World

GENEVA - Mpox remains an international public health emergency, the World Health Organization said Thursday after deciding the epidemic still merits the highest level of alert, with cases rising and its geographic spread widening.

"The mpox upsurge continues to meet the criteria of a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)," said a WHO statement.

The emergency committee on mpox met for the third time on Tuesday and advised WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the situation still constituted a PHEIC.

The decision was "based on the continuing rise in numbers and geographic spread, the violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo -- which hampers the response -- as well as a lack of funding to implement the response plan", said the brief statement.

Tedros concurred with the committee's advice, extending the PHEIC first declared on August 14 last year.

A PHEIC is the highest level of alarm under the International Health Regulations, which are legally binding on 196 countries.

The UN health agency's chief had declared the emergency amid a rapid spread of the disease, formerly known as monkeypox, in Africa and especially in the DR Congo.

15 countries so far 

Mpox is caused by a virus from the same family as smallpox. It can be transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed between people through close physical contact.

The disease, which was first detected in humans in 1970 in the DR Congo, then known as Zaire, causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions, and can be deadly.

It has two subtypes: clade 1 and clade 2.

The virus, long endemic in central Africa, gained international prominence in May 2022 when clade 2 spread around the world, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men.

Nearly 128,000 mpox cases have been laboratory confirmed across 130 countries since then, including 281 deaths, WHO data shows. 

The WHO declared a global health emergency in July 2022, but thanks to vaccination and awareness drives that helped stem the spread, that declaration was lifted in May 2023.

Just a year later, however, a new two-pronged epidemic broke out mainly in the DR Congo, with both the original clade 1a strain and a new strain, clade 1b.

This prompted the WHO's new emergency declaration last August.

To date, community spread of the clade 1b strain has been confirmed in the DRC and five other African nations, and it has been detected in another 15 countries around the world in connection with travel, WHO data shows.

The DRC confirmed more than 13,000 mpox cases and 43 deaths in 2024, and the country confirmed more than 2,000 cases in the first five weeks of this year -- more than half of the cases confirmed globally.

MOSCOW — The Kremlin on Thursday ruled out any negotiation over the status of five Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed despite not fully controlling four of them.

"The territories which have become subjects of the Russian Federation, which are inscribed in our country's constitution, are an inseparable part of our country," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"This is undeniable and non-negotiable," he said in a phone briefing attended by AFP.

Russia in 2014 annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula following a brief military operation and a referendum that was criticised as illegitimate by Kyiv and Western powers.

After launching its full-scale offensive, Russia in September 2022 declared the annexation of four Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Russian forces control most of the Donetsk and Lugansk region but only parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Moscow also occupies part of the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine.

Ukraine has seized hundreds of square kilometres of Russia's Kursk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky has raised the possibility of an "exchange" of territory with Moscow -- a notion ruled out by Russia.

Russian forces have been pushing further into eastern Ukraine in recent months and have seized back territory in the Kursk region.

The Russian defence ministry on Friday said it had re-captured the village of Nikolsky near the Ukrainian-held town of Sudzha.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, battling pneumonia in both lungs, slept well and is resting, the Vatican said Thursday, after revealing the 88-year-old's condition was slightly improving.

The pontiff, who had part of one of his lungs removed as a young man, has suffered increasing health problems in recent years.

He was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on February 14 and this is the longest hospitalisation in Francis's papacy.

"The pope slept well last night and is now resting", the Vatican said in a morning bulletin on the health of the pontiff.

The clinical conditions of the Argentine, admitted to Gemelli with breathing difficulties, "in the last 24 hours have shown a further, slight improvement," the Holy See said late Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday ruled out offering US security guarantees or NATO membership for Ukraine as his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky prepared to visit to seal a deal on handing over natural resources.

Trump, who has upended US policy by reaching out to Russia and seeking a quick end to the three-year war, said that European allies would bear responsibility for Ukraine's security.

Addressing reporters at a cabinet meeting, Trump said Zelensky would visit Friday and sign the agreement after intense US pressure to hand over rare earths used in aerospace and other technology.

"It's a great deal for Ukraine, too, because they get us over there," Trump said.

"We'll be on the land and, you know, in that way, it's this sort of automatic security, because nobody's going to be messing around with our people when we're there," Trump said.

But Trump ruled out the United States providing more formal security guarantees, as sought by Kyiv.

I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much," Trump said. 

"We're going to have Europe do that," Trump said. "Europe is their next-door neighbor, but we're going to make sure everything goes well."

Asked what concessions would need to be made to end the war, he ruled out Ukrainian membership in NATO, again repeating Russia's stance that the issue was behind its invasion.

"NATO -- you can forget about," Trump said. "I think that's probably the reason the whole thing started."

Former president Joe Biden backed Ukraine's eventual membership in NATO without offering a concrete timeframe.

The United States on Monday sided with Russia at the United Nations and against nearly all its European allies with a resolution that called for an end to the war without stressing the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

"We're going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides," Trump said Wednesday.

"But for Ukraine, we're going to try very hard to make a good deal so that they can get as much back as possible."

Trump insisted that his diplomacy was bringing a new spirit of compromise from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who earlier "wanted the whole thing" in Ukraine.

"He's a very smart guy. He's a very cunning person," Trump said of Putin.

"I think we're going to have a deal. If I didn't get elected, I believe he would have just continued to go through Ukraine."

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday told Trump that the Europeans would consider sending troops to protect any deal but that US support was critical as a means to guarantee security.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to deliver a similar message when he meets Trump on Thursday. 

WASHINGTON — Israeli representatives were en route Tuesday to talks on the next phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal following an agreement on exchanging Palestinian prisoners for the bodies of Israeli hostages, a US envoy said.

Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's point person on the Middle East, repeated that he was also ready to head back to the region to boost diplomacy.

"We're making a lot of progress. Israel is sending a team right now as we speak," Witkoff told an event in Washington for the American Jewish Committee.

"It's either going to be in Doha or in Cairo, where negotiations will begin again with the Egyptians and the Qataris," he said.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States, in an unusual joint effort between Trump's diplomatic team and the administration of former president Joe Biden, sealed an agreement in January after months of diplomacy to pause more than a year of bloodshed in Gaza.

Mediators said Tuesday they restored a swap that was part of the first phase of the deal, which is set to end on March 1.

Israel agreed to release 600 Palestinian prisoners, who had been due to be freed last week, in exchange for the bodies of four Israeli hostages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier held off on the deal due to what he described as "humiliating ceremonies" to free the hostages by Hamas, which opened the war with an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Witkoff said the focus of the new talks will be to "put phase two on tracks and have some additional hostage release, and we think that's a real possibility."

Witkoff said that "maybe" he will join the negotiations on Sunday "if it goes well." He earlier spoke of travelling to the region this week.

KYIV — Ukraine has agreed on the terms of a minerals deal with the United States and could sign it on Friday, a Ukrainian official said, in a move Kyiv hopes will lay the ground for future security guarantees from Washington.

US President Donald Trump had demanded that Ukraine give access to its rare earth minerals to compensate for the billions of dollars of wartime aid it received under Joe Biden.

The deal would see the United States jointly develop Ukraine's mineral wealth, with revenues going to a newly created fund that would be "joint for Ukraine and America", a senior Ukrainian source told AFP on the condition of anonymity late Tuesday.

The source said the draft of the deal included a reference to "security", but did not explicitly set out the United States's commitments, one of Kyiv's prior demands for an agreement.

"There is a general clause that says America will invest in a stable and prosperous sovereign Ukraine, that it works for a lasting peace, and that America supports efforts to guarantee security."

"Now government officials are working on the details," the source said, adding that President Volodymyr Zelensky could sign it on a trip to Washington as early as Friday.

Trump has upended US foreign policy since taking office last month, opening dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin while making threats against Washington's traditional allies.

The United States sided with Russia twice Monday at the United Nations, as they sought to avoid any condemnation of Moscow's invasion of its neighbour three years ago.

Relations with Trump 

Ukraine hopes the minerals deal will improve relations with the Trump administration, which have soured amid a war of words between Zelensky and Trump.

Last week, the Republican branded his Ukrainian counterpart a "dictator" and called for him to "move fast" to end the war, a day after Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia without Kyiv.

Then on Saturday, at a high-profile conservative conference, Trump said he was trying to get "money back" for the billions of dollars of aid sent to support Ukraine in the war with Russia.

Zelensky had earlier accused Trump of living in a Russian "disinformation space".

Trump had previously asked for "$500 billion worth" of rare earth minerals to make up for aid given to Kyiv -- a price tag Ukraine had balked at and which does not correspond with published US aid figures.

The source said Washington had cut this clause, as well as others that were unfavourable to Ukraine.

"They removed all the clauses that did not suit us," the source said.

The United States has given Ukraine more than $60 billion in military aid since Russia's invasion, according to official figures,  the largest such contribution among Kyiv's allies, but substantially lower than Trump's $500 billion figure.

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa completed Wednesday the evacuation of 127 troops from the front lines of the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, four of whom were critically wounded, the military said.

Twenty-one soldiers returned Tuesday and 106 more on Wednesday, South Africa National Defence Force [SANDF] spokesman Prince Tshabalala said. 

They were part of a mission deployed by the 16-nation Southern African Development Community [SADC] bloc in 2023 to support the DRC government in the east, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has made significant territorial gains. 

"We have admitted four patients [who are] critical," Tshabalala said. Seventeen others had moderate injuries. Some of the others who returned required "psychological and social intervention". 

The injured soldiers had received treatment in DRC hospitals and travelled through Rwanda for the evacuation, Tshabalala told AFP.

Calls have been mounting for the entire South African contingent to return home after 14 soldiers were killed in the conflict late January.

Most of the 14 were part of the SADC mission but at least two were members of a separate UN-mandated peacekeeping force.

South Africa had deployed more than 1,000 soldiers in the DRC, according to reports and analysts, although officials have not given precise numbers.

It dominates the SADC force, which includes smaller numbers of soldiers from Malawi and Tanzania.

The centre-right Democratic Alliance [DA] party, a coalition partner in the government of national unity, and the radical-left Economic Freedom Fighters [EFF] have in a rare unison called for the "immediate" withdrawal of the troops. 

The M23 group has gained control of the South Kivu provincial capital, Bukavu, and Goma, the main city in the country's perennially volatile east.

More than 7,000 people have been killed in the fighting since January, DRC Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka said Monday, although AFP has not been able to verify the figures.

LONDON — UK leader Keir Starmer makes a high-stakes visit to the White House on Thursday to try to convince US President Donald Trump to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any ceasefire agreement with Russia.

The British prime minister will seek to build on French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Washington on Monday, when he warned that peace cannot mean the "surrender" of Ukraine.

But the French leader said his talks with Trump on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine had shown a path forward despite fears of a transatlantic rift.

Starmer in turn will try to perform a diplomatic high-wire act by sticking up for Kyiv without annoying Trump, who has stunned Europe by pursuing talks with President Vladimir Putin's Russian administration.

"Starmer will be very reluctant to publicly critique Trump's stance but he will have to find ways to diplomatically do so, for the sake of Ukraine," said Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group think-tank.

Top of Starmer's wish list is securing assurances from Trump that the US will provide a so-called backstop, possibly in the form of air cover, intelligence and logistics, to support any European troops sent to Ukraine to monitor a ceasefire.

London and Paris are spearheading proposals to send a European "reassurance force" of fewer than 30,000 soldiers to protect Ukraine in the event the war ends.

Vital 'backup'

Macron said Trump had "good reason" to re-engage with Putin, but said it was critical for Washington to offer "backup" for any European peacekeeping force.

Although the Trump administration has ruled out committing US soldiers, Starmer has insisted a US "backstop" is vital to deter Russia from "launching another invasion in just a few years' time".

Starmer will tell his counterpart that Ukraine must be involved in negotiations to end the conflict, after Washington shocked Europe this month by holding discussions with Moscow alone.

The UK premier has already sought to appease Trump by publicly stating his willingness to send British peacekeepers to Ukraine to monitor any truce, while France has pledged the same.

Starmer will also be hoping that his announcement Tuesday that UK defence spending will rise from 2.3 percent to 2.5 percent by 2027 will please Trump, with the US president regularly saying European countries should be paying more towards NATO.

Unlike other European leaders, Starmer has been at pains to avoid publicly disagreeing with Trump.

That stance has been tested though, notably last week when he rejected Trump's claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was a "dictator".

 'Bridge'

Trump insists he wants peace and has accused both Macron and Starmer of doing "nothing" to end the Ukraine war over the past three years.

Britain's prime minister hopes to act as a "bridge" between America and Europe, but Trump's unpredictability will make for a nervy meeting in the Oval office.

Their polar opposite personalities may also complicate matters. While Trump is a brash, convention-breaking unilateralist, Starmer is a cautious former human rights lawyer who reveres multilateral institutions.

The meeting also comes with tensions over US steel tariffs and Starmer's controversial decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and pay to lease a strategic UK-US military base there.

"The biggest risk is that Trump continues to berate Ukraine and Europe and maybe even the UK, embarrassing Starmer and damaging the UK's credibility," Aspinall said.

Kim Darroch, a former UK ambassador to Washington, said Starmer should play to Trump's ego and insist on the legacy he could have.

"If I were Starmer, I would say to Trump that this is your chance for your place in history," Darroch told BBC radio last week.

"But it has to be a fair deal. If it's a bad deal, you are not going to get that praise, you are going to get a load of criticism and that will be your record in the history books," he said.

Richard Whitman, a UK foreign policy expert, said he thought the best Starmer could do was "play for time".

"We know that Trump is inconsistent and we know that it's perfectly possible his position on Ukraine might change when he finds it really difficult to get a peace deal out of Putin," he told AFP.