SHANGHAI:China called for vigilance on Friday as a surge of respiratory illness hit schools and hospitals and the World Health Organization, which has asked the government for disease data, said no unusual or novel pathogens had been detected.
China is grappling with a spike in respiratory illnesses as it enters its first full winter season since it lifted strict COVID-19 restrictions in December, with cases among children appearing especially high in northern areas like Beijing and Liaoning province where hospitals are warning of long waits.
The State Council said influenza would peak this winter and spring and mycoplasma pneumoniae infection would continue to be high in some areas in future. It also warned of the risk of a rebound in COVID infections.
“All localities should strengthen information reporting on infectious diseases to ensure information is reported in a timely and accurate manner,” the State Council said in a statement.
The situation came into the spotlight this week when the WHO asked China for more information, citing a report by the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children.
Both China and the WHO have faced questions about the transparency of reporting on the earliest COVID-19 cases that emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019.
On Thursday, the WHO said China had responded to its request and the data it provided suggested the cases were linked to the lifting of COVID curbs along with the circulation of known pathogens like mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacterial infection that typically affects children, which has circulated since May.
This month, authorities began issuing health adviseries and warning the public of long waits at crowded hospitals but they have not imposed measures like the ones during the COVID pandemic, such as masks or closing schools.
There has been no indication of any undue public alarm.
Bruce Thompson, head of the Melbourne School of Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, said very preliminary data suggested there was nothing out of the ordinary.
“At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that it may be a new variant of COVID,” he said.
“One thing to note is that we can be reassured that the surveillance processes are working, which is a very good thing.”
Parents in Shanghai on Friday said they were not overly concerned about the wave of sickness, saying while it appeared to be more severe, they expected it to blow over soon.
“Colds happen all over the world,” said Emily Wu outside a children’s hospital. “I hope that people will not be biased because of the pandemic ... but look at this from a scientific perspective.”
Another mother, Feng Zixun, said she was making her eight-year-old son wear a mask and wash his hands more often but nothing much more.
“It’s not that bad, there are more children falling sick now but it’s mainly an issue of protection,” she said.
China grapples with respiratory illness spike; WHO says no unusual pathogen found
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China grapples with respiratory illness spike; WHO says no unusual pathogen found
Incoming German interior minister skeptical about ban on far-right AfD
- German lawmakers have been discussing measures to dismiss civil servants who are members of the AfD and limit or halt public funding
BERLIN: Incoming German interior minister Alexander Dobrindt suggested on Sunday it was unlikely the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party would be banned after the spy agency classified it as “extremist” last week.
German lawmakers have been discussing outlawing the party and taking other measures including dismissing civil servants who are members of the AfD and limiting or halting public funding.
But Dobrindt told broadcaster ARD he was doubtful whether the AfD activities identified in the spy agency’s report met the requirements set out for an outright ban.
Guidelines set by the constitutional court say a party must be shown to be working “combatively and aggressively” to implement its goals to be banned.
“I’m skeptical, because the aggressive, combative nature of the party against our democracy must be a defining characteristic. The Constitutional Court was right to set high hurdles for banning a party,” Dobrindt said.
He added that he was “convinced that the AfD does not need to be banned, it needs to be governed away, and we need to talk about the issues that have made the AfD so big.”
Dobrindt, a high-profile member of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU, said his ministry would examine the designation in depth and he would discuss its findings with the spy agency’s top brass in person.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that the future government would work to shrink the AfD.
“What I don’t believe is that a potential ban procedure, which could take years, is the sole instrument to bring the AfD down,” Klingbeil, Germany’s next vice chancellor, said.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel accused outgoing Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of using the spy agency as a “secret justice system” to discriminate against the party.
“We are a future governing party; even the machinations of the secret justice system will not be able to prevent that in the long run,” Weidel told the Welt newspaper on Sunday.
South Africa exit from DRC to be completed this month
- The soldiers are part of a regional Southern African Development Community force that deployed to the eastern DRC in December 2023 during a resurgence of the M23 armed movement
JOHANNESBURG: South African troops withdrawing from the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have begun assembling in Tanzania and most should return home this month, the defense chief said on Sunday.
Under the phased withdrawal that started on April 29, the troops are to exit the DRC via Rwanda by road before entering Tanzania, Gen. Rudzani Maphwanya said.
From there they will return to South Africa by sea and air by the end of May, he said.
The soldiers are part of a regional Southern African Development Community force that deployed to the eastern DRC in December 2023 during a resurgence of the M23 armed movement.
The M23 now controls swaths of territory in the mineral-rich region.
Thirteen trucks with 57 members of the SADC peacekeeping force had already gathered at an assembly point in Tanzania, Maphwanya told reporters.
The next group was scheduled for withdrawal next week, he said.
“The movement from Tanzania to (South Africa) will be by air for personnel and by sea for cargo,” he said.
SADC decided to end its SAMIDRC mission in mid-March after 17 of its soldiers — most of them South Africans — were killed in M23 offensives in January. They have been stranded there since.
The grouping confirmed last week the start of the withdrawal but gave no details.
On April 30, a separate evacuation began of hundreds of DRC soldiers and police trapped for months in United Nations bases in Goma after the eastern DRC city was taken by M23 rebels, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
SADC defense chiefs had informed the M23 they would “withdraw ... personnel and equipment unconditionally,” Maphwanya said.
No SADC equipment would remain. “SADC is not leaving even a pin in eastern DRC,” he added.
Officials do not comment on the size of the SAMIDRC deployment but the bulk of the troops come from South Africa, which is estimated to have sent at least 1,300 soldiers.
There are also South Africans in the DRC under a separate UN peacekeeping mission.
Calls for evacuation began mounting in South Africa after 14 of the country’s soldiers were killed in the region in January.
Three Malawian troops in the SADC deployment were also killed, while Tanzania said two of its soldiers died in clashes.
The evacuation from the DRC was not a sign of weakness or the abandonment of people caught up in the fighting, Maphwanya said.
“Our withdrawal is a technical move that allows peace and mediation to continue.”
Visa crackdown leads international students in the US to reconsider summer travel
- International students weighing travel to see family, take a vacation or conduct research are thinking twice because of the Trump administration’s crackdown, which has added to a sense of vulnerability
CALIFORNIA: On summer break from a PhD program, an international student at University of California, San Diego, was planning a trip with a few friends to Hawaii. But after seeing international students across the United States stripped of their legal status, the student decided against it.
Any travel, even inside the US, just didn’t seem worth the risk.
“I probably am going to skip that to ... have as few interactions with governments as possible,” said the student, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of being targeted.
International students weighing travel to see family, take a vacation or conduct research are thinking twice because of the Trump administration’s crackdown, which has added to a sense of vulnerability.
Even before students suddenly began losing permission to study in the US, some colleges were encouraging international students and faculty to postpone travel, citing government efforts to deport students involved in pro-Palestinian activism. As the scale of the status terminations emerged in recent weeks, more schools have cautioned against non-essential travel abroad for international students.
University of California, Berkeley, for one, issued an advisory last week saying upcoming international travel was risky due to “strict vetting and enforcement.”
At least 1,220 students at 187 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked or legal status terminated since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records.
Malta offers to repair Gaza aid ship in drone strike row
- Pro-Palestinian activists had pointed the finger at Israel for the attack
- If the ship can be fixed at sea, it will be, but otherwise it will be towed under Maltese control to the Mediterranean island for repairs, paid for by Malta
VALLETTA: Malta offered on Sunday to repair an aid ship and send it on its way to Gaza after pro-Palestinian activists said the vessel had been hit by a drone strike.
But Prime Minister Robert Abela said the Freedom Flotilla Coalition must first allow a maritime surveyor on board to inspect the “Conscience” and determine what repairs are needed.
The pro-Palestinian activists had pointed the finger at Israel, which has blockaded the Gaza Strip throughout its military campaign against Hamas, for the attack.
If the ship can be fixed at sea, it will be, but otherwise it will be towed under Maltese control to the Mediterranean island for repairs, paid for by Malta.
“In the last few hours there was insistence that first the boat comes into Maltese waters and then the surveyor is allowed onboard,” Abela said.
“Before a vessel — any vessel — is allowed to enter Maltese waters then control must be in the hands of Maltese authorities, especially when we are talking about a vessel with no flag, no insurance.”
In an online press conference, members of the coalition who had been due to board the Conscience in Malta — including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg — said they had agreed to allow the inspection.
“When we received this offer from the Maltese government, we consulted with all of our Flotilla Coalition committee members who are on board,” said Brazilian FFC volunteer Thiago Avila.
“And their decision is that this is a good proposition from the Maltese government,” he said.
“As long as they can guarantee ... Conscience will not be stopped when it wants to leave on the humanitarian mission to take aid to Gaza.”
The activists explained the Conscience has no flag because the government of the Pacific nation of Palau had announced that they were withdrawing their registration on Friday, the day of the alleged strike.
Otherwise, they insisted they had made every effort to comply with international maritime law when embarking on the mission to take aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
According to the Flotilla Coalition, the Conscience was attacked in international waters as it headed for Malta on Friday, causing a fire that disabled the vessel and minor injuries to crew members.
Maltese and Cypriot rescuers responded. No government has confirmed the Conscience was the victim of drones, but Cyprus’s rescue agency said it had been informed by the island’s foreign ministry of an Israeli strike.
The Israeli military did not provide an immediate response when contacted by AFP.
First reported by CNN, a flight tracking service showed that an Israeli C-130 military cargo plane had been in the area immediately before the incident and had made several low altitude sweeps over the area.
Israel is known for conducting covert operations beyond its borders, including several during the Gaza war that it only acknowledged later.
The activists said the strike appeared to target the boat’s generator.
Thunberg told reporters that the incident should not distract from the focus of the boat’s mission to Gaza.
“What we are doing here is to try our very best to use all the means that we have to do our part, to keep trying to break the inhumane and illegal siege on Gaza and to open up humanitarian corridors,” she said.
Ukraine’s Zelensky: Ceasefire with Russia possible at any moment
PRAGUE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that a ceasefire with Russia in its more than three-year-old war is possible at any moment.
Zelensky, speaking at a joint news conference in Prague alongside Czech President Petr Pavel, also said that Ukraine hopes to receive 1.8 million shells in 2025 under a Czech initiative to provide military assistance.
