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Greece Hits New COVID-19 Record

Medical student Michaella Alexandrou holds the hand of a patient as her colleague takes a blood test at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Medical student Michaella Alexandrou holds the hand of a patient as her colleague takes a blood test at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
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Greece Hits New COVID-19 Record

Medical student Michaella Alexandrou holds the hand of a patient as her colleague takes a blood test at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Medical student Michaella Alexandrou holds the hand of a patient as her colleague takes a blood test at the Pathological Clinic of Sotiria Hospital in Athens. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Greece hit a new record with 460 daily confirmed infections on Friday.

Total infections have nearly reached 20,000 cases. With five more deaths, the overall toll has reached 398.

The infections Friday included 114 cases among workers at a canning factory in northern Greece, which has been closed.

Officials said there’s no need for new lockdown measures, provided the public obeys existing ones, The Associated Press reported.

Starting Saturday, visitors from Poland and the Czech Republic will be among those needing a negative coronavirus test before traveling to Greece.

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World

Taiwan Issues Warnings as Typhoon Champi Nears

Typhoon Champi is expected to sweep past Taiwan's northeast coast, bringing strong winds and heavy rains. I-Hwa Cheng / AFP
Typhoon Champi is expected to sweep past Taiwan's northeast coast, bringing strong winds and heavy rains. I-Hwa Cheng / AFP
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Taiwan Issues Warnings as Typhoon Champi Nears

Typhoon Champi is expected to sweep past Taiwan's northeast coast, bringing strong winds and heavy rains. I-Hwa Cheng / AFP
Typhoon Champi is expected to sweep past Taiwan's northeast coast, bringing strong winds and heavy rains. I-Hwa Cheng / AFP

A powerful typhoon headed towards Taiwan on Thursday, triggering the cancellation of dozens of flights and prompting warnings for locals to prepare for heavy rain, strong winds and giant waves.

Typhoon Champi is expected to sweep past Taiwan's northeast coast on Friday and Saturday as it moves towards China and Japan, Taiwan's Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.

Champi is packing maximum sustained wind speeds of 213 kilometers (132 miles) per hour, according to the latest update from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, said AFP.

It was previously classed as a super typhoon, with reported maximum sustained wind speeds of nearly 300 kph, but it has since weakened.

"Everyone is urged to remain vigilant and be prepared for the strong winds and heavy rains brought by the typhoon," Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said in a Facebook post.

Champi is the latest in a busy Pacific storm season turbo-charged by the El Nino weather phenomenon that has caused unprecedented warming in the equatorial Pacific.

The storm is expected to dump up to 900 millimeters (35 inches) of rain in the mountainous regions of northern and northeastern Taiwan from Thursday to Saturday, and whip up waves more than six meters (20 foot) tall.

More than 23,000 military personnel are on standby to help with rescue efforts. Over 150 domestic and international flights were cancelled for Thursday ahead of the storm.

"Typhoon Champi is expected to have its most significant impact starting all day tomorrow through the first half of Saturday," CWA forecaster Jason Cheng told AFP.

"Currently, the typhoon has a storm radius of 320 kilometers... Compared to the previous Typhoon Bavi, Champi's storm area is not as vast," Cheng said.

Millions of people in eastern China also braced for torrential downpours and flash flooding in the coming days.

China's Ministry of Water Resources initiated a level four emergency response on Thursday for flooding in Shanghai and the coastal provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian.

Level four is the lowest in China's emergency response hierarchy.

The ministry warned that Champi could bring "a period of significant rainfall" from Friday to Sunday, with "heavy to torrential downpours" expected in some areas, including "most of Shanghai and eastern Zhejiang".

Japan's two major airlines cancelled more than 110 flights from Thursday to Saturday.

The United Nations said Wednesday that the El Nino gripping the planet is heading off the charts, and that countries should take urgent action to prepare for the worst.

El Nino is expected to peak in December, but the human impact is set to last into 2027 and beyond.

The warming phase of a natural climate cycle, El Nino temporarily raises sea temperatures in the tropical Pacific, triggering changes in weather that can increase the risk of drought and flooding, and exacerbate man-made global warming.

World

France Reports 1st Human Shamonda Virus Case, Says No Health Risk

A health care worker administers a dose of Ervebo vaccine against the Ebola virus in Beni, North Kivu province, eastern Congo, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Sebastien Kitsa Musayi)
A health care worker administers a dose of Ervebo vaccine against the Ebola virus in Beni, North Kivu province, eastern Congo, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Sebastien Kitsa Musayi)
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France Reports 1st Human Shamonda Virus Case, Says No Health Risk

A health care worker administers a dose of Ervebo vaccine against the Ebola virus in Beni, North Kivu province, eastern Congo, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Sebastien Kitsa Musayi)
A health care worker administers a dose of Ervebo vaccine against the Ebola virus in Beni, North Kivu province, eastern Congo, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Sebastien Kitsa Musayi)

French health authorities said Thursday that the Shamonda virus, which usually affects livestock, had been detected in a human for the first time, in a severely immunocompromised patient who died earlier this month.

"Despite circulating in Africa and Asia for several decades, the Shamonda virus has never previously been detected in humans," the health and agriculture ministries said in a joint statement.

They said there was "no health risk to the general public identified at this time,” adding that the human infection appeared to be "an exceptional case involving a severely immunocompromised patient" hospitalized for a serious medical condition.

World

Seoul Sees No Signs of New North Korean Weapons on Border

A North Korean guard post and a giant loudspeaker on the north side of the Demilitarised Zone. Jung Yeon-je / AFP
A North Korean guard post and a giant loudspeaker on the north side of the Demilitarised Zone. Jung Yeon-je / AFP
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Seoul Sees No Signs of New North Korean Weapons on Border

A North Korean guard post and a giant loudspeaker on the north side of the Demilitarised Zone. Jung Yeon-je / AFP
A North Korean guard post and a giant loudspeaker on the north side of the Demilitarised Zone. Jung Yeon-je / AFP

South Korea's military said Thursday it had seen no signs of newly deployed North Korean weapons on their shared border, hours after Pyongyang said new "counter means" would be put on alert along its length.

Pyongyang has rejected claims it was behind an explosion that injured three South Korean soldiers last month inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the heavily mined buffer area that has divided the two Koreas since their 1953 armistice, and mockingly dismissed calls for an apology, said AFP.

The country on Monday called the situation along the border "grave", saying it was considering deploying additional "tactical strike means" to the area.

On Thursday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said the North would place loudspeakers on standby along the border "within days" and had put unspecified "new counter means" on alert.

The statement came less than 24 hours after Kim Yo Jong announced Pyongyang had moved new troop units into "firing position" after a visit to the border.

Both countries have occasionally turned to loudspeakers blaring propaganda across their shared border and other psychological warfare methods.

But Seoul's military said Thursday that it has seen no sign of new weapons being deployed so far.

"We have not observed any signs that North Korea is deploying new types of weaponry," Jang Do-young, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

"Nevertheless, given their claims, we are keeping a close watch on the situation," he added.

Asked about the North's loudspeaker claims, Jang said "routine maintenance work" had been observed even before it had issued its latest statements.

He added that Pyongyang's recent flurry of statements only suggested that the South's ongoing efforts to clear landmines inside the DMZ were "proving effective".

On Tuesday, North Korea decried what it claimed were nearly 1,000 "provocative" loudspeaker broadcasts and numerous warning shots fired by South Korean forces between October 1 and 17.

Seoul's military said Pyongyang was attempting to shift the blame for escalating military tensions, while confirming the use of loudspeakers and warning shots as "legitimate defensive measures".

Seoul has accused Pyongyang of "a clear violation of the Armistice Agreement" over the explosion that injured South Korean soldiers in the DMZ.

President Lee Jae Myung, meanwhile, has called for the North to return to dialogue, an overture Kim Yo Jong has slammed as "the climax of the farce".

North Korea has separately tested a slew of weapons recently, including a "new-type" precision-guided torpedo system and an intermediate-range hypersonic missile, both of which were said to use AI technology.