For many people, the upcoming total solar eclipse is a joyous and celebratory occasion.

Countless skygazers are gearing up to witness the rare cosmological marvel as it crosses over Mexico, the US and Canada on April 8. Along with the 30 or so million people living in the path of totality, millions more are expected to travel for a better view. Crowds will gather at eclipse watch parties to cheer on as the moon passes between Earth and the sun, and hundreds of couples plan to mark the phenomenon by tying the knot.

But in other cultures and faith traditions, an eclipse is less spectacle and more spiritual. Some take time to meditate and reflect on the universe, while others engage in rituals to ward off negative energies.

Here’s how some religions and cultures observe this celestial event.

Some Hindus see eclipses as a bad omen

Some Hindus, especially those with roots in South India, consider eclipses a bad omen, says Sangeetha Kowsik, a Hindu chaplain and spiritual life advisor at New York University. In Vedic astrology, an eclipse occurs when the shadow planet Rahu swallows the sun.

One interpretation from Hindu scriptures references an episode known as the churning of the ocean, which produces a nectar of immortality, Kowsik explains. Vishnu, one of the principal Hindu deities, transforms into the female avatar Mohini and distributes the nectar to the gods. The serpent demon Svarbhanu, however, sits between the sun and the moon and obtains the nectar under false pretenses.

When the sun and the moon alert Vishnu to this deception, Vishnu decapitates the demon — the head becomes Rahu and the body becomes Ketu. Having drunk the nectar, Rahu becomes immortal while Ketu dies. In his anger, Rahu attempts to swallow the sun and the moon, producing an eclipse.

Some Hindus who see eclipses as inauspicious fast before and bathe after the celestial event — sometimes with their clothes on — to clear themselves of negative energies, Kowsik says. Some temples, meanwhile, close down during the eclipse and offer special prayers.

But Hinduism encompasses a wide range of spiritual beliefs, practices and traditions, and not all Hindus view eclipses as negative. According to other Hindu legends, all nine planets of Vedic astrology are said to live in the belly of the god Ganesha or in the tail of the god Hanuman.

“So if you are a Ganesha devotee or a Hanuman devotee, all of these effects of these planets are gone because God is there to save you,” Kowsik says. “God is there to take care of you always and eradicate any issue that you might have.”

Kowsik, meanwhile, feels torn on how she’ll mark the upcoming eclipse.

“It doesn’t happen that often, and I don’t know if I should stay indoors,” she adds. “I’m a big believer in Lord Ganesha and Lord Hanuman and God in general, so I might take a look because I think it’s going to look really cool, personally.”

Muslims consider eclipses a sign from God

For many Muslims, eclipses are a time for prayer and spiritual contemplation, says Akif Aydin, president of the interfaith organization Atlantic Institute SC.

Per Islamic tradition, the Prophet Muhammad’s young son Ibrahim died on the day of a solar eclipse, and many of his followers at the time associated the celestial phenomenon with death and sorrow, Aydin says.

But the Prophet was quick to dispute such notions, declaring that an eclipse was merely a sign from God — not a harbinger of life or death. The Prophet Muhammad encouraged his followers to remember and worship God during an eclipse, inviting his disciples to worship with him at the mosque until the cosmic event passed, says Aydin.

“It is a time to connect with God again — to remember God’s creation again,” he adds.

Aydin says he plans to watch the upcoming eclipse from his backyard in South Carolina with his wife, four children and nieces. As the sky darkens, he’ll roll out a rug on the grass and bow down in prayer.

Some Christians believe it signals the second coming of Christ

In the eyes of some Christians, the solar eclipse is a sign that the “end times” — the period prophesied in the Bible when Jesus Christ will return to Earth — are imminent.

The New Testament of the Bible contains several mentions of the sky darkening while Jesus was hung on the cross, which some believers associate with a solar eclipse.

“From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land,” a passage from Matthew 27 reads. “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)”

Celestial phenomena such as eclipses are often accompanied by end times predictions, though some authors and scholars point out that such prophecies are usually rooted in North American evangelical ideas around the apocalypse.

“But while some passages in the Bible do link astronomical phenomena with “the end” (Matthew 24:29; Joel 2:31), doomsday prophets fail to explain why their biblical, global, and cosmic calculus often revolves around America,” author and pastor Andrea L. Robinson writes in Christianity Today.

“They further neglect the fact that an eclipse happens somewhere on Earth approximately every 18 months—and that these solar events have been associated with imminent doom for thousands of years without consequence.”

For Navajos, it’s a time of reverence

While many towns and cities will be abuzz on Monday with people trying to catch a glimpse of the eclipse, the Navajo Nation reservation will be more still.

Eclipses are a more solemn occasion in Navajo tradition, according to Evelyn Bahe, a program manager in the Department of Diné Education in Window Rock, Arizona. The Diné, the term Navajos use to refer to themselves, see the celestial event as a time to show reverence and respect for the sun and the Earth.

“During the eclipse, we have to get back into our dwelling, close the curtains and make it really quiet,” Bahe says. “During this time, we cannot eat. We cannot sleep. We cannot drink water.”

Engaging in these activities during an eclipse is said to negatively affect a person and disrupt their spiritual harmony, Bahe adds. During previous eclipses, offices, parks and schools on the Navajo Nation have closed to honor the cosmic phenomenon.

Bahe says Navajos have varying explanations for what happens during an eclipse: Some consider it a meeting of the sun and the moon — others view it as a rebirth and renewal of the celestial bodies.

“It is considered a time of interaction between the Sun and the moon,” the Indigenous Education Institute’s Nancy C. Maryboy and David Begay say in a statement on the Exploratorium website.

“(Navajo elders) sit quietly and in contemplation, or recount traditional teachings about the origins of the Sun and moon. These practices are grounded in their deeply held respect for the cosmic order.”

The Israeli official said the crossing would be opened to allow more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. The cabinet also approved using the Israeli Port of Ashdod to help transfer more aid to Gaza.

The announcement comes amid mounting international fury over Israeli strikes that killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen in Gaza. Israel has acknowledged responsibility for the deaths, but maintains attack was not intentional.

US President Joe Biden said Thursday that the overall humanitarian situation in Gaza is unacceptable in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and warned Israel to take steps to address the crisis or face consequences.

Since the October 7 terror attacks, Israel’s siege of Gaza has killed more than 32,916 people, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, and has led to a spiraling humanitarian crisis where nearly three-quarters of the population in northern Gaza are suffering from catastrophic levels of hunger, according to a United Nations-backed report.

Land crossings into Gaza, through which the bulk of vital aid has traditionally entered the territory, remain heavily restricted by Israel. Aid agencies have accused Israel of throttling the entry of relief into the war-ravaged territory, though Israel has said it has “no limit” on the amount of relief that can enter.

Before the war started, Israel restricted all access to and from Gaza by sea and air, and kept land crossings under tight control. It had two functional crossings with the enclave: Erez, which was for the movement of people, and Kerem Shalom, for goods.

Gaza also has one crossing with Egypt, at Rafah, which is run by Egyptian authorities. While Israel has no direct control over this crossing, it monitors all activity in southern Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to halt the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel to the Palestinian enclave after Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 hostages on October 7.

Aid to trickle in through Rafah at the end of October, and, following pressure from the US, Israel began allowing aid trucks to pass through Kerem Shalom in late December – but at rates far below the 500 commercial and aid trucks a day before the war.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Pressure is mounting on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to suspend the sale of arms to Israel following the deadly attack on a convoy of aid workers in Gaza.

Calls for Sunak to stop supplying Israel with weapons grew after an Israeli airstrike on Monday killed seven members of staff from World Central Kitchen, three of whom were British citizens.

The government is still waiting for legal advice from its lawyers on whether or not selling arms to Israel is in breach of international law. Sunak is also under pressure to publish any legal advice he has been provided with on whether or not the Israeli government has breached international law through its actions in Gaza.

A recording emerged at the weekend of Alicia Kearns, who chairs the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee, saying she is convinced the government has already received advice that Israel’s actions are illegal and has declined to publish it.

Following the leak, Kearns stood by the report and said in a statement: “I remain convinced the government has completed its updated assessment on whether Israel is demonstrating a commitment to international humanitarian law, and that it has concluded that Israel is not demonstrating this commitment, which is the legal determination it has to make.”

The governing Conservative Party is historically supportive of Israel, but the killing of British citizens has shifted the domestic debate.

On Thursday, more than 600 lawyers, legal academics and former members of the British judiciary wrote to Sunak, warning him that “serious action” is needed to “avoid UK complicity in grave breaches of international law, including potential violations of the Genocide convention.”

“While we welcome the increasingly robust calls by your government for a cessation of fighting and the unobstructed entry to Gaza of humanitarian assistance,” the letter says, “simultaneously to continue (to take two striking examples) the sale of weapons and weapons systems to Israel and to maintain threats of suspending UK aid to UNRWA falls significantly short of your Government’s obligations under international law.”

The three main opposition parties, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party, have all called for the suspension of arms sales to Israel if government lawyers say it is illegal, and have demanded that Sunak outline why it has not happened yet.

Sunak has taken a firmer line in recent calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to a government readout of a call that took place on Tuesday, Sunak said he was “appalled by the killing of aid workers, including three British nationals,” and demanded a “thorough and transparent independent investigation into what happened.”

The Downing Street release claimed Sunak said “far too many aid workers and ordinary civilians have lost their lives in Gaza and the situation is increasingly intolerable,” and that he “reiterated that Israel’s rightful aim of defeating Hamas would not be achieved by allowing a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”

Defense sales from the UK to Israel are “relatively small,” Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said earlier this week, when compared to the amount of weapons that come from the US and Germany. However, parliamentary estimates show that the UK has still licensed arms worth over $725m.

Diplomatically, it would be a significant step by a key Israeli ally and permanent member of the UN Security Council. It would also set Britain apart from a number of its allies, including the US and Germany, if it were to take the action unilaterally.

Suspending sales would be also politically difficult for Sunak domestically, as it’s likely not everyone in his own government or party would support him.

The family of one of the aid workers killed former Royal Marine James Henderson, have criticized the UK sale of arms to Israel. Speaking on their behalf, his brother told the Times of London that accountability was their “only hope of justice.”

“I don’t believe our government will hold the correct people to account, but I guarantee that our government will sell weapons to Israel, which may in turn be used to kill our fellow citizens.

“It’s hard to comprehend that.”

An elderly American woman was killed in Zambia after an elephant charged at a vehicle carrying tourists in Kafue National Park.

Another woman was injured and was taken to a medical facility in South Africa following the incident, which took place on Saturday, the conservation and hospitality company Wilderness, which was running the trip, said in a statement published Tuesday.

Four other people also suffered minor injuries.

Wilderness Chief Executive Officer Keith Vincent said the vehicle, which was carrying six guests and a guide, was “unexpectedly charged” by a bull elephant during the excursion to view wildlife, known as a game drive.

“Our guides are all extremely well trained and experienced, but sadly in this instance the terrain and vegetation was such that the guide’s route became blocked and he could not move the vehicle out of harm’s way quickly enough,” Vincent said.

“This is a tragic event and we extend our deepest condolences to the family of the guest who died,” he said.

“We are also, naturally, supporting those guests and the guide involved in this distressing incident,” he added.

A helicopter was dispatched to the scene and authorities are investigating.

The deceased woman has since been named as 79-year-old Gail Mattson by her family, correcting the age initially cited by Wilderness.

“She was loved by everyone, and she was the center of attention,” Vetter said. “I mean she was 79 years old and wanted to spend a month in Africa. She would be the first to understand this could happen. Everyone wants to blame the elephant and driver but no, it was a freak accident.”

Mattson’s daughter, Rona Wells, also posted about her passing on Facebook and called the trip a “dream adventure” for her mother.

“We would like to share some amazing pictures of our wonderful Mom’s trip to South Africa with her friends and family. Sadly, she lost her life in a tragic accident while on her dream adventure,” Wells said.

Zambia is popular with safari travelers thanks to a number of national parks and the quality of its guides.

Kafue is the country’s largest national park and is home to more than 200 animal species. It is known for lion and leopard sightings as well as an incredible diversity of antelope species, many of which are rarely seen elsewhere.

This is not the first time an American tourist has died at the park. In September 2016, Bianca Rudolph was found dead in her hunting cabin after a fatal shotgun blast. Her husband, Lawrence Rudolph, was sentenced last year to life in prison for her killing.

Denmark has closed one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes over an activated but malfunctioning missile launcher on a Danish navy ship, the country’s military said Thursday.

The Niels Juel ship is stationed in Denmark’s Great Belt strait, the main maritime gateway to the Baltic Sea.

The booster on a Harpoon missile on board the ship was activated during a mandatory test on Thursday, and the launcher cannot currently be deactivated, the Danish armed forces said in a statement, adding that specialists are on their way to solve the problem.

“Until the booster is disabled, there is a risk that the missile could launch and fly several kilometers away,” it said.

The danger area is estimated to be up to 5-7 kilometers (around 3-4 miles) from Naval Station Korsør, at a height of approximately 1000 metres above the water in a southern direction, the statement outlined. The missile is not in the direction of the Great Belt Bridge.

The air space in the area is also currently closed, the military said.

“The Harpoon missile is a sharp missile, but it is only the booster that is activated in connection with the test, and there is therefore no danger that the missile can explode or reach further than the booster rocket can lift.”

The police and the Danish maritime authority have been informed, and ships in the direction of the danger zone have been notified and asked to wait until the problem has been resolved, the statement said.

Everyone in Japan could one day have the same surname unless its restrictive marriage laws change, according to a new study. But the country’s dwindling marriage rate could buck that trend and a rapidly declining population might render it moot entirely.

Unlike most of the world’s major economies that have done away with the tradition, Japan still legally requires married couples to share the same surname. Normally, wives take their husband’s name – and same-sex marriages still aren’t legal in Japan.

A movement to change the rules around surnames has been brewing, led by women’s rights advocates and those trying to preserve the diversity of the Japanese surnames in a nation where a handful of names are becoming increasingly common.

If the rules carry on, all Japanese people could have the surname Sato by 2531, according to Hiroshi Yoshida, an economist from Tohoku University in Sendai, who led the study.

According to Myoji Yurai, a company that tracks Japan’s more than 300,000 surnames, Sato is currently the most common, followed by Suzuki. Takahashi comes third. About 1.8 million people out of Japan’s 125 million population have the surname Sato, Myoji Yurai says on its website.

Yoshida – whose family name ranks 11th most common – was commissioned by the “Think Name Project”, a group demanding legal changes to allow couples to keep both their last names.

The professor, who unveiled his latest study on Monday, conceded that his projection would only hold up if the country could overcome what is already one of its most pressing crises: an ever-declining marriage rate.

The number of marriages in Japan declined by nearly 6% in 2023 from the previous year – dipping below 500,000 for the first time in 90 years, while divorces were up by 2.6% last year, according to official figures.

Yoshida also pointed out in his study that Japan’s population could shrink massively over the next millennium, because of its declining birth rate.

“The possibility of that the Japanese race going extinct is high,” he said in his report.

According to government figures released last year, the proportion of Japan’s elderly, defined as age 65 and above, is at a record high, comprising 29.1% of the population – the highest rate in the world.

Japan’s population has been in steady decline since its economic boom of the 1980s, with a fertility rate of 1.3 – far below the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population, in the absence of immigration. Deaths have outpaced births in Japan for more than a decade, posing a growing problem for leaders of the world’s fourth-largest economy.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida issued a dire warning about the population crisis in January last year, saying it was “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions” due to its falling birth rate.

Across much of East Asia, people’s names are generally less diverse than in Western countries. For example, according to government figures from 2020, about 30% of people in China are named Wang, Li, Zhang, Liu or Chen. And the vast majority of the population – almost 86% – share just 100 surnames.

Name extinction is also a naturally occurring phenomenon called the Galton-Watson process, which posits that in patrilineal societies, surnames are lost or die out over time with each new generation as women take on their husbands’ surnames.

The plight of starving Palestinians in Gaza is worsening as Israel’s actions have deterred critical aid agencies and imposed severe constraints on essential humanitarian efforts in the enclave.

As famine looms and cases of death by starvation emerge, at least three aid providers are suspending operations in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes this week killed seven workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK), an aid group that was central to a much-touted new sea corridor from Cyprus. The killings, which included six foreign victims, caused an international uproar against Israel.

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing,” WCK founder Jose Andres wrote on X after the workers were killed. “It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.”

WCK and Anera, another aid group, have said they will pause operations in Gaza following the incident. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is reportedly also suspending operations.

All 2.2 million people in Gaza do not have enough food to eat, with half of the population on the brink of starvation and famine projected to arrive in the north “anytime between mid-March and May,” according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

“It is a huge blow to the humanitarian operation in Gaza,” said Juliette Touma, spokesperson at the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the principal aid agency in Gaza that has itself been sidelined by Israel.

“It’s very sad that they had to do this, although I totally understand why they did this,” she said, referring to WCK’s decision to suspend operations. Gaza, she added, is now “probably the most dangerous place in the world to be an aid worker.”

UNRWA’s convoys have previously been hit by Israeli fire, and the group has been banned by Israel from operating in Gaza’s north. The UN has urged Israeli authorities to reverse the decision.

On Monday, the Cypriot foreign ministry said that a vessel organized by WCK and carrying roughly 332 tons of humanitarian aid left Gaza without offloading most of its cargo following the deadly strike on the WCK workers.

Reuters video showed the vessel arriving in the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Wednesday evening local time.

WCK on Wednesday said all of its aid ships are now back in Cyprus, adding that “a determination has not yet been made about when to resume our operations in Gaza.”

The aid group had been rising in relevance in Gaza since Israel mounted allegations that some of UNRWA’s employees were involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas. Israel has long campaigned for UNRWA to be disbanded and has not presented evidence to back its accusations against the agency’s staff. UNRWA, which has a staff of 13,000 in Gaza, said it is investigating the allegations.

WCK has been responsible for 60% of non-governmental aid deliveries, according to data released by Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the agency that controls access to Gaza, followed by organizations such as CARE, Save the Children and ICRC. The United Nations continues to be responsible for a large majority of the overall aid that gets in.

WCK has been delivering nearly 20 trucks of aid through the Rafah crossing with Egypt per day. It has also delivered food from Jordan via land convoys as well as airdrops, including over 230,000 meals to northern Gaza, the area of the enclave that is most at risk of famine.

‘Famine is going to happen’

Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon who worked in Gaza in the early weeks of the war, said the north of the territory will be particularly impacted with WCK’s move.

One of WCK’s most prominent operations was through a sea route established in March to take food from Cyprus to Gaza. That route was presented by Israel as an alternative to land corridors, where it has significantly throttled deliveries.

For comparison, each vessel carries 300 to 400 tons of aid, equivalent to 15 to 20 trucks. Gaza needs around 500 trucks of aid per day, according to agencies.

Israel maintains there is no limit on the amount of food or humanitarian aid that can enter Gaza, but aid agencies accuse it of deliberately restricting deliveries.

WCK sent nearly 435,000 meals to Gaza on the Open Arms vessel via the new maritime route last month and was preparing to send two more vessels loaded with a total of 1.2 million meals destined for the north. With Israel’s cooperation, the route was emerging as a slow but viable option to deliver aid – until the airstrike killed the WCK workers.

WCK’s kitchen and warehouse in the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah were seen shuttered on Wednesday, with banners bearing its logo still hanging on a fence.

Viability of the maritime corridor

After the attack, WCK said it was pausing operations immediately in Gaza. Shortly afterwards, American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera), an NGO that delivers aid to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Jordan, also suspended its Gaza operations.

Anera said it has provided an average of 150,000 daily meals in collaboration with WCK along with “millions of medical treatments, and thousands of critical emergency aid items” to Gaza since October 7.

Along with Turkey, the UAE is the biggest donor of aid to Gaza, according to COGAT, providing 25% of all aid from foreign nations. It also operates the largest field hospital in Gaza after Jordan.

The Gulf state will not resume work on the corridor until Israel assures aid workers in the enclave will be protected, Ravid reported, citing sources close to the UAE government.

With the UN increasingly sidelined by Israel and the WCK attack scaring off others using the maritime route, it’s unclear if the option is still feasible. The fate of the extra aid WCK had planned for Gaza is also uncertain.

Cyprus’ President Nikos Christodoulides has vowed to maintain the maritime corridor delivering aid from his country to Gaza, saying “the tragic events should not discourage us.”

Meanwhile, the main distributor of aid in Gaza, UNRWA, remains restricted from operating in some parts of the enclave, particularly in the north, where the risk of famine is the highest and cases of death by starvation have been reported. At least 176 UNRWA team members have been killed since October 7, including while in the line of duty, the UN agency said.

WCK has previously partnered with UNRWA, Touma, the UN agency’s spokeswoman, said.

At least 196 humanitarian workers have been killed in the West Bank and Gaza since October, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jamie McGoldrick, said in a statement. “This is nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year,” he said.

More than 24 million people in southern Africa face hunger, malnutrition and water scarcity due to drought and floods, an aid group has warned, as experts say the situation risks spiraling into an “unimaginable humanitarian situation.”

The warning from Oxfam on Wednesday came as Zimbabwe joined other southern African nations in declaring its drought a national disaster, following earlier declarations by Zambia and Malawi.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said more than 2.7 million people in the country will go hungry this year and more than $2 billion in aid is required for the country’s national response, Reuters reported.

The country’s top priority “is securing food for all Zimbabweans,” the president told journalists at the state house in Harare. “No Zimbabwean must succumb to, or die from, hunger.”

The drought has been fueled by El Niño, a natural climate pattern originating in the Pacific Ocean along the equator, which tends to bring high temperatures and low rainfall to this part of Africa. When it does rain, dried-out ground is unable to absorb the moisture, making flooding more likely.

El Niño is exacerbating the impacts of the climate crisis, caused primarily by burning fossil fuels, which is driving more frequent and severe weather — including drought and floods — across southern Africa, a region Oxfam describes as a “climate disaster hotspot.”

As southern Africa enters its traditional dry season this month, vast parts of the region — including Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe — have already been grappling with a prolonged dry spell.

From late January to February, rainfall levels were the lowest in at least 40 years, a recent report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs revealed.

Central parts of the region experienced the driest February in more than 100 years, according to a report by the United States Agency for International Development’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

In Zambia, Malawi and Central Mozambique, extreme drought has damaged more than 2 million hectares of crops, Oxfam said.

Zambia declared its drought a disaster on February 29.

Malawi’s president declared a state of disaster across the majority of the country on March 23. It’s the fourth consecutive year the country has been forced to do this due to the impact of extreme weather conditions. The World Food Programme said this week the El Niño impact is “exacerbating the devastating effects of the climate crisis in Malawi.”

Southern Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change despite being responsible for only a tiny portion of global planet-heating pollution.

In Mozambique — a country accounting for only 0.2% of global emissions — 3 million people face hunger, according to Oxfam. The country’s capital, Maputo, experienced devastating floods in March, after Tropical Storm Filipo hit followed a few weeks later by further intense rainfall.

“It is so deeply unjust that climate change impacts are hammering Mozambique over and over again. One of the poorest countries in the world is carrying the costs of the climate crisis it has done little to cause and is being pushed deeper into debt and spiralling poverty,” Teresa Anderson, ActionAid’s International Climate Justice Lead, said last week following the flooding.

“Wealthy polluting countries need to own up to their responsibility for the damage they are doing through climate change and be willing to provide climate finance so that vulnerable communities can cope with the climate disasters that are being unleashed,” she added.

Oxfam’s southern Africa program director, Machinda Marongwe, said the region is “in crisis” and called on donors to “immediately release resources” to prevent the spiral into an “unimaginable humanitarian situation.”

“With all these countries facing multiple crises simultaneously, the urgency cannot be overstated,” Marongwe said.

Eclipses inspire awe and bring people together to observe a stunning celestial phenomenon, but these cosmic events also enable scientists to unravel mysteries of the solar system.

During the total solar eclipse on April 8, when the moon will temporarily obscure the sun’s face from view for millions of people across Mexico, the United States and Canada, multiple experiments will be underway to better understand some of the biggest unresolved questions about the golden orb.

NASA will launch sounding rockets and WB-57 high-altitude planes to conduct research on aspects of the sun and Earth that‘s only possible during an eclipse. The efforts are part of a long history of attempts to gather invaluable data and observations when the moon temporarily blocks the sun’s light.

Perhaps one of the most famous scientific milestones connected to an eclipse occurred on May 29, 1919, when a total solar eclipse provided evidence for Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which the scientist first systematically described in 1916, according to NASA.

Einstein had suggested gravity is the result of the warping of time and space, distorting the very fabric of the universe. As an example, Einstein proposed that the gravitational influence of a large object like the sun could deflect light emitted by another object, such as a star virtually behind it, causing the object to appear a bit farther away from the perspective of Earth. A science expedition to observe stars from Brazil and West Africa, led by English astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington during the 1919 eclipse, revealed that some stars indeed appeared to be in the wrong place, validating Einstein’s theory.

The finding is just one of many scientific lessons learned in relation to eclipses.

During the 2017 eclipse that crossed the US, NASA and other space agencies conducted observations using 11 different spacecraft and two high-altitude planes.

Data collected during that eclipse helped scientists to accurately predict what the corona, or the sun’s hot outer atmosphere, would look like during eclipses in 2019 and 2021. Despite its blazing temperatures, the corona is fainter in appearance than the sun’s bright surface, but it appears like a halo around the sun during an eclipse when the bulk of the sun’s light is blocked by the moon, making it easier to study.

Why the corona is millions of degrees hotter than the sun’s actual surface is one of the enduring mysteries about our star. A 2021 study revealed some new clues, showing that the corona maintains a constant temperature, despite the fact that the sun experiences an 11-year cycle of waning and increasing activity. The findings were possible thanks to more than a decade’s worth of eclipse observations, according to NASA.

While quieter during previous eclipses, the sun is reaching the peak of its activity, called solar maximum, this year, affording scientists with a rare opportunity.

And during the eclipse on April 8, citizen scientists and teams of researchers could make new discoveries that potentially advance our understanding about our corner of the universe.

Sending rockets into an eclipse

Observing the sun during eclipses also helps scientists better understand how solar material flows from the sun. Charged particles known as plasma create space weather that interacts with an upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere, called the ionosphere. The region acts as a boundary between Earth’s lower atmosphere and space.

Energetic solar activity released by the sun during solar maximum could interfere with the International Space Station and communication infrastructure. Many low-Earth orbit satellites and radio waves operate in the ionosphere, which means dynamic space weather has an impact on GPS and long-distance radio communications.

Experiments to study the ionosphere during the eclipse include high-altitude balloons and a citizen science endeavor that invites the participation of amateur radio operators. Operators in different locations will record the strength of their signals and how far they travel during the eclipse to see how changes in the ionosphere affect the signals. Researchers also conducted this experiment during the October 2023 annular eclipse, when the moon didn’t completely block the sun’s light, and the data is still being analyzed.

In another repeat experiment, three sounding rockets will lift off in succession from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia before, during and after the eclipse to measure how the sudden disappearance of sunlight impacts Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Aroh Barjatya, professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, is leading the experiment, called the Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path, which was first carried out during October’s annular solar eclipse.

Each rocket will eject four soda bottle-size scientific instruments within the path of totality to measure changes in the ionosphere’s temperature, particle density, and electric and magnetic fields about 55 to 310 miles (90 to 500 kilometers) above the ground.

“Understanding the ionosphere and developing models to help us predict disturbances is crucial to making sure our increasingly communication-dependent world operates smoothly,” Barjatya said in a statement.

The sounding rockets will reach a maximum altitude of 260 miles (420 kilometers) during flight.

During the 2023 annular eclipse, instruments on the rockets measured sharp, immediate changes in the ionosphere.

“We saw the perturbations capable of affecting radio communications in the second and third rockets, but not during the first rocket that was before peak local eclipse,” Barjatya said. “We are super excited to relaunch them during the total eclipse, to see if the perturbations start at the same altitude and if their magnitude and scale remain the same.”

Soaring above the clouds

Three different experiments will fly aboard NASA’s high-altitude research planes known as WB-57s.

The WB-57s can carry almost 9,000 pounds (4,082 kilograms) of scientific instruments up to 60,000 to 65,000 feet (18,288 to 19,812 meters) above Earth’s surface, making it the workhorse of the NASA Airborne Science Program, said Peter Layshock, manager of NASA’s WB-57 High Altitude Research Program at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The benefits of using WB-57s is that a pilot and an equipment operator can fly above the clouds for about 6 ½ hours without refueling within the eclipse’s path of totality spanning Mexico and the US, allowing for a continuous and unobstructed view. The flight path of the planes mean that the instruments will be within the moon’s shadow for longer than they would be on the ground. Four minutes of totality on the ground equals closer to six minutes of totality in the plane, Layshock said.

One experiment will also focus on the ionosphere using an instrument called an ionosonde, which acts like radar by sending out high-frequency radio signals and listening for the echoes as they bounce off the ionosphere to measure the number of charged particles it contains.

The other two experiments will focus on the corona. One project will use cameras and spectrometers to uncover more details about the temperature and chemical composition of the corona, as well as capture data about large bursts of solar material from the sun known as coronal mass ejections.

Another project, led by Amir Caspi, a principal scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, has the goal of capturing images of the eclipse from 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) above Earth’s surface in the hopes of spying structures and details within the middle and lower corona. Using high-speed and high-resolution cameras, capable of taking images in visible light and infrared light, the experiment will also look for asteroids that orbit within the sun’s glare.

“In the infrared, we don’t really know what we’re going to see, and that’s part of the mystery of these rare observations,” Caspi said. “Every eclipse gives you a new opportunity to expand upon things where you take what you learned at the last eclipse and you solve a new piece of the puzzle.”

More and more people are going hungry in Haiti, warn aid workers, doctors and missionaries with increasing urgency, as the Caribbean nation struggles to find its way out of political deadlock and an epidemic of deadly gang violence.

In some areas of the city, there is no more food to buy, and none to bring to market for those whose livelihoods depend on small-scale trading, said the missionary, who requested anonymity for his own safety. “One by one, items disappear for good. There’s no supply chain, so when flour, sugar, salt, rice etc. run out, they’re out.”

Following the resignation announcement of Prime Minister Ariel Henry last month, the country’s political leaders have not yet formed a new government, and a long-awaited multinational security mission has stalled amid the confusion. Meanwhile, gangs have cut off Port-au-Prince from the rest of the world, making it “virtually impossible” for help to reach at least 58,000 children suffering from the most dangerous levels of malnutrition, according to UNICEF.

The crisis in the capital can be felt across the country, which depends heavily on imports brought through Port-au-Prince. According to the United Nations, nearly 5 million people in Haiti are suffering from acute food insecurity – defined as when a person’s inability to consume adequate food poses immediate danger to their lives or livelihoods.

‘This malnutrition crisis is entirely human-made’

For the past two months, Port-au-Prince has been cut off from the world, its resources dwindling. Roads leading in and out of the city have been blocked by gangs, and the city’s international airport and port have been similarly shuttered. Hospitals have been vandalized, and warehouses and containers storing food and essential supplies across the city have been broken into in recent weeks as the social fabric frays.

Last month, a key container terminal – critical to Haiti’s food import supply chain – was attacked and looted. A UNICEF container carrying essential items for the survival of newborn babies and their mothers – including resuscitators and other critical supplies, as well as water equipment – was also broken into, the children’s agency said.

“Thousands of children are on the brink, while life-saving supplies are ready to be delivered if violence stops and roads and hospitals are opened. This malnutrition crisis is entirely human-made,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, in March.

Dr. Ralph Ternier, chief medical officer of medical organization Zanmi Lasante, says he’s seen some of the worst cases of child hunger in his career recently while working at the organization’s medical facility in Mirebalais – about an hour drive northeast from the capital.

He knows the problem is far worse in Port-au-Prince, but laments that there is no way to reach those children. Ternier compared the capital to another country, explaining that it is nearly impossible for someone like him to enter the area, and that rampant gang attacks and kidnapping means many Port-au-Prince parents cannot find medical care for their kids.

“If you have a child that is malnourished, and you are in Port-au-Prince, you cannot do much. It’s rare to find a decent hospital to go to because a lot of them have been destroyed,” Ternier says

‘We’re completely cut off from all supplies’

In Haiti’s rural Lower Artibonite Valley, north of the capital, Hopital Albert Schweitzer is seeing an unprecedented number of acute malnutrition cases, especially among children.

The hospital normally sees seasonal spikes in malnutrition cases, but now, community healthcare workers are seeing malnutrition in much larger numbers, especially among children, during regular clinic visits, he said.

Further fueling fears of hunger in the country, farmers from Artibonite – known as the breadbasket of Haiti because of its fertile lands and rice fields – are struggling to grow and sell their crops amid the insecurity. A March 15 analysis by the World Food Programme (WFP) found shrinking food production, with farmers saying they are afraid to go into the fields as bandits steal their crops.

The Artibonite department alone has seen approximately 100 armed attacks over the past two years — the country’s second-highest number of such violence incidents after Port-au-Prince.

“Conflict and hunger are closely linked,” Laure Boudinaud, Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Officer for WFP in Haiti said. “In an essentially agricultural country like Haiti, when production zones are abandoned, the population suffers one way or another.”

“The correlation between abandoned farm fields and the presence of armed groups and violence is clearly evident,” she added.

Food stocks heading to ‘zero’ amid donor funding shortfalls

Humanitarians are racing to fill the gaps in Haiti under difficult conditions. Bauer, the WFP head, said his agency reached about a half million people in the country with food assistance last month.

“We would like to do more for some of our programs, but overall, we’ve been successful at reaching the people who are in the most need, we’ve been prioritizing, and that’s worked out for us,” he said.

But the WFP won’t be able to continue its feeding programs in Port-au-Prince for long given the current supply chain issues – the agency only has a few weeks left of food in the city, according to Bauer.

“What we’re doing right now is drawing down on our existing food stocks. These are the stocks we’re distributing to vulnerable neighborhoods and hot meals to displaced people,” he said.

“It will last for a few weeks and we will be down to zero if we don’t reopen the port and get more imports.”

Shortfalls in donor funding are also complicating efforts to help the country’s most vulnerable. The United Nations’ 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan has only received 6.5% of its required funding. Current funding for the WFP in Haiti also has a long way to go, according to Bauer.

“Between now and over the next six months, we require $100 million in order to keep our program going and this is one of the reasons why you’re not seeing larger numbers (of aid recipients reached) – the funding is not not there,” he said.

“People have been focusing on other issues right now — and that’s understandable,” Bauer added. “But you’re not going to have a Haiti at peace with half of its population not knowing where its next meal is coming from.”