Iraq honey production at the mercy of heat and drought

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Beekeepers check on bee frames at an apiary in the village of al-Raghila near Hilla in central Iraq on July 6, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 16 July 2023
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Iraq honey production at the mercy of heat and drought

  • “Under optimal circumstances, the worker bee can live up to 60 days, but in this current situation it only lives 20 days”

AL-REGHILA, Iraq: An oppressive heat beats down on the central Iraqi province of Babylon, where drought and rising temperatures are hitting bees and honey production hard.
Beekeeper Mohamed Aliawi knows it all too well as he checks on dozens of hive boxes placed at the feet of tall palm trees in the fields of Al-Reghila village.
“There is no water and therefore no (flowering) plants to keep the bees satisfied,” Aliawi, the deputy director of a local apiarist association, told AFP.
The earth is cracked, and growing melons and watermelons proves difficult due to a lingering drought and intense July temperatures often reaching around 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) — which take their toll on bees too.
A bee needs to constantly forage for the pollen and nectar necessary for honey production. It is in constant movement, usually traveling hundreds of meters (yards) to find its bounty, said Aliawi.
But the drought is forcing bees to travel longer — up to five kilometers (three miles) — to pollinate.
“This impacts the lifespan of the worker bee,” the female bee that gathers pollen and nectar, Aliawi explained.
“Under optimal circumstances, the worker bee can live up to 60 days, but in this current situation it only lives 20 days.”
In addition, bees thrive in temperatures of around 30-35 degrees Celsius, not in searing heat, when the thermometer climbs to 50, said Aliawi, the manager of a private honey producer.
He has moved dozens of bee hive boxes from central Iraq to seven sites scattered across the mountains of the northern autonomous Kurdistan region, where the air is cooler and the land greener.
“If we don’t move the bees they suffer,” he said.

On a hot July day, Aliawi and his team wore protective headgear before inspecting the bee hive boxes and the honeycombs inside.
They wafted smoke over the hives with a bee smoker, a procedure known to calm the insects.
In the early 2000s, each bee hive yielded about 20 to 25 kilograms (44-55 pounds) of honey per year, whereas now the quantity has plunged to merely five kilograms, Aliawi said.
According to the United Nations, Iraq is one of the five countries in the world most impacted by some effects of climate change.
Authorities say Iraq is going through its fourth-straight year of drought.
The country has been plagued by scorching summers, declining rainfall and frequent sand storms, while upstream dams have reduced the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that run across Iraq.
Despite these woes, the head of the apiarist department at the agriculture ministry, Hashem Al-Zeheiri, remains optimistic.
Honey production is “increasing year on year,” he said.
In 2022, honey produced in parts of Iraq controlled by the Baghdad federal authorities reached 870 tons, while in Kurdistan 850 tons were produced — up from about 700 tons in each territory the previous year.
Zeheiri said he has prepared a study on the benefits of moving bee hives from southern and central Iraq to Kurdistan, and vice-versa “according to needs,” in order to improve yields.

The United Nations Development Programme said in a 2020 report that “beekeeping has existed in Iraq... for an estimated 8,000 years,” with “recipes that use honey for medicinal purposes” inscribed on ancient Sumerian tablets.
In modern times, beekeeping in Iraq is dominated by men, but that has not stopped Zeinab Al-Maamuri.
She developed a passion after discovering beekeeping through her late husband, who had taken it up as a hobby.
Three decades on and now in her early 50s, Maamuri has 250 bee hives in the province of Babylon, dozens of which she keeps in the courtyard of the family house.
She lamented the effects of a warming planet on her bees.
“The rise in temperatures affects bees... the queen stops laying eggs” when it is too hot, Maamuri said.
And during the frequent sand storms that buffet the country, “if the bees are out, half will not return.”
 

 


Liam and Olivia dominate — again — with top baby names in the US for a sixth year in a row

Updated 10 May 2025
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Liam and Olivia dominate — again — with top baby names in the US for a sixth year in a row

  • ‘A trend we’re tracking is that Americans are more likely to choose heritage choices’

WASHINGTON: Liam and Olivia dominate. Still.
The two names have, for a sixth year together, topped the list of names for babies born in the US in 2024.
The Social Security Administration annually tracks the names given to girls and boys in each state, with names dating back to 1880. In time for Mother’s Day, the agency on Friday released the most popular names from applications for Social Security cards.
Liam has reigned for eight years in a row for boys, while Olivia has topped the girls’ list for six. Also, for the sixth consecutive year, Emma took the second slot for girls, and Noah for boys.
The girls’ name Luna slipped out of the Top 10 and was replaced by Sofia, which enters at number 10 for the first time.
After Liam, the most common names for boys are, in order: Noah, Oliver, Theodore, James, Henry, Mateo, Elijah, Lucas and William.
After Olivia, the most common names for girls are Emma, Amelia, Charlotte, Mia, Sophia, Isabella, Evelyn, Ava and Sofia.
Sophie Kihm, editor-in-chief of nameberry, a baby naming website, said the latest data showcases how American parents are increasingly choosing names that have cross-cultural appeal. Kihm’s first name shows up in two variations on the annual list.
“A trend we’re tracking is that Americans are more likely to choose heritage choices,” Kihm said, including names that work “no matter where you are in the world.”
”More families in the US come from mixed cultural backgrounds and I hear parents commonly request that they want their child to travel and have a relatively easy to understand name.”
The Social Security Administration’s latest data show that 3.61 million babies were born in the US in 2024. That’s a slight increase from last year’s 3.59 million babies, representing an overall increase in the American birthrate.
Social media stars and popular television shows are having some impact on the rising popularity of certain names, Social Security says.
Among those rising in popularity for girls: Ailany, a Hawaiian name that means “chief,” topped the list. The boys’ name Truce, an Old English name meaning “peace,” rose 11,118 spots from last year’s position to rank 991.
The complete, searchable list of baby names is on the Social Security website.


Sweden’s new national security adviser quits over dating site images

Updated 09 May 2025
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Sweden’s new national security adviser quits over dating site images

  • Thyberg said that he had failed to disclose the existence of the images
  • “I should have informed about this, but I did not,” he said

OSLO: Sweden’s new national security adviser abruptly resigned on Friday, just one day after his appointment, amid criticism from the prime minister that he failed to disclose information regarding images published years ago on a dating website.

Tobias Thyberg, a foreign service veteran who in previous roles served as ambassador to both Ukraine and Afghanistan, had omitted the information during security background checks, the government said.

The resignation comes just months after Thyberg’s predecessor in the high-profile job stepped down and was charged with negligent handling of classified information.
Thyberg did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on Friday.

But in a statement to daily Dagens Nyheter, Thyberg said that he had failed to disclose the existence of the images.
“These are old pictures from an account I previously had on the dating site Grindr. I should have informed about this, but I did not,” he said, according to DN.

Reuters could not independently verify information about the content of the images.

Background checks for sensitive government jobs typically require the disclosure of any information that could potentially make someone vulnerable to blackmail.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the information should have come to light a long time ago.

“It is a systemic failure that this kind of information has not been brought forward,” Kristersson told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Norway.

Thyberg had been due to travel to Oslo on Friday with the prime minister for a meeting of northern European leaders, but the adviser’s participation was canceled.


Two men found guilty of chopping down iconic UK tree

Updated 09 May 2025
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Two men found guilty of chopping down iconic UK tree

  • The tree at Sycamore Gap had stood for nearly 200 years next to Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern England
  • The tree was so striking it featured in the 1991 Hollywood film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves“

LONDON: An English court found two men guilty on Friday of the “deliberate and mindless” felling of one of the UK’s most iconic trees, an incident that sparked national outrage.

A jury at Newcastle Crown Court found former friends Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, guilty of criminal damage for the 2023 felling of the tree at Sycamore Gap.

It had stood for nearly 200 years next to Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern England. The tree was so striking it featured in the 1991 Hollywood film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”

They were convicted after around five hours of deliberation on two counts of criminal damage: to the sycamore and to the Roman wall, which was damaged when the tree fell on it.

Reacting to the verdict, the National Trust conservation body said the “needless felling” of the tree had “shocked people around the country and overseas, demonstrating the powerful connection between people and our natural heritage.

“It was felt particularly deeply here in the north east of England where the tree was an emblem of the region and the backdrop to many personal memories,” said a spokesperson.

Prosecutors had told the court that the two men used a chainsaw to cut down the tree. It was, they said, “an act of deliberate and mindless criminal damage,” which they filmed on Graham’s phone and shared with others.

Speaking after the conviction, Northumbria Police’s Kevin Waring said: “We often hear references made to mindless acts of vandalism, but that term has never been more relevant than today.

“At no point have the two men given an explanation for why they targeted the tree — and there never could be a justifiable one,” he added.

Graham has “been in custody for his own protection after an episode in December,” his lawyer Chris Knox told court on Friday.

The pair drove to the site near Hexham in Graham’s Range Rover and felled the tree on the night of September 27, 2023, slicing through the trunk in “a matter of minutes,” said prosecutor Richard Wright.

“Having completed their moronic mission, the pair got back into the Range Rover and traveled back toward Carlisle” where they lived, he added.

A video of the act recovered from Graham’s phone was shared by the two men with “the unmistakable sound of a chainsaw, and a tree falling,” said Wright.

The next day, in a voice message from Graham to Carruthers, Graham said “it’s gone viral. It is worldwide. It will be on ITV news tonight,” he added.

“They are loving it, they’re revelling in it. This is the reaction of the people that did it. They still think it’s funny, or clever, or big,” said the prosecutor.

Gale Gilchrist, from the Crown Prosecution Service North, said that “in just under three minutes, Graham and Carruthers ended its (the tree’s) historic legacy in a deliberate and mindless act of destruction.

“We hope our community can take some measure of comfort in seeing those responsible convicted today,” she added.

The pair were jointly charged with causing £622,191 ($832, 821) of criminal damage to the tree and £1,144 of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, an ancient Roman fortification stretching from northwest to northeast England.

The two men have been remanded in custody — Carruthers for his own protection. They will be sentenced on July 15.

The sycamore was a symbol of northeast England and a key attraction photographed by millions of visitors over the years, winning the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year in 2016.

Efforts are under way to see if it can be regrown from its stump or seeds.

The National Trust, which owns the wall and the tree, said it has grown 49 saplings from the sycamore’s seeds, which will be planted this winter at sites across the UK.


Rare New Zealand snail is filmed for the first time laying an egg from its neck

Updated 09 May 2025
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Rare New Zealand snail is filmed for the first time laying an egg from its neck

  • The habits of the threatened Powelliphanta augusta snail were once shrouded in mystery
  • The video was taken at a facility on the South Island’s West Coast

WELLINGTON: The strange reproductive habits of a large, carnivorous New Zealand snail were once shrouded in mystery. Now footage of the snail laying an egg from its neck has been captured for the first time, the country’s conservation agency said Wednesday.
What looks like a tiny hen’s egg is seen emerging from an opening below the head of the Powelliphanta augusta snail, a threatened species endemic to New Zealand.
The video was taken at a facility on the South Island’s West Coast, where conservation rangers attempting to save the species from extinction have cared for a population of the snails in chilled containers for nearly two decades.
The conditions in the containers mimic the alpine weather in their only former habitat — a remote mountain they were named for, on the West Coast of the South Island, that has been engulfed by mining.
Observing their habits
Lisa Flanagan from the Department of Conservation, who has worked with the creatures for 12 years, said the species still holds surprises.
“It’s remarkable that in all the time we’ve spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we’ve seen one lay an egg,” she said in a statement.
Like other snails, Powelliphanta augusta are hermaphrodites, which explains how the creatures can reproduce when encased in a hard shell. The invertebrate uses a genital pore on the right side of its body, just below the head, to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until each creates an egg.
A long but slow reproductive life
Each snail takes eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which it lays about five eggs a year. The egg can take more than a year to hatch.
“Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old,” said Flanagan. “They’re polar opposites to the pest garden snail we introduced to New Zealand, which is like a weed, with thousands of offspring each year and a short life.”
The dozens of species and subspecies of Powelliphanta snails are only found in New Zealand, mostly in rugged forest and grassland settings where they are threatened by habitat loss.
They are carnivores that slurp up earthworms like noodles, and are some of the world’s largest snails , with oversized, distinctive shells in a range of rich earth colors and swirling patterns.
A political storm
The Powelliphanta augusta was the center of public uproar and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when an energy company’s plans to mine for coal threatened to destroy the snails’ habitat.
Some 4,000 were removed from the site and relocated, while 2,000 more were housed in chilled storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to breed and doesn’t adapt well to new habitats.
In 2011, some 800 of the snails accidentally died in a Department of Conservation refrigerator with faulty temperature control.
But the species’ slow survival continues: In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said.


Poisoned guests rarely invited before deadly mushroom lunch, Australia trial hears

Updated 09 May 2025
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Poisoned guests rarely invited before deadly mushroom lunch, Australia trial hears

  • An Australian woman accused of triple murder with a toxic mushroom-laced beef Wellington had rarely invited her four guests to eat at her home before, a court heard Friday

SYDNEY: An Australian woman accused of triple murder with a toxic mushroom-laced beef Wellington had rarely invited her four guests to eat at her home before, a court heard Friday.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering the parents and aunt of her estranged husband in July 2023 by serving them the pastry-and-beef dish with death cap mushrooms.
She is also accused of the attempted murder of her husband’s uncle, who survived the meal after a long stay in hospital.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In a trial that has seized international attention, prosecutors played a recording of a police interview with Patterson’s son, then 14, following the lunch.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said his mother had hosted his paternal grandparents at her house “once before.”
And she had “never” previously hosted Heather and Ian Wilkinson, his father’s aunt and uncle, the boy said.
His mother’s relationship with the couple was “not a negative one, but it is not strong,” the youngster told police.
The accused’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, had declined the invitation to lunch at her home in the sedate Victoria state farm village of Leongatha.
Four members of his family attended: his parents Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt and uncle.
While the guests had lunch, Patterson’s children went to a McDonald’s and the cinema.
Within hours after eating, the four guests developed diarrhea and vomiting and were taken to hospital, where doctors diagnosed death cap mushroom poisoning.
Days later, three of the guests were dead. Ian Wilkinson, a local pastor, lived after weeks of hospital treatment.
On the morning after the lunch, Patterson’s son said she was “a little bit quieter” than usual, complaining of “feeling a bit sick and had diarrhea,” the court heard.
The family had missed their local church service because “mum was feeling too sick,” he said.
That night, Patterson and her children ate the purported leftovers of the beef Wellington.
The defendant has said she scraped off the mushrooms because her children were picky eaters.
“It was probably some of the best meat I’ve ever had,” her teenage son said.
“Mum said it was leftovers.”
Jurors also heard a recording of a police interview with Patterson’s daughter, then nine, who said her mum was a good cook.
“We make cupcakes and muffins,” she said.
The girl, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, said she did not get sick from eating the claimed leftovers.
The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests and took care that neither she, nor her children, consumed the deadly mushrooms.
Her defense says it was “a terrible accident” and that Patterson ate the same meal as the others but did not fall as sick.
The trial is expected to last another five weeks.