BEIJING: Genetic material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified show raccoon dog DNA comingled with the virus, adding evidence to the theory that the virus originated from animals, not from a lab, international experts say.
“These data do not provide a definitive answer to how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important to moving us closer to that answer,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday.
How the coronavirus emerged remains unclear. Many scientists believe it most likely jumped from animals to people, as many other viruses have in the past, at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. But Wuhan is home to several labs involved in collecting and studying coronaviruses, fueling theories scientists say are plausible that the virus may have leaked from one.
The new findings do not settle the question, and they have not been formally reviewed by other experts or published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Tedros criticized China for not sharing the genetic information earlier, telling a press briefing that “this data could have and should have been shared three years ago.”
The samples were collected from surfaces at the Huanan seafood market in early 2020 in Wuhan, where the first human cases of COVID-19 were found in late 2019.
Tedros said the genetic sequences were recently uploaded to the world’s biggest public virus database by scientists at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
They were then removed, but not before a French biologist spotted the information by chance and shared it with a group of scientists based outside China that’s looking into the origins of the coronavirus.
The data show that some of the COVID-positive samples collected from a stall known to be involved in the wildlife trade also contained raccoon dog genes, indicating the animals may have been infected by the virus, according to the scientists. Their analysis was first reported in The Atlantic.
“There’s a good chance that the animals that deposited that DNA also deposited the virus,” said Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah who was involved in analyzing the data. “If you were to go and do environmental sampling in the aftermath of a zoonotic spillover event … this is basically exactly what you would expect to find.”
The canines, named for their raccoon-like faces, are often bred for their fur and sold for meat in animal markets across China.
Ray Yip, an epidemiologist and founding member of the US Centers for Disease Control office in China, said the findings are significant, even though they aren’t definitive.
“The market environmental sampling data published by China CDC is by far the strongest evidence to support animal origins,” Yip told the AP in an email. He was not connected to the new analysis.
WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, cautioned that the analysis did not find the virus within any animal, nor did it find any hard evidence that any animals infected humans.
“What this does provide is clues to help us understand what may have happened,” she said. The international group also told WHO they found DNA from other animals as well as raccoon dogs in the samples from the seafood market, she added.
The coronavirus’ genetic code is strikingly similar to that of bat coronaviruses, and many scientists suspect COVID-19 jumped into humans either directly from a bat or via an intermediary animal like pangolins, ferrets or racoon dogs.
Efforts to determine the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic have been complicated by factors including the massive surge of human infections in the pandemic’s first two years and an increasingly bitter political dispute.
It took virus experts more than a dozen years to pinpoint the animal origin of SARS, a related virus.
Goldstein and his colleagues say their analysis is the first solid indication that there may have been wildlife infected with the coronavirus at the market. But it is also possible that humans brought the virus to the market and infected the raccoon dogs, or that infected humans simply happened to leave traces of the virus near the animals.
After scientists in the group contacted the China CDC, they say, the sequences were removed from the global virus database. Researchers are puzzled as to why data on the samples collected over three years ago wasn’t made public sooner. Tedros has pleaded with China to share more of its COVID-19 research data.
Gao Fu, the former head of the Chinese CDC and lead author of the Chinese paper, didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press email requesting comment. But he told Science magazine the sequences are “nothing new. It had been known there was illegal animal dealing and this is why the market was immediately shut down.”
Goldstein said his group presented its findings this week to a WHO advisory panel investigating COVID-19’s origins.
Michael Imperiale of the University of Michigan, a microbiology and immunology expert who was not involved in the data analysis, said finding a sample with sequences from the virus and a raccoon dog “places the virus and the dog in very close proximity. But it doesn’t necessarily say that the dog was infected with the virus; it just says that they were in the same very small area.”
He said the bulk of the scientific evidence at this point supports a natural exposure at the market, and pointed to research published last summer showing the market was likely the early epicenter of the scourge and concluding that the virus spilled from animals into people two separate times. “What’s the chance that there were two different lab leaks?” he asked.
Mark Woolhouse, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Edinburgh, said it will be crucial to see how the raccoon dogs’ genetic sequences match up to what’s known about the historic evolution of the COVID-19 virus. If the dogs are shown to have COVID and those viruses prove to have earlier origins than the ones that infected people, “that’s probably as good evidence as we can expect to get that this was a spillover event in the market.”
After a weeks-long visit to China to study the pandemic’s origins, WHO released a report in 2021 concluding that COVID-19 most probably jumped into humans from animals, dismissing the possibility of a lab origin as “extremely unlikely.”
But the UN health agency backtracked the following year, saying “key pieces of data” were still missing. And Tedros has said all hypotheses remain on the table.
The China CDC scientists who previously analyzed the Huanan market samples published a paper as a preprint in February suggesting that humans brought the virus to the market, not animals, implying that the virus originated elsewhere. Their paper didn’t mention that animal genes were found in the samples that tested positive.
In February, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US Department of Energy had assessed “with low confidence” that the virus had leaked from a lab. But others in the US intelligence community disagree, believing it more likely it first came from animals.
Experts say the true origin of the pandemic may not be known for many years — if ever.
New COVID origins data point to raccoon dogs in China market
https://arab.news/yv9hm
New COVID origins data point to raccoon dogs in China market
- The data show that some of the COVID-positive samples collected from a stall known to be involved in the wildlife trade also contained raccoon dog genes
Ukraine’s drone attack on Russian warplanes was a serious blow to the Kremlin’s strategic arsenal
- Ukraine said over 40 bombers, or about a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, were damaged or destroyed Sunday
A surprise Ukrainian drone attack that targeted several Russian air bases hosting nuclear-capable strategic bombers was unprecedented in its scope and sophistication for the first time reached as far as Siberia in a heavy blow to the Russian military.
Ukraine said over 40 bombers, or about a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, were damaged or destroyed Sunday, although Moscow said only several planes were struck. The conflicting claims couldn’t be independently verified and video of the assault posted on social media showed only a couple of bombers hit.
But the bold attack demonstrated Ukraine’s capability to hit high-value targets anywhere in Russia, dealing a humiliating blow to the Kremlin and inflicting significant losses to Moscow’s war machine.
While some Russian military bloggers compared it to another infamous Sunday surprise attack — that of Japan’s strike on the US base at Pearl Harbor in 1941 — others rejected the analogy, arguing the actual damage was far less significant than Ukraine claimed.
A look at what warplanes were reported hit:
Russia’s bomber assets
For decades, long-range bombers have been part of the Soviet and Russian nuclear triad that also includes land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and atomic-powered submarines carrying ICBMs. The strategic bombers have flown regular patrols around the globe showcasing Moscow’s nuclear might.
During the 3-year-old war in Ukraine, Russia has used the heavy planes to launch waves of cruise missile strikes across the country.
The Tupolev Tu-95, which was code named Bear by NATO, is a four-engine turboprop plane designed in the 1950s to rival the US B-52 bomber. The aircraft has an intercontinental range and carries eight long-range cruise missiles that can be equipped with conventional or nuclear warheads.
Before Sunday, Russia was estimated to have a fleet of about 60 such aircraft.
The Tupolev Tu-22M is a twin-engine supersonic bomber designed in the 1970s that was code named Backfire by NATO. It has a shorter range compared with the Tu-95, but during US-Soviet arms control talks in the 1970s, Washington insisted on counting them as part of the Soviet strategic nuclear arsenal because of their capability to reach the US if refueled in flight.
The latest version of the plane, the Tu-22M3, carries Kh-22 cruise missiles that fly at more than three times the speed of sound. It dates to the 1970s, when it was designed by the Soviet Union to strike US aircraft carriers. It packs a big punch, thanks to its supersonic speed and ability to carry 630 kilograms (nearly 1,400 pounds) of explosives, but its outdated guidance system could make it highly inaccurate against ground targets, raising the possibility of collateral damage.
Some Tu-22Ms were lost in previous Ukrainian attacks, and Russia was estimated to have between 50 and 60 Tu-22M3s in service before Sunday’s drone strike.
The production of the Tu-95 and the Tu-22M ended after the 1991 collapse of the USSR, meaning that any of them lost Sunday can’t be replaced.
Russia also has another type of strategic nuclear capable bomber, the supersonic Tu-160. Fewer than 20 of them are in service, and Russia has just begun production of its modernized version equipped with new engines and avionics.
Russia lost a significant part of its heavy bomber fleet in the attack “with no immediate ability to replace it,” said Douglas Barrie of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, noting that Moscow’s announced plan to develop the next generation strategic bomber is still in its early phase.
“Ironically this might give impetus to that program, because if if you want to keep your bomber fleet up to size, then you’re going to have to do something at some point,” he said.
The A-50, which Ukrainian officials also said was hit in the strikes, is an early warning and control aircraft similar to the US AWACS planes used to coordinate aerial attacks. Only few such planes are in service with the Russian military, and any loss badly dents Russia’s military capability.
Relocating bombers and impromptu protection
Repeated Ukrainian strikes on the Engels air base, the main base for Russian nuclear capable strategic bombers near the Volga River city of Saratov, prompted Moscow to relocate the bombers to other bases farther from the conflict.
One of them was Olenya on the Arctic Kola Peninsula, from where Tu-95s have flown multiple missions to launch cruise missiles at Ukraine. Several bombers at Olenya apparently were hit by the Ukrainian drones Sunday, according to analysts studying satellite images before and after the strike.
Other drones targeted the Belaya air base in the Irkutsk region in eastern Siberia, destroying a few Tu-22M bombers, according to analysts.
Ukraine said 41 aircraft — Tu-95s, Tu-22Ms and A-50s — were damaged or destroyed Sunday in the attack that it said was in the works for 18 months in which swarms of drones popped out of containers carried on trucks that were parked near four air bases.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was briefed on the attack, which represented a level of sophistication that Washington had not seen before, a senior defense official said on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the attack set several warplanes ablaze at air bases in the Irkutsk region in eastern Siberia and the Murmansk region in the north, but the fires were extinguished.
It said Ukraine also tried to strike two air bases in western Russia, as well as another one in the Amur region of Russia’s Far East, but those attacks were repelled.
The drone strikes produced an outcry from Russian military bloggers, who criticized the Defense Ministry for failing to learn from previous strikes and protect the bombers. Building shelters or hangars for such large planes is a daunting task, and the military has tried some impromptu solutions that were criticized as window dressing.
Satellite images have shown Tu-95s at various air bases covered by layers of old tires — a measure of dubious efficiency that has drawn mockery on social media.
‘Doesn’t look good’: Dutch coalition teeters over asylum
- Far right leader Geert Wilders Wilders has vowed to withdraw his Freedom Party (PVV) from the four-way coalition if the other parties do not sign up to a 10 point plan for tougher policies against immigrants and asylum seekers
THE HAGUE: Dutch political leaders were set for last-ditch talks Tuesday to save the government, as far-right leader Geert Wilders again threatened to pull out of a shaky coalition in a row over immigration.
Wilders has vowed to withdraw his Freedom Party (PVV) from the four-way coalition if the other parties do not sign up to a 10-point plan for tougher policies against immigrants and asylum-seekers.
The PVV is the largest party in the Dutch parliament and a withdrawal would lead to the collapse of the government and most likely fresh elections.
“It doesn’t look good,” Wilders said following crisis talks late Monday that he described as “unpleasant.”
The leaders of the four coalition parties were due to return to the table on Tuesday morning.
The latest government crisis comes just weeks before the Netherlands is due to host world leaders for a NATO summit.
In late May, Wilders called an impromptu press conference to announce his “patience was up” with the government of Prime Minister Dick Schoof.
He threatened to torpedo the coalition if a new 10-point plan to crimp immigration were not implemented within a few weeks.
His plan included border closures for asylum-seekers, tougher border controls, and deporting dual nationals convicted of a crime.
Summarising his demands, he said: “Close the borders for asylum seekers and family reunifications. No more asylum centers opened. Close them.”
Political and legal experts criticized the plans as unworkable or illegal, with some suggesting Wilders was creating a crisis to collapse the government.
Dilan Yesilgoz, head of the liberal VVD party, one of the coalition parties, said: “We don’t understand why this chaos, this circus, is needed.”
“If Wilders is aiming to bring everything down, he should just say so,” added Yesilgoz.
Eighteen months after Wilders’ surprise election win sent shockwaves through Europe and the world, polls suggest his PVV is still the strongest.
However, the gap to his nearest rivals has narrowed, with the left-wing Green/Left party of former European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans close behind.
Hong Kong leader says sudden removal of China’s top official in the city was “normal“
- China announced on Friday that Zheng Yanxiong, the director of China’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong, Beijing’s main representative office in the city with powerful oversight over local affairs had been “removed” from his post
HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s leader said on Tuesday that China’s recent removal of its top representative in the city, known for his hard-line policies on national security, had been a “normal” personnel change.
In a surprise development, China announced late on Friday that Zheng Yanxiong, the director of China’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong — Beijing’s main representative office in the city with powerful oversight over local affairs — had been “removed” from his post.
He was replaced by Zhou Ji, a senior official with the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on the State Council.
Zheng, who played a key role in the crackdown on Hong Kong’s democratic movement in recent years, was also stripped of his role as China’s national security adviser on a committee overseeing national security in Hong Kong.
No explanation by Beijing or Chinese state media was given for the change.
According to a person with knowledge of the matter, Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison’s proposed sale of its global port network to a consortium initially led by US firm Blackrock had caught senior Chinese leaders “by surprise” as they had not been informed beforehand and Zheng was partly blamed for that.
The person, who has spoken with the liaison office, declined to be identified as the discussions were confidential.
The Liaison Office gave no immediate response to faxed questions from Reuters.
Zheng had served in the post since January 2023 and while the position has no fixed term, his tenure was shorter than predecessors including Luo Huining and Zhang Xiaoming.
“The change of the Liaison office director is I believe, as with all changes of officials, very normal,” Lee told reporters during a weekly briefing, without being drawn on reasons for the reshuffle.
“Director Zheng has spent around 5 years (in Hong Kong). Hong Kong was going through a transition period of chaos to order,” Lee said, referring to the months-long pro-democracy protests that erupted across Hong Kong in 2019 while adding that he looked forward to working with Zhou.
CK Hutchison’s ports deal has been criticized in Chinese state media as “betraying” China’s interests and bowing to US political pressure.
The conglomerate, controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, agreed in March to sell the majority of its $22.8 billion global ports business, including assets along the strategically significant Panama Canal, to the consortium. The consortium is now being led by another member — Terminal Investment Limited, which is majority-owned by Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte’s family-run MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company.
The deal is still being negotiated.
Asked whether Zheng’s removal reflected a pivot by Beijing toward economic development from national security, Lee said Hong Kong still needed to pursue both.
“Hong Kong faces a stage where development and safety must be addressed at the same time because any development must have a safe environment.”
China promulgated a powerful national security law in 2020, arresting scores of opposition democrats and activists, shuttering liberal media outlets and civil society groups and punishing free speech with sedition — moves that have drawn international criticism.
Azerbaijan’s quiet diplomacy between Turkiye and Israel
BAKU: With growing influence after its recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian separatists in 2023, Azerbaijan is using its close ties with Israel and Turkiye to defuse tensions between the regional foes in Syria.
Azerbaijan’s top foreign policy adviser Hikmet Hajjiyev confirmed Baku has hosted more than three rounds of talks between Turkiye and Israel, who are both operating in Syria to reduce what they see as security threats.
“Azerbaijan is making diplomatic efforts for an agreement,” Hajjiyev told Turkish journalists in Baku on a visit organized by the Istanbul-based Global Journalism Council.
“Both Turkiye and Israel trust us.”
The overthrow of Syrian strongman Bashar Assad by Islamist-led HTS rebels, with Turkiye’s blessing, sparked security concerns in Israel.
It has since staged hundreds of strikes deep inside Syria, the latest on Friday, to allegedly stop advanced weapons falling into the hands of Syria’s new authorities whom it sees as jihadists.
Israel has accused Ankara of seeking to turn Syria into a Turkish protectorate, raising fears of a confrontation.
As a close ally and strategic partner of Turkiye, Azerbaijan has consistently aligned itself with Ankara’s positions on key international matters, including the Syrian issue.
But it also enjoys good relations with Israel — which is very reliant on Azerbaijani oil, and is a major arms supplier to Baku.
And now Baku, which has established contacts with Syria’s new rulers, is pushing quiet diplomacy by facilitating technical talks between Turkiye and Israel.
“We are successful if the two parties agree on a common model that respects each other’s concerns,” Farid Shafiyev, chairman of the Baku-based Center for Analysis of International Relations, told AFP.
“Syria, and especially its northern territories, is the Turkish security concern because of the presence of terrorist groups,” notably Kurdish fighters, he said.
Turkiye wants to control northern Syria but also to “have a stronger presence” around the Palmyra and T4 air bases to ensure security around Damascus, he added.
Ties between Turkiye and Israel have been shattered by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, with Ankara insisting the talks were only technical.
“As long as the war in Gaza continues, Turkiye will not normalize ties with Israel,” a senior Turkish official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Turkiye has suspended trade with Israel over the war in Gaza.
But some Turkish opposition figures have criticized Ankara, claiming trade has continued, notably oil shipments via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline which brings Azerbaijani oil to the southern port of Ceyhan from where it is shipped to Israel.
Turkiye’s energy ministry has dismissed the claims as “completely unfounded.”
Azerbaijan’s Hajjiyev said Baku had won valuable support from Israel during the Karabakh conflict, but seemed reluctant to comment on the issue of oil.
“We bought weapons from Israel during the war, we paid for them (and) Israel gave us diplomatic support,” he said.
“Azeri oil is coming to Ceyhan, but once that oil is loaded onto ships that sail on the open seas, you cannot control the final destination,” he said.
“These are the rules of the world oil market.”
In facilitating Turkiye-Israel dialogue on Syria, Azerbaijan is playing a “strategic role,” said Zaur Mammadov, chairman of Baku Political Scientists Club.
“(It) reflects Azerbaijan’s growing influence as a mediator... among regional actors,” he said.
Azerbaijan fought two wars with arch-foe Armenia for control of the disputed Karabakh region — one in the 1990s and another in 2020 — before it managed to seize the entire area in a 24-hour offensive in September 2023.
Baku is now trying to normalize ties with Yerevan — which, if successful, would be a major breakthrough in a region where major actors including Russia and Turkiye all jostle for influence.
Turkish analyst Serkan Demirtas said Azerbaijan had stepped in to head off a potential clash between Turkiye and Israel over their opposing security concerns in post-Assad Syria.
“A confrontation between its two best allies in the region is a situation Azerbaijan does not want at all,” he said.
“Incoming news shows that progress has been made. This indicates the growing influence of hydrocarbon-rich Azerbaijan in the region after the Karabakh war.”
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Over 100 inmates escape from a Pakistan prison after an earthquake evacuation in Karachi
- Senior police official Kashif Abbasi says 216 inmates who were involved in ordinary crimes fled the prison before dawn
- No one convicted or facing trial as a militant is among those who escaped
KARACHI: More than 100 inmates escaped from a prison and at least one was killed in a shootout in the southern city of Karachi overnight after they were temporarily moved out of their cells following mild earthquake tremors, officials said Tuesday.
Kashif Abbasi, a senior police official, said 216 inmates who were involved in ordinary crimes fled the prison in the capital of Sindh province before dawn. Of those, 78 had been recaptured. No one convicted or facing trial as a militant is among those who fled, he said.
One prisoner was killed and three security officials were wounded in the ensuing shootout, but the situation has been brought under control, Abbasi said, adding that police are conducting raids to capture the remaining escapees.
Ziaul Hassan, the home minister of Sindh province, said the jailbreak occurred after prisoners were evacuated from their cells for safety during the earthquake. The inmates were still outside of the cells when a group suddenly attacked guards, seized their weapons, opened fire and fled.
Though prisoners have escaped while being transporting to court for trial, prison beaks are not common in Pakistan, where authorities have enhanced security since 2013 when the Pakistani Taliban freed more than 200 inmates in an attack on a prison in the northwestern Dera Ismail Khan district.
