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For years, Egyptian jasmine picker Wael al-Sayed has collected blossoms by night in the Nile Delta, supplying top global perfume houses. But in recent summers, his basket has felt lighter and the once-rich fragrance is fading.”It’s the heat,” said Sayed, 45, who has spent nearly a decade working the fields in Shubra Balula, a quiet village about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Cairo and a key hub for Egypt’s jasmine industry. As temperatures rise, he said, the flowers bloom less and his daily harvest has dropped from six kilograms to just two or three in the past two years.In this fertile pocket of the delta, jasmine has sustained thousands of families like Sayed’s for generations, but rising temperatures, prolonged dry spells and climate-driven pests are putting that legacy at risk.From June to October, families, including children, traditionally head into the fields between midnight and dawn to hand-pick jasmine at peak fragrance.With yields shrinking, some are leaving the trade entirely and those that have stayed now work longer hours. More children are also being pulled in to help and often stay up all night to pick before going to school.Child labour remains widespread in Egypt with 4.2 million children working in agriculture, industry and services, often in unsafe or exploitative conditions, according to a 2023 state study. This year, Sayed has brought two of his children — just nine and 10 years old — to join him and his wife on their 350-square-metre (3,800-square-foot) plot.”We have no other choice,” Sayed said.- Too hot to bloom -According to the country’s largest processor, A Fakhry & Co, Egypt produces nearly half the world’s jasmine concrete, a waxy extract from the plant that provides a vital base for designer fragrances and is a multi-million dollar export.In the 1970s, Egypt produced 11 tonnes of jasmine concrete annually, according to the International Federation of Essential Oils and Aroma Trades.Now, A Fakhry & Co says that’s down to 6.5 tonnes.Ali Emara, 78, who has picked jasmine since the age of 12, said summers used to be hot, “but not like now”.Mohamed Bassiouny, 56, and his four sons have seen their harvest halve from 15 to seven kilograms with pickers now taking over eight hours to fill a basket.The region’s jasmine is highly sensitive to heat and humidity, said Karim Elgendy from Carboun Institute, a Dutch climate and energy think tank.”Higher temperatures can disrupt flowering, weaken oil concentration and introduce stress that reduces yield,” Elgendy told AFP.A 2023 report by the International Energy Agency found Egypt’s temperature rose 0.38C per decade (2000–2020), outpacing the global average.The heat is affecting the strength of the jasmine’s scent, and with it the value of the oil extracted, said Badr Atef, manager of A Fakhry & Co.Meanwhile, pests such as spider mites and leaf worms are thriving in the hotter, drier conditions and compounding the strain.Alexandre Levet, CEO of the French Fragrance House in Grasse, France’s perfume capital, explained that the industry is facing the effects of climate change globally.”We have dozens of natural ingredients that are already suffering from climate change,” he said, explaining that new origins for products have emerged as local climates shift.- Villages at risk -With the Nile Delta also vulnerable to the rising Mediterranean water levels, which affect soil salinity, jasmine farmers are on the front line of a heating planet.The labourers are left “at the mercy of this huge system entirely on their own,” said rural sociologist Saker El Nour, with “no stake” in the industry that depends on their labour.Global brands charge up to $6,000 per kilogram of jasmine absolute, the pure aromatic oil derived from the concrete and used by perfumeries, but Egyptian pickers earn just 105 Egyptian pounds ($2) per kilogram.A tonne of flowers yields only 2–3 kilograms of concrete and less than half that in pure essential oil — enough for around 100 perfume bottles.”What’s 100 pounds worth today? Nothing,” said Sayed.Egypt’s currency has lost more than two-thirds of its value since 2022, causing inflation to skyrocket and leaving families like Sayed’s scraping by.Last June, pickers staged a rare strike, demanding 150 pounds per kilogram. But with prices set by a handful of private processors and little government oversight, they only received an increase of 10 pounds.Every year farmers earn less and less, while a heating planet threatens the community’s entire livelihood.”Villages like this may lose their viability altogether,” Elgendy said.

Irish rap group Kneecap repeated their criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza during a performance outside Paris on Sunday, despite objections from French Jewish groups and government officials.The concert, which began shortly before 6.30 pm (1630 GMT) in front of several thousand people in the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud, went ahead despite complaints from the Belfast trio’s critics.”Free, free Palestine!,” the group shouted at the start of their show, rallying an enthusiastic crowd where keffiyehs and Irish jerseys were visible, before insisting they were not against Israel.Ahead of the show, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the authorities would be vigilant for “any comments of an antisemitic nature, apology for terrorism or incitement to hatred” at the event.During their performance, the band displayed a backdrop in French that said: “The French government is complicit”, accusing it of facilitating the sale of weapons to Israel. They posted a photo of the message on social media.The performance was briefly interrupted as several individuals whistled in protest, until security removed protesters from the crowd.After organisers kept the politically outspoken band on the programme, local authorities withdrew their subsidies for the music festival where the gig took place — the annual Rock en Seine festival.The group from Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, have made a habit of using their concerts to canvas for the Palestinian cause and criticise Israel.- Politically outspoken -Liam O’Hanna, 27, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged in England in May accused of displaying a flag of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah during a London concert in November.They played a closely scrutinised concert at the Glastonbury Festival in June, where Chara declared: “Israel are war criminals.”The group later missed playing at the Sziget Festival in Budapest after being barred from entering the country by the Hungarian authorities, a close ally of Israel.Kneecap, who also support Irish republicanism and criticise British imperialism, have sparked widespread debate in the UK and Ireland, more than two-and-a-half decades after the peace agreement that aimed to end the conflict over the status of Northern Ireland.The group takes its name from the deliberate shooting of the limbs, known as “kneecapping”, carried out by Irish republicans as punishment attacks during the decades of unrest.- Concern over antisemitism -The municipality of Saint-Cloud for the first time withdrew its 40,000-euro ($47,000) subsidy from Rock en Seine.The wider Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, also cancelled its funding for the 2025 edition.However, such moves do not jeopardise the viability of the festival, whose budget was between 16 million and 17 million euros this year.The group has already played twice in France this summer — at the Eurockeennes festival in Belfort and the Cabaret Vert in Charleville-Mezieres — both times without incident.Sunday’s concert came against a background of concerns about alleged high levels of antisemitism in France in the wake of Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war in Gaza, and Israel’s devastating retaliatory assault on the Hamas-ruled territory.”They are desecrating the memory of the 50 French victims of Hamas on October 7, as well as all the French victims of Hezbollah,” said Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), who had called for the concert to be cancelled.On Sunday Charles Kushner, the US ambassador to Paris, sparked a diplomatic row after a letter he wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron criticised what he said was France’s insufficient action against antisemitism.

France’s foreign ministry said Sunday it would summon the US ambassador after he criticised the government for what he said was its insufficient action against antisemitism in a letter to President Emmanuel Macron.The letter from Charles Kushner, dated August 25 but leaked to the media on Sunday, echoed Israel’s criticism of France days earlier, which provoked a sharp response from Paris.Kushner’s letter to Macron noted that Monday was “the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, which ended the deportation of Jews from French soil” under Nazi German occupation.He wrote: “I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it…”In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized,” he added.While “antisemitism has long scarred French life”, the ambassador argued that hatred of Jews “has exploded since Hamas’s barbaric assault on October 7, 2023,” which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.”France firmly refutes these latest allegations,” said a foreign ministry statement in response, hours after the letter’s contents were made public.”The allegations from the ambassador are unacceptable.”The ministry said the 1961 Vienna Convention meant ambassadors were not permitted to interfere in a country’s internal affairs. Kushner would be summoned to the foreign ministry on Monday, it added.- ‘Anti-Zionism is antisemitism’ -His remarks tally with those made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Tuesday accused Macron of fomenting antisemitism, saying it had “surged” in France following the French president’s announcement last month that he will recognise Palestinian statehood.Macron’s Elysee office was quick to hit back at Netanyahu, calling the Israeli leader’s allegation “abject” and “erroneous”.But like Netanyahu, Kushner denounced Macron’s criticisms of Israel over the war in Gaza and his planned recognition of a State of Palestine. Such moves, he said, “embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France”.”In today’s world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism — plain and simple,” the ambassador added.”Surveys show most French citizens believe another Holocaust could happen in Europe. Nearly half of French youth report never having heard of the Holocaust at all.”What are children being taught in French schools if such ignorance persists?,” the letter read.France is home to Western Europe’s largest Jewish population at around half a million people, as well as a significant Muslim community sensitive to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza.Both communities have reported a spike in hate crimes since Israel’s retaliatory offensive against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the besieged coastal strip.Macron’s announcement that France would formally recognise a Palestinian state during a UN meeting in September drew a swift rebuke from Israel at the time.With the move, France is set to join a list of nations that has grown since the start of the Gaza war nearly two years ago.France is among at least 145 of the 193 UN members that now recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state, according to an AFP tally.

Israeli bulldozers uprooted hundreds of trees in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir on Sunday in the presence of the Israeli military, according to AFP journalists who witnessed the scene.Most of the felled vegetation appeared to be olive trees, essential to the economy and culture of the West Bank, while olive groves have also long been a flashpoint for violent clashes between farmers and encroaching Israeli settlers.Abdelatif Mohammed Abu Aliya, a local farmer from the village near Ramallah, said he lost olive trees that were over 70 years old on about one hectare of land.”They completely uprooted and levelled them under false pretences,” he said, explaining he and other residents had already begun replanting the pulled-up trees. AFP photographers on the ground saw overturned soil, olive trees lying on the ground, and several bulldozers operating on the hills surrounding the village. One bulldozer had an Israeli flag, and Israeli military vehicles were parked nearby.”The goal is control and forcing people to leave. This is just the beginning — it will expand across the entire West Bank,” said Ghassan Abu Aliya, who leads a local agricultural association.Residents said the bulldozing began on Thursday. A Palestinian NGO reported 14 people had been arrested in the village over the past three days.When asked about the incident, the Israeli army told AFP late on Sunday it had “launched intensive operational activity in the area” following a “serious shooting attack near the village”.- ‘Heavy price’ -In a statement issued Friday, the army said it had arrested a man from al-Mughayyir, accusing him of being “responsible for a terrorist attack” nearby.On August 16, the Palestinian Authority reported that an 18-year-old man had been shot and killed by the Israeli army in the same village. The army said its forces responded to stones thrown by “terrorists” but did not directly link the incident to the young man’s death.In a video widely circulated in Israeli media on Friday, a senior military commander refers to the attack in al-Mughayyir and vows to make “every village and every enemy… pay a heavy price” for attacks against Israelis.Avi Bluth, the military’s top commander in the West Bank, says in the video that the villages of Palestinian attackers could face curfews, sieges and terrain “shaping actions” with the aim of deterrence.Violence in the West Bank has escalated since the war in Gaza began following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.Since then, at least 971 Palestinians  — including both militants and civilians — have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank, according to AFP figures based on Palestinian Authority data. In the same period, at least 36 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in attacks or military operations in the West Bank, according to official Israeli sources.The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians and 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are considered illegal under international law.bur-crb-ds-glp/sbk/jj

Israeli strikes in Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Sunday killed at least four people, according to the country’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel throughout the Gaza war.AFP images showed a large fireball lighting up the skies over the rebel-held capital, leaving behind a column of thick, black smoke.A spokesperson for the Huthis’ health ministry reported four people dead and 67 wounded in the Israeli raid, raising an earlier toll.A Huthi security source told AFP the strikes had targeted a building in central Sanaa. The group’s Al-Masirah TV reported they had also hit an oil company facility and a power station in Sanaa’s south already struck last Sunday.The Israeli army said it had hit a military compound where the presidential palace is located, along with two power stations and a fuel depot. The strikes were “in response to repeated attacks by the Huthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel and its civilians”, including “in recent days”, it said.Late Friday, the Huthis fired a missile that Israeli authorities said had “most likely fragmented in mid-air”.Media outlets the Times of Israel and Ynet, citing the Israeli military, reported the missile had carried a cluster warhead, the first of its kind known to have been fired from Yemen.- ‘Heart of the capital’ -The Israeli defence ministry released a photo on Sunday showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Israel Katz and army chief Eyal Zamir following the strikes in Yemen from a command bunker. In a statement released by his office, Netanyahu said the air force had struck “the presidential palace in the heart of the capital Sanaa, the city’s power plant and the fuel tanks that supply it”.”The terrorist Huthi regime is learning the hard way that it will pay — and has paid already — a very high price for its aggression against the State of Israel,” he said, adding “the whole region” was also learning a lesson in Israeli power.In a statement from their political bureau, the Huthis vowed to respond, saying they would “not deviate from the fight” against Israel and its ally the United States “until the aggression stops and the (Israeli) blockade on Gaza is lifted”.Iran’s foreign ministry on Sunday condemned the Israeli strikes.- ‘Compound interest’ -Since the October 2023 start of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, the Huthis have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel, claiming to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.Most of the Huthi attacks have been intercepted, but they have prompted retaliatory Israeli air strikes on rebel targets in Yemen.On August 17, Israel said it targeted an energy infrastructure site in Sanaa linked to the Huthis, with Al-Masirah reporting at the time the capital’s Haziz power station was hit.The Israeli army said the Haziz facility was also struck on Sunday.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said earlier this month that the Huthis would “pay with compound interest for every attempt to fire at Israel”.Beyond attacks on Israel itself, the Huthis have also targeted ships they say are linked to the country in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Israeli strikes in Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Sunday killed at least two people, according to the country’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel throughout the Gaza war.AFP images showed a large fireball lighting up the skies over the rebel-held capital, leaving behind a column of thick, black smoke.The Huthis’ health ministry reported “two martyrs and 35 wounded” in the Israeli raid.A Huthi security source told AFP the air raid targeted a building in central Sanaa, while the group’s Al-Masirah TV reported that the two dead were killed in a strike on an oil company facility in the city.The channel said the targets also included a power station in Sanaa’s south that was previously hit last Sunday.The Israeli army said it had struck a military compound where the presidential palace is located, along with two power stations and a fuel depot. The strikes were “in response to repeated attacks by the Huthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel and its civilians”, including “in recent days”, it said.Late Friday, the Huthis fired a missile that Israeli authorities said had “most likely fragmented in mid-air”.-‘Heart of the capital’-Local Israeli media outlets the Times of Israel and Ynet, citing the military, reported the missile carried a cluster warhead, the first of its kind known to have been fired from Yemen.The Israeli defence ministry released a photo on Sunday showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Israel Katz and army chief Eyal Zamir following the strikes in Yemen from a command bunker. In a statement released by his office, Netanyahu said the air force had struck “the presidential palace in the heart of the capital Sanaa, the city’s power plant and the fuel tanks that supply it”.”The terrorist Huthi regime is learning the hard way that it will pay — and has paid already — a very high price for its aggression against the State of Israel,” he said, adding “the whole region” was also learning a lesson in Israeli power.In a statement from their political bureau, the Huthis vowed to respond, saying they would “not deviate from the fight” against Israel and its ally the United States “until the aggression stops and the (Israeli) blockade on Gaza is lifted”.Iran’s foreign ministry on Sunday condemned the Israeli strikes.Since the October 2023 start of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, the Huthis have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel, claiming to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.- ‘Compound interest’ -Most of the Huthi attacks have been intercepted, but they have prompted retaliatory Israeli air strikes on rebel targets in Yemen.On August 17, Israel said it targeted an energy infrastructure site in Sanaa linked to the Huthis, with Al-Masirah reporting at the time the capital’s Haziz power station was hit.The latest Israeli statement said the Haziz facility was targeted again on Sunday.A photographer working with AFP reported significant damage after the August 17 strike.Beyond attacks on Israel itself, the Huthis have also targeted ships they say are linked to the country in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden off Yemen.The group broadened its campaign to target ships tied to the United States and Britain after the two countries began military strikes aimed at securing the waterway in January 2024.In May, the rebels cemented a ceasefire with the United States that ended weeks of intense US strikes, but vowed to continue targeting Israeli ships.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said earlier this month that the Huthis would “pay with compound interest for every attempt to fire at Israel”.

The US ambassador to Paris has upped the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron over antisemitism in France with a letter calling the government’s action on anti-Jewish hatred insufficient, days after similar criticism from Israel.US envoy Charles Kushner’s letter to Macron was dated August 25, which he noted was “the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, which ended the deportation of Jews from French soil” under Nazi German occupation.In the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by AFP, he wrote: “I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it…”In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized,” he added.While “antisemitism has long scarred French life”, the ambassador argued that hatred of Jews “has exploded since Hamas’s barbaric assault on October 7, 2023,” which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.His remarks tally with those made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Tuesday accused Macron of fomenting antisemitism, saying it had “surged” in France following the French president’s announcement last month that he will recognise Palestinian statehood.Macron’s Elysee office was quick to hit back at Netanyahu, calling the Israeli leader’s allegation “abject” and “erroneous”.- ‘Anti-Zionism is antisemitism’ -But like Netanyahu, Kushner denounced Macron’s criticisms of Israel over the war in Gaza and his planned recognition of a State of Palestine. Such moves, he said, “embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France”.”In today’s world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism — plain and simple,” the ambassador added.”Surveys show most French citizens believe another Holocaust could happen in Europe. Nearly half of French youth report never having heard of the Holocaust at all.”What are children being taught in French schools if such ignorance persists?,” the letter read.France is home to Western Europe’s largest Jewish population at around half a million people, as well as a significant Muslim community sensitive to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza.Both communities have reported a spike in hate crimes since Israel’s retaliatory offensive against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the besieged coastal strip.Macron’s announcement that France would formally recognise a Palestinian state during a UN meeting in September drew a swift rebuke from Israel at the time.With the move, France is set to join a list of nations that has grown since the start of the Gaza war nearly two years ago.France is among at least 145 of the 193 UN members that now recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state, according to an AFP tally.