Joshua Korber Hoffman

Journalist with bylines in CNN, Independent, London Standard, Mail on Sunday, When Saturday Comes, and elsewhere.

CNN •

Can Africa’s EV revolution support rural women? | CNN

Africa’s electric vehicle (EV) market is accelerating. But so far, one particular group of potential users — rural women — has largely been left behind, with investors favoring electric motorbike start-ups that serve a predominantly urban and male clientele. One company thinks it has the answer: electric tricycles.



“The boys with the two-wheelers get all the money,” said Shantha Bloemen, founder of Mobility for Africa, a Zimbabwean start-up with a 77% female customer base...
CNN •

The fish collectors hoping to save rare species from extinction | CNN

In the rural town of Petersham, Massachusetts, 78-year-old Peter George keeps 1,000 fish in his basement.

“Baseball, sex, fish,” he says, listing his life's great loves. “My single greatest attribute is that I am passionate about things. That sort of defines me.”

All of George’s fish are endangered Rift Lake cichlids: colorful, freshwater fish native to the Great Lakes of East Africa. Inside his 42 tanks, expertly squeezed into a single subterranean room, the fish shimmer under artificial lights, knowing nothing of the expansive waters in which their ancestors once swam, thousands of miles away.
CNN •

It costs more to send money to sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world: these companies are trying to change that | CNN

Millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa rely on money sent to them by relatives living abroad.



But it costs more to send this money — known as remittances — to sub-Saharan Africa than any other region in the world, according to the World Bank.



In recent years, a number of African-founded financial technology (fintech) companies have emerged, with the aim of bringing down costs and carving into the dominant market share of traditional players like We...
CNN •

The $1 billion ‘electricity highway’ that allows Ethiopia and Kenya to share their power | CNN

Ethiopia and Kenya both embrace renewables for their electricity production.



Ethiopia produces all the power for its national grid from renewable sources, and is home to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the largest hydropower plant in Africa. In Kenya, renewables account for around 90% of electricity, and the country boasts one of the largest geothermal facilities in the world, in the Olkaria Area.



But relying on renewables can be hard: electrici...
CNN •

Solar-charging backpacks are helping children to read after dark | CNN

When Innocent James completed his chores after school, he would light a kerosene lamp and lay down to read his books. There was no electricity in James’ part of Arusha, a region in northern Tanzania, and so his family was forced to burn expensive oil for him to learn after dark.



Today, James is 33, and many parents in rural Tanzania – where all year round the sun sets at around 7pm – must still choose between saving money and allowing their children to read at night. But n...
CNN •

She was a teenage mother in Detroit. Now she’s a Ghanaian ‘Queen’ | CNN

Kennedy Johnson was 15 years old when she gave birth to a baby girl in a Detroit foster home for teen moms, in February 1996. Twenty-five years later, when Johnson found herself in northern Ghana being made a queen, she couldn’t quite believe where life had led her.



In front of an adoring crowd in Tamale, the largest city in northern Ghana, Johnson was given her honorary title of “Zosimli Naa” in October 2021. It was conferred on her by the Dakpema, Fuseini Bawa, a local s...
CNN •

Przewalski’s horse: Back from the brink | CNN

Editor’s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.20,000 years ago, stone-age humans engraved depictions of wild horses onto cave walls. Over the millennia that followed, the horses were driven to the brink of extinction by hunting, int...
CNN •

The ‘Shinkansen kiss’: Japan’s little-known rail spectacle that attracts trainspotters from around the world | CNN

In Japan, finding a true hidden gem seems harder than ever. In recent years, the cities of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka have become staples for most international tourists who visit.



But the adventurous visitor only needs to travel just a few hours north of the capital to find a less crowded city, where culinary delicacies can be eaten against the backdrop of a snow-capped, active volcano.



Morioka is perhaps most famous for its noodle-eating challenge and...
Jewish Renaissance •

Emerging Journalists Award: 1st Prize — Jewish Renaissance

Last December, two days after assuming office as Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei attended a Chabad Hanukkah menorah lighting in Buenos Aires. The next day, Argentinian media was full of images of the president wearing a kippah, a rabbi by his side, reaching out to light a candle. Although raised Catholic, the president has been enthusiastic about his love of Judaism. He has studied the Torah with a local rabbi, saying it helps guide his economic principles. It is reported that he wants t...
CNN •

Northern hairy-nosed wombat: Back from the brink | CNN

Editor’s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.Wombats – squat, huggable, bear-like marsupials – are one of Australia’s best-known creatures. Combining brains and brawn, the adorable fluff-balls are expert diggers, unearthing mountai...
CNN •

Barry Jenkins on why ‘Mufasa’ contains the ‘voice of Africa’ | CNN

Mufasa’s death in Disney’s original “The Lion King” (1994) is, for many children of the ’90s, a traumatic moment in cinema history. When Scar threw his brother off the cliff, his goodbye — “Long live the king” — dripping with sarcasm, audiences were led to believe that, like the helpless young Simba, they had seen the last of the charismatic King of the Pride Lands.



But in the new film “Mufasa: The Lion King,” Mufasa’s story is told from cub to grown lion. The brotherly re...
CNN •

Northern bald ibis: Back from the brink | CNN

Editor’s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.After the northern bald ibis disappeared from Europe more than 300 years ago, some assumed that 16th century drawings of its gleaming plume and long, arching beak were works of the imagi...
Jewish News •

London Overground’s new Weaver Line has Jewish significance

Summer is not usually a time when commuters look forward to getting on the train. However, this year, overground passengers have something to look forward to.
In February, Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that the London Overground is to be rebranded. Now, with Khan safely re-elected, the changes will go ahead. By the end of the year, the Overground will be divided into six new lines, each with new names and colours.
One line in particular holds significance for London’s Jewish community. The...
The Independent •

British sailors complete global race as part of all-female international crew

An all-female crew skippered by a British sailor has completed a race around the world after crossing the finish line at the Isle of Wight.The 13-strong crew, made up of international sailors, five of them Britons and skippered by Heather Thomas, from Otley, West Yorkshire, completed the Ocean Globe Race aboard their yacht, Maiden, at 10.52am on Tuesday.Ms Thomas said: “It really is testament to how amazing these women are that even when things weren’t going to plan, we still stayed together as...