Foreign News
Battling a rare brain-eating disease in an Indian state
On the eve of Onam, the most joyous festival in India’s Kerala state, 45-year-old Sobhana lay shivering in the back of an ambulance, drifting into unconsciousness as her family rushed her to a medical college hospital.
Just days earlier, the Dalit (formerly known as untouchables) woman, who earned her living bottling fruit juices in a village in Malappuram district, had complained of nothing more alarming than dizziness and high blood pressure. Doctors prescribed pills and sent her home. But her condition spiralled with terrifying speed: uneasiness gave way to fever, fever to violent shivers, and on 5 September – the main day of the festival – Sobhana was dead.
The culprit was Naegleria fowleri – commonly known as the brain-eating amoeba – an infection usually contracted through the nose in freshwater and so rare that most doctors never encounter a case in their entire careers. “We were powerless to stop it. We learnt about the disease only after Sobhana’s death,” says Ajitha Kathiradath, a cousin of the victim and a prominent social worker.
In Kerala this year, more than 70 people have been diagnosed and 19 have died from the brain-eating amoeba. Patients have ranged from a three-month-old to a 92-year-old man.
Normally feeding on bacteria in warm freshwater, this single-cell organism causes a near-fatal brain infection, known as primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). It enters through the nose during swimming and rapidly destroys brain tissue.
Kerala began detecting cases in 2016, just one or two a year, and until recently nearly all were fatal. A new study has found only 488 cases have been reported globally since 1962 – mostly in the US, Pakistan and Australia. And 95% of the victims have died from the disease.
But in Kerala, survival appears to be improving: last year there were 39 cases with a 23% fatality rate and this year, nearly 70 cases have been reported with about 24.5% mortality. Doctors say the rise in numbers reflects better detection, thanks to state-of-the-art labs.
“Cases are rising but deaths are falling. Aggressive testing and early diagnosis have improved survival – a strategy unique to Kerala,” said Aravind Reghukumar, head of infectious diseases at the Medical College and Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, the state’s capital. Early detection allows customised treatment: a drug cocktail of antimicrobials and steroids targeting the amoeba can save lives.
Scientists have identified around 400 species of free-living amoebae, but only six are known to cause disease in humans – including Naegleria fowleri and Acanthamoeba, both of which can infect the brain. In Kerala, public health laboratories can now detect the five major pathogenic types, officials say.
The southern state’s heavy reliance on groundwater and natural water bodies makes it particularly vulnerable, especially as many ponds and wells are polluted. A small cluster of cases last year, for example, was linked to young men vaping boiled cannabis mixed with pond water – a risky practice that underscores how contaminated water can become a conduit for infection.
Kerala has nearly 5.5 million wells and 55,000 ponds – and millions draw their daily water from wells alone. That sheer ubiquity makes it impossible to treat wells or ponds as simple “risk factors” – they are the backbone of life in the state.
“Some infections have occurred in people bathing in ponds, others from swimming pools, and even through nasal rinsing with water which is a religious ritual. Whether in a polluted pond or a well, the risk is real,” says Anish TS, a leading epidemiologist.
So public health authorities have tried to respond at scale: in a single campaign at the end of August, 2.7 million wells were chlorinated.
Local governments have put up sign boards around ponds warning against bathing or swimming and evoked the Public Health Act to enforce regular chlorination of swimming pools and water tanks. But even with such measures, ponds cannot realistically be chlorinated – fish would die – and policing every village water source in a state of more than 30 million people is unworkable.
Officials now stress awareness over prohibition: households are urged to clean tanks and pools, use clean warm water for nasal ablutions, keep children away from garden sprinklers and avoid unsafe ponds. Swimmers are advised to protect their noses by keeping their heads above water, using nose plugs and avoiding stirring up sediment in stagnant or untreated freshwater.
Yet, striking a balance between educating the public about real risks – of using untreated freshwater – and avoiding fear that could disrupt daily life is challenging. Many say despite guidelines issued for more than a year, enforcement remains patchy.
“This is a difficult problem. In some places [hot springs], signs are posted to warn of the possibility of the amoebae in the water source. This is not practical in most situations since the amoebae can be present in any source of untreated water [lakes, ponds, pools],” Dennis Kyle, a professor of infectious diseases and cellular biology at the University of Georgia, told the BBC.
“In more controlled environments, frequent monitoring for proper chlorination can significantly reduce chances of infection. These include pools, splash pads and other man-made recreational water activities,” he said.
Scientists warn climate change is amplifying the risk: warmer waters, longer summers and rising temperatures create ideal conditions for the amoeba. “Even a 1C rise can trigger its spread in Kerala’s tropical climate and water pollution fuels it further by feeding bacteria the amoeba consumes,” says Prof Anish.
Dr Kyle adds a note of caution, noting that some past cases may simply have gone unrecognised, with the amoeba not identified as the cause.
That uncertainty can make treatment even harder. Current drug cocktails are “sub-optimal,” Dr Kyle explains, adding that in rare survivors, the regimen becomes the standard. “We lack sufficient data to determine if all the drugs are actually helpful or needed.”
Kerala may be catching more patients and saving more lives, but the lesson reaches far beyond its borders. Climate change may be rewriting the map of disease – and even the rarest pathogens may not stay rare for long.
[BBC]
In a village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, a woman receives a small but steady sum each month – not wages, for she has no formal job, but an unconditional cash transfer from the government.
Premila Bhalavi says the money covers medicines, vegetables and her son’s school fees. The sum, 1,500 rupees ($16: £12), may be small, but its effect – predictable income, a sense of control and a taste of independence – is anything but.
Her story is increasingly common. Across India, 118 million adult women in 12 states now receive unconditional cash transfers from their governments, making India the site of one of the world’s largest and least-studied social-policy experiments.
Long accustomed to subsidising grain, fuel and rural jobs, India has stumbled into something more radical: paying adult women simply because they keep households running, bear the burden of unpaid care and form an electorate too large to ignore.
Eligibility filters vary – age thresholds, income caps and exclusions for families with government employees, taxpayers or owners of cars or large plots of land.
“The unconditional cash transfers signal a significant expansion of Indian states’ welfare regimes in favour of women,” Prabha Kotiswaran, a professor of law and social justice at King’s College London, told the BBC.
The transfers range from 1,000-2,500 rupees ($12-$30) a month – meagre sums, worth roughly 5-12% of household income, but regular. With 300 million women now holding bank accounts, transfers have become administratively simple.
Women typically spend the money on household and family needs – children’s education, groceries, cooking gas, medical and emergency expenses, retiring small debts and occasional personal items like gold or small comforts.
What sets India apart from Mexico, Brazil or Indonesia – countries with large conditional cash-transfer schemes – is the absence of conditions: the money arrives whether or not a child attends school or a household falls below the poverty line.
Goa was the first state to launch an unconditional cash transfer scheme to women in 2013. The phenomenon picked up just before the pandemic in 2020, when north-eastern Assam rolled out a scheme for vulnerable women. Since then these transfers have turned into a political juggernaut.
The recent wave of unconditional cash transfers targets adult women, with some states acknowledging their unpaid domestic and care work. Tamil Nadu frames its payments as a “rights grant” while West Bengal’s scheme similarly recognises women’s unpaid contributions.
In other states, the recognition is implicit: policymakers expect women to use the transfers for household and family welfare, say experts.
This focus on women’s economic role has also shaped politics: in 2021, Tamil actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan promised “salaries for housewives”. (His fledgling party lost.) By 2024, pledges of women-focused cash transfers helped deliver victories to political parties in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Odisha, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.
In the recent elections in Bihar, the political power of cash transfers was on stark display. In the weeks before polling in the country’s poorest state, the government transferred 10,000 rupees ($112; £85) to 7.5 million female bank accounts under a livelihood-generation scheme. Women voted in larger numbers than men, decisively shaping the outcome.
Critics called it blatant vote-buying, but the result was clear: women helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition secure a landslide victory. Many believe this cash infusion was a reminder of how financial support can be used as political leverage.
Yet Bihar is only one piece of a much larger picture. Across India, unconditional cash transfers are reaching tens of millions of women on a regular basis.
Maharashtra alone promises benefits for 25 million women; Odisha’s scheme reaches 71% of its female voters.
In some policy circles, the schemes are derided as vote-buying freebies. They also put pressure on state finances: 12 states are set to spend around $18bn on such payouts this fiscal year. A report by think-tank PRS Legislative Research notes that half of these states face revenue deficits – this happens when a state borrows to pay regular expenses without creating assets.
But many argue they also reflect a slow recognition of something India’s feminists have argued for decades: the economic value of unpaid domestic and care work.
Women in India spent nearly five hours a day on such work in 2024 – more than three times the time spent by men, according to the latest Time Use Survey. This lopsided burden helps explain India’s stubbornly low female labour-force participation. The cash transfers, at least, acknowledge the imbalance, experts say.
Do they work?
Evidence is still thin but instructive. A 2025 study in Maharashtra found that 30% of eligible women did not register – sometimes because of documentation problems, sometimes out of a sense of self-sufficiency. But among those who did, nearly all controlled their own bank accounts.
A 2023 survey in West Bengal found that 90% operated their accounts themselves and 86% decided how to spend the money. Most used it for food, education and medical costs; hardly transformative, but the regularity offered security and a sense of agency.
More detailed work by Prof Kotiswaran and colleagues shows mixed outcomes.
In Assam, most women spent the money on essentials; many appreciated the dignity it afforded, but few linked it to recognition of unpaid work, and most would still prefer paid jobs.
In Tamil Nadu, women getting the money spoke of peace of mind, reduced marital conflict and newfound confidence – a rare social dividend. In Karnataka, beneficiaries reported eating better, gaining more say in household decisions and wanting higher payments.
Yet only a sliver understood the scheme as compensation for unpaid care work; messaging had not travelled. Even so, women said the money allowed them to question politicians and manage emergencies. Across studies, the majority of women had full control of the cash.
“The evidence shows that the cash transfers are tremendously useful for women to meet their own immediate needs and those of their households. They also restore dignity to women who are otherwise financially dependent on their husbands for every minor expense,” Prof Kotiswaran says.
Importantly, none of the surveys finds evidence that the money discourages women from seeking paid work or entrench gender roles – the two big feminist fears, according to a report by Prof Kotiswaran along with Gale Andrew and Madhusree Jana.
Nor have they reduced women’s unpaid workload, the researchers find. They do, however, strengthen financial autonomy and modestly strengthen bargaining power. They are neither panacea nor poison: they are useful but limited tools, operating in a patriarchal society where cash alone cannot undo structural inequities.
What next?
The emerging research offers clear hints.
Eligibility rules should be simplified, especially for women doing heavy unpaid care work. Transfers should remain unconditional and independent of marital status.
But messaging should emphasise women’s rights and the value of unpaid work, and financial-literacy efforts must deepen, researchers say. And cash transfers cannot substitute for employment opportunities; many women say what they really want is work that pays and respect that endures.
“If the transfers are coupled with messaging on the recognition of women’s unpaid work, they could potentially disrupt the gendered division of labour when paid employment opportunities become available,” says Prof Kotiswaran.
India’s quiet cash transfers revolution is still in its early chapters. But it already shows that small, regular sums – paid directly to women – can shift power in subtle, significant ways.
Whether this becomes a path to empowerment or merely a new form of political patronage will depend on what India chooses to build around the money.
[BBC]
Nearly 1,000 people have been killed, and close to one million displaced, Indonesia has said a week after torrential rains triggered catastrophic floods and landslides.
The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) reported late on Sunday that 961 people had been killed, with 234 people missing and about 5,000 injured across the Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra provinces.
The agency also recorded damage to more than 156,000 homes, and 975,075 people had taken refuge in temporary shelters.
Floodwaters have begun to recede in several coastal districts, although large areas in the central highlands are still cut off, BNPB said. However, heavy rain is forecast for parts of the island in the coming days, raising concerns for displaced people.
Indonesia’s rainy season, which usually peaks between November and April, frequently brings severe flooding.
Environmental groups and disaster specialists have warned for years that rapid deforestation, unregulated development and degraded river basins have increased the risks.
Several other countries in Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka and Thailand, have been hit hard by storms and floods in recent weeks.
Risk to billions
The Asian Water Development Outlook 2025, published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday, warned that the impact of climate change on Asia’s water systems poses a risk to billions.
The research said accelerating ecosystem decline and funding shortfalls for investment in critical water infrastructure threaten to plunge many in the sprawling region into water insecurity.
That could jeopardise gains over the past 12 years that have seen more than 60 percent of Asia-Pacific’s population – about 2.7 billion people – escape extreme water insecurity, the report says.
“Asia’s water story is a tale of two realities, with monumental achievements on water security coupled with rising risks that could undermine this progress,” said Norio Saito, the ADB’s senior director for water and urban development.
“Without water security, there is no development,” Saito said, adding that the report showed that urgent action was needed to restore ecosystem health, strengthen resilience, improve water governance, and deploy innovative finance to deliver long-term water security.
Rising disaster threat
The report said extreme weather events such as storm surges, rising sea levels, and saltwater intrusion, along with rising water-related disasters, threaten the region, which already accounts for more than 40 percent of the world’s floods.
That includes the disasters that ravaged Indonesia and other countries in the region in recent weeks.
From 2013 to 2023, the Asia Pacific region experienced 244 major floods, 104 droughts, and 101 severe storms, causing widespread damage to life and property and undermining crucial development gains.
The report said accelerating ecosystem decline was also a serious threat to water security in the region, with rivers, aquifers, wetlands and forests that sustain long-term water security deteriorating rapidly.
It said water ecosystems were deteriorating or stagnating in 30 of the 50 Asian countries it looked at, as they face threats from pollution, unchecked development and the conversion of land to other uses.
Under investment in water infrastructure is another threat to water security.
Asian nations will need to spend $4 trillion for water and sanitation between now and 2040, an outlay of about $250bn a year, the report said.
Currently, governments are collectively spending about 40 percent of that, an annual shortfall of more than $150bn.
[Aljazeera]
Benin’s president has appeared on television to reassure citizens of the West African nation that the situation was now “totally under control” following an attempted coup earlier in the day.
“I would like to commend the sense of duty demonstrated by our army and its leaders, who have remained… loyal to the nation,” Patrice Talon said, looking calm during the live evening broadcast.
The government said it had thwarted the mutiny hours after a group of soldiers declared a takeover on national television.
Later in the afternoon, huge explosions were heard in Cotonou, Benin’s largest city and seat of government. They were thought to have been the result of an air strike.
Prior to the explosions, flight-tracking data showed that three aircraft had entered Benin’s airspace from neighbouring Nigeria before returning home.
A spokesman for Nigeria’s president later confirmed that its fighter jets had gone in to “take over the airspace to help dislodge the coup plotters from the national TV and a military camp where they had regrouped”.
There have been a series of coups in West Africa before Sunday’s thwarted attempt in Benin, heightening fears that the security of the region could worsen.
Benin, a former French colony, has been regarded as one of Africa’s more stable democracies. But Talon has faced accusations of suppressing criticism of his policies.
The nation is one of the continent’s largest cotton producers, but ranks among the world’s poorest countries.
Nigeria, Benin’s large neighbour to the east, has described the coup attempt as a “direct assault on democracy”.
“This commitment and mobilisation enabled us to defeat these opportunists and avert disaster for our country. This treachery will not go unpunished,” he added.
“I would like to reassure you that the situation is completely under control and therefore invite you to go about your business peacefully this evening.”
It is not clear if there have been casualties, but the president expressed his condolences “to the victims of this senseless adventure, as well as to those still being held by fleeing mutineers”.
Earlier, government spokesperson Wilfried Leandre Houngbedji told news agency Reuters that 14 people had been arrested in connection with the attempted coup.
A journalist in Benin told the BBC that, of those reportedly arrested, 12 are believed to have stormed the offices of the national TV station – including a soldier who had previously been sacked.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC gunfire was heard near the presidential residence early on Sunday morning, as a group of soldiers announced on national TV that they were suspending the constitution.
They also said some journalists working for the state broadcaster had been held hostage for a few hours.
The French and Russian embassies urged their citizens to remain indoors, while the US embassy’s advice was to stay away from Cotonou, especially the area around the presidential compound.
The rebel soldiers, led by Lt Col Pascal Tigri, justified their actions by criticising Talon’s management of the country, complaining first about his handling of the “continuing deterioration of the security situation in northern Benin”.
Benin’s army has suffered losses near its northern border with insurgency-hit Niger and Burkina Faso in recent years, as jihadist militants linked to Islamic State and al-Qaeda spread southwards.
The soldier’s statement cited “the ignorance and neglect of the situation of our brothers in arms who have fallen at the front and, above all, that of their families, abandoned to their sad fate by Mr Patrice Talon’s policies”.
The rebels also hit out at cuts in health care, including the cancellation of state-funded kidney dialysis, and taxes rises, as well as curbs on political activities.
Talon, who is regarded as a close ally of the West, is due to step down next year after completing his second term in office, with elections scheduled for April.
A businessman known as the “king of cotton”, he first came to power in 2016. He promised not to seek a third term, despite Benin’s current two-term limit for presidencies, and has endorsed Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni as his successor.
Talon has been praised by his supporters for overseeing economic development, but his government has also been criticised for suppressing dissenting voices.
In October, Benin’s electoral commission barred the main opposition candidate from standing on the grounds that he did not have enough sponsors.
Last month, constitutional amendments were passed by MPs, including the creation of a second parliamentary chamber, the Senate.
Terms for elected officials were extended from five to seven years, but the presidential two-term limit remained in place.
Sunday’s attempted coup comes just over a week after Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embaló was overthrown – though some regional figures have questioned whether this was staged.
In recent years, West Africa has also seen coups in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger, prompting concerns about the region’s stability.
Russia has strengthened its ties with these Sahel countries over recent years – and Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have left the West African regional bloc Ecowas to form their own group, the Alliance of Sahel States.
News of the attempted takeover in Benin was hailed by several pro-Russian social media accounts, according to BBC Monitoring.
Ecowas and the African Union (AU) have both condemned the coup attempt.
A contingent from Ecowas’s standby force is to be deployed to preserve the “constitutional order and the territorial integrity of the Republic of Benin”, the regional bloc has said in a statement.
AU Commission chair Mahmoud Ali Yousouf reiterated the pan-African organisation’s “zero tolerance stance toward any unconstitutional change of government, regardless of context or justification”.
[BBC]
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