The Take

The Take turns a year old next week — and we're taking a break to do some growing. When we come back in November, we'll be bringing you multiple episodes a week. In the meantime, follow us and keep in touch on Twitter and Instagram (@ajthetake) and on Facebook (@thetakepod) — we love hearing from you.

Palestinian voters turned out in record numbers in the Israeli election with a key motivation — to dethrone Benjamin Netanyahu. They may still get stuck with him as prime minister, but for the first time in more than two decades, they’ve become real players in Israeli politics. Will this lead to the formation of a Palestinian political opposition, or could this send them back into political exile?

Last week we got a WhatsApp message from a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh. It might be one of the last messages he can send. The Bangladeshi government is moving to ban the sale of SIM cards to a million Rohingya there. This week, we take you to the world’s biggest refugee camp to learn what a communications blackout could mean for the Rohingya.

The booming oil city of Maracaibo once epitomized the promise that was Venezuela. But it’s been in trouble for years: power cuts, devastating oil spills and political and economic crises. Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo explains how the city now embodies what Venezuela has become — the poorest country that should be rich.

US generals and Taliban commanders have been sitting in five-star hotels in Qatar, trying to knock out a peace deal to end the war in Afghanistan. The details are few, the Afghan government wasn’t invited, and success is far from certain. In Afghanistan, the only thing people know for sure is that the death toll keeps rising.

Three years after the United Kingdom voted to break off from the European Union, the country is still trying to understand what Brexit means and how it will happen. Al Jazeera’s London correspondent Laurence Lee and presenter Maryam Nemazee explain how the former empire came to vote for their own drawn-out divorce.

There have been three months of unrest in Hong Kong, and the protests keep growing. This week, we’re exploring the roots of the city’s pro-democracy movement, the old demands that have long gone unanswered and how today’s youth are looking to Bruce Lee in their strategy to secure political reform.

They were interrogated at airports, and scrutinized at US-Mexico border crossings. Then leaked documents proved their suspicions: The US government is targeting private citizens. We speak to an Al Jazeera journalist who has been questioned repeatedly at the border, and a human rights advocate who says the US could be targeting more people.

The Take will be back August 16. In the meantime, subscribe to Your World for twice-daily updates from Al Jazeera.

Sri Lanka hasn’t executed a prisoner in 43 years, but the country’s president recently signed death warrants for four people convicted of drug crimes. And he advertised for executioners. Why does Maithripala Sirisena want to end a moratorium on capital punishment?

Al Jazeera investigated a far-right group in France for a year, exposing violence, racism and surprising ties to one of the country’s mainstream political parties. We revisit Imtiaz Tyab's talk with journalist David Harrison about the investigation — which prompted a police probe and arrests.

After cases of child rape made headlines in Sierra Leone this year, the government declared a national emergency around sexual violence. This week, we meet two people who made the fight personal.

Journalists and human rights activists from Mexico to the Middle East are being targeted by spyware purchased by their governments. This week, we talk to Josh Rushing from Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines team about the software suite that can turn your cell phone into someone else’s secret weapon.

The fighting in Mali looks like a tribal conflict, but it’s much bigger than that. This week, we’re reporting from a new front in the West African nation, out of the public eye. An absent government is letting old rivalries flare, groups like Al Qaeda are fueling the fire, and a major UN peacekeeping mission can’t stop the unprecedented violence.

Scores of protesters were killed at a sit-in in Khartoum, Sudan on June 3. Al Jazeera journalists were in the city, but banned from reporting — the military government had shut down the bureau days before. Now, they tell us what they saw and heard. For one correspondent, it hits close to home.