Election of unpopular Sri Lankan PM invites more turmoil

By KRISHAN FRANCIS

yesterday

1 of 16

Protesters shout slogans demanding elected president Ranil Wickremesinghe step down during a protest at the presidential secretariat premise in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Sri Lanka's prime minister was elected president Wednesday by lawmakers who opted for a seasoned, veteran leader to lead the country out of economic collapse, despite widespread public opposition.

(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan lawmakers on Wednesday elected the unpopular prime minister as their new president, a choice that risked reigniting turmoil in the South Asian nation reeling from economic collapse and months of round-the-clock protests.

The crisis has already forced out one leader, and a few hundred protesters quickly gathered after the vote to express their outrage that Ranil Wickremesinghe — a six-time prime minister whom they see as part of the problematic political establishment — would stay in power.

While the choice invited more protests, lawmakers apparently considered Wickremesinghe a safe pair of hands, a politician with deep experience who could lead Sri Lanka out of the crisis. He has spent 45 years in Parliament and led recent talks seeking a bailout for the bankrupt island nation.

Sri Lankans have taken to the street for months to demand their top leaders step down as the country spiraled into economic chaos that left its 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food. After demonstrators stormed the presidential palace and several other government buildings last week, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled and then resigned.

Much of the protesters’ ire is focused on Rajapaksa and his family’s political dynasty, which ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades. But many also blame Wickremesinghe for protecting Rajapaksa. During demonstrations last week, crowds set his personal residence on fire and occupied his office.

Wednesday’s vote means Wickremesinghe — who was also Rajapaksa’s finance minister and became acting president after the leader fled — will finish the presidential term ending in 2024. He can now also appoint a new prime minister.

“I need not tell you what state our country is in,” Wickremesinghe, 73, told fellow lawmakers after his victory was announced. “People are not expecting the old politics from us. They expect us to work together.”

He pleaded for the country to move on: “Now that the election is over, we have to end this division.”

But protesters flocked to the presidential residence instead, chanting, “Ranil, go home.”


(AP video/Rishi Lekhi)

“We are very sad, very disappointed with the 225 parliament members who we elected to speak for us, which they have not done,” said Visaka Jayawware, a performance artist in the crowd. “We will keep fighting for the people of Sri Lanka. We have to ask for a general election.”

Wickremesinghe has wide experience in diplomatic and international affairs and oversaw the bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund.

But many voters view him with suspicion since he was appointed prime minister by Rajapaksa in May, in hopes he would restore stability.

The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful family of siphoning money from government coffers and of hastening the country’s collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but the former president acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lanka’s meltdown.

“The struggle will continue until our demands are met. Wickremesinghe “doesn’t have a mandate to rule the country,” said Nemel Jayaweera, a human resources professional.

 “We will oppose him.”

Still, the ruling party’s majority in Parliament swept Wickremesinghe to victory with 134 votes. Populist Dullas Alahapperuma, a longtime ally of Rajapaksa and also a minister in his government, secured 82 votes. A Marxist candidate netted three votes.

The vote, shown on national television, was a decorous, solemn affair. While the balloting was secret, as the results were announced, lawmakers thumped their tables in support of their candidates.

After the vote, some supporters celebrated Wickremesinghe’s win in the streets. He will be sworn in Thursday.

Only a few lawmakers had publicly said they would vote for Wickremesinghe given the widespread hostility against him. But dozens loyal to Rajapaksa had been expected to back him because he had assured them he would severely punish protesters who burned politicians’ homes in the unrest.

On Monday, in his role as acting president, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency that gave him broad authority to act in the interest of public security and order. Authorities can carry out searches and detain people, and Wickremesinghe can also change or suspend any law.

The political turmoil in Sri Lanka has only worsened the economic disaster. But Wickremesinghe said Monday that negotiations with the IMF were drawing close to a conclusion, and talks on help from other countries had also progressed. He also said the government has taken steps to resolve shortages of fuel and cooking gas.

Hours before Wednesday’s vote, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told financial magazine Nikkei Asia that the organization hoped to complete the rescue talks “as quickly as possible.”

As prime minister, Wickremesinghe delivered weekly addresses in Parliament cautioning that the path out of the crisis would be difficult, while also pledging to overhaul a government that increasingly has concentrated power under the presidency.

Presidents in Sri Lanka are normally elected by the public. The responsibility falls to Parliament only if the presidency becomes vacant before the term officially ends.

That has happened only once before in Sri Lanka, in 1993, when then-Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga was chosen by Parliament uncontested after former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, father of the current opposition leader, was assassinated.

___

Associated Press writer Bharatha Mallawarachi contributed to this report.

___

Find more of AP’s Sri Lanka coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/sri-lanka

Rapinoe, King urge freedom for Brittney Griner at The ESPYS

By BETH HARRIS

today

1 of 13

NWSL player Megan Rapinoe, of OL Reign, accepts the award for best play at the ESPY Awards on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark Terrill)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Soccer player Megan Rapinoe admonished her fellow athletes for not doing enough to speak out and encouraged them to support detained WNBA star Brittney Griner at The ESPYs on Wednesday night.

Griner was arrested in Russia in February after customs officials said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on charges of transporting drugs.

“For me, the most striking thing is that BG’s not here. BG deserves to be free, she’s being held as a political prisoner, obviously,” Rapinoe said while accepting a trophy for best play at the show honoring the past year’s top athletes and moments in sports.

“Like what are we doing here dressed up like we are when our sister is detained abroad? We haven’t done enough, none of us. We can do more, we can support her more, and just let her know that we love her so much.”

“First, bring BG home. Gotta do that,” tennis great Billie Jean King said.

Griner has pleaded guilty in court and acknowledged possessing the canisters but said she had no criminal intent.

Rapinoe urged her fellow competitors to keep Griner’s face and name on social media.

“Every time we say it in interviews, it puts pressure on everybody,” she said. “It puts pressure on the administration, it puts pressure on Russia, it puts pressure on Putin, it puts pressure on everyone, and it lets BG know also above everything that we love her and that we miss her and that we’re thinking about her all the time.”

NBA Finals MVP Stephen Curry hosted the show and joined WNBA players Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith in calling attention to Griner’s plight.

“It’s been 153 nights now that BG has been wrongfully detained thousands of miles away from home, away from her family, away from her friends, away from her team,” Diggins-Smith said. “All throughout that time, we’ve kept her in our thoughts and in our hearts even though we know that ain’t nearly enough to bring her home, y’all.”

Wearing her Phoenix Mercury jersey under his track suit, Curry noted the effort being made to free Griner.

“But as we hope for the best, we urge the entire global sports community to continue to stay energized on her behalf,” he said. “She’s one of us, the team of athletes in this room tonight and all over the world. A team that has nothing to do with politics or global conflict.”

They were applauded by Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, who was in the audience at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Curry picked up a trophy, too, for best record-breaking performance, having set the mark for most 3-pointers made in league history. He also shared the best team award with the NBA champion Golden State Warriors.

Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani won best athlete in men’s sports.

“It’s an honor to be in the same category as all of you. You are the best at what you do,” the Japanese player said, speaking in English via videotape. “Have a wonderful everything and enjoy your afterparties.”

Olympic swimming champion Katie Ledecky won best athlete in women’s sports.

Ledecky earned two golds and two silvers at the Tokyo Games last year, giving her 10 career Olympic medals. She received her trophy from Maybelle Blair, the 95-year-old who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

“I represent one of the few sports that is also a really important life skill, so I want to encourage all the parents here, anyone watching, to make sure your kids learn how to swim,” Ledecky said. “Our planet is 70% water, so it’s very important.”

Former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko was honored with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, having impacted the world beyond sports. Klitschko, mayor of embattled Kyiv, Ukraine, since 2014, wasn’t present. He appeared in a pre-taped video.

King led off a tribute to the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the federal legislation that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive government funding.

She was joined by Lisa Leslie, Brandi Chastain, Chloe Kim, Allyson Felix, Aly Raisman and Rapinoe, among others. They spoke against a background of black-and-white photos showing women athletes in action, on the field or in the streets advocating for gender equality. Their comments were interspersed with country singer Mickey Guyton performing her songs “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” and “Remember Her Name.”


The ESPYS were criticized by South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley for not inviting consensus player of the year Aliyah Boston to the show. Boston had hoped to attend and was disappointed not to be asked. She was issued a last-minute invitation but declined it.

ESPN said COVID-19 concerns and a smaller venue forced organizers to prioritize invitees to the show. Boston was nominated in a non-televised category that was handed out a night earlier. She lost to Oklahoma softball star Jocelyn Alo, who took part in the Title IX tribute.

ESPN college basketball broadcaster Dick Vitale received the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance. The 83-year-old has undergone multiple melanoma surgeries and six months of chemotherapy for lymphoma over the last year. In March, he said he was cancer free.

Vitale dismissed messages on the teleprompter urging him to conclude his remarks, which stretched to 20 minutes.

“I’m gonna wrap up in about three minutes,” he said in a raspy voice. “Jimmy’s dream was to beat cancer. We must do it because it doesn’t discriminate. It comes after all.”

___

EXPLAINER: Foot-and-mouth disease and the efforts to stop it

By VICTORIA MILKO

today

1 of 3

A man walks past cows he sells ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday under a flyover in Jakarta, Indonesia on July 8, 2022. Thousands of cattle are covered in blisters from highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia, sounding the alarm for the country, its Southeast Asian neighbors and Australia. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)


JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Thousands of cattle are covered in blisters from highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia, sounding the alarm for the country, its Southeast Asian neighbors and Australia. The virus found in two provinces in May has now infected several hundred-thousand animals across multiple provinces, including the popular tourist destination of Bali.

Indonesia is now taking measures to curb the spread of the disease. Australia has offered assistance in hopes of preventing the disease and its economic and environmental consequences from crossing its borders.

Here’s a look at the disease and what’s happening in Indonesia.

___

WHAT IS FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE?

Foot-and-mouth disease is caused by a virus that infects cattle, sheep, goats, swine and other cloven-hoofed animals. While death rates are typically low, the disease can make animals ill with fever, decreased appetite, excessive drooling, blisters and other symptoms.

The disease was once found worldwide but has since been erased from some regions, including western Europe and North America. Parts of Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Thailand, have had regular outbreaks, but Indonesia until now had been free from the disease since 1986.

The ongoing outbreak is concentrated in dairy and beef cattle, but the spread to other susceptible animals can’t be ruled out.

___

HOW DOES IT SPREAD?

The virus spreads easily through contact and airborne transmission and can quickly infect entire herds. People can spread the disease though things like farming equipment, shoes, clothing, vehicle tires and more that have come in contact with the virus. Though it’s considered rare, humans can also carry the virus in their nose for short periods of time, infecting animals, said Michael Ward, chair of the Veterinary Public Health & Food Safety at the University of Sydney.

Livestock feed and animal products such as meat and hides can also carry and spread the virus.

More than 300,000 livestock in Indonesia had foot-and-mouth disease by the first week of July. In the same month, the Eid al-Adha festival — a Muslim holiday marked with ritual animal sacrifice — resulted in large movement of animals around the country, which is considered to have accelerated the spread of the disease.

___

WHY ARE OFFICIALS WORRIED?

Because it is so easily spread, the virus can be incredibly difficult to get rid of once there is an outbreak. In poorer countries, sick animals affect people’s access to food. In middle-income and richer countries, the disease affects the livestock trade and related industries. One paper estimated that foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks can cost billions of dollars, highlighting the damage to governments and farmers.

Australia, which is currently free of foot-and-mouth disease, has expressed particular worry about the spread from Indonesia. The resort island of Bali is a popular tourist destination for Australians and has confirmed cases of the disease.

___

WHAT IS BEING DONE TO COMBAT THE OUTBREAK?
ADVERTISEMENT



Indonesia is using animal testing, vaccination, treatment, and conditional slaughter to try to curb the outbreak. The Ministry of Agriculture launched a vaccination program for livestock in mid-June, prioritizing doses for healthy animals at high risk of infection, such as those at crowded places such as livestock breeding centers, community-owned dairy farms, dairy cooperatives, and beef cattle farms.

The Australian government has offered financial and vaccine assistance for Indonesia’s response to the recent outbreak. The vaccination program is likely to focus on support for the small-holder farm sector, which accounts for 90% of Indonesia’s cattle industry.

In Australia, the government announced it would install disinfectant mats at airports that are intended to capture potentially contaminated dirt from the shoes of those returning from overseas. Government officials also promised more stringent biosecurity checks, such as sniffing detector dogs, for those returning from overseas.

___

CAN PEOPLE GET FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE?

No. Foot-and-mouth disease is often confused with hand, foot and mouth disease, which is caused by a different virus and mostly infects young children. People do not get the animal disease, and animals do not get the human disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Syrian refugees anxious over Lebanon’s plans to deport them

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB

today

1 of 9

Syrian children play soccer by their tents at a refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, July 7, 2022. The Lebanese government’s plan to start deporting Syrian refugees has sent waves of fear through vulnerable refugee communities already struggling to survive in their host country. Many refugees say being forced to return to the war shattered country would be a death sentence. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)


BAR ELIAS, Lebanon (AP) — Sitting outside her tent in a camp in eastern Lebanon, a 30-year-old Syrian refugee contemplated the sunset and her worsening options.

Umm Jawad fled to Lebanon in 2011 to escape a Syrian government siege of her hometown of Homs. She managed to survive over the past decade, despite Lebanon’s devastating economic meltdown and souring attitudes toward Syrian refugees.

But now Lebanon wants to send her and a million other refugees back to Syria, claiming that much of the war-shattered country is safe. She is terrified. Life in Lebanon is difficult, but she fears returning to Syria could be fatal.

She’s considering a risky escape to Europe by sea with her husband and their children, ages 11 and six. There, she could complete her accounting degree, put the children back in school and secure a steady supply of medication for her epilepsy.

“They (the Europeans) live a better quality of life,” said Umm Jawad, who asked to be identified by her nickname, which means mother of Jawad in reference to her older son’s first name, to speak freely about her family and plans. “But here, my children, husband, and I live in a tent.”

Lebanon’s economic meltdown -– one of the worst in modern history -- has pushed a growing number of Lebanese and Syrians to attempt the perilous journey by sea to Europe.

The Lebanese government’s recently announced plan to deport 15,000 refugees per month to Syria appears set to push more people to make that journey, at a time when Europe is struggling with millions of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the months-long war in their country.

The Lebanese Army and other security agencies report foiled migration attempts off the coast of the northern coasts on a weekly basis. At least seven migrants drowned following a confrontation between a boat of Lebanese and Syrian migrants and the Lebanese Army in April.

“The Lebanese are not happy with their life here and are trying to leave, so what does that mean for Syrians?” said Umm Jawad. “May God help both the Lebanese and Syrians out of this crisis.”

Umm Jawad lives in a Syrian refugee camp near Lebanon’s eastern border crossing with Syria, On a recent day, children played soccer in the camp’s labyrinth of alleys, while some residents bartered with a street vendor who passed by with his cart carrying produce. One man set up a makeshift barbershop inside a tent.

Life in the camp has been getting harder. Donor fatigue, the COVID-19 pandemic, and Lebanon’s crippling economic crisis have forced more refugees to go into debt to afford food, medicine, and rent.

Lebanon, a country of five million people, says it can no longer afford to host more than a million Syrian refugees, and is adamant to start deporting them within months, despite opposition from the United Nations and rights groups.

The Lebanese authorities have supported forced refugee returns for years but had not come up with a comprehensive plan until recently. In justifying such measures, they say Syrian officials have assured them there are now many safe areas refugees can return to

In a Lebanese government document obtained by The Associated Press, Damascus assured Beirut in April that returnees would be able to secure identification cards, birth certificates, social services, temporary housing, and a viable infrastructure. Syrian officials also wrote that returnees would benefit from Syrian President Bashar Assad’s pardons of political opponents and military draft evaders.

In reality, the Assad government has struggled to rebuild areas it has reclaimed through devastating sieges and air raids, and Syria’s economy, like that of Lebanon, is in tatters. Western-led sanctions on Damascus following the government’s brutal crackdown on political opposition in 2011 have further exacerbated the economic downturn.

Many Syrian refugees fear for their safety if forced to return, including the oppressive omnipresence of their country’s notorious security services.

Human Rights Watch has documented cases of Syrian refugees facing detention, torture, and a host of human rights violations upon their return, even with security clearances from the Syrian government, said Lama Fakih, the Middle East and North Africa director at the watchdog group.

Umm Jawad worries her husband could be forced to return to the military. “You have check points every few hundred meters, between every neighborhood, and crime is rampant. You just can’t feel safe even in your own home,” she said.

Hassan Al-Mohammed, who works in the fields of Lebanon’s lush Bekaa Valley, along with several of his 12 children, said he dreams of going home, but that now is not the time. He said his hometown southwest of the city of Aleppo is still a frontline. “Should I flee an economic crisis just to have my family slaughtered?” he said, sitting in his tent.

At the same time, many Lebanese feel that sending the Syrians home would ease the economic crisis in Lebanon, wherethree out of four people now live in poverty.

Tensions between Lebanese and Syrians are increasingly palpable.

Al-Mohammed says bakeries would sometimes prioritize Lebanese nationals for their bundle of bread and make Syrians and non-Lebanese wait for hours. He is frustrated by claims that refugees have been benefitting economically at the expense of Lebanese. “They reduced aid, so we’re working to eat. The money we make is to buy bread,” he said.

Lebanese ministers in recent months have proposed that the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees redirect refugee aid to Syria, as a way of improving the situation there and encouraging returns.

But those calls have so far fallen on deaf ears. The U.N. refugee agency, along with Europe, the United States and several rights groups, say that Syria simply isn’t safe yet.

Lebanese officials expressed their frustration.

The U.N.’s refusal to redirect aid deters refugees from returning, Issam Charafeddine, the Cabinet minister dealing with refugee issues, said in an interview earlier this month. He also said reports of an imminent start of deportations amount to an unfounded “fear campaign.”

Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, a member of the Lebanese government’s refugee returns committee, told reporters last week that “it seems the international community doesn’t want the Syrians to return to their country.”

Roger Waters lends star power to the fight against Palestinian dispossession

Pink Floyd frontman supported students at McGill who faced threats from the university for their Palestine solidarity activism

Bianca Mugyenyi / July 20, 2022 / CANADIAN DIMENSION


Roger Waters performs with Pink Floyd in Ottawa. 

Photo by Brennan Schnell/Wikimedia Commons.

Last week, a 78-year-old UK-born rock star and a soft-spoken Palestinian Canadian undergraduate joined forces for a discussion about the suppression of Palestine solidarity on campuses across the country. The contrast was sharp, but rallying disparate forces is key to successful political campaigns.

On Thursday, the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute hosted an online rally and press event featuring Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters in support of McGill students who’ve faced a litany of attacks for advancing the Palestinian cause. It was an unusual fusion of local organizing and global star power.

Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill activist Sarah detailed her group’s work to mobilize students around a March resolution committing the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) to divest from and boycott “corporations and institutions complicit in settler-colonial apartheid against Palestinians.” The result of the campaign was overwhelming, with 71 percent of students voting for a Palestine Solidarity Policy mandating SSMU to take action for Palestinian rights.

Not everyone was pleased with the result. B’nai B’rith, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and several donors to the university expressed their opposition to the outcome of the vote. The McGill administration threatened to suspend its fee agreement with SSMU and shortly after student union officials withdrew the widely endorsed resolution. Subsequently, SSMU also suspended SPHR’s club status.

The day before performing for an audience of 15,000 people at Montréal’s Bell Centre, Waters joined an online rally in support of McGill students advocating for Palestinian rights.

During the event, the English musician and activist described the vote as a “crushing defeat for B’nai Brith and the Zionist movement in general.” He pointed out that the strong endorsement for BDS at the elite university demonstrated the growth of Palestine solidarity over the past decade and a half since he became involved in the movement. “Five years or six ago you could not use the word apartheid with reference to the Zionist agenda. You couldn’t do it,” Water’s noted. “Now it is impossible to have any conversation about the Zionist project in Palestine without using the word apartheid.” Water also talked about the importance of educating people about Palestine, stating that “our message is huge.”

Sarah from SPHR McGill told the press and audience that “Despite everything we are still able to organize.” She asserted that “no matter what is thrown at us we will always resist.”

The event also included a message of solidarity from the Montréal council of the CSN labour federation. Nearly 600 people registered for a rally endorsed by almost 40 organizations, including the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Canadian Federation of Students, and Africa for Palestine. The event was covered by La Presse, rabble, and Le Journal de Montréal (with articles reprinted in Le Soleil and La Voix de l’Est) and was also mentioned in an article published by the Globe and Mail.

Significant resources are directed towards stifling support for Palestine on Canadian campuses. Hillel, Israel on Campus Canada, Hasbara Fellowships Canada and StandWithUs Canada are all university-focused pro-Israel groups. Honest Reporting Canada regularly runs campaigns targeting student papers while Canary Mission is an international website devoted to sabotaging the job prospects of university students who participate in pro-Palestinian activism.

A recent Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security report on “The Rise of Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism in Canada” highlights the efforts devoted to demonizing campus activism. With input from CIJA and B’nai B’rith leadership the report recommends: “That the Government of Canada thoroughly reject the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel, and condemn all attempts by Canadian organizations, groups, or individuals, including university campus associations, to promote these views.”

Now more than ever, it’s critical to pushback against attempts to squash Palestine solidarity campaigns. In the recent academic year students at five Canadian universities passed resolutions supporting elements of the boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, joining some two dozen student associations that had already endorsed the Palestinian civil society’s call.

When organizers achieve a 71 percent student vote in favour of Palestinian rights, it is essential to defend them from outside pressure. Roger Waters should be applauded for lending his star power to grassroots organizers working to end Canadian complicity in Palestinian dispossession.

Bianca Mugyenyi is an author, activist and director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute. She is based in Montréal.

Feds must act to end the forced sterilization of Indigenous people

Although official policies have been repealed, the genocidal practice continues to this day

Owen Schalk / July 20, 2022 / CANADIAN DIMENSION

“Debwe,” led by Mushkiiki Nibi Kwe (Lindsey Lickers) with artists Leah Roberts, Maybella King Reynolds, and Shaneixqui Brown, forms part of the art installation Red Embers, now on display in Ashbridges Bay Park, Toronto.

Since 2019, the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights has been conducting “a study on the extent and scope of forced and coerced sterilization of persons in Canada,” the findings of which were compiled in a report released on July 14, 2022.

Sterilization, or the permanent prevention of contraception by surgical means, is performed on hundreds of thousands of people annually, and according to Canadian and international law, the surgeon must acquire the “free and informed consent” of the patient before beginning the procedure. Forced sterilization occurs when a person has explicitly refused the procedure or has been subjected to the procedure without their knowledge. Coerced sterilization is when people are intimidated into undergoing the surgery or when they consent on the basis of incorrect information.

The Standing Committee report explicates a reality that Indigenous communities already know and suffer through: in the 1920s, official policies of forced sterilization were administered across Canada, and although these policies have been repealed, the genocidal practice continues to this day in a colonial health care system that already pathologizes Indigenous peoples in a way that other groups simply do not have to endure.



In the early twentieth century, numerous Canadian provinces passed laws intended to forcibly limit the birth rate of Indigenous peoples residing within the fledging nation’s borders, an act of genocide according to the UN definition of the term. “Through settler colonial policies” such as these, write Chaneesa Ryan, Abrar Ali, and Christine Shawana, “Indigenous populations in Canada have been targeted by various assimilation policies and practices including, among others, the Indian Act, residential schools, and the Sixties Scoop.” Forced and coerced sterilization, they explain, “continues the history of colonization and is designed to control and/or eliminate a population.”

Between 2015 and 2019, over 100 Indigenous women from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, and Québec publicly asserted that they were survivors of forced or coerced sterilization procedures. The actual number is undoubtedly much higher, and more and more Indigenous women come forward every year to share their traumatic experiences. One study found that 26 percent of Inuit women between the ages of 30 and 50 in the town of Igloolik, Nunavut were sterilized against their will.

Following allegations of forced sterilization in Saskatchewan health care facilities, the Saskatoon Health Authority commissioned an independent review by Senator Yvonne Boyer and Dr. Judith Bartlett. In 2017, they wrote that “the sterilization legislation legacy remains intact through imprints in not only Saskatchewan but all of Canada’s health care system.” The cases they examined revealed that many Indigenous women were not told about other birth control options, were pressured or threatened into undergoing sterilization procedures, or were subjected to sterilization after expressly refusing to sign consent forms.

“Racism is a determinant of health,” Boyer and Bartlett concluded, adding that “some governments imposed policies and laws geared toward sterilizing [Indigenous] women… In addition to gender bias, it is well documented that systemic discrimination and racism in health care exists. Decades and generations of [Indigenous] people affected are accordingly distrustful of this system.”

The recent report by the Standing Committee highlights the fact that, from the early twentieth century to the present, forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous peoples and other oppressed groups has occurred as a result of official government policies, systemic discrimination in health care institutions, and the overall “sociocultural context” of the victimized individuals. The report’s authors found that:
While the available record indicates that First Nations, Métis and Inuit women have disproportionately been the target of policies of forced and coerced sterilization, the Committee heard that other vulnerable groups have also been disproportionately subjected to these procedures, including Black and racialized women, persons with disabilities, intersex children and institutionalized persons.


The authors note that the United Nations Committee against Torture, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and two UN Special Rapporteurs have urged Canada to implement concrete measures to end the forced sterilization of Indigenous peoples by any means necessary—an urgency that is not present in any of the Canadian government’s responses to this ongoing crisis.

In December 2018, the UN Committee against Torture called on Canada to institute numerous measures to end forced sterilization of Indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups, emphasizing the need to “[e]nsure that all allegations of forced or coerced sterilization are impartially investigated, that the persons responsible are held accountable and that adequate redress is provided to the victims.” The UN also called on the Canadian government to “adopt legislative and policy measures to prevent and criminalize the forced or coerced sterilization of women.”

The next year, a report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urged Canada to “to guarantee effective access to justice for survivors and their families, to conduct impartial and immediate investigations, to hold those responsible to account and to take all of the necessary measures to put an end to the practice of sterilizing women against their will.”

In other words, both the UN and the IACHR openly implored the Canadian government to do everything within its power to bring an end to these genocidal actions. Nevertheless, forced and coerced sterilizations continue in Canada, with minimal action from the federal government. The authors of the July 14 report are only able to note four actions taken by the government to address this crisis since 2019: Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) established an Advisory Committee on Indigenous Women’s Wellbeing; ISC helped convene a forum on “Culturally Informed Choice and Consent in Indigenous Women’s Health”; the Government of Canada held three “national dialogues” on anti-Indigenous racism in Canadian health care systems; and Budget 2021 allocated $33.3 million “to expand support for Indigenous midwifery and doula initiatives.”

In other areas, however, Ottawa has evinced nowhere near the same hesitation. For instance, the disparity between the lack of urgency regarding genocidal sterilization practices and the feverish intensity with which the federal government is expanding its international military presence is clear. For example, Budget 2022 includes $6.1 billion for the expansion of the Canadian military and a potential $2.8 billion in “lethal and non-lethal aid to support Ukraine’s heroic defence” against Russia. In the face of this gargantuan funding gap, one can hardly claim that Canada is following the UN and IACHR recommendation to “take all of the necessary measures” to end forced and coerced sterilization.



While refusing to take sufficient action about forced sterilization within its own borders, the Canadian government has been breathless in its criticism of China regarding allegations of forced sterilization against Uyghurs and other Muslim peoples in the country’s west. In fact, Ottawa claims to have “raised the issue [of forced sterilization] with Chinese authorities” and “consistently voiced its deep concern” over the accusations “in international forums in cooperation with partners, including at the United Nations Human Rights Council.” The Trudeau government has even applied economic sanctions against China because of, in the Government of Canada’s words, allegations pertaining to “forced medical procedures absent the patient’s consent, including forced sterilization.” This undeniably dishonest behaviour is one of myriad reasons why the Canadian government should not be afforded any of the respect it claims to command on the global stage.

In their article for the International Journal of Indigenous Health, Chaneesa Ryan, Abrar Ali, and Christine Shawana explain that “Sterilizing Indigenous women against their will violates their rights to equality, nondiscrimination, physical integrity, health, and security, and constitutes an act of genocide, violence, and torture against women” according to Canadian and international law. “Additionally,” they continue:
women who have been impacted by forced or coerced sterilization have experienced various physical and emotional symptoms, including pain, tissue scarring, hormonal imbalances, depression, anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, social isolation, loss of identity and self-worth, distrust in the health care system, and fear of authority… This in turn leads to a hesitancy to seek medical care, increasing women’s vulnerability to preventable and treatable medical conditions.


Some survivors of forced sterilization have died by suicide. A woman named Pam (who withheld her surname out of fear of “further harming her family”), stated that her daughter committed suicide ten months after being forcibly sterilized at a Winnipeg hospital in 2009. There have also been reports of doctors telling pregnant Indigenous people that they will only be able to reclaim their children from foster care if they undergo abortions.

“Their social worker is giving them instructions to abort their baby in exchange for being able to get their children back or get more access to their children,” explained Cora Morgan, a family advocate with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. “They’re basically blackmailing [Indigenous] women into having abortions.”

Despite these appalling realities, forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous people is not actually illegal in Canada, and no doctor has ever been prosecuted for the act. It was only in July 2022, after years of urging by Indigenous people, activists, the UN, and the IACHR, that the Senate recommended “legislation be introduced to add a specific offence to the Criminal Code prohibiting forced and coerced sterilization.”

This recommendation echoes that of Senator Yvonne Boyer, who introduced a bill to criminalize forced sterilization into the Senate the previous month. During the proceedings, Boyer read a statement from an Indigenous woman in Alberta who was coerced into sterilization. “I’ve been attacked by a system that wished harm on the continuance of my family and ancestral lineage,” the statement read. “It’s simply genocide.”

Neither the Standing Committee’s recommendation nor Boyer’s bill have yet been codified into law. The law’s codification, and indeed its subsequent enforcement, will require the federal and provincial governments to take the immediate, decisive actions that they have so far spurned in the midst of these ongoing nationwide atrocities.

Owen Schalk is a writer based in Winnipeg. He is primarily interested in applying theories of imperialism, neocolonialism, and underdevelopment to global capitalism and Canada’s role therein. Visit his website at www.owenschalk.com.

Vatican says they’re gifts; Indigenous groups want them back
By NICOLE WINFIELD

1 of 7

President of the Metis community, Cassidy Caron, speaks to the media in St. Peter's Square after their meeting with Pope Francis at The Vatican, Monday, March 28, 2022. The restitution of Indigenous and colonial-era artifacts, a pressing debate for museums and national collections across Europe, is one of the many agenda items awaiting Francis on his trip to Canada, which begins Sunday. 

(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File )


VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican Museums are home to some of the most magnificent artworks in the world, from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel to ancient Egyptian antiquities and a pavilion full of papal chariots. But one of the museum’s least-visited collections is becoming its most contested before Pope Francis’ trip to Canada.

The Vatican’s Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum, located near the food court and right before the main exit, houses tens of thousands of artifacts and art made by Indigenous peoples from around the world, much of it sent to Rome by Catholic missionaries for a 1925 exhibition in the Vatican gardens.

The Vatican says the feathered headdresses, carved walrus tusks, masks and embroidered animal skins were gifts to Pope Pius XI, who wanted to celebrate the Church’s global reach, its missionaries and the lives of the Indigenous peoples they evangelized.

But Indigenous groups from Canada, who were shown a few items in the collection when they traveled to the Vatican last spring to meet with Francis, question how some of the works were actually acquired and wonder what else may be in storage after decades of not being on public display.

Some say they want them back.

“These pieces that belong to us should come home,” said Cassidy Caron, president of the Metis National Council, who headed the Metis delegation that asked Francis to return the items.

Restitution of Indigenous and colonial-era artifacts, a pressing debate for museums and national collections across Europe, is one of the many agenda items awaiting Francis on his trip to Canada, which begins Sunday.

The trip is aimed primarily at allowing the pope to apologize in person, on Canadian soil, for abuses Indigenous people and their ancestors suffered at the hands of Catholic missionaries in notorious residential schools.

Caron said returning the missionary collection items would help heal the intergenerational trauma and enable Indigenous peoples to tell their own story.

“For so long we had to hide who we were. We had to hide our culture and hide our traditions to keep our people safe,” she said. “Right now, in this time when we can publicly be proud to be Metis, we are reclaiming who we are. And these pieces, these historic pieces, they tell stories of who we were.”

___

More than 150,000 Native children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes and culture. The aim was to Christianize and assimilate them into mainstream society, which previous Canadian governments considered superior.

Official Canadian policy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries also aimed to suppress Indigenous spiritual and cultural traditions at home, including the 1885 Potlatch Ban that prohibited the integral First Nations ceremony.

Government agents confiscated items used in the ceremony and other rituals, and some of them ended up in museums in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, as well as private collections. The Vatican’s catalogue of its Americas collection, for example, features a wooden painted mask from the Haida Gwaii islands of British Columbia that “is related to the Potlatch ceremony.”

During the spring visit, Natan Obed, who headed the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami delegation, raised the issue of an Inuit kayak in the collection that was featured in a 2021 report in The Globe and Mail newspaper. Obed was quoted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. as saying the museum head, the Rev. Nicola Mapelli, was open to discussing its return.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni didn’t rule out that Francis might repatriate some items during the coming trip, telling reporters: “We’ll see what happens in the coming days.”

There are international standards guiding the issue of returning Indigenous cultural property, as well as individual museum policies. The 2007 U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, for example, asserts that nations should provide redress, including through restitution, of cultural, religious and spiritual property taken “without their free, prior and informed consent or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs.”

It is possible Indigenous peoples gave their handiworks to Catholic missionaries for the 1925 expo or that the missionaries bought them. But historians question whether the items could have been offered freely given the power imbalances at play in Catholic missions and the government’s policy of eliminating Indigenous traditions, which Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called “cultural genocide.”

“By the power structure of what was going on at that time, it would be very hard for me to accept that there wasn’t some coercion going on in those communities to get these objects,” said Michael Galban, a Washoe and Mono Lake Paiute who is director and curator of the Seneca Art & Culture Center in upstate New York.

Gloria Bell, a fellow at the American Academy in Rome and assistant professor in McGill University’s department of art history and communication studies, agreed.

“Using the term ‘gift’ just covers up the whole history,” said Bell, who is of Metis ancestry and is completing a book about the 1925 expo. “We really need to question the context of how these cultural belongings got to the Vatican, and then also their relation to Indigenous communities today.”

The Holy See’s Indigenous collection began centuries ago, with some pre-Columbian items sent to Pope Innocent XII in 1692, and has been amplified over the years by gifts to popes, especially on foreign trips. Of the 100,000 items originally sent for the 1925 exhibit, the Vatican says it has kept 40,000.

It has repatriated some items. In 2021, Vatican News reported that the Anima Mundi had recently returned to Ecuador a shrunken head used in rituals by the Jivaroan peoples of the Amazon.

Katsitsionni Fox, a Mohawk filmmaker who served as spiritual adviser to the spring First Nations delegation, said she saw items that belong to her people and need to be “rematriated,” or brought back home to the motherland.

“You can sense that that’s not where they belong and that’s not where they want to be,” she said of the wampum belts, war clubs and other items she documented with her phone camera.

The Vatican Museums declined repeated requests for an interview or comment.

But in its 2015 catalogue of its Americas holdings, the museum said they demonstrated the church’s great esteem for world cultures and its commitment to preserving their arts and artifacts, as evidenced by the excellent condition of the pieces.

The catalogue also said the museum welcomes dialogue with Indigenous peoples, and the museum has held up its collaboration with Aboriginal communities in Australia before a 2010 exhibit. The collection’s director, Mapelli, a missionary priest and an associate visited those communities, took video testimonies and traveled the world seeking more information about the museum’s holdings.

Opening the revamped Anima Mundi gallery space in 2019 with artifacts from Oceania as well as a temporary Amazon exhibit, Francis said the items were cared for “with the same passion reserved for the masterpieces of the Renaissance or the immortal Greek and Roman statues.”

He noted that some items had recently been loaned to China and said the collection “invites us to live human fraternity, contrasting the culture of rancor, racism and nationalism.”

Francis also praised the museum’s stated commitment to transparency, noting the glass partitions showing the storage facilities upstairs and the restorers’ workstations on the main floor: “Transparency is an important value, above all in an ecclesiastic institution.”

___

You might miss the Anima Mundi if you were to spend the day in the Vatican Museums. Official tours don’t include it and the audio guide, which features descriptions of two dozen museums and galleries, ignores it entirely. Private guides say they rarely take visitors there, because there is no explanatory signage on display cases or wall text panels.

Margo Neale, who helped curate the Vatican’s 2010 Aboriginal exhibition as head of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges at the Australian National Museum, said it is unacceptable for Indigenous collections today to lack informational labels.

“They are not being given the respect they deserve by being named in any way,” said Neale, a member of the Kulin and Gumbaingirr nations. “They are beautifully displayed but are culturally diminished by the lack of acknowledgement of anything other than their ‘exotic otherness.’”

It wasn’t clear if the current exhibition was a work in progress with labels eventually to be added; at the gallery entrance, a text panel asks for donations to fund the collection.

Museums and governments around Europe — in places like Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium — are grappling with the question of their colonial and postcolonial collections, and leading the discussion of legally transferring property back, experts say. With some exceptions, the trend is increasingly toward repatriation — recently agreements were announced in Germany and France to return pieces of the famed Benin Bronzes to Nigeria.

“There is a certain willingness growing in a number of European countries to return objects and archives and ancestral remains,” said Jos van Beurden, who runs a group email list and a Facebook group, Restitution Matters, that tracks developments in the field.

In Canada, the Royal British Columbia Museum has gone so far as to create a handbook empowering Indigenous communities to reclaim their cultural heritage.

In Victoria, the city where the museum is located, Gregory Scofield has amassed a community collection of about 100 items of Metis beadwork, embroidery and other workmanship dating from 1840 to 1910, tracked down and acquired via online auctions and through travel and made available to Metis scholars and artists.

Scofield, a Metis poet and author of the forthcoming book “Our Grandmother’s Hands: Repatriating Metis Material Art,” said any discussion with the Vatican Museums should focus on granting Indigenous scholars full access to the collection and, ultimately, bringing items home.

“These pieces hold our stories,” he said. “These pieces hold our history. These pieces hold the energy of those ancestral grandmothers.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

AP-NORC poll: Majority want Congress to keep abortion legal


By HANNAH FINGERHU

Ttoday

Abortion-rights activists demonstrate against the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade that established a constitutional right to abortion, on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 30, 2022. A majority of Americans say Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide. That's according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Americans say Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide, according to a new poll that finds over half say they feel at least somewhat “sad” or “angry” about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The high court’s decision asserted that abortion is not a constitutional right and handed states the authority to severely restrict or ban abortion. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows many Americans back some restrictions on abortion, especially after the first trimester, but the most extreme measures introduced in some Republican-led states are at odds with the public — and with many of the people who live in them.

Faith Murphy, a 41-year-old in Coshocton, Ohio, said she was “quite upset” that the court overruled Roe and wants to see abortion access federally protected. While she’s voted across the aisle, Murphy considers herself a Republican and doesn’t want to see Republican leaders in her state and others push for restrictions.

“I don’t trust who we have in government here in Ohio ... to keep women’s rights or the right to an abortion for any reason whatsoever intact,” Murphy said.

Polling ahead of the June 24 decision suggested that overturning Roe would be unpopular with a majority of Americans who wanted to see the court uphold the 50-year precedent. The new poll, roughly three weeks after the decision, finds 53% of U.S. adults say they disapprove of the court’s decision, while 30% say they approve. An additional 16% say they neither approve nor disapprove.

Sixty percent think Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide. The House last Friday voted to restore abortion rights in the U.S., though the bill will likely stall in the Senate.

Overwhelming majorities also think their state should generally allow abortion in specific cases, including if the health of the pregnant person is endangered or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Few think abortion should always be illegal, and most Americans support their state generally allowing abortion six weeks into the pregnancy.

Those patterns persist even in the 23 states in which laws banning or tightening access to abortion have taken effect, will soon take effect or are being debated in court.

Blake Jones thinks six weeks “is far too early to be able to make a decision like that,” and while he personally doesn’t approve of abortion, the 28-year-old Democrat in Athens, Georgia, said he’s pro-choice because he doesn’t believe “that my views should affect other people.”

Jones said he thinks the point of viability is more appropriate for restrictions on abortion, but even then, there should be exceptions if the pregnant person’s health is at risk or the baby would be born with a severe health issue.

Views about abortion at the 15-week mark are muddled. The poll shows Americans in states that have deepened restrictions on abortion are closely divided over abortion at 15 weeks into a pregnancy. That compares with about 6 in 10 Americans in other states saying abortion should be allowed at that point. That gap is similar on allowing abortion for “any reason.”

Support dwindles across the board at 24 weeks into the pregnancy, with only about a third saying their state should generally allow for that.

While only about a third approve of the Supreme Court’s decision, the poll finds about half of Americans think states should be responsible for establishing abortion laws.

Jeffrey Bouchelle agreed with the court because “it should’ve been a states’ rights issue in the first place.” The 57-year-old Republican in Farmers Branch, Texas, believes abortion is wrong, but as a state issue. Bouchelle accepted some states may allow abortion if that’s what the majority prefers.

“There should be access to abortion,” he said. “I just don’t think it should be in Texas.”

Overall, about a third of U.S. adults say they feel at least somewhat proud, relieved or excited about the court’s decision, a reflection that the decades-long effort to overturn Roe resonates with a sizable segment of the population.

“I’m happy with it,” Tammy Rardain said about the court’s decision. The 54-year-old Republican in Logan, Ohio, said her views on abortion are defined by her Christian faith. She wants to see a ban on abortion in Ohio at any point in the pregnancy.

More Americans — 55% — say they feel at least somewhat angry or sad about the decision, including about 4 in 10 who feel so strongly. Half say they feel at least somewhat anxious or hopeless — a sign that Democrats may struggle to turn feelings of anger into motivation to turn out to vote in this year’s midterm elections.

“I was really disappointed, and I felt as though our judicial system had failed us all,” said 41-year-old Democrat Candice Lampkin. “I truly believe that they’re infringing upon our civil rights and liberties.”

The Chicago resident said she wants abortion to be a federally protected right and is concerned about what health care, like birth control, might be targeted next. She hopes the issue will be top of mind for voters this fall.

“We have to do more during election season and make sure we hold our politicians accountable,” she said.

___

The poll of 1,085 adults was conducted July 14-17 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

Majority angry, sad over Roe demise

A new AP-NORC poll finds more than half of Americans say they feel at least somewhat “angry” or “sad” about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. A smaller but sizable share – about a third – say they feel at least somewhat “relieved” or “excited.”

Q: How well does each of the following describe how you feel about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade?

Extremely/Very

 well

Somewhat

 well

Not

 very/Not at all well

Angry

38%

17%

43%

Sad

38%

17%

44%

Hopeless

29%

21%

48%

Relieved

19%

16%

63%

Excited

16%

16%

66%

Indifferent

11%

22%

64%

Results based on interviews with 1,085 U.S. adults conducted July 14-17, 2022. The margin of error is ±3.9 percentage points for the full sample.

Source: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

WHO again considers declaring monkeypox a global emergency
By MARIA CHENG

This 1997 image provided by the CDC during an investigation into an outbreak of monkeypox, which took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, and depicts the dorsal surfaces of the hands of a monkeypox case patient, who was displaying the appearance of the characteristic rash during its recuperative stage. The World Health Organization is convening its emergency committee on Thursday, July 21, 2022 to consider for the second time within weeks whether the expanding outbreak of monkeypox should be declared a global crisis. (CDC via AP, File)


LONDON (AP) — As the World Health Organization’s emergency committee convened Thursday to consider for the second time within weeks whether to declare monkeypox a global crisis, some scientists said the striking differences between the outbreaks in Africa and in developed countries will complicate any coordinated response.

African officials say they are already treating the continent’s epidemic as an emergency. But experts elsewhere say the mild version of monkeypox in Europe, North America and beyond makes an emergency declaration unnecessary even if the virus can’t be stopped. British officials recently downgraded their assessment of the disease, given its lack of severity.

“I remain concerned about the number of cases, in an increasing number of countries, that have been reported,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the emergency committee as its meeting got underway.

He said it was “pleasing” to note falling numbers of monkeypox cases in some countries but that the virus is still increasing elsewhere and that six countries reported their first infections last week.

Monkeypox has been entrenched for decades in parts of central and western Africa, where diseased wild animals occasionally infect people in rural areas in relatively contained epidemics. The disease in Europe, North America and beyond has circulated since at least May among gay and bisexual men. The epidemic in rich countries was likely triggered by sex at two raves in Spain and Belgium.

Some experts worry these and other differences could possibly deepen existing medical inequities between poor and wealthy nations.

There are now more than 15,000 monkeypox cases worldwide. While the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries have bought millions of vaccines, none have gone to Africa, where a more severe version of monkeypox has already killed more than 70 people. Rich countries haven’t yet reported any monkeypox deaths.

“What’s happening in Africa is almost entirely separate from the outbreak in Europe and North America,” said Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia who previously advised WHO on infectious diseases.

The U.N. health agency said this week that outside of Africa, 99% of all reported monkeypox cases are in men and of those, 98% are in men who have sex with other men. Still, the disease can infect anyone in close, physical contact with a monkeypox patient, regardless of their sexual orientation.

“In these very active gay sexual networks, you have men who really, really don’t want people to know what they’re doing and may not themselves always know who they are having sex with,” Hunter said.

Some of those men may be married to women or have families unaware of their sexual activity, which “makes contact tracing extremely difficult and even things like asking people to come forward for testing,” Hunter said, explaining why vaccination may be the most effective way to shut down the outbreak.

That’s probably not the case in Africa, where limited data suggests monkeypox is mainly jumping into people from infected animals. Although African experts acknowledge they could be missing cases among gay and bisexual men, given limited surveillance and stigmatization against LGBTQ people, authorities have relied on standard measures like isolation and education to control the disease.

Dr. Placide Mbala, a virologist who directs the global health department at Congo’s Institute of National Biomedical Research, said there are also noticeable differences between patients in Africa and the West.

“We see here (in Congo) very quickly, after three to four days, visible lesions in people exposed to monkeypox,” Mbala said, adding that someone with so many visible lesions is unlikely to go out in public, thus preventing further transmission.

But in countries including Britain and the U.S., doctors have observed some infected people with only one or two lesions, often in their genitals.

“You wouldn’t notice that if you’re just with that person in a taxi or a bar,” Mbala said. “So in the West, people without these visible lesions may be silently spreading the disease.”

He said different approaches in different countries will likely be needed to stop the global outbreak, making it challenging to adopt a single response strategy worldwide, like those for Ebola and COVID-

Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a professor of medicine at Nigeria’s Niger Delta University, said he feared the world’s limited vaccine supplies would result in a repeat of the problems that arose in the coronavirus pandemic, when poorer countries were left empty-handed after rich countries hoarded most of the doses.

“It does not make sense to just control the outbreak in Europe and America, because you will then still have the (animal) source of the outbreak in Africa,” said Ogoina, who sits on WHO’s monkeypox emergency committee.

This week, U.S. officials said more than 100,000 monkeypox vaccine doses were being sent to states in the next few days, with several million more on order for the months ahead. The U.S. has reported more than 2,000 cases so far, with hundreds more added every day.

Some U.S. public health experts have begun to wonder if the outbreak is becoming widespread enough that monkeypox will become a new sexually transmitted disease.

Declaring monkeypox to be a global emergency could also inadvertently worsen the rush for vaccines, despite the mildness of the disease being seen in most countries.

Dr. Hugh Adler, who treats monkeypox patients in Britain, said there aren’t many serious cases or infections beyond gay and bisexual men. Still, he said it was frustrating that more vaccines weren’t available, since the outbreak was doubling about every two weeks in the U.K..

“If reclassifying monkeypox as a global emergency will make (vaccines available), then maybe that’s what needs to be done,” he said. “But in an ideal world, we should be able to make the necessary interventions without the emergency declaration.”