Europe

Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst highlighted ongoing plague cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar, stating the laboratory connection makes the current incident more concerning. He also noted that COVID-19 has returned this winter in a milder form, differing from previous years.

Former German intelligence chief August Hanning is under investigation by Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office for allegedly obtaining classified information, including state secrets, from a former employee of the Federal Intelligence Service. Accusations involve espionage and the continued receipt of confidential documents after his tenure.

Dmitry Utkin, cofounder and military commander of the Wagner Group, was buried Thursday in a quiet ceremony at a military cemetery near Moscow, after dying in a plane crash that also killed his boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin. The ceremony came as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow for talks in a bid to revive the Black Sea grain deal. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

Watch: Workers clear up after a 127-year-old water main under New York’s Times Square gave way early Tuesday flooding midtown streets and the city’s busiest subway station as well as leaving a big hole at the intersection of 40th Street and Seventh Avenue.

As Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was laid to rest after a fatal plane crash, videos purportedly showing graves of the group’s fighters being demolished went viral on social media channels. But despite claims to the contrary, this footage does not show a large-scale effort by the Russian state to erase all traces of the mercenary group.

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