Israeli soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee are trying to win public sympathy through media appearances, while the person who leaked video of the assault faces prison. The Palestinian victim, like so many others, is yet to gain justice.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is claiming victory for his coalition, after early election results were declared. No single bloc is expected to achieve an outright majority, raising the prospect of lengthy negotiations to form a government. Ali Hashem explains.
“How does he know that the accusations against our prime minister are not justified?”
Once lauded as a remedy for Ethiopia’s advancing desertification, a non-native tree has transformed into an uncontrolled menace across the East African country, endangering delicate ecosystems and threatening the existence of local communities.
The prosopis, a shrubby tree indigenous to Latin America, was initially introduced to Ethiopia’s northeastern Afar region during the 1970s.
For livestock farmer Khadija Humed, it has become a source of misery.
“Because of this plant, we have become poor,” she told the AFP news agency.
Initially, prosopis seemed promising. Resistant to heat and quick-growing, it was intended to prevent soil erosion and provide cooling shade in Afar’s dry lowlands.
Today, however, it dominates the region’s expansive plains with thorny branches that reach heights of up to 10 metres (33ft).
Each tree extracts up to 7 litres (nearly 2 gallons) of water daily through its extensive root system, depleting soil moisture and devastating agriculture.
Local pastoralists also reported that prosopis harms their livestock.
“The plant has turned against us,” Hailu Shiferaw, a researcher at the Ethiopian Water and Land Resources Centre, told AFP.
“No one could have foreseen its harmful effects.”
In Humed’s village, about 200km (124 miles) northeast of Addis Ababa, she explained that the tree’s pods sicken their cattle and obstruct their mouths and stomachs, sometimes fatally. These losses have plunged the community into severe poverty, she said.
“I personally have 10 cows and more than 20 goats and sheep. But before prosopis, people here used to have 50 to 100 cattle,” she said.
“Everything has changed,” 76-year-old Yusuf Mohammed remarked, noting that the tree’s thick foliage attracts predators that prey on their livestock.
“We never had wild animal attacks before. … After prosopis spread, lions, hyenas, wild cats and foxes invaded our villages,” Mohammed said.
He added that its toxic thorns injure livestock, leaving them weakened and unable to forage effectively.
Globally, humans have introduced about 3,500 invasive species, many causing ecological damage.
These species cost economies around the world at least $423bn each year, according to a 2023 report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. That amount is equivalent to Denmark’s gross domestic product.
Ketema Bekele, associate professor of environmental economics at Ethiopia’s Haramaya University, calculated that prosopis has cost Afar $602m over three decades – nearly quadruple its annual budget.
The plant now infests about 20,000sq km (7,720sq miles) of Afar and is “out of control”, spreading into the Amhara and Oromia regions, he noted.
By 2023, it covered 8.61 percent of Ethiopia, according to the Journal of Environmental Management, up from 2.16 percent in 2003, while pastureland diminished by more than a quarter during the same period.
The journal projected that prosopis could occupy 22 percent of Ethiopia’s 1.1 million square kilometres (425,000sq miles) by 2060.
Camels contribute to its spread by consuming the pods and dispersing the seeds through excretion.
Since 2022, CARE International has tried to halt the spread by encouraging locals to harvest the plant.
With support from the Danish fund Danida, the nongovernmental organisation also removes trees to establish fruit orchards.
Mohammed believes the invasion can be controlled but emphasises the need for additional assistance.
The United Kingdom government should voluntarily facilitate the return of former repentant ISIL (ISIS) member Shamima Begum and others living in Syrian camps and deprived of British nationality, a new report has urged.
The Independent Commission on UK Counter-Terrorism Law, Policy and Practice said the current stance of the government towards nationals and former nationals detained in Syrian camps was “increasingly untenable” as they were living under “inhuman” conditions.
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“The government should facilitate voluntary repatriation for British nationals, including those deprived of British nationality,” it asserted.
“A coherent, humane, and security-conscious repatriation strategy would strengthen compliance with international obligations and promote long-term public safety and social stability.”
Begum’s case lies at the heart of the UK policy of revoking the citizenship of nationals who joined armed groups in Syria. She left London in 2015 as a minor, at the age of 15, with two school friends, and later married an ISIL fighter. Begum gave birth to three children, all of whom died in infancy.
In 2019, the UK government revoked her citizenship soon after she was discovered in a detention camp in Syria.
Since then, she has challenged the decision, which was turned down by an appeals court in February 2024. Born in the UK to Bangladeshi parents, Begum does not hold Bangladeshi citizenship.
She had admitted that she joined the organisation knowing it was proscribed as a “terror” group, and has said she was “ashamed” and regretted joining the group.
Citing the United Nations, the report described conditions at the camps, including the infamous al-Hol and al-Roj camps, as “inhuman, dangerous, and degrading”.
“Many detainees, especially women and children, are victims of coercion, trafficking, or exploitation, even if some have been involved in terrorism-related activity,” it added.
According to the commission, between 55-72 UK-linked individuals remain in the camps and other detention centres, including 30-40 children.
The report said the UK’s “reluctance” to repatriate its citizens, including those stripped of their citizenship, made it an “outlier” among “comparable jurisdictions” and could prove to be “counterproductive to long-term security interests”.
Tuberculosis deaths have fallen by 3 percent to 1.23 million people in 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
In its annual TB report published on Wednesday, the United Nations health agency also revealed that overall cases of the disease had dropped by almost 2 percent since 2023.
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It marked the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that TB cases and deaths had declined.
In 2024, a record 8.3 million people accessed TB treatment after being newly diagnosed while treatment success rates rose from 68 to 71 percent, the WHO said.
However, the health agency warned that recent progress in tackling the disease was under threat due to a shortfall in aid. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it could “reverse the hard won gains”.
Last year, $5.9bn was available for prevention, diagnosis and treatment, far below the annual target of $22bn by 2027.
“Declines in the global burden of TB and progress in testing, treatment, social protection and research are all welcome news after years of setbacks, but progress is not victory,” the WHO chief said.
“The fact that TB continues to claim over a million lives each year despite being preventable and curable is simply unconscionable,” Tedros added.
Although TB deaths in 2024 were 29 percent lower than those recorded in 2015, the WHO had hoped to reduce this figure by 75 percent by 2025 and 90 percent by 2030.
The number of deaths could even rise in the years ahead, warned Tereza Kasaeva, director of WHO’s division for tuberculosis, HIV and related infections.
“Long-term cuts to international donor funding could result in up to 2 million additional deaths and 10 million people falling ill with TB between 2025 and 2035,” Kasaeva said.
The agency was dealt a significant financial blow when the United States withdrew from it in January, forcing a 21 percent cut to its proposed spending.
The decision by US President Donald Trump’s administration to slash foreign aid, particularly from the US Agency for International Development, has also raised fears about global TB treatment.