Uganda Faces Ebola Crisis

Welcome to today’s Morning Brief, where we’re looking at Uganda’s Ebola outbreak, the risky status of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and a new offer of U.S. security aid to Haiti.

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Ugandan authorities are scrambling to quell a deadly Ebola outbreak that is believed to have killed 39 people and infected at least 54 people, fueling concerns of a wider public health crisis since the virus strain currently circulating has no available vaccine.

The latest outbreak—Uganda’s biggest in two decades—was first reported in September and has since hit at least six districts and Kampala, the country’s capital. On Tuesday, officials said a man who had died in a Kampala hospital last Friday had Ebola, further compounding fears about how far the virus had spread. 

Since it’s not the government’s first time dealing with Ebola, which is transmitted by touching an infected person’s bodily fluids, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO and Kampala “have been working together to prepare for an outbreak for some time.” 

“Our primary focus now is to rapidly control and contain this outbreak to protect neighboring districts as well as neighboring countries,” he added on Wednesday.

Health officials have raced to limit the virus’s spread, launching contact-tracing campaigns and establishing new treatment facilities, though many of Uganda’s health care facilities were already strained by the COVID-19 pandemic and doctors have said they don’t have enough personal protective equipment. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, meanwhile, has resisted implementing lockdowns.

“We are asking families to make huge sacrifices: isolation, quarantine, changes to the way to interact with each other, changes in the way people mourn and bury the dead,” Tedros said. “Community engagement and community trust are critical.”

Uganda’s neighbors have ramped up their entry restrictions while Washington announced plans to screen travelers who have recently visited the country. People who were in Uganda in the past three weeks will now be rerouted to one of five U.S. airports to complete temperature checks and health forms.

Although this strain currently has no approved vaccine options, Tedros said vaccine trials for it could begin in the coming weeks once they receive the required approvals from Uganda.

Danger at Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant lost power twice in the span of five days as a result of Russian shelling, forcing it to turn to diesel generators until the power was restored. Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, tweeted that it was a “deeply worrying development” that “underlines the urgent need for a nuclear safety & security protection zone around the site.”

On Wednesday, the Kremlin also said it had arrested eight individuals over the explosion on the Kerch Strait Bridge on Saturday. The suspects were Russian, Ukrainian, and Armenian citizens.

U.S. security aid to Haiti. The Biden administration plans to send security aid to Haiti and revoke the visas of Haitian officials with criminal ties, The Associated Press reported. The decision was made after the Haitian government sought “military assistance from the international community” last week as it struggles to subdue gang violence and rising inflation while fighting a recent cholera outbreak. 

Adam Tooze and Cameron Abadi will be taping an episode of FP’s popular economics podcast, Ones and Tooze, in front of a live audience. Come for the unvarnished repartee, the bookish asides, and (of course) the two data points that explain the world. Join us live in New York or tune in virtually to the livestream. Oct. 25, 7-9 p.m. | Purchase tickets.

Iran’s resilient protest movement. Nearly a month after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in the custody of Iran’s morality police, demonstrations have continued to shake nearly 20 cities, even as the government cracks down on protesters and stifles internet access. Human rights organizations estimate that the crackdowns have left nearly 190 people dead—28 of whom were children—while thousands more people have been detained or wounded. 

Palestinian strikes. Israeli forces killed an 18-year-old Palestinian teenager named Osama Adawi in the West Bank on Wednesday. Adawi’s death is the latest in a spate of clashes between Israeli forces executing raids and Palestinian protesters; so far, more than 100 Palestinians living in the West Bank have been killed this year. On Wednesday, Palestinian businesses in East Jerusalem went on strike to protest against the raids. 

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• Washington Raises Stakes in War on Chinese Technology by Edward Alden 

• Iran’s Hijab Protests Are of Raisi’s Own Making by Kourosh Ziabari

Elon Musk: aspiring jack-of-all-trades yet master of none? Just last week, Musk—the world’s richest person—found himself in hot water after tweeting a widely criticized peace plan to end the war in Ukraine in an apparent foray into diplomacy. 

He now appears to be pivoting to the fragrance industry by selling a perfume called Burnt Hair, described as “the essence of repugnant desire.” “With a name like mine, getting into the fragrance business was inevitable—why did I even fight it for so long!?” he tweeted.