Category: World news

(LONDON) — At least 22 people were killed and more than 130 people injured in a large-scale overnight Russian missile and drone strike on Ukraine, officials said, with the capital Kyiv the main target of Moscow’s latest long-range barrage.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a post to Telegram that the most significant damage was wrought in Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv regions. At least six people were killed in Kyiv and 16 people — including two children — were killed in Dnipro, local Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine’s air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 73 missiles and 656 drones into the country, of which 40 missiles and 602 drones were intercepted or suppressed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack constituted “a completely transparent statement from Russia: if Ukraine is not protected from ballistic and other missile strikes, these attacks will continue.”

“Europe needs its own anti-ballistic defense so that this war can finally end. And we urgently need help from the United States in supplying missiles for the Patriot systems. We count on the support of our partners and on effective responses to today’s attack,” the president wrote in a post to social media.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that among the buildings damaged by the “large-scale attack” were four medical facilities.

Ruslan Stefanchuk, the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, said in a post to X that the most serious damage in Kyiv was reported in the Podilskyi district, where a Russian strike collapsed a nine-story residential building. “People may still be trapped under the rubble,” Stefanchuk wrote.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post to X that Russia’s latest “horrific attack” showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is a war criminal and loser who has no cards except terror.”

“Moscow is losing on the battlefield. No number of missiles can change this,” Sybiha wrote. “What we can change is Russia’s ability to continue terror. I urge partners to act, not only condemn.”

The foreign minister called on Ukraine’s foreign backers to unlock more European funding for NATO’s PURL program through which Kyiv can obtain more American weapons and ammunition, including anti-missile defenses like the Patriot system.

Sybiha also urged partners to increase investment in Ukraine’s own long-range capabilities, “ramp up pressure on Russia through new sanctions” and advance Ukraine’s European Union membership negotiations.

“Peace efforts will only succeed when they are backed with real pressure on Moscow,” Sybiha said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a post to Telegram that its forces “launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, land and sea-based weapons, including hypersonic aeroballistic missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles.”

The strike, it said, targeted “military-industrial,” fuel and transport facilities and military bases in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi and Sumy regions. “The targets of the strike have been achieved, all designated objects have been hit,” the ministry claimed.

The Russian Defense Ministry also said it shot down at least 148 Ukrainian drones overnight into Tuesday morning.

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, announced temporary flight restrictions at airports in Volgograd, Kaluga, Saratov, Krasnodar and Penza during the overnight Ukrainian attacks.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Yulia Drozd and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump cursed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a roughly 15-minute phone call on Monday, multiple sources familiar with the call told ABC News, with the president angered by Israel’s escalation in Lebanon and its potential to imperil the administration’s ongoing negotiations with Iran.

Trump accused Netanyahu of being ungrateful and called him “crazy,” sources familiar with the call said.

At one point during the tense call, Trump asked Netanyahu, “What the f— are you doing?”

Axios first reported on the expletive-filled call.

News emerged on Monday that Iran was threatening to call off talks over Israeli conduct in Lebanon — where the Israel Defense Forces are engaged with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.

“The Iranian negotiating team will suspend ‘talks and the exchange of texts through mediators,'” the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi did not confirm the report, but posted on X saying that a “ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also said in a statement that Iran “considers crossing the red lines in Lebanon and Gaza to mean direct war.”

Trump brushed the warnings off, insisting he “couldn’t care less.”

But behind the scenes, the president told senior administration officials he wanted to speak with Netanyahu, furious that an escalation in Lebanon could derail any progress made in the talks. The president had just made edits to a proposed peace plan and had sent it to Iran for consideration.

After Monday’s call, Netanyahu released a statement. “I spoke with President Trump this evening and told him that if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and citizens, Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut,” he said.

“Our position remains the same. At the same time, the IDF will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon,” Netanyahu said.

Monday’s call was not the first time that Trump and Netanyahu have had a tense conversation. Trump’s frustrations with Netanyahu have boiled over in previous instances where Israel has taken action against Iran and its proxies, but Monday’s conversation further underscored the administration’s distress over the potential that its ongoing negotiations with Iran are being undermined.

Following the call Monday afternoon, Trump posted on social media that talks with Iran were continuing at “a rapid pace.”

Later on Monday, the president struck a much different tone with Netanyahu.

“I had a conversation with Bibi Netanyahu today, asking him not to go into a major raid of Beirut, Lebanon. He turned his Troops around. Thank you Bibi!,” the president posted on social media.

ABC News has contacted the White House to request comment.

ABC News’ Jordana Miller contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — At least 17 people were killed and more than 100 people injured in a large-scale overnight Russian missile and drone strike on Ukraine, officials said, with the capital Kyiv the main target of Moscow’s latest long-range barrage.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a post to Telegram that the most significant damage was wrought in Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv regions. At least six people were killed in Kyiv and 11 people — including a child — were killed in Dnipro, local Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine’s air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 73 missiles and 656 drones into the country, of which 40 missiles and 602 drones were intercepted or suppressed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack constituted “a completely transparent statement from Russia: if Ukraine is not protected from ballistic and other missile strikes, these attacks will continue.”

“Europe needs its own anti-ballistic defense so that this war can finally end. And we urgently need help from the United States in supplying missiles for the Patriot systems. We count on the support of our partners and on effective responses to today’s attack,” the president wrote in a post to social media.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that among the buildings damaged by the “large-scale attack” were four medical facilities.

Ruslan Stefanchuk, the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, said in a post to X that the most serious damage in Kyiv was reported in the Podilskyi district, where a Russian strike collapsed a nine-story residential building. “People may still be trapped under the rubble,” Stefanchuk wrote.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post to X that Russia’s latest “horrific attack” showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is a war criminal and loser who has no cards except terror.”

“Moscow is losing on the battlefield. No number of missiles can change this,” Sybiha wrote. “What we can change is Russia’s ability to continue terror. I urge partners to act, not only condemn.”

The foreign minister called on Ukraine’s foreign backers to unlock more European funding for NATO’s PURL program through which Kyiv can obtain more American weapons and ammunition, including anti-missile defenses like the Patriot system.

Sybiha also urged partners to increase investment in Ukraine’s own long-range capabilities, “ramp up pressure on Russia through new sanctions” and advance Ukraine’s European Union membership negotiations.

“Peace efforts will only succeed when they are backed with real pressure on Moscow,” Sybiha said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a post to Telegram that its forces “launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, land and sea-based weapons, including hypersonic aeroballistic missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles.”

The strike, it said, targeted “military-industrial,” fuel and transport facilities and military bases in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi and Sumy regions. “The targets of the strike have been achieved, all designated objects have been hit,” the ministry claimed.

The Russian Defense Ministry also said it shot down at least 148 Ukrainian drones overnight into Tuesday morning.

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, announced temporary flight restrictions at airports in Volgograd, Kaluga, Saratov, Krasnodar and Penza during the overnight Ukrainian attacks.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Yulia Drozd and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Doctors and public health workers at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) told ABC News that the deadly virus is still spreading at an alarming rate.

“The outbreak is completely out of control,” said Dr. Richard Kojan in an interview from the city of Bunia in Ituri province, which is the hardest hit.

Kojan, who has been involved in fighting previous Ebola outbreaks in central and western Africa and is president of the Alliance for International Medical Action, said deep mistrust within some local communities is hampering efforts to contain the virus.

Another clinician, Dr. Richard Lokudi, who is the director of the main hospital in Mongbwalu, the hardest hit area, told ABC News that the disease was spreading “at an exponential speed.”

Dr. Lokudi said seven symptomatic patients suspected of having Ebola had recently “escaped” from Mongbwalu Hospital.

This was creating “chains and chains of contamination,” Dr. Lokudi said, adding that this was making the virus “difficult to fight.”

According to the World Health Organization, more than 1,000 suspected cases of a rare strain of Ebola, known as Bundibugyo, have been identified in the eastern DRC and more than 230 suspected deaths from the virus have been recorded.

There is currently no vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain. Seven confirmed cases have also been identified in neighboring Uganda, the WHO said.

Last week, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

Jeremy Konyndyk, who worked as a senior official at USAID under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and is now president of Refugees International, said that the outbreak had already reached an “explosive” level of transmission.

Konyndyk, who is based in Maryland, described the situation in central Africa as “about as urgent as any Ebola response has ever been” and said the 1,000 suspected cases were “almost certainly the tip of the iceberg” and “perhaps even an undercount by a factor of two or three.”

Health officials believe the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola had been circulating, undetected, in the Ituri province for up to three months before it was officially identified. The unusual strain was harder to identify via testing.

However, levels of mistrust within local communities toward measures to contain the virus, as well as skepticism that the virus even exists, are now hampering efforts to stem the outbreak, health officials say.

Kojan said there is currently a lack of laboratory testing capacity in the region, which is needed for accurate diagnosis and effective contact tracing.

The lack of lab capacity means symptomatic patients suspected of having the virus can wait for days for test results, increasing the risk of them leaving isolation prematurely, Kojan said.

“People don’t trust that, you know, Ebola is a reality,” he said.

The Congolese clinician said he was on “the front line” without access to a laboratory, meaning he was struggling to build trust with patients.

New cases every day

Both Both Dr. Lokudi and Dr. Kojan said their healthcare facilities were receiving new suspected cases of Ebola every day.

Amidst the high levels of mistrust, there has also been growing anger towards strict healthcare procedures, which are necessary to safely bury the dead and stop the virus from spreading.

The two Congolese doctors confirmed reports that on two occasions, isolation tents and healthcare facilities had been set on fire by angry crowds in recent days.

In an exchange of messages with ABC News on Tuesday, Lokudi said the police and military were now protecting his hospital, but he said angry groups of youths had still been gathering nearby.

He said that in some cases, amid “resistance” from local populations, officials were unable to safely access remote areas of Ituri province to investigate suspected deaths from the virus.

Lokudi described the situation as “really concerning,” saying that if teams do not go to such areas, then family members face a high risk of catching the virus if they themselves bury their loved ones.

Ebola is transmitted via bodily fluids, so treating sick patients and handling the deceased should only be done by healthcare teams in protective suits. Ideally, a victim’s home should also be sprayed down with disinfectant.

In the remote rural communities affected, these vital protective measures can run contrary to local burial practices and reports suggest this, mixed with a level of misunderstanding, has been the source of many people’s anger.

Kojan described a lack of masks and protective clothing as another “really big problem,” and both doctors said more adequately trained healthcare professionals were needed on the ground to raise awareness and implement barriers to stop the spread of the virus.

Cuts to U.S. programs created difficulties

Konyndyk said significant cuts to U.S, humanitarian aid in the DRC had made things harder.

“We’re kind of fighting this one with several hands tied behind our back,” Konyndyk told ABC News.

“When we have fought Ebola in the past on this scale, it has been a combination of the Ministry of Health, WHO, USAID, CDC,” he said. 

“USAID is fully gone, CDC is badly weakened. WHO has been badly weakened, the U.S., of course, withdrew from WHO and cut off all funding,” Konyndyk added.

The former USAID official said in an interview that they were “almost certain” that if USAID were still in place, this outbreak would have been caught earlier.

Konyndyk said he believed earlier reports of “an unknown viral hemorrhagic fever outbreak” in the region “would have been brought to the attention of the U.S. mission” in the DRC.

“I’ve talked with some of the members who worked on that team, who were forced out of the government, who would say things like, look, I would be on the phone every week with health leaders in this part of the country,” Konyndyk told ABC News.

“I think the U.S. visibility on that diminished badly and that contributed certainly to the US being slow to wake up to this, but also to the world being slow to wake up to it,” the humanitarian leader said.

A White House official in response said the claim that cuts to U.S. aid have affected the response to the Ebola outbreak in the DRC was “ridiculous.”

“You could just as easily say people died because England didn’t give enough money or Canada didn’t give more or China didn’t. Why not blame the other countries who don’t do any foreign aid?” the official added.

The Trump administration has argued that its “America First Foreign Assistance programs” are intertwined with broader foreign policy goals and the national interest.

“The United States has saved more lives, and continues to save more lives, than any other country in the world, and we’re going to continue to do it,” the White House official said in a statement. “We’re not going to continue to pour billions of dollars out the door of American taxpayer funds for programs that don’t work and in some cases were flat-out corrupt.”

Back in the affected area of the DRC, both doctors interviewed by ABC said they had messages for the US and the world.

International support is needed urgently “on all levels,” according to Lokudi.

Kojan said he is appealing to the world to realize that this is about people’s “humanity.”

“People are really scared. It’s our humanity … so my message is, you know, we need attention.”

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(LONDON) — At least 16 students died in an overnight fire at a boarding school for girls in central Kenya, a government minister said Thursday.

Education Minister Julius Ogamba said in a statement posted to X that a “regrettable fire tragedy befell Utumishi Girls Academy in Nakuru County. Most unfortunately, 16 learners lost their lives while several others suffered injuries in the incident.”

The Kenya Police Service said in a statement posted to Facebook that “several other students were injured and are receiving treatment.”

The blaze broke out in a dormitory at the Utumishi Girls Senior School in the town of Gilgil in Kenya’s Nakuru County, police said, around 74 miles from the capital Nairobi.

Search and rescue operations are ongoing, police said. “We are working to account for all students and support affected families during this difficult time,” the service said in its statement.

The fire was reported early Thursday at around 3:30 a.m. local time, according to the Kenya Red Cross, which said its team were supporting the ongoing multi-agency response. “Several students have been evacuated and are receiving treatment in various hospitals,” Kenya Red Cross said.

Ogamba expressed “our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and relatives of the learners who lost their lives in this sorrowful incident. We wish a quick recovery to those who were injured. We pray that God grants everyone strength and fortitude during this difficult and painful period.”

“Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing and updates will be provided in due course,” the minister added.

ABC News’ Charlotte Gardiner contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — The New York-based International Rescue Committee (IRC) aid organization warned on Tuesday that the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring Uganda is now spreading faster than responders can contain it and risks becoming “the deadliest on record” without urgent international action.

What is especially alarming, the IRC said, is that the outbreak is no longer limited to remote areas of the DRC’s northeastern province of Ituri, the epicenter of the current epidemic. 

Cases and contacts are now spreading into larger regional hubs, the IRC warned, including the major city of Goma in the DRC’s eastern province of North Kivu and also Uganda’s capital, Kampala, with fears of much wider transmission.

“The outbreak is spreading faster than the response, with over 900 suspected cases and at least 223 deaths already reported across DRC and Uganda, including in major transport hubs like Goma and Kampala,” the IRC wrote.

The IRC said conflict, mass displacement and deep international aid cuts have left health systems far weaker than during the massive 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in the eastern DRC, which the World Health Organization said killed at least 2,299 people.

The last time the IRC issued a warning of this scale about Ebola was during the 2018-2020 outbreak, when the organization repeatedly warned that violence, mistrust and weak health systems could allow the virus to spiral into a regional catastrophe.

The IRC is calling for an emergency international funding surge, the appointment of a United Nations emergency coordinator, faster import approvals for medical supplies and equipment, stronger community outreach to rebuild trust, special protection for women and girls – who reportedly make up around two-thirds of suspected cases – and long-term investment in fragile health systems already damaged by war and insecurity.

The current Ebola outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of Ebola for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics and which requires different diagnostics than other variants. Case fatality rates for previous Bundibugyo outbreaks have ranged from 30% to 50%, according to the WHO.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record occurred between 2014 and 2016 in West Africa, with more than 28,600 cases reported. The WHO said that outbreak killed at least 11,325 people by June 2016.

WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a Monday briefing that the current Ebola outbreak “will get worse before it gets better.”

“We are facing an extremely serious and difficult outbreak. It will get worse before it gets better,” Tedros said on Monday. “But we know this virus, and we know how to stop it. We have stopped every previous Ebola outbreak, and we will stop this one, too.”

Ghebreyesus said he wanted to echo comments made by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa about overcoming the outbreak with unity.

“The question is just how quickly we can do it, and how many more lives will be lost before we do,” Ghebreyesus added.

Last week, Tedros classified the Ebola outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern – one level below a pandemic in the United Nations agency’s alert system.

The WHO continues to consider the national risk assessment as “very high” while the regional level risk remains “high” and the global risk level remains “low,” Ghebreyesus said on Monday.

The outbreak has led to multiple countries, including the U.S., India, the U.K. and Australia, putting travel restrictions in place.

Entry to the U.S. is restricted for foreign travelers who have recently been in the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan. 

Meanwhile, U.S. passport holders and U.S. nationals returning to the U.S. from the three countries will be funneled to Dulles Airport in Virginia to be screened for symptoms and interviewed about possible exposure.

Enhanced screening efforts also began at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as of Saturday morning. Efforts at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston will begin late Tuesday.

Lawful permanent residents – green card holders – who have been in any of the three countries in question over the last 21 days are temporarily barred from entering the U.S.

ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss and Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Israel’s government is facing a global outcry over video showing its far-right security minister appearing to flaunt the rough treatment of foreign pro-Palestine activists detained from a protest flotilla.

Security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Wednesday posted the video on X in which he appears to revel as dozens of the detained activists are displayed, with their hands bound and kneeling face down in stress positions. In the video, Ben-Gvir waves a flag of Israel over the activists, at another point smiling as a bound woman is roughly shoved down by masked Israeli security officers.

Walking among the detainees, Ben-Gvir tells the guards around him “don’t be bothered by their screams.”

Most of Israel’s key western allies have expressed outrage over the video, condemning it in unusually strong terms. The U.K., France, Italy, Spain Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium have summoned Israel’s ambassador over the controversy.

Britain’s foreign secretary Yvette Cooper wrote she was “truly appalled” at the video, saying “this violates the most basic standards of respect and dignity.”

The U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also condemned Ben-Gvir, describing the flotilla as a “stupid stunt,” but saying the minister had “betrayed dignity of his nation.”

The activists were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which has sought to highlight Israel’s humanitarian blockade on Gaza by attempting to sail towards the territory to deliver aid there. Israel’s military, which has declared a naval blockade around Gaza, intercepted the flotilla’s civilian boats, that were crewed by volunteers from many different countries. Around 430 activists were detained, according to the flotilla’s organizers.

Israel’s foreign ministry on Thursday said all of the activists have since been deported.

In a statement, the flotilla’s organizers confirmed all of the detained activists are now being released and many are on a flight to Istanbul. The group hailed it as a victory, saying it is “a reminder of what global mobilisation and sustained political pressure can achieve.”

Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni called the treatment of the protesters shown in the video “intolerable,” saying it “violates human dignity.”

Ben-Gvir’s video also triggered a furious reaction from Israeli politicians inside the country, who have condemned it as damaging to Israel’s international reputation. Other members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition slammed Ben-Gvir, with Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar posting it was a “disgraceful display” and writing “no, you are not the face of Israel.”

The security minister on Thursday was defiant, firing back at Sa’ar on X that Israel should understand the country “has stopped being a pushover.” He added, “Anyone who comes to our territory to support terrorism and identify with Hamas will get slapped.”

Netanyahu on Wednesday published a statement that “Israel has every right to prevent provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters from entering our territorial waters and reaching Gaza.” But he rebuked Ben-Gvir’s actions as “not in line with Israel’s values.”

The flotilla’s organizers said on X, “Netanyahu’s performative outrage over Ben Gvir’s treatment of flotilla activists exposes the regime’s desperate attempt to control its own narrative while maintaining the same brutal system.” They added, “This isn’t about one minister — it’s about the entire colonial machine.”

Israel has faced scrutiny over its treatment of Palestinian detainees during the war in Gaza. Former detainees and right groups have alleged prisoners were subjected to widespread torture, including beatings, electrocution and sexual abuse. A panel of UN experts in 2024 wrote they had received accounts of detainees “stripped naked, deprived of adequate healthcare, food, water and sleep, electrocutions including on their genitals.”

“In addition, victims spoke of loud music played until their ears bled, attacks by dogs, waterboarding, suspension from ceilings and severe sexual and gender-based violence,” the UN experts wrote.

Israel’s government has vehemently rejected any allegations of torture. A recent New York Times article recounting allegations of widespread sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees has triggered intense controversy, with Israel’s government threatening to sue the newspaper.

Ben-Gvir, who leads the Jewish Power Party and has called for Israel to annex the West Bank, is known for his inflammatory public appearances and extreme rhetoric towards Palestinians. Last year, he filmed himself inside a prison with heavily armed security officers as he stood over a group of Palestinian detainees bound on the floor, telling the camera they should be executed.

The current uproar comes as Israel is moving towards elections expected to be a referendum on Netanyahu and his right-wing government.

Israeli opposition leaders blasted Ben-Gvir’s actions in the video. Benny Gantz, a former minister of defense, who left the coalition government in 2024, said it was “an embarrassing horror show.”

“In these elections we will do everything so that afterwards a broad, responsible Zionist unity government will arise here. One that will return the extremists to the margins and sanity to the lives of Israeli citizens,” Gantz said.

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Wednesday passed a bill to dissolve itself, paving the way for elections to be held later in the year.

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(GERMANY) — The American doctor who contracted Ebola and was transferred to Germany is starting to feel better and is able to eat, according to his colleague.

Dr. Peter Stafford is currently hospitalized in Berlin’s Charite University Hospital after testing positive for the disease due to his work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

His colleague, Matt Allison — the executive director of Serge, the Christian missionary group Stafford works for — told ABC News that the doctor has been receiving monoclonal antibodies during his hospitalization.

Allison said it appears Stafford’s condition has improved since landing in Germany and that he has been able to text his colleagues.

“He needed assistance to walk. He was very weak. He was discouraged … he was talking about just being almost unable to think,” Allison said. “I mean [it] was the combination of the isolation, the uncertainty, feeling really sick. It was a lot to carry. And so I’m so glad that he’s responding quickly to us.”

Allison went on, “He feels good. He’s eating. You know, one of the symptoms of Ebola is nausea and gastrointestinal issues, and so we’re so grateful that he’s able to eat now and we’re really encouraged by where he’s at right now.”

Stafford, a 39-year-old board-certified general surgeon with a specialization in burn care, tested positive for Ebola after caring for patients in Bunia, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, before an outbreak was identified.

His wife, Dr. Rebekah Stafford, 38, and Dr. Peter LaRochelle, 46, a fellow missionary doctor, were potentially exposed to Ebola through their work at hospitals in the DRC, Serge said.

Peter Stafford’s family will join him in Germany while LaRochelle is on his way to Prague.

“The complex, coordinated efforts of many government agencies and international health authorities resulted in Peter Stafford’s safe transport and the protection of those involved in his transfer,” Dr. Scott Myhre, Serge area director for East and Central Africa, said in a press release on Wednesday. “Serge leadership extends their deepest gratitude to all involved in Peter’s care and is praying for all involved in the fight to end this ebolavirus outbreak for the good of the people of the DRC.”

The Ebola outbreak in the eastern DRC had caused 139 suspected deaths with nearly 600 suspected cases as of Wednesday, according to the latest update from World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“We expect those numbers to keep increasing, given the amount of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected,” Tedros said during a press briefing in Geneva.

Anais Legand, the WHO’s technical officer for viral hemorrhagic fevers, said on Wednesday that the Ebola outbreak may have started a couple of months ago and that investigations are ongoing.

“Our priority is really to cut the transmission chain by implementing contact tracing, isolating and caring for all suspects and confirmed cases,” she said

The WHO convened an emergency committee on Tuesday night, following Tedros’ declaration of a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday — one level below a pandemic in the United Nations agency’s alert system. 

It was the first time a WHO chief had declared such an emergency before convening the emergency committee. After the meeting, the committee agreed that the outbreak did not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency, which was applied to the global COVID-19 outbreak.

The outbreak was first detected in the DRC’s northeastern province of Ituri, with cases officially confirmed by the health ministry on May 15. It marked the 17th outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the DRC, which is Africa’s second-largest country and its fourth-most populous nation. 

The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of Ebola for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics and which requires different diagnostics than other variants. Case fatality rates for previous Bundibugyo outbreaks have ranged from 30% to 50%, according to the WHO.

Tedros said cases of Ebola have been reported in several urban areas of the eastern DRC amid the ongoing outbreak, including the major cities of Goma and Bunia, and that at least two cases and one death have been recorded in neighboring Uganda’s capital, Kampala. Cases have also been reported among health workers, according to Tedros.

At least 51 cases have so far been confirmed in the ongoing outbreak. 

The WHO chief warned that significant population movement in the region, which includes a high-traffic mining area, along with insecurity and intensified conflict in recent months increase the risk of further spread. The risks are high at the national and regional levels, but remain low globally, according to Tedros.

Dr. Satish K. Pillai, incident manager for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ebola response, confirmed at a CDC press conference on Tuesday that genetic testing from this outbreak shows it is similar to the “genetic fingerprints” from outbreaks in 2007 and 2012, meaning there are diagnostic tools available that can detect this strain of Ebola.

Pillai said on Monday that the agency had activated its Emergency Operations Center through its country offices in the DRC and in Uganda, and is deploying technical experts that have been requested from Atlanta headquarters.

The CDC said Monday that it is preparing to restrict entry for travelers arriving from parts of central Africa where an Ebola outbreak has been declared, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.

The risk to the U.S. general public remains low, Pillai said.

ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Wednesday, with the two leaders releasing a joint statement urging an end to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran as a matter of “utmost urgency.”

“The sides agree that military strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran breach international law and fundamental norms of international relations and seriously undermine stability in the Middle East,” the joint statement published on the Kremlin website said.

The statement stressed “the need for a return as soon as possible of the conflicting parties to dialogue and negotiations aimed to prevent the conflict zone from spreading and urged the international community to maintain an objective and impartial position, to assist de-escalation, and to defend the fundamental norms of international relations together.”

The two leaders also condemned what they called “treacherous military strikes against other countries, the hypocritical use of negotiations as cover for preparing such strikes, the assassination of leaders of sovereign states, the destabilization of the domestic political situation in these states and the provocation of regime change, and the brazen kidnapping of national leaders for trial.”

Moscow and Beijing have both been key partners for Tehran in recent years, as the U.S. and its European allies have sought to weaken the Islamic Republic through international sanctions and diplomatic isolation.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since 2022 prompted the fostering of deeper military and economic ties between Moscow and Tehran, with Iranian munitions — in particular Iranian-designed Shahed strike drones — playing a key role in Russia’s ongoing campaign.

China, meanwhile, remains a key customer of Iranian oil, with some analysts estimating that Beijing accounts for up to 90% of Tehran’s crude exports.

China has been pushing for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Iran, which began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes all across the country on Feb. 28. Beijing says it has been coordinating closely with Pakistan, which has emerged as a key mediator in as-yet unsuccessful peace talks between Washington and Tehran.

Following the meeting between Xi and Putin, both sides expressed support for the other’s “territorial integrity.”

Russia, Putin said — according to the Kremlin readout — “reaffirms its commitment to the One China principle and recognizes the existence of only one China. Taiwan is its integral part, and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing all of China.”

China, the readout said, “supports Russia’s efforts towards the provision of security, stability, national development, prosperity, sovereignty and territorial integrity and ‘opposes external interference in Russian internal affairs.'”

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report. 

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(MALDIVES) – -Two investigations, including a culpable homicide probe, have been launched into the deep-water expedition in the Maldives that claimed the lives of five Italian scuba divers, and authorities said they didn’t know the group would be exploring a cave.

Both the Maldives government and prosecutors in Rome announced the investigations as the remains of two more divers were recovered from an underwater cave in the Indian Ocean.

In addition to the probe by the Maldives government, prosecutors in Rome have opened a culpable homicide investigation into the tragedy, sources told the Italian news agency ANSA.

It’s not immediately clear if any specific person or persons are the target of that probe.

Mohamed Hussain Shareef, a spokesperson for the Maldives president’s office, said the investigation by the Maldives government will focus on whether those in charge of the fatal expedition “took the correct precautions” and underwent the necessary planning.

“We believe that the retrieval of the bodies will itself reveal a lot, as far as that part of the investigation is concerned,” said Shareef, according to The Associated Press. “But that doesn’t take from the fact that cave diving in itself is very, very dangerous.”

Shareef said the scuba-diving group — which was led by Monica Montefalcone, a marine researcher and an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa — had been issued a permit for the diving expedition.

“While they had a permit, there are certain gaps in the research proposal,” Shareef said.

He said the Maldives government was not informed that the group would be exploring an underwater cave.

“We didn’t know the exact location they were diving,” Shareef said.

He said two of the divers who died were not on the list of researchers that organizers had submitted.

“So we didn’t know they were part of the expedition as well. So, all these factors are being reviewed,” Shareef said.

Shareef said the scuba diving group was on an excursion he described as “very, very challenging” due to the depth, terrain, powerful current and strong draft in the area of the dive.

“The visibility, for example, once you enter the cave, would be almost zero; that’s what we are being told,” Shareef said.

The divers went missing on Thursday while exploring a cave in Vaavu Atoll, according to the Maldives National Defense Force.

A Maldives military diver died on Saturday while working to recover the bodies of victims, according to the Maldives National Defense Force.

Officials called the recovery effort a “very dangerous, high-risk operation.” The search was suspended at one point on Friday due to bad weather, the AP reported.

The Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and the University of Genoa identified the deceased divers as Montefalcone; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, a University of Genoa biomedical engineering student; Muriel Oddenino, a University of Genoa research fellow; and marine biologist Federico Gualtieri, a recent University of Genoa graduate in marine biology and ecology.

The institute also identified one of the victims as diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti.

The Maldives government said three of the bodies have been recovered. On Tuesday, a Finnish diving team retrieved two bodies from the third chamber of a deep-water cave, Shareef said.

Shareef said the identities of the two recovered divers are pending autopsies. But Antonello Riccio, an attorney for Gualtieri’s family, confirmed that the remains of Montefalcone and Gualtieri were recovered on Tuesday.

Ahmed Shaam, another spokesperson for the Maldives government, said the bodies were found lying at a depth of around 200 feet. The legal depth for recreational diving in the Maldives is nearly 100 feet, officials said.

The Maldives government said on Monday that four bodies were spotted in the innermost part of the cave by the Finnish diving team. Divers are expected to return to the cave on Wednesday to recover the two remaining bodies.

“As was previously thought, the four bodies were found inside the cave, not only inside the cave, but well inside the cave into the third segment of the cave, which is the largest part,” Shaam said.

He said that the four bodies were found “pretty much together.”

Earlier in the recovery operation, the body of the diving instructor who was part of the lost group was recovered outside the cave, Maldives government officials said.

ABC News’ Othon Leyva, Phoebe Natanson and Clark Bentson contributed to this report.

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