Latin America's largest hospital complex cancels plan to buy shark meat The University of São Paulo Medical School Hospital said it would cancel a plan to buy more than 17 metric tons of shark meat as part of a 2026 procurement, citing concerns over heavy metals. HCFMUSP ...

The U of São Paulo Med School Hospital cancelled a plan to buy 17 metric tons of shark meat after Sea Shepherd lobbied them about it.

Still plenty of open tenders for shark meat in 2026: 80 tons for a school district in Bahia, 70 tons for one in Rio...

Story here: news.mongabay.com/2026/04/lati...

Brazilian version of This American Life did an hourlong show about our shark meat investigation, featuring my colleague @bykarlamendes.bsky.social

That ‘fish’ on the menu? In Brazil’s schools and prisons, it’s often shark Brazil, the world’s top importer of shark meat, is feeding much of it to preschoolers, hospital patients, military staff, public workers and more via government procurements, Mongabay has found.

here's the story: news.mongabay.com?post_type=cu... @mongabay.com

Got long-listed for a @oneworldmedia.bsky.social award in the Print 2026 category for our Brazil shark meat investigation oneworldmedia.org.uk/awards/longl...

Proboscis monkey found in Thailand adds to evidence of cross-border illegal trade RATCHABURI, Thailand — On Jan. 6, residents of Samut Sakhon province, central Thailand, found an injured monkey near a railway track. Pot-bellied with reddish-brown fur and a prominent, upturned nose,...

An injured proboscis monkey was found near a railway track in Thailand.

Proboscis monkeys don't live in Thailand. The species is endemic to Borneo, and there's no Thai import permits on record.

The animal is likely an escapee from the illegal exotic pet trade.

news.mongabay.com/2026/03/prob...

Facebook shuts Indonesia groups after Mongabay and Bellingcat report illegal wildlife trade This story was produced in collaboration with Bellingcat. Read their version here, and Mongabay-Indonesia’s version here. JAKARTA — A new report by Mongabay and independent journalism organization Bel...

Mongabay x Bellingcat collab, No. 1 news.mongabay.com/2026/03/face... @mongabay.com @bellingcat.com

NYT profile of Iran's Shahed drone www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/w...

"Iranian drones are the product of four decades of development, born out of military and financial necessity."

Investigation earns Brazil's top education award & ban on shark meat in Rio de Janeiro school cafeterias - Environmental Journalism and Education In July and August 2025, Mongabay published two investigative reports that uncovered the scale and opacity of shark meat purchases by Brazilian government institutions. These stories triggered immedia...

[nonprofit #journalism impact]

Investigative reporting by @mongabay.com reporters @philjaco.bsky.social @bykarlamendes.bsky.social @nandawenzel.bsky.social spurred the state of Rio to remove #sharks from the menu

Education dept announces a ban on serving shark meat in public schools it manages:

Birutė Galdikas, primatologist who spent a lifetime studying & defending orangutans, has died at 79 In the early 1970s, orangutans occupied an ambiguous place in science. They were known to exist, of course, but remained poorly understood, rarely observed, and difficult to study in the wild. Their f...

"Her career did not produce a single defining theory or moment. Instead, it accumulated into a long record of observation and intervention. The continuity of her presence in the field allowed her to trace changes that were otherwise difficult to capture." news.mongabay.com/2026/03/biru...

At This Office Park, Scamming the World Was the Business

Rare photos of a cyberscam center after its capture by rebel forces in Myanmar
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/w...

How Maduro’s Ouster Will Shift Criminal Dynamics in Venezuela The arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will not upend the Venezuelan government’s permissive stance toward organized crime.

@insightcrime.org been the best on Venezuela coverage insightcrime.org/news/will-ma...

Venezuela After Maduro A conversation with Francisco Rodríguez.

Interesting article on the possibility of a 'palace coup' behind the capture of Maduro, prospects for a guerilla insurgency, and how Venezuela could see 'double-digit growth for several years' if the US lifts sanctions and the state gets oil production back up www.foreignaffairs.com/venezuela/ve...

Tsunami veteran rescue elephants mobilized for Indonesia cyclone disaster relief PIDIE JAYA, Indonesia — A group of specialist Sumatran elephants have joined recovery operations in Aceh following the catastrophic landfall of Cyclone Senyar in late November — two decades after the ...

“They’ve been tasked with pulling large logs stuck in residents’ homes and opening up roads blocked by floodwater” -Ujang Wisnu Barata, conservation agency head

“Their presence brings joy and it lowers the tensions” -Ahmad Faisal Pasaribu, police chief

Full story: news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tsun...

Elephants who 'cut their tusks' in the 2004 Aceh tsunami relief effort are now helping excavate terrain pummeled by the Cyclone Senyar floods and landslides news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tsun... @mongabay.com @mongabayid.bsky.social

Revealed: Brazilian state buys endangered angelsharks for school lunches Endangered angelsharks have been served to schoolchildren in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul for years, as well as in hospitals, clinics, shelters and other public institutions, Mongabay has ...

Read the stories here: news.mongabay.com/custom-story...

news.mongabay.com/custom-story...

Got this Brazilian trofeu from the Rio Grande do Sul Press Association for our shark meat investigation - placed 2nd in the national reporting category with @bykarlamendes.bsky.social @nandawenzel.bsky.social @kuangkeng.bsky.social @mongabaylatam.bsky.social @pulitzercenter.org 🙏😤🙏

How America Gave China an Edge in Nuclear Power Though the two countries are now in a race to develop atomic technology, China’s most advanced reactor was the result of collaboration with American scientists.

Finally, some major media coverage of China's thorium-powered molten-salt-reactor nuclear program www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

The lab-in-a-backpack busting illegal shark fins: Interview with Diego Cardeñosa Diego Cardeñosa always knew he wanted to study sharks. But when he started his Ph.D., he had to make a choice: tagging sharks in the field — the “fun,” typically more-sought-after path — or studying t...

I interviewed Diego Cardeñosa about a device he invented to detect illegal shark fins that's now being rolled out in countries across the world, after a successful run in Hong Kong news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-... @mongabay.com

fave

“If this plan goes ahead, it would be an ecological disaster and likely another nail in the coffin for the Tapanuli orangutan as a species" -Amanda Hurowitz, forest commodities lead at Mighty Earth

Tapanuli orangutan, devastated by cyclone, now faces habitat loss under zoning plans JAKARTA — Reeling from a cyclone that may have erased a chunk of its population, the Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s rarest great ape population, now faces the prospect of losing more of its already c...

Just weeks before the recent cyclone disaster that may have wiped out a subpopulation of rare Tapanuli orangutans in N. Sumatra, the govt unveiled a plan to strip legal protections for part of their habitat. Big story from my Indonesian colleagues @mongabay.com news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tapa...

Always fun to go on the @mongabay.com newscast, @mikedigirolamo.bsky.social is a great interviewer and makes it easy

Yes swordfish and tuna also tend to have high levels of heavy metals, but no one is feeding preschoolers swordfish for lunch every Monday

Also if you eat swordfish you know what you're getting - it's sold as "swordfish". Bc shark meat in BR is sold as "cação", many who eat it don't know it's shark

On the health point, shark meat tends to have high levels of heavy metals, and this can be dangerous if you eat too much, or if you're a member of a vulnerable population like infants, pregant women etc. We found shark meat procured for more than 1000 early childhood education centers in Brazil.

That ‘fish’ on the menu? In Brazil’s schools and prisons, it’s often shark Brazil, the world’s top importer of shark meat, is feeding much of it to preschoolers, hospital patients, military staff, public workers and more via government procurements, Mongabay has found.

Secondly, most of the shark is procured and sold as cação, a generic term for shark meat, so nobody knows what species it is — that's explained here: news.mongabay.com?post_type=cu...

Revealed: Brazilian state buys endangered angelsharks for school lunches Endangered angelsharks have been served to schoolchildren in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul for years, as well as in hospitals, clinics, shelters and other public institutions, Mongabay has ...

Firstly, we did find a lot of endangered species being served to schoolchildren: news.mongabay.com/custom-story...

Brazilian government serves shark to infants, prisoners and more: How Mongabay broke the story Mongabay senior editor Philip Jacobson joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss a two-part investigation published this year in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center about how state governments in Brazil ...

This week on the Mongabay Newscast @philjaco.bsky.social explains how he, @bykarlamendes.bsky.social and @pulitzercenter.org's Kuang Keng Kuek Ser uncovered the fact that state governments in Brazil have been serving shark meat to thousands of public institutions. Listen to full story here:

Trump orders 'blockade' of sanctioned oil tankers leaving, entering Venezuela U.S. President Donald Trump ordered on Tuesday a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, in Washington's latest move to increase pressure on Nicolas Maduro's governmen...

This is the sort of thing I'd expect to read about China and Taiwan, not the US. But that's where we're at www.reuters.com/world/americ...

Meta tolerates rampant ad fraud from China to safeguard billions in revenue A Reuters investigation reveals the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp decided to accept high levels of fraudulent advertisements from China. Internal company documents show Meta wanted to mini...

Meta makes billions off scammers in China running ads on its platforms. An anti-fraud team focused on slashing these was disbanded in late 2024 "as a result of Integrity Strategy pivot and follow-up from Zuck," leaked documents show. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Malaysian companies dominate PNG forest-clearance permits: report Papua New Guinea’s rainforests, which span 28.2 million hectares (69.6 million acres), are among the most biodiverse in the world, hosting an estimated 5-8% of all species. The country also has one of...

Malaysian corps hold 65 of 67 'FCA' forest clearance permits in Papua New Guinea, whose massive deforestation is a massively underreported story. 90% of PNG's timber is exported to China. news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mala... by Sonam Lama @mongabay.com