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State media reports ‘biggest emergency incident’ after BA.2 sub-variant is detected in Pyongyang.

North Korea has confirmed its first outbreak of COVID-19, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster in one of the world’s only unvaccinated countries.

Omicron coronavirus variant, BA.2, in people in Pyongyang, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday, without elaborating on the number of confirmed cases.

“There has been the biggest emergency incident in the country, with a hole in our emergency quarantine front, that has been kept safely over the past two years and three months since February 2020,” the state broadcaster said.

It added that “maximum” control efforts were being imposed in Pyongyang.

The North, which sealed its borders in January 2020, had been one of the few countries on Earth not to report an outbreak of COVID-19, although analysts have long expressed doubt about the official figures given the country’s long, porous land border with China .

Analysts said Pyongyang’s public admission of the outbreak was probably a sign of the order of the situation, but not necessarily a sign that leader Kim Jong Un would be amenable to outside assistance.

“Pyongyang will likely double down on lockdowns, even though the failure of China’s zero-Covid strategy suggests that approach won’t work against the omicron variant,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said in emailed comments. “North Korea is entering a period of uncertainty in managing its domestic challenges and international isolation. The Kim regime would be well advised to swallow its pride and quickly seek donations of vaccines and therapeutics.”

The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported the Politburo of the ruling workers’ Party admitting there had been a “breach” in the country’s virus defences, and criticizing the department handling the epidemic for its “carelessness, laxity, irresponsibility, and incompetence” in “failing ” to respond to the acceleration in transmission around the world, according to the NK News media outlet.

NK News said a lockdown was imposed on May 10.

China is currently battling dozens of outbreaks of the virus including in Dandong, which is the North’s main trading link with the country. Pyongyang suspended inbound rail cargo from China in late April as a result of the outbreaks, only four months after resuming the service, according to NK News

The North has repeatedly rejected offers of vaccines from the United Nations-backed global vaccination initiative, and aid workers have warned that it would struggle to handle a major coronavirus outbreak, given its dilapidated health system.

“The North Korean medical system is antiquated, fragile and drastically ill-equipped to deal with a major outbreak,” said Tim Peters, a Christian aid worker who runs the Helping Hands Korea organization in Seoul. “The fact that 40 percent of the population is in need of food assistance speaks volumes about the weak immune systems of at least 11 million North Korean citizens. In short, the outdated healthcare infrastructure and highly vulnerable population is a catastrophe waiting to happen. I sincerely hope it doesn’t.”

Before the pandemic, the UN estimated that more than one-quarter of North Koreans suffered from malnourishment. In July, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said the country was struggling to feed itself.

State media reports ‘biggest emergency incident’ after BA.2 sub-variant is detected in Pyongyang.

North Korea confirmed its first outbreak of COVID-19, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster in one of the only unvaccinated nations.

Authorities detected a sub-variant of the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant, BA.2, in people in Pyongyang, KCNA reported, without elaborating on the number of confirmed cases.

“There has been the biggest emergency incident in the country, with a hole in our emergency quarantine front, that has been kept safely over the past two years and three months since February 2020,” the state broadcaster said.

The North, which closed its borders in January 2020, had been one of the few countries on Earth to report no COVID cases during the pandemic, although analysts expressed doubt about the official figures given the country’s vast, porous land border with China.

Aid workers have repeatedly that the North would struggle to handle a major coronavirus outbreak after refusing to take delivery of vaccines provided by the United Nations-backed global vaccination initiative, COVAX.

The isolated country ruled by third-generation dictator Kim Jong Un also suffers from widespread malnutrition and a dilapidated and ill-equipped health system.

Before the pandemic, the UN estimated that more than one-quarter of North Koreans suffered from malnourishment.

In July, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated the country could fall 860,000 short tons of its food requirements in 2021.

UNITED NATIONS AP — The top international official in Bosnia warned Wednesday that Bosnian Serbs are trying to “secede” and the country’s sovereignty, and he urged the international community to safeguard the rights of all its people and uphold the peace agreement that ended Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.

High representative Christian Schmidt told the UN Security Council that 26 years after the Dayton peace agreement was signed Bosnia is “at a crossroads,” and what happens and how the international community reacts “will resonate throughout the western Balkans.”

He said the country remains “traumatized” by the war that left over 100,000 people dead, and “every single person who lived through it is still in one way or another wounded.”

The US-brokered Dayton agreement established two separate entities in Bosnia — one run by Bosnia’s Serbs called Republika Srpska and another one dominated by the country’s Bosniaks, who are mostly Muslims, and Croats. The two entities are bound together by joint central institutions, and all important decisions must be backed by both.

Since last year, Schmidt said, “citizens of the country and even international media have speculated about the possibility of another war.”

He said he sees “the desire to keep peace” among Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks and others, but the younger generations born during or after the war, “in the face of continued instability, unfortunately, are leaving the country in record numbers.”

In his report to the Security Council circulated Tuesday, Schmidt warned that Bosnia’s potential “to become a security crisis is very real.”

He said he is grateful for the European Union’s force, EUFOR-ALTHEA, which is implementing the military side of the Dayton agreement, “as a confidence-building measure and a necessary tool to safeguard peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Schmidt was delivering his first his first briefing to the Security Council despite protests from Russia and China that he is not the legitimate high representative because his appointment was not endorsed by its 15 members.

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Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia raised a point of order when Schmidt was invited to speak by the current council president, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, saying his presence “undermines the authority of the Security Council and the United Nations at large.” At the same time, he said, the council does allow individuals to brief members “in their personal capacity” and that is how Russia would consider Schmidt’s presence on Wednesday.

China’s deputy UN ambassador Dai Bing called the Security Council’s role in appointing the high representation “indispensable” under the 1995 Dayton agreement. Since Schmidt hasn’t been endorsed by the council, he said, “it is inappropriate” for him to brief members as high representative.

Last July, the council rejected a resolution put forward by Russia and China that would have immediately stripped the powers of the international high representative, who oversees implementation of the peace agreement, and eliminated the position entirely in one year.

Schmidt was formally appointed as the next high representative on May 27, 2021 by the 10-member Steering Board of the 55-member Peace Implementation Council, the international body guiding Bosnia’s peace process. Russia has suspended its participation on the board.

Thomas-Greenfield and many other council members, who insisted that Schmidt was legally appointed, welcomed his participation.

Schmidt warned the council that leaders of the Bosnian Serb-dominated entity have systematically challenged provisions of the 1995 agreement and intensified their activities aimed at usurping powers granted to the federal government.

In December, Schmidt said, the Republika Srpska legislature instructed its government to withdraw from agreements including on defense, indirect taxation and the judiciary.

“If followed through, this would mean, at a minimum, the withdrawal of the Republika Srpska from the unified armed forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina — which is the result of one of the most significant reforms of the Dayton era and one of the most positive developments seen in recent years — and potentially the formation of its own military,” he said.

Schmidt said so far this attempt could be stopped by the international community.

But he said Republika Srpska’s authorities are pursuing through these unilateral withdrawals “a de facto secession” of the Bosnian Serb entity by attempting to opt out of Bosnia’s constitutional framework and assume its responsibilities.

“They have no right to secede,” Schmidt said, and he told council members the duty of the international community under the peace agreement “is to safeguard the rights of all three constituent peoples and others, so all citizens may express their identity with none dominating the other.”

Thomas-Greenfield stressed that “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina is paramount and unquestionable” and she called steps taken by Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and Republika Srpska to block the work of institutions “undemocratic,” “escalatory,” and not in the spirit of the Dayton agreement.

Washington, DC – The US Department of State often says that it “has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens abroad”.

But on Wednesday morning, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh became the second American this year to be killed by Israel – a top recipient of US military aid and Washington’s closest ally in the region.

Department of State spokesperson Ned Price was quick to condemn the killing and call for an investigation, but later in the day, he confirmed that Washington trusts Israel to investigate itself and would not call for an independent probe.

Ahmad Abuznaid, executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, said calls for investigations are “empty gestures” if the probe is to be left for Israel.

“You can’t ask the Israelis to investigate themselves when they’ve been abusing human rights for over 70 years and expect them to arrive at a different result that they’ve been arriving at after all these decades,” Abuznaid told Al Jazeera.

“These are atroities that the international community has witnessed time and time again – whether recorded on live footage or not – and we have never seen accountability.”

On Wednesday, Price said repeatedly when pressed by reporters at a State Department briefing that Israel has the “wherewithal and the capabilities to conduct a thorough, comprehensive investigation” into the killing of Abu Akleh.

He said it is important for Washington for Abu Akleh’s legacy to be honored with accountability. “Those responsible for Shireen’s killing should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Price told reporters.

But recent incidents show that when Israel carries out investigations into its own forces’ misconduct, meaningful accountability is seldom the outcome, Palestinian rights advocates have said.

Despite multiple eyewitness testimonies saying she was shot by Israeli forces, he Israeli government’s initial reaction to the killing of Abu Akleh was to blame “armed Palestinians” for shooting the journalist.

“History and action has shown that Israel cannot be trusted to investigate its own war crimes, and human rights violations,” Abed Ayoub, legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), told Al Jazeera.

“We demand an independent investigation, free from political pressure and influence from American and Israeli interests.”

In January, 78-year-old US citizen Omar Assad suffered a stress-induced heart attack after he was arbitrarily detained, bound, blindfolded and gagged by Israeli forces.

At the time, the Department of State also called for a “thorough criminal investigation and full accountability” in the case.

In February, the Israeli military called the incident a “clear lapse of moral judgment” and announced administrative disciplinary action against the battalion involved in Assad’s killing but no criminal charges.

At the time, the Department of State suggested that it expects more from the investigation, saying that the US continues to “discuss this troubling incident with the Israeli government”.

But since then, next to nothing has been said by US officials about the killing of the elderly American citizen. Asked for an update on the case on Wednesday, a Department of State spokesperson shared comments that Washington had released earlier this year expressing condolences for Assad’s family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJC92xbqD2s

Meanwhile, US officials have continued to heap praise on Israel. And this year, Washington increased its annual $3.8bn military assistance to Israel by an additional $1bn to “replenish” the Iron Dome missile defense system after the May 2021 conflict with Gaza.

When Israel bombed the building of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera in Gaza during that conflict, the Department of State called for additional details backing the Israeli claim that the tower was being used by Hamas operatives.

To date, the US administration has not condemned the bombing of the Gaza building housing media offices or provided an assessment on whether it was justified.

On Wednesday, Price was asked about the targeting of the building a year ago in the context of Israeli attacks on the media and the killing of Abu Akleh. He said, “We voiced our concern by the fact that they were put at risk, that their offices came under assault,” adding that concerns those still stand today.

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington-based think-tank, said calls for an are welcome, but the outcome of investigation of such probes is what matters.

“The question is what happens next?” Berry told Al Jazeera. “That’s the key here. What will they do next? Are we expecting the Israeli forces to investigate themselves and find that there’s either a ‘moral lapse in judgment’ or no error was committed?”

The Biden administration has maintained that Israel is equipped to investigate its own alleged war crimes – an argument used against Palestine’s push for an International Criminal Court probe into Israeli abuses.

For her part, Berry decried the lack of accountability for Israel from the US, including when it abuses American citizens.

“Regrettably, because we give Israel an exception in its treatment of not just American citizens, in its human rights abuses – but certainly when it comes to treatment of Americans – you will not arrive to a rational explanation for what it is allowed to do with impunity, counter to the interest of protecting Americans and certainly counter to our own US interests abroad,” Berry told Al Jazeera.

As a candidate, Joe Biden promised a more even-handed approach to the conflict in outreach efforts to Arab- and Muslim-American voters, despite categorically ruling out conditioning aid to Israel.

“Joe Biden believes in the worth and value of every Palestinian and every Israeli,” the Biden campaign said in its platform for Arab Americans in 2021. “He will work to ensure that Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, prosperity, and democracy.”

Variations of that comment still surface in Department of State and White House statements. However, Palestinian rights advocates say Biden has done little – other than resuming some humanitarian aid to Palestinians – to change the policies of his predecessor Donald Trump on Israel-Palestine.

Amer Zahr, a Palestinian-American comedian and president of New Generation for Palestine, an advocacy group, said the killing of Abu Akleh was a “targeted assassination”.

“The tipid response by our State Department confirms what we already knew: The Biden administration couldn’t care less about Palestinian lives, whether they are Americans or not,” he told Al Jazeera.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies have cracked down on dissidents and who have spoken out against the war.

The Kremlin passed a law that imposes a sentence of up to 15 years in prison for local and who publish “fake news” about the war, which Putin refers to as a “special military operation.”

Hundreds of thousands of people have reportedly demonstrated peacefully against the war, and thousands have been arrested, fined or punished in response, according to Human Rights Watch. The growing list includes human rights defenders, protest organizers and local politicians.

Here are the most prominent Russians we know have been punished for speaking out against the war.

Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Krasilshchik

One of the most active Kremlin critics and dissidents, Vladimir Kara-Murza is being held until June 12 while he awaits trial for speaking out against the war.

Kara-Murza is charged with denouncing the war in Ukraine during a March 15 speech to the Arizona House of Representatives.

He is a journalist and former associate of Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader who was assassinated in 2015. Kara-Murza himself has survived two poisoning attempts.

On the same day charges were announced against him, Russian authorities revealed separate charges against Ilya Krasilshchik, the former publisher of Meduza.

Krasilshchik is accused of spreading “fake” news about the massacre in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, which has led to accusations of war crimes against Moscow.

Krasilshchik, who wrote an article critical of the Kremlin in The New York Times in March, has reportedly fled the country and continued to report on the war.

Marina Ovsyannikova

The journalist for Channel One, one of the most popular state-run news stations in Russia, was fined $270 for organizing unsanctioned protests.

Ovsyannikova drew international headlines when she appeared on TV behind an anchor during a live broadcast, holding up an anti-war sign that read: “Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They’re lying to you here.”

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After she was released from a quick detention, Ovsyannikova said she “wanted to show to the world that Russians are against the war.”

“I realized that I either would need to do something or we would reach a point of no return and it would be more and more difficult to do anything,” she said on CNN.

Lev Ponomarev

A former member of the Russian Parliament and director of the nonprofit organization For Human Rights, Lev Ponomarev is one of the largest and most well-known in Russia.

A few days after the invasion, Ponomarev was arrested and fined 30,000 roubles after authorities said he organized a protest in Moscow, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

Ponomarev announced he was leaving Russia last month. The 80-year-old activist said he was growing concerned, citing “shadowy information about what they intended to do to me,” and his listing as a foreign agent.

“I doubt that my leave of absence will last long,” Ponomarev told AFP on April 22.

Alexandr Nevzorov

Alexandr Nevzorov is one of the most popular in Russia and a former member of Parliament.

While he has since stepped down from Leningard TV, now Channel 5, and other TV stints, Nevzorov has continued to blog and record videos about in Russia that are often critical of the government.

He drew the ire of the Kremlin this year when he was criticized by Russia for bombing a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian port city Mariupol in March. The Investigative Committee of Russia charged him specifically for publishing photos and reporting on the maternity hospital bombing to his large following on Instagram and YouTube.

A court ordered Nezorov, who is currently in Israel, to be detained for two months upon his return to Russia for disseminating false information about the nation’s armed forces, according to Radio Free Europe.

Russia has denied responsibility for the hospital attack, which killed at least three people, including a child.

The Russian journalist once sided with Russian nationalists but in recent years he flipped sides, becoming a staunch Kremlin critic.

Nevzorov does not plan to relocate to Israel permanently and has tried to get the case against him dismissed.

Maria Ponomarenko

RusNews journalist Maria Ponomarenko was hiding to two months in jail for publishing information about the Russian bombing of a theater in Mariupol, where hundreds of Ukrainians were hiding out.

According to the Russian outlet Sota.Vison, which itself has been a target of the Kremlin crackdown, police arrested Ponomarenko in late April for spreading “fakes about the Russian army.”

Sota.Vision wrote on its Telegram channel that Ponomarenko has two children who will have to live with their grandparents while she is imprisoned.

The Siberian news outlet RusNews has long been critical of Moscow leadership. Ponomarenko has covered anti-war rallies and written extensively about the opposition to Putin for the site.

Her arrest drew the attention of the Committee to Protect Journalists, who called for Moscow to immediately release her.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

Republicans block legislation proposed by Democrats that seeks to ensure access to abortion in all 50 states.

Democratic lawmakers in the United States Senates failed on Wednesday to advance a bill legalizing abortion nationwide, but succeeded in putting Republicans on record opposing the measure as both parties position for a looming political battle.

Republicans blocked the measure in a Senate procedural vote 49-51 that fell short of the 60-vote threshold needed. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the vote in the Senate, where Democrats hold only a 51-50 majority over Republicans.

The action comes as the US Supreme Court appears ready to abandon its landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v Wade that made abortion legal in all 50 US states.

“The American people are watching,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ahead of the vote. “The public will not forget which side of the vote senators fall on today.”

The outcome of the court’s actual ruling, expected in June, is sure to reverberate around the nation and on the campaign trail ahead of the fall midterm elections that will determine which party controls Congress.

Scores of House Democratic lawmakers marched protest-style to the Senate and watched from the Senate visitor galleries.

One by one, Democratic senators delivered speeches on the Senate floor contending that undoing abortion access would mean great harm, not only for women but for all Americans planning families and futures.

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto said that most American women have only known a world where abortion access was guaranteed but could face a future with fewer rights than their mothers or grandmothers.

“That means women will not have the same control over their lives and bodies as men do, and that’s wrong,” she said in the run-up to Wednesday’s vote.

Two Republican senators who support abortion access – Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins – were “no” votes on advancing the bill, having proposed a more tailored approach to counter the Supreme Court’s potential action.

“I plan to continue working with my colleagues on legislation to maintain – not expand or restrict – the current legal framework for abortion rights in this country,” Collins said in a statement.

Few Republican senators spoke in favor of ending abortion access, even though most joined in voting to block the bill from advancing.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, an architect of the effort to install conservative justices on the Supreme Court — including three during the era of Republican former US President Donald Trump — has sought to downplay the outcome of any potential changes in federal abortion policy.

“This issue will be dealt with at the state level,” McConnell said.

At least 19 US states have abortion bans that either predate the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling or would go into effect if it is struck down. Meanwhile, 16 states and Washington, DC have laws that protect abortion services.

Senator John Thune, a Republican, argued that the proposed bill was extreme, and would expand abortion access beyond what is already the law in the US and other leading countries around the world.

One Democrat – Senator Joe Manchin, who represents a Republican state – told reporters he supported keeping Roe v Wade, but would vote “no” on this bill as too broad, joining Republicans to block its consideration.

Security on Wednesday was tight at the US Capitol and was bolstered across the street at the Supreme Court after thousands of protesters assembled in front of the court last week following the leak of a court draft decision on abortion.

Congress has battled for years over abortion policy, but the vote to take up the abortion rights bill was given new urgency after the disclosure of the draft Supreme Court opinion by the conservative majority to overturn the Roe decision that many had believed to be settled law.

With congressional elections coming up in November, both parties face enormous pressure to convince voters they are doing all they can; the Democrats working to preserve abortion access, the Republicans to limit or end it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will have to face the reality that his invasion of Ukraine has failed and that his country will emerge from the war as a “lesser” power, Britain’s defense secretary told reporters during a visit to Washington.

Russian forces are struggling to gain traction in a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, its forces are depleted and its economy is reeling under international sanctions, said Ben Wallace.

“Only President Putin can know where his off-ramp is going to be,” Wallace said. “He’s got to reconcile that in the long run he’s lost. So whatever happens in Ukraine, let’s consider that Russia is a lesser country now than it was before this invasion.”

Wallace, who was due to meet US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, said that Russian “armed forces are worn out” and that Moscow will face difficulties shoring up its army, especially as sanctions hinder Russia’s ability to import Western technology needed for much of its military equipment.

In the Donbas region, where the Kremlin has touted a major offensive, Russian forces continue to rely on outmoded tactics, Wallace said. The Russians are using heavy, often inaccurate bombardment combined with the uncoordinated movement of ground troops, he said.

“They’re making lots of mistakes, but their response is more barrage, more brutality, and more cannon fodder,” Wallace said.

“Given this was supposed to be the great repositioning, so far, not so good,” Wallace said. “They are still having a problem delivering the effect they want.”

Wallace said Britain’s policy is to ensure that Russia is defeated in Ukraine. “Putin needs to fail in Ukraine. The consequences of him being successful, would be ripples that would be felt globally.”

Both the US and Britain believe the most effective way to help Ukraine at the moment is providing Russian-made, Soviet-era military equipment compatible with what Ukrainian forces already have, Wallace said.

The UK’s defense ministry has focused on finding Russian-made hardware in countries around the world, but officials discovered Russia was also looking to replenish its own stocks, Wallace said.

“Sometimes we’ve bumped into the Russians in some countries looking for some of the resupplies because that’s what they’re running out of fast.”

In a speech on Monday at Britain’s National Army Museum, Wallace said Russia had botched the invasion of Ukraine, saying “Russia’s general staff are failing and they know it.”

Russian forces were so badly equipped that pilots were strapping GPS devices into their cockpits as they could not rely on their on-board navigation gear, he said.

“’GPS’ receivers have been found taped to the dashboards of downed Russian SU-34s so the pilots knew where they were, due to the poor quality of their own systems,” Wallace said.

Wallace told reporters in Washington that Russian military leaders made faulty assumptions about their equipment, their intelligence and how the Ukrainians would respond.

“There is one component left, which is brutality, that he (Putin) still has in his back pocket,” Wallace said.

The world cannot allow Russia to prevail using brutal methods with indiscriminate shelling and atrocities, he said.

The British defense secretary also said that Russia was more angered by tough economic sanctions than weapons flowing to Ukraine’s military.

“So what we definitely see is they’re not as agitated by lethal aid, as you would think. They’re more agitated by sanctions, because you can’t hide that from your people. You can hide bodies. You can’t quite hide your inflation.”

As Ukraine war threatens food security globally, UN chief says he’s ‘deeply concerned’ about hunger becoming widespread.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he is deeply concerned about hunger becoming widespread as the war in Ukraine threatens food security in different parts of the world.

Speaking alongside Austria’s chancellor and foreign minister in Vienna on Wednesday, Guterres also said talks were going on to evacuate more civilians from conflict zones in Ukraine and expressed confidence that more evacuations would happen in the future.

However, he played down the prospect of peace talks over Ukraine happening any time soon.

The war in Ukraine has sent global prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertiliser soaring, with United Nations agencies warning that the price hikes will worsen a food crisis in Africa.

The Russian invasion has disrupted shipping in the Black Sea, a major route for grains and other commodities, throttling exports from Ukraine and Russia.

“I have to say that I am deeply concerned, namely with the risks of becoming widespread in different parts of the world because of the dramatic food security situation we are facing because of the war in Ukraine,” Guterres said.

On the back of a visit to Moldova, a small country that has thrown its doors open to an influx of refugees from neighbor Ukraine, Guterres urged the European Union to ramp up financial support for the government in Chisinau.

More than 450,000 refugees from Ukraine have fled into Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries.

Guterres previously served as UN high commissioner for refugees. He noted during his two-day visit to Moldova, where he met Moldova’s leaders, that the small nation has absorbed the most refugees proportionate to its own population of about 2.6 million people.

Speaking at an earlier event, Guterres said the time would come when there are peace negotiations over Ukraine, but he did not see that time in the immediate future.

“This war will not last forever. There will be a time when peace negotiations will take place,” Guterres told a news conference with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen.

“I do not see that in the immediate future. But I can say one thing. We will never give up,” he added, in remarks translated into German by an official translator.

CAIRO (AP) — Fighting on Wednesday in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula left a general and killed four troops dead, the military said, just days after an attack there 11 forces.

In a statement, the military’s spokesman said the forces had been killed during a clash with militants, and that it came after airstrikes in recent days. The military claimed that at least seven extremists had been killed in the same bout of fighting.

Two security officials said the crash took place after militants attacked a border checkpoint belonging to the country guards near the city of Rafah, on the country’s Mediterranean coast that borders the Gaza Strip. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to media.

Saturday’s attack, one of the deadliest on Egyptian security forces in recent years, was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Egypt is battling an insurgency in Sinai that intensified after the military overthrew an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013. The extremists have carried out scores of attacks, mainly targeting security forces and, but the pace has slowed in recent years.

On April 30, suspected militants blew up a natural gas pipeline in Northern Sinai’s town of Bir al-Abd, causing a fire but no consequence.

The military has claimed that rebels have suffered heavy losses in recent months as security forces, aided by armed tribesmen, intensified their efforts to eliminate them.

The pace of militant attacks in Sinai’s main theater of operations and elsewhere has slowed to a trickle since February 2018, when the military launched a massive operation in Sinai and parts of the Nile Delta and deserts along the country’s western border with Libya.

The fighting in Sinai has largely taken place hidden from the public eye, with, non-residents and outside observers barred from the area. The conflict has also been kept at a distance from tourist resorts at the southern end of the peninsula.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value fell as much as 6.2 percent to $29,085 on Wednesday.

Bitcoin swung between gains and losses after tumbling to an almost 11-month low, while the TerraUSD stablecoin continued its downward spiral.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value fell as much as 6.2% to $29,085 before trading little changed. Analysts had been watching the $30,000 level as a key threshold, with many projecting losses that could accelerate once the coin falls below.

Meanwhile, the TerraUSD algorithmic stablecoin continued to spiral lower, trading at less then 30 cents. Backers of the coin are trying to raise about $1.5 billion to shore up the token after it crashed from its dollar peg, according to the founder of a firm that was approached about the deal.

“Bitcoin and cryptos have become a risk-on/risk-off trade this year and the CPI data is a risk-off development,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co. “As for Terra, this news is having an impact as well. Its collapse is lower confidence in an asset class that has been losing confidence among investors all year.”

Other cryptocurrencies also fell, with Bitcoin Cash losing more than 11% and Dash dropping nearly 16%.

The drop came after data showed US consumer prices rose by more than forecast in April, indicating inflation will persist at elevated levels for longer. The data point also suggests the Federal Reserve will stay on its path of aggressive interest-rate hikes.

“There is extreme fear across the crypto market,” said Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at the UK-based digital-asset broker GlobalBlock. “In addition to ongoing macro headwinds, there is now a fundamental risk to the crypto industry as the UST stablecoin has de-pegged from $1.”

Cryptocurrencies and other riskier assets have been under pressure all year. The Federal Reserve and other central banks are raising interest rates to fight red-hot inflation, creating an unfavorable environment for risk assets.

The area around $30,000 had been an “especially sensitive zone,” for Bitcoin, wrote James Malcolm, head of foreign exchange and crypto research at UBS. That’s where mining economics turn negative, “which could potentially lead to increased coin sales by this key cohort,” he said. He added that long-term accumulators like MicroStrategy Inc. begin to fall below historical breakevens.

“Below this there is little technical support until the low-20ks, where margin calls kick in,” Malcolm wrote.

Bitcoin’s Relative Strength Index is now at 21, showing that it’s at its most oversold since January. The coin now needs to hold $28,000. A break below that level could start a new wave of selling.

Still, a lot of crypto investors, cognizant of the fact that Bitcoin has gone through a boom-and-bust cycle before only to recoup losses over and over again, are preaching patience.

“Ultimately every investor needs to size positions based on their risk level and time horizon,” said Alex Tapscott, managing director of the digital asset group at Ninepoint Partners. “We believe Bitcoin will recover and that we’re still in the early stages of this new internet of value. Keep calm and HODL.”

–With assistance from Sidhartha Shukla and Kenneth Sexton.