For blight-ridden American chestnut tree, rebirth may be in offing

Author: AFP|

Update: 25.10.2022

If scientists are successful, American chestnut trees will recover from a terrible blight that has devastated the species / © AFP

The American chestnut tree, once a regal pillar of forests across the eastern United States, is on life support, struggling to survive.

"These look like death," said Vasiliy Lakoba, research director for the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF), which has been working since the 1980s to resurrect the species.

He pointed to a patch of stunted shrubs, chestnut trees that were a far cry from the noble, erect chestnut trees of yesteryear.


Settlers along the US eastern seaboard relied on abundant chestnut trees to feed their hogs, their children and themselves. Chestnuts made up about 50 percent of hardwood forests in much of the eastern seaboard, and the wood was ideal for building.

But then came a terrible fungus, identified in 1904 at the Bronx Zoo on a tree from Japan. In less than three decades, millions of American chestnut trees had perished. It has been considered the greatest tragedy in the history of American forestry.


Prickly burrs cover the meat of the American chestnut tree / © AFP

"The devastation was so fast," said Lakoba, referring to "ghost forests."

Today, only a few rare specimens still survive to adulthood in the wild.

- 'Tall and straight' -

The American Chesnut Foundation runs this research facility in Meadowview, Virginia / © AFP

Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, the foundation's main laboratory farm spans 36 hectares (almost 90 acres) in Virginia and includes tens of thousands of trees.

Workers use a crane to harvest the burrs, or spiny prickly shells that cover the nuts, then take them to a shed to be studied and used for future planting.

"It's like picking apples, but with pricks," laughed Jim Tolton, a technician on the farm, during a chestnut harvest day in early October.


A canker disfigures a branch on an American chestnut tree at the American Chestnut Foundation's Meadowview, Virginia, Research Farm / © AFP

Before the disease, the American chestnut tree "grew tall and straight through the forest, fighting for light," Lakoba said.

But the blight causes cankers to appear on the branches and stems of the American chestnut tree.

Blighted trees grow other branches here and there, giving them a bushy appearance, instead of maintaining a tall, straight shape.

No cure has yet been found to stop the spread.

- Hybrids and GMOs -


A researcher holds a healthy leaf of a Chinese chestnut tree. Under it is a sickly leaf of an American chestnut tree / © AFP

Finding a way to fight the blight is precisely the mission of ACF.

To do this, two main research avenues are under investigation: The first, which has been in place for years, consists of crossing an American chestnut tree with other species that already show some resistance to the fungus, such as the Chinese chestnut tree.

A first specimen is produced from this hybridization, before it is crossbred again with an American chestnut tree, then once again -- all in order to preserve as much of the original genetic characteristics as possible. The current hybrid has 15/16ths of the genetic makeup of an American chestnut tree -- while ideally acquiring the resistance of the Chinese chestnut tree.

One of the main drawbacks with these hybrids, explained Lakoba, "is that blight resistance and susceptibility have turned out to be a genetically much more complex phenomenon than previously thought."

ACF researchers have not abandoned their crossbreeding efforts. But a second avenue of research has opened up: genetic modification.

Vasiliy Lakoba, research director at a farm of the American Chesnut Foundation in Meadowview, Virginia, voices hope that a devastating blight can be overcome / © AFP

Working on a transgenic version of the American chestnut tree, researchers at the State University of New York at Syracuse have developed a specimen that shows very promising early results of disease resistance, according to Lakoba, who is collaborating with the researchers.

Combining crossbreeding with genetic modification might yield better results, he said.

- 'Keep chipping away' -


Ultraviolet light bathes American chestnut saplings in a research facility in Meadowview, Virginia / © AFP

Once a resistant specimen has been developed, the time will come for the Herculean task of reintroducing the tree to an American landscape deeply altered by more than a century of development.

"So much has changed in terms of climate, in terms of invasive species, in terms of pollution, habitat change, land use, change, soil loss and erosion, that it really isn't the same world from 100 years ago," Lakoba said.

Not only has the landscape been altered, Lakoba said, climate change adds another wildcard to whether the American chestnut can ever prosper again.

Once abundant in hardwood forests in the eastern United States, chestnut trees like this one (seen through a screen in Meadowview, Virginia) grow today to barely the size of shrubs / © AFP

"Overall, there will be more pests, there will be more diseases," he said.

Any revival of the American chestnut may be decades -- or centuries -- away.

"This is definitely at least a couple centuries of a mission going forward. And from there, I think we just keep chipping away at it," Lakoba said.

But he is hopeful that scientific advances are on the side of the American chestnut.

"We see it really as a matter of time."

Will Climate Change Doom US Truck Habit? Detroit Says No

By John BIERS
10/24/22 

Steve Majoros, Vice President of Chevrolet Marketing, presenting the electric Chevrolet Equinox at last month's Detroit Auto Show, one of several electric versions of large vehciles touted by US automakers

The US consumer's love for enormous vehicles has been seen by outsiders as a curiosity and sometimes a sign of profligacy.

Either way, rising concerns about climate change seemed to create a reckoning for the behemoth-sized pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles that recently have sustained US automaker profits.

Not so, according to Detroit auto giants, who have responded to the climate crisis by launching all-electric versions of the Ford F-150 pickup, the Chevrolet Blazer SUV and other best-selling giants that seemingly promise the possibility that consumers can have it all: address global warming without sacrificing the appeal of larger autos.

Leading US environmentalists, along with the Biden administration, have praised announcements of the electric vehicle (EV) rollouts as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Absent has been any discussion of the environmental toll of large EV trucks, which require more energy to recharge and more critical materials than do smaller EVs.

In showcasing trucks, Detroit automakers are setting the groundwork for an EV era that mirrors the current profile of US roadways and distinct from Europe, where sedans dominate.

Industry insiders like Alan Amici, president of the Center for Automotive Research, see little appetite among American consumers to go small.

"People are still clamoring for big pickups and SUVs," Amici said. "I don't expect a return to sedans."

The trucks, often marketed in advertisements navigating rugged landscapes, provide lucrative profit margins to automakers and have become so ubiquitous on US roads that some consumers avoid smaller vehicles out of fear of how it would handle a crash with a much bigger auto.


Ford and General Motors, both of which report earnings this week, are positioning the vehicles as environmentally friendly based on how they contrast with gas-guzzling equivalents.

Luke Tonachel, who heads the clean vehicles program at environmental group NRDC, said electric pickups and SUVs represent a critical step in addressing climate change.

"It's incredibly important that we eliminate tailpipe pollution from all cars as soon as possible," Tonachel told AFP.

"We need broad acceptance and adoption of EVs across the market. And that's why it's encouraging to see automakers starting to make EVs on all types of car segments, including the most popular ones."

The focus on large vehicles was apparent at last month's Detroit Auto Show, where Biden test drove the EV Cadillac Lyriq, an SUV made by the GM brand. In previous trips to Detroit, Biden cheered on production of GM's EV Hummer and the launch of Ford's F-150 EV.

While GM's display at the Detroit show included the Bolt, an EV sedan, greater prominence went to electric versions of three larger Chevies: the Silverado pickup, and the Blazer and Equinox SUVs.

"The customer has spoken. SUVs and trucks are what the customer wants," Chevrolet Vice President Steve Majoros told AFP at the show.

NRDC's Tonachel notes that some sedans still sell at substantial levels in the United States, but that they are made by companies like Japan's Toyota and South Korea's Hyundai.

"The different manufacturers are sort of carving out what they see as their specialty," he said. "The Detroit three automakers, they left the compact car and most of the sedan market years ago."

Bertrand Rakoto, global automotive practice leader at Ducker in Detroit, a consultancy, said it makes more sense to focus on trucks to fight climate change.

"You're removing the emissions for the large vehicles that are the most emitting," he said.

Rakoto, who is originally from France, said the contrast between the United States and Europe reflect different geographic qualities and transportation systems, with space in Europe more precious and public transit more integrated into regular life.

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A December 2021 International Energy Agency report bemoaned the rise of SUVs, not only in the United States, but in India and Europe.

Most of the vehicles still run on gasoline, meaning that "if SUVs were an individual country, they would rank sixth in the world for absolute emissions in 2021, emitting over 900 million tons of CO2," the IEA said.

The analysis said SUV electrification helps, but noted larger vehicles require more critical materials for bigger batteries and consume around 20 percent more energy than a medium-sized car.


For Benjamin Stephan, of Greenpeace in Germany, limiting global warming remains critical, meaning "you sort of have to pull every lever available."

"Obviously an all-electric pickup truck will have a much better carbon footprint," he said. "But you could reduce that footprint even more by having no car at all, or a much smaller car."

Like other electric vehicles being developed by Detroit, Ford Motor Co.'s F-150 Lightning has been praised as an improvement in addressing climate change, although it requires more energy to recharge than does a smaller vehicle

US President Joe Biden, shown here in November 2021 beside a GMC Hummer EV, has embraced the large electric trucks that dominate the Detroit automaker's response to climate change

© Copyright AFP 2022. All rights reserved.

LGBT FOOTBALL FANS FIGHT FOR SAFE SPACE IN BRAZIL STADIUMS

The club in northeastern Salvador is a rare safe space for gay fans who often steer clear of football stadiums for fear of coming under attack.

Ona Ruda, founder of the LGBTricolor Bahia supporters group and director of the National Union LGBT Bahia, cheers for his team during the Brazil's Second Division Football Championship match between Bahia and Operario at the Arena Fonte Nova stadium in Salvador, Bahia state, Brazil, on September 24, 2022. Picture: AFP.

AFP | 25 October 2022 

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - Wearing a rainbow T-shirt and earrings, Ona Ruda struts confidently through the Arena Fonte Nova football stadium, home to his beloved Bahia team and one of Brazil's LGBT fan bases.

However, his cool demeanour is not the norm for football fans who dare to display their homosexuality in Brazilian stadiums.

Ruda, a dark-haired, bearded man with heavy tattoos, knows he is lucky.

The club in northeastern Salvador is a rare safe space for gay fans who often steer clear of football stadiums for fear of coming under attack.

"Before, no one could come here. Today we exist, so we go, and some go with their friends, their family. The great triumph is that these people no longer need to hide that they are LGBT when they go to the stadium," the 32-year-old, who works in communications, tells AFP.

Ruda founded the Torcida LGBTricolor fan collective in September 2019 with the support of EC Bahia, currently a second-division team, which has become known for its progressive attitude.

The team is currently awaiting a possible sale to the City Group, which owns Manchester City.

The group of supporters counts only 15 members, a far cry from other massive Brazilian fan groups. However, the fact that they can go to the stadium waving rainbow flags and wearing rainbow T-shirts, is no small matter.

In other Brazilian football stadiums, homosexual fans are forced to fly under the radar to avoid homophobic chants, insults, hostile looks, and even assaults.

Brazil records violent incidents against the LGBT community daily. In 2021, at least 16 cases of homophobia were recorded in football stadiums, according to a report from Canarinhos LGBT, an organization of football fans seeking to combat discrimination in the sport.

"As a trans man, I feel proud and welcomed in these stands. This is our place, experiencing football," said another Bahia fan, Antonio Ramos, a 28-year-old gastronomy student.

MASCULINITY, VIRILITY, MACHISMO
Although almost all top Brazilian football clubs have at least one LGBT fan group, most of which emerged in the past decade, the vast majority keep their presence to social media.

Fear of actually going to the game reigns. However, they also face threats and attacks on social media.

"I think these days the organized fan base still feels uncomfortable towards these groups. In general, these organized groups are still dominated by normative masculinity, virility, machismo, which are often associated with homophobia," explains Luiza Aguiar dos Anjos, the author of several books about gay fans in Brazil.

Aside from Bahia, only the fans of Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro (Vasco LGBTQ+), venture to the football field without needing to hide their sexual orientation.

Others seek refuge individually among groups of fans who label themselves anti-fascist, such as Tribuna 77 of Gremio in Porto Alegre.

The team from the capital of Brazil's southernmost state gave rise to one of the world's first homosexual fan collectives, called "Coligay", between 1977 and 1981.

LGBT football fans measure their strength according to their number of online followers, and many are known for their political activism.

"These fan groups are as interested in rallying their team as they are in changing football and their own clubs, to become more inclusive," added Dos Anjos.

HATRED TOWARDS MINORITIES
Carlos Costa, who works as an assistant in an e-commerce business, has followed the Palmeiras team from Sao Paulo since 1997. He says he has always sensed a homophobic atmosphere in the stands.

As a child, he went to games with his uncles. Now, he is hoping his LGBT fan collective PorcoIris, which was created on Twitter in 2019, will be able to attend games openly from 2023.

However, he warns, it will depend on how "civilized" Brazilians are by then, especially if far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is re-elected on October 30.

"Unfortunately, we are going backwards ... with a lot of hatred towards minorities," said the 30-year-old.

For now, around 30 active members of PorcoIris are resigned to attending Palmeiras matches without any LGBT symbols, separately, and in different stands.

Gleison Oliveira, 28, a salesman, hopes that at some point, male football will follow the example of female teams where homosexuality is no longer taboo.

"Imagine a future in which we can express ourselves with the Palmeiras shirt and go to stadiums without feeling any sort of repression," he said.

Four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in West Bank, health ministry says

Palestinian officials say three people were killed in a firefight in the city of Nablus and another died in Ramallah

Palestinian men carry a body through the streets of Nablus after a raid by Israeli forces on Tuesday morning. Photograph: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images


Guardian staff

Tue 25 Oct 2022 

Four Palestinians have been killed and nearly 20 others injured by Israeli forces operating in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry has said.

The ministry said in a brief statement that three were killed and 19 wounded, three seriously, by Israeli fire during a raid early on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

It later reported that another Palestinian had been killed by Israeli fire, this time in Ramallah, home to the headquarters of Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority in the central West Bank.

One of the men who died was unarmed, according to Palestinian health and security officials.

The Israeli army confirmed in a joint statement with police and intelligence agencies that they had conducted a large-scale night operation in Nablus, raiding a “hideout apartment ... that was used as a headquarters and explosives manufacturing site”.

“The site was used by the main operatives of the ‘Lion’s Den’ terrorist group,” the statement said, referring to a new group of young Palestinian fighters who have carried out anti-Israeli operations in Nablus in recent weeks.

“During the activity, multiple armed suspects were hit and Palestinian reports indicate that were multiple injuries.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Abbas, said Abbas’s office had asked the US for its help in ending the Israeli campaign. “All of this will have dangerous and destructive consequences,” Abu Rudeineh said on Palestine TV.


Palestinian shot dead by Israeli soldiers in West Bank

Nablus, a large city in the northern West Bank has been a flashpoint for violence since Israel began a crackdown in the West Bank in March in response to a series of attacks by Palestinians in Israel.

In recent weeks, a group of young Palestinian fighters – some affiliated with mainstream groups such as Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad – have carried out anti-Israeli operations from there.

The new group, called Areen al-Ossoud – or The Lion’s Den – claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on an Israeli soldier two weeks ago in the occupied West Bank.

Leader Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, nicknamed The Lion of Nablus, was known for galvanising the youth before he was shot dead by Israeli forces in August. He has since become a folk hero to Palestinians on social media.

In the aftermath, the Israeli army tightened its grip on Nablus, setting up controls to identify people leaving the city and constantly scanning the skies above with observation drones.

On Saturday night, a Lions’ Den fighter, Tamer al-Kilani, was killed in the Old City of Nablus by an explosion attributed by the group and the Israeli press to a bomb remotely activated by the Israeli army.

The army did not comment on these claims.

After the operation early Tuesday, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a statement that its “fighters were involved in violent clashes” with Israeli forces in Nablus and threatened Israel with reprisals “against these crimes” there.

The months-long Israeli military campaign in the north of the West Bank had seen near-nightly confrontations between Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers and local militias in the cities of Jenin and Nablus. The operation, codenamed Breakwater, has been one of the biggest outside wartime in decades.

More than 115 Palestinian fighters and civilians have been killed this year, the heaviest toll in the West Bank for nearly seven years, according to the UN.

The IDF says Palestinian gun attacks targeting Israeli settlers and the military have risen threefold compared with last year, putting the number at 170 by September.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International called for an international criminal court (ICC) probe into possible war crimes committed in August by both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants during deadly fighting in Gaza.

Thirty-one civilians were among the 49 Palestinians killed in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip during the three-day conflict, the global rights group said in a new report.

The London-based organisation pressed the ICC to “urgently investigate any apparent war crimes committed during the August 2022 Israeli offensive” in the Palestinian enclave.

World Polio Day: Pakistan's Polio Problem Persists

October 23, 2022 7:08 PM
Sarah Zaman

Polio teams administer the vaccine. Polio is an incurable and highly infectious viral disease that can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing muscles to stop working. 

(Walid Abbas / Polio Eradication Initiative, Pakistan)

WASHINGTON —

Photos of Zarghoona Wadood sightseeing in Egypt with two other wheelchair-using women went viral last year in Pakistan, becoming a symbol of what women with disabilities can do.

Wadood was just 7 months old when polio paralyzed her legs. Her parents didn’t know to get her vaccinated.

“I can’t even move from my bed unless the wheelchair is near me … the wheelchair is a part of me now,” Wadood, now 38 and employed with the U.N. World Food Program, told VOA.

She is one of thousands of Pakistanis disabled by polio, an incurable and highly infectious viral disease that can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing muscles to stop working.

The invention of polio vaccines in the 1950s and 1960s wiped the disease from the industrialized world, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative launched in 1988 largely eliminated the disease through mass vaccination campaigns in the developing world as well.

As the global health community marks World Polio Day on Oct. 24, only Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to grapple with the wild polio virus.

Zarghoona Wadood, far right, went sightseeing in Egypt last year with two fellow wheelchair-users. Polio paralyzed her legs when she was 7 months old. (Zarghoona Wadood)

In Pakistan

After 15 months without any reported cases of the wild polio virus, Pakistan has recorded 20 cases since April — 17 in the former tribal region of North Waziristan that borders Afghanistan and three from nearby areas.

Dr. Shahzad Baig, who leads Pakistan’s Polio Eradication Program blames a poor security situation, migration patterns, harassment of polio teams, mistrust of the vaccine, and complicity among members of local communities and polio workers to find ways to circumvent vaccination enforcement.

“They are not confident that [the vaccine] is safe for the children," Baig told VOA. "They think that the government is forcing this vaccine on the children, [so] there is some hidden agenda.”

Despite Pakistan's decades-long Polio Eradication Program, many Pakistanis still believe the vaccine will make their children infertile or that it contains pork-based ingredients forbidden by Islamic scripture. In 2019, a rumor that the vaccine was making children sick caused a spike in refusals. That year ended with Pakistan recording 149 cases, significantly more than the year before.

And the vaccine has become a bargaining chip used to pressure the government to meet a community’s needs.

“So, the roads, the bridges, you know, electricity and anything they want there, when the campaign comes, they will say, ‘You do that and that is when we will accept the vaccination,’” Baig said.

Local customs also leave children vulnerable to the virus. Often male health workers cannot enter homes in the absence of a male member of the household. In more conservative communities that don't allow women to work, the lack of female polio workers further limits access to children.

Baig told VOA that less than 1% of polio team members in former tribal areas are women.

Saira Abid, a polio worker from North Waziristan, told VOA it breaks her heart that most of the polio cases were recorded in her ancestral village.

Displaced by the military operation against terrorists in 2014 and forced by financial hardship to break tradition, Abid has been working as a community health worker in Peshawar since 2015.

“Whenever I go to my village, I see the word 'locked' chalked on the wall because men are not allowed to go inside,” Abid said. During a mass-vaccination campaign, polio workers mark the vaccination status of each household on a wall by the main door.

While Abid feels comfortable working in Peshawar’s urban setting, she says it’s not safe for her to work in her village because of strict local customs and the presence of militants. In June, three members of a polio team were killed and another injured in North Waziristan.

Safety is a long-running issue for polio workers in Pakistan. Many have been killed by either militants who see vaccination as part of a Western agenda or attacked by parents angry at being pressed to vaccinate their children.

Polio teams in action. The virus continues to be a problem in Pakistan and Afghanistan. (Walid Abbas / Polio Eradication Initiative, Pakistan)

In Afghanistan

Polio worker safety is also an issue across the border in Afghanistan, where eight polio workers were killed in separate attacks in February.

Remarkably, Afghanistan has recorded only two cases of wild polio virus so far this year, indicating the lowest level of the virus in the country’s history, according to the World Health Organization.

However, Afghanistan's cases of vaccine-derived polio stand at 43. The vaccine uses a weak form of the polio virus, which can sometime infect a separate, unvaccinated person.

“If we succeed to implement the planned polio campaigns with high coverage of 95%, we can interrupt the circulation of polio virus by the end of 2022,” Kamal Shah Sayed, a UNICEF spokesperson in Afghanistan, told VOA earlier this year.

The Taliban pledged support for polio campaigns after taking control of Afghanistan last August, but for three years before that, they banned vaccination drives in areas under their control.

Since November 2021, at least seven campaigns have been conducted in Afghanistan.

World Polio Day

On World Polio Day, Afghanistan is wrapping up an immunization campaign while Pakistan is launching one.

From 3.6 million children inaccessible in Afghanistan in 2018, a WHO statement in August said the number of children missing vaccination had fallen to 700,000.

In Pakistan, despite frequent anti-polio drives, more than 400,000 children are missed every year, according to the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Baig of Pakistan's Polio Eradication Program is concerned that the summer’s massive flooding has increased the risk of polio spreading via unsanitary conditions, and flood victims unhappy with government relief efforts may boycott the campaign to pressure authorities to provide them better facilities.

Zarghoona Wadood, who toured Egypt last year, is also a disability rights activist. She wants parents to learn from her experience and vaccinate their children against polio, just as her parents did for her three younger siblings.

“No matter what I am, I still have a disability, everybody cannot have the same strength that I have," Wadood told VOA. "A lot of people give up and they isolate themselves … so why are you doing this to your children?”

For Struggling Haiti, Return of Cholera is a 'Catastrophe'

October 23, 2022 
Agence France-Presse

A woman brings a child showing symptoms of cholera to a Doctors Without Borders clinic in Cité Soleil, Oct. 07, 2022. Many of the sick, however, have not been able to get health care because gangs have been blocking access to the fuel patients need to travel for care.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI —

When humanitarian officials in Haiti try to describe their concerns over a new, fast-spreading cholera epidemic, they struggle to find words strong enough: "alarming," "chaotic," even "a catastrophe."

A sizable part of the island's population has been isolated — and unable to access health care — either by serious fuel shortages or by the brutal armed gangs that control vast areas.

And without health care, cholera patients, who suffer acute diarrhea, can die of dehydration in just hours.

"It's a catastrophe. We're overwhelmed," Doctor Jean William Pape told AFP. His NGO, called Gheskio, operates two of the country's 15 cholera treatment centers.

In one of them, in the capital of Port-au-Prince, "we have 80 beds, and they're all occupied," he said. "Due to the fuel shortage, people in the slums have told me there have been several deaths in their areas, because it wasn't possible to transport the sick people."

An armed gang has for weeks been blockading a key fuel terminal at Varreux, north of the capital, aggravating the country's paralysis.

Children showing symptoms of cholera receive treatment at a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders in Cité Soleil, Oct. 07, 2022.

The return of cholera

U.N. peacekeepers introduced cholera to Haiti in 2010, ultimately resulting in thousands of deaths.

But, until the latest outbreak, no case of the disease had been reported in Haiti since 2019.

As of Wednesday, 33 cholera deaths and 960 suspect cases have been logged by the health ministry.

And that number could seriously understate the problem, according to Bruno Maes, the UNICEF representative in Haiti.

The situation is all the more frustrating, experts say, given that even serious cholera cases are easily treatable with a few days of rest and rehydration and that there is a cholera vaccine.

That vaccine, however, is only effective for around five years, and the last big targeted vaccination campaign in Haiti was in 2017.

Roughly half of all cases here have involved children younger than 14, who are particularly vulnerable when their immune systems are weakened by poor nutrition due to poverty.

"Many of them are very badly nourished," said Pape, the doctor, adding it was difficult to find their veins to administer solutions intravenously.

The U.N. estimates that 4.7 million Haitians, nearly half the country's population, suffer from acute food insecurity.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) operates four centers with a total of 250 beds and some 20 oral-rehydration clinics, deputy mission chief Moha Zemrag told AFP.

He said a priority is securing access to potable water in gang-controlled areas like the Brooklyn neighborhood in the capital's Cite Soleil commune, which has had no fresh water for three months.

Cholera is caused by the ingestion of water or food contaminated with a bacteria called vibrio cholerae.

The high risk of kidnapping by the gangs has prevented aid groups from entering these areas to disinfect homes and buildings with chlorine.

While MSF has established a system of shuttles to safely bring its personnel to treatment centers, fuel shortages could make this impossible "in a few weeks," Zemrag said.

 Amid a cholera and security crisis in Haiti, people demonstrate in Port-au-Prince against Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and the United Nations, Oct. 21, 2022.

Concern is also growing for rural dwellers, who, without access to fuel, may have to walk days for help. Early cases have been detected in the southern region of Nippes and in Artibonite to the north.

Armed groups now blockade highways leading both to the north and south, Maes said.

"Port-au-Prince is literally surrounded, strangled," he said.

UNICEF's offices have been pillaged, and shipments of medication have been blocked at the port.

The return of cholera has revived nightmarish memories of the epidemic introduced by blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers in 2010, after a major earthquake ravaged the country. The disease claimed more than 10,000 lives from then until 2019.

SEE ALSO:
UN: Haiti Facing Humanitarian Catastrophe

But conditions today are different, said Sylvain Aldighieri, deputy director of public health emergencies with the Pan American Health Organization.

"For now, we're not seeing an explosion (in cases) as we observed during the first months" of 2010, he said.

He said the authorities have "10 years' experience with cholera" and the key now is to "reactivate the mechanisms" that worked before.

Doing so, however, presents challenges.

The U.N. on Friday imposed sanctions, including an arms embargo, on several gangs. But it remains divided on whether to send a new international force to the country.

Such a force, said Aldighieri, might be able to establish "humanitarian corridors for difficult zones," and help free supplies now blocked in ports.

At the moment, he added, airplanes carrying additional supplies are expected in the coming days.

Inflation: Why Canada grocers are accused of 'greedflation'

PublishedShare

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

More than half of Canadians say they can't keep up with rising cost of living, 

and 78% blame grocers for soaring food prices.

By Nadine Yousif

BBC News, Toronto

Like many around the world, Canadians are struggling with the cost of food. But amid accusations of "greedflation" - taking advantage of inflation to raise prices - the country's largest grocery chains say they aren't to blame.

With food prices mounting, Canadian grocery store giant Loblaw made a promise: the cost of products under its lower-cost in-house brand, No Name, will remain frozen for three months.

The offer, announced in a promotional email by Loblaw CEO Galen Weston on 17 October, wasn't well-received. Some labelled it a PR stunt, while others declared it too little, too late.

The sour reaction isn't without reason. Inflation has slowed in recent months, but the cost of food is still soaring with increases reaching a 41-year high.

At the same time, large corporations - including grocers - are reporting record earnings. Loblaw's first-quarter profit this year was up nearly 40% from that of last year, and its net earnings after adjustments were up 17%.

In Canada, where distrust in grocery magnates runs deep from a recent bread price-fixing scandal, this dilemma has turned political.

Members of parliament have accused grocery chains of taking advantage of inflation to raise prices more than needed - a phenomenon dubbed by some "greedflation".

On the same day Mr Weston's letter was sent, Canada's parliament unanimously passed a motion that accused grocery CEOs of "corporate greed". On Monday, the federal competition watchdog launched an investigation into the sector.

But is there any truth to the idea of greedflation? Economists say it's complicated.

'No safe space … not even the freezer aisle'

For families who frequent grocery stores, the drastic increase in prices is hard to ignore. Canada's food prices in September were up 11.4% compared to 6.9% overall inflation.

"There's no safe space for consumers at the grocery store, not even the freezer aisle," said Sylvain Charlebois, a professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia who has been publishing an annual report on Canadian food prices since 2010.

The problem isn't unique to Canada. The UK has seen a drastic rise in food prices as well - bread and cereals were up by an annual 12.4% in July, and oils and fats were up 23.4%.

So has the US, where the cost of food was up 13.5% in September compared to last year.

• Why is inflation in the US so high?
• When will US food prices come down?

In all three countries, the factors driving up the cost of food are similar: a surge in demand for groceries since the start of the pandemic, coupled with Covid-19 outbreaks, has disrupted supply. Add to that the war in Ukraine, which has affected supplies of fertiliser, wheat and other crops, sending global prices soaring.

Bad weather this year has also disrupted the growth of certain crops, and fuel has gotten more expensive.

Grocers say they want to help

As shoppers grow more frustrated, grocery companies around the world have moved to freeze prices in a show of solidarity.

In May, US company Weis Markets announced a multi-million dollar campaign to cut prices on its best-selling frozen products. France's Carrefour froze the price on 100 everyday products in August, and the UK's Asda and Morrisons both cut prices in April.

But when Canada's Loblaw froze prices months later in October, it felt too late.

"Frankly, they have done nothing for a long time," said David MacDonald, an economist with the left-leaning Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives.

He added the prices of goods that the grocer froze had already gone up from earlier this year. No Name chicken wings, for example, were C$11.99 ($8.75; £7.75). Now they are $13.99.

Loblaw CEO Mr Weston has said the price increases at his stores are "maddeningly" out of his company's control. Some, like Canadian member of parliament Alistair MacGregor, disagree.

The announcement, the left-leaning New Democrat said, "demonstrates the fact that the CEO of Loblaw always had it within his power to freeze prices".

He also criticised the company for making the announcement the same day parliament was set to vote on probing the profits of grocery retailers, calling it a "PR attempt to deflect from the negative attention".

With grocers reporting an increase in profits, Mr MacGregor said there's likely "a moral call there for companies to reform their business practices" to curb inflation and help struggling families.

In dollars, grocers have made an average of $1.5bn in the first two quarters of 2022, up from $800m in 2019. Their margins are also higher than pre-pandemic - 3.5% in 2022, up from 2% in 2018, despite the increase in production costs.

Grocers have attributed the higher margins to an increase in sales and efficiency.

Meanwhile, an August poll suggested that more than half of Canadians can't keep up with the current cost of living, and 78% believe grocers are to blame for soaring food prices.

Are grocery stores to blame?

It was only a few years ago, Mr Charlebois recalled, that Loblaws was exposed for its role in a bread price-fixing scandal that saw major retailers conspiring with commercial bakeries to set higher prices over 14 years.

For its role in the scandal, Loblaws offered shoppers $25 gift cards as an olive branch.

"It really bothered a lot of Canadians at the time," Mr Charlebois said.

But after researching recent earnings reports of both American and Canadian grocery giants, Mr Charlebois said he isn't certain the blame for rising costs should entirely lie on retailers.

IMAGE SOURCE,TORONTO STAR VIA GETTY IMAGES

He found that while revenues did go up, gross margins for companies have increased by what he said are modest amounts.

"Yes, they've actually posted record profits in dollars," Mr Charlebois said. "But when you look at margins, they're relatively similar."

He cautioned that this doesn't rule out wrongdoing in other parts of the supply chain - from food processing to transportation.

In Quebec, meat packers in particular are under fire for allegedly conspiring to raise prices on beef sold in the province. One of the companies in question, JBS, already settled a similar lawsuit earlier this year in the US.

Some suppliers, however, have accused grocery retailers of not accepting price increases and imposing additional fines on them - a problem they say should be fixed by implementing an industry-wide code of conduct in Canada.

That is why many welcome the decision by parliament's agriculture committee and the competition bureau to look at the grocery retail market - probes that politicians like Mr MacGregor hope will pave the way for better industry practices in the future.

"It's a good thing for Canadians", who at the very least will get some clarity on how their food is priced, said Mr Charlebois.