GENEVA: China was certified as malaria-free on Wednesday by the World Health Organization, following a 70-year effort to eradicate the mosquito-borne disease.
The country reported 30 million cases of the infectious disease annually in the 1940s but has now gone four consecutive years without an indigenous case.
"We congratulate the people of China on ridding the country of malaria," said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"Their success was hard-earned and came only after decades of targeted and sustained action. With this announcement, China joins the growing number of countries that are showing the world that a malaria-free future is a viable goal."
Countries that have achieved at least three consecutive years of zero indigenous cases can apply for WHO certification of their malaria-free status. They must present rigorous evidence -- and demonstrate the capacity to prevent transmission re-emerging.
China becomes the 40th territory certified malaria-free by the Geneva-based WHO.
The last countries to gain the status were El Salvador (2021), Algeria and Argentina (2019), and Paraguay and Uzbekistan (2018).
There is a separate list of 61 countries where malaria never existed, or disappeared without specific measures.
China is the first country in the WHO's Western Pacific region to be awarded a malaria-free certification in more than three decades.
The only others with certified status are Australia (1981), Singapore (1982) and Brunei (1987).
The WHO's World Malaria Report 2020 said global progress against the disease was plateauing, particularly in African countries bearing the brunt of cases and deaths.
The annual report, published in November, said that after steadily tumbling from 736,000 in 2000, the disease claimed an estimated 411,000 lives in 2018 and 409,000 in 2019.
Meanwhile in 2019 the global tally of malaria cases was estimated at 229 million -- a figure that has been at the same level for the past four years.
Over 90 percent of malaria deaths occur in Africa, the majority -- more than 265,000 -- in young children.
In the 1950s, Beijing started working out where malaria was spreading and began to combat it with preventative anti-malarial medicines, said the WHO.
The country reduced mosquito breeding grounds and stepped up spraying insecticide in homes.
In 1967, China launched a scientific programme to find new malaria treatments, which led to the discovery in the 1970s of artemisinin -- the core compound of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), which are the most effective antimalarial drugs available.
In the 1980s, China was among the first countries to extensively test the use of insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria. By 1988, more than 2.4 million had been distributed nationwide.
By the end of 1990, the number of malaria cases in China had plummeted to 117,000, and deaths had been cut by 95 percent.
"China's ability to think outside the box served the country well in its own response to malaria, and also had a significant ripple effect globally," said Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO's global malaria programme.
From 2003, China stepped up efforts across the board that brought annual case numbers down to around 5,000 within 10 years.
After four consecutive years of zero indigenous cases, China applied for WHO certification in 2020.
Experts travelled to China in May this year to verify its malaria-free status -- and its plans to prevent the disease from coming back.
The risk of imported cases remains a concern, not only among people returning from sub-Saharan Africa and other malaria-hit regions, but also in the southern Yunnan Province, which borders Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, all struggling with the disease.
China has stepped up its malaria surveillance in at-risk zones in a bid to prevent the disease re-emerging, said the WHO.
China certified malaria-free after 70-year fight
https://arab.news/j8j8y
China certified malaria-free after 70-year fight
- China is the first country in the WHO's Western Pacific region to be awarded a malaria-free certification in more than three decades
After Spain’s blackout, questions about renewable energy are back
- The European Union’s fourth-largest economy generated 56 percent of its electricity last year from renewables
- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has stressed that his government would not deviate from its energy transition plans
As people wait for answers about what caused the historic power cut, which abruptly disrupted tens of millions of lives, some are questioning the wisdom of decommissioning nuclear reactors that provide a stable, if controversial, form of energy compared to renewables, whose output can be intermittent.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has rejected such criticism, asking for patience while the government investigates what caused the grid’s disconnection. He said that his government would not “deviate a single millimeter” from its energy transition plans.
Here’s what to know about the energy debate:
What is nuclear power and why is it controversial?
Nuclear power is a zero-carbon energy source formed from nuclear fission, when the nuclei of atoms are split into two or several parts, releasing energy.
It accounts for about 10 percent of electricity generation worldwide, according to the International Energy Association.
Many countries consider nuclear power critical to reaching their net-zero goals. But while nuclear reactors do not emit planet-warming greenhouse gases like gas- or coal-fired power plants, they produce radioactive waste that even advanced economies have struggled to dispose.
Why does Spain want to decommission its nuclear reactors?
Spain generated nearly 57 percent of its electricity in 2024 from renewable energy sources like wind, hydropower and solar, according to Red Eléctrica, the country’s grid operator. About 20 percent came from nuclear power plants.
In 2019, Sánchez’s government approved a plan to decommission the country’s remaining nuclear reactors between 2027 and 2035 as it expands its share of renewable energy even further. The country aims to generate 81 percent of its electricity by 2030 from renewable sources.
Sánchez on Wednesday said that the four nuclear facilities that were online the day of the blackout did not help re-power the grid.
Batteries and other methods help regulate changes in electricity supply from wind and solar.
Why is Spain’s renewables push being questioned now?
While the cause of the sudden outage on April 28 is still unknown, the event has raised questions about the technical challenges facing electricity grids running on high levels of solar and wind.
Solar and wind provided roughly 70 percent of the electricity on the grid moments before Spain lost 15 gigawatts of electricity — about 60 percent of its supply — in just five seconds.
Electricity grids were designed for a different era, according to Gilles Thonet, deputy secretary general of the International Electrotechnical Commission, an industry group.
“Traditionally, power flowed in one direction: from large coal, gas or nuclear plants to homes and businesses,” Thonet said. “These plants provided not only electricity, but also stability. Their spinning turbines acted like shock absorbers, smoothing out fluctuations in supply and demand.”
In the days following the blackout, Google searches in Spain for “nuclear” spiked, according to data from Google Trends.
Spain’s nuclear lobby group Foro Nuclear said this week that the government should rethink its plan to decommission its nuclear reactors after the outage. Ignacio Araluce, its president, said the nuclear plants online before the outage “provide firmness and stability.”
Would more nuclear power have prevented a blackout?
Others say it is too soon to draw conclusions about what role nuclear energy should play.
“We do not know the cause of the oscillations,” said Pedro Fresco, director general of Avaesen, an association of renewable energy and clean technology firms in Valencia. “Therefore, we do not know what would have allowed them to be controlled.”
Spain’s grid operator last week narrowed down the source of the outage to two separate incidents in which substations in southwestern Spain failed.
Environment Minister Sara Aagesen said earlier this week that the grid had initially withstood another power generation outage in southern Spain 19 seconds before the blackout.
Sánchez in his speech to Parliament said there was “no empirical evidence” to show that more nuclear power on the grid could have prevented a blackout or allowed the country to get back online faster. In fact, the four nuclear facilities online on April 28 before the blackout were taken offline after the outage as part of emergency protocol to avoid overheating.
He said that nuclear energy “has not been shown to be an effective solution in situations like what we experienced on April 28,” and called the debate surrounding his government’s nuclear phase-out plan “a gigantic manipulation.”
Gas and hydropower, as well as electricity transfers from Morocco and France, were used to get the country’s grid back online.
Putin gears up to host world leaders at lavish army parade
- The two most important guests this year are China’s Xi Jinping and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
- The period between 1939 and 1941, when the Soviet Union had a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, is glossed over in official history books
More than 20 foreign dignitaries, including China’s Xi Jinping and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, are scheduled to attend the annual parade this year, the fourth since Moscow launched a full-scale military assault on its neighbor in 2022.
Officials promise that commemorations this year — the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany — will be the “biggest” ever, with Putin ordering a “humanitarian” truce with Ukraine over the holiday.
Ukraine, which has dismissed the truce as a farce, has called the events in Russia a “parade of cynicism” and warned that it cannot guarantee the safety of world leaders attending.
The festival will be marked with a massive parade of military equipment and soldiers through Red Square, culminating in an address by Putin.
Since sending troops into Ukraine, Putin has frequently drawn parallels between Russia’s modern-day army and the Soviet soldiers who fought Nazi Germany.
At a dinner in honor of visiting foreign leaders, Putin proposed a toast to “victory.”
Russia began its assault on Ukraine in February 2022, hoping to take the country in days, but has since become embroiled in a huge, bloody conflict that has killed tens of thousands.
Security has been tight in Moscow, where organizers have banned attendees from bringing vape pens, electric scooters or “any animals” to the Victory Parade.
Authorities have also jammed mobile Internet connections in the capital, citing the threat of Ukrainian attacks.
Putin unilaterally ordered a three-day truce for the duration of the holiday, starting Thursday, but Ukraine has accused Russia of breaking it hundreds of times.
Ukrainian authorities reported strikes in the southern city of Kherson and the central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, with two people wounded.
Kyiv argues the parade has “nothing to do with the victory over Nazism” and that those marching on Red Square were “quite likely” implicit in crimes against Ukrainians.
The two most important guests this year are China’s Xi Jinping and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Despite warnings from Brussels, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will also attend — the only leader from the European Union taking part.
Aleksandar Vucic, president of Serbia, a country with historically strong ties to Moscow, will also join.
The day before the parade, Xi and Putin met in the Kremlin, where the two held talks for more than three hours.
After their meeting, Putin addressed the Chinese leader as his “dear friend,” while the two issued messages of defiance toward the West.
World War II is officially remembered in Russia as the “Great Patriotic War,” beginning with Germany’s surprise invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and ending with Germany’s capitulation in 1945.
The period between 1939 and 1941, when the Soviet Union had a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, is glossed over in official history books.
The war had a devastating impact on the Soviet Union, resulting in more than 20 million civilian and military deaths.
Throughout his quarter-century in power, Putin has tapped into this national trauma, making May 9 Russia’s most important public holiday and championing his army as defenders against fascism.
Authorities banned criticism of the military weeks after the Ukraine offensive began, and have since charged thousands in the biggest domestic crackdown in Russia’s post-Soviet history.
School textbooks introduced since the offensive refer to Ukraine as an “ultra-nationalist state,” likening it to the Nazi occupation government that ruled the country between 1941 and 1944.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has called Putin’s claims that Russia needs to “de-Nazify” Ukraine “incomprehensible.”
In a symbolic show of support for Kyiv to coincide with the parade, Ukraine’s Western backers are expected on Friday to sign off on the creation of a special tribunal to try Russia’s top leadership over its military offensive at a meeting in Lviv.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer also announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s so-called shadow fleet ahead of a meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) in Norway on Friday, with support for Ukraine set to be on the agenda.
Leo XIV’s brother recalls feeling of ‘disbelief’ over his sibling becoming pope
- John Prevost described his brother as being very concerned for the poor and those who don’t have a voice
- That makes the Chicago-born missionary the first US pope
NEW LENOX, Ill: When white smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel revealing that a new pope had been chosen, John Prevost turned on his television in Illinois, called his niece and they watched in awe as his brother’s name was announced.
“She started screaming because it was her uncle and I was in the moment of disbelief that this cannot be possible because it’s too far from what we thought would happen,” Prevost said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press from his home in New Lenox, Illinois.
Next, he said he felt an intense sense of pride that his brother, Cardinal Robert Prevost, had become the 267th pontiff to lead the Catholic Church, making the Chicago-born missionary the first US pope.
“It’s quite an honor; it’s quite a once in a lifetime,” he said. “But I think it’s quite a responsibility and I think it’s going to lead to bigger and better things, but I think people are going to watch him very closely to see what he’s doing.”
Robert Prevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order who spent his career ministering in Peru, took the name Leo XIV.
John Prevost described his brother as being very concerned for the poor and those who don’t have a voice. He said he expects him to be a “second Pope Francis.”
“He’s not going to be real far left and he’s not going to be real far right,” he added. “Kind of right down the middle.”
At one point during the interview, John Prevost realized he had missed several calls from his brother, so he gave the new pope a call back.
Leo told him he wasn’t interested in being part of the interview and after a brief message of congratulations and discussion in which they talked like any two brothers about travel arrangements, they hung up.
The new pope grew up the youngest of three boys. John Prevost, who was only a year older than him, said he remembers Robert Prevost being very good in school as a kid and enjoying playing tag, Monopoly and Risk.
From a young age, he said he knew his brother was going to be a priest. Although he didn’t expect him to become pope, he recalled a neighbor predicting that very thing when Robert Prevost was only a first grader.
“She sensed that at 6 years old,” he said. “How she did that, who knows. It took this long, but here he is, first American pope.”
When Robert Prevost graduated eighth grade, he left for seminary school, his brother said.
“There’s a whole period there where we didn’t really grow up together,” he said. “It was just on vacations that we had contact together.”
These days, the brothers talk on the phone every day, John Prevost said. Robert Prevost will call him and they’ll discuss everything from politics to religion and even play the day’s Wordle.
John Prevost said he’s not sure how much time his brother will have to talk as the new pope and how they’ll handle staying in touch in the future.
“It’s already strange not having someone to talk to,” he said.
Judge to hear arguments over whether LA prosecutor should be kicked off Menendez case
- Hochman’s office has denied the accusations and opposes getting kicked off the case
- The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for shooting their entertainment executive father and mother
LOS ANGELES: Attorneys for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of killing their parents in 1989, will make their case to a judge Friday that Los Angeles prosecutors should be removed from the brothers’ resentencing case.
The brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home. The brothers were 18 and 21 at the time of the killings. Defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, while prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
Former LA County District Attorney George Gascón had opened the door to possible freedom for the brothers in October by requesting their sentences be reduced to 50 years with the possibility of parole. His office said the case would’ve been handled differently today due to modern understandings of sexual abuse and trauma, and that the brothers had rehabilitated during their 30 years in prison.
But current district attorney Nathan Hochman has reversed course and opposes the brothers’ resentencing. Hochman has said the brothers have not taken full responsibility for their crimes because they have not admitted to lies told during their trials. The Menendez family and lawyers have been heavily critical of the way Hochman has handled the case.
Hochman’s office filed a motion to oppose his removal from the case, dismissing the defense’s concerns as simply “not being happy” with prosecutors’ opinion on resentencing.
“Disagreeing with the opposing side’s position is not a conflict of interest, it is simply a disagreement,” it said.
While Hochman’s conduct is the focus of defense attorneys’ petition, they want the case entirely removed from the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, in which case the state attorney general’s office would usually step in.
However, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a motion this week siding with Hochman, saying the defense had not adequately demonstrated a conflict of interest.
Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said these types of recusal requests are “almost never” granted.
“Defendants don’t usually get to pick their prosecutors,” she said. “Occasionally an individual prosecutor will be recused, but to recuse an entire office is very rare.”
Generally, this only happens if a prosecutor’s personal family member is involved or if the district attorney’s office received outside payment in a case, Levenson said.
During long-awaited resentencing hearings last month, attorneys engaged in a heated debate over whether material from risk assessments completed by the state parole board at the governor’s order should be admissible in court. The hearings were delayed, and the brothers’ lead attorney Mark Geragos said he would move to recuse Hochman from the case.
In a motion filed April 25, Geragos argued that Hochman’s bias against the brothers and mistreatment of the Menendez family posed a “genuine risk” the brothers would not receive a fair hearing.
He pointed to Hochman’s demotion of Nancy Theberge and Brock Lunsford, the two deputy district attorneys who filed the original resentencing motion. Theberge and Lunsford have since filed lawsuits against Hochman alleging they were punished for their work on the Menendez case.
Hochman also hired Kathleen Cady, who represented Milton Andersen, the only Menendez family member who opposed the brothers’ resentencing at the time, to head his Office of Victim Services. Andersen died in March.
Geragos said no one from the victim services office had ever reached out to the Menendez family to offer support. In mid-April, both Cady and Hochman were present at an organization’s rally to condemn the Menendez brothers’ resentencing, he said.
Finally, Geragos said the district attorney’s office had violated Marsy’s Law, which ensures victims in California are treated with fairness and respect.
Menendez cousin Tamara Goodell filed a complaint with the US Attorney’s Office in which she wrote Hochman used a “hostile, dismissive, and patronizing tone” that left the family “distressed and feeling humiliated.”
Hochman’s motion said the defense had not presented any proof that hiring Cady, a seasoned prosecutor and attorney, prevented his office from treating the Menendez brothers fairly, and that the reassignments of Theberge and Lunsford were “internal staffing decisions.”
Marsy’s Law also does not give victims the right to seek the removal of a prosecutor, the motion said.
The Menendez brothers are still waiting for the full results of a state parole board risk assessment ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. The final hearing, scheduled for June 13, will influence whether Newsom grants the brothers clemency.
Saudi women must share their stories with pride, Princess Noura Al-Saud tells London forum
- The founder of 2 leading Saudi cultural incubators was speaking at the Creative Women Platform
- Networking forum’s CEO, Olga Balakleets, says women are ‘united by their belief in making a creative impact’
LONDON: Saudi creatives are writing and telling their stories to the world after years of borrowing the narratives of others, Princess Noura Al-Saud, the founder of two leading Saudi cultural incubators, said on Wednesday.
“Finally, now, we are taking ownership and writing our own stories. We are proud of it and are showcasing who we really are. (We’re) not trying to fit into other people’s expectations,” she said.
Princess Noura was speaking at the annual networking forum of the Creative Women Platform, of which she is a Saudi patron, at Palastiers’ Hall in London’s Square Mile.
She is the the founder of Rukun Creative Exchange and Almashtal Creative Space, a destination for creatives in Riyadh to receive support and nurture their talent.
On Wednesday, she joined dozens of entrepreneurs, policymakers and business leaders from the food, steel and sports sectors, as well as celebrities, philanthropists and fitness experts, to discuss sustainability and the role of women in shaping the future.
She acknowledged that building a space for creatives could be relatively easy but said that the most critical factor was creating a place of belonging where people could share meaningful experiences.
At Almashtal, which means plant nursery in Arabic, the focus was on the tiny details, such as the interior design and the background music, to foster a cultural identity in the space, Princess Noura said.
“Nature is a major source of inspiration for me. Plant nurseries provide the right climate and nutrition, so the plant builds strong roots to live in the outside world, and this is also our goal at Almashtal,” she told Arab News.
Almashtal, founded in 2019, has four labs focusing on creativity, business, glass and sound, and offers workshops, mentorship and other resources. The space has become essential for sharing ideas, networking and experimenting among Saudi creatives, Princess Noura said.
She told Arab News that Saudi women in the private sector who work in sciences, technology and entrepreneurship should “speak more about their work and achievements, and show the efforts it took to reach this stage.
“I tell them to be proud and share their stories as it will inspire others,” she added.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 has transformed women’s lives in the Kingdom through a series of reforms since 2016 that empowered them to take part in the workforce and business. There are increased opportunities for women to pursue careers in the creative industries such as design, architecture, film, fashion and the arts. The Kingdom made “major strides” in the cultural sectors, according to a 2024 Harvard Business Review report, driven by a “commitment to preserving and showcasing its abundant history, national identity and heritage.”
During a conversation with Olga Balakleets, founder and CEO of the Creative Women Platform, Princess Noura said: “Creativity is essential to life. It is what grounds us ... it is how we connect, and it has always been that for me, and my mission is to help others see and understand that.”
Balakleets told Arab News that her journey with the forum was “an exciting one,” and added that creative women are “united by their belief in making a creative impact,” contributing positively to society by finding solutions to global problems.
At Wednesday’s event, speakers included author and philanthropist Sarah Ferguson, duchess of York; Shaikha Fouz Al-Sabah, founder of Khaleejesque, a Kuwait-based online magazine that covers the cultures of the Arab Gulf youth; and Tessa Clarke, co-founder and CEO of Olio, a community app designed to help people share food and reduce waste. Daniela Baumann, CEO of LOFTI Studios, spoke about the ups and downs that led her to establish a series of pole fitness studios, while Paula Owen, founder and CEO of ECO Action Games, highlighted the importance of raising climate awareness through games and avoiding tactics that induce guilt or fear.
Aswar Kadie, a young entrepreneur of Somali descent who grew up in Sweden, is the founder and CEO of Aswar Sports Agency, established in 2021. She told Arab News that Aswar’s clientele includes football players under 18 and 21 in the Premier League and La Liga academies.
She recently returned from a visit to the Kingdom and said her agency is set to be involved with the Saudi Ministry of Sport as the country prepares to host the FIFA World Cup in 2034. She described the Creative Women Platform as a “huge” opportunity for a woman entrepreneur in a male-dominated industry.
“I always worked with men in a very competitive environment ... coming (to this event), I feel really inspired and the women here have become role models and I’m learning a lot from them,” she said.
The Creative Women Platform will return to Riyadh next November to feature Saudi entrepreneurs and leaders from various sectors, according to organizers.
Since launching in 2016, the networking forum has celebrated the leadership and entrepreneurial achievements of women from more than 50 countries.
