Burkina Faso’s only eye doctor for children sees the trauma of both play and conflict

Burkina Faso’s only eye doctor for children sees the trauma of both play and conflict
Dr. Claudette Yaméogo, Burkina Faso’s only pediatric ophthalmologist checks on a patient at the Sanou Sourou University Hospital in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. (AP)
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Updated 10 July 2025
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Burkina Faso’s only eye doctor for children sees the trauma of both play and conflict

Burkina Faso’s only eye doctor for children sees the trauma of both play and conflict
  • Dr. Yaméogo who started her practice late last year said the work is daunting and often requires her to visit at no cost, families who cannot afford care or cannot make their way to the hospital where she works

BOBO-DIOULASSO: Isaka Diallo was playing with friends when a stone struck his left eye. For two weeks, his parents searched hospitals in western Burkina Faso for an eye doctor. The village clinic only prescribed painkillers. Other health workers did not know what to do.

When they eventually found Dr. Claudette Yaméogo, Burkina Faso’s only pediatric ophthalmologist, the injury had become too difficult to treat.

“The trauma has become severe,” Yaméogo said of Diallo’s condition as she attended to him recently at the Sanou Sourou University Hospital in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. “Cases like (Diallo’s) must be treated within the first six hours, but I’m seeing him two weeks later, and it’s already too late.”

It is a common problem in the country of about 23 million people, which has just 70 ophthalmologists.

Yaméogo , who started her practice late last year, said the work is daunting and often requires her to visit — at no cost — families who cannot afford care or cannot make their way to the hospital where she works.

While there is limited data available on eye defects in children in Burkina Faso or in Africa at large, an estimated 450 million children globally have a sight problem that needs treatment, according to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.

Late intervention can significantly alter a child’s future, the organization said, with many such cases in less developed countries.

In Burkina Faso, an estimated 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas. And yet ophthalmologists are concentrated in the capital, Ouagadougou, and other main cities, making them unreachable for many.

While more than 2,000 ophthalmology procedures were performed in Burkina Faso’s western Hauts-Bassins region in 2024, only 52 of those were carried out in its more rural areas, according to the Ministry of Health. Most procedures were done in the area of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s second city.

Not many people are aware of Yaméogo’s work. Even when they are, traveling to reach her often requires days of planning and financial saving.

In a further challenge to accessing care, Diallo’s family is among the 2 million people displaced by violence as extremist groups seize parts of the country.

To visit Yaméogo’s hospital from the village where they are sheltering, they had to travel about 40 kilometers (21 miles) on a motorcycle to Bobo-Dioulasso, spending 7,500 francs ($13) on transport, a high price for a small-scale farming family.

At least 70 percent of the trauma cases in children treated at the hospital come from rural areas where the risk of exposure — from conflict or from play — is higher, Yaméogo said.

Examining and treating a child is a delicate practice that requires a lot of time, something many families can’t afford. Many must return home to earn money for the treatment.

As she treated Diallo, Yaméogo noticed that the boy associated a drawing of an apple with a pepper, making her wonder: Is it that he can’t see it, or that he doesn’t know what an apple is? The fruit doesn’t grow in the region where he lives.

“There’s no fixed time for examining children,” she said. “You need a lot of patience.”

Yameogo’s work has had a “very positive impact on training future pediatricians and on the quality of ophthalmology services,” said Jean Diallo, president of the Burkinabè Society of Ophthalmology.

“A child’s eye is not the same as that of an adult, which is why we need specialists to treat problems early so the child can develop properly,” Diallo said.

He cited retinoblastoma, a retinal cancer mostly affecting young children, and congenital cataracts, eye diseases that can be cured if diagnosed early. Pediatricians won’t necessarily detect them.

During another consultation, Yaméogo told the family of 5-year-old Fatao Traoré that he would need cornea surgery as a result of an injury sustained while playing with a stick.

“Sometimes I feel a pinch in my heart,” Yaméogo said as she examined the boy after they arrived from their farm on the outskirts of Bobo-Dioulasso. “His iris has detached from his cornea, so he needs to be hospitalized.”

The father, looking overwhelmed, sighed, unsure of where the money for the child’s surgery would come. On paper, Burkina Faso’s government covers the cost of medications and care for children under 5, but often no drugs are available in hospitals, meaning families must buy them elsewhere.

A surgery like the one for Traoré can cost 100,000 CFA ($179), several months’ income for the family.


New Trump human resources czar distances himself from Elon Musk

New Trump human resources czar distances himself from Elon Musk
Updated 22 July 2025
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New Trump human resources czar distances himself from Elon Musk

New Trump human resources czar distances himself from Elon Musk
  • Kupor said he had told Trump and other people in the White House that “my job is to do the agenda that the president lays out to the best I can.”

WASHINGTON: The new chief of the agency spearheading efforts to slash the federal workforce said on Monday he had no personal ties to tech billionaire and former Trump adviser Elon Musk, pledging to faithfully execute President Donald Trump’s agenda.

“I have zero personal relationship with Elon Musk. I have talked to Elon Musk once on the phone in my life,” Scott Kupor, who was sworn in to lead the Office of Personnel Management earlier this month, told reporters.

The comments underscored lingering questions about the loyalties of Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs among Trump administration officials following a public spat between Trump and Musk that led to a deep rift between the two former allies.

Kupor said he had told Trump and other people in the White House that “my job is to do the agenda that the president lays out to the best I can.”

“But I’m not going to do it consistent with someone else’s objectives that are inconsistent with what the president wants to do,” he added.

Musk, who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump win November’s presidential election, led the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to slash the budget and cut the federal workforce until his departure in late May to refocus on his tech empire, including electric vehicle maker Tesla .

While Trump hailed Musk’s tenure upon his departure, the president quickly pulled the nomination of Musk ally and tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. Reuters previously reported that Musk was disappointed by Isaacman’s removal.

The president also threatened to cancel billions of dollars worth of contracts between the federal government and Musk’s companies after Musk denounced Trump’s tax-cut and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination.”

Prior to taking the helm at OPM, Kupor was a partner at Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which invests in Musk’s AI startup Xai as well as SpaceX. 


White House restricts WSJ access to Trump over Epstein story

White House restricts WSJ access to Trump over Epstein story
Updated 22 July 2025
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White House restricts WSJ access to Trump over Epstein story

White House restricts WSJ access to Trump over Epstein story
  • The punishment of the Wall Street Journal marks at least the second time the Trump administration has moved to exclude a major news outlet from the press pool over its reporting

WASHINGTON: The White House on Monday barred The Wall Street Journal from traveling with US President Donald Trump during his upcoming visit to Scotland, after the newspaper reported that he wrote a bawdy birthday message to his former friend, alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The move comes after Trump on Friday sued the WSJ and its media magnate owner Rupert Murdoch for at least $10 billion over the allegation in the article, which Trump denies.

The Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case has threatened to split the Republican’s far-right Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, with some of his supporters calling for a full release of the so-called “Epstein Files.”

The punishment of the Wall Street Journal marks at least the second time the Trump administration has moved to exclude a major news outlet from the press pool over its reporting, having barred Associated Press journalists from multiple key events since February.

“As the appeals court confirmed, The Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces,” said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“Due to The Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board (Air Force One).”

Trump departs this weekend for Scotland, where he owns two golf resorts and will meet with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice, under Trump-appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi, said there was no evidence suggesting disgraced financier Epstein had kept a “client list” or was blackmailing powerful figures before his death in 2019.

In its story on Thursday, the WSJ reported that Trump had written a suggestive birthday letter to Epstein in 2003, illustrated with a naked woman and alluding to a shared “secret.”

Epstein, a longtime friend of Trump and multiple other high-profile men, was found hanging dead in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited dozens of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida.

The case sparked conspiracy theories, especially among Trump’s far-right voters, about an alleged international cabal of wealthy pedophiles.

Epstein’s death — declared a suicide — before he could face trial supercharged that narrative.

Since returning to power in January, Trump has moved to increase control over the press covering the White House.

In February, the Oval Office stripped the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its nearly century-old authority to oversee which outlets have access to certain restricted presidential events, with Trump saying that he was now “calling the shots” on media access.

In a statement, the WHCA president urged the White House to “restore” the Journal to the pool.

“This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment,” said WHCA President Weijia Jiang.

“Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media.”

 


Zelensky names new ambassadors during Ukraine political shakeup

Yulia Svyrydenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine. (X @Svyrydenko_Y)
Yulia Svyrydenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine. (X @Svyrydenko_Y)
Updated 22 July 2025
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Zelensky names new ambassadors during Ukraine political shakeup

Yulia Svyrydenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine. (X @Svyrydenko_Y)
  • Zelensky launched a major government reshuffle last week, promoting Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, who had served as economy minister and is well known in Washington, to head the cabinet as prime minister

MOSCOW: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed over a dozen new ambassadors on Monday, during a big shakeup that has seen him replace top cabinet officials and envoys to shore up relations with Washington and isolate Russia internationally.

The new envoys named on Monday include ambassadors to NATO members Belgium, Canada, Estonia and Spain, as well as major donor Japan and regional heavyweights South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

Ukraine's deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration Olha Stefanishyna in Kyiv. (AFP file photo)

Zelensky launched a major government reshuffle last week, promoting Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, who had served as economy minister and is well known in Washington, to head the cabinet as prime minister.

Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna is set to become Ukraine’s new envoy to the United States, as Ukraine seeks to mend ties with the Trump administration.

In remarks to the diplomatic corps released by his office, Zelensky said envoys needed to support “everything that causes Russia pain for its war.”

“While the content of our relationship with America has transformed following the change in administration, the goal remains unchanged: Ukraine must withstand Russia’s strikes,” Zelensky said. 

 

 


A recap of the trial over the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protesters

A recap of the trial over the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protesters
Updated 22 July 2025
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A recap of the trial over the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protesters

A recap of the trial over the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protesters
  • US lawyer William Kanellis said that out of about 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters investigated by the federal government, only 18 were arrested

BOSTON: The Trump administration’s campaign of arresting and deporting college faculty and students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations violates their First Amendment rights, lawyers for an association representing university professors argued in federal court.

The lawsuit, filed by several university associations, is one of the first against President Donald Trump and members of his administration to go to trial. US District Judge William Young heard closing arguments Monday in Boston.

He did not say or indicate when or how he would rule. But he had some sharp words when talking about Trump.

“The president is a master of speech and he certainly brilliantly uses his right to free speech,” Young told federal lawyers. But whether Trump “recognizes whether other people have any right to free speech is questionable,” he added.

Plaintiffs are asking Young to rule that the policy violates the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act, a law governing how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.

No ideological deportation policy

Over the course of the trial, plaintiffs argued that the crackdown has silenced scholars and targeted more than 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters.

“The goal is to chill speech. The goal is to silence students and scholars who wish to express pro-Palestinian views,” said Alexandra Conlan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

She went on to say that this chilling effect caused by “intimidating and scaring students and scholars” is “exactly what the First Amendment was meant to prevent.”

But federal lawyers and a top State Department official testifying for the government insisted there was no ideological deportation policy as the plaintiffs contend.

John Armstrong, the senior bureau official in Bureau of Consular Affairs, testified that visa revocations were based on longstanding immigration law. Armstrong acknowledged he played a role in the visa revocation of several high-profile activists, including Rumeysa Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil, and was shown memos endorsing their removal.

Armstrong also insisted that visa revocations were not based on protected speech and rejected accusations that there was a policy of targeting someone for their ideology.

“It’s silly to suggest there is a policy,” he said.

Were student protesters targeted?

US lawyer William Kanellis said that out of about 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters investigated by the federal government, only 18 were arrested. He said not only is targeting such protesters not a policy of the US government, he said, it’s “not even a statistical anomaly.”

Out of the 5,000 names reviewed, investigators wrote reports on about 200 who had potentially violated US law, Peter Hatch of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations Unit testified. Until this year, Hatch said, he could not recall a student protester being referred for a visa revocation.

Among the report subjects was Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Khalil, who was released last month after 104 days in federal immigration detention. Khalil has become a symbol of Trump’s clampdown on the protests.

Another was the Tufts University student Ozturk, who was released in May from six weeks in detention after being arrested on a suburban Boston street. She said she was illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year criticizing her school’s response to the war in Gaza.

Hatch said most leads were dropped when investigators could not find ties to protests and the investigations were not inspired by a new policy but rather by existing procedures in place at least since he took the job in 2019.

Patrick Cunningham, an assistant special Agent in charge with Homeland Security investigations in Boston and who was involved in Ozturk’s arrest, said he was only told the Tuft University student was being arrested because her visa was revoked.

But he also acknowledged being provided a memo from the State Department about Ozturk as well as a copy of an op-ed she co-wrote last year criticizing her university’s response to Israel and the war in Gaza. He also admitted that he has focused more on immigration cases since Trump’s inauguration, compared to the drugs smuggling and money laundering cases he handled in the past.

Professors spoke of scaling back activism

During the trial, several green card-holding professors described scaling back activism, public criticism and international travel following Khalil’s and Ozturk’s arrests.

Nadje Al-Ali, a green card holder from Germany and professor at Brown University, said she canceled a planned research trip and a fellowship to Iraq and Lebanon, fearing that “stamps from those two countries would raise red flags” upon her return. She also declined to participate in anti-Trump protests and abandoned plans to write an article that was to be a feminist critique of Hamas.

“I felt it was too risky,” Al-Ali said.

Kanellis, a US government attorney, said “feelings” and “anxiety” about possible deportation do not equate to imminent harm from a legal standpoint, which he argued plaintiffs failed to establish in their arguments.

 


US withdrawing 700 Marines from Los Angeles: Pentagon

US withdrawing 700 Marines from Los Angeles: Pentagon
Updated 22 July 2025
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US withdrawing 700 Marines from Los Angeles: Pentagon

US withdrawing 700 Marines from Los Angeles: Pentagon

WASHINGTON: The 700 US Marines in Los Angeles are being withdrawn, ending a contentious deployment of the troops in the city, the Pentagon announced on Monday.

President Donald Trump ordered thousands of National Guard and hundreds of Marines into Los Angeles last month in response to protests over federal immigration sweeps — a move opposed by city leaders and California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “has directed the redeployment of the 700 Marines whose presence sent a clear message: lawlessness will not be tolerated,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.

“Their rapid response, unwavering discipline, and unmistakable presence were instrumental in restoring order and upholding the rule of law,” he added.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also announced the withdrawal of the Marines in a post on X, saying it was “another win” for the city and that the presence of the troops was “an unnecessary deployment.”

The removal of the Marines comes after the Pentagon said last week that Hegseth had ordered the withdrawal of 2,000 National Guard personnel from Los Angeles, roughly halving the deployment of those troops in the city.

As a so-called “sanctuary city” with hundreds of thousands of undocumented people, Los Angeles has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration since the Republican returned to office in January.

After immigration enforcement raids spurred unrest and protests last month, Trump — who has repeatedly exaggerated the scale of the unrest — dispatched the National Guard and Marines to quell the disruption.

It was the first time since 1965 that a US president deployed the National Guard against the wishes of a state governor.