Menna Farouk

Muhammed Bilal used to have to wait his turn outside a money transfer office in the scorching heat of Dubai to send home $1,000 to his wife and parents in Pakistan each month, at a cost of about $7 per transfer.

He has since switched to an app that allows him to send money instantly with no transfer fees, joining a growing number of migrants in the United Arab Emirates using cryptocurrencies and blockchain services to send remittances quickly and cheaply.

From soil sensors to AI-powered drones, entrepreneurs in Tunisia are equipping farmers with tech tools and data to help the vital agriculture sector weather the country's worsening water crisis.

The North African nation is enduring its fourth consecutive year of drought - as intensifying climate change affects rainfall in the region - threatening the agriculture industry that is critical for its food security and struggling economy.

A decade ago, the Makthar boarding school in northern Tunisia had little clean drinking water or heat, poor food and no electricity for its nearly 570 students.

But now solar water heaters ensure hot water for showers and solar panels produce enough electricity not only to power the school and three others nearby but to feed the national grid, providing a small income toward paying other school costs.

The Tunisian coastal town of Ghannouch is home to about 600 fishermen, but early one Wednesday morning last month there was hardly a rod or boat in sight.

Fishermen say as climate change brings ever-rising sea levels, threatening the community's beaches, going out to sea is becoming tougher as rocks damage their boats and fishing nets.

Women who mop, sweep and clean homes across Africa are riding a new wave of digital platforms that promise flexible work and fresh opportunity - but critics say the fast-growing apps only expose the gig workers to age-old abuse and exploitation.

They say the women - many of them vulnerable migrants - run a gamut of risks by signing up for gig work on the new apps, from underpay to assault, injury to debt, reputational damage as well as scant benefits and zero trade union representation.

When Tunisian lawmakers take up their seats in the newly elected parliament next month, one change will be immediately obvious - there will be far fewer women among their ranks.

Tunisia has been seen as a leader on women's rights in the Arab world, but campaigners say electoral reforms introduced by President Kais Saied ahead of the country's controversial recent election made it harder for female candidates to run for office.

For three decades, brothers Ramadan and Mamdouh Othman have grown summer crops of maize, olives and cucumbers on their Nile Delta land in Egypt's northern governate of Fayoum.

But over the past year, the amount of water in the canal that supplies their sandy 3-acre (1.2-hectare) farm in the village of El-Shawashna has fallen 40%.

Along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia's deep northwest, thousands of workers are building a futuristic city that the kingdom says will be like no other.

Out of the ancient sands will emerge a high-tech urban centre called The Line: zero-carbon with flying drones for taxis, holographs for teachers and even a man-made moon.

When dozens of Tunisian judges went on strike last month to protest the sacking of 57 of their colleagues, lurid posts containing damaging allegations about some of the female jurists began appearing on Facebook.

One said police had ordered a virginity test to be carried out on one of them in 2020, attaching an image purporting to be the medical report. Another targeted judge Khaira bin Khalifa, saying falsely that she had once been charged with adultery, a crime in Tunisia.

When Indian online grocer Fraazo cut commission and scrapped its  fuel allowance, more than 100 delivery riders went on strike, shuttering outlets and taking their noisy protest to the street.

The workers said last month's new regime made it near impossible to make ends meet amid record petrol prices.