UN health agency declares monkeypox a global emergency

A person arrives to receive a monkeypox vaccination at the Northwell Health Immediate Care Center at Fire Island-Cherry Grove, in New York, on July 15, 2022. (Reuters)
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Updated 23 July 2022
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UN health agency declares monkeypox a global emergency

  • Declaring a global emergency means the monkeypox outbreak is an “extraordinary event”
  • The emergency declaration mostly serves as a plea to draw more global resources and attention to an outbreak

LONDON: The World Health Organization (WHO) said the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation that now qualifies as a global emergency.
Saturday’s declaration could spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.
Although monkeypox has been established in parts of central and West Africa for decades, it was not known to spark large outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread widely among people until May, when authorities detected dozens of epidemics in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
Declaring a global emergency means the monkeypox outbreak is an “extraordinary event” that could spill over into more countries and requires a coordinated global response. WHO previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016 and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio.
The emergency declaration mostly serves as a plea to draw more global resources and attention to an outbreak. Past announcements had mixed impact, given that the UN health agency is largely powerless in getting countries to act.
Last month, WHO’s expert committee said the worldwide monkeypox outbreak did not yet amount to an international emergency, but the panel convened this week to reevaluate the situation.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 74 countries since about May. To date, monkeypox deaths have only been reported in Africa, where a more dangerous version of the virus is spreading, mainly in Nigeria and Congo.
In Africa, monkeypox mainly spreads to people from infected wild animals like rodents, in limited outbreaks that typically have not crossed borders. In Europe, North America and elsewhere, however, monkeypox is spreading among people with no links to animals or recent travel to Africa.
WHO’s top monkeypox expert, Dr. Rosamund Lewis, said this week that 99 percent of all the monkeypox cases beyond Africa were in men and that of those, 98 percent involved men who have sex with men. Experts suspect the monkeypox outbreaks in Europe and North America were spread via sex at two raves in Belgium and Spain.
Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University, said it was surprising WHO hadn’t already declared monkeypox a global emergency, explaining that the conditions were arguably met weeks ago.
Some experts have questioned whether such a declaration would help, arguing the disease isn’t severe enough to warrant the attention and that rich countries battling monkeypox already have the funds to do so; most people recover without needing medical attention, although the lesions may be painful.
“I think it would be better to be proactive and overreact to the problem instead of waiting to react when it’s too late,” Head said. He added that WHO’s emergency declaration could help donors like the World Bank make funds available to stop the outbreaks both in the West and in Africa, where animals are the likely natural reservoir of monkeypox.
In the US, some experts have speculated whether monkeypox might be on the verge of becoming an entrenched sexually transmitted disease in the country, like gonorrhea, herpes and HIV.
“The bottom line is we’ve seen a shift in the epidemiology of monkeypox where there’s now widespread, unexpected transmission,” said Dr. Albert Ko, a professor of public health and epidemiology at Yale University. “There are some genetic mutations in the virus that suggest why that may be happening, but we do need a globally-coordinated response to get it under control,” he said.
Ko called for testing to be immediately scaled up rapidly, saying that similar to the early days of COVID-19, that there were significant gaps in surveillance.
“The cases we are seeing are just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “The window has probably closed for us to quickly stop the outbreaks in Europe and the US, but it’s not too late to stop monkeypox from causing huge damage to poorer countries without the resources to handle it.”
In the US, some experts have speculated that monkeypox might become entrenched there as the newest sexually transmitted disease, with officials estimating that 1.5 million men are at high risk of being infected.
Dr. Placide Mbala, a virologist who directs the global health department at Congo’s Institute of National Biomedical Research, said he hoped any global efforts to stop monkeypox would be equitable. Although countries including Britain, Canada, Germany and the US have ordered millions of vaccine doses, none have gone to Africa.
“The solution needs to be global,” Mbala said, adding that any vaccines sent to Africa would be used to target those at highest risk, like hunters in rural areas.
“Vaccination in the West might help stop the outbreak there, but there will still be cases in Africa,” he said. “Unless the problem is solved here, the risk to the rest of the world will remain.”


Immigrant rights advocates claim US violated court order by deporting migrants to South Sudan

Updated 56 min 37 sec ago
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Immigrant rights advocates claim US violated court order by deporting migrants to South Sudan

  • The advocates made the request in a motion directed to a federal judge in Boston

BOSTON: Immigrant rights advocates accused the Trump administration on Tuesday of deporting around a dozen migrants from countries including Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan in violation of a court order and asked a judge to order their return.

The advocates made the request in a motion directed to a federal judge in Boston who had barred the Trump administration from swiftly deporting migrants to countries other than their own without first hearing any concerns they had that they might be tortured or persecuted if sent there.


Maritime security under threat from ‘emerging dangers,’ UN chief warns

Updated 20 May 2025
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Maritime security under threat from ‘emerging dangers,’ UN chief warns

  • Houthi Red Sea campaign ‘increased tensions in an already volatile region’
  • Antonio Guterres calls for three-point plan to address challenges

NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of rising threats to global maritime transport at a high-level Security Council meeting on Tuesday.

It follows almost two years of turmoil in the Red Sea, a vital shipping lane connecting global trade via the Suez Canal.

Yemen’s Houthi militia launched a campaign in late 2023 to prevent Israel-linked shipping from transiting the Red Sea, claiming to act in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The US responded with Operation Prosperity Guardian, a military campaign to target Houthi launch sites and infrastructure.

The EU contributed with EUNAVFOR Aspides, while Israel later responded to Houthi attacks with extensive strikes on Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, and the Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeidah.

Tuesday’s Security Council meeting was chaired by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister.

Guterres told the meeting: “Without maritime security, there can be no global security.

“From time immemorial, maritime routes have bound the world together. They have long been the primary means for the trade and transport of not only people, goods and commodities, but also cultures and ideas.”

However, maritime spaces are “increasingly under strain” from traditional threats and “emerging dangers,” Guterres added.

He highlighted contested boundaries, the depletion of natural resources, conflict and crime as key issues affecting maritime security.

The first quarter of 2025 saw a “sharp upward reversal” in reported piracy and armed robbery at sea, Guterres said.

He highlighted the Houthi Red Sea campaign, warning it had “disrupted global trade and increased tensions in an already volatile region.”

Earlier this month, the US reached a ceasefire deal with the Houthis following mediation by Oman.

However, the militia and Israel continue to trade strikes.

Guterres called for three measures to improve global maritime security: Respect for international law; efforts to address the root causes of maritime insecurity; and partnerships involving “everyone with a stake in maritime spaces.”

The international legal framework for maritime security “is only as strong as states’ commitment” to its implementation, he said.

Globally, more must be done “to reduce the likelihood that desperate people will turn to crime and other activities that threaten maritime security,” he added.

Guterres said: “We must involve everyone with a stake in maritime spaces. From coastal communities to governments and regional groups. To shipping companies, flag registries, the fishing and extraction industries, insurers and port operators.

“Let’s take action to support and secure maritime spaces, and the communities and people counting on them.”


Indonesian gig drivers protest demanding lower app fees

Updated 20 May 2025
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Indonesian gig drivers protest demanding lower app fees

  • Motorbike and scooter drivers who form the backbone of Indonesia’s sprawling gig economy earn up to 150,000 rupiah ($10) a day

JAKARTA: Thousands of drivers from ride-hailing and food delivery apps protested in Indonesia on Tuesday, demanding a 10-percent cap on commission fees.

Hundreds of drivers gathered in the streets of the capital Jakarta, driving their motorbikes and waving flags.

Thousands more in Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya drove to the offices of ride-hailing apps GoJek and Grab, before rallying in front of the governor’s office, an AFP journalist saw.

“Many of our friends got into accidents on the road, died on the road because they have to chase their income,” Raden Igun Wicaksono, chairman of the driver’s union Garda Indonesia, told AFP.

“It’s about lives, not about business calculation.”

Drivers are also demanding the end of discounted fare programs and calling on lawmakers to meet with the drivers’ association and app companies.

Motorbike and scooter drivers who form the backbone of Indonesia’s sprawling gig economy earn up to 150,000 rupiah ($10) a day, but costs including app commissions and fuel eat into their income.

Gojek — which alongside Singapore’s Grab is among Asia’s most valuable startups — said it was committed to “supporting the long-term welfare of our driver partners.” 

But lowering its 20-percent commission fee, which complied with regulations, was “not a viable solution,” according to Ade Mulya, head of public policy for Gojek’s parent company GoTo.


Pentagon chief orders review of US withdrawal from Afghanistan

Updated 20 May 2025
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Pentagon chief orders review of US withdrawal from Afghanistan

  • A special review panel will “thoroughly examine previous investigations,” Hegseth said in a memo
  • “This team will ensure ACCOUNTABILITY to the American people”

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday ordered a Pentagon review of the chaotic 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has long been a target of Republican criticism.

“I have concluded that we need to conduct a comprehensive review to ensure that accountability for this event is met and that the complete picture is provided to the American people,” Hegseth wrote in a memo.

A special review panel will “thoroughly examine previous investigations, to include but not limited to, findings of fact, sources, witnesses, and analyze the decision making that led to one of America’s darkest and deadliest international moments,” the memo said.

“This team will ensure ACCOUNTABILITY to the American people and the warfighters of our great Nation,” it added.

The US withdrawal saw Taliban fighters sweep aside Afghan forces, forcing the last American troops to mount an evacuation from Kabul’s airport that got more than 120,000 people out of the country in a matter of days.

On August 26, 2021, a suicide bomber targeted crowds of people on the perimeter of Kabul airport who were desperate to get on a flight out of the country, killing more than 170 people, among them 13 American troops.

Joe Biden, who was US president during the withdrawal, defended the decision to leave Afghanistan, which critics have said helped cause the catastrophic collapse of Afghan forces.

That paved the way for the Taliban to return to power two decades after their first government was toppled by American forces in the wake of the September 11 attacks.


Muslim Brotherhood ‘threat to national cohesion’: French report

Updated 20 May 2025
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Muslim Brotherhood ‘threat to national cohesion’: French report

  • The report pointed to the spread of Islamism “from the bottom up” and at the municipal level
  • It highlighted the “subversive nature of the project,” saying it aims “to gradually bring about changes to local or national rules“

PARIS: The Muslim Brotherhood movement is a “threat to national cohesion” in France and action must be taken to stop the spread of “political Islamism,” according to a report to be presented to President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday.

“The reality of this threat, even if it is long-term and does not involve violent action, poses a risk of damage to the fabric of society and republican institutions... and, more broadly, to national cohesion,” said the report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP on Tuesday.

The report, prepared by two senior civil servants, is to be examined by the Defense Council on Wednesday.

France and Germany have the biggest Muslim populations among European Union countries.

The report pointed to the spread of Islamism “from the bottom up” and at the municipal level, adding the phenomenon constituted “a threat in the short to medium term.”

In France, the movement is “based on a solid structure, but political Islamism is spreading primarily at the local level,” the authors stressed.

“Resolute and long-term action on the ground seems necessary to stem the rise of political Islamism,” they said.

The report highlighted the “subversive nature of the project,” saying it aims “to gradually bring about changes to local or national rules,” particularly those concerning secularism and gender equality.

Such “municipal Islamism” risks affecting the public sphere and local politics, the report said, pointing to “the creation of increasingly numerous Islamist ecosystems.”

France’s tough-talking Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau expressed concern on Tuesday about “a low-level Islamism” whose “ultimate goal is to turn the entire French society to Sharia law.”

But the report authors said that “no recent document demonstrates the desire of Muslims in France to establish an Islamic state in France or to enforce Sharia law there.”

Muslims in France (Musulmans de France), formerly the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, is identified as “the national branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in France.”

“We are not dealing with aggressive separatism” but a “subtle (...) yet no less subversive aim for the institutions,” the authors said.

The report estimates that there are 139 places of worship affiliated with Muslims of France, with an additional 68 considered close to the federation.

This represents seven percent of the 2,800 Muslim places of worship listed in France, the report said.

The Islamist movement is losing its influence in the Arab world and “focusing its efforts on Europe,” it added.

A public awareness campaign must be combined with renewed efforts to promote a “secular discourse” as well as “strong and positive signals to the Muslim community” including the teaching of Arabic, the report said.