Conflict nearly wiped out its large animals, but local determination is bringing Upemba park back from the brink
Photographs by Hugh Kinsella Cunningham
Ranger Sylvain Musimi had just risen from his morning coffee around the campfire when the rebels opened fire. It was a chilly early morning in mid-January, during rainy season in Upemba national park. Sixteen suspected members of the Bakata Katanga militia, faces daubed in white war paint, surprised the party of four rangers only 5.5 miles (9km) from Upemba’s base camp.
Musimi, 50, was shot four times in the thigh, but managed to flee into the bush. A younger colleague, who was nearer the campfire, was shot dead.
John Mopeto, a ranger section leader, walks across the Kibara plateau during a scientific survey of Upemba national park
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/20/2024 - 02:00
08/20/2024 - 00:55
In today’s newsletter: Our Seascapes editor on the dangers our seas and oceans face – and what we can do to help
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Good morning. The oceans are – according to the UN – “the world’s greatest ally against climate change”. While many of us now understand the urgent need to take the climate crisis seriously, the focus is still very much on the land and the air. Oceans cover more than 70% of the surface of the planet, generate 50% of the oxygen we breathe, absorb 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions and capture 90% of the excess heat generated by these emissions.
Perhaps it is time we stopped to think a bit more about our seas, consider the dangers they face and look at what we can do to help. Lisa Bachelor, who edits the Guardian’s Seascape series about the state of our oceans, has – if not all the answers – quite a few of them. She joins us after the headlines.
US politics | Joe Biden took the stage at the Democratic national convention Monday to deliver a reflective and optimistic address, telling the crowd: “I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you.” Earlier, Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance to thank Biden for his “lifetime of service”.
Italy | UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah were missing, along with Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and three others, after their yacht sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm. The British-flagged Bayesian was carrying 22 people when it was hit by a tornado.
Care workers | The number of foreign social care workers reporting that they are trapped in exploitative contracts has risen sixfold in the last three years, in the latest evidence of widespread abuse of migrants in the British care system.
Israel-Gaza war | The current round of ceasefire talks is “maybe the last opportunity” to broker a truce and a hostage and prisoner swap, the US secretary of state has said during a visit to Israel. After a three-hour one-on-one with Benjamin Netanyahu, Anthony Blinken said that the Israeli prime minister “supports” the ceasefire proposal.
Ukraine | Ukrainian forces destroyed a third bridge over the Seym River in Russia’s Kursk region as part of an apparent attempt to expand what Volodymyr Zelenskiy has described as a military “buffer zone” against attacks. It was the last major crossing on this part of the front.
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08/20/2024 - 00:00
Appearance of dark crimson underwing causes excitement on land that would be bisected by road scheme
Beneath oak canopies, in an orchard full of hundred-year-old apple trees, excited exclamations rose from a group of moth enthusiasts last week.
The Cambridgeshire Moth Group had just trapped a dark crimson underwing, a species so rare that none of them had ever seen it before. Indeed, the colourful invertebrate is only usually ever found in the New Forest and is considered nationally scarce.
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08/19/2024 - 21:09
The opposition has still produced nothing to back up its widely disputed claim that Australia could have an operational nuclear industry before the 2040s
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Journalists are obsessed with the new. We cast around every day to tell audiences something they don’t know. That’s the job.
Sometimes, when we get it right, we reveal information that’s substantial and deserves exposure and scrutiny. Sometimes we aim for a different type of revelation – one that comes from picking apart and giving context to claims that are demonstrably not true, but have been repeated so often they have become a regurgitated part of public debate. This fact-checking role can feel repetitive and, frankly, exhausting. But it’s also part of the job.
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08/19/2024 - 12:36
Environmental charity fears ‘the aquatic ecosystem will have been devastated or lost’ after chemical spill last week
About 90kg (200lbs) of dead fish have been removed from a canal after a sodium cyanide leak in Walsall that experts fear could have “devastated the aquatic ecosystem” in the area.
A 1km stretch of the waterway remains closed to the public after the chemical spill from a metal finishing company, Anochrome. The spill was declared a major incident last week.
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08/19/2024 - 12:07
Researchers report that deforestation during the last two decades induced a higher warming and cloud level rise than that caused by climate change, which threatens biodiversity and water supply in African montane forests.
08/19/2024 - 12:00
Study finds ‘statistically significant association’ between exposure to fine particles in coalmine fire smoke and aging of lungs, equal to 4.7 years
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Retired secondary school teacher Howard Williams remembers watching “a gumtree literally explode from the heat”.
It was the beginning of the Hazelwood coalmine fire, which broke out on 9 February 2014 in the middle of a hot, dry summer.
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08/19/2024 - 11:48
Climate campaigners criticise decision to allow capacity to increase from 6.5m to 9m passengers a year
Ministers have approved London City airport’s application to expand, in a decision that has disappointed climate campaigners.
The airport submitted a proposal to increase capacity from 6.5 million to 9 million passengers a year by putting on more weekend and early morning flights. Local campaigners and Newham council opposed the move, arguing the air and noise pollution would affect people living nearby and that it could potentially increase carbon emissions.
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08/19/2024 - 10:00
They threaten our drinking water and refuse to budge. But non-lethal methods are the only advisable ways to deal with the infestation
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There are eight pigeons living on my shed roof. That itself is a small victory: it has taken two years, 60 metres of anti-bird mesh, daily patrolling for and disposing of eggs and countless hours running around waving a rake to get them out of the shed. They nested in our hay, ruining the top row of bales. They pooed on everything. When we purchased this property, we inherited piles of guano half a foot deep. We haven’t yet relaxed enough to remove the drop cloths.
Now the pigeons are sitting on the eaves, clogging up the gutters (which also supply our drinking water) with poo, and pooing in the stock troughs. When my horse was hospitalised with gastroenteritis, I blamed the pigeons until my vet said that while they do carry salmonella (wonderful!), Mickey would likely be much sicker if he’d caught something from them.
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08/19/2024 - 10:00
Thousands of firefighters are deployed as an all time record for acres burned – and it’s only August. Now some worry about the long months ahead
It’s still early in the wildfire season for the American west, but it’s already shaping up to be a tough and, in some cases, record-breaking year.
Oregon has seen more fire than any year on record, with almost 1.5m acres (607,028 hectares) scorched in recent weeks as huge wildfires, primarily caused by lightning strikes, have exploded across the region. Nearly 70 major fires are burning across the US this week alone, primarily in Oregon, Idaho, Washington and California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).
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