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Mass circumcision ceremonies in South Africa have left more than 43 boys dead and dozens more mutilated. The rituals – known in the country as ‘Ulwaluko’ – are carried out twice a year at initiation schools with the intention of preparing young men for adulthood. When the youngsters arrive, they are taken away from their families and smothered in white clay. They then spend three weeks transitioning from boys to men before being returned home. As part of the ceremony, the initiates are meant to be circumcised by traditional surgeons who have years of experience. But many circumcisions are instead...

Two workers at Germany’s busiest airport have died of malaria amid an outbreak in the travel hub believed to be caused by mosquitoes that arrived on a plane. Two Frankfurt Airport workers died after contracting the illness transmitted by mosquitoes, a spokesperson for Fraport, which operates the airport, told the BBC late Wednesday. The pair of workers, who have not yet been identified, were sickened in a rare outbreak first detected in July, according to the airport. A total of six male airport employees in different jobs and areas of the airport were infected with malaria in the outbreak, the...

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) confirmed via its public health agency on Sunday that at least 2,325 people have died of Ebola infections in the current outbreak in the east of the country, making it the deadliest such outbreak in the country’s history. Experts noted that the extremely high death toll is likely not a full count of the people killed by the disease, as the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) was slow to identify an outbreak in the affected area, and that only one other known Ebola outbreak – the 2014-2016 outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia...

The 'explosive diarrhea parasite' cyclosporiasis is running rampant across the US, with thousands of additional cases pushing the outbreak to a record high. Some 4,173 laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported across 41 states, the CDC confirmed on Tuesday. However, officials warn the true toll could stretch past 11,000, as more than 7,400 additional reports are still awaiting laboratory confirmation and investigation. Many of the newly reported cases have come from Michigan and Ohio, and local health departments are reporting more than 7,000 in those states alone. At least 308 people have been hospitalized. Despite the spike in cases, Health and...

Boris Johnson appeared to take aim at the US vice president today, branding his comments that immigrants are erasing British civilisation as ‘b******s’. The former prime minister said: ‘The population of New York that was born abroad is virtually identical [to London]. ‘I think in America, about 30 per cent of people are either first or second generation immigrants. The statistic I used to cite was that 40 per cent of our population was born abroad. ‘So all these raving about civilisational erasure, “Britain's going down the tubes” - I think it’s b******s.' According to the 2021 census, around 41...

Much chatter has been on teh X lately about the “explosive diarrhea” Cyclospora outbreak. I, foolishly, made some what I presumed to be, mild and sensible suggestions on teh X only to be subsumed by a tidal wave of hate. Apparently there are NO solutions to this crisis. Everyone is going to die. Or something. That’s the script. Don’t deviate from the script! So, to recap what I have learned from this most recent episode of daring to challenge the latest non scientific orthodoxy: The CDC is not doing any contact tracing or epidemiology studies. Which means they are not...

Shabana Mahmood is preparing to launch a controversial new refugee sponsorship scheme that could see more than 10,000 people resettled in Britain – with households expected to help house and support arrivals. The Labour Government is facing fresh criticism after unveiling plans to bring thousands more refugees into Britain under a new sponsorship programme inspired by the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to announce the policy next week as part of a sweeping Immigration and Asylum Bill, creating new “safe and legal” routes for refugees from some of the world’s biggest conflict zones. Under the...

A 21st-century mom who wants to emulate the Proverbs 31 woman may not have a household of servants to help shoulder the countless tasks of daily life, but she does have modern conveniences that ladies of the Old Testament could never have conceived — dishwashers, robot vacuums, drive-thru pharmacies, and meal kit delivery services like HelloFresh. As a busy mom who wants to make sure my kids are eating healthy meals at home but also wants time to write articles like this one, my family has subscribed to HelloFresh as our food delivery service on and off for nearly 10...

On Dec 31 2020, a line was drawn under half a decade of political turmoil and deep societal division, as the UK formally stepped away from the European Union. Britain was now free to pave its own way. Immigration, which for years has been largely dictated from Brussels, could start to fall to levels promised by consecutive Conservative governments. Instead, the new year would mark the start of the single greatest mass movement of people to the UK in history. Between 2021 and 2024, some 4.2 million people entered the country as the UK opened its doors to hundreds of...

Welcome football fans and welcome to the third world! Maybe not the U.S. as much, but el mundo is watching the World Cup, and those fans from el tercer mundo are probably thinking, as they take in the sights of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, "Damn, what a s**thole country this is." And they'd be right. about the Golden Gate Bridge, when they finish painting it, they have to start over again. The U.S. plays Paraguay tonight at SoFi Stadium, where no flights or drones are allowed in the airspace over the stadium, and blocks around the area are...

Roger Kamba, Minister of Public Health for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), complained on Friday that travel restrictions against his country due to the Ebola outbreak are “discriminatory” and cannot be justified by science or medicine. United States imposed travel restrictions in May, announcing that travelers from the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan would not be allowed into the United States if they lack U.S. passports. American passport holders, green card holders, and service members inbound from the Ebola outbreak region were required to “undergo enhanced public health screening” and were required to enter the U.S. at one...

More than 1,100 people were suspected of having contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Uganda, the head of the African Union's health agency said on Sunday in a commentary for the Financial Times. Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention director general Jean Kaseya said there were 263 confirmed cases in both countries as of Saturday, with 43 confirmed deaths. More than 1,100 suspected cases were still being investigated, he wrote in the editorial. On Thursday, the Africa CDC said there had been 246 suspected deaths from the virus. "We must move at the speed of...

Teenagers are known for dishing out the dirt, but not quite like this. Students at a high school in Maine were fed potting soil at a community service event raising money to fight hunger, in a bizarre incident the school called “an unfortunate accident.” Students at Medomack Valley High School in Waldoboro had baked a batch of potting soil earlier that day during a science class experiment to determine the effect of sterilized soil on plant growth, according to a statement from the school. “The soil had been placed in a baking dish covered with foil and set off to...

The US government is moving to evacuate American passengers from a cruise ship linked to a deadly hantavirus outbreak, with plans to transport them to a military base in Nebraska for quarantine and monitoring, federal health officials said Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the risk to the American public remains extremely low as officials move forward with a medical repatriation flight for passengers aboard the M/V Hondius. President Trump said earlier Friday that the situation appears to be under control, pointing to the virus being difficult to transmit. “We have very good people looking at it....

WARNING: GRAPHIC A recent festival in southern Nigeria has sparked outrage after multiple videos surfaced online showing women being chased through the streets, stripped and sexually assaulted by groups of men in broad daylight. The footage, recorded during the annual Alue-Do fertility festival in Ozoro, Delta State, has prompted a police investigation and resulted in several arrests, with authorities confirming that multiple suspects were in custody. The videos have sparked global outcry, with many online describing the event as a “rape festival,” a term that highlights the scale and brutality of what was captured on camera.

For the past two years, New York and New Jersey infectious disease experts have been laser focused on prep and training for the upcoming FIFA World Cup games — with 1.2 million visitors from around the world set to watch 48 teams battle it out on the pitch. Across the US, those numbers skyrocket to 6-7 million. And with that massive influx of foreign visitors comes the threat of infectious — and sometimes deadly — diseases, including viral hemorrhagic fevers, RSV, tuberculosis, measles, varicella, hepatitis A, typhoid, malaria, SARS, hantavirus and even “high consequence” diseases with high mortality rates, like...

VD for Valentine’s Day? In case you needed a reason to stay celibate this weekend, there’s a sexually transmitted fungus making the rounds and leaving its mark. Experts say the public should be aware of the nation’s “largest known outbreak” of Trichophyton mentagrophytes genotype VII. Known as TMVII, the nasty business is the only known fungal-based sexually transmitted infection. Cases of TMVII have been on the rise in Europe for the past several years, especially among men who have sex with men. In 2024, an NYC man became the first reported US case of TMVII, and it seems the icky...

Health officials are warning that confirmed cases of measles may have spread at this year's National March for Life rally and concert in Washington, D.C. Thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators converged upon the National Mall and other locations in the nation's capital for the annual event at the end of January. The DC Department of Health says it's working to identify people who are at risk. "DC Health was notified of multiple confirmed cases of measles whose carriers visited multiple locations in the District while contagious," the agency said in a press release on Sunday. "DC Health is informing people who...

New Delhi [India], February 8 (ANI): Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias on Saturday said the Indian subcontinent could emerge as one of the most suitable partners for legal migration to Europe, citing the continent's ageing population and near-negative population growth. Speaking at the India-EU Forum 2026, Dendias said migration was a global, long-standing phenomenon that would continue, but stressed that Europe must develop a balanced, structured migration framework. "Migration is a world phenomenon. It was part of what was happening in the world in the past, and it will remain in the future," he said. Highlighting Europe's demographic challenges, Dendias...

Spanish civil engineers have renewed urgent warnings over the deteriorating condition of the country’s dams, as flooding linked to Storm Leonardo heightens public concern and exceptional rainfall is forecast to continue until the weekend. Experts say the storm has exposed long-standing structural weaknesses in Spain’s water infrastructure and highlighted decades of insufficient investment in safety and maintenance. Professional engineering bodies warn that around one third of Spain’s state-owned dams require urgent structural reinforcement, while roughly half have defective bottom outlet systems, a critical component for controlling water levels during extreme weather events. They argue that the risks are growing as...