Tuberculosis (TB) infections among children in the European region rose 10 percent in 2023, indicating ongoing transmission and the need for immediate public health measures to control the spread, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
WHO’s European region, which comprises 53 countries in Europe and Central Asia, reported more than 7,500 cases among children under 15 years of age in 2023, an increase of over 650 cases compared to 2022.
“The worrying rise in children with TB serves as a reminder that progress against this preventable and curable disease remains fragile,” said Hans Henri Kluge, WHO’s Regional Director for Europe.
Askar Yedilbayev, regional TB adviser for WHO’s European region, said in an interview that a rise in overall cases might indicate improved diagnoses. However, it could also result from increased cross-border movement due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the two countries with the highest disease burden in the region.
Children under 15 years of age made up 4.3 percent of all TB cases in the European Union, a joint report by the WHO and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control showed.
This shows an increase in cases in this age group for the third consecutive year, which Yedilbayev said was a “worrisome scenario.”
WHO has previously warned that funding cuts from global donors will undo progress in controlling TB infections across low- and middle-income countries. These cuts can hurt TB programs in non-EU countries, fueling a rise of hard-to-treat strains, the agency said.
Several local, on-ground workforces have been hurt from the funding cuts, and the supply of diagnostics and treatments remains at risk, said Yedilbayev.
TB, among the top 10 causes of death worldwide, is a potentially fatal bacterial infection that mainly affects the lungs and spreads through coughing or sneezing.
WHO calls for immediate action as report shows 10% rise in child TB infections in European region
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WHO calls for immediate action as report shows 10% rise in child TB infections in European region
- WHO’s European region reported more than 7,500 cases among children under 15 years of age in 2023
- Children under 15 years of age made up 4.3 percent of all TB cases in the European Union
US imposes sanctions on Yemen bank, citing support to Houthis
- US State Department said Washington was 'committed to disrupting Houthi financial networks and banking access'
WASHINGTON: The United States unveiled sanctions Thursday on a Yemen bank, including its key leaders, citing its support for Houthi militants in that country.
The designation of the International Bank of Yemen (IBY) complements a government effort “to stop Iran-backed Houthi attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea,” said the US Treasury Department.
Houthi forces launched an armed rebellion in 2014 after years of protesting discrimination and marginalization, seizing control of the capital Sanaa and other several provinces.
Since November 2023, Houthi forces have targeted shipping lanes using missiles and drones in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where a brutal war has raged since October that year.
“Financial institutions like IBY are critical to the Houthis’ efforts to access the international financial system and threaten both the region and international commerce,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender in a statement.
The official said the US government was “committed to working with the internationally recognized government of Yemen.”
Thursday’s action follows a designation in January of the Yemen Kuwait Bank for Trade and Investment.
In a separate statement, the US State Department added that Washington was “committed to disrupting Houthi financial networks and banking access.”
Besides the IBY, key leaders targeted in Thursday’s actions are Kamal Hussain Al Jebry, Ahmed Thabit Noman Al-Absi and Abdulkader Ali Bazara, the Treasury Department said.
As a result of sanctions, property and interests in property of designated individuals in the United States are blocked and must be reported.
Russia warns Germany against supplying Taurus missiles to Ukraine
- The warning came after Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz said he was open to supplying them to Kyiv
- The Taurus supplies risked further escalation in the more than three-years-old conflict
MOSCOW: Russia said Thursday it would treat Ukrainian strikes on transport infrastructure using German Taurus long-range missiles as “direct participation” in the conflict by Berlin.
The warning came after Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz said he was open to supplying them to Kyiv.
A Taurus “strike against any Russian facility of critical transport infrastructure... all of this would be regarded as direct participation of Germany in hostilities,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told journalists.
The Kremlin issued a similar warning to Berlin on Monday, saying the Taurus supplies risked further escalation in the more than three-years-old conflict.
Outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz had ruled out sending the missiles to Kyiv, but Merz said on Sunday he was open to the idea provided Germany agreed it with its European partners.
Britain has already said it will support Germany if it decides to send the missiles.
Russia has long criticized Western countries for supplying long-range weapons to Ukraine, arguing Kyiv uses them to strike targets deep inside Russian territory.
Both the United States and the UK have supplied long-range missiles to Ukraine.
Immigration judge denies bond for Tufts University student from Turkiye, her lawyers say
- Rumeysa Ozturk’s lawyers filed a new request with a federal judge in Vermont considering whether to take jurisdiction of her detention case
- The lawyers asked the judge to order her to be brought to the state by Friday
VERMONT, USA: An immigration judge denied bond for a Tufts University student from Turkiye who has been detained by authorities in Louisiana for three weeks over what her lawyers say is apparent retaliation for an op-ed piece she co-wrote in the student newspaper.
Meanwhile, Rumeysa Ozturk’s lawyers filed a new request with a federal judge in Vermont considering whether to take jurisdiction of her detention case. The lawyers asked the judge to order her to be brought to the state by Friday and hold a hearing next week. They said that would allow better communication with her legal team and a doctor to evaluate her. They say Ozturk has suffered five asthma attacks in detention.
Lawyers for Ozturk, 30, had asked an immigration judge that she be released on bond as her immigration case proceeds. That judge denied her request Wednesday, the same day Ozturk had a hearing, they said in a statement released Thursday morning.
The Department of Homeland Security presented one document to support their opposition to Ozturk’s bond request: a one-paragraph State Department memo revoking her student visa, her lawyers said in the new court filing.
The memo says that Ozturk’s visa was revoked on March 21 following an assessment that she had been involved in associations ”‘that may undermine US foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization’ including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.”
Ozturk’s lawyers said the immigration judge denied bond based on the “untenable conclusion that Ms. Ozturk was both a flight risk and a danger to the community.”
Messages seeking comment Thursday were emailed to the department and to ICE.
Ozturk, a doctoral student studying child development, was taken by immigration officials as she walked along a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville on March 25. After being taken to New Hampshire and then Vermont, she was put on a plane the next day and moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, Louisiana.
Ozturk is among several people with ties to American universities whose visas were revoked or have been stopped from entering the US after they were accused of attending demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians. A Louisiana immigration judge has ruled that the US can deport Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil based on the federal government’s argument that he poses a national security risk.
Ozturk’s lawyers are challenging the legal authority for ICE’s detention. They also have asked US District Judge William Sessions in Vermont, where her detention case was transferred after lawyers first petitioned for her release in Massachusetts, to take jurisdiction of it and release her.
Sessions, who held a hearing Monday, has not ruled yet.
“The government’s entire case against Rümeysa is based on the same one-paragraph memo from the State Department to ICE that just points back to Rümeysa’s op-ed,” Marty Rosenbluth, one of Ozturk’s attorneys, said in a statement.
Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Ozturk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process. They said they didn’t know for hours where she was after she was taken. They said they were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. Ozturk herself said she unsuccessfully made multiple requests to speak to a lawyer.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said last month, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group.
Russia says certain countries trying to ‘derail’ its talks with US
- “There are a lot of people, structures, countries trying to derail our dialogue with the United States,” Dmitriev said
- “There is very active propaganda against Russia in the United States on various mass media”
MOSCOW: Russia’s top economic negotiator said Thursday that certain countries were trying to “derail” Moscow’s talks with the United States, as the two sides work toward normalizing ties.
President Donald Trump has upended US foreign policy since his return to the White House in January, reaching out directly to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in an attempt to broker a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict.
US and Russian officials have met multiple times since, including on restoring embassy staffing levels after years of diplomatic expulsions, but Trump’s efforts to broker a Ukraine truce have so far failed to bear fruit.
“There are a lot of people, structures, countries trying to derail our dialogue with the United States,” Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, told reporters.
“There is very active propaganda against Russia in the United States on various mass media. So it is very important to convey the Russian position directly,” he added.
Dmitriev did not say which countries he was referring to, but Moscow has redirected much of its criticism over the Ukraine conflict toward Europe since Trump took office, accusing the EU and UK of being the main obstacles to peace.
Dmitriev’s comments came moments before French President Emmanuel Macron, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US envoy Steve Witkoff began a meeting in Paris on crafting a Ukraine ceasefire.
More than 130 students in US join federal lawsuit over revoked visas
- The students allege the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency abruptly and illegally terminated their status
- The initial complaint was filed by 17 students on April 11 in the state of Georgia
WASHINGTON: More than 130 international students across the United States have joined a federal lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully canceling their visas, jeopardizing their legal status in the country, court documents show.
The students allege the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency abruptly and illegally terminated their status in the government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database, putting them at risk of arrest, detention and deportation.
The initial complaint was filed by 17 students on April 11 in the state of Georgia.
Since then, 116 more have joined them as the administration of US President Donald Trump pursues a wide-ranging immigration crackdown that has targeted foreign students, among many others.
Across campuses in the United States, international students have been scrambling as they have discovered their visas have been revoked, often for little or no reason, according to court documents and media reports.
The Georgia lawsuit names US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons as defendants and seeks to reinstate the revoked visas.
In the complaint, which does not identify the students by name “due to fear of retaliation,” the summaries offered for each of the 17 original cases reveal seemingly arbitrary cancelations, with each plaintiff giving their best guess as to what may have prompted them to be targeted.
Some pointed to minor traffic infringements, such as John Doe 2, a Chinese citizen pursuing an engineering doctorate at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
He was notified by his school that his visa was revoked after a criminal records check, but the violation was not specified. The student believes it may have been related to a traffic offense that was closed and, according to the filing, he has no other criminal history.
Another of the students, an Indian national at New York Institute of Technology, said he had been found not guilty of shoplifting, and the case was dismissed.
“Over the past week, visa revocations and SEVIS terminations have shaken campuses across the country,” the complaint says.
“The SEVIS terminations have taken place against the backdrop of numerous demands being made of universities by the federal government and threats of cutting off billions of dollars in federal funding.”
The suit also noted that students’ removal from the government database could jeopardize the individuals’ ability to reenter the United States in the future.
