Why did so many pilgrims lose their lives during the hajj?

Good morning.

After years of legal battles, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released fromprison. WikiLeaks posted a video of Assange boarding a flight that departed the UK from London’s Stansted airport, which was followed by news that he was expected to plead guilty to violating one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose national defence information. Assange is due to be sentenced on Wednesday on the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands at 9am local time, where he is expected to be credited for the five years he has already spent in jail and will therefore face no new jail time. Under the deal he will return to his native Australia.

In 2010, WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified documents relating to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For some background on his decades long story, read Jonathan Yerushalmy’s explainer on who he is and why he has been released.

In his analysis, the Guardian’s world affairs editor Julian Borger writes that while many of his supporters will see this as a victory, it is “not necessarily a clear win for the principle underlying his defence, the freedom of the press” because the Espionage Act will continue to threaten journalists who report on defence and security.

Today’s newsletter is going to be on a deadly heatwave in the Middle East but for more information and the latest updates on this rolling story, keep a close eye on the Guardian’s live blog.

Saudi Arabia has confirmed that at least 1,300 people died during the hajj, which took place between 14 and 19 June, and where temperatures soared as high as 51C. Unprecedented heatwaves in Mecca made an already physically taxing experience fatal for many people undertaking the sacred pilgrimage, which adult Muslims are expected to complete once in their lifetime if they have the means.

Deaths during hajj are not unheard of – in 2015 overcrowding led to a horrific crowd crush in Mina, near Mecca that killed 2,400 pilgrims. Heat-related fatalities are also not unusual, but the number of deaths has laid bare the failure of the Saudi government to put in place adequate protections, and serves as a stark reminder of the Gulf countries’ vulnerability to the effects of the climate crisis.

For today’s newsletter, I spoke with Ruth Michaelson, a journalist based in Istanbul, about the factors that culminated in such a significant loss of life and what the future holds for those who want to take part in the holy journey. That’s right after the headlines.

Five big stories

In depth: ‘This is a tragedy that is preventable, which could be foreseen’

Pilgrims need a specific type of visa to access Mecca during hajj – although the visa itself is free, it comes as part of an expensive package that costs thousands of dollars.

To avoid these costs, hundreds of thousands of people participate by going through unofficial channels and using Saudi Arabia’s regular tourism visa to enter the country. Those who used unlicensed tour operators to complete hajj were left unprotected from the scorching temperatures, with no access to air conditioned facilities and transport laid on by authorities. Saudi officials have said that 83% of the deceased were unregistered pilgrims.

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and a profoundly important spiritual experience for the millions of people who travel to Mecca. The date of the pilgrimage is determined by the lunar calendar, which is why it has once again fallen during the blazing Saudi summer.

The extreme heatwave was made five times more likely by human-induced climate change according to the non-profit Climate Central. Moreover, Saudi Arabia is warming at a rate 50% higher than the rest of the northern hemisphere. What does that mean for the future of hajj?

Why did so many people die?

The combination of extreme heat induced by the climate crisis, and the cost of living crisis in places like Egypt created a tinderbox last week.

The Saudi government has largely laid the blame for the excess deaths on the individuals who chose to travel without relevant authorisation and the travel operators who facilitated it, without recognising the underlying reasons why people may feel the need to skirt regulations. Egypt, for instance, has been going through economic turmoil for years, and impoverished Egyptians can barely afford basic goods, but that does not quell the deep-seated need to perform hajj. Arab diplomats told the press that Egyptians accounted for 658 deaths, 630 of which were unregistered pilgrims.

“Unregistered people were staying in accommodation that was further away from many of the important pilgrimage sites and they couldn’t use most of the amenities that the Saudi authorities provided as part of these very expensive hajj packages,” Ruth says. In Egypt, an official hajj package costs more than $6,000 at a time when the value of the Egyptian pound has almost completely collapsed. Unofficial travel operators exploited a rising demand from people who were looking for ways to fulfil their religious obligation without spending enormous amounts of money. “There are villages in Egypt where people will save for one person in the village to go to do the hajj – for many it’s a communal effort,” Ruth says.

Many also save up for a long time to afford the trip, so a large proportion of pilgrims are older or dealing with health conditions, leaving them even more vulnerable to the heat.

Summers in Saudi Arabia were always hot, but now with high humidity and more frequent – and more severe – heatwaves, there is no way to function without air conditioning and other artificial cooling methods. The climate crisis will only continue to exacerbate rising temperatures, with a 2019 study from MIT warning that heatwaves could pose “extreme danger” to pilgrims in the coming decades.

The response

The Saudi government’s response to ensuring the safety of pilgrims has mainly been about performing a kind of “security theatre”, Ruth says. But increasing checkpoints and deploying armed guards neglects to acknowledge the reality – that is, that as government-sponsored packages become more unaffordable there will continue to be a rise in unregulated visitors and tour groups.

There were also issues with the government’s transparency, or lack thereof. Saudi authorities did not address heat-related deaths directly for several days and were slow to connect people with their families, Ruth says. “People were getting separated in these huge crowds from their loved ones and not knowing if they’re alive or dead, which is obviously not what people go to have this kind of experience for. It’s beyond distressing, it’s tragic. And yet this is a tragedy that is preventable, and which could be foreseen given the climate conditions and the time of year”.

The future

Saudi Arabia has said that it supports the Paris climate agreement and insists that it is taking the climate crisis seriously by diversifying its economy away from fossil fuels, and moving away from its reliance on oil.

In reality, negotiators said that the Gulf state became “the biggest obstacle to an agreement” at Cop28. (At one point, Saudi Arabia even argued that wind and solar power pose a significant climate threat.) Instead, the focus of the world’s largest oil exporter has been to fund their way out of the worst effects of the climate crisis by spending large sums of money on untested technologies like carbon capture. According to the scientific watchdog Climate Action Tracker, Saudi Arabia’s climate policies are “critically insufficient” and “reflect minimal to no action”, all while large portions of the Middle East are predicted to become uninhabitable by the end of this century.

“This has been framed as an issue of personal responsibility – blaming people for not being able to buy their way out of the problem,” says Ruth. “But that solves absolutely nothing – starting with how this pilgrimage is going to work in the future”.

What else we’ve been reading

• In the small Essex village of Birchanger, the arrival of refugee children has presented new challenges for teachers and pupils (two pictured above with Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock) alike. With classrooms exceeding capacity and some students struggling to read and write in their new language, it can be tough. Even so, it is a lifeline for many; Rachel Hall speaks to staff and parents about the school that has been described as an “absolute blessing”. Raphael Boyd, newsletters team

• ICYMI: Nesrine Malik visited Ilford where the sitting Labour MP, shadow health minister Wes Streeting, is being challenged by the Independent candidate Leanne Mohamad, a 23-year-old Palestinian British woman. Malik wants to find out how the war in Gaza has already changed politics in this constituency and what it might mean for the election. Nimo

• With the war in Gaza still raging and religious hate crimes on the rise, conversations about the line between criticism of Israel and racism towards Jewish people continue. As Lee Fang and Jack Poulson report, newly obtained documents show how Israeli officials have sought to redefine antisemitism in US law. Raphael

• Carter Sherman reports on how, post Roe v Wade, doctors are finding it harder than ever to get basic abortion training in some states. Nimo

• On the two year anniversary of the murder of Bruno Pereira and Guardian journalist Dom Phillips, Tom Phillips has written an extraordinary report on the Brazilian special forces unit preparing for battle with the criminals responsible for their murders and the destruction of the Amazon. Raphael
  

Sport

Football | England went through to the last 16 at Euro 2024 on Monday night without kicking a ball after Albania were beaten 1-0 by Spain. The result in Düsseldorf means Gareth Southgate’s side will finish, at worst, as one of the third-placed teams who qualify for the knockout rounds. Italy scored in the last minute of stoppage time to advance to the knockout stage after drawing Croatia 1-1.

Paris 2024 | Geraint Thomas, the double ­Olympic gold medallist, Tour de France winner and Britain’s most consistent performer in Grand Tour stage ­racing, has been dropped from Team GB’s lineup for the Paris Olympics. The 38-year-old Welshman, winner of the 2018 Tour and third overall in the Giro d’Italia this year, is a surprise omission from the five-rider selection for the men’s road race and individual time trial events.

Tennis | Andy Murray’s mother has hit out after press reported that the 37-year-old would miss Wimbledon due to a spinal cyst, claiming the information was leaked “by someone you thought you could trust”. Judy Murray says that, despite reports, her son may still play, in what could be his final appearance at the tournament before a possible post-Olympics retirement.

The front pages

The Guardian leads with “Low wage growth ‘has pushed 900,000 children into poverty’”. The Financial Times looks at “Tory and Labour pledges to improve public services ‘essentially unfunded’”. The i has “Tories and Labour refuse to rule out 10 tax rises – as IFS urges leaders to come clean”.

The Telegraph reports “Scotland Yard ‘leaked names’ in Tory betting scandal”. The Times says “Conversion therapy to be banned by Labour”.

The Mirror headlines “‘Guard’s plot to kidnap, rape and kill Holly’”, while the Mail follows the same story with “‘Obsessed Holly fan plotted rape and murder’”.

Today in Focus

Cartoon of the day | Jason White

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

A British boy has had an implant fitted to his brain to control his epilepsy, in a world first. Oran Knowlson, 13, has a rare form of epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut and can suffer hundreds of seizures a day. That number has dropped by 80% since undergoing atrial operation at Great Ormond Street hospital, during which a device was implanted within his skull that emits constant low level electrical stimulation.

Since the success of the trial, a further 22 patients have been recruited to undergo a similar procedure. Knowlson’s mother, Justine, said that her son’s quality of life had greatly improved. “The future looks hopeful, which I wouldn’t have dreamed of saying six months ago,” she said.

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