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Hungary to limit prime ministers to maximum eight-year terms

Hungary’s new government, led by Péter Magyar, has put forward a constitutional amendment that would limit prime ministers to a maximum of eight years in office, in effect barring Viktor Orbán from returning to the role. The draft amendment was submitted on Wednesday, just over a week after the new government took office. It marked Magyar and his Tisza party’s first step in dismantling a constitution that was unilaterally rewritten and amended more than a dozen times as Orbán and his Fidesz party worked to turn Hungary into what they called a “petri dish for illiberalism”. During Magyar’s more than two years on the campaign trail, he repeatedly promised to bring in term limits, describing them as part of a wider push to restore the country’s democratic checks and balances. As his party celebrated its landslide victory in last month’s election, analysts were swift to say the new government faced a formidable task in rebuilding crumbling public services and a stagnant economy, one compounded by the many Fidesz loyalists who remain in the state, media and judiciary. The draft amendment appears to be an attempt to ward off the threat of Orbán seizing on the situation to mount a comeback, stating that term limits are “essential” to restoring the rule of law. “A person who has served as prime minister, for a total of at least eight years, including any interruptions, may not be elected as prime minister,” it says. The calculation would apply to all prime ministerial terms held since the country’s democratisation in 1990, meaning that Orbán, who had served five terms as prime minister since 1998, totalling 20 years in power, would be barred. The amendment is far from foolproof, however, as any future leader with a two-thirds or supermajority could submit an amendment to extend their time in power. Another line in the draft amendment, which is expected to pass given Tisza’s own supermajority in parliament, paves the way for the dissolution of the controversial sovereignty protection office. Launched during Orbán’s last years in power, the office was widely accused of seeking to quell critics of his government by allowing Hungary’s intelligence services to access information on individuals and organisations without judicial oversight. As the new government races to unlock billions in frozen EU funds, the draft amendment also addresses a longstanding point of friction with the bloc by reclaiming the foundations that, during Orbán’s time, were used to maintain nearly two dozen universities and thinktanks such as the Mathias Corvinus Collegium. Under the previous government, the foundations’ board of trustees, many of them stacked with Orbán loyalists, were handed complete control over these assets. This “eliminated democratic control” over these public assets and resulted in an “abuse of legislative power”, the draft amendment states. The proposal sets out that the state could dissolve these foundations. “The amendment makes it clear that although the foundations … are private entities, their assets are national assets,” it says. The draft amendment is expected to be discussed next week when the national assembly convenes. In the weeks since his election victory, Magyar has sought to emphasise his government’s break from the past, vowing to suspend broadcasts from state media that functioned as Orbán mouthpieces, calling on Orbán-era appointees to resign, and apologising to the teachers, journalists and public figures who were maligned by the state during Orbán’s time in power. His government has also made clear that this stark shift also applies to foreign relations. In mid-May the new foreign minister, Anita Orbán, said she had summoned Russia’s ambassador to Hungary over a massive drone attack in Ukraine, marking a reversal of her predecessor’s seemingly servile relations with Moscow. She said on social media: “I told the Russian ambassador that it was completely unacceptable for Hungary that they were now attacking Transcarpathia, home of the Hungarian minority. I stressed that Russia should do everything for an immediate ceasefire and a peaceful and lasting end to the war as soon as possible.”

Many Nato countries not spending enough to support Ukraine, says Rutte – Europe live

Estonia has summoned the most senior diplomat at the Russian embassy in Tallinn to protest against what it said was a “continued disinformation campaign” against the Baltic country. The ministry said in a statement that it “strongly condemns the Russian Federation’s continued disinformation campaign against Estonia and the other Baltic States and demands that the Russian authorities immediately cease the spread of falsehoods, public threats and provocations.” Estonia’s foreign minister Margus Tsahkna said that Tallin “has repeatedly stressed that Estonia has not permitted its territory or airspace to be used for attacks against targets in Russia.” “Messages claiming otherwise are yet another example of Russian propaganda that is false, and they know it.” Tsakhna added that “a threat against one Nato ally is a threat against the whole alliance.”. The ministry added that “the appearance of drones in our airspace is a direct consequence of Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, and that Ukraine has every right to defend itself and strike Russian military targets that sustain its war machine.”

UK summons Israel’s chargé d’affaires over video of minister taunting activists

The UK has summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires as international outrage escalates over a video posted by the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in which he is seen taunting activists detained after a Gaza-bound flotilla was intercepted. The global outcry continued as Israel began releasing hundreds of the activists who attempted to breach Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. Authorities are in the process of deporting them, according to a legal organisation working with the flotilla. Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said on Thursday he had asked EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, to discuss sanctions on Ben-Gvir, “for the unacceptable acts committed against the flotilla, seizing the activists in international waters and subjecting them to harassment and humiliation, in violation of the most basic human rights”. Poland’s foreign ministry said it was calling for a ban on Ben-Gvir entering the country over the video showing the far-right minister taunting detained flotilla activists who were handcuffed and kneeling. Britain’s Foreign Office issued a statement harshly denouncing the treatment of the arrested activists. “This behaviour violates the most basic standards of respect and dignity for people. We are also deeply concerned by the detention conditions depicted and have demanded an explanation from the Israeli authorities. We made clear their obligations to protect the rights of all those involved,” it said. Human rights groups have documented widespread, systemic torture and abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention centres during Israel’s war in Gaza, prompted by the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023. But the humiliating treatment of the Gaza flotilla activists has drawn unusually strong international condemnation of Israel, reflecting growing frustration with the country’s policies in Gaza, Lebanon and in its joint war with the US against Iran. Greece on Thursday also called on Israel immediately to release its nationals, the government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said. The European Council president, António Costa, said he was “appalled” by the way Ben-Gvir had treated aid flotilla members attempting to enter Gaza. “This behaviour is completely unacceptable. We call for their immediate release,” he said. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, demanded an apology for the activists’ treatment and what she called Israel’s “total disrespect” for Italy’s requests. Turkey said on Thursday it was sending planes to retrieve its citizens and others who participated in the flotilla, Hakan Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister, said. About 85 Turkish nationals took part in the latest flotilla, according to local media. The backlash has also prompted criticism within Israel and from the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who defended the interception of the flotilla but said Ben-Gvir’s treatment of the activists was “not in line with Israel’s values and norms”. Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he had instructed that the activists be deported “as soon as possible”. Despite Netanyahu’s comments, Israel has a history of intercepting vessels at sea trying to reach Gaza, including with lethal force. In 2010, nine activists on the MV Mari Marmara were killed when Israeli commandos stormed the ship. A 10th person later died of their wounds. On Wednesday Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, criticised Ben-Gvir over the treatment of the activists, saying he had harmed Israel in a “disgraceful display” and undermined the work of Israeli soldiers and diplomats. “No, you are not the face of Israel,” Saar wrote on X. The US’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee – usually an uncritical supporter of Israel – also made a rare criticism of Ben-Gvir, saying that while the flotilla was a “stupid stunt”, Ben-Gvir had “betrayed the dignity” of Israel. The Israel-based legal advocacy group, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, also known as Adalah, said on Thursday that all of the international activists were in transit to a civilian airport near the southern Israeli city of Eilat for deportation. The group said one participant, Zohar Regev, was in a court hearing in the southern city of Ashkelon on charges of illegal entry into Israel and unlawful stay. Regev, who holds Israeli citizenship, has taken part in previous flotillas to Gaza. Ben-Gvir was appointed security minister by Netanyahu despite a number of convictions, including for incitement to racism and support for a proscribed Jewish terrorist organisation. The activists’ boats set sail from Spain to Gaza in April, with organisers saying they want to draw renewed attention to the conditions for nearly 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel stopped 20 vessels from the group on 30 April near the southern Greek island of Crete and forced most of its activists to disembark there.

Record 274 climbers summit Everest from Nepalese side in single day

A record 274 climbers have reached the summit of Mount Everest from the Nepalese side in a single day after a spring season that started late because of the threat of ice fall on the normal tourist route. The climbers took advantage of the clear weather on Wednesday, said Rishi Ram Bhandari, of the Expedition Operators Association Nepal. “This is the highest number of climbers in a single day so far,” Bhandari told Reuters, referring to the Nepali record, adding that the number could rise as some climbers who had summited might not have informed the base camp yet. All but one of the climbers reached the summit assisted by Sherpa guides and using supplementary bottled oxygen. The Ecuadorian climber Marcelo Segovia summited while climbing independently and without oxygen. Mountaineering experts often criticise Nepal for allowing large numbers of climbers on the mountain, which sometimes leads to risky jams or long queues in the “death zone” area below the summit, where the level of natural oxygen is below what is required for human survival. The large convergence on a single day appears to have occurred as climbers who had been waiting in higher camps for better wind conditions were joined by climbers from lower camps, with some reporting queues and a slow pace of ascent. The 8,849-metre (29,032ft) peak can be scaled from either the southern side in Nepal or the northern face in China’s Tibet. On 22 May 2019, Nepal’s side had 223 and the Chinese side had 113 climbers on the summit. Chinese authorities, however, have closed the route this year. This week, the veteran mountain guide Kami Rita Sherpa scaled the peak for the 32nd time, breaking his own record for the most summits of Everest. His closest rival, Pasang Dawa Sherpa, scaled the peak for the 30th time this week. Also, Lhakpa Sherpa scaled Everest for the 11th time, topping her own record for the most summits by a female climber. This year’s Everest climbing season began late because of the risk from a huge serac, glacial ice cliff, hanging over the key route to the summit. There are 494 climbers and an equal number of Sherpa guides expected to attempt to scale the mountain by the end of May, when the climbing season on the peak ends. Thousands of people have climbed Everest since it was first scaled on 29 May 1953 by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and the New Zealander Edmund Hillary. A Department of Tourism official, Himal Gautam, said he had ‌received preliminary ⁠information that more than 250 people climbed the peak on Wednesday. “We wait for climbers to return, give us photographs and other evidence to prove their ascents and provide them with climbing certificates,” Gautam told Reuters. “Only then we will be able to confirm the numbers.” Nepal has issued 494 permits to climb Everest this year, each costing $15,000. Reuters and AP contributed to this article

Colombia’s climate crossroads: Trumpism casts shadow over presidential battle

Several hours after dark in a quiet Caribbean neighbourhood, a cluster of environmental activists gather on plastic chairs between a mango tree and a courtyard wall emblazoned with the words “Colombia, respira!” (Breathe, Colombia). So many people have turned up that some have to stand. That is because tonight’s speaker is Susana Muhamad, one of the most admired socio-environmental campaigners in the world, and this is a moment of profound historical significance. This month’s presidential election will decide whether Colombia remains a global leader on the climate and exemplar of “popular environmentalism”, or whether it switches to the side of fracking, mining and other forms of fossil fuel extractivism. In other words, whether it will change from green to grey. The movement is braced for a struggle. President Gustavo Petro, of Pacto Historico, is constitutionally barred from serving a consecutive second term, so the party has selected Iván Cepeda to run for president and continue his policies. The far-right candidate, Abelardo de la Espriella, and the centre-right candidate, Paloma Valencia, are both enthusiastic about reopening the oil spigot and fracking. US interference is a big concern, with Donald Trump, talking of military intervention in Colombia. Muhamad, a former environment minister, tells the attenders: “We must win in the first round because the future of Colombia will be decided here, in this very complicated international context. If we don’t win, our country will be another in Latin America aligned with Donald Trump. We have to win. Otherwise, everything we’re talking about will be completely suspended for four years. Goodbye.” Muhamad speaks of the progress Colombia has made in declaring its part of the Amazon rainforest a fossil fuel-free zone, how Petro has tried to curtail mining, protect people from pollution and realise the country’s potential as a “great power for life”. She contrasts this to what is happening in Bolivia, where the pro-business government has sold off tracts of the Junín River basin to a lithium mining company, and to Ecuador, where the far-right president, Daniel Noboa, is trying to weaken Indigenous land defenders and open up protected lands for mineral exploitation and to allow a US military base on the Galápagos Islands. Colombia plays an outsized role in the push for climate justice. In recent years, Muhamad has become a familiar face on the international stage, notably as a leading advocate for the transition away from fossil fuels at the Cop29 climate conference in Dubai, and then as president of the biodiversity Cop16 in Cali, Colombia. Muhamad is by no means a lone voice for the environment in the Pacto Historico government. Francia Márquez, the vice-president of Colombia, won the Goldman environmental prize for her campaign to halt illegal goldmining in her ancestral community of La Toma. The environment minister, Irene Vélez Torres, has just co-chaired the world’s first conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels, involving an alliance of countries that want to accelerate the energy transition rather than be held back by the consensus-based UN system and the vetoes of big oil producers. Petro demonstrated his commitment at that conference in Santa Marta with a call for Colombia to set an example of how to mobilise the population to overcome the “suicidal” economics and “fascistic” politics of the fossil fuel industry. The leadership demonstrated by Petro’s government has moved the phaseout of oil, gas and coal from the margins into the centre of global diplomacy, according to Tzeporah Berman, the founder and chair of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. As a result, she said, this month’s presidential ballot will make international waves. “The implications of this election reach far beyond Colombia. At a moment of escalating climate disasters and geopolitical instability, the world is watching whether this leadership continues, or whether political pressure from the fossil fuel industry succeeds in pushing countries backward.” Environmentalists in Colombia believe the national commitment draws its force from grassroots activists. Colombia is one of the world’s deadliest countries for environmental defenders. As Juan David Amaya, a 19-year-old climate activist and founder of the pan-Latin American youth organisation Life of Pachamama, put it, the main difference between activists in Colombia and those in Europe is that “there, they don’t kill you”. After a campaign against oil palm plantations in his home region of San Carlos de Guaroa, Amaya has received numerous death threats. “In Colombia, doing this is an act of rebellion born from hope, born from love. But it also comes at a very high cost,” he said. “Colombia has made significant progress over the last four years in political discourse and action, which has mobilised many governments around the world. Today, governments like Panama, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia stand out for their ambition, their political leadership, and once again for telling the world: we must take action.” Paula Andrea Hernández, a Pacto Historico campaign manager, says: “We call it popular environmentalism because it comes from peasants and fishermen. We have suffered severe extractivism, often arm in arm with illegal militias, for so long that people realise the fight for territory and environment needs to be about power.” Domestically, climate and environment are rarely mentioned directly in campaign debates but shape the context of hot-button issues such as security and health: drug trafficking often overlaps with illegal mining and forest clearance, and shortcomings in medical provision are shown up by water contamination, rising temperatures and floods. “The environment has become a central issue,” observed Leon Valencia, a political analyst. It is not straightforwardly binary: “There are sectors on the left that favour oil exploitation, and sectors on the right that defend conservation and green markets. What both sides have agreed upon is that the relationship with nature has become a strong political identity … Colombia is experiencing a progressive environmentalisation of public opinion.” Some campaigners complain that the Petro government’s rhetoric is not always matched by actions. Deforestation of the Amazon has slowed since the Pacto Historico came to power but it continues and illegal gold mining is widespread. Many parts of Colombia are virtually ungovernable because they are controlled by armed groups. There has been political opposition in Bogotá, the world’s third highest capital city, where the business lobby in Congress has blocked the government’s most ambitious moves to restrict mining. Rightwing commentators said Colombia’s first leftwing government would be an economic disaster, especially when Petro promised to replace fossil fuels with avocados. In fact, GDP growth has remained positive for the past four years. Julia Miranda, a lower house deputy from the New Liberal party and an advocate for nature, insisted the Petro administration had proved ineffective domestically despite talk in the international arena of Colombian environmental leadership. “It is a false discourse – mere rhetoric while their environmental policies have been a failure,” she said. Miranda supports Valencia, but on the question of phasing out fossil fuels she sees room for compromise. “Colombia needs to work with complete seriousness and consistency on the energy transition, but in the meantime we need to use our resources, for example gas.” That would be a setback for the transition and could mean Colombia pulls out of or weakens its commitment to the global “coalition of the willing” that it helped to form in Santa Marta last month. But those goals are still to be fought for. With 10 days until the election on 31 May, the outcome remains unclear. Polls suggest Cepeda, Petro’s successor as the Pacto Historico candidate, will lead in the first round but fall short of the 50% needed for an outright victory. If there is a runoff, either one of his two rightwing challengers would be favourite. “That would be an abysmal setback” said Renzo García, a biologist and congressman. “A victory by Paloma Valencia or Abelardo de la Espriella would mark a return to an extractivist model, where we hand the country over to the economic interests of the world’s elites and serve as a pantry for minerals, oil and agribusiness without taking into account the rights of nature.”

Girl, two, dies after being left in car as extreme heat sweeps Spain

A two-year-old girl has died of heatstroke in north-west Spain after being accidentally left in her father’s car during an unseasonably hot spell that could push temperatures in some areas to 38C (100F). The child, who has not been named, went into cardiac arrest on Wednesday afternoon after spending several hours inside the vehicle in the Galician town of Brión after her father forgot to take her to nursery. According to media reports, the man had driven his older child to school that morning and had intended to drop the toddler at nursery when he was distracted by a phone call. Instead of heading to the nursery, he went to work, leaving the child in the car. The alarm was raised that afternoon when the girl’s mother went to pick her up from the nursery at 3pm and was told she had not been dropped off that morning. Realising what had happened, the parents called the emergency services and the girl was taken to a health centre in the nearby town of Bertamiráns, where she was pronounced dead. Police are investigating the incident and the family is receiving psychological support. Brión town council declared two days of official morning for the girl and said a minute’s silence would be held in her memory on Friday. “We would like to offer our deepest condolences and all our support to the family of the little girl who lost her life in Brión yesterday, as well as to all her friends, while we make all the municipal resources they need available to them in these difficult times,” the council said. “May she rest in peace.” Spain has been bracing for the kind of heat more commonly associated with midsummer. The state meteorological office, Aemet, said the “exceptionally high temperatures” could reach 36-38C in some southern parts of the country. “Throughout May, we have recorded a prolonged period of below-normal temperatures,” it said. “Now comes the complete opposite: a period of very high temperatures for this time of year across most of the country. In fact, some days could break heat records.” Aemet said the hot spell, which does not meet the technical criteria to be declared a heatwave, would probably last until the middle of next week. Spain, one of the European countries most exposed to the effects of the climate emergency, has experienced a growing number of heatwaves and a sharp increase in large forest fires in recent years. A 2022 Aemet study found that the arrival of 30C temperatures across Spain and the Balearic islands had come, on average, 20-40 days earlier over the previous 71 years. “The summer is eating up the spring,” Rubén del Campo, an Aemet spokesperson, told El País at the time. “What’s happening fits perfectly with a situation where you have a warmer planet,” he said, adding that rising temperatures were a “direct and palpable [consequence] of climate change … The climate in Spain isn’t the one we used to know. It’s got more extreme.” Spain recorded its highest ever temperature in August 2021, when the mercury in the Andalucían town of La Rambla, near Córdoba, reached 47.6C.

US is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts, experts say

A previously undetected outbreak of Ebola is coursing through parts of central Africa, and the US appears to be doing little to help stop it, after massive cuts to global and domestic public health efforts. There is no cure and no vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, which has caused two outbreaks in recent decades. Health leaders and scientists are now racing to understand where the virus is spreading and attempting to stop it – but the US is notably absent in these efforts. In the past year, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been dismantled, thousands of staff at US health agencies were laid off, communications stalled and key scientific research canceled. There are 482 suspected cases and about 116 deaths reported since April in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with two cases and one death in Uganda and potential spread to neighboring South Sudan. The outbreak “might have been going on for a few months”, said Kristian Andersen, a professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research. The outbreak was immediately declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), before even convening the committee that usually makes that determination. Officials say it may last for months. “The DRC is one of the most vulnerable health systems in the world, and was the second-biggest recipient of USAID funding,” said Matthew Kavanagh, director of the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics at Georgetown University. The US withdrawal of funding with “zero notice” has been “disruptive to the country’s basic activities”, he said. US foreign assistance to the DRC dropped from $1.4bn in 2024 to $431m in 2025 and only $21m so far this year. Assistance to Uganda dropped from $674m to $377m in 2025 and a negative $1.2m so far in 2026. “It was pennies compared to what you get in return,” Andersen said of global health investments. It is far cheaper and easier to prevent and contain outbreaks than it is to respond to them, he said. With the US cutting off the first option, the second scenario will become increasingly common. The US also announced it would leave the WHO and end $130m in funding, which resulted in 2,371 lost jobs at the organization, Kavanagh said, calling the cuts a “self-inflicted wound that the administration has really brought on us”. This outbreak and response was “deeply foreseeable when you gut public health surveillance and you gut public health capacity”, Kavanagh added. “It’s not just that we’re leaving the table, we are completely cutting ourselves out of the conversation,” Andersen said. “We are upending the table.” The CDC has “always been the premier agency” when it comes to country-level leadership and played a key role as a partner “you could turn to”, Andersen said. But under the second Trump administration, Ebola response teams were suspended, and health centers and medical supplies – particularly crucial with a virus spread through touch, with supportive care the only treatment – were dramatically cut back. A world-class Ebola lab in Frederick, Maryland, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was designed for exactly this scenario. The lab would normally be swinging into action, following up on research indicating monoclonal antibodies and a vaccine might be effective against this strain, possibly testing those treatments and vaccines, performing in-depth sequencing work on the samples shared during the outbreak. But that lab was shuttered last year, with staff laid off abruptly and their work – key for preventing and responding to outbreaks – ended with no notice. The website for the lab is still closed, indicating it has not been revived during this outbreak. Satish Pillai, an incident manager for the CDC’s Ebola response, said he “can’t speak” to the NIH lab when the Guardian asked about it in a press conference on Monday. Instead, Pillai said that the US is able to test for Ebola through its laboratory network, a comment unrelated to the Guardian’s questions. Because of layoffs, terminations and high-profile departures, key confirmed positions at US health agencies are vacant. Currently, the CDC has no director; there’s no US surgeon general; there’s no commissioner at the FDA. Officials say there are now between 25 and 30 staff in the DRC country office. The CDC is sending one more person, Pillai said, and other experts are available remotely. The DRC office suffered massive and sudden cuts when USAID was unexpectedly dissolved last year. Former employees sued the US government after they were abandoned and lost everything, with no jobs or options to evacuate from DRC, they said. “When those USAID stop-work orders came out, there was a whole series of people who were actively looking for spillover in the DRC and in Uganda,” Kavanagh said. “There were hundreds of health workers doing surveillance activities, and then, of course, you had the bigger picture, which is the thousands of health workers who were doing HIV, TB, malaria, maternal and child health – all of these things funded through US funding from USAID and also some from CDC to be doing global health activities – who were the frontlines of detection.” Patients don’t usually come to the clinic suspecting they have Ebola, he pointed out; they usually come in with a fever or other symptoms, and “those frontline community health workers … are always the ones that detect outbreaks early”. That work ended abruptly and is now being replaced with country-by-country agreements, some of which appear to be predicated on resource-sharing agreements. The US government is “essentially holding hostage” the countries that have built health systems around US guidance, “and then from one day to the next you just cut it”, Andersen said. In the past, the US had ensured that “many, many potential global outbreaks didn’t become global”, but now it’s stepping back, Kavanagh said, adding: “This outbreak should have been detected weeks ago, and exactly how and why will be figured out as we go, but it certainly says that the United States has stopped playing the role.” Instead, the US is announcing travel bans for noncitizens who have recently traveled to the region, which is “public health theater” that essentially punishes the countries and doesn’t actually stop cases, Kavanagh said. The Africa CDC called for countries to refrain from “fear-driven” travel bans. “The fastest path to protecting all countries in the world is to aggressively support outbreak control at the source,” Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa CDC, said in a statement. “At this point, this is an out-of-control epidemic that has now crossed borders, and this is really bad for the region, and will result in lots more deaths, and could be a real crisis,” Kavanagh said. Health leaders in the DRC are among the smartest, most experienced Ebola responders – but now they’re confronting an outbreak “with hundreds of millions of dollars cut from the global capacity to help them respond”. Andersen noted “these countries are way more competent than we are in responding to something like Ebola” and that African scientists have done “remarkable” work already sequencing the virus, which demonstrates a new spillover event and could offer clues to where the outbreak originated. “But that doesn’t mean that we should just completely cut ourselves out of the picture,” he said. Outbreaks like these have economic, geopolitical and global stability implications, Kavanagh said. But they also matter because allowing anyone to die “needlessly of a disease that can be stopped is immoral, and we are living in a world where we don’t have to allow infectious diseases to spread unchecked”, he said. “Ebola can be stopped, and if we don’t mobilize the dollars and the public health efforts, then we are simply choosing not to stop the outbreak. Because it can be stopped. The question is, will it be? And when?”

Lyme disease cases in England rise by more than 20% in a year

Cases of Lyme disease have risen more than 20% in England in the past year, public health experts have revealed, as pharmaceutical companies work to create new vaccines and drugs to tackle the tick-borne illness. According to data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), published as part of its One Health vector-borne disease surveillance report, there were 1,168 laboratory-confirmed cases of Lyme disease in 2025, up from 959 in 2024 – an increase of 22%. However, the figure is similar to that recorded in 2023, when there were 1,151 confirmed cases. Two probable cases of tick-borne encephalitis complex were also identified in 2025, bringing the total number of locally acquired cases to six since 2019, when the virus was first identified in the UK. Dr Claire Gordon, the head of the rare and imported pathogens laboratory at UKHSA, said: “While the number of laboratory-confirmed acute cases of Lyme disease in 2025 is an increase on numbers reported in 2024, we expect overall case rates to vary year to year depending on awareness, testing rates and factors that impact outdoor activities such as weather. Broader trends in 2025 remain consistent.” Lyme disease is caused by a type of bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi, which lives in the gut of ticks – tiny spider-like creatures found in grassy and wooded areas that feed on the blood of birds and mammals, including humans. “In recent years, we have seen an increasing geographical distribution of ticks across the UK,” Gordon said. “But tick numbers continue to vary due to changes in weather conditions, climate trends, habitat changes and shifting host populations.” Symptoms of Lyme can include a bullseye-like rash, fever, muscle and joint pain, and lethargy. Left untreated, the condition can become chronic and, even among those who receive antibiotics, some report ongoing symptoms. Not all ticks carry Lyme bacteria, and it is thought rapid removal of ticks reduces the risk of infection after a bite. But while there are various medications available to protect pets from Lyme disease – including monthly oral tablets and vaccinations – advice for humans centres on prevention, such as using repellants, covering exposed skin outdoors and wearing light-coloured clothing to make ticks easier to spot. Linden Hu, a professor of immunology at Tufts medical school, said there were a number of reasons veterinary and human approaches differed, noting that pet owners were often more willing to medicate their dogs than themselves or family members, while clinical trials in humans were harder to conduct. “It’s easier to do studies in animals because you can control the situation. You can put infected ticks on them to test if it’s going to work, which you really can’t do with humans,” he said, adding real-world studies, or “field trials”, were expensive and risky, given that it was unclear how many cases of Lyme would occur. A vaccine against Lyme for humans, known as LYMErix, was previously available in the US, with trials suggesting it had an efficacy of 76% after a third dose. However, it was withdrawn from the market in 2002 after poor uptake. “There were a couple of things that coalesced to cause the low sales,” Hu said, noting this included the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending it only for people at high risk of Lyme disease. There were also concerns the vaccine may be linked to arthritis. While evidence remained lacking, the negative media coverage and lack of trust in the vaccine contributed to low demand. Several new treatments are in the works, including an mRNA vaccine from Moderna – a jab Hu has worked on that is in phase 2 of its clinical development – as well as a different vaccine from Pfizer and Valneva. Crucially, Hu said, both approaches aimed to avoid activating the immune pathway some researchers suspected caused arthritis in certain recipients of LYMErix. Not that it has been plain sailing. In the case of the Pfizer/Valneva vaccine, there were fewer than expected cases of Lyme among participants in a phase 3 trial, meaning that while the vaccine appeared to have an efficacy of more than 70%, the results were not as statistically robust as hoped. Despite this, the vaccine is to be submitted to regulatory authorities. Other approaches are also being explored. Among them is monoclonal antibody from Tonix Pharmaceuticals, which could be given before exposure to ticks, while Hu is working on a drug with Tarsus Pharmaceuticals that is already used to protect dogs and cats. Unlike the vaccines, this drug – known as lotilaner – kills the ticks, rather than the bacteria they carry. According to Hu, lotilaner works rapidly by killing the ticks before they have a chance to transmit Lyme or, potentially, other diseases. Julia Knight, of the charity Lyme Disease UK, said it was unclear whether a vaccine would be adopted in the UK, given that figures for Lyme disease appeared to be low, although were likely higher – not least because they do not include the roughly 70% of people with Lyme who develop the telltale rash, as these patients are treated immediately without laboratory tests, and Lyme disease can be missed or misdiagnosed. “Obviously any advances in science that prevents Lyme disease is always welcome, but whether people will welcome a vaccine or not in the current climate of vaccine hesitancy remains to be seen,” she said.