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50 Years On, Umm Kulthum is Still Arab World’s Voice

A statue of the late Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum stands in the Zmalek district of Cairo on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
A statue of the late Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum stands in the Zmalek district of Cairo on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
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50 Years On, Umm Kulthum is Still Arab World’s Voice

A statue of the late Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum stands in the Zmalek district of Cairo on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
A statue of the late Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum stands in the Zmalek district of Cairo on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)

Half a century after her death, Umm Kulthum's singular voice still echoes through busy streets in Egypt, across time-worn cafes in Iraq, and in millions of homes from Morocco to Oman.

"As long as people listen to music, there will be Umm Kulthum," said Abu Ahmed, the manager of a Cairo cafe named after the Arab world's most revered singer.

"She still lives in every song and every note," he told AFP, adjusting the volume on an antique recorder as visitors to the historic bazaar the cafe is housed in peered in from outside.

Sepia-toned photographs of the icon adorn the walls of Abu Ahmed's cafe, alongside posters from her concerts.

As her voice in her most famous ballad, "Enta Omri" (You're My Life), rose to a crescendo, conversation around a nearby table fell to a hush.

"Umm Kulthum is the voice of the nation," Aya Khamis, 36, whispered as she sipped her tea.

On a wooden stall just outside, a vendor laid out tiny figurines of Umm Kulthum and her orchestra.

Each piece was carefully crafted -- musicians in sharp suits, miniature renditions of classical instruments the qanun and the oud, and Umm Kulthum herself, with her signature scarf and sunglasses.

"These are my bestsellers," said Shadi Said, 37, holding up a figurine of the singer.

More than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away, the same music poured out of Baghdad's own Umm Kulthum cafe -- open since 1970, five years before the singer's death at 76 plunged the Arab world into mourning.

Far away from her state funeral in Cairo, the cafe in Baghdad held its own ceremony for bereaved fans like Iraqi engineer Youssef Hamad.

Now 77 and retired, Hamad told AFP he still comes to the same cafe every day to listen to Umm Kulthum's hours-long concerts.

Another cafe-goer, Khazaal Abu Ali, struggled to put his love for her into words.

"She once sang 'if a day passes without seeing you, it can't count towards my lifetime'. That is how I feel," the 83-year-old said, his eyes tearing up.

"A day without her voice is a day that is lost."

Born in 1898 in a small Nile Delta village, Umm Kulthum rose from humble beginnings to become the most celebrated voice in the Arab world.

Her father, an imam, recognized her talent early on, but fearing the ire of early 20th-century Egyptian society, disguised her as a boy so she could perform in public.

Her full-bodied voice and magnetic presence soon captivated audiences, and in the 1930s, she moved to Cairo.

Her music revolutionized Arabic music, as she blended classical poetry with grand orchestral arrangements.

But it was her improvisations that made her a legend, feeding off the audience's energy in a hypnotic exchange, as she stretched and reprised verses.

Western musicians were also mesmerized, with Maria Callas, Robert Plant and Bob Dylan all paying tribute to her.

"She is one of my favorite singers of all time," Dylan once said.

More recently, Shakira and Beyonce have sampled her songs.

This year, her story is set to return to the big screen in a new biopic starring Egyptian star Mona Zaki.

The film will portray her not just as a musician, but also as a feminist figure challenging societal norms.

Though she eventually married at 56, Umm Kulthum never had children.

In the 1940s she became the first woman to head Egypt's Musicians' Syndicate.

"She was a woman who held immense power in a male-dominated industry," Fayza Hendawi, an art critic, told AFP.

"She was incredibly strong and completely in control of every detail -- her songs, her image, her choices in life," she added.

In Cairo, a bronze statue of Umm Kulthum stands looking out on the Nile River 50 years after her death, commanding and timeless.

Across the water, a museum dedicated to her legacy offers glimpses into her world.

Visitors marvel at her ornate gowns, notebooks and the diamond-encrusted sunglasses that became her signature look.

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Varieties

Pakistan Farmers in Long Fight to Make German Firms Pay for Flood Damage

Dozens of Pakistani farmers are suing German firms RWE and Heidelberg Materials in a rare bid to make big polluters pay damages for climate impacts. Aamir QURESHI / AFP
Dozens of Pakistani farmers are suing German firms RWE and Heidelberg Materials in a rare bid to make big polluters pay damages for climate impacts. Aamir QURESHI / AFP
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Pakistan Farmers in Long Fight to Make German Firms Pay for Flood Damage

Dozens of Pakistani farmers are suing German firms RWE and Heidelberg Materials in a rare bid to make big polluters pay damages for climate impacts. Aamir QURESHI / AFP
Dozens of Pakistani farmers are suing German firms RWE and Heidelberg Materials in a rare bid to make big polluters pay damages for climate impacts. Aamir QURESHI / AFP

In a Pakistani village nestled in rice fields, Abdul Hafeez Khoso remembers the vast industrial zones he saw in Germany when he visited to file a pioneering climate legal case.

"They're spreading pollution: up in the sky there are no borders, it can affect anywhere," the 43-year-old said, describing areas far larger than his village of 800 people.

"This is a problem for the whole world -- that is why it should be resolved at the global level."

Khoso and 38 other farmers from Pakistan's southern Sindh province who were devastated by "apocalyptic" flooding in 2022 are suing German energy firm RWE and cement maker Heidelberg Materials in a rare bid to make big polluters pay damages for climate impacts.

The companies are being targeted not over specific operations in Pakistan, but because of their climate-warming emissions. They are headquartered in Germany, where a recent legal case opened the door to such suits.

The litigation argues that the companies' emissions contributed to climate change and turbo-charged rain that wiped out their crops, livestock and homes.

"The year 2022 was an apocalyptic scene -- not even our elders had ever witnessed such weather," Khoso, who lives in the district of Jacobabad with his wife and toddler, told AFP.

"We had nothing left."

Both firms, which the plaintiffs estimate contributed 0.68 percent and 0.12 percent to global industrial emissions respectively, deny wrongdoing.

Khoso's case is backed by Pakistani and European organizations hoping to win compensation and build on nascent but vigorous international efforts to extract climate damages from corporations.

"We always blame natural disasters, and sometimes we blame God, but science tells us that climate change is increasing the risks and intensity of extreme weather events," said Mir Keerio, a development expert at Pakistan's HANDS Welfare Foundation, which mobilized communities for the lawsuit.

"Those who have contributed significantly to this crisis must be held accountable... we realized we must take our fight for climate justice to the major polluters."

- Debt and damages -

Climate litigation is a growing field globally, but action has so far largely targeted governments, with only a handful of firms such as Shell and cement maker Holcim facing suits for climate disaster compensations.

Lawyers say a ruling requiring a company to pay out compensation proportionate to its greenhouse gas emissions would mark a major breakthrough.

Germany's judiciary moved towards that principle last year in a case brought by a Peruvian farmer, also against RWE.

His compensation claim was rejected, but the courts left the door open to holding emitters liable.

Roda Verheyen, a German lawyer involved in both cases, told AFP the Pakistani farmers' lawsuit builds on that ruling and further accuses companies of "wrongful behavior".

"Large companies knew about the general impacts of climate change since the 1960s," said Verheyen.

"They should have exercised due diligence and actually at least tried to reduce emissions, which they didn't do enough."

The lawsuit also draws on research documenting farmers' losses in the floods, which hit a third of the country, killed 1,700 and affected 30 million Pakistanis.

Munawar Khatoon, a rare female landowner in a conservative area, said the floods struck just before the wheat harvest, submerging seeds and wiping out her family's main source of income.

"We worry about how the next generation will manage to live if this continues," the 43-year-old told AFP in her village Usman Samtio.

"Now when the rainy season comes, we feel fear."

In nearby Dadu district, litigant Abdul Khalique Laghari said the floods affected the region for years.

"To this day, we are unable to repay our debt," said the 55-year-old, who estimates he lost $14,000 in assets including his house, 40 acres (16 hectares) of crops and livestock.

"When we wake in the morning, we start getting calls from the people we owe money to," he said, pointing to crumbling walls and the remnants of flood-damaged houses.

"This has caused us serious mental harm."

- 'For justice' -

RWE and Heidelberg Materials both call the claims in the suit "unfounded".

Heidelberg Materials told AFP its operations were compliant with German laws and that firms could not be expected to retroactively face different standards.

RWE referred AFP to a statement describing the lawsuit as "yet another attempt to shift climate policy demands to German courtrooms".

"It would be a contradiction in terms if the state allowed CO2 emissions, regulated them by law and even demanded them in some cases, but at the same time allowed retroactive civil liability for them," it said.

Even if the case succeeds, an uphill battle remains for millions across Pakistan, ranked among the countries most affected by climate change despite contributing less than one percent of global emissions.

The case will be considered in a civil process likely to take years. But for the litigants, the attempt is worth it.

"This case is for justice," said Khatoon. "We hold these companies responsible for our destruction."

Varieties

This Year Set to Be One of Four Hottest on Record, UN Report Says

A tourist holds an umbrella to shelter from the sun while walking on a hot day in Tokyo on July 15, 2026. (AFP)
A tourist holds an umbrella to shelter from the sun while walking on a hot day in Tokyo on July 15, 2026. (AFP)
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This Year Set to Be One of Four Hottest on Record, UN Report Says

A tourist holds an umbrella to shelter from the sun while walking on a hot day in Tokyo on July 15, 2026. (AFP)
A tourist holds an umbrella to shelter from the sun while walking on a hot day in Tokyo on July 15, 2026. (AFP)

This year is ‌on track to be one of the four hottest on record, driven by a powerful El Niño and perpetuating a warming streak of more than a decade, a UN report showed on Monday.

Countries are preparing to meet in Türkiye from November 9 to 20 for the next round of climate talks and the World Meteorological Organization "State of the Climate" report provides the latest available data ‌to inform ‌their discussions.

Between January and September ‌this ⁠year, the global average ⁠temperature was 1.47 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average and could rise further due to a major El Niño, the report showed.

The WMO report, which encompasses nine data sets, showed that each of the past 12 years, including 2026, ⁠was ranked among the 12 warmest ever ‌recorded since records began ‌in around 1850.

“Every indicator here is telling the ‌same story. We're seeing the heat trapped by greenhouse ‌gasses is showing up in the ocean, in the atmosphere, in the melting of ice and the rising of sea levels,” WMO Head of Climate Information John Kennedy ‌told reporters in Geneva ahead of the conference.

The EU's Copernicus climate ⁠service ⁠already said 2026 was all but certain to become the second calendar year after 2024 to exceed the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels set in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The planet is increasingly accumulating heat, the UN report said, with ocean temperatures continuing to rise this year from 2025 all-time highs.

Global mean sea levels have also reached a record this year as glaciers and ice sheets melt and seawater expands as it heats, the report said.

Varieties

Reintroduction of White-Tailed Eagles Puts Seabird Colonies at Risk of Wipeout

A white-tailed eagle over the Isle of Mull in Scotland. (Natural Resources Wales)
A white-tailed eagle over the Isle of Mull in Scotland. (Natural Resources Wales)
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Reintroduction of White-Tailed Eagles Puts Seabird Colonies at Risk of Wipeout

A white-tailed eagle over the Isle of Mull in Scotland. (Natural Resources Wales)
A white-tailed eagle over the Isle of Mull in Scotland. (Natural Resources Wales)

White-tailed eagles reintroduced into England and Wales imperil endangered seabird populations and risk wiping out some colonies, The Guardian reported quoting ecologists and conservationists.

Puffins, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and kittiwakes are among the birds for which breeding populations could collapse if large numbers of white-tailed eagles are released, according to some academics and conservationists.

“Amidst all the excitement and enthusiasm for reintroducing white-tailed eagles, the fact that these birds will probably destroy our seabird colonies seems to have been completely overlooked,” said Tim Birkhead, an emeritus professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Sheffield.

The return of white-tailed eagles to Britain after they were driven to extinction in 1918 has been a great conservation success story in recent decades.

But proposals to release up to 60 eagles in Gwent, south Wales, on top of 20 young birds already being released over the next three years on Exmoor, is dividing nature lovers.

Sarah Kessell, the chief executive of the Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales (WTSWW), said: “We’re increasingly alarmed about the reintroduction of white-tailed eagles across the UK as more evidence comes to light of their impact on cliff-nesting seabirds.”

She noted that the islands of Skomer and Skokholm are a sanctuary for globally important seabird populations, which are already under threat. “The extra pressure of disturbance and displacement from white-tailed eagles could have a significant impact on breeding seabirds. We have an overwhelming obligation to protect the seabirds on the islands that we manage,” Kessell said.

White-tailed eagle chicks brought over from Norway to reintroduce them into Scotland in 1975 has led to a wild population now of 200 breeding pairs, with 45 birds successfully reintroduced to the Isle of Wight since 2019.

Although there has been repeated illegal killing of the huge avian predator, the first English-born wild bird fledged from a nest in East Sussex in 2023.

Wales has not yet restored the species to its skies.

Prof Geoff Hilton, the head of wetland evidence at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), which is leading the Gwent reintroduction, said: “Conservation action has and always will carry an element of risk. But what’s essential is that we carefully evaluate those risks early, use robust evidence to investigate the scale of those risks, and balance them against potential opportunities.”

Hilton stressed that white-tailed eagles were generalist feeders with a varied diet including carrion, fish and small mammals.

Research published in 2020 of eagles east of the Baltic Sea found that birds of particular conservation concern in the EU accounted for around 1% of identified prey in a long-term study of eagle diets.

He said: “With careful phasing, we aim to establish seven to nine breeding pairs of white-tailed eagles over the next 10 years.”

“We don’t expect this reintroduction to significantly reduce or impact any single species population. We do, however, expect to see healthier, more balanced ecosystems and landscapes, as apex predators like these eagles start to thrive once again,” he added.