virus

DR Congo Ebola outbreak killed more than 4,000: official figures

  • A transit centre for Ebola patients burned down Tuesday in the same province after soldiers entered a site for displaced people who promptly fled, according to the UN. A contractor responsible for detecting cases was also killed in an attack on a health facility in North Kivu province, Congolese authorities said Wednesday.
  • The worst ever Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has now killed more than 4,000 people out of more than 8,000 confirmed cases, Congolese officials said on Friday.
  • A transit centre for Ebola patients burned down Tuesday in the same province after soldiers entered a site for displaced people who promptly fled, according to the UN. A contractor responsible for detecting cases was also killed in an attack on a health facility in North Kivu province, Congolese authorities said Wednesday.
The worst ever Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has now killed more than 4,000 people out of more than 8,000 confirmed cases, Congolese officials said on Friday.
The outbreak, officially detected in mid-May, has hit unstable regions in the vast central African country where armed clashes and violence, alongside a critical lack of resources, have hindered the health response to the deadly virus in recent days.
According to latest official data, there have been 4,018 fatalities from 8,300 cases with 2,162 people recovering, giving a fatality rate to date of 48.4 percent.
Also recorded have been four deaths among six cases in North Kivu province in the northeast in areas controlled by anti-government group M23, the Kigali-backed group stated Friday.
After starting in Ituri, also in the northeast, the current outbreak has spread to seven provinces in the north and east. 
The response has been hindered by conflict but also mistrust of authority which runs deep among inhabitants of several provinces. 
Recent days have seen violent clashes between local militias that have hampered the response in Ituri, with more than 5,000 people displaced, the UN said on Thursday.
A transit centre for Ebola patients burned down Tuesday in the same province after soldiers entered a site for displaced people who promptly fled, according to the UN.
A contractor responsible for detecting cases was also killed in an attack on a health facility in North Kivu province, Congolese authorities said Wednesday.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was due in Ituri capital Bunia on Friday to show Paris' support for local authorities and humanitarian workers.
There is no indication France is offering fresh humanitarian aid, but the country did allocate 13.4 million euros to the fight against Ebola between January and July.
The United States has meanwhile announced it is releasing a further $267 million to combat the spread of the disease.
Healthcare workers are notably at risk of contracting the virus in poor and remote regions where healthcare infrastructure is poor.
Several vaccines and treatments are currently being studied to combat the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, which is behind the current outbreak.
The first doses of the Ervebo vaccine -– which has been proven effective against the Zaire strain, the most common variant, in the past -– have been administered in recent weeks to volunteers among frontline staff as part of a clinical trial.
ct/kjm/cw/pdw

education

NY attorney general tasked with investigating alleged Cornell gang rape

  • New York Governor Kathy Hochul said late Thursday that the decision by the Tompkins County district attorney not to prosecute the suspects "undercut my faith, and the public's faith" in the office's ability to handle the case.
  • New York Attorney General Letitia James has been appointed special prosecutor to investigate an alleged gang rape at Cornell University, the state's governor announced, following an outcry over prosecutors' decision not to file charges two years ago.
  • New York Governor Kathy Hochul said late Thursday that the decision by the Tompkins County district attorney not to prosecute the suspects "undercut my faith, and the public's faith" in the office's ability to handle the case.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has been appointed special prosecutor to investigate an alleged gang rape at Cornell University, the state's governor announced, following an outcry over prosecutors' decision not to file charges two years ago.
The investigation was reopened on Monday after the alleged victim filed a civil lawsuit, fueling allegations that the elite college failed to properly hold the men accountable.
The alleged victim said in her lawsuit that in 2024 she was drugged with ketamine, assaulted and raped by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity, a social club for male students.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said late Thursday that the decision by the Tompkins County district attorney not to prosecute the suspects "undercut my faith, and the public's faith" in the office's ability to handle the case.
The governor tasked James to investigate and, "if warranted, prosecute any offenses arising from that investigation and present evidence to a grand jury."
"The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued," Hochul added in a post on X. 
James, a Democrat who has clashed repeatedly with US President Donald Trump, said on X that she was "ready to lead a process guided by the facts and the law."
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said this week that he planned to file criminal charges against the seven men.
He said his office declined to prosecute in 2024 because the victim's testimony did not establish a lack of consent.
Following the allegations, Cornell closed the fraternity and temporarily suspended the students alleged to be involved, several of whom were later expelled.
bur-lkd/hol/md/mlm

pandemic

Life expectancy almost back to pre-Covid levels, says WHO

  • The UN agency said healthy life expectancy had recovered from the pandemic more slowly, standing at 62.8 years in 2023 -- 0.4 years below the 2019 level.
  • Global life expectancy is close to the levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the outlook for years lived in good health is recovering more slowly, the WHO said Friday.
  • The UN agency said healthy life expectancy had recovered from the pandemic more slowly, standing at 62.8 years in 2023 -- 0.4 years below the 2019 level.
Global life expectancy is close to the levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the outlook for years lived in good health is recovering more slowly, the WHO said Friday.
Life expectancy reached 73.3 years in 2023 -- close to the 73.4 years recorded in 2019 before the pandemic struck, the World Health Organization said in its annual Global Health Estimates (GHE) report.
The coronavirus crisis plunged global life expectancy down to 71.5 years in 2021.
"Living longer is one of the great achievements of public health," said Alain Labrique, head of the WHO's data department.
"The next challenge is to ensure that those additional years are lived in good health, while health systems adapt to respond to the changing needs of populations."
The UN agency said healthy life expectancy had recovered from the pandemic more slowly, standing at 62.8 years in 2023 -- 0.4 years below the 2019 level.
Meanwhile dementia deaths have tripled and anxiety- and depression-related health loss has risen sharply since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Between 2000 and 2023, the WHO Americas region recorded the largest increases in risk of mortality and healthy life loss, while the Western Pacific saw substantial declines.
 

Biggest causes of death

 
Of the 61 million deaths worldwide in 2023, the 10 leading causes accounted for 33 million.
Noncommunicable diseases represented eight of the 10 leading causes; NCDs now account for 74 percent of global deaths, up from 58 percent in 2000, when the GHE study began.
The world's biggest killer is ischaemic heart disease, responsible for 16 percent of  deaths. It has seen the largest increase in deaths between 2000 and 2023, up from 3.0 million to 9.5 million.
Stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were the second and third leading causes of death in 2023, responsible for approximately 11 percent and six percent of total deaths respectively.
Lower respiratory infections, the world's most deadly communicable disease, came fourth.
Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia came fifth in 2023, killing 2.1 million people.
Covid-19 dropped out of the top 10 leading causes of death for the first time since the pandemic exploded.
It was directly responsible for an estimated 5.3 million deaths (third place) in 2020 and 9.4 million (first) in 2021.
It fell to 900,000 directly attributable deaths in 2023, making it the 14th leading cause of death.
Deaths from HIV and AIDS have fallen by 62 percent since 2020, moving from the world's seventh leading cause of death in 2000 to 22nd place in 2023.
ag-rjm/tw

vaccines

Viral anti-vax posts weaponise Philippine inoculation fears

BY ARA EUGENIO AND PURPLE ROMERO

  • The videos were part of a wave of misinformation that accompanied a child vaccination campaign this year that saw more than seven million Filipinos inoculated.
  • When Jenette Torres Odena's three-year-old son fell ill days after receiving a jab as part of a Philippine vaccination drive, his photograph quickly spread on Facebook alongside claims the inoculation had killed him.
  • The videos were part of a wave of misinformation that accompanied a child vaccination campaign this year that saw more than seven million Filipinos inoculated.
When Jenette Torres Odena's three-year-old son fell ill days after receiving a jab as part of a Philippine vaccination drive, his photograph quickly spread on Facebook alongside claims the inoculation had killed him.
Doctors found no link between the boy's condition and the measles-rubella vaccine, and he went on to fully recover, but by then his image had appeared in anti-vaccine videos viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
"I felt like crying," Odena told AFP.
"I kept praying for my son to recover and suddenly they were killing him on Facebook."
The videos were part of a wave of misinformation that accompanied a child vaccination campaign this year that saw more than seven million Filipinos inoculated. Some 230,000 declined the jab.
The Department of Health said concerns about side effects accounted for 66 percent of refusals and called misinformation spread by social media influencers a "major driver" of vaccine fear.
The Philippines has struggled to restore routine childhood immunisation rates after years of plummeting coverage, which contributed to a polio resurgence in 2019 and recurring measles outbreaks.
The claims circulated on social mediarecycled conspiracy theories that gained traction globally during the Covid-19 pandemic while tapping into lingering fears about vaccine safety after the botched rollout of a dengue vaccine in the Philippines a decade ago.
"Vaccine hesitancy should not simply be understood as a lack of scientific knowledge among the public," Daniel Fritz Silvallana, a health communication researcher at Deakin University, Australia, told AFP.
"In the Philippine context, it is also connected to questions of trust, politics, and people's previous experiences with vaccination and public health institutions," he said.

'Everyday slaughter'

Within days of the photo of Odena's son being shared online, Facebook content creator Maharani Sona Shiloh had incorporated it into a video, framing it as evidence the vaccination campaign was harming children.
To bolster her claims, Shiloh cited Trump's recent controversial move to reduce the number of vaccine doses administered to American children.
Thevideo viewed hundreds of thousands of times paired the child's image with a photograph of US President Donald Trump and the words "Everyday slaughter".
Facebook, which did not reply to AFP requests for comment, eventually took down the page.
Three affiliated pages remain active.
Shiloh rejected suggestions she was spreading harmful misinformation, describing herself as a human rights advocate.
"People call us crazy," she told AFP. "Why is it that human beings don't have the right to challenge these things?"
The 44-year-old said she became involved in anti-vaccine advocacy years before the pandemic, later connecting with church groups and "advocacy circles" that also campaign against SIM card registration and other policies they associate with a treacherous "New World Order".
Videos posted by Shiloh, some with millions of views, claimed vaccines contained harmful substances including "human placenta" and "formalin", while warning the World Health Organization was trying to depopulate the planet.
One mother, who asked to speak anonymously to protect her children, told AFP she decided to hold off on vaccinating them after watching the videos.
"I watched Ms Maharani's videos because I was looking for more information. They gave additional knowledge... so it helped me to think more carefully," she said.
A week after the Facebook page was shuttered, she said she remained undecided about vaccinating her children, explaining that she and her husband worried about possible side effects.

Rebuilding trust

While Shiloh's claims quickly collapse under scientific scrutiny, vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris of the University of Auckland said such videos rely on fear rather than compelling evidence.
"Recognised vaccine ingredients become mysterious contaminants. Rare adverse events become brain damage, epilepsy, organ failure and death," she told AFP.
For health workers on the frontlines, however, the videos are increasingly difficult to ignore.
"They get scared because the vlog said vaccines are fatal," said Wenna Mae Belen, a rural health worker in Sorsogon province.
Conversations with some parents have also become hostile, Belen added.
"They tell me if something bad happens, they’ll make me suck the vaccines out of their kids' bodies."
While the 25-year-old said Facebook bore "major responsibility" for the spread of vaccine misinformation, she cautioned that picking fights with content creators like Shiloh and their followers was a losing battle.
Rebuilding trust will take time and patience, she said, calling for open, non-judgmental conversations with parents.
"It isn't enough for us to just say: 'We're the experts, so trust us'."
jae-pr/cwl/lkd

health

Judge denies acquittal bid by US woman who killed her kids

  • Kevin Reddington, who is defending Clancy, had asked the judge to enter a not-guilty verdict, essentially dismissing the case after a weeks-long, televised trial that captivated Americans.
  • A judge on Thursday denied an acquittal request by an American mother accused of murdering her three children, a court filing showed, weeks after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the high-profile case.
  • Kevin Reddington, who is defending Clancy, had asked the judge to enter a not-guilty verdict, essentially dismissing the case after a weeks-long, televised trial that captivated Americans.
A judge on Thursday denied an acquittal request by an American mother accused of murdering her three children, a court filing showed, weeks after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the high-profile case.
During the trial, 36-year-old Lindsay Clancy did not deny strangling Cora, age five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months. But she claimed she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and sought to be excused from criminal responsibility.
Judge William Sullivan, of the Plymouth court near Boston, ruled there was sufficient evidence to convince a juror of Clancy's guilt.
The judge has yet to decide whether she will face a retrial.
In September a jury of nine women and three men was unable to reach a unanimous decision, as required in criminal proceedings in the United States, leading to a mistrial.
Kevin Reddington, who is defending Clancy, had asked the judge to enter a not-guilty verdict, essentially dismissing the case after a weeks-long, televised trial that captivated Americans.
"Where is the evidence she did this?" said Reddington previously. He also cast doubt on Clancy's own admissions that she killed her children, in what would be a major shift from her mental health defense.
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague disputed the claim of insufficient evidence as a "laughable argument."
Eleven jurors were in favor of finding Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity, but they were opposed by a single holdout who has spoken publicly about being sure of her guilt.
Deliberations lasted seven days.
The prosecution opposed the disclosures, saying they would have a "chilling effect" on the lone juror.
Clancy's trial, which featured more than 80 witnesses and days of distressing testimony, sparked debate in the United States over maternal mental health.
President Donald Trump has called the case a "horrible tragedy" and said he assumed there would be another trial.
Clancy, who is being held at a psychiatric institution, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and said she heard a voice ordering her to kill her children. 
Her lawyers said this was caused by postpartum psychosis, a condition that medical experts say affects about one to two women in every 1,000 births. 
Prosecutors rejected that argument, saying Clancy had carefully planned the murders and was able to understand the consequences of her actions. 
After the killings at the family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts in January 2023, Clancy cut her neck and wrists and jumped from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt that has left her paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.
gw/mlm

themepark

California roller coaster shut after brain damage claims

  • Attorneys at Dordick Law, who are acting for Greer-Wilkinson, said they had been contacted by more than 100 people who say they were injured by the roller coaster.
  • A popular California roller coaster is being permanently shut down after dozens of people claimed to have suffered brain damage while riding it.
  • Attorneys at Dordick Law, who are acting for Greer-Wilkinson, said they had been contacted by more than 100 people who say they were injured by the roller coaster.
A popular California roller coaster is being permanently shut down after dozens of people claimed to have suffered brain damage while riding it.
The X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain features precipitous drops and jarring twists that have thrilled millions of riders over two decades, with seats that swivel 360 degrees as cars travel at speeds of up to 80 miles (130 kilometers) an hour.
But it has also sparked a rash of legal complaints, including from two women whose families say they were seriously injured in July on the ride in Valencia, just north of Los Angeles.
Pamela Guillen, 40, suffered a severe subdural hematoma and brain compression after riding X2 on July 5, and underwent emergency surgery that required doctors to remove part of her skull, her family told CNN in an investigation last month.
Less than a week later, Naomi Greer-Wilkinson of Los Angeles, 25, lost consciousness after riding X2 and underwent emergency brain surgery, CNN reported. She remained in a coma for weeks and still can't speak or breathe on her own, according to her parents.
The ride has been closed since shortly after the second incident, but on Tuesday park managers said they were shuttering it for good.
"After almost 20 years, we have decided to permanently retire X2," park President Brian Oerding said.
"Since X2 opened in 2008, it has welcomed more than 16 million guests and earned a passionate following among ride enthusiasts," he said.
"While X2 consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided to close the ride because we believe it's the right thing to do. Ride safety is a cornerstone of our business, and when we see guest confidence affected, we take it seriously."
Attorneys at Dordick Law, who are acting for Greer-Wilkinson, said they had been contacted by more than 100 people who say they were injured by the roller coaster.
"The design of this ride makes it inherently dangerous, and makes it dangerous in a way that no reasonable rider would expect," attorney Christopher Bulone told reporters.
Theme park operator Six Flags, which has properties throughout North America, says it does not comment on pending litigation.
In August the company and ride manufacturer S&S Worldwide Inc. reached a settlement with the family of 22-year-old Christopher Hawley, who died after riding X2 in 2022.
A separate lawsuit is scheduled for next year in which Sheila Katerelos, 56, alleges she suffered a traumatic brain injury on the ride in 2020.
hg/mjf
 

pill

Polish activists open first abortion pill locker in Warsaw

BY KATARZYNA SKIBA

  • But no law penalises Polish women if they carry out their own abortion, for instance with pills ordered online. 
  • Polish activists have opened the country's first-ever abortion locker, allowing women to access pregnancy-terminating pills anonymously and immediately in the country with some of Europe's strictest abortion laws, an AFP photographer confirmed Wednesday. 
  • But no law penalises Polish women if they carry out their own abortion, for instance with pills ordered online. 
Polish activists have opened the country's first-ever abortion locker, allowing women to access pregnancy-terminating pills anonymously and immediately in the country with some of Europe's strictest abortion laws, an AFP photographer confirmed Wednesday. 
The small, colourfully painted locker, which activists call an "abortomat", consists of 22 compartments containing envelopes with medications allowing them to carry out medical abortions. 
"It's a feminist intervention meant to show just how upside‑down things are," Kinga Jelinska, director of the Women Help Women Foundation and co-founder of the Abortion Dream Team, told AFP. 
"We always think about how to make abortion care easier, more accessible, friendlier, more people‑centred," she added.
"It's simply logical and makes sense". 
The facility's location -- across the street from the Polish parliament, which has failed to follow through on its pledges to relax the country's stringent abortion laws -- is purposefully symbolic. 
It was here that activists decided to open an abortion centre just over a year ago. 
Rather than a typical medical clinic, it provides women with access to resources, including pills, and a space to be able to seek support or carry out the pharmacological abortion. 
Abortion in Poland is legal only in two circumstances: when the pregnancy resulted from a criminal act -- such as rape or incest -- or if it threatens the mother's life or health. 
A 2020 decision by the Constitutional Tribunal, ruled that severe foetal abnormalities were not legal grounds for abortion.
Prior to this ruling, 98 percent of legal abortions in Poland were performed for this reason.  
The new restrictions set off a torrent of protests throughout the country, which became the largest mass demonstrations in Poland since the 1989 anti-communist movement.  
In the first half of 2025, only 846 legal abortions took place in Poland, according to data from the National Health Fund (NFZ) and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

Legal 'hack'

Several pregnant women have died in Polish hospitals in recent years, in many cases after doctors refused to carry out abortions following complications, including sepsis.  
But no law penalises Polish women if they carry out their own abortion, for instance with pills ordered online. 
It is a legal loophole activists say allows them to keep the centre operational. 
"The 'abortomat' is, in a way, a 'hack' on the law," Jelinska says. 
Assisting abortion is still punishable by up to three years in jail. 
The abortion centre has been met by protests from some conservative-Catholic groups in the traditionally staunchly religious country.  
Poland's incumbent centrist ruling coalition promised to reverse the most restrictive elements of Poland's abortion laws prior to their election in 2023 -- but internal disagreements among its different factions have brought this to a halt.
Any attempts to ease abortion laws via parliament would also likely face a veto by conservative-nationalist President Karol Nawrocki, who was endorsed by the then ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party that brought about and upheld the 2020 court ruling.
ks/cw

politics

North Korean leader 'extremely obese': Seoul spy agency

  • Kim's "health condition is classified as extremely obese, weighing over 140 kilogrammes (about 310 pounds)," lawmaker Youn Kun-young said citing Seoul's spy agency.
  • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is understood to be "extremely obese", Seoul's spy agency said Wednesday, citing its latest assessment of the reclusive leader's health.
  • Kim's "health condition is classified as extremely obese, weighing over 140 kilogrammes (about 310 pounds)," lawmaker Youn Kun-young said citing Seoul's spy agency.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is understood to be "extremely obese", Seoul's spy agency said Wednesday, citing its latest assessment of the reclusive leader's health.
A heavy smoker who has long been obese, Kim's health is closely watched internationally as his sudden death could raise questions over succession and stability in the nuclear-armed state.
Kim's "health condition is classified as extremely obese, weighing over 140 kilogrammes (about 310 pounds)," lawmaker Youn Kun-young said citing Seoul's spy agency.
While he is at "high risk of cardiovascular disease", Kim has shown no difficulty with physical activity, including running up stairs, Youn added.
"It is assessed that there are no signs of health issues, given the close monitoring by (his) dedicated medical team."
Speculation over Kim's health flared in 2020 when he missed a commemoration of his late grandfather's birthday and disappeared from public view for about 20 days, fuelling rumours that he was seriously ill after surgery.
Kim's father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung were also obese and heavy smokers. Both died of heart attacks.
The nuclear-armed country is under multiple sets of sanctions over its weapons programmes and has long struggled with a moribund state-managed economy and chronic food shortages.
Elizabeth Salmon, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said in February that food shortages are a key humanitarian concern in the country.
But Paul Smart, executive chef at Hanoi's Metropole hotel, who worked with Kim's personal chefs during the 2019 North Korea-US summit, said at the time that the North Korean leader had a taste for rare meat and luxury foods.
According to his chefs -- both of them called Kim -- the North Korean leader has expensive tastes, Smart said in 2019. 
"He likes caviar, lobster, really luxurious product. Foie gras, he really likes to indulge in cuisine."
cdl/jm

pollution

One third of world population exposed to harmful air pollution: monitor

  • Ozone levels were very high in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo and extremely elevated in Rio de Janeiro but the air quality was "good" or "fair" for 81 percent of South America's population.
  • Heatwaves and wildfires combined with human-caused emissions this year combined to expose one third of the world's population to extremely high levels of ozone pollution, a European Union report said on Wednesday.
  • Ozone levels were very high in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo and extremely elevated in Rio de Janeiro but the air quality was "good" or "fair" for 81 percent of South America's population.
Heatwaves and wildfires combined with human-caused emissions this year combined to expose one third of the world's population to extremely high levels of ozone pollution, a European Union report said on Wednesday.
In a new analysis covering the first eight months of 2026, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) highlighted the close relationship between climate change and air pollution.
When heat and sunlight react with airborne emissions from wildfires, vehicles and industry, they create ground-level ozone pollution, which can damage lung tissue, cause breathing problems, trigger asthma attacks and lead to other health issues.
Despite progress in cutting the most harmful air pollutants in recent decades, ozone has proved more difficult to tackle as climate change fuels the conditions that favour its formation.
This year's ozone pollution was driven in part by record-breaking heatwaves and wildfires that seared Europe and North America and sent smoke well beyond their borders.
Indonesia has experienced major wildfires, while the warming El Nino weather pattern, which started in June and is due to peak later this year, could drive more fires in southeast Asia, according to the analysis.
"Air pollution does not stop at borders. It can travel thousands of kilometres, crossing continents and oceans and affecting air quality far from its source," CAMS director Laurence Rouil said in the Atmosphere Watch report.

'Extremely poor' air

CAMS uses satellite data and computer models to track air pollution and wildfires.
The report found that 34 percent of the global population was exposed to "extremely poor" air quality between January 1 and September 15, meaning concentrations of ozone were well above the World Health Organization's exposure guidance.
The WHO's guideline sets 100 micrograms of ozone per cubic metre as the maximum recommended level of exposure, averaged over eight hours.
Another 17 percent of the world breathed "very poor" air, while five percent was exposed to "good" levels of ozone.
Asia has the highest rate of exposure to ozone pollution, with 53 percent of its population breathing "extremely poor" air. Another 22 percent was exposed to "very poor" ozone.
The continent's widespread emissions are driven by industrialisation, economic development and transport, as well as wildfires and the burning of agricultural residue.  
New Delhi, Dhaka, Chinese megalopolis Chongqing and Pakistan's Lahore were among cities whose ozone levels were "extremely poor".
Two thirds of the population in North America and 45 percent in Europe were exposed to "poor" or "very poor" air quality.
EU regulation has been effective in reducing emissions from air pollutants, except for ozone, the report said.
Ozone pollution is linked to 60,000 premature deaths per year in Europe, Ian Marnane, an official at the European Environment Agency, told a media briefing.
Ozone levels in North America also remained "relatively unchanged" despite ambitious emissions reduction policies, the report said.
Smoke from forest fires, crop burning and cooking are significant contributors to Africa's air pollution while Saharan dust travels as far as Europe.
Eight percent of Africa's population endured "extremely poor" air quality this year. It was "very poor" or "poor" for 19 percent of the continent.
Ozone levels were very high in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo and extremely elevated in Rio de Janeiro but the air quality was "good" or "fair" for 81 percent of South America's population.
One bright spot was Oceania, including Australia and New Zealand, where 66 percent of the population enjoyed "good" ozone levels and 34 percent lived under "fair" conditions.
lt/np/gil

US

Yemen health system at 'breaking point': WHO

  • "Yemen's latest escalation is pushing an already fragile health system towards breaking point," warned Annette Heinzelmann, WHO's emergency director for the eastern Mediterranean region.
  • The escalating fighting in Yemen is pushing the country's health system to "breaking point", the World Health Organization said Tuesday, warning that diseases like cholera were already circulating widely.
  • "Yemen's latest escalation is pushing an already fragile health system towards breaking point," warned Annette Heinzelmann, WHO's emergency director for the eastern Mediterranean region.
The escalating fighting in Yemen is pushing the country's health system to "breaking point", the World Health Organization said Tuesday, warning that diseases like cholera were already circulating widely.
A renewed ground campaign waged by the Iran-backed Houthis against Yemen's Saudi-backed government forces has left hundreds dead and is deepening the country's humanitarian crisis, with at least 145,000 people displaced this month alone, United Nations figures show.  
And the country's health system -- already weakened by over a decade of civil war -- is on the brink.
"Yemen's latest escalation is pushing an already fragile health system towards breaking point," warned Annette Heinzelmann, WHO's emergency director for the eastern Mediterranean region.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Cairo, she highlighted how insecurity, damaged infrastructure, displacement of health workers, shortages of medicines and medical supplies and limited access to swathes of Yemen's west coast were preventing many from receiving the services they need.
"Nine health facilities or assets have now been damaged, put out of service, closed or directly attacked" in the hard-hit areas of Taiz, Lahj and Hodeidah, Heinzelmann said.
At the same time, "comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care has been suspended in two hospitals in Marib and Ras Al-Arah because staff and operating capacity have been redirected to trauma care for the incoming wounded," she pointed out.
Even before the latest escalation, only around 60 percent of Yemen's health facilities were fully functional, Heinzelmann added.
And the country had been facing high malnutrition and outbreaks of diseases like cholera "already circulating on a large scale", she said.
Since the start of this year, Yemen has tallied nearly 8,000 suspected cholera cases, including 22 deaths, and more than 9,600 dengue cases, including 37 people who had died, according to the WHO.
And "measles is particularly concerning, with more than 22,000 suspected cases and 128 deaths reported this year", Heinzelmann said.
Now, amidst severe overcrowding in some areas, unsanitary conditions and limited healthcare access, the WHO is bracing for more and bigger disease outbreaks.
"When we see population movements, people living in really... an overcrowded setting with limited access to water and safe sanitation, these are factors which can support a wider spread of cholera," Heinzelmann said.
The UN health agency said it had delivered nearly 60 tonnes of medical supplies to 40 facilities across 10 Yemen governorates. 
"But several lifesaving supply lines in WHO's Aden warehouse are already at zero stock, including trauma kits and essential medicines," Heinzelmann said, appealing for more funding.
WHO had so far secured only $2 million of the $9 million it needed for its response, she said.
nl/rjm/pdw

fire

The wildfires choking Indonesia, sparking regional haze

BY MARCHIO GORBIANO

  • In the first eight months of this year, over 212,000 hotspots have been detected inside peat ecosystems across the country, according to NGO Pantau Gambut. 
  • For weeks, Indonesia has been battling fires that have burned vast swathes of forest and peat ecosystems, causing toxic haze to blanket parts of the country, Malaysia and Singapore. 
  • In the first eight months of this year, over 212,000 hotspots have been detected inside peat ecosystems across the country, according to NGO Pantau Gambut. 
For weeks, Indonesia has been battling fires that have burned vast swathes of forest and peat ecosystems, causing toxic haze to blanket parts of the country, Malaysia and Singapore. 
The fires have harmed humans and animals alike, and prompted criminal charges, license suspensions and a presidentially mandated new agency to tackle fires in peat ecosystems. 
Here's what to know:

What is the latest situation?

Between January and July alone, more than 202,000 hectares (780 square miles) were razed by fire, according to government figures. That is an area roughly three times the size of the capital Jakarta, and represents a 69-percent increase in burned areas in the same period last year.
But the figures have not been updated since, and the burning has only worsened. 
The Nusantara Atlas project, which uses satellite monitoring, estimates nearly 896,000 hectares -- over five times the size of Greater London -- had burned by the end of August. 
South Papua province on the country's easternmost island was the most-affected region, with over 168,000 hectares burned as of August, according to Nusantara Atlas. 
NGO Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat said fires have been detected inside a large-scale government food estate project in South Papua, local media reported. 

What is causing the fires?

The El Nino weather phenomenon typically brings dry conditions to Indonesia, and this cycle is predicted to be among the strongest in decades and last until early 2027. 
But experts said human factors are also key, including slash-and-burn land-clearing and decades of forest degradation that have changed the naturally fire-resistant landscape. 
"El Nino isn't actually the cause, but it's a trigger. There still needs to be an ignitor," IPB University forestry lecturer Ati Dwi Nurhayati told AFP. 
"We know that in peatlands, almost 100 percent (of the fires) was caused by human activity."
Peat ecosystems are dense layers of partially decomposed organic materials that are normally waterlogged. But in much of Indonesia they have been dried out so the land can be planted. This created highly flammable regions.
Once peat catches fire, it can smoulder and reignite for days, making firefighting efforts complex. 
In the first eight months of this year, over 212,000 hotspots have been detected inside peat ecosystems across the country, according to NGO Pantau Gambut. 
The figure was more than double that recorded during 2015's strong El Nino.
- What is the government's response? - 
Indonesia has deployed firefighters assisted by volunteers across affected areas, and used cloud-seeding and water-bombing, with limited success. Malaysia and Japan have also offered assistance.
Authorities revoked the permits of five companies accused of contributed to the fires, with dozens more frozen.
President Prabowo Subianto last week ordered the creation of a new government agency to manage tropical peat and mangrove ecosystems and carry out fire prevention.
Indonesia set up a similar agency after the 2015 fires, initially tasked with peat and expanded to mangroves in 2020. But its mandate was not renewed when it expired in 2024.
In 2015, fires burned more than two million hectares in Indonesia, costing an estimated $16.1 billion in damages, according to the World Bank.
But the agency's establishment has been met with some scepticism.
"The important thing is to ensure that this agency's mandate can answer the issue of peat management, not just introduce a new structure," Pantau Gambut senior campaigner Putra Saptian said in a statement.
- What are the impacts? -  
Indonesia's health ministry said last week that cases of respiratory illness have climbed past 170,000 in haze-hit provinces across Sumatra and Borneo. 
The blazes have also had a devastating impact on wildlife. 
Indonesian authorities have rescued 100 animals, including 53 orangutans, that were threatened by the blazes, a forestry ministry official said last week. 
In Borneo, fires have been detected within habitats containing 52 percent of the island's orangutan population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said.
The haze has spread beyond Indonesia's border, drifting particularly into Malaysian Borneo's Sarawak state where schools have periodically closed because of the smog.
It has also reached Singapore and even caused declining air quality in the Philippines and southern Thailand.
mrc/sah/hol