Health and medicine

Zain JAAFAR / AFP via Getty Images

Between heat and war, Saudi Arabia seeks incident-free Hajj

Mecca's temperature reached a high of 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.5 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday and is expected to hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius) on Wednesday.

Janti Soeripto helps at a community kitchen serving hot meals to displaced families arriving from El-Fasher.

Interview

As Sudan war drags on, US-Iran conflict compounds humanitarian crisis in Darfur

Save the Children US President and CEO Janti Soeripto said delivering aid in Sudan remains extremely difficult, with supply trucks often delayed for weeks or months even after entering the country.

Janti Soeripto

President and CEO of Save the Children US

Ed Ram/Getty Images

Kuwait blacklists eight Lebanon hospitals over alleged Hezbollah ties: What to know

The affected hospitals, located in areas where Hezbollah has a heavy presence, are believed to be run by Hezbollah-affiliated institutions.

A demonstrator wearing a bandana in the colours of the Lebanese flag smokes a cigarette as retired Lebanese army and security forces veterans gather to protest outside the government palace headquarters in the centre of Beirut on March 22, 2023, demanding inflation-adjustments to their pensions. (Photo by Joseph EID / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH EID/AFP via Getty Images)

Culture

Why Lebanon now leads the world in rising cancer rates

A recent study found that Lebanon has the world’s fastest-rising cases of cancer and cancer-related deaths. Ali Mokdad, co-author of the study, says tobacco is the main culprit.

Latest News

Interview

International Red Cross chief says Gaza conflict goes beyond anything he has ever seen

Members of the Red Cross stand amid the rubble of destroyed buildings as heavy machinery operates in the al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City on Oct. 27, 2025.

Pierre Krahenbuhl

Pierre Krahenbuhl

Director-General of the International Committee

RSF hits Darfur hospital as cholera, dengue fever spread in war-torn Sudan

A nurse treats a Dengue fever patient at a hospital in Omdurman, west of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Sept. 24, 2025.

Cholera kills 25 in two days in Sudan's Darfur amid deepening war

A woman washes her hands at the entrance of a cholera isolation center at the refugee camps of western Sudan, in Tawila in Darfur, on Aug. 12, 2025.

UN: Sudanese children 'skin and bones' as 250,000 in El Fasher face starvation

People who fled the Zamzam camp for the internally displaced after it fell under RSF control queue for food rations in a makeshift encampment in an open field near the town of Tawila in Sudan's western Darfur region on April 13, 2025.

A man rinses his face with water from a bottle to cool off during a heat wave in Tehran on July 11, 2023.

Iran: Unprecedented heat wave triggers emergency holidays

The high temperatures have widely been linked to the overall impacts of climate change, which is hitting Iran twice harder than global averages, according to official data.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in his office in Jerusalem, on June 25, 2023. (Photo by ABIR SULTAN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ABIR SULTAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Why did Israel’s Netanyahu conceal his heart condition?

The hospitalization of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday morning and the placement of a pacemaker suddenly revealed to Israeli citizens some details on the true health condition of their leader.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

A worker fumigates a house against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of dengue fever in a neighborhood in Piura, northern Peru, on June 11, 2023. (Photo by ERNESTO BENAVIDES / AFP) (Photo by ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP via Getty Images)

Dengue fever outbreak in Egypt forces Russia to issue tourism warning

Most cases of the mosquito-borne virus are not severe. Russia has implemented health measures for flights from Egypt as a result of the outbreak.

Hagop Kantarjian, M.D., poses with one of his favorite paintings, "Seated Woman with Red Guitar" (2021).

Culture

From Lebanon to Texas, award-winning cancer doctor charts new course for leukemia research

Dr. Hagop Kantarjian, whose life work has transformed research, diagnosis and treatment of leukemia, also expands cancer research networks and collaboration in the Middle East.

Women chant slogans in front of the Istanbul courthouse in Istanbul on April 5, 2023.

Turkey denies female inmate access to tampons

Imposing a long-held taboo, Turkish authorities have denied a female inmate’s access to disposable tampons.

An employee takes a box of medicines on shelves at a pharmacy in the Turkish capital Ankara on December 13, 2021. - Turkeys pharmacists have brought to light the struggle of many patients who need medicines to treat diseases like diabetes and childrens fevers but cannot find them. They say the crisis that has deteriorated because of the fall in the Turkish liras value. (Photo by ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Turkey's medicine shortages could turn into 'drug famine' with no end in sight

In all Turkish pharmacies Al-Monitor visited recently, the drug shortage was palpable. Children's medicines, antibiotics, some cancer drugs top Turkey's long-unavailable drug list.

A Saudi family arrive at a hospital in the center of the capital Riyadh, on May 14, 2013.

Saudi Arabia ahead of UK in women's health index, leads Arab world

A global survey reveals that Saudi Arabia is the leading country for women's and girls' health in the Arab world, while other regional countries sat at the bottom of the 122 global list.

MAZEN MAHDI/AFP via Getty Images

Negev Forum convenes in UAE with Jordan absent from Arab-Israeli meeting

Senior officials from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, the United States and Israel have convened in Abu Dhabi for the third Negev Forum steering committee meeting.

A displaced Syrian child carries a jug of water.

Water crisis worsens in Syria's Idlib as support dries up

The "Goal" organization, which has been active in Syria since 2012, has stopped pumping water in villages and towns as support for it ends

A doctor in the oncology department of the Hotel-Dieu de France reviews anticancer drugs in the hospital pharmacy, Beirut, Lebanon, Oct. 7, 2022.

Lebanese turn to alternative medicine as health care costs soar

Many in Lebanon are opting for alternative medicine to treat physical and psychological maladies after no longer being able to afford health services.

The mummies of cats and other felines are displayed after the announcement of a new discovery carried out by an Egyptian archaeological team in Giza's Saqqara necropolis, south of the capital Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 23, 2019.

Culture

Researchers hunt monkeypox in mummified Egyptian animals

A group of researchers have called for tracking the history of the monkeypox virus in the mummies of animals, as more studies are revealing the importance of the relationship between humans and animals in ancient Egypt.

Ahmad lies in his hospital bed on his sixth day of treatment at Halba's government hospital in Akkar.

Lebanon begins vaccination campaign as cholera cases soar

The crisis-hit country’s collapsing water and sewage infrastructure has opened a breeding ground for waterborne illness.