Fueling

The number of Ebola virus cases and the death toll continue to rise as the epidemic ravages communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In the Musienene health zone in the Lubero territory of North Kivu, health authorities confirmed 15 new cases of the virus as of Friday, July 17. There have also been nine reported deaths linked to the epidemic. 

A Musienene-based civil society organisation has corroborated these numbers after collecting samples for official verification in Beni, according to Kambale Maboko, the organisation’s president.

The new cases emerged across five health areas: 8 in Nduko, 3 in Vikindwe, 2 in Ivatama, and 1 each in Katolo and Kyambogho. Among the nine deaths reported, five occurred in Nduko, two in Vikindwe, one in Katolo, and one in Ivatama.

Kambale expressed concern over the limited government involvement in combating the Ebola outbreak in Lubero territory. He urged authorities to equip health facilities with necessary prevention kits and stressed the importance of the community adhering to safety measures as confirmed case numbers continue to escalate.

“In view of the high number of confirmed cases and the number of deaths which continue to rise each day, we call on the government to put in place a mechanism to counter this disease. If nothing is done, we risk facing the worst scenario,” Kambale said.  “We find that the government seems to have forgotten about us. We also call on the population to counter this disease by applying barrier actions in all their forms in order to block the road to Ebola.”

He noted how communal resistance is fueled by misinformation, saying: “We must sensitise the populations for them to understand that the disease exists and that it kills. If we are not careful, we risk being decimated, and we would have nothing to gain. The population seems to believe that those who go to the Ebola treatment centre must die, whereas this is not the case. We call on the population to be vigilant.”

At the provincial level, the Ebola response coordination reported seven new confirmed cases on July 17, including five from the Katwa health zone and two from Butembo. As per the epidemiological update released on July 18, 2026, North Kivu province has recorded a total of 213 confirmed cases, with 142 fatalities, resulting in a lethality rate of 66.7 per cent. Additionally, there are 36 recovered individuals, 25 active cases, and 10 patients who are unaccounted for or have moved to different locations. On Saturday, July 18, four patients who were declared healed were released from the Katwa Ebola treatment centre in Butembo.

Katwa is the worst-affected health zone, reporting 93 confirmed cases and 62 deaths. Following it is Butembo with 46 cases and 31 deaths, and Beni with 36 cases and 27 deaths. Other affected areas include Musienene, Kyondo, Kalunguta, Masereka, Oicha, Goma, Vuhovi, and Mabalako. In total, 11 out of the 34 health zones in North Kivu are experiencing the epidemic. The Ebola response committee is currently monitoring 3,009 active contacts, with 2,618 monitored in the past 24 hours, achieving a follow-up rate of 87 per cent.

Exploiting racism has been a profitable strategy in Hollywood since the dawn of filmmaking: 111 years ago, D.W. Griffith’s film “The Birth of a Nation” was incredibly popular and influential, while also being so racist that it was considered controversial even in its own day.

The industry saw immediately just how lucrative fear could be. More than a century later, there is always someone in the entertainment media willing to trade in racist tropes for money, as well as an audience ready to receive them.

Two new films, “Citizen Vigilante” and “Run, Fight, Hide: Infidels,” demonstrate that streaming platforms and social media no longer simply distribute controversial content but in fact thrive on content that provokes, polarizes and sustains attention, regardless of the social cost.

Both of these xenophobic and Islamophobic films are being pushed as “anti-woke” vehicles, deliberately engineered to bypass traditional critical reception and capitalize on a fractured media ecosystem. “Citizen Vigilante,” which features an American protagonist killing dark-skinned immigrants and Muslims in an unnamed European setting, was denied a rating certificate by the German government for inciting violence. Yet despite that determination, the film secured global reach through decentralized digital distribution and high-profile promotion from Elon Musk.

Similarly, “Run, Fight, Hide: Infidels” — a campus siege narrative evoking 1980s action film nostalgia that leans heavily into outdated, post-9/11 anxieties — relies on a built-in conservative media apparatus to guarantee financial returns. The film is produced by the conservative media figure Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire, which he co-founded. It is a sequel to a 2020 film that was their film company’s premiere.

But while promoters of such films frame their work as a brave rebellion, the reality is much more sinister: rehashing 40-year-old tropes while invoking conspiracy theories of Muslims bringing sharia law to America, because outrage is cheap to produce and easy to monetize.

Stories matter. Stories shape how we see one another. They influence what we love, what we celebrate, whom we trust, whom we understand and whom we fear.

Since January, the Muslim Public Affairs Council has documented a sharp escalation in threats and attacks targeting Muslims and Islamic institutions across the United States, including vandalism, shootings, bomb threats, attempted assassinations and physical assaults. These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a broader climate in which dehumanizing representation increasingly manifests as real-world violence.

Entertainment and politics increasingly employ the same tactic as one another, recycling narratives of fear and “otherness” to mobilize audiences, voters and consumers. When political leaders encourage those narratives, as President Trump recently did by amplifying and commenting on a photo of young Muslim American students in hijab, they further normalize the same stereotypes that entertainment companies have learned to monetize.

Yet while the social costs continue to mount, the economic incentives remain firmly intact. “Citizen Vigilante” earned a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes despite receiving just a 6% critics’ score. More tellingly, it quickly climbed to the top of Amazon’s and Apple TV’s paid video-on-demand charts.

And this isn’t just a Muslim and immigrant issue — and it’s not only about who is portrayed on screens, but also who is not. Representation has been backsliding, and audiences are left with fewer opportunities to see the reality and humanity of diverse communities, making them more vulnerable to fear-based narratives.

According to a 2026 report from the nonprofit Define American, which tracks representation across television and film, Latinos account for only 23% of immigrant characters represented on screen, even though they make up more than 40% of the immigrant population in the United States. In 2020, 50% of immigrants on screen were Latino.

The industry’s defense is that whitewashed and xenophobic films reflect audience demand. But the recent research by Define American challenges this assumption. Data show that nuanced, multidimensional storytelling, in which immigrants and minority characters are woven into the fabric of everyday narratives rather than tokenized or villainized, actually leads to greater audience engagement and deeper systemic understanding.

Entertainment doesn’t simply reflect culture; it teaches us who belongs within it. Studios, distributors, streaming platforms and filmmakers all have a responsibility to reject narratives that portray immigrants as enemies and instead embrace stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of our world. At the same time — as with voters — the power ultimately rests with consumers. The choice to demand storytelling that challenges prejudice rather than profits from it belongs to all of us.

Sue Obeidi is the senior vice president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council Hollywood Bureau. Jose Antonio Vargas is the founder of Define American.