Venezuela, Colombia pledge military cooperation on first post-Maduro visit

A US federal judge on Tuesday sentenced OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma to pay billions of dollars over its role in the opioid crisis, ahead of upcoming bankruptcy proceedings and its dissolution.

The criminal sentencing caps off years of legal battles and paves the way for Purdue and its former owners, the Sackler family, to pay more than $8 billion as part of a settlement.

Between 1999 and 2023, around 806,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Purdue and other opioid makers and distributors are accused of encouraging free-wheeling prescription of painkillers like OxyContin starting in the 1990s, while hiding how addictive the drugs are.

Last year, several US states reached a settlement with Purdue and the Sackler family, with a bankruptcy plan that will see funds routed to affected communities and individuals.

The total amount to be paid in fines, forfeitures and penalties surpasses $8 billion.

The company is set to be dissolved on May 1, with the remnants becoming Knoa Pharma, a public benefit company that will provide opioid use disorder treatments and overdose reversal medicines.

For more than six hours on Tuesday, US Judge Madeline Cox Arleo listened to dozens of victims and their families testify about the impact Purdue Pharma and the opioid epidemic had on them.

She then ordered Steve Miller, Purdue Pharma's board chair, to apologize to them.

During the proceedings to resolve a Department of Justice probe and clear the way for the settlement, Arleo read the names of more than 200 victims who had submitted written statements before the hearing.

"These people are not statistics in an epidemiological study," she said, adding that the testimonies were "heartbreaking."

The judge also apologized on behalf of the US government, saying it had "failed" to protect the public from Purdue Pharma, whose practices were "driven by greed" and had a "corporate strategy much like a criminal enterprise."

While many testifying on Tuesday urged the settlement agreement to be rejected -- in part because it protects the Sackler family from criminal prosecution -- Arleo called it the "best route I see among the options before me."

She urged the lawyers handling the bankruptcy proceedings to honor their promises of compensation.

For many people, opioid addiction begins with prescribed pain pills, such as OxyContin, before they increase their consumption and eventually turn to illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl, an extremely powerful synthetic opioid.

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© Agence France-Presse

Dozens of victims of the US opioid crisis expressed their grief and anger as they testified on Tuesday against Purdue Pharma, the maker of the pain pill OxyContin which was ordered to pay billions by a judge ahead of its dissolution.

Between 1999 and 2023, around 806,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the United States, according to government data.

Purdue and other opioid makers and distributors are accused of aggressively marketing prescription painkillers like OxyContin starting in the 1990s, while hiding how addictive the drugs are.

Among the victims of the opioid epidemic was the mother of a teenage boy. "Because my mom died, I had depression and thoughts of killing myself," the son told the court in an emotional testimony via video call, sitting next to his father.

"I hope you feel guilty," he told the Sackler family, which owned Purdue for decades.

The family and company are due to pay more than $8 billion in fines, forfeitures and penalties.

The hearing to conclude a Department of Justice probe was originally scheduled to take place remotely, but US Judge Madeline Cox Arleo moved it to an in-person hearing after seeing protesters outside her courthouse in Newark, New Jersey.

"That's the least I could do," the judge told a victim who thanked her.

On Tuesday, some 40 victims and their families attended the hearing, with more joining online. Their testimonies, which Arleo described as "heartbreaking," ran for more than six hours.

- 'Hole in our family' -

Alexis Pleus's son was prescribed OxyContin after suffering a high school football injury.

He died in 2014 from a heroin overdose, leaving a "gaping hole in our family for eternity," said Pleus.

Those who survived addiction spoke of their "guilt" of being alive, while families of those who died blamed themselves for not having done enough.

Many painted a picture of "destroyed" lives: divorces, losing custody of their children, prison, psychiatric hospitals, and astronomical medical bills in the hope of regaining "a normal, meaningful life."

The wives of two men who died recalled losing their homes. One of them said she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

In many cases, families that were torn apart said the nightmare "started in the doctor's offices."

Purdue has admitted to promoting OxyContin by paying doctors to prescribe it, bringing in tens of billions of dollars for the laboratory and the Sackler family.

For many, opioid addiction begins with prescribed painkillers before they increase their consumption and eventually turn to illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl, an extremely powerful synthetic opioid.

Many in the courtroom wept during the hearing, and the judge was visibly emotional when listening to Julie Werner Strickler, whose son was prescribed his first pills in the army.

"These people are not statistics in an epidemiological study," the judge said when handing down the sentence.

- 'Criminal enterprise' -

After Arleo read the names of more than 200 victims who had submitted written statements, she ordered Steve Miller, Purdue Pharma's board chair, to apologize to them.

Arleo also apologized on behalf of the US government, saying it had "failed" to protect the public from Purdue, which she likened to a "criminal enterprise."

The sentence against Purdue paves the way for bankruptcy proceedings and its dissolution on May 1, as agreed in a settlement with several US states last year.

What remains of Purdue will be replaced by Knoa Pharma, a public benefit company that will provide opioid-use disorder treatments and overdose reversal medicines.

Several victims on Tuesday called for the rejection of the settlement, which would protect the Sackler family from criminal prosecution.

Expressing her frustration with the deal, Arleo said that it was still the "best route."

"It's no shock. This is the second time I've been in a courtroom where the judge was apologetic and basically said there should have been jail sentences included. But there's always a 'but,'" said Edward Bisch, who lost his teenage son in the epidemic.

For many victims and their families, the fight continues daily in community initiatives to prevent and treat opioid addiction, which are set to receive part of the sums owed by Purdue.

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Actor Sam Neill says he is cancer-free after five years of living with lymphoma, thanks to a genetic therapy that modified his immune system.

The New Zealander, who starred as Dr Alan Grant in the 1993 blockbuster "Jurassic Park", revealed in a 2023 memoir he was "possibly dying" with stage-three non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Neill, 78, said in a weekend interview he had lived with the blood cancer for about five years but his chemotherapy treatment eventually stopped working.

"I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn't ideal, obviously," he told Australia's Channel Seven News.

The actor was treated with CAR T-cell therapy, which uses a disabled virus to genetically reprogram human infection-fighting T-cells, enabling them to target specific cancers.

"I've just had a scan just now, and there is no cancer in my body -- that's an extraordinary thing," Neil said.

He is calling on Australian federal and state governments to fund CAR T-cell therapy for blood cancer patients across the country.

Neill's acting career began in the 1970s and has spanned dozens of roles in TV and film, including "Peaky Blinders", "The Hunt for Red October", and "The Piano". 

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Among the hundreds of climbers hoping to scale Everest this season, 27-year-old Australian Oliver Foran began his journey far away, cycling and then walking all the way from the sea.

Foran is seeking to break the 67-day "sea-to-summit" record, first pedalling 1,150 kilometres (715 miles) from the warm waves of the Bay of Bengal in India to Nepal and now trekking to the icy 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak.

"I always wanted to climb Mount Everest, but I wanted to do it in a special way," Foran told AFP by telephone on a break from his long hike upwards to Everest Base Camp, and then to the highest place on Earth.

It is also a deeply personal journey, with Foran raising funds for youth mental health.

The former real estate agent climbed his first major mountain, Nepal's 6,189-metre (20,305-foot) Island Peak, in 2024.

He then summited 6,812-metre (22,349-foot) Ama Dablam last year.

He hopes Everest will be his first 8,000-metre mountain.

He has been training -- cycling, exercising and working on his breathing -- for the past six months to build endurance for the altitude.

- 'Unique' -

The sea-to-summit is a rare feat, first completed by another Australian, Tim Macartney-Snape, in 1990. Macartney-Snape spent three months walking from sea level to the Everest summit, and it was his documentary that sparked the idea for Foran.

The current record is held by South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho, who walked and then kayaked the Ganges river, cycled to Nepal and then trekked up to the base camp in 2013, five years before his death on another mountain.

Foran aims to slash a week off that record and reach the summit in 60 days.

"It is a challenging task and a unique one," said Gelje Sherpa, his lead guide and expedition organiser at AGA Adventures.

"There are so many facilities and options to summit Everest in a record time now, but he is using only his own human power. That is big." 

Foran cycled across India and Nepal in the first 16 days, navigating sweltering hot plains before steep, relentless hills. 

He said he is driven by "something bigger" than himself, the memory of his teenage grief when his mother died of brain cancer.

"I didn't know how to process it... Life on the outside looked pretty good, but inside I was just emptier than ever," he said.

The unresolved grief reached a breaking point seven years later.

Foran said he had "made up my mind that that was it" -- but a call to a friend proved life-saving.

"I made the decision then that... if I ever got the opportunity to stop somebody else from getting to that point or to give them another way, I would," he said.

- 'Inspiration' -

That commitment underlines his Everest expedition.

Foran is partnering with Australian organisation Youturn with a target to raise $200,000 to build a youth mental health support centre back home.

Aaron Minton, a director at Youturn, said it would be a "youth-focused mental health and well-being hub".

Foran hopes his journey can offer both awareness and inspiration, sharing the good parts and the struggles of his journey through his social media.

"What's really motivating me is, hopefully, having an inspiration on some of these younger people -- that might be a little bit stuck with where they are right now in their lives," he said.

"Also, I'm doing it for my mum, because she can't, and I want to make her proud."

As he continues his ascent, an unexpected source of comfort that accompanies him is the Madonna song "Like a Prayer".

"My mum used to listen to it. And it now holds a special place in my heart," he said.

"So that's what I'm going to be whistling to myself when I'm walking up to the summit."

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Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said Wednesday a proposed $9 billion megaport and city project on the strategic Great Nicobar Island is "destruction dressed in development's language".

The island, nearly 3,000 kilometres (1,860 miles) from New Delhi, sits at the entrance to one of the world's busiest waterways -- the Strait of Malacca, through which up to 30 percent of global maritime trade passes.

The plan to develop the 910 square kilometre (351 square miles) island with a container port, airport and city see swathes of pristine rainforest cut down, including land inhabited for millennia by communities with minimal outside contact.

"What is being done in Great Nicobar is one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against this country's natural and tribal heritage in our lifetime," Gandhi said in a video message posted on social media, showing him walking through the island's forests.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the Great Nicobar Island Project "is of strategic, defence and national importance", and India's environmental court gave the green light in February.

But Gandhi said he would try to stop it.

"What I have seen is not a project," he added. "It is millions of trees marked for the axe. It is 160 square kilometres of rainforest condemned to die. It is communities that have been ignored while their homes have been snatched away."

Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav last year insisted that the project "poses no threat to the island's tribal groups" and "does not jeopardise the eco-sensitivity of the region".

Around 9,000 people live on the island, including around 1,200 from Indigenous groups, including the Nicobarese and the Shompen, hunter-gatherers who have shunned contact with outsiders, according to rights group Survival International.

"As well as devastating the local environment and the Nicobarese Indigenous communities, the Great Nicobar project would destroy the Shompen, a largely uncontacted people who live in the rainforest," Survival's Sophie Grig said Wednesday.

She called the megaport an "ill-conceived project, which must be cancelled before an entire people are wiped out".

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Several proponents of artificial intelligence (AI) have become the victims of violent acts in recent days, reflecting the existential dread around the emerging technology -- and the public's growing resentment towards its advocates.

Billionaire OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is among the most prominent, with someone throwing a Molotov cocktail at his home on April 10. A suspect, 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama, has been arrested. 

But the violence extends beyond Silicon Valley's elite to include local policymakers, like Ron Gibson, a city councilmember in Indianapolis who had 13 bullets shot through his front door after expressing support for a data center construction project. 

Those behind the April 6 attack also left a note reading "No Data Centers." 

"Anxiety about emerging technologies is nothing new," said researcher Nirit Weiss-Blatt, whose Substack newsletter "AI Panic" covers the growing hostility towards artificial intelligence. 

"With Artificial Intelligence, though, it feels more extreme," she added, noting that Moreno-Gama was radicalized through the "'AI existential risk' rhetoric" rather than its employment or environmental impacts. 

"We need to have a broader discussion about how the 'extinction risk' rhetoric radicalizes the most vulnerable individuals," Weiss-Blatt said. 

"The fact that some edges justify violent acts is very troubling, and it needs to be condemned as strongly as possible." 

The attacks against AI figureheads have no demonstrable ties to one another, nor do they claim affiliation with any shared organization. 

But Mauro Lubrano, a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Bath, said calling such actors lone wolves "is actually not that accurate, because these groups are embedded in some sort of digital ecosystem." 

Lubrano connects the recent string of violence to the vandalism of Tesla vehicles and dealerships in 2025 in response to founder Elon Musk's work with the administration of US President Donald Trump. 

The recent reports of violence have led to an increased demand for physical protection among tech companies.

"In recent months, we've definitely seen a clear uptick," said Rory Moran, who oversees executive security at United Security, Inc. 

"These AI and technology companies, especially the big ones, they're always in the news, and when that happens... we're going to see an uptick in interest in potential attacks," he added.

- 'Violence will not help' -

The response to the violence on the Internet has been less panicked.

Many commentators on platforms like TikTok have downplayed or justified the attacks, comparing those involved to Luigi Mangione, the suspect behind the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024.

But some organizations advocating for limiting AI expansion, such as Pause AI and Stop AI, now worry they will be associated with endorsing violent acts against AI proponents.

Dean Ball, a former AI policy advisor for the Trump administration, wrote in a post on X: "The rhetoric of the pause/stop crowd is out of control and it has gotten worse with time."

"This rhetoric always had the potential to cause violence and now this seems to be no longer hypothetical," he added.

Valerie Sizemore, one of the cofounders of Stop AI, said Moreno-Gama -- the Molotov cocktail suspect -- posted on Stop AI's Discord server to ask if he could discuss violence against AI founders.

The server's moderators said posting about such subject matter would get him banned, and he never returned.

"Violence will not help," Sizemore said, instead urging people concerned about AI to opt for "non-violent actions."

"It is really my hope that this is the icebreaking moment that leads everyone to listen to the public and start trying to have the conversation we need to have," she said.

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German premium automaker Mercedes-Benz said Wednesday its first-quarter profit fell by almost a fifth as cutthroat competition in China shakes the world's carmakers.

Net profit for January to March came in at 1.43 billion euros ($1.67 billion), down more than 17 percent on the previous year, hit by difficulties in China.

"In China, intense competition and subdued demand continued to weigh on the market," Mercedes said.

The world's largest market, China has become a fierce battleground for carmakers amid a brutal price war and fierce competition from local players such as BYD and Geely.

Mercedes said car sales by volume in China fell 27 percent in the first three months of 2026, even as they grew in Europe and North America.

The firm's China sales were last year already at their lowest level since 2016.

Intense competition in the country, long a steady source of profits for German carmakers, has hurt Mercedes and its rivals.

The 10-brand Volkswagen Group, which includes premium marques such as Audi and Porsche, is planning 50,000 job cuts by the end of the decade.

China's BYD, the world's largest electric carmaker, meanwhile said Tuesday its first-quarter profit had more than halved amid slowing domestic sales.

Restating its commitment to China, Mercedes said it was working with local firms to develop "a new generation of China-fit vehicles", pointing to the China variant of the electric GLC compact SUV launched at the ongoing Auto China exhibition in Beijing.

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Incoming Hungarian leader Peter Magyar on Wednesday pays his first visit to EU chiefs in Brussels since his election win, looking to turn the page on the bad blood of nationalist Viktor Orban's tenure.

While Orban often used trips to the city to showcase his opposition to the European Union, Magyar is looking to kickstart a new dawn of cooperation with Brussels that could start by unlocking billions of euros for Budapest.

Euphoric EU leaders feted conservative Magyar's crushing election victory this month, which ended Kremlin-friendly Orban's 16 years in power.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Magyar's win made the bloc "stronger, more united".

Since then, the two sides have not hung around as they push to move beyond blockages and bickering in the Orban era that stalled key EU initiatives, most notably on supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia's 2022 invasion.

While Magyar will only take office next month, his team has already held two rounds of talks with high-ranking EU officials as they look to bring black sheep Budapest back into the fold.

"We've never seen such a level of commitment from a government that isn't even in office yet," EU lawmaker Daniel Freund, a fierce Orban critic, told AFP.

"It's practically as if Hungary is rejoining the European Union."

Wednesday's meetings with von der Leyen and European Council head Antonio Costa will look to propel the work forward -- as Brussels lays out the changes it expects Magyar to make.

The new leader is desperate to show his promise to reset ties can bring quick benefits, and wants to convince Brussels to release around 18 billion euros ($21 billion) in funding that was frozen over rule-of-law concerns under Orban.

"We have no time to waste," Magyar posted online.

The clock is indeed ticking: the incoming government has until the end of August to start pushing through reforms to try to secure 10 billion euros left over from Covid recovery funds, or lose them for good.

EU officials hope Magyar will be able to move fast after securing a super-majority in parliament that will make it easier to ram through laws.

"We want to engage in a very structured, in a very focused way with the incoming Hungarian government to make sure that at the earliest stage every action that needs to be taken is taken," said EU spokesman Olof Gill.

The quickest way for Brussels to give Magyar a win could be to wave through a separate 16 billion euros in preferential loans for defence that were held up as the standoff with Orban worsened ahead of the Hungarian polls.

- 'Wait and see' -

While Brussels is setting out the nitty-gritty of the reforms it wants from Magyar, leaders will also be pushing for a new approach on Ukraine.

Even before Magyar takes power, Orban's defeat has already helped unblock some of the major points of contention.

The 27-nation bloc last week approved a mammoth loan for Ukraine and new package of sanctions on Russia that Hungary had been stalling for months.

Hungary's EU counterparts now want to see Magyar free up EU funds used to arm Ukraine that have been stalled for years, and expect him to lift Orban's veto preventing Kyiv from moving to the next step in its bid to join the bloc.

Officials insist that Ukraine deserves to move ahead in the painstaking process, although there is little appetite among major EU powers to rush Kyiv towards full membership anytime soon.

So far, officials in Brussels are hopeful that Magyar -- who once served under Orban, before turning on his former boss -- will genuinely launch a new chapter in ties.

But wary of celebrating too soon, they insist they need to see concrete moves and not just kind words.

"So far, wait and see," one EU diplomat said, on condition of anonymity, summing up the attitude toward Magyar. "But that might change, considering all the good things he says and does."

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The agency that regulates the US airwaves on Tuesday ordered an early review of the license of broadcaster ABC after President Donald Trump and his wife demanded it fire comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

The order from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) affects Disney, which owns ABC, and its television subsidiaries.

It comes after both Donald and Melania Trump demanded the network cancel Kimmel's late-night comedy show over a joke they described as a call to violence, days before an alleged attempt to assassinate the US president.

The comedian said the response was "ridiculous" and that the administration was "making a big thing of this joke" during his "Jimmy Kimmel Live" show on Tuesday.

Trump had demanded Kimmel be fired for likening the first lady to an "expectant widow."

In a show last week, Kimmel had portrayed himself as MC of the upcoming White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington on Saturday, addressing the first lady and saying "Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow." 

Trump turns 80 in June and is the oldest president to take office in the United States. His wife, a former model who was born in Slovenia, is 56.

The first lady also lashed out at Kimmel in a statement, calling on broadcaster ABC to "take a stand" against the late-night host.

Kimmel brushed off the criticism on his show Monday, saying the gag was "obviously... a joke about their age difference."

"It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am," Kimmel said. "It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that."

The White House went back on the attack Tuesday, with communications director Steven Cheung on X describing Kimmel as a "shit human" for "doubling down on that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing."

The suspect accused of attacking Saturday's media gala was charged in court Monday with trying to assassinate the president.

- Penalizing comedians -

At his Tuesday show, Kimmel played a clip of Trump joking about his own age in a speech as he welcomed King Charles III earlier in the day.

Noting that his parents were married for 63 years, Trump turned to Melania during the speech and remarked: "That's a record we won't be able to match, darling, I'm sorry."

"Wait a minute, did he just make a joke about his death?" Kimmel asked during his program.

"Only Donald Trump would demand I be fired for making a joke about his old age, and then a day later, go out and make a joke about his own old age."

As a prominent late-night comedy host, Kimmel has been at the heart of the debate over constitutionally protected speech.

He was briefly suspended from his show in September following government pressure after he said Trump's hard-right MAGA movement was trying to gain political capital from the assassination of influencer Charlie Kirk.

The Trump administration has sought to penalize media outlets and comedians who challenge him, while the Republican leader's rhetoric toward political opponents has been criticized as polarizing and sometimes violent.

Network CBS last year axed Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" in a "financial decision" that critics say smacks of censorship.

Trump's appointee to chair the FCC, Brendan Carr, turned heads when he told a Congressional hearing that "the FCC is not formally an independent agency," implying that his actions could justifiably be aligned with the political priorities of the White House.

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With her four-year-old nestled nearby, doctor Saniya Jafri consults from home in Karachi with a patient on the other side of Pakistan via her laptop.

She is one of thousands of Pakistani female doctors returning to practice through "telemedicine" after leaving the profession because of family obligations and workplace barriers to women in the conservative society.

Although women outnumber men in Pakistan's medical registrations, many stop practicing after marriage, exacerbating the fast-growing nation's shortage of doctors.

Jafri, a mother of three, gave up cardiology after marriage.

"I did not want to choose long working hours and be away from home for a long time," she told AFP. 

But an initiative by digital health firm Sehat Kahani helped her back into the workforce by providing a digital platform to connect home-based, mostly female doctors, with patients in underserved communities.

Private clients are also catered for.

The initiative has brought 7,500 doctors back into practice, its co-founder says, and aims to boost healthcare for disadvantaged areas in Pakistan that face a dearth of services -- especially female patients who often feel more comfortable speaking with women medical staff about health issues.

Gallup surveys and doctor associations suggest more than a third of Pakistan's female medical graduates never enter the profession -- or leave it after marriage -- due to lack of family support, poor childcare facilities, and harassment.

The situation is symptomatic of wider challenges for women in Pakistan who face significant economic and social disparities, with the World Economic Forum ranking the nation second-to-last for gender equality.

- 'Doctor Brides' –

Jafri now balances caring for her children and household chores with attending to patients online.

"I wanted to stay with my children," the 43-year-old said of the flexible arrangement.

An overwhelming majority of the tens of thousands of aspirants who compete for places in government-run medical universities are women -- a rare instance in Pakistan of female student admissions outnumbering men.

Yet working at hospitals and clinics is widely seen as incompatible with family life for women, especially those with young children.

"The lady doctor who advises mothers to exclusively breastfeed for six months does not have such a facility at her own workplace," said Zakiya Aurangzeb, President of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association.

She said long hours and the risk of sexual harassment and mob violence from the families of patients who suffered poor outcomes also put off women and their families.

Seeing those challenges as well as Pakistan's dismal healthcare access in poor communities, doctor Sara Saeed Khurram set up Sehat Kahani, a digital network that includes 80 clinics where patients visit for a remote consultation with a doctor, guided by an in-person nurse.

She hoped to realise the full benefits of the years of training and government subsidies for degrees that many families seek for their daughters due to the social status they confer in Pakistan society, where a "Dr" honorific is considered to improve marriage prospects for women.

"When that wedding card goes out that you're marrying a doctor... it just raises the social stature of the entire family," said Khurram.

"Once that purpose is done... then it becomes very difficult for you to challenge the societal norms that exist in that family to let her work."

Khurram understands the situation first-hand.

"I also became what we call the doctor bride or the 'doctor bahu'," she said, using the Urdu term for "daughter-in-law".

Though she remained in the workforce, Khurram watched her mostly-female medical school cohort drop out of work one by one, facing pressure from in-laws to focus on tending the home.

- Healthcare gap –

The lack of female doctors is deepening the strain on Pakistan’s healthcare, a mix of public and private systems with sharp disparities between cities and rural areas in the country of 250 million people and poor outcomes for urban working-class neighbourhoods.

Around 70,000 women -- almost a fifth of the 370,000 total registered doctors -- are listed in official registries but not practicing, according to medical associations.

Ushering female doctors back to the workforce online also provides better options for patients.

In an impoverished neighbourhood of Karachi, Muhammad Adil was able to take his eight-year-old son to a nearby Sehat Kahani–run health unit because it saves him time and money.

"When we come here, we are able to save our daily wage because it's close," he said, after a free consultation with Jafri on his son's chickenpox.

Digital healthcare improved flexibility and could help women back into the workforce, Jafri said, but cautioned that ultimately family backing was key. 

"If a woman doctor receives support from her husband, parents, and in-laws, she can excel," she said.

"Those who get it go on to succeed, but many who don't are forced to give up".

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