There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for Ebola’s Bundibugyo strain, which has caused more than 1,400 cases in DRC, including 438 deaths

International News via Reuters:

A treatment trial for the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo enrolled its first patient on Thursday, marking a milestone in efforts to combat the epidemic, WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

Tedros, however, cited an attack on an Ebola treatment centre in Ituri province in which two people died as a sign of ongoing difficulties in tackling the spread of the disease.

“Despite all this progress, we continue to face significant challenges, including mistrust and violence,” the WHO director-general said.

There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for Ebola’s Bundibugyo strain, which has caused more than 1,400 cases in DRC, including 438 deaths.

DRC has recorded an average of 38 new confirmed cases a day over the past two weeks, Tedros said.

The trial, which could take months to complete and includes more than 1,000 patients, will evaluate Mapp Biopharmaceutical’s experimental MBP134 antibody as a standalone treatment for Bundibugyo Ebola, as well as in combination with Gilead Sciences’ antiviral drug remdesivir, the World Health Organization said.

There are enough drug supplies for the trials, according to the WHO, which said it was in discussions with the United States, which donated supplies of MBP134, and Gilead to ensure patients would be able to access the drugs after the trials if they are shown to be safe and effective.

The WHO chief also said other parts of the response were showing improvement: there are now 10 laboratories that can test for Ebola and follow-ups are being conducted for four in five contacts, although more contacts still needed to be identified per case.

Treatment capacity has also expanded, with 650 beds available, of which about 96% are currently occupied. Tedros said the WHO and its partners were working to add 300 additional beds.

Separately, the WHO also declared the ‌hantavirus outbreak linked to a cruise ​ship over after ​the last identified contact ⁠of an ​exposed person completed ​quarantine and tested negative for the virus.

The outbreak, ​which infected ​13 people and killed three, ‌involved ⁠the Andes virus, a rare hantavirus strain that ​typically circulates ​in ⁠Argentina and Chile.

Reporting by Mariam Sunny and Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Pooja Desai

China passed the law in March to create a “shared” national identity among the country’s 55 ethnic minority groups, which include Tibetans and Uyghurs

International News via Reuters:

The United States and the European Union expressed concern on Thursday about China’s new law on ethnic unity that went into effect this week and gives Beijing the legal basis to take action against people outside its borders.

China passed the law in March to create a “shared” national identity among the country’s 55 ethnic minority groups, which include Tibetans and Uyghurs, some of whom chafe under Chinese governance and have often staged protests, some of them violent.

The law, which went into effect on Wednesday, includes a clause saying people and groups beyond the borders of the People’s Republic of China can be held legally accountable for undermining “ethnic unity and progress or inciting ethnic separatism.”

In a statement, an EU spokesperson said the law may further restrict the cultural, linguistic and religious rights of ethnic minorities. 

Such rights should be upheld in line with international human rights standards and China’s commitments within the U.N. framework, the spokesperson added.

“We are concerned about the extraterritorial application of the law. The EU opposes the extraterritorial application of third-country legislation in breach of international law,” the spokesperson said.

“We call on any third country to refrain from attempts to conduct transnational repression within the European Union or elsewhere.”

U.S.: WILL DEFEND INDIVIDUALS FROM OVERREACH

In a separate statement, a U.S. State Department spokesperson called the law “problematic” for forcing people outside China to “actively promote the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘ethnic unity’ agenda, or face retaliation from Chinese authorities.”

“The United States will safeguard our sovereignty and defend individuals from the overreach of foreign governments and regimes trying to silence, intimidate, harass, harm or coerce them within our borders,” the official said.

In recent years, the U.S. has ramped up enforcement of parts of the 1917 Espionage Act, a law meant to curb activities of foreign agents on U.S. soil. Some individuals were charged in 2023 with allegedly running a Chinese “secret police station” in New York. 

China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A senior Chinese official said last week the government has a right to hold people accountable outside its borders who contravene the law, adding this was in line with international practice and was legal and necessary.

Rights groups have previously complained that China has tried to use Interpol “red notices” to get foreign governments to arrest people abroad it wants for political offences at home.

The law has sparked alarm in Chinese-claimed Taiwan, in particular that it could give Beijing another legal basis to go after Taiwanese it views as separatists.

In a separate statement on Thursday, Taiwan’s China-policymaking Mainland Affairs Council said the government will work with like-minded countries “to resist the Chinese communists’ threats.”

“This is intimidation and coercion through malicious transnational repression,” it added. 

China’s legal system has no jurisdiction or authority in Taiwan, whose government rejects China’s sovereignty claims.   

Reporting by Brussels newsroom; Writing and additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei, Michael Martina in Washington, and the Beijing newsroom, Editing by William Maclean and Rod Nickel

Gil was carried out of the rubble on a stretcher on Thursday morning and loaded into an ambulance as cheering rescuers and reporters looked on

International News via Reuters:

Search and rescue teams from El Salvador and Chile on Thursday rescued a 44-year-old security guard trapped in the ruins of the mall where he worked in the Venezuelan state of La Guaira, more than a week after a duo of strong earthquakes devastated the country’s northern coast.

Work to save Hernan Alberto Gil from the rubble of the nine-story Galerias Playa Grande shopping center began on Monday, according to Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele, who has been posting updates about the operation on X.

Rescuers were able to provide him with hydration via tubing, Bukele has said, but needed to dig two separate tunnels to try to reach him, because of the instability of the ruins.

Gil was carried out of the rubble on a stretcher on Thursday morning and loaded into an ambulance as cheering rescuers and reporters looked on.

“This rescue was made possible thanks to the joint efforts of teams from Chile, the United States, Portugal, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela and El Salvador, who worked tirelessly to remove debris, stabilize the structure and clear a path to reach Hernan,” Bukele said on X.

The rescue took some 70 hours, Chile’s firefighting service said in a post on X, but Gil was in good condition.

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes struck less than a minute apart almost eight days ago, killing 2,295 people, according to government figures published on Wednesday.

The number of people listed as still missing on an unofficial but widely used online list was down to some 38,600 on Thursday morning, after peaking at nearly 60,000 in the days immediately after the quake.

Cellphone service has remained patchy in La Guaira, the hardest-hit state, which is less than an hour from the capital Caracas.

A United Nations envoy this week said it was procuring 10,000 body bags for Venezuela and the USGS has estimated more than ⁠10,000 deaths were possible.

CIVILIAN RESPONDERS

Venezuela’s socialist government, in power under three different leaders since 1999, has for years promoted “civilian-military-police unity” and high-ranking security officials hold power over huge business interests.

The army has some 2,000 generals controlling disparate groups of poorly paid troops, while intelligence bodies like the domestic spy agency SEBIN and military counterintelligence DGCIM are involved in everything from processing repatriated migrants – including deportees who were killed during the quake – to surveillance of civilians and the alleged torture of political detainees, allegations of which are denied by the government.

State television regularly broadcasts images of interim President Delcy Rodriguez meeting with military and security officials and groups of heavily armed soldiers and dozens of police are patrolling major roads in La Guaira and sometimes directing traffic. But the response to the disaster has been led by civilians, many of them volunteers.

Victims of the quake have spent days trying to dig out loved ones with their hands, shovels and pickaxes, assisted by firefighters, civil protection corps, thousands of members of foreign rescue teams, student doctors and nurses, civilians who normally work as teachers and veterinarians and occasionally, a soldier.

Soldiers working for days alongside civilians in the six collapsed towers of a major public housing project in La Guaira told Reuters they had volunteered to help there.

Many rescuers have, since mere hours after the quakes, decried a lack of heavy machinery needed to move huge slabs of concrete.

In the days immediately after the twin tremors, much of the water, food and other basic supplies arriving to La Guaira was ferried in by thousands of civilians, many on motorcycles. 

Now volunteers are running shelters for those who have lost their homes, receiving some official help but setting their own governance rules and even creating their own tracking system for residents.

After initially thanking civilian volunteers, the government last week restricted public access to La Guaira, saying traffic was blocking the passage of emergency vehicles and asking people to register in order to enter. Enforcement of the restriction lasted about a day.

Even when security officials are present at collapsed buildings, their presence has not always been welcomed.

Some Venezuelans have vented their frustration on social media, sharing videos showing security officials picking through the destruction and taking clothes, appliances and cash.

Reuters has not verified the videos’ authenticity, but the Interior Ministry said that four crime scene police officials ​have been detained and removed from their jobs for “appropriating financial assets acquired amid the ruins.”

Rescue teams from Germany and Switzerland have concluded their missions in Venezuela, the teams said, but rescuers from more than a dozen other countries remain.

Rodriguez is expected to hold a press conference later on Thursday.

Reporting by Alberto Fajardo in Catia La Mar, Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb, editing by Deepa Babington