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Russia Says Virus Mutations Appearing in Siberia as Deaths Hit Record Daily High

FILE PHOTO: Medical specialists wearing protective gear push a stretcher while relocating a non-transparent bag, which presumably contains a human body, outside a hospital for patients infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Medical specialists wearing protective gear push a stretcher while relocating a non-transparent bag, which presumably contains a human body, outside a hospital for patients infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo
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Russia Says Virus Mutations Appearing in Siberia as Deaths Hit Record Daily High

FILE PHOTO: Medical specialists wearing protective gear push a stretcher while relocating a non-transparent bag, which presumably contains a human body, outside a hospital for patients infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Medical specialists wearing protective gear push a stretcher while relocating a non-transparent bag, which presumably contains a human body, outside a hospital for patients infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo

Mutations in the coronavirus are appearing in Siberia, the head of Russia's consumer health watchdog said on Tuesday, as the country reported a record daily high of 442 deaths from COVID-19.

"We see certain changes...in Siberia which allow us to assume that in this region it is forming its own version with specific mutations," Anna Popova, head of Rospotrebnadzor, was quoted as saying by news agencies.

Popova did not give details on how contagious or deadly the mutation was considered to be but said it would not make the virus more dangerous, Reuters reported.

Post-registration trials of Russia's second COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Siberia's Vector Institute, were now underway, Popova confirmed. Authorities said last week they were due to begin last Sunday.

Mutations of the coronavirus could not influence the vaccine's effectiveness, the Vector Institute's director general, Rinat Maksyutov, was quoted as saying by TASS.

A US study in September found little evidence that mutations in the virus have made it deadlier, saying that the severity of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, was more strongly linked to patients' underlying medical conditions and genetics.

Clinical trials of the vaccine, called EpiVacCorona, could now be carried out with volunteers over the age of 60, a state register showed and the institute's director said trials with children would begin in December, TASS reported.

A six-month Phase III trial started on Monday, involving 180 participants, according to the register.

In Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin extended a remote learning period for secondary school children from classes 6-11 by two more weeks to Dec. 6, a restriction he said had been effective in preventing the spread of the virus from young people to elderly relatives.

The city's health department said on Monday it had sent doctors to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg to help with the fight against COVID-19 there, something it did for other regions during the first wave of the virus in May.

With 1,971,013 infections since the start of the pandemic, Russia has the fifth largest number of cases in the world behind the United States, India, Brazil and France. Russia's national death toll stands at 33,931.

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World

EU to Slash Asylum Cases from 7 Nations Deemed Safe

FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
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EU to Slash Asylum Cases from 7 Nations Deemed Safe

FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)

The European Union on Thursday said it would drastically reduce asylum claims from seven nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia by considering them safe countries of origin, prompting widespread outrage from human rights groups on International Migrants' Day.

An agreement between European Parliament and the European Council, or the group of the 27 EU heads of state, said that the countries would be considered safe if they lack “relevant circumstances, such as indiscriminate violence in the context of an armed conflict.”

Asylum requests by people from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo, India, Morocco and Tunisia will be "fast-tracked, with applicants having to prove that this provision should not apply to them,” read the announcement of the agreement. “The list can be expanded in the future under the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure.”

In 2024, EU nations endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s failed asylum system. The rules were meant to resolve the issues that have divided the 27 countries since well over 1 million migrants swept into Europe in 2015, most fleeing war in Syria and Iraq.

Under the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which goes into force in June 2026, people can be sent to countries deemed safe, but not to those where they face the risk of physical harm or persecution.

According to The Associated Press, Amnesty International EU advocate Olivia Sundberg Diez said the new measures were “a shameless attempt to sidestep international legal obligations" and would endanger migrants.

French MEP Mélissa Camara said the safe countries of origins concept and others agreed to by the Council and Parliament “opens the door to return hubs outside the EU’s borders, where third-country nationals are sometimes subjected to inhumane treatment with almost no monitoring” and “undoubtedly places thousands of people in exile in situations of danger.”

Céline Mias, the EU director of the Danish Refugee Council said that "we are deeply worried that this fast-track system will fail to protect people in need of protection, including activists, journalists and marginalized groups in places where human rights are clearly under attack.”

Alessandro Ciriani, an Italian MEP with the European Conservatives and Reformists group, said the designation sends a firm message that the EU has toughened its borders.

“Europe wants enforceable rules and shared responsibility. Now this commitment must become operational: effective returns, structured cooperation with third countries and real measures to support EU member states,” he said.

He said that clear delineations of safe and unsafe nations would rid the EU of “excessive interpretative uncertainty” that led to a kind of paralysis for national decision makers over border controls.

The measures also allows individual nations within the bloc to designate other countries safe for their own immigration purposes.

World

Rubio Says US Sanctioning ICC Judges for Targeting Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)
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Rubio Says US Sanctioning ICC Judges for Targeting Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that the US was sanctioning two judges of the International Criminal Court for targeting Israel.

"Today, I am designating two International Criminal Court (ICC) judges, Gocha Lordkipanidze of Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia, pursuant to Executive Order 14203," Rubio said in a statement, referring to the order President Donald Trump signed in February sanctioning the ICC, Reuters reported.

"These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel's consent," he said.

The United States and Israel are not members of the ICC.

The US sanctions in February include freezing any US assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States.

World

US Imposes Sanctions on Vessels Linked to Iran, Treasury Website Says

A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
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US Imposes Sanctions on Vessels Linked to Iran, Treasury Website Says

A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on 29 vessels and their management firms, the Treasury Department said, as Washington continues targeting Tehran's "shadow fleet" it says exports Iranian petroleum and petroleum products, Reuters reported.

The targeted vessels and companies have transported hundreds of millions of dollars of the products through deceptive shipping practices, Treasury said.

Thursday's action also targets businessman Hatem Elsaid Farid Ibrahim Sakr, whose companies are associated with seven of the vessels cited, as well as multiple shipping companies.