Titanic was a British passenger and mail carrying ocean liner

RMS Titanic was a British passenger and mail carrying ocean liner, operated by the White Star Line, that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, about 1,500 died, making it the deadliest sinking of a single ship up to that time. The disaster drew public attention, spurred major changes in maritime safety regulations, and inspired many artistic works. RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners built for the White Star Line. She was built by the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company in Belfast. Thomas Andrews Jr., the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster. Titanic was under the command of Captain Edward John Smith, who went down with the ship. The ocean liner carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere throughout Europe, who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada.

The first-class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury, with a gymnasium, swimming pool, smoking rooms, high-class restaurants and cafes, a Turkish bath, and hundreds of opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available for sending passenger “marconigrams” and for the ship’s operational use. Titanic had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, contributing to its reputation as “unsinkable”. Titanic was equipped with 16 lifeboat davits, each capable of lowering three lifeboats, for a total of 48 boats. Despite this capacity of 48, the ship was only equipped with a total of 20 lifeboats. Fourteen were regular lifeboats, two were cutter lifeboats, and four were collapsible and proved difficult to launch while she was sinking. Together, the 20 lifeboats could hold 1,178 people—about half the number of passengers on board, and one-third of the number of passengers the ship could have carried at full capacity (a number consistent with the maritime safety regulations of the era). The British Board of Trade’s regulations required 14 lifeboats for a ship 10,000 tonnes. Titanic carried six more than required, allowing 338 extra people room in lifeboats. When the ship sank, the lifeboats that had been lowered were only filled up to an average of 60%.

Source : Wikipedia

The Bab EL Mandeb – An important and busy shipping route

The Bab-el-Mandeb  the Gate of Grief or the Gate of Tears, is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, Djibouti, and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and by extension the Indian Ocean.

Name

The strait derives its name from the dangers attending its navigation or, according to an Arab legend, from the numbers who were drowned by an earthquake that separated the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa. In “Bab-el-Mandeb”, “Bab” means “gate” while “Mandeb” means “lamentation” or “grief”.

Geography

The distance across is about 26 kilometres (16 mi) from Ras Menheli in Yemen to Ras Siyyan in Djibouti. The island of Perim divides the strait into two channels, of which the eastern, known as the Bab Iskender (Alexander’s Strait), is 5.37 kilometres (3.34 mi) wide and 29 metres; 96 feet (16 fathoms) deep, while the western, or Dact-el-Mayun, has a width of 20.3 kilometres (12.6 mi) and a depth of 310 metres; 1,020 feet (170 fathoms). Near the coast of Djibouti lies a group of smaller islands known as the “Seven Brothers”. There is a surface current inwards in the eastern channel, but a strong undercurrent outwards in the western channel. 

Significance in the maritime trade route

The Bab-el-Mandeb acts as a strategic link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Most exports of petroleum and natural gas from the Persian Gulf that transit the Suez Canal or the SUMED Pipeline pass through both the Bab el-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz. Under the purview of the article 37 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the legal concept of transit passage applies to Bab el-Mandeb, although Eritrea (unlike the rest of coastal countries) is not a party to the convention. Chokepoints are narrow channels along widely used global sea routes that are critical to global energy security. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is 18 miles wide at its narrowest point, limiting tanker traffic to two 2-mile-wide channels for inbound and outbound shipments. Closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait could keep tankers originating in the Persian Gulf from transiting the Suez Canal or reaching the SUMED Pipeline, forcing them to divert around the southern tip of Africa, which would increase transit time and shipping costs. In 2006, an estimated 3.3 million barrels (520,000 m3) of oil passed through the strait per day, out of a world total of about 43 million barrels per day (6,800,000 m3/d) moved by tankers. In 2018, an estimated 6.2 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil, condensate, and refined petroleum products flowed through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait toward Europe, the United States, and Asia, an increase from 5.1 million b/d in 2014. Total petroleum flows through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait accounted for about 9% of total seaborne-traded petroleum (crude oil and refined petroleum products) in 2017. About 3.6 million b/d moved north toward Europe; another 2.6 million b/d flowed in the opposite direction mainly to Asian markets such as Singapore, China, and India. 

History

Paleo-environmental and tectonic events in the Miocene epoch created the Danakil Isthmus, a land bridge forming a broad connection between Yemen and Ethiopia. During the last 100,000 years, eustatic sea level fluctuations have led to alternate opening and closing of the straits. According to the recent single origin hypothesis, the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb were probably witness to the earliest migrations of modern humans. It is presumed that the oceans were then much lower and the straits were much shallower or dry, which allowed a series of emigrations along the southern coast of Asia. According to Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church tradition, the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb were witness to the earliest migrations of Semitic Ge’ez speakers into Africa, occurring c. 1900 BC, roughly around the same time as the Hebrew patriarch Jacob. The Kingdom of Aksum was a major regional power in the Horn of Africa. It extended its rule across the strait with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom shortly before the rise of Islam. The British East India Company unilaterally seized the island of Perim in 1799 on behalf of its Indian empire. The government of Britain asserted its ownership in 1857 and erected a lighthouse there in 1861, using it to command the Red Sea and the trade routes through the Suez Canal.

It was used as a coaling station to refuel steamships until 1935 when the reduced use of coal as fuel rendered the operation unprofitable. The British presence continued until 1967 when the island became part of the People’s Republic of South Yemen. Before the handover, the British government had put forward before the United Nations a proposal for the island to be internationalized  as a way to ensure the continued security of passage and navigation in the Bab-el-Mandeb, but this was refused. In 2008 a company owned by Tarek bin Laden unveiled plans to build a bridge named Bridge of the Horns across the strait, linking Yemen with Djibouti.  Middle East Development LLC issued a notice to construct a bridge passing across the Red Sea that would be the longest suspended passing in the world. The project was assigned to engineering company COWI in collaboration with architect studio Dissing+Weitling, both from Denmark. It was announced in 2010 that Phase 1 had been delayed; however, as of mid-2016, nothing more has been heard about the project.

Sub-region

The Bab-el-Mandeb is also a sub-region in the Arab League, which includes Djibouti, Yemen, and Eritrea. 

Source : Wikipedia

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Ayman Mohyeldin – Egyptian-born political commentator

Ayman Mohyeldin is an Egyptian-born political commentator based in New York for NBC News and MSNBC. Previously the anchor of an MSNBC weekday afternoon show, Ayman Mohyeldin Reports (formerly MSNBC Live with Ayman Mohyeldin), he currently hosts Ayman on weekend evenings on MSNBC, and Fridays on Peacock. He previously worked for Al Jazeera and CNN. He was one of the first Western journalists allowed to enter and report on the handing over and trial of the deposed President of Iraq Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi Interim Government for crimes against humanity.  Mohyeldin has also covered the 2008–09 Gaza War as well as the Arab Spring.

Early life

Mohyeldin was born in Cairo, Egypt, to an Egyptian father, Medhat Mohyeldin, and a Palestinian mother, Abla Awwad. His father is a certified public accountant in Marietta, Georgia. Mohyeldin has an older brother, Ahmed, who is a resident neurosurgeon at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and former professional soccer star for the Atlanta Silverbacks. Mohyeldin lived in Egypt until the age of 5 when his parents emigrated to the U.S. He attended North Cobb High School in Kennesaw, Georgia. Mohyeldin received his undergraduate education at American University in Washington, D.C., earning a BA in international relations with a focus on the European Union. He received an MA in international politics with a focus on Peace and Conflict Resolution. His graduate thesis was entitled “The News Media Paradigm in the War on Terrorism,” and, in 2002, it was accepted by the International Association of Media Researchers Conference in Barcelona, Spain. He lived in Iraq from 2003 to 2005 as a foreign news producer with CNN.

Career

Mohyeldin began his career in journalism working at NBC, as a desk assistant for the Washington D.C. bureau. Mohyeldin’s first major assignments happened shortly after 9/11. In an interview with PRWeek, he describes the opportunities that arose in the aftermath of 9/11: “There was a real shortage of people with language skills or expertise in the Middle East. Just because of my language skills and the timing, so to speak, I got a lot of experience. I was thrown into a mix of things that normally desk assistants at my level would not have gotten. I started working on some big pieces that had to do with investigating 9/11 and all kinds of international terrorist connections… I was doing translation mostly, but I was also developing themes or threads to stories that either had some Middle East connection to them or some type of Arabic language skills required. So it was an unbelievable experience at a really young age.” Mohyeldin’s coverage of major news events in the Arab World and Middle East include the Iraq War, the first multi-candidate presidential Egyptian elections in 2005, Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the 2005 Palestinian elections in the Gaza Strip. He has covered the Sharm al-Sheikh resort bombing (July 2005) and the Jordan Hotel bombings (November 2005).

As a producer, Mohyeldin became the first journalist to enter one of Libya’s nuclear research facilities after producing Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi’s first interview announcing Libya would abandon all WMD programs. Mohyeldin’s work in the CNN documentary “Iraq:progress report” about the daily struggles of Iraqis during the war was nominated for an Emmy Award. He served as an associate producer for the NBC News Special that also received Emmy nominations for “Ship at War: Inside the Carrier Stennis” and “Inside the Real West Wing.” Mohyeldin has also covered the annual Muslim Pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca and was involved in the production of CNN specials “Islam: The Struggle Within” and “Hajj: A Spiritual Journey.” In 2008–2009, Mohyeldin covered the Israeli attack on Gaza. The coverage of his reporting, along with Sherine Tadros has been released in the documentary ” The War Around Us”. He reported on the intricate network of tunnels that were once used for smuggling of weapons and people across the Egyptian-Gaza border and are now a vital route into Gaza for medicine, food and fuel supplies. In 2011, Mohyeldin left Al Jazeera English and returned to NBC where he extensively covered the second “Arab Uprising” in Egypt in 2013. He also covered the unrest in Ukraine, and most recently the unrest in Iraq.

Courtesy : Wikipedia

Motaz Azaiza – Palestinian photojournalist from the Gaza Strip

Motaz Hilal Azaiza  is a Palestinian photojournalist from the Gaza Strip.

Early life and education

Azaiza was raised in the Deir al-Balah Camp in the Gaza Strip. He attended Al-Azhar University in Gaza, graduating in 2021 with a degree in English studies. He is currently employed by UNRWA.

Photojournalism

Prior to the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Azaiza’s online posts most focused on photographing daily life in his native Gaza Strip. Although he covered the 2014 Gaza War and the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, his social media accounts did not gain much attention. There are few foreign journalists in the Gaza Strip due to Israel and Egypt denying them access to the territory, which has led to Azaiza becoming a key reporter on the ground in Gaza. Prior to the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Azaiza’s profile on Instagram had approximately 25,000 followers. On 13 October, his Instagram account was restricted, but access was restored the following day. His follower count had increased to one million by 17 October,  nine million by October 30, 12.5 million by November 3, and 13 million by November 7. As of 24 December 2023, Azaiza’s Instagram profile had 17.5 million followers. In November 2023, GQ Middle East named him as their Man of the Year, with editor Ahmad Ali Swaid stating that “he reminds us that no matter who we are or where we’re from, it’s us – ordinary people, men, and women – who have the power to enact that very change that we want to see.”

Personal life

On 11 October 2023, at least 15 of Azaiza’s relatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Deir al-Balah Camp, shortly after the outbreak of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.

Source : Wikipedia

Sir William Mark Tully – former Bureau Chief of BBC, New Delhi

Sir William Mark Tully, is the former Bureau Chief of BBC, New Delhi, a position he held for 20 years. He worked with the BBC for a total of 30 years before resigning in July 1994. The recipient of several awards, Tully has authored nine books. He is a member of the Oriental Club.

Personal life

Tully was born in Tollygunge in India  His father was a British businessman who was a partner in one of the leading managing agencies of the British Raj. He spent the first decade of his childhood in India, although without being allowed to socialise with Indian people; at the age of four, he was sent to a “British boarding school” in Darjeeling, before going to England for further schooling from the age of nine. There he was educated at Twyford School (Hampshire), Marlborough College and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he studied Theology. After Cambridge, Tully intended to become a priest in the Church of England but abandoned the vocation after just two terms at Lincoln Theological College, admitting later that he had doubts about “trusting [his] sexuality to behave as a Christian priest”. His personal life has been complex. In 2001 he married Margaret, with whom he has four children in London. When in India, however, he lives with his girlfriend Gillian Wright.

Journalistic career

Tully joined the BBC in 1964 and moved back to India in 1965 to work as the corporation’s India Correspondent.  He covered all the major incidents in South Asia during his tenure, ranging from Indo-Pakistan conflicts, Bhopal gas tragedy, Operation Blue Star (and the subsequent assassination of Indira Gandhi, anti-Sikh riots), Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi to the Demolition of Babri Masjid.  He was barred from entering India during Emergency in 1975–77 when Prime Minister Mrs Gandhi had imposed censorship curbs on the media. Tully resigned from the BBC in July 1994, after an argument with John Birt, the then Director General. He accused Birt of “running the corporation by fear” and “turning the BBC into a secretive monolith with poor ratings and a demoralised staff”. In 1994 he presented an episode of BBCs Great Railway Journeys “Karachi to The Khyber Pass” travelling by train across Pakistan. Since 1994 he has been working as a freelance journalist and broadcaster based in New Delhi. He was the regular presenter of the weekly BBC Radio 4 programme Something Understood until the BBC announced its cessation in 2019. As a guest of the Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue on 7 October 2010 he spoke on How certain should we be? The problem of religious pluralism. He described his experiences and the fact that India had historically been home to all the world’s major religions. He said that had taught him that there are many ways to God. Tully is patron of the British branch of Child in Need India (CINI UK). Tully is equally well versed in English and Hindi. He had contributed his heartfelt efforts to keep literature alive and had been key speaker among 50 speakers of second Kalinga Literary Festival on 17 May 2015, where he explored the role of literature in nation building.

Courtesy : Wikipedia

The deadliest war for journalists in decades

As of 10 December 23, at least 63 journalists (56 Palestinian, 4 Israeli and 3 Lebanese) have been killed
during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, alongside other violence against journalists, making it the deadliest period for journalists in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict since 1992 and the deadliest start of a war in the 21st century for journalists. By 6 December, it was believed to be the deadliest war for journalists in decades. An estimated 48 media facilities in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. Reporters Without Borders claimed that the Israeli army had deliberately targeted Palestinian and Lebanese journalists.

Casualties

On 7 October 2023, more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, mostly civilians, were killed and 248 taken hostage during the initial attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. As of 15 December, over 19,000 Palestinians and Israelis in all have been killed in the Israel–Hamas war, including 64 journalists (57 Palestinian, 4 Israeli and 3 Lebanese) and over 100 UNRWA aid workers. Over 17,700 Palestinians (the majority of whom were women and children) in the Gaza Strip have been killed according to the Gaza Health Ministry. A further 248 Palestinians were also killed in the West Bank by Israel military and settlers, and nine Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank in the same period.[9] Casualties have also occurred in other parts of Israel, in southern Lebanon, and Syria. The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association has condemned the spate of deaths and restated that: “Targeting journalists is a stark violation of press freedom and international human rights law”.

Killing of journalists by Israeli forces

On 7 October, Israeli police damaged equipment of a television crew reporting in Ashkelon. On the same day, a journalist named Omar Abu Shawish was killed in Gaza. Journalists Mohammed El Salhi, Ibrahim Mohamed Lafi, Mohamed Jarghoun, Ibrahim Qanan, Nidal Al Wahidi, and Haitham Abdelwahid also faced various forms of violence or went missing. On 10 October 2023, the Hajji Tower airstrike destroyed an apartment block housing journalists’ offices, killing at least three journalists along with civilians. Salam Khalil, the head of the Gaza Journalists Syndicate’s Committee of Women Journalists, was buried under the rubble of her home together with her family in an Israeli strike on the same day and presumed dead. She was subsequently found to be alive with her children. On October 12, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed and six others were wounded by IDF artillery in southern Lebanon. On 17 November, the Turkish news channel TRT World released footage showing the Israeli police attacking their news crew, leading the Turkish minister of communications Fahrettin Altun to say, “This ugly attack has added a new embarrassment to Israel’s record on press freedom.” On 19 November, six media professionals were killed by Israeli forces in just 24 hours.  On 3 December, the Committee to Protect Journalists stated 54 Palestinian journalists had been killed in the war thus far.

Killing of journalists’ families

Several members of the family of Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh were killed in an Israeli airstrike on 25 October in the Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Wadi Gaza, where they had been sheltering after following the Israeli order for Palestinian civilians to move south from northern Gaza.  Al Jazeera condemned the killings, calling it an “indiscriminate attack”. Dahdouh, speaking to Al Jazeera, said “There is no safe place in Gaza at all”. The Israeli army confirmed it had conducted an airstrike in the area near where Dahdouh’s family had been sheltering, saying they were targeting “Hamas terrorist infrastructure”. On 4 December, nine family members of CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman were killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza.  On 11 December, an airstrike on the home of journalist Anas al-Sharif resulted in the death of his father. Dahdouh himself was later injured in an Israeli missile strike in Khan Younis while covering the Haifa School airstrike.

Claims of IDF targeting of journalists

During the conflict, Reporters Without Borders claimed that the Israeli army had deliberately targeted journalists. A Reporters Without Borders (RSF) investigation said that Israel had targeted journalists in missile strikes on 13 October that killed Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah and injured four others. These two Israeli missile strikes, 30 seconds apart, hit a group of seven journalists in southern Lebanon who were reporting on the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. In a video, the journalists are seen wearing vests and helmets identifying them as “PRESS”. The marking was also present on the roof of their car, which exploded after being hit by the second missile. According to the Council of Europe, the intentional targeting of journalists constitutes a war crime.[39] The killing of journalists by Israeli forces in Gaza had been a recurring issue, with previous incidents in 2018 and 2021. Earlier in 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a report stating that 20 journalists had been killed by Israeli military fire since 2001, for which “to date, no one has been held accountable”.

Courtesy : Wikipedia

Wael Al-Dahdouh, Palestinian journalist and the bureau chief of Al Jazeera

Wael Al-Dahdouh is a Palestinian journalist and the bureau chief of Al Jazeera in Gaza City. His career,

beginning in 1998, also spanned working for Al-Quds newspaper, acting as a correspondent for Voice of Palestine, in the Second Intifada, and as a correspondent for Al Arabiya, with his role with Al-Jazeera starting in 2004. His wife, seven-year old daughter, and 15-year old son were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, in addition to eight of his relatives. On 15 December 2023, while Al-Dahdouh and his colleague cameraman Samer Abu Daqa were covering the Haifa School airstrike in Khan Yunis, they were hit by an Israeli missile, injuring Dahdouh by a shrapnel while his colleague Abu Daqa bled to death as Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching him.

Early life and education

Wael Hamdan al-Dahdouh was born on April 30, 1970, in the Zaytoun neighborhood, the oldest neighborhood of Gaza City. He grew up in a well-off Gazan family, whose origins are from the Arabian Peninsula. He received his primary and secondary education in several schools in Gaza City. He spent seven years in Israeli prisons immediately after obtaining his high school diploma in 1988. He again obtained a high school diploma in an Israeli prison. He received BA in journalism and media from the Islamic University of Gaza in 1998, after Israel prevented him from traveling to study abroad he received a master’s degree in regional studies from Al-Quds University, Abu Dis, in 2007.

Career

Al-Dahdouh started work for the press in 1998. He worked for the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds as a correspondent in Gaza, and wrote for other Palestinian magazines, then worked as a correspondent for the radio Voice of Palestine, as well as for Sahar satellite channel at the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000. He also worked as a correspondent for the Al Arabiya in 2003, then moved to work as a reporter and official in the Al-Jazeera office in the Gaza Strip since 2004.

Death of family

Al-Dahdouh was broadcasting live during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war when he learned his family had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023. His wife, his daughter Sham (aged 7), his son Mahmoud (aged 15), and a grandchild were killed along with 21 others. They were residing in Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. They had moved there following a warning from Israel to evacuate from the north of Gaza. His other son, Yehia, was seriously wounded, and Al-Jazeera reported that at least eight of his other relatives were also killed in the air raid. In video footage uploaded by Gaza photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, Al-Dahdouh is seen holding his deceased grandson while three relatives mourn.

Injury and death of colleague

On 15 December 2023, while Al-Dahdouh and his colleague cameraman Samer Abu Daqa were covering the Haifa School airstrike in Khan Yunis, they were hit by an Israeli missile. Abu Daqa bled to death for over 5 hours, as Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching him, while Dahdouh was later treated for shrapnel injuries.

Awards and honors

Peace Through Media Award (2013) by the International Media Awards in London. 

Courtesy : Wikipedia

Al Jazeera English is a 24-hour English-language news channel

Al Jazeera English is a 24-hour English-language news channel. It operates under the ownership of the
Al Jazeera Media Network, which, in turn, is funded by the government of Qatar. It is the first English-language news channel to be headquartered in Western Asia.  Al Jazeera broadcasts in over 150 countries and territories, and has a large global audience of over 430 million people. Al Jazeera is known for its in-depth and frontline reporting, particularly in conflict zones. It has been praised for its in-depth coverage of events such as the Arab Spring and the Gaza–Israel conflict. Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Arab Spring won the network numerous awards, including the Peabody Award. The channel was launched on 15 November 2006, at 12:00 pm GMT. Although it had initially aimed to commence broadcasting in June 2006, the launch had to be postponed due to the unavailability of its HDTV technology, which was not yet ready at that time. The channel was initially slated to be named Al Jazeera International, but the name was changed nine months before the launch. This decision was influenced by one of the channel’s backers who argued that the original Arabic-language channel already encompassed an international scope. 

The channel was expected to reach approximately 40 million households, but it significantly surpassed this launch target, extending its reach to 80 million homes. By 2009, the service was accessible in every major European market and was available to 130 million homes across over 100 countries through cable and satellite, as reported by a spokeswoman for the network in Washington. However, the channel had limited penetration in the American market, where it was only carried by one satellite service and a handful of cable networks.  Al Jazeera English subsequently launched a campaign to enter the North American market, including a dedicated website.  In August 2011, it became available to some cable subscribers in New York, having previously been an option for some viewers in Washington, D.C., Ohio, and Los Angeles. The channel primarily reached the United States through its live online streaming service. Following the approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on November 26, 2009, Al Jazeera English became readily available on most major Canadian television providers, including Rogers and Bell Satellite TV. 

Al Jazeera English and Iran’s state-run Press TV were the only international English-language television broadcasters with journalists reporting from inside both Gaza and Israel during the 2008–2009 Israel-Gaza conflict. Foreign press access to Gaza has been limited via either Egypt or Israel. However, Al Jazeera’s reporters Ayman Mohyeldin and Sherine Tadros were already inside Gaza when the conflict began and the network’s coverage was often compared to CNN’s initial coverage from inside Baghdad in the early days of the 1991 Gulf War. The channel may also be viewed online. It recommends online viewing at its own website  or at its channel on YouTube. Al Jazeera English HD launched in the United Kingdom on Freeview on 26 November 2013, and began streaming in HD on YouTube in 2015. On 1 January 2020, Al Jazeera English debuted a new major graphics package for the first time since the channel launched to coincide with remodeled main Doha studio, the last main studio of the channel’s three in Doha, London, and Washington D.C. to receive an upgrade since the channel’s launch in 2006.

Courtesy : Wikipedia

Mehdi Raza Hasan is a British-American broadcaster and author

Mehdi Raza Hasan is a British-American broadcaster and author. He presented The Mehdi Hasan Showon Peacock since October 2020 and on MSNBC from February 2021 until the show’s cancellation in November 2023. A graduate of Christ Church, Oxford, Hasan began his television career as a researcher and then producer on ITV’s Jonathan Dimbleby programme. Following a stint on the BBC’s The Politics Show he became deputy executive producer on Sky’s breakfast show Sunrise before moving to Channel 4 as their editor of news and current affairs. In 2009 he was appointed senior editor for politics at the New Statesman. In 2012 he became a presenter on Al Jazeera’s English news channel, and in 2015 moved to Washington, D.C. to work full-time for Al Jazeera on UpFront and host the Deconstructed podcast produced by the online publication The Intercept from 2018 to 2020. Hasan is the author of Win Every Argument, and the co-author of a biography of former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband. He was formerly the political editor of the UK edition of The Huffington Post and the presenter of the Al Jazeera English shows: The Café, Head to Head and UpFront.

Early life and education

Mehdi Raza Hasan was born in Swindon to immigrant Indian Hyderabadi Muslim parents from the city of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, South India (now in Telangana). Hasan was privately educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, Northwood, a day independent school for boys at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers District of Hertfordshire, near the town of Northwood in North West London. He then attended Christ Church, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), and graduated in 2000.

Career

Hasan worked as a researcher and then producer on ITV’s Jonathan Dimbleby programme, with a brief period in between on BBC One’s The Politics Show. Following this, he became deputy executive producer on Sky’s breakfast show Sunrise  before moving to Channel 4 as their editor of news and current affairs. He was appointed senior editor for politics at the New Statesman in late spring of 2009,  where he stayed until May 2012, then becoming political director of The Huffington Post website. Hasan became a presenter on Al Jazeera’s English news channel in May 2012. Hasan has appeared (six times) on the BBC’s Question Time programme,  and the Sunday morning programmes The Big Questions  and Sunday Morning Live. In 2013, Hasan took part in a debate at the Oxford Union to consider whether Islam is a peaceful religion. Hasan, who is an Ithna’Asheri Shia Muslim, vouched for Islam as a religion of peace, citing political and cultural reasons for violence in Muslim majority countries, as opposed to holding the religion of Islam responsible. In the vote on the motion, the house affirmed with Hasan and the other proposers that Islam is a religion of peace with 286 votes in favor and 168 votes against. Recorded at the Oxford Union, Head to Head was a programme on Al Jazeera English in which Hasan interviewed public figures; it had run for three series by December 2014. Since 2015, working full-time for the network in Washington, D.C., Hasan has hosted a weekly interview and discussion programme. Hasan began a podcast in 2018 entitled Deconstructed, produced by the investigative journalism website The Intercept. On air, Hasan would discuss recent news topics and host guests.

Notable topics covered on the podcast include police brutality, inequality, QAnon, and Donald Trump’s activity on Twitter. Notable podcast guests have included Noam Chomsky, Ilhan Omar, and Bernie Sanders. On 2 October 2020, Hasan announced that he would no longer host the show as part of his move to host The Mehdi Hasan Show on NBC’s new streaming service, Peacock. Hasan became a naturalized citizen of the United States on 9 October 2020, in time to vote in the 2020 United States presidential election. Hasan currently hosts The Mehdi Hasan Show on the online service Peacock since Oct 2020 airing weeknights at 7 pm Eastern.[4] Notable guests on The Mehdi Hasan Show have included Mark Ruffalo, Jon Stewart, John Bolton, Keith Ellison, Ro Khanna, John Legend, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In March 2021, Hasan launched the same show on MSNBC every Sunday evening. He is also the fill-in host on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, The Rachel Maddow Show, The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle and The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, MSNBC removed Hasan and two other Muslim broadcasters, Ayman Mohyeldin and Ali Velshi, from anchoring shows on its network. NBC stated the shifts were coincidental and not due to any supposed pro-Palestinian sentiment. On November 30, 2023, it was announced that Hasan’s MSNBC and Peacock shows would end, although Hasan himself would remain at the network as a political analyst and fill in host. 

Awards

In January 2014, Hasan was awarded the Services to Media award at the British Muslim Awards. In 2017, he was named European Young Leader by the Brussels-based Friends of Europe think tank. 

In 2019, Hasan won the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for Online Column Writing.

Courtesy : Wikipedia

Inside the NATO summit

The 2021 Brussels summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was the 31st formal meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, held in Brussels, Belgium, on 14 June 2021. NATO Leaders discussed key issues, took decisions about the future of NATO and agreed on concrete measures to adapt the Alliance, as part of the NATO 2030 agenda. Major topics under discussion included NATO’s role in a changing geostrategic environment, collective defence, emerging technologies, climate change and security, and other important issues. NATO Leaders discussed a wide range of issues at the 2021 Brussels Summit, including the main themes of the NATO 2030 initiative: how to reinforce the Alliance’s unity, broaden its approach to security and contribute to safeguarding the rules-based international order. They took decisions to prepare NATO for the challenges of today and tomorrow, including Russia’s pattern of aggressive behaviour, terrorism, cyber attacks and disruptive technologies, the rise of China, and the security implications of climate change. 

The topics under discussion are complex and diverse, but at their core they addressed key questions about NATO’s future:

How does NATO continue to strengthen its collective defence in a changing security environment?

How can NATO accelerate its adaptation when it comes to emerging and disruptive technologies?

What more can NATO do to help Allies become more resilient to unexpected shocks?

How can Allies invest in NATO to ensure they do more together and remain strong and united?

How can NATO enhance cooperation with partner countries and other organisations to tackle shared security challenges?

Source : NATO