Israel accuses Iran over deadly oil tanker attack

Israel has accused Iran of being behind an attack on an oil tanker in which two crew members - a British national and a Romanian citizen - were killed.

The MV Mercer Street, operated by the London-based company Zodiac Maritime, was off Oman's coast in the Arabian Sea when the incident occurred on Thursday.

The company, which belongs to Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer, said it was working to establish what had happened.

Iran has not commented on the Israeli foreign minister's allegations.

In a statement on Friday, Yair Lapid blamed "Iranian terrorism".

"Iran is not just an Israeli problem," Mr Lapid said, adding: "The world must not be silent."

However, details of the attack on the Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned tanker remain unclear.

The incident appears to be a serious escalation in tensions in the region, and some reports suggest that a drone was involved.

A spokesperson for the UK government said it was also trying to "urgently establish the facts".

"Our thoughts are with the loved ones of a British national who has died following an incident on a tanker off the coast of Oman," the statement said.

It added that vessels "must be allowed to navigate freely in accordance with international law".

In a statement on Friday, Zodiac Maritime announced the two deaths with "profound sadness". It said no other injuries had been reported.

The company added that the vessel was now "sailing under the control of her crew" and heading to a safe location with a US naval escort.

The undeclared "shadow war" between Israel and Iran appears to be hotting up.

There have been several attacks in recent months on both Israeli and Iranian-operated vessels, with both countries trading accusations and denials.

But this attack marks a significant escalation with its human casualties.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapad called for a tough response and said he was in consultation with his British counterpart Dominic Raab, and that the issue would be taken to the UN.

An Iranian Arabic-language television station quoted unnamed sources saying the attack was revenge for an alleged Israeli attack on an airport in Syria, an ally of Iran's.

An unnamed Israeli official said it would be hard for Israel to turn a blind eye to the attack.

EXPLAINED: Iran and Israel's shadow war

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) naval authority said it was investigating the incident, which occurred near the Omani island of Masirah, and confirmed that "coalition forces" were assisting the vessel.

The US state department said it was "deeply concerned" by the reports and was "monitoring the situation closely".

The tanker had been travelling in the northern Indian Ocean to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

According to Zodiac Maritime, it had no cargo on board at the time of the incident.

A number of previous incidents have been reported on both Israeli and Iranian-owned ships in the area. Vessels have been damaged in these incidents, but casualties are rare.

Excerpt from BBC News Homes......

 

Taxi and food discounts offer to boost youth jabs

Young people will be offered discounted takeaways and taxi rides to get their Covid jabs in a bid to boost vaccine uptake, the government has said.

Food delivery and taxi-hailing firms including Uber, Bolt, Deliveroo and Pizza Pilgrims will offer incentives to people to get vaccinated.

The Department of Health and Social Care said details on more partnerships would be released "in due course".

It said about 67% of 18 to 29-year-olds in England have had a first jab.

More than 72% of UK adults have had two doses so far, while 88.5% have had one.

Ride hailing firm Uber will send reminders to all users in August urging them to get vaccinated - and will offer discounted rides and meals on its Uber Eats platform for young people who have the vaccine.

Bolt, another taxi app firm, will offer "free ride credit" to vaccination centres, while food delivery firm Deliveroo will give vouchers to young people who get vaccinated.

• Two jabs needed to enter nightclubs from September
  

• Vaccine push sees jabs at circus and festivals
  

• Jab will not be compulsory for university lectures
  

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said other incentives could include "vouchers or discount codes for people attending pop-up vaccine sites and booking through the NHS, social media competitions and promotional offers for restaurants".

It added that firms would not request or store any health data for the incentive scheme.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid thanked companies for "stepping up" to help the vaccine drive, and urged people to "take advantage of the discounts".

The announcement of the latest initiative in the government's vaccine drive comes after  a string of pop-up vaccine centres opened across England this

 weekend   - with sites including Burnley FC's Turf Moor ground, Goodwood Racecourse near Chichester, and the Summer of Love Festival in west London's Holland Park.

A four-day festival with live music and free food, and walk-in vaccine clinics, is taking place in Poplar, in east London, until Monday

Everyone over 18 has been able to sign up for a Covid jab in England since mid-June.

So far two-thirds of 18-29 year olds have come forward.

That's much lower than the population as a whole and ministers are desperate to increase uptake before the end of summer.

We've already seen the stick; the prime minister warning Covid passports could stop the unvaccinated getting into nightclubs and other venues.

Now for the carrot; giving people discounts and other incentives to get a jab.

Downing Street hasn't said exactly what the incentives will be.

But ministers are in talks with other firms - and discounts in cafes, restaurants and cinemas could follow soon.

The latest plans come weeks after the government said that people attending nightclubs and other crowded venues in England  would need to be fully vaccinated from the end of September.

The announcement was met with some criticism, with Kate Nicholls, the boss of UK Hospitality calling the announcement "a hammer blow" for a struggling industry trying to rebuild, while Mark Harper MP, who chairs the Covid Recovery Group of Conservative backbenchers, said the government was "effectively moving to compulsory vaccination".

The BBC understands that  ministers are no longer considering  making it compulsory for university students to be fully vaccinated to attend lectures or stay in halls of residence in England - after the foreign secretary previously said

students would get "advance warning" if they needed to be double jabbed.

Excerpt from BBC News Homes......

 

Afghanistan: Fighting rages as Taliban besiege three key cities

Fighting is raging around three major cities in southern and western Afghanistan as Taliban militants seek to seize them from government forces.

Taliban fighters have entered parts of Herat, Lashkar Gah and Kandahar.

They have made rapid gains in rural areas since it was announced almost all foreign troops would go by September.

But the fate of these key cities could be crucial amid fears of a humanitarian crisis and how long government forces will be able to hold out.

The fundamentalist Islamist militia is already thought to have captured up to half of all Afghanistan's territory, including lucrative border crossings with Iran and Pakistan.

• Mapping the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan

In Lashkar Gah, insurgents were reportedly only a few hundred metres from the governor's office on Saturday - but had been pushed back by nightfall.

It was their second such attempt in as many days. The commander of Afghan forces said they had inflicted significant casualties on the militants on Friday.

Analysis by Secunder Kermani, BBC News

The Taliban's firm focus is now on Afghanistan's cities. The situation is fluid but Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province where many US and British soldiers lost their lives, looks the most vulnerable right now. Pro-Taliban social media accounts have uploaded videos of their fighters in the heart of the city.

Afghan special forces are being sent in to help push them back, but one local resident told us even if that does end up happening, the Taliban's advance is a powerful assertion of their strength.

The militants are understood to have taken up some positions in the homes of ordinary families, which will make it harder to dislodge them. More lengthy and bloody fighting looks to be ahead.

One MP in Kandahar told the BBC the city was at serious risk of falling to the Taliban, with tens of thousands of people already displaced and a humanitarian disaster looming.

Gul Ahmad Kamin said the situation was getting worse hour by hour, and the fighting within the city was the most severe in 20 years.

He said the Taliban now saw Kandahar as a major focal point, a city they want to make their temporary capital. If it fell, then five or six other provinces in the region would also be lost, Mr Kamin said.

He said the Taliban fighters were on several sides of the city and because of the large civilian population government forces would not be able to use heavy weaponry if the militants got fully inside.

•  EXPLAINER: Life in Afghanistan after America leaves
• 
  
• BACKGROUND: Who are the Taliban?
• 
  
• ANALYSIS: Was 20 years in Afghanistan worth it?
  

In Herat, a Tolo News reporter said clashes had intensified, with Taliban fighters entering southern parts of the economically important city.

There are reports of fighting in at least five different locations.

The US is still carrying out air strikes to support the Afghan forces, who have recaptured a district around the airport.

A guard outside a UN compound near the airport was killed on Friday in what the UN described as a deliberate Taliban attack.

Residents say few places in the city are safe and some people are taking up arms to defend themselves.

'Islamic emirate'

The EU's special envoy for Afghanistan, Tomas Niklasson, said he believed the war was set to get much worse.

He said he feared the Taliban way of thinking now was "something they had in the past - re-establishing... their Islamic emirate".

And the former head of the British Armed Forces, Gen David Richards, warned the international withdrawal could result in the collapse of the Afghan army's morale, leading to Taliban control and possibly a renewed international terrorist threat.

Humanitarian organisations have also warned of a major crisis in coming months as the Taliban continue their offensive - with a lack of food, water and services, and overcrowding in camps for the displaced.

US troops and their Nato and regional allies forced the Taliban from power in November 2001.

The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.

But despite a continued international presence, billions of dollars of support and training for the Afghan government forces, the Taliban regrouped and gradually regained strength.

In February 2020, then-US President Donald Trump and allies agreed to formulate a deal with the Taliban on the withdrawal of international combat forces.

This year, President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal would take place by September.

Excerpt from BBC News Homes......

 

Indians turn to crowdfunding to pay Covid bills

 Hospitalisations soared in India during a deadly second Covid wave. Now, hobbled by patchy insurance, Indians are turning to crowdfunding to pay the steep medical bills, reports Astha Rajvanshi.

Supraja Reddy Yeruva was unable to breathe properly for days after giving birth to her second child in June. The 27-year-old began showing Covid-19 symptoms during her pregnancy, shortly after visiting a hospital for a routine check-up.

Soon, she contracted a severe lung infection and was admitted in the ICU at a private hospital in the southern city of Hyderabad. A month on, she is still there.

With their six-year-old daughter and newborn son, her husband, Vijaya Yeruva, now anxiously waits for her recovery.

Mr Yeruva is also scrambling to pay a hefty medical bill of nearly 6m rupees (£58,636; $80,615) for his wife's treatment. And the amount goes up by the day.

He used his health insurance, maxed out his credit cards and borrowed from the bank. After exhausting every other option, the 35-year-old turned to Ketto, a crowdfunding platform, and launched a fundraiser.

An engineer with a steady, but modest, annual income of $1,076 (£775), Mr Yeruva said he never imagined asking strangers for money.

"I worked hard to support my family and never asked anyone for help," he said. "Even now, I'm embarrassed to tell people about this fundraiser."

His desperation reflects the plight of thousands of Indian families who now face the collateral damage from India's devastating second Covid wave: crushing medical debt.

Many have turned to crowdfunding to foot the hospital bills - and it has quickly emerged as a substitute for health insurance and government support.

Experts said three of the biggest crowdfunding sites - Ketto, Milaap and Give India - have collectively raised around $1.6bn with the help of 2.7 million donors so far.

Ketto, where Mr Yeruva launched his fundraiser, said it grew four times during both waves, raising more than $40m for some 12,000 Covid-relief campaigns.

"In many cases, crowdfunding became an alternate safety net to fill the existing gaps in the healthcare system," said Ravina Banze and Irfan Bashir, co-authors of the book, Crowdfunding: The Story of People.

Even before the pandemic, the greatest need for crowdfunding manifested in the lives of millions of sick people in India.

Out-of-pocket healthcare expenses drove 38 million into poverty in 2011-2012, according to a 2018 study by the British Medical Journal and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).

There's no data on how many more were pushed to financial ruin by medical debt during the pandemic, but a preliminary study by the Duke Global Health Institute and the PHFI estimates that two-thirds of India's self-employed and half of its salaried workforce could not afford to pay for critical care.

The burden falls heaviest on India's poorest, a group that last year increased by an additional 230 million Indians, according to researchers at Azim Premji University. More than 90% borrowed a median amount of $201 to pay off debts.

India's public spending on healthcare accounts for just 1.2% of its GDP - it's among the lowest in the world, with roughly two-thirds of Indians going without any health insurance.

"Having unexpected medical emergencies is a recipe for disaster when most people live under the constant threat of financial instability," Mr Bashir said.

In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised free coverage to half a billion of India's poorest citizens by launching "Modicare", the world's biggest health insurance scheme.

But an analysis by Proxima Consulting found that only 13% of those eligible under the scheme were able to claim insurance when hospitalised for Covid treatment in public and private hospitals.

The scheme does not cover outpatient costs either, which make up for a large part of medical expenses.

In Nagpur city, Chinmayi Hiwase went from hospital to hospital for three days to beg for oxygen and a vacant bed for her 57-year-old father, Rajesh Hiwase. She thought her struggle with Covid was over.

But an MRI scan of her father later detected an auto-immune disorder and mucormycosis or "black fungus". The additional treatment, which includes daily injections costing $94 each, has added to the total cost of $33,633.

It's an unimaginable amount for the 25-year-old, who is a single child and recently graduated. "We were shocked when we saw the bills," she said.

Her father, who worked at a private engineering college, supported the family on an annual salary of $605.

Without health insurance, medical bills have eaten into Ms Hiwase's savings, forcing them to borrow money from friends and, eventually, start an online fundraiser.

So far, the family has raised $11,956, almost half the amount they requested. "I didn't realize how helpful [crowdfunding] could be," Chinmayi Hiwase said, sighing with relief.

"Crowdfunding has essentially given those individuals who can't afford private hospitals an opportunity to get themselves admitted," Ms Banze said.

Donors are often family and friends of those who start fundraisers, but there are also NGOs, celebrities and strangers, in India and abroad, who feel compelled to give.

But donations are often directed towards the most heart-wrenching stories or patients with strong social networks. Ms Banze and Mr Bashir worry that this fosters an environment where people are empathising only with the most severe cases.

"Not everyone is a great storyteller, and not everyone has the most extreme story," they said.

With half the country unable to access the internet, crowdfunding can also create "information asymmetry" by preventing those on the lowest rungs of society from tapping into its power.

Despite donations, Ms Hiwase's financial troubles are far from over. Loans still need to be repaid, and her father's treatment will also take a long time.

"We could barely afford an injection without the help of others," she said. "I don't know what those who don't have that kind of support would do."

In Hyderabad, Mr Yeruva is contemplating selling his assets and even his house to pay for his wife's treatment.

"It will take years for things to go back to normal, but I want to make sure our kids have their mother," he said.

Astha Rajvanshi is a freelance journalist and fellow at the Institute of Current World Affairs,based in Delhi.

Excerpt from BBC News Homes......