Ukraine-Bound Grain Ship’s Engine Fails in Bosphorus, 2nd Incident This Week

The Panama-flagged cargo ship Lady Zehma anchors in the Marmara Sea in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. (AP)
The Panama-flagged cargo ship Lady Zehma anchors in the Marmara Sea in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. (AP)
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Ukraine-Bound Grain Ship’s Engine Fails in Bosphorus, 2nd Incident This Week

The Panama-flagged cargo ship Lady Zehma anchors in the Marmara Sea in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. (AP)
The Panama-flagged cargo ship Lady Zehma anchors in the Marmara Sea in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. (AP)

A cargo ship bound for Ukraine to pick up grains under a UN-brokered deal had a brief engine failure as it was transiting Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait overnight, a shipping company said on Saturday, marking a second incident this week.

The Briza's engine failed around 2330 GMT on Friday and it anchored near Istanbul's Kandilli region, Tribeca Shipping said. The ship lifted anchor at 0120 GMT on Saturday and was to proceed to an anchorage area in the southern Bosphorus by tug boats, it said.

Traffic in the Bosphorus was halted and southbound traffic was to continue at 0530 GMT, Tribeca added. Refinitiv Eikon data showed the Briza was anchored to the south of the Bosphorus at 0628 GMT.

Lady Zehma, a cargo ship carrying more than 3,000 tons of corn from Ukraine, was towed to anchorage in Istanbul after briefly running aground due to a rudder failure on Thursday night.

Such incidents are rare on the picturesque Bosphorus, which divides Türkiye’s largest city and connects the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea and beyond to the Mediterranean.

The Istanbul-based Joint Coordination Center (JCC) - which oversees the agreement and includes United Nations, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish officials - said on Friday the Briza was inspected and cleared to sail to Ukraine along with seven other ships.

As of Friday, some 1.77 million tons of grain and other foodstuffs had been exported from Ukraine under the deal, while 160 inbound and outbound voyages had been enabled, the JCC said.

Ukraine's grain exports slumped after Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24 and blockaded its Black Sea ports, driving up global food prices and prompting fears of shortages in Africa and the Middle East.

Three ports were unblocked under the deal signed on July 22 by Moscow and Kyiv, and brokered by the UN and Ankara.



WHO Chief: US Actions Have Serious Impact on Global Health

FILE PHOTO: Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends the World Health Assembly at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, May 27, 2024. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends the World Health Assembly at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, May 27, 2024. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
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WHO Chief: US Actions Have Serious Impact on Global Health

FILE PHOTO: Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends the World Health Assembly at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, May 27, 2024. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends the World Health Assembly at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, May 27, 2024. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

The United States' pause on foreign aid contributions is having a serious impact on global health, hitting programs fighting polio, HIV and other threats, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
Tedros urged the US to consider resuming aid funding until solutions can be found.
"There are actions that the US government is taking... which we're concerned are having a serious impact on global health," said Tedros in a virtual press conference from Geneva.
Efforts to tackle HIV, polio, mpox and avian flu were all impacted by the US foreign aid pause implemented by President Trump last month shortly after he took office while the programs are reviewed.
In particular, Tedros said, the suspension of funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) had caused an immediate stop to HIV treatment, testing and prevention services in the 50 countries it supports, Reuters reported.
Despite the subsequent waiver allowing some services to resume, prevention efforts for at-risk groups were not included, he said.
"Clinics are shuttered and health workers have been put on leave," he added, saying that the WHO is trying to help countries fill gaps in supplies of anti-retroviral drugs.
Both the funding suspension and the disengagement of US institutions were also affecting the effort to eradicate polio and the response to mpox, he said, and in Myanmar, almost 60,000 people had been left with no access to life-saving services.
"We ask the US to consider continuing its funding at least until solutions can be found," Tedros said.
As well as the aid freeze, Trump also moved to withdraw the United States from the WHO on the first day of his presidency, which is also hitting collaboration, particularly in fighting outbreaks and on influenza, Tedros said.
For example, the WHO has limited information about the spread of avian influenza among dairy cattle in the US, or human cases, although other WHO officials later said that the country was meeting its obligations to declare cases under international health rules.
Maria Van Kerkhove, interim director for pandemics and epidemics, said that WHO had not had influenza reports from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since around January 24, though.
"We are continuing to reach out to our colleagues and the US government agencies. We haven't heard back from them, but we will continue to reach out, and we hope again that that exchange resumes," she said.
Tedros also referred to the funding gap for WHO itself. The agency has already reformed its funding model in recent years, but other ideas were also on the table, he said.
These include raising an endowment of $50 billion, although he did not give details about how that would be done. He also said the agency has considered cash recovery, or charging for some of its services, for institutions or people that could pay.