and elected officials are ramping up their lobbying of Senate Democrats to nix the filibuster, arguing that they can keep the rule in place or pass voting rights legislation, but not both. In a half-dozen interviews, top officials framed the choice as existential for a party that depends on Black and brown voters — and they are planning pressure campaigns privately and publicly to make that clear. Rev. Al Sharpton, the…

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After Trump failed, Georgia Republicans pass bill to make it easier to overturn elections

After Trump failed, Georgia Republicans pass bill to make it easier to overturn elections

Mother Jones reports: During the 2020 election cycle in Georgia, Donald Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state. His efforts to manipulate the electoral process failed after Raffensperger stood up to the president and defended the integrity of the election. But if the Georgia legislature has its way, Republicans could have a much easier time overturning the will of voters in future elections. The Georgia House of…

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‘Israel is experiencing its worst political crisis in decades’

‘Israel is experiencing its worst political crisis in decades’

The Associated Press reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing allies fell short of winning a parliamentary majority in Israel’s latest election, according to a final vote count released Thursday, leaving a political deadlock that put the long-time leader’s future in question. The fourth election in just two years brought a stinging rebuke for Netanyahu, the most dominant figure in Israeli politics in a generation. Adding to the pain, he lost ground to former partners who vowed never to…

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The voice in your head

The voice in your head

Sophie McBain writes: Patsy Hage began hearing voices when she was eight years old. She was playing with her brother in the attic when her scarf caught alight on a candle. She would always remember running downstairs to her mother, her clothing on fire, convinced she was going to die. She was rushed to hospital and treated for serious burns. It was in hospital that the voices first started talking to her. She heard them for the rest of her…

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Hundreds of far-right militias are still organizing, recruiting, and promoting violence on Facebook

Hundreds of far-right militias are still organizing, recruiting, and promoting violence on Facebook

BuzzFeed News reports: When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces Congress on Thursday, to testify about extremism online, he will do so as hundreds of far-right militias, including some whose members were charged in the deadly insurrection on the US Capitol, continue to organize, recruit, and promote violence on the platform. More than 200 militia pages and groups were on Facebook as of March 18, according to a new report published Wednesday by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a nonprofit watchdog…

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After anti-Asian violence, volunteers take to streets to form patrols

After anti-Asian violence, volunteers take to streets to form patrols

The Wall Street Journal reports: Before sunset Monday, a few dozen Asian-Americans outfitted in neon vests and jackets combed the streets of this New York City neighborhood. They weren’t police officers. They were students, retail workers and retirees equipped with little more than a cellphone in the event they came across someone being harassed or attacked. Their mission: to stop would-be attackers from hurting other Asians, whether it be by calling the police for help or stepping in themselves. “It’s…

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They had mild Covid. Then their serious symptoms kicked in

They had mild Covid. Then their serious symptoms kicked in

The New York Times reports: In the fall, after Samar Khan came down with a mild case of Covid-19, she expected to recover and return to her previous energetic life in Chicago. After all, she was just 25, and healthy. But weeks later, she said, “this weird constellation of symptoms began to set in.” She had blurred vision encircled with strange halos. She had ringing in her ears, and everything began to smell like cigarettes or Lysol. One leg started…

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Do we actually need more gas stations?

Do we actually need more gas stations?

Bill McKibben writes: If we’re really going to change, sooner or later we’ll have to actually make a change. The latest front in the fight against fossil fuels—so far, one confined to a couple of California towns—concerns what might be the most iconic element of the American commercial landscape: the gas station. Beginning in 2019, activists from the Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations have questioned whether there’s a need for big new versions of the filling station, or whether—since both…

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After two mass shootings, Americans ask: Is this what a return to normal looks like?

After two mass shootings, Americans ask: Is this what a return to normal looks like?

NBC News reports: Spring has arrived, and the American disease that lay dormant during the pandemic — deprived of oxygen by the intense national focus on the presidential election — has made a bloody return. In less than a week, two gunmen separated by 1,400 miles have taken 18 lives. And experts who study and chronicle mass killings warned Tuesday that there could be more as the nation reverts to a more normal way of life. “This is a moment…

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