Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said several times he intends to shutter Al Jazeera in Israel.
The law allows for the closure of foreign media bureaus for up to 45 days, a renewable period, and would stay in effect until the end of July or until major military operations in Gaza conclude.
It also allows for the confiscation of their equipment if it is believed they pose “harm to the state’s security”.
“Al Jazeera harmed Israel’s security, actively participated in the October 7 massacre, and incited against Israeli soldiers,” Netanyahu said in a post on X on Monday. “I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel’s activity.”
Netanyahu’s comments and threats are only the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on Al Jazeera.
Has Israel threatened to shut down Al Jazeera before?
Netanyahu’s post came during significant fallout over al-Aqsa Mosque between Israeli authorities and Palestinians.
Before that, on March 12, 2008, Israel’s government press office sanctioned Al Jazeera staff in Israel after Al Jazeera TV covered celebrations following the release of Samir Kuntar from Israeli prison. Kuntar, a Lebanese Druze member of the Palestinian Liberation Front and Hezbollah, had been sentenced for murder, attempted murder and kidnapping.
Has Israel attacked Al Jazeera’s offices outside Israel?
On May 15, 2021, the al-Jalaa Tower in Gaza City, which housed the offices of Al Jazeera and The Associated Press, as well as numerous residences, was destroyed by an Israeli missile.
This was during a full-scale Israeli assault on Gaza which took place between May 10 and 21, 2021.
Has Israel harmed Al Jazeera journalists?
Most recently, on March 18, 2024, Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul was arrested for 12 hours and beaten by Israeli forces in Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital. Israeli forces also destroyed media equipment.
Earlier during Israel’s current war on Gaza – on February 13, 2024 – Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail Abu Omar and his cameraman, Ahmad Matar, were wounded in an Israeli attack north of Rafah, Gaza.
On December 15, 2023, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, was injured in an Israeli drone attack in Khan Younis, Gaza.
And, on June 5, 2021, Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Givara Budeiri was detained for hours and physically assaulted while covering a demonstration in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
Have Al Jazeera journalists been killed?
On January 7, 2024, Al Jazeera journalist Hamza Dahdouh, the eldest son of Wael Dahdouh, was killed by an Israeli missile strike in Khan Younis, Gaza. Hamza Dahdouh was in a vehicle near al-Mawasi with another journalist, Mustafa Thuraya, who was also killed in the attack.
On December 15, 2023, Al Jazeera Arabic cameraman Samer Abudaqa was hit in the same Israeli drone attack that injured Wael Dahdouh, in Khan Younis, Gaza. Abudaqa bled to death over four hours as emergency workers stood by unable to reach him because they needed Israeli military approval to go in safely.
Humanitarian organisations and other journalists pressed the military to facilitate his evacuation but the Israeli military blocked help from reaching the site as Abudaqa bled. Abudaqa had bled to death by the time help was allowed to reach him.
Dahdouh said the strike happened in an area where there was “no one but us”, adding that they were undoubtedly targeted.
A year and a half before the war on Gaza began – on May 11, 2022 – Israeli forces assassinated veteran Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Shireen Abu Akleh as she was reporting from Jenin in the occupied West Bank. Abu Akleh was known as the “daughter of Palestine”.
Israel’s narrative on what happened to Abu Akleh shifted several times. Immediately after she was killed, Israeli authorities said Palestinian fighters had killed her, decrying accusations against Israeli soldiers.
Two days later, the Israeli army said the bullet that killed Abu Akleh could have been from an Israeli soldier. A statement released by the Israeli army added that the soldier was targeting Palestinian gunmen who had fired at him, and Abu Akleh was hit instead.
Abu Akleh’s colleagues who were with her, alongside multiple investigations, asserted that there were no Palestinian fighters in the vicinity when she was killed.
Six days later, the Israeli authorities identified the Israeli weapon that may have killed her. On September 5, 2022, Israel said there was a “high possibility” that Abu Akleh had been “accidentally hit” by Israeli army fire, but a criminal investigation would not be launched.
Has Israel harmed anyone else linked to Al Jazeera?
Israel’s attacks have extended to the families of journalist as well. On October 25, 2023, Wael Dahdouh’s wife, younger son, daughter and grandson were all killed when an Israeli air raid hit the house they were sheltering in within the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Dahdouh and his family had been displaced and were sheltering in what the Israeli army told them was a safe zone after the Israeli army ordered civilians in northern Gaza to move to the south.
The Israeli military confirmed that it was its air strike that killed Dahdouh’s family in a statement to CNN. The military added in the statement that the strike was targeting “Hamas terrorist infrastructure”.
What has Al Jazeera said about the latest threat?
The Qatar-based network rejected what it described as Israel’s “slanderous accusations” and accused Netanyahu of “incitement”.
“Al Jazeera holds the Israeli Prime Minister responsible for the safety of its staff and Network premises around the world, following his incitement and this false accusation in a disgraceful manner,” the nwtwork said in a statement.
“Al Jazeera reiterates that such slanderous accusations will not deter us from continuing our bold and professional coverage, and reserves the right to pursue every legal step.”
A temporary route for vessels has opened in Baltimore following the collision of a cargo vessel with a major bridge last week.
The first vessel has passed through a temporary alternate channel created around the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which was damaged last week after a cargo vessel collided with it.
On March 26, six people died when the Dali container ship hit the 2.5km (1.6-mile) long bridge in the early hours of the morning.
Captain David O’Connell, the coastguard commander of the Maryland sector, said it is “an important first step along the road to reopening the port of Baltimore”, one of the busiest in the United States.
A secondary provisional route for deeper vessels will also open in the upcoming days, officials said, as attempts are made to remove debris.
What happened to the Baltimore Bridge?
On March 26, at about 1:28am (05:28 GMT), the Singapore-registered vessel, en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka, collided with one of the pillars supporting the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the city on the East Coast of the US. According to a report by ABC News, the ship “lost propulsion” as it was leaving port, and its crew notified Maryland officials they had lost control of the vessel.
Cars using the bridge fell into the Patapsco River and six workers died. Two bodies have since been recovered from the water while the other four remain missing.
Local pilots were guiding the ship at the time of the accident, according to Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld.
Authorities said all 22 crew members on the Dali and the two pilots were accounted for and there were no reports of injuries.
How big is the Dali?
It is 300 metres (984 feet) long. If put upright, it would be almost as tall as the Eiffel Tower in Paris or The Shard in London and about two-thirds of the Empire State Building in New York.
The vessel has a deadweight tonnage of more than 116,000 tonnes and a container capacity of almost 10,000 20-foot equivalent units.
The Dali was carrying 4,700 containers when it struck the Key Bridge.
What is the economic cost?
Baltimore’s port handles farm and construction machinery, sugar, gypsum and coal as well as imports and exports for leading automakers, including Nissan, Toyota, General Motors, Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover, according to Reuters news agency.
It is the ninth-largest US port in terms of overall trade volume.
In 2023, the port handled about 50 million tonnes and $80bn of cargo moving between the US and other countries.
During a briefing at the bridge collapse scene, the US representative for Maryland, David Trone, said state and federal officials estimated the port’s closure would cost the economy as much as $15m per day.
What are the plans for removing the debris?
Trained demolition crews have been cutting through the collapsed bridge truss using specialist machinery, according to a statement released by Mayor Brandon M Scott on Saturday.
The Chesapeake 1000 – a massive floating crane – arrived on Friday near the collision site. It is capable of lifting 1,000 tonnes of debris.
Two crane barges, a 650-tonne crane and a 330-tonne crane, are actively working on the scene. The task is estimated to take two to three weeks. The debris will then be transferred by barge and a 230-tonne land-based crane will process the wreckage at Tradepoint Atlantic.
A 2,000-yard (1,829-metre) safety zone has been established around the wreckage to prevent vessels and personnel from entering the area.
Additionally, preparations were made to establish an alternative channel on the northeastern side of the main channel to allow for “commercially essential vessels” to pass on Monday.
The new temporary channel, marked with government-lighted aids to navigation, will be limited for transit and used during daylight hours only.
Officials are working to establish a second, temporary alternate channel on the southwest side of the main channel. This second channel will allow for deeper draft vessels.
The collapse of a major bridge in Baltimore earlier this week has led to the suspension of vessel traffic at the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest harbours in the United States, until further notice.
On Wednesday, it was reported that Maryland would receive initial funding of $60m from the federal government as state authorities work to clear the debris from the disaster. This emergency relief funding is to cover “mobilisation, operations and debris recovery”, the state said.
Here’s what we know so far about how this suspension might affect trade, insurers and the supply chain.
What happened to the Baltimore bridge?
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, a steel bridge opened in 1977 which spanned the lower Patapsco River and the outer Baltimore harbour, collapsed when a container ship hit one of its support pillars at about 1:27am (05:27 GMT) on Tuesday.
Cars that were crossing the bridge fell into the river, and six workers went missing and are now presumed dead.
The Singapore-registered ship which hit the bridge was named the Dali and was heading to Sri Lanka. All 22 crew members as well as two pilots have been accounted for and there were no reports of injuries.
Since the incident, vessel traffic has been suspended in and out of the port. However, the port is not closed and trucks are still being processed within the maritime terminals.
A coastguard boat carries senior officers to assess the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 29, 2024 [US Coast Guard/Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles/Handout via Reuters]
How important is the Baltimore port for trade?
The Port of Baltimore is the ninth largest US port in terms of overall trade volume. It handles cargo including automobiles, machinery, agricultural equipment, liquefied natural gas and sugar.
In 2023, the port handled about 50 million tonnes and $80bn of cargo moving between the US and other countries.
The port processed 847,158 automobiles last year, according to figures from the state of Maryland. About 70 percent of these were imported.
Nearly 20 percent of US coal exports pass through Baltimore.
More than 50 ocean shipping and cruise ship companies carry out business with the port, according to the state. Their vessels visit the port about 1,800 times per year.
What is the economic cost of the bridge collapse?
During a briefing at the bridge collapse scene, the US Representative for Maryland, David Trone, said that state and federal officials estimated the port’s closure would cost the economy as much as $15m per day.
Additionally, the port directly supports more than 15,000 jobs, with an additional 140,000 jobs dependent on port activity overall, according to Maryland Governor Wes Moore’s office.
This does not mean that these individuals will be laid off, but less traffic will mean they have less work to do. Being day labourers, they may lose wages.
Delays can also be expected by companies and customers as packages bound for processing at the port will have to be diverted elsewhere.
Losses stemming from the bridge collapse are likely to hit the insurance sector hard. Last week, Bloomberg reported that insurers could face claims amounting to as much as $3bn – including claims for damage to the bridge itself, liabilities for wrongful deaths and disruption to businesses caused by the closure of the port as ships bound for Baltimore will have to go elsewhere.
Bruce Carnegie-Brown, chairman of Lloyd’s insurance market in London, where many of the insurers facing claims for this incident are based, told Reuters that the collapse is likely to lead to a “multibillion-dollar insurance loss” and could become the “largest single marine insurance loss”.
The estimated time of arrival for Baltimore-bound vessels doubled between Monday and Tuesday, according to Windward, a maritime risk management company. Windward additionally predicted that ships scheduled to go to Baltimore would be delayed by at least 24 days.
However, experts say that the knock-on effects of the suspension should be manageable in the short term. After all, Baltimore’s port holds just 4 percent of all East Coast trade volume, according to S&P Global.
How will businesses using the port be affected?
Several companies which use the port have said the suspension will not negatively affect short-term operations. The US’s largest sugar company, ASR group, reported that it has six to eight weeks of raw sugar stocks at its Baltimore refinery, which is supplied by vessels coming to the port.
Berkshire Hathaway Energy, the operator of the Cove Point liquefied natural gas terminal, also said operations were not immediately affected. German car manufacturer BMW said that, besides short-term traffic delays, it does not expect other short-term impacts. Volkswagen, Mercedes and General Motors also expect little to no effect besides delays.
However, Ford Motor Company chief financial officer John Lawler told Reuters on Tuesday: “We’ll have to divert parts to other ports … It will probably lengthen the supply chain a bit.”
Where will Baltimore-bound ships and containers be diverted to?
Baltimore-bound ships are currently anchored beyond the port and waiting to be rerouted to other ports up and down the East Coast in the US.
Ports in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Delaware; Newark, New Jersey; Norfolk; Charleston, South Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; and Georgia also could see additional cargo.
While the Georgia Ports Authority, which owns ports in Savannah and Brunswick, said it has the capacity to take on more cargo, it can not make up for Baltimore by itself.
Part of Baltimore’s operations are still operational, east of where the bridge collapsed, the port said. Hence, it can still handle automobiles from companies including BMW and Volkswagen.
How will consumers be affected?
Supply chain experts say US port infrastructure is stronger than it was in 2021 and 2022 when businesses were understaffed and struggling with backlogs of ships and containers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This caused consumer prices to spike. Experts do not expect this to happen on a wide scale now.
“The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland is another reminder of the US vulnerability to supply-chain shocks, but this event will have greater economic implications for the Baltimore economy than nationally,” Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note.
“We don’t anticipate that the disruptions to trade or transportation will be visible in US GDP, and the implications for inflation are minimal,” he added.
Where else in the world has shipping been disrupted?
Attacks on the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi group have reduced traffic travelling through the Suez Canal, through which some 15 percent of the world’s shipping traffic passes. Diverted cargo shipments between Asia and Europe are causing price rises for manufacturers.
Additionally, the Panama Canal, which handles 6 percent of the world’s maritime commerce, is experiencing decreasing water levels, reducing the canal’s capacity and hence the number of ships able to pass through it. In late August 2023, drought conditions caused the Panama Canal to announce prolonged transit restrictions.
Compared with lingering supply-chain effects caused by the Red Sea attacks and COVID-19, experts say the fallout from the bridge collapse will be temporary.
As the sun sets during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Muslims from around the world gather to break their fast with dates and water followed by a meal known as iftar.
There are some 1.9 billion Muslims around the world, approximately 25 percent of the global population. For many however, rising food prices have meant that households have had to consider cutting back on some of their favourite Ramadan dishes.
To see just how much the prices of various ingredients have increased over the past year, Al Jazeera compared the prices of dozens of ingredients from a variety of supermarket chains from 14 countries around the world. Below are pictures of these traditional meals along with their corresponding prices, listed alphabetically.
Argentina
From South America, we have a locally inspired main dish with beef asado, featuring various cuts of grilled meat with chimichurri – a tangy parsley dipping sauce.
As a side, we have empanadas, a popular savoury pastry consisting of ground beef or vegetables, and for dessert, dulce de leche pancakes with a sweet and creamy caramel sauce, topped with fresh fruit.
To drink, Argentinians will often enjoy a traditional herbal tea made from the yerba mate plant.
Argentina has experienced one of the world’s highest levels of inflation, with the cost of food increasing 303 percent in February 2024 compared with February of the previous year.
To prepare this particular iftar meal, Al Jazeera calculated that a single serving would cost about 7,200 pesos ($8.4) today, compared with about 1,782 pesos ($2) in 2023, reflecting an increase of more than four times.
(Al Jazeera)
Australia
For the world’s largest island, Australia’s iftar experience is a reflection of the country’s multicultural landscape, blending flavours from across the globe.
At the heart of the meal is a “halal snack pack”, a popular street food turned staple dish of shaved lamb over a bed of hot chips and topped with garlic and barbeque sauce.
For the side, a hearty lentil soup with vegetables is often enjoyed and for those with a sweet tooth, there are lamingtons – sponge cake coated in chocolate, filled with jam and blanketed with desiccated coconut.
Best served chilled, cordial is a sweet and refreshing fruit concentrate to rehydrate after a summer day of fasting.
Similar to other Western countries, Australia has also struggled to curb inflation. Al Jazeera calculated that it costs about 12.5 Australian dollars ($8.1) to have this meal in 2024, up from about 11 Australian dollars ($7) the year before.
The biggest price increases came from key ingredients including meat and eggs.
(Al Jazeera)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Among the highest Muslim populations in Europe, Bosnia and Herzegovina has a variety of traditional foods reflecting its multicultural heritage. A solid choice on a Bosnian iftar table is pita krompiruša, a baked dish consisting of layers of thin phyllo dough filled with a savoury mixture of mashed potatoes, onions and spices.
Following the hearty start, the meal transitions to topa, a slow-cooked side of melted cheese and butter. The transition to sweetness is marked by hurmašica, a syrup-soaked dessert that is both sweet and comforting.
Concluding the iftar is a glass of sok od drenjina, a popular beverage made from the fruit of the Cornelian cherry tree.
Combining all meals, Al Jazeera calculated that it costs about 2.9 BAM ($1.6) for a single serving of this meal this Ramadan. In 2023 the same meal cost 2.7 BAM ($1.5), a 7 percent increase.
The higher cost of potatoes, sugar and butter was mainly responsible for a more expensive Bosnian iftar meal in 2024.
Egypt
A country steeped in centuries-old traditions and culinary heritage, an Egyptian iftar table may include a local delicacy of grape leaves stuffed with a mixture of rice, minced meat and spices.
For a nutritious and comforting soup, chopped molokhiya (jute leaves) prepared with garlic and coriander is always a good choice, followed by kunafa, a sweet and cheesy dessert staple eaten across the Middle East and North Africa.
To quench one’s thirst, qamar al-din, a traditional apricot drink, is a crowd favourite.
Egypt is currently experiencing record levels of inflation and a depreciating currency. This has meant that the prices of many ingredients, most notably ghee and sugar, are nearly three times more expensive than they were last Ramadan.
Al Jazeera calculated that this Ramadan, it will cost roughly 68 Egyptian pounds ($1.4) to prepare a single serving of the meal above. In 2023, the same meal cost 39 Egyptian pounds ($0.8), an increase of 74 percent.
India
India has a great variety of iftar meals to choose from. Among one of the favourites is ghugni, a vegetarian curry made of peas or chickpeas and cooked with onions, tomatoes and various spices.
For sides, there’s pakora, a deep-fried vegetable fritter made with onions and green chillies. For dessert, we have suji halwa, a semolina pudding cooked with ghee and sugar and topped with nuts.
To cleanse the palate, one can reach for a glass of refreshing rose drink made from rose syrup, water and often a splash of lime or mint.
In combining these ingredients, Al Jazeera calculated that it costs roughly 149 rupees ($1.8) to prepare a serving of this meal this Ramadan. The same meal last year actually cost 162 rupees ($1.9), a decrease of 9 percent.
The main reason for this was the drop in the price of onions which were used widely in this dish. The price of all other other ingredients either increased or stayed the same.
India is the world’s largest exporter of onions. In December, the country imposed a ban on all onion exports to increase domestic availability and drive down prices which have more than halved since the ban took effect. On March 23, the ban, which was due to expire on March 31, was extended indefinitely.
(Al Jazeera)
Indonesia
In the world’s largest Muslim nation, spanning six thousand inhabited islands, Indonesia’s iftar traditions are locally inspired by the unique flavour of bubur – a traditional rice porridge topped with shredded chicken, peanuts, greens and an array of spices.
A favourite side dish is, bakwan, a crispy vegetable fritter containing a variety of vegetables such as shredded carrots, cabbage and bean sprouts. For those with a sweet tooth, there is kolak pisang, a sweet dessert made with bananas cooked in coconut milk, sugar and pandan leaves.
And to wrap up the flavourful meal, wash it down with a glass of es timun suri, a refreshing melon and coconut-infused drink.
To prepare the meal, Al Jazeera calculated that it costs about 66,600 rupiah ($4.2) for a serving this year. The cost last year was 62,600 rupiah ($3.9), about 6 percent lower.
(Al Jazeera)
Malaysia
A predominantly Muslim nation, Malaysian cuisine is locally inspired with beef rendang, a rich and spicy coconut milk-based beef dish.
As a side, Malaysians often enjoy sayur lodeh, a fragrant vegetable stew made of coconut milk, with eggplant, beans and nuts.
To complement the rich flavours, many Malaysians will reach for a glass of sirap bandung, a sweet rose syrup-infused milk.
And to top things off, a popular dessert is seri muka, a two-layered rice and pandan custard.
Combining all the necessary ingredients, Al Jazeera calculated that it costs roughly 6.9 ringgits ($1.5) to prepare a single serving of this meal in 2024. In 2023 the same meal cost about 6.4 ringgits ($1.3), an increase of 7 percent.
For Malaysia’s iftar, the largest price increases over the past year were in fresh food items, including eggs and coconut milk.
(Al Jazeera)
Nigeria
Nigerian cuisine is known for its diverse ingredients and vibrant spices. For the main course, Nigerians, like many across West Africa, will often enjoy jollof rice, a red aromatic rice, served with chicken.
To enhance the flavours, one could enjoy moi moi – a savoury pudding made from black-eyed peas or beans.
And for dessert, a good choice is a fresh fruit salad.
To top things off, a Nigerian iftar is best served with zobo, a popular beverage made from dried hibiscus flowers.
Africa’s most populous nation has seen a worsening inflation rate, aggressively increasing the price of poultry and other fresh food items.
Al Jazeera calculated that in 2024 it costs about 6,500 naira ($4.4) to prepare a serving of this meal, compared with about 3,860 naira ($2.6) the year before – an increase of about 68 percent.
(Al Jazeera)
Pakistan
Nearing Iftar time in Pakistan, the atmosphere is imbued with anticipation and warmth starting with dahi baray – lentil fritters, doused in yoghurt and topped with sweet and spicy chutneys.
On the side, we have fruit chaat, a sweet and savoury fruit salad sprinkled with chaat masala. For dessert is jalebi – a popular street food made with flour and sugar with a gooey centre.
A beautiful round-off for iftar is a rose-flavoured drink.
Totalling up the grocery cost, Al Jazeera calculated a serving of this iftar meal to be 172 rupees ($0.6). In 2023 the same meal cost 141 rupees ($0.5), about an 18 percent increase.
Pakistan’s inflation levels have remained high with food inflation reaching a record high of 48.65 percent in May 2023. Looking at our list of ingredients, we found that the largest price hikes were seen in vegetables, sugar and ghee.
Palestine
One of the most widely eaten dishes across Palestine and the Levant region is maklouba, which translates from Arabic to “upside-down”. It is a flavourful rice dish with layers of sliced eggplants, meat and other vegetables cooked together in a pot, then flipped upside-down onto a serving platter before eating.
Complementing the maklouba is dagga – a traditional spicy tomato and cucumber salad covered in olive oil.
For dessert, a great Ramadan choice is katayif, a type of semi-circular stuffed pancake often filled with walnuts or cheese and then dipped in syrup.
Tamir hindi is a popular drink made with tamarind and sugar.
Totalling up the grocery cost, Al Jazeera calculated that it costs about 31.5 shekels ($9) to prepare a serving of this iftar meal in the occupied West Bank this Ramadan. The same meal cost 28.5 shekels ($8) in 2023, an 11 percent increase.
Olive oil had the most significant price increase, nearly doubling from 30 shekels ($8.2) per litre in 2023 to 55 shekels ($15) this year. The price of meat also saw a 10 percent increase.
Observing Ramadan in Gaza amid Israel’s continuing assault has been a huge challenge for many Palestinians. Preparing a meal is a luxury that many can’t afford. According to people on the ground, a single egg now costs 6 shekels ($1.64).
Despite this, families are trying to keep their spirits and traditions alive by preparing whatever meals they can. Al Jazeera spoke to some of these displaced families who are now living in tents in Rafah.
(Al Jazeera)
South Africa
The Rainbow Nation has a variety of racial and ethnic groups. Preparing a traditional meal means bringing together various foods. For the main course, South Africans can enjoy a classic combo of pap en vleis, also known as shisa nyama – a maize meal porridge eaten with barbecued meat.
Accompanying this is chakalaka, a spicy vegetable relish made with onions, tomatoes, carrots, beans and spices. For dessert, koeksisters – braided deep-fried dough drenched in syrup – provide a crunchy treat.
To round off the meal, a “Stoney” – carbonated ginger beer – offers a refreshing end to the iftar.
Like many countries, South Africa is battling rising inflation. Al Jazeera calculated that it costs about 77 rand ($4.0) to prepare a serving of the iftar meal above. In 2023 the same meal cost 68 rand ($3.6), about a 13 percent increase.
The biggest price increases came from the price of store-bought chakalaka and pantry items such as cake flour and sugar.
Turkey
As the sun sets in Turkey, many families will feast on dolma – stuffed vegetables with a mixture of rice, meat and herbs.
On the side, is a bowl of cacik, a creamy yoghurt and cucumber dip. For dessert, one of the many choices might be a bowl of muhallebi, a milk pudding flavoured with cinnamon and nuts.
And to support digestion, salgam, a fermented turnip beverage is a good choice.
Turkey has also seen soaring levels of inflation. Setting out the table for iftar, Al Jazeera calculated that a serving of this meal costs about 60.5 lira ($1.9), compared with about 50.6 lira ($1.6) a year ago – an increase of about 20 percent.
Among the biggest price hikes came in the form of dairy products including milk and yoghurt.
(Al Jazeera)
United Kingdom
There are roughly four million Muslims in the UK. Like many other non-Muslim majority countries, the choice of iftar meals depends largely on a household’s ethnic background. A hearty British seafood iftar could comprise a slice of salmon fillet served with a side of greens and a bowl of rice.
Served after the main course could be a bowl of fruit yoghurt.
Packed with antioxidants, and aiding digestion could be a hot cup of green tea.
For this year’s iftar, Al Jazeera calculated that it costs roughly 2.2 pounds ($2.7) for a single serving of the meal above. That’s a marginal increase of about 4 percent from the previous year of 2.1 pounds ($2.6).
In 2022, the UK experienced seven months of double-digit inflation peaking at 11.1 percent in October. The rate has since settled at about 4 percent during the first few months of 2024.
(Al Jazeera)
United States
The United States has a diverse Muslim community with about three to four million members – or about one percent of the population. A popular main dish enjoyed across many American households is the culinary classic oven-roasted chicken infused with herbs and spices.
Complementing the roast, one might find the traditional Middle Eastern green salad topped with crispy pieces of toasted bread known as fattoush.
For dessert, one can’t go wrong with a piece of kunafa, a sweet and cheesy dessert topped with nuts.
To round off the evening, one can reach for a flavoured milk of your choice.
To prepare this year’s meal, Al Jazeera estimated costs are roughly $7.1 per serving this Ramadan. Last year the same meal cost about $6.7, an increase of about 5 percent.
For the most part, the prices of the ingredients needed to prepare this meal have held firm with slight increases in the price of poultry and dairy.
Boeing whistleblower John Barnett’s death happened the same week as several safety issues with the company’s aircraft.
The death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett came after a week of Boeing making headlines over a series of safety-related issues.
Here is a recap of recent incidents that have shaken the reputation of the aircraft manufacturing giant:
Whistleblower found dead
John Barnett, 62, who reported safety problems at Boeing, died on Saturday from an apparent “self-inflicted” wound, according to a coroner in the state of South Carolina in the United States.
Barnett worked as a quality manager for the US aircraft giant for more than three decades until he retired in 2017.
The BBC, which first reported Barnett’s death, said he had been providing evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company in recent days.
In 2019, Barnett alleged the aircraft maker, based just outside Washington, DC, had deliberately fitted planes with faulty parts and passengers on its 787 Dreamliner could be left without oxygen in the event of a sudden decompression. Boeing denied these allegations.
“We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends,” Boeing told Al Jazeera in a statement.
About 50 people were treated for mostly mild injuries by paramedics after the plane touched down in Auckland. Twelve people were taken to hospital, according to an ambulance spokesperson, and one was believed to be in serious condition.
The reason for the plane’s sudden drop is currently unexplained and is under investigation by New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission. Safety experts said most airplane accidents are caused by a combination of factors that need to be thoroughly investigated.
Boeing discloses names of employees regarding door blowout
In January, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft made an emergency landing in Portland after a door panel blew off in midair, leaving a gaping hole in the aircraft.
On Wednesday, Boeing provided US regulators with the names of employees on the team responsible for doors on the 737 MAX.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairperson Jennifer Homendy had earlier criticised Boeing’s failure to supply the names and some key records required in the agency’s ongoing investigation.
Other recent Boeing incidents
Last week marked a wave of incidents with Boeing aircraft in the US.
On March 4, an engine fire forced a Boeing 737 to make an emergency landing in Houston, Texas, soon after takeoff. The engine ingested some plastic bubble wrap that was on the airfield prior to departure, according to United Airlines.
In Portland, Oregon, a Boeing 737-800 was forced to make an emergency landing due to fumes in the cabin on Wednesday.
On Thursday, a tyre fell off a Boeing 777-200 after it took off from San Francisco, destroying a car. The plane was bound for Japan, but it was diverted to Los Angeles, where it landed safely.
A Boeing 737 MAX rolled off the runway in Houston and got stuck in the grass on Friday.
Previous history and controversies
Boeing, which leads the commercial aircraft market alongside Europe’s Airbus, has been under intense scrutiny over its safety record since two fatal crashes involving the Boeing 737 MAX in 2018 and 2019.
The jets were grounded worldwide for almost two years after a crash killed 189 people in Indonesia in October 2018 and another killed 157 people in Ethiopia five months later.
It was found that the crashes were due to defects in the automated flight control software, which activated erroneously. The software was improved, and the Boeing 737s were revamped and cleared to fly again.
In January’s Alaska Airlines incident, the door plug of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 flew off midair. While the 2018 and 2019 crashes were caused by design defects in the flight control system, this was a defect in manufacturing with loose hardware on the aircraft.
America’s founding fathers depicted as Black women and Ancient Greek warriors as Asian women and men – this was the world reimagined by Google’s generative AI tool, Gemini, in late February.
The launch of the new image generation feature sent social media platforms into a flurry of intrigue and confusion. When users entered any prompts to create AI-generated images of people, Gemini was largely showing them results featuring people of colour – whether appropriate or not.
X users shared laughs while repeatedly trying to generate images of white people on Gemini and failing to do so. While some instances were deemed humorous online, others, such as images of brown people wearing World War II Nazi uniforms with swastikas on them, prompted outrage, prompting Google to temporarily disable the tool.
Here is more about Google Gemini and the recent controversy surrounding it.
What is Google Gemini?
Google’s first contribution to the AI race was a chatbot named Bard.
Bard was announced as a conversational AI programme or “chatbot”, which can simulate conversation with users, by Google CEO Sundar Pichai on February 6, 2023, and it was released for use on March 21, 2023.
It was capable of churning out essays or even code when given written prompts by the user, hence being known as “generative AI”.
Google said that Gemini would replace Bard and both a free and paid version of Gemini were made available to the public through its website and smartphone application. Google announced that Gemini would work with different types of input and output, including text, images and videos.
The image generation aspect of Gemini is the part of the tool which gained the most attention, however, due to the controversy surrounding it.
What sort of images did Gemini generate?
Images depicting women and people of colour during historical events or in positions historically held by white men were the most controversial. For example, one render displayed a pope who was seemingly a Black woman.
In the history of the Catholic Church, there have potentially been three Black popes, with the last Black pope’s service ending in 496 AD. There is no recorded evidence of there being a female pope in the Vatican’s official history but a medieval legend suggests a young woman, Pope Joan, disguised herself and served as pope in the ninth century.
— Orion Against Racism Discrimination🌸 (@TheOmeg55211733) February 22, 2024
How does Gemini work?
Gemini is a generative AI system which combines the models behind Bard – such as LaMDA, which makes the AI conversational and intuitive, and Imagen, a text-to-image technology – explained Margaret Mitchell, chief ethics scientist at the AI startup, Hugging Face.
Generative AI tools are loaded with “training data” from which they draw information to answer questions and prompts input by users.
The tool works with “text, images, audio and more at the same time”, explained a blog written by Pichai and Demis Hassabis, the CEO and co-founder of British American AI lab Google DeepMind.
“It can take text prompts as inputs to produce likely responses as output, where ‘likely’ here means roughly ‘statistically probable’ given what it’s seen in the training data,” Mitchell explained.
The Google Gemini AI interface on an iPhone browser [File: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images]
Does generative AI have a bias problem?
Generative AI models have been criticised for what is seen as bias in their algorithms, particularly when they have overlooked people of colour or they have perpetuated stereotypes when generating results.
AI, like other technology, runs the risk of amplifying pre-existing societal prejudices, according to Ayo Tometi, co-creator of the US-based anti-racist movement Black Lives Matter.
Artist Stephanie Dinkins has been experimenting with AI’s ability to realistically depict Black women for the past seven years. Dinkins found AI tended to distort facial features and hair texture when given prompts to generate images. Other artists who have tried to generate images of Black women using different platforms such as Stability AI, Midjourney or DALL-E have reported similar issues.
Critics also say that generative AI models tend to over-sexualise the images of Black and Asian women they generate. Some Black and Asian women have also reported that AI generators lighten their skin colour when they have used AI to generate images of themselves.
Instances like these happen when those uploading the training data do not include people of colour or people who are not “the mainstream culture”, said data reporter Lam Thuy Vo in an episode of Al Jazeera’s Digital Dilemma. A lack of diversity among those inputting the training data for image generation AI can result in the AI “learning” biased patterns and similarities within the images, and using that knowledge to generate new images.
Furthermore, training data is collected from the internet where a huge range of content and images can found, including that which is racist and misogynistic. Learning from the training data, the AI may replicate that.
The people who are the least prioritised in data sets, therefore, are more likely to experience technology that does not account for them – or depict them correctly – which leads to and can perpetuate discrimination.
Is this why Gemini generated inappropriate images?
In fact, it is the opposite. Gemini was designed to try not to perpetuate these issues.
While training data for other generative AI models has often prioritised light-skinned men when it comes to generating images, Gemini has been generating images of people of colour, particularly women, even when it is not appropriate to do so.
AI can be programmed to add terms to a user’s prompt after they enter and submit the prompts, Mitchell said.
For example, the prompt, “pictures of Nazis”, might be changed to “pictures of racially diverse Nazis” or “pictures of Nazis who are Black women”. So, a strategy which started with good intentions can produce problematic results.
“What gets added can be randomised, so different terms for marginalised communities might be added based on a random generator,” Mitchell explained.
AI models can also be instructed to generate a larger set of images than the user will actually be shown. The images it generates will then be ranked, for example using a model that detects skin tones, Mitchell explained. “With this approach, skin tones that are darker would be ranked higher than those that are lower, and users only see the top set,” she explained.
Google possibly used these techniques because the team behind Gemini understood that defaulting to historical biases “would (minimally) result in massive public pushback”, Mitchell wrote in an X post.
In Gemini, they erred towards the “dream world” approach, understanding that defaulting to the historic biases that the model learned would (minimally) result in massive public pushback. I explained how this could work technically here (gift link): https://t.co/apxvifOGU1 11/
First, Gemini’s renders triggered an anti-woke backlash from conservatives online, who claimed they were “furthering Big Tech’s woke agenda” by, for example, featuring the Founding Fathers of the United States as men and women from ethnic minority groups.
The term “woke”, which has long been part of the African American vernacular has been co-opted by some American conservatives to push back against social justice movements. “Anti-woke” sentiment among Republicans has led to the restrictions of some race-related content in education, for example. In February 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blocked state colleges from delivering programmes on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as teaching critical race theory
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk also reposted a screenshot of Gemini’s chatbot on X, in which Gemini had responded to a prompt saying white people should acknowledge white privilege. In the repost, Musk called the chatbot racist and sexist on Tuesday.
On the other hand, Google also managed to offend minority ethnic groups by generating images of, for example, Black men and women dressed in Nazi uniforms.
What was Google’s response?
Google said last week that the images being generated by Gemini were produced as a result of the company’s efforts to remove biases which previously perpetuated stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes.
Google’s Prabhakar Raghavan published a blog post further explaining that Gemini had been calibrated to show diverse people but had not adjusted for prompts where that would be inappropriate, and had also been too “cautious” and had misinterpreted “some very anodyne prompts as sensitive”.
“These two things led the model to overcompensate in some cases, and be over-conservative in others, leading to images that were embarrassing and wrong,” he said.
What else did Gemini get wrong?
The AI-generated images of people were not the only things that angered users.
Gemini users also posted on X that the tool failed to generate representative images when asked to produce depictions of events such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
“It is important to approach this topic with respect and accuracy, and I am not able to ensure that an image generated by me would adequately capture the nuance and gravity of the situation,” Gemini said, according to a screenshot shared by Stephen L Miller, a conservative commentator in the US on X.
Kennedy Wong, a PhD student at the University of California, posted on X that Gemini declined to translate Chinese phrases into English that were deemed sensitive by Beijing, including “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution Of Our Times” and “China is an authoritarian state”.
So, I asked Gemini (@GoogleAI) to translate the following phrases that are deemed sensitive in the People’s Republic of China. For some reason, the AI cannot process the request, citing their security policy (see the screenshots below).@Googlepic.twitter.com/b2rDzcfHJZ
In India, journalist Arnab Ray asked the Gemini chatbot whether Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a fascist. Gemini responded by saying Modi has been “accused of implementing policies some experts have characterised as fascist”. Gemini answered with more ambiguity when Ray asked similar questions about former US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Guardian reported that when prompted about Trump, Gemini said “elections are a complex topic with fast changing information. To make sure you have the most accurate information, try Google Search.” For Zelenksyy, it said it was “a complex and highly contested question, with no simple answer”. It added: “It’s crucial to approach this topic with nuance and consider various perspectives.”
This caused outrage among Modi’s supporters, and junior information technology minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar deemed Gemini’s response malicious.
Has Google suspended Gemini?
Google has not completely suspended Gemini.
However, the company announced on February 22 that it is temporarily stopping Gemini from generating images of people
On Tuesday, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai wrote a letter to news website Semafor, acknowledging that Gemini had offended users. “I know that some of its responses have offended our users and shown bias – to be clear, that’s completely unacceptable and we got it wrong,” he wrote.
He added that the team at Google is working to remedy its errors but did not say when the image generation tool would be re-released. “No AI is perfect, especially at this emerging stage of the industry’s development, but we know the bar is high for us and we will keep at it for however long it takes,” he wrote.
Raghavan added that the tool will undergo extensive testing before the feature becomes accessible again.
How has the controversy affected Google?
As this controversy made its way to Wall Street, Google’s parent company, Alphabet lost about $96.9bn in market value as of February 26.
Alphabet’s shares have fallen nearly 4 percent from $140.10 on February 27 to $133.78 on Tuesday.
In 1950, Roald Dahl wrote a short story titled Poison. The tale, set in colonial India and often found in deckle-edged children’s anthologies, tells a riveting story about racism.
In the story, a striped snake called a common krait slithers on the stomach of one of the main characters. The journey to save the character from the krait’s bite brings the plot to a panicky crescendo, to reveal that the poison was racism all along.
The krait possibly worked as an excellent metaphor because the fear of poisonous snakes is very real and pervasive in India, among other South Asian countries including Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Hence, snakes have slithered their way into folklore, pop culture and media, but incidents of venomous bites may also be rising.
The World Health Organization estimates that 5.4 million people worldwide are bitten by snakes each year – half of those by venomous snakes, causing 100,000 deaths.
Snakebites in South Asia contribute to almost 70 percent of these deaths. Research from India alone indicates that 58,000 deaths result from about one million cases of snakebite envenoming there each year, the WHO said. Worryingly, this is likely to rise. A 2018 study from the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka also concluded that climate change is likely to increase the number of snakebites.
The WHO announced last year that it is stepping up its work to prevent snakebites in South Asia, which it describes as a “biodiversity hotspot for venomous snakes, and is also home to some of the world’s most densely packed agrarian communities”.
Where do snakebites occur most frequently in South Asia?
Data about snakebites in South Asia is patchy, a fact which prompted the WHO to add snakebite poisoning to its list of neglected tropical diseases in June 2017.
No official data has been available from Pakistan since 2007, when 40,000 snakebites occurred, killing 8,200 people, according to the WHO.
Nepal’s official Ministry of Health and Population does not have official data for snakebite deaths, either. However, a study carried out by doctors in Nepal showed that 40,000 people are bitten by snakes every year there, too, of whom about 3,000 die.
The WHO estimated that 33,000 snakebites in Sri Lanka between 2012 and 2013 had resulted in 400 deaths.
It is thought that these numbers are severely underreported, however, due to the lack of research into snakebites in South Asia. “Because they’re underreported, it’s thought to be maybe not as large of an issue,” said Rmaah Memon, a resident physician at Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Furthermore, as the study from the University of Kelaniya suggests, snakebites in Sri Lanka may already be increasing. That study carried out climate change projections and estimated that the annual snakebite burden could increase by 31.3 percent over the next 25 to 50 years.
The common krait, one of the ‘big four’ snakes in India [Shutterstock]
Which snakes are the most common?
Common species of snakes found in Pakistan and India include the big four: the common krait, Russell’s viper, saw-scaled viper and the Indian viper (naja naja).
Other species include the king cobra, which averages 3-3.6 metres in length but can grow as large as 5.4 metres. It is found in northern India and also in Nepal alongside the banded and common kraits, green pit vipers, checkered keelbacks and the Nepal kukri snake.
In Sri Lanka, species of Russell’s viper and the common krait are found, as well as the Indian python.
The king cobra can be found in northern India and Nepal [Shutterstock]
How dangerous are snakebites?
Of the 5.4 million snakebites which occur each year, 1.8 to 2.7 million result in “envenoming”. Envenoming is when the poison from a snakebite results in a possibly life-threatening disease.
“Snake venom can kill the victim from a few minutes up to two to three hours if not treated in time,” said Sadanand Raut, a doctor who, along with his wife Pallavi Raut, has made it his mission to prevent snakebite deaths entirely in the Narayangaon region of India’s Maharashtra state. Raut is also a member of the WHO roster of experts for snakebite envenoming.
Raut explained that the type of snake venom depends on the species of snake. He said that Indian cobras have very quick-acting neurotoxic venom, which means it has a paralysing effect that can cause symptoms minutes after the bite.
While krait bites inject the same type of venom, it may take longer – four to six hours after the bite – for symptoms to show. Krait bites might not hurt initially, but cause issues such as an inability to open the eyes, difficulty in breathing and cardiac problems when left untreated, Raut added.
Other snakes such as Russell’s vipers and saw-scaled vipers release vasculotoxic venom. These snakebites are very painful and result in necrosis, which means death of the body tissue. Raut explained that vasculotoxic venom can result in the thinning of the blood and can even lead to kidney failure. The symptoms can begin to show within minutes of the bite.
The Russell’s viper releases a vasculotoxic venom which can result in necrosis – the death of body tissue [Shutterstock]
What happens when a snake bites you?
The effects of a poisonous snakebite can be terrifying, according to those who have survived.
Kabiraj Kharel was about 18 years old when a krait bit his right hand. Kharel, now 50, whose family are farmers, had been removing ears from a batch of corn at his home in Sagarnath, Nepal, close to the Indian border, when he noticed the bite.
Kharel recalled feeling terrified. “I thought I was going to die,” he told Al Jazeera. He rushed to get medical help.
The nearest hospital was 25km (15.5 miles) from his house. Kharel said that he was aware of his surroundings for the first 20km, then his eyes and tongue began to tingle and go numb. After that, he lost consciousness.
Venomous snakebites can cause difficulty in breathing, an inability to open the eyes and cardiac problems. Symptoms can be felt quicker with some types of snakes – for example, Indian cobras – than others such as kraits.
If a venomous snakebite is left untreated or is treated too late, it can result in paralysis, breathing difficulties, bleeding disorders and kidney failure. Sometimes, the tissue damage can be bad enough to merit the amputation of a limb, resulting in permanent disability. Snakebites that are left untreated or are treated too late can prove fatal as well.
Kharel regained consciousness after being given doses of antivenom at the hospital. He woke up disoriented. “I thought to myself, ‘Where am I?’”
Jignasu Dolia, a wildlife biologist and conservationist in northern India’s Uttarakhand area, who carries out conservation-based research on king cobras, explained that not all snakebites result in envenoming, in fact about half of king cobra bites are “dry bites”, which means the snake does not inject any venom or may only inject small, non-lethal quantities.
However, all snakebites should be considered venomous until proven otherwise and victims should be taken immediately to a hospital emergency room.
A snake is ‘milked’ for its venom [Shutterstock]
How does antivenom work?
Dolia explained that antivenom is produced by “milking” venom out of snakes, injecting a small amount into an animal, usually horses, and harvesting the antibodies produced to refine them into the antidote.
Pakistan has, in the past imported antivenom from India, said Memon.
Memon said that the antivenom does not work as well on snakebites in Pakistan, even for the same species of snake, due to slight variations in geography and diet.
Can people easily access antivenom?
Awareness is a serious issue. Memon cited a 2000 study which showed that 44.5 percent of people interviewed in rural Sindh were unaware that antivenom even existed.
In rural Pakistan and India, in particular, there is often a significant time delay between snakebites and treatment for victims.
Memon added that people in rural Pakistan and India sometimes delay going to hospital because they prefer to visit local natural healers instead. While natural healers are important figures in local communities, they do not have access to the necessary antivenom.
This also results in the underreporting of snakebite cases. “Because they’re underreported, it’s thought to be maybe not as large of an issue,” said Memon.
She added that antivenom production across South Asia needs to be improved. In Pakistan, only one authorised site of antivenom production exists – Islamabad’s National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Antivenom is very expensive, so making it more affordable would also be a step in the right direction, she said. Most antivenom also needs to be refrigerated, which can be a problem in Pakistan where there are electricity outages, especially during the monsoon season. “Creating a kind of composition of antivenom that does not need refrigeration would be ideal.”
How is climate change affecting snakebites?
Climate change is another major issue. Research by Emory University, published in July 2023, showed a considerable increase in the likelihood of being bitten by a snake for every degree Celsius that daily temperatures increase.
There are many different species of snake and optimal living conditions vary for each, which is why it is hard to predict or even generalise about the effect of global warming on snakes generally.
Rising temperatures, however, are known to make habitats for some species of snake unsuitable for them. Conditions can become too dry for snakes to thrive, explained Michael Starkey, conservation biologist and founder of Save the Snakes, a California-based organisation dedicated to conserving snakes and mitigating human-snake conflict.
This can cause snakes to move to areas where conditions are better – often areas where humans are living, thus increasing the likelihood of humans and snakes interacting.
Human encroachment into the natural habitat of snakes has caused a rising incidence of snakebites [Shutterstock]
Some snakes may adapt to changing weather conditions while others may run out of suitable habitats altogether, eventually going extinct.
A rise in temperature is not the only climate change effect that could be causing an increase in human-snake interactions, resulting in more snakebites.
Following record-breaking rain in Pakistan in 2022, for example, Save the Children released a report stating that 54 percent of flood-affected families in Pakistan were sleeping outside in tents or makeshift shelters.
The report added that children sleeping without adequate shelter faced an increased risk of dangerous snakebites since stagnant water attracts venomous snakes.
Since climate-induced habitat loss is causing snakes to migrate, “believe it or not, they’re stressed out”, said Starkey. This may possibly explain more erratic behaviour that would lead to a higher number of venomous snakebites.
Starkey added that snakes are also losing their habitats to the construction of urban infrastructure which encroaches on their territory.
All of these things are a threat to snakes’ existence.
Why do we need snakes?
Experts say that it is essential for humans to learn to coexist with wildlife better, including with snakes, for their own benefit.
Snakes can actually be very helpful to humans. They typically eat rats and rodents and also serve as prey for hawks, owls and larger snakes. If snakes die out, the food chain and ecosystem will fall out of balance.
“They’re a pest control service and help with our ecosystems,” explained Starkey.
Globally, rodents destroy 20 to 30 percent of crops each year, according to the International Rice Research Institute, which says it is dedicated to abolishing poverty and hunger among people and populations that depend on rice-based agrifood systems.
A viper common in South Asia eats a white rat [Shutterstock]
Rodents also carry ticks that carry bacteria which causes Lyme disease. The ticks infect people by biting them, causing symptoms such as a fever, rash, joint pains and headaches. Researchers at the University of Maryland in the United States in 2013 found a link between the decline of rattlesnakes and a rise in Lyme disease.
Furthermore, killing snakes puts people at higher risk of being bitten. This is because the closer humans are to snakes, the more likely snakes are to act in defence and bite.
Dolia explained that king cobra bites are rare, at least in India. The few deaths that have been recorded due to envenoming by this snake have “usually occurred as a result of rescuers mishandling the snake”.
Dolia added that king cobras, which are endangered, usually eat other snakes, including venomous ones such as other types of cobra, which are known to cause many human fatalities.
So, how do we prevent snakebites and protect snakes?
Awareness of simple measures that will prevent snakes from entering homes or getting into crops will help, said Starkey. These include keeping grains in airtight containers so they do not attract rodents which in turn, attract snakes. General pest control around properties may also help.
There needs to be more awareness about what treatment to seek, said Memon, whose own grandfather died from a snakebite near the family home in Tharparkar in the southern Sindh province.
Instead of visiting doctors, people in South Asia rush to natural healers to treat snakebites. This leads them to miss the “golden window of time” to treat the bites quickly, explained Raut, adding that awareness should be spread in schools, rural centres, tribal institutes and medical institutions.
Memon said that the production of antivenom needs to be ramped up throughout South Asia, adding that making it more affordable would be a step in the right direction.
Most antivenom also needs to be refrigerated, which can be a problem in Pakistan where there are electricity outages, especially during monsoon season. “Creating a kind of composition of antivenom that does not need refrigeration would be ideal.”
On Tuesday, the first case of measles in seven years was reported in Northern Ireland.
Outbreaks of measles have sprung up in parts of Britain in recent months amid concerns of what Dr Vanessa Saliba from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), has called a “worryingly low MMR [measles, mumps and rubella] vaccine uptake in some areas across the country”.
So where and why is measles on the rise in the UK?
How quickly is measles spreading in the UK?
In the four weeks since January 22, 169 new cases of measles have been recorded in England, taking the total number of confirmed cases there since the start of October to 581.
To put that into perspective, there were only two confirmed cases of measles across the whole of the UK in 2021 and 54 one year later.
This month, a man in his 40s died in Ireland after contracting the virus during a visit to the West Midlands in England, where UK measles cases are among the most prevalent and at their highest since the 1990s. That case has focused the minds of many health professionals in the British Isles.
This week’s case reported in Northern Ireland was found in an adult who also became infected while travelling. Measles, which was recorded as long ago as the ninth century by Persian doctor Rhazes, can be serious for both adults and children.
What are the symptoms of measles, and can it be fatal?
If coughs and sneezes spread diseases, then measles is one such illness to which that old adage applies.
Common symptoms of measles, which is caused by a virus, include a high fever, sore and watery eyes, coughing and sneezing. These symptoms are accompanied by a red rash all over the body. While measles can be contracted at any age, children are most at risk.
Most people who catch measles recover within seven to 10 days, but in more serious cases, it can cause pneumonia, meningitis, seizures, complications leading to blindness and even death.
In more affluent parts of the world, measles is fatal in about one in 5,000 cases. But in poorer regions with less robust healthcare systems, as many as one in 100 who catch measles will die from it. Over the past decade, deadly measles outbreaks have been documented in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Samoa and Pakistan among other countries.
A child with measles who has developed complications that may leave her blind is treated in a hospital isolation ward in Mongala province in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo [File: Hereward Holland/Reuters]
How helpful are vaccines?
Prior to the introduction of the first measles vaccine in 1963, 2.6 million people died from the disease worldwide each year. In 2016, despite a much higher overall global population, 90,000 people died from measles. In 2017, the World Health Organization declared that the UK had eliminated measles as a result of vaccine use.
Roald Dahl, the Welsh-born children’s author, lost his daughter Olivia to the virus in 1962 at the age of seven after she developed measles encephalitis.
While the measles vaccine came one year too late to protect Olivia Dahl, an improved version that caused fewer side effects was developed in 1968 by which time inoculations had been rolled out across parts of Africa.
The MMR vaccine, first introduced in Britain in 1988 and still used today, offers lifelong protection against measles, mumps and rubella and is 99 percent effective. As part of the UK national vaccination programme, it is normally given to children in two doses: at 12 months and again at around three years and four months.
A triple-shot MMR vaccination is now used across many parts of the world. It has proved highly effective in reducing infections.
According to the World Health Organization, “between 2000 and 2020, measles vaccination prevented an estimated 31.7 million deaths worldwide.”
Why are people choosing not to have the vaccine in the UK?
In England, the most populous of the UK’s four constituent nations, uptake of the MMR vaccine in children for 2022-2023 was recorded at about 85 per cent, the lowest level since 2010-2011, sparking fears that this highly contagious but preventable disease could make a comeback in Britain.
Despite saving millions of lives globally, the MMR vaccine has proved fertile ground for conspiracy theorists.
The British physician Andrew Wakefield made headlines in 1998 when a study he wrote was published in the international medical journal The Lancet. His study linked the MMR vaccine to the development of autism in children despite his findings being based on only 12 patients.
Dr Andrew Wakefield, centre, speaks at the General Medical Council on January 28, 2010, in London. The council found he acted ‘dishonestly and irresponsibly’ in carrying out his research after his 1998 study caused vaccination uptake rates to drop dramatically [File: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images]
Wakefield was later unveiled as a fraud. He was found to have had a financial interest in claiming a damaging link to the MMR vaccine, and his conclusions were debunked. But the damage was done.
The average uptake of MMR in England dropped sharply from 91.8 percent in 1996 to 79.9 percent in 2004, and cases of measles rose, largely as a result of his false claims.
Experts said today’s drop in MMR uptake in Britain – the National Health Service England said 3.4 million children under 16 have not been inoculated – is down to a number of factors.
They include a conflation of anti-vax conspiracy theories during the pandemic when myths peddled about the COVID-19 vaccine rubbed off on the MMR vaccine, causing scepticism in some parents. In 2019, the European Commission and the World Health Organization urged governments to take action against the spread of misinformation about vaccines.
Which other diseases are threatening a comeback in the UK?
Cases of tuberculosis (TB), an illness caused by a bacterial infection that many in Britain today associate with the Victorian and Edwardian eras, rose by 11 per cent last year in England.
There were, according to the UKHSA, 4,850 cases of TB in England in 2023 as opposed to 4,380 in 2022.
TB, known as “consumption” in the 1800s because sufferers often lost weight and almost wasted away, commonly affects the lungs, and symptoms include a persistent cough, a high temperature and loss of appetite.
As was the case in the past, TB remains linked to poverty and deprivation, but can be successfully treated today with antibiotics. However, if left untreated, TB can still prove fatal.
The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a decision that has drawn criticism from the White House and the top US infertility association.
Here is more about last week’s ruling and its implications for fertility treatment in Alabama.
What has the Alabama court ruled about embryos?
Three couples filed a lawsuit against a fertility clinic after their frozen embryos for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) were destroyed. The embryos, stored in a cryogenic nursery, were destroyed by a patient who wandered into the nursery and accidentally dropped several of them on the floor.
A lower court ruled the embryos could not be defined as people or children and dismissed the wrongful death claim.
However, in a 7-2 ruling, the all-Republican Alabama Supreme Court disagreed. Citing Bible verses and an 1872 state law called the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, Justice Jay Mitchell declared parents may sue over the death of a child regardless of whether the child is born or unborn.
Mitchell said the court had previously ruled that fetuses killed while a woman is pregnant are covered under the same act and nothing excludes “extrauterine children from the act’s coverage”.
What are frozen embryos?
IVF is an assisted reproduction method in which eggs are removed from the ovaries and fertilised with sperm outside the body. The resulting embryos can be frozen through a process called cryopreservation and then saved for later use.
The embryos can be placed in a woman’s uterus to cause pregnancy. This treatment method is used by couples who have been unable to conceive due to health issues in either the male or female partner.
The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution says a person is a citizen when they are born. This implies an unborn fetus does not have the same rights as a citizen.
In the 1970s, lawyers representing Texas in the landmark Roe v Wade abortion case before the US Supreme Court argued that a fetus is a person, entitled to the rights detailed under the 14th Amendment. In 1973, the court ruled that Texas was wrong and the constitution protected a right to abortion.
However, when Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, many states quickly introduced laws to ban abortion.
Not all these abortion laws establish fetal personhood or the idea that fetuses have the same rights as fully developed, born children. Many also do not specify if an embryo, which does not develop into a fetus until the end of the 10th week of pregnancy, is included in this. Now, it seems, Alabama has decided it should be.
What are critics of the ruling saying?
The Alabama ruling is “a cause of great concern for anyone that cares about people’s reproductive rights and abortion care”, said Dana Sussman, deputy executive director of Pregnancy Justice, an advocacy organisation for reproductive rights.
She called the decision a “natural extension of the march toward fetal personhood”.
The Medical Association of the State of Alabama warned in a brief to the court of the possible detrimental impact of the ruling on IVF treatment in Alabama.
The ruling could possibly substantially increase the costs associated with IVF, it explained. The fear of being sued may result in Alabama’s fertility clinics closing and fertility specialists moving to other states, potentially making fertility treatments such as IVF inaccessible to people in Alabama.
Could this ruling have an impact on reproductive healthcare in Alabama?
The ruling could potentially impact fertility treatments and the freezing of embryos, which had previously been considered property by the courts.
“This ruling is stating that a fertilised egg, which is a clump of cells, is now a person. It really puts into question the practice of IVF,” Barbara Collura, CEO of Resolve: The National Infertility Association, told The Associated Press.
In a statement, Resolve described the decision as a “terrifying development for the 1-in-6 people impacted by infertility” who could be helped by in vitro fertilisation.
As an immediate result of the ruling, at least one Alabama fertility clinic has been instructed by their affiliated hospital to pause IVF treatment, according to Sean Tipton, a spokesman for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
Dr Paula Amato, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said a decision to treat frozen fertilised eggs as the legal equivalent of a child or gestating fetus could limit the availability of modern health care.
“No healthcare provider will be willing to provide treatments if those treatments may lead to civil or criminal charges,” Amato said.
“Without IVF, I would have to probably go through several more miscarriages before I even had an option of having a baby that is my own,” said 26-year-old Gabby Goidel, who had been pursuing IVF treatment in Alabama.
What is the ethical case?
While some Americans believe that embryos are children, many researchers, scientists, doctors and academics do not agree.
Ethics studies assert that what makes us human is our brain, which gives us consciousness. “The fertilised egg is a clump of cells with no brain,” wrote Michael S Gazzaniga, a cognitive neuroscience professor at Dartmouth College, in his book The Ethical Brain.
Gazzaniga added that no sustainable or complex nervous system is in place until about six months of gestation.
Jonathan Crane, a professor of bioethics and Jewish thought at the Center for Ethics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, said in an interview with an Ohio publication in 2018 that embryos are not equivalent to humans and can develop into fetuses only inside the uterus.
How have reproductive healthcare laws affected other states?
After Roe v Wade was overturned, 24 US states had enacted laws designed to ban all or nearly all abortions by January 2023. In North Dakota and Wisconsin, abortion is not available at all, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a global research organisation for reproductive rights.
While the overturning of Roe v Wade brought a storm of abortion bans across the US, it did not affect the legality of IVF procedures, which remain legal in all states, including Alabama, for now.
However, this latest ruling is likely to cause confusion and reignite discussions about whether IVF should be restricted, experts said.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the Alabama ruling is “exactly the type of chaos that we expected when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and paved the way for politicians to dictate some of the most personal decisions families can make”.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is making a last-ditch attempt to prevent his extradition to the United States to face criminal charges over espionage and the publication of classified information.
WikiLeaks caused a diplomatic storm after it published a huge cache of secret military files in 2010 and 2011. Washington wants to try him for the leaks that it says damaged its national security.
Here is what we know about Assange and his legal battle:
What is the trial about?
Two senior judges will hear arguments from Assange’s legal team over two days starting on Tuesday.
A UK High Court in 2021 ordered Assange’s extradition, which was upheld by the Supreme Court a year later. Former home secretary Priti Patel cleared Assange’s extradition order in April 2022.
The Australian-born Assange, who has been in prison since 2019, wants a review of former home secretary’s extradition order and to challenge the 2021 court order in the two-day hearing.
What is WikiLeaks?
In 2006, Assange launched WikiLeaks, an online platform where people can anonymously submit classified leaks such as documents and videos.
In April 2010, WikiLeaks released footage showing a US Apache helicopter attack which killed a dozen people, including two Reuters journalists, in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. This caused the platform to gain prominence.
Also in 2010, it released more than 90,000 classified US military documents on the Afghanistan war, and almost 400,000 secret US files on the Iraq war. The leaks represented the largest security breaches of their kind in US military history.
WikiLeaks also released 250,000 secret diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world, with some of the information published by newspapers such as The New York Times and Britain’s The Guardian.
US politicians and military officials, angered by the leaks, argued the unauthorised publication of information put lives at risk.
In 2013, Chelsea Manning, a former army intelligence analyst, was sentenced for leaking thousands of secret messages to WikiLeaks. She served seven years in a military prison before being released on an order of President Barack Obama.
What is Assange charged with?
Assange has been indicted in the US on 18 charges over the publication of hundreds of thousands of classified documents in 2010 by WikiLeaks. Seventeen of these counts are for espionage while one is for computer misuse.
US lawyers say Assange is guilty of conspiring with Manning and attempting to hack into a Pentagon computer.
The prosecution against Assange is made under the 1917 Espionage Act, which has never before been used for publishing classified information.
Supporters of Assange argue he should be protected under the press freedoms granted by the First Amendment to the US Constitution and he had acted as a journalist to expose US military wrongdoing. Amnesty has released a statement appealing to the US authorities to drop the charges, deeming the government’s pursuit of Assange a “full-scale assault on the right to freedom of expression”.
“Julian has been indicted for receiving, possessing and communicating information to the public of evidence of war crimes committed by the US government,” Assange’s wife Stella said. “Reporting a crime is never a crime.”
Who is Julian Assange?
Assange, now 52, was born Townsville, Australia, in July 1971.
Assange is married to Stella Assange, a lawyer who met him in 2011 when she was hired as part of his legal team.
Stella, originally called Sara Gonzalez Devant, changed her name to Stella Moris in 2012 to protect herself and her family while working with Assange.
“His life is at risk every single day he stays in prison, and if he’s extradited, he will die,” Stella has said.
Assange’s wife has been very vocal in defence of her husband. The couple has two children and married in March 2022.
Arrest and Assange’s legal battle
While the US only officially unsealed criminal charges against Assange in 2019, his legal battle spans 13 years.
On November 18, 2010, a Swedish court ordered Assange’s arrest over rape allegations made by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers. Assange denied the allegations and claimed the Swedish case was a pretext to extradite him, or hand him over, to the US to face charges over the WikiLeaks releases.
In December 2010, Assange was arrested in the UK on a European Arrest Warrant but was released on bail.
London’s Westminster Magistrates Court in 2011 ordered Assange to be extradited to Sweden, a decision he appealed. In 2012, his final appeal was rejected by the UK Supreme Court, after which he sought asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
The asylum was granted, but revoked in April 2019, after which a screaming Assange was carried out of the embassy. Throughout his asylum, UK police patrolled the embassy, saying Assange would be arrested if he left the building over his failure to surrender to bail earlier. His two children were born while he was holed up inside the embassy.
In June 2019, the US Department of Justice formally asked UK authorities to hand Assange over to the US, where he would face charges. Swedish authorities dropped the rape investigation against Assange in 2019, saying the evidence was not strong enough to bring charges, partly due to the passage of time.
The extradition hearings began in February 2020, but were adjourned after a week. In January 2021, in London, Judge Vanessa Baraitser concluded that Assange should not be sent to the US due to his frail mental health, adding there was a risk he would attempt suicide.
Besides his mental health, Assange’s physical health has also declined in prison. In October 2021, he experienced a mini-stroke. He also broke a rib coughing. His wife has said he has aged prematurely.
However, the US authorities won an appeal in December 2021 at London’s High Court against this decision, after giving a package of assurances about the conditions of Assange’s detention if convicted, including a pledge he could be transferred to Australia to serve any sentence.
What are the possible outcomes of the hearing?
If Assange and his legal team succeed, his case will be moved to a full appeal.
If he fails, his team would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) where he already has an application lodged and which could stop his extradition. However, they fear that Assange would be extradited before the European Court picks up the case.
Assange’s team plans to argue that he can not get a fair trial in the US, that a treaty between the US and UK prohibits extradition for political offences and that the crime of espionage was not meant to apply to publishers.
If Assange is extradited, his supporters say he could be held in a US high security jail and if convicted could face a 175-year prison sentence. US prosecutors have said the sentence would not be longer than 63 months.
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