Hélène Akilimali says she’s taking every precaution against contracting Ebola, including always wearing a face mask in public. But her work as a cocoa seller in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - the epicenter of the latest outbreak - brings her into daily contact with other people, some of whom doubt the disease is even real, and she has no control over how they behave. “Ebola is a real disease. People need to stop deluding themselves,” said Akilimali, cautioning that misinformation, myths about the virus and lax attitudes are killing people. “I always wear my face mask. But as for the customers, when they come, they may or may not be wearing face masks,” Akilimali told a journalist on the ground working on behalf of CNN. “You’re not going to chase them away.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/24/africa/ebola-outbreak-view-from-drc-congo-intl
Zigzagging through bustling streets, trolleys piled high with sheets of discarded cardboard, these elderly scavengers are hard to miss in Hong Kong. Many are in their 70s or older, hauling tens of kilograms of cardboard for a pittance in order to scrape by in one of Asia’s richest cities. They navigate steep hills and narrow streets, baking sunshine and torrential downpours. They have no official job title, leaving them at risk of having their trolleys or hauls confiscated by municipal officials.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/23/china/hong-kong-cardboard-grannies-intl-hnk
There’s a simple reason Google is making sweeping changes to its iconic, decades-old search engine: users are making complicated requests. “People are asking much longer and harder questions that no longer have a clear response anywhere on the internet,” said Robby Stein, vice president of product for Google Search. Stein spoke to CNN about a new feature that lets Google generate custom visuals, interactive graphics and even mini-apps running on Google’s search page in response to queries by piecing together sources from across the web. It’s one of many updates the internet giant announced at its annual conference this week.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/23/tech/ai-internet-search
An unusual collection of stars may represent the remnants of a dwarf galaxy that the Milky Way devoured about 10 billion years ago. Astronomers have dubbed the ancient galaxy Loki, after the Norse god of mischief. The finding could change the current understanding of how the Milky Way evolved in the distant past. The vast Milky Way spans about 100,000 light-years and contains anywhere between 100 billion and 400 billion stars, according to NASA. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, which is 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers). Our home galaxy wasn’t always such a cosmic giant. It grew over time starting about 12 billion years ago by merging with a multitude of dwarf galaxies. But the original size and mass of the Milky Way remain an open question — driving scientists to search for evidence of the galaxies it consumed to determine its history and evolution.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/23/science/milky-way-loki-galaxy
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/23/business/video/lobster-roll-prices-digvid