LISBON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Global police agency Interpol confirmed on Wednesday it had issued a red notice for Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the country’s former president, asking global law enforcement authorities to locate and provisionally arrest her.
Dos Santos, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, has faced corruption accusations for years, including allegations by Angola in 2020 that she and her husband had steered $1 billion in state funds to companies in which they held stakes during her father’s presidency, including from oil giant Sonangol.
Portugal’s Lusa news agency reported on Nov. 18 that Interpol had issued an international arrest warrant for dos Santos. But Interpol told Reuters it had issued a red notice instead at the request of Angolan authorities.
It explained that a red notice was “not an international arrest warrant” but a “request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action”.
A source close to dos Santos said on Nov. 19 that she had yet to be notified by Interpol. A spokesperson for dos Santos did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
According to Lusa, an official document related to the request made to Interpol mentions that dos Santos is often in Portugal, Britain and the United Arab Emirates.
The same document cited by Lusa said dos Santos, 49, was wanted for various crimes, including alleged embezzlement, fraud, influence peddling and money laundering.
Dos Santos has given interviews recently, telling CNN Portugal on Tuesday the courts in Angola were not independent” and judges there were “used to fulfil a political agenda”.
Reporting by Catarina Demony and Patricia Rua; editing by Aislinn Laing and Mark Heinrich
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) – A deadly explosion occurred in NATO member Poland’s territory near its border with Ukraine on Tuesday, and the United States and its allies said they were investigating unconfirmed reports the blast had been caused by stray Russian missiles.
The explosion, which firefighters said killed two people, raised concerns of Russia’s war in Ukraine becoming a wider conflict. Polish authorities said it was caused by a Russian-made rocket, but Russia’s defense ministry denied involvement.
If it is determined that Moscow was to blame for the blast, it could trigger NATO’s principle of collective defense known as Article 5, in which an attack on one of the Western alliance’s members is deemed an attack on all, starting deliberations on a potential military response.
As a possible prelude to such a decision, however, Poland has first requested a NATO meeting on Wednesday under the treaty’s Article 4, European diplomats said. That is a call for consultations among the allies in the face of a security threat, allowing for more time to determine what steps to take.
The following is an explanation of Article 5 and what might occur if it is activated:
WHAT IS ARTICLE 5?
Article 5 is the cornerstone of the founding treaty of NATO, which was created in 1949 with the U.S. military as its powerful mainstay essentially to counter the Soviet Union and its Eastern bloc satellites during the Cold War.
The charter stipulates that “the Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.”
“They agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area,” it says.
AND WHAT IS ARTICLE 4?
Article 4 states that NATO members “will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”
Within hours of the blast in Poland on Tuesday, two European diplomats said that Poland requested a NATO meeting under Article 4 for consultations.
[1/4] Zuzana 155 mm gun howitzer of NATO Enhanced Forward Presence battle group takes position before live fire exercise, during Iron Spear 2022 military drill in Adazi, Latvia November 15, 2022. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
HOW COULD THE UKRAINE WAR TRIGGER ARTICLE 5?
Since Ukraine is not part of NATO, Russia’s invasion in February did not trigger Article 5, though the United States and other member states rushed to provide military and diplomatic assistance to Kyiv.
However, experts have long warned of the potential for a spillover to neighboring countries on NATO’s eastern flank that could force the alliance to respond militarily.
Such action by Russia, either intentional or accidental, has raised the risk of widening the war by drawing other countries directly into the conflict.
IS INVOKING ARTICLE 5 AUTOMATIC?
No. Following an attack on a member state, the others come together to determine whether they agree to regard it as an Article 5 situation.
There is no time limit on how long such consultations could take, and experts say the language is flexible enough to allow each member to decide how far to go in responding to armed aggression against another.
HAS ARTICLE 5 BEEN INVOKED BEFORE?
Yes. Article 5 has been activated once before – on behalf of the United States, in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked-plane attacks on New York and Washington.
WHAT HAS BIDEN SAID ABOUT ARTICLE 5 COMMITMENTS?
While insisting that the United States has no interest in going to war against Russia, President Joe Biden has said from the start of Moscow’s invasion that Washington would meet its Article 5 commitments to defend NATO partners.
“America’s fully prepared with our NATO allies to defend every single inch of NATO territory. Every single inch,” Biden said at the White House in September.
He had declared earlier that there was “no doubt” that his administration would uphold Article 5.
Reporting by Matt Spetalnick;
Editing by Kieran Murray, Grant McCool and Bradley Perrett
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Oct 31 (Reuters) – Some euro zone countries have eased rules for the banks that manage the trading of their government debt to help them cope with some of the most challenging market conditions in years, officials told Reuters.
Out of 11 major euro area debt agencies Reuters contacted, officials in the Netherlands and Belgium told Reuters they have loosened various market-making obligations dictating how actively these banks should trade their debt.
France, Spain and Finland said their rules are already structured to automatically take account of market tensions. Germany and Austria said they do not set such rules.
As the European Central Bank unwinds years of buying the region’s debt, while the war in Ukraine, an energy shock and turmoil in Britain are making investors wary of loading up on government bonds, debt managers are adjusting to a less liquid, more volatile market.
That in turn, could raise borrowing costs for governments, already squeezed by climbing interest rates and energy-related spending, and bring more uncertainty for institutions, such as pension funds, which seek in government debt safety and stability.
Euro zone government debt bid-ask spreads, the difference between what buyers are offering and sellers are willing to accept and a measure of how smooth the trading is, have risen up to four-fold since the summer of 2021, data compiled by MarketAxess (MKTX.O) for Reuters showed. The data tracked German, Italian, French, Spanish and Dutch bonds, markets which account for the vast majority of euro zone debt with nearly 8 trillion euros outstanding.
Bond bid-ask spreads soar
LOOSENED OBLIGATIONS
Wider spreads mean more volatility and higher transaction costs. So governments expect, and some formally require their primary dealers – banks that buy government debt at auctions and then sell to investors and manage its trading – to keep those tight.
In markets with formal requirements, they also face other “quoting obligations” to ensure the best possible liquidity. Those obligations have been loosened in some countries to account for heightened market stress.
Jaap Teerhuis, head of dealing room at the Dutch State Treasury, said several of its quoting obligations, including bid-ask spreads, had been loosened.
“Volatility is still significantly higher compared to before the (Ukraine) war and also ECB uncertainty has also led to more volatility and more volatility makes it harder for primary dealers to comply,” he said.
Liquidity has been declining since late 2021 as traders started anticipating ECB rate hikes, Teerhuis said. The Netherlands then loosened its quoting obligations following the invasion of Ukraine.
Belgium’s quoting obligations also move with changes in trading conditions. But it has relaxed since March the rules on how many times per month dealers are allowed to fail to comply with them and has also reduced how much dealers are required to quote on trading platforms, its debt agency chief Maric Post said.
The two countries also loosened rules during the COVID-19 pandemic. Belgium’s Post said that lasted only four months in 2020, but it has kept obligations looser for much longer this time.
Finland said it has not changed its rules, but could not rule out acting if conditions persist or worsen.
Outside the bloc, Norway has also allowed dealers to set wider bid-ask spreads.
In Italy, debt management chief Davide Iacovoni said on Tuesday it was considering adjusting the way it ranks primary dealers each year to encourage them to quote tight spreads. Such rankings can affect which banks get to take part in lucrative syndicated debt sales.
Debt offices where obligations adapt automatically said attempts to enforce pre-determined bid-ask spreads in volatile markets would discourage primary dealers from providing liquidity and cause more volatility.
“If the market is too volatile, if it’s too risky, if it’s too costly, it’s better to adjust the bid-offer to what is the reality of the market than to force liquidity,” France’s debt chief Cyril Rousseau told an event on Tuesday.
Britain’s September sell-off highlighted how liquidity can evaporate fast in markets that are already volatile when a shock hits. In that case, the government’s big spending plans triggered large moves in debt prices, forcing pension funds to resort to fire sales of assets to meet collateral calls.
‘FRAGMENTED MARKET’
Allianz senior economist Patrick Krizan said with bond volatility nearing 2008 levels, a fragmented market for safe assets was a concern.
The euro zone is roughly 60% the size of the U.S. economy but it relies on Germany’s 1.6 trillion euro bond market as a safe haven – a fraction of the $23-trillion U.S. Treasury market.
In the case of a volatility shock “you can very easily fall into a situation where some markets are really drying up,” Krizan said. “For us it’s one of the biggest risks for the euro area.”
For example, the Netherlands like Germany has a top, triple A rating. But like other smaller euro zone markets it does not offer futures, a key hedging instrument, and so far this year the premium it pays over German debt has doubled to around 30 basis points.
Smaller governments pay premium over bigger rating peers
Efforts by debt officials are welcomed by European primary dealers, whose numbers have dwindled in recent years because of shrinking profit margins and tougher regulation.
Two officials at primary dealer banks said that fulfilling the quoting obligations in current conditions would force them to take on more risk.
“If (issuers) want private sector market-making, it needs to be profitable, or why would anyone do it? And it can’t be if rates move around 10-15 basis points a day,” one said of moves of a scale that had rarely been seen in these markets in recent years.
($1 = 0.9970 euros)
Reporting by Yoruk Bahceli and Dhara Ranasinghe; additional reporting by Belen Carreno in MADRID, Lefteris Papadimas in ATHENS and Padraic Halpin in DUBLIN; editing by Tomasz Janowski
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HOSTENS, France, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Wildfires tore through the Gironde region of southwestern France on Wednesday, destroying homes and forcing the evacuation of 10,000 residents, some of whom had clambered onto rooftops as the flames got closer.
Black-and-orange skies, darkened by the smoke billowing from forests and lit up by the flames, were seen across the area as the fires continued to burn out of control despite the efforts of firefighters backed by water-bombing aircraft.
Fires, which have razed about 6,200 hectares (15,320), have now crossed in the neighbouring Landes region.
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France, like the rest of Europe, has been struggling this summer with successive heatwaves and its worst drought on record. Dozens of wildfires are ablaze across the country, including at least eight major ones.
“Prepare your papers, the animals you can take with you, some belongings,” the Gironde municipality of Belin-Beliet said on Facebook before evacuating parts of the town.
In the nearby village of Hostens, police had earlier been door to door telling residents to leave as the fire advanced. Camille Delay fled with her partner and her son, grabbing their two cats, chickens and house insurance papers.
“Everyone in the village climbed onto their rooftops to see what was happening – within ten minutes a little twist of smoke became enormous,” the 30-year-old told Reuters by telephone.
Firefighters said more evacuations were likely. Even so, some Hostens residents were reluctant to abandon their homes.
“It’s complicated to go with the dogs and we cannot leave them here,” said Allisson Horan, 18, who stayed behind with her father.
“I’m getting worried because the fire is in a plot of land behind ours and the wind is starting to change direction.”
Numerous small roads and a highway were closed.
Flames engulf trees during a fire in Hostens, as wildfires continue to spread in the Gironde region of southwestern France, in this screen grab taken from a handout video August 9, 2022. Sdis33 via Facebook/ Handout via REUTERS
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HEATWAVES
More than 57,200 hectares have gone up in flames so far in France this year, nearly six times the full-year average for 2006-2021, data from the European Forest Fire Information System shows.
“The fire is creating its own wind,” senior local official Martin Guespereau told reporters, adding that efforts to fight it were made more difficult by how unpredictable it was.
Sweden and Italy are among countries preparing to send help to France, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
He repeated calls for everyone to be responsible – nine out of 10 fires are either voluntarily or involuntarily caused by people, he said.
The Gironde wildfire is one of many that have broken out across Europe this summer, triggered by heatwaves that have baked the continent and brought record temperatures.
In Portugal, nearly 1,200 firefighters backed by eight aircraft have battled a blaze in the mountainous Covilha area some 280 km (174 miles) northeast of Lisbon that has burned more than 3,000 hectares of forest since Saturday.
Spain and Greece have also had to tackle multiple fires over the past few weeks.
The Gironde was hit by major wildfires in July which destroyed more than 20,000 hectares of forest and temporarily forced almost 40,000 people from their homes.
Authorities believe the latest inferno was a result of the previous fires still smouldering in the area’s peaty soil.
Fires were also raging in the southern departments of Lozere and Aveyron. In the Maine et Loire department in western France, more than 1,200 hectares have been scorched by another fire.
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Reporting by Stephane Mahe in Hostens and Layli Foroudi in Paris; Additional reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Writing by Richard Lough, Ingrid Melander; Editing by Jane Merriman, Alexandra Hudson and Mark Heinrich
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Nord Stream 1 pipeline out of action for maintenance
Pipeline due to resume pumping on Thursday
EU says states must act now to reduce gas consumption
Germany, others have rationing and other plans in place
BRUSSELS/LONDON, July 20 (Reuters) – The European Union will set out emergency plans on Wednesday to curb gas usage after President Vladimir Putin warned that Russian supplies sent via the biggest pipeline to Europe, Nord Stream 1, were at risk of being reduced further.
Deliveries via the pipeline, which accounts for more than a third of Russian gas exports to the EU, are due to resume on Thursday after a 10-day halt for annual maintenance.
But supplies via that route had been reduced even before the maintenance outage because of a dispute over sanctioned parts, and may now face further cuts, while deliveries via other routes, such as Ukraine, have also fallen since Russia invaded its neighbour in February.
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The disruptions have hampered Europe’s efforts to refill gas stores before winter, raising the risk of rationing and another hit to fragile economic growth if Moscow further restricts flows in retaliation for Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
The European Commission’s plan will urge countries to slash gas use. A draft seen by Reuters proposed a voluntary target for countries to cut gas demand over the next eight months, which could be made legally binding in an emergency.
EU officials said the target cut would be 10%-15%, with any plan needing approval from members of the 27-nation bloc. But EU officials say it is vital to act now rather than wait to see what happens to flows via Nord Stream 1 or other routes.
“We believe that a full disruption is likely and it is especially likely if we don’t act and leave ourselves vulnerable to it,” one said. “If we wait, it will be more expensive and it will mean us dancing to Russia’s tune.”
European politicians have accused Russia of playing politics with its gas supplies, using technical issues as a pretext to reduce deliveries. The Kremlin says Russia remains a reliable energy supplier and has blamed reduced flows on sanctions.
Two Russian sources familiar with Russia’s export plans said flows via Nord Stream 1 were expected to restart on time on Thursday after being halted on July 11 for annual maintenance.
But they said it would below its capacity of 160 million cubic metres (mcm) per day.
Kremlin-controlled Gazprom (GAZP.MM) cut gas exports via the route to 40% capacity in June, blaming delays on the return of a turbine that Siemens Energy (ENR1n.DE) was servicing in Canada.
FURTHER REDUCTIONS
That turbine, which was caught up in sanctions, was reported this week to be on its way back, although Gazprom said on Wednesday it had not received documentation to reinstall it and said the turbine’s return and maintenance of other equipment was needed to keep the pipeline running safely. read more
Putin suggested there might be a further reduction in supplies via the pipeline that runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse which has relied heavily on Russian fuel, adding to European supply concerns. read more
Gas prices have rocketed in volatile trade since the Ukraine crisis erupted. The front-month gas contract climbed above 160 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) on Wednesday, 360% up on a year ago but below its March peak of 335 euros.
Putin said there were five gas pumping units, operated by Siemens Energy at Nord Stream 1 and one more unit was out of order due to “crumbling of inside lining.”
“There are two functioning machines there, they pump 60 million cubic metres per day … If one is not returned, there will be one, which is 30 million cubic metres. Has Gazprom something to do with that?” he said.
Putin said one more of the gas pumping turbines was due to be sent for maintenance on July 26.
He also said Gazprom, which has a monopoly on Russian gas exports by pipeline, was not to blame for the reduction of gas transit capacity via a network of pipelines to Europe.
He blamed Kyiv for closing one route via Ukraine, although Ukraine’s authorities blame the shutdown on Russia’s invasion.
Siemens Energy said maintaining turbines for the Nord Stream 1 would normally be a routine matter. It said it would continue maintaining equipment under sanctions if possible and where required, and it would work as fast as it could. read more
In a pivot east, Gazprom said on Wednesday Russian gas supplies heading to China via its Power of Siberia pipeline hit a new daily record. Moscow has been expanding capacity to supply China even as deliveries to Europe dwindle, although Russia’s far east network is not connected to the European supply system.
European nations, meanwhile, have been chasing alternative supplies, although the global gas market was stretched even before the Ukraine crisis, with demand for the fuel recovering from the pandemic-induced downturn.
Those efforts have included seeking more gas from suppliers linked to Europe by pipeline, such as Algeria, and by building or expanding more liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to receive shipments from much further afield, such as the United States.
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Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Carmel Crimmins
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Health officials report hundreds of heat-related deaths
UK emergency committee to meet after weather warning
PARIS/LISBON, July 16 (Reuters) – Wildfires raged in southwestern France and Spain on Saturday, forcing thousands of people to be evacuated from their homes as blistering summer temperatures put authorities on alert in parts of Europe.
About 14,000 people had been evacuated from France’s Gironde region by Saturday afternoon as more than 1,200 firefighters battled to bring the flames under control, regional authorities said in a statement. read more
“We have a fire that will continue to spread as long as it is not stabilised,” Vincent Ferrier, deputy prefect for Langon in Gironde, told a news conference.
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Wildfires have torn through France in recent weeks, as well as other European countries including Portugal and Spain, and more than 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of land was on fire in the Gironde region on Saturday, up from 7,300 hectares on Friday.
In the latest weather warning, 38 of France’s 96 departments were listed on “orange” alert, with residents of those areas urged to be vigilant. The heatwave in western France is expected to peak on Monday, with temperatures climbing above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
In neighbouring Spain, firefighters were battling a series of blazes on Saturday after days of unusually high temperatures that reached up to 45.7 C (114 F).
The nearly week-long heatwave has caused 360 heat-related deaths, according to figures from the Carlos III Health Institute.
More than 3,000 people have been evacuated from homes due to a large wildfire near Mijas, a town in the province of Malaga that is popular with northern European tourists, the region’s emergency services said in a tweet early on Saturday.
Many were taken to shelter in a provincial sports centre.
“The police drove up and down the road with their sirens on and everyone was told to leave. Just leave. No instructions where to go,” said British pensioner John Pretty, 83.
“It’s frightening … because you don’t know what’s happening,” said Belgian resident Jean-Marie Vandelanotte, 68.
Elsewhere in Spain, thick black plumes of smoke rose into the air near Casas de Miravete in the Extremadura region as helicopters dumped water on flames that have scorched 3,000 hectares, forced the evacuation of two villages and threatened to reach the Monfrague national park.
Flames are seen during a wildfire, amid the second heatwave of the year, in the vicinity of Casas de Miravete, Spain, July 16, 2022. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
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Fires were also burning in the central region of Castille and Leon and in Galicia in the north.
There was some respite for firefighters in Portugal, where temperatures dropped across most of the country on Saturday after reaching about 40 C (104 F) in recent days.
“We have had big fires and we don’t want them to be reactivated again … We will keep extreme vigilance this weekend,” Emergency and Civil Protection Authority Commander Andre Fernandes told reporters.
A total of 39,550 hectares (98,000 acres) was ravaged by wildfires from the start of the year until mid-June, more than triple the area razed by fires in the same period last year, data from the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests showed.
An area equivalent to almost two-thirds of that has burned during fires in the last week.
Portugal’s Health Ministry said 238 people had died as a result of the heatwave between July 7 and 13, most of them elderly people with underlying conditions.
MOROCCO BLAZES
Across the Mediterranean from Europe, blazes in Morocco ripped through more than 2,000 hectares of forest in the northern areas of Larache, Ouazzane, Taza and Tetouane, killing at least one person, local authorities said.
More than 1,000 households were evacuated from their villages and water-carrying planes helped extinguish most of the fires by Friday night, though firefighters were still struggling to douse three hot spots near Larache.
In Britain, the national weather forecaster has issued its first red “extreme heat” warning for parts of England on Monday and Tuesday.
With possibly record-breaking temperatures expected, the government’s emergency response committee was due to meet later on Saturday.
The highest recorded temperature in Britain was 38.7 C (101.7 F), recorded in Cambridge on July 25, 2019.
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Reporting by Layli Faroudi in Paris, Sergio Gonclaves in Lisbon, Mariano Valladolid and Jon Nazca in Malaga, Ahmed Eljechtimi in Rabat, and Jessica Jones and Michael Holden in London
Writing by Helen Popper
Editing by Frances Kerry and Christina Fincher
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WMO issues warning on air quality in towns and cities
UK declares first red heat warning for Monday, Tuesday
Wildfires ablaze in France, Spain and Portugal
LEIRIA, Portugal/LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) – Hundreds more people were evacuated from their homes as wildfires blistered land in France, Spain and Portugal on Friday, while officials in Europe issued health warnings for the heatwave in the coming days.
More than 1,000 firefighters, supported by water-bomber aircraft, have battled since Tuesday to control two blazes in southwestern France that have been fanned by scorching heat, tinder-box conditions and strong winds.
While temperatures dipped a little in Portugal, they were still expected to top 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some places, with five districts on red alert and more than 1,000 firefighters tackling 17 wildfires, authorities said.
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In Spain, a new wildfire broke out in the south of the country after blazes in the west in the past week.
More than 400 people were evacuated from the hills of Mijas, a town popular with northern European tourists in the province of Malaga. Beachgoers in Torremolinos, some 20 km away, could see plumes of smoke rising above the hotels lining the coast.
Meanwhile, the worst drought in over 70 years reduced Italy’s longest river, the Po, to little more than a trickle in places, with temperatures expected to rise next week.
Officials are worried about the effects on people’s health and on healthcare systems already challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic as the searing heat sweeps the continent, with warnings issued for worse to come in Britain in particular.
The World Meteorological Organization said the heatwave would worsen air quality, especially in towns and cities.
“The stable and stagnant atmosphere acts as a lid to trap atmospheric pollutants, including particulate matter,” Lorenzo Labrador, WMO scientific officer, told a Geneva press briefing.
“These result in a degradation of air quality and adverse health effects, particularly for vulnerable people.”
Portuguese Health Minister Marta Temido said on Thursday the health system faced a “particularly worrying” week due to the heatwave and said some hospitals were overwhelmed.
From July 7 to July 13, Portugal registered 238 excess deaths due to the heatwave, the country’s DGS health authority said. Spain registered 84 excess deaths attributable to extreme temperatures in the first three days of the heatwave, according to the National Epidemiology Centre’s database.
UK WARNING
A church is pictured during sunset as a heat wave hits Europe, in Oisy-le-Verger, France, July 14, 2022. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
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Britain’s weather forecaster issued its first red “extreme heat” warning for parts of England on Monday and Tuesday. read more
“Exceptional, perhaps record-breaking temperatures are likely early next week,” Met Office Chief Meteorologist Paul Gundersen said.
“Nights are also likely to be exceptionally warm, especially in urban areas,” he said. “This is likely to lead to widespread impacts on people and infrastructure.”
The highest recorded temperature in Britain was 38.7 C (101.7 F) recorded in Cambridge on July 25, 2019.
Hannah Cloke, climate expert at Britain’s University of Reading, said the heatwave showed climate change was here and there was an urgent need to adapt.
“We are seeing these problems now and they are going to get worse. We need to do something now,” she told Reuters.
“It’s harder to cope with these types of temperatures in the UK because we’re just not used to them.”
In Portugal, the highest temperature on Thursday was recorded in the northern town of Pinhao at 47 C (116.6 F), just below the record.
Raymond Loadwick, 73, a retiree from Britain now living in the Portuguese district of Leiria, had to leave his home with his dog Jackson when flames started to burn down a hill packed with highly flammable eucalyptus and pine trees on Tuesday.
When he returned a day later, his white house stood untouched but the vegetation around it had turned to ashes and his fruit trees were burned down. Loadwick is scared fires will happen more often in the future: “You have to be on your guard,” he told Reuters.
In France’s Gironde region, 11,300 people have been evacuated since the wildfires broke out around Dune du Pilat and Landiras. Some 7,350 hectares (18,000 acres) of land have been burnt. Authorities said the fires had not yet been stabilised.
Elsewhere in Spain, the wildfires that have been burning in parts of Extremadura, which borders Portugal, and the central Castille and Leon region forced the evacuation of four more small villages late on Thursday and on Friday.
The flames are now threatening a 16th century monastery and a national park. Several hundred people have been evacuated since the fires started and 7,500 hectares of forest have been destroyed in the two regions.
In Catalonia in the northeast, authorities suspended camping and sporting activities around 275 towns and villages to prevent fire risks and restricted farm work involving machinery.
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Additional reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris, Emma Pinedo, Elena Rodriguez and Christina Thykjaer in Madrid, Hannah McKay in Torremolinos, William James in London and Emma Farge in Geneva; Writing by Alison Williams; Editing by Frances Kerry and Hugh Lawson
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A section of skin tissue, harvested from a lesion on the skin of a monkey, that had been infected with monkeypox virus, is seen at 50X magnification on day four of rash development in 1968. CDC/Handout via REUTERS
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MADRID/LISBON, May 20 (Reuters) – (This May 20 story corrects official tallies in headline and in first paragraph, and adds line on Extremadura case in fifth paragraph)
Health authorities in Spain reported on Friday 23 new confirmed cases of monkeypox, mainly in the Madrid region where the regional government closed a sauna linked to the majority of infections.
The total tally in Spain has now reached 30, while 23 confirmed cases have now been identified in neighbouring Portugal, where nine new cases were detected on Friday.
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Madrid authorities have been working on tracing the cases mainly from a single outbreak in a sauna, regional health chief Enrique Ruiz Escudero told reporters on Friday. The word sauna is used in Spain to describe establishments popular with gay men looking for sex rather than just a bathhouse.
“The Public Health Department will carry out an even more detailed analysis… to control contagion, cut the chains of transmission and try to mitigate the transmission of this virus as much as possible,” he said.
The Extremadura region confirmed its first case on Friday afternoon. It is being investigated by national health authorities so is not yet included in the national tally.
Another 18 suspected cases are under investigation in Spain, 15 in the Madrid region, two in the Canary Islands and one in Andalusia, the health authorities said.
More than 100 cases of the viral infection more common to west and central Africa have been now reported in Europe. read more
It is a usually mild infection, with symptoms including fever, headaches and a distinctive bumpy rash. read more
Twenty cases have been detected in Britain – where authorities are offering a smallpox vaccine to healthcare workers and others who may have been exposed. read more
The UK Health Security Agency has said a notable proportion of recent cases in Britain and Europe have been found in gay and bisexual men. read more
Spain is assessing different therapeutic options, such as antivirals and vaccines, but so far all cases have mild symptoms and therefore no specific ad hoc treatment has been necessary, Spanish Health minister Carolina Darias told reporters on Friday.
The Portuguese cases remain under clinical follow-up but none have been hospitalized as they are all stable, the health authority said.
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Reporting by Emma Pinedo and Patricia Rua
Editing by Andrei Khalip, Inti Landauro, Toby Chopra and Frances Kerry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A section of skin tissue, harvested from a lesion on the skin of a monkey, that had been infected with monkeypox virus, is seen at 50X magnification on day four of rash development in 1968. CDC/Handout via REUTERS
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Cases in nine European countries, North America, Australia
Cause still unclear
WHO holds emergency meeting to discuss cases
Germany says biggest outbreak ever in Europe
LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) – The World Health Organization was holding an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the recent outbreak of monkeypox, a viral infection more common to west and central Africa, after over 100 cases were confirmed or suspected in Europe.
In what Germany described as the largest outbreak in Europe ever, cases have been reported in at least nine countries – Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom – as well as the United States, Canada and Australia.
Spain reported 24 new cases on Friday, mainly in the Madrid region where the regional government closed a sauna linked to the majority of infections. read more
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A hospital in Israel was treating a man in his 30s who is displaying symptoms consistent with the disease after recently arriving from Western Europe.
First identified in monkeys, the disease typically spreads through close contact and has rarely spread outside Africa, so this series of cases has triggered concern.
However, scientists do not expect the outbreak to evolve into a pandemic like COVID-19, given the virus does not spread as easily as SARS-COV-2.
Monkeypox is usually a mild viral illness, characterised by symptoms of fever as well as a distinctive bumpy rash.
“This is the largest and most widespread outbreak of monkeypox ever seen in Europe,” said Germany’s armed forces’ medical service, which detected its first case in the country on Friday.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) committee meeting to discuss the issue is the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards with Pandemic and Epidemic Potential (STAG-IH), which advises on infection risks that could pose a global health threat.
It would not be responsible for deciding whether the outbreak should be declared a public health emergency of international concern, WHO’s highest form of alert, which is currently applied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There appears to be a low risk to the general public at this time,” a senior U.S. administration official said. read more
COMMUNITY SPREAD
Fabian Leendertz, from the Robert Koch Institute, described the outbreak as an epidemic.
“However, it is very unlikely that this epidemic will last long. The cases can be well isolated via contact tracing and there are also drugs and effective vaccines that can be used if necessary,” he said.
Still, the WHO’s European chief said he was concerned that infections could accelerate in the region as people gather for parties and festivals over the summer months. read more
There is no specific vaccine for monkeypox, but data shows that the vaccines used to eradicate smallpox are up to 85% effective against monkeypox, according to the WHO.
British authorities said they have offered a smallpox vaccine to some healthcare workers and others who may have been exposed to monkeypox. read more
Since 1970, monkeypox cases have been reported in 11 African countries. Nigeria has had a large ongoing outbreak since 2017. So far this year, there have been 46 suspected cases, of which 15 have since been confirmed, according to the WHO.
The first European case was confirmed on May 7 in an individual who returned to England from Nigeria.
Since then, over 100 cases have been confirmed outside Africa, according to a tracker by a University of Oxford academic.
Many of the cases are not linked to travel to the continent. As a result, the cause of this outbreak is unclear, although health authorities have said that there is potentially some degree of community spread.
SEXUAL HEALTH CLINICS
The WHO said the early cases were unusual for three reasons: All but one have no relevant travel history to areas where monkeypox is endemic; most are being detected through sexual health services and among men who have sex with men, and the wide geographic spread across Europe and beyond suggests that transmission may have been going on for some time.
In Britain, where 20 cases have been now confirmed, the UK Health Security Agency said the recent cases in the country were predominantly among men who self-identified as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men.
Portugal detected nine more cases on Friday, taking its total to 23.
The previous tally of 14 cases were all detected in sexual health clinics and were men aged between 20 and 40 years old who self-identified as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men.
It was too early to say if the illness has morphed into a sexually transmitted disease, said Alessio D’Amato, health commissioner of the Lazio region in Italy. Three cases have been reported so far in the country. read more
“The idea that there’s some sort of sexual transmission in this, I think, is a little bit of a stretch,” said Stuart Neil, professor of virology at Kings College London.
Scientists are sequencing the virus from different cases to see if they are linked, the WHO has said. The agency is expected to provide an update soon.
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Reporting by Jennifer Rigby and Natalie Grover in London; additional reporting by Emma Pinedo Gonzalez, Emma Farge, Catriona Demony, Patricia Weiss, Eric Beech, Dan Williams and Michael Erman; Writing by Josephine Mason and Costas Pitas; Editing by Nick Macfie, David Clarke and Bill Berkrot
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An electron microscopic (EM) image shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virus particles as well as crescents and spherical particles of immature virions, obtained from a clinical human skin sample associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak in this undated image obtained by Reuters on May 18, 2022. Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regnery/CDC/Handout via REUTERS
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May 18 (Reuters) – The Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Wednesday said it had confirmed a single case of monkeypox virus infection in a man who had recently traveled to Canada.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)said its labs confirmed the infection to be monkeypox on Wednesday afternoon.
The state agency said it was working with CDC and relevant local boards of health to carry out contact tracing, adding that “the case poses no risk to the public, and the individual is hospitalized and in good condition.”
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The Public Health Agency of Canada late on Wednesday issued a statement saying it is aware of the monkeypox cases in Europe and is closely monitoring the current situation, adding no cases have been reported at this time.
Monkeypox, which mostly occurs in west and central Africa, is a rare viral infection similar to human smallpox, though milder. It was first recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1970s. The number of cases in West Africa has increased in the last decade.
Symptoms include fever, headaches and skin rashes starting on the face and spreading to the rest of the body.
The Massachusetts agency said the virus does not spread easily between people, but transmission can occur through contact with body fluids, monkeypox sores, items such as bedding or clothing that have been contaminated with fluids or sores, or through respiratory droplets following prolonged face-to-face contact.
It said no monkeypox cases had previously been identified in the United States this year. Texas and Maryland each reported a case in 2021 in people with recent travel to Nigeria.
The CDC also said it is tracking multiple clusters of monkeypox reported in several countries including Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, within the past two weeks.
A handful of cases of monkeypox have recently been reported or are suspected in the United Kingdom, Portugal and Spain.
Earlier on Wednesday, Portuguese authorities said they had identified five cases of the infection and Spain’s health services said they were testing 23 potential cases after Britain put Europe on alert for the virus.
European health authorities are monitoring any outbreak of the disease since Britain reported its first case on May 7 and has found six more in the country since then.
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Reporting by Deena Beasley in Los Angeles; additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Juby Babu in Bengaluru
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
