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Shanghai to Start Easing Lockdown after Another Mass Testing

FILE - Residents hold up the Communist Party flag and the Chinese national flag as others prepare to take part in the first round of mass COVID tests in the Jingan district of western Shanghai, China, on April 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Chen Si, File)
FILE - Residents hold up the Communist Party flag and the Chinese national flag as others prepare to take part in the first round of mass COVID tests in the Jingan district of western Shanghai, China, on April 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Chen Si, File)
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Shanghai to Start Easing Lockdown after Another Mass Testing

FILE - Residents hold up the Communist Party flag and the Chinese national flag as others prepare to take part in the first round of mass COVID tests in the Jingan district of western Shanghai, China, on April 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Chen Si, File)
FILE - Residents hold up the Communist Party flag and the Chinese national flag as others prepare to take part in the first round of mass COVID tests in the Jingan district of western Shanghai, China, on April 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Chen Si, File)

China's largest city of Shanghai will soon begin lifting lockdown in communities that report no positive cases within 14 days after another round of COVID-19 testing, authorities said Saturday.

The fresh round of testing comes as the city reported about 23,000 cases on Saturday, most of them asymptomatic. Large swathes of Shanghai, with a population of 26 million, have been under lockdown since March 28, leading to complaints from residents about shortages of food and basic necessities, The Associated Press said.

Separately, Guangzhou authorities announced that the city northwest of Hong Kong would also begin mass testing its 18 million residents, according to central broadcaster CCTV. The city reported only two confirmed infections on Friday.

Under the new measures, areas in Shanghai will be classified as “precautionary,” “controlled” on “locked down,” depending on the results of the latest round of testing, Shanghai Vice Mayor Zong Ming told a news conference.

Residents in areas deemed to be “precautionary” with no infections within the last two weeks will be able to move around their district, although gatherings will still be restricted. Meanwhile, in “controlled” areas, residents can move around in their neighborhoods, which are smaller than districts, while “locked down” areas will require everyone to stay at home.

During the news conference, Zong choked up with emotion, saying that she was moved by the efforts of residents and front-line workers. “There is still a big gap from everyone’s expectations. We will do our best to improve it,” she said.

The city has built over 100 makeshift hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients with over 160,000 beds.

But the harsh restrictions on movement have also tested residents' patience. Some have received government food packages containing meat and vegetables. Many, however, are struggling to obtain rice and other basics, with online vendors sold out and delivery services unable to keep up with demand.

China is facing one of its worst local outbreaks since the pandemic began.

It is one of the only countries sticking to a “zero COVID” policy, taking drastic measures such as lockdowns and mass testing to identify and isolate every single case.
China is still closed to international travel, even as most of the world has sought ways to live with the virus.

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World

Kremlin Rejects Claim it Poisoned Navalny with Dart Frog Toxin, Widow Says Truth is Out

A person lays flowers at the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny while marking the first anniversary of his death at a cemetery in Moscow, Russia, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
A person lays flowers at the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny while marking the first anniversary of his death at a cemetery in Moscow, Russia, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
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Kremlin Rejects Claim it Poisoned Navalny with Dart Frog Toxin, Widow Says Truth is Out

A person lays flowers at the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny while marking the first anniversary of his death at a cemetery in Moscow, Russia, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
A person lays flowers at the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny while marking the first anniversary of his death at a cemetery in Moscow, Russia, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

The Kremlin on Monday flatly rejected accusations from five European countries that the Russian state had killed Alexei Navalny two years ago using toxin from poison dart frogs, but his widow said the truth had finally been proven.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent domestic critic, died on February 16, 2024, in the "Polar Wolf" penal colony north of the Arctic Circle about 1,900 km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow. He was 47, Reuters reported.

His death, which the Russian state said was from natural causes, occurred a month before Putin was re-elected for a fifth term in a landslide vote which Western nations said was neither free nor fair due to censorship and a crackdown on opponents.

Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said on Saturday that analyses of samples from Navalny's body had "conclusively" confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America and not found naturally in Russia.

"Navalny died while held in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him," they said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations.

"Naturally, we do not accept such accusations. We disagree with them. We consider them biased and not based on anything. And we strongly reject them," Peskov told reporters.

TEST RESULTS?

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, previously said Moscow would provide relevant comment if and when the countries making the allegations released and detailed their test results.

Until then, the state TASS news agency cited her as saying, the allegations were "merely propaganda aimed at diverting attention from pressing Western issues".

The British government on Saturday declined to respond to a Reuters query about how the samples from Navalny's body were obtained or where they were assessed.

The European joint statement referenced the 2018 Novichok poisoning in Salisbury, England, of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, suggesting that Moscow has form when it comes to using deadly poisons against its enemies.

Russia denies involvement in the Salisbury incident. It also rejects British allegations that Moscow killed dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 by lacing his tea with radioactive polonium-210.

A group of 15 mostly European countries - but also including Australia, New Zealand and Canada - issued a fresh statement on Monday, reiterating their demands for Russia to conduct a transparent investigation into Navalny's death.

The statement, published on the German foreign ministry's website, said that Russian human rights defenders were continuing Navalny's legacy and called on Moscow to release "all political prisoners".

The dart frog toxin allegations were made at the Munich Security Conference ahead of the second anniversary of Navalny's death on Monday.

Yulia Navalnaya, his widow - who had alleged from the outset that her husband had been murdered by the Russian state - said on Monday that the findings provided the necessary proof to back her stance.

"Two years. We have attained the truth, and we will also attain justice one day," Navalnaya wrote on X above a photograph of her late husband smiling.

World

EU to Take Part in Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ but Not as Member 

European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica speaks during a debate on the “Situation in Northeast Syria, the violence against civilians and the need to maintain a sustainable ceasefire” as part of the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, France, 10 February 2026. (EPA) 
European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica speaks during a debate on the “Situation in Northeast Syria, the violence against civilians and the need to maintain a sustainable ceasefire” as part of the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, France, 10 February 2026. (EPA) 
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EU to Take Part in Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ but Not as Member 

European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica speaks during a debate on the “Situation in Northeast Syria, the violence against civilians and the need to maintain a sustainable ceasefire” as part of the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, France, 10 February 2026. (EPA) 
European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica speaks during a debate on the “Situation in Northeast Syria, the violence against civilians and the need to maintain a sustainable ceasefire” as part of the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, France, 10 February 2026. (EPA) 

The European Union will take part in this week's inaugural meeting of US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace", but a spokesman insisted Monday that Brussels would not be joining as a member.

The European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica, will head to Washington to represent the EU at the meeting Thursday.

"She will participate in the meeting of the Board of Peace for the specific part dedicated to Gaza. Let me stress that the European Commission, it's not becoming a member to the Board of Peace," EU spokesman Guillaume Mercier said.

He added the EU executive was participating as part of its "long-standing commitment" to the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire and "to support the reconstruction and the post-recovery in Gaza", he added.

The Board of Peace, of which Trump is the chairman, was initially designed to oversee the Gaza truce and reconstruction after the war between Hamas and Israel.

But its purpose has since morphed into resolving all sorts of international conflicts, triggering fears the US president wants to create a rival to the UN.

Some EU member states have raised concerns about the board.

"We still have a number of questions regarding several elements in the Board of Peace: one concerning its scope, two concerning its governance, and three, its compatibility with the UN Charter," EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.

World

Kremlin Rejects European Assessment Navalny Died of Poisoning

People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
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Kremlin Rejects European Assessment Navalny Died of Poisoning

People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

The Kremlin said Monday that it "strongly rejected" an assessment by five European countries that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died from poisoning two years ago, as his supporters marked the anniversary of his death in prison.

Navalny, a charismatic anti-corruption campaigner who rallied hundreds of thousands to the streets in protest at the Russian leadership, was Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest domestic opponent for years.

He died in an Arctic prison colony in February 2024 while serving a 19-year sentence for "extremism", a charge that he and his supporters say was punishment for his opposition work, said AFP.

Britain, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands issued a joint statement on Saturday saying they believed he had been poisoned with epibatidine -- a toxin found in poison dart frogs -- and that the Russian state had the "means, motive and opportunity" to administer it.

"We naturally do not accept such accusations. We disagree with them. We consider them biased and baseless," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including AFP, during a daily briefing call.

"In fact, we strongly reject them," he added.

Dozens of people visited his grave in Moscow early Monday, among them foreign diplomats, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

Some of those who attended wore masks or scarves over their faces.

Russian authorities designated Navalny and his organization "extremist" before his death, and anyone who mentions him or his exiled anti-corruption foundation are liable for prosecution.

Navalny, a Yale-educated lawyer, was the most widely known Russian opposition figure and galvanized thousands of young people to protest against Putin.

He had already survived a suspected poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent in 2020.

- Ecuadoran dart frog -

Navalny's mother Lyudmila told reporters she felt vindicated by the European statement and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

"This confirms what we knew from the very beginning. We knew that our son did not simply die in prison, he was murdered," she said outside the cemetery where he was buried in Moscow.

"I think it will take some time, but we will find out who did it. Of course, we want this to happen in our country, and we want justice to prevail," she added.

Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnya, said on Saturday it was now "science proven" that her husband had been murdered.

She had previously said in September that laboratory analysis of smuggled biological samples found that her husband was poisoned.

Epibatidine, found in the Ecuadoran dart frog, causes muscle paralysis and eventual asphyxiation.

Experts have said the toxin can also be produced synthetically, instead of extracting it directly from the frog itself.

The European statement did not say how it was administered or by whom.

Britain's foreign office said the poison is not found naturally in Russia and that "only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin."

Russia's prison service said he died after going for a walk and falling ill.

Since Navalny's death, Russia's opposition has remained largely exiled and fragmented.

Navalny's widow Yulia vowed to take the mantle of Russia's opposition in the wake of his death but has struggled to galvanize widespread support.

Inside Russia, Moscow has intensified a crackdown on anybody who had links with the late opposition leader.

In addition to targeting his allies and backers, photographers who covered his court hearings and lawyers who represented him at trial have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.