In Iraq, some scars of the US-led invasion remain hidden, even as the 20th anniversary is marked this week. The US military for years disposed of waste in burn pits: wide swathes of land, constantly smoking. Some were the size of a football field. In them were plastics, electronics, and military and medical waste. The environmental impacts of the invasion – including those burn pits – continue to plague Iraqis to this day. After years of lobbying, the US government approved legislation to address the health impacts on US soldiers, but there has been no discussion of compensation for the Iraqi civilians.

In this episode: 

• Kali Rubaii (@KaliRubaii), assistant professor of anthropology at Purdue University

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Negin Owliaei and Amy Walters with Chloe K. Li and our host, Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Adam Abou-Gad and Munera Al Dosari are our engagement producers. 

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

It was the deadliest attack on a house of worship in Canada's history. Six people lost their lives when a gunman opened fire on a mosque in Quebec City in 2017. And the hate incidents haven't stopped in the years since. Some of them have been deadly. And it's led to questions about how Canada treats its Muslim population. In January of 2023, the country announced its first special representative on Islamophobia. So what’s behind the need for the position in the first place? 

In this episode:

• Jillian Kestler-D’Amours (@jkdamours), Al Jazeera online editor
• Jasmin Zine (@JasminZine), professor in sociology, religion and culture at Wilfrid Laurier University

Episode credits:

This episode was updated by Negin Owliaei and Ashish Malhotra, and our host, Malika Bilal. The original production team included Negin Owliaei, Tom Fenton, Ruby Zaman, Amy Walters, Alexandra Locke, Priyanka Tilve, Ney Alvarez, Stacey Samuel, and Malika Bilal. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

The UK government is clamping down on asylum seekers, potentially illegally. Nearly 46,000 refugees and migrants arrived in the United Kingdom last year on small boats across the English Channel, a major increase from the year before. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says stopping the boats is a priority for the British people. But both the United Nations and the European Union have called the plan illegal for the way it would treat people fleeing war and persecution. Even Sunak’s Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has acknowledged the plan may not be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. So why is the government pushing it forward?

In this episode: 

• Charlie Angela (@CharlieAJ), Al Jazeera correspondent

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Ashish Malhotra with Chloe K. Li and our host, Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

The wave of racist violence sweeping Tunisia is unlike anything in recent memory. The attacks follow a speech by Tunisia’s President Kais Saied accusing African migrants of conspiring to make Tunisia more African and less Arab. This is the latest in a string of authoritarian moves by the President, and it has protesters back out in the street. But what will happen to the victims of this racism in the meantime?

In this episode: 

• Alpha Turay, a refugee from Sierra Leone living in Tunisia
• Fadil Aliriza (@FadilAliriza), founder and editor-in-chief of @meshkaltn

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Amy Walters with Chloe K. Li and our host, Malika Bilal. MIranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. 

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

China has been Russia’s ‘rock solid’ partner throughout the conflict in Ukraine. It has refused to condemn the fighting and, according to the US, is in negotiations to send weapons to the front lines. And the Chinese president seems to share a close friendship with Vladimir Putin. But at the same time, China is emerging from its zero-COVID lockdowns and trying to reach out again to the rest of the world. How will the world’s second-largest economy balance its competing interests, and what role can it play in bringing peace to Ukraine?

In this episode: 

• Katrina Yu (@katmyu), Al Jazeera’s China Correspondent

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Miranda Lin, with Ashish Malhotra and Khaled Soltan, and our host, Malika Bilal. Khaled Soltan fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. 

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

A wave of poisonings is taking place in classrooms around Iran. The first documented incident took place back in November at one school in the city of Qom. But the attacks have ramped up recently, with reports of thousands of girls being affected at hundreds of schools nationwide. The poison attacks come on the heels of a protest movement that took off last year in the country under the banner of “woman, life, freedom.” Between the protests and the poisonings, what does the future look like for girls in Iran?

In this episode: 

• Dorsa Jabbari (@DorsaJabbari), Al Jazeera correspondent

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Negin Owliaei, with Ashish Malhotra, and our host, Malika Bilal. Khaled Soltan fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. 

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

New York City is the wealthiest city in the United States – by some counts, the world. But after three years of pandemic, it has yet to build back better: rents are skyrocketing, concern about crime is at an all-time high, and the focus has landed on people living on the streets and the subways.

There's been a high-profile effort by the city's mayor, Eric Adams, to clear the streets, including controversial sweeps of encampments and hospitalizations by police, even when people don't want to go.

So how can the city protect the most vulnerable New Yorkers?

In this episode:

• Peter Malvan, Homeless Advocate, Urban Justice Center
• Max Rivlin-Nadler (@MaxRivlinNadler), Co-publisher of @HellGateNY

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Alexandra Locke with Chloe K. Li and our host, Halla Mohieddeen, in for Malika Bilal. Ashish Malhotra fact-checked this episode. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take's executive producer and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

2022 saw the highest number of Mexican journalists ever killed in a year. The murders of Lourdes Maldonado Lopez and Margarito Martínez last January sparked an outcry in a string of murders that have largely gone unsolved. We’re revisiting our episode with Mexican journalists about how safe they feel while covering the news there, why there are so many murders of journalists in Mexico, and what's being done to protect them.

In this episode: 

• León Krauze (@LeonKrauze), Univision Anchor
• Alejandra Guerra (@alisguerra8), Journalist in Tijuana, Mexico
• Rocío Galván (@RocioGalvanZ), Journalist in Tijuana, Mexico
• Andalusia Knoll Soloff (@Andalalucha), Journalist in Mexico City
• Natalie Southwick, Program Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom)

Episode credits:

This episode was updated by Amy Walters with our host Malika Bilal. The original production team was Ney Alvarez, Priyanka Tilve, Ruby Zaman, Negin Owliaei, Amy Walters, Alexandra Locke, Tom Fenton, and Stacey Samuel. Special thanks to Lorena Arroyo and Inger Diaz Barriga.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s Executive Producer and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

More than 300 Nicaraguans have been stripped of their citizenship. They’re considered political opponents of the president, Daniel Ortega. Some were already out of the country, but 222 were recently deported from Nicaragua to the United States and forced into exile. It’s the latest move by President Ortega to crack down on political dissidents. But will it succeed in silencing them?

In this episode: 

• Felix Maradiaga (@maradiaga), Nicaraguan activist and former presidential candidate

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Ashish Malhotra with Chloe K. Li and our host, Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin and Khaled Soltan fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Why have the people of the Chagos Islands not been allowed to go home? The archipelago in the Indian Ocean was home to Chagossians until the 1960s. As decolonisation swept the globe, the United Kingdom created one last African colony. Slowly and then all at once, it forced people to leave their homes, then leased the land to the United States for a military base. Chagossians have been fighting – and sometimes winning – in court to return to their home islands, and now, Human Rights Watch says what the UK and the US did amounts to crimes against humanity.

In this episode: 

• Clive Baldwin (@cliveabaldwin), senior legal advisor, Human Rights Watch

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Negin Owliaei and our host, Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook