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PESHAWAR: Pakistan efforts to eliminate polio suffered another blow on Monday after a northern enclave reported its first case in seven years. Overall, it was the country’s 11th case since January, despite the launch of several immunization drives.
The virus was detected in a child from the district of Diamer in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, according to the country’s polio eradication program.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the spread of the wild polio virus has not been stopped, according to the World Health Organization. There are ongoing outbreaks of polio linked to the oral vaccine in 10 other countries, mostly in Africa.
The new case was reported after Pakistan on Sunday wrapped up its third nationwide polio vaccination drive of the year, aiming to immunize 45 million children.
Mohammad Iqbal, a director at the polio program in the northwest, said local health officials were still trying to determine how the poliovirus that was found in the southern port city of Karachi had infected the child in Diamer.
During the summer season, thousands of tourists from Karachi and elsewhere visit tourist resorts in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Pakistan’s polio eradication program has been running anti-polio campaigns for years, though health workers and the police assigned to protect them are often targeted by militants who falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Since the 1990s, attacks on polio vaccination teams have killed more than 200 workers and security personnel.

LONDON: Britain cannot ignore the threat posed by Russia, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday, ahead of the publication of a strategic defense review that is expected to call for greater readiness to fight a modern war.

“We cannot ignore the threat that Russia poses. We’ve seen what’s happened in Ukraine just over three years ago,” Starmer told the BBC, when asked if Britain would have to send troops to fight in a future European conflict.

The United Kingdom will build new nuclear-powered attack submarines and create an army ready to fight a war in Europe as part of a boost to military spending designed to send a message to Moscow — and Washington.

“We have to recognize the world has changed,” Starmer told the BBC. “With greater instability than there has been for many, many years, and greater threats.”

Deterring Russia

NATO chief Mark Rutte says leaders of the 32 member countries will debate a commitment to spend at least 3.5 percent of GDP on defense when they meet in the Netherlads this month.

Like other NATO members, the UK has been reassessing its defense spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia is attacking the UK daily, with 90,000 cyberattacks from state-linked sources directed at the UK’s defense over the last two years. A cyber command to counter such threats is expected to be set up as part of the review.

Bolstering Europe’s defenses

European countries, led by the UK and France, have scrambled to coordinate their defense posture as Trump transforms American foreign policy, seemingly sidelining Europe as he looks to end the war in Ukraine. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO and complained that the US provides security to European countries that don’t pull their weight.

Robert Jenrick, justice spokesman for the main opposition Conservative Party, called on the government to be more ambitious and raise spending to 3 percent of national income by 2029.

“We think that 2034 is a long time to wait, given the gravity of the situation,” he told Sky News.