内容摘要：This image shows the kidney-shaped pool at the Liljestrand House in Honolulu, Hawaii, designed by architect Vladimir Ossipoff. (Kristina Linnea Garcia via AP)

This image shows the kidney-shaped pool at the Liljestrand House in Honolulu, Hawaii, designed by architect Vladimir Ossipoff. (Kristina Linnea Garcia via AP)

Associated Press data journalist Nicky Forster in New York contributed to this report.This is the second story in a two-part series examining how the United States could curb deaths from pregnancy and childbirth.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Across the U.S., programs at all levels of government — federal, state and local — are striving to reduce maternal mortality and erase the racial gap.Many are making headway in their communities and paving the way for other places.

The Associated Press examined efforts that are focused on individual patient needs and efforts seeking to improve medical care generally. Here are key takeaways.Healthy Start is a federal program that has worked with vulnerable populations for decades. This year, the federal government gave out $105 million in grants to fund local projects. Officials say it’s essential part of the Biden administration’s

It “manages women through their pregnancy,” said Corrina Jackson, who heads up a local Healthy Start project in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “You try to get them in their first trimester and then work with them to delivery day, and then we also work with the babies to make sure that they reach their milestones.”

Healthy Start programs coordinate prenatal and postpartum care, as well as educate moms on health and parenting; provide referrals to services for things like depression or domestic violence; and help with transportation.In his first years as pope, critics had a living alternative in Pope Benedict XVI, who had resigned and was living on the Vatican grounds. That amplified the right-wing opposition to Francis’ reform agenda. Some called him a heretic after he opened the way in 2016 to letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion. In 2018, the Vatican’s retired U.S. ambassador Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano published an accusation that U.S. and Vatican officials for two decades covered up McCarrick’s sexual misconduct and demanded that Francis resign. After Vigano amplified his criticisms and drew a following of his own, the Vatican in 2024 excommunicated him for schism.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Congo’s government and a coalition of insurgents in the country’s east including the M23 rebels have agreed to work toward a truce following peace talks in Qatar, a joint statement said Wednesday.The statement was posted online by spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka of the M23 rebels, and confirmed by government spokesman Patrick Muyaya in comments to local media outlets.

The statement said the parties had agreed to “work towards concluding a truce” and that they were reaffirming their commitment to “an immediate end to hostilities.” Previous commitments to a ceasefire, announced unilaterally, have not held, and Wednesday’s statement was the first such commitment to be announced jointly.Delegations from Congo’s government and the