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Every 2 minutes a woman dies due to pregnancy or childbirth: UN agencies
Every two minutes, a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth, according to the latest estimates released today in a report by United Nations (UN) agencies.
The report, ‘Trends in maternal mortality’, reveals alarming setbacks for women’s health over recent years, as maternal deaths either increased or stagnated in nearly all regions of the world.
“While pregnancy should be a time of immense hope and a positive experience for all women, it is tragically still a shockingly dangerous experience for millions around the world who lack access to high quality, respectful health care,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).
“These new statistics reveal the urgent need to ensure every woman and girl has access to critical health services before, during and after childbirth, and that they can fully exercise their reproductive rights,” he added.
Read More: UNICEF lauds Bangladesh’ breakthrough to accelerate universal birth registration
The report, which tracks maternal deaths nationally, regionally and globally from 2000 to 2020, shows there were an estimated 287,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2020. This marks only a slight decrease from 309,000 in 2016 when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) came into effect. While the report presents some significant progress in reducing maternal deaths between 2000 and 2015, gains largely stalled, or in some cases even reversed, after this point.
In two of the eight UN regions – Europe and Northern America, and Latin America and the Caribbean – the maternal mortality rate increased from 2016 to 2020, by 17% and 15% respectively. Elsewhere, the rate stagnated.
The report notes, however, that progress is possible.
For example, two regions – Australia and New Zealand, and Central and Southern Asia – experienced significant declines (by 35% and 16% respectively) in their maternal mortality rates during the same period, as did 31 countries across the world.
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“For millions of families, the miracle of childbirth is marred by the tragedy of maternal deaths,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“No mother should have to fear for her life while bringing a baby into the world, especially when the knowledge and tools to treat common complications exist. Equity in healthcare gives every mother, no matter who they are or where they are, a fair chance at a safe delivery and a healthy future with their family.”
In total numbers, maternal deaths continue to be largely concentrated in the poorest parts of the world and in countries affected by conflict. In 2020, about 70% of all maternal deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa.
In nine countries facing severe humanitarian crises, maternal mortality rates were more than double the world average (551 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 223 globally).
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“This report provides yet another stark reminder of the urgent need to double down on our commitment to women and adolescent health,” said Juan Pablo Uribe, Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank, and Director of the Global Financing Facility.
“With immediate action, more investments in primary health care and stronger, more resilient health systems, we can save lives, improve health and well-being, and advance the rights of and opportunities for women and adolescents.”
Severe bleeding, high blood pressure, pregnancy-related infections, complications from unsafe abortion, and underlying conditions that can be aggravated by pregnancy (such as HIV/AIDS and malaria) are the leading causes of maternal deaths. These are all largely preventable and treatable with access to high-quality and respectful healthcare.
Community-centered primary health care can meet the needs of women, children and adolescents and enable equitable access to critical services such as assisted births and pre- and postnatal care, childhood vaccinations, nutrition and family planning. However, underfunding of primary health care systems, a lack of trained health care workers, and weak supply chains for medical products are threatening progress.
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Roughly a third of women do not have even four of the recommended eight antenatal checks or receive essential postnatal care, while some 270 million women lack access to modern family planning methods.
Exercising control over their reproductive health – particularly decisions about if and when to have children – is critical to ensure that women can plan and space childbearing and protect their health. Inequities related to income, education, race or ethnicity further increase risks for marginalized pregnant women, who have the least access to essential maternity care but are most likely to experience underlying health problems in pregnancy.
"It is unacceptable that so many women continue to die needlessly in pregnancy and childbirth. Over 280,000 fatalities in a single year is unconscionable,” said UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem.
“We can and must do better by urgently investing in family planning and filling the global shortage of 900,000 midwives so that every woman can get the lifesaving care she needs. We have the tools, knowledge and resources to end preventable maternal deaths; what we need now is the political will."
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The COVID-19 pandemic may have further held back progress on maternal health. Noting the current data series ends in 2020, more data will be needed to show the true impacts of the pandemic on maternal deaths. However, COVID-19 infections can increase risks during pregnancy, so countries should take action to ensure pregnant women and those planning pregnancies have access to COVID-19 vaccines and effective antenatal care.
“Reducing maternal mortality remains one of the most pressing global health challenges,” said John Wilmoth, Director of the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
“Ending preventable maternal deaths and providing universal access to quality maternal health care require sustained national and international efforts and unwavering commitments, particularly for the most vulnerable populations. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that every mother, everywhere, survives childbirth, so that she and her children can thrive."
The report reveals that the world must significantly accelerate progress to meet global targets for reducing maternal deaths, or risk the lives of over 1 million more women by 2030.
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Russia, China show off ties amid maneuvering over Ukraine
Russia and China showcased their deepening ties Wednesday in meetings others are watching for signs that Beijing might offer the Kremlin stronger support for its war in Ukraine.
The visit by Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party's most senior foreign policy official, to Moscow comes as the conflict in Ukraine continues to upend the global diplomatic order.
Relations between Russia and the West are at their lowest point since the Cold War, and ties between China and the U.S. are also under serious strain. Moscow suspended its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with Washington this week. And the U.S. expressed concern that China could provide arms and ammunition to Russia.
Speaking at the start of talks with Wang, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed ties between the two countries and added that the Kremlin expects Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Russia.
The Russian leader, whose own rule over Russia is imperiled by the war, noted escalating international tensions, adding that “in this context, cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation on the global arena is particularly important for stabilizing the international situation.”
Also read: No economic ‘knockout’ yet from West’s sanctions on Russia
While Wang said “Chinese-Russian relations aren’t directed against any third countries and certainly can’t be subject to pressure from any third countries,” the specter of the war and how it has galvanized the West and deepened its divide with Russia hung over his meeting with Putin.
For instance, Wang emphasized that Moscow and Beijing both support “multipolarity and democratization of international relations” — a reference to their shared goal of countering the perceived U.S. dominance in global affairs.
Earlier Wednesday, Wang held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “Our ties have continued to develop dynamically, and despite high turbulence in the global arena, we have shown the readiness to speak in defense of each other’s interests,” Lavrov said.
Wang responded in kind, underlining Beijing's focus on deepening ties with Russia — a relationship it has said has “no limits.”
China has pointedly refused to criticize the invasion of Ukraine while echoing Moscow's claim that the U.S. and NATO were to blame for provoking the Kremlin . The government in Beijing also has blasted the sanctions imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine.
Russia, in turn, has staunchly supported China amid tensions with the U.S. over Taiwan.
The two nations have held military drills showcasing their defense ties. China, Russia and South Africa are holding naval drills in the Indian Ocean this week.
A Russian frigate, the Admiral Gorshkov, arrived in Cape Town in recent days sporting the letters Z and V on its sides, letters that mark Russian weapons on the front lines in Ukraine and are used as a patriotic symbol in Russia.
The rapprochement has worried the West. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said any Chinese involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort would be a “serious problem.”
Asked Wednesday whether NATO has any indication that China might provide arms or other support to Russia’s war, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also told The Associated Press in Warsaw, Poland:
“We have seen some signs that they may be planning for that and of course NATO allies, the United States, have been warning against it because this is something that should not happen. China should not support Russia’s illegal war.”
Stoltenberg said potential Chinese assistance would amount to providing “(direct) support to a blatant violation of international law, and of course (as) a member of the U.N. security council China should not in any way support violation of the U.N. charter, or international law.”
Government-backed scholars in China shrugged off Washington's warnings over Beijing's relationship with Moscow as a reflection of what they described as a polarizing and distorted U.S. view.
The Global Times quoted Zhang Hong, associate research fellow at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as saying the U.S. and its allies have looked at the Russia-Ukraine conflict through “colored glasses.”
“It seems like anyone who talks with Russia will be seen as siding with Moscow in Russia-Ukraine conflict,” the English-language Chinese newspaper quoted Zhang as saying.
Wang's talks with Lavrov followed his meeting Tuesday with Nikolai Patrushev, the powerful secretary of Russia’s National Security Council, who called for closer cooperation with Beijing to counter what he described as Western efforts to maintain dominance by thwarting an alliance between China and Russia.
While China recently has emphasized its close ties with Moscow, it also has to tread carefully to avoid an escalation of tensions with the West as it looks to stimulate its economy following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Isolation from the West is not something (Beijing) wants to risk,” Yu Jie, senior research fellow for China in the Asia-Pacific program at Chatham House, a British think tank, said in comments published Wednesday. “President Xi and his colleagues have begun to realize that cooperation with Russia comes with substantial limits to avoid undermining China’s own political priorities and longer-term economic interests.”
Wang's trip to Moscow took place against a backdrop of grinding battles in Ukraine, with neither side appearing to gain momentum. Ukraine’s presidential office said at least seven civilians were killed between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.
During a speech at a patriotic concert, Putin on Wednesday hailed Russia's “heroic” troops and claimed Moscow's forces were fighting for the country's “historic frontiers” to protect its “interests, people, culture, language and territory.”
“When we stand together, we have no equals,” he shouted to enthusiastic crowds at a Moscow sports arena.
The growing relationship between China and Russia is another example of how the war could spread into perilous new terrain.
Another was Putin’s announcement Tuesday that Russia would suspend its participation in the New START Treaty, raising new concerns about the fate of the arms pact, which was already on life support.
Last fall, Moscow decided to allow the resumption of U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites but refused to hold a scheduled round of consultations under the pact.
The lower house of Russia’s parliament on Wednesday quickly endorsed Putin’s move to suspend the treaty, with officials and lawmakers casting it as an 11th-hour warning to Washington.
Reflecting Beijing's cautious stance, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the treaty was key to peace and stability and that China hopes “the two sides will properly resolve their differences."
Police: Woman, 44, killed in skydiving accident in Oklahoma
Police in eastern Oklahoma say a 44-year-old woman was killed after crashing to the ground while skydiving.
Heather Glasgow of Poteau died at a hospital after the fall Saturday afternoon, according to police in Sallisaw.
“An unknown issue arose during the skydive,” according to a statement from Sallisaw police.
Witnesses told investigators that Glasgow’s parachute had opened, but she was spinning and did not recover before hitting the ground in Sallisaw, near the Arkansas state line and about 150 miles (240 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City, police said.
It was not clear how far Glasgow fell and a police spokesman was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.
Police said Glasgow had completed a tandem jump before the solo jump in which she fell to her death,
The Federal Aviation Administration is assisting in the investigation.
The FAA said in a statement that it is investigating the packing of the main and reserve parachutes while local authorities are in charge of other aspects of the investigation.
US urges UN to condemn North Korea; China, Russia blame US
The United States and its allies urged the U.N. Security Council on Monday to condemn North Korea’s unlawful ballistic missile launches, but China and Russia blamed the U.S. for escalating tensions with stepped-up military exercises targeting Pyongyang.
At the emergency meeting, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council that the United States will propose a presidential statement, saying at a minimum all 15 members should be agreeable to condemning the North’s unprecedented missile launches, to urging Pyongyang to comply with U.N. Security Council sanctions resolutions, and “to engage in meaningful dialogue.”
A presidential statement from the Security Council requires the support of all its members, including North Korea's closest allies, China and Russia.
Thomas-Greenfield said the United States condemns North Korea’s firing of two short-range ballistic missiles Monday following the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile Saturday “in the strongest terms” as “flagrant violations” of the council’s ban on the country's ballistic missile launches.
The launches and North Korea’s threatening rhetoric are undermining international peace and security, Thomas-Greenfield said.
And she warned the council that its silence and failure to condemn the North’s missile activities “leads to irrelevance.”
But Pyongyang's allies China and Russia countered that what’s needed now is dialogue between North Korea and the Biden administration, a de-escalation of military exercises, an easing of sanctions on North Korea, and approval of a resolution they circulated in November 2021 aimed at resolving the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
That resolution urges the Security Council to end a host of sanctions against North Korea and calls on the U.S. and North Korea to resume dialogue and consider taking steps to reduce tensions and the risk of military confrontation including by adopting a declaration or peace treaty formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War. The war ended with an armistice, leaving the peninsula technically in a state of war.
China’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dai Bing said joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises “on a higher level and a bigger scale,” the deployment of U.S. strategic assets, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s high-profile visit to Seoul and Tokyo two weeks ago, are “”highly provocative” to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, “and aggravate a sense of insecurity.”
“Since the U.S. has repeatedly expressed its willingness to unconditionally engage in dialogue with the DPRK, it should take tangible steps to start and maintain a dialogue,” he said. “Exclusively pursuing and piling on sanctions will only lead to a dead end.”
Russia’s deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told the council North Korea is responding with missile tests to “the unprecedented military maneuvers in the region under the United States umbrella which are clearly anti-Pyongyang in nature.”
Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Kimihiro Ishikane, whose country called the emergency meeting, told the council that Saturday’s ICBM fell in the Japan's exclusive economic zone just 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Hokkaido, where people could see it falling from the sky.
“I assume we can all imagine how terrifying it must have been to see a missile flying to you,” he said, stressing that it endangered vessels and aircraft and was “an act of intimidation and threatening by force.”
To those who contend that Security Council meetings provoke North Korea “and hence we should remain silent,” Ishikane retorted that remaining silent “will only encourage rule-breakers to write the playbook as they like.”
After the council meeting, Thomas-Greenfield, read a statement on behalf of 10 council nations and South Korea, surrounded by their ambassadors, strongly condemning the latest missile launches and urging the other five council nations to join in condemning “the DPRK’s irresponsible behavior.”
The 11 countries — Albania, Ecuador, France, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, U.S. and South Korea — “remain fully committed to diplomacy and continue to call on the DPRK to return to dialogue,” the statement said.
“But we will not stay silent as the DPRK advances its unlawful nuclear and missile capabilities, threatening international peace and security,” their statement said.
‘Freedom is priceless, worth fighting for as long as it takes’: Biden in Ukraine ahead of war anniversary
President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a striking gesture of solidarity that comes days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country.
Speaking alongside Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace, Biden recalled the fears nearly a year ago that Russia’s invasion forces might quickly take the Ukrainian capital. “One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden said, jamming his finger for emphasis on his podium decorated with the U.S. and Ukrainian flags. “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.”
The Ukraine visit comes at a crucial moment in the war as Biden looks to keep allies unified in their support for Ukraine as the war is expected to intensify with both sides preparing for spring offensives. Zelenskyy is pressing allies to speed up delivery of pledged weapon systems and is calling on the West to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine — something that Biden to date has declined to do.
In Kyiv, Biden announced an additional half-billion dollars in U.S. assistance — on top of the more than $50 billion already provided — including shells for howitzers, anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars and other aid but no new advanced weaponry.
Read: Biden in Kyiv to show solidarity as Ukraine war nears 1 year
Ukraine has also been pushing for battlefield systems that would allow its forces to strike Russian targets that have been moved back from frontline areas, out of the range of HIMARS missiles that have already been delivered. Zelenskyy said he and Biden spoke about “long-range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine even though it wasn’t supplied before.” But he did not detail any new commitments.
“Our negotiations were very fruitful,” Zelenskyy added.
Biden also got a short firsthand taste of the terror that Ukrainians have lived with for close to a year, as air raids sirens howled over the capital just as he and Zelenskyy were exiting the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral, which they visited together. Looking solemn, they continued unperturbed as they laid a wreath and held a moment of silence at the Wall of Remembrance honoring Ukrainian soldiers killed since 2014.
Biden’s mission with his visit to Kyiv, which comes ahead of a scheduled trip to Warsaw, Poland, is to underscore that the United States is prepared to stick with Ukraine “as long as it takes” to repel Russian forces even as public opinion polling suggests that U.S. and allied support for providing weaponry and direct economic assistance has started to soften. For Zelenskyy, the symbolism of having the U.S. president stand side by side with him on Ukrainian land as the anniversary nears is no small thing as he prods the U.S. and European allies to provide more advanced weaponry and to step up the pace of delivery.
“I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about U.S. support for Ukraine in the war,” Biden said.
Biden’s visit marked an act of defiance against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had hoped his military would swiftly overrun Kyiv within days. Biden recalled speaking with Zelenskyy on the night of the invasion, saying, “That dark night one year ago, the world was literally at the time bracing for the fall of Kyiv. Perhaps even the end of Ukraine.”
A year later, the Ukrainian capital remains firmly in Ukrainian control, and a semblance of normalcy has returned to the city as the fighting has concentrated in the country’s east, punctuated by cruise missile and drone attacks against military and civilian infrastructure.
Biden warned that the “brutal and unjust war” is far from won. “The cost that Ukraine has had to bear has been extraordinarily high. And the sacrifices have been far too great,” Biden said. “We know that there’ll be very difficult days and weeks and years ahead. But Russia’s aim was to wipe Ukraine off the map. Putin’s war of conquest is failing.”
“He’s counting on us not sticking together,” Biden said of the Russian leader. ”He thought he could outlast us. I don’t think he’s thinking that right now. God knows what he’s thinking, but I don’t think he’s thinking that. But he’s just been plain wrong. Plain wrong.”
The trip gave Biden an opportunity to get a firsthand look at the devastation the Russian invasion has caused on Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainian troops and civilians have been killed, millions of refugees have fled the war, and Ukraine has suffered tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure damage.
Biden pledged long-term support for Ukraine, saying that “freedom is priceless. It’s worth fighting for for as long as it takes.”
“And that’s how long we’re going to be with you, Mr. President, for as long as it takes,” Biden promised. Zelenskyy, speaking in English, responded: “We’ll do it.”
The Ukrainian leader, wearing a black sweatshirt, as has become his wartime habit, said through an interpreter that the “wide discussion” in their meeting “brings us closer to the victory” — hopefully, he added, this year.
“Right now, in Ukraine, the destiny of the international order ... is decided,” Zelenskyy said. He added words of gratitude to Biden and to the American people for their support. “Ukraine is grateful to you, Mr. President, to all the U.S. citizens, to all those who cherish freedom just as we cherish them.”
Though Western surface-to-air missile systems have bolstered Ukraine’s defensives, the visit marked the rare occasion when a U.S. president has traveled to a conflict zone where the U.S. or its allies did not have control over the airspace. The White House would not go into specifics but said that “basic communication with the Russians occurred to ensure deconfliction” shortly before Biden’s visit in an effort to avoid any miscalculation that could bring the two nuclear-armed nations into direct conflict.
The U.S. military does not have a presence in Ukraine other than a small detachment of Marines guarding the embassy in Kyiv, making Biden’s visit more complicated than other recent visits by prior U.S. leaders to war zones.
While Biden was in Ukraine, U.S. surveillance planes, including E-3 Sentry airborne radar and an electronic RC-135W Rivet Joint aircraft, were keeping watch over Kyiv from Polish airspace.
Speculation has been building for weeks that Biden would pay a visit to Ukraine around the Feb. 24 anniversary of the Russian invasion. But the White House repeatedly had said that no presidential trip to Ukraine was planned, even after the Poland visit was announced earlier this month.
Since early morning on Monday many main streets and central blocks in Kyiv were cordoned without any official explanation. Later people started sharing videos of long motorcades of cars driving along the streets where the access was restricted.
At the White House, planning for Biden’s visit to Kyiv was tightly held — with a relatively small group of aides briefed on the plans — because of security concerns. The president traveled with an usually small entourage, with just a few senior aides and two journalists, to maintain secrecy.
Asked by a reporter on Friday if Biden might include stops beyond Poland, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby replied, “Right now, the trip is going to be in Warsaw.” Moments later — and without prompting — Kirby added, “I said ‘right now.’ The trip will be in -- to Warsaw. I didn’t want to make it sound like I was alluding to a change to it.”
Biden quietly departed from Joint Base Andrews near Washington shortly at 4:15 a.m. on Sunday, making a stop at Ramstein Air Base in Germany before making his way into Ukraine. He arrived in Kyiv at 8 a.m. on Monday.
Other western leaders have made the trip to Kyiv since the start of the war.
In June, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and then Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi traveled together by night train to Kyiv to meet with Zelenskyy. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Kyiv in November shortly after taking office.
This is Biden’s first visit to a war zone as president. His recent predecessors, Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, made surprise visits to Afghanistan and Iraq during their presidencies to meet with U.S. troops and those countries’ leaders.
Paws for healing: How dogs aid mental health therapy in China
Following a successful six-month probationary period, a mental health center in Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, has officially welcomed two dogs to carry out psychological assistance therapy through animals.
The dogs are part of the animal-assisted therapy (AAT) in the treatment process for emotionally disturbed patients carried out by the Fourth People's Hospital of Chengdu. This marks the first time that AAT has been implemented in southwest China, and highlights the hospital's innovative approach to mental health treatment.
According to Chen Jiajia, who works with the hospital, the two dogs, "Lidabao" and "Xuegao," were previously employed in nursing homes for seniors and orphanages before joining the hospital.
The dogs used in the treatment have been carefully selected from among family pets that have undergone specialized training to develop strong bonds with humans.
Given that they reside with their owners, the therapy dogs are expected to introduce a welcoming and serene ambiance to the treatment process and the dog owners are also allowed on the site.
Having passed rigorous evaluations, both dogs were granted official working certificates and currently provide treatment twice a week.
"AAT has proven to be a successful method for treating depression and autism, and has been extensively employed in treatment programs overseas, aiding in the recovery of patients," Chen said.
Chen went on to share that earlier in January, a severely depressed boy, who didn't talk to anyone and even left a death note, took part in the trial treatment. During their initial encounter, the dog seemed to sense his depression as it instinctively nestled into his arms.
The boy who never showed his emotions couldn't hide his surprise, and later shared his story about himself and his pet, Chen explained.
The profound experience with the dog had a transformative effect on the boy's emotional state, leading him to open up to the psychologists and engage wholeheartedly in his treatment. As a result, he made remarkable progress and was eventually discharged from the hospital with a newfound sense of hope and optimism.
According to Chen, the interaction between patients and dogs can be instrumental in helping patients open up emotionally, and this process is further facilitated by the participation of psychologists who provide timely counseling and treatment.
During treatment, psychologists will give careful attention to what the patient is saying in order to identify any topics of interest. By establishing a genuine and trusting relationship with each patient, the psychologists can eventually create a supportive environment that is conducive to follow-up psychotherapy.
The hospital said treatment frequency will be adjusted according to each patient's needs and response to therapy, with the goal of providing more effective care for a greater number of patients
UN highlights key role of weather balloons in climate monitoring
Weather balloons play an important part in a vast, intricate global observation system, providing vital information for climate monitoring and forecasters, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Friday.
On the heels of recent news reports about Canada and the US shooting down several flying objects, including an alleged Chinese "spy balloon," inside their borders, the UN agency said weather balloons provide just a tiny fraction of the millions of observations gathered worldwide daily.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden made public remarks after days of speculation over three unmanned aerial objects shot down last weekend by the US military, saying that they were "most likely tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions."
More than 50 satellites collect information from space, and about 400 aircraft operated by some 40 commercial companies gather input from the skies, the WMO said.
From the seas, about 400 moored buoys, 1,250 drifting buoys, and 7,300 ships provide help in addition to 10,000 automated and land-based observing stations across the planet.
Every day, free-rising latex balloons are released simultaneously from almost 900 locations worldwide. Nearly 1,000 balloons gather daily observations that provide input in real-time.
The valuable information gathered contributes to computer forecast models, local data for meteorologists to make forecasts and predict storms, climate monitoring and data for research to better understand weather and climate processes.
Computer forecast models that use weather balloon data are used by all forecasters worldwide, the WMO said.
Equipped with battery-operated radiosondes that capture observations, the floating information collectors are airborne for around two hours.
They measure pressure, wind velocity, temperature and humidity from just above the ground, to heights of up to 35 kilometres, sustaining temperatures as cold as -95°C (-139°F), before bursting and falling back to the Earth under a parachute.
Playing a key role as part of the world's global observing network for decades, they are the primary source of above-ground data.
Their valuable input feeds the Global Observing System, among the most ambitious and successful instances of international collaboration of the last 60 years, the UN agency said.
The system consists of individual surface and space-based observing systems owned and operated by a plethora of national and international agencies.
Read more: Why balloons are now in public eye — and military crosshairs
Aid convoys to keep crossing into Syria for as long as needs are there: UN
A steady flow of UN aid trucks filled with vital humanitarian relief, continues to cross the border from southern Türkiye into northwest Syria to help communities enduring terrible trauma caused by the February 6 earthquake and will continue every day, UN aid teams said Friday.
Since February 9, 143 trucks have passed through the Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam border crossings, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). “The movements continue today, they continue over the weekend and will continue every day for as long as the needs are there,” OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told journalists in Geneva.
Asked about earthquake damage to roads leading to the aid corridors, the OCHA spokesperson referred to information that “all the roads through all the crossing points are passable and you can drive there…I was myself at Bab al-Hawa a few days ago and the trucks were indeed rolling across.”
Amid massive devastation in both Türkiye and Syria after the double quake strike, relief workers continue to stress that the full extent of the disaster is still unfolding.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Thursday said earthquake damage in Syria threatens “immediate and longer-term food security” in the country.
In Türkiye, it’s estimated that more than 15 million people have been affected, while in Syria, 8.8 million have been impacted. Humanitarian assistance is urgently needed, as relief teams have seen first-hand in Aleppo, particularly after more than a decade of war.
“I was quite overwhelmed by not only the magnitude of the destruction but the loss that was inflicted on families, you know, during only 60 seconds,” said Fabrizio Carboni, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Regional Director for the Near and Middle East.
“For the first time, I saw that there was not only a crack, and cracks in the buildings, but for the first time I really saw that our colleagues, the people you talked to in Syria, they were really wounded, and something is broken.”
As part of the UN-wide response, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported Thursday that it stepped up its emergency response to nearly half a million quake-affected people in Türkiye and Syria, providing hot meals, emergency ready-to-eat food packages and family food rations.
“Families tell me they left everything behind when the earthquake hit, running for their lives. WFP’s food is a lifeline for them; while they think about their next steps in the destruction left by the earthquake, their children can eat,” said Corinne Fleischer, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and East Europe.
She added: “We have scaled up rapidly and requests for more food are coming every day from municipalities and communities. We are there for them, but WFP can’t do it alone. We urgently appeal for funding to help us reach those in need.”
Needs remain massive but the international response is gaining momentum, both in Türkiye and Syria, confirmed Caroline Holt, global director for operations at The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC): “In Türkiye, we’re very much supporting the Turkish Red Crescent on the ground to support shelter needs, with food, with wash, with health and also with cash.”
In Syria, the IFRC is working with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to support people with basic needs and household items, including health, psychosocial support and clean water. With cholera already present in Syria, access to safe water “is absolutely critical to avoid that second potential disaster, that second health disaster unfolding”, Holt said.
UN-led flash appeals for both countries were issued this week – a $1 billion request for Türkiye to help 5.2 million people for three months and a $397 million humanitarian appeal for nearly five million people in Syria – jump-started by a $50 million funding injection from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund.
Highlighting the need for sustained assistance in the region, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said more help was needed for farming communities impacted by the crisis.
They are still reeling from the disaster, not least those who have opened their homes to survivors from nearby towns and cities.
Urgent needs include assessing the extent of damage to agriculture and food supply chains, including irrigation systems, roads, markets and storage capacity.
Read more: Syria's Assad could reap rewards from aid crossing deal
Why balloons are now in public eye — and military crosshairs
Wafting across the United States and into the attention of an alarmed national and global public, a giant Chinese balloon has changed Americans' awareness of all the stuff floating in the air and how defense officials watch for it and respond.
President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. is updating its guidelines for monitoring and reacting to unknown aerial objects. That's after the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon transiting the country triggered high-stakes drama, including the U.S. shootdowns of that balloon, and three smaller ones days later.
Biden said Thursday that officials suspect the three subsequent balloons were ordinary ones. That could mean ones used for research, weather, recreational or commercial purposes. Officials have been unable to recover any of the remains of those three balloons, and late Friday the U.S. military announced it had ended the search for the objects that were shot down near Deadhorse, Alaska, and over Lake Huron on Feb. 10 and 12.
In all, the episodes opened the eyes of the public to two realities.
One: China is operating a military-linked aerial surveillance program that has targeted more than 40 countries, according to the Biden administration. China denies it.
Two: There’s a whole lot of other junk floating up there, too.
A look at why there are so many balloons up there — launched for purposes of war, weather, science, business or just goofing around; why they're getting attention now; and how the U.S. is likely to watch for and respond to slow-moving flying objects going forward.
WHAT ARE ALL THOSE BALLOONS DOING UP THERE?
Some are up there for spying or fighting. Humans have hooked bombs to balloons since at least the 1840s, when winds blew some of the balloon-borne bombs launched against Venice back on the Austrian launchers. In the U.S. Civil War, Union and Confederate soldiers floated up over front lines in balloons to assess enemy positions and direct fire.
And when it comes to peacetime uses, the cheapness of balloons makes them a favorite aerial platform for all kinds of uses, serious and idle. That includes everything down to "college fraternities with nothing better to do and $10,000,” joked Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Himes' role on the committee involved him in a congressionally mandated intelligence and military review of the most credible of sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UFOs. That review also drove home to him and other lawmakers ”how much stuff there is floating around, in particular balloons," Himes said.
For the National Weather Service, balloons are the main means of above-ground forecasting. Forecasters launch balloons twice daily from nearly 900 locations around the world, including nearly 100 in the United States.
High-altitude balloons also help scientists peer out into space from near the edges of the Earth's atmosphere. NASA runs a national balloon program office, helping coordinate launches from east Texas and other sites for universities, foreign groups and other research programs. School science classes launch balloons, wildlife watchers launch balloons.
Commercial interests also send balloons up — such as Google's effort to provide internet service via giant balloons.
And $12 gets hobby balloonists — who use balloons for ham radio or just for the pleasure of launching and tracking — balloons capable of getting up to 40,000 feet and higher.
That's roughly around the altitude that the U.S. military says the three smaller balloons were at when U.S. missiles ended their flights.
Most pilots probably wouldn't even be aware of a collision with such a balloon, said Ron Meadows, who produces balloons — with transmitters the size of a popsicle stick — for middle schools and universities to use for science education.
All it “does is report its location and speed,” Meadows said. “It's not a threat to anyone.”
Among hobby balloonists, there are suspicions that a balloon declared missing by the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Brigade was one of the ones shot down, as the publication Aviation Week Network first reported. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday the administration was not able to confirm those reports
And it's not just the United States' Mylar, foil and plastic overhead. Wind patterns known as the Westerlies sweep airborne things ranging from Beijing's tailpipe soot and the charred chunks of Siberian forest fires swinging over the Arctic and into the United States. China says its big balloon was a meteorological and research one that got picked up by the Westerlies. The U.S. says the balloon was at least partly maneuverable.
WHY ARE WE JUST NOW SPOTTING ALL THESE BALLOONS?
Short answer: Because we are just now looking for them.
Balloons' rise to global prominence got a lift starting in the past few years. Congress directed the Director of National Intelligence to pull together everything the government has learned about unidentified aerial phenomena. That included creating a Defense Department UAP task force.
Last year, in the first congressional hearing on unidentified airborne objects in a half-century, Scott W. Bray, the deputy director of Naval intelligence, told lawmakers that improved sensors, an increase in drones and other non-military unmanned aerial systems, and yes, “aerial clutter” including random balloons were leading to people noticing more unidentified airborne objects.
That awareness kicked into overdrive this month, after the U.S. military and then the U.S. public spotted the Chinese balloon floating down from the High North. While the U.S. says previous Chinese balloons have entered U.S. territory, this was the first one of them to slowly cross the United States in plain view of the public.
That balloon, and what had been growing official awareness of a Chinese military-linked balloon surveillance campaign that had targeted dozens of countries, led U.S. officials to change radar and other sensor settings, screening more closely for slow-moving objects in the air as well as fast ones.
SIDEWINDER MISSILES: A LONG-TERM BALLOON STRATEGY?
Post big Chinese balloon, U.S. defense officials are expected to keep up broader monitoring so that balloons remain on the radar, but fine-tune the response.
Biden's order to the Air Force to shoot down the three smaller airborne objects with Sidewinder missiles left him fending off Republican accusations he was too trigger-happy. Biden says all four shootdowns were warranted since the balloons could have posed dangers to civilian aircraft. Hobby balloons with payloads of only a few pounds are not covered by many FAA airspace rules.
Biden says the U.S. is developing “sharper rules” to track, monitor and potentially shoot down unknown aerial objects.
He directed national security adviser Jake Sullivan to lead an interagency team to review the procedures.
78m children don’t go to school at all: UN chief
A staggering 78 million girls and boys around the world today “don’t go to school at all” because of conflict, climate disasters and displacement – while tens of millions more receive only sporadic teaching – UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday.
Calling for more funding for education in emergencies spearheaded by the UN global fund Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN chief in a video message said no one should be denied their chance to learn.
A full 222 million children today experience blighted education, Guterres said. “To help them, 18 countries and private partners have pledged $826 million for UN global fund ECW, on the opening day of the landmark conference.”
“No matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter what barriers stand in your way, you have a right to a quality education,” he said, in an appeal for greater international efforts to ensure that more vulnerable children and youngsters get their chance to succeed.
Read more: Govt to launch countrywide school feeding programme from June: State Minister
Delivering his comments at the Education Cannot Wait High-Level Financing Conference in Geneva, the Secretary-General welcomed the fact that since it was founded in 2017, the fund had trained 87,000 teachers and given seven million children in crisis “the education they deserve”.
As pledges from 18 countries and the private sector topped $826 million on the first day of the conference, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of ECW High-Level Steering Group Gordon Brown said: “We are talking about the most isolated, the most desolate, the most neglected children of the world. We’re talking about girls who find themselves trafficked or forced into child labour or child marriage unless we can help them.”