Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Featured on 1+1 with Youri Smouter, Discussing the History and Contemporary Affairs of the Republic of Namibia

Watch this interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, on the history and contemporary affairs of the Republic of Namibia. 

To watch this episode in its entirety just click on the following URL: 1+1 E394 Youri speaks to Abayomi Azikiwe of Pan-African Newswire & Black Agenda Report on Namibia

The interview was conducted by Youri Smouter of 1+1. The discussion covers the early history of the country and the rise of several kingdoms. 

During the late 19th century, German imperialists seized control of the territory and carried out a series of genocidal onslaughts against the indigenous people. 

During WWI, the British based in neighboring South Africa took control. We look at the role of the Garvey Movement during the 1920s and the later rise of the South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) during the 1960s-1980s. 

The domestic, regional, continental and international character of the struggle led to independence in 1990. 

The country has remained stable for the last 36 years. This episode was recorded on Fri. June 12, 2026.

FM Outlines Contours of Proposed MoU, Says Diplomacy’s Role is to Consolidate Battlefield Gains

Saturday, 13 June 2026 12:43 AM

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has outlined the structure of a potential memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States, while highlighting that diplomacy is intended to consolidate the gains achieved by the Islamic Republic on the battlefield.

In a televised interview on Friday, the top diplomat identified the Islamic Republic as the sole party to come out victorious in the face of the latest bout of unprovoked American-Israeli aggression against the country, saying the outcome reflected a "major strategic achievement."

"Iran has been the winner of this war, and the people of Iran are the true winners of this arena," he stated.

'Any understanding meant to seal battlefield victory'

Araghchi reminded that the victory came about, although, both the aggressors were equipped with advanced weapons, including nuclear capabilities, but were prevented by Iran from achieving their objectives.

"Naturally, after such a victory, it is necessary to consolidate it through an agreement or understanding."

Diplomatic efforts aimed at reinforcing the triumph, he added, were now in their final stages and were based on a 14-point memorandum of understanding that has been discussed in the media. He stressed that the document was still subject to change until final approval and that its details would be announced after completion.

Araghchi described the 14 provisions as interconnected, saying they formed a single package.

Two-phase negotiation framework

The foreign minister explained that multiple drafts of the memorandum had been reviewed within Iran’s decision-making institutions, including the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).

According to the official, the process is divided into two stages, namely realization of an initial memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States, and a second phase that is expected to feature negotiations leading to a potential final agreement.

He added that Iran’s frozen assets would be released upon signing of the memorandum of understanding, adding that the signing process might take place in a digital format in a day or two.

The second phase is expected to last around 60 days, Araghchi noted.

Nuclear issue, sanctions postponed to second phase

The foreign minister stated that sensitive topics, including the nuclear issue featuring uranium enrichment and highly-enriched uranium, have been postponed to the second stage.

He also stated that Iran’s position on the highly-enriched materials is that it should exclusively be diluted inside the Islamic Republic as the only viable option.

In the second phase, negotiations would also focus on removal of the US's illegal sanctions, the official added.

Lebanon, regional ceasefire framework

Araghchi noted that Lebanon has never been excluded from Iran’s strategic considerations. "We never forgot Lebanon in this war."

The official cited Iran's proactive manner of responding to the Israeli regime's violations of its ceasefire with Lebanon as "another strategic achievement."

The Iranian response, he added, showed that "it (Iran) is not joking, and that, if necessary, it is not only unafraid of war, but will also employ it wherever it is needed."

According to the official, a definitive conclusion of the war must feature the Israeli regime's withdrawal from the areas it has occupied in Lebanon.

Under the proposed framework, hostilities would end across all fronts, including Lebanon, and neither side would initiate war or use force, Araghchi went on.

Any potential agreement, therefore, features mutual respect for sovereignty, the foreign minister said, adding that such an agreement would, accordingly, bear witness to the first instance, where the United States would explicitly recognize and document respect for Iran’s sovereignty.

Removal of US blockade, reconstruction plan

The foreign minister said the first clause of the proposed agreement concerns the lifting of the illegal naval blockade imposed by the United States against the Islamic Republic.

The foreign minister said the potential agreement would additionally include an economic reconstruction plan to address war-related damages.

He said the plan would be discussed in detail after finalization, adding that it includes provisions related to compensation for damages, and would be designed to channel significant financial resources into Iran’s economy.

Timeline, extension, fallback mechanism

Araghchi said the second phase of negotiations is expected to last 60 days, but might be extended if both sides were satisfied with progress.

However, if sufficient progress was not achieved, the process would not lead to a final agreement, the official noted.

In that case, he said, the situation would return to its previous state before the memorandum.

'Iran wary of adversaries' non-commitment'

The official reminded the successive previous instances of the adversaries' non-commitment to former arrangements.

"We are not dealing with parties that are fully committed to their obligations. They take advantage of every opportunity to break their promises," he said.

"It is we who must close off the avenues for reneging on commitments, and we must have the capability, by relying on our own strength, not to allow such breaches of commitments to occur."

Araghchi noted that there were parties, who opposed realization of an agreement between Iran and the United States, identifying the Israeli regime as the most prominent enemy of such an agreement.

'New joint management framework for Strait of Hormuz in offing'

Araghchi said Iran and Oman were in the process of finalizing a joint legal and operational framework for managing transit through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The mechanism is expected to be announced within 60 days, he noted, adding that Iran’s armed forces would continue to ensure security in the waterway.

Araghchi pointed to the American aggression that has been targeting the chokepoint, saying threats only delay negotiations and must stop. Iran has never yielded under pressure and remains fully prepared to respond to any aggression, he stated.

Diplomacy-battlefield correlation

The foreign minister, meanwhile, reminded that the Islamic Republic's diplomatic apparatus and armed forces worked in tandem to secure the nation's interests.

"There is no duality between them… They must be one and the same. These two move in the same direction, towards the same goal."

The official identified the lively public demonstrations that had taken place nationwide throughout the country's retaliatory operations in the face of the unprovoked aggression as well as the national media's informative campaigns in the face of the aggressors, as the other two dimensions of the nation's defensive strategy.

Warning Shot in Strait of Hormuz; US Claims Downing of Iranian Drones

By Al Mayadeen English

Iran says a warning shot was fired toward the Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions with the US, while CENTCOM claims it downed multiple Iranian drones.

An explosion in southern Iran was a warning shot fired toward the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB said on Friday, citing a local authority source.

The broadcaster said the reason for the warning shots was not immediately specified, but noted that they could be linked to vessels violating transit regulations in the strategic waterway. It added that Iran has previously announced the closure of vessel passage through the Strait of Hormuz until further notice, including ships holding permits, following recent US strikes on Iranian territory.

The Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy chokepoint, has been at the center of rising tensions in recent weeks amid military escalation and competing claims over maritime security and navigation rights.

US says it downed Iranian drones targeting commercial ships

In a separate development, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said American forces “downed” several Iranian drones that were targeting vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

“Iran launched multiple one-way attack drones in an attempt to strike commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM wrote in a post on X, adding that the waterway “remains open for transit.”

The US statement did not provide further details on the number of drones intercepted.

On Friday, both the Iranian armed forces and CENTCOM reported confrontations in the Strait of Hormuz, as the United States continues to attempt to override the established maritime regime in the strategic waterway. Meanwhile, Iran stressed its control over the strait, stating that passage through it can only occur under its jurisdiction.

Maritime tensions amid regional escalation

The incidents come amid negotiations and ceasefire-related discussions involving Iran, the United States, and regional actors.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has recently stated that a memorandum of understanding under negotiation would “declare an end to the war, including in Lebanon,” while stressing that no final agreement has yet been signed and that key issues remain unresolved.

He said negotiations are proceeding in two phases, with the nuclear file deferred to a final agreement, and warned that US demands at this stage were “entirely unacceptable.” Araghchi also reiterated that Iran would not proceed to a second phase if initial understandings are not implemented.

Hormuz governance and maritime dispute

Araghchi has previously outlined Iran’s position on the Strait of Hormuz, stating that it falls under the sovereignty of Iran and Oman and is not an international waterway.

He said the future administration of the strait would involve new mechanisms, including service fees for maritime passage, and that no party would be allowed to infringe on Iranian and Omani sovereignty.

The developments come as discussions continue over sanctions relief, frozen assets, and reconstruction frameworks reportedly linked to the broader Iran-US understanding under negotiation, alongside competing claims regarding maritime security and freedom of navigation.

UK Jails Four Palestine Action Activists Over Israeli Elbit Protest

By Al Mayadeen English

A UK court sentenced four Palestine Action activists to prison over a 2024 raid on an Elbit Systems facility, as a legal battle over the group's ban continues.

A British court has sentenced four activists from the Palestine Action group to prison terms for protesting Israeli arms company Elbit Systems, at its facilities in Bristol, where equipment worth more than £1 million was damaged.

Elbit Systems is a major Israeli arms manufacturer and its weapons faciliate the Israeli genocide in Gaza, as well as war crimes and massacres throughout the broader region. Elbit supplies up to 85% of the Israeli military's land-based equipment and drones, while providing the core network infrastructure that digitizes and connects ground forces.

The activists, Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, and Fatema Rajwani, were convicted last month of destroying property at the site using sledgehammers and crowbars during an August 2024 action aimed at disrupting the production of military equipment.

According to court proceedings, the activists damaged computers, drones, and other equipment before confrontations broke out with security personnel and police officers at the facility.

Judge classifies action as 'terrorist act'

Authorities accused Corner, 23, of striking a police officer with a sledgehammer during the incident, causing serious injuries, including a fractured spine.

The group said their objective was to "dismantle drones and weaponry" that would be used in direct attacks on civilians, particularly in the Gaza Strip.

Judge Jeremy Johnson claimed the raid was "an act of terrorism" during Friday's sentencing hearing.

Corner was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison, while Head, 30, and Kamio, 30, each received five-year prison terms. Rajwani was sentenced to four years and eight months.

The judge said Corner had used "extreme and gratuitous force" against a police officer carrying out her duties.

Protests and arrests outside court

The sentencing prompted demonstrations outside the court, where around 500 people gathered in solidarity with the activists and Palestine Action.

Police said 107 people were arrested during the protest for showing support for the group.

Palestine Action has become known for direct-action campaigns targeting facilities linked to Israeli military production and arms exports.

Legal battle over Palestine Action ban continues

The ruling comes as the UK government continues its legal effort to reinstate a ban on Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000.

The ban, which entered into force on July 5 last year, made membership in or support for the group a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Since the measure was introduced, approximately 3,000 people have reportedly been arrested at demonstrations and rallies linked to the group.

In February, the High Court in London ruled that the government's decision to ban Palestine Action was "disproportionate" and had a "very significant" impact on human rights, ordering that the ban be lifted. The government appealed the ruling, and a decision on that appeal is expected on Monday.

I Blew the Whistle on DOGE’s Dismantling of USAID. Now the Dire Consequences I Predicted Are Becoming Reality.

The Ebola Outbreak is just the most visible problem

By Nicholas Enrich

Boston Globe

June 12, 2026, 3:00 a.m.

Nicholas Enrich is the former top global health official at USAID and the author of “Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower’s Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID.”

Just a few weeks since it was first detected, the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is already on pace to become the deadliest Ebola outbreak ever.

It is no coincidence that we’re seeing such a calamity just a year after the United States relinquished its leadership position in global health. This is exactly the kind of public health emergency I predicted in a whistleblower memo I released last year as the Trump administration recklessly dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID). My warning was not heeded; instead, I was removed from my position as USAID’s top global health official.

This outbreak was always going to be a tough one to contain. Centered in an urban conflict zone with a large migrant community within range of the borders of three countries, the rare Bundibugyo strain is both difficult to detect and has no proven vaccine or treatment. But the retreat of the United States from the global health stage has exacerbated the challenges at every turn.

This Ebola outbreak took far longer to identify than other recent ones. The virus had circulated undetected for several weeks, maybe even months, and the shockingly high initially reported numbers — over 200 suspected cases, over 60 suspected deaths — were the first indication the outbreak was already out of control. When the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency dismantled USAID in 2025, the programs that were aimed at rapid detection of outbreaks like this one were abruptly shuttered. All the investments USAID had made in training community health workers, bolstering surveillance, and strengthening diagnostic networks to help countries identify and respond to infectious disease threats before they became international crises were undone.

Workers from the Uganda Red Cross Society evacuated the body of a suspected Ebola victim in Kampala last month. The outbreak is affecting Uganda as well as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Once the outbreak was detected, as local and regional authorities mobilized to contain the spread, international response efforts were upended by the chainsaw the Trump administration has taken to the once-unparalleled American infrastructure for global health. The US withdrawal from the World Health Organization not only fractured international coordination to respond to Ebola but resulted in the United States not even learning of the outbreak until nine days after it was reported to the WHO on May 5. By then it was already too late to interrupt transmission at its source: The outbreak had spread to multiple urban centers in the DRC, and the virus had already slipped across the border into Uganda.

Under these circumstances, an immediate influx of resources in support of local response efforts was urgently needed to make up for lost time. But again the United States failed to deliver. USAID had a playbook for such a response. But in the wake of the destruction of USAID — 170 global outbreak experts disbanded, contracts with local partners shredded, thousands of community health workers forsaken — the US government struggled to reinvent the playbook within the State Department, an agency with no experience in responding to an Ebola outbreak, resulting in confusion and delays. Decisions that need to be made in hours now take days or even weeks at a moment when losing time means losing lives and facilitating the uncontrolled spread of the virus.

A local activist, dressed in protective equipment, tried to raise awareness about Ebola in Goma last month.

Blowing the whistle

As the top global health official at USAID when the agency was shredded, I have not been surprised by the disjointed and inadequate American response to this deadly outbreak. The seeds of this catastrophe were sown in a federal office building in Washington, D.C., more than a year ago. In the first chaotic weeks of the Trump administration, I witnessed firsthand the ignorance, indifference, and cruelty of DOGE and Trump’s political appointees as they tore apart USAID’s health programs in the midst of the previous Ebola outbreak.

I watched in shock as Trump’s team scoffed at and ignored the warnings of infectious disease experts, choking off our desperate attempts to respond to that outbreak in Uganda. They prevented us from conducting screening at airports to ensure passengers did not have symptoms of Ebola before boarding international flights. They refused to deliver thousands of sets of personal protective equipment (which American taxpayers had already paid for) intended for health care workers on the front lines of the outbreak. They put Ebola experts on administrative leave, locking them out of USAID’s email server and systems. How did the administration justify its failure to respond? Tim Meisburger, Trump’s appointee in charge of humanitarian assistance, put it bluntly: “Ebola is a scam.”

A child returning from school stopped to look at Ebola awareness illustrations in Munigi this month.

At a White House Cabinet meeting in late February 2025, Elon Musk blatantly lied to the American public, stating that he had “restored Ebola prevention immediately, and there was no interruption.” As he spoke, his DOGE team was terminating the very contracts needed to respond to the outbreak. That was the last straw for me. I decided to expose, in a series of memos, what was actually happening at USAID and how the systematic destruction of our global health programs would inflict suffering around the world on a massive scale and threaten the health and safety of Americans.

The destruction at USAID was not limited to its response to Ebola. The entire agency — which is credited with saving 92 million lives over the past two decades on less than 1 percent of the federal budget — was, as Musk gloated, fed “into the wood chipper.” I watched DOGE shred all our lifesaving health programs — work that spanned HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, nutrition, family planning, and pandemic preparedness. As my final official act as a civil servant, I compiled the risks of the cuts across all our programs, and the projected cumulative devastation was overwhelming.

Reflecting modeling and analysis compiled by technical experts across USAID’s health programs, my memos predicted dire consequences. The estimates indicated that up to 2.6 million additional people could die unnecessarily each year due to the cuts to USAID. That included as many as 28,000 cases of viral hemorrhagic fever, like Ebola. But Ebola would only cause a tiny fraction of the impact. The modeling projected, for example, an additional 166,000 deaths each year from malaria and a 30 percent annual increase in tuberculosis, the world’s leading infectious disease killer, which claimed the lives of over a million people each year before the cuts. Nor would the damage be limited to infectious diseases. The cuts would have an outsize impact on maternal and child health, with 16 million pregnant women not receiving services like essential medications and services for postpartum hemorrhaging and eclampsia; 11 million newborn babies not receiving critical postnatal care within two days of their birth; nearly 15 million sick children not receiving treatment for pneumonia and diarrhea, two of the top causes of preventable death in children under age 5; 3 million people with HIV losing access to their lifesaving treatment; and 1 million children not treated for severe acute malnutrition.

One of my memos concluded that the cuts to USAID “will lead to increased death and disability, accelerate global disease spread, contribute to destabilizing fragile regions, and heightened security risks — directly endangering American national security, economic stability, and public health.” Issuing the warning cost me my job — the same day I published the memo, I was pushed to administrative leave, ending my 15-year career in federal service.

Ebola is just the tip of the iceberg

Now, a year later, the devastation has unfolded largely as I predicted. Today the horrors of Ebola capture global health headlines. But the ongoing outbreak in the DRC is unfortunately only the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface lies far broader, though less reported, wreckage caused by the dismantling of USAID in combination with the US withdrawal from the WHO, the gutting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health — including the decimation of the Vaccine Research Center responsible for discovering Ebola vaccines — and deep cuts to health research at leading American scientific institutions.

The impacts of the cuts were immediate and tragic. Health clinics and emergency ambulance services shuttered overnight. Clinical trials were deserted. Thousands of health care workers lost their jobs. Lifesaving food and medicine was left to expire in warehouses. According to conservative estimates, in the year since USAID was dismantled, 750,000 people have died as a result of the cuts. For the first time in a generation, more children died in one year — 2025 — than in the previous year.

Catastrophic though the last year has been for global health, the longer term outlook is even worse. Destroying USAID ended its unprecedented global immunization campaign that protected millions of children from some of the world’s deadliest preventable diseases. Testing and diagnosis rates for HIV and tuberculosis are plummeting as decades of progress toward controlling the world’s top infectious disease killers is erased. Independent researchers estimate that up to an additional 14 million people may perish over the next five years, people who would have survived if USAID programs remained.

Americans should be particularly concerned by how much ground has been lost on pandemic preparedness in the past year. Over the past decade, and especially since the Covid pandemic, the United States invested hundreds of millions of dollars in developing a global early warning system to ensure that countries are prepared to detect and respond to emerging disease outbreaks before they can spread into more serious crises. And then the Trump administration abruptly abandoned these efforts — in an instant setting us back years in pandemic preparedness. Today, despite all our investments, we are now less prepared for the next pandemic threat than we were before Covid.

Not too late

Despite all the setbacks, it is not too late to act. The immediate need is to commit the personnel and resources to forcefully respond to the current Ebola outbreak. That means reengaging with the local, regional, and international partners we ghosted last year and reestablishing American leadership and coordination in the international outbreak response. The administration should immediately reverse course on the State Department’s ineffective policy of banning travel to the United States from affected countries (including even travel by American citizens exposed to Ebola) — a shortsighted attempt to keep the virus outside our borders. The moves are counterproductive — complicating delivery logistics for critical supplies, dissuading experts from joining the response, and discouraging the reporting of cases in new areas — and only serve to stoke division at a time when global coordination is critical.

Ultimately, this Ebola outbreak should serve as a wake-up call for the administration to begin reinvesting in the systems and expertise required to advance global health and effectively detect and respond to the next pandemic threat. That means filling key government positions that currently sit unoccupied — the US ambassador to the DRC and the directors of the CDC, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Global Health Security and Biodefense in the National Security Council, to name just a few. It means recognizing that global coordination is critical to preparedness and reengaging with the WHO. And it means collecting and analyzing data on the effects of the global health cuts to understand the full extent of the destruction — informing evidence-based assessments of what needs to be prioritized for reinvestment.

The Trump administration has backtracked on bad policy before, and faced with sharp enough opposition, it can be forced to reverse course again.

The Ebola outbreak may be the most vivid reminder of the consequences of America’s having walked away from its longstanding role as a leader in global health. But it is only the most easily recognizable symptom of the damage the administration’s cuts have wrought on global health. The broader deadly impacts — increases in maternal and child mortality, backsliding on decades of progress combating HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, and renewed vulnerability to emerging pandemic threats — are already occurring, even as the public remains largely unaware.

Ebola Outbreak Map: Cases Hit 600 in Africa, Drawing US Attention

USA TODAY

June 11, 2026, 10:50 a.m. ET

What is the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola?

What challenges do healthcare workers face in treating the 2026 Ebola outbreak?

How did the U.S. respond to the 2026 Ebola quarantine controversy in Kenya?

Full Summary

The 2026 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, caused by the Bundibugyo strain, has exceeded 600 confirmed cases and prompted a large international response, while U.S. officials say the risk of widespread transmission in the United States remains low.

Africa's Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda has reached more than 600 reported cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the Ministries of Health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there have been 598 confirmed cases and 115 deaths as of June 8, the CDC reported. There have also been 19 confirmed cases of Ebola in Uganda, including two deaths.

For most people in the United States, it is very unlikely that a virus such as Ebola could become widespread, according to the CDC. The U.S. Department of State has outlined specific precautions and response strategies, while stating that there is still little chance of an Ebola outbreak in the United States.

Where the 2026 Ebola outbreak is centered

The first suspected case in 2026 of the new strain of Ebola, called Bundibugyo strain, was reported in late April in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was officially investigated in early May, according to the World Health Organization. Testing shows that, unlike earlier strains, there is currently no approved vaccine or targeted treatment for the virus strain.

Where Americans abroad will receive Ebola care

Americans who contract Ebola abroad are now typically treated at specialized centers in Europe, including facilities in Berlin, Germany. The U.S. government has also set up a dedicated quarantine and treatment site in Kenya for Americans in Central Africa who have been exposed to the virus or are showing early symptoms, the Wall Street Journal reported.

An American missionary who contracted the disease on May 17 and was evacuated to Charité Hospital in Berlin has since been treated, released and is now in good health, according to reports from University of Minnesota.

Where Ebola outbreaks have previously hit in Africa

More than 28,600 people were infected during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the largest outbreak since the virus was first identified in 1976, according to WHO.

Ebola health care workers grapple with supply shortages

In the outbreak, 34 health care workers across the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda have been infected and five have died.

Lack of personal protective equipment, hygiene supplies and diagnostic instruments is making it more difficult for health care workers to respond safely, which raises their risk of infection, according to Reuters.

The rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola circulated for weeks undetected in Congo's remote northeast before the first samples tested positive in mid-May, according to WHO. Aid groups are now scrambling to rush in supplies to the Ituri Province, the conflict-hit region where the outbreak originated.

Major donors have been scaling up support. The U.S. has delivered 150 tons of medical supplies and pledged over $200 million directly to the affected countries, a State Department spokesperson said, making it the largest financial contributor to the Ebola ‌response.

How contagious is Ebola virus?

Every virus has an R₀ factor (or reproduction number), which estimates the number of individuals one infected person is likely to infect others in the absence of interventions such as vaccination and infection control.

Compared to other infectious diseases, Ebola has a Ro factor of about 2, which is relatively low number compared to COVID-19 or measles, but it has a much higher fatality rate, according to the National Library of Medicine.

How does Ebola start?

Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected fruit bats, monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead in the rainforest.

What are the symptoms of the Bundibugyo Ebola strain?

The symptoms are generally similar to those of other Ebola viruses, though experts cannot be entirely sure because only a limited number of cases of this particular strain had been observed before the most recent outbreak. They typically begin abruptly, appearing anywhere from two to 21 days after infection.

Can Ebola be cured and is there a vaccine?

Certain strains of Ebola, especially the Zaire strain – which has caused significant outbreaks in the past, including the largest outbreak on record in 2014 – have vaccines. However, the Bundibugyo strain causing the current outbreak has no licensed vaccine available, according to the International Medical Corps.

Potential vaccines are being developed and tested by researchers and global health partners. In the meantime, public health measures,  including surveillance, infection prevention and community awareness, are crucial for controlling outbreaks.

Ebola Outbreak, DRC and Region, Situation Report #6, June 11, 2026

Format Situation Report

11 Jun 2026

FAST FACTS

On May 15, the DRC officially declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD).

As of June 10, 635 confirmed EVD cases and 127 confirmed EVD deaths had been reported in the DRC, with 19 confirmed cases and two confirmed deaths in Uganda.

In the DRC, the outbreak remains centered in Ituri province, but cases have also been confirmed in North Kivu and South Kivu.

In Uganda, reported cases remain linked to transmission originating in the DRC, including imported cases and secondary infections among contacts and healthcare workers.

In South Sudan, no EVD cases have been confirmed, but risk of an outbreak remains high.

OUR RESPONSE

Across the region, our teams are providing case management, infection prevention and control, screening and triage, risk communication and community engagement (RCCE), training and preparedness planning.

We are supporting 51 facilities in the screening, identification and treatment of EVD.

Our supported sites have conducted 8,278 EVD screenings and provided treatment to 59 patients.

We have so far trained 255 people on EVD case management, response and transmission prevention.

Our RCCE efforts have reached 27,357 people.

With the support of the US Department of State and other donors, International Medical Corps rapid-response teams are actively responding to the outbreak and engaging with ministries of health, key actors and response partners in 30 health zones across the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan. International Medical Corps, which is active in 51 health facilities across the region, has used a hub-and-spoke model since the outbreak was declared to provide case-management support at designated treatment and transit facilities, strengthen infection prevention and control in referring health facilities, conduct screening and triage, support RCCE in surrounding communities and train health workers on EVD response protocols. We are operating three Ebola Treatment Centers in the DRC, responding in Uganda through a local partner and helping the Ministry of Health in South Sudan (where we currently are the only implementing partner with active capacity for Ebola case management) prepare for a potential outbreak there.

Scientists Race to Test Treatments as Ebola Outbreak Widens

Trials are beginning on several drugs that have shown promise in preliminary studies against the virus that is causing the current outbreak.

By Carl Zimmer and Stephanie Nolen

June 12, 2026

9:26 p.m. ET

In a hastily assembled Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Papys Lame and his colleagues rehydrate patients who arrive in paroxysms of diarrhea and vomiting, transfuse those who bleed uncontrollably from their noses and mouths, and provide oxygen for those in respiratory distress. They monitor patients’ hearts and blood pressure, and treat their intense pain.

It’s a significant improvement from outbreaks that Dr. Lame, the Ebola response coordinator in Congo for the Alliance for International Medical Action, worked on even five years ago. “Today we have more options, and more people survive,” he said.

But they are still missing something crucial: a treatment that specifically targets Bundibugyo virus, the species that has caused the current outbreak in East Africa. At least 695 people have been infected so far, and 138 have died. Scientists are searching intensely to find drugs that might work.

Why are there no treatments for Bundibugyo virus?

Over the past 50 years, most outbreaks of Ebola disease were caused by a different species of virus, known as Ebola virus. Based on clinical trials, the World Health Organization recommends two drugs as treatments for Ebola virus.

But just because scientists know that a drug works against one virus doesn’t mean that it works against the other. Their evolutionary differences are just too great.

After Bundibugyo virus emerged in 2007, scientists ran preliminary experiments with cells and animals to see if any drugs could stop it. Some of those studies yielded promising results. But scientists did not push the research further, because before now there had only been two small outbreaks of Bundibugyo virus. With limited funds to perform the expensive research, they had to choose their battles.

“If you were a betting person, you would not have bet on Bundibugyo to cause something large,” said Thomas Geisbert, a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “And, of course, we’re all wrong now.”

Now scientists are rushing to pinpoint drugs to test in clinical trials against Bundibugyo virus. The W.H.O. has put together a list of candidates for immediate trials. Scientists are also hunting for other compounds that might be worth testing.

What would a drug need to do to work?

One type of drug that works against viruses is known as a monoclonal antibody. This molecule locks onto the surface of a virus and prevents it from getting into cells.

Other drugs, known as antivirals, stop viruses from replicating once they have gotten inside cells. Some grab onto viral proteins, causing them to shut down. The disabled proteins can no longer do essential jobs like making new virus genes.

A monoclonal antibody called MBP-134 has proved effective at stopping Bundibugyo infections in monkeys, and in early clinical trials for Ebola virus, it has also proved safe for people to take.

In a few cases, doctors are already using MBP-134 to treat Bundibugyo infections. An American physician, Dr. Peter Stafford, received it after he became infected in Congo and was flown to Europe for treatment last month. He also received remdesivir, an antiviral drug that’s been used in the past for other diseases, including Covid. It has shown promise in early studies on Bundibugyo virus.

Dr. Stafford was discharged from Charité Hospital in Berlin on June 6. It’s impossible to know for certain if MBP-134 or remdesivir helped save his life. The only way to gain that kind of knowledge is through carefully designed clinical trials, comparing people who get experimental drugs with those who get only supportive care.

Clinical trials may start soon.

To prioritize which drugs to test in trials, the W.H.O. brought together experts to review preliminary studies. On May 28, they recommended moving MBP-134 and remdesivir into clinical trials, along with another monoclonal antibody, maftivimab, and another antiviral, obeldesivir.

An ordinary clinical trial can take many months or even years. It takes time to get regulatory approval, organize the logistics and find enough patients to treat. Many past Ebola outbreaks ended before clinical trials could even begin.

The Bundibugyo outbreak could be different, said Dr. Amanda Rojek, an associate professor of health emergencies at the University of Oxford and a veteran of Ebola response. She and other researchers have been developing a new kind of clinical trial that makes it possible to test a single drug in multiple outbreaks caused by different viruses.

Dr. Rojek and her colleagues began a trial of remdesivir in Rwanda in 2024, during an outbreak of Marburg, another species of virus that causes a lethal disease much like Ebola. Dr. Rojek plans to combine these results with a new trial in which remdesivir will be tested against Bundibugyo virus.

While the trial design may speed up results, the current outbreak presents a host of challenges, she warned. It is taking place in an active conflict zone, and treatment centers are only now getting set up. And there is limited infrastructure to support clinical trials.

What treatments will be tested?

Given the scope of the need for treatments, there are frustratingly few good candidates for scientists to test.

“There are only a limited number of candidates available for clinical trials, meaning that if these fail, there are no ready alternatives in the pipeline,” said Carmen Pérez Casas, the head of pandemic preparedness at the global health agency Unitaid, which is trying to arrange funds for early clinical testing of possible therapeutics.

Dr. Rojek’s trial will test two of the treatments on the W.H.O. priority list. Some patients will receive MBP-134, while others will receive MBP-134 plus remdesivir. “We think there might be a combination effect between some of these agents,” she said.

The trial is in the final stages of regulatory approval, she said.

“I’m pretty optimistic that remdesivir may work,” said Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, who is in Congo and leads the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experts group on the outbreak. “It will be quite quick to show efficacy, because we have the patients there in the hospital. And if remdesivir does work, it’s quite a cheap drug, and generics are widely available.”

Are there drugs that can prevent people from getting sick in the first place?

Possibly.

Public health workers in Congo and Uganda are tracking down people who have had contact with patients and could be infected. For now, the contacts have to wait in isolation to see if they develop symptoms.

Researchers hope to test an antiviral that may lower the risk that contacts develop Ebola disease — a strategy known as post-exposure prophylaxis.

The trial will test a 10-day course of obeldesivir. The drug is essentially a cheap, oral form of remdesivir.

“This is the potential game-changer,” said Dr. Armand Sprecher, an epidemiologist and emergency physician with Doctors Without Borders who has worked on half a dozen Ebola outbreaks. “In somebody who is incubating illness, you could effectively cure them before they become sick. And it also means that they are not in the community shedding virus.”

Promising hints of obeldesivir’s effectiveness emerged from a study published last year by Dr. Geisbert and his colleagues. They gave monkeys obeldesivir starting just 24 hours after infection with Ebola virus — long before they would normally start showing symptoms.

“They were completely protected,” Dr. Geisbert said. “I mean, they didn’t even get sick.”

They also tested the drug against another species of virus that causes Ebola disease, called Sudan virus, and against Marburg. In all three cases, obeldesivir protected the animals.

But before the current outbreak, the scientists had not yet tested it on monkeys infected with Bundibugyo virus.

For pre-exposure prophylaxis to work, a health system has to be effectively tracing contacts. An effective drug would give those directing the outbreak response something to offer people, an incentive for sick people to go into isolation wards, if they know the family members who were caring for them could receive the protective pills.

If any of these drugs work, will East Africans get them?

The family members of Dr. Stafford, the American physician treated for the virus, were given MBP-134 in Berlin as post-exposure prophylaxis. None developed Ebola disease. As they were leaving the hospital, Dr. Stafford expressed his gratitude but added that he hoped all patients in Congo could receive the same level of care he and his family did.

Questions of access have haunted treatments tested in previous Ebola outbreaks. Dr. Rojek called post-trial access a critical issue and said it was “being worked through at the moment” for the therapeutics that might be tested in this outbreak.

In 2019, during an Ebola outbreak in Congo, a trial funded largely by the U.S. National Institutes of Health tested four monoclonal antibodies treatments. Two of the drugs cut deaths in patients by as much as 50 percent. One of them was developed from the blood of a Congolese Ebola survivor.

And yet, despite the public funding and the local origin of the treatments, there was no guarantee that the promising drugs would be supplied in Congo. Two companies, Regeneron and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, ended up holding the intellectual property. Neither has yet registered either drug in any of the countries where Ebola outbreaks occur.

Ridegeback says it has provided, one of the drugs, ansuvimab, free in four Ebola outbreaks in D.R.C.  under a special access protocol, though declined to say how many patients had received it. But most of the supply of both drugs is held in the United States’ national security stockpile.

Carl Zimmer covers news about science for The Times and writes the Origins column.

DR Congo: Ebola Spreads as Agencies Brace for Child Victims

Relief workers load supplies onto a United Nations Humanitarian Air Service helicopter at a field site in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

© WHO/Joël Lumbala The World Health Organization (WHO) is among the UN agencies supporting the authorities in responding to the latest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo.

By Daniel Johnson, Geneva

12 June 2026 Health

The deadly Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is continuing to spread with a spike in child infections an increasingly likely scenario in the days ahead, UN agencies said on Friday.

“Every day, cases are being identified in new health zones. And that reflects really the scale of this outbreak, a scale that is much bigger than what is being detected and the high mobility of the population in this part of the DRC,” said Dr Olivier le Polain, who heads up epidemiology and analytics at the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the approximately three weeks since the fast-moving outbreak was confirmed, the DRC health authorities have reported 676 cases and 136 deaths from the rare and deadly Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus.

Infections have been identified in a zone spanning from Aru in the north of Ituri province to Miti Murhesa in South Kivu, some 1,000 kilometres. “And we have 34 health zones affected as of yesterday, so, those health zones [with Ebola] continue to expand, with new areas in North Kivu which also reported [cases] yesterday,” Dr le Polain told journalists in Geneva, via videolink from Beni.

Those leading the response stressed that many youngsters in the region are malnourished and unvaccinated against preventable illness. T

his means that they are extremely vulnerable to disease in the resource-rich region where a humanitarian crisis is already playing out, caused by decades of fighting between government forces and armed militia.

Households the new target

To date, most infections have been among adults going about their daily lives, “but as the outbreak evolves, we must be prepared for increasing household transmission which means we may see more children affected in the days ahead”, warned Dr Douglas Noble, UNICEF Global Lead for Public Health Emergencies and Global Incident Manager for Ebola. 

“These are already very vulnerable children, so the capacity for this community to absorb any additional stressors was already stretched to breaking point,” he said, noting that more than half of children under five in Ituri province are “chronically malnourished”.

Zero dose

More than one in five are also “zero dose” children, meaning that they have never had their first dose of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine. 

Estimating the number of children who may be affected is problematic because sufficient surveillance tracking data is not yet available.

Nonetheless, past Ebola outbreaks in DRC have shown that children “made up a significant share of cases and an even greater share of deaths, with the youngest facing the highest fatality rates and many left orphaned or separated from caregivers”, Dr Noble explained.

As part of its six-month response to help 3.7 million people, the agency has dispatched eight transport flights with more than 100 tonnes of emergency humanitarian supplies to DRC, with support from the European Union.

The emergency cargo includes personal protective equipment for frontline health workers, medicines, hygiene materials and medical supplies to confront the virus in affected communities.

'Schools can stay open'

Although Ebola can be lethal, it transmits very differently from COVID and commonly via body fluids, so children who can go to school should continue to do so, the UNICEF official stressed. 

“There's no reason for a school to close. Infection prevention and control measures do have to be taken and there does have to be education within the school, amongst the teachers and the staff and amongst the children.”

Unlike for Ebola-Zaire strains of the disease, there are currently no approved Bundibugyo virus-specific therapeutics or vaccines. This highlights the need for greater support for surveillance efforts to contain transmission, said Dr le Polain. “We're now at just over 70 per cent in terms of the contacts that are being appropriately traced. That's a huge improvement from where we were about a week or two ago, but it's still too low to ensure appropriate control.”

Improving local testing capacity is another key factor in overcoming the health threat as the full scale of the outbreak is “not yet clear”, the WHO official explained. He noted that in Beni a testing laboratory processed 500 tests on Thursday alone. “That will really help get clarity about the scale of the outbreak in Beni as well,” he added.

For its part, UNICEF has also deployed more than 1,600 community health workers and mobilisers, and 24 decontamination teams, already reaching more than 160,000 households.

“We can spare children the worst of this outbreak. Fast detection, strong paediatric care, monitoring of contacts and communities that are informed and engaged can help bring this outbreak under control,” said Dr Noble. “What we now need are the resources, humanitarian access and the trusted communities to succeed.”

WHO Chief in Uganda to Help Anti-Ebola Effort

AFP

8 June 2026 | 7:51

The WHO has declared an international health emergency over the current outbreak, which was announced on May 15 in the northeastern DRC.

Members of a Congolese Red Cross team wearing personal protective equipment carry the coffin of a woman suspected of having died from Ebola virus disease. Picture: AFP

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday was in Uganda, where a deadly Ebola outbreak has killed two people after spreading from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The WHO has declared an international health emergency over the current outbreak, which was announced on May 15 in the northeastern DRC.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently also visited the DRC, which has seen 515 confirmed Ebola infections, including 91 deaths, according to the UN health agency.

"I am in Uganda, where the government has mounted a prompt and capable response to the outbreak of Ebola," Tedros wrote on X.

"Screening at the borders helped detect cases arriving from neighbouring DRC, and the country's surveillance, testing and case management systems are doing steady work."

The WHO chief on Monday met a senior Ugandan health ministry official, a WHO spokesman in Geneva told AFP.

Tedros "is in the country to assess Uganda's readiness to respond to the ongoing Ebola outbreak and to support efforts aimed at strengthening cross-border coordination to prevent further exportation of Ebola cases from Congo and to bring the outbreak to an end", Diana Atwine, permanent secretary for the health ministry, said on X.

"Of the 19 confirmed cases so far, 14 were among people who entered from DRC and five are Ugandan nationals," Tedros said on X.

"Sadly, two people from DRC have died, and our thoughts are with their families," he added.

On June 3, Tedros told reporters that one of the confirmed cases in Uganda was a Congolese citizen who had travelled to the United Arab Emirates before entering Uganda.

Two days later, the UAE announced it was banning entry to travellers arriving from the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan under stepped-up precautionary measures.

"This includes travelers entering the UAE via transit through one or more other countries, unless they have spent more than 21 days outside the listed countries before arriving in the UAE," it said in a statement.

New visas for nationals of the three countries have also been suspended.

'BROUGHT UNDER CONTROL'

It is the 17th Ebola outbreak to hit the DRC, a vast central African country of more than 100 million people.

There is no specific vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo Ebola strain behind the latest outbreak.

Tedros said the WHO was supporting Uganda alongside the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and other partners across the region "as the country leads this response".

"With continued collaboration, I am confident this outbreak can be brought under control," he added.

Ebola, which is spread through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

The WHO and the African CDC on Friday launched a $518-million plan to battle the outbreak over the next six months.

The epicentre of the current outbreak is the DRC's northeastern Ituri province, a difficult-to-access region due to poor roads that is plagued by insecurity because of armed groups.

Ebola Facility for Americans in Kenya Triggers Protests, Legal Action

By Al Mayadeen English

Source: The New York Times

11 Jun 2026 09:38

Kenya faces unrest after plans for a US Ebola unit at Laikipia Air Base spark protests, court intervention, and diplomatic tensions.

Hundreds of Kenyans have taken to the streets in growing protests against a planned Ebola quarantine facility by the United States at Laikipia Air Base, escalating into a political and legal crisis that has drawn in Kenyan courts, government officials, and US military personnel.

The US government’s plan involves establishing a 50-bed Ebola quarantine unit in Kenya intended exclusively for American citizens exposed to the virus during an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The facility, according to US officials, is designed to isolate and treat patients outside the United States.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously stated that Ebola patients would not be allowed to enter the United States, later softening the position. US officials then indicated that exposed American citizens would instead be transported to Kenya for monitoring and treatment.

Why was Kenya chosen for the quarantine facility?

US officials said the quarantine unit was to be set up at Laikipia Air Base in central Kenya, where US Africa Command has an operational presence. Around 300 US troops from Djibouti, Europe, and the United States have reportedly been involved in constructing the facility, including erecting medical tents and installing equipment.

A US official said the facility could eventually accommodate up to 250 patients, and coordination was underway to evacuate Americans from the Democratic Republic of the Congo whose exposure status remains uncertain.

Opposition has been particularly intense in Nanyuki, the nearest town to the air base, where hundreds of residents have marched in protest. Demonstrators argue that Kenya, which has never recorded an Ebola case, should not host a facility that excludes Kenyan patients while treating only US citizens.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union criticized the plan, saying it reflected a willingness to “trade national biosecurity and the lives of its citizens for foreign aid.”

Legal challenges rise amid protests

Security forces have used tear gas to disperse crowds during demonstrations, and at least three protesters have been killed, according to the Kenya Human Rights Commission. The protests have intensified political criticism of President William Ruto’s administration, with opponents accusing the government of prioritizing US interests over public safety.

Kenya’s High Court has temporarily suspended the opening of the facility following a legal challenge filed by the Katiba Institute, a civil society organization. The court also ordered the government to disclose the terms of its agreement with the United States and scheduled further hearings for June 23.

The institute said it may return to court seeking contempt orders if the suspension is violated, emphasizing that “Kenya has independent courts and they need to be respected.”

Despite the ruling, reports indicated continued construction activity at the base in recent days, with US Africa Command personnel still involved in setup operations.

US military involvement at Laikipia Air Base

A US official said that the Ebola unit project continued even after the court suspension, as Kenyan authorities had not instructed a halt to operations. Work was reportedly paused temporarily due to protests but had previously involved significant logistical support from US military personnel.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, a senior US health official, suggested that arrangements with Kenya could still be finalized, while American health experts criticized the decision not to repatriate patients to the United States, citing ethical obligations.

Political fallout hits Ruto government

Meanwhile, the Kenyan government has faced mounting criticism over transparency and accountability in the agreement with the United States. Opposition voices argue that the arrangement reflects weak negotiation and potential compromise of sovereignty.

Former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga described the situation as a violation of Kenya’s Constitution, accusing Western governments of hypocrisy in promoting democratic values while disregarding domestic legal rulings.

However, a senior Kenyan Foreign Ministry official, Abraham Korir Sing’Oei, suggested that political actors were exploiting the situation ahead of upcoming elections, while acknowledging that communication around the agreement “could have been better.”

Debate over medical ethics and diplomatic tensions

The most contentious issue remains the exclusivity of the facility, as reports indicate it would serve only US citizens while excluding Kenyans. Although Kenyan officials have suggested local patients could also be treated, the US government has not publicly confirmed this.

Analysts have described the situation as a case of “clumsy diplomacy", warning that the arrangement risks undermining long-standing US-Kenya health cooperation.

The controversy unfolds against the backdrop of an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with health officials reporting hundreds of cases and rising fatalities, raising fears that the epidemic could become one of the most severe on record.

Russia Ready to Help Africa Develop Infrastructure — Top Diplomat

Sergey Lavrov highlighted the Africans’ desire to make the utmost use of what was given to them

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/. The moment is ripe for Russia to provide full assistance to African countries that are demonstrating a desire to develop their own industrial production, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in opening remarks during talks with Bankole Adeoye, the African Union (AU) Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security.

Russia’s top diplomat highlighted the Africans’ desire "to make the utmost use of what was given to them by nature and by God," that is to develop their own industrial production, and do everything so that as much added value from natural resources as possible can stay in those countries.

"Our country has a long-standing track record in supporting the development of national industries and national agriculture in African countries," Lavrov noted. "Right now, I think, is the right time to use this experience in practice and meaningfully in new conditions," he added.

Police Blast Water Cannon During Second Straight Night of Racist Violence in Belfast

Protesters set fire to a barricade as police block Antrim Road, at the Sandyknowes roundabout in Newtownabbey, June 10, 2026

Roger McKenzie

THERE was a second straight night of racist violence on the streets of Belfast on Wednesday following the knife attack by Hadi Alodid on Stephen Ogilvie that blinded the victim and left him hospitalised.

Police blasted water cannon at protesters in Northern Ireland who set small fires and hurled bricks, rocks and bottles at them.

Masked demonstrators tore bricks from the walls outside homes and smashed pavements with sledgehammers to attack riot police. In one place, the thugs used sections of a dismantled picket fence to take cover on the street.

The fresh clashes came hours after Mr Ogilvie’s family appealed for an end to the violence and said migrants “make a deeply valuable contribution to our country.”

“We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility,” the family said in a statement.

Once again, the hooligans targeted homes in working-class areas of East Belfast which they believed housed immigrants.

Loyalist paramilitary groups still reportedly hold considerable sway over the streets.

“Very poor white people” are being convinced that “very poor, hard-working brown or black people” are responsible for the “problems caused by billionaire white men,” Allison Morris, crime correspondent at the Belfast Telegraph, told Channel 4 News today.

In a statement, the Communist Party of Ireland said it was shocked by both the stabbing and the racist violence that followed.

“Organised loyalist elements and far-right agitators have sought to exploit this incident to spread fear and division,” the statement said.

The party said it was alarmed to hear reports of “lists containing the names and addresses of migrant families being circulated,” adding that “whatever differences may exist regarding migration policy, there can be no justification for the targeting of families, the circulation of personal details, or threats against individuals and communities.

“Such actions represent an assault on basic democratic rights and have no place in a civilised society.”

Gerry Murphy, the assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), labelled the two nights of violence as “raw racism.”

Mr Murphy said: “We stand with all families whose property has been targeted and their safety put in danger by thugs hiding their faces behind masks and scarves.”

He added that the ICTU stands “against the criminals who are attacking people, property and public services. We also stand against those who feed these flames with loose talk about ‘illegal immigration,’ ‘invasion’ or ‘alien cultures’.”

Lowe is Leading the Right Towards Fascism

Rupert Lowe attends a farmers protest in Whitehall, London, March 4, 2025

Morning Star

REFORM UK and Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain are in a race to the far right, out-bidding each other in racist provocation and authoritarian menace.

This week, Lowe may be ahead. He crossed a further line with his pledge, in the wake of the attack in Belfast, to imprison politicians who, he claimed, had facilitated mass immigration.

This is what he wrote on X: “I want people finally held to account for what has been done to our country. Civil servants, judges, politicians. If they have knowingly placed unvetted dangerous third world savages in our communities, near our children, then a Restore Britain government will aim to prosecute them. If that includes Reform’s Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman, then so be it. 

“I want to send a very clear message to officials planning to place more of these men in communities across Britain — near schools, nurseries, families. When Restore Britain wins the next election, we will pursue you with the full power of the state. That will apply retrospectively.”

Let us be clear what Lowe is proposing. Officials or politicians who took decisions which were entirely lawful at the time can be prosecuted and imprisoned retrospectively, negating a basic principle of justice.

This is the language of fascism. It is, of course, unlikely that Lowe will be in a position to implement his programme, which includes the widespread use of the death penalty for non-white offenders.

However, the Restore leader has been pushing the boundaries of the politically acceptable, and others on the right have been following, including through violence on the streets. 

It is time for the labour movement to call this out for what it is – the beginnings of a move to far-right dictatorship. All democrats must unite to resist Lowe and his ilk.

Healey’s Exit Shows Starmer’s Bankruptcy

Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left) and Defence Secretary John Healey 

JOHN HEALEY’S departure as defence secretary is certainly a further blow to Keir Starmer’s fast-disappearing authority.

Healey has spent the last two years touring the world making belligerent threats and campaigning for increased militarisation. He is neck-deep in the Labour right tradition of putting guns before butter.

While he does not say it in his resignation letter, Healey surely agrees with one of his Labour predecessors at the ministry, George Robertson, and Tony Blair, who have recently called for cutting welfare spending to free up funds for arms.

However, his letter is revealing in ways he does not intend. It reveals that arms spending is actually set to rise by £13 billion annually, a point which will surely be overlooked in the media hullabaloo over his departure, which makes it seem as if the military budget was actually being cut.

It isn’t. And Healey’s letter shows where the increases are being spent – on leading a force in the Straits of Hormuz to try to get President Trump out of the mess he has created with his British-enabled aggression against Iran.

And on preparing an expeditionary force for Ukraine, the latest in a line of British initiatives to obstruct any possible settlement to that bloody and drawn-out conflict.

Britain should not be spending a penny on imperialist adventures like these, nor on the other forms of sabre-rattling Healey was so fond of, including trying to menace China.

So this is not a row about defence spending. It is a split which highlights the impasse of British imperialism and “Global Britain” posturing, which working people cannot afford to pay for and would not be in their interests even if they could.

Healey’s departure is a further indicator of the bankruptcy of Keir Starmer’s pro-Washington strategy and the need for a fundamental reset of priorities by Labour.

 Starmer in Crisis as Healey Quits over Arms Spending

Defence Secretary John Healey walks into the press conference following the Aukmin Summit, at Lancaster House in London, June 10, 2026

Andrew Murray

Morning Star 

SIR KEIR STARMER’S tottering authority crumbled further today as Defence Secretary John Healey quit in a row over arms spending.

Mr Healey slammed Sir Keir for not overruling Chancellor Rachel Reeves in an argument over how fast to raise the military bill.

He claimed that the £13.5 billion additional funding agreed would still leave the armed forces short in his global war-fighting plans.

His departure, to paeans of praise from the Tories, is a fresh political crisis for a premier already all but overwhelmed by them.

The Westminster consensus was that being called out for weakness by Mr Healey meant that Sir Keir could no longer realistically hope to see off a challenge to his position by Andy Burnham, if the Greater Manchester Mayor returns to the Commons in next week’s Makerfield by-election.

Leading left MP John McDonnell pointed out that “despite a huge parliamentary majority there is a remarkable instability about this administration that, if it isn’t addressed soon, could render the government paralysed by lack of leadership.”

And Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “This is a government in chaos, unable to govern, with no leadership, under a caretaker prime minister who’s expected to be replaced within weeks. Britain deserves better.”

Mr Healey as good as accused Sir Keir of gambling with Britain’s security by not fully funding the ambitions of last year’s Strategic Defence Review.

In particular, the outgoing Defence Secretary wanted more cash for interventions in the Straits of Hormuz, to deal with the consequences of the catastrophic US-Israeli aggression against Iran, and Ukraine.

He wrote to the premier: “You have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.

“The demands on defence have increased still further, as have the UK commitments you have rightly made to allies. 

“Conflict in the Middle East, with the UK now leading the multinational Strait of Hormuz military mission; High North security, with the UK now leading Nato’s Arctic Sentry mission; increased Russian activity towards the UK and Nato nations and increased attacks in Ukraine, with the Paris agreement confirming a British deployment to Ukraine after a ceasefire.”

Mr Healey, acting on behalf of the military brasshats, has been demanding arms spending of 3 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade, rising to 3.5 per cent at least by 2035.

In his letter, he claimed that the Defence Investment Plan Sir Keir has signed off would leave the proportion only at 2.68 per cent by 2030.

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German said Mr Healey’s departure should lead to a strategic rethink.  

She said: “John Healey’s resignation over the PM and Chancellor not funding the insatiable military-industrial complex to the level that would satisfy his hunger for more and endless wars should surely create a serious debate in government about doing things differently.

“How about working for peace, and security at home based on proper investment in housing, education, health and the environment, and therefore the creation of decent, well-paid jobs through the funding of infrastructure projects rather than the militarisation of our economy?

“We are already one of the top defence spenders in the world.”

She added that “Healey’s sickening lust for war is shared by many in government and across Europe and the West. There could be no more critical time for the International Anti-War conference in London on June 20 to be taking place.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the defence plan “is fast becoming a national disgrace. Make no mistake jobs and skills are at risk.

“John Healey’s resignation letter has laid bare the utter chaos at the heart of government on this issue. Defending the UK and investing in our defence industry simply can’t be done on the cheap.

“Failure to protect UK defence jobs would be a national betrayal.”

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said: “Healey argues that Britain’s military is under-funded. Yet according to  from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, British military spending in real terms is now actually higher than during the Cold War.

“The deadlock over the Defence Investment Plan and Healey’s resignation provides the government with an opportunity to change course and tackle the real security issues that we face: investing in climate action, healthcare, education, and food security.”

Labour’s right will likely intensify their agitation to cut welfare to fund the military, as Tony Blair and former defence secretary George Robertson have recently urged.

Today Geoff Hoon, defence secretary at the time of the Iraq War, said: “The money has to come from somewhere. 

“I don’t think this is the right time for significant tax increases; I don’t think the public would support that. Therefore, we have to look at some other aspect of government spending.

“It does seem to me that another look at welfare reform might not be such a bad thing.”

British Defense Secretary Resigns over Lack of Investment

John Healey said that he was stepping down "with great regret and reluctance"

© Ian Forsyth/ Getty Images

LONDON, June 11. /TASS/. British Defense Secretary John Healey has resigned, citing a lack of promised defense investment.

"You have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats," he said in a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, posted on X.

"Your DIP [Defense Investment Plan] financial settlement – which I was first given in full on Monday afternoon this week – falls well short of what is required for defense. <...> I am now left with no other option than to submit my resignation as your defense secretary" he pointed out, addressing Starmer.

Healey added that he was stepping down "with great regret and reluctance."

At a NATO summit held in The Hague last June, Starmer promised to publish a plan to implement his commitment to bring core defense spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035. The plan was expected to be presented last fall, but it has not yet been released. The British government says the document will be published in the coming weeks.

Sky News reported on Tuesday that the Treasury had offered the Ministry of Defense an additional 13 billion pounds to help fund the purchase of new jets, submarines, ships, drones and missiles. According to the media outlet, this is at the lower end of a range of between 12 billion pounds and 18 billion pounds under consideration.

The Times wrote earlier that the British Ministry of Defense was short of 28 billion pounds over the next four years despite plans to boost spending.

Key Statements from Kremlin Spokesman Peskov Briefing

According to Dmitry Peskov, Russia is concerned about the latest escalation between the US and Iran and calls on all parties to exercise restraint and return to negotiations

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/. Preparations for elections to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, EU sanctions plans, and the sick leave of Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina were the main topics of Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov's briefing on Thursday.

TASS has compiled the Kremlin spokesman's key statements.

On President's schedule

- Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council today.

- Tomorrow is a working day for the head of state, and traditional events are also planned for Russia Day.

On State Duma elections

- The presidential decree scheduling the State Duma elections will be signed within the timeframe stipulated by law. "The corresponding presidential decree will be signed within the appropriate timeframe stipulated by law. We do not announce this in advance, and we will not do so now," Peskov noted.

- Preparations for the State Duma elections are currently underway, and they will be held in full compliance with Russian law. "Regarding the elections, I would like to remind you of President Putin's words about the importance of holding elections in any case. Therefore, preparations are underway for these very important elections, and they will be held in full compliance with our laws," the Kremlin official added.

On escalation between the US and Iran

- Russia is concerned about the latest escalation between the US and Iran and calls on all parties to exercise restraint and return to negotiations. "We are concerned about this. We call on all parties to this conflict to exercise restraint," Peskov said.

- A new round of escalation between the US and Iran is fraught with consequences for the entire global economy. "Another round of escalating tensions is fraught with new, additional negative consequences for the situation in the region and the international economy as a whole," he emphasized.

On EU's plans for new sanctions

- The situation in the banking sector is absolutely stable and under control. "Just yesterday, at a meeting with the government, the president said that despite certain difficulties, including trends such as slower investment growth, the situation is still absolutely stable and completely under control.

- The same can be said about the banking sector," the Kremlin spokesman assured. "Regarding illegal sanctions and external restrictions on our banking system, this is not a new phenomenon. You know that our largest banks have long been under sanctions," he recalled.

- Being under sanctions does not prevent Russian banks from earning large profits and developing: "This does not prevent banks from earning large profits, developing, maintaining absolute stability, and retaining the highest possible reliability ratings," the official said.

On Nabiullina's sick leave

- The sick leave of Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina "should not be a source of conspiracy theories". "We wish her a speedy recovery and hope that everything is absolutely fine. People get sick sometimes. There's nothing special about it. This shouldn't be a source of, you know, conspiracy theories," Peskov concluded.

Russian Troops Liberate Two Communities in Ukraine Operation Over Past Day — Top Brass

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicted more than 205 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed an enemy tank and a US-made armored vehicle in its areas of responsibility over the past day, the Defense Ministry reported

© Alexander Polegenko/TASS

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/. Russian troops liberated two communities in the Kharkov Region and the Donetsk People’s Republic over the past 24 hours in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported.

"Battlegroup North units gained control of the settlement of Okhrimovka in the Kharkov Region through decisive operations. <…> Battlegroup South units liberated the settlement of Roskoshnoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic through decisive operations," the ministry said in a statement.

Kiev loses 1,220 troops along engagement line in past day – latest figures

The Ukrainian army lost roughly 1,220 troops in battles with Russian forces in all the frontline areas over the past 24 hours, according to the latest data on the special military operation in Ukraine released by Russia’s Defense Ministry.

The latest figures show that the Ukrainian army lost over 205 troops, a tank and a US-made armored vehicle in the responsibility area of Russia’s Battlegroup North, roughly 220 troops and 10 armored combat vehicles in the responsibility area of the Battlegroup West and over 120 troops and six armored combat vehicles in the responsibility area of the Battlegroup South.

During the last 24-hour period, the Ukrainian army also lost over 310 troops, three tanks and two armored combat vehicles in the responsibility area of Russia’s Battlegroup Center, roughly 315 troops and four armored combat vehicles in the responsibility area of the Battlegroup East and about 50 troops and seven jamming stations in the responsibility area of the Battlegroup Dnepr, the latest figures show.

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicts over 205 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicted more than 205 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed an enemy tank and a US-made armored vehicle in its areas of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

During the last 24-hour period, Battlegroup North units "inflicted losses on formations of two mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian army and a territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Zhovtnevoye, Basovo, Varvarovka and Kazachya Lopan in the Kharkov Region," the ministry said.

In the Sumy direction, Battlegroup North units inflicted losses on manpower and equipment of a mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian army and two territorial defense brigades in areas near the settlements of Ivolzhanskoye, Khoten, Mogritsa, Ryasnoye and Novaya Sech in the Sumy Region, the ministry reported.

The Ukrainian army lost more than 205 personnel, a tank, a US-made HMMWV armored vehicle, five motor vehicles and two field artillery guns in those frontline areas over the past 24 hours, it specified.

Russia’s Battlegroup West inflicts 220 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup West inflicted roughly 220 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed 10 enemy armored combat vehicles in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup West units gained better lines and positions and inflicted losses on manpower and equipment of two mechanized brigades, an assault brigade of the Ukrainian army, a marine infantry brigade, a territorial defense brigade and a border guard detachment of Ukraine’s Border Guard Service in areas near the settlements of Cherneshchina, Druzhelyubovka and Shiykovka in the Kharkov Region, Lozovoye, Rubtsy, Shchurovo, Svyatogorsk and Krasny Liman in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army lost an estimated 220 personnel, 10 armored combat vehicles, including an M113 armored personnel carrier and a HMMWV armored vehicle of US manufacture, a French-made VAB armored personnel carrier and a Canadian-made Senator armored vehicle, 13 motor vehicles, a Grad multiple rocket launcher, two artillery guns and two electronic warfare stations in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.

Russia’s Battlegroup South inflicts over 120 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup South inflicted more than 120 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed six enemy armored combat vehicles in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

During the last 24-hour period, Battlegroup South units "inflicted losses on formations of three mechanized brigades, a motorized infantry brigade, an airmobile brigade of the Ukrainian army and a territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Malinovka, Druzhkovka, Nikolayevka, Rai-Aleksandrovka, Piskunovka, Konstantinovka and Artyoma in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army lost more than 120 personnel, six armored combat vehicles, including a US-made HMMWV armored vehicle and a Canadian-made Senator armored vehicle, eight motor vehicles, three artillery guns and an electronic warfare station in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.

Russia’s Battlegroup Center inflicts over 310 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup Center inflicted more than 310 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed three enemy tanks and two armored combat vehicles in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup Center units improved their forward positions and inflicted losses on manpower and equipment of four mechanized brigades, an airmobile brigade, a jaeger brigade, an assault brigade, an assault regiment of the Ukrainian army, a marine infantry brigade and three National Guard brigades in areas near the settlements of Belitskoye, Zavido-Kudashevo, Novoaleksandrovka, Kucherov Yar, Vasilevka, Dobropolye, Annovka and Sergeyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Novopavlovka in the Dnepropetrovsk Region," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army lost more than 310 personnel, three tanks, two armored combat vehicles, 13 motor vehicles and two field artillery guns in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.

Russia’s Battlegroup East inflicts 315 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup East inflicted roughly 315 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed four enemy armored combat vehicles in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup East units kept advancing deep into the enemy’s defenses and inflicted losses on manpower and equipment of a mechanized brigade, two assault brigades, three air assault brigades, three assault regiments of the Ukrainian army and a marine infantry brigade in areas near the settlements of Malomikhailovka, Aleksandrovka and Velikomikhailovka in the Dnepropetrovsk Region, Sorochino, Novosyolovka, Barvinovka and Lesnoye in the Zaporozhye Region," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army lost an estimated 315 personnel, a Stryker armored personnel carrier, a HMMWV armored vehicle and an Oshkosh M-ATV armored vehicle of US manufacture, a British-made Spartan armored personnel carrier, nine motor vehicles and two artillery guns in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.

Russia’s Battlegroup Dnepr eliminates 50 Ukrainian troops in past day

Russia’s Battlegroup Dnepr eliminated roughly 50 Ukrainian troops and destroyed seven enemy jamming stations in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup Dnepr units inflicted losses on formations of a mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian army in areas near the settlements of Grigorovka and Orekhov in the Zaporozhye Region," the ministry said.

"Up to 50 [Ukrainian] military personnel, 15 motor vehicles and seven electronic warfare stations were destroyed," the ministry said.

Russian troops strike Ukrainian army’s energy, transport sites in past day

Russian troops struck energy and transport infrastructure used by the Ukrainian army and enemy deployment sites over the past 24 hours, the ministry reported.

"Operational/tactical aircraft, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of the Russian groups of forces struck ammunition and fuel depots, transport and energy infrastructure used to support the Ukrainian army’s operations, sites for the storage, preparation and launch of long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, and also temporary deployment areas of Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries in 142 locations," the ministry said.

Russian air defenses intercept nearly 800 Ukrainian UAVs, 10 smart bombs in past day

Russian air defense forces intercepted and destroyed nearly 800 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), 10 smart bombs and three US-made HIMARS rockets over the past 24 hours, the ministry reported.

"Air defense capabilities shot down 10 guided aerial bombs, three rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, three Neptune long-range missiles and 798 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles," the ministry said.

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet destroys Ukrainian naval drone over past day

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet destroyed a Ukrainian naval drone in the Black Sea waters over the past 24 hours, the ministry reported.

"The Black Sea Fleet’s forces destroyed an unmanned boat of the Ukrainian army in the southwestern part of the Black Sea," the ministry said.

Overall, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 671 Ukrainian combat aircraft, 284 helicopters, 160,562 unmanned aerial vehicles, 661 surface-to-air missile systems, 29,718 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,733 multiple rocket launchers, 35,306 field artillery guns and mortars and 63,832 special military motor vehicles since the start of the special military operation, the ministry reported.