In The News

Ebola Is Rapidly Mutating As It Spreads Across West Africa

Michaeleen Doucleff September 1, 2014
An international team – 20 researchers working around the clock – sequenced DNA from 78 human subjects infected with Ebola and report the virus is mutating quickly. “The Ebola genome is incredibly simple,” writes Michaeleen Doucleff for NPR in the United States, based on an interview with a lead author on the study, Pardis Sabeti. computational biologist at Harvard University. Ebola has seven...

Arab Nations Strike in Libya, Surprising US

David D. Kirkpatrick and Eric Schmittaug August 26, 2014
Without asking or waiting for US approval, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates targeted airstrikes against Islamist militias in Libya, reports the New York Times. During the 2011 Arab Spring protests, powerful autocrats, tending to regard any political opposition to their rule as extreme, had warned that extremists could hijack the democracy movements. Elections in Libya have since led to bitter...

Study: Illegal Poaching Could Drive African Elephants to Extinction

Brad Plumer August 22, 2014
Demand in China for African elephant ivory drives illegal poaching and could push the creatures into extinction. “A kilogram of ivory can now fetch as much as $7,000 in China, where it's used for ornaments or ground up for use in traditional medicine,” explains Brad Plumer for Vox. The study examines the connections between poaching, China’s internal legal ivory market, the black market, and...

All Eyes on Africa

J. Peter Pham August 14, 2014
Disturbing news out of Africa, whether about extremist Boko Haram or the outbreak of Ebola, are aberrations for a young continent eager to grow and innovate. Like China and Europe, the United States is ready to court Africa as signaled by the first US-Africa Leaders Summit, explains J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council. “The summit itself underscores the broad...

The Economics of Ebola

Amara Konneh August 14, 2014
The Ebola threat disrupts daily routines in the four countries where infections are spreading and concern is high in neighboring nations and beyond about doing business or accepting travelers and students from the region. The numbers of infections are small. Meticulous attention to precautionary measures can prevent the spread, but a 60 percent fatality rate is alarming. “The reason this...

Beijing Invites US to Link Up Over Africa

Geoff Dyer August 6, 2014
As the United States hosts the first ever summit of nearly 50 African heads of states and governments in a bid to regain influence in the continent China has invited the United States to cooperate in developing Africa with more finance and infrastructure, writes Geoff Dyer for the Financial Times. Both countries have shown a desire in recent years to invest in the poor continent that is one of...

Africa’s Jihadists, On Their Way

August 1, 2014
The most extreme ideologies tap into widespread frustrations and flourish in nations and communities that fail their people with poor education and governance. The Economist interviews youths who live in Chad, a country rich in oil but inept in distributing benefits to its citizens: “Most would rather have jobs than become religious marauders, but given the chance they may be tempted to join a...