World

(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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(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Tuesday ahead of talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Putin was welcomed by Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi, upon landing late Tuesday local time at an airport in Beijing.

On Wednesday, talks between Putin and Xi are set to occur at the Grand Hall of the People, followed by a formal reception, according to the Kremlin.

The two leaders “will discuss China-Russia relations, cooperation in various fields and international and regional issues of mutual interest,” the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The state visit marks Putin’s 25th trip to China, according to the spokesperson.

The visit comes after last week’s high-stakes, multi-day summit between Xi and President Donald Trump in Beijing.

The two discussed the U.S. war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, fentanyl and increasing Chinese purchases of American farm products, according to a White House official.

Xi also warned that if the issue of Taiwan is handled “improperly,” the two nations could “come into conflict,” according to China’s official state broadcaster Xinhua.

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(LONDON) — At least 513 suspected cases and 131 suspected deaths have been recorded in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, officials said Tuesday.

Congolese Minister of Public Health Samuel Roger Kamba said during a press briefing in French that authorities will determine which of these deaths “are actually linked to the disease.”

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during the United Nation agency’s annual World Health Assembly in Geneva on Tuesday, recalled how he declared Congo’s current Ebola outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, saying it was the first time a WHO chief had done so before convening an emergency committee.

“I did not do this lightly,” Tedros said. “I did it in accordance with Article 12 of the International Health Regulations, after consulting the ministers of health of both countries, and because I am deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic. We will convene the Emergency Committee today to advise us on temporary recommendations.”

At least 30 cases of Ebola virus disease have been confirmed in the ongoing outbreak in Congo, from the northeastern province of Ituri. In addition, there are more than 500 suspected cases and over 130 suspected deaths, according to Tedros.

Cases have been reported in urban areas, including one of Congo’s largest cities, Goma, the rebel-held capital of the eastern province of North Kivu, Tedros said.

Uganda has also confirmed two cases in its capital Kampala, including one death, among two individuals who traveled from neighboring Congo, according to Tedros.

This outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of Ebola for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics, Tedros said.

On Tuesday, Dr. Anne Ancia, WHO’s representative in the DRC, said more than 40 experts were deployed to the field on Sunday and the WHO has sent 12 tons of supplies, with six more tons coming.

Supplies include personal protective equipment for front line healthcare workers, laboratory samples, tents, drugs and other treatments.

“What I see here in the field is extremely vulnerable people, a [fragile] population,” Ancia said. “But I see also people working together while facing great uncertainty as to the [scale] or the extent of this outbreak.”

She said the surveillance capacity is limited in the affected region, which could be why the outbreak is spreading rapidly.

“We really need to go fast to really try to stop the spread of the disease further,” she said. “We don’t understand yet the extent of the spread of the disease.”

According to The Associated Press, more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have occurred in Congo and Uganda, but this is only the third time that the Bundibugyo virus has been detected.

An American doctor working in the DRC is among those who has tested positive for Ebola amid the outbreak, according to an international Christian missions organization.

Dr. Peter Stafford, a medical missionary with the missions organization Serge, was exposed while treating patients at Nyankunde Hospital, the group said Monday.

He sought testing “after presenting symptoms consistent with the virus,” Serge said in a statement.

Dr. Satish K. Pillai, incident manager for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ebola response, said 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.

Pillai added that the risk to the U.S. general public remains low.

The CDC said earlier 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.

On Sunday, the CDC said in a statement that a “small number of Americans” were directly affected by the Ebola outbreak.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told ABC News on Monday that his agency is “working on” the Ebola outbreak.

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

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(NEW YORK) — Marine scientists have discovered a record number of new species living in the depths of the world’s oceans over the past year.

A total of 1,121 new marine species were discovered in a single year, marking a “significant step” in the research needed to understand and protect the oceans, according to the scientists behind The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census, the world’s largest mission to accelerate ocean species discovery.

The whopping number of discoveries marks a 54% jump in identifications in a single year, the researchers said.

Among the new species discovered include corals, crabs, shrimps, sea urchins and anemones — some found living at depths of more than four miles beneath the ocean surface.

The “Ghost Shark” Chimaera, a distant relative of sharks and rays, was discovered in the Coral Sea Marine Park off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Chimaeras are among the most mysterious inhabitants of the deep ocean, the researchers said. They predate dinosaurs and diverged from rays and sharks into their own distinct evolutionary lineage nearly 400 million years ago.

Symbiotic bristle worms were found living within a “glass castle” on volcanic seamounts in Japan. The “castle” is actually intricate chambers of a glass sponge, whose skeleton is made of crystalline silica.

The ribbon worm, a predator marked by striking pigmentation, was discovered close to the surface, between depths of 3 and 16 feet.

A striking new species of shrimp — the Mediterranean shrimp — was also found in a sea cave off Marseille, France, the researchers said. It is marked by a vivid orange banding and intricate appendages.

The species were identified amid 13 expeditions across some of the world’s most remote and least-explored ocean regions, as well as nine discovery workshops, the researchers said.

“This year, Ocean Census has shown what is possible when scientific ambition is matched by global collaboration at scale,” Mitsuyuku Unno, executive director of the Nippon Foundation, said in a statement. “Through expeditions reaching polar depths to tropical seas, and the science to turn samples into discoveries, this team is revealing the extraordinary richness of ocean life.”

Up to 90% of ocean species remain undiscovered, previous research has suggested.

Documenting the breadth of species living in the oceans is necessary for policymakers and marine managers to properly protect the ocean, the researchers said.

The average time between a species’ initial discovery and its formal “description” in scientific literature is historically about 13.5 years, which puts species at risk of extinction before they are even catalogued, the researchers said.

“With many species at risk of disappearing before they are even documented, we are in a race against time to understand and protect ocean life,” Michelle Taylor, head of science at Ocean Census, said in a statement. “For too long, thousands of species have remained in a scientific “limbo” because the pace of discovery couldn’t keep up.”

To address this, marine scientists are now recognizing “discovered” as a formal scientific status that can immediately be recorded.

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(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit Beijing this week for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Putin is scheduled to be welcomed at the airport upon landing in Beijing on Tuesday, according to the Kremlin, which said he will be greeted by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Then on Wednesday, talks between Putin and Xi are set to occur at the Grand Hall of the People, followed by a formal reception, according to the Kremlin.

The two leaders “will discuss China-Russia relations, cooperation in various fields and international and regional issues of mutual interest,” the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The state visit marks Putin’s 25th trip to China, according to the spokesperson.

The visit comes after last week’s high-stakes, multi-day summit between Xi and President Donald Trump in Beijing.

The two discussed the U.S. war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, fentanyl and increasing Chinese purchases of American farm products, according to a White House official.

Xi also warned that if the issue of Taiwan is handled “improperly,” the two nations could “come into conflict,” according to China’s official state broadcaster Xinhua.

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(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Monday that at least one American working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has tested positive for Ebola.

Dr. Satish K. Pillai, incident manager for the CDC’s Ebola response, told reporters that the individual developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive late Sunday.

Pillai added that the patient and six other high-risk contacts are being moved to Germany for care and stressed that the risk to the U.S. general public remains low.

“Given the previous experience for caring for Ebola patients, coupled with the flight times being significantly shorter, this allows us to get these persons to points of care quickly,” Pillai said.

Pillai said the CDC has 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 earlier 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.

Non-U.S. passport holders will face entry restrictions if they have been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days.

The move is being carried out under Title 42 of the Public Health Services Act, which allows the CDC director to suspend entry of individuals into the U.S. to protect public health.

The order will be in effect for 30 days and does not apply to U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.

The CDC said it is also coordinating with airlines, international partners and port-of-entry officials to identify and manage travelers with possible Ebola exposure as well as enhancing measures like contact tracing, laboratory testing capacity and hospital readiness nationwide.

On Sunday, the CDC said in a statement that a “small number of Americans” are directly affected by an Ebola outbreak occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The CDC is working with other U.S. agencies to coordinate the safe withdrawal of the Americans,” the CDC said. The agency did not confirm the number of people affected, the type of exposure or whether any individuals had experienced symptoms.

“We don’t discuss or comment on individual dispositions,” Pillai said Sunday. “It is a highly dynamic situation, and at this point, what I would say is, we continue to assess, we will continue to keep you posted as we learn more.”

On Saturday, the World Health Organization said in a statement that the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda constituted a “public health emergency of international concern.”

As of Sunday, there were 10 confirmed Ebola cases and 336 suspected cases in the DRC. There had been 88 suspected deaths in the DRC, as well as two confirmed cases and one confirmed death in Uganda from people who had traveled to the DRC.

Ebola virus spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person and does not spread through casual contact or air.

“CDC has extensive experience and expertise in responding to Ebola outbreaks,” CDC acting director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said on a call with reporters on Friday. “It is a large outbreak, and we were just informed yesterday about it.”

He added, “We’re absolutely committed to making sure that they can get resources as they need. We have helped with other Ebola outbreaks in the past … we have lots of hard-earned lessons. The key thing here is to know that we are absolutely involved.”

This is the DRC’s 17th outbreak of Ebola since the disease emerged in the 1970s, according to the WHO.

This strain of Ebola is caused by Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no therapeutics or vaccines, the WHO said.

The WHO has declared international public health emergencies over previous Ebola outbreaks as well as COVID-19 and mpox.

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(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on Sunday that a “small number of Americans” are directly affected by an Ebola outbreak occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The CDC is working with other U.S. agencies to coordinate the safe withdrawal of the Americans,” the CDC said in its statement. The agency did not confirm the number of people affected, the type of exposure or whether any individuals had experienced symptoms.

“We don’t discuss or comment on individual dispositions,” Dr. Satish Pillai, the CDC’s incident manager for Ebola, said during a press briefing on Sunday. “It is a highly dynamic situation, and at this point, what I would say is, we continue to assess, we will continue to keep you posted as we learn more.”

On Saturday, the World Health Organization said in a statement that the ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda constituted a “public health emergency of international concern.”

As of Sunday, the CDC said there were 10 confirmed Ebola cases and 336 suspected cases in the DRC. There had been 88 suspected deaths in the DRC, as well as two confirmed cases and one confirmed death in Uganda from people who had traveled to the DRC.

The CDC said that the risk to the American public remains low. Ebola virus spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person and does not spread through casual contact or air.

“CDC has extensive experience and expertise in responding to Ebola outbreaks,” CDC acting Director Jay Bhattacharya said on a call with reporters on Friday. “It is a large outbreak, and we were just informed yesterday about it.”

He added, “We’re absolutely committed to making sure that they can get resources as they need. We have helped with other Ebola outbreaks in the past … We have lots of hard-earned lessons. The key thing here is to know that we are absolutely involved.”

It is the DRC’s 17th outbreak of Ebola since the disease emerged in the 1970s, according to the WHO.

This strain of Ebola is caused by Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no therapeutics or vaccines, the WHO said.

The WHO has declared international public health emergencies over previous Ebola outbreaks as well as COVID-19 and mpox.

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