Authorities deployed a mobile laboratory to the vessel after it was stopped in Maluku, around 65 km (40 miles) upstream from the capital on Wednesday

International News via Reuters:

Congolese health authorities were screening more than 300 people travelling on a river boat intercepted near Kinshasa on Thursday after the death of a passenger suspected of having Ebola raised concerns the virus may have spread on board, officials said.

Authorities deployed a mobile laboratory to the vessel after it was stopped in Maluku, around 65 km (40 miles) upstream from the capital on Wednesday. 

The secretary-general of Congo’s health ministry, Body Ilonga Bompoko, said all passengers were undergoing temperature checks and clinical screening.     

He told reporters samples had been collected from four passengers with symptoms including fever and sent for testing, with results expected on Friday.

QUESTIONS OVER SUSPECTED CASE

The operation was launched after health authorities in Mongala province reported the death on July 25 of a 32-year-old man suspected of having Ebola who was believed to have travelled on the vessel.

Officials have given differing accounts of the man’s movements and where he may have contracted the virus.

Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya told reporters on Thursday the boat came from Mongala province, where no Ebola cases have been recorded, rather than from Tshopo province, where the outbreak has spread. Congolese authorities had earlier identified Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo, as the vessel’s point of origin.

Kaseya also said the man fell ill while travelling on the vessel, while Congo Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said on Wednesday that he developed symptoms only after disembarking. 

Mongala provincial health chief Eustache Bibala Faray said authorities had not established where the man boarded the vessel. Health officials initially linked him to Kisangani because documents found on him indicated he was from there, he told Reuters.

VACCINES, TREATMENTS TO BE EXPANDED

Separately, Kaseya said authorities had decided to expand use of a vaccine developed against the Zaire ebolavirus species after data suggested it provided some protection against the Bundibugyo species driving the current outbreak.

He said authorities also planned to expand use of the antiviral drug remdesivir in affected areas.

Reporting by Clement Bonnerot and Benoit Nyemba; additional reporting by Anait Miridzhanian; editing by Jessica Donati and Mark Potter

Mount Bromo in the province of East Java is one of several active volcanoes in Indonesia and is popular with tourists

International News via Reuters:

A fire has been raging in Indonesia’s Mount Bromo national park since Monday, destroying at least 60 hectares of land, the country’s disaster mitigation agency said on Thursday.

Mount Bromo in the province of East Java is one of several active volcanoes in Indonesia and is popular with tourists.

Here are the details:

• The fire has raged since Monday and burned at least 60 hectares (148 acres) of the area, the agency said.

• Disaster authorities have dispatched a fire truck, a water tank, and a drone to spray water and identify hotspots, the agency said.

• A steep contour of an active hotspot has made it harder for authorities to extinguish the fire, the agency said, adding that heavy winds could spread the fire farther.

• The cause of the fire and casualties are unclear. Footage taken by Reuters as the fires burned showed charred land, greying foliage and significant tree damage.

• Authorities have closed parts of the park to tourists since Monday, the agency said.

Reporting by Prasto Wardoyo in Probolinggo; Writing by Stanley Widianto; Editing by David Stanway

The man, accused of manslaughter, robbery and illegal gun possession, exercised his right to silence and did not respond to the charges, awaiting other evidence

International News via Reuters:

A Greek court ordered on Thursday that a 26-year-old Afghan boxer accused of killing a Scottish woman whose body was found in a suitcase in Athens be held in jail pending trial, legal and police sources said.

The man, accused of manslaughter, robbery and illegal gun possession, exercised his right to silence and did not respond to the charges, awaiting other evidence, his lawyer said.

The body of Elisabeth Jane Ross, a 38-year-old certified psychotherapist and volunteer aid worker, was found on July 18 in a suitcase on an abandoned construction site after she had been missing for three days.

The suspect, who police officials describe as a professional boxer from Afghanistan who was granted asylum in Greece, was arrested on Sunday.

He denied killing the woman during the initial questioning by detectives, two police officials told Reuters this week. 

He told police that he found Ross’ body in an apartment bathroom, panicked, placed it in a suitcase and tried to dispose of it, the officials said.

A post-mortem examination could not determine the cause of death due to decomposition but did not rule out asphyxiation, one of the officials said.

The suspect’s lawyer Christos Erdas said in a statement that his client exercised his right to silence and requested documents and evidence related to her personal belongings that emerged during the police probe. The coroner’s report and toxicological test results have not yet been included in the case file, according to Erdas.

“The examination of the body did not show any injury and an evident cause of death is totally missing,” he said.

“His stance before the prosecuting and investigating authorities does not constitute a stance of refusal, but on the contrary, it is a stance of reservation so that he responds comprehensively when the case file is complete,” Erdas added.

Reporting by Renee Maltezou, writing by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Edward McAllister, Hugh Lawson and Andrei Khalip

City halls, factories and some churches across neighbouring Romania were also dimming lights, halting production and rationing electricity as authorities try to keep the country’s only working nuclear reactor running during a drought

International News via Reuters:

Hungary has switched off decorative lighting on Budapest’s parliament building, the Buda Castle and Chain Bridge to save energy in a heatwave, disappointing some tourists but in a move welcomed by residents — and swarming mayflies.

City halls, factories and some churches across neighbouring Romania were also dimming lights, halting production and rationing electricity as authorities try to keep the country’s only working nuclear reactor running during a drought.

A prolonged heatwave and record-low water levels on the Danube forced Hungary to largely shut down its sole nuclear plant, which uses river water for cooling, stretching power supply capacity to its limits over the past week.

On Thursday, temperatures were scaling 40 degrees Celsius to 42 C (104 degrees Fahrenheit to 108 F), well above average for August.

“I’m very disappointed because I come to Budapest maybe once in a lifetime and I climbed up the hill yesterday and I was waiting for the building to be lit,” Silke Schneiders, a German tourist, said. “I was going on a river cruise as well by night, and all the lights and the bridge were pitch black.”

But many Hungarians said it was the right decision as they were having to cut power consumption after a government appeal to ease pressure on the grid.

“Obviously, it sucks, but I can appreciate and be grateful for what I have here,” said tourist Benjamin Thomas Tucker.

Romania’s capital city Bucharest dimmed street lighting by a third on Wednesday evening and switched off lighting at night at landmark buildings and museums to save power. Other cities are enforcing similar measures.

“It seems we’ve reached this point due to poor decisions, given the climate crisis we’ve faced for decades,” said Mircea, 25, a food engineer, in front of the dark city hall.

However, Budapest’s mayflies, a protected species swarming in huge numbers in the summer, would benefit from the darkness, said Gyorgy Kriska, associate professor at Eotvos Lorand University.

“Light pollution is dangerous for mayflies as they are drawn to the lamps and light at the riverbank. Switching off the lights is the best way to protect them,” Kriska said.

Hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of mayflies emerge from the water and engage in a frantic rush to reproduce before they die within just a few hours.

Writing by Krisztina Than, Reporting by Anita Komuves and Daniel Weiner, Krisztina Fenyo in Budapest, Octav Ganea and Luiza Ilie in Bucharest; Editing by Janet Lawrence

Four months ago, the Netherlands approved Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system and has since then advocated for its adoption across the EU

International News via Reuters:

Four months ago, the Netherlands approved Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system and has since then advocated for its adoption across the EU.

But Dutch road regulator RDW won’t tell the public why it concluded the driver-assistance system is safe or how it evaluated the technology, which for years has faced regulatory investigations and lawsuits over FSD-involved crashes in the United States.

Releasing such details would violate Tesla’s commercial secrets, the regulator told Reuters, echoing the automaker’s own demands on the regulator for confidentiality. Since late 2024, Tesla has pressed RDW to keep documentation about the FSD safety review secret, according to previously unreported email correspondence between the Dutch regulator and Tesla, obtained by Reuters through a public-records request.

Tesla has called FSD approval key to boosting sales in Europe, where it’s trying to regain market share lost in recent years and faces fierce competition from Chinese EVs.

European regulators have historically been more cautious about automated driving than the United States, requiring automakers to get approval before deploying driver-assistance systems such as FSD.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly said FSD, which requires a human driver to pay strict attention, will soon be fully autonomous. A Reuters investigation in May found that Tesla’s self-published FSD safety statistics are highly exaggerated and the company is nowhere near releasing self-driving technology at scale.

Reuters reported in June that Tesla had shared inflated FSD-safety data from the United States with several EU regulators including RDW as it sought approval. RDW said it did not rely on Tesla’s statistics and did its own “extensive testing” on closed tracks and public roads, in various conditions, without specifying how it measured performance or safety.

European vehicle-safety law experts say RDW is withholding far too much information under the guise of trade secrets, potentially at the expense of public safety. Details on RDW’s testing and Tesla’s performance are matters of broad public interest, said Oliver Carsten, a transportation-safety professor at the University of Leeds who has been involved in crafting European automated-driving regulations.

“I don’t see any reason why that couldn’t be public,” he said.

Frank Mutze, policy and project manager for the advocacy group European Transport Safety Council, said the public is left to trust that authorities “have done their homework, which of course isn’t good enough for us.”

RDW declined to say how it evaluated FSD safety testing or to release documents on the testing, citing an “obligation to protect manufacturer-specific information.” The agency did not explain how details of its testing or conclusions about the system’s performance could reveal commercially sensitive information.

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

TESLA DEMANDS FOR SECRECY

RDW announced in April that it had concluded FSD is “safer than other driver assistance systems.” In June, RDW said it is “at least as safe as other driver assistance systems.” The agency offered no data or evidence supporting those statements.

RDW is now seeking EU approval for FSD, which requires a “yes” vote from representatives of 55% of member states that make up 65% of the bloc’s population. A vote could happen in October.

Tesla made secrecy a priority throughout its application, according to correspondence between the automaker and the regulator beginning in late 2024.

In one example from April 2025, a Tesla representative sought to confirm RDW would “never” release a particular document and asked how it would ensure it was “withheld from public disclosure.” Tesla, the employee said, could not provide more information to RDW “until this matter is clarified.”

RDW told Tesla that disclosure under public records law shouldn’t be a problem because “manufacturers always have the option to request an exemption from disclosing certain information.”

RDW told Reuters it has not withheld information at Tesla’s request but rather makes its own decisions on how to protect company trade secrets.

Tesla has a history of trying to shield information it gives regulators from public view. In the United States, it petitions federal safety regulators to redact basic details about every crash involving its driver-assistance systems.

Other European regulators, who are getting some unspecified FSD testing information from RDW, have taken a similar line on confidentiality. Regulators in six European countries including Germany, Norway and Denmark all told Reuters they could not release data on FSD testing or performance because of concerns about trade secrets. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration said it had reviewed data the Dutch provided on its assessment of FSD and that the data “is not the same as what Tesla publishes on its website,” referring to the inflated safety statistics examined in the Reuters investigation.

Tesla’s statistics claim the vehicles are safer than what’s documented in the data European regulators are reviewing, the Norwegian agency has told drivers in emails reviewed by Reuters.

European traffic-safety experts said that regulators’ insistence on confidentiality is particularly concerning given the unorthodox way Tesla is seeking FSD approval. Tesla is pursuing a special exemption from EU motor-vehicle regulations, which currently only allow hands-free automated driving systems like FSD to operate on highways and prohibit their use on more congested urban roads.

Some regulators have provided clues about their concerns. France’s transportation minister last month said the country would not approve FSD in its current form because of concerns about speeding and insufficient technology to ensure the human driver is paying attention.

Finland’s Transport and Communications Agency said the system “has been observed to often make safer decisions than a human driver” but also highlighted concerns about its operation on steep, windy roads and questioned whether drivers could safely retake control if the system makes sudden mistakes.

Reporting by Chris Kirkham and Marie Mannes; additional reporting from Toby Sterling, Christina Amann, Gilles Gillaume and Stine Jacobsen; editing by Mike Colias and Brian Thevenot.