Falling water forms beautiful fluted films

King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST)

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Using hollow tubes of varying diameters and high-speed imaging, KAUST researchers captured the hidden shapes of the thin liquid film left behind after water flowed out. © 2025 KAUST.

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Credit: © 2025 KAUST

When water drains from the bottom of a vertical tube, it is followed by a thin film of liquid that can adopt complex and beautiful shapes. KAUST researchers have now studied exactly how these “fluted films” form and break up, developing a mathematical model of their behavior that could help improve the performance, safety, and efficiency of industrial processes[1]

“At first glance, water draining from a tube seems like an everyday process driven by gravity,” says Abhijit Kushwaha, a member of the team behind the work. “It is only with high-speed imaging that we can slow down time enough to capture the hidden choreography of this process.”

For the study, the team used hollow tubes of varying diameters, filled with water to different heights. As the researchers allowed the water to flow out, a high-speed camera captured the shapes formed over a period of about a hundred milliseconds.

This revealed a curious effect for certain combinations of tube diameter and water height. As the liquid fell, a thin film of water dragged against the tube walls and descended more slowly. Once the main water column exited the tube, this film emerged and formed a fleeting, tulip-shaped bubble. In some cases, the fluted film quickly retracted into the tube; in others, it stretched until the water column broke away from it.

The formation of fluted films depends on a delicate balance of gravity, surface tension, inertia, and viscosity, explains Kushwaha. If the water column is too short or the tube is too narrow, the film does not form. Conversely, the widest tubes produce a cylindrical film that breaks away from the tube to create a crown shape.

The researchers created a mathematical model to predict the behavior of these films based on a few simple parameters, such as tube radius and water height. “This can inform better design and control strategies in any system where thin liquid films play a vital role — from industrial reactors to microelectronics to biological systems, such as the lungs,” explains Tadd Truscott, who leads the research.

For example, devices called falling-film evaporators are widely used in industries like food processing, pharmaceuticals, and power generation to concentrate liquids or remove solvents. These systems feature thin films of liquid that evaporate as they flow down the walls of heated tubes. If these films break or become uneven, heat transfer efficiency can be reduced, or equipment can be damaged.

“Our research helps improve understanding of when and how such films might rupture or behave unexpectedly, offering insights that could be used to design more reliable systems,” Truscott says. “This could also be relevant to cooling rocket engines or applying protective coatings to surfaces.”

The team plans to study how other fluids behave in a broader range of tubes. “Ultimately, our goal is to develop a predictive framework that helps scientists and engineers understand, design, and optimize systems where thin films play a hidden but crucial role,” Kushwaha adds.

Reference

1. Kushwaha, A. K., Jones, M. B., Belden, J., Speirs, N. & Truscott, T. T. Transient fluted films behind falling water columns. Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 224001 (2025). | article

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Physical Review Letters

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Transient fluted films behind falling water columns

Does a lack of faith lead to suicide? One study says yes. Scholars of secularism say no.

(RNS) — A new study by a Christian scholar found higher rates of suicide and campus sexual assault in states where more nonbelievers live. But others who study secularism say correlation doesn't prove the case.

(Photo by Akhil Nath/Unsplash/Creative Commons)
Bob Smietana
January 3, 2025


(RNS) — As an evangelical Christian, Philip Truscott is dismayed at the decline of religion in America, saying it is bad for the country’s soul.

As a social scientist, he says he has proof.

In a paper in the Journal of Sociology and Christianity, Truscott draws on data tracking crime on college campus and religious affiliation surveys to show that states with higher percentages of so-called “nones” — people who claim no religious affiliation in surveys — have higher rates of sexual assault on campus as well as higher suicide rates overall.

Truscott did most of the work on the study, entitled “Rape, Suicide, and the Rise of Religious Nones” while a professor of sociology at Southwest Baptist University in Missouri. He was inspired by previous research he had done that showed that the higher the percentage of nones in a state, the higher the suicide rate. That research, based on data from the 2014 Pew Religious Landscape report, also showed that the higher the percentage of evangelicals in a state, the lower the rate of sexual assaults on its college campuses.
RELATED: Who are the ‘nones’? New Pew study debunks myths about America’s nonreligious.

Truscott followed up on those findings by examining similar data from the Public Religion Research Institute and reported the results in a paper in the Journal of Sociology and Christianity in October. Truscott argues that the decline in religion can be tied to a loss of self-control and correlates that with more suicides and assaults.

Philip Truscott. (Photo via Southwest Baptist University)

While he falls short of claiming that loss of religion causes more suicides and assaults, Truscott has subsequently argued that his findings prove the need for more state vouchers for private schools, most of which are religious. Families that choose religious schools for their kids can play a role in reversing the decline of religion in America, Truscott told RNS in an interview, which he argues will reduce the rate of suicide and campus sexual assaults.

“That really helps everyone,” he said.

His fellow sociologists, particularly those who study the nones, are skeptical, saying Truscott’s study is flawed and that his conclusions don’t fit the evidence.

Ryan Cragun, a sociology professor at the University of Tampa, reviewed Prescott’s paper and said that, while it does show a correlation between the share of nones and rates of suicide and sexual assault, Truscott fails to prove that disbelief causes those higher rates. Cragun also said the paper ignores other data, such as that showing that states with higher murder rates are correlated to higher per-capita populations of evangelicals.

“If I were to use his logic, then I should be able to argue that evangelicals are more likely to kill people,” said Cragun, co-author with Jesse M. Smith of “Goodbye Religion: The Causes and Consequences of Secularization.”

Cragun also was skeptical of the argument that religion creates more self-control or that a lack of self-control can explain why suicides or sexual assaults happen, saying that the causes of both are more complicated.

David Speed, a Canadian scholar who studies the connection between atheism and health, said Truscott is asking an important question about the social effects of the decline of religion. But Speed, a professor of psychology at the University of New Brunswick in St. John, Canada, said Truscott failed to prove his claims.

David Speed. (Photo via The Religious Studies Project)

While Truscott did show that both secularism and campus sexual assault were on the rise in some states, said Speed, he did not show that one caused the other.

“It’s kind of damning by association,” said Speed, who is also working on his own research project about the effects of secularism on suicide rates.

Speed said it is common in the social sciences to find two unrelated topics that seem to track together over time. He pointed to a website called “Spurious Correlations,” which collects such convergences, including graphs that show, for instance, that as the name William has become less popular, the number of burglaries in South Carolina has declined. The first, Speed said, does not explain the second.

Proving a causal link between the loss of religion and rise in suicide rates or assaults, said Speed, would require a great deal more data and analysis. So far, he added, no other studies have suggested that atheists or other nonbelievers are more likely to take their own lives or to commit crimes like sexual assault. Truscott’s critics also argue there’s no evidence for his claim that more faith-based schools would lead to fewer suicides.

They also say these flaws in his reasoning explain why it took so long, as Truscott has said, for his paper to find a publisher. Truscott blames a liberal bias in academic journals.

In an interview, he claimed that if his research had linked greater incidences of suicide or sexual assault to more widespread religious belief, journals would have flocked to publish his study. “The social science journals, they lean to the left politically,” Truscott said. “They are very anti-religious.”

Truscott said that he is glad the paper is getting attention, even if it’s negative attention, and hopes it leads to more study about the social implications of the decline of religion.

To critics he simply says, “Prove that I am wrong.”

 

$800,000 wire transfer from billionaire donor to US Chamber of Commerce raises curtain on dark money

Taylor Giorno

Tue, June 11, 2024

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce received an $800,000 wire transfer from billionaire donor Hank Meijer days after it endorsed his son, then-Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), in a contentious 2022 primary, according to previously unreported internal emails reviewed by The Hill.

Within days of the transfer, the Chamber spent $381,000 on “Media Advertisement – Energy and Taxes – Mentioning Rep. Peter Meijer,” according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

But because the ad — titled “Thank you, Rep. Peter Meijer” — does not explicitly advocate for his election or defeat, the pro-business lobbying giant did not have to legally disclose the donation from Hank Meijer, the co-chair and CEO of the Meijer chain of superstores. It also did not have to disclose any other potential contributions behind the $1.8 million it told the FEC it spent on “electioneering communications” that cycle.

Emails obtained by The Hill lay out the timeline of the endorsement, donation and ad buy just weeks before the Aug. 2, 2022, House GOP primary in Michigan. Campaign finance experts told The Hill that the emails pull back the curtain on a surge of “dark money” in U.S. elections, spending where the ultimate source of the money is not publicly disclosed.

“They’re exploiting a legal loophole to help them conceal the sources of election spending in this race,” said Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at the nonprofit watchdog Campaign Legal Center (CLC), which filed a complaint during the 2020 cycle alleging an individual later identified as Hank Meijer tried to obscure separate donations by using a limited liability corporation (LLC) to donate to another super PAC supporting his son.

“And they’re doing it in a very sophisticated way, but ultimately the voters suffer as a result,” Ghosh added.

Nonprofits such as the Chamber are not legally required to publicly disclose their donors. The Supreme Court recently ruled nonprofit disclosure requirements violated donors’ First Amendment rights and risk deterring donors who don’t want their names to be public.

Under federal campaign finance law, however, it is illegal for a campaign and spender to coordinate on so-called “independent expenditures” — election communications such as an ad. But the involvement of a candidate’s family member is not de facto coordination, campaign finance experts told The Hill, and so long as the group does not coordinate with the candidate, campaign or its agents on an endorsement, or spending touting that endorsement, they would legally be in the clear.

Both the Chamber and John Truscott, a Meijer family spokesman, insisted the donation complied with all applicable laws. But neither the Chamber nor Truscott answered specific questions about the timing of or discussion around the donation, the terms of the contribution and how that money was used.

“The personal contribution made two years ago to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Voter Education Fund was in full accordance with all laws and regulations,” Truscott told The Hill.

A Chamber spokesperson told The Hill that the organization “operates consistent with all applicable campaign finance laws, including restrictions related to coordinated activities and requirements around donor disclosure” and “timely reported this advertisement to the FEC, providing all information required by law.”

But the timing of the donation so soon after the endorsement “raises some serious questions” about the arrangement between the Chamber and Hank Meijer, said Anna Massoglia, a dark money expert and the editorial and investigations manager at the nonpartisan money-in-politics tracking nonprofit OpenSecrets.

“It is not unheard of for the parents of candidates to fund super PACs or other outside groups that spend in support of their children, and it is perfectly legal so long as disclosure and coordination rules are followed,” Massoglia said.

“The biggest question … would be what agreements, if any, are in place behind the scenes with this. Is this explicitly giving money for an endorsement or their support? Or was this a big coincidence that the timing was so close?”

Ghosh, Massoglia and other campaign finance experts argue the status quo of dark money disclosure hurts everyday citizens who are unable to see the people behind the massive campaigns or see evidence about their motives.

“That’s the essential problem with political activity by these entities: They’re a black box,” Ghosh said.

While unprecedented sums of dark money poured into the 2022 election, the 2024 election is on track to set a new record.

More than $210 million in dark money contributions have already been funneled into political groups during the 2024 election cycle, according to Massoglia. That’s up from $170 million at the same point during the 2022 election cycle and more than double the amount tracked at this point in the 2020 election cycle.

“It’s important for voters to be able to have information about who’s funding groups that are spending to influence their vote or influence their opinions generally, so that they can better evaluate the information they’re consuming from those groups,” Massoglia told The Hill.

Voters “may trust the Chamber because of its reputation as a pro-business group, as a trade association, and not realize who all is actually behind [an ad],” she added.

How the Chamber came to back Meijer

Peter Meijer was in a tough spot.

One of 10 House Republicans who had voted to impeach former President Trump for “incitement of insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021, he faced a Trump-endorsed challenger in the GOP primary in early August 2022.

Against the backdrop of this heated primary, the Chamber endorsed Meijer on July 11, a Monday.

The Meijer company is a member of the Chamber, and Hank Meijer is a member through his business, Truscott, the Meijer family spokesperson, told The Hill. The company is also a member of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

On the morning of Friday, July 15, John Van Fossen, vice president of government relations for the Meijer company, sent an email to Neil Bradley, the U.S. Chamber’s chief policy officer.

“Everything is being processed,” Van Fossen said.

That afternoon, a Chamber staffer sent Bradley an email that said, “Hank Meijer’s office called me an hour ago — they are wiring in $800k Monday. This will be for VE — correct?” referencing the Voter Education Fund.

“Correct.” Bradley responded.

Late Monday, July 18, in an email with the subject line “Contribution Form – H.G. Meyer/Meijer,” Nancy Duchaine, an associate at Greenville Partners — an organization that supports the Meijer family’s financial and philanthropic endeavors — emailed the Chamber to say, “Our approver was held up in meetings today so you will see this come through tomorrow.”

“Attached is the contribution form to accompany the $800,000 donation wired out earlier today,” Duchaine had sent in an email earlier that evening.

The following morning, a Chamber staffer sent Bradley an email with the messages that said, “800k confirmed in writing below.”

“thx,” Bradley responded.

A few days later, on Thursday, July 21, the Chamber started running an ad on energy and tax issues that mentions Peter Meijer.

Bradley, Van Fossen, Duchaine and Peter Meijer did not respond to requests for comment.

The Chamber’s ad

The ad praises Peter Meijer but stops short of using the eight specific words and phrases established in the Supreme Court’s 1976 decision in Buckley v. Valeo that would require the Chamber to report the ad as an independent expenditure, and thus disclose the source of the funds: “vote for,” “vote against,” “elect,” “defeat,” “support,” “reject,” “cast your ballot for” or “Smith for Congress.”

“Fourth-generation west Michigander, steadfast conservative leader. In Congress, Peter Meijer always puts west Michigan first,” the ad’s narrator says.

“That’s why he’s fighting against the liberal policies that are failing our nation, fighting for increased domestic energy production to lower gas prices and fighting to stop Biden’s reckless tax increases on our families. Call Peter Meijer. Ask him to keep up the fight for west Michigan,” the ad continues.

This was the only ad buy the Chamber reported making between April and October of 2022, although its YouTube page includes ads that summer thanking then-Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) for his work on energy and taxes posted two weeks before he lost his primary to a Trump-backed incumbent, and praising Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), who was serving as a Democrat at the time and was not up for reelection that cycle.

“The U.S. Chamber is in a constant state of raising money, endorsing candidates, and engaging in issue advocacy to advance our priorities and the efforts of elected officials who champion them,” the Chamber spokesperson told The Hill.

Linguistic limbo is a common practice for dark money groups to circumvent disclosure requirements. Groups can run issue ads that praise or attack candidates without disclosing their donors, so long as they don’t invoke the “magic words.”

Dark money groups and politically-involved nonprofits are also increasingly donating to super PACs or spending money on issues ads that don’t have to be disclosed to the FEC, Massoglia said, which makes it more difficult to track the ultimate source of dark funds flowing into elections.

Meijer would go on to lose the GOP primary three weeks after the Chamber endorsed him. While he ran for the Michigan Senate GOP nomination this election cycle, he dropped out in April.

Only two House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his actions on Jan. 6 remain in Congress.

Chamber falls under specific disclosure rules

As a 501(c)(6) tax-exempt nonprofit, the Chamber is not legally obligated to disclose its list of members or the source of any donations or dues it receives, although it does have to file an annual report to the IRS with top-line totals.

The Chamber takes in and spends a lot of money each year: It reported nearly $210 million in revenue in 2022 on its most recent Form 990, and OpenSecrets found the group spent more than $81 million on federal lobbying that year.

The Chamber also weighs into elections, although critics say its political operation is less potent than it was before the 2020 election cycle, when it endorsed 23 first-term Democrats for reelection, enraging and alienating many of its traditional allies in the Republican Party.

The Chamber also endorsed Meijer in October 2020 but did not report any “electioneering communications” mentioning Meijer after that endorsement or post any ads mentioning Meijer on its YouTube page.

Ghosh described the emails as one of “the rare instances where you do see what’s happening on the inside and how a group is making the buys it’s making.”

“There’s always the machinery behind it. But because of the lack of transparency around these groups, you never get to see that machinery,” Ghosh added.

Hank Meijer previously accused of obscuring donations

Hank Meijer has previously been accused of obscuring donations to a political group supporting his son.

In October 2020, just a few weeks before the 2020 general election, CLC filed a complaint against Montcalm LLC, which contributed $150,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Republican congressional leadership, less than two weeks after incorporating.

The campaign finance watchdog alleged the ultimate source of the funds, which was later revealed to be Hank Meijer, funneled them through a “straw donor” to obscure their involvement.

Montcalm LLC donated another $100,000 to the super PAC on the day the complaint was filed.

After CLC filed the complaint, Truscott told MLive that Meijer had made the donation “with the full expectation that his name would be made public.”

The Congressional Leadership Fund ultimately attributed both contributions from Montcalm LLC to Hank Meijer on reports filed to the FEC. The super PAC spent nearly $1.2 million that cycle against Peter Meijer’s Democratic opponent, according to OpenSecrets.

The FEC dismissed CLC’s complaint last month after concluding “[Hank] Meijer was the true source of the contribution purportedly made in Montcalm’s name, and Meijer should have been disclosed as the true contributor at the time of making the contribution.”

Ghosh called the FEC’s decision to dismiss the complaint “inexplicable given their finding.”

“It sets terrible incentives for others to do the same to avoid disclosure,” said Ghosh.

Fight over disclosure rules

Both Democratic and Republican groups benefit from dark money contributions and spending, including House and Senate party leadership-aligned super PACs that rake in tens of millions of dollars from undisclosed sources each cycle.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a leading advocate for the disclosure of dark money pouring into elections, told The Hill that the identity of billionaires spending to influence elections is “information voters deserve to know, especially when that billionaire is a candidate’s own father.”

“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is doing the dirty work of billionaires and Big Oil via a massive litigation, lobbying, and electoral spending operation intended to influence the federal government. The Chamber regularly dumps dark money into American elections to sink candidates who support fighting climate change and growing the middle class,” Whitehouse told The Hill.

“Senator Whitehouse has a long history of only objecting to spending when he doesn’t agree with the message or source,” a Chamber spokesperson told The Hill.

Whitehouse has consistently reintroduced the DISCLOSE Act, which, among other provisions, would compel dark money groups that donate to super PACs or spend on communications that refer to a federal candidate to disclose contributions topping $10,000. The Senate version of the bill has 51 Democratic and independent co-sponsors, and the House version has 156 Democratic co-sponsors.

But as recently as 2021, the Supreme Court has ruled disclosure requirements infringe upon nonprofit donors’ First Amendment right to free speech.

In July 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that a nonprofit donor disclosure requirement in California was unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts said in the majority opinion that it would have a chilling effect on donors who may be deterred if their names were made public.

“California’s disclosure requirement imposes a widespread burden on donors’ associational rights, and this burden cannot be justified on the ground that the regime is narrowly tailored to investigating charitable wrongdoing, or that the State’s interest in administrative convenience is sufficiently important,” Roberts wrote.

Taylor Giorno was the money-in-politics reporter at OpenSecrets before joining The Hill as the business and lobbying reporter.

Revealed: Aileen Cannon failed to disclose all-expenses-paid right-wing junket in Montana

Matthew Chapman
May 7, 2024 

U.S. Senate Television/CNP/Zuma Press/TNS

The judge overseeing the former president's Mar-a-Lago classified documents case lived it up at an all-expenses-paid retreat for right-wing federal jurists at a $1,000-a-night resort in Montana near Yellowstone National Park, reported Lucian K. Truscott IV for Salon.

"It's called the Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, and it’s where George Mason University sends gaggles of federal judges for a week-long 'colloquium' every year or so," wrote Truscott — all paid for by the Antonin Scalia Law School, named for the late justice who ironically died on a ranch getaway paid for by right-wing benefactors.

Topics at these conferences include "Woke Law!" and “Unprofitable Education: Student Loans, Higher Education Costs, and the Regulatory State” — which, Truscott noted, "rings what we might call a rather different bell after the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program last year."

The GMU department behind this program has received generous donations from Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society leader who helped Trump appoint numerous judges and is under investigation in D.C. for allegedly funneling nonprofit money into his for-profit consulting firm.

Cannon was a guest at these conferences in 2021 and 2022, Truscott wrote — however, she "failed to file the form known as a Privately Funded Seminar Disclosure Report, which lists whoever paid for the judge to attend the seminar, who the speakers were and what topics were discussed.

"The form is supposed to be posted on the website of every federal court within 30 days of the time a judge attending such an all-expenses-paid seminar.

"Cannon, however, somehow forgot to do so, so anyone who might be interested in learning who was paying for Cannon’s vacations and the nature of her judicial education would have been out of luck."

Cannon has become a constant point of controversy for a series of unusual decisions made in the Trump case that appear calculated to help the former president. She tried to stop the FBI reviewing classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, later being smacked down by an all-Republican appellate panel, demanded special counsel Jack Smith hand over information to Trump that could expose witnesses to tampering, and is currently delaying the trial with no clear timeline for it moving ahead.

"I mean, 10 grand or so in first-class air travel and luxury accommodations and bottomless trips to the luxo-resort’s 'local produce' salad bar and steak pit might start to look like a bribe when you pay attention to what was actually being discussed between float trips down the Yellowstone and hikes through the mountains, don’t you think?" wrote Truscott.

Gaza’s next big threat: Cholera, infectious diseases amid total blockade

Humanitarian organisations warn deadly water-born diseases will spread in the besieged strip if aid is not allowed in.

Water sold by private vendors who run small solar-powered desalination facilities has doubled in price in Gaza since October 7

 [Mohammed Abed/ AFP]
By Federica Marsi
Published On 21 Oct 2023

Waseem Mushtaha’s four children have been out of school for almost two weeks. Instead of learning mathematics or geography, they are being taught how to ration water.

“Every day I fill a bottle of water for each one and I tell them: Try to manage this,” he told Al Jazeera, speaking from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. “At the beginning, they struggled, but now they are coping.”

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After Israel issued an evacuation order for 1.1 million Palestinians in the northern part of Gaza, Mushtaha drove his wife and children aged eight to 15 to his aunt’s home in Khan Younis, where residents opened their doors to extended family and friends amid Israel’s relentless aerial bombardment.

As a water and sanitation officer for global non-profit Oxfam, Mushtaha sees the markers of an impending public health catastrophe all around him. “People sleep on the streets, in shops, in mosques, in their cars or on the streets,” he said. His family lives alongside around 100 people crammed in a 200-square-metre apartment and count themselves among the lucky ones.

Meanwhile, hygiene products have disappeared from the few supermarkets that are open and water sold by private vendors who run small solar-powered desalination facilities has doubled in price since October 7 – when Israel began bombing Gaza in retaliation for the surprise attack carried out by Hamas. It used to cost 30 shekels ($7.40), but is now priced at 60 shekels ($15).

On Wednesday, Mushtaha estimated that his family would run out of water in 24 hours. After that, he didn’t know what would happen. “We will go to the market and purchase whatever is available,” he explained. “We are looking to the future with bleak eyes.”

Palestinians try to buy essential goods in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip [Fatima Shbair/AP]

Collapse of water and sanitation services

Oxfam and United Nations agencies have warned that the collapse of water and sanitation services will spark bouts of cholera and other deadly infectious diseases if urgent humanitarian aid is not delivered.

Israel cut off its water pipeline to Gaza, along with the fuel and electricity provisions that power water and sewage plants, after announcing a total blockade of the Palestinian enclave following the Hamas attack.

Most of Gaza’s 65 sewage pumping stations and all five of its wastewater treatment facilities have been forced to stop operations. According to Oxfam, untreated sewage is now being released into the sea while solid waste is also ending up on some streets alongside bodies waiting to be buried.

Desalination plants have stopped working and municipalities are unable to pump water to residential areas because of the power shortage. Some people in Gaza are relying on salty tap water from the enclave’s only aquifer, which is contaminated with sewage and seawater, or have resorted to drinking seawater. Others are being forced to drink from farm wells

.

Palestinian children search for a place to refill water in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip [Mohammed Abed/AFP]
‘On the streets with no protection’

The UN says that currently in Gaza only three litres of water a day is available per person to cover all their needs including drinking, washing, cooking and flushing the toilet. Between 50-100 litres of water each day is the recommended amount for a person to meet their basic health requirements, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

An employee of the charity Islamic Relief who also found shelter in Khan Younis described a similar situation. “At my parents’ house, there are around 20 children and seven adults sheltering. Even with so many people we only flush the toilet twice a day – once in the morning, once at night – to save water,” she said, requesting anonymity.

“We cook food that uses the least water. We wash for prayers just once or twice,” she added. “We have a neighbour with a well, but he doesn’t have any electricity to pump the water. They’ve got a generator but no fuel.”

For those who have no shelter, conditions are most dire. “There are families with children and newborn babies living without a roof over their heads,” she said. “They just sit on the streets without protection, water, food or anything. They don’t have any security.”

‘We are ready to go’

Fears are growing that dehydration and waterborne diseases will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe amid Israeli air strikes that have killed 4,137 Palestinians.


Humanitarian organisations have repeatedly issued calls for the aid stocked at the Rafah crossing, the sole route for aid to enter the Gaza Strip on the only border that it shares with Egypt, to be let through.

Following a visit to Israel on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said an agreement had been reached with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow deliveries of assistance in the coming days. Israel has insisted that all trucks must be checked and that no aid must reach Hamas fighters. Biden also said Egypt had agreed to allow an initial convoy of 20 trucks with aid through the Rafah border crossing into Gaza.



Twice last week rumours of an agreement circulated, suggesting an imminent opening of the crossing that didn’t happen.

Mathew Truscott, Head of Humanitarian Policy at Oxfam, said he felt frustration at the idea that diseases could be spreading while water and medicines piled up a few kilometres across the border.

“Cholera is just one of many waterborne diseases that can be spreading – if we can get aid in, a lot of this can be prevented,” he said. “But you can’t provide humanitarian operations where there are still bombs falling.”

UN chief Antonio Guterres called on Wednesday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza to ease the “epic human suffering”. On the same day, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution, supported by most other members, demanding a humanitarian pause in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.



While the war continues, there are fears that there will be more incidents like the al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion on Tuesday. “We are very concerned for the attacks on healthcare,” Richard Brennan, regional emergency director at the WHO, told Al Jazeera.

Four out of 34 hospitals are no longer operational, according to the UN health agency, as others overflow with injured patients and families in need of shelter. “The conditions are ripe for the spread of a number of diarrhoeal and skin diseases,” Brennan said, with ripple effects to be felt in the region.

In 2022, cholera spread across Syria and Lebanon, killing at least 97 people. While an epidemic has not been registered in Palestinian territories in decades, “it’s conceivable that the bacterium has been brought in and the conditions are now ripe for its spread,” Brennan said.


For any efforts to turn the tide, “getting aid in is vital”, the WHO representative added. “The ball is in the court of the political leaders who have to elevate humanitarian needs as a priority. We are ready to go, but we have to be given unhindered, secure, protected passage to help people in need.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

PESTILENCE 

A potential first-of-its-kind fighter-jet purchase could be a sign Saudi Arabia isn't happy with what it's getting from the US


Paul Iddon
Updated Mon, August 21, 2023 

Royal Saudi Air Force F-15Cs fly with US Air Force F-15Cs in June 2019.

US Navy/Handout via REUTERS

Saudi Arabia is reportedly considering a large number of French-made Dassault Rafale fighter jets.


Such a purchase would be a break from Saudi Arabia's long history of buying US and British jets.


This suggests Riyadh doesn't think its traditional partners will be as reliable in the future.

Saudi Arabia has spent decades building an enormous air force composed exclusively of advanced US and British fighter jets. But Riyadh's reported interest in potentially purchasing a large number of French jets may be a sign it doesn't think its longtime patrons are as reliable as before.

In December, France's La Tribune financial newspaper, citing unnamed sources, reported that Saudi Arabia was considering acquiring 100 to 200 Dassault Rafale fighters. The report came amid developments suggesting that the US and other nations might not provide military equipment to Riyadh in the future.

After Riyadh cut oil production in October, US lawmakers proposed legislation freezing all American arms sales to the kingdom, which could have grounded most of the Saudi air force and would further fray already strained US-Saudi relations.

In July, Germany announced it would not allow additional Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets to be delivered to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi air force has 72 Eurofighters, second only to the number of US-made F-15s it has.

Saudi Arabia's neighbors in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have built up large fleets of Western-made jets that include dozens of Rafales. The La Tribune report, while unconfirmed, suggests political and practical concerns are pushing the Saudis toward the French jet.
French appeal

A French Dassault Rafale flying near Salon-de-Provence in May 2022.Toni Anne Barson/Getty Images

Buying more Typhoons would be "the sensible move" since the Saudis have the infrastructure to train pilots and operate that jet, "but a German block prevents that," said Sébastien Roblin, a widely published military-aviation journalist.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is "not currently inclined to throw Washington any free bones by ordering F-15EXs," and despite an "about-face" by President Joe Biden, Roblin said, the Saudis know that future jet sales "could be disrupted by domestic political revulsion for Riyadh's actions domestically or the war in Yemen."

As bin Salman pursues a detente with his main rival, Iran, and improves relations with China, opposition to such sales may only increase.

Roblin noted that France has sold armored vehicles, helicopters, artillery, air-to-ground Damocles targeting pods, and SCALP cruise missiles to Riyadh and that French political culture values having "a diversified, independent defense sector" and is therefore "much less susceptible to human-rights-based misgivings, which has enabled sustained arms sales to a wider stable of clients in the Middle East."

Saudi Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets near Riyadh in January 2017.FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images

Consequently, Saudi Arabia buying 100 or more Rafales would be a big "economic win" that would "score Riyadh an upgraded strategic partner outside of Washington or London," Roblin said, though he pointed out that Gulf states have a habit of hyping arms buys from new sources, including Russia or China, to elicit "jealous counteroffers from their 'main' strategic partners."

Ryan Bohl, a senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at the risk-intelligence company RANE, said Rafales could be an "attractive option" to Riyadh, considering the sanctions the US and Germany imposed on it after the assassination of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

French jets are also modern and built by a NATO country, potentially reducing issues with integrating the jets with the Saudis' other Western aircraft. France's less restrictive end-user agreements "underlines this attractiveness," Bohl added.

Riyadh's non-NATO options for jets are relatively limited, and buying Russian or Chinese jets would likely incur US sanctions, which makes Saudi interest in the Rafale seem "realistic," Bohl said. "Saudi Arabia wants to diversify its air force so that if it has an interruption with one of its arm suppliers, like the United States, its air wing doesn't grind to a halt."
Shifting US-Saudi ties

President Joe Biden and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in July 2022.Bandar Algaloud/Reuters

In the near term, Saudi Arabia may find Rafales more burdensome than beneficial, given its extensive investment in US and British aircraft.

"I would be surprised if the Royal Saudi Air Force procured Rafale, given the size and well-established state of its F-15 and Typhoon fleets," Justin Bronk, an expert on airpower at the Royal United Services Institute, told Insider.

Such pragmatic concerns have kept Saudi Arabia from buying French fighters in the past. After all, Bohl said, it's much easier to build an air force with pilots who train on a single system or with systems from a single country of origin. And despite the sophistication of French military hardware, it hasn't been used in battle as much as US equipment has and therefore lacks a "combat record as a selling point" like US-made weapons, Bohl added.

Limits on the Rafale's technology and availability may also deter Riyadh.

A Saudi Air Force F-15 taxis for takeoff at King Faisal Air Base in February 2021.US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Katherine Walters

While the Rafale F4 is "one of the most advanced and versatile of the 4.5-generation fighters on the market," it is "not a true stealth fighter" with the advanced capabilities Saudi Arabia wants, Roblin said.

Even if Riyadh ordered Rafales tomorrow, they would take at least several years to arrive. "Right now, a big problem is Dassault's factory is already booked with orders for over a hundred additional aircraft for Croatia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Greece, and the United Arab Emirates," Roblin said.

The strength of US-Saudi relations has kept Riyadh firmly in the US camp for decades, but Bohl said that relationship has "fundamentally shifted" and the US is no longer "as expansive of a defense partner" as in the past, a trend that may add to the appeal of other countries' weapons.

"Under previous kings, Saudi Arabia saw the United States as a reliable protector of its security and was willing to do favors through energy policy and arms deals for Washington in exchange for this guarantee," Bohl told Insider. "That led to Riyadh being less willing to do special favors for the United States, like going to it exclusively for arms purchases."

Paul Iddon is a freelance journalist and columnist who writes about Middle East developments, military affairs, politics, and history. His articles have appeared in a variety of publications focused on the region.

Saudi Arabia sets its sights on Britain’s military jewel


Howard Mustoe
Sun, 20 August 2023 

Mohammed bin Salman is attempting to reinvent the petrodollar kingdom - /SPA/AFP via Getty Images

Oil pumps have long dotted Saudi Arabia’s desert landscape, but they could soon be joined by a raft of factories.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to turn the country into the Gulf’s manufacturing powerhouse as it moves away from oil and gas.

The heir to Saudi Arabia’s $2 trillion throne wants to increase industrial exports to $148bn (£116bn) by 2030, tripling factory numbers to 36,000 by 2035 which will churn out everything from warships to cars.


So far, he has poured investment into Lucid, a US-based electric car maker which plans to build a factory in the country, while also striking a planned joint venture with Navantia, the Spanish state-owned builder of naval vessels.

Now, he has his sights set on another lucrative, albeit expensive and notoriously complex market – fighter jets.

It was announced last week that the controversial ruler is set to visit the UK in autumn, which came after a flurry of speculation around Saudi Arabia joining one of Britain’s largest military projects.

Downing Street reportedly wants to make the Kingdom part of the £72bn Tempest programme, initially, an Anglo-Italian effort which Japan joined last year.

Saudi’s deep pockets will be welcome, but industrial insiders are concerned about the nation’s technological offering, as well as its political baggage.

The Tempest project aims to bring a sixth-generation fighter jet into service by the middle of the next decade, replacing the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Notably, Saudi reportedly wants to become a formal partner in the programme rather than simply buying the finished product as a customer, as it has with the Typhoon.

Any partnership will need large capital investment, but it will secure Saudi new local jobs and a hand in designing Tempest, delivering the technological expertise the ruler craves.

Saudi Arabia’s bid to join the Tempest fighter jet programme as an equal partner are said to have unsettled Japanese officials - David Rose

However, speculation around the state’s involvement, alongside the planned visit, has reignited concerns over the Kingdom’s human rights record and its approach to gay rights.

Homosexuality is still a criminal offence punishable by death, while the country is also involved in a years-long war in Yemen.

It will also be Mohammed bin Salman’s (MBS) first UK visit since the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed and dismembered on the orders of the Crown Prince, according to analysis by the CIA.

He has denied any involvement.

From a financial perspective, the huge cost of building ever more complex military hardware makes the country an attractive bet with its wealth and keen stance.

But bringing on such a controversial partner has already caused reported discomfort among Japanese officials.

Another question raised by insiders is what the country can add in terms of high-end jet design, with only a handful of countries in the world capable of building supersonic aircraft.

Under MBS, however, Saudi Arabia has supercharged its investment and ambitions in industry, technology and defence as part of the Vision 2030 programme, as the ruler aims to wean the country off oil.

“Through the national industrial strategy and in partnership with the private sector, the Kingdom will become a leading industrial powerhouse that contributes to securing global supply chains and exports high-tech products to the world,” MBS said last year.

The brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 still casts a shadow onto perceptions of the Kingdom today - MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH / AFP

The country already has a manufacturing champion in Saudi Arabia’s Basic Industries Corporation, known as SABIC.

With prominence in the chemical sector, it also makes car parts, cosmetics ingredients and metals, bringing in $53bn in sales last year.

The country is also liberalising at pace, says Roxana Mohammadian-Molina, a former investment banker and finance technology entrepreneur, who has done business in Saudi Arabia.

“When you go there it is completely unexpected compared to the preconceived idea that people have,” she said. “It is very open. I have travelled there alone many times, you really feel very safe.

“They are very open to doing business. They are really keen to partner with other countries, particularly the UK universities that can attract talent.”

She pointed to the recent success of Tamara, a payment platform based in Riyadh which picked up a $150m loan from Goldman Sachs in March.

“Ambitions are very high. I think this is a very long process, you’re not going to become a tech hub overnight,” she says. “But the thing is in Saudi Arabia, things move very quickly.”

Liberalisation is among the changes taking place in the country, she added.

“You have big cities like Riyadh that are very advanced and progressive and have a young population, but you also have smaller cities and towns that are still very traditional, it is a fine balance for those interests.”

Women are playing a greater role in the Saudi economy as efforts to liberalise the Gulf state gather pace - FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP

Saudi Arabia is likely to employ a broad spread of investments before focusing on areas it can excel, said Ayham Kamel, head of Eurasia Group’s Middle East and North Africa research team.

“I think it requires them to have experimented with different sectors for a while before they double down,” he says. “It’s really a wide net. I would expect it to be more focused in the future, but we are not there yet.”

The country’s investments today range from stakes in Nintendo, Uber and Boeing, to Newcastle United FC and its controversial takeover of Golf’s PGA tour through its LIV Golf rival.

Saudi also wants to become a leader in artificial intelligence and is hoovering up the specialist computer chips necessary to develop an AI economy, according to recent reports

Mr Kamel says Riyadh is “ambitious to get into the high-tech industry and migrate part of the production in Saudi Arabia”, he adds.

Riyadh’s plan to increase its defence industrial knowledge is already underway.

In December, the Kingdom signed its deal with Spanish shipbuilder Navatia to form a joint venture to build warships. The final details of the deal will be ironed out next year, but the agreement allows for all of the construction to be done in Saudi shipyards.

The deal allowed the country to “localise military industry” defence minister Prince Khaled bin Salman said at the time.

UK investment chiefs are now keen to snap up more of Saudi’s income rather than see it go to rivals like Spain.

One City veteran who has experience investing in the country expressed frustration about the poor perception of Saudi Arabia in press coverage.

He said: “Saudi Arabia is changing for the good at a stunning speed and to be honest the parts of the press coverage here have been almost profligate in their jaundiced, biased reporting.

“Saudi is far more than Khashoggi. And British business is considered good business. Saudi is the UK’s primary trading partner in the Middle East and the UK is Saudi Arabia’s closest European ally.”

The country was the UK’s 10th-biggest export customer for services last year and Britain enjoys a £7bn trading surplus with Saudi.

But in the eyes of outside investors and potential customers, its human rights record must improve. The country executed 196 people last year, the highest number since Amnesty International started recording the numbers 30 years ago.

Polly Truscott, Amnesty International UK’s foreign policy adviser, said MBS “must be properly held to account for abuses by Saudi officials, including Khashoggi’s murder, the widespread use of torture in Saudi jails and the indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Yemen.”

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