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By the Numbers: Facts and Figures about the Queen’s Funeral

Royal Guards march outside Horse Guard grounds ahead of the State Funeral Service of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Britain, September 19, 2022. (AP)
Royal Guards march outside Horse Guard grounds ahead of the State Funeral Service of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Britain, September 19, 2022. (AP)
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By the Numbers: Facts and Figures about the Queen’s Funeral

Royal Guards march outside Horse Guard grounds ahead of the State Funeral Service of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Britain, September 19, 2022. (AP)
Royal Guards march outside Horse Guard grounds ahead of the State Funeral Service of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Britain, September 19, 2022. (AP)

Events surrounding Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral on Monday cap 10 days of national mourning and are expected to be watched by hundreds of thousands of people packed onto the streets of London and millions around the world. Those are just a few of the staggering array of numbers generated by the death of the 96-year-old monarch after a 70-year-reign.

Here are some figures that have swirled around London and the rest of the United Kingdom in the aftermath of death on Sept. 8 at her summer retreat in Scotland of the only monarch most Britons have ever known.

— 2,000: Dignitaries and guests in Westminster Abbey for the state funeral, ranging from King Charles III and other royals to world leaders including US President Joe Biden to members of the British public who helped battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

— 800: Guests at a committal service later in the day at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

— 5,949: Military personnel deployed throughout the meticulously choreographed operation that began with the queen's death on Sept. 8 at her Balmoral Estate in the Scottish Highlands. That number comprises 4,416 from the army, 847 from the navy and 686 from the air force. In addition, around 175 armed forces personnel from Commonwealth nations have been involved.

— 1,650: At least that number of military personnel will be involved in the pomp-filled procession of the queen's coffin from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch after her funeral. A further 1,000 will line the streets along the procession route When the coffin reaches Windsor, 410 military personnel will take part in the procession, 480 will line streets, 150 will be in a guard of honor and line steps and 130 more will fulfil other ceremonial duties.

— 142: Royal Navy ratings who will pull the state gun carriage carrying the queen's coffin on Monday when it leaves the Houses of Parliament for her funeral.

— More than 10,000: Police officers. Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said the “hugely complex” policing operation is the biggest in the London force’s history, surpassing the London 2012 Olympics which saw up to 10,000 police officers on duty per day.

— 22: Miles (36 kilometers) of barriers erected in central London alone to control crowds and keep key areas around the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace secure.

— 1 million: The number of people London transport authorities expect to visit the capital on Monday. Around 250 extra rail services will run to move people in and out of the city.

— 5: Miles (8 kilometers) of people lining up to file past the queen's coffin in Westminster Hall. The mammoth queue stretched back from the Houses of Parliament along the south bank of the River Thames to Southwark Park. The number of people who viewed the coffin over four days is not yet known.

— 125: Movie theaters that will open their doors to broadcast Monday's funeral live.

— 2,868: Diamonds, along with 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls, and 4 rubies, sparkle in the Imperial State Crown that rested on the queen's coffin as it lay in state.

— 2: Minutes of silence at the end of the funeral at Westminster Abbey.

— 1: Coffin. The silent eye in the days-long storm of pomp, pageantry and protection is a single, flag-draped oak coffin carrying the only monarch most Britons have ever known.

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Climate Change Imperils Drought-Stricken Morocco’s Cereal Farmers and Its Food Supply

A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
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Climate Change Imperils Drought-Stricken Morocco’s Cereal Farmers and Its Food Supply

A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)

Golden fields of wheat no longer produce the bounty they once did in Morocco. A six-year drought has imperiled the country's entire agriculture sector, including farmers who grow cereals and grains used to feed humans and livestock.

The North African nation projects this year's harvest will be smaller than last year in both volume and acreage, putting farmers out of work and requiring more imports and government subsidies to prevent the price of staples like flour from rising for everyday consumers.

"In the past, we used to have a bounty — a lot of wheat. But during the last seven or eight years, the harvest has been very low because of the drought," said Al Housni Belhoussni, a small-scale farmer who has long tilled fields outside of the city of Kenitra.

Belhoussni's plight is familiar to grain farmers throughout the world confronting a hotter and drier future. Climate change is imperiling the food supply and shrinking the annual yields of cereals that dominate diets around the world — wheat, rice, maize and barley.

In North Africa, among the regions thought of as most vulnerable to climate change, delays to annual rains and inconsistent weather patterns have pushed the growing season later in the year and made planning difficult for farmers.

In Morocco, where cereals account for most of the farmed land and agriculture employs the majority of workers in rural regions, the drought is wreaking havoc and touching off major changes that will transform the makeup of the economy. It has forced some to leave their fields fallow. It has also made the areas they do elect to cultivate less productive, producing far fewer sacks of wheat to sell than they once did.

In response, the government has announced restrictions on water use in urban areas — including on public baths and car washes — and in rural ones, where water going to farms has been rationed.

"The late rains during the autumn season affected the agriculture campaign. This year, only the spring rains, especially during the month of March, managed to rescue the crops," said Abdelkrim Naaman, the chairman of Nalsya. The organization has advised farmers on seeding, irrigation and drought mitigation as less rain falls and less water flows through Morocco's rivers.

The Agriculture Ministry estimates that this year's wheat harvest will yield roughly 3.4 million tons (3.1 billion kilograms), far less than last year's 6.1 million tons (5.5 billion kilograms) — a yield that was still considered low. The amount of land seeded has dramatically shrunk as well, from 14,170 square miles (36,700 square kilometers) to 9,540 square miles (24,700 square kilometers).

Such a drop constitutes a crisis, said Driss Aissaoui, an analyst and former member of the Moroccan Ministry for Agriculture.

"When we say crisis, this means that you have to import more," he said. "We are in a country where drought has become a structural issue."

Leaning more on imports means the government will have to continue subsidizing prices to ensure households and livestock farmers can afford dietary staples for their families and flocks, said Rachid Benali, the chairman of the farming lobby COMADER.

The country imported nearly 2.5 million tons of common wheat between January and June. However, such a solution may have an expiration date, particularly because Morocco's primary source of wheat, France, is facing shrinking harvests as well.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization ranked Morocco as the world's sixth-largest wheat importer this year, between Türkiye and Bangladesh, which both have much bigger populations.

"Morocco has known droughts like this and in some cases known droughts that las longer than 10 years. But the problem, this time especially, is climate change," Benali said.