others
1 pregnant woman or newborn dies every 7 seconds: WHO report
Due to declining spending in maternal and newborn health, global progress in lowering the early mortality of pregnant women, mothers, and babies has stagnated for eight years, said a new UN World Health Organization (WHO) report.
The report, titled "Improving maternal and newborn health and survival and reducing stillbirth," analyzes the most recent statistics, which share similar risk factors and causes, and tracks the provision of critical health services.
The new publication was launched at a major global conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
Overall, the analysis demonstrates that improvements in survival have stalled since 2015, as evidenced by the annual average of 290,000 maternal fatalities, 1.9 million stillbirths (babies who die after 28 weeks of pregnancy), and a startling 2.3 million infant deaths during the first month of life.
The report shows that over 4.5 million women and babies die every year during pregnancy, childbirth or the first weeks after birth, equivalent to one death happening every seven seconds. Most of the deaths were from preventable or treatable causes if proper care was available.
The COVID-19 pandemic, rising poverty, and worsening humanitarian crises have intensified pressures on stretched health systems. Just one in 10 countries (of more than 100 surveyed) report having sufficient funds to implement their current plans.
According to the latest WHO survey on the pandemic’s impacts on essential health services, around 25 per cent of countries still report ongoing disruptions to vital pregnancy and postnatal care and services for sick children.
“Pregnant women and newborns continue to die at unacceptably high rates worldwide, and the COVID-19 pandemic has created further setbacks to providing them with the healthcare they need,” said Dr. Anshu Banerjee, Director of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at the World Health Organization (WHO).
“If we wish to see different results, we must do things differently. More and smarter investments in primary healthcare are needed now so that every woman and baby -- no matter where they live -- has the best chance of health and survival.”
In the worst-affected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia, the regions with the greatest burden of newborn and maternal deaths, fewer than 60 per cent of women receive even four, of WHO’s recommended eight, antenatal checks.
"The death of any woman or young girl during pregnancy or childbirth is a serious violation of their human rights,” said Dr Julitta Onabanjo, Director of the Technical Division at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
“It also reflects the urgent need to scale-up access to quality sexual and reproductive health services as part of universal health coverage and primary health care, especially in communities where maternal mortality rates have stagnated or even risen during recent years. We must take a human rights and gender transformative approach to address maternal and newborn mortality, and it is vital that we stamp out the underlying factors which give rise to poor maternal health outcomes like socio-economic inequalities, discrimination, poverty, and injustice".
Based on current trends, more than 60 countries are not set to meet the maternal, newborn, and stillborn mortality reduction targets in the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
AP wins public service, photo Pulitzers for Ukraine coverage
The Associated Press won two Pulitzer Prizes on Monday for its coverage of the war in Ukraine, earning recognition for its breaking news photography of the Russian invasion, as well as the prestigious public service award for its startling — and exclusive — dispatches from the besieged port city of Mariupol.
AP journalists were also finalists in two Pulitzer categories, for breaking news photography of Sri Lanka’s political crisis and for feature photography of the Ukraine war's impact on older people.
For the public service award, the Pulitzer judges acknowledged AP — which had the only international journalists in Mariupol for nearly three weeks — for capturing notable images of an injured, pregnant woman being rushed to medical help and Russia firing on civilian targets.
AP’s Mariupol team was made up of videojournalist Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and video producer Vasilisa Stepanenko on the ground in the besieged city, and reporter Lori Hinnant in Paris.
Other winners of two Pulitzers apiece were AL.com, of Birmingham, Alabama, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
The Pulitzers honor the best in journalism from 2022 in 15 categories, as well as eight arts categories focused on books, music and theater. The public service winner receives a gold medal. All other winners receive $15,000.
Kyle Whitmire, of AL.com, won a commentary award for “measured and persuasive columns” about Alabama’s Confederate heritage and a legacy of racism.
His Alabama colleagues John Archibald, Ashley Remkus, Ramsey Archibald and Challen Stephens won a local reporting award for a probe into a local police force.
It was a second Pulitzer win for John Archibald, who previously won in 2018 for commentary, and the first for his son, Ramsey Archibald. Remkus and Stephens were also picking up their second Pulitzers, after being part of a team that won in 2021 for national reporting.
“The recognition is tremendous and we’re grateful our work is being honored on the national stage like this,” Kelly Ann Scott, editor in chief and vice president of Alabama Media Group, said in a statement. “This is local journalism at its best – and local journalism is the heartbeat of this country’s journalism in general.”
The New York Times was honored with an international reporting award for its coverage of Russian killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Pulitzers were also given for work surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion standard, the government’s policy of child separation at the border, and welfare spending in Mississippi.
The Washington Post’s Caroline Kitchener won for “unflinching reporting” on the consequences of the abortion decision, including the story of a Texas teenager who gave birth to twins after new restrictions denied her an abortion. The Post’s Eli Saslow won for feature writing.
The Los Angeles Times won for breaking news for its stories revealing a secretly recorded conversation with city officials making racist comments. The newspaper’s Christina House won for feature photography, for her images of a 22-year-old pregnant woman living on the street.
The AP coverage of Mariupol, according to the Ukrainian city’s deputy mayor, focused the world’s attention on the devastation there and ultimately pressured Russians to open an evacuation route, saving thousands of civilian lives.
“They told the world of the human toll of this war in its earliest days,” AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said during a staff Zoom celebration. “They served as a counterweight against Russian disinformation, and they helped open up a humanitarian corridor out of Mariupol with the power of their work.”
The AP team that won for breaking news photography included Maloletka, who was part of the Mariupol coverage, along with Bernat Armangue, Emilio Morenatti, Felipe Dana, Nariman El-Mofty, Rodrigo Abd and Vadim Ghirda.
AP's director of photography, David Ake, credited winners in the breaking news photography category for simply staying put in a war zone to bear witness.
“You can’t make the moment that captures the world if you’re not there, and being there is often dirty and difficult and dangerous,” he said.
Pulitzer Prize Board co-chair Neil Brown highlighted the dangers faced by journalists, noting the imprisonment in Russia of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on spying charges, which his family and the newspaper vehemently deny. Brown said the board demands Gershkovich's immediate release.
The Atlantic won the Pulitzer for explanatory journalism for Caitlin Dickerson’s exhaustive probe of the Trump administration policy of separating parents from children at the U.S. border.
The Wall Street Journal won for its investigation into federal officials holding stock that could have been affected by government action, including dozens who reported trading stock in companies shortly before their own agencies announced enforcement actions against them.
Anna Wolfe, of Mississippi Today, was honored for her reporting on a former Mississippi governor sending federal welfare money to family and friends, including NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre.
Andrew Long Chu, of New York magazine, won a Pulitzer for criticism. Nancy Ancrum, Amy Driscoll, Luisa Yanez, Isadora Rangell and Lauren Constantino, of the Miami Herald, won for editorial writing. Mona Chalabi, a contributor to The New York Times, won for illustrated reporting and commentary. The staff of Gimlet Media won for audio reporting.
The prizes were established in the will of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer and first awarded in 1917.
UN says some female employees harassed, detained in Afghanistan
Some Afghan women employed by the United Nations have been detained, harassed and had restrictions placed on their movements since being banned by the Taliban from working for the world body, the U.N. said Tuesday.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers informed the United Nations early last month that Afghan women employed with the U.N. mission could no longer report for work.
“This is the most recent in a series of discriminatory – and unlawful – measures implemented by the de facto authorities with the goal of severely restricting women and girls’ participation in most areas of public and daily life in Afghanistan,” the U.N. said in a report on the human rights situation in the south Asian country.
Taliban authorities continued to crack down on dissenting voices this year, in particular those who speak out on issues related to the rights of women and girls, the report said.
The U.N. report cited the March arrest of four women who were released the following day during a protest demanding access to education and work in the capital of Kabul and the arrest of Matiullah Wesa, head of PenPath, a civil society organization campaigning for the reopening of girls’ schools.
Read: UN urges Afghanistan’s Taliban to end floggings, executions
It also pointed to the arrest of a women’s rights activist Parisa Mobariz and her brother in February in the northern Takhar province.
Several other civil society activists have been released — reportedly without being charged — following extended periods of arbitrary detention by the Taliban Intelligence service, the report said.
The measures will have disastrous effects on Afghanistan’s prospects for prosperity, stability and peace, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA said in the report.
“UNAMA is concerned by increasing restrictions on civic space across Afghanistan,” said Fiona Frazer, the agency’s human rights chief.
The Taliban previously banned girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade and blocked women from most public life and work. In December, they banned Afghan women from working at local and non-governmental organizations — a measure that at the time did not extend to U.N. offices.
The report also pointed to ongoing extrajudicial killings of individuals affiliated with the former government. On March 5 in southern Kandahar, Taliban forces arrested a former police officer from his home, then shot and killed him, according to the report. During the same month in northern Balkh, a former military official was killed by unknown armed men in his house, it said.
“Arbitrary arrests and detention of former government officials and Afghanistan National Security and Defense Force members also occurred throughout February, March and April,” added the report.
In a separate report released Monday, the U.N. strongly criticized the Taliban for carrying out public executions, lashings and stonings since seizing power in Afghanistan, and called on the country’s rulers to halt such practices.
In the past six months alone, 274 men, 58 women and two boys were publicly flogged in Afghanistan, said the report.
The Taliban foreign ministry said in response that Afghanistan’s laws are determined in accordance with Islamic rules and guidelines, and that an overwhelming majority of Afghans follow those rules.
The Taliban began carrying out such punishments shortly after coming to power almost two years ago, despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during their previous stint in power in the 1990s.
Under the first Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, public corporal punishment and executions were carried out by officials against individuals convicted of crimes, often in large venues such as sports stadiums and at urban intersections.
China announces expulsion of Canadian diplomat in retaliation for Ottawa ordering Chinese consular official to leave
China has announced the expulsion of a Canadian diplomat in retaliation for Ottawa’s ordering a Chinese consular official to leave over alleged threats he made against a Canadian lawmaker and his family.
The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said China was deploying a “reciprocal countermeasure to Canada’s unscrupulous move,” which it said it “firmly opposes.”
Read: Canada mulls expelling China diplomat for targeting lawmaker
It said the Canadian diplomat based in the business hub of Shanghai has been asked to leave by May 13 and that China “reserves the right to take further actions in response.”
Canada earlier on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is expelling a Chinese diplomat whom Canada’s spy agency alleged was involved in a plot to intimidate an opposition lawmaker and his relatives in Hong Kong.
A senior government official said Toronto-based diplomat Zhao Wei has five days to leave the country.
Out-of-control wildfires cause evacuations in western Canada
Fire crews battled wildfires threatening communities in western Canada on Sunday as cooler temperatures and a bit of rain brought some relief, but officials warned the reprieve came only in some areas.
Officials in Alberta said there were 108 active fires in the province and the number of evacuees grew to about 29,000, up from approximately 24,000 Saturday, when a provincewide state of emergency was declared.
Two out-of-control wildfires in neighboring British Columbia also caused some people to leave their homes, and officials warned that they expected high winds to cause the blazes to grow bigger in the next few days.
Provinicial officials in Alberta said the weather forecast was favorable for the next few days, with small amounts of rain and overcast conditions. But they cautioned that hot and dry conditions were predicted to return within a few days.
“People have called this season certainly unprecedented in recent memory because we have so many fires so spread out,” Christie Tucker with Alberta Wildfire said at a briefing. “It’s been an unusual year.”
Colin Blair, executive director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said accurate damage reports were not yet available because conditions made it difficult to assess the situation. There were of buildings destroyed in the town of Fox Lake, including 20 homes, a police station and a store.
In northeastern British Columbia, officials urged residents to evacuate the areas around two out-of-control wildfires near the Alberta border, saying there were reports of some people staying behind.
“This is impeding the response and putting their lives and the lives of firefighters at risk," said Leonard Hiebert, chairman of the Peace River Regional District.
A third fire in British Columbia was burning out of control 700 kilometers (430 miles) to the south, in the Teare Creek region, and some residents near the village of McBride were evacuated.
Global Covid-19 cases near 688 million
The overall number of global Covid-19 cases is gradually nearing 688 million.
According to the latest global data, the total Covid-19 case count is 687,803,066, while the death toll reached 6,871,031 this morning.
The US has reported 106,768,296 Covid-19 cases so far, while 1,162,431 people have died from the virus in the country — both highest counts globally.
India on Sunday logged 2,380 new cases of Covid-19, bringing down the active cases to 27,212 from 30,041 a day before.
READ: WHO downgrades COVID pandemic, says it's no longer emergency
According to the global data, the Covid-19 case tally was recorded at 44,969,630.
France and Germany have registered 40,021,190 and 38,411,062 Covid-19 cases so far, occupying the third and fourth positions in the world number-wise, and 166,811 and 173,375 people have died in the European countries, as per Worldometer.
READ: WHO fires scientist who led COVID search over sex misconduct
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday announced that the Covid-19 pandemic was no longer a global health emergency. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, made the announcement while addressing a media briefing on Covid-19 and global health issues.
Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh reported 23 more Covid-19 cases in 24 hours till Sunday morning.
With the new numbers, the country's total caseload rose to 2,038,338 according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
However, the official death toll from the disease remained unchanged at 29,446 as no new fatalities were reported.
Nuclear watchdog growingly worried over Ukraine plant safety
The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog is expressing growing anxiety about the safety of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, after the governor of the Russia-occupied area ordered the evacuation of a town where most plant staff live amid ongoing attacks in the area.
The plant is near the front lines of fighting, and Ukrainian authorities on Sunday said that a 72-year-old woman was killed and three others were wounded when Russian forces fired more than 30 shells at Nikopol, a Ukrainian-held town neighboring the plant.
“The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous," International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said in a warning that came Saturday before the latest report of attacks.
“I’m extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant.”
Grossi’s comments were prompted by an announcement Friday by Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed governor of the partially-occupied Zaporizhzhia province, that he had ordered the evacuation of civilians from 18 settlements in the area, including Enerhodar, which is located next to the power plant, which is Europe's largest.
The settlements affected are about 50 to 70 kilometers (30 to 40 miles) from the front line of fighting between Ukraine and Russia, and Balitsky said that Ukraine had intensified attacks on the area in the past several days.
The region is also widely seen as a likely area where Ukraine may focus its anticipated spring counteroffensive.
The Ukrainian General Staff said Sunday that the evacuation of Enerhodar had already begun.
According to an update posted on Facebook, the General Staff said the first residents evacuated were those who took Russian citizenship following the capture of the town by Moscow early in the war.
They were being taken to the Russia-occupied Azov Sea coast, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) to the southeast.
Grossi said that operating staff of the nuclear power plant, whose six reactors are currently all in shutdown mode, hadn't been evacuated as of Saturday but that most live in Enerhodar and the situation has contributed to “increasingly tense, stressful and challenging conditions for personnel and their families.”
He added that IAEA experts at the nuclear site “are continuing to hear shelling on a regular basis.”
“We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequence for the population and the environment,” Grossi said. “This major nuclear facility must be protected. I will continue to press for a commitment by all sides to achieve this vital objective.”
Elsewhere, Russian shelling on Saturday and overnight killed six civilians and wounded four others in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, according to a Telegram update published Sunday by the local administration.
Five civilians were wounded in the eastern Donetsk region, the epicenter of the fighting in recent months, local Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko reported on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces overnight attacked the largest port in the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula with drones, a Kremlin-installed local official said on Telegram early Sunday.
According to the post by Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol, 10 Ukrainian drones targeted the city, three of which were shot down by air defense systems. Razvozhayev said that there had been no damage.
Prince Harry, minus Meghan, attends King Charles' coronation
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, came alone for his father's coronation ceremony as his wife, Meghan Markle, and their children stayed back at home in California.
The king's younger son, who quit as a working royal in 2020 and later relocated to the United States, has not been seen in public with the royals since the publication of his memoir "Spare" earlier this year, in which he was harshly critical of his father, stepmother Queen Camilla, and brother, the Prince of Wales, reports The Guardian.
Relations between family members are thought to be exceedingly strained, and there was considerable discussion about whether Prince Harry would even attend the coronation. According to sources, Meghan's choice to stay absent was influenced by the fact that the coronation happened on their son Prince Archie's fourth birthday, it said.
The prince, who arrived in the UK on Friday, entered Westminster alone, surrounded by younger royals and sporting medals pinned to his suit jacket. He was placed two rows behind his elder brother and directly between Jack Brooksbank, the husband of the Duke of York's daughter Princess Eugenie, and Princess Alexandra, Elizabeth II's 86-year-old first cousin.
Read: Charles III crowned in ancient rite at Westminster Abbey
The first row was designated for the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children.
Last September, Harry sat in the second row of Westminster Abbey, right behind Charles, for the Queen's funeral, it also said.
During the ceremony, when the crowd paid their respects to the king, Harry was spotted, along with the other royals there, saying, “God save King Charles. Long live King Charles. May the King live forever.”
Despite the fact that he is no longer a working royal, Harry is still fifth in line to the throne, behind the Prince of Wales and his three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, Harry and Meghan's children, are sixth and seventh in line, the report also mentioned.
Harry and the king's brother, the Duke of York, who is also no longer a working royal, will be missing from the parade behind the gold state carriage transporting the newly crowned king and queen from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace following the ceremony.
Harry is likely to attend only the abbey ceremony before travelling to the United States, the report concluded.
How (and when) to watch King Charles' coronation in the US
King Charles III's coronation Saturday will mix a thousand-year tradition with the streaming age.
The pomp and ceremony will be unmissable for U.K. residents, but what about royal watchers across the Atlantic? There are plenty of options to watch the regalia-heavy event that serves as a formal confirmation of King Charles' dual role as head of state and titular leader of the Church of England — for those willing to wake up early enough.
While it might seem odd that Americans might want to tune in, there have been large audiences for previous royal milestones, such as the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981 and the weddings of their children, William and Harry.
The longevity of the king's mother, Queen Elizabeth II, means that many people alive have never seen a coronation.
Also read: King’s coronation draws apathy, criticism in former colonies
WHAT TIME DOES THE CORONATION START?
Well, first King Charles and his wife Camilla have to get to the ceremony. That begins with a procession to Westminster Abbey, which will get started at about 5 a.m. EDT, 2 a.m. for West Coasters.
The Associated Press will livestream the procession beginning at 5 a.m. Eastern and provide ongoing coverage throughout the day on www.apnews.com.
Broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC as well as cable channels CNN and Fox News all plan live coverage starting at 5 a.m. EDT. The outlets will also feature coverage on their digital platforms and streaming like Hulu+ Live TV.
WHAT SHOULD I KNOW AHEAD OF TIME?
The day will be filled with pageantry — the handing over of a rod, sceptre and orb, all medieval symbols of power — and loads of other traditions. Despite that, Charles has slimmed down the event, shortening the procession route and the Westminster Abbey ceremony.
More than 100 heads of state will be in the audience, but President Joe Biden will keep with U.S. tradition and not attend. Instead, first lady Jill Biden will be there.
The celebration continues on Sunday with the Coronation Concert, but U.S. audiences won't be able to watch headliners Lionel Richie and Katy Perry. That will be shown on BBC's iPlayer, which isn't available outside the U.K.
UN: South Sudan struggling to implement power-sharing deal
South Sudan is facing violent clashes and increasing disillusionment and frustration as it struggles to implement the most challenging provisions of a fragile 2018 power-sharing agreement, U.N. experts say in a new report.
The world's newest nation is struggling to integrate rival military forces, draft a new constitution and prepare for its first election as an independent country in December 2024, the experts monitoring sanctions against the world’s newest nation said in a report to the U.N. Security Council obtained Friday by The Associated Press.
The country's stability “will likely turn on the government’s ability to reward the patience of those who remain committed to peace, rather than those who have sought to reshape it through violence," the report says.
There were high hopes when oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict. But the country slid into a civil war in December 2013 largely based on ethnic divisions when forces loyal to the current president, Salva Kiir, battled those loyal to the current vice president, Riek Machar.
Tens of thousands of people were killed in the war, which ended with the 2018 peace agreement, bringing Kiir and Machar together in a government of national unity. Under the agreement, elections were supposed to be held in February 2023, but last August they were postponed until December 2024.
Kiir said he wanted to avoid creating conditions for more bloodshed. He issued a statement outlining the government’s achievements and stressing that it would be “business as usual” before the elections.
Also read: 675 Bangladeshis reach Port Sudan to leave crisis-hit Sudan: Shahriar Alam
The U.N. experts said the message was aimed at allaying two concerns — that the extension would be used to undermine the fragile power-sharing structures and would mean further delays, “not the progress that peace once promised.”
On the plus side, the panel said in the 37-page report that the unity government has survived, a series of laws have started to pave the way for the drafting of a new constitution, and a first batch of approximately 55,000 unified troops has graduated, even though most haven’t been deployed.
On the negative side, the experts said, most troops that graduated remain around their training centers, “though poor conditions have led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of desertions.” Many graduates don’t receive regular salaries, and most work in local communities to make money, the experts said.
Those that have been deployed appear to have joined pre-existing military units rather than becoming part of a new national force, they said. While the parties agreed last year to unify the top command structure, they have not been able to reach a similar agreement for the lower ranks.
South Sudan is also facing its highest level of displacement since the peace agreement, and more than two-thirds of the population needs humanitarian assistance, the panel said.
The experts said most South Sudanese have not seen “tangible progress” since the 2018 agreement was signed.
The deteriorating humanitarian situation is partly the result of violence and serious clashes in most parts of the country between well-armed rival forces, leading to deaths, people fleeing their homes, serious human rights violations, including sexual attacks, and difficulties delivering aid, the panel said.
Much of the violence results from efforts to weaken opponents, but increasingly “from growing dissatisfaction with the political process in Juba," the capital.
Oil accounts for more than 90% of the government’s revenue and almost all its exports, and as a result of the high oil price the government is likely to exceed its budget target of $1.6 billion in gross oil revenues for the current fiscal year, the experts said, but the money has largely failed to reach institutions that could help stabilize the country.
“The misappropriation and diversion of public resources not only continues to fuel political competition but also deprives the treasury of the resources needed to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis, fund the implementation of the peace agreement, and stabilize the country through regular salary payments and development,” the panel said.