Two female tourists in Zambia were killed by an elephant Thursday while on a walking safari in a national park, police said.

Eastern Province Police Commissioner Robertson Mweemba said the victims – 68-year-old Easton Janet Taylor from the United Kingdom and 67-year-old Alison Jean Taylor from New Zealand – were attacked by a female elephant that was with a calf.

Safari guides who were with the group attempted to stop the elephant from charging at the women by firing shots at it, police said. The elephant was hit and wounded by the gunshots. The guides were unable to prevent the elephant’s attack and both women died at the scene, police said.

It happened at the South Luangwa National Park in eastern Zambia, around 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the capital, Lusaka.

Female elephants are very protective of their calves and can respond aggressively to what they perceive as threats.

Last year, two American tourists were killed in separate encounters with elephants in different parts of Zambia. In both cases, the tourists were also elderly women and were on a safari vehicle when they were attacked.

South Korea has recently been hit by another surge of lovebugs.

But romance is certainly not in the air for residents of Seoul and neighboring Incheon city, who have been plagued by these pesky insects in recent weeks, as rising temperatures due to climate change spur their spread.

On Friday, dozens of government workers were sent to Gyeyangsan, a mountain west of the capital, to manage an “extremely severe outbreak,” the country’s environment ministry said in a statement.

Videos on social media earlier this week showed scenic hiking trails along the peak transformed into buzzing corridors of chaos.

Footage shows hikers thrashing through swarms of thumbnail-sized bugs, with one person engulfed by the black-winged creatures and another scooping thousands of tiny carcasses from the trail.

In a YouTube video, a man collected thousands of the insects and took them home to make them into hamburgers, which he then appeared to eat.

Where do lovebugs come from?

Lovebugs, known scientifically as Plecia longiforceps, get their nickname from their mating behavior when they fling into each other while flying.

They are found in the subtropics including southeastern China, Taiwan, and Japan’s Ryukyu Islands. They also occur in parts of Central America and the southern United States, including Texas and Florida.

First detected in South Korea in 2015, they are believed to have arrived there from southern China, according to the environment ministry. Since 2022, they have appeared in and around Seoul, particularly port areas, between June and July, it added.

Why are they spreading?

Experts say climate change and warming temperatures are helping drive lovebugs northward into areas such as Seoul and Incheon.

While global warming is a planet-wide issue, scientists have identified Seoul as an area where temperatures are rising at a faster pace than in other parts of the world.

This is worsened by the city’s heat-island effect, where temperatures are much higher than in nearby rural areas due to man-made structures absorbing and holding more heat.

“With climate change increasing ecological instability, we must remain vigilant throughout the summer,” Kim Tae-o, director of the environment ministry, said.

Are they harmful?

Lovebugs do not transmit diseases or sting humans. However, there have been increasing public complaints about them sticking to car windows and the walls of houses, restaurants and subway trains.

So far, officials have advised local workers and residents to combat swarms by spraying water or using sticky pads instead of chemical pesticides.

Where could they spread next?

Populations are expanding in the northwest of South Korea, however any further potential spread remains unknown.

“Compared with the past two years, the number of lovebugs sharply surged last weekend at the mountain,” Gyeyang district official Wang Hyeon-jeong said on Tuesday.

Areas with a warm, humid climate could attract them, being favorable conditions for their survival and reproduction.

What’s next for South Korea?

The city government of Seoul views the lovebugs as “ecologically beneficial,” posing no health risk to humans and helping pollinate flowers as their larvae convert plant materials into organic components.

However, local media reports that complaints to the city have more than doubled, increasing from 4,418 in 2023 to 9,296 last year, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

On Friday, environment ministers agreed to strengthen and invest more in response procedures after the latest outbreak, which it described as “extremely severe.”

“We will closely monitor the situation and work with local authorities from the early stages of any outbreak,” Kim said.

But natural population control is reportedly setting in, as birds such as sparrows and magpies learn to eat the bugs, causing their numbers to fall.

Bangladesh’s ousted and self-exiled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to six months in prison by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal on Wednesday in a contempt of court case, a top prosecutor said.

Hasina has been facing multiple cases since she fled to India after deadly student-led protests in August, but it was the first time the former leader was sentenced in one of them.

Shakil Akand Bulbul, a leader of the Awami League party’s banned student wing Chhatra League, was also sentenced to two months in prison in the same case, Chief Prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam told reporters. The party had been led by Hasina for years.

A three-member ICT tribunal, led by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, delivered the verdict in their absence, noting that the sentences will take effect upon arrest or surrender, the prosecutor added.

The contempt charges stem from a leaked phone recording where Hasina was allegedly heard saying, “there are 227 cases against me, so I now have a licence to kill 227 people.”

A forensic report by a government investigative agency later confirmed the audio’s authenticity.

The ICT was originally set up in 2010 by Hasina’s own government to try 1971 war crimes.

Bangladesh’s interim administration, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, pledged to hold leaders, including Hasina, accountable for rights abuses and corruption, including the crackdown on the student-led uprising last July that toppled Hasina’s regime.

The tribunal has so far issued three arrest warrants for Hasina, including charges of crimes against humanity linked to the July violence. Hasina’s Awami League party remains banned while trials continue against the party and its former leaders.

Supporters of Hasina dismiss the charges as politically motivated, but the interim government insists the trials are crucial for restoring accountability and rebuilding trust in Bangladesh’s democratic institutions.

A prominent Catholic Church leader and ally of Pope Leo XIV has strongly criticized the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, describing the rounding up and deportation of immigrants as “inhumane” and “morally repugnant.”

McElroy was appointed to lead the archdiocese in the US capital by Pope Francis in January, the month of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. He was among the more than 100 cardinals who took part in the conclave that elected the first American pope in May.

“This is simply not only incompatible with Catholic teaching, it’s inhumane and is morally repugnant,” he added.

“The scenes that occurred in Los Angeles where you saw mass agents of the government descending on car washers and Costco parking lots to round up whoever they can round up is not a sign of going after those who have criminal convictions.”

Trump has said his tough immigration policies are necessary to keep criminals off US streets and to ease the burden on US institutions. He has embraced the sinister image of a migrant detention facility surrounded by swampland and reptiles.

“It’s known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ which is very appropriate, because I look outside and it’s not a place I want to go,” Trump said Tuesday.

McElroy argued that the government had a right to deport people convicted of “serious crimes,” adding that the problems with immigration were rooted in an American political system that had failed to address immigration law and reform over the last 15 years.

But McElroy said people were now “afraid even to go to church” after the Trump administration removed the policy that prohibited immigration agents from making arrests in sensitive areas, like churches.

“What is behind this?” he asked, referencing the stricter immigration policies and enforcement tactics. “I fear that one of the main things behind it, in the minds of many who are pushing it, is the sense that the people who are coming to our country now are of a different kind.

“And that’s been a great theme in American culture and history all through our country’s immigration, when the Irish came, when the Italians came, when the Poles came, the refrain has been the same, ‘these are inferior people,’ and that’s what’s going on now… it’s an outrage.”

The cardinal, a former Bishop of San Diego, is one of several Catholic bishops who have spoken out against Trump’s migration policies.

But Vice President JD Vance, a devout Catholic who converted in 2019, earlier this year suggested the bishops’ criticisms of the Trump administration’s policies were motivated by financial interests because the church receives federal funding to resettle immigrants. McElroy hit back in the interview, saying the government funding was far from sufficient to cover the programs and the church had to pick up the shortfall.

“Those who say that haven’t done the math on what the church has been contributing over and above what the government has contributed to these programs,” he added.

Since his election, Pope Leo has urged respect for migrants, describing himself as “the descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate.” McElroy said that while Leo XIV spoke about immigration in a “universal” context, “when you look at what he’s saying, it has clear implications for us.”

During the interview, Cardinal McElroy also criticized Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” – a sweeping piece of legislation that would extend tax cuts and increase funding for national security, partly paid for by the biggest cut to the federal social safety net in decades. He’s recently signed a letter with other bishops and faith leaders opposing the bill.

He said it appeared that millions would “ultimately lose their health care because of this bill so that billionaires can receive greater tax cuts,” adding: “There’s something radically wrong with a society that takes from the poorest to give to the wealthiest. It’s just wrong.”

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson rejected the criticism – particularly that leveled at the Trump agenda bill.

“The American people elected President Trump, not a DC Archbishop, to serve as their President,” Jackson said. “President Trump is fulfilling the mandate the American people gave him in November to turn his campaign promises – like no tax on tips, social security, and overtime – into law. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill will be one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever passed and will supercharge our economy to benefit all Americans.”

When it came to church reforms and priorities for Pope Leo, McElroy talked about the importance of addressing the role of women.

He said this topic had been an “immensely powerful current” during recent Vatican assemblies, the synod, which looked at questions of church renewal and looked at how to include more women in decision making roles.

“The major thrust has to be look at where women ‘aren’t’ and then ask why?”

McElroy supports ordaining women as deacons, who carry out functions like a priest but without saying Mass or hearing confessions, which he says is consistent with the church’s theology. “It’s a controversial question within the church,” he admits, “but I think it would be important to move in that direction.”

Cardinal McElroy’s candidacy for Washington DC was bolstered by his doctorate in political science from Stanford University, which he was awarded for a thesis on moral norms in foreign policy.

“My great fear is that the lessons that nations will take away from this intervention against Iran is that if they have nuclear weapons then they won’t be subject to this sort of attack,” he said. “I think that’s an open question. Will this encourage more proliferation because the incentives are stronger now or clearer now, and that’s very ominous.”

Finally, the cardinal said he believes that Chicago-born Pope Leo would make a visit home – although he did not know when.

“I think when he does come to the United States it will be a great moment for our country.”