Sink or Swim
NEED TO KNOW
Sink or Swim
BOLIVIA
A community of ethnic Aymara shamans in Bolivia called amautas, or “wise ones” in the indigenous Quechua language, are refusing to abandon their cliffside homes.
Called “suicide shacks,” these huts in the Andean city of El Alto sit a few feet from the edge of a steep cliff. Heavy rains and other weather phenomena threaten to erode the few feet between them and oblivion. Officials are now determining whether they should force the shamans out to save their lives, the BBC reported.
The situation could be a metaphor for the precarious situation in the South American country, as Bolivians debate who should lead them out of their current economic and political crises.
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales is seeking to return to office by running in the August 2025 presidential election on the campaign pledge of making the country great again. An ethnic Aymara who was the country’s first elected indigenous president, Morales held office for 14 years. He pursued a leftist agenda that redistributed the country’s vast mineral and other resources, spreading prosperity – at least temporarily.
But Morales resigned from office in 2019 after protests over a disputed election and his attempts to circumvent term limits. He claimed he was ousted in a coup but wanted to tone down the violence from protests arising from allegations that his rival had meddled in the election. Morales then went into exile in Mexico. He has since returned to the country and now faces charges of statutory rape that he says are politically motivated. Bolivia’s top court has ruled that he can’t run for office again, Al Jazeera reported, but he appears to be preparing to try.
“They don’t want me to be the candidate because they know I’ll win,” Morales said in an interview with the Associated Press. “We’re in a state of total siege, morally, legally, and politically.”
Meanwhile, Morales’ former protégé, President Luis Arce, who is running for reelection, is struggling to improve the country’s dismal economy, Reuters explained. Inflation is at a 10-year high, natural gas exports are decreasing as old fields have dried up and new ones remain unexplored, the central bank is bereft of foreign reserves, and fuel imports are up.
The fuel crisis is becoming especially destabilizing, noted Voice of America. Protests have been breaking out between Morales and Arce supporters who both claim their man should lead the country, the New York Times added. Perhaps most importantly, the country’s socialist government lacks the revenues it would like to parcel out to the people. Since Arce served as Morales’ economy minister, both are responsible for the situation, which is spiraling, argued Global Americans.
“Shortages and price increases; falling purchasing power and rising poverty; deterioration of the social mood,” Gabriel Espinoza, a former director at Bolivia’s central bank, told the Economist. “The question is when and how this will morph into conflict in the streets.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Tone Deaf
WEST AFRICA
African leaders and activists strongly criticized French President Emmanuel Macron this week after he claimed that a number of countries in West Africa and the Sahel region owed their sovereignty to France’s military interventions, sparking accusations of neo-colonialism and dismissive rhetoric, Bloomberg reported.
During a speech to French ambassadors in Paris on Monday, Macron defended France’s presence in the Sahel and criticized what he called “ingratitude” from African governments.
Macron cited France’s military operations, beginning with its 2013 deployment in Mali to combat Islamist insurgents, claiming that “none of them would be a sovereign country today if the French army hadn’t deployed in the region.”
He accused African leaders of failing to acknowledge France’s role: “I think someone forgot to say thank you,” he remarked.
Macron also rejected claims that French troops had been expelled from the Sahel, attributing their withdrawal to coups in countries such as Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, where anti-French sentiment has surged, CNN added.
His remarks received strong backlash from a number of African leaders, with Chadian leaders saying that Macron was “in the wrong era” and accused France of prioritizing its own strategic interests over long-term development in Chad.
Activists, including Togolese writer Farida Bemba Nabourema, condemned the comments as paternalistic and emblematic of neo-colonial attitudes.
Macron’s statements come as France has been withdrawing its troops from its former African colonies in recent years. In the past weeks, Senegal and Ivory Coast became the latest countries to demand the exit of French forces.
Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko emphasized that Senegal’s decision to remove foreign military bases, including France’s, was unilateral and underscored the nation’s sovereignty.
Meanwhile, Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara said the country’s decision reflects the modernization of its armed forces and is part of a broader trend in the region.
While Macron insists that France is “reorganizing” its presence, analysts told Voice of America that the withdrawals are part of a broader strategy by African nations to “diversify their relations diversify their relations, especially with the countries of the global south … but also with Russia.”
Russian military support has become a favored alternative for Sahel nations that experienced coups, such as Mali and Burkina Faso, which have signed partnerships with Moscow and deployed mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group.
Wagner’s forces are also active in Equatorial Guinea and in the Central African Republic, where they dominate as the primary foreign force.
Quake at the Peak
CHINA/ TIBET
More than 120 people were killed in a high-magnitude earthquake in the mountainous region of Tibet in western China on Tuesday, with tremors being felt across the Himalayas and rescue missions working in freezing conditions to aid isolated communities, CNN reported.
The 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck at 9:05 local time at a depth of 6.2 miles in Dingri county, along the Himalayan border with Nepal. It was followed by multiple aftershocks, with tremors felt in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan, and parts of northern India.
More than 1,000 houses experienced some form of damage in Dingri, where the average altitude is around 15,000 feet, according to the New York Times. It is not yet clear how many residents have been left homeless by the quake.
Frantic rescue efforts were being conducted without heavy equipment, highlighting the challenge of delivering critical aid and resources to isolated communities in the region. Rescue workers face the pressure of time to locate survivors, as the temperatures in the region are as low as 5 Fahrenheit.
The Tibetan holy city of Shigatse was the nearest major city to the epicenter of the earthquake and is home to about 800,000 people, noted CNN. The city is home to the centuries-old Tashilhunpo Monastery, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, the second-highest spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama. No damage to the monastery has been so far reported.
Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered officials to minimize casualties and resettle survivors after the disaster. Around 3,400 rescuers and more than 340 medical workers were deployed for the search effort, equipped with tents, winter coats, quilts, and folding beds for survivors.
Tibet is one of the most underdeveloped and inaccessible parts of China. Robert Barnett, a professor from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, told the New York Times that rescue efforts might be affected by damaged roads, describing the region as a “vast moonscape”.
Barnett also noted that the roads are “quite few and susceptible to landslides.”
Security in the region has also been heightened for decades because of tensions between the Chinese government and Tibetans, who have long struggled to maintain their religious and cultural freedom in the country. International journalists are forbidden from traveling independently in the area.
Problems, Problems
SÃO TOMÉE AND PRÍNCIPE
São Tomé and Príncipe’s President Carlos Vila Nova dismissed the prime minister and government this week over failures to resolve the country’s problems, a move that underscored an ongoing row between the two leaders, Agence France-Presse reported.
On Monday, Vila Nova announced a decree that criticized the “notable inability” of Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada and his cabinet “to provide solutions” to the country in the face of “the scale of existing problems.”
The decree underscored the Trovoada’s lack of clear “strategic cooperation” and obvious “institutional disloyalty,” while also highlighting “frequent” absences by the prime minister that have resulted in huge expenses for the public treasury.
Both the president and the prime minister are members of the ruling Independent Democratic Action (ADI) party, which won the 2022 legislative elections.
Vila Nova said the party will have 72 hours to propose a replacement for Trovoada. If the ADI does not, the island nation’s constitution allows the president to invite the second-largest party to form a government, according to China’s Xinhua.
If that party fails to secure a parliamentary majority, then the president could call for early elections.
Vila Nova’s decree comes amid tensions between him and Trovoada. Relations deteriorated further last year when the government pushed through an airport tax increase via a resolution, bypassing a political veto from the president, who pledged to take steps to overturn the measure.
A former Portuguese colony of 200,000 people in the Gulf of Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe has faced a series of coups since it gained independence in 1975.
In November 2022, Trovoada announced the army had thwarted a coup.
Despite its history, the island nation is known for its political stability since adopting a multiparty system in 1991.
Even so, Portugal, its former colonial ruler and still a key trading partner, expressed concern after the country signed in May a military accord with Russia.
In an interview with Africa Report, Trovoada defended the agreement and dismissed fears of Russian influence. He explained that the accord is focused on the disposal of Soviet-era explosives and military training.
He emphasized that the African country aims to cooperate with all global actors, including Russia, NATO, and the United States, while maintaining its independence.
DISCOVERIES
A Taste for Flesh
Here’s a new idea for a horror movie: Flesh-eating squirrels.
California ground squirrels, long considered harmless nut-hoarders, have shocked scientists who have recently discovered the arboreal rodents’ carnivorous tendencies.
A research team recently documented these rodents hunting, killing, and feasting on voles, a behavior previously unseen in this species.
“This was shocking,” said lead author Jennifer Smith of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in a statement. “Squirrels are one of the most familiar animals to people.”
Smith and her colleagues conducted their study at Briones Regional Park in California during the summer of 2024. They recorded 74 squirrel-vole interactions, writing that 42 percent of them involved active hunting. Observations peaked in early July, coinciding with a population explosion of voles, suggesting that the squirrels seized the opportunity for a protein-packed feast.
“From then, we saw that behavior almost every day,” co-author Sonja Wild noted. “Once we started looking, we saw it everywhere.”
The squirrels employed surprising hunting tactics, such as chasing, pouncing, and killing by biting the voles’ necks.
And they weren’t picky when it came to what they ate: The squirrels consumed their prey’s flesh, organs, and cartilage, the Washington Post noted.
Such dietary flexibility, experts believe, could help the squirrels adapt to rapidly changing environments.
“The fact that California ground squirrels are behaviorally flexible and can respond to changes in food availability might help them persist in environments rapidly changing due to the presence of humans,” Wild explained in the same statement.
While squirrels have occasionally scavenged or preyed on small animals in the past, this level of active hunting was unprecedented. The findings raise questions about whether hunting behavior is learned or instinctual and its potential ecological impacts.
“Because it’s so foreign to us, it seems, like, super crazy,” Cory Williams, a Colorado State University biologist uninvolved in the study, told the Post. “But it’s one of those things when you’ve got a species out there that can take advantage of something like this, you know, they will do so.”
With plans to return to the field next summer, the authors are eager to discover whether this behavior is a one-time response or the start of a carnivorous trend among squirrels.