Germany is at odds with Botswana over a unique resource — Botswana's elephant population. After the German government announced it would ban the importation of hunting trophies, Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany. "This is not a joke," Masisi said to German outlet Bild. It's "very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion about our affairs in Botswana," but his nation is "paying the price for preserving these animals for the world."

Botswana's surging elephant population is a net positive for conservation efforts, but elephants often damage villages, destroy food supplies and sometimes kill humans. Allowing elephants to be hunted is an "important means to keep them in check," Masisi said. German officials say trophy hunting causes wider issues. 

What is causing the rift? 
The root of the feud is the "long-running tension between those morally opposed to the lucrative business of big-game hunting and the impoverished countries that benefit from it," said The Washington Post. This is especially pertinent for Botswana's 130,000 elephants, a third of the world's population. 

While Germany remains one of the largest importers of hunting trophies, animal rights advocates "reject the concept of killing animals for sport and say hunting by tourists will result in the extinction of even more animal species," said the Post. But trophy hunting is "controlled, unlike poaching, and has more financial benefits for local communities and for conservation," others say.

Beyond population control, countries with wild animal populations "see the native species as resources," said CBS News. Trophy hunting "makes up a significant proportion of the national income for a number of African nations."

How serious is Botswana being? 
Despite Botswana's threat, there is "currently no formal request of a transfer of 20,000 elephants from Botswana to Germany," said NBC News. Botswana has sent 8,000 elephants to neighboring Angola and has offered 500 to Mozambique. 

Masisi says he is not joking, but "transporting tens of thousands of the giant animals to the other side of the world would be a tall order," Politico said. Botswana's elephant problem is so "big and complex that Mr. Masisi is upset — for good reasons — about the Western simplification of possible solutions," Nuremberg Zoo director Dag Encke said to Politico.

The 7.4 magnitude earthquake that hit Taiwan on April 3 was the country's strongest in 25 years, and killed at least 10 people, with hundreds more injured. But the death toll and infrastructure damage were much lower than expected — largely due to Taiwan's building engineering requirements.

Why was earthquake damage so minimal?
"It is quite remarkable that given an earthquake of this magnitude, we have seen so few reported causalities," Daniel Aldrich, a political science professor at Northeastern University who studies global earthquake resilience, told NPR. 

Taiwan had revised building codes following a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 2,000 people. "Taiwan reorganized its disaster response and began a number of attempts at bottom-up and top-down responses to shocks," Aldrich said. The lesser damage this time around is a "direct outcome" of that.

New buildings are constructed to rigorous engineering standards, and older buildings have been strengthened to be more quake-resistant. In many Taiwanese cities, life returned to normal shortly after last week's earthquake, with people returning to work the following day and stores opening.

Taiwan has also cracked down on developers who were skimping. "They've issued massive fines and penalties for construction firms found to have in any way cut corners on their construction," Aldrich said to CNN. 

What changes were made?
Taiwan's seismologists calculated that the recent tremor had an energy "equivalent to 32 of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima", said CNN. "It rocked the entire island of Taiwan." But people inside Taipei's tallest skyscraper, Taipei 101, stayed safe thanks to a so-called wind damper, a large "pendulum at the building's center that helped absorb the shock," said The Washington Post. 

Taiwan's updated building codes also require "robust steel rebar designs embedded in reinforced concrete, strengthening building foundations, and staging regular earthquake drills among the general public," said NPR.

Experts say this infrastructure reform is a prime example of preventative measures that can be taken by other countries, especially those on earthquake faultlines, to reduce the destruction of natural disasters.