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Low vaccination rates against the latest versions of the coronavirus (Covid-19) and influenza are putting pressure on healthcare systems this winter, leading public health officials told Reuters.In the United States, several European countries, and other parts of the world, there have been reports of rising hospitalisations linked to respiratory infections in recent weeks. Death rates have also ticked up among older adults in some regions, but far below the Covid-19 pandemic peak.Spain’s government has reinstated mask-wearing requirements at healthcare facilities, as have some US hospital networks.“Too many people are in need of serious medical care for flu, for Covid-19, when we can prevent it,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s interim director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness.She cited “incredibly low” vaccination rates against flu and Covid-19 in many countries this season, as the world tries to move past the pandemic and its restrictions.Governments have struggled to communicate the risks still posed by Covid-19 and the benefits of vaccination since a global public health emergency was declared over in May 2023, infectious disease experts and health officials said.Only 19.4% of US adults have received this season’s Covid-19 vaccine based on the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s National Immunisation Survey, despite a recommendation that all adults get an updated shot to protect against serious illness.That compares roughly with 17% of adults who got the bivalent booster in the 2022-2023 season, based on actual vaccine data reported to the CDC by states.Nearly half of US adults over 18 got a flu shot this season (44.9%), roughly the same as last year (44%), according to the CDC.“We don’t think enough people have gotten the updated Covid-19 vaccine,” CDC director Mandy Cohen said in an interview. “Folks still aren’t understanding that Covid-19 is still a more severe disease than flu.”Flu represented 5.2% of US emergency visits compared with 3% for Covid-19 in the week ended December 30. Yet Covid-19 accounted for 10.5 out of 100,000 hospitalisations in that time, compared with 6.1 per 100,000 for flu.Most of the updated shots being used in the US and European Union are made by Pfizer with German partner BioNTech, or Moderna.In Europe, flu is circulating at a higher rate than Covid-19, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said. In total, 24% of a representative sample of tests came back positive in the last week of 2023, up from 19% a fortnight earlier.The rates are in line with previous flu seasons, said ECDC’s respiratory virus expert Edoardo Colzani. However, “now we have Covid-19 as a new, unwanted guest”, he said.The ECDC did not have vaccination rates for the continent for flu or Covid-19, but Colzani said early data showed Covid-19 vaccine uptake well below pandemic levels.In Europe, the new Covid-19 shots are recommended for high-risk groups only, such as seniors and the immunocompromised. Among these groups, the WHO says there should be 100% coverage.Covid-19 rates are also rising in the southern hemisphere during their summer, the WHO said, because it is not yet a seasonal virus.Last month, 850,000 new Covid-19 cases and 118,000 new hospitalisations were reported globally, a rise from November of 52% and 23%, respectively, according to the WHO, which added that actual figures were likely higher.The vaccines are still very effective at preventing serious illness, even if they do not block infection, experts said.A recent study in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal from the Karolinska Institutet and Danderyd Hospital in Sweden found the updated vaccine, which targets the XBB.1.5 coronavirus variant, reduced the risk of Covid-19 hospitalisation by 76.1% in people affected by more recent variants, based on public health records from adults over 65 years old.This year’s flu shots, made by a range of manufacturers, is estimated to reduce hospitalisation risk by 52%.However, “fatigue for Covid-19 vaccination” is hampering uptake, Colzani said.In Italy, for example, 8.6% of the eligible population have had their third Covid-19 booster after the initial vaccination series, ministry of health data from January 7 showed.The data for flu is not yet available, but a study by Federfarma, the association of Italian pharmacies, said 15% of Italians had been vaccinated against flu this autumn, compared to just over 20% last season.

Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to noisy closing rallies yesterday as Taiwan’s presidential candidates made a last push for votes in an election that China has warned could take the island closer to war. Taiwan’s bustling democracy of 23mn people is separated by a narrow 180km strait from Communist-ruled China, which claims the island as part of its territory.Today’s election is being closely watched around the world as the winner will lead the strategically important island - a major producer of vital semiconductors - as it manages ties with an increasingly assertive China. Vice-President Lai Ching-te, the front-runner candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), paints the election as a choice between “democracy and autocracy” - criticising his main opponent Hou Yu-ih of the Kuomintang (KMT) for being too “pro-China”.“After I get elected as the president, I will continue to take the path of democracy and peace. I will stand with the international camp of freedom and democracy. What’s more, I will forever stand with Taiwan’s people,” he said. In a stadium nearby, Hou called for his red-and-blue-clad supporters to kick out the DPP, which has been in power for eight years. “This is a choice between war and peace...If Lai Ching-te is elected, the Taiwan Strait is very likely to fall into unrest,” said Hou. “Don’t say that we are pro-China,” said supporter Minai at Hou’s final rally. “We just want the peaceful co-existence of both sides...I don’t want there to be a war.”Hou, a former police chief who portrays himself as a “protector” of Taiwan, is echoing a line from Beijing, which has blasted Lai as a dangerous “separatist” who will bring “war and decline” to Taiwan. Barely 12 hours before polls opened, China’s defence ministry denounced the DPP for pushing “Taiwan toward the dangerous conditions of war” and said it will “crush” any attempts at Taiwan’s “independence”. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. In recent years it has maintained a near-daily military presence around Taiwan, sending in warplanes and ships to its surroundings in “grey zone” harassment actions which fall short of outright provocation.The weeks leading up to Saturday’s vote have also seen a flurry of Chinese balloons crossing the Taiwan Strait’s sensitive median line - with a record five balloons appearing on Thursday - which Taipei has slammed as a form of election interference. All the sabre-rattling from across the Taiwan Strait means the island must build up its “self-defence to prevent the other side from bullying us”, said DPP supporter Yoyo Chen.“I will fight them even if all I have left is a broomstick,” said the 30-year-old tailor at the DPP rally.The election has drawn massive attention overseas, as Taiwan’s next leader will determine future cross-strait relations with China in a flashpoint region that has Beijing and Washington tussling for influence. In a sign of the importance the United States attaches to the election, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks with a senior Chinese official in Washington on Friday as the Americans seek to discourage Beijing from taking action against Taipei. In Taipei, supporters of third-party candidate Ko Wen-je - who has made an unexpected show of force in the race - gathered outside the Presidential Office on the sprawling Ketagalan Boulevard, shouting that he is “Taiwan’s choice”. The leader of the small Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), Ko has criticised his opponents for being caught up in ideological deadlock, attracting voters who say they are sick of talking about China.“Let’s not be divided by colours anymore. We must try our best to unite each other,” he said, referring to the two dominant parties. Supporter Lisa Sun, 42, said she was ready for change. “I hope (Ko) can change Taiwan. Blue and green have each been in power... and nothing much has changed in Taiwan,” she told AFP. No matter who wins on Saturday, it remains unclear which candidate Beijing prefers, said Marc Julienne, head of China research at the French Institute of International Relations.All three candidates - from the DPP, KMT and TPP - have said they will maintain the island’s status quo, and rejected “one country, two systems”, a Beijing doctrine used for governing Hong Kong and Macau.“Today there is no political party that is pro-People’s Republic of China,” Julienne said, referring to China’s official name. “At the end of the day, it’s the Taiwanese who elect their president, vice-president and parliament, so it will be a victory for Taiwan.”

The administration of Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has asked lawmakers to weigh an increase in value added tax (VAT) to finance efforts to combat crime gangs, as the armed forces increased operations in violent areas yesterday.A dramatic spike in violence this week – including the on-air storming of a TV station, the hostage-taking of 178 prison staff by inmates and the kidnapping of police officers – appears to be a response by gangs to Noboa’s plans to tackle a dire security situation, the government has said.Noboa, who took office in November, has declared a state of emergency and named 22 gangs as terrorist organisations.A total of eight prison staff have been released since late on Thursday, prisons agency SNAI said in a statement yesterday.Three were being held in Azuay prison in Cuenca, where 21 hostages have also been attended to by the Red Cross.Three were released from a prison in Canar province, while two others were freed in Esmeraldas.Remaining hostages number 170 – 155 are prison guards and 15 are administrative staff.The death of an inmate at a prison in El Oro province is being investigated, SNAI added.The government has said that operations to free hostages taken at least seven prisons are ongoing, but there has been scant information about their status, leading to criticism by their families and union.Videos purporting to show prison staff being subjected to extreme violence, including shooting and hanging, have circulated on social media, but the government has said no hostage has been killed and that some videos had been altered.Reuters could not independently verify the videos.Security has worsened in tandem with serious economic troubles, as the country grapples with domestic liquidity problems, limited options for foreign financing and tens of billions in external debt.Noboa’s tax proposal, sent to the national assembly late on Thursday, would raise VAT by three points to 15%.The bill is classed as urgent and must be approved within 30 days.The measure would not be levied on basic food products, medicine, public utilities, transport, health or education costs or rented housing, among other things, the government said in a statement.“The current security crisis in Ecuador underlines the urgency to increase potential tax collection for the state,” Noboa said in a document shared with the assembly. “Increasing VAT will give the state a constant source of income.”The measure could raise more than $1.3bn per year and would come into force in March.Funds would go to finance weapons and equipment for security forces and improvements to the prison system, as well as the payments owed to regional governments, the document said.Lawmakers – in a rare show of unity – have already approved two urgent proposals from Noboa’s government, another tax bill meant to increase youth employment and a law designed to attract investment in the electricity sector.However, lawmakers from the leftist Citizens’ Revolution party, which is part of Noboa’s majority coalition, said in a statement that they will not back the VAT measure, instead urging him raise funds through tax on foreign capital transfers or one-time duties on large sums.“President Noboa, you have options, but not at the cost of the wallets of a hurting citizenry!” the legislators said in a post to social media.The Social Christian party, also part of Noboa’s coalition, also said it would not back the bill, potentially forcing the president to seek agreements or make amendments with minority parties.Ecuador closed 2023 with a fiscal deficit of more than $5.7bn, according to the government. Its foreign debt totals more than $47bn.“Higher public spending on security and a likely loss in revenues from slower growth will put pressure on the government’s budget balance. That will make the job of establishing the country’s strained public finances even harder,” Capital Economics said in a note.The military on social media said it has intensified operations in several provinces, arresting gang members and seizing weapons.The attorney-general’s office said three people were being held on charges of plotting an attack on the head of the national police, without providing further details.The police made no comment on the issue.Noboa’s government blames the deteriorating security situation on an increase in drug trafficking through Ecuador, which borders cocaine-producing Colombia and Peru and has become a major drug shipment point.On Thursday Noboa presented details of two new high-security prisons he has pledged to build to hold top gang leaders.The chairmen of foreign relations committees at the United States Congress reaffirmed their support for Noboa’s efforts to restore order in a joint statement yesterday.Washington has not yet provided details of the aid it may offer Ecuador, but the State Department said on Thursday that law enforcement officials will travel there to assist with criminal investigations.Ecuador will ask people entering the country across its borders with Peru and Colombia to show their criminal record or lack of one during the duration of the state of emergency, the government said late on Thursday.

Russia has hit Ukraine with missiles supplied by North Korea for the first time during its invasion, a senior Kyiv official said yesterday, corroborating an earlier assertion by the US White House.The statement on social media platform X came after the governor of the northeastern region of Kharkiv said that his region had been struck by missiles fired by Russia that were not Russian-made.“There is no longer any disguise...as part of its outright genocidal war, the Russian Federation for the first time struck at the territory of Ukraine with missiles received from...North Korea,” the senior Kyiv official, Mykhailo Podolyak, said.He did not provide evidence for the missiles being North Korean.In its statement on Thursday, Washington cited declassified intelligence.“(Russia) is attacking Ukrainians with missiles received from a state where citizens are tortured in concentration camps for having an unregistered radio, talking to a tourist, watching TV shows,” Podolyak said.The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment on the US assertion that Russia had fired North Korean-supplied short-range ballistic missiles at Ukraine.Earlier yesterday the Kharkiv regional governor said missiles produced outside Russia had been fired into the province at the end of December and the beginning of January.A Reuters video operator filmed the aftermath of a Russian air strike on the regional capital of Kharkiv on January 2, in which a missile landed close to the city centre, leaving behind a deep crater and missile debris.Shown the Reuters footage for review, Joost Oliemans, a Dutch researcher and expert on North Korea’s military, said the missile remnants looked like they were from North Korea.“It (the footage) appears to show the main body as well as the engine section of a missile that is pretty much a dead match for a North Korean type of missile that we’ve actually seen pretty clear photos of in the past few years,” he said.Kharkiv regional prosecutors said they were conducting an investigation into the country of origin of three missiles used by Russia to hit the provincial capital on Tuesday. Their statement did not name North Korea.That attack on Kharkiv city killed two people and wounded 62, the prosecutor’s office said.Ukraine’s air force said earlier yesterday that it could not yet confirm the country of manufacture of the missiles in question.While the United States would not say specifically what type of missiles Pyongyang had sent to Russia, US spokesman John Kirby said they had a range of about 900km (550 miles).He released a graphic that appeared to show KN-23 and KN-25 short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs).North Korea has been under a United Nations arms embargo since it first tested a nuclear bomb in 2006.UN Security Council resolutions – approved with Russian support – ban countries from trading weapons or other military equipment with North Korea.In November, South Korean authorities said North Korea may have supplied SRBMs to Russia as part of a larger arms deal that also included anti-tank and anti-air missiles, artillery and mortar shells, and rifles.Both Moscow and Pyongyang have previously denied conducting any arms deals, but vowed last year to deepen military relations.

The United States said yesterday it is preparing military logistical support and aid for regions in Japan devastated by an earthquake that killed 94 people, forced about 33,000 people to leave their homes, and left over 200 people unaccounted for.“The US is here to support our friend and ally in its earthquake response. Military logistical support, food, and other supplies are being readied,” US ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel posted on social media site X.Japan is in talks with the US about emergency assistance and rejected offers for help from other countries including China for the time being. “We are not accepting any personnel or material aid from other countries or regions at the moment given the situation on the ground and the effort that would be required to receive them,” Japan’s top spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi said.A US official who declined to be named told Reuters the two governments were coordinating on possible assistance from US troops. About 54,000 US forces personnel are based in Japan, the biggest US military presence abroad, according to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. US armed forces were deeply involved in disaster relief efforts in the 2011 earthquake, providing over 24,000 personnel with 24 ships and 189 aircraft. They also provided earthquake aid in Kyushu island in 2016.“All of US Forces Japan remain ready to support our Japanese Allies during this difficult time. We are unable to provide specifics on military support operations at this time, but we will provide updates when we have more that we can share,” the US Forces in Japan said in a statement.The 7.6-magnitude quake struck western Japan’s Noto peninsula on the afternoon of New Year’s Day, flattening homes, triggering a tsunami and cutting off remote communities.As the emergency response moved from rescue to aid and recovery, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said there were offers for help and messages of condolence from governments including Taiwan and China.The full extent of the damage remains unclear, with rescue teams struggling to reach remote areas due to severed roads and broken infrastructure. But with more than 200 people missing, the disaster is likely deadlier than the 2016 earthquake and could be the worst since a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the east coast of Japan in 2011.Shigeru Sakaguchi, the mayor of badly-hit Wajima city, said there are likely more than 100 people still trapped under collapsed buildings and rubble, according to the Mainichi newspaper. The US will provide a $100,000 aid package that includes resources such as blankets, water, and medical supplies, according to a statement released by its embassy in Japan.Volunteers such as Aydin Muhammet, who is usually based in Nagoya, are also heading into areas wrecked by the tremor to give whatever aid they can provide. “You can’t turn a blind eye after seeing that...I felt like I had to go, I just had to do something,” he said.At least 120 hectares of land also appears to be flooded from a tsunami triggered by the earthquake, according to Japan’s land ministry.“We still don’t have a full picture, and it’s likely that the area flooded by the tsunami could spread,” an unnamed land ministry official said to the daily Asahi newspaper. A preliminary probe led by researchers at the University of Tokyo estimated that the highest point of the tsunami on the western coast of the peninsula could have reached up to 4.2m above normal sea level.The first wave of the tsunami may have reached the northern-most tip of the Noto peninsula within a minute of the initial quake, according to Tohoku University tsunami expert Fumihiko Imamura, giving residents barely any time to evacuate.Details of the tsunami had been unclear as the tide gauge stopped emitting data immediately after the initial quake, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.Japan’s Coast Guard said it was searching one missing person who was washed away by tsunami in Suzu city, the first known potential casualty from the tsunami so far.Survivors still face a long road to recovery, even as businesses rush to return to business as usual. The earthquake has also cast doubt over Japan’s push to restart nuclear plants that have been idled.Japan will spend 4.74bn yen ($32.7mn) from state budget reserves to support those hit by the quake, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki told reporters yesterday, according to media reports.Plane wreckage being cleared from Tokyo airport after collisionJapanese workers began clearing the burnt wreckage of a passenger jet on Friday, three days after a near-catastrophic collision with a coast guard plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Five of the six crew on the smaller aircraft died in the incident on Tuesday but all 379 people on the Japan Airlines Airbus were evacuated just before it was engulfed in flames.TV footage from Haneda, one of the world’s busiest airports, showed diggers with cutting equipment sawing up the wings and the charred fuselage as planes took off and landed on adjacent runways. A Japan Coast Guard spokeswoman said clearance work was also underway to remove the mangled remains of its plane, which had been heading to deliver aid to earthquake-hit central Japan.The evening collision saw a ball of fire and black smoke erupt underneath the JAL airliner as it sped down the runway after hitting the coast guard plane on the tarmac. Videos shot by passengers showed bright orange flames seen from the plane windows as babies cried and people shouted for the doors to be opened.In one clip, a young voice can be heard shouting: “Please let us out. Please. Please open it. Just open it. Oh, god.” All 367 passengers and 12 crew escaped down emergency slides and were all off within 20 minutes, with only two suffering minor physical injuries, JAL said.Soon afterwards, the entire aircraft was an inferno and dozens of fire engines were trying to put out the blaze. The cause of the accident is being investigated, with specialist teams travelling from France, Britain and Canada to help with the probe. The flight recorder and voice recorder from the coast guard plane have been found, as has the flight recorder from the passenger jet.According to a communications transcript released by the Japanese government, the Japan Airlines flight JAL-516 was cleared at 5:44pm by air traffic control to land. On the tarmac, the coast guard plane was instructed 15 seconds later to “taxi to holding point C5” near the edge of the runway.The pilot acknowledged the order immediately afterwards, the transcript showed. Roughly two minutes later, the Japan Airlines plane landed and slammed into the coast guard’s DHC-8, suggesting that the latter had proceeded onto the actual runway.

Two international aid organisations say that their facilities have been looted and they have suspended operations in an area of Sudan where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) recently advanced in its war with the army.The halting of operations by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Medical charity MSF in El Gezira risks exacerbating a humanitarian crisis caused by more than eight months of war.The WFP said it had been forced to pause distributions of aid in El Gezira state where it said a warehouse containing enough stocks to feed 1.5mn people for a month had been looted. MSF said yesterday that armed men attacked its compound in El Gezira state capital Wad Madani, about 170km southeast of the capital Khartoum, on Dec 19, looting two cars and other items. “Due to the security deterioration, we have suspended all medical activities in Wad Madani and evacuated our staff to safer areas of Sudan and neighbouring countries,” MSF said in a statement posted on social media platform X.“We are concerned for the people in Wad Madani who have very limited access to healthcare and essential medicines.” The RSF took over Wad Madani earlier this month, part of wider advances it has been making in the south and west of Sudan.The city had become an aid hub and a refuge for internally displaced people. El Gezira is an important agricultural region in a country facing worsening hunger. The capture of Wad Madani caused up to 300,000 people to flee the area, according to the International Organisation for Migration.The war between the army and the RSF erupted in mid-April amid tensions over a planned transition from military to civilian rule.The two forces had previously shared power following the end of the rule of Omar al-Bashir in 2019 during a popular uprising.The conflict has devastated the capital, where residents reported heavy artillery fire early yesterday, as well as forcing more than 7mn people to flee their homes and triggering ethnically driven killings in the western regionof Darfur.

“My life, my eyes, my soul,” a husband writes on the white shroud wrapped around his wife after the war devastating Gaza took her life.A bereaved son writes “my mother and everything” on the burial cloth covering his mother, another of the more than 21,000 Palestinians killed in the Israel-Hamas confrontation.Over the past 12 weeks the piece of white cloth has become a symbol of civilian deaths wrought by Israel as it retaliates for Hamas fighters’ storming of Israel in the first week of October.While the besieged Palestinian territory faces severe shortages of food, water and medicine, the white coverings used to wrap dead Palestinians have remained in abundant supply.Not all the shrouds bear loving words. Such is the war’s chaos, some of the dead cannot immediately be identified.In such cases, the shrouds bear the words “unknown male” or “unknown female”, and before burial pictures are taken and the date and place of the strike documented so individuals can be identified by relatives later.If the conflict escalates, the supply of the white coverings donated by Arab governments and charities is expected to keep pace with demand. But there are difficulties brought on by the sheer number of the dead, and sometimes there are gaps in the local availability of the shrouds.“The challenges we face are too much, there is shortage in the knives and the scissors that we need to prepare the shrouds and cut them,” said Mohamed Abu Mussa, a volunteer at Keratan society, which prepares dead bodies for burial.“As you know, there is a blockade and there are no materials in the Gaza Strip, so we find difficulties getting knives, scissors, and cotton,” he said, adding that so many people are dying that sometimes donated shrouds are not enough and he has to wrap four of five people in one shroud.Marwan al-Hams, director of Abu Yousef Al-Najjar hospital, said the prevalence of the shrouds signifies Gaza’s suffering.“The big number of the martyrs made the white shroud a symbol for this war and it became parallel to the Palestine flag in its influence and the knowledge of the world about the significance of our cause,” he said.The white covering goes back to a narration by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), who encouraged his followers to wear white clothes and also wrap the dead in white.Shrouds from Arab donors come packed with a bar of soap, perfume, cotton, and eucalyptus, for the preparation of bodies for burial, a doctor at a hospital in the southern town of Rafah told Reuters.A Gaza Health Ministry official told Reuters shrouds are manufactured either from textile or nylon material. While the nylon ones are made in both white and black, white is the traditional colour and is preferred. In Gaza in normal times the minute someone dies, a relative goes to the market and buys a “Kafan”, or shroud.SCENES OF CHAOSBut for Abdel-Hamid Abdel-Atti, a local journalist, the process in war-time Gaza began amid scenes of chaos and devastation, with bodies of six of his loved ones including his mother and brother being pulled from rubble.The six were killed in an Israeli strike on Al-Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on Dec 7. The strike smashed a building on top of them as they slept.Describing the procedure as the most painful experience of his life, he obtained shrouds from a hospital and wrapped them around his relatives’ bodies.“The first one I did was my brother, the rest came wrapped in blankets and I asked they don’t be taken off, I put the shrouds over the blankets, and tied them carefully, before paying them farewell,” Abdel-Atti told Reuters.“As I wrapped them in shrouds I wondered what was their fault...Why did Israel kill them as they slept in peace?” The only consolation, he said, was his relatives are going to heaven. “White resembles peace, resembles calm. It is part of our tradition and belief and by white shrouds, it is as if we are asking God to remove and clear all their sins and accept them in heaven,” said Abdel-Atti.Asked how much the risk of death preoccupied him, the journalist replied: “Each one of us is afraid. With nightfall, people feel as if they are in a closed cage and each awaits his or her turn to die.”

President Xi Jinping called for “all-out” emergency response efforts as a cold wave extended its grip over China yesterday, with temperatures falling below freezing across most of the country and snowfall affecting transport in many places.Temperatures were expected to drop to below minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and in the region of Xinjiang in the northwest, along with Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai, according to forecasts from China’s National Meteorological Centre.Xi, who went to the southern Guangxi region on Thursday and yesterday, said heavy rain and snow in many parts of the country had affected power supplies, transport and people’s lives, the official Xinhua news agency reported. It added he told local governments to refine their precautionary measures and improve contingency plans. The cold wave that began the start of this week was moving through the country from north to south and was expected to take temperatures lower into the weekend, although rain and snow will decrease, the Meteorological Centre said.The city of Yichun in Heilongjiang could see a record low of -47.9C, recorded in January 1980, broken early next week.In Henan province, snowfall and icy roads along with heavy fog caused multiple accidents on several expressways leading to traffic controls. Traffic authorities in Ningxia region said some of its highways have become unsafe and implemented temporary traffic measures as snow fell. Neighbouring Gansu also saw some highways closed and trains suspended, according to state media. On Beijing’s outskirts, authorities looking into an accident on a commuter rail line said a train carriage failed to brake while moving downhill, colliding with another car that had stopped because track conditions had deteriorated in the snow.The authorities said 515 people were sent to hospitals for medical checks after the accident, many with bone fractures. In the southern coastal province of Guangdong, maritime authorities had suspended 29 passenger ferry routes as of yesterday afternoon, state television said. Ferries and some buses were temporarily suspended early yesterday in Shanghai as the financial hub issued its first cold wave warning of the year, with temperatures as low as -6C expected at the weekend.In the southwest, sections of many national and provincial highways in Tibetan cities such as Shigatse and Nyingchi were blocked due to snow, ice and low visibility.Beijing and the provinces of Jiangxi and Shanxi have also taken measures to secure vegetable and fruit harvests from freeze damage and diseases, state media said. China lifted its warning for blizzards before dawn yesterday but said heavy snowfall was forecast in parts of Liaoning and Jilin provinces in the northeast as well as in Shandong. In the city of Shenyang in Liaoning, authorities deployed 22,000 workers and over 3,400 machines for snow removal operations. Its observatory has forecast snowfall and strong winds until today.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban vetoed a big European Union aid package for Kyiv yesterday, and said he could still halt Ukraine’s accession after EU leaders approved the start of lengthy membership talks.Leaders of all 27 EU states except Hungary agreed at a summit on Thursday to start accession talks with Ukraine despite Russia’s invasion of its neighbour, bypassing Orban’s grievances by getting him to leave the room.However, they could not overcome resistance from Orban to a revamp of the EU budget to channel €50bn ($55bn) to Ukraine and provide more cash for other tasks such as managing migration.EU leaders said they would continue to help Kyiv.European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed that her executive would use the time to ensure there is a “operational solution” to Orban’s veto “whatever happens”.That could mean the other 26 EU countries that back giving the aid to Kyiv could club together without Hungary to come up with the aid outside the bloc’s budget.“We are working very hard, of course to have a result where there is an agreement of 27 member states,” von der Leyen said. “But I think it is now also necessary to work on potential alternatives.”Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said that “it looks like we’ll just have to regroup next year, and come to an agreement then, or do a workaround.”Orban, who has a history of trying to use disagreements with other EU leaders for his electoral benefit, told state radio that he had blocked the aid package – part of a broader multi-year EU budget plan – to ensure Budapest gets funds from the EU budget that are frozen over concerns about the rule of law in Hungary.“It is a great opportunity for Hungary to make it clear that it must get what it is entitled to. Not half of it, or one-fourth,” he said.The European Commission, the EU executive, restored Hungary’s access to €10.2bn of frozen funds on Wednesday after Budapest passed laws addressing some of the EU’s concerns, but funds worth billions of euros remain frozen.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the approval of membership talks as a victory for Ukraine and Europe.Kyiv is reliant on foreign assistance as Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, and US President Joe Biden has so far been unable to get a $60bn package for Kyiv through Congress.Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said the decision to start accession talks made him “proud to be European” but was “only the first page of a very long, long process”.Orban said Hungary could still block the talks at any time.“This is a bad decision,” he said. “We can halt this process later on, and if needed we will pull the brakes.”The EU leaders ended talks on the financial package in the early hours of yesterday.All except Orban agreed to provide Ukraine with €50bn over four years, but his veto blocked the funds because the decision requires unanimity.“I can assure you, Ukraine will not be left without support, there are different ways to do this,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said, suggesting that a solution could be found by January, when an extraordinary summit would be held.The best legal form for providing aid outside the EU budget is yet to be determined, but the European Commission could co-ordinate the collection of grants promised under the agreement and pass it on to Kyiv.If the money were to be provided as loans, EU governments would probably need to provide guarantees for their part of the borrowing, a more cumbersome and costly process that might have to be repeated each year as new national budgets are passed.Ukraine is unlikely to join the EU for many years, but the decision at the Brussels summit took it a step closer to its long-term strategic goal of anchoring itself in the West and leaving Russia’s orbit.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz played a big role in getting Orban to leave the room to clear the way for a decision, diplomats and officials said.EU leaders reconvened yesterday to discuss other topics including the Israel-Hamas war.The Kremlin has praised the stance taken by Orban.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Budapest “in contrast to many European countries, firmly defends its interests, which impresses us”.However, Moscow was far more critical of the decision by the EU to open accession talks with Ukraine and fellow ex-Soviet state Moldova, and make Georgia a formal candidate to join.“This is absolutely a politicised decision – the EU’s desire to show support to these countries in this way. But certainly, such new members can actually destabilise the EU,” Peskov said. “Everything is being done to annoy Russia and antagonise these countries towards Russia.”

A UK judge yesterday ruled that Prince Harry was a victim of phone hacking by journalists working for Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), and awarded the royal £140,600 ($179,600) in damages.The decision is one in a number of legal cases brought by Harry against British media, with which the Duke of Sussex has long had a turbulent relationship.High court justice Timothy Fancourt ruled in favour of Harry in 15 of the 33 sample articles that the prince submitted as evidence in his lawsuit against MGN, which publishes the Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People.He concluded that the newspapers carried out “extensive” phone hacking of celebrities between 2006 and 2011, even when a public inquiry into the conduct of the British press was ongoing.Fancourt said Harry’s personal phone had been targeted between 2003 and 2009 and that the 15 articles were “the product of phone hacking... or the product of other unlawful information gathering”.“I consider that his phone was only hacked to a modest extent, and that this was probably carefully controlled by certain people at each newspaper,” Fancourt said.Prince Harry said in a statement read outside court by his lawyer that the ruling was “vindicating and affirming”.A spokesperson for MGN said: “Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation.”Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, became the first British royal in over a century to take to the witness stand when he gave evidence in the trial.The last time a royal had given evidence in court was in the 1890s, when the future king Edward VII took the stand in a slander trial.Harry, 39, accused MGN of “industrial scale” phone hacking during emotional testimony in which he relived upsetting episodes of his life.The prince argued he had been the victim of relentless and distressing media intrusion virtually his entire life.Harry holds the media responsible for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a 1997 Paris car crash while she was being pursued by paparazzi.He stood down from royal duties in early 2020 for a life in California with his American wife Meghan, in part for privacy reasons.The prince and several other claimants alleged the MGN titles engaged in “illegal information gathering”, including intercepting phone voice mails, to write dozens of stories about him. The Duke of Sussex has launched legal action against several tabloid media groups, alongside barrages of attacks aimed at his family and the monarchy.“I’ve been told that slaying dragons will get you burned,” he said in his statement.“But in light of today’s victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press it’s a worthwhile price to pay. The mission continues.”MGN had admitted to “some evidence” of unlawful information gathering, including for a story about Harry.But it had denied intercepting voicemail and also argued that some claims were brought too late by Harry and the other claimants.Allegations that tabloid journalists hacked into celebrities’ phones first emerged two decades ago and prompted the Leveson inquiry into press conduct.It found that British newspapers had “wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people” and led to the closure in 2011 of Britain’s top-selling newspaper, the News of the World, owned by Rupert Murdoch.Yesterday’s ruling concluded that senior MGN executives had “turned a blind eye” to phone hacking and blagging, in which journalists or private investigators obtain information by impersonation.It renews scrutiny of high-profile British TV presenter Piers Morgan, who edited the Mirror from 1995-2004 and has long denied any knowledge of phone hacking.Fancourt said he had accepted evidence that Morgan had been told about its use and noted that “no evidence was called by MGN to contradict it”.

A New York state appeals court has denied Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a gag order restricting the former US president from publicly talking about court staff in his New York civil fraud trial.The judge overseeing the case, Justice Arthur Engoron, issued the gag order on October 3 after the former US president shared on social media a photo of the judge’s law clerk posing with US Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and falsely called her Schumer’s girlfriend”.The post left the court “inundated” with hundreds of threats made by Trump supporters, Engoron said.Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, appealed the order last month, arguing it violated his constitutional right to free speech.Yesterday the mid-level state appeals court, known as the Appellate Division, said that the gag order did not have a major impact.“Here, the gravity of potential harm is small, given that the gag order is narrow, limited to prohibiting solely statements regarding the court’s staff,” the order read. Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Testimony concluded on Wednesday in the trial over a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney-general seeking to fine Trump at least $250mn and sharply curtail his ability to do business in New York – home to several of his iconic properties – for lying about his net worth to dupe lenders.Engoron has already ruled that Trump’s financial statements were fraudulent, largely limiting the trial to damages. Engoron is expected to issue a verdict in writing after closing arguments on January 11.Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the case a “scam”.The gag order was initially paused by a judge on November 16 when Trump appealed, but a panel of judges reinstated it two weeks later.Trump has asked the Appellate Division for permission to appeal the reinstatement of the order to the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court.Engoron fined Trump a total of $15,000 for twice violating the order.Trump faces a raft of other legal troubles as he campaigns to face President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election, including four criminal cases.He has pleaded not guilty in all four.None have diminished his commanding lead in polls over rivals for the Republican nomination. – Reuters

The US House of Representatives has voted to formalise an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, escalating Republicans’ battle with Democrats ahead of the 2024 election in a move Biden himself slammed as a “baseless” stunt.Republicans, seizing on Biden’s son Hunter’s controversial international dealings, have yet to provide evidence of corruption by the president, and the Democratic-led Senate would be unlikely to convict him even if the inquiry did lead to an actual impeachment trial.Regardless, the procedure guarantees Republicans a new, high-profile platform to attack Biden as he campaigns for reelection – and to distract from the federal criminal trials facing his almost certain challenger Donald Trump.The vote of 221 to 212 was along strict party lines, with every Republican voting for it and every Democrat against.Conservatives accuse Biden’s troubled son Hunter of influence-peddling – effectively trading on the family name in pay-to-play schemes during his business dealings in Ukraine and China.The allegations against Hunter Biden refer to incidents that took place before his father became president, and the White House has stressed there has been no wrongdoing.Biden himself responded immediately after the vote, accusing Republicans of stalling on key fronts – such as funding government – while obsessing over scoring political points ahead of the election.“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” Biden said in a statement. “Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.”Republicans insist the work has merit.“As President Biden continues to stonewall lawful Congressional subpoenas, today’s vote of the full House of Representatives authorising the inquiry puts us in the strongest position to enforce these subpoenas in court,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson and other members of Republican leadership.“The American people deserve answers,” they said in a joint statement on Wednesday. “This impeachment inquiry will help us find them.”Hunter Biden, whose chaotic personal life and business dealings have become a magnet for right-wing conspiracy theories and media investigations, issued an angry statement in Washington.“My father was not financially involved in my business,” he said.A Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist whose life has been marred by personal tragedy, alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction, Hunter Biden was speaking to reporters from Capitol Hill, after refusing to attend a closed-door hearing led by Republicans just inside.Egged on by Trump – who was impeached twice, including for his attempts to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss to Biden – the Republican Party first began probing a possible Biden impeachment earlier this year.Hearings began late in September, leading to the decision to hold Wednesday’s vote.House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer charged on Wednesday that the investigations so far have “revealed how Joe Biden knew of, participated in, and benefited from his family cashing in on the Biden name around the world”.Experts interviewed during the proceedings, however, said there was no evidence to justify a Biden impeachment.And Democrats say the Republicans are playing pure politics.“There is zero evidence that President Biden has engaged in any wrongdoing,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Tuesday.The US Constitution provides that Congress may remove a president for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours”.Impeachment by the House, which is the political equivalent of a criminal indictment, would spark a trial by the Senate, with the president losing his job if convicted – an unlikely scenario for Biden given the chamber’s Democratic control.Although three US presidents have been impeached – Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Trump in 2019 and 2021 – none has ever been removed from office by the Senate.

Actor Ryan O’Neal, the 1970s Hollywood heartthrob who starred in such films as the smash-hit tearjerker Love Story, screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc? and Paper Moon, the movie that also launched his daughter’s movie career, died on Friday at age 82.The performer’s death was announced by his son Patrick O’Neal in an Instagram post. No cause of death was given.O’Neal, also known for his long-time relationship with the late actress Farrah Fawcett, revealed in 2012 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, though he said then that he was expected to make a full recovery.O’Neal, a Los Angeles native who trained as an amateur boxer before taking up acting, made his showbiz breakthrough in 1964 when he landed the role of Rodney Harrington in the hit ABC prime-time television soap opera Peyton Place.The actor is perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated star turn opposite Ali MacGraw in the 1970 romantic drama Love Story, a box office sensation adapted from Erich Segal’s popular novel of the same title.A key line of dialogue from the film became one of Hollywood’s most memorable catch phrases: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” It spawned a poorly received 1978 sequel, Oliver’s Story, co-starring O’Neal and Candice Bergen.Ryan also scored a major success in the 1972 romantic comedy What’s Up, Doc? co-starring Barbra Streisand and directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who also directed O’Neal in the 1973 hit Paper Moon, which co-starred the actor’s then-young daughter.Her debut role in the Depression-era drama as a precocious, cigarette-smoking orphan earned Tatum O’Neal an Academy Award at the age of 10 for best supporting actress.She appeared with her father again in the 1976 Bogdanovich comedy Nickelodeon, along with Burt Reynolds.Tatum O’Neal and her younger brother Griffin ended up living with their father after their parents divorced in 1967 and their mother, the actor’s first wife, Joanna Moore, lost custody due to alcohol and drug abuse.But Tatum O’Neal claimed in a 2004 memoir, A Paper Life, that she suffered years of parental abuse and fits of jealousy from her father, and that he introduced her to drugs as a youngster, leading to an estrangement of nearly 25 years.According to Tatum O’Neal, she and her brother were left to care for themselves when her father moved in with Fawcett, the Charlie’s Angels television star.In February 2007, the elder O’Neal, then in his 60s, was arrested after a fight with his son Griffin that ended in gunfire. Prosecutors later decided to not to file charges.Although he acknowledged in a 2009 Vanity Fair magazine interview, “I’m a hopeless father,” O’Neal disputed his daughter’s claims of abuse and neglect. The two eventually reconciled and appeared in a biographical docuseries together in 2011 called Ryan and Tatum: The O’Neals.Patrick O’Neal, who announced his father’s death, was the actor’s third child, born to his second wife, Leigh Taylor-YoungThe actor’s fourth child, a son named Redmond from his relationship with Fawcett, also struggled with substance abuse and was arrested on several occasions in 2008 and 2009 for drug offences leading to jail time. Still, O’Neal’s relationship with Fawcett proved to be his most enduring. They were together from 1979 until 1997. Then, after a break-up of several years, they reunited in 2001 until her death in 2009, following a long battle with cancer.O’Neal’s film career cooled after the mid-1970s. He starred in Stanley Kubrick’s historical drama Barry Lyndon, a movie that took more than a year to make before opening in 1975 to mixed reviews and a mediocre box office.Near the end of his career, O’Neal had a recurring role from 2005 to 2017 on Fox television’s police procedural series Bones, playing the father of the show’s title character, a forensic anthropologist portrayed by Emily Deschanel.

Guatemala’s electoral court insisted Friday the results of elections won by anti-graft candidate Bernardo Arevalo were “unchangeable”, after the prosecutor’s office sought to annul them amid accusations of an “attempted coup.”Political outsider Arevalo, who is slated to assume office on January 14, has faced an onslaught of legal challenges since his surprise second-round election victory in August, including attempts to suspend his political party and stop him from taking power.The 65-year-old’s triumph and his pledge to fight graft are widely seen in Guatemala as alarming to the establishment political elite.On Friday, prosecutor Leonor Morales said investigations have concluded that the election of Arevalo, his vice-president and parliamentarians was “null and void” due to counting “anomalies” in the first round in June.The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) responded by saying “the results are validated, formalised and unchangeable.”TSE president Blanca Alfaro told reporters the elected officials must assume office in January as planned or else there would be “a breach of the constitutional order.”In Washington, the Organisation of American States secretariat in a statement said it “condemns the attempted coup d’etat by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Guatemala.”“The attempt to annul this year’s general elections constitutes the worst form of democratic breakdown and the consolidation of a political fraud against the will of the people,” the statement added.The OAS urged outgoing president Alejandro Giammattei, the constitutional and supreme courts and Congress “to defend the institutions and constitutional order of the country by taking action against the perpetrators of this attack in order to preserve democracy in Guatemala.”Arevalo, speaking at a news conference, called the actions of the prosecutor’s office an “absurd, ridiculous and perverse coup d’etat.”He called on Guatemalans to “energetically defend” the country from efforts by Attorney General Consuelo Porras and senior prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche to impede his taking power.“The coup perpetrators are trying to destroy the democratic regime and put an end to the basic right of Guatemalans to live in freedom,” he said.Porras, Curruchiche and Judge Fredy Orellana — who had ordered the suspension of Arevalo’s Semilla (Seed) party — are all on a US list of “corrupt actors.”Curruchiche was present at Friday’s press conference, saying “the information that was recorded in the closing and counting act at all polling stations should be annulled.”This “criminal information” would be submitted to the TSE, he said, for a final decision.The tribunal has already certified Arevalo’s election, but last month it suspended his party for a second time over alleged irregularities with its registration. That investigation is led by Curruchiche.On Friday, Judge Alfaro said the prosecutor’s office had no authority to make the TSE annul an election.This could only be done through an order from the Constitutional Court.“Our president is... Bernardo Arevalo and our vice-president Karin Herrera,” said Alfaro.The moves against Arevalo and his party have ignited mass protests by Guatemalans demanding the resignation of the three officials.Arevalo pulled off a major upset by advancing to the runoff after a first round marked by apathy among voters.Poverty, violence and corruption push thousands of Guatemalans abroad every year in search of a better life, many to the United States.The United States, European Union, UN and Organisation of American States have all expressed concern over the events in Guatemala.The top US diplomat for Latin America, Brian Nichols, said on social media that Friday’s actions by prosecutors were “another blatant, unacceptable attempt to defy the will of Guatemalans.”“Such actions jeopardize Guatemala’s market-friendly reputation & will be met with a strong US response.”Rights groups have increasingly expressed concern over what they say are efforts to crack down on prosecutors and journalists in an apparent bid by the government to protect a corrupt system benefiting those in power.

Rescuers used boats to reach people stranded in their homes amid widespread flooding in India’s Chennai yesterday after cyclone Michaung barrelled into the southern coast, bringing in heavy rain and winds that uprooted trees and damaged roads.An estimated 13 people, most of them in the manufacturing hub of Tamil Nadu, have died in the flooding that was triggered by the torrential rains that preceded the cyclone, which made landfall in Andhra Pradesh state on Tuesday afternoon.Rescuers used inflatable rafts and ropes to pluck people out of their homes in Chennai, a city of more than 6mn people and a major automobile and technology manufacturing hub.Local media showed images of rescue workers wading through waist-deep water and of submerged vehicles. Air force helicopters also dropped food rations to people stranded in flooded homes.In Andhra Pradesh, which bore the brunt of the cyclone, the damage was relatively contained, with roads damaged and trees uprooted as big waves crashed into the coast.

Seventeen people died and 11 were injured when a passenger bus careered off a road on a “killer curve” and plunged down a mountain in the central Philippines, officials said yesterday.The bus was travelling in Hamtic municipality in Antique province when the crash happened on Tuesday afternoon, provincial disaster agency head Roderick Train said.Seven people were in critical condition in hospital and four others were stable, Train said, describing the section of road as “accident prone”.One Kenyan national was among those killed, and a second Kenyan was among those critically injured.Governor Rhodora Cadiao earlier told radio station DZRH there were four Kenyans on board the bus that was carrying mostly residents of Antique.Local police later clarified there were only two. Another body was still being identified. “I call that place ‘killer curve’...it was already the second Ceres bus that fell off there,” said Cadiao, referring to the bus company.“With the many number of deaths that road must be abandoned...and make another road to make that area safe.”The heavily forested ravine was around 100 feet deep, Cadiao said.

The Red Cross, which has faced criticism for not doing enough for hostages and prisoners in the Gaza conflict, stresses it has no “superpowers” and relies on the warring parties for access.The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), founded 160 years ago to serve as a neutral intermediary between belligerents in conflict and to visit and assist prisoners of war, has been accused by both sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict of not providing adequate help to those being held.“From time to time, we have to tell people we’re not bulletproof,” ICRC spokesman Jason Straziuso told AFP. “We don’t have superpowers. We can only take humanitarian action when the authorities in a given area give us the permission.”In recent days, amid a temporary truce in fighting in Gaza, the Geneva-based organisation’s vehicles have brought dozens of hostages out of the Palestinian enclave.Following the events of October 7, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and unleashed a relentless air and ground military campaign that the Hamas government says has killed nearly 15,000 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians.Since the truce began on November 24, 70 Israeli hostages have been freed in return for 210 Palestinian prisoners.However, instead of being hailed for its role in bringing out many of the freed hostages, the ICRC has been slammed on social media as a “glorified taxi service” or “Uber”.It has been criticised for not taking part in negotiations that led to their liberation, and for not visiting those remaining in captivity in Gaza.It has also faced criticism for not pressuring Israel to liberate more Palestinian prisoners, and for not bringing more aid into Gaza.Straziuso said much of the criticism showed “a lack of understanding of how we work or the limitations of our work”.“We are not an intelligence agency,” he said stressing that to locate and access the hostages held in Gaza, for instance, the organisation needed Hamas authorisation and safety guarantees.“We couldn’t possibly just simply start walking through Gaza and trying to locate hostages,” he said.Such an action, he said, “could directly put the hostages in danger and it could put our team in danger”.Julie Billaud, an associate professor at Geneva’s Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, agreed.“The humanitarian organisations in general and ICRC in particular cannot substitute the political work needed to, first, end this war and, second, the apartheid regime that kindled it,” she told AFP.Marco Sassoli, an international law professor at Geneva University who used to work for the ICRC, meanwhile explained why the organisation could not take part in negotiating the hostages’ release.If international humanitarian law was being respected, “hostages, unlike prisoners, must be freed unconditionally and without negotiation”, he told AFP.Thus, “the ICRC can offer its services as a neutral intermediary, but it will not negotiate the hostages’ liberation”.Gaza is not the only place where the ICRC has faced criticism.Ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly and publicly questioned its lacking access to prisoners of war held by Moscow and its allies.The organisation, which relies on discretion and discussions with all sides in a conflict to ensure its neutrality and the access it needs to carry out its work, has also been criticised for not detailing how many prisoners of war (PoWs) it has been able to visit and for its continued high-level contact with Moscow.Sassoli lamented that there today was “less and less understanding of neutrality”, with everyone, including the ICRC, pressured to “take a position and say there are bad guys and good guys”.“If the ICRC only negotiates with good guys, they will have barely anyone to negotiate with in armed conflicts,” the professor warned.

A golden mole that “swims” in sand has resurfaced in South Africa after 87 years in the wilderness when many specialists feared it had become extinct, researchers have said.Traces of two De Winton’s golden moles have been found under the sands of a beach after a “detective novel search”, said Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) senior field officer Esther Matthew on Tuesday.EWT and University of Pretoria researchers covered up to 18km of dune habitat a day as they spent months hunting for signs, said Matthew.The blind moles are cute but excessively timid.They pick inaccessible areas to burrow homes and have extremely sensitive hearing to detect ground vibrations made by anyone who could be looking for them. The last scientific trace dates back to 1936.The team used a scent-detecting Border Collie dog, Jessie, to find traces of the moles’ tunnels.There are 21 species of golden moles and the De Winton’s were detected using environmental DNA samples — skin, hair and bodily excretions — taken from soil at Port Nolloth beach on the northwest coast.More than 100 samples were collected from the dunes.Even now the researchers have not physically seen the blind mole that has an iridescent coat sheen that allows it to “swim” through sand.To finally make a connection, they have made videos and taken photos.The De Winton’s golden mole was one of the top 25 animals on a list of long-lost species drawn up by the Re:wild non-government group in 2017.Eleven have now been discovered again.Christina Biggs, a lost species specialist for Re:wild, praised the persistence of the team that found the moles.“They left no sandhill unturned and now it’s possible to protect the areas where these threatened and rare moles live,” said Biggs.The use of environmental DNA was a “case study on how such forward-thinking technologies can be utilised to find other lost species.”The team found traces of four other golden moles in the same region. Matthew said the De Winton’s are still threatened by mining and residential developments near the beaches that are their home.