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A second set of mountain gorilla twins has been born in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), marking what conservationists are calling an extraordinary event for these endangered primates.Just two months after twin mountain gorillas were discovered by rangers in the Virunga massif in eastern DRC, another rare twin birth has been found by park wardens. This time, an infant male and female have been spotted in the Baraka family, a troop of 19 mountain gorillas that roam the region's high-altitude rainforests.Park rangers have placed the young primates under additional monitoring to help them through the critical initial months, as the infants face significant challenges to becoming fully grown adults. Twins are extremely rare in mountain gorillas, accounting for less than 1% of births, and place extra demands on the mother.The gorilla subspecies, found in only two isolated pockets of the Virunga massif and the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in southwest Uganda, has high rates of infant mortality, with about a quarter falling victim to disease, trauma or infanticide.In January, Virunga National Park announced that a female mountain gorilla called Mafuko had given birth to twins. The infant males are now 11 weeks old and said to be thriving, with other gorillas in the troop taking extra care of the mother to support her caregiving, according to rangers. Park authorities believe that twin births are more likely when females are in particularly good physical condition.Jacques Katutu, the head of gorilla monitoring at Virunga, said: "Two instances of twin births within three months is an extraordinary event and provides another vital indicator that dedicated conservation efforts, which have continued despite the current instability in eastern Congo, continue to support the growth of the endangered mountain gorilla population within Virunga National Park."Specialist veterinary care has played a leading role in the revival of the subspecies. In Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC, organizations such as the Gorilla Doctors have prevented dozens of deaths by helping animals affected by human behavior, such as by releasing gorillas accidentally caught in poachers' traps. One study attributes half of the mountain gorillas' population increase to the vets.Barely 250 mountain gorillas were left in the 1970s, and many thought the animals faced extinction. Decades of intense conservation work helped population numbers surpass 1,000 in 2018, and conservation authorities have since downgraded the subspecies' status from critically endangered to endangered.The DRC section of the Virunga mountain range remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for wildlife rangers. Over the past 20 years, more than 220 rangers have been killed in the park, where rebel groups such as M23 and other militias, as well as bandits, operate with impunity.

Dario Fo, born 100 years ago, was a multifaceted genius who seamlessly blended politics and comedy in his works. As a dramatist, actor, director, and designer, he brought satire to the masses, achieving a global reach with plays like Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can't Pay? Won't Pay!, which justly earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997.Fo's background was marked by his involvement in wartime resistance against the Nazis in northern Italy, where he helped smuggle Allied soldiers across the border to Switzerland. His career in entertainment began with a weekly TV variety show that attracted huge audiences, but was abruptly ended due to his refusal to accept censorship.Fo's theatre company, Nuova Scena, gave the first performance of Mistero Buffo, his one-man show that satirized the Catholic Church. The show was condemned by the Vatican as 'the most blasphemous show in the history of television.'Fo's plays injected new life into political theatre, with Accidental Death of an Anarchist being a notable example. The play derived from a real-life case of a railway worker falsely accused of planting bombs and who 'fell' out of a police HQ window. The play's 2023 revival at the Sheffield Crucible, which transferred to the West End, showcased its timeless relevance, with Daniel Rigby's performance being 'breathlessly funny.'Fo's works provided actors with memorable roles, such as Griff Rhys Jones' virtuoso performance in Trumpets and Raspberries. His approach to comedy was rooted in tragedy, using laughter as a means to make audiences confront problems like cruelty, injustice, and oppression.Throughout his career, Fo faced significant harassment, including 45 prosecutions from the Italian police, and physical intimidation from both the Catholic Church and the Communist Party. Despite this, his legacy as a master of merging politics and comedy endures.