World’s biggest poultry exporter Brazil confirms bird flu outbreak

World’s biggest  poultry exporter Brazil confirms bird flu outbreak
Talita de Lima Freitas, Brazil’s federal agricultural inspector, works on a sample to test for avian influenza virus at a laboratory on April 25, 2023. (File photo/Reuters)
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Updated 17 May 2025
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World’s biggest poultry exporter Brazil confirms bird flu outbreak

World’s biggest  poultry exporter Brazil confirms bird flu outbreak
  • Brazil exports make up 35 percent of global chicken trade

SAO PAULO: Brazil, the world’s largest poultry exporter, confirmed its first outbreak of bird flu on a commercial farm on Friday, triggering a ban on shipments to China and raising the prospect of restrictions from other trade partners.

Brazil exported $10 billion of chicken meat in 2024, accounting for about 35 percent of global trade. Much of that came from meat processors BRF and JBS, which ship to some 150 countries.
China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the UAE, are among the main destinations for Brazil’s chicken exports.
Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro said on Friday China had banned poulty imports from the country for 60 days, but that Brazilian chicken in transit to other countries would not face problems.
Chinese customs did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside business hours.
The outbreak occurred in the city of Montenegro in Brazil’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, the Agriculture Ministry said. The state accounts for 15 percent of Brazilian poultry production and exports, national pork and poultry group ABPA said in July 2024.
BRF had five processing plants operating in the state as of May 2024. JBS has also invested in chicken processing plants in Rio Grande do Sul under its Seara brand.
The veterinary officials have begun isolating the area of the outbreak in Montenegro and culling the remaining birds, in line with protocol, the state agricultural secretariat said.
“A complementary investigation will be carried out within an initial radius of 10 km (6 miles) from the area where the outbreak occurred, and into possible links with other properties,” the secretariat said.
The ministry also said it was acting to contain and eradicate the outbreak, officially notifying the World Organization for Animal Health, Brazil’s trade partners and other interested parties.
“All necessary measures to control the situation were quickly adopted, and the situation is under control and being monitored by government agencies,” industry group ABPA said in a statement.
Asked for a company response, JBS deferred to ABPA.
Miguel Gularte, CEO of BRF, told a call with analysts he was confident Brazilian health protocols were robust and “this episode” would be quickly overcome.
Since 2022, bird flu has swept through the US poultry industry, killing around 170 million chickens, turkeys and other birds, severely affecting production of meat and eggs.
Bird flu has also infected nearly 70 people in the US, with one death, since 2024. Most of those infections have been among farmworkers exposed to infected poultry or cows.
The further spread of the disease raises the risk that bird flu could become more transmissible to humans.
Brazil, which exported more than 5 million metric tons of chicken products last year, first confirmed outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian flu among wild birds in May 2023 in at least seven states.
The disease is not transmitted through the consumption of poultry meat or eggs, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.
“The Brazilian and world population can rest assured about the safety of inspected products, and there are no restrictions on their consumption,” the ministry said.


Musk says ‘America Party’ is formed in US

Updated 3 sec ago
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Musk says ‘America Party’ is formed in US

Musk says ‘America Party’ is formed in US
“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” he said
“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom“

WASHINGTON: A day after asking his followers on X whether a new US political party should be created, Elon Musk said on Saturday that the “America Party is formed.”

“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” he said in a post on X.

“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”

The announcement from Musk comes after President Donald Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which the billionaire chief executive officer of Tesla fiercely opposed.

Musk spent hundreds of millions on Trump’s re-election and led the Department of Government Efficiency under the Trump administration aimed at slashing government spending, but the two have since fallen out over disagreements about the bill.

Trump earlier this week threatened to cut off the billions of dollars in subsidies that Musk’s companies receive from the federal government.

Musk said previously that he would start a new political party and spend money to unseat lawmakers who supported the bill.

Republicans have expressed concern that Musk’s on-again, off-again feud with Trump could hurt their chances to protect their majority in the 2026 midterm congressional elections.

‘Can’t describe the pain’: Bosnia marks 30 years since Srebrenica massacre

‘Can’t describe the pain’: Bosnia marks 30 years since Srebrenica massacre
Updated 05 July 2025
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‘Can’t describe the pain’: Bosnia marks 30 years since Srebrenica massacre

‘Can’t describe the pain’: Bosnia marks 30 years since Srebrenica massacre
  • After decades of painstaking work, about 7,000 victims have been identified and properly buried, but about 1,000 remain missing

SARAJEVO: Three decades after the Srebrenica genocide, relatives are still looking for and burying the remains of more than 8,000 men and boys killed by Bosnian Serb forces, revealing the painful scars cut deep into the country.
On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces stormed the Muslim enclave of more than 40,000 people in eastern Bosnia.
At the time, it was a “UN protected zone” — an ultimately hollow phrase meant to shield the many displaced people who had fled the 1992-1995 war.
General Ratko Mladic’s forces executed thousands of men and boys before burying them in mass graves.

BACKGROUND

An international criminal court has sentenced Gen. Ratko Mladic, and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to life jail terms for war crimes and genocide during the conflict

After decades of painstaking work, about 7,000 victims have been identified and properly buried, but about 1,000 remain missing.
Mass grave discoveries are now rare. The last was uncovered in 2021, when the remains of 10 victims were exhumed 180 kilometers (112 miles) southwest of Srebrenica.
This year, the remains of seven victims will be buried during the July 11 commemorations at the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center, including two 19-year-old men and a 67-year-old woman.

“This year, I’m having my father buried. But only one bone, his lower jaw,” Mirzeta Karic told AFP.
The 50-year-old said her mother was very ill, and so she decided to go ahead with the burial without waiting for more remains to be found.
Her father, Sejdalija Alic, joined several thousand men and teenagers who tried to flee Mladic’s troops through the dense forests.
He failed.
His 22-year-old son, Sejdin, was also killed, as were Alic’s three brothers and their four sons.
He will be Karic’s 50th immediate family member laid to rest at Potocari cemetery.
The ceremony for her brother, Sejdin, was in 2003.
“I’ve been able to endure everything, but I think this funeral will be the worst. We’re having a bone buried. I can’t describe the pain.”
An international criminal court sentenced Mladic, now 83, and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, now 80, to life jail terms for war crimes and genocide during the conflict that left nearly 100,000 dead. Both are still incarcerated, but a proper reckoning inside the splintered Bosnian states remains overdue.
Political leaders in the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska, reject the term genocide and regularly downplay the massacre.
“This denial is trivialized,” Neira Sabanovic, a researcher at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, said.
“It is very rare to find someone in Republika Srpska who acknowledges that there was genocide,” she said.
Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik remains one of the most heard voices of genocide-denial in the statelet and Serbia.
Of 305 instances of denial or downplaying in Serbian and the Bosnian Serb media during 2024, he leads the way, appearing 42 times, according to an annual study published by the Srebrenica Memorial Center.
Last year, an international day of remembrance was established by the United Nations to mark the Srebrenica genocide, despite protests from Belgrade and Republika Srpska.
On Saturday, political leaders from the Bosnian Serb entity and Serbia, along with dignitaries from the Serbian Orthodox Church, will gather in Bratunac, near Srebrenica, for a commemoration of more than 3,200 eastern Bosnian Serb soldiers and civilians killed during the war.
Portraits of some 600 of these dead were hung along the road this week near the Srebrenica Memorial Center.
“These people are not participating in the same debate. They are having a conversation with themselves, and they are still in 1995,” the director of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, Emir Suljagic, told local television on Thursday.
“We have won a very important battle, the battle for international recognition,” he added, referring to the UN resolution.

 

 


Ukraine’s Zelensky says latest phone call with Trump his most productive yet

Ukraine’s Zelensky says latest phone call with Trump his most productive yet
Updated 05 July 2025
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Ukraine’s Zelensky says latest phone call with Trump his most productive yet

Ukraine’s Zelensky says latest phone call with Trump his most productive yet
  • “It was probably the best conversation we have had during this whole time, the most productive,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
  • “We discussed air defense issues and I’m grateful for the willingness to help”

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that his latest conversation with US President Donald Trump this week was the best and “most productive” he has had to date.

“Regarding the conversation with the president of the United States, which took place a day earlier, it was probably the best conversation we have had during this whole time, the most productive,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

“We discussed air defense issues and I’m grateful for the willingness to help. The Patriot system is precisely the key to protection against ballistic threats.”

Zelensky said the two leaders had discussed “several other important matters” that officials from the two sides would be considering in forthcoming meetings.

Trump told reporters on Friday that he had a good call with Zelensky and restated his disappointment at a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin over what he said was Moscow’s lack of willingness to work toward a ceasefire.

Asked whether the United States would agree to supply more Patriot missiles to Ukraine, as requested by Zelensky, Trump said: “They’re going to need them for defense... They’re going to need something because they’re being hit pretty hard.”

Russia has intensified air attacks on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks. Moscow’s forces launched the largest drone attack of the 40-month-old war on the Ukrainian capital hours after Trump’s conversation with Putin on Thursday.


Death toll from Texas flooding rises to 27, including nine children

Death toll from Texas flooding rises to 27, including nine children
Updated 05 July 2025
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Death toll from Texas flooding rises to 27, including nine children

Death toll from Texas flooding rises to 27, including nine children
  • Vice President JD Vance describes the disaster as ‘an incomprehensible tragedy’
  • Rescuers continue search for victims

KERRVILLE, Texas: The death toll from catastrophic flooding in the US state of Texas has risen to at least 27, including nine children, local authorities said on Saturday.
"So far, we've evacuated over 850 uninjured people, eight injured people and have recovered 27 deceased fatalities at this time. Of these 27, 18 are adults, nine are children," said Kerr Country Sheriff Larry Leitha.
A frantic search continued for about two dozen people still missing from a century-old Christian girls' camp in central Texas.
In a break for rescue crews, authorities reported that floodwaters were receding in the area around the Guadalupe River, about 37 km northwest of San Antonio, where at least 237 people had been rescued, with more than 100 rescued by helicopter. 
Another 23 to 25 people from the Camp Mystic summer camp were missing, most of them reported to be young girls. 
The river waters rose rapidly by 29 feet near the camp.
The US National Weather Service stated that the flash flood emergency has largely ended for parts of Kerr County in the south-central Texas Hill Country, around 105 km northwest of San Antonio, following thunderstorms that dumped as much as a foot of rain early on Friday.
A flood watch, however, remained in effect until 7 p.m. on Saturday from the San Antonio-Austin, Texas, region, with scattered showers expected throughout the day, said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
"In terms of the Guadalupe River, the extreme flood waters have receded," she said. "It's no longer at extreme flood stages. And we're not expecting additional impacts."
At a news conference late on Friday, almost 18 hours after the July Fourth crisis began, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that search-and-rescue operations would continue into Saturday.
Abbott said resources devoted to the effort would be "limitless."
President Donald Trump said that "we'll take care of them" when asked about federal aid for the disaster.
Vice President JD Vance on Saturday described the disaster as “an incomprehensible tragedy.”
Dalton Rice, city manager for Kerrville, the county seat, said that the extreme flooding struck before dawn with little or no warning, precluding authorities from issuing advance evacuation orders as the Guadalupe River swiftly rose above major flood stage.
"This happened very quickly, over a very short period of time that could not be predicted, even with radar," Rice said. 
"This happened within less than a two-hour span."
State emergency management officials had warned as early as Thursday that west and central Texas faced heavy rains and flash flood threats "over the next couple days," citing National Weather Service forecasts ahead of the holiday weekend.
The weather forecasts, however, "did not predict the amount of rain that we saw," said W. Nim Kidd, director of the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

 


UK police arrest over 20 supporters of now banned pro-Palestine group

UK police arrest over 20 supporters of now banned pro-Palestine group
Updated 05 July 2025
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UK police arrest over 20 supporters of now banned pro-Palestine group

UK police arrest over 20 supporters of now banned pro-Palestine group
  • On Saturday, supporters gathered in Parliament Square in Westminster, some holding placards that said “I OPPOSE GENOCIDE. I SUPPORT PALESTINE ACTION.”
  • Sky News footage showed some being led away in handcuffs

LONDON: British police arrested over 20 people on suspicion of terrorism offenses after they showed support for the newly banned Palestine Action group in London on Saturday, hours after the proscription came into effect.

The government moved to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws last month after its activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged two planes in protest against what the group said was Britain’s support for Israel.

Late on Friday, the campaign lost an urgent appeal against the parliamentary vote to proscribe it as a terrorist organization, with the ban coming into force from midnight.

Under UK laws, offenses include inviting support, expressing approval, or displaying symbols of a banned group and are punishable by up to 14 years in prison and/or a fine. Britain has proscribed 81 groups under anti-terrorism laws, including Hamas, Al-Qaeda and Daesh.

On Saturday, supporters gathered in Parliament Square in Westminster, some holding placards that said “I OPPOSE GENOCIDE. I SUPPORT PALESTINE ACTION.” Sky News footage showed some being led away in handcuffs from a statue of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi in the square, as they shouted their support.

United Nations experts have accused Israel of carrying out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians in the conflict in Gaza, which began after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel has repeatedly dismissed such accusations.

PRIDE PARADE PROTEST
Palestine Action has targeted Israel-linked companies in Britain in its protests, with interior minister Yvette Cooper saying that violence and criminal damage have no place in legitimate protest and that the group’s activities justify proscription.

Critics of the decision, including some United Nations experts and civil liberties groups, have argued that damaging property does not amount to terrorism.

At another protest on Saturday, five pro-Palestinian activists from the Youth Demand group were arrested after they threw red paint over US company Cisco’s truck, which was participating in London’s Pride parade, and glued themselves to the vehicle.

The parade, which celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities, has since resumed, a separate police statement said.

“Young people will not accept ... crimes against humanity,” Youth Demand’s statement — which did not mention Palestine Action — said. It added that its activists targeted Cisco’s float as the company supplies “technology that is helping Israel.”

Cisco did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside of business hours.