Namibia is a real country in southern African and on Wednesday it got its 15 minutes of fame in America after President Donald Trump mistakenly referred to it as “Nambia” at a United Nations summit in New York. And, you guess it, the moment went viral. 
 
 It happened at a gathering with African leaders when Trump made the unfortunate mispronunciation in this line: “In Guinea and Nigeria, you fought a horrifying Ebola outbreak. Nambia’s health system is increasingly self-sufficient.” 
 
 https://twitter.com/davidmackau/status/910558586799099904 
 
 Of course, there is no African country called “Nambia” — there’s Zambia and Namibia, but not “Nambia.” But people on Twitter took off with it, promptly cracking jokes and taking shots at the president’s speaking skills. Soon after, the word “Nambia” became a trending topic on Twitter. 
 
 https://twitter.com/taureanb/status/910560630536642560 
 
 https://twitter.com/anirvanghosh/status/910598814486204418 
 
 https://twitter.com/claudiajordan/status/910618357136683009 
 
 Jokes aside, a communications director for ONE — an advocacy group in Africa — argued that Trump said some valid points about African countries and the opportunities they present for American investors as Trump noted in his address. 
 
 https://twitter.com/iankoski/status/910566507700260864 
 
 https://twitter.com/iankoski/status/910565344141602823 
 
 So, where is Namibia and why is it so important? 
 
 https://twitter.com/RunGomez/status/910897240721387520 
 
 Namibia is on the southern end of Africa on the Atlantic Ocean coast and it shares borders with South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Angola. It has a recorded population of almost 2.5 million, according to the CIA’s factbook. Namibia has been an independent country since 1990 when it earned sovereignty from South Africa. 
 
 Trump said Africa has some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, but Namibia is not one of them. Rather, one of the big reasons Trump and the world is interested in the region is the vast supply of minerals. 
 
 Namibia is one of the world’s top producers of uranium. About half of the world’s supply of vanadium, platinum and diamonds also come from that region, a southern Africa news outlet reported this week. 
 
 Namibia may still be largely obscure to some people in the world but if Trump’s blunder was worth anything, it was this: the world now knows about Namibia. 
 
 https://twitter.com/GwenLister1/status/910620978790768641 
 
 Have some thoughts to share? 
 
 Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet. 
 
 Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com 
 
 Twitter: @RunGomez 
 
 Read The Conversation on Flipboard. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Donald Trump on 'Nambia' and Africa's 'business potential' 
 
 "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient," said US President Donald Trump at a lunch with African leaders in New York on Wednesday, reeling off a list of their nations' achievements. 
 
 But no such country exists. 
 
 Could the US leader have been referring to Namibia? Zambia? Or perhaps, The Gambia? 
 
 Social media users wasted no time in offering their own explanations. 
 
 One person shared an image of US race activist Rachel Dolezal, who identifies as black despite being born white, and who recently visited South Africa: 
 
 Find out more about Namibia, Zambia and The Gambia here: 
 
 Namibia facts and figures 
 
 Zambia facts and figures 
 
 The Gambia facts and figures 
 
 Africa Live: More on this and other stories 
 
 Namibia's President Hage Geingob was present when Mr Trump made the gaffe. He has not yet commented. 
 
 Some Twitter users also bristled at President Trump's comments about Africa's "tremendous business potential". 
 
 "I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich. I congratulate you, they're spending a lot of money," Mr Trump said. 
 
 "It [represents] huge amounts of different markets... It's really become a place they have to go, that they want to go." 
 
 Others defended Mr Trump, saying that aside from the "Nambia" blunder, he made some valid points. 
 
 Translator defends Trump speech omissions ||||| Story highlights Trump spoke during a speech to African leaders 
 
 "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient," he said 
 
 (CNN) President Donald Trump lavished praise on the health care system of Nambia during a speech at the United Nations. But there's one little problem -- there's no such country. 
 
 "In Guinea and Nigeria, you fought a horrifying Ebola outbreak," Trump told African leaders gathered Wednesday. "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient." 
 
 Namibia has stunning scenery such as this private reserve where visitors can see giraffes and other animals. 
 
 Trump mentioned Nambia twice during the session attended by leaders of several nations, including Ghana, Namibia and Uganda. 
 
 The gaffe lit up social media, with many speculating whether he meant Namibia, Zambia or Gambia. ||||| Lotte New York Palace Hotel 
 
 New York, New York 
 
 1:31 P.M. EDT 
 
 PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, General. I appreciate it. And I'm greatly honored to host this lunch, to be joined by the leaders of Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and South Africa. In particular, I want to thank President Condé, who is representing the African Union. Thank you. Thank you. 
 
 In this room, I see partners for promoting prosperity and peace on a range of economic, humanitarian, and security issues. We hope to extend our economic partnerships with countries who are committed to self-reliance and to fostering opportunities for job creation in both Africa and the United States. 
 
 Africa has tremendous business potential. I have so many friends going to your countries, trying to get rich. I congratulate you. They're spending a lot of money. But it does -- it has a tremendous business potential and representing huge amounts of different markets. And for American firms it's really become a place that they have to go -- that they want to go. 
 
 of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies are in Africa. Increasing American trade and investment across diverse industries -- including agriculture, energy, transportation, healthcare, travel, and tourism -- will further transform lives throughout the continent. Secretary Tillerson and the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation are already considering an investment worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Côte d’Ivoire, which has made impressive economic reforms. Really, you've done a tremendous job. 
 
 We also hope that African firms -- like the company Sasol --consider making investments in the United States. Sasol, as an example, is building a $9 billion petrochemical plant in Louisiana, which will bring new jobs to the state and, really, hardworking Americans will be manning those jobs. 
 
 we cannot have prosperity if we're not healthy. We will continue our partnership on critical health initiatives. Uganda has made incredible strides in the battle against HIV/AIDS. In Guinea and Nigeria, you fought a horrifying Ebola outbreak. Namibia’s health system is increasingly self-sufficient. My Secretary of Health and Human Services will be traveling to Africa to promote our Global Health Security Agenda. 
 
 Yet, we know that our prosperity depends, above all, on peace. The United States will partner with the countries and organizations, like the African Union, that lead successful efforts to end violence, to prevent the spread of terrorism, and to respond to humanitarian crises. I commend your troops currently serving in the field. Very brave. Very, very brave what they’re going through. 
 
 you well know, too many people are suffering from conflict in Africa. In the Central African Republic, the Congo, Libya, Mali, Somalia, and South Sudan, among others, they’re going through some very, very tough and very dangerous times. Terrorist groups, such as ISIS, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, and al Qaeda also threaten African peace. The United States is proud to work with you to eradicate terrorist safe havens, to cut off their finances, and to discredit their depraved ideology. And a number of you have told me -- actually, last night -- that we’ve been doing a very good job over the last six or seven months in particular. 
 
 We're closely monitoring and deeply disturbed by the ongoing violence in South Sudan and in the Congo. Millions of lives are at risk, and we continue to provide humanitarian assistance. But real results in halting this catastrophe will require an African-led peace process and a sincere -- really sincere commitment of all parties involved. And I know you’re working on that, and you’re working on that very hard. To assist in these efforts, I'm sending Ambassador Nikki Haley to Africa to discuss avenues of conflict and resolution and, most importantly, prevention. 
 
 I want to discuss our partnership against a global challenge. Today, the world faces an enormous security threat from North Korean regime. We must all stand together and be accountable in implementing United Nations sanctions and resolutions in response to North Korea’s hostile and menacing actions. 
 
 We believe that a free, independent, and democratic nation, in all cases, is the best vehicle for human happiness and success. Thank you for joining me for this critical discussion of the challenges and the opportunities facing our nations. 
 
 Africa, I have to say, is a continent of tremendous, tremendous potential. The outlook is bright. I look forward to hearing from you and your advice during the meal. I thought rather than just eating, we’ll have long discussions -- and I look forward to that very much. But I also look forward to getting to know so many of you, and so many of you I do know. And it’s an honor. It’s an honor. 
 
 And I really want to congratulate you -- growing very fast economically and in every other way. You’ve done a terrific job, you’ve had some tremendous obstacles placed in your path, but you have done, really, an absolutely incredible job. 
 
 So I want to thank you, and I look forward to our discussion. Thank you. 
 
 Thank you all very much. (Applause.) 
 
 END 1:36 P.M. EDT ||||| | 12 
 
 The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American. 
 
 
 
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 On Saturday, June 21 one of the Republic of Namibia’s rare desert elephants was felled by a hunter’s rifle. Unlike most of the other elephants that die on any given day in Africa, this particular elephant was slain legally. Namibia has reportedly sold nine hunting permits to foreign hunters for undisclosed amounts. Two of the bulls, including the first to be killed last month, are “problem” animals who have come into conflict with local humans. The remaining seven will be killed for their trophies. 
 
 Desert elephants, which can only be found in Namibia and Mali, are not a separate species or subspecies. They are, however, uniquely adapted to their arid environments. The animals have a few morphological differences from savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), most notably their thinner bodies and wider feet. They also possess a number of unique behaviors shared by no other African elephants, such as digging wells to purify their drinking water. Tourists routinely travel to Namibia to volunteer in the elephants’ conservation and organizations such as Desert Lion and Elephant Conservation have been set up to protect and study them. 
 
 Namibia’s desert elephants were nearly wiped out by poachers before the international ivory ban was first established in 1989. The country says it is now home to about 600 desert elephants, a number that conservationists dispute. According to the Conservation Action Trust, there are only about 100 desert elephants left in Namibia, including just 18 adult males. The cull would remove half of those males. According to the organization, the loss of adult role models would create more behavior problems in the future and also result in a loss of the population’s unique mannerisms. 
 
 Namibia, however, does not see its desert elephants as animals that are any different from the other elephants within its borders. In a press release (pdf) sent at the beginning of June, Simeon N. Negumbo, permanent secretary of Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism, wrote that the country is home to more than 20,000 elephants and the region where the hunts will take place has a total of 391 elephants with a 55 percent sex ratio. He called desert elephants “tourist attractions” and said all elephants in the country are “no longer rare…but only potentially valuable.” He noted that human–wildlife conflict is increasing, and that some humans have been killed by elephant attacks. 
 
 Especially ironic given that last point, a hunter named Johann Louw was attacked and trampled by a Namibian elephant on July 5. Louw and his hunting party had reportedly received one of the nine desert elephant hunting permits. Louw has been hospitalized. The fate of the elephant that attacked him is unknown as of this writing. 
 
 This entire situation echoes so many of the problems facing elephants today. In many regions the animals are being poached into oblivion. In a few others they are mostly protected and breeding well but are also increasingly crowded into ever-shrinking habitats, putting them in conflict with both humans and their own kind as they compete for food and space. I have been writing about elephants now for 25 years and it’s impossible to say how this will all pan out. Tragically, the only certain outcome I can see these days is death. 
 
 Photos: Desert elephant bull and cow photographed by Vernon Swanepoel. Used under Creative Commons license ||||| Abstract The factors that trigger sudden, seasonal movements of elephants are uncertain. We hypothesized that savannah elephant movements at the end of the dry season may be a response to their detection of distant thunderstorms. Nine elephants carrying Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers were tracked over seven years in the extremely dry and rugged region of northwestern Namibia. The transition date from dry to wet season conditions was determined annually from surface- and satellite-derived rainfall. The distance, location, and timing of rain events relative to the elephants were determined using the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) satellite precipitation observations. Behavioral Change Point Analysis (BCPA) was applied to four of these seven years demonstrating a response in movement of these elephants to intra- and inter-seasonal occurrences of rainfall. Statistically significant changes in movement were found prior to or near the time of onset of the wet season and before the occurrence of wet episodes within the dry season, although the characteristics of the movement changes are not consistent between elephants and years. Elephants in overlapping ranges, but following separate tracks, exhibited statistically valid non-random near-simultaneous changes in movements when rainfall was occurring more than 100 km from their location. While the environmental trigger that causes these excursions remains uncertain, rain-system generated infrasound, which can travel such distances and be detected by elephants, is a possible trigger for such changes in movement. 
 
 Citation: Garstang M, Davis RE, Leggett K, Frauenfeld OW, Greco S, et al. (2014) Response of African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) to Seasonal Changes in Rainfall. PLoS ONE 9(10): e108736. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0108736 Editor: Alan McElligott, Queen Mary, University of London, United Kingdom Received: March 6, 2014; Accepted: September 3, 2014; Published: October 9, 2014 Copyright: © 2014 Garstang et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report. Competing interests: Michael Garstang and Steven Greco are both associated with Simpson Weather Associates, Inc., a private for profit environmental research company. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. 
 
 Introduction Conservation of elephant populations, particularly in areas where poaching has been prevalent, is a pressing ecological issue. The management of elephant populations in both protected and unprotected areas requires an understanding of the predominant historical movement patterns of family groups [1]–[2]. Beyond the mapping of past elephant movements, it is important to understand what environmental cues might trigger the movement of elephants from one area to another. In dry areas, one such environmental trigger could be rainfall, particularly when it occurs at the end of a prolonged dry season. It is likely that any change in movement from dry to wet season conditions—ranging from distant migration-like excursions to localized movement—may be influenced by the habitat of the region (water, vegetation, and terrain) and dictated by topographically confined seasonal food and water sources [3]–[4]. The relationship between elephants and rainfall is embedded in the mythology and legends of people living for centuries in close contact with these animals. Turkana legend in northern Kenya holds that sighting an elephant at the end of the dry season is a sign that rain is imminent [1]. The Samburu people, further south in Kenya, have a similar belief, where the sudden appearance of an elephant, after months of no rain, signals the coming of the rains [1]. In India, the elephant is believed to bring the monsoon rain and is considered to be allied to cumulus clouds [1]. Surprisingly little research has been conducted on how elephants that populate arid environments might respond to rainfall triggers. Lindeque and Lindeque [5] reported a response of elephants in the eastern end of the Etosha National Park and Damaraland (Namibia) to rainfall well removed from where the herds were and well in advance of the rains. Leggett [6] observed elephants in the Kunene region of Namibia changing their movements within 24 hours of distant rainfall, heralding the start of the wet season. Neither study provided a possible cause for the observed change in elephant movement, however. Loarie et al. [7] attempted to determine whether there was an underlying order in the effects imposed by climate, water and vegetation upon elephant movement. They examined these relationships over an extended transect from Namibia to Mozambique (2500 km) over multiple years (2000–2006). Tracking was not conducted simultaneously over the entire transect but in separate areas for different years. They found that elephants moved consistently over greater distances in the wet than in the dry season and covered larger areas in the drier regions than in the wetter regions. Although the authors partitioned the year into dry and wet seasons for each of the twelve regions across this extensive transect, no details were provided as to the criteria used for this dry to wet partition. In the study most closely related to ours, Birkett et al. [8], using tracking data from Global Positioning System (GPS) collared elephants over a 3-year period in the Kruger National Park (South Africa), determined major seasonal break points in the movement of these elephants. After identifying the week (within each year) when elephant movements changed significantly, they related the weekly mean rainfall from rain gages located within the ranges of those animals. The authors found that 56% of the tracked elephants increased their step length after the rainfall break point. However, they also identified significant interannual variability in the rainfall/movement relationships. Kelley and Garstang [9], using observations from a system similar to the International Monitoring System for the detection of nuclear explosions, demonstrated that sound pressure levels generated by thunderstorms could be detected by elephants at distances greater than 100 km. They further speculated that, in the presence of a near surface (100 m) nocturnal inversion, elephants might be capable of locating the source of the sound. The goals of this study were to determine whether elephants changed their movement behavior with changes in the rainfall regime and whether the changes in movement were in response to some specific remotely generated signal. Drawing upon the conclusions of Kelly and Garstang [9], we postulated that such behavior would be most clearly demonstrated in environments with protracted dry seasons broken by an abrupt and distinct change to wet conditions such as that experienced by the Kunene elephants of northwestern Namibia. We defined rainfall criteria that identified the transition date in each year from dry to wet conditions. We then examined movements of individually collared elephants relative to these rain events. A record of continuous tracking of elephants over a period of years is required to provide multiple seasonal changes and potential movement responses. Here, we utilized an unusually long data set of GPS positions of 14 Namibian elephants observed from 2002–2009. This represents one of the most extensive records of elephant movements available and forms the foundation for this study. Owing to the extremely dry climate and rainfall seasonality of western Namibia, we used the rather abrupt transition from dry to wet conditions to determine whether a statistically significant change in elephant movement could be detected. The characteristic convective nature of the first significant rainstorms of the wet season allowed us to postulate that infrasound produced by these storms might represent a remotely generated signal of the onset of the rains that is detected and responded to by these elephants. (Note: In the sections that follow, data are used over time periods that range over four to eight years, the shorter data sets not being independent of the longer sets.) 
 
 Discussion and Conclusions We conclude that a statistically significant change in movement was observed prior to or near the time of onset of the wet season. Such changes in movement also occurred prior to wet episodes within the dry season. In concert with results found by Loarie et al. [7] and Birkett et al. [8], changes in the movement of elephants were found to both precede and follow the transition from dry to wet conditions, with a preponderance of the statistically significant changes found in the 24 days prior to rather than in the 24 days following the dry–wet transition. In several instances, elephants in different (but proximal) locations exhibited near simultaneous change in movement, and these movements were unlikely to have occurred by random chance. This behavior suggests that the animals could be responding to a common environmental signal. The transition from dry conditions to wet conditions was defined by a rainfall amount in a given grid element in a given area (Region (a)) preceded by 24 days with <5 mm/day in any grid element and followed by 24 “wet” days. This criterion provided a useful, objective method for identifying the transition date partitioning the dry from the wet seasons. A modified version of this criterion also served to identify wet periods within the dry season. Most significant wet season rain storms in this region are convective in nature and contain lightning. Lightning discharges may, however, occur in so called “dry storms” that produce little or no measurable rain [22]–[23]. These rain storms were located in a much larger region (Region (b)), potentially remote from the location of the elephants. The above evidence suggests that elephants change their movement behavior both in response to a seasonal change in rainfall (dry to wet) and to wet episodes occurring in the dry season. The evidence presented suggests that such responses are triggered by rainfall occurring at some distant location, perhaps as much as 300 km from the location of the elephants. This, in turn, implies a signal coincident with, and perhaps produced by, the rain event itself [9]. Such a signal may be required to travel over distances greater than 300 km in time periods of much less than 24 hours [9]. Such distances are well within the threshold of detection of thunderstorms by elephants as determined by Kelley and Garstang [9]. The interaction of the elephants observed in this study with their habitat (terrain, vegetation and water) and with humans may have conditioned these elephants to remain in protected areas, frequent river channels, and limit their excursions outside of these known areas. Such conditioning may well play an important role in influencing the larger movement behavior of the current elephant population in northwest Namibia. No extended seasonal movements were observed in the Kunene region comparable to those reported by Lindeque and Lindeque [12] in Damaraland east of Etosha National Park. Changes in vegetation may occur prior to the arrival of the rains and thus trigger movement before the rains arrive. Because such changes in vegetation are due to a complex set of factors including changing length of day, solar insolation, slope, aspect, soil type, and soil moisture, among others, it is less likely that this greening will trigger simultaneous changes in movement behavior by more than one elephant. Furthermore, such changes in vegetation do not occur in the dry season when we observe changes in movement by the elephants in response to rainfall. While it remains possible that smell generated by rain storms could produce a response, the transmission of olfactory signals detectable by elephants would depend both upon surface wind speeds and direction and upon concentrations [24]–[25]. We suggest instead that low-frequency sounds produced by rain storms [9] represent a more plausible explanation of a detectable signal generated by a distant rain event. Not all rainstorms may generate infrasonic signals and not all elephants will exhibit a response to such sounds. Nevertheless, the response documented in this study suggests that the elephants of western Namibia change their movement behavior roughly coincident with a change in the seasonal rainfall climate of the region. This change in movement occurs well before (days to weeks) any rain actually falls in the elephants' location. Although such a response is in near coincidence with the change from dry to wet season conditions, rain events within the dry season may also trigger a change in elephant movement. We hypothesize that such responses by elephants to spatially remote events could be ascribed to the detection of infrasonic signals generated by that event. The existing measurements, however, do not provide unequivocal evidence of this possibility. Given the temporal coarseness of the GPS measurements available and the lack of continuous, long-term monitoring for some animals, we realize that these limitations pose significant barriers to reaching definitive conclusions regarding the factors that motivate relatively sudden elephant movement changes. The lack of a consistent response (i.e., increasing vs. decreasing mean, variance, or autocorrelation) certainly adds additional complexity to our analysis. Additionally, we acknowledge that BCPA is but one method that can be used to retrospectively examine animal movements. A variety of methods are available (e.g., Fleming et al. [26], Yackulic et al. [27], Breed et al. [28], Boettiger et al. [29]), and we encourage their adaptation to problems allied with elephant tracking and conservation. While the elephants in the dry and rugged Kunene region of Namibia may change their movements in response to distant rainfall, these elephants do not leave their dry season range or head towards the early rainstorms. The learned and adaptive behavior of the Kunene elephants may not only reflect the exigencies of their habitat and climate but exhibit a residual response to the recent and extreme social dislocation suffered by this population. Additional study is clearly needed to understand what motivates these early seasonal changes in movement behavior. 
 
 Acknowledgments The communities and conservancies of northwestern Namibia, and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism are thanked for their previous support of the tracking studies used in this paper. We also acknowledge Earthwatch Institute, Denver Zoo, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wilderness Trust, Wildlife Conservation society, Ikahirongo Elephant Lodge, and Wilderness Safaris for their previous support. We wish to thank E. Gurarie for his guidance and provision of the BCPA program. Our thanks also go to Mary Morris for all of her bibliographic research, preparation and production of the manuscript and to Simpson Weather Associates and the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia for their support of this research. We would also wish to acknowledge and thank the Editor and three reviewers for their careful and critical reading of earlier drafts of this manuscript.
– The nation that seems to be showing up in most headlines Thursday is Nambia, mainly because it doesn't actually exist. In a speech to African leaders Wednesday, President Trump referred to "Nambia" not once but twice, first in his general introduction and then later when he mentioned that "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient." As the BBC notes, that led to plenty of online jokes, along with people wondering whether he meant Gambia, Zambia, or Namibia. Turns out, it was the last of those. Coverage: For the record: The official White House transcript of the speech made the correction without mention of the mispronunciation. (You can hear for yourself in this video.) But that hasn't slowed a barrage of coverage making light of the president's mistake. One example: At CNN, Anderson Cooper referred to Nambia as a "magical land far, far away" in his recap. Namibia 101: The gaffe has led to a slew of civics-type primers about Namibia. Time, for instance, notes the tiny nation of fewer than 2.5 million people is relatively young, having achieved its independence in 1990. Among the factoids it highlights: Namibia is a big producer of diamonds and it has environmental protection written into its constitution. Silver lining: "If Trump's blunder was worth anything, it was this: The world now knows about Namibia," writes Luis Gomez at the San Diego Union-Tribune. He notes that Namibia also is one of the top global producers of uranium. The main point: The gist of Trump's speech was to tout the region's economic potential (he said he has friends who go there "trying to get rich"), and a member of the African advocacy group ONE praised the intent. "I know 'Nambia' will be the narrative that comes from those remarks, but POTUS is right on this: Africa has tremendous business potential," tweeted rep Ian Koski. Namibia's reaction: Officially, nada. No major government official, including President Hage Geingob, who was present, has said anything publicly about the mistake. But the Washington Post reports that Namibians themselves sound a little miffed and are mocking Trump, like so.