pollution

Tradition stokes pollution at Myanmar 'slash and burn' festival

  • Dark tendrils of smoke creep into the sky.
  • A charred Myanmar hillside is wreathed by flames, spewing ochre smoke that smothers out sunlight in an apocalyptic scene.
  • Dark tendrils of smoke creep into the sky.
A charred Myanmar hillside is wreathed by flames, spewing ochre smoke that smothers out sunlight in an apocalyptic scene.
But the villagers who set it ablaze dance below in a ceremony celebrating the inferno as a moment of regeneration and hope.
"It's a tradition from our ancestors," said Joseph, a youth leader from Tha Yu village in Myanmar's eastern Shan state.
"It's the only way we survive," added Joseph, who goes by only one name.
Every year between January and April, Southeast Asia is plagued by smog from farmers lighting fires to clear land, emitting microscopic PM 2.5 pollution that lines the lungs and enters the bloodstream.
Myanmar residents lose 2.3 years of life expectancy as a result of pollution from farming fires and other sources, according to analysis of 2022 data by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.
Since a 2021 coup, the country has been riven by a civil war between the military and a patchwork of anti-coup partisans and ethnic minority armed groups, leaving the toll from pollution largely ignored.
But in Tha Yu village there are additional tensions -- between the old ways of agriculture and new knowledge about environmental risks.
"We don't have any other work or opportunities in our region," said Joseph, 27, as haze swallowed the hills behind him, scorched to make way for paddy rice, chilli and corn.
"So we are forced into this tradition every year."
- 'Not getting rich' - 
Most agricultural burn-off happens when farmers incinerate the stubble of old harvests in their fields to make room for the new, and to fertilise the soil.
But the smoke billowing around Tha Yu village is from "slash and burn" agriculture -- a method also called shifting cultivation, in which patches of wild vegetation are burnt for similar purposes, with crops planted for only a few growing cycles.
"If possible, we want to try other agricultural methods but we don't have any technology and no one has taught us," said Joseph.
Environmentalists generally say slash and burn farming can be twice as harmful because it lays waste to tracts of existing plant life which would otherwise absorb carbon dioxide emissions.
But a 2023 study in Belize suggested Indigenous "slash and burn" farming done in intermediate size patches of land could have a positive effect on forest diversity by opening up space for new growth.
In the Tha Yu ceremony, villagers in white headbands dance on stage before lighting a symbolic bundle of brush, swaying and clapping their hands in rhythmic celebration.
Dark tendrils of smoke creep into the sky.
"I can surely say we are not getting rich from shifting cultivation," said Khun Be Sai, a member of the local area's cultural committee.
"We do it just to get by day to day."
- Shifting mindset - 
Air quality monitoring is neither practical nor a priority in war-torn Myanmar, where more than half the population lives in poverty and 3.5 million people are displaced.
But the toll from air pollution only adds to those woes.
"Clean air is very important for your health," said Thailand's Kasetsart University environmental economist Witsanu Attavanich. "It's kind of a basic thing."
"If you don't have it you have less healthy people, a lower quality of human capital. How can the country improve without good health?"
Tha Yu is in an area controlled by the Kayan New Land Party, an ethnic minority armed group. 
Khun Be Sai says hundreds of villages in the region still practise slash and burn farming, but Tha Yu is the only place that marks it with a formal ceremony.
But he sees little to celebrate in the landscape altered by climate change around the village.
"We are experiencing more natural disasters. The forests are thinning and water retention is decreasing. We are experiencing soil erosion due to heavy rains," he said.
While the ceremony lauds the practice that sustains their community, Khun Be Sai also sees a dwindling of their way of life.
"People are leaving and living in different places," he said. 
"Our identities, our origins, language and literature are disappearing and being swallowed by others."
bur-jts/fox/slb/sco

health

Sudan war destroys world's only research centre on skin disease mycetoma: director

  • "The centre and all its infrastructure were destroyed during the war in Sudan," Ahmed Fahal, director of the Mycetoma Research Centre (MRC), told AFP. "We lost the entire contents of our biological banks, where there was data from more than 40 years," said Fahal, whose centre had treated thousands of patients from Sudan and other countries.
  • The world's only research centre on mycetoma, a neglected tropical disease common among farmers, has been destroyed in Sudan's two-year war, its director and another expert say.
  • "The centre and all its infrastructure were destroyed during the war in Sudan," Ahmed Fahal, director of the Mycetoma Research Centre (MRC), told AFP. "We lost the entire contents of our biological banks, where there was data from more than 40 years," said Fahal, whose centre had treated thousands of patients from Sudan and other countries.
The world's only research centre on mycetoma, a neglected tropical disease common among farmers, has been destroyed in Sudan's two-year war, its director and another expert say.
Mycetoma is caused by bacteria or fungus and usually enters the body through cuts. It is a progressively destructive infectious disease of the body tissue, affecting skin, muscle and even bone.
It is often characterised by swollen feet, but can also cause barnacle-like growths and club-like hands.
"The centre and all its infrastructure were destroyed during the war in Sudan," Ahmed Fahal, director of the Mycetoma Research Centre (MRC), told AFP.
"We lost the entire contents of our biological banks, where there was data from more than 40 years," said Fahal, whose centre had treated thousands of patients from Sudan and other countries.
"It's difficult to bear." 
Since April 15, 2023, Sudan's army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces throughout the northeast African country.
The MRC is located in the Khartoum area, which the army last month reclaimed from the RSF during a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.
Sudan's health care system has been left at the "breaking point", according to the World Health Organization.
Among the conflict's casualties is now the MRC, established in 1991 under the auspices of the University of Khartoum. It was a rare story of medical success in impoverished Sudan.
A video provided by the global Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) shows collapsed ceilings, shelves overturned, fridges open and documents scattered about.
AFP was not able to independently verify the MRC's current condition.
The centre had grown to include 50 researchers and treat 12,000 patients each year, Fahal said.
Mycetoma is listed as a neglected tropical disease by the WHO.
The organisms that cause mycetoma also occur in Sudan's neighbours, including Chad and Ethiopia, as well as in other tropical and sub-tropical areas, among them Mexico and Thailand, WHO says.
For herders, farmers and other workers depending on manual labour to survive, crippling mycetoma infections can be a life sentence.
Drawing on the MRC's expertise, in 2019 the WHO and Sudan's government convened the First International Training Workshop on Mycetoma, in Khartoum.
"Today, Sudan, which was at the forefront of awareness of mycetomas, has gone 100 percent backwards," said Dr. Borna Nyaoke-Anoke, DNDi's head of mycetoma. 
nda/it/smw

music

Santana postpones tour dates over Covid-19 illness

  • "Mr. Santana has tested positive for Covid and is resting at his hotel," Vrionis said in a message posted to Santana's official Facebook.
  • Celebrated rocker Carlos Santana was forced to postpone several tour dates after testing positive for Covid-19, his manager said Wednesday.
  • "Mr. Santana has tested positive for Covid and is resting at his hotel," Vrionis said in a message posted to Santana's official Facebook.
Celebrated rocker Carlos Santana was forced to postpone several tour dates after testing positive for Covid-19, his manager said Wednesday.
The 77-year-old guitar icon "experienced dehydration" before canceling Tuesday's show in San Antonio, and "out of an abundance of caution" is doing the same for Wednesday's performance in Sugar Land, Texas, his manager Michael Vrionis said.
"Mr. Santana has tested positive for Covid and is resting at his hotel," Vrionis said in a message posted to Santana's official Facebook.
"I am happy to report that Carlos is doing well and will be back on his US Tour this Friday in Thackerville," in the state of Oklahoma, the statement continued. 
"We appreciate everyone's well wishes and concern. Carlos is looking forward to seeing you all very soon." 
The postponed shows will be rescheduled as soon as possible, according to the post.
Superstar Santana is one of the world's most vaunted guitarists, who soared to fame after his legendary 1969 performance at Woodstock, and put out smashes including "Oye Como Va," "Black Magic Woman" and "Evil Ways."
He experienced a career renaissance in the late 1990s and early 2000s with his Grammy-winning, chart-topping "Supernatural" album.
mdo/mlm

aid

Patients with leprosy face lasting stigma in Ethiopia

BY DYLAN GAMBA

  • In Ethiopia, a highly religious country, leprosy is often perceived as a divine punishment.
  • Tilahun Wale not only lost his right foot to leprosy -- a disease that still affects thousands in Ethiopia -- he also lost his family.
  • In Ethiopia, a highly religious country, leprosy is often perceived as a divine punishment.
Tilahun Wale not only lost his right foot to leprosy -- a disease that still affects thousands in Ethiopia -- he also lost his family.
"My family abandoned me. They blocked my number and refused to speak to me," said Tilahun, 46, a farmer in Ethiopia's populous Oromia region, who contracted leprosy around 10 years ago.
Ethiopia, a country of some 130 million people in northeastern Africa, officially eliminated leprosy as a public health problem in 1999, after case numbers dropped below one in 10,000.
But some 2,500 infections are still recorded there each year, according to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), which lists leprosy as one of the 20 "neglected" tropical diseases.
In Ethiopia, a highly religious country, leprosy is often perceived as a divine punishment.
Caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae, the contagious infection attacks the skin and peripheral nerves, with potentially serious after-effects, including physical deformities.
The disease was declared eliminated as a health problem globally in 2000, according to the WHO.
But leprosy is still present in more than 120 countries worldwide, with nearly 200,000 cases reported each year, despite being curable and with treatments that can prevent disability if applied early.
Haile Kairos developed the disease as a child.
"I noticed the appearance of lumps on certain parts of my body," said the 35-year-old, hiding the effects of leprosy on his legs with a blanket.
There is still a stigma, he said, recalling the disgust and avoidance he has faced.
Ethiopian society "doesn't have enough information about the disease", he said.
The Alert Hospital in the capital Addis Ababa specialises in leprosy and treats dozens of patients at a time.
It was originally founded as a leper colony in 1934 away from residential areas, but the city has expanded to surround it.

'Stigma has diminished'

Perceptions of the disease are only slowly evolving, said Solomon Getahun, project manager at International Leprosy Mission, an NGO that provides medical assistance to patients and raises awareness.
It organises discussions in communities across Ethiopia, bringing together people with the disease to explain the challenges they face.
The NGO also offers microcredit to patients, most of whom struggle to find employment.
Atale Mekuriyaw, 70, works at a centre where a dozen people with the disease, mostly women, make rugs, traditional clothing and jewellery.
The modest salary "helps us provide for our families", she said.
For every kilo of raw cotton she weaves, she earns between 100 and 150 birr (around 75 cents to $1.15).
"Coming here and spending time like this is important to us. It's better than staying at home," added Atale, who has suffered from leprosy since childhood and says she feels less discriminated against today.
"In the past, people used to say: 'Don't go near her!' But today, thanks to access to medication, the stigma has diminished," she said.
The WHO has praised Ethiopia's progress in treatment and care.
But the recent drastic cuts in aid announced by the United States and other Western countries could undermine the efforts.
The WHO said last month it was cutting its budget by a fifth after the United States -- previously its biggest source of funds -- said it would no longer contribute.
That is a potential problem for Alert Hospital, where preventative medicines have been supplied by the WHO.
Shimelis Gezahegn, the hospital's director, said the Ethiopian authorities had promised "a backup plan".
He added that it was vital they step in to continue work on treatment and eventual eradication of the disease.
But "there could be some problems," he said.
dyg/jf/er/rlp/jhb

food

Trump's administration moves to scrap artificial food dyes

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • Under the new plan, the FDA would revoke authorization for two of the eight dyes, while relying on the food industry to voluntarily eliminate the other six, but Kennedy said they have been receptive in talks.
  • President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday announced plans to remove synthetic dyes from the US food supply, marking a rare point of bipartisan convergence in an otherwise sharply divided political climate.
  • Under the new plan, the FDA would revoke authorization for two of the eight dyes, while relying on the food industry to voluntarily eliminate the other six, but Kennedy said they have been receptive in talks.
President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday announced plans to remove synthetic dyes from the US food supply, marking a rare point of bipartisan convergence in an otherwise sharply divided political climate.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. has vowed to overhaul America's food system under the banner of his "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) agenda, and the push would phase out the eight approved artificial food dyes by the end of 2026.
It builds upon a prohibition on Red Dye 3 by the government of former president Joe Biden but accelerates the timeline and also calls on the National Institutes of Health to carry out comprehensive research on how additives impact children's development.
"For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals," Food and Drug Administration commissioner Marty Makary said at a news conference, surrounded by young families and MAHA supporters. 
He cited studies linking synthetic dyes to conditions including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), diabetes, cancer, genomic disruption, gastrointestinal issues and more.
Kennedy, for his part, called the issue of dyes and additives more generally an "existential" threat. 
"When my uncle was president in the 1960s, we had the healthiest people in the world -- and one of the basic assumptions of our country was that because we were robust people... that was responsible for our country being the land of the brave and the home of the free," he said.
Of the eight synthetic dyes derived from petroleum, Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Red 40 make up the lion's share of those in use, Peter Lurie, president and executive director of the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, told AFP.
They are found in a range of products, from beverages and candies to cereals, sauces and dairy products. 
Under the new plan, the FDA would revoke authorization for two of the eight dyes, while relying on the food industry to voluntarily eliminate the other six, but Kennedy said they have been receptive in talks.
"None of them convey anything of any nutritional significance, and what they're really there for is to mislead -- to make food appear somehow redder, somehow bluer, somehow fruitier or more attractive than it is," said Lurie.
"And the purpose of all that is to drive up sales, it's not anything that benefits the American public."

Bipartisan momentum

Momentum has been building at the state level. In March, Republican-leaning West Virginia enacted a broad ban on synthetic dyes, following California's 2024 decision to restrict them in public schools.
While Red Dye 3 was previously targeted for phaseout in foods and drugs by 2027 and 2028 respectively due to cancer concerns, the remaining dyes have been linked to behavioral issues such as attention deficit disorder in children.
In Europe, these dyes are not banned outright -- but the requirement to carry warning labels has led many companies to switch to natural alternatives.
Kennedy's stance puts him in rare alignment with mainstream scientific consensus -- a shift from his controversial record of promoting vaccine misinformation, downplaying the country's worst measles outbreak in years, and suggesting bird flu should be allowed to spread naturally among poultry.
Still, opposition from the food industry may yet surface. Manufacturers have long resisted tighter regulations, though Kennedy insisted they are ready to adapt.
"They want clear guidelines, they want to know what they can and can't do, and we're going to give them that," he said.
Lurie remained skeptical.
"All I know is that industry wasn't up there on the podium," he said. "If they were so clearly on board, you have to ask yourself why they weren't there."
ia/wd

autism

US official backs off promise to solve cause of autism by September

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, has long promoted a debunked theory linking childhood vaccines to autism, and recently appointed an anti-vaccine activist who holds the same views to be a data analyst -- a move critics say guarantees bias.
  • A top US science official on Tuesday backed away from a bold promise made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reveal the cause of autism by September.
  • Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, has long promoted a debunked theory linking childhood vaccines to autism, and recently appointed an anti-vaccine activist who holds the same views to be a data analyst -- a move critics say guarantees bias.
A top US science official on Tuesday backed away from a bold promise made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reveal the cause of autism by September.
Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, told reporters the timeline referred not to a discovery, but to the launch of a new research initiative -- with no firm deadline for results.
"We're hoping that by September, we'll have the call for proposals out, and we'll have a competition among scientists across the country using a normal NIH process for selecting the proposals that win and get an award," he said. 
Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, has long promoted a debunked theory linking childhood vaccines to autism, and recently appointed an anti-vaccine activist who holds the same views to be a data analyst -- a move critics say guarantees bias.
Bhattacharya, however, said the study itself would conform to rigorous standards and would be evaluated through the normal NIH peer review process.
He said the timeline for results was "hard to predict" but that his team was "cutting red tape" to remove any bureaucratic obstacles. 
"I would like to have a timeline within a year, where they start to put out the preliminary results or the results -- we'll see," Bhattacharya said. 
Bhattacharya also confirmed a report by CBS News that the NIH was gathering private medical records from a number of federal and commercial databases to give the study statistical power, but insisted all the data would be anonymized. 
During his own Senate confirmation hearings, Bhattacharya, a physician-scientist and health economist known for opposing lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, stated he does not "generally believe" there's a link between vaccines and autism.
The estimated prevalence of autism in children aged eight rose to one in 31 in 2022, according to a study published last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared to one child in 150 in 2000 -- a trend the authors attributed to improved diagnosis methods.
Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that affects behavior, communication, learning, and social interaction. There is no single known cause, but a combination of genetic and environmental factors is likely involved, according to the World Health Organization.
Over the past two decades, milder forms and related conditions have increasingly been grouped under the broader category of autism spectrum disorder, or ASD.
ia/aha

budget

WHO announces 'significant' layoffs amid US funding cuts

BY NINA LARSON

  • He did not say how many jobs would be lost at the WHO, which employ more than 8,000 people around the world.
  • The World Health Organization chief said Tuesday that operations and jobs would be slashed as US funding cuts had left the UN agency with a budget hole of several hundred million dollars.
  • He did not say how many jobs would be lost at the WHO, which employ more than 8,000 people around the world.
The World Health Organization chief said Tuesday that operations and jobs would be slashed as US funding cuts had left the UN agency with a budget hole of several hundred million dollars.
"The sudden drop in income has left us with a large salary gap and no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told member states, according to a transcript of his remarks.
The United Nations health agency has been bracing for President Donald Trump's planned full withdrawal of the United States -- by far its largest donor -- next January.
The United States gave WHO $1.3 billion for its 2022-2023 budget, mainly through voluntary contributions for specific projects rather than fixed membership fees.
But Washington never paid its 2024 dues, and is not expected to pay its 2025 dues.
This has left the WHO preparing a new structure, which Tedros presented to staff and member states on Tuesday.
"The refusal of the US to pay its assessed contributions for 2024 and 2025, combined with reductions in official development assistance by some other countries, means we are facing a salary gap for the 2026–27 biennium of between $560 and $650 million," he said.
The lower end of that spectrum "represents about 25 percent of staff costs" currently, he said, stressing though that "that doesn't necessarily mean a 25-percent cut to the number of positions".
He did not say how many jobs would be lost at the WHO, which employ more than 8,000 people around the world.

'Very painful'

But he acknowledged that "we will be saying goodbye to a significant number of colleagues" and vowed to do so "humanely".
Tedros insisted that the most significant impact would likely be felt at the organisation's headquarters in Geneva. "We are starting with reductions in senior management," he said.
"We are reducing the senior leadership team at headquarters from 12 to seven, and the number of departments will be reduced by (more than) half, from 76 to 34," Tedros said.
WHO's regional offices would meanwhile be affected "to varying degrees", he said, adding that some country offices in wealthier countries would likely be closed.
"These are very painful decisions for all of us," Tedros said.
The WHO chief insisted the situation could have been worse.
WHO member states agreed in 2022 to significantly increase membership fees and reduce the portion of WHO's budget covered by less reliable and often earmarked voluntary contributions.
"Without the increase, assessed contributions for the current biennium would have been $746 million," he said, adding that instead, WHO expects to receive $1.07 billion in membership fees for 2026-27, "even without the US contribution".
Nonetheless, WHO needed to reduce its activities and recentre on its core functions, he said, even as he acknowledged that "many countries need our support now more than ever".
The US administration's decision to virtually dismantle the US foreign aid arm, USAID, and freeze nearly all assistance, including to health projects worldwide, had made "very severe" impacts in developing countries especially, Tedros said.
But WHO, he said, would now need to focus on helping countries "transition away from aid dependency to greater self-reliance", he said.
nl/tw

Roche

Roche says will invest $50 bn in US, as tariff war uncertainty swells

  • Its Swiss competitor Novartis also announced earlier this month that it plans to invest $23 billion in the United States over five years.
  • Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche on Tuesday announced plans to invest $50 billion in the United States over the next five years, following in the footsteps of rival Novartis, with US President Donald Trump's tariff war fuelling uncertainty in the sector.
  • Its Swiss competitor Novartis also announced earlier this month that it plans to invest $23 billion in the United States over five years.
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche on Tuesday announced plans to invest $50 billion in the United States over the next five years, following in the footsteps of rival Novartis, with US President Donald Trump's tariff war fuelling uncertainty in the sector.
The United States is a key market for the pharmaceutical industry, representing more than half of the revenue of Roche's pharmaceutical division.
Its Swiss competitor Novartis also announced earlier this month that it plans to invest $23 billion in the United States over five years.
Trump's administration is blowing hot and cold on pharmaceutical products, which initially benefited from exemptions in the round of tariffs announced on April 2.
But last week, the US commerce secretary formally announced "national security" investigations into pharmaceutical imports, plus others on semiconductors and chip-making equipment.
"Whether these newly announced US investments had already been planned prior to the new government having taken the helm is irrelevant," said Stefan Schneider, an analyst at Swiss investment managers Vontobel.
"But they should help to not trigger additional tariffs for the Swiss pharma industry," which he said could "severely jeopardise" its global supply chains for drugs manufacturing and distribution, thereby "putting patients' lives at risk".

Strong presence in the United States

Roche already has more than 25,000 employees in 24 sites across eight US states.
In a statement, Roche said the $50 billion investment was expected to create more than 12,000 new jobs, including nearly 6,500 construction jobs.
It is planning to expand and upgrade US manufacturing and distribution capabilities for its innovative medicines and diagnostics portfolio at sites in Kentucky, Indiana, New Jersey, Oregon and California.
The investment also includes a new research and development centre in Massachusetts, conducting artificial intelligence research.
Once all its new and expanded manufacturing capacity is up and running, Roche "will export more medicines from the US than it imports", it said.
The Basel-based biotech giant said its diagnostics division already generates an export surplus with products manufactured in the United States and shipped to other countries.
"Today’s announced investments underscore our long-standing commitment to research, development and manufacturing in the US," said Roche Group chief executive Thomas Schinecker.
"Our investments of $50 billion over the next five years will lay the foundation for our next era of innovation and growth, benefiting patients in the US and around the world."
Roche sahres dipped 0.6 percent in late morning trading in a Swiss market down 0.8 percent overall.
noo/rjm/rl

women

Turkey bans elective C-sections at private medical centres

  • "Planned Caesarean sections cannot be performed in a medical centre," said an April 19 gazette entry outlining new regulations governing private healthcare institutions, which hit the headlines on Sunday.
  • Turkey has imposed a ban on elective Caesarian-section births at private healthcare facilities without a medical justification under new health ministry regulations published this weekend in the government's official gazette. 
  • "Planned Caesarean sections cannot be performed in a medical centre," said an April 19 gazette entry outlining new regulations governing private healthcare institutions, which hit the headlines on Sunday.
Turkey has imposed a ban on elective Caesarian-section births at private healthcare facilities without a medical justification under new health ministry regulations published this weekend in the government's official gazette. 
The move, which has sparked a furious response from opposition politicians and rights groups, came after a heated debate in Turkey over how women should give birth.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been pushing hard for women to have so-called natural births. 
"Planned Caesarean sections cannot be performed in a medical centre," said an April 19 gazette entry outlining new regulations governing private healthcare institutions, which hit the headlines on Sunday.
Turkey has the highest rate of C-section births among the OECD's 38 nations, according to the last available data from 2021. Figures from the World Population Review show there were 584 such procedures out of every 1,000 live births that year. 
The childbirth debate flared up last weekend at the start of a Super Lig football clash between Fenerbahce and Sivassapor. Sivassapor players walked onto the pitch carrying a huge banner reflecting a health ministry initiative to promote vaginal births, reading: "Natural birth is natural".
The move sparked fury from politicians, doctors and women's rights organisations.

'Hands off'

"As if the country had no other problems, male football players are telling women how to give birth," wrote Gokce Gokcen, deputy chair of the main opposition CHP on X.
"Don't interfere in women's affairs with your ignorance.. Keep your hands off women's bodies," she wrote, in remarks echoed by other women politicians and rights groups.  
In January, Erdogan declared 2025 would be the "year of the family" in a bid to address Turkey's declining fertility rate, which hit a historic low of 1.51 in 2023. Erdogan has repeatedly suggested that women have at least three children. 
On Saturday, he lashed out at those who had taken issue with the football banner. 
"One of our football clubs took to the field with a banner to support an awareness campaign by the health ministry," he said.
"There was no insult, no criticism, no disrespect to anyone on the banner, nothing to offend women... Why does it bother you that our ministry encourages normal birth?
"We have no time for such nonsense at a time when our fertility rate and population growth rate are causing alarm," he said, warning that Turkey's declining population was "a threat much more significant than war".
hmw/jj

UN

US aid cuts strain response to health crises worldwide: WHO

BY DAVID STOUT

  • Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has effectively frozen foreign aid funding, moved to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other programmes, and announced plans to leave the WHO. Washington, which had long been the WHO's biggest donor, did not pay its 2024 dues, and it remains unclear if the United States will meet its membership obligations for 2025 The agency, already facing a gaping deficit this year, has proposed shrinking its budget by a fifth, likely reducing its reach and workforce, according to an earlier AFP report citing an internal email.
  • The United States slashing foreign aid risks piling pressure on already acute humanitarian crises across the globe, a World Health Organization official said Sunday, also warning against withdrawing from the UN agency.
  • Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has effectively frozen foreign aid funding, moved to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other programmes, and announced plans to leave the WHO. Washington, which had long been the WHO's biggest donor, did not pay its 2024 dues, and it remains unclear if the United States will meet its membership obligations for 2025 The agency, already facing a gaping deficit this year, has proposed shrinking its budget by a fifth, likely reducing its reach and workforce, according to an earlier AFP report citing an internal email.
The United States slashing foreign aid risks piling pressure on already acute humanitarian crises across the globe, a World Health Organization official said Sunday, also warning against withdrawing from the UN agency.
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has effectively frozen foreign aid funding, moved to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other programmes, and announced plans to leave the WHO.
Washington, which had long been the WHO's biggest donor, did not pay its 2024 dues, and it remains unclear if the United States will meet its membership obligations for 2025
The agency, already facing a gaping deficit this year, has proposed shrinking its budget by a fifth, likely reducing its reach and workforce, according to an earlier AFP report citing an internal email.
"The WHO with its partners have a significant role in sustaining healthcare systems, rehabilitation of healthcare systems, emergency medical team training and dispatching, pre-placement of trauma kits," Hanan Balkhy, the WHO's regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, told AFP.
"Many of these programmes have now stopped or are not going to be able to continue," she said.
The funding cuts will likely hinder the ability to continue delivering robust aid to communities in desperate need of care.
Balkhy cited the ongoing conflicts in Gaza, Sudan, and Yemen as areas where healthcare institutions and aid programmes were already under pressure before the funding shakeups.
In the Gaza Strip, where more than a year and a half of fighting has seen large swaths of the Palestinian territory reduced to rubble and few hospitals remain functioning, the public health situation is dire.
"The emergency medical team support, procurement of the medications and the rehabilitation of the health care facilities, all of that has been immediately impacted by the freeze of the US support," said Balkhy.
In Sudan, the WHO is facing mounting issues amid a bloody civil war that has displaced millions, with several areas hit by at least three different disease outbreaks -- malaria, dengue and cholera, according to Balkhy.
"We work significantly to identify emerging and re-emerging pathogens to keep the Sudanese safe, but also to keep the rest of the world safe. So it will impact our ability to continue to do surveillance, detection of diseases," she added.
A US departure from the WHO will also undercut long established channels of communication with leading research facilities, universities and public health institutions that are based in the United States.
That in turn would likely prevent the easy sharing of information and research, which is pivotal to heading off global public health crises like an emerging pandemic, said Balkhy.
"These bacteria and viruses, number one, know no borders. Number two, they are ambivalent to what's happening in the human political landscape."
ds/csp/ami

Darfur

Neighbours improvise first aid for wounded in besieged Sudan city

  • "But his arm is swollen and he can't sleep at night from the pain."
  • For a week, eight-year-old Mohamed has suffered the pain of shrapnel stuck in his arm.
  • "But his arm is swollen and he can't sleep at night from the pain."
For a week, eight-year-old Mohamed has suffered the pain of shrapnel stuck in his arm. But he is one of the lucky ones in Sudan's western city El-Fasher, which is under paramilitary attack.
"One of our neighbours used to be a nurse. She helped us stop the bleeding," Mohamed's father, Issa Said, 27, told AFP via satellite connection under a total communications blackout.
"But his arm is swollen and he can't sleep at night from the pain."
Like an estimated one million more people trapped in the city under a year-long siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Said cannot get to a hospital for emergency care.
With only the most meagre supplies remaining in El-Fasher, his family is among those whose only medical help has come from neighbours and family members who improvise. 
In its quest to seize the North Darfur state capital -- the only major Darfur city it has not conquered during two years of war with Sudan's army -- the RSF has launched attack after attack, which have been repelled by army and allied forces.
Even if people were to brave the streets, the Saudi Hospital is the only partially functioning one now, according to a medical source there, and even that has come under repeated attack.
Humanitarian operations in El-Fasher have been severely disrupted due to "access constraints, a critical fuel shortage and a volatile security environment," with health services particularly affected, the United Nations' humanitarian agency OCHA said.

'Opened their homes'

Mohamed, an aid coordinator who fled to El-Fasher after getting shot in the thigh during an RSF attack days ago on the nearby famine-hit Zamzam displacement camp, estimates hundreds of injured civilians are trapped in the city.
According to aid sources, hundreds of thousands have fled Zamzam for the city, which is already on the brink of mass starvation according to a UN-backed assessment.
Yet the people of El-Fasher have "opened their homes to the wounded," Mohamed told AFP, requesting to be identified by his first name for safety.
"If you have the money, you send someone to buy clean gauze or painkillers if they can find any, but you have to make do with what you have," said Mohamed, whose leg wound meant he had to be carried the 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Zamzam to the city, a journey that took hours.
In crowded living rooms and kitchens, civilians with barely any medical training cobble together emergency first aid, using household items and local medicinal plants to treat burns, gunshot wounds and shrapnel injuries.
Another victim, Mohamed Abakar, 29, said he was fetching water for his family when a bullet pierced his leg. 
The limb immediately broke underneath him, and a neighbour dragged him into his home, fashioning him a splint out of a few pieces of wood and cloth.
"Even if it heals my broken leg, the bullet is still inside," Abakar told AFP, also by satellite link.

Table salt as disinfectant

By Monday, the RSF's recent attacks on El-Fasher and surrounding displacement camps had killed more than 400 people, according to the UN.
At least 825,000 children are trapped in "hell on Earth" in the city and its environs, the UN children's agency UNICEF has warned.
The people of El-Fasher have suffered a year of RSF siege in a city the Sudanese military has also bombed from the air. 
Residents have taken to hiding from the shelling in makeshift bunkers, which are often just hastily dug holes topped with bags of sand.
But not everyone makes it in time.
On Wednesday, a shell broke through Hanaa Hamad's home, shrapnel tearing apart her husband's abdomen before they could scramble to safety.
"A neighbour and I treated him as best we could. We disinfected the wound with table salt and we managed to stop the bleeding," the 34-year-old mother of four told AFP.
But by morning, he had succumbed to his injuries, too severe for his wife and neighbour to handle.
Trying to recover from his leg wound, the aid coordinator Mohamed pleaded from his sick bed for "urgent intervention from anyone who can to save people". 
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Friday called for aid airdrops.
"If the roads to El-Fasher are blocked, then air operations must be launched to bring food and medicines to the estimated one million people trapped there and being starved," head of mission Rasmane Kabore said.
bur-bha/it/rjm