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.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A tanker came under attack traveling through the Strait of Hormuz taking the route closest to Oman, the British military said Friday.
The report from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center described the strike as happening early Friday and involving a projectile hitting the vessel.
The UKMTO said the ship sustained minor damage to its port side.
“All crew are safe and accounted for, no environmental impact has been reported and the vessel is continuing to its next port of call,” the UKMTO said.
Iran has been attacking tankers traveling on the route near Oman but did not immediately acknowledge any attack.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States expanded its airstrike campaign against Iran early Friday by hitting more bridges and collapsing a tower at a key Iranian port, part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to start striking infrastructure to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran launched new missile attacks against U.S.-allied nations in the Middle East, including Qatar, a key mediator in the war.
The interim ceasefire agreed to last month has collapsed, and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran as they battle for control of the strait. Iranian officials say U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds of others, with new casualties reported in Friday’s strikes.
When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic, a move that sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.
Speaking in a primetime address to the American public, Trump insisted the war was going well.
“We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly,” Trump said.
Bridges and a port tower hit in Iran
The U.S. airstrikes hit bridges overnight into Friday in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran’s coast on the Strait of Hormuz.
The highway and railway bridge strikes appeared aimed at cutting off Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port, from roads leading into the Islamic Republic’s central region onward to Tehran, the capital.
While other routes still are open, the U.S. strikes could expand further, potentially disrupting both the movement of military materiel and goods needed for Iran’s 90 million people.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in its latest airstrikes, which concluded at dawn Friday, the sixth night in a row of American attacks.
The strikes also collapsed a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked, neighboring Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared the image of the surveillance tower collapsing, part of his effort to assert American control over the strait. That image had circulated social media via activists prior to Hegseth sharing it.
Chabahar port, which Iran had been running with support from India, has been a repeated target of American airstrikes. Iranian state media acknowledged a third round of strikes on the facility without immediately acknowledging the tower’s collapse.
Iran described the tower as overseeing commercial traffic into the port. However, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also operates at ports across the country.
Iran retaliates by targeting Qatar, a mediator in the war
On Friday, Qatar twice warned the public to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the nation. People heard explosions overhead as air defenses fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child.
Qatar, along with Pakistan, is a key mediator in trying to reach an end to the Iran war. But talks have broken down over Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran also targeted Bahrain and Kuwait early Friday. Jordan’s military said it intercepted three incoming missiles Friday morning launched by Iran.
Explosions also could be heard Friday morning in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region as air defenses targeted incoming fire. There was no immediate word on any damage.
Strikes come as Iran and US vie for Strait of Hormuz
Trump has returned in recent days to his threats to target Iranian power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait, through which about a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. The U.S. also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.
Week-to-week cargo shipments through the strait dropped by almost a quarter at the beginning of the month, according to maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. And that was before the recent surge in tit-for-tat attacks.
Given the risks, some oil shippers are transiting the strait with their location devices turned off, but many are just staying put, Lloyd’s said Thursday. A growing amount of the region’s energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait.
U.S. forces have redirected three commercial vessels trying to run the blockade, disabled one that did not comply and boarded another “to ensure full compliance,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a post on X.
___
Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Annika Wolters in Rayong, Thailand, and Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.
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UNITED NATIONS — The Democratic Republic of Congo does not view growing American involvement in its critical minerals industry as a contest with China, the country’s foreign minister told Fox News Digital, arguing that Kinshasa needs multiple partners to transform its vast natural wealth into prosperity for its people.
“I don’t like talking about competition. I like talking about complementarity,” Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner said in an exclusive interview at the United Nations.
U.S. President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance meet Democratic Republic of the Congo Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington D.C., June 27, 2025. (Ken Cedeno/Reuters)
“A country as big as the USA, but also a country as big as the DRC and as big as China, they do not develop just with one single partner,” she added. “They develop with different partnerships that respond to different needs and that bring different expertise to the table.”
CHINA’S GRIP ON RARE-EARTH MAGNETS COULD CRUSH US DRONE INDUSTRY BEFORE IT GROWS
The comments come as the Trump administration seeks to increase American access to Congo’s copper, cobalt, lithium, gold and other strategic resources, while reducing U.S. reliance on mineral supply chains dominated by China.
A strategic partnership signed by Washington and Kinshasa Dec. 4, 2025, calls for increased economic cooperation, investment and the development of secure and transparent critical-mineral supply chains. The agreement accompanied a broader regional framework linking economic integration to efforts to end decades of conflict between Congo and Rwanda.
TRUMP ADMIN BACKS BOLIVIA STATE OF EMERGENCY AS LEFTIST EX-LEADER’S LOYALISTS FRACTURE NATION
Excavators and drillers at work in an open pit at Tenke Fungurume, a copper and cobalt mine 110 km (68 miles) northwest of Lubumbashi in Congo’s copper-producing south Jan. 29, 2013. (Reuters/Jonny Hogg/File Photo)
A separate arrangement involving DR Congo’s state mining company Gécamines and commodities trader Mercuria could give U.S. buyers priority access to some copper and cobalt supplies, Reuters reported Dec. 5, 2025. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation also expressed interest in taking a strategic stake in the partnership.
Kayikwamba Wagner said relations between the U.S. and DR Congo were taking “a more concrete shape” based on mutual economic interests.
She said Kinshasa welcomed “more U.S. interests in the DRC” that could help the country turn its mineral wealth into “tangible transformations for the lives of Congolese,” while also delivering benefits to American partners.
Speaking separately at a high-level U.N. meeting on critical minerals Tuesday, Kayikwamba Wagner warned that the global shift toward clean energy must not reproduce an economic model in which raw materials leave Africa while processing, technology and most of the profits remain elsewhere.
“The global energy transition must not become another extractive transition,” she said. “If it merely replaces one form of dependency with another, it will have fallen short of its promise.”
She called for foreign partnerships to support local processing, infrastructure, technology transfers, research, industrialization and access to financing — not simply secure supplies of raw materials.
CHILL COMING FROM TRUMP’S SUMMIT WITH XI IS PROOF OF A NEW COLD WAR WITH CHINA
M23 rebels stand with their weapons in Kibumba, in the eastern of Democratic Republic of Congo, Dec. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
The minerals push is closely connected to the U.S.-mediated peace process between the DRC and Rwanda. The countries initially signed a peace agreement in Washington June 27, 2025, before presidents Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame reaffirmed the deal and signed related economic agreements on Dec. 4. The framework was intended both to reduce fighting and attract Western investment to a region rich in cobalt, copper, tantalum and other minerals.
Kayikwamba Wagner acknowledged that the agreement had not ended the violence but said Washington’s willingness to impose consequences for violations showed that the process remained meaningful.
“This is a 30-year conflict we’re dealing with,” she said. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”
She praised the administration for sanctioning the Rwanda Defense Force and senior Rwandan officials over what the Treasury Department described as their support for the M23 rebel group. Treasury said in March that the RDF had supported, trained and fought alongside M23 as it seized territory and strategic mining locations in eastern Congo. Rwanda has repeatedly denied supporting M23.
“I find it encouraging to see that we have with us a partner that is not willing to give up at the first obstacle,” Kayikwamba Wagner said.
She was in New York as the DRC, which holds the Security Council presidency for July, elevated the connection between natural resources, armed conflict and sexual violence.
Kayikwamba Wagner said rape and other forms of conflict-related sexual violence had risen sharply in areas held by M23 and Rwandan forces, affecting women and girls as well as men and boys.
Victims in occupied areas, she said, often lack access to courts, healthcare or other avenues for redress.
“This is also one of the reasons why we continue to be mobilized against this illegal occupation of eastern DRC,” she said, arguing that restoring state authority was essential to providing survivors with justice and medical care.
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President Donald Trump arrives for a signing ceremony with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace Dec. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
In her U.N. remarks, she cited the Rubaya mining area, which is under M23 control and supplies a significant share of global tantalum demand. She said U.N. experts estimated that at least 1,400 tons of coltan were smuggled into Rwanda during the first year after the mines were seized, generating approximately $800,000 per month for the armed group.
The Treasury Department imposed additional sanctions on June 25 against a network it accused of working with M23 to smuggle minerals from eastern Congo into Rwanda, saying the action was intended to support the Washington peace framework and improve transparency in regional mineral supply chains.
The UK has appropriated its last working steelworks, following fears its former Chinese owners would shut it down.
Published On 17 Jul 2026
Beijing has warned the United Kingdom that its nationalisation of British Steel has “severely undermined” Chinese companies’ confidence in investing in the UK.
The UK nationalised the loss-making company on Thursday in what the government said was a move taken to protect national interests.
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British Steel is the only source of primary steelmaking in the UK. It supports approximately 2,700 jobs across its main steelworks in Scunthorpe and across the wider supply chain.
The company’s former owner, Jingye – which is among the 100 biggest companies in China – bought British Steel for 70 million pounds ($94m) in 2020. By 2025, Jingye said it was losing 700,000 pounds ($942,000) every day.
British Steel’s nationalisation has been in the works for more than a year.
In March 2025, Jingye carried out a consultation that concluded that the British Steel furnaces were not financially sustainable. The following month, it emerged that Jingye had cancelled orders for a key material used in the steelmaking process, stoking fears that it was planning to shut down the blast furnaces.
That month, the UK government seized operational control of British Steel from Jingye to stop that from happening. The Chinese company retained ownership, but lost operational control.
Thursday, though, saw ownership officially transfer to the UK government, which says it will appoint an independent valuer to “assess whether any compensation is payable” to Jingye.
The process has angered Beijing. The expropriation of British Steel “seriously damaged” Jingye’s legitimate rights and interests and “severely undermined” Chinese companies’ confidence in investing in the UK, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Friday.
The UK, the ministry said, has “forcibly” taken over the company and “disregarded” Jingye’s contributions to the British economy and society.
The ministry urged the UK to fulfil obligations under the China-UK Investment Protection Agreement and said it would assist Chinese companies in protecting their rights.
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