Panama

In El Salvador, thousands of people have been imprisoned over the past 15 months, including dozens of international visitors, as the government tries to stop gang violence through a law known as the “state of exception.”

The US government changed the rules governing how people can seek asylum at the US-Mexico border last week, as a pandemic-era policy called Title 42 expired. Although it may become more difficult, thousands of people are still making their way from South America to the US border, including migrants from all over the world. Some are making their way through the Darien Gap, a dangerous jungle that separates Colombia and Panama.

In the small village of Capurgana, at the entrance to the Darién jungle and near Colombia’s border with Panama, hundreds of villagers now work as guides and porters leading migrants across the rainforest.

A growing number of people from Venezuela have been making the risky crossing through the Darién Gap in recent weeks. Jose Loya decided to make the difficult trek, citing xenophobia and discrimination as some of the main reasons why he chose to leave Peru, where he was living with his wife and child.

A researcher finds a remarkable link between how baby bats babble in monosyllables as they learn to speak in the same way that human infants do.