The UN's FAO warned that the situation remained 'extremely alarming' in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. Saudi Arabia has moved to clear away swarms.

Panic buyers have cleared the shelves of supermarkets bare as they rushed to stock up while Britain goes through a coronavirus crisis.

But they do have fleas! Researchers at Boise State University are trying to figure out how burrowing owls manage to host the plague-carrying fleas but don't get infected.

Browsery RA649.H46 2018

Browsery QK566.K37 2019

New archaeological evidence suggests the same black plague that decimated Europe also took its toll on sub-Saharan Africa. Host Sarah Crespi talks with Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade about diverse medieval sub-Saharan cities that shrank or even disappeared around the same time the plague was stalking Europe. In a second archaeological story, Meagan Cantwell talks with Gustavo Politis, professor of archaeology at the National University of Central Buenos Aires and the National University of La Plata, about new radiocarbon dates for giant ground sloth remains found in the Argentine archaeological site Campo Laborde. The team’s new dates suggest humans hunted and butchered ground sloths in the late Pleistocene, about 12,500 years ago. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Download the transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Ife-Sungbo Archaeological Project; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

McKeough, Michelle, 1966- author

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008

Flint, Eric, author

Farrer, Vashti, author

The spread of diseases is one negative side effect of globalisation

His efforts to weaken pollution controls expected to endure

His efforts to weaken pollution controls expected to endure