The court determined that Lokua was the organizer of a trafficking operation involving more than five other co-conspirators whose goal was to ship a cargo container full of elephant ivory, white rhinoceros horn, and pangolin scales to Seattle. Mujangi helped package the wildlife products and handled the financial details to process the payment through a Chinese bank and then back to DRC.

“Today’s sentence demonstrates that wildlife trafficking leads to prison, and that we are committed to prosecuting this crime,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “I commend our Homeland Security Investigations and DRC partners in stopping this trafficking ring before tons of protected wildlife products entered the illegal market.”

“Wildlife trafficking is decimating many species worldwide and has broader impacts to a country’s economic development and security,” said Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) operations in the Pacific Northwest.  “HSI is proud of our international public and private sector partnerships who enabled the success of this investigation and will continue to leverage those partnerships to target and dismantle future trafficking organizations who seek profit over the risk of extinction.”

Source: Two Foreign Nationals Sentenced to Prison for Trafficking Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn from the Democratic Republic of the Congo | OPA | Department of Justice

Source: Indian police raid news site’s office over retracted article about BJP official | India | The Guardian

Source: BP declares £7bn profits while energy bills soar? It’s time to start taxing shareholder payouts | Joseph Evans | The Guardian

Source: Liz Cheney spurns J.D. Vance, backs Tim Ryan in Ohio race for Senate

The vaccine quest isn’t just to protect infants. RSV is dangerous for older adults too, and both Pfizer and rival GSK recently announced that their competing shots also proved protective for seniors.

None of the findings will help this year when an early RSV surge already is crowding children’s hospitals. But they raise the prospect that one or more vaccines might become available before next fall’s RSV season.

“My fingers are crossed,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University. “We’re making inroads.”

Source: Strong RSV vaccine data lifts hopes after years of futility – Los Angeles Times

One dose of an antibody drug safely protected healthy, non-pregnant adults from malaria infection during an intense six-month malaria season in Mali, Africa, a National Institutes of Health clinical trial has found. The antibody was up to 88.2% effective at preventing infection over a 24-week period, demonstrating for the first time that a monoclonal antibody can prevent malaria infection in an endemic region. These findings were published today in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 2022 Annual Meeting in Seattle. Source: Malaria: Antibody drug 88% effective in preventing infection – Outbreak News Today