Black women hit hardest as maternal death rates soar in US

US maternal mortality rate findings should be ‘call to action’, researcher says, as deaths more than double in 20 years.

The number of women who died within a year after pregnancy more than doubled between 1999 and 2019 in the United States, a new study has found, with the highest number of deaths recorded among Black women.

The study, published on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at maternal deaths between 1999 and 2019 — but not the COVID-19 pandemic spike — for every US state and five racial and ethnic groups.

There were an estimated 1,210 maternal deaths in 2019, compared with 505 in 1999, the researchers found.

Overall, the number of deaths per 100,000 live births rose from 12.7 to 32.2 in that 20-year span, while the number of deaths among Black women increased from 26.7 to 55.4. The greatest jump over time was seen among American Indian and Alaska Native women, however – from 14 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1999 to 49.2 in 2009.

Dr Allison Bryant, one of the study’s authors and a senior medical director for health equity at Mass General Brigham in Boston, said the findings should be a “call to action”.

“It’s a call to action to all of us to understand the root causes — to understand that some of it is about healthcare and access to healthcare, but a lot of it is about structural racism and the policies and procedures and things that we have in place that may keep people from being healthy,” Bryant said.

Among wealthy nations, the US has the highest rate of maternal mortality, which is defined as a death during pregnancy or up to a year afterwards. Common causes include excessive bleeding, infection, heart disease, suicide and drug overdose.

Rates among Black women have long been the worst in the country, and the problem affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds. For example, US Olympic champion sprinter Tori Bowie, 32, died from complications of childbirth in May.

Last year, the White House released a plan to address what it called the “maternal health crisis”.

It pledged to increase access to maternal health services, collect more data on maternal health risks, and address gaps in the US perinatal workforce, particularly in underserved areas.

“Each year, thousands of women experience unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant short- or long-term consequences to their health such as heart issues, the need for blood transfusions, eclampsia, and blood infections,” the White House said (PDF).

“Systemic barriers, together with a failure to recognize, respect and listen to patients of color, has meant that Black and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) women, regardless of income or education, experience a greater share of these grave outcomes, as do rural women.”

According to the study released Monday, southern US states had high maternal mortality across all race and ethnicity groups, but especially for Black individuals, while Midwest and Great Plains states had the highest rates for American Indian and Alaskan Native women.

Between 1999 and 2019, the number of deaths per 100,000 live births rose from 9.6 to 20.9 among Asian, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander women; from 9.6 to 19.1 among Hispanic women, and from 9.4 to 26.3 among white women, the researchers said.

“I hate to say it, but I was not surprised by the findings,” Dr Karen Joynt Maddox, a health services and policy researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, who wasn’t involved in the study, told The Associated Press news agency.

“It’s certainly alarming, and just more evidence we have got to figure out what’s going on and try to find ways to do something about this.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Russia/Ukraine War: Moscow Airport Temporarily Closed In Drone Attack

Ukraine has launched a drone attack on Moscow, the Russian defence ministry says, forcing flights to be diverted from Vnukovo International Airport.

Five drones were reportedly used in Tuesday’s attack, which also targeted locations in the wider region around the capital.

The defence ministry said all the drones were shot down and there were no casualties or damage.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the alleged attack.

Restrictions at Vnukovo airport, one of Moscow’s three international airports, have now been lifted. Flights from Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt were among those affected.

According to the defence ministry, four of the drones flying in the Moscow region were shot down by air defence systems. A fifth was intercepted electronically before crashing.

“An attempt by the Kyiv regime to attack a zone where civil infrastructure is located, including an airport that receives international flights, is a new terrorist act,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.

Source: BBC

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Australia, UK, US condemn Hong Kong bounty for exiled activists

Police offer 1 million Hong Kong dollars for each of the activists whom they accuse of endangering national security.

Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have condemned the Hong Kong police over arrest warrants and bounties for eight exiled pro-democracy activists.

Hong Kong police on Monday evening announced a payment of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($127,600) for information leading to the capture of the eight who are living overseas.

“The extraterritorial application of the Beijing-imposed National Security Law is a dangerous precedent that threatens the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people all over the world,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Hong Kong accuses the eight, including three former legislators, of “collusion with foreign forces” under the National Security Law, which Beijing imposed on the territory in 2020.

The eight “committed serious crimes endangering national security, advocated sanctions, undermined Hong Kong and intimidated Hong Kong officials” as well as “schemed for foreign countries to undermine Hong Kong’s financial status,” the police alleged.

Among the eight living in the UK is Nathan Law, the youngest person ever elected to Hong Kong’s legislature, who told the BBC that he had to be “more careful” as a result of the warrants.

Beijing critics have already expressed alarm at the existence of suspected Chinese police stations operating in democratic countries in Europe and North America. China has said they are “service centres” for Chinese citizens needing help with administrative tasks such as the renewal of passports.

UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly said the arrest warrants were a “further example of the authoritarian reach of China’s extraterritorial law“.

The broadly-worded NSL criminalises activities deemed to be secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces, and was introduced after mass protests in support of democracy swept the territory in 2019, some of which turned violent.

Among its most high-profile targets is media tycoon Jimmy Lai who was arrested shortly after the law was introduced and sentenced to five years in prison in December 2022 for fraud over an office lease. He faces a trial on security law charges in September, after it was delayed because of the presence of a UK-based lawyer on his defence team.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Canberra was “deeply disappointed” at the latest warrants. Former legislator Ted Hui and lawyer Kevin Yam, who is also an Australian citizen, live in the country.

“We have consistently expressed concerns about the broad application of the National Security Law to arrest or pressure pro-democracy figures and civil society,” Wong said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch said Hong Kong should immediately drop the charges and bounties.

“The Hong Kong government increasingly goes above and beyond to persecute peaceful dissent both within Hong Kong and abroad,” HRW’s associate Asia director Maya Wang said in a statement. “Offering a cross-border bounty is a feeble attempt to intimidate activists and elected representatives outside Hong Kong who speak up for people’s rights against Beijing’s growing repression.”

Writing on Twitter, Anna Kwok, one of three activists on the list who lives in the US, thanked those who had highlighted the “transnational repression & NSL’s extraterritorial application displayed by the Hong Kong gov’t today”.

Speaking on Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee brushed off criticism and told reporters the eight would be “pursued for life”. They should “give themselves up as soon as possible,” he added, according to the Reuters news agency.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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Qatar stun Mexico to reach quarter-finals of Gold Cup football

The Maroons beat the El Tri 1-0 to book their place in the last eight of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Qatar upset Mexico 1-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup while Jesus Ferreira became the first player to score back-to-back hat-tricks for the USA in a 6-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago.

Jamaica also qualified for the last eight from Group A with ease, behind the USA, after beating St Kitts and Nevis 5-0 on Sunday in Santa Clara, California.

In Group B, Qatar shocked already-qualified Mexico to qualify in second place, denying Honduras, who were eliminated despite beating Haiti 2-1.

Qatar, who are playing for the second time as a guest team in the tournament for North and Central America and the Caribbean, survived a second-half onslaught from Mexico to pull off a famous victory.

The 2022 World Cup hosts, coached by Carlos Queiroz from Portugal, took the lead in the 27th minute when Musaab Khidir whipped in a cross from the right and Hazem Shehata found the target with an angled header.

That proved to be the only real effort on goal from the Gulf side as Mexico dominated but could not find a way through.

Santiago Gimenez, who had survived a red card review for a swinging arm on a Qatari defender, fired wide from a promising position and then Edson Alvarez headed against the post.

Deep in stoppage time, Israel Reyes had another chance to level – and help Honduras into the knockout stage – but his header was also off target.

Qatar, the reigning Asian champions, reached the semifinals of the Gold Cup in their previous guest appearance two years ago.

Qatar players stand for their national anthem before the game against Mexico at Levi’s Stadium [Darren Yamashita/USA TODAY Sports]

Their victory meant Honduras’s comeback win against Haiti was in vain, an agonising outcome for the Central American side, whose players waited on the field as Qatar clung on.

It was a different story for the USA, who after an early scare utterly dominated against a poor Trinidad team.

The Caribbean side went close to opening the scoring in the 11th minute in Charlotte when winger Levi Garcia crossed from the right, but Joevin Jones fired his volley over the bar.

Three minutes later, Ferreira, who had scored three in Wednesday’s 6-0 win over St Kitts, opened his history-making account with a smart first touch and quick finish after a pullback from DeJuan Jones.

Ferreira then doubled the lead when Alex Zendejas put in a ball from the left and while Trinidad keeper Marvin Phillip kept out Ferreira’s first effort, the FC Dallas forward pounced on the loose ball and fired home.

Colombia-born Ferreira grabbed his third from the penalty spot, confidently converting after Djordje Mihailovic was brought down in the box.

The Americans lost momentum after the break and Trinidad went close when Shannon Gomez struck the post with a fierce drive in the 62nd minute.

But 19-year-old substitute Cade Cowell made it 4-0, keeping his cool to round Phillip and slot home, and moments later he struck the post after cutting in from the left.

Gianluca Busio made it five by side-footing a Julian Gressel pass into the net, while Brandon Vazquez completed the scoring after more good work from Cowell.

Jamaica were too strong for tournament debutants St Kitts, going behind after half an hour when Kaheem Parris’s low ball across the box was turned in by the grasping arm of keeper Julani Archibald.

After the Reggae Boyz had two efforts ruled out for offside, Jon Russell doubled the lead after a clever back-heel from Aston Villa winger Leon Bailey.

Di’Shon Bernard made it 3-0 after a jinking run from the influential Demarai Gray and goals from Daniel Johnson and Cory Burke completed the rout.

Both the USA and Jamaica finish in Group A on seven points, having drawn in their meeting, but the Americans top the group due to a better goal difference.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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Oscar-winning US actor Alan Arkin dies at 89

Arkin was known for his ability to immerse himself in a wide variety of roles, winning him acclaim in numerous films.

Alan Arkin, the wry character actor who demonstrated his versatility in comedy and drama as he received four Academy Award nominations and won an Oscar in 2007 for Little Miss Sunshine, has died. He was 89.

His sons, Adam, Matthew and Anthony, confirmed their father’s death on Thursday through the actor’s publicist. “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man,” they said in a statement on Friday.

A member of Chicago’s famed Second City comedy troupe, Arkin was an immediate success in movies with the Cold War spoof The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, and he peaked late in life with his win as best supporting actor for the surprise 2006 hit Little Miss Sunshine. More than 40 years separated his first Oscar nomination for The Russians Are Coming from his final nomination for playing a conniving Hollywood producer in the Oscar-winning Argo.

In recent years he starred opposite Michael Douglas in the Netflix comedy series The Kominsky Method, a role that earned him two Emmy nominations.

Actor Alan Arkin appears with comedian Carol Burnett during the filming of The Carol Burnett Show in Los Angeles on August 10, 1979 

Arkin once joked to The Associated Press that the beauty of being a character actor was not having to take his clothes off for a role. He wasn’t a sex symbol or superstar but was rarely out of work, appearing in more than 100 TV and feature films. His trademarks were likability, relatability and complete immersion in his roles, no matter how unusual, whether playing a Russian submarine officer in The Russians Are Coming who struggles to communicate with the equally jittery Americans or standing out as the foul-mouthed, drug-addicted grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine.

“Alan’s never had an identifiable screen personality because he just disappears into his characters,” director Norman Jewison of The Russians Are Coming once observed. “His accents are impeccable, and he’s even able to change his looks.. … He’s always been underestimated, partly because he’s never been in service of his own success.”

While still with Second City, Arkin was chosen by Carl Reiner to play the young protagonist in the 1963 Broadway play Enter Laughing, based on Reiner’s semi-autobiographical novel.

He attracted strong reviews and the notice of Jewison, who was preparing to direct a 1966 comedy about a Russian sub that creates a panic when it ventures too close to a small New England town. In Arkin’s next major film, he proved he could also play a villain, however reluctantly. Arkin starred in Wait Until Dark as a vicious drug dealer who holds a blind woman (Audrey Hepburn) captive in her own apartment, believing a drug shipment is hidden there.

In 1968’s The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Arkin played a sensitive man who could not hear or speak. The role again elevated Arkin’s status in Hollywood. He starred as the bumbling French detective in Inspector Clouseau that same year, but the film would become overlooked in favour of Peter Sellers’s Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies.

Arkin’s career as a character actor continued to blossom when Mike Nichols, a fellow Second City alumnus, cast him in the starring role as Rossarian, the victim of wartime red tape in 1970’s Catch-22, based on Joseph Heller’s million-selling novel.

Alan Arkin, right, with his Kpminsky Method co-star Michael Douglas at the Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles, California, in January 2019 

Recent credits included Going in Style, a 2017 remake featuring fellow Oscar winners Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman and The Kominsky Method. He played a Hollywood talent agent and friend of Douglas’s character, a once promising actor who ran an acting school after his career sputtered.

Born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, he and his family, which included two younger brothers, moved to Los Angeles when he was 11. His parents found jobs as teachers but were fired during the post-World War II Red Scare because they were Communists.

“We were dirt poor, so I couldn’t afford to go to the movies often,” Arkin told the AP in 1998. “But I went whenever I could and focused in on movies as they were more important than anything in my life.”

He studied acting at Los Angeles City College; California State University, Los Angeles; and Bennington College in Vermont, where he earned a scholarship to the formerly all women’s school.

He married a fellow student, Jeremy Yaffe, and they had two sons, Adam and Matthew.

After he and Yaffe divorced in 1961, Arkin married actress-writer Barbara Dana, and they had a son, Anthony. All three sons became actors. Adam starred in the TV series Chicago Hope.

“It was certainly nothing that I pushed them into,” Arkin said in 1998. “It made absolutely no difference to me what they did as long as it allowed them to grow.”

Dana and Arkin divorced in 1994, and in 1996, Arkin married Suzanne Newlander, who survives him.

SOURCE: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Pressure forced Senegal leader to bow out – opposition

Opposition politicians have reacted to Senegal President Macky Sall’s announcement that he will not be a candidate in the 2024 presidential election, saying it resulted from pressure from the people.

Abass Fall, a member of parliament and co-ordinator of Pastef – the party of key opposition leader Ousmane Sonko – said it was no surprise:

“What would have surprised us is if Macky Sall had declared his candidacy for 2024. We all know that he wanted to… unfortunately for him, the pressure was such that he had no choice but to respect the constitution, which he himself cited several times, which he had voted in 2016.”

Aminata Touré, a former prime minister who is now in opposition said Mr Sall’s decision to respect the constitution was because of the “mobilisation of Senegalese democrats” locally and in the diaspora:

“No one was prepared to accept the democratic regression he envisaged. So, in desperation, he respects the Constitution. If he had done so much sooner, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” she said.

She said 16 people had been killed in protes”s “and the commission of inquiry will have to tell us who the masterminds were and who the others were”.

A former trade minister and leader of the ruling Alliance pour la République party, Aminata Assome Diatta, has however described the moment as “historic”.

“Today is a historic date, and more than in the past, the President of the Republic has shown the world that politics can go hand in hand with ethics,” she said.

Source: BBC

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Senegal’s Macky Sall rules out third term after deadly protests

Incumbent president says he will not run in the 2024 election, but insists Senegal’s constitution would have allowed his candidacy.

Senegal’s President Macky Sall has declared he will not run for a third term in next year’s election, ending years of uncertainty over his political future that helped fuel deadly opposition protests last month.

In a speech carried live on his official Facebook page, Sall maintained on Monday that Senegal’s constitution would have allowed his candidacy despite having already been elected to a second term in 2019.

“There has been much speculation and commentary on my eventual candidature on this election,” Sall said in his speech. “The 2019 term was my second and last term.”

“My decision, carefully considered … is not to run as a candidate in the upcoming election on February 25, 2024 … even though the constitution grants me the right,” he said.

Sall’s announcement will likely quell fears of a democratic backslide in Senegal.

Rumours that the 61-year-old president would try to extend his stay in power have led to bouts of unrest since 2021 in which dozens have been killed.

Sall was first elected in 2012 for a seven-year term after prevailing against then-President Abdoulaye Wade, whose decision to seek a controversial third term prompted violent street demonstrations.

Wade ultimately conceded defeat after a run-off between him and Sall, his former protege.

Sall was elected again in 2019 for a five-year term, following a constitutional revision that set a two-term presidential limit. The president’s supporters have called for him to run again, arguing that his first term under the prior constitution should not count.

Sall, who has not designated a political successor, had been coy about another term.

Some worried he would follow other regional leaders, including in Ivory Coast and Togo, who used changes to the constitution as an excuse to reset their mandate and extend their hold on power.

On the eve of Sall’s nationwide address, his fiercest critic, Ousmane Sonko, urged the public to “come out en masse” and oppose him.

Sonko, who is popular with Senegal’s disaffected youth, has painted Sall as a corrupt, would-be dictator. “It’s incumbent on all the Senegalese people to stand up, to face him,” Sonko said on Sunday.

The opposition leader was sentenced on June 1 to two years in jail for “corrupting” a young beauty-salon worker, sparking protests that led to 16 deaths according to the government, 24 according to Amnesty International and 30 according to Sonko’s party.

The conviction means he is not eligible to stand in 2024.

Sonko says the case was staged to prevent him from running, a charge authorities deny. He has been blocked in by the authorities at his home since May 28.

Sall, in his speech on Monday, asked the government to do everything possible to organise a transparent election in February.

“Senegal is more than me, and is full of capable leaders for the country’s development,” the incumbent said, adding that he had sought to prioritise his country’s progress, “in particular at a time of social-economic difficulties and uncertainties”.

Regional leaders, including the presidents of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, Guinea Bissau’s Umaro Sissoco Embalo and the African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, praised Sall’s decision, with Bazoum saying it will ease tensions.

Aminata Toure, a former prime minister of Senegal, said it was the pro-democracy protests that forced the president to drop his reelection bid.

“He [Sall] was the one who suggested through referendum to have a specific item in the constitution that nobody could run more than two consecutive terms, which is his case,” she told Al Jazeera.

“So he is just applying the constitution. It’s not like he’s making a heroic move. He should have said that the minute he got reelected in 2019. This would have saved the country all the turmoil and the trouble we went through.”

She added, “I’d like to congratulate all the democrats and the young people who stood to defend Senegalese democracy. Without that, President Macky Sall would have run … It’s also a lesson for other African countries. People need to stand when democracy is at threat.”

Supporters at Sall’s party headquarters in an upscale neighbourhood in the capital, Dakar, were divided. Some applauded, while others cried.

“That’s his choice and he is our leader. We accept his decision and we will support whoever he designates,” said a female supporter in tears.

Other residents of Dakar said it was time for change.

“I don’t want him [Sall] to stand again. We’ve already given him 12 years – it’s time for him to go and let somebody else take over,” said Abdou Diagne, a 38-year-old car washer.

“If he says otherwise, it’s not a given that people will stand by with their arms folded,” he said. “Either way, we are praying for peace.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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