Russian President Vladimir Putin waves his hand at Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9, 2022Yuan Xinfang/Xinhua via Getty Images
British ex-spy Christopher Steele said his sources say Putin is very ill, per Sky News.
“It’s part of the equation”‘ in Putin’s decision-making in Ukraine, Steele said.
Steele compiled the infamous Trump-Russia dossier, much of which has been discredited.
The British former spy who wrote an infamous dossier about former President Donald Trump’s dealings in Russia cited sources telling him that President Vladimir Putin is seriously ill.
Christopher Steele, who led MI6’s Russia desk and worked as a spy in Moscow for years, told Sky News: “Certainly, from what we’re hearing from sources in Russia and elsewhere, is that Putin is, in fact, quite seriously ill. “
Claims about the 69-year-old leader’s health have circulated for months. On Saturday, Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, Major General Kyrylo Budanov told Sky that Putin is in “a very bad psychological and physical condition and he is very sick.”
Budanov went on to suggest that the purported illness has incited plans within Russia for a coup.
In his interview with Sky, Steele suggested that Putin’s health is “an element” in his decision-making in Ukraine.
“It’s not clear exactly what this illness is — whether it’s incurable or terminal, or whatever,” he said. “But certainly, I think it’s part of the equation.”
These claims come days after New Lines Magazine published the claims of an anonymous Russian oligarch who said that Putin is “very ill with blood cancer.” New Lines said it verified the identity of the oligarch, but was unable to authenticate the recording.
It is all but impossible to confirm rumors about Putin’s health, which describe a panoply of ailments: Russian investigative news outlet Proekt wrote in early April that the leader has received dozens of visits from a thyroid cancer specialist.
Meanwhile, former KGB agent Boris Karpichkov told The Sun newspaper, without citing sources, that “there is a serious concern” Putin is suffering from dementia and Parkinson’s disease, among other ailments.
The Sun’s report follows weeks of tabloid speculation over the leader’s bloated face and images of him appearing to steady himself while seated in an April meeting with his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Putin at a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow, Russia April 21, 2022.Russian Presidential Press Service/Kremlin/Handout via Reuters
Steele is the author of an intelligence dossier that made multiple claims about Trump, including the existence of the “pee tape” — a Russian videotape supposedly of obscene material involving Trump before his political career.
No evidence of the “pee tape” has been found, and other aspects of the report’s credibility have been questioned, as CNN reported.
Steele worked under diplomatic cover as a spy in Moscow for three years in the 90s, and between 2006 and 2009 was chief of MI6’s Russia desk.
The Chinese city of Shanghai has announced plans to reopen after spending more than six weeks in lockdown and stamping out COVID-19 transmission in 15 of its 16 districts.
The opening will be rolled out in phases, state media reported on Monday, with city authorities saying “normal life” will resume on June 1.
Shanghai’s first priority will be resuming industrial production and manufacturing and then commercial business, Deputy Mayor Zong Ming was quoted as saying.
Grocery stores, pharmacies, and convenience stores will be allowed to open this week, as will in-person teaching at some schools, although anti-epidemic measures will remain in place to prevent a relapse.
Private cars and taxis will also be allowed on the streets from Monday onwards, and some public transit will resume on May 22.
“From June 1 to mid- and late June, as long as risks of a rebound in infections are controlled, we will fully implement epidemic prevention and control, normalize management, and fully restore normal production and life in the city,” Zong said.
But the announcement was met with scepticism by some Shanghai residents, who have been disappointed time and again by shifting schedules for the lifting of restrictions.
“Shanghai, Shanghai … am I still supposed to believe you?” one member of the public said on the Weibo social media platform.
Some pointed out that returning to daily life could be a challenge as many districts and even buildings have been placed under a “hard lockdown”, with police and city employees erecting physical barriers, fences, and even roadblocks to restrict the flow of movement.
Police seals on many shop doors also remain in place. Authorities will now need to remove much of this infrastructure.
Shanghai is currently separated into many areas, separated along the dotted lines on this map by temporary walls (often construction barriers).
Other reports suggested that lockdowns of specific buildings and compounds may continue if local cases are found during regular testing.
One Shanghai expatriate, Blake Stone-Banks, wrote on Twitter on Sunday that his compound has been locked down for a further 14 days because of a positive case in the area. The infection was the first positive in nearly a month, he said, adding that the compound has been under strict restrictions since March 16.
#Shanghai extended our lockdown another 14 days due to a positive in our compound. First positive in nearly a month, so transmission must have been via delivery or Dabai administering PCR. With exception of two days, we have been locked in since March 16. Hearing screams outside.
— Blake Stone-Banks (@blakestonebanks) May 14, 2022
Throughout the lockdown, Shanghai authorities have repeatedly dashed hopes for an end to the ordeal. Authorities said the lockdown would only last until April 5 when it was introduced on March 27.
Instead, 26 million people faced a weeks-long indefinite lockdown that initially led some residents scrambling for food before buildings and compounds organised group buying schemes to circumvent restrictions.
Despite that, China has rejected all criticisms of “zero-COVID,” including from the World Health Organization. The ruling Communist Party says it is committed to “resolutely fighting any attempts to distort, question or dismiss China’s anti-COVID policy”.
China reported 1,159 cases of infection on Monday, the vast majority in Shanghai. Almost all were infections without symptoms.
The lockdown in Shanghai and surrounding cities has disrupted global supply chains as the region is one of China’s most important industrial hubs.
In March and April, industrial production across China contracted at the steepest pace since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
China is not expected to lift its controversial “zero COVID” policy before the upcoming 20th National Party Congress in October when the Communist Party sets its five-year policy goals.
The event extra importance this year, as the party is expected to choose Xi Jinping for an first term as president.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson steps into an bitter row on Monday when he visits Northern Ireland to urge the formation of a power-sharing executive, which is currently being blocked by a Brexit dispute.
In a historic development, the role of Northern Ireland’s first minister is set to be taken by the pro-Irish party Sinn Fein, after it triumphed in elections to the Stormont assembly earlier this month.
But the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), angered at the “Northern Ireland Protocol” agreed as part of Britain’s Brexit deal with the European Union, blocked the election of a speaker at Stormont.
Johnson will meet all parties involved and is expected to tell them that London will “play its part to ensure political stability”, but that Northern Ireland politicians must “get back to work” to deal with “bread and butter issues”, according to a statement from his office Sunday.
The DUP is refusing to help form an executive until the protocol is changed to get rid of trade checks between Northern Ireland and mainland Great Britain, which it believes are threatening the province’s status within the UK.
Johnson’s government also insists the protocol is threatening the delicate balance of peace in Northern Ireland between the pro-Irish nationalist community and those in favor of continued union with the UK.
It has warned it will trigger Article 16 of the Brexit deal to suspend the agreement, or legislate to eliminate its requirements from UK law, unless the EU agrees to change it.
Writing in Monday’s Belfast Telegraph, Johnson said that those who wanted to scrap the protocol were “focusing on the wrong thing”.
“I hope the EU’s position changes,” Johnson wrote. “If it does not, there will be a necessity to act.”
“We will set out a more detailed assessment and next steps to parliament in the coming days, once I return from discussions with the local parties.”
But Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney warned London against taking unilateral action, in an interview with Politico in Brussels.
“To act unilaterally to break international law, to not respect the democratic decisions in Northern Ireland would make matters significantly worse, not better, in terms of trying to solve the problems of the protocol,” Coveney said.
Sinn Fein’s Northern Ireland leader Michelle O’Neill accused the DUP of holding the British-ruled territory to “ransom”.
“I intend to put it to him (Johnson) directly that he needs to stop pandering to the DUP,” she told reporters last week.
The UK government was “playing a game of chicken with the (European) commission right now, and we’re caught in the middle”, the first minister-elect added.
– ‘Very serious’ –
The protocol mandates checks on goods coming to the province from England, Scotland and Wales, to ensure no return of a physical border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland to the south.
The elimination of the hard border was a key strand of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
Johnson’s visit is expected to coincide with a delegation from the US Congress. The United States was a guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, and has voiced alarm at the UK’s threats over the protocol.
The situation has become “very serious” and the EU must show more flexibility, Johnson’s spokesman told reporters on Friday, but Brussels insists there can be no renegotiation.
Europe’s chief negotiator on the issue, Maros Sefcovic, on Thursday said unilateral action by London to suspend the protocol “is simply not acceptable”.
“Upholding the rule of law and living up to international obligations is a necessity,” he said, while other EU leaders have bemoaned the disunity as a gift to Russia as the West rallies behind Ukraine.
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels say the first commercial flight in six years has taken off Monday from the country’s rebel-held capital.
The flight, carrying 137 passengers, is part of the UN-brokered, 60-day truce agreement that the internationally recognized government and the Houthi rebels struck last month.
The Yemen Airways flight is bound to Jordan’s capital of Amman, according to Houthi-run media.
The truce, which went into effect on April 2, is the first nationwide cease-fire in Yemen in six years.
Swiss building-materials firm Holcim Ltd. agreed to sell its Indian operations to local billionaire Gautam Adani, currently the richest person in Asia, another step in Chief Executive Officer Jan Jenisch’s pivot away from traditional cement.
The company will sell its 63% stake in Mumbai-listed Ambuja Cements Ltd. to Adani Group, it said in a statement Sunday. Adani said it plans to spend about $10.5 billion on the stake purchases and open offer consideration for Ambuja and related entities.
As part of the deal, Adani will inherit Ambuja’s controlling stake in another publicly traded cement producer, ACC Ltd., and buy Holcim’s direct 4.5% holding in the unit. Holcim expects to receive 6.4 billion Swiss francs ($6.4 billion) of cash proceeds from the sale, according to the statement.
“We have quite a list of businesses we would like to acquire, so I think we can put this money here very well to use,” Jenisch said in an interview on Sunday. “At the moment, we’re working on more than 10 deals.”
Jenisch, who joined Holcim in 2017 from Sika AG, has been selling non-core cement businesses and buying new construction companies to benefit from rising demand for energy efficient buildings. As part of the strategy to expand the so-called solutions and products division, he has spent about $5 billion for acquisitions including Malarkey Roofing Products in December and Firestone Building Products in early 2021.
The 55-year-old German, has been cleaning up the company after the messy mega merger of Holcim and France’s Lafarge SA in 2015. Jenisch divested a Brazilian unit for $1 billion in September and Asian businesses such as Holcim Indonesia in 2019.
Holcim’s sale of its Indian business — which is subject to local regulatory approvals — is expected to close in the second half of 2022, helped by the fact that Adani doesn’t have sizable overlap. The company began reviewing new asset sales over the last year after the acquisitions, and concluded the potential negotiations with a handful of Indian buyers in about three months, Jenisch said.
‘Position of Strength’
“That’s something important to us that we have a strong balance sheet,” he said in the interview, adding that quick completion, the right price and good fit were key to choosing the winning bidder. “It’s always wise to be in a position of strength and have the opportunity to realize transactions and not to think about, oh, how can I raise this money.”
For Adani, the deal gives Asia’s richest person a foothold in the subcontinent’s fragmented cement sector. His group beat out other local companies including JSW Group, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg News previously reported that Adani Group was in advanced talks with Holcim.
Adani Group is offering 385 rupees per share for Ambuja Cements, a 7.2% premium to Friday’s closing price, according to Sunday’s statement. It will pay 2,300 rupees per share for ACC.
Shares in Ambuja Cements rose as much as 3.5% in early Monday trading in Mumbai, while ACC advanced as much as 7%.
The conglomerate has been moving beyond its core business of operating ports, power plants, coal mines and renewable energy and into areas like data centers, airports, digital services, retail and media.
Asia’s Richest Man Is Said to Scout for Indian Media Assets
A first-generation entrepreneur with a net worth of about $100 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani has been looking to transform his company into a multi-sector juggernaut like Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. Adani overtook Ambani as Asia — and India’s — richest man earlier this year.
Read more: Adani Joins Musk, Bezos in Exclusive $100 Billion Club
Adani’s Motivation
The deal for Ambuja will transform Adani Group into a sizable player in the cement sector. Founded in 1983, Ambuja has a cement capacity of 31 million metric tons, and has six integrated manufacturing plants and eight cement grinding units in India, its website shows.
“Our move into the cement business is yet another validation of our belief in our nation’s growth story,” Adani, chairman of his nameake group, said in Sunday’s statement.
Adani Group’s flagship firm Adani Enterprises Ltd. has two cement subsidiaries. Adani Cementation Ltd. is planning to build an integrated facility in the state of Gujarat, according to a compliance report in November. The group established Adani Cement Industries Ltd. in June 2021.
Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG and Standard Chartered Plc worked with Adani on the deal. Holcim led the transaction with its internal deal team supported by BNP Paribas SA, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Perella Weinberg Partners.
Government plans would allow first home buyers to dip into their retirement savings for a deposit.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended his election pitch to allow first-time buyers to use part of their retirement savings to buy homes in a bid to lure younger voters as the campaign entered its final week.
Morrison, trailing in polls ahead of the national election on Saturday, put housing at the forefront of his election campaign amid criticism that the decision will further drive up prices forcing more people out of the market.
“It’s your money, you’ve earned it and you’ve saved it in your superannuation,” Morrison told Channel Seven on Monday.
Morrison said he did not see house prices rising from his policy, announced during the launch of the Liberal Party’s campaign on Sunday.
Spending more money on a deposit will lower mortgage payments providing an “added layer of comfort to our first home buyers”, he said.
Under Morrison’s plan, first home buyers can dip into their retirement savings for up to 50,000 Australian dollars ($34,725) to raise a deposit.
Cheap loans fueled a housing boom last year, a windfall for household wealth that also hit affordability.
Surging prices
Prices surged 22.4 percent last year, the biggest increase since June 1989, with the notional value of Australia’s 10.8 million homes rising by 2 trillion Australian dollars ($1.4 trillion) to 9.9 trillion Australian dollars ($6.8 trillion).
Rising living costs, rated the most critical issue by voters in some polls, have pressure on Morrison’s Liberal-National coalition, which has a one-seat majority in the lower house of Parliament.
Centre-left Labor Party, ahead in polls, described the policy as “the last desperate act of a dying government”.
“It just pushes prices up. This is like throwing kerosene on a bonfire,” Shadow Minister for Housing Jason Clare told ABC television.
An employee works at the Tunisian Sergaz company, that controls the Tunisian segment of the Trans-Mediterranean (Transmed) pipeline, through which natural gas flows from Algeria to Italy, in El-Haouaria, some 100km east of the capital Tunis, on April 14 , 2022
African countries are among those hoping to increase their exports of gas to the European Union, after the EU committed to reduce its reliance on Russian supplies following the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s suspension of deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria over their refusal to pay in roubles, the Russian currency, was a stark reminder of the threat facing the Eurozone. Russia has the largest natural gas reserves in the world and is the largest exporter, accounting for around 40% of Europe’s imports.
The EU wants to cut supplies by two-thirds by the end of the year and become independent of all its fossil fuels by 2030.
However, energy economist Carole Nakhle says that with the combined exports of Africa’s big players in the industry – Algeria, Egypt and Nigeria – amounting to less than half of what Russia supplies to Europe, they are “unlikely at the moment to compensate for any losses in Russian supplies”.
“The good news is there will be greater interest in countries that already have the resources to replace Russian gas and Africa is in a very good position. We’re going to see more investment,” she says.
However, this will take time because if various logistical issues in the continent’s major exporters.
Algeria is well positioned to benefit from the EU’s shift in energy policy. The North African country is the region’s largest natural gas exporter and currently enjoys well developed gas connectivity infrastructure with Europe.
A chart showing natural gas exports from Africa in 2020
Last month Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi signed a new gas supply deal with Algeria to increase gas imports by around 40%.
It was Italy’s first major deal to find alternative supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
However, there are concerns over Algeria’s ability to boost capacity due to rising domestic consumption, underinvestment in production and political instability, says Uwa Osadieye, the senior vice-president of Equity Research at FBNQuest Merchant Bank.
He points out that the amount of gas exported from Algeria to Europe has fallen sharply recently because of a dispute with Morocco, leading to the closure of a vital pipeline to Spain, from 17 billion cubic feet a year to around nine billion.
Pier Paolo Raimondi, an energy research fellow at Rome’s Instituto Affari Internatzionali, echoes these concerns.
“The agreement will allow them to exploit the available pipeline transportation capacity and it could gradually provide increasing volumes of up to nine billion cubic metres per year in 2023 and 2024. [But] We don’t know how fast Algeria can ramp up this production.”
Despite the reservations, the deal has been hailed as a solid first step for Italy, which is the second-largest buyer of Russian gas in Europe.
Italian ministers also traveled to Angola and Congo-Brazzaville, where they agreed new gas deals and Italy is eyeing opportunities in Mozambique in a bid to end its dependency on Russia by mid-2023.
Meanwhile, West African liquified natural gas producer, Nigeria LNG, has been inundated with requests for gas from European countries since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.
Nigeria is under pressure to increase gas production
At present, Spain, Portugal and France are the three key destination markets for Nigeria LNG’s product and the company is only able to honor its existing contracts with buyers, according to a source who wishes to remain anonymous.
“There is an opportunity to increase production. Today Nigeria LNG is just 72% plant-mobilised, which means there’s still capacity of 28% to utilise, providing they’re able to get the gas, and that’s where the biggest challenge is right now ,” the source says.
He cites myriad issuesing the company’s ability to step up production, including declining gas wells and a lack of funding for upstream activities.
“They’re things that can be fixed in the short term – between six to 18 months.”
According to Andy Odeh, Nigeria LNG’s General Manager of External Relations and Sustainable Development, discussions are ongoing with natural gas suppliers to resolve these issues and he hopes to increase LNG production levels “from the end of this year onwards,” he says.
A new Nigeria LNG gas project, Train 7, will increase production capacity by 35% from the current 22 million tons per annum by 2025.
However, contracts with buyers, largely in Europe, are already in place. Nigeria LNG is also, feature studies for an additional project, Train 8 to boost supplies further.
The West African state is also a key player in the stalled Trans Saharan Pipeline project – a 4,400km (2,735 miles) natural gas pipeline that would run from Nigeria, through Niger to Algeria.
It would connect to existing pipeline infrastructure in Algeria, linking West African countries to Europe.
The project was mooted in the 1970s, but has been bedevilled by security threats, environmental concerns and a lack of funding.
At a meeting in February, regional officials promised to finally get it going.
Map
However, Kayode Thomas, the head of Bell Oil & Gas, says that another project – the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline, which will connect infrastructure in West Africa to Morocco in order to reach Europe – is gaining traction.
“We’re still not sure whether this will cannibalise the Trans Saharan pipeline or run alongside it,” he says.
The project, estimated to cost $25bn ($20bn) and connecting 13 West and North African countries, will be completed in stages over 25 years.
Ms Nakhle says the shift to sourcing gas from Africa could also benefit countries such as Tanzania and Mozambique, although a huge project there run by giant French total is currently on hold following a major attack by Islamist militants based in the area.
“There is great potential in Africa, but I would say that it’s got to be very limited in the short-term because gas projects take time to materialise,” she says.
But in the medium- and long-term, “you will see greater investment to increase the capacity to bring more gas out of the ground and bring them to Europe”.
Kim Jong Un orders the military to stabilize the supply of medicines in Pyongyang amid the outbreak of COVID-19, KCNA reports.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the military to stabilize the supply of medicines in Pyongyang days after announcing a lockdown following the outbreak of COVID-19, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
North Korea acknowledged for the first time last week that it is battling an “explosive” COVID-19 outbreak, with experts raising concerns that the virus could devastate a country with limited medical supplies and no vaccine programme.
The country reported 392,920 more people with fever symptoms, with eight new deaths, the state news agency said.
It did not report how many of those suspected cases had tested positive for COVID-19. North Korea has no COVID vaccines, antiviral treatment drugs or mass-testing capacity.
Kim Jong Un’s administration has insisted the country was coronavirus-free until a few days ago.
State media says 50 people have now died – and more than a million workers have been mobilized to stop the spread.
At the emergency politburo meeting, held on Sunday, Kim criticised the “irresponsible” work attitude and organising and executing ability of the Cabinet and the public health sector, KCNA reported.
“Officials of the Cabinet and public health sector in charge of the supply have not rolled up their sleeves, not properly recognizing the present crisis but only talking about the spirit of devotedly serving the people,” KCNA said Kim had told officials.
The government had ordered the distribution of its national medicine reserves, but Kim said the drugs procured by the state are not reaching people in a timely and accurate manner through pharmacies, the report said.
‘Careless’
Kim ordered that the “powerful forces” of the army’s medical corps be to stabilize “immediately the supply of medicines in Pyongyang City.”
KCNA also reported that Kim visited pharmacies located near the Taedong River in Pyongyang to find out about the supply and sales of drugs.
Kim said pharmacies are not well-equipped to perform their functions smoothly, there are no adequate drug storage areas other than the showcases, and the salespeople were not equipped with proper sanitary clothing.
North Korea has said that a “large proportion” of the deaths so far have been due to people “careless in taking drugs due to the lack of knowledge and understanding of stealth Omicron variant virus infection disease and its correct treatment method.”
While North Korea has maintained a rigid coronavirus blockade since the pandemic’s start, experts have said that Omicron outbreaks in the region meant it was only a matter of time before COVID spread to the country.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor and a top Democratic candidate for the US Senate, is recovering from a stroke he said was caused by a heart condition called atrial fibrillation.
Fetterman said in a statement Sunday that doctors believe he’s on his way to making “a full recovery.”
A look at what happened, the diagnosis, the future of Fetterman’s campaign and what can cause A-fib.
WHAT HAPPENED?
It was on Friday morning when Fetterman’s campaign first canceled an event. The campaign’s communications director, Joe Calvello, told scores of people waiting to see Fetterman at Millersville University that he hadn’t been feeling well that morning and had to cancel.
The campaign canceled more events Friday and through the weekend, saying nothing about his condition or whereabouts. They revealed Sunday afternoon that he had suffered a stroke and was hospitalized.
In a 16-second video released by the campaign with the statement, Fetterman and his wife, Gisele, appeared together, with Fetterman seated and speaking clearly.
“As you can see, we hit a little bump on the campaign trail,” she begins.
WILL THIS AFFECT HIS CANDIDACY?
Fetterman, 52, maintains that his candidacy will continue, that he’s feeling much better and that he’s expected to make a full recovery.
However, it’s not clear when he will get out of the hospital in Lancaster or whether he will attend the primary night event that his campaign had scheduled in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
Fetterman suffered the stroke in the busy sprint in the last days of the primary campaign, when he had a full schedule of travel and public events around the state.
While campaigns can slow down a bit in the weeks after a primary, the campaign did not say whether this will affect Fetterman’s schedule or what sort of doctors’ visits or medication will be required in the future.
Fetterman said the campaign itself “isn’t slowing down one bit.”
Nothing else changes. Fetterman remains in the race and on the ballot along with the three other Democratic candidates.
WHAT’S THE DIAGNOSIS?
Fetterman said in the statement that he had a stroke that was caused by a clot from his heart being in “an A-fib rhythm for too long.” The doctors quickly and completely removed the clot, reversing the stroke, Fetterman said.
Blood can pool inside a pocket of the heart, allowing clots to form. Clots then can break off, get stuck and cut off blood, often in the brain, which receives substantial blood flow.
Fetterman did not say by what method the doctors removed the clot. His campaign said his exact treatment regimen is still being worked out, but will include rest in the short term and a healthier diet.
Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, a cardiologist and chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University, said clots can be removed with “clot-busting” drugs or, more commonly, by extracting the clot “mechanically” by inserting a catheter through a big artery in the groin.
The longer a clot blocks an artery, the more brain cells can die, so it is critically important to recognize the symptoms of a stroke, said Lloyd-Jones, who is president of the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association
People who develop A-fib are almost always put on a blood-thinning medication for the rest of their life to help prevent the stroke-causing blood clots that untreated A-fib can create, Dr. Lloyd-Jones said.
WHAT IS A-FIB?
A-fib — or atrial fibrillation — occurs when the heart’s top chambers, called the atria, get out of sync with the bottom chambers’ pumping action. It’s a type of irregular heartbeat that’s potentially serious but treatable.
In that abnormal rhythm, the upper chambers beat so fast that they can’t contract like they normally do. As a result, they don’t move blood effectively, so the blood can stagnate in the upper chambers and form a clot, Lloyd-Jones said.
Sometimes patients feel a flutter or a racing heart but many times they’re not aware of an episode. Sometimes the heart gets back into rhythm on its own. Other patients get an electric shock to get back into rhythm.
A-fib causes 130,000 deaths and 750,000 hospitalizations a year in the US Between 2% and 3% of adults in the US in Fetterman’s age range have had a stroke, and a substantial number of those are caused by atrial fibrillation, Lloyd-Jones said .
HOW DO DOCTORS CHECK FOR IT?
A-fib is most common in older adults, and other risks include high blood pressure, sleep apnea or a family history of arrhythmias. Obesity is also a significant risk factor, as is being taller, Lloyd-Jones said.
Fetterman is 6-foot-8, has been open about his push to lose weight in the past. He weighed in at over 400 pounds before losing nearly 150 pounds in 2018.
Routine screening is not recommended for people without symptoms. Studies haven’t yet proved that early detection from screening would prevent enough strokes to outweigh risks from unnecessary testing or overtreatment.
___
Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ap_politics.
___
Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timelywriter
