From a farm in Yemen to global science sensation, the journey of Peshawar University graduate

The undated photo shows Hashem Al-Ghaili delivering a Ted Talk. (Photo courtesy: Universum Bremen)
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Updated 11 April 2023
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From a farm in Yemen to global science sensation, the journey of Peshawar University graduate

  • Al-Ghaili’s father expected him to work on their qat farm in Yemen, brushing away any dissent
  • Today, the 27-year-old has an army of fans avidly following his online mini-films explaining science

LONDON: Hashem Al-Ghaili has come a long way from his family’s qat farm in northern Yemen, he now communicates complex theories of physics to millions of followers.

As a young boy growing up in northern Yemen, Al-Ghaili already knew he wanted to be a scientist — but his father had other ideas.

Al-Ghaili senior grows qat, the mildly narcotic herb beloved of Yemenis and the people of the Horn of Africa, and he expected Hashem, 10th of his 12 children, to work on the farm with him. Indeed he demanded it, brushing away any dissent.

“I tried because it is very difficult in Yemen to go against your parents’ wishes, but in the end I had to follow my dream,” said Al-Ghaili.

Today, Al-Ghaili, 27, is a scientist and a media star with an army of fans avidly following his online mini-films in which he explains science to non-scientists.

He began posting occasional videos with a commentary in 2009. He taught himself graphics and editing and launched a Facebook page, just to share with friends. The group continued to grow and by the end of 2015, he had acquired 66,000 followers. Now he has 24 million followers globally and has racked up a staggering eight billion views on Facebook.

What began as a hobby made him a science superstar. But despite his natural ability, it hasn’t been easy.

His communication skills were evident at school where he would read aloud to the class “and explain things.” He was six.

At age 16 when he graduated from high school, he secretly applied for a government scholarship to study abroad. He had to go to the capital, Sanaa, to fill out the paperwork and made the six-hour journey without telling his father.

“I called him from Sanaa and he was really upset.” Angry, upset or disappointed? “I’d say angry. But I told him I was going to do this against all odds and he realized then that there was nothing he could do.”

Al-Ghaili secured the scholarship, but that didn’t mean he could study the subject he wanted at the university of his choice.

“People with connections get places in Europe and America. The rest of us get the leftovers and even then, the computer randomly chooses for you. I requested physics in Egypt or Jordan and I got biotechnology in Pakistan.”

Another shock awaited him when he arrived at the University of Peshawar and realized that his schoolboy English was not good enough to follow the tutorials and there was no language course he could sign up for that could bring him up to the required level. Undeterred, he set about teaching himself English from online tutorials that he was able to watch after borrowing money to buy a laptop.

“Peshawar wasn’t a very safe place back in 2008 so I wasn’t going out much. Within three months I was ready,” he said.

He graduated with a first-class degree and was appointed the university’s ambassador to Yemen.

He then applied for a scholarship to study for a master’s degree in Germany and became one of only five applicants out of 1,070 to be awarded a scholarship.

“So I had the scholarship, but to get the visa I had to have a place at a university, which I didn’t. But I couldn’t risk missing my chance,”

He arrived in Dresden, Germany, and spent five months learning German and applying to universities.

“I sent off 70 applications in one day. Most didn’t reply at all, a few said applications were closed and one replied saying: ‘Let’s talk.’”

That was Professor Sebastian Springer of Jacobs University, an English-language institution in Bremen, northern Germany, which has students from around 80 countries.

“DAAD (the scholarship-awarding body) made a strong recommendation for his exceptional communication abilities and his extraordinary dedication,” said Prof. Springer.

“In my interview, Hashem came across as a very dedicated and professional person who spoke excellent English and his gift of communication was already very clear.”

But a further shock awaited Al-Ghaili in Bremen, the course he had studied in Pakistan had been more theoretical. “I didn’t know how to conduct experiments or how to use the equipment. I was devastated.”

He confided his concerns to Prof. Springer. “He said he knew I was worried, and if I had not come to him, he would have known I was not serious about my studies. He said, ‘I’m here to help you.’ He was so supportive and I owe him a lot. I got the hang of the practical work and in the end I excelled at it.”

After he got a top grade in his master’s degree he was chosen to give the students’ speech at the graduation ceremony. He embarked on a doctorate, but gave it up after three months as his communicator role gradually took precedence over his science.

“I couldn’t do both and I realized I was better at the communicating.”

The online comments he gets bear this out. Many are of the “Wow, this is awesome!” variety. In response to a film about the history of the universe, from birth to now, one wrote: “This was the most amazing and educational six minutes and 11 seconds of my life.”

Al-Ghaili says he chooses topics that interest him or that could be useful.

“It might be a medical breakthrough or something to do with the environment, or correcting misconceptions about GM [genetically modified] foods or vaccines or climate change.”

Inevitably, he has faced criticism from Internet trolls calling him a fake and saying he should be arrested. He no longer reads the comments.

“I can’t screen hundreds of thousands of them. I only read them if they require intervention. I don’t care about the personal comments, but I won’t have them spreading misinformation.”

A particularly proud moment for him came two years after he got his master’s when he was invited on to a discussion panel with Randy Schekman, Nobel laureate in medicine, a powerful illustration of how far he has come.

His determination has also paid off for others as three siblings, including two sisters, have also gone to university. His brother has been studying business administration in Malaysia, one sister is a journalist and poet and the other is studying economics.

He is especially pleased for his sisters. “Women in Yemen are trained to accept what others decide for them. They don’t even know their rights. My dad is very proud now and convinced about education. He keeps track of everything I do. We speak every week.”

He lives in Berlin describing the city as “a great central hub for start-ups and collaboration,” but woefully lacking in Yemeni restaurants: “I mean, there’s not a single one anywhere in all of Germany!”

He now has four people to help him with sourcing video, editing and writing scripts. But nothing goes through without his approval. His current big project is “Simulation,” a science fiction short film he has written, directed and funded and intends to show at film festivals and then sell online.

He has not seen his family since 2013 and as the war rages on in Yemen he has no idea when he will. Doing what he does from Yemen would be difficult. “Talking about things like the Big Bang can get you into trouble,” he said.

But he feels a responsibility to represent his country well and longs to see it flourish.

“Being rich can make you a bit lazy,” he said. “Yemen is a poor country, but we have creative people.”
 


US meets Syria’s top diplomat, urges action to protect Druze minority

Updated 55 min 19 sec ago
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US meets Syria’s top diplomat, urges action to protect Druze minority

  • State Department spokeswoman confirms meeting in New York between US and Syrian delegations

WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday confirmed meeting Syria’s top diplomat and called on the interim authorities to take action on concerns, as violence flares against the Druze minority.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani last Friday raised his new country’s flag at the UN headquarters, marking a new chapter after the overthrowing in December of longtime ruler Bashar Assad.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce confirmed that US representatives met the Syrian delegation in New York on Tuesday.
She said that the United States urged the post-Assad authorities to “choose policies that reinforce stability,” without providing any assessment on progress.
“Any future normalization of relations or lifting of sanctions... will depend on the interim authority’s actions and positive response to the specific confidence-building measures we have communicated,” Bruce told reporters.
The demands were in line with those set out in December by the United States, then led by president Joe Biden, and include protecting minorities and preventing a role in Syria by Assad’s ally Iran.
Since the Islamist fighters toppled Assad, sectarian clashes have repeatedly flared.
The spiritual leader of the Druze community on Thursday alleged a “genocidal campaign” after two days of violence left 102 people dead.
“We urge the interim authorities to hold perpetrators of violence and civilian harm accountable for their actions and ensure the security of all Syrians,” Bruce said of the violence against Druze.


Children broken in mind and body by Israeli ‘abomination’ in Gaza

Updated 01 May 2025
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Children broken in mind and body by Israeli ‘abomination’ in Gaza

  • UN health chief: ‘How much blood is enough?’
  • We can’t live like this, say Palestinians

GENEVA: Palestinian children in Gaza are being physically and mentally broken by two months of an Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid and incessant pounding by airstrikes, UN health chiefs said on Thursday.

More than 1,000 children had lost limbs, thousands had severe spinal cord and head injuries from which they would never recover and many were psychologically damaged, World Health Organization emergencies chief Mike Ryan said.

“We have to ask ourselves, how much blood is enough to satisfy whatever the political objectives are?” he said. “We are watching this unfold before our very eyes, and we’re not doing anything about it.
“We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza. We are complicit. As a physician I am angry. It is an abomination.”
Israel has interrupted or blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza since the war began in October 2023, and imposed a total blockade on March 2. Since then the UN has repeatedly warned of a humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine looming, and it said this week that acute malnutrition among Gaza’s children was worsening.

Meanwhile Israel continues to pound civilians in Gaza with daily airstrikes and artillery bombardments. Civil defense chiefs said at least 29 Palestinians were killed on Thursday. They included eight who died in an airstrike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Younis refugee camp, four killed in another strike on Al-Tuffah in Gaza City, and others who died in an attack on a tent sheltering displaced people near the central city of Deir Al-Balah.

“We came here and found all these houses destroyed, and children, women and young people all bombed to pieces,” survivor Ahmed Abu Zarqa said after a deadly strike in Khan Younis.
“This is no way to live. Enough, we’re tired, enough. We don’t know what to do with our lives any more. We’d rather die than live this kind of life.”


Several countries send firefighting planes to Israel to help tackle major wildfire

Updated 01 May 2025
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Several countries send firefighting planes to Israel to help tackle major wildfire

JERUSALEM: Several countries were sending firefighting aircraft to Israel on Thursday as crews battled for a second day to extinguish a wildfire that had shut down a major highway linking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and sent drivers scrambling from their cars.

The fire broke out around midday on Wednesday, fueled by hot, dry conditions and fanned by strong winds that quickly whipped up the flames, burning through a pine forest. 

Several communities were evacuated as a precaution as the smoke turned the skies over Jerusalem gray.

The fire has burned about 20 sq. km and is the most significant fire Israel has had in the past decade, according to Tal Volvovitch, a spokesperson for Israel’s fire and rescue authority. 

She said the fire has “miraculously” not damaged any homes.

Israel’s fire and rescue authority warned the public to stay away from parks or forests, and to be exceptionally careful while lighting barbecues. 

Thursday is Israel’s Independence Day, which is typically marked with large family cookouts in parks and forests.

At least 12 people were treated in hospitals on Wednesday, mainly due to smoke inhalation, while another 10 people were treated in the field, Magen David Adom Ambulance services said.

Italy, Croatia, Spain, France, Ukraine, and Romania were sending planes to help battle the flames, while several other countries, including North Macedonia and Cyprus, were also sending water-dropping aircraft.

Israeli authorities said 10 firefighting planes were operating on Thursday morning, with another eight aircraft to arrive during the day.

Israel’s fire and rescue authority lifted the evacuation order on approximately a dozen towns in the Jerusalem hills on Thursday.

Three Catholic religious communities that were forced to evacuate from their properties on Wednesday could also return on Thursday, said Farid Jubran, the spokesperson for the Latin Patriarchate. 

He said their agricultural lands, including vineyards and olive trees, suffered heavy damage, and some buildings were damaged. 

But there were no injuries, and historic churches were not affected.

The main highway linking Jerusalem to Tel Aviv was opened again on Thursday, a day after the flames had encroached on the road, forcing drivers to abandon their cars and flee in terror. 

On Thursday morning, broad swathes of burned areas were visible from the highway, while pink anti-flame retardant dusted the top of burned trees and bushes. 

Smoke and the smell of fire hung heavy in the air.

In 2010, a massive forest fire burned for four days on northern Israel’s Mount Carmel, claiming 44 lives and destroying around 12,000 acres, much of it woodland.


Syrian Druze leader Al-Hijri slams ‘genocidal campaign’, Israel issues warning

Updated 01 May 2025
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Syrian Druze leader Al-Hijri slams ‘genocidal campaign’, Israel issues warning

  • Syrian Druze spiritual leader denounced the latest violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus as an 'unjustifiable genocidal campaign'
  • The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous

DAMASCUS: Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri on Thursday condemned what he called a “genocidal campaign” against his community after two days of sectarian clashes left 101 people dead.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned his country would respond “with significant force” if Syria’s new authorities fail to protect the Druze minority.
The violence poses a serious challenge to the new Syrian authorities who ousted longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December.
It comes after a wave of massacres in March in Syria’s Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast in which security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawites, according to rights groups.
It was the worst bloodshed since the ouster of Assad, who is from the minority community.

The government (should) protect its people

Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, Druze spiritual leader

Hijri in a statement on Thursday denounced the latest violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus as an “unjustifiable genocidal campaign” against the Druze.
He called for immediate intervention by “international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes.”
Israel has ramped up its support for Syria’s Druze, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday urging the international community to “fulfil its role in protecting the minorities in Syria — especially the Druze — from the regime and its gangs of terror.”
In a later statement, Katz said: “Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force.”

The fighting involved security forces, allied fighters, and local Druze groups. It resulted in the deaths of 30 government loyalists, 21 Druze fighters, and 10 civilians, including Sahnaya’s former mayor, Husam Warwar.

In the southern province of Sweida, which is the heartland of the Druze minority, 40 Druze gunmen were killed, 35 of them in an ambush on the Sweida-Damascus road on Wednesday.
Blasphemous audio
The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous.
AFP was unable to confirm the recording’s authenticity.
Truces was reached in Jaramana on Tuesday and in Sahnaya on Wednesday.
The government announced it was deploying forces in Sahnaya to ensure security, and accused “outlaw groups” of instigating the clashes.
However, Hijri said he no longer trusts “an entity pretending to be a government... because the government does not kill its people through its extremist militias... and then claim they were unruly elements after the massacres.”

Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz

“The government (should) protect its people,” he said.
Syria’s new authorities, who have roots in the Al-Qaeda jihadist network, have vowed inclusive rule in the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country, but must also contend with pressures from radical Islamists.
On Wednesday, a foreign ministry statement vowed to “protect all components” of Syrian society, including the Druze, and rejected “foreign interference.”
Israeli air strikes
Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani on Thursday reiterated Syria’s rejection of demands for international intervention, posting on X that “national unity is the solid foundation for any process of stability or revival.”
“Any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division,” he added.
Israel sees the new forces in Syria as jihadists and carried out strikes near Damascus on Wednesday. Israel said its forces were ordered to hit Syrian government targets “should the violence against Druze communities continue.”
“A stern message was conveyed to the Syrian regime — Israel expects them to act to prevent harm to the Druze community,” a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
Israel has attacked hundreds of military sites in Syria since Assad’s overthrow.
It has also sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone that used to separate Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights and voiced support for Syria’s Druze.
Israel’s military said Thursday two injured Syrian Druze had been evacuated to northern Israel for treatment.
A United Nations statement urged “all parties to exercise maximum restraint” and “uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.”


Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill at least 29

Updated 01 May 2025
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Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill at least 29

  • Thursday’s toll included eight people killed in an Israeli air strike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Yunis refugee
  • Four people were killed in an air strike east of Shaaf in Gaza City’s Al-Tuffah neighborhood

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Thursday Israeli bombardment killed at least 29 people since midnight in the war-ravaged territory, which has been under Israeli aid blockade for nearly two months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said that while the military’s mission was to bring home all the hostages from Gaza, its “supreme goal” was to achieve victory against Hamas.
Israel resumed its campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18, after a two-month truce collapsed over disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas whose 2023 attack triggered the conflict.
Civil defense official Mohammed Al-Mughayyir said Thursday’s toll included eight people killed in an air strike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza.
Four people were killed in an air strike east of Shaaf in Gaza City’s Al-Tuffah neighborhood, he told AFP.
At least 17 more were killed in other attacks across the Palestinian territory, including one that hit a tent sheltering displaced people near the central city of Deir el-Balah, the agency said.
“We came here and found all these houses destroyed, and children, women and young people all bombed to pieces,” said Ahmed Abu Zarqa after a deadly strike in Khan Yunis.
“This is no way to live. Enough, we’re tired, enough!
“We don’t know what to do with our lives any more. We’d rather die than live this kind of life.”
At Nasser Hospital
AFP images showed residents digging through rubble in search of bodies, which were carried away on stretchers under blankets.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, rescuers rushed a screaming wounded child out of an ambulance, as a group of women mourned.
“What have the children done wrong? What have we done wrong? Enough is enough. Just drop a nuclear bomb on us,” said Ghada Abu Sahlul as she mourned the death of a relative.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that at least 2,326 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,418.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.