The Take

Over the last few weeks, Yemeni residents have gone online to report hearing the sounds of airstrikes. After seven years of war between the country’s Houthi rebels on one side, and a Saudi-led coalition on the other, the sound of aerial bombardment is well known in Yemen. But this year, that war is intensifying, and has even reached a new front in the United Arab Emirates. And, as Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition trade fire, Yemeni civilians are trapped in the middle.

In this episode: 

• Sama’a Al-Hamdani (@Yemeniaty), Yemen analyst
• Osamah Alfakih (@osamahfakih), advocacy director, Mwatana for Human Rights (@MwatanaEn)
• Muheeb Ghallab (@Muheeb_Ghallab), vice president, Internet Society Yemen Chapter (@ISOC_Yemen)

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Just in the first month of 2022, four journalists were killed and two were attacked in Mexico. Since 1992, 142 journalists and media workers have been killed in the country, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. But why are there so many murders of journalists in Mexico, and what is 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)

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In the year since Myanmar’s coup, resistance movements have emerged across the country, and the military has cracked down hard – on both armed fighters and civilians. It’s a form of total war that has killed more than 1,000 people. And the rural areas of the country have seen the worst of it.

In this episode: 

• Nu Nu Lusan (@NuNuLusan), freelance journalist
• Emily Fishbein (@EmilyFishbein11), freelance journalist
• Salai Za Uk Ling, Deputy Director of Chin Human Rights Organization (@ChinHumanRights)

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Uganda’s schools are back in session after the longest COVID-related closure of any country, close to two years. We speak with one journalist who is a mother and says it is hard to trust anyone else with her child’s health while a deadly virus is still circulating. But the United Nations says these school closures are already affecting children’s learning around the world.

In this episode: 

• Halima Athumani (@Navilani) Freelance reporter

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Julian Assange’s legal cards are running out. And when UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer was asked to take on the WikiLeaks founder’s case in 2018, he found himself surprisingly uninterested. One allegation after another had come to cloud the narrative of Assange, liberator of state secrets. But Melzer has since investigated them all and discovered just how far reality is from the narratives.

In this episode:

Nils Melzer (@NilsMelzer), author of “The Trial of Julian Assange” 

This episode was produced by Alexandra Locke with Amy Walters, Negin Owliaei, Priyanka Tilve, Ruby Zaman, Ney Alvarez and Malika Bilal. Alex Roldan is our sound designer. Tom Fenton is our editor. Aya Elmileik is our engagement producer and Stacey Samuel is our executive producer.

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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. In the five years since, hate incidents have not stopped. Some of them have been deadly. And it has led to questions about how Canada treats its Muslim population.

In this episode: 

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

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Last November, residents of Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam military housing started to smell fuel coming out of their pipes. The US Navy said a leak from a fuel storage facility called Red Hill contaminated their well in O’ahu, leaving approximately 93,000 residents without drinking water.

But this is something activists have been fearing for years. The fuel storage facility sits above the island’s aquifer. If a significant leak happens, the consequences could change life as we know it in places like Honolulu and Waikiki. So, what is the Navy doing to clean the water, and what is at risk for the more than 900,000 people living on the island?

In this episode: 

• Scott Kim, News Editor at Hawaii Public Radio (@wearehpr)
• Wayne Tanaka, Sierra Club Chapter Director (@sierraclubhi)

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The media has packed up from the hotel where Novak Djokovic was detained in Australia, but after the tennis player’s deportation, more than 30 asylum seekers are still at the Park Hotel in the middle of Melbourne. The Australian Open brought the men’s years of indefinite immigration detention into the spotlight. We look at two stories from the Park Hotel: one man deported from Australia, another still there.

In this episode: 

• Jamal, asylum seeker at the Park Hotel
• Allison Battisson, founder and director, Human Rights for All (@HumanRights4A)
• Kate Walton, writer for Al Jazeera (@waltonkate)

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Famine is a slow-moving disaster and when it is declared, people are typically dying of starvation already. It is too late to save every life. Much of Somalia is facing its third dry season which is bad news for crops, animals, and people. Famine could arrive as soon as March. The Take talks to Somalis trying to get the word out about what is happening in their country and what they hope will be done to save lives.

In this episode: 

• Aydrus Daar, Executive Director at WASDA, a Somali aid group working in the horn of Africa

• Nisar Majid, Research Associate at the London School of Economics where he was recently Research Director on the Conflict Research Programme (Somalia portfolio)

• Guhad Adan, a Research Associate at the London School of Economics who has been a freelance consultant based in Nairobi and has been working as an aid practitioner and researcher in the Horn of Africa for over 20 years
• Florence Mangwende, Humanitarian and Resilience Program Manager at Oxfam Novib (@oxfamnovib)

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Russian-led forces are leaving the Central Asian country after days of unrest over the rise of gas prices, corruption, and inequality. 160 people have been killed and about 12,000 have been arrested, according to authorities. Many don't know the whereabouts of their loved ones. 

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev claimed the unrest was an attempted coup d’etat performed by foreign-trained “bandits and terrorists.” This week, he named a new prime minister and promised to unveil a political reform package by September of this year, but will that be enough for protesters?

In this episode: 

• Torokul Doorov (@Torokul), Kazakh Service Director at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 
• Darkhan Umirbekov, Digital Editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Kazakh Service

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