Sweden has reported a case of a more severe strain of mpox, claiming it is the first clade I variant to be detected outside of an ongoing outbreak in African countries.

It was diagnosed in a person who sought care in Stockholm after being infected in an area of Africa where this strain of the virus is spreading, according to the country’s public health agency.

The announcement came a day after the World Health Organisation declared that the outbreak of mpox in several African countries constituted a global health emergency. This was the second declaration in the last two years of mpox as a public health emergency of international concern.

The majority of cases and deaths related to the current outbreak are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but the virus has been detected in at least 12 other African countries, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

More than 40,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, another 92,401 people wounded and 85 per cent of the population displaced since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the Hamas-run health ministry said on Thursday. The 40,005 deaths represent roughly 1.7 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.

Health officials and civil defence workers believe the true death toll is likely much higher, as many bodies remain buried under rubble from buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes.

“Do you know what it means to lose 40,000 of your people? It means that 40,000 women, children, young people, adults, and elderly people will no longer be there,” a spokesperson from Islamic Relief Worldwide, reacting to the figures, said. “There can be no justification for this massacre.”

The Times of Israel quotes IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari announcing that the Israeli army had killed more than 17,000 terrorists in the Gaza Strip since the war began. During the news conference Hagari stated that the “significant fighting” and the results obtained by the IDF have damaged Hamas’s ability to reorganise and recover.

The announcement comes amid renewed efforts by international powers to broker a cease-fire in the war, now in its eleventh month. Hamas has said that any ceasefire agreement in Gaza must involve the total withdrawal of Israeli forces from the conflict territory.

Turkey will continue to increase pressure on Israel, says Erdogan

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday that Turkey will continue to support the Palestinian cause and push the international community to increase pressure on Israel, his office said. The two leaders discussed recent developments and the steps to be taken for a lasting ceasefire and peace in Gaza, Erdogan’s office said in a post on X.

Families of hostages say ‘agreement does not threaten security’

The families of the Israeli hostages, still in the hands of Hamas in Gaza, marched through the streets of Tel Aviv inviting the negotiating team in Qatar “not to return without an agreement! Negotiate until there is white smoke”, they stated. Danny Elgert, whose brother Itzik was kidnapped in the Gaza Strip, stressed: “an agreement for the return of the kidnapped is not a security threat”.

‘Zelensky approved sabotage of Nord Stream gas pipelines’

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky did know about and initially-authorised plans to blow up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, according to the Wall Street Journal after it had conversations with four people involved in the September 2022 act of sabotage.

The plan for the attack was conceived at a get-together of Ukrainian officers and businessmen in May of that year, according to the US newspaper. The businessmen financed the operation, which cost about US$300,000 (€272,000).

One of those involved told WSJ Zelenski approved the plan, something three other sources confirmed. But after the CIA caught wind of the plan and asked the Ukrainian president not to go through with it, Zelensky changed his mind. But the then chief of Ukraine’s General Staff, General Valeri Zaluzhny, decided to go ahead with the Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage anyway. Against this Zaluzhny, Germany issued an international arrest warrant this week.

The four-star general is currently serving as Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. He served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from 27 July 2021 until 8 February 2024.

Ukraine claims it fully captured strategic Russian town in Kursk region

Meanwhile President Zelenskyy has said his country’s forces have taken full control of the strategic Russian town of Sudzha in the Kursk region in their incursion into Russian territory.

Zelenskyy also said on Thursday that a military commander’s office is being set up in the town, which had a pre-war population of around 5,000 people.

Sudzha holds a measuring station for Russian natural gas that flows through Ukrainian pipelines to Europe.

Russia did not immediately respond to Zelenskyy’s statement, but its defence ministry said earlier Thursday that Russian forces had blocked attempts to take several other communities. On Wednesday, Russian officials had also denied that Ukraine captured the town.

“There are units from the Russian Defence Ministry, too, in Sudzha now, as the enemy is in and around certain parts of the town. Active fighting has been taking place daily there. The enemy cannot claim full control of Sudzha because they [Ukrainian troops] do not actually control it,” Major-General Apty Alaudinov was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.

Russia ‘refuses criminal investigation into Navalny’s death’

Russian authorities have refused to open a criminal investigation into the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony, his widow has said.

Navalny, the fiercest political foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in February in the remote northern prison colony while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he had condemned as politically motivated. Authorities said he became ill after a walk but did not give further details.

In a video published on social media, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, said she received a letter from Russian investigators detailing the cause of her husband’s death. She was told Navalny died from a combination of “a dozen different diseases”. The letter, Ms Navalnaya said, was “a lie”.

A worker sentenced to 12 years for $52 donation to Ukrainian charity

Dual Russian-American citizen Ksenia Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Thursday after a Russian court found her guilty of treason for donating money to a charity supporting Ukraine.

The Los Angeles spa worker pleaded guilty at her closed trial in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, where her case was heard by the same court and judge that convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage in July.

The court said investigators found that on February 24, 2022 – the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – Karelina had “transferred funds in the interests of a Ukrainian organisation, which were subsequently used for the purchase of tactical medicine items, equipment, means of defeat and ammunition by the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.

She had donated $51.80 to Razom for Ukraine, a New York-based charity that provides humanitarian aid to children and elderly people in Ukraine. The charity has denied it provides any military support to Kyiv.

Trump slams Harris on economy ahead of major policy roll-out

Donald Trump tore into the Biden administration’s economic record on Wednesday, just days before Kamala Harris unveils her plan for tackling living costs in her first major policy speech as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

In a rambling address that was light on specifics, Trump claimed his Democratic rival would spark another Great Depression if elected and pledged that he would instead send wages soaring and “make America affordable again”.

“Under Kamala Harris and crooked Joe Biden, the American Dream is dead. You don’t hear about the American Dream anymore – it’s dead,” Trump said in Asheville, a liberal enclave in the crucial swing state of North Carolina.

“Her radical liberal policies have caused horrific inflation, decimated the middle class and gutted the finances of millions and millions of American families.”

Consumer inflation is one of the biggest issues of the campaign, but new government figures out Wednesday showed it easing to 2.9 per cent in July – its lowest since March 2021 – cheering those calling for a cut in interest rates.

Trump conceded that inflation was “starting to maybe get under control” but also claimed that Harris “has crackled as the American economy has burned” – possibly meaning “cackled”, a word he has used to describe her laugh.

Marginally, more Americans trust Harris to handle the economy than Trump, according to one new University of Michigan poll, and she leads or ties the Republican in every battleground state except Nevada, according to the influential Cook Political Report.

‘I have the right to personal attacks against Harris’ – Trump

“I think I have the right to personal attacks,” Donald Trump said at his press conference, responding to a question from reporters about the invitations from his campaign and his allies not to attack Kamala Harris personally but politically.

 “I have the right to attack Kamala Harris, she called me bizarre and I don’t have much respect for her, I don’t have respect for her intelligence,” he said.

Biden, Harris hail medicine price cuts that will save billions

The Biden administration revealed new prices negotiated between Medicare and pharmaceutical companies for 10 common medications used by older Americans, including widely used blood thinners and arthritis medications.

The list of drugs includes Eliquis, which is used by nearly four million Medicare enrollees for the treatment and prevention of blood clots; Jardiance, which is for heart failure, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease and is used by more than 1.5 million enrollees; and Xarelto, another blood clot medication that’s used by more than 1.3million enrollees.

The discounts from this first-ever negotiation range from 38 per cent to 79 per cent of the medications’ listed price, and the administration estimates the new prices could save taxpayers up to $6billion, and save Medicare enrollees up to $1.5billion overall.

Predisent Biden was critical of the Republicans for not having supported the Bill in Congress. “Look, not a single Republican voted for this Bill period. Not one in the entire Congress. But guess what? They want to, they, the guy we’re running against, what’s his name? Donald Dump or Donald whatever. They want to get rid of this, what we passed. They’re fighting to get rid of what we’ve just passed. No, I’m serious.”

Trump again seeks to delay hush money case sentencing

Donald Trump is again seeking to delay sentencing in his criminal hush money case until after the presidential election in November. Trump attorneys argued in a letter to New York Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, that the Septenber 18 sentencing date advances “naked election-interference objectives”.

Merchan previously agreed to delay sentencing once until September, at Trump’s request, following a US Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity.

Trump was convicted in May on 34 felony counts related to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. He is the first US president to be convicted of felony criminal charges.

Venezuelan opposition leader rejects redoing Venezuela’s presidential vote

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Thursday rejected a proposal from Brazil’s president that Venezuela hold a new presidential election following the contested results of last month’s vote.

Her comments came shortly after Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that he still doesn’t recognise Nicolás Maduro as the winner of last month’s presidential election in Venezuela, and that his counterpart could call for a new vote “if he has good sense”. President Biden also expressed support for new elections.

“Maduro still has six months left in his term. He is the president regardless of the election. If he has good sense, he could call upon the people of Venezuela, perhaps even call for new elections, create an electoral committee and allow observers from around the world to monitor,” Lula said in an interview with Radio T.

In a joint statement, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico called on Venezuela’s electoral body to release tens of thousands of vote tally sheets, considered the ultimate proof of results.

Pope Francis denounces Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” law

Pope Francis has met with African gay rights advocates and denounced the country’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), also called the “Kill the Gays” law, which has drawn international condemnation.

In a video posted to X, Ugandan activist Clare Byarugaba can be seen shaking hands and kissing the pontiff on both cheeks before the two sat down to discuss gay rights in her country. It’s the first time any pope has met with an LGBTQ+ rights activist from the East African nation.

Byarugaba, the equality and non-discrimination programme officer for the civil liberties group Chapter Four Uganda, said in their discussion that Francis reiterated, “Discrimination is a sin, and violence against the LGBTIQ communities is unacceptable,” referring to the AHA.

The legislation signed by President Yoweri Museveni in 2023 adds to previous penalties for homosexuality in Uganda, imposing life imprisonment for engaging in gay sex and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” with a minor or transmitting HIV.

Byarugaba posted: “The Pope said the Church should never discriminate. He walks with everyone that has been denied their dignity. He further encouraged us to defend our rights.”