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Ukraine war briefing: more than 500 drones strike at Russia, killing 3; US allows Russian oil sanctions waiver to lapse

More than 500 Ukrainian drones attacked Russia overnight, killing three people around Moscow, authorities said on Sunday. Air defences shot down 556 drones in more than a dozen regions, including Moscow, Russia’s defence ministry said. The attack came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed on Friday to launch more retaliatory strikes because of an earlier Russian attack on Kyiv that killed 24 people. Moscow and Kyiv have traded attacks following a prisoner swap and the expiration of a three-day truce on Tuesday. The Trump administration on Saturday allowed a sanctions waiver to lapse that had previously allowed countries including India to buy Russian seaborne oil after a month-long extension aimed at easing oil supply shortages and high prices due to Iran’s closure of the strait of Hormuz. The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, had previously said he would not renew the general licence allowing the purchase of Russian oil stored on tankers. As of early afternoon Washington time on Saturday, no renewal notice had been posted on the Treasury website. Two top Democratic US senators, Jeanne Shaheen and Elizabeth Warren, on Friday urged the Trump administration against renewing the waiver because it was providing revenue to Russia to aid its war in Ukraine, but said there was no evidence it was bringing down fuel costs for American consumers. An unexploded projectile was discovered on a property in south-eastern Romania near the EU and Nato member’s border with Ukraine on Saturday, its defence ministry said. Romania shares a 650-km (400-mile) land border with Ukraine. Russian drones attacking Ukraine’s ports on the Danube river have repeatedly breached Romanian airspace and fragments have sometimes fallen on its territory as Ukrainian forces shoot them down. An unguided reactive projectile was found in the yard of an uninhabited house in the village of Pardina in Romania’s Tulcea county, the ministry said without indicating its suspected origin. Last month, an explosive drone landed in a back yard in the city of Galati, marking the first time since the start of the Ukraine war that such an incident had damaged property in Romania. The leaders of Nato’s 14 eastern flank nations this week said Russia’s repeated violations of their airspace underlined the urgent need to consolidate the alliance’s air defences against missiles and drones. Several Russian and Ukrainian drones have crashed in Latvia since Russia invaded Ukraine, stirring public disquiet in the small former Soviet republic that is now a member of Nato and the EU. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics on Saturday proposed opposition lawmaker Andris Kulbergs as the next prime minister after Evika Silina resigned. Silina stepped down triggering the collapse of her coalition after she dismissed defence minister Andris Spruds because Ukrainian drones strayed into Latvia and exploded at an oil facility. The Latvian army said it failed to detect the drones as they crossed from Russia. Silina blamed Spruds for not developing anti-drone systems quickly enough. In response, Spruds’ Progressives party withdrew support from Silina’s government on Wednesday, leaving her without a parliamentary majority and exposed to a no-confidence vote.

‘Feels like an illusion’: how Trump seizing Maduro has changed little in Venezuela

When Ángel Linares heard a strange buzz followed by an explosion, his first thought was that neighbours were setting off fireworks to celebrate the new year. Then his windows shattered, the building’s walls shook and its facade was ripped off, sending him flying on to the ground of an apartment suddenly reduced to rubble. His 85-year-old mother, Jesucita, feared Venezuela’s northern coast had been devastated by an earthquake, like the one she remembers from 1967. Next door, Elizabeth Herrera jumped out of bed in her pyjamas and realised something more sinister was afoot when the post-explosion silence was filled with the sound of gunfire: “Tah-tah-tah-tah-tah-po-po-tah-tah-tah.” “Is it a coup? … I don’t believe ‘Papá Trump’ would have dared to invade,” Herrera remembers her husband speculating as their housing estate’s panicked residents struggled to make sense of the mayhem just before 2am on 3 January. All four residents of the Urbanización Rómulo Gallegos project in Catia La Mar, a seaside town 20 miles north of Caracas, were wrong. Donald Trump had indeed ordered an invasion of Venezuela, albeit a lightning-fast one to abduct the country’s then president, Nicolás Maduro. Their community found itself at the eye of the storm as air-to-surface missiles rained down on defence and radar systems and radars along the country’s Caribbean coast and helicopter-borne Delta Force fighters swept south towards the capital. “They were 10 minutes that felt like an interminable hour,” said Herrera, who lost two elderly neighbours during the attack that was apparently targeting military installations on a nearby hill. She recalled her autistic son’s anguish as they rushed out into the darkness and sheltered in a nearby school. “Mummy, are we the baddies? Are Venezuelans the baddies? Are they going to kill us?” he asked. “I told him, ‘No, it’s probably just an issue between the White House and Miraflores,’” she replied, referring to Venezuela’s presidential palace. “So why are they shooting at us?” her son insisted. “In his autistic mind … it made no sense that if this was a thing between governments, why were the missiles falling here?” More than four months after Operation Absolute Resolve, Herrera and her neighbours are far from the only ones still trying to make sense of Trump’s intervention and its impact on the future of a country already reeling from years of poverty, hunger and repression. Across Venezuela, ordinary citizens, opposition activists, diplomats, businesspeople and members of Maduro’s movement are trying to fathom the bewildering new era ushered in by the autocrat’s capture and Trump’s unexpected decision to recognise his vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, who has held power since. “Everything is so confusing …. This feels sometimes like an illusion,” said Jesús Armas, a former political prisoner and ally of the exiled opposition leader and Nobel laureate, María Corina Machado, who had hoped to take power but has been sidelined from Venezuela’s post-Maduro transformation. Changes have undoubtedly occurred since Maduro’s 13-year rule was brought to an end during a two-and-a-half hour blitz that left scores of Cuban and Venezuelan troops and at least three civilians dead. After years of increasingly despotic rule, which deepened after Maduro was accused of stealing the 2024 presidential election, an incipient political thaw has descended. Murals of Maduro have been painted over, his portraits quietly removed from some government offices, and foreign journalists are being allowed into the country for the first time since the 2024 vote. Hundreds of political prisoners have been freed and dissidents have emerged from hiding or returned from exile to continue their push for a transition back to democracy. On a recent evening, hundreds of people gathered outside Venezuela’s most notorious political prison – a shopping mall-turned-torture centre called El Helicoide – for a previously unthinkable protest to demand fresh elections and the release of the estimated 500 detainees remaining. “People have lost their fear,” said Jeisi Blanco, a human rights campaigner, as colleagues chalked the names of those still incarcerated on the pavement under the gaze of police who filmed participants but did not intervene. “They aren’t just statistics, they are people with stories and with families who have spent more than three years behind bars,” she said. Armas, who was released from El Helicoide in February as a gesture from Maduro’s heirs, said: “I feel great … I feel hope right now. I know that we are going to change this country. “We’re going to bring back freedom … and I know Venezuela will be a democracy in the next few months,” he said, insisting Machado would return in the coming weeks to tour Venezuela, rally supporters and complete its political transformation. US officials also celebrate what many here call the “new political moment” enabled by Trump’s audacious, although, to many, illegal raid. “The president likes action. He also likes deals, and he likes progress, and we’re seeing all of that in a very short period of time,” said Jarrod Agen, the director of Trump’s national energy dominance council, after arriving in Caracas on the first US commercial flight to the oil-rich country in more than seven years. “We’re moving at Trump speed … I’m super excited,” he said, flanked by smiling Venezuelan officials who have spent years at loggerheads with their US counterparts. But alongside the excitement and optimism there is bafflement and trepidation about the fact that Maduro’s rendition led not to fully fledged regime change or democratisation, but to a peculiar rapprochement between the fallen dictator’s authoritarian allies and their longtime foes in Washington. Trump has repeatedly praised Rodríguez as a “terrific” partner, while Venezuela’s new leader has given no indication that fresh elections are coming. “I don’t know, some time,” she deflected when asked recently when a vote might be held. Caracas-based diplomats voice astonishment at the political handbrake turn performed by Maduro’s supposedly anti-imperialist successors, who have rolled out the red carpet for Trump officials – and allowed Venezuela to be turned into what some have called a US protectorate – with virtually no explanation. “It’s the theatre of the absurd, it’s Beckett,” said one foreign envoy, recalling how, after Japan’s 1945 surrender to allied forces, Emperor Hirohito urged citizens to “bear the unbearable and endure the unendurable” to salvage their nation’s future. Rodríguez’s team had offered no such justification for embracing Trump, the diplomat said: “They just went from A to B without explaining why.” Experts say the once improbable marriage of convenience between Washington and Caracas is rooted in Trump’s desire to secure access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and for a foreign policy “win” amid the debacle in Iran, and Rodríguez’s determination to retain power and save the political movement Hugo Chávez founded more than 25 years ago. “The purpose is not to be the cat’s paw of the United States, to be a partner of the United States,” said Tom Shannon, a US diplomat who has worked with Venezuela since the 90s. “The purpose is to maintain and preserve the Bolivarian revolution, to the extent that it can be preserved, and to do what has to be done in order for that revolution to be preserved and for the political leadership that has defined it to be able to survive.” “I’m sure she feels it to be humiliating,” he said of Rodríguez, whom he has met numerous times. “She finds herself in a position that I’m sure she sees as politically complicated and difficult, but historic in terms of the trajectory of the Bolivarian revolution.” For opponents of the movement, who blame it for an economic and humanitarian disaster that has forced about a quarter of the country’s population to flee abroad, the détente and incomplete transition have left a bitter taste. Sitting outside her home, next to a government memorial to the victims of Trump’s attack, Herrera recalled her initial exhilaration at what seemed like imminent change, even as parts of her housing estate lay ruined. “I thought it was all over … I thought, thank goodness we’re going to escape this situation which is strangling us,” she said, a freshly painted government mural behind her bearing the message: “We will prevail”. But as the days passed, the excitement turned to dismay. “On the news they talk about how much oil they’ve taken and how much gold … yet we’re stuck in the same place … [If Trump came here] I’d ask him to think about Venezuelans and not just the natural resources that Venezuela has,” she said. “I feel hope but I also feel fear … Our fear is harbouring hope that the situation is going to change and then this not happening.” Sitting on a sofa beside a shrapnel-pocked portrait of Venezuela’s liberation hero Simón Bolívar, Jesucita Linares said her main worry was a repeat attack. In preparation, she has turned her shopping trolley into an emergency go-bag filled with clothes and medicine. “I’ve been asking God for this never to happen again,” said Linares. “But you never really know.”

‘A place for everybody’: Stockholm to open its first publicly run sauna

There is little doubt that Stockholm is a city of sauna-goers. All year round, from early morning to late into the night, the city’s residents can be seen emerging from wooden huts, a trail of woodsmoke coming from the chimney, and lowering themselves into the deep brackish waters of the Swedish capital’s shoreline. But, for locals and visitors alike, getting access to one of these saunas can be a bit like getting into the world’s most exclusive private members’ clubs: the most popular waterside venues have years-long waiting lists of thousands and when new places open up they disappear in minutes. While a proportion of spots are sometimes bookable to non-members, they are difficult to come by. In an attempt to change this, the city of Stockholm will in June open its first publicly run sauna with the mission of bringing “sauna for all”. The new facility, in Hornstull, a water-facing neighbourhood in the largely residential island of Södermalm, is a pilot project which authorities hope will be the first of many city-run, membership-free saunas. Pia Karlsson, project manager from the City of Stockholm’s transport office, said the 5.5m Swedish kronor (£436,573) project had been born of a desire to move away from the prevailing model of “sauna for the few”. The municipality had wanted a sauna that was “100% accessible, so no membership. Accessible to the city’s residents and our guests”. The Swedish capital has relatively clean water, the ideal geographical setup, stretched over several islands, and plenty of willing customers for bada bastu – the Swedish term for bathing and having a sauna – made internationally famous by Finland’s Eurovision entry last year, Bara Bada Bastu (Just Take a Sauna). Despite all this, the city has been slow to capitalise on demand for accessible quayside saunas. Many are behind lock and key, privately owned by either member associations or individuals. The scarcity is thrown into particularly sharp relief by the sauna scene in its Nordic neighbours. In the Norwegian capital, Oslo, despite a huge rise in popularity over the last decade, it is relatively easy to get a same-day sauna spot at one of the seven Oslo Sauna Association floating saunas. In Helsinki, Finland, where the ability to sauna is considered an essential part of daily life, there is an abundance of public saunas and even a waterside community-run sauna. Stockholm’s new sauna arrived by tug boat on Tuesday. The site, which is overhung by weeping willows and where users will be able to swim, used to be home to Liljeholmsbadet, a 1930s floating public bathhouse that was removed last year after falling into disrepair. The city is also building a sauna jetty that will also be open to non-sauna-goers. The new building, green in colour, which takes inspiration from the city’s historic painted wooden water pavilions, was designed by architect Dinell Johansson and built by Marinbastun, which also built the Oslo Sauna Association saunas. Karlsson said: “A thought that we had with us from the political mission was sauna for all and a place for everybody. We are a public pontoon and a public space on public land. We wanted that to permeate the site.” While they have been inspired by other countries, going on research trips to Finland and Denmark, the vision for Stockholm is part of a much broader vision, she said: “We know that we are not the first … but then we thought we could be best.” Stockholm’s authorities say the sauna is part of a wider quay-side strategy aimed at opening up the city’s waterfronts, including new areas for swimming, walkways and seating areas. It is also planning new guidelines requiring all sauna slots in the city centre to be fully publicly available to book. The new booking rules have been criticised by some sauna associations, which say it could make it difficult to maintain the old membership model, which they say makes it cheaper for regular sauna users. Karlsson believes the city and privately-run models “complement one another” and that the city’s pricing means they will not be undercutting other saunas. But, at 150 kronor (£12) for 90 minutes, which is more expensive than guest sessions at many privately run saunas, the cost could be prohibitively expensive for some. Initially everybody will pay the same rate, but Karlsson said they would look at different pricing structures for students and pensioners once they have a sense of demand. Mathias Leveborn, from Sthlm Sauna, which has a waiting list of 20,000 for membership across its saunas and 13,000 for one site, in nearby Vinterviken, alone, said demand for more sauna spaces was huge. They had to wait for more than a year to get the go-ahead for a new project in Södermalm, due to open in September, he said. “It is great that Stockholm is finally starting to catch up with other Nordic countries. Basically, diversity is good,” he said. Svante Spolander, operations manager at the Swedish Sauna Academy, said: “Interest in sauna has increased markedly in Sweden in recent years and people have to wait a long time for access to a sauna bathhouse. So it is very positive that more places are being built so that more people can benefit.”

WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda ‘emergency’ of international concern

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a “public health emergency of international concern”. The WHO on Sunday said the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency. The UN health agency said 80 suspected deaths, eight laboratory-confirmed cases and 246 suspected cases had been reported as of Saturday in DRC’s Ituri province across at least three health zones, including Bunia, Rwampara and Mongbwalu. The DRC health ministry had said on Friday 80 people had died in the new outbreak in the eastern province. In Uganda’s capital, Kampala, two apparently unrelated laboratory-confirmed cases, including one death, were reported on Friday and Saturday, from people travelling from the DRC, the WHO said. A laboratory-confirmed case was also reported in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, from a person returning from Ituri, the WHO said. The spread prompted the Africa CDC to warn of “active community transmission” as health workers raced to intensify screening and contact tracing to contain the disease. Journalists from Associated Press in Ituri’s capital, Bunia, interviewed locals who recounted their fears and constant burials. “Every day, people are dying … and this has been going on for about a week. In a single day, we bury two, three or even more people,” said Jean Marc Asimwe, a resident of Bunia. “At this point, we don’t really know what kind of disease it is.” Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal. Officials first announced the latest outbreak in Congo on Friday with 65 deaths and 246 suspected cases. At an online briefing on Saturday, the Africa CDC director-general, Dr Jean Kaseya, said the first cases were reported in Mongwalu health zone, a high-traffic mining area. “Cases subsequently migrated to Rwampara and Bunia as patients sought medical care, enabling spread across three health zones,” he said. A high number of active cases remain within the local community, particularly in Mongwalu, Kaseya said, “significantly complicating containment and contact tracing efforts”. Insecurity in Ituri, where Islamic State-backed militants carry out rampant deadly attacks, continues to restrict surveillance and rapid response operations, he added. Congo has experience managing Ebola outbreaks but often faces logistical challenges in delivering expertise and supplies to affected regions. As Africa’s second-largest country by land area, Congo’s provinces are far from one another and mostly battling conflict. Ituri, for instance, is about 1,000km (620 miles) from the nation’s capital, Kinshasa, and is ravaged by violence from Islamic State-backed militants. With Reuters and Associated Press

Israeli strikes kill six in southern Lebanon hours after extension of ceasefire

Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, killing at least six people, including three paramedics working at a health centre, just hours after its envoys had agreed with the Lebanese government to extend a ceasefire. Israel also said it had killed the Hamas military chief, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, in a targeted strike in Gaza on Friday. Al-Haddad was described by Israel’s army as one of the senior Hamas military commanders who directed the planning and execution of the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw more than 250 taken hostage. A Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, confirmed the killing on social media. In a further sign that the region could be on the brink of a possible return to full-scale war, reports in the US and Israeli press said Donald Trump had been briefed on his military options in Iran, should he decide to break a five-week-old truce and resume strikes in the hope of forcing concessions at the negotiating table. Lebanon’s state-run media reported that at least five villages in the south of the country had been hit by strikes, and the Israeli military confirmed on Saturday that it was targeting what it said was “Hezbollah infrastructure” in southern Lebanon. Lebanese authorities said that an airstrike on Friday had hit a clinic run by the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Committee, killing six people, three of them paramedics. An Israeli military statement said it had killed Hezbollah militants preparing to fire rockets at its troops in southern Lebanon. Al-Haddad’s family confirmed his death in Friday’s strike to the Associated Press. Six other people, including his wife and daughter, were also killed, according to reports. His two sons were killed earlier in the war. His body was wrapped in Hamas and Palestinian flags as it was carried by mourners at Saturday’s funeral in Gaza City. Al-Haddad joined Hamas when it was established in the 1980s, and was a member of the Qassam Brigades’ Majd section tasked to go after collaborators with Israel. He was also a member of Hamas’ Military Council, the highest group of commanders that played a key role in the attacks that sparked the war. Israel’s army chief of staff called his killing a significant operation, and said that Israel would continue pursuing its enemies to hold them accountable. The new strikes, which triggered a fresh exodus of civilians from the south, came hours after envoys from Israel and Lebanon completed a round of talks in Washington, with an agreement to extend a month-long partly observed ceasefire for a further 45 days, and to establish a US-supervised security mechanism between their armies. Hezbollah, however, has denounced the talks, while Israel has only partly observed the ceasefire ordered by Trump on 17 April, restricting attacks on Beirut and northern Lebanon in general while focusing its military operations in the south, where its troops have clashed with Hezbollah fighters. Israel has also kept up operations in Gaza against Hamas, confirming on Saturday that it had killed Haddad, the latest acting Hamas military chief to die in Gaza, and the last surviving Hamas senior official suspected of planning the attack on southern Israel in October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and ignited the latest Gaza war. Israel has accused Hamas of violating the fragile eight-month-old ceasefire in Gaza by refusing to disarm. For its part, Hamas has blamed Israel for failing to abide by the first phase of the truce, continuing airstrikes and stealthily moving the agreed demarcation line between the two forces westwards into Hamas-controlled parts of Gaza. In recent days, the Israeli media has been predicting a return to full-scale war across the region, as truces fray amid scant diplomatic progress. As Trump returned to the US from a visit to China on Friday, the New York Times reported that he had been briefed on US options for returning to the offensive in Iran, but that he had yet to make a decision. Pakistani-led mediation has failed to bring diplomatic progress in more than a month since Islamabad brokered a ceasefire in the Iran war, with the negotiating positions of the US and Iran still far apart. With Associated Press

Bulgaria wins 70th Eurovision contest with Dara and Bangaranga

Bulgaria has won the 2026 Eurovision song contest after singer Dara swept to victory with the song Bangaranga. The 27-year-old singer’s triumph is a first victory in the 70-year history of the song contest for Bulgaria, which only joined Eurovision in 2005 and sat out the last three editions. Described by its performer as “pop music with folklore bones”, Bangaranga is a pulsating party anthem inspired by kukeri – an ancient Bulgarian ritual where men roam through villages dressed in furry costumes with bells and animal masks. The precise meaning of “bangaranga” became one of the running jokes of the night. Singer Dara said “bangaranga is a special energy that everyone has got in themselves, a feeling that everything is possible.” Bulgaria’s surprise win means the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and other participating broadcasters will be spared a major headache. Had second-placed Israel won, organisers would have faced difficult questions over where to host the song contest’s 2027 edition. The 70th anniversary of the musical extravaganza took place in Vienna, after Austria’s operatic contestant JJ triumphed last year. About 10,000 spectators watched the show at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle venue, with an expected TV audience in excess of 100 million. It was the third time the Alpine republic has hosted the event. The grand final saw musical acts representing 25 countries, with Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania returning after being absent in previous years. Controversially, Eurovision’s anniversary was celebrated without five nations who boycotted the event over the continued participation of Israel while attacks continue in Gaza. Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland all declined to participate after the EBU changed the rules around multiple votes and state-sponsored promotion of songs, but stopped short of preventing Israeli broadcaster Kan participating. In December, Nemo, the Swiss singer who won the 2024 Eurovision song contest said they were handing back their trophy in protest over Israel’s presence in Vienna. Police said about 2,000 people turned out for a protest against Israel’s inclusion in Vienna’s city centre earlier on Saturday. On the night, Israel’s entry Michelle, a romantic pop song about a toxic relationship performed by Noam Bettan, came in at second place after performing strongly in the public vote. Austrian broadcaster ORF had said in advance it would not officially employ so-called anti-booing technology for home viewers used at some previous editions, but the crowd reaction to Bettan taking to the stage was warm compared to singer Yuval Raphael’s reception in 2025. There was some booing during the read-out of Israel’s public vote, in response to a group of fans continuing to chant Israel’s name. In the highly polarised previous two editions of the song contest, Israel had performed strongly in the public vote, coming second in 2025. Other nation’s broadcasters voiced concerns about the Israeli government’s heavy promotion of its acts through its social media channels, however, leading voting rules to be changed for Vienna. This year, fans were allowed to cast ten individual votes, down from 20 in previous years. Voting for the same act ten times was allowed, but voting for the act from the country fans are calling from wasn’t. During the read-out of the jury votes, the presenter representing Israel’s broadcaster KAN appeared to reference last year’s voting controversy when he said he already knew who was going to win this year. In the run-up to the final, KAN was forced to apologise after mocking Croatian group Lelek by comparing their traditional makeup to “henna tattoos in Eilat.” Lelek condemned the comments as a disrespectful slight against their culture and the history of oppressed women. Their song, Andromeda, centres on Catholic resistance to the Ottoman Empire, with their makeup featuring sicanje – a folk tattooing custom used to prevent forced conversions. The UK finished last with Look Mum No Computer, AKA Sam Battle. The YouTube star makes his own synthesisers, but failed to win over neutral voters with song Eins, Zwei, Drei. The song received nul point in the public vote, meaning it did not make it into the top ten in any of the voting countries. With the exception of Sam Ryder’s Space Man in 2022, the UK has enjoyed poor fortune in the competition over the last decade or so, including picking up the dreaded nil points with James Newman in 2021. Belgium and Germany also received zero points in the public vote. Another UK-based act, Boy George of Culture Club, failed to appear in the grand final after the San Marino entry that he had a cameo role in – Senhit’s Superstar – failed to qualify from the first semi-final. Australia’s entry, sung by Delta Goodrem, came 4th.

Canada confirms first hantavirus case in isolation in British Columbia

Canadian officials said on Saturday that a test for one of the four Canadians currently quarantining in British Columbia after being exposed to the hantavirus while on board the cruise ship where the outbreak occurred indicated a positive result. Speaking at a news conference, Dr Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s provincial health officer, said the individual developed mild symptoms, including fever and headache, two days ago, and that the individual and their partner, who had also been on board the cruise ship where they had been isolating together, were transferred to a hospital in Victoria for assessment and testing. Henry said that on late Friday evening the test results for the individual who had been experiencing mild symptoms came back positive, but she stressed that the results were currently “what we call a presumptive positive” and that the samples have been sent to the national microbiology lab in Winnipeg for confirmatory testing. Results from those tests were expected to be confirmed over the course of the weekend, Henry said. “Clearly this is not what we hoped for, but it is what we planned for,” Henry said. “The patient is stable, and their symptoms remain mild,” Henry said. “And they are still in hospital, in isolation, being monitored and receiving care as needed.” The patient’s partner tested negative, but will also remain in hospital for further monitoring and assessment, Henry said. Out of what Henry described as “an abundance of caution”, the third individual who had been isolating in the same lodging has also been transferred to hospital for monitoring. The fourth person continues to isolate at home under daily observation, she said. The four Canadians who had been on board the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, where the hantavirus outbreak occurred, arrived in Victoria on 10 May, Henry said, adding that on arrival, all four of them were assessed and none of them had any symptoms. They were transferred directly to lodgings to begin a period of quarantine for a minimum of 21 days. Meanwhile, France’s Pasteur Institute said it has fully sequenced the Andes virus detected in a French passenger from the MV Hondius cruise ship and found that it matched viruses already known in South America, with no evidence so far of new characteristics that would make it more transmissible or more dangerous. Pasteur said genomic analysis confirmed that the virus found in the French passenger matched the virus detected in other cases aboard the ship and closely resembled known Andes virus samples circulating in South America. Pasteur said the viruses detected in patients from the ship were identical to each other and about 97% similar to some Andes viruses circulating in South America, including those identified in rodents. Jean-Claude Manuguerra, who heads Pasteur’s environment and infectious risk unit, said the remaining variation appeared to reflect natural viral variation and did not seem to affect the characteristics of the virus detected among travellers. Since 11 April, three people who were on board the cruise ship have died of suspected hantavirus infections of hantavirus, including a Dutch couple and a German woman.

Tens of thousands attend London pro-Palestine rally to mark Nakba Day

Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have attended a pro-Palestine rally in London on the same day as a protest organised by Tommy Robinson in the capital. Armoured vehicles, police horses, dogs, drones and helicopters were deployed along with about 4,000 officers on duty to avoid clashes between Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom march and the pro-Palestine rally. A total of 43 arrests were made at both marches, police said. A large group of protesters carrying banners and placards reading “Bristol stands with Palestine”, “Stop Trump, Stop Farage”, and “Free Palestinian Hostages” gathered with many wearing keffiyehs while one demonstrator carried a St George’s Cross that bore the words “have a heart”. Organisers of the pro-Palestine rally, which began in South Kensington before heading to Waterloo Place, claimed at least a quarter of a million people attended, while the police previously estimated 30,000 would attend. The MP Diane Abbott was among the attenders and told demonstrators that those gathered faced a “common enemy” in the “far right”. She added: “They are viciously rightwing, viciously racist, they are anti-black, anti-Muslim and viciously antisemitic. We have to come together … to fight the racists, to fight the fascists, to fight the antisemites.” The Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told demonstrators in Pall Mall that Westminster needed a change in policy, not “personalities”. The Your Party co-founder said: “Whatever happens to Keir Starmer, I don’t know if he’s going to survive the coup, he should know about coups. I know about coups. I know what goes on. “But I would say that if there’s to be a change, it’s got to be a change of policy, not the personalities.” He added: “To those in Reform and the far right that do so much to attack us all and attack our communities, your hatred can succeed in dividing people, but your hatred will not build one council house, will not improve one hospital, will not teach one child, will not end somebody’s homeless life on the streets of London. “The only thing that can change that is a change of economic, social, and international policy – that’s what brings us together.” Zarah Sultana, who is also a co-founder of Your Party, told the protesters that Andy Burnham was “not an alternative” to Starmer and “is another establishment politician cut from the same Zionist cloth”, while the Labour MP Apsana Begum said the movement would not be divided by the far right.