Tag: spread

How the Russia-Ukraine conflict has spread to Africa


As the stalemate between Russia and Ukraine continues, the war is changing life not only in Europe but also in countries across Africa.

Russia has claimed “growing influence” in Africa in recent years, said Gavin Mortimer in The Spectator, but more recently it has “become evident” that Moscow is “creating chaos in the continent as part of a calculated strategy to destabilise Europe”. In particular, Vladimir Putin has sought to extend his reach in western and central Africa, and to gain access to the region’s resources.

Ukraine has also looked to “strengthen its alliances” in Africa, to counter the growing Russian influence, said Alexis Akwagyiram on Semafor. Volodymr Zelenskyy will make his first state visit to the continent over the coming months, and Ukraine plans to double the number of its embassies there.

Why is Africa so important?

The desire to gain influence in Africa shows a “growing appreciation of the role played by the continent in geopolitical affairs”, said Akwagyiram. The “value of African alliances” – and Russia’s traction on the continent – was underscored when 17 of the 54 African countries in the United Nations abstained from a 2022 vote condemning Russia’s invasion. That “made it clear that international condemnation of Moscow was not universal”.

Russia can exploit instability in Africa to “trigger further political destabilisation” among its Western enemies, particularly with increases in mass illegal migration from the continent, said CNBC. Moscow also views African nations as a gateway to accessing “strategically important natural resources”.

What are Russia and Ukraine doing?

Russia’s modus operandi has so far been to “prop up shaky regimes with weapons and disinformation in exchange for diamonds and gold” via its Wagner Group mercenary force, now rebranded as Africa Corps, said Lisa Klaassen at The New Statesman.

Countries in western and central Africa have been “neglected” by the West, and Russia has ostensibly been “walking through doors left wide open by former colonial powers”, including in the Central African Republic, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Sudan, where anti-European feeling is stoked by propaganda.

The influence of Russia has been felt pertinently in Sudan, where a bloody civil war continues to rage, with reports of Russian Wagner mercenaries aligned with rebel forces. Ukraine appears to have since aligned itself with government forces in Sudan, to try to “strike at Russian interests far beyond the Ukraine war’s frontlines”, said The Guardian.

Both Russia and Ukraine have attempted to win over governments with deliveries of grain and humanitarian aid, and Ukraine is expanding its shipment programme to “counter the impression that Russia is the only side in the conflict trying to address the impact on Africans”, said Akwagyiram.

Both countries have also “sought to recruit fighters” from Africa, said Military Africa. Many young Africans “facing bleak economic prospects at home” are drawn in by the “promise of high pay and even Ukrainian citizenship after the war”, while “estimates suggest thousands” of Africans have been recruited for Russia, potentially through the Wagner Group.

What next?

There is a growing feeling that Russia “appears to be winning the hearts and minds of Africans”, said Mortimer.

But while Russia may be succeeding in attracting alliances with other authoritarian regimes, Ukraine can find fertile ground in appealing “directly to Africans on issues which Moscow cannot reach”, wrote Ray Hartley and Greg Mills in the Kyiv Independent. Democracy is the “strongest selling point” among young Africans, and for Ukraine to lose the war would have “strategic implications for the democratic world” that would be “both profound and negative”.



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Shadowy Russian actors spread Princess Kate conspiracies, analysis finds



LONDON — Social media accounts linked to a prominent Russian disinformation campaign were all too happy to capitalize on conspiracy theories about the whereabouts of Kate, Princess of Wales, according to an analysis by British security experts. 

The role played by these shadowy Russian actors may serve as an alarming test case, experts said, in a year when elections in Washington and Europe will be buffeted by the long-standing fake news threat — which is now being supercharged by artificial intelligence.

However, clear as the malicious foreign involvement in the #KateGate conspiracy was, the researchers at the Security, Crime and Intelligence Innovation Institute at Cardiff University in Wales were quick to point out that these actors were not responsible for originating rumors and conspiracy theories surrounding the princess, before she revealed last week that she was being treated for cancer.

“It’s not as though these Russia-linked accounts were driving the story; they were jumping on it,” Martin Innes, the institute’s irector, said. “It was already being framed in conspiracy terms, so foreign actors don’t need to set that frame — that’s already there to exploit.”

Conjuring these theories was usually the work of Western influencers with high follower counts, regular social media users engaging with them. While some cracked jokes and posted memes, others took a more sinister tone as people speculated about Kate’s whereabouts. Traditional media played its own role in the feedback loop by amplifying and prolonging the circus.

But Innes and his colleagues said they identified 45 accounts posting about Kate on X that bore the hallmarks of the Russian disinformation campaign known as Doppelgänger. For the researchers who have spent years analyzing this sort of traffic, telltale signs included the accounts’ usernames and the fact that they had apparently been created in batches and were all using the same wording. Some were easy to mark out because they posted pro-Russia or anti-Ukraine content.

The campaign’s aims are twofold, Innes said. First, use the traffic spike associated with Kate to disseminate pro-Russia content, often related to its war in Ukraine. Second, sow discord.

“It’s about destabilization. It’s about undermining trust in institutions: government, monarchy, media — everything,” he said. “These kinds of stories are ideal vehicles by which they do that.”

Doppelgänger was first identified in 2022 by EU DisinfoLab, a nonprofit group of experts based in Europe that investigates the spread of disinformation online. In the past, this “Russia-based influence operation network” has worked by cloning the websites of traditional media companies, posting fake articles and promoting them on social media, EU DisinfoLab says on its website. The technology has likely become more sophisticated since then.

“These are not groups that are part of the state security services, as has happened with other operations,” Innes said. Rather, this campaign is run by “commercial firms who are getting contracts from the Kremlin.”

NBC News has emailed the Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment. 

Britain’s Telegraph newspaper also reported this week that Russia might not be the only country involved. Citing anonymous government sources, it reported that China and Iran were also fueling disinformation related to the princess.

When it came to the Russia-linked accounts, they did not come up with their own conspiracy theories in relation to Kate, but rather replied to existing posts, often but not exclusively with pro-Russia, anti-Ukraine content, Innes said. The researchers focused on X because of their ability to collate and analyze its posts quickly. But that may only be the tip of the iceberg.

“For independent researchers, getting a good view into TikTok is really difficult,” he said. “But just to kind of give you some sense of scale, we’ve done a bit of research and the #KateGate story had 14 billion views in one month.” These were overall views and not only those linked to Russian accounts.

The already rich ecosystem of conspiracy theories — hardly dissuaded by blanket coverage in traditional media — gave them an ample canvas on which to work.

The story was “a perfect cocktail in terms of the things that you need for conspiracy theories to thrive,” said Sander van der Linden, a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge who researches why people are influenced by misinformation.

The royal family has always been the target of conspiracy theories suggesting they are somehow “conspiring behind the scenes and plotting nefarious goals,” van der Linden said. He added that the edited photo of Kate and her three children that Kensington Palace released earlier this month had played right into this mindset.

Added in the mix are the declining global trust in institutions such as media and governments, a “mass panic about AI and manipulated news and imagery online,” and the “newer development” whereby “everyone with a social media account feels that they can be their own sleuth, uncovering details and having fun playing investigator online,” he said.

These factors are all a big worry for experts in a year that will yield a presidential election in the United States, as well as votes in the European Union, India and elsewhere.

The Russian actors “are seeing right now that this can be hugely successful,” van der Linden said. “They just wait for a controversial issue, then massively amplify it. So this could be a sort of training phase for them almost, to see how they would do it during an actual election.”



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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns Putin’s war could spread to NATO territory


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns Putin’s war could spread to NATO territory – CBS News

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells CBS News’ Charlie D’Agata in an exclusive interview that, without more U.S. help “now,” Ukraine won’t be able to stop Vladimir Putin from pushing his war onto NATO soil.

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Unfounded conspiracy theories spread online after Baltimore bridge collapse


Outlandish conspiracy theories circulated on X after a container ship collided with a major bridge in Maryland, causing it to collapse, early Tuesday morning.

The ship hit a supporting structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which is located southeast of the Baltimore metropolitan area. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore declared a state of emergency and said the calamity that knocked down the bridge was likely the result of an accident and not an act of terrorism.

As rescuers search for survivors, some online conspiracy theorists have attempted to uncover a nonexistent plot to explain the collision.

Major news events — like the pandemic, natural disasters and mass shootings — now consistently serve as fodder for fringe figures, many of them on the far right, to amplify their world views that often feature shadowy cabals or major unseen threats. 

Once relegated to certain corners of the internet, these figures have flourished on X since Elon Musk acquired the platform and removed many of the rules that once tried to limit the spread of false claims. Musk has garnered backlash in the past for amplifying conspiracy theories and restoring accounts for known conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones. A spokesperson for X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some on Tuesday claimed that the shipping vessel came under “cyberattacks,” or that Covid-era lockdowns were to blame. There have been no reports suggesting that any of these conspiracies are remotely true. In response to some of the posts, X had a “readers added context” note/disclaimer, in which people fact-checked the posters. 

But it’s not just so-called keyboard warriors who are posting the theories. Several conspiracies were elevated by public officials on TV and by those with massive followings on social media. 

On Fox Business, anchor Maria Bartiromo falsely suggested the “wide-open border” could have something to do with the collision, a clip of which circulated on X. No link to immigration has been made by officials. 

A spokesperson for Fox did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate shared a conspiracy that falsely suggested the ship had been “cyber-attacked,” citing that in the video of the collision, the ship’s lights appear to turn off just before impact. 

In video leading up to and of the incident, around 1:24 a.m. EDT, the ship’s lights turn off for a minute but then flicker back on. About 10 seconds later, smoke is seen coming from the ship’s chimney. At 1:26 a.m., the ship appears to turn and moments later loses its lights again. They come back on a half a minute later.

A spokesperson for Tate did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Alex Jones responded to Tate, writing in a post: “Looks deliberate to me.” 

Michael Flynn, who was national security adviser to former President Donald Trump, appeared to suggest it was not an accident in a post on X.

A spokesperson for Flynn declined to comment.

His account was previously removed from X, then known as Twitter, in January 2021 after he promoted a conspiracy theory around the 2020 election. At the time, the platform cited its policy against “coordinated harmful activity.” He was reinstated on Jan. 6, 2023 and posted a message “to personally thank” Musk for allowing him back.

Another unsubstantiated claim that circulated X on Tuesday was made by Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union.

In a clip of his interview with Newsmax, Schlapp suggested that the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s infrastructure and transportation services were weakened by Covid lockdowns. Later, he suggested drugs could be behind the collision.

Maersk, a shipping company, confirmed in a statement that the ship, called Dali, which is operated and managed by a company called Synergy Group, had been charted to transport its customers’ cargo.

Synergy said in a statement that Dali had “collided with one of the pillars of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Baltimore whilst under pilotage with two pilots onboard.”

The company said all 22 crew members onboard at the time of the crash were accounted for and there were no injuries or any oil pollution.

Kalhan Rosenblatt

Kalhan Rosenblatt is a reporter covering youth and internet culture for NBC News, based in New York.

Julia Jester, Patrick Smith and Bianca Britton contributed.





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Princess Kate’s cancer treatment news sparks remorse from people who spread conspiracies and memes online



For weeks, hundreds of people online have spread conspiracy theories, posted memes and cracked jokes in an attempt to answer one question: Where is Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales?

Kensington Palace repeatedly said that Kate was recovering from a planned January abdominal surgery. Still, official responses, as well as an edited image posted to the palace’s social media channels, only fueled more unsubstantiated rumors.

But many people who had partaken in the online frenzy found themselves expressing regret after the princess broke her silence on Friday. In a video message to the public, the 42-year-old wife of Prince William, Britain’s future king, announced she was diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.

Actress Blake Lively was among the first to make a statement online apologizing for her now-deleted Instagram post, a Photoshop joke inspired by the manipulated Mother’s Day photo released by Kensington Palace.

“I’m sure no one cares today but I feel like I have to acknowledge this,” Lively wrote in an Instagram story. “I made a silly post around the ‘photoshop fails’ frenzy, and oh man, that post has me mortified today. I’m sorry.”

That sentiment dominated much of the reaction on social media, where users said they wished they hadn’t poked fun at the princess.

“Yeah i definitely feel bad about laughing at all the ‘KateGate’ memes. wishing her a speedy recovery,” wrote Saint Hoax, an influencer who has amassed a following of 3.4 million on Instagram, where they post memes related to current events.

The fervor around Kate’s whereabouts — and subsequent online remorse — has underscored a pattern in which the absence of information provides perfect fodder for creators chasing relevance on algorithm-driven social media platforms.

“Everybody’s trying to jump in to get a piece of the viral pie, so to speak,” said Jessica Maddox, an assistant professor of digital media technology at the University of Alabama. “When we look at the intersection of conspiracy theories and social media, particularly content creators, everybody wants to have the hottest take, especially when information isn’t known.”

But Maddox said she hasn’t seen such remorse before in any online conspiracy culture. Usually when internet sleuths are proven wrong, she said, they double down by shifting the goalposts to further deny new evidence and justify their actions.

Many online said Kate’s news also serves as a reminder to stop making assumptions about people’s personal lives.

It’s a sentiment that’s popped up online before, particularly when celebrities and public figures are overly scrutinized or become the subject of unsupported claims by their followers.

Some fans of actor Chadwick Boseman expressed similar regret about commenting on his weight loss when it was revealed after his death that he had been quietly battling colon cancer for years. In April 2023, pop star Ariana Grande spoke out about the public’s “concerns” about her body, saying “you never know what someone is going through.”

The Kate news has also highlighted the tension between the public’s desire to know every detail about the royal family and the royals’ desire to keep their health struggles private. The princess’ father-in-law, King Charles III, was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. Charles has canceled public engagements while he receives treatment.

Reshma Saujani, CEO of nonprofit Girls Who Code, which empowers and equips young girls to pursue careers in STEM, said she felt “disgusted with the internet” when she heard about Kate’s news.

“Disgusted with the internet and even disgusted with myself because I fell into the trap,” Saujani wrote in an Instagram post. “This is a classic example of what we do to women, of how when a woman takes time to prioritize her health and take care of her family, we second guess it to the point of coming up with conspiracy theories to explain her self care.”

With Kate’s news now public, Jessica Myrick, a Pennsylvania State University professor who studies the psychology of media use, suggested that the online chatter surrounding Kate may wind down.

But, Myrick doesn’t think that social media users will stop creating conspiracy theories online in general, despite expressing some remorse over the Kate news.

“There are not a lot of consequences for sharing memes on social media, and if anything, the likes that people got, the laughs, the comments … that’s probably reinforcing and will probably mean we’ll do it all again,” Myrick said.

In her message on Friday, Kate asked people to respect the family’s privacy.

“We hope that you will understand that, as a family, we now need some time, space and privacy while I complete my treatment,” she said. “My work has always brought me a deep sense of joy and I look forward to being back when I am able, but for now I must focus on making a full recovery.”





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Hurricane Dora-aided winds lash Hawaii, spread wildfires, prompt evacuations, leave many in dark


Honolulu — Wildfires in Hawaii fanned by strong winds burned multiple structures, forced evacuations and caused power outages in several communities late Tuesday as firefighters struggled to reach some areas that were cut off by downed trees and power lines.

The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which was passing to the south of the island chain at a safe distance of hundreds of miles, was partly to blame for gusts up to 80 mph that knocked out power as night fell, rattled homes and grounded firefighting helicopters.

The Central Pacific Hurricane Center said Dora was a mighty Category 4 hurricane as of late Tuesday night Hawaii time.   

Acting Governor Sylvia Luke issued an emergency proclamation on behalf of Gov. Josh Green, who is traveling, and activated the Hawaii National Guard. She also activated the Hawaii National Guard to help with the response to wildfires on Maui and Hawaii Island, where several blazes have also triggered evacuations, CBS Honolulu affiliate KGMB-TV reported.

The weather service’s Honolul office said it extended a Red Flag Warning for all of Hawaii’s islands through 6 p.m. local time Wednesday, “with extreme wildfire risk continuing as a result of low humidity, high wind and dry fuels.”

Fire crews on Maui were battling multiple blazes concentrated in two areas: the popular tourist destination of West Maui and an inland, mountainous region. It wasn’t immediately known how many buildings had burned, County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin said in a phone interview late Tuesday.

A dramatic scene played out in the town Lahaina on Maui, where roughly 100 people were reported to be in the water to escape smoke and a blaze, Coast Guard Lt. Elaine Simon told CBS News. She said were entering the water along a beachfront street but the wind was blowing thick black smoke offshore toward the water.

Later, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said the Coast Guard had brought them to safety.

Also in Lahaina, a honeymooner made an unlikely request on social media:

Because of the wind gusts, helicopters weren’t able to dump water on the fires from the sky – or gauge more precise fire sizes – and firefighters were encountering roads blocked by downed trees and power lines as they worked the inland fires, Martin said.

Almost 15,000 customers in Hawaii were without power as of 10 p.m. local time (4 a.m. EDT), according to PowerOutage.us.

“It’s definitely one of the more challenging days for our island given that it’s multiple fires, multiple evacuations in the different district areas,” Martin said.

Winds were recorded at 80 mph in inland Maui and one fire that was believed to be contained earlier Tuesday flared up hours later with the big winds, she added.

“The fire can be a mile or more from your house, but in a minute or two, it can be at your house,” Fire Assistant Chief Jeff Giesea said.

Hurricane Dora was complicating matters for firefighters in an already dry season.

Hawaii is sandwiched between high pressure to the north and a low pressure system associated with Dora, explained Jeff Powell, a meteorologist in Honolulu. The dryness and the gusts “make a dangerous fire situation so that fires that do exist can spread out of control very rapidly,” he said.

“It’s kind of because of Hurricane Dora, but it’s not a direct result,” he said, calling the fires a “peripheral result” of the hurricane’s winds.

In the Kula area of Maui, at least two homes were destroyed in a fire that engulfed about 1,100 acres,  Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said. About 80 people were evacuated from 40 homes, he said.

Upcountry Maui resident Caroline Lebrec was among those forced to evacuate and told KGMB she could see flames advancing as she headed to an emergency shelter. “There were branches falling down on us, small ones but enough that I sped up,” she said.

The wind forced five Maui public schools to close and officials said they’d stay shut Wednesday, the station reported.

The Red Cross was opening shelters on Maui and the Hawaii Island.

“We’re trying to protect homes in the community,” Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth said of evacuating about 400 homes in four communities in the northern part of the island. As of Tuesday, the roof of one house caught on fire, he said.

Fires in Hawaii are unlike many of those burning in the U.S. West. They tend to break out in large grasslands on the dry sides of the islands and are generally much smaller than fires in the U.S. mainland.

Fires were rare in Hawaii and on other tropical islands before humans arrived, and native ecosystems evolved without them. This means great environmental damage can occur when fires erupt. For example, fires remove vegetation. When a fire is followed by heavy rainfall, the rain can carry loose soil into the ocean, where it can smother coral reefs.

A major fire on the Big Island in 2021 burned homes and forced thousands to evacuate.

The island of Oahu, where Honolulu is located, also was dealing with power outages, downed power lines and traffic problems, said Adam Weintraub, communication director for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

The weather service had a high wind warning and red flag warnings in effect for dangerous fire weather, Powell said.

The conditions were expected to decrease throughout the day Wednesday and into Thursday.  





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Symptoms and spread of dominant strain



A new coronavirus variant, EG.5, now accounts for the largest proportion of Covid infections in the U.S., according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Over a two-week period ending on Saturday, EG.5 — which some health experts on social media nicknamed “Eris” — made up an estimated 17.3% of new cases nationwide. That’s up from just under 12% during the prior two-week period, and less than 1% as of late May. 

EG.5, like the other strains that have gained dominance in the U.S. over the last year-plus, is a subvariant of omicron. More precisely, it’s considered a descendent of the XBB lineage of the virus. After EG.5, the next most common subvariant, XBB.1.16, accounts for just over 15% of new cases, while XBB.2.23 makes up around 11%. 

Globally, EG.5 accounted for 11.6% of weekly cases in mid-July, up from 6.2% four weeks earlier, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO has categorized it as a variant under monitoring, which is a step below variants of interest or concern. 

The U.K. began monitoring for EG.5.1 — a descendant within the larger EG.5 umbrella — in July, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency. As of July 20, the variant made up 14.5% of cases there. 

The spread of EG.5 comes as the U.S. logs its first increase in hospitalizations of the year. More than 9,000 people were hospitalized with Covid in the last week of July, up from about 6,300 at the end of June. 

However, three experts interviewed for this story said there is not yet evidence that EG.5 is responsible for the rise in hospitalizations. Plus, they said, this summer’s hospitalization rates are still relatively low, and far below the December 2022 peak of over 44,000 weekly Covid hospitalizations.

Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said there is no evidence that EG.5 infections cause more severe illness than other omicron subvariants.

EG.5 has likely evolved to become more transmissible than its predecessors, however, as evidenced by its prevalence, Barouch said. But he suggested that widespread immunity from a combination of vaccinations and past infections should keep most people safe from severe illness.

“With EG.5 and likely future variants that will come through the summer, this fall, this winter, we will likely see an increased number of infections and cases,” Barouch said. “But my hope is that we will not see a dramatic increase in severe disease because we have, what I call, a wall of population immunity.”

The updated Covid boosters set to be distributed this fall are not designed to target EG.5. Rather, the Food and Drug Administration asked Moderna and Pfizer in June to target the XBB.1.5 subvariant in their new boosters, since that was the dominant strain at the time. Pfizer said last week that it expects the FDA to sign off on its updated shot by the end of this month. 

Experts said the new boosters may nonetheless offer some protection against EG.5, since the strain is similar to other XBB subvariants.

“They have nearly identical spike proteins, and that’s the basis of the vaccines,” said Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University. “So when the Covid boosters get available this fall, they should be a really nice match for this variant.”

Pekosz said it’s not yet known whether the CDC will issue a general recommendation that all people get the updated boosters, or just people over 60 years old. 

Although some experts continue to debate the usefulness of new Covid boosters for the general population relative to those most vulnerable to severe illness, Pekosz said he thinks it would be smart for most people to get the new shots.

“It’s been a while since we had the bivalent boosters last year, and the variant XBB.1.5 and EG.5 are pretty different from what was in the last booster vaccine,” he said.

There is not yet clinical data about the most common symptoms of EG.5, but they’re unlikely to differ much from those caused by other omicron subvariants, according to Dr. Shan-Lu Liu, co-director of the Viruses and Emerging Pathogens Program at Ohio State University.

These symptoms include fever, cough, fatigue, muscle aches and headache.

“Once we entered the omicron era, the virus has changed from infecting the lungs to more infecting the upper airway,” Liu said. “But symptoms should be pretty common to the previous SARS-CoV-2 infections.”





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Mali’s troops, foreign partners target women to ‘spread terror’


By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Mali’s troops and its foreign security partners, believed to be Russia’s Wagner mercenaries, are using violence against women and other “grave human rights abuses” to spread terror, U.N. sanctions monitors said in a report seen by Reuters on Monday.

The monitors also warned in their report to the U.N Security Council that the sexual violence by Mali’s troops and their foreign security partners is “systematic.” They said the foreign partners were “presumed to be elements of the Wagner Group.”

Mali has long been battling an Islamist insurgency and the West African country’s junta, which seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, teamed up with Russia’s Wagner mercenary group in 2021. There are about 1,000 Wagner fighters in Mali.

Western countries have long raised concerns over Wagner’s activities in Mali. The United States has imposed sanctions on Wagner and Malian officials and repeatedly warned of what it says are Wagner’s destabilizing activities.

“The Panel believes that violence against women, and other forms of grave abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law are being used, specifically by the foreign security partners, to spread terror among populations,” wrote the U.N. sanctions monitors, known as a panel of experts.

“These practices potentially create a fear of reprisals, which acts as a deterrent for communities and armed groups who would otherwise seek to threaten the foreign security partners or harm them,” they said.

‘THE WHITES’

The Wagner group could not immediately be reached for comment. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin led a short mutiny against the Russian defence establishment in late June.

The U.N. Human Rights Office in May accused Malian troops and “armed white men” of likely executing at least 500 people, and sexually assaulting or torturing dozens of others during a five-day operation in central Mali last year. Russia said the operation “contributed to peace and tranquility”.

“Elements of the foreign security partners are usually referred to in interviews with survivors of their operations as ‘The Whites/Les Blancs’,” the sanctions monitors wrote in their annual report, which covered the period from Aug. 3, 2022 to June 23 this year.

The monitors visited Moscow in March and wrote that Russian officials confirmed the presence of the Wagner group in Mali as private contractors and the presence of Russian military instructors, based at the airport in the capital Bamako, “who do not participate in operations.”

They said Mali’s authorities have not allowed them to visit the country but that they have “maintained the highest achievable standard of proof.”

The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted on June 30 to end a decade-long peacekeeping mission in Mali after the junta abruptly asked the 13,000-strong force to leave – a move the United States said was engineered by the Wagner Group.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Michael Perry)



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Valley fever is on the rise in the U.S., and climate change could be helping the fungus spread


Fears over valley fever are ramping up in Northern California


Fears over valley fever are ramping up in Northern California

03:34

More than 500,000 Americans could be sickened each year by Valley fever, the disease caused by breathing in the fungus Coccidioides, according to preliminary estimates developed by  the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The draft figures, which were disclosed in a CDC presentation to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, suggest the toll inflicted on Americans by the fungus could be more than triple the size of widely cited previous estimates. 

“There’s just not a ton of awareness or knowledge about the disease. We do see a lot of travel associated cases, we’ve seen reports of cases popping up in places where we wouldn’t have typically expected Valley fever to be endemic,” Samantha Williams, an epidemiologist with the CDC’s Mycotic Diseases Branch, told CBS News.

Williams is part of the team that has been refining these forthcoming estimates of cases of Valley fever, which scientists call Coccidioidomycosis. It is one of a range of new projects aimed at ramping up the agency’s response to the illness, which primarily occurs in the Southwest, from California to central Texas.

valley-fever.jpg
This map shows CDC’s current estimate of where the fungi that cause Valley fever live in the environment in the United States. The disease is also common in northern Mexico.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


Though only a fraction of cases each year are reported to the CDC these tallies have also been rising: preliminary figures topped out at 20,197 cases reported through the end of 2021, the most on record in a single year since the last peak of cases in 2011. 

In states where the fungus has historically caused the most hospitalizations, officials have been warning of signs of increased risk.

“When you compare the numbers now and in 2021 to 2014, they’ve increased pretty drastically since then. Within Arizona, it’s basically doubled, and within California, more than tripled,” Williams said. 

What are the signs and symptoms of Valley fever?

Symptomatic cases of Valley fever often start mild, with signs similar to influenza or COVID-19 like fever, cough, and rash. People may also experience headaches, fatigue, night sweats, and muscle aches or joint pain, the CDC says.

Symptoms typically develop between 1 and 3 weeks after breathing in spores of the fungus, which occur naturally in the soil of some Western states, primarily across the Southwest.

While some people can recover on their own, dangerous complications can develop in as many as 10% of cases, the CDC says. 

“Even with mild disease, it can still produce illness that last for weeks, unnecessary healthcare visits, time missed from work or school,” said Williams. 

While identifying cases has improved in recent years, Williams said many doctors — even in areas where Valley fever is more common — can sometimes take months to correctly diagnose cases. Instead, time can be wasted resorting to treatments like antibiotics that do not work for Valley fever.

That hurdle can be magnified when people catch the fungus while traveling, then try to seek treatment after they are back home from doctors that may never have seen Valley fever cases. 

“Recognizing it early to treat it early is really important,” said Williams.  

What precautions should I take?

Officials acknowledge it is difficult to avoid catching Valley fever in areas where the fungus is endemic, given how spores can spread through the air.

In California, the state urges residents in areas with high rates of infections to mitigate dust stirred up by digging and minimize time outdoors during windy and dusty days. 

People at higher risk of severe disease can wear N95 masks to cut down on their exposure if they have to be outdoors. 

The Infectious Diseases Society of America also recommends considering some preemptive treatments for especially vulnerable patients, like organ transplant recipients.

What are the options for treating Valley fever? 

Most recommended treatments for Valley fever rely on “off-label” unapproved uses of drugs the Food and Drug Administration has only approved for other fungi, though federal agencies have sought in recent years to foster new options for doctors.

“Coccidioidomycosis poses a major threat to public health in endemic regions, yet no vaccine has been developed, novel effective therapies are lacking, and drug development had stalled until recently,” the FDA reported last year, from a recent workshop convened to discuss Valley fever.

The National Institutes of Health has also awarded new grants designed to encourage more scientists to focus on Valley fever, and it plans to encourage development of a vaccine to prevent the fungus. Promising potential vaccines have been tested in animals.

“Because Coccidioides infection in people usually provides protective immunity from reinfection, developing a safe and effective vaccine is generally thought to be feasible and would be expected to provide durable immunity,” a working group convened by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases wrote in a “strategic plan” released last year.

How is climate change linked to Valley fever?

“California’s dry conditions, combined with recent heavy winter rains could [result] in increasing Valley fever cases in the coming months,” California’s state health department warned in a news release Aug. 1.

The department cited recent research linking climbing transmission of the fungus to increasing cycles of drought across the Southwest — just one of several growing health threats linked to climate change. Other research has also linked upticks in the fungal infections to exposure to smoke from wildfires.

Warming temperatures and changes in rain patterns are also projected to substantially widen the map of where the fungus thrives, beyond the areas where cases are already mounting.

“The area we considered endemic, meaning the fungus can live in the soil, continues to move further north as the climate changes and gets a little bit warmer,” Dr. Stuart Cohen, co-director for the Center for Valley Fever, told CBS Sacramento.

So far, likely cases of local-acquired Valley fever infections have been reported across a broad swath of the West, from Texas up to Washington state. 

“We want people to understand, and especially clinicians to understand, that these maps are not set in stone, right? And so even within the map, there are pockets of greater endemicity and lower endemicity, but it also could occur outside of those areas,” said Williams. 

Alexander Tin

CBS News reporter covering public health and the pandemic.



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