Nearly two years ago I wrote about gene drives and how political issues, not technical ones, were the main barriers to implementation:Target Malaria was taking a commendable approach of engaging with local communities and government officials to try to build trust. Now it’s clear that this approach failed. On August 18 the government (led by Ibrahim Traoré, a dictator who took power in a 2022 coup) raided them and forced them to shut down.From a report in Science: On 18 August, judicial police s...