Elephant

• New York Times bestselling author Michael Sampson and award-winning education specialist Bonnie J. Johnson publish a detective-style picture book this week: The Pig, the Elephant and the Wise-Cracking Bird (Brown Books Kids; on sale: August 8, 2023).
• Timed perfectly for back-to-school season, this clever language-learning resource is a must-have for parents, teachers and classroom libraries.
• Adding to the hilarity is a bird that provides idiomatic nuggets of wisdom to help Ogden’s search.
• Joshua Sampson graduated with a BFA from UT Austin and earned his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

• Eager to escape perceived western domination, several countries – mostly in the global south – are looking to join the Brics bloc.
• The five-country bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is also looking to grow its global partnerships.
• That’s because the group is still focused on harmonising its vision, and the potential new members do not readily make the cut.
• Simply put, while some states are opposed to western hegemony, they do not yet agree among themselves on what the new alternative should be.

Evolution of BRICS

• It was attended mostly by recently decolonised states and independence movements intent on asserting themselves against Cold War superpowers – the Soviet Union and the United States.
• BRICS has come to be viewed as challenging the counter hegemony of the US and its allies, seen as meddling in the internal affairs of other states.
• Reuters estimates that more than 40 states are aspiring to join BRICS.

Expanded BRICS

• A strategically expanded BRICS would be seismic for the world order, principally in economic terms.
• Instead, the new joiners would likely use their new BRICS membership to better bargain with their western partners, having more options on hand.
• Read more:
  Ethiopia wants to join the BRICS group of nations: an expert unpacks the pros and cons

  Herein lies the challenge (and the paradox) with BRICS expansion.

Weighing the likely contenders

• In this regard, aspirants such as Saudi Arabia and Mexico seem the least likely to make the cut in the short term.
• That’s despite the Saudis’ oil wealth and Mexico’s leftist-progressive leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
• Saudi Arabia has a long-term military relationship with the US, while Mexico is the US’s number-one trading partner.
• Of equal importance in the evaluation of potential new members is the relationship the aspirants have with the existing BRICS members.

Character matters

• Having rivals, or states that are at least ambivalent towards each other, seems anathema to that.
• It is thus not mere expansion, but the character of the expansion which will guide the five principals on whether they grow from that number.

• Programmes for communities to participate in wildlife tourism and share its benefits have been put forward as one solution.
• Wildlife tourism is a major source of foreign revenue for the country.
• The country’s 2022 Wildlife Conservation Act offers financial and material compensation for any eligible person negatively affected by human-wildlife conflict incidents.
• Other research has linked changing patterns like this to climate change.

Water scarcity and loss of grassland

• They said the lack of rainfall led to a loss of vegetation inside Mikumi, forcing large animals like elephants to forage further afield.
• Potential prey for lions, such as deer and wildebeest, also moved far away in search of food and water.
• But, to date, I have not been compensated for my loss.
• But, to date, I have not been compensated for my loss.

Crop losses

• Victims from Mbamba reported that clashes between them and elephants happened almost every day from May to August, the peak harvest season.
• Since most Mbamba residents are subsistence farmers, the damage that elephants cause to their farms has a devastating impact on livelihoods.
• I have now accepted that when I grow maize, I also grow for elephants because they come every season.

Poor response

In Kiduhi, most Maasai men and women interviewed in this study felt the local government and park officals had not shown concern about the livestock losses they experienced from hyena and lion attacks. Despite their quest for compensation, they had received nothing but daily promises of resolution. In Mbamba, some villagers said they didn’t bother to report losses because no action would be taken.

What needs to be done about it

• Though some conservation experts have questioned its effectiveness, proponents of financial payments argue that ignoring victims’ economic losses could make the situation worse.
• So, firstly, the government needs to improve its compensation scheme.
• Concrete measures to address this complex conservation challenge are critical for Tanzania, given the significant contribution of wildlife tourism to its economy.

• A strategic extension of WildBrain's focus on creative excellence, the acquisition significantly expands and enhances the Company's pre-production capabilities for premium animated series, specials and features.
• Additionally, there is a potential earn-out of up to $6 million based on collection of certain tax credits earned by House of Cool up to closing.
• Bringing their deep experience and creative expertise, House of Cool executives and co-founders, Wes Lui and Ricardo Curtis, have joined the WildBrain Studios senior management team in the newly created roles of Co-General Managers of House of Cool.
• Josh Scherba, President and CEO of WildBrain, said: "We're delighted to close our acquisition of House of Cool and to officially welcome Wes, Ricardo and their talented team to WildBrain.