India’s government banned non-essential construction in New Delhi, the world’s most polluted capital, and urged residents to avoid burning coal for heating, to combat worsening air quality that has disrupted flights and obscured the Taj Mahal.

The new measures, which include sprinkling water with dust suppressants on roads, as well as mechanised sweeping that would help settle dust, will come into effect from Friday morning.

INDIA’S POPULAR BUT POLARIZING LEADER NARENDRA MODI IS EXTENDING HIS DECADE IN POWER. WHO IS HE?

Delhi’s Chief Minister Atishi, who uses only one name, also directed all primary schools to shift to online classes.

They also include a ban on non-essential construction and an appeal to citizens to use more public transport and avoid using coal and wood for heating, a government release said on Thursday, without saying how long the measures would be in place.

Air quality in Northern India has deteriorated over the past week, with toxic smog obscuring India’s famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal, about 220 km (136 miles) from New Delhi, as well as Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

New Delhi has a severe air quality level of 424, according to live rankings kept by Swiss group IQAir, the worst amongst global capitals.

The city battles smog – a toxic mix of smoke and fog – every winter as cold air traps dust, emissions, and smoke from illegal farm fires.

Around 38% of the pollution in New Delhi this year has been caused by stubble burning – a practice where stubble left after harvesting rice is burnt to clear fields – in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana.

Delhi flights faced delays, with tracking website Flightradar24 showing 88% of departures and 54% of arrivals were delayed as of Thursday afternoon due to smog.

ALLERGIES, COUGHS, ASTHMA

Officials blamed high pollution, combined with humidity, becalmed winds and a drop in temperature for the smog, which cut visibility to 300m (980 ft) at the city’s international airport, which diverted flights in zero visibility on Wednesday.

More patients flocked to hospitals, particularly children.

“There has been a sudden increase in children with allergies, cough and cold … and a rise in acute asthma attacks,” Sahab Ram, a paediatrician in Punjab’s Fazilka region, told news agency ANI.

Delhi’s minimum temperature fell to 16.1 degrees Celsius (61°F) on Thursday from 17 degrees C (63 degrees F) the previous day, weather officials said.

Pollution in New Delhi is likely to stay in the “severe” category on Friday, the earth sciences ministry said, before improving to “very poor”, or an index score of 300 to 400.

The number of farm fires to clear fields in northern India has risen steadily this week to almost 2,300 on Wednesday from 1,200 on Monday, the ministry’s website showed.

Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab, was rated the world’s most polluted city on Thursday, in IQAir’s rankings. Authorities there have also battled hazardous air this month.

United States President-elect Donald Trump has picked controversial politician and vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, a job he lobbied for when suspended his own election campaign and supported that of the Republican candidate.

“I am thrilled to announce Robert F Kennedy Jr as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services [HHS],” Trump wrote on Thursday on his social media platform, Truth Social.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health.”

High profile and controversial

Kennedy is a contentious but not surprising appointment. He ran for president, first as a Democrat and then as an independent, before dropping out in August and endorsing Trump in exchange for a role in a future administration.

“He’s going to help make America healthy again,” Trump said in his victory speech on November 6. “He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him get to it.”

The Department of Health and Human Services is in charge of just about everything related to health at a federal level in the US.

It oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the massive Medicare and Medicaid Services programmes, which provide health coverage for those with limited income, those aged 65 and older, and disabled people.

Kennedy has been part of the transition team and reviewing candidates’ resumes for jobs in the department.

The selection of Kennedy is just one of a flurry of picks Trump has made in recent days to serve in his cabinet – if he can get them confirmed by the Senate.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio has been lined up for secretary of state, a choice that was met with widespread approval.

More controversial have been his selection of outspoken Congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general, Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth as defence secretary, and former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.

False medical claims

Kennedy will also bring some complications of his own.

He has been criticised for making false medical claims, including that vaccines are linked to autism. He opposed state and federal restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and was accused of spreading misinformation about the virus.

He also has said he would recommend removing fluoride from drinking water. The addition of the material has been cited as leading to improved dental health.

Historic family

Kennedy is from a family of leading Democratic politicians. His uncle was former President John F Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. His father, Robert F Kennedy, a former US attorney general and senator, was also fatally shot five years later when he was making his own run for the White House.

Kennedy became a high-profile environmental lawyer as founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance that was originally formed to clean up New York’s Hudson River. The group grew to be the largest nonprofit focused on clean water, expanding to 48 countries.

Kennedy suffers from a speech impediment called spasmodic dysphonia, which causes muscles in the larynx to spasm.

His priorities now focus on human health, addressing what he calls the “chronic disease epidemic” of conditions including obesity, diabetes and autism, and reducing chemicals in food.

Kennedy has suggested he would gut the 18,000-employee Food and Drug Administration – which ensures the safety of food, drugs and medical devices – and replace hundreds of employees at the National Institutes of Health.

He has accused the FDA of waging war on options for products that he claims could help human health such as raw milk, certain vitamins and stem cell therapy. He also doubts the effectiveness of measles vaccines.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy claimed the virus was engineered to attack Caucasians and Black people, sparing Chinese people and Ashkenazi Jews.

He also talked about suffering health effects from a worm that got into his brain, ate part of it and died.

His controversial views have led his own family to disavow him. “Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment,” his siblings said in a statement posted on X. “We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.”

Taken together, those views could also raise questions about his ability to be confirmed even in a Senate controlled by Republicans.

However, he has become good friends with Trump, who essentially appears to be giving Kennedy free rein to change the US’s health agencies.

“Mr Kennedy will restore these agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!” Trump said in his statement.

Kennedy’s first challenge may, in fact, be the eating habits of his new boss, who is famously fond of fast food.

He recently said in an interview with the Joe Polish show that Trump’s diet was very bad and that the food on the campaign plane was “practically poison”.