Kiefer Sutherland in “Eddie Cochran: Don’t Forget Me,” courtesy of Fremantle
World
Did toxic algae kill hundreds of elephants in Botswana?
An investigation into the sudden deaths of at least 350 elephants in Botswana in 2020 has revealed the cause was almost certainly a “toxic brew” of open water tainted by a species of cyanobacteria that released cyanotoxins, essentially contaminating the elephants’ watering holes.
According to researchers, approximately 20 watering holes in Botswana’s Okavango Delta had been contaminated across roughly 6,000sq km (2,316 square miles).
So what happened, and how?
What is cyanobacteria and how does it harm elephants?
Although not all cyanobacteria, commonly referred to as blue-green algae, is toxic, some cyanobacteria can produce a type of deadly algal blooms (HABs) in standing water. This is the type which was discovered in the investigation carried out by researchers at King’s College London.
The study showed that the African elephants (Loxodonta africana) died in May and June 2020 after drinking from water holes contaminated with these toxic algal blooms.
“Scientists believe that the production of cyanotoxins is related to certain environmental triggers, for example, sudden rise in water temperature, nutrient loading, salinity,” Davide Lomeo, Earth observation scientist at King’s College London, a collaborator with Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the Natural History Museum in London, and lead researcher in the recent study, told Al Jazeera.
How did the elephant deaths come to light?
In early to mid-2020, a series of routine aerial surveys conducted by helicopter by the conservation organisation, Elephants Without Borders, revealed multiple elephant carcasses scattered across the landscape of the Ngamiland district of northern Botswana.
The aerial survey showed 161 elephant carcasses and 222 sets of bones, while also counting 2,682 live elephants throughout the eastern region of the Okavango Panhandle. In addition, the distance between the dead elephants indicated the deaths had been sudden, rather than gradual.
“The strong clustering of carcasses also suggests that the event was sudden, with limited dispersal of elephants prior to death,” the authors of the study said.
How did researchers identify toxic algae as the cause of death?
Before researchers confirmed it was toxic algae which killed the elephants, they had to rule out several other probable causes.
“Although this area is a known poaching hotspot in Botswana, this was ruled out since elephant carcasses were found with tusks intact,” the authors of the study said.
Other initial theories included virulent and bacterial causes, such as encephalomyocarditis virus or anthrax, but the evidence taken from the field – such as the age of the dead elephants and the absence of any clinical signs of disease, meant the researchers ruled these out as the cause.
The distribution of carcasses and bones suggested a unique “spatial pattern”, which indicated that localised factors may have played a role in the mass die-off. This led to further exploration of specific environmental and ecological conditions in the affected areas.
There were several other factors that served as evidence that the elephant watering holes were to blame. Using satellite photos, researchers measured the distance the elephants walked after they drank from the watering holes – an average of 16.5km (10.2 miles). Many of the elephants died shortly thereafter, roughly 3.6 days (88 hours), after they drank from the nearby contaminated water holes.
The report states that 88 hours aligned with previously reported toxicological timelines for other large mammals which have died from blue algal poisoning.
In addition, Lomeo’s previous body of doctoral work investigating the history of mass-mortality events and water quality in waterbodies in Africa served as evidence to further look into the theory of water hole contamination.
“This event was what led to this idea, since it was a well-covered news at the time, but no one really knew why they died. I then applied my skills in geospatial and computational data science to investigate the event under a well-known set of methods typically applied in epidemiological investigations (eg COVID-19),” explained Lomeo.
What is still unknown about the elephant deaths?
It is impossible to measure the level of toxicity for each waterhole from aerial photos. In addition, it is unclear whether elephants drank from one watering hole or several, according to researchers.
“It is highly likely that they drank from multiple pans before their death. It cannot be established if the fatal intoxication occurred in a single drinking event, but it seems more plausible that if cyanotoxins were present and were the cause of the die-off, this was through toxins bioaccumulation in elephants’ organs,” stated the study.
Although it is clear that the toxic waterholes were the likely source of the elephants’ mass mortality, there remains some uncertainty about the findings due to the timing of the mass die-off.
“The event occurred during the COVID-19 movement restrictions, and timely intervention was not possible. Therefore, tissue samples [which would have confirmed the presence/ absence of cyanotoxins] were not collected. Post-mortem investigations also need to be done within a certain timeframe, beyond which samples would be too degraded. Additionally, cyanotoxins cannot be detected from satellites, so the links can only be but indirect,” Lomeo explained.
As the aerial data was collected considerable time after the deaths in March and May 2020 – researchers could not definitively rule out the involvement of other animals in the elephant deaths.
Furthermore, smaller creatures may have been missed in the aerial survey, potentially limiting scientists’ understanding of the full scope of the incident.
“The area is well-known for very high predation rates, meaning that animal carcasses disappear quickly because of scavengers like hyenas and vultures. Hence, the involvement of other animals cannot be ruled out,” Lomeo said.
The specific conditions that would produce the level of toxicity in a watering hole that would be lethal to surrounding animal species are also still unknown.
“There is still uncertainty. We know that certain cyanobacteria species are more likely to produce cyanotoxins, and we know which toxins each species typically produces,” said Lomeo.
According to the research, cyanotoxins exhibit significant variations in their potency and effects. Certain types are extremely toxic, capable of causing death even in very small concentrations. Others, while less immediately dangerous, may still pose health risks at higher levels without necessarily being lethal. The field of cyanotoxin research remains active, with many aspects yet to be fully understood and explored.
Despite this, the overall findings of the study have been widely accepted. “The cause of the die-off has been officially attributed by the Government of Botswana to environmental intoxication by cyanobacterial toxins, also known as cyanotoxins,” the study’s authors said.
Could this happen again?
Although mass deaths of elephants are rare, researchers cannot be certain it will not happen again and that it will only affect elephants or land animals.
“[In] all arid systems where animals are dependent on stagnant water in lakes/ponds are susceptible to this [mass die-offs], the aquatic life in lakes also can be harmed in this same manner. We have even seen this in rivers and oceans where high nitrification from agricultural run-off combined with warming temperatures leads to disastrous bacterial blooms,” George Wittemyer, a behavioural ecologist at Colorado State University, one of the institutes involved in a study in Kenya that revealed that elephants use individual names, told Al Jazeera.
While it was relatively easy for researchers to identify the elephant carcasses from the air due to their size, the sudden deaths of smaller animals might not be so easy to identify.
World
‘Eddie Cochran: Don’t Forget Me’ Director Kirsty Bell on How Legendary Musician Influenced New Generation of ‘Rock Stars’ Like Yungblud
When pioneering producer and filmmaker Kirsty Bell set out to make a film about legendary American musician Eddie Cochran, she didn’t want to merely chronicle his brief career. Looking back at the musician’s work, who died while touring the U.K. in 1960, aged just 21, Bell felt she needed to “bring him back to life.” The result of that mission is “Eddie Cochran: Don’t Forget Me,” closing this year’s Raindance Film Festival.
Speaking with Variety ahead of the film’s U.K. premiere, Bell says it was her producer, Ben Charles Edwards, who first brought up Cochran’s name as a possible subject for her next film. At the time, seasoned producer Bell had just taken a major step in her career by directing her feature debut, 2021’s “A Bird Flew In.” “That film came from my brain and my heart, and I knew I wanted to link these two things again,” she says. “I wanted to go on an emotional journey, because that’s how I get my best stuff.”
Bell, who founded Goldfinch Entertainment back in 2016, knew and loved Cochran’s music, but soon realized she knew very little about his life. “There were so many things that linked him to modern-day music,” she recalls. “I have this pad on my desk where I note down ideas and I just started scribbling thoughts around his name. Suddenly, this mind map of him appeared, linking him basically to everyone and everything that has happened in music after. That blew me away.”
Once Bell decided to tell the story of “trailblazer” Cochran, she knew she would not like to make “an ordinary documentary” just “talking to a bunch of musicians about Eddie’s songs they have covered.” “This is about legacy,” she adds, saying how she set out to work closely with executive producer Michelle Arnusch to secure a wide-spanning selection of talking heads that could reflect Cochran’s impact. One notable figure is actor Kiefer Sutherland, featured heavily in the film as a major fan of Cochran’s work.
“We wanted to get people who were either deeply influenced by Eddie or who knew him, and Kiefer is a great example because, through my research, I found out he was supposed to have played Eddie in a biopic when he was only 18 or 19 years old,” she recalls. “The film was cancelled, but Kiefer remained a fan. He has such a brilliant mind and is also a musician, so it was perfect.
Joining Sutherland is a roster of major names including Keith Richards, Rod Stewart, John Waters, Roger Daltrey, Cliff Richard and Yungblud. Talking about the latter, Bell says the young English musician “was always on her list,” recalling being at the Royal Albert Hall for one of his concerts before he became a major international star and being astounded by his fans. “All of them looked like they were part of a gang, like they knew something about each other. They were all dressed similarly, all bound together. Before Yungblud became famous, I remember thinking: This is a young Eddie. He’s got this tribe, and they support him wherever he goes. He’s a modern rock star.”
Seeing Yungblud’s fans led Bell to getting access to hundreds of fan letters to Eddie, which became a key component of the film. Form-wise, the filmmaker also knew she wanted to “bring Eddie back to life.” “The only way I could do that was by doing the reconstructions because there is hardly any video footage of him around the world.” She then cast Jack Harris to play Cochran onscreen, recreating key moments of the musician’s life as he went from a budding singer struggling to place singles on the radio to becoming the subject of an Elvis-like mania.
But none of it would have happened without the support of Cochran’s family, Bell emphasizes. Asked about her relationship with Eddie’s living relatives, the filmmaker says it was “very difficult to start with” because the team “didn’t know the pathway to them very well, and we knew other people had approached them in the past and they refused.”
Bell then approached famed U.S. entertainment lawyer Sindee Levin, “the Cochran family’s gatekeeper and Hollywood amazingness.” The two had an hour-long first meeting, which led to Levin introducing Bell to Patty Hickey, Cochran’s only living sibling. “We showed them a very early teaser we put together and were sending out to potential contributors, and she just burst into tears.”
Despite having a warm first welcome, Bell was still anxious to show the finished film to Cochran’s family. “I was terrified for them to watch the film because what if they felt I hadn’t portrayed something correctly? What if they thought I was being insulting or that it wasn’t good enough? That’s why we sent the film to them right away. And they made a family thing out of watching it. We had to wait, and when they came back to say how much they loved it, it was a huge relief because they are the only people I need to please.”
As for closing Raindance, Bell is “astounded” to be asked back five years after “A Bird Flew In” also premiered at the festival. “You think making a documentary might mean it won’t get to a wider audience, but to have someone see it as a bigger thing and to have it close a festival with two major screenings shows you that making independent films is about the product that creates appeal to the widest audience you can get.” The screening is also extra special as Cochran will receive a posthumous Raindance Icon Award, presented to Eddie’s sister and niece, and set to be displayed alongside his original Gretsch guitar and his other trophies at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
With “Don’t Forget Me” now making its way around the festival circuit, Bell is back thinking about what’s next. “I’ve written a script for another drama feature, but there are a couple of documentaries that have come my way and have interesting human subjects,” she says. “I obviously got Goldfinch and everything that comes with it, but directing-wise, the next step is to link what I did with ‘A Bird Flew In’ and ‘Eddie’ and see what I can produce that feels like a next level up from that. I am not going to be directing a film every single year, so I need it to be something that will build on both of those.”
“Eddie Cochran: Don’t Forget Me” is produced by Goldfinch Entertainment in partnership with the Cochran family estate and Universal Music Enterprises. Fremantle handles international distribution.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The death toll from the catastrophic series of earthquakes that rocked Venezuela this week has risen to at least 589, with at least 2,980 injured and thousands more missing as U.S. military leadership has arrived in Caracas to help coordinate relief efforts.
The number of dead is expected to climb Friday following back-to-back magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes that hit northern Venezuela on Wednesday night, roughly 120 miles west of Caracas.
Venezuelan state TV has broadcast dramatic images of rescues, including a woman who was trapped under a cement slab, only a bare foot poking out before crews managed to get her out alive, The Associated Press reported. The injured were seen being pulled out of the rubble covered in dust and blood, among them children and animals.
U.S. Southern Command said overnight that U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Jarrard arrived in Caracas on Thursday “to oversee Department of War support to Venezuela earthquake relief efforts.”
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PLEDGES $150M IN AID, DEPLOYS NAVY WARSHIPS AFTER DEADLY VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKES
Neighbors carry a man rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in La Guaira, Venezuela, on Thursday, June 25, 2026, the day after earthquakes struck the area. (Pedro Mattey/AP Photo)
SOUTHCOM’s announcement comes as the Trump administration has activated a government-wide humanitarian response, pledging $150 million in aid and deploying U.S. Navy warships to assist in life-saving rescue operations.
“Maj. Gen. Jarrard is serving as the senior U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) official on the ground and is working closely with partners to plan, coordinate, and direct the U.S. military’s unparalleled logistical and operational capabilities to support the rapid, life-saving movement of response personnel, equipment, and humanitarian assistance into affected areas,” SOUTHCOM said in a statement, noting that Venezuela’s interim government — led by acting President Delcy Rodríguez — formally requested American assistance.
“Assigned U.S. military forces will utilize fixed and rotor wing aircraft to provide specialized mobility services and assist U.S. Government personnel, search and rescue teams, and partners assessing damage and delivering critical life-saving assistance,” SOUTHCOM added.
PLAYERS, FANS FLEE STADIUM AS POWERFUL EARTHQUAKES STRIKE DURING VENEZUELA BASEBALL GAME
Responders search for victims in a demolished building in Caracas, Venezuela, after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake and a 7.5 aftershock struck the region on June 24, 2026. (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
The coastal region of La Guaira, which is located north of Caracas, suffered some of the heaviest damage and casualties. The country’s main airport is there and was closed due to damage, complicating aid efforts.
Retired schoolteacher Juan Alberto Mendaño climbed through wreckage in La Guaira and past a body when he spotted a woman who was trapped and signaling with her hand for help, according to the AP.
“May God rescue her as quickly as possible,” Mendaño reportedly said. “When we heard the scream, there was nothing we could do.”
Venezuelan authorities said they were diverting rescue teams from other parts of the country to La Guaira.
Rodríguez also appealed to businesses Thursday to make heavy construction equipment available for rescue operations.
Patients lie outside a hospital evacuated after it was damaged in an earthquake in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, on June 25, 2026. (Pedro Mattey/AP)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“We hope to rescue as many living people as possible,” Rodríguez added, referring to La Guaira as a “disaster zone.”
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The assessment by the Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, Carlo Buontempo, on the current heatwave hitting Europe is clear.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
“There’s a clear need to develop strategies to cope with these extremes (as) they have the potential to kill us,” Buontempo warned.
He made the comments on Euronews’ flagship morning programme Europe Today on Friday — a day where extreme weather warnings have been issued for France, Belgium, Germany and Britain, following half-a-week of soaring temperatures sizzling capitals and citizens.
These increased temperatures are “a natural consequence of the fact that the world is warming up”, Buontempo said. These temperatures have affected the “frequency, intensity, duration, and onset” of heatwaves.
The climate expert hailing from the Bonn-based research centre called on both cities and citizens to act, arguing that the design of the former must improve and that it is key to develop “habits and actions” on a personal level to keep us cool and safe.
Buontempo said these solutions could “reduce heat-related mortality, which has gone up in Europe by 30% in the last 20 years.”
What has also gone up massively, he said, is the number of cities that have a climate adaptation plans. This includes larger greener areas, more insulated houses, and changing opening hours of businesses and offices.
“For many cities we are not there yet, but for many others at least we have now a plan and it is not abstract. It is affecting us today in our backyard,” Buontempo added.
Asked whether the EU should take action and establish a single policy approach to address global warming, he said that there is not a one-size fits all solution. But there is an opportunity to learn from partners.
“We should do more in that respect,” he said, adding: “What people do in Athens could be applied to Copenhagen.”
On where the limit lies in terms of rising temperatures, Buontempo maintained that they “will continue to go up even if we were to stop emissions tomorrow, which we are not.”
Despite the gloom and gloom of climate change, he said knowledge is power.
“We can use this information, which is open and free for everyone. If we didn’t have it, we would be blind and facing a bigger risk,” Buontempo said.
Watch today’s episode of Europe Today in full.
-
Utah3 minutes agoUtah weather conditions trigger historic red flag warning as wildfires rage in state
-
Vermont10 minutes agoArlington Common, Albert Construction recognized by Preservation Trust of Vermont
-
Virginia12 minutes agoVirginia Cannabis: Will Retail Finally Start In 2027?
-
Washington18 minutes agoTouring Trump’s Washington: How the president is putting his imprint on the nation’s capital
-
Wisconsin25 minutes agoNorthwest Wisconsin Highway Construction Update – Jun. 26, 2026
-
West Virginia28 minutes agoWest Virginia AD: McAfee’s Value to School ‘Maybe Eight Figures’
-
Wyoming33 minutes agoPoliticians mull action as details of alleged abuse, falsified records at Wyoming Boys’ School become public
-
Crypto40 minutes agoCLARITY Act Needs 60 Votes and 7 Democrats as GOP Races the August Recess Clock
