Latest news with #Rifa
Arab News
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Review: Watching ‘Hobal' at the Saudi Film Festival was an immersive experience
DHAHRAN: Watching 'Hobal' at the 11th Saudi Film Festival, hosted at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, or Ithra, was cathartic. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @ The setting in which the film was screened was significant. The cinema is close to Ithra's Energy Exhibit, which allows visitors to explore the journey behind oil extraction and energy resources in the Kingdom on the very land where black gold was first discovered in 1938. Attentive faces, bathed in the glowing light of the screen sat with popcorn-scented hands. Together, we embarked on a journey — both collective and deeply personal — without moving an inch. 'Hobal' tells the story of a Bedouin family, set in the early 1990s, living in extreme isolation, led by a paranoid patriarch (Ibrahim Al-Hasawi) who believes the end of times is near, and strongly forbids anyone from his family to venture into town. The title, 'Hobal,' is apt. It references a pre-Islamic figure whose word became gospel, offering deeper layers to the film's exploration of power and belief. The family's situation intensifies when Rifa (Amal Sami), the teen girl, falls gravely ill with a highly contagious case of measles and is forced to isolate even further in a tent alone. Her anguished mother (Mila Al-Zahrani) is consumed with worry, but the men, under the strict guidance of the patriarch, refuse to leave the desert to seek medical help. The women — and young teen boy, Assaf — are confronted with a dilemma: Survival or obedience. With the hissing desert winds, surrounded by stubborn tents and the suffocating grip of impending grief and unearthed betrayal, the question arises: Will they stay or will they go? The film's cinematography is a standout. One particularly stunning shot lingers — a mirror leaning into the sand, reflecting Rifa and Assaf in deep conversation seemingly side-by-side but while apart. The desert engulfs them but they seem grounded. It is shatteringly beautiful. The wisest figures seem to be the youngest. Set against the backdrop of the Gulf War, the real battles feel internal. What made watching 'Hobal' even more powerful was experiencing it in a Saudi cinema — not too far, geographically, from where the Gulf War broke out, knowing this was a story entirely brought to life by local talent. There is also a strong Ithra connection. The film was written by Mufarrij Almajfel, who also wrote the award-winning 2023 Ithra film 'Hajjan' (about camels), which also starred Al-Hasawi — honored at this year's festival for his remarkable career. Camels, the symbolic 'ships of the desert,' make several meaningful appearances here too, helping to move the story along. Directed by Abdulaziz Alshlahei and produced by Sharif Almajali (along with Alshlahei and Mohammed Al-Turki as executive producers), 'Hobal' is a collaborative effort between Shaf Studios, Film Clinic and Peninsula Pictures Group. The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah and was released in cinemas across the Kingdom in early 2025. Since then, 'Hobal' has grossed an impressive SR21.6 million (about $5.8 million) in its first month, quickly becoming the fastest-growing box office hit in Saudi cinematic history. It is a film that will stay with you long after the credits roll.
The Guardian
27-03-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Stinging deaths, back yard poisons and billions spent: model predicts Australia's fire ants future
Australian households will spend $1.03bn every year to suppress fire ants and cover related medical and veterinary costs, with about 570,800 people needing medical attention and 30 likely deaths from the invasive pest's stings, new modelling shows. The Australia Institute research breaks down the impact of red imported fire ants (Rifa) by electorate, with the seats of Durack and O'Connor in Western Australia, Mayo in South Australia and Blair in Queensland the hardest hit if the ants become endemic. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Drawing on census data and earlier studies about the impact of Rifa, the new figures show that pesticides and pest control pose the highest financial cost to households annually, $581m, followed by medical expenses of $233m and veterinary costs of $215m. A co-author of the report warned the 'huge' volume of pesticide needed to fight the ants will affect the environment. The new modelling doubles an earlier estimate that put total household costs at $536m, and has concerned experts who say individuals may take eradication into their own hands. In the WA seat of Durack alone, the forecasting shows more than 60,000 people would be stung, 1,209 of whom would develop an anaphylactic reaction. Almost 19,000 dogs and cats would require the attention of a vet after being stung. In the marginal Queensland electorates of Blair, held by Labor's Shayne Neumann; Dickson, held by Peter Dutton; and the Greens-held Ryan, the annual costs of Rifa total $21.1m: Blair: $1.7m in medical costs, $1.5m in vet costs and $5.1m in household pesticide costs. Dickson: $1.4m in medical costs, $1.2m in vet costs and $4m in household pesticide costs. Ryan: $1.5m in medical costs, $1.3m in vet costs and $3.4m in household pesticide costs. The ants would create an additional 2.1m visits to vets nationwide – a figure that comes after the Invasive Species Council warned 'a lot' of pets are suspected to have been killed by fire ant stings, including a puppy found dead on a fire ant nest in Greenbank about 15 months ago. Rifa are managed over an 830,000-hectare zone of south-eastern Queensland by the national fire ant eradication program. It uses a combination of bait and direct nest injection to suppress and eliminate the pest. Given their rapid spread, Rifa may increasingly be managed by stand-alone households which, according to the forecasting, would each spend $83 on pesticides each year. The Invasive Species Council's Reece Pianta said if eradication funding was not ramped up, the modelling suggested Australia could follow in the footsteps of the US. 'Fire ant eradication failure means Australian households could get slugged with a $580m bill each year as they take fire ant control into their own hands. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'In the United States, where fire ants cannot be eradicated, residents in fire ant zones find their neighbours using a range of harsh or off-label chemical treatments to control these killer invaders,' he said. 'Parents are not going to just sit by and let their kids be stung by these tiny killers, so it's no surprise we hear of stories in the USA of petrol being poured on nests, or uncontrolled chemical use.' He said the new financial modelling for suppression alone amounted to as much as the current four-year fire ant eradication program budget of $592.8m every year – for ever. A 2021 government study found that governments and individuals would need to spend $200m to $300m annually over the next 10 years to stamp out Rifa and avoid ongoing annual costs of at least $2bn caused by the pest. The planned funding was only half that amount, the council said. Research director at the Australian Institute and the report's co-author, Rod Campbell, said the figures showed the economic case for fire ant eradication was 'a no-brainer'. 'Behind the dollar figures though, is what the money would be spent on – pesticides. 'Australia needs to eradicate fire ants urgently not just to save money for households, but to avoid huge volumes of pesticides going into our back yards, fields and bushland.' Rifa were first detected in Queensland in 2001 and can kill people, native animals and livestock as well as damage infrastructure and ecosystems.
The Guardian
24-03-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Fire ant sting hospitalisations surge post-Cyclone Alfred as reports of first pet death also emerge
Twenty-three people have been hospitalised with serious fire ant stings amid a surge in reports of the invasive pest in the aftermath of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred and a new $24m package targeting suppression of the insect. The National Fire Ant Eradication Program has received notifications of 60 serious red imported fire ant (Rifa) stings in south-east Queensland since 1 March, with 23 serious enough to warrant hospital care. Separately, a puppy stung to death 15 months ago was reportedly the first pet killed in Queensland by the ants. A program spokesperson said: 'Fire ants deliver painful, fiery stings that can cause severe, and sometimes fatal, reactions in humans, pets, and animals,' citing National Allergy Centre of Excellence and Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia figures that show up to 7.5% of people stung require medical attention. The reported rates of fire ants stings were well above average, said Reece Pianta, the advocacy manager at the Invasive Species Council. Most people stung were doing cyclone clean-up work at the time, he said. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email 'It just shows you what a serious risk fire ants pose to anyone who's got a job that requires them to go outdoors, or who enjoys bush walking or barbecues on the beach,' he said. 'It tells us what the future will be like across the country if fire ant densities grow and spread everywhere.' The impacts of growing Rifa densities on pets was also becoming clearer, Pianta said. 'We are getting a lot of reports of animals having anaphylactic reactions in parks [and] of insect sting events causing animal fatalities,' he said. Fifteen months ago, Ebony Britton's puppy was found dead on a fire ant nest in Greenbank, near Logan. Pianta said it was the first pet death he could definitively say was caused by fire ants. Pianta said back-to-back flooding events, under-resourcing and inadequate support for property owners was to blame on an 'explosion' in fire ant numbers. The council has warned that flood events spread the super-pest. 'I can easily think of half a dozen locations south of Brisbane where I can go and see 100 nests right now. That is something that's changed in the last 18 months.' He said earlier modelling showed that were fire ants to become endemic, 150,000 Australians each year would need medical attention because of fire ants stings. On Monday, the Queensland government announced a $24m boost to Queensland's Fire Ant Suppression taskforce, which will target 212,000 hectares (523,862 acres) within the region's suppression zone over the next two years. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The Crisafulli government said the treatment would reduce Rifa density in the fire ant suppression zone by up to 80%, focusing on areas along the Logan and Albert rivers and parts of the Scenic Rim, where Rifa densities were highest. The Queensland minister for primary industries, Tony Perrett, said: 'We're hitting fire ants hard in the suppression zone, doubling down on suppression efforts to deal with this destructive pest before it impacts more Queenslanders. 'By working with other states and the commonwealth … I am very confident we will be able to prevent a fully fledged invasion.' Pianta said the federal government now needed to match the funds. 'That's why this funding announcement is so timely, and why it is essential that we see a federal commitment about this at the coming election. This is an issue the community is very concerned about in Queensland at the moment,' he said. Rifa are native to South America and are believed to have arrived in Australia via infected materials on ships at the port of Brisbane in 2001 but may have been present in the country since 1992. They are dark reddish-brown with darker abdomens and pose a widespread risk to native wildlife, industry and Australia's way of life. The pest has now spread to more than 700,000 hectares (1.73m acres) in the Brisbane region and outlier detections have in the past year been found in Oakey, the Sunshine Coast and northern NSW.
The Guardian
12-03-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Expert concerned as large rafts of invasive fire ants seen floating in flood waters after Cyclone Alfred
Fire ants are forming rafts to survive and travel on flood waters caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in south-east Queensland as experts warn extreme weather events could sweep the highly invasive species into other parts of Australia. Footage captured in the Scenic Rim and northern Gold Coast in recent days shows red imported fire ants (Rifas) grouping together and floating on flood waters. Clumps of the ants can then be seen forming nests on previously uninfested land after waters receded. Kirsty McKenna, who filmed the fire ants rafting on her Allenview property, said entire colonies were clinging on to debris and staying buoyant, ready to make nests on dry ground. 'There's piles of them everywhere, floating through the waterway, heading to the Logan River,' she says in the video. Reece Pianta, advocacy manager at the Invasive Species Council, said the colonies were likely to have spread several kilometres from their starting points, with larger rafts more likely to have travelled further. 'The risk of fire ants spreading in flood waters after a disaster is very high and we're very concerned about it,' he said. The rare phenomenon was also filmed in floods early last year. It was the first time Pianta had seen footage of the unusual adaptive behaviour in Australia. 'This year, the rafts appear to be much larger, they're pointing to higher densities of fire ants and bigger colonies,' he said. Heavy rainfall in southern Queensland will spread high-density infestations regionally and could also sweep fire ants into carrier materials such as turf, which could then inadvertently relocate the pests to other parts of the country, he said. 'We're lucky fire ants aren't in the Murray-Darling basin, but this is the kind of event that could see them spread into New South Wales if they were,' he said. McKenna, who lives close to turf and hay farmers whose products travel beyond Queensland, said she was 'worried if we don't reduce the fire ant infestation, it will undermine Australia's eradication efforts'. Rifas are native to South America and are believed to have arrived in Australia via infected materials on ships at the port of Brisbane in 2001 but may have been present in the country since 1992. They are dark reddish-brown with darker abdomens and pose widespread risk to native wildlife, industry and Australia's way of life. Rifas have now spread to more than 700,000 hectares (1.73m acres) in the Brisbane region and outlier detections have in the past year been found in Oakey, the Sunshine Coast and northern NSW. A detection in Wardell, about 70km south of the Queensland-NSW border, was blamed on landscaping supplies brought into NSW for reconstruction efforts after 2022 flood events. Pianta said that an urgent increase in Rifa suppression was needed. 'Fire ants are one of the world's worst super pests and their unchecked spread will result in economic damage greater than that caused by cane toads, rabbits, feral cats and foxes combined,' he said. 'We call on Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese to commit to an urgent fire ant surge and long-term funding,' he said, adding that fire ants were not an election issue for Queenslanders. 'Fire ants will spread to all parts of Australia if eradication fails,' he said.
