A historian and a chef discover a 1, 000 year-old Arab cookbook from Baghdad and how its recipes reached southern Spain.
A historian and a chef go on a culinary journey through history to discover the roots of Arab cuisine and its influence on the food and flavours of today. Kotoz is a researcher in Arab food history, and Fadi Kattan is a renowned Palestinian chef.
They travel around Europe in search of recipe manuscripts from the days of the old Arab dynasties and empires. They start this first episode in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, where they find The Book of Dishes, the oldest known Arabic cookbook.
It describes ninth-century rivalries, including a singer-musician called Ziryab, who fell out of favour in the court in Baghdad and fled to Cordoba in Muslim al-Andalus. He brought his knowledge of music, the arts, fashion, and cookery with him to Spain and is famous for a stew called Green Tafaya.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Separatist fighters say they have attacked and seized a train in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan, taking hundreds of people hostage.
Railway sources confirmed to Al Jazeera that more than 400 passengers were on board the nine coaches of the Jaffar Express when it was attacked on Tuesday while travelling from the provincial capital of Quetta to the northern city of Peshawar.
Provincial spokesperson Shahid Rind said an emergency had been declared at a major hospital in Sibi city, 160km (100 miles) southeast of Quetta, after reports of “intense firing” at the train.
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement that six military personnel had been killed. It added that security personnel were among those taken hostage and warned of retaliation if security forces carried out an operation.
There was no immediate comment by Pakistan’s military.
(Al Jazeera)
The 1, 600km (994-mile) train journey from Quetta to Peshawar takes more than 30 hours to complete with more than 30 stops along the way.
The train service was resumed in October after a two-month halt due to a BLA-claimed attack on the track in Balochistan.
The province, which is rich in minerals and natural resources, has been home to a decades-long conflict between the government and ethnic Baloch separatists, who demand secession from Pakistan.
In recent years, there have also been attacks against Chinese interests and nationals working in projects in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a $62bn development initiative. The attacks by the BLA and other groups have continued despite a number of military operations.
BLA ‘ gaining strength ‘
In January, a security report by the Islamabad-based think tank Pak Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS) warned that the situation in Balochistan was “alarming”.
It said there were more than 150 attacks last year, up by a staggering 119 percent compared with the year before.
Last month, at least 18 soldiers were killed in a BLA attack in Balochistan’s Kalat city.
Muhammad Shoaib, a security analyst and an academic, said BLA attacks had surged not just numerically but also in “lethality”.
“The organisation has gained strength over the past few years. It has enhanced its capability on many fronts: propaganda, recruitment, target selection, intelligence and adaptability”, Shoaib told Al Jazeera, adding that the BLA has been able to spread its message through social media and attract educated youth.
“Put simply, it has learnt the art of staying in the news and keeping state apparatus engaged in multiple fronts”, Shoaib added, noting that there were signs that the BLA’s recruitment is on the rise.
“Now it can dedicate more resources and personnel for operations”, Shoaib said.
Manila, Philippines – Almost three years after leaving the presidency, former President Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested by Philippine authorities in Manila, upon the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, which is investigating allegations of “crimes against humanity” committed during his six years in power.
Duterte was immediately taken into police custody on Tuesday at the Manila international airport following his arrival from Hong Kong, in a move hailed by human rights groups as “a critical step for accountability in the Philippines”.
His trip to Hong Kong over the weekend had whipped up speculation that he would evade arrest.
The arrest on Tuesday marks the first time that a leader in the Philippines will be facing a case before an international tribunal. The arrest is especially rare since the Philippines is not a member of the ICC any more — Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the international court in 2019 — and so is not obligated under international law to detain someone who has a warrant against their name.
The decision by the government of current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr also represents an about-turn since Marcos Jr has previously rejected the ICC’s jurisdiction over the Philippines.
So what is Duterte accused of, what prompted the Marcos government to arrest him, how has Duterte responded, and what’s next for the ex-president?
What’s the charge against Duterte – and what prompted the ICC investigation?
The ICC has yet to issue an official statement on the specific charge against Duterte.
The Hague-based court has been investigating allegations of “crimes against humanity” committed by Duterte since 2018, when he was still in power. It briefly suspended its work in 2021 upon the request of the Philippine government but resumed its investigation in 2023.
Duterte ran for president in 2016 on a single issue of fighting crime in the Philippines.
During his campaign and later on as president, he repeatedly urged police to “kill” drug suspects, or encourage suspects to fight back in order to justify the deadly shootings.
After taking office on June 30, 2016, he , immediately launched his deadly campaign described by the country’s Catholic leaders as a “reign of terror”. Over his six years in office, more than 7, 000 people were killed in official anti-drug operations, according to police records.
But human rights advocates said the death toll numbered more than 30, 000, including those killed by unknown suspects, some of whom later turned out to be police officers.
Not all cases were covered in the complaint filed before the ICC. But human rights advocates and lawyers of the victims ‘ families managed to compile evidence from a few hundred cases that were submitted to The Hague court.
Duterte has repeatedly defended his actions as president. As recently as last October during a Senate hearing, he said that he offers “no apologies, no excuses” for carrying out the drug war.
During the same hearing, he also admitted under oath that he maintained a , “death squad” of gangsters to kill other criminals while he was the mayor of the southern Philippines ‘ Davao City. Some of those cases were also included in the ICC complaint.
Former Philippines ‘ president Rodrigo Duterte (centre) is seen inside the Villamor Airbase in Manila after arriving from Hong Kong on Tuesday]Handout Photo/AFP]
Has the Marcos Jr government changed its views on the ICC?
Until Duterte’s arrest on Tuesday, Marcos Jr had repeatedly rejected the ICC’s jurisdiction over the Philippines and on the Duterte case, famously saying that he considers the international body “a threat” to the country’s sovereignty.
In July 2023, just a year into his presidency, he categorically declared that the Philippines “will not cooperate” with the ICC “in any way, shape, or form”, after the ICC announced the resumption of its investigation of Duterte.
Then, in early 2024, he was quoted as saying, “Let me say this for the 100th time. I do not recognise the jurisdiction of ICC in the Philippines. The Philippine government will not lift a finger to help any investigation that the ICC conducts”.
Marcos Jr would reiterate the same line during his visit to Germany in March 2024 and at a meeting with foreign correspondents in Manila in April of the same year.
Yet, the political equation that undergirded that position on the ICC has changed.
When Marcos Jr sought the presidency in 2022, he ran on a ticket with Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte, winning a landslide victory on a promise of continuing the elder Duterte’s policy.
But their alliance began to crumble when supporters of the Duterte family called for Marcos Jr’s ouster, following the arrest of Apollo Quiboloy, an influential pastor and spiritual adviser of former President Duterte.
Their political union finally broke up, after Vice President Sara Duterte was investigated for alleged misuse of millions of dollars in government funds, and was impeached by Marcos Jr’s allies in Congress in late 2024.
Since then, the two camps have been engaged in an all-out political combat ahead of midterm elections in May.
On Tuesday morning,  , Marcos Jr’s office said it had received an official copy of the warrant of arrest “for the crimes against humanity” from the ICC a few hours earlier.
“He’s now in the custody of authorities”, the government statement said, noting that Duterte is “in good health”.
In a statement posted on Facebook, President Marcos’s chief legal counsel, Juan Ponce Enrile, said the Philippine laws “have nothing to do” with Duterte’s current legal problem.
“His legal problem is caused by laws enforceable by the ICC. His lawyers should endeavor to secure a copy of the ICC charges against him so that they will know why he was ordered to be arrested by the ICC”, he said.
How has Duterte responded to his arrest?
“You will just have to kill me if I will not comply”, Duterte was caught saying in a video clip, talking to police officials who arrested him as soon his plane landed in the Philippine capital on Tuesday.
In another video posted on Instagram by Duterte’s youngest daughter, Veronica Duterte, the former leader was seen asking authorities, “What is the law and what is the crime that I committed”?
“Explain to me now the legal basis for my being here, as apparently I was brought here not of my own volition. It’s somebody else’s”, he added.
In a statement, Salvador Panelo, Duterte’s former legal adviser, described the arrest as “unlawful”, saying that the former president was “deprived of legal representation at the time of his arrest”.
Senator Ronald dela Rosa, an ally of Duterte and his former top police enforcer, has also questioned the arrest, filing an emergency case before the Supreme Court.
What’s next for Duterte?
In a statement sent to Al Jazeera, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) said Duterte’s detention “marks an unprecedented step towards justice” for thousands of victims of the drug war.
“Duterte’s arrest is the beginning of accountability for the mass killings that defined his brutal rule”, ICHRP chairperson Peter Murphy said.
Rise Up, a group of women whose family members or children were among those killed in the drug war, also welcomed the arrest and promised to “stay vigilant and see through” the prosecution of Duterte.
“We call for and support the expeditious surrender and transfer of custody of Duterte to the ICC”, the group said.
It is still unclear when Duterte will be turned over to The Hague.
While visiting Hong Kong on Saturday, Duterte had commented about the impending arrest, saying, “If it’s really my fate in life, that’s okay, I will accept it. There’s nothing I can do about it”.
In an interview with Al Jazeera before the arrest was announced, lawyer Maria Kristina Conti, who represents some of the families of the victims, said it was crucial for Filipinos to witness the resolution and prosecution of the case “so that it will not happen again”.
“If you do not put it on record, this could be subject to historical revisionism in the future”, she warned.
United States stock markets plummeted on Monday amid fears that President Donald Trump’s tariff policies might drive the world’s largest economy into recession. After years of impressive growth, America’s economic exceptionalism has been called into question.
Concern over an economic downturn has driven a stock market rout that wiped $1.7 trillion from the S&, P 500 – the world’s most-watched equity index. It fell by 2.7 percent, dragging it 9 percent below the all-time high it reached on February 19.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 posted its worst day since 2022, wiping out more than $1 trillion in value. Investors sold shares in the so-called “magnificent seven” – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla.
Traders signal offers in the S&, P 500 Futures pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange]File: Scott Olson/Getty Images]
What caused the slump?
The market selloff comes as Trump’s back-and-forth tariff announcements have unnerved investors and stoked fears that the US economy could be headed for a major slowdown, or even a recession.
Last week, Trump slapped a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada and doubled the rate on Chinese goods to 20 percent, only to announce two days later that he would delay some Mexican and Canadian tariff hikes until April 2.
Trump has also threatened to impose a global regime of reciprocal tariffs: every country will face the same levy it chooses to impose on US goods from April 2. A 25 percent tariff on imports of steel and aluminium is also set to take effect on Wednesday.
Tariffs look set to increase inflation and consumers will bear the brunt of the higher costs. Many Americans could be forced to tighten their belts, which would lower growth and raise unemployment.
Ongoing public sector cuts and geopolitical tensions have also amplified US policy volatility. On CNBC, Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, described Trump as an “agent of chaos and confusion”.
“What is coming out of the Oval Office … is just complete indecisiveness, confusion and mixed messaging and the investing community losing confidence”, Peter Tuchman, a stock exchange trader, said in a video posted on X.
What did Trump actually say?
In an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday, Trump suggested that the risk of an economic downturn – if it were to happen – would be worth it in the cause of the broader economic shifts he is trying to engineer.
“I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big”, Trump said. “We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing … It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us”.
Asked whether he thought tariffs on US imports would increase inflation, he said, “You may get it. In the meantime, guess what? Interest rates are down”.
He also doubled down on his trade protectionist agenda, saying, “We]the US] have been ripped off at levels never seen before, and we’re going to get a lot of it back”.
How has the White House responded?
As Wall Street panicked yesterday, the White House maintained an optimistic outlook, pointing to major investment pledges from corporate leaders.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai said on Monday that CEOs had responded to Trump’s “America First” agenda, which is marked by tariffs and deregulation, by pledging “trillions in investment commitments”. These commitments, he said, “will create thousands of new jobs”.
Meanwhile, in an interview with CNBC on Monday, Kevin Hassett, the head of Trump’s National Economic Council, played down financial market wobbles as “blips in the data”.
Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary, told NBC’s Meet the Press: “There’s going to be no recession in America … you are going to see over the next two years the greatest set of growth coming from America”, Lutnick said.
Have Wall Street jitters spread elsewhere?
Asian stocks fell sharply on Tuesday morning, as the previous day’s US market selloff extended globally. Japan’s Nikkei stocks slid about 3 percent, hitting their lowest level since September.
Chinese stocks were also not immune to the downbeat mood. The blue-chip index fell 0.5 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was 0.8 percent lower. Australia’s benchmark index also dropped by 0.8 percent.
Safe haven assets – which investors flock to in periods of market uncertainty – are now in demand, with the Japanese yen touching a five-month high against the dollar, at 147.07 per dollar. The Swiss franc has also strengthened. Both currencies are considered stable due to their predictable economic backdrops and low inflation environments.
Gold, long considered financially secure, inched up to $2, 895.75 per ounce, within touching distance of the record high it hit last month. Gold is now up 10 percent so far in 2025, after climbing 27 percent last year.
Oil prices, which typically move in tandem with global gross domestic product, fell for a second day on Tuesday. Brent futures, the global benchmark, dropped by 0.65 percent to $68.83 a barrel.
What will happen next?
Unlike Trump’s first term, when cracks in the economy or stock market wobbles often led to policy pivots, the US president seems determined to follow through on restrictive trade arrangements this time around.
In turn, Citi analysts cut their recommendation for US stocks to “neutral” from “overweight”, arguing the US economy may no longer outpace the rest of the world in the coming months.
Goldman Sachs economists last week raised its odds of a recession within the next 12 months from 15 percent to 20 percent, while JPMorganChase has lifted the probability from 30 percent to 40 percent “owing to extreme US policies”.
The yield (or rate of return) on a two-year US government bond, which moves in step with interest rate expectations, fell 0.05 percent yesterday to a five-month low. As such, many expect the US Federal Reserve to lower borrowing costs.
The Fed’s benchmark rate currently sits at about 4.3 percent, which is high by recent historical standards.
Traders are now pricing in a 0.85 percent cut in interest rates from the Fed this year, compared with 0.75 percent basis points on Monday, according to the London Stock Exchange Group. Lower borrowing costs are designed to help spur growth in a slowing economy.
Prashant Newnaha, a senior Asia Pacific rates strategist at TD Securities, told the Reuters news agency that “markets have now gotten the memo that the administration is intent on ripping the band-aid off”.
Since his first day in office, Trump has stated his desire to tame US inflation. At the same time, he’s made trade tariffs central to his presidency. He’s unlikely to achieve both policy aims at the same time.
Kyiv, Ukraine – On Sunday, a top Russian security official in Moscow lauded dozens of servicemen who used an abandoned natural gas pipeline as a tunnel to infiltrate a Ukraine-occupied area in the western Russian region of Kursk.
“The lid of a boiling cauldron is almost closed! Good job”! Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president and prime minister before becoming deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on Telegram.
But a Ukrainian serviceman deployed in Kursk offered a starkly different version of how the Russians barely got out of the pipeline on Saturday – only to be reportedly killed en masse.
“Some suffocated right]in the pipeline], some turned back. About a hundred came out in our rear, split into two groups and were almost immediately ambushed by our special forces. And]also killed by] a massive squall of artillery”, Evhen Sazonov wrote on Telegram.
However, the Ukraine-occupied area of Kursk shrank last week as Russians retook several villages and farms and moved to encircle Kyiv’s forces in the town of Sudzha.
In part, that happened because United States President Donald Trump suspended military aid to Ukraine – including the sharing of data from reconnaissance satellites, according to a former deputy head of Ukraine’s general staff of armed forces.
The suspension “affects the organisation of warfare in Kursk for Ukraine’s armed forces”, Lt Gen Ihor Romanenko told Al Jazeera.
Trump froze the aid on March 3, five days after a spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House over the latter’s alleged “ingratitude” to Washington.
The suspension also included the delivery of all weaponry and ammunition commissioned by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, that was in transit in Europe.
In the 1990s, the West urged Kyiv to destroy most of its Soviet-era weaponry and ammunition, and only two-fifths of the arms Ukraine uses these days have been domestically manufactured.
Kyiv is adamant that Trump’s decision will only benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort.
“We count on the US aid. I think the suspension of this aid would help Putin”, Zelenskyy said on March 3 during an emergency meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Kursk is by far not the only place where Ukraine is facing potential disasters.
Without the satellite data, Ukrainian air defence forces have less time to detect and respond to the launch of swarms of Russian drones that attack civilian areas, Romanenko said.
The drones that distract air defence forces are routinely followed by missiles launched from Russian bombers whose liftoff is also detected by US military satellites, he said.
The lack of satellite data also translates into Kyiv’s diminished capabilities to send its long-range drones to strike military sites, airstrips, ammunition and fuel depots deep inside Russia and in Russia-occupied Ukrainian regions.
“We partially try to solve this by using our data and the data from our allies, the real ones”, Romanenko quipped, referring to the United Kingdom and France – nations that are still aiding Ukraine.
On Sunday, Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian oil refinery in the Volga River region of Samara that sits more than 900km (560 miles) east of the border and produces fuel for fighter jets and bombers.
The attack was pinpointed and did not hit residential areas, according to Russian and Ukrainian media reports.
On Tuesday, Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones, killing at least two people.
But the aid freeze will affect the most crucial element of Ukraine’s defence of residential areas – the Patriot air defence systems that shoot down most of Russia’s cruise and ballistic missiles.
Ukraine has no stockpiles of missiles for Patriots that cost several million dollars each and are produced only in the US.
Since March 3, Russia has launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles.
Trump is ‘ rotten to his very core ‘
Some everyday Ukrainians feel gutted by the aid freeze and Trump’s reported demands to recognise the occupied Ukrainian regions as part of Russia.
“Every time I hear explosions, I think – how many more]Patriot] missiles do we have left? When is the roof of my house going to collapse”? Mariya Minchenko, a 27-year-old ambulance paramedic, told Al Jazeera, referring to two massive bombings of Kyiv since March 3.
Standing outside a kindergarten in central Kyiv before picking up her two children, she said her colleagues noticed a spike in the number of heart and panic attacks among the elderly during and after the bombings. “4am is our darkest hour, and now it’s way worse than before” the aid freeze, she added.
“Trump is not just a bad president, he’s a bad human being, rotten to his very core”, Minchenko said.
Ukrainian arms developers have long been trying to wean off Western weaponry.
They boosted the development and production of inexpensive drones that dominate today’s battlefield, largely replacing the traditional, much pricier artillery and tanks.
Ukrainian developers also found themselves on the cutting edge of the development of electronic jamming systems that make enemy drones lose contact with operators and crash.
The area is completely independent of US military aid, according to Yaroslav Filimonov, the CEO of Kvertus, a Kyiv-based company that churns out thousands of advanced jamming systems a month.
“Our enemy is strong, they have strong brains, they’re quick to copycat and scale up our findings”, he told Al Jazeera. “But we win with quality, not quantity”.
Despite the freeze, Kyiv can boast a tiny victory on the eastern front line.
Last week, Ukrainian forces regained the town of Kotlyno near the strategic city of Pokrovsk, where a third of Russian attacks took place in February, according to Oko Gora, an analytical Telegram channel.
The move prevented the Russian takeover of a strategic highway that leads to the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Observers attribute the success to Major-General Mykhailo Drapatyi, who became a new land forces commander in November and managed to streamline coordination between military units.
Ukraine has targeted Moscow with a large overnight drone attack as Russia’s Ministry of Defence says it has shot down 337 unmanned aircraft across the country.
“The Defence Ministry’s air defence continues to repel a massive attack by enemy drones on Moscow”, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram early on Tuesday.
Three people are reported to have been killed and three wounded in the southern suburbs of Moscow, according to Governor Andrei Vorobyov.
He added that drone debris damaged at least seven units in a residential building in another suburb southeast of the city.
The attack on the Russian capital, hundreds of kilometres from the Ukrainian border, comes before a meeting between United States and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.
Ukraine is to present a plan for a partial ceasefire with Russia as it hopes to restore support from what had been its biggest supplier of military aid.
President Donald Trump, who last month unilaterally launched talks with the Kremlin, has demanded Kyiv make concessions to end the war, which began three years ago when Russia invaded the country and later sought to annex four of its regions.
The talks in Saudi Arabia will be the most senior since a disastrous White House meeting last month when Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accusing him of ingratitude and demanding he make a deal with Russia.
Washington has since suspended military aid, intelligence sharing and access to satellite imagery for Kyiv in a bid to force it to the negotiating table.
A Ukrainian official said Tuesday’s drone attack should encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept the proposals Kyiv plans to present in Saudi Arabia.
