China Covid: experts estimate 9,000 deaths a day as US says it may sample wastewater from planes

Infectious disease experts believe strategy more effective in slowing virus spread than new travel restrictions, as health data firm says thousands are likely dying daily in China

The United States is considering sampling wastewater taken from international aircraft to track any emerging new Covid-19 variants as infections surge in China, as UK-based health experts estimate about 9,000 people a days are now dying of the disease in China.

The proposed of testing wastewater by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would provide a better solution to tracking the virus and slowing its entry into the US than new travel restrictions announced this week, three infectious disease experts said.

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EU states resist joining Italy on Covid testing for arrivals from China

Italy urges action at European level as more than 50% of recent arrivals from China test positive at Milan airport

Member states of the European Union have resisted pressure from Italy to immediately impose mandatory anti-Covid checks on travellers entering the borderless Schengen area from China, with health officials in Brussels saying they would instead continue to monitor the consequences of Beijing’s rapid rollback of its previously stringent hygiene restrictions.

In recent days more than 50% of passengers from China at Milan’s Malpensa airport have tested positive for the virus, and on Wednesday Italy brought back mandatory coronavirus tests for everyone arriving from China, after reports of rising infection rates in the world’s most populous country.

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Russia launches ‘one of the most massive’ missile attacks on Ukraine

Attacks targeting infrastructure across country come as Moscow rejects Ukrainian peace plan

Russia launched a large round of missile attacks across Ukraine on Thursday morning, as Moscow rejected a Ukrainian peace plan and kept up its attacks on the country’s infrastructure.

Targets from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the east came under fire on Thursday morning. The Ukrainian army command said Russia launched 69 missiles from land, sea and air, 54 of which it said were shot down by Ukrainian air defences.

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Iranian chess player ‘moving to Spain’ after competing without headscarf

Sara Khadem and family plan to set up residence in an unnamed Spanish city, according to reports

One of Iran’s top-ranked female chess players is reportedly planning to settle in Spain after photographs emerged of her taking part in an international tournament without a headscarf.

Sara Khadem, ranked 804 in the world and 10th in her home country, was not planning to return to Iran after the tournament due to fear of reprisals, two sources told Spanish newspaper El País.

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European gas prices fall to pre-Ukraine war level

Milder winter, alternative imports and energy reduction cuts demand after Russian invasion pushed up prices

European gas prices have dipped to a level last seen before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, after warmer weather across the continent eased concerns over shortages.

The month-ahead European gas future contract dropped as low as €76.78 per megawatt hour on Wednesday, the lowest level in 10 months, before closing higher at €83.70, according to Refinitiv, a data company.

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Ruggero Deodato, director of notorious horror Cannibal Holocaust, dies aged 83

Italian film-maker found infamy when rumours about his 1980 ‘found footage’ horror led to him being charged with murder

Ruggero Deodato, director of the notorious 1980 horror film Cannibal Holocaust, has died aged 83. Italian media reported that he died on Thursday.

Deodato had a lengthy film-making career and operated in a variety of genres but remains best known for his gruesome horror film, which was banned in multiple countries and even resulted in him being put on trial for murdering his actors.

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Turkish and Syrian defence and security officials meet for first time in a decade

Move towards peaceful relations represents cause for alarm for more than 4m refugees in Turkey since 2011

Top Turkish and Syrian defence and security officials have held their first public meeting in more than a decade, in a dramatic shift towards normalising relations between the two countries after Ankara backed rebels during Syria’s civil war.

The Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar, and the head of the country’s national intelligence organisation (MIT), Hakan Fidan, met the Syrian defence minister, Ali Mahmoud Abbas, and the notorious spy chief Ali Mamlouk in Moscow, in a meeting attended by the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Belarus summons Ukrainian ambassador over missile incident

Minsk says it shot down a Ukrainian air defence missile over its territory on Thursday

Missiles are being launched at Ukraine from ships on the Black Sea, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Ukrainian military administration of Kryvyi Rih, on Telegram.

As we get the first reports of the sound of blasts in Kyiv, Presidential office adviser Oleksiy Arestovych has written on Facebook that over 100 missiles were incoming in several waves and air raid alarms could be heard across the country.

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US to require arrivals from China to provide negative Covid test

Other countries including Italy have taken similar steps after Beijing’s rollback of ‘zero-Covid’ policies led to surge in cases

The US has announced all travellers from China must provide a negative Covid-19 test to enter the country, joining other nations imposing restrictions because of a surge of infections.

The increase in cases across China follows the rollback of the nation’s strict anti-virus controls. Beijing’s “zero Covid” policies had kept the country’s infection rate low but fuelled public frustration and crushed economic growth.

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ExxonMobil launches legal challenge to EU’s windfall tax on energy firms

US oil firm contests legal authority for ‘solidarity contribution’ to raise funds to offset soaring energy prices

ExxonMobil has launched a legal challenge against the EU in an attempt to derail the bloc’s windfall tax on the profits of energy producers.

In a high-stakes political battle as countries across Europe and the wider western world struggle with soaring energy costs and sky-high inflation, the US oil firm said it believed the EU had overreached its powers with the windfall tax.

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Ukrainian who walked 140 miles to safety to feature in London exhibition

Story of Igor Pedin’s escape from Mariupol is one of about a dozen in an exhibition entitled What Would You Take?

The secret to Igor Pedin’s survival had been his invisibility, the 61-year-old had said.

With his dog, Zhu-Zhu, the former ship’s cook banked on being ignored by the trigger-happy Russian soldiers and their killing machines when he took the first step of a 140-mile journey from his home in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on 23 April, before stealing out into the badlands of Russian-occupied territories towards the relative safety in the city of Zaporizhzhia.

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‘It is a war’: senator and Auschwitz survivor Liliana Segre on fighting Italy’s far right

Liliana Segre, 92, has been subjected to racist attacks, and fears the Holocaust will become a footnote in the history books

An Italian senator who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and this year found herself witnessing a far-right government take power again in Rome has said her “personal nightmare” is that the Holocaust will all but vanish from history books.

Liliana Segre, 92, was the only one of her relatives to survive the Holocaust, which killed six million Jews as part of Nazi Germany’s second world war campaign to obliterate the Jewish population in Europe.

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Kherson residents told to evacuate as bombardment intensifies; Bakhmut ‘covered with blood’, says Zelenskiy – as it happened

Ukraine official says Kherson is ‘one of the most dangerous cities’; Ukrainian president says only few civilians remain in Bakhmut. This live blog is closed

An “official” channel of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) – one of the areas of Ukraine that Russia claimed to have annexed in September – has posted on Telegram to say in the last 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have fired at seven of the settlements the DPR claims as its territory.

It says one civilian was injured, and two houses and three civilian infrastructure facilities were damaged. The claims have not been independently verified. Russia, Syria and North Korea were the only UN member states to recognise the DPR as any kind of legitimate authority before the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, declared it was territory of the Russian Federation.

IOM’s winter preparedness support, made possible by EU funding, includes repairs to collective centres for displaced people, improvements to water, drainage and heating systems, repairs to damaged houses, and the provision of warm blankets, bedding, mattresses and hygiene items. The programme also provides solid fuel and cash assistance to help people have flexible winter livelihoods. This funding will also enable IOM to ensure the availability of critical assets to ensure that aid continues to reach war-affected populations, and to support partner organisations responding to urgent needs on the ground.

Vulnerable sections of the population of Ukraine are going through the hardest winter. As the attacks continue, leaving millions without reliable access to electricity, heating and water, our humanitarian partners, including IOM, continue to work to meet the most urgent needs.

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French open suicide investigation after Iranian found dead in river

Mohammad Moradi posted video online saying he would kill himself to highlight Iran’s crackdown on protests

French authorities are investigating as suicide the drowning of an Iranian man in the south-eastern city of Lyon who had said on social media he was going to kill himself to draw attention to the protest crackdown in Iran.

Mohammad Moradi, 38, was found in the River Rhône that flows through the centre of Lyon late on Monday, a police source told AFP.

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Flavour of the month: the Spanish hamlet (population: 16) that created a hit nude calendar

Even oldest resident, aged 100, strips off in venture aimed at revitalising village in Murcia

For decades they’ve grappled with a steady exodus as residents set their sights on jobs and opportunities beyond the southern Spanish hamlet. But the dwindling population of Peña Zafra de Abajo may have found a singular strategy to fight back – in essence stripping down to save their town.

“When I suggested the idea of a nude calendar, people said, ‘Are you crazy?’” said Lucía Nicolás, who leads the hamlet’s residents’ association. “But I saw it as a way to put ourselves on the map and show off our hamlet of 16 residents.”

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Russia-Ukraine war live: air raid warning across Ukraine; Russia bringing in large reserves near Kreminna, local official says – as it happened

Country-wide air raid warning issued; heavy fighting near Kreminna according to head of Luhansk regional military

As we reported in the previous post, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, yesterday attended an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a Moscow-led group consisting of former Soviet states, in St Petersburg.

In footage posted by the Kremlin, Putin is seen welcoming the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

We have to admit, unfortunately, that disagreements also arise between the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The main thing, however, is that we are ready and will cooperate, and even if any problematic issues arise, we strive to solve them ourselves.

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Weeks turn to months as children become stuck at camps in Crimea

The Russian-run camps were advertised as restorative breaks; parents say some children have been kept there for months

Kherson city was liberated by Ukrainian forces in November. But for some, the horrors of the Russian occupation are still not over. Nadia* sent her 14-year-old son to a Russian-run summer camp in Crimea – occupied by Moscow since 2014 – in October. He was meant to return after two weeks. It has now been more than two months.

In late November, he forwarded her a series of chilling voice messages from his camp leader telling him he would not be allowed back to Kherson because of his pro-Ukraine views.

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Suspect charged over World Cup hit-and-run death in Montpellier

14-year-old boy died during celebrations of France’s win over Morocco in World Cup semi-finals

A suspect has been charged over the hit-and-run death of a teenage boy during celebrations of France’s win over Morocco in the World Cup semi-finals, French prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The 14-year-old boy, Aymen, was killed on 15 December in the Paillade district of the southern city of Montpellier.

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