The Ebola Quarantine Center That Definitely Did Not Stop Construction
Dear Reader,
Happy Hump Day! This is the last opportunity to sign up as a beta tester to help us evaluate our revamped website and newsletter experience. Reply to this newsletter to get in touch.
A lot has happened over this week so far; let’s get into it.
Best regards,
Alex Ip
Publisher and Editor
👀 SINCE WE LAST COVERED THIS…
NANYUKI, Kenya — Americans who responded to Ebola outbreak are quarantined in Kenya, despite court order (Carmen Paun, POLITICO)
“Our government cannot accept the national security benefits of these heroes’ sacrifices while simultaneously pretending it has no duty of care to bring them safely home,” [Ronald Nahass, the president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America,] said about American health workers responding to the Ebola outbreak.
Read The Xylom’s recent reporting: Kenya Has No Ebola. But Trump’s Planned Quarantine Facility Has Already Claimed Its First Life (KC Cheng, July 1st)
HEBRON, N.Y. — The Herbicide Haunting a New York Farm Town (Amudalat Ajasa, New York Focus)
“We thought we are lucky to live out here in the fresh air,” Giambatista said, her shoulders and arms trembling in waves that never fully stop. “We just didn’t know.”
Read The Xylom’s past reporting: Paraquat, A Banned Toxic Chemical, Is Leaking Into The Global Food Supply Chain (Abdullahi Jimoh, Oct. 2025)
Indicted Tycoon Says $10 Billion Offer Did Not Spur U.S. to Drop Charges (paywalled)(Santul Nerkar and Nicole Hong, The New York Times)
In a highly unusual move last week, Judge Garaufis asked Mr. Adani to say in a sworn affidavit if he was aware of “any agreement exchanging anything for the dismissal” of the charges.
Mr. Adani is represented by Robert J. Giuffra Jr., who is also a personal lawyer for President Trump. Mr. Giuffra had proposed the $10 billion investment “if that was what the D.O.J. or S.E.C. wanted,” Mr. Adani wrote, referring to the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Read The Xylom’s past reporting: This Indian Billionaire is Trying to Get Trump to Drop His Bribery Charges. Meanwhile, His Company is Forcing Out Another Indigenous Tribe for Coal. (Laasya Shekhar, April 2026)
Fewer children got US-backed HIV treatment after aid cuts, study finds (Jennifer Rigby and Vincent Mumo Nzilani, Reuters)
"These are signals, not a verdict. But children cannot wait,” said Kenneth Ngure, professor of global health at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and a co-author of the study, presented at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday.
Read The Xylom’s past reporting: As USAID Pulls Out of Zimbabwe, Only Sex Workers Can Afford Lifesaving HIV Medication (Winile Ximba, July 2025)
🍑 A SOUTHERN FLAIR
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Rising seas magnify the dangers of coastal Georgia’s industrial past (Emily Jones, WABE and Grist)
DINOSAUR VALLEY STATE PARK, Texas — “It’s Like Two Eras Colliding”: The Fight Against Power Lines in the Dinosaur Capital of Texas (Robert Downen, Texas Monthly)
ST. ROSE, La. — Louisiana communities are left in the dark on toxic air — and industry helped keep it that way (Ames Alexander, Floodlight, in partnership with The Guardian and with contributions from The Louisiana Illuminator)
ATLANTA — My Maddening Quest to Find Out if Blueberries Come From Farms Where Workers Were Harmed (Max Blau, ProPublica)
🗺️ WHAT ELSE WE'RE READING
SILICON VALLEY, Calif. — The looting of science fiction (Ali Rıza Taşkale, Aeon Magazine)
'Just stop burning fossil fuels.' Scientists stress that our smoky skies have only one true fix (Inayat Singh, CBC)
Trump plans generic drug tariffs from 2028 with two-year delay testing U.S. onshoring push (Anniek Bao, CNBC)
Your next nurse may monitor you from the Philippines (Michael Beltran and Jonathan Feakins, Rest of World)
SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA, Chile — The Chilean curse is its abundance of riches (Phineas Rueckert, Coda Story)
CAREY ISLAND, Malaysia — Can Malaysia expand its busiest port without displacing a cultural icon? (Samantha Ho, Macaranga)
Trump "public charge" rule resets health test for green cards (Adriel Bettelheim and Maya Goldman, Axios)
Add a comment: