Virus hit ‘like a bomb’ as toll rises in Ecuador’s business capital

A doctor tests a man for COVID-19 in Cisne 2 neighborhood, along the banks of the Estero Salado river in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on April 14, 2020 during the novel coronavirus pandemic. (AFP)
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Updated 15 April 2020
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Virus hit ‘like a bomb’ as toll rises in Ecuador’s business capital

  • Guayaquil accounts for more than 70 percent of Ecuador’s 7,600 infections since February 29
  • Now authorities are forecasting a death toll of more than 3,500 in the city

GUAYAQUIL: Ecuador’s economic capital Guayaquil is reeling from the most aggressive outbreak of COVID-19 in Latin America after the pandemic hit the city “like a bomb,” its mayor said.
Cynthia Viteri has emerged from her own bout with the virus to battle the worst crisis the port city of nearly 3 million people has known in modern times.
“There is no space for either the living or the dead. That’s how severe the pandemic is in Guayaquil,” Viteri told AFP in a phone interview Monday.
Mortuaries, funeral homes and hospital services are overwhelmed, and Viteri said the actual death toll from the virus is likely much higher than the official national figure of 369.
Guayaquil accounts for more than 70 percent of Ecuador’s 7,600 infections since February 29.

The 54-year-old mayor admitted the city was “unprepared” for the onslaught: “Nobody believed that what we saw in Wuhan, people falling dead in the streets, would ever happen here.”
Now authorities are forecasting a death toll of more than 3,500 in the city and its hinterland in the coming months.
Guayaquil proved especially vulnerable to the virus because of its air links to Europe, Viteri said.
The first case of infection — Ecuador’s “patient zero” — was of an elderly Ecuadoran woman who arrived from Spain.
“This is where the bomb exploded, this is where patient zero arrived, and since it was vacation time, people traveled abroad, some to Europe or the United States, and our people who lived in Europe came here,” Viteri said.
“And when they arrived there were no controls like they should have been if we had known that this was already coming by air. And the city of Guayaquil simply convulsed. “
Too late, the city went into lockdown as authorities imposed a 15-hour curfew and bodies began to accumulate in homes, and even on the streets.
“The health system was obviously overwhelmed, the morgues overflowed, the funeral homes overflowed.”
Guayaquil’s authorities “are not the villains of the world,” Viteri insisted.
“We are the victims of a virus that came by air” that she said echoed the yellow fever that devastated the city when it came over the sea from Panama in 1842.
“A bomb exploded here. Other places received only the shock waves. But the crater remained here in Guayaquil.”

Viteri said the number of coronavirus deaths in the city is likely far higher than the official figure “for a single reason — because there are no tests to determine how many people are actually infected in the city and in the country.”
She continued: “Patients are dying without ever having had a test. And there is no space, time or resources to be able to carry out subsequent examinations and to know whether or not they died from the coronavirus.
“In the month of March alone, there were 1,500 more deaths than in the month of March last year.
“The true number will be known once this tragedy, this nightmare, ends.”
People are continuing to “collapse in their houses, in the hospitals, all over the place,” she said, because the normal medical services are overwhelmed.
“There are still women who need to give birth, people are still being run over, people still have diabetes and hypertension.”
She said just last month alone “100 people” had died because they were unable to get dialysis treatment.
“Why? Because there is no space. Because we are stretched to breaking point, our doctors have fallen sick too.”
Around 50 people from her own municipal staff had died, she said.
Viteri said her task now was to bring all the city’s financial resources to bear on buying test kits, with $12 million already earmarked, to be able to detect, isolate and monitor positive cases.
“For me there is no other way,” she said.
“We have to look after the living, and provide a decent burial for the dead. We are living in a war.
Responding to a spate of nightmarish media stories about bodies accumulating in hospitals, homes and streets, the city was making two new cemeteries available to bury the dead and relieve pressure on city morgues.
“The bodies are being collected daily,” Viteri said.
“But this is very hard because it means there is mourning every day in Guayaquil.”


Senegal heads to the polls amid fiscal crisis, threat of unrest

Updated 14 November 2024
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Senegal heads to the polls amid fiscal crisis, threat of unrest

DAKAR: Senegal will vote in legislative elections on Sunday to determine whether the new president and government can gain control over the national assembly and push through their reform agenda.
The high stakes in the election threaten to spark renewed unrest following a period of calm.
The run-up to the presidential election in March saw some of the worst violence in the country’s recent history.
Campaigning has grown heated recently and comes at a precarious time for the new government.
It is navigating a spiraling fiscal crisis that could undermine its ability to deliver on promises to boost the economy and create jobs.
Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, known for his fiery rhetoric, said this week that his supporters had come under attack and urged them to take revenge.
He has also warned that restraint should not be mistaken for weakness.
“Let them not say that we’ve changed and that since we came, everyone can do as they please,” he said on Tuesday evening.
“We could have used our strength, but we didn’t.”
Top priorities for Senegalese voters are jobs and the economy, as inflation has squeezed livelihoods and the nation’s growing youth population struggles to find employment.
More than 7 million registered voters can vote for candidates for the 165-seat assembly, choosing between 41 registered parties or other entities. Polls open at 8 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.
“We want a lower cost of living, affordable water, electricity, and transport, so everyone can work and live decently,” said Cheikh Diagne, a street seller in downtown Dakar.
Babacar Ndiaye, research director at the think tank WATHI, said that Senegalese have historically favored the president during previous parliamentary elections.
“When they choose a president, they give that president the means to work and govern,” he said.
“Every time a president has won, he has also gained an absolute majority in the National Assembly.”
The West African country is plunging toward a debt crisis after the new government said it had discovered the budget deficit was much wider than reported by the previous government.
A $1.9 billion IMF program is on hold while the government audit is reviewed.
The main threat to the ruling party Pastef’s ambitions is the unexpected alliance of two opposition parties, including the Republic party headed by former Prime Minister Macky Sall.
The race also includes two smaller opposition coalitions.
The one led by Dakar’s mayor, Barthelemy Dias, has clashed with supporters of Pastef.
Mariam Wane Ly, a former parliamentarian and trailblazer for women in politics in Senegal, said the campaign period had given leaders a chance to explain their agendas.
She expected Pastef to win the majority it seeks.
“I think it’s going to make up for all the unhappiness,” she said.


Brother of late Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed also accused of sexual violence: BBC

Justice for Harrods Survivors group said it had received more than 420 inquiries, mainly related to the store. (File/AFP)
Updated 14 November 2024
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Brother of late Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed also accused of sexual violence: BBC

  • Three women say the late Salah Fayed assaulted them during the period when he jointly owned the department store with his brother, the broadcaster said

LONDON: Three women formerly employed by Harrods have accused the brother of its late boss Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual violence, following hundreds of similar claims against the former owner of the luxury London store, the BBC reported Thursday.
They say the late Salah Fayed assaulted them during the period when he jointly owned the department store with his brother, the broadcaster said.
The women alleged they were abused in London, the south of France and Monaco between 1989 and 1997.
The report follows a slew of claims in recent weeks by hundreds of women against the Egyptian former Harrods and Fulham Football Club owner Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual assault including rape.
Salah Fayed died in 2010 and Mohamed Al-Fayed died last year aged 94.
One of the three women behind the most recent accusations, named Helen, who waived her right to anonymity, told the BBC that she had been working for the retailer for two years when Mohamed Al-Fayed raped her in 1989 during a business trip in Dubai.
He then offered her a personal assistant job with his brother Salah, who she said went on to drug her and rape her while she was unconscious.
Mohamed Al-Fayed “shared me with his brother,” she said.
She said she had stayed silent about the experience, having signed a non-disclosure agreement, a document the BBC reported having seen.
The second woman said Salah Fayed abused her during a trip to Monaco, while the third woman, who was hired at the age of 19 in 1997, said she was sexually assaulted in his Monaco apartment.
Contacted by AFP, Harrods said it “supports the bravery of these women in coming forward” and encourages survivors “to come forward and make their claims” to the company, which is offering compensation and counselling support.
“We also hope that they are looking at every appropriate avenue to them in their pursuit of justice, whether that be Harrods, the police or the Fayed family and estate,” the company said.
On Tuesday, the New York Times published the claims of a victim accusing another brother of Mohamed Al-Fayed, Ali, aged 80, of knowing about the “trafficking” of women.
Allegations have mounted since the airing of a BBC documentary in September that detailed multiple claims of rape and sexual assault by Mohamed Al-Fayed.
The Justice for Harrods Survivors group said it had received more than 420 inquiries, mainly related to the store but also regarding Fulham Football Club, the Ritz Hotel in Paris and other Fayed entities.
London’s Metropolitan Police said earlier this month that it was “actively reviewing 21 allegations reported to the Metropolitan Police prior to Mohamed Al-Fayed’s passing... to determine if any additional investigative steps are available or there are things we could have done better.”


Democrats in Congress urge Biden to sanction Israelis over West Bank violence

Updated 14 November 2024
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Democrats in Congress urge Biden to sanction Israelis over West Bank violence

  • “We write to express our deep concern about the rise in settler violence, settlement expansion, and measures adopted to weaken the Palestinian Authority,” said the letter
  • The letter, signed by 17 senators and 71 House members, said Israeli settlers have carried out over 1,270 recorded attacks against Palestinians

WASHINGTON: Nearly 90 Democratic lawmakers urged US President Joe Biden to sanction members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over anti-Palestinian violence in the West Bank, according to a letter released on Thursday.
Urging Biden to send a message to US partners before he leaves office, the members of Congress said Israeli cabinet members Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had incited violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied territory.
“We write to express our deep concern about the rise in settler violence, settlement expansion, and measures adopted to weaken the Palestinian Authority and otherwise destabilize the West Bank,” they said in the letter.
The letter, signed by 17 senators and 71 House members, said Israeli settlers have carried out over 1,270 recorded attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, averaging more than three violent attacks per day.
The letter was dated Oct. 29 but made public on Thursday because the lawmakers had not had a response from the White House, three of the members of Congress said.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen and Democratic House of Representatives members Rosa DeLauro and Sean Casten, who are leading the letter effort, told reporters that Biden has the authority to impose sanctions under an existing executive order.
Doing so would send a message not just to Israel and the Palestinians, but also to US allies elsewhere in the world, that the United States will push back on humanitarian issues, they said.
“We think it’s more important than ever that President Biden right now states that the United States is not going to be a rubber stamp to the Netanyahu government’s extreme actions,” Van Hollen said.
Spokespeople for the White House and Israeli embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The United States has for decades backed a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians and urged Israel not to expand settlements.
The West Bank is among territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and where Palestinians, with international support, seek statehood. Most world powers deem Israeli settlements in the area illegal. Israel disputes that, citing historical claims to the West Bank and describing it as a security bulwark.
Netanyahu and his allies celebrated the re-election this month of Donald Trump, a staunch but sometimes unpredictable ally of Israel. In his first term the Republican president-elect delivered major wins for the Israeli leader. Additionally, Smotrich, who also wields a defense ministry supervisory role for settlers as part of his coalition deal with Netanyahu, said this week he hoped Israel would extend sovereignty into the occupied West Bank in 2025 and that he would push the government to engage the incoming Trump administration to gain Washington’s support.


Measles cases surge 20 percent, global study shows

Updated 14 November 2024
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Measles cases surge 20 percent, global study shows

  • “Measles vaccine has saved more lives than any other vaccine in the past 50 years,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said
  • “We must invest in immunization for every person, no matter where they live“

GENEVA: Measles infections soared by a fifth last year to over 10 million cases globally, revealing alarming gaps in vaccine coverage, a study showed Thursday.
Worldwide, there were an estimated 10.3 million measles cases in 2023, according to a joint publication by the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
That marked a 20-percent increase from 2022, the study showed, saying that “inadequate immunization coverage globally is driving the surge in cases.”
Measles is one of the world’s most infectious diseases. At least 95-percent coverage with two doses of the measles/rubella vaccine is needed to prevent outbreaks.
But in 2023, only 83 percent of children worldwide received their first dose of the measles vaccine through routine health services — the same level as in 2022 but down from 86 percent before the pandemic.
Only 74 percent received their second dose last year, the study showed.
“Measles vaccine has saved more lives than any other vaccine in the past 50 years,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a joint statement.
“To save even more lives and stop this deadly virus from harming the most vulnerable, we must invest in immunization for every person, no matter where they live.”
CDC director Mandy Cohen said: “The measles vaccine is our best protection against the virus, and we must continue to invest in efforts to increase access.”
As a result of global gaps in vaccination coverage, 57 countries experienced large and disruptive measles outbreaks in 2023, up from 36 countries a year earlier, the study showed.
All regions except the Americas were impacted, it said, with nearly half of all large and disruptive outbreaks occurring in the African region.
The virus that can cause a rash, fever and flu-like symptoms but also particularly severe complications in young children is estimated to have killed 107,500 people in 2023, most of them under the age of five.
This marks an eight-percent decrease from the previous year.
The agencies explained that the decline was mainly due to the fact that the surge in cases occurred in countries and regions where children with measles were less likely to die, due to better nutritional status and access to health services.
“Far too many children are still dying from this preventable disease,” they said.
The agencies cautioned that a global target of eliminating measles as an endemic threat by 2030 was “under threat.”
By the end of last year, 82 countries had achieved or maintained measles elimination.
After Brazil this week reverified having eliminated measles, WHO’s Americas region is once again considered free of endemic measles.
All regions, with the exception of Africa, meanwhile count at least one country that has eliminated the disease.
The agencies called for urgent and targeted efforts to ensure all children are reached with two vaccine doses, especially in the African and Eastern Mediterranean regions and in fragile and conflict-affected areas.
“This requires achieving and maintaining high-performing routine immunization programs and delivering high-quality, high-coverage campaigns when those programs are not yet sufficient to protect every child,” they said.


NATO and the EU press China to help stop North Korea’s support for the war on Ukraine

Updated 14 November 2024
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NATO and the EU press China to help stop North Korea’s support for the war on Ukraine

  • NATO says Russia is sending missile technology to North Korea in return
  • NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that “China bears particular responsibility here, to use its influence in Pyongyang and Moscow to ensure they cease these actions”

BRUSSELS: NATO and the European Union are ramping up efforts to persuade China to help get North Korea to stop sending troops and other support to Russia to back its war on Ukraine.
Up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia’s Kursk border region to help beat back Ukrainian forces there, according to US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments. NATO says Russia is sending missile technology to North Korea in return.
With Russia exploiting its military advantage in Ukraine, the United States wants its allies to exert political pressure on China to rein in North Korea. Since Pyongyang and Beijing established diplomatic ties in 1949, their relationship has been described as being “as close as lips and teeth.”
One political lever is the threat of any increased Western activity in China’s backyard, the Asia-Pacific region. Just last week, the EU sealed security pacts with regional powers Japan and South Korea.
In an opinion piece for Politico last week, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that “China bears particular responsibility here, to use its influence in Pyongyang and Moscow to ensure they cease these actions. Beijing cannot pretend to promote peace while turning a blind eye to increasing aggression.”
On a visit to Latvia on Thursday, Rutte warned that the exchanges of missile technology in particular pose “a direct threat, not only to Europe, but also to Japan, South Korea and the US mainland.” Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand now regularly attend NATO meetings.
On Wednesday, after talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he also said that “the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific really have to be seen as one theater, and not as two separate ones,” and that “our security, therefore, now more and more is global, and we have to look at this as a global issue.”
While North Korea and Russia have moved significantly closer, many observers say China is reluctant to form a three-way, anti-West alliance with them as it prefers a stable security environment to tackle economic challenges and maintain relationships with Europe and its Asian neighbors.
In a blog published on Thursday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell detailed his recent trip to Japan and South Korea, where North Korea’s troop deployment and other assistance to Russia was on the agenda.
“This marks an escalation of the utmost seriousness, which was of course at the heart of our discussions with the Japanese and South Korean leaders,” wrote Borrell, who also held talks with Blinken on Wednesday.
Borrell hailed the conclusion during his trip of new security and defense partnerships with Japan and South Korea, “the first ones outside Europe.”
“The EU was certainly not born as a military alliance but, in the current geopolitical context, it can and must also become a global security provider and partner,” he wrote.
Blinken said this week that the Biden administration is determined in its final months to help ensure that Ukraine can keep fighting off the full-scale invasion next year by sending as much aid as possible to hold Russian forces at bay or strengthen its hand in any peace negotiations.