Heavy weapons boomed across the hills above Uvira this week as rebel fighters picked their way along the ridgelines, skirting the Congolese troops and militiamen dug in along the Ruzizi River road below. Phone networks still cut out, though shops and markets in town remain open. Civic leaders in the lakeside city on Congo’s border with Burundi called a “dead city” shutdown for Friday to protest the war. The mayor’s office banned it.
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Pandemic Center
Wilmot James, Ph.D.
Senior Adviser to the Brown Pandemic Center, Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health; Director of the Africa Initiative
Biography
Dr. James, an internationally recognized thought leader in biosecurity, global health, and pandemic preparedness, is a Senior Adviser to the Pandemic Center and a Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice.
Dr. James has served as a Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Health in South Africa, and most recently held positions at Columbia University as Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy and as Chair of the Center for Pandemic Research in the College of Arts and Sciences. Wilmot serves as an advisor to the G7-led Global Partnership's Signature Initiative to Mitigate Biological Threats in Africa and on the boards of BEACON, Resolve to Save Lives and the Mirror Biology Dialogue Fund. Dr. James will use his extensive experience to address public health and national security challenges in his role as senior advisor to the Pandemic Center.
Dr. James serves as the new director of the Watson School’s Africa Initiative. James focus on the initiative highlights African contributions to global affairs and on the continent’s future and untapped potential.
Recent News
Science Magazine
Use common standards to stop risky research
In her Science Insider story “New U.S. rules on risky pathogen research draw mixed reviews” (29 July, 10.1126/science.zfz2hl6), S. Reardon reports concerns about the ambiguity of the United States Government Policy for Stopping High-Risk Life Sciences Research.
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South Africa signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, the first multilateral treaty to ban an entire class of weapons, on 10 April 1972, and ratified it in November 1975.
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Daily Maverick
How Mbeki’s NPA failed to hold Wouter Basson accountable
In Part Four of our six-part series, legal missteps, political caution, and evidentiary hurdles allowed Project Coast’s mastermind to walk free.
Nelson Mandela stepped down as president of South Africa on 13 June 1999. He wanted to set an example on the African continent and disrupt its tradition of having lifetime heads of state.
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Nelson Mandela stepped down as president of South Africa on 13 June 1999. He wanted to set an example on the African continent and disrupt its tradition of having lifetime heads of state.
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Think Global Health
Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine: Tracking Outbreaks Amid Conflict
In 2024, poliovirus was detected in Gaza's wastewater before a paralytic case was confirmed, and the World Health Organization (WHO) found continued environmental circulation into the following year. By the end of 2025, however, no further detections had been reported, suggesting that a targeted vaccination campaign during a brief ceasefire may have interrupted transmission. The episode shows why epidemic intelligence in damaged urban environments cannot depend on clinics alone: wastewater and other environmental signals can reveal transmission when routine care and reporting have been disrupted. Damage to health facilities and water and sanitation systems further weakens the capacity to prevent, detect, and contain outbreaks.
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Brown Daily Herald
Inaugural PROV/DOC festival platforms local filmmakers’ documentaries
This past weekend, “CLIMATE-CULTURE-COMMUNITY” was the central theme behind the Brown Political Review’s inaugural documentary film festival PROV/DOC. The two-day festival showcased documentaries from student, faculty and local filmmakers that spotlighted underreported issues, according to Julianna Muzyczyszyn ’27, BPR’s co-editor-in-chief.
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