Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during Monday night’s game, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game against the Cincinnati Bengals that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.

“Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest following a hit in our game versus the Bengals. His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the UC Medical Center for further testing and treatment,” the Bills said in a statement released early Tuesday. “He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition.”

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The 24-year-old Hamlin was administered CPR on the field, ESPN reported during the broadcast. Teammates surrounded Hamlin, shielding him from public view. Many were weeping and praying while Hamlin was treated on the field by team and independent medical personnel and local paramedics. He was taken by ambulance to University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Teammate Stefon Diggs later went to visit Hamlin at the hospital while fans of both teams gathered outside, holding lit candles and praying.

What happened to Hamlin?

Hamlin was hurt while tackling Bengals receiver Tee Higgins on a seemingly routine play that didn’t appear unusually violent.

Higgins was running with the ball on a 13-yard pass from Joe Burrow when he led with his right shoulder, hitting Hamlin in the chest. Hamlin then wrapped his arms around Higgins’ shoulders and helmet to drag him down. Hamlin quickly got to his feet, appeared to adjust his face mask with his right hand, and then fell backward about three seconds later and lay motionless.

Hamlin was down for 19 minutes while receiving medical attention. WXIX-TV in Cincinnati reported that Hamlin required an automated external defibrillator (AED) in addition to CPR on the field.

Why did it take so long to postpone the game?

It took the NFL about one hour after Hamlin collapsed to officially suspend the game because league executives were gathering information and communicating with referee Shawn Smith, coaches from both teams and the NFL Players Association.

Troy Vincent, the league’s executive vice president of football operations, said that the NFL’s Emergency Action Plan was activated. Vincent communicated with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith. Dawn Aponte, the league’s chief football administrative officer, was at the game and communicated with Bills coach Sean McDermott and Bengals coach Zac Taylor and the referee.

“It was fluid and things were changing by the minute,” Vincent said. “It was obvious on the phone that the emotions were extremely high. It was a very volatile situation.”

Vincent refuted ESPN’s broadcast report that both teams were given a five-minute warmup period to resume playing.

“I’m not sure where that came from,” Vincent said. “It never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play. That’s ridiculous. That’s insensitive. That’s not a place we should ever be in.”

Who is Hamlin?

Hamlin spent five years of college at Pittsburgh — his hometown — and appeared in 48 games for the Panthers over that span. He was a second-team All-ACC performer as a senior, was voted a team captain and was picked to play in the Senior Bowl.

Drafted in the sixth round by the Bills in 2021, Hamlin played in 14 games as a rookie and then became a starter this season after Micah Hyde was injured.

In 2020, Hamlin began organizing an annual Christmas toy drive in his hometown of McKees Rocks, Pa. By early Tuesday, a community toy drive organized by Hamlin had surged to more than $3.1 million in donations. His stated goal was $2,500.

Bills offensive lineman Rodger Saffold, in a post on Twitter, described Hamlin as a “kind, caring, extremely hard worker.” Saffold wrote that Hamlin is “loyal, honest and can always put a smile on your face. He is more than an athlete, he is a son and brother.”

What’s next for the NFL?

The Bills-Bengals game has major playoff implications. Both teams are battling for the AFC’s No. 1 seed. The Bills (12-3) entered the game in the top spot while the Bengals (11-4) had a chance to clinch the AFC North with a victory and also were in the mix for the No. 1 seed along with Kansas City (13-3).

The Bengals led 7-3 in the first quarter when the game was stopped.

Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications, public affairs and policy, said during a conference call shortly after midnight that a time frame for resuming the game was not being considered at the time.

“Our concern is for the player and his well-being. At the appropriate time, I’m sure that we’ll have a conversation around the next steps regarding the game,” Miller said.

The NFL is entering the final week of the regular season and the playoffs are scheduled to begin Jan. 14.

Japan’s Emperor Naruhito delivered on Monday a New Year’s message to the public at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. It was the first time the annual tradition was held in person since 2020, after the event was put on hold during the pandemic.

“I am sure you have suffered numerous hardships over these nearly three years due to the spread of the novel coronavirus and other issues,” the 62-year-old Emperor said from a balcony to about 1,500 well-wishers, who had been selected in a lottery, gathered below, according to local media. “After three years, I am truly happy to be able to celebrate the New Year here with you today.”

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The Japanese royals have moved many of their activities online during the pandemic. The 2021 and 2022 New Year’s messages were delivered via video to prevent the spread of the virus. The non-virtual version in 2023 is a sign that life is starting to return to normal in Japan. The country reopened to foreign tourism in October, although it recently announced restrictions on people arriving from China, where the virus is surging.

Naruhito was joined by other mask-clad royals including his wife, Empress Masako, his daughter, Princess Aiko, and his father, the former Emperor Akihito, who abdicated in 2019. Videos circulating on social media showed those gathered outside the palace waving Japanese flags.

“A lot of Japanese are still worried about COVID, especially with Chinese travel restrictions soon to end, so seeing the [royal] family in person and hearing the Emperor speak will have given people a bit of a lift,” says Chris Harding, a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and author of The Japanese: A History in Twenty Lives.

The Emperor, who was once viewed as a god-like figure, is still revered in Japan and holds symbolic significance for many Japanese people, despite wielding no political power.

Read More: Five Things to Know About the Modern Japanese Monarchy

But the Japanese Royal Family is less public than some other royal families. That may be slowly changing. There is speculation that Japan’s royal family may begin using social media to connect with the public. And the Imperial Household Agency, which is in charge of the family’s affairs, said in late December that it will set up a formal public relations office in April.

Harding says that Naruhito, who became Emperor in 2019, may be eager to make his mark. “The Emperor and Empress had high hopes for what they might achieve, at home and internationally, when they took up their roles in 2019. COVID came along very soon after, so I expect that, personally, they are keen to reestablish some momentum and get going again.”

An Iranian chess player arrived in Spain on Tuesday after receiving what a source close to her said were warnings not to return to Iran for competing without a hijab at an international tournament in Kazakhstan.

Sara Khadem, born in 1997, took part in last week’s FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Almaty without the hijab – a headscarf mandatory under Iran’s strict dress codes.

The source, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Khadem subsequently received multiple phone calls in which individuals warned her against returning home after the tournament, while others said she should come back, promising to “solve her problem”.

The source also said Khadem’s relatives and parents, who are in Iran, had also received threats, without giving further details.

Iran’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case.

Khadem, who is also known as Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, arrived in Spain on Tuesday, the source said.

She has not responded to Reuters request for comment. Newspapers including Le Figaro and El Pais reported last week that Khadem would not be returning to Iran and moving to Spain.

The phone calls led to organisers deciding to provide security with the cooperation of Kazakh police, resulting in four bodyguards being stationed outside Khadem’s hotel room, the source said.

Iran has been swept by demonstrations against the country’s clerical leadership since mid-September, when 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died in the custody of morality police who detained her for “inappropriate attire.”

Laws enforcing mandatory hijab wearing have become a flashpoint during the unrest, with a string of sportswomen competing overseas appearing without their headscarves in public.

Khadem is ranked 804 in the world, according to the International Chess Federation website. The website for the Dec. 25-30 event listed her as a participant in both the Rapid and Blitz competitions.

The protests mark one of the boldest challenges to Iran’s leadership since its 1979 revolution and have drawn in Iranians from all walks of life.

Women have played a prominent role, removing and in some cases burning headscarves, while protesters have taken heart from what they have seen as shows of support from both female and male Iranian athletes.

(This story has been refiled to remove duplicate paragraphs.)

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Russian nationalists and some lawmakers have demanded punishment for commanders they accused of ignoring dangers as anger grew over the killing of dozens of Russian soldiers in one of the deadliest strikes of the Ukraine conflict.

In a rare disclosure, Russia’s defence ministry said 63 soldiers were killed on New Year’s Eve in a fiery blast that destroyed a temporary barracks in a vocational college in Makiivka, twin city of the Russian-occupied regional capital of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Russian critics said the soldiers were being housed alongside an ammunition dump at the site, which the Russian defence ministry said was hit by four rockets fired from U.S.-made HIMARS launchers.

Ukraine and some Russian nationalist bloggers have put the Makiivka death toll in the hundreds, though pro-Russian officials say those estimates are exaggerated.

Rallies to commemorate the dead were held in several Russian cities, including Samara, where some came from, RIA Novosti news gency reported. Mourners laid flowers in the centre of Samara.

“I haven’t slept for three days, Samara hasn’t slept. We are constantly in touch with the wives of our guys. It’s very hard and scary. But we can’t be broken. Grief unites … We will not forgive, and, definitely, victory will be ours,” RIA quoted Yekaterina Kolotovkina, a representative of a women’s council at an army unit, as telling one of the rallies.

The strike on Makiivka came as Russia was launching what have become nightly waves of drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address that the attacks were aimed at “exhausting our people, our anti-aircraft defences, our energy”.

Ukrainian officials said Russia had on Monday struck Ukraine-controlled parts of the Donetsk region, hitting the village of Yakovlivka, the city of Kramatorsk and destroying an ice rink in the town of Druzhkivka.

The governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which along with neighbouring Donetsk forms the industrial Donbas claimed by Moscow, said on Tuesday Ukrainian forces had made steady advances in the direction of Russian-held Svatove and Kreminna.

“(Russian forces) are used to having a complete advantage in both artillery and shells. Now we have reached parity and our artillerymen are shooting better, hitting more ammunition depots and barracks, while firing far fewer shots,” Governor Serhiy Haidai told Ukrainian television.

Elsewhere, Ukraine’s military General Staff said a Dec. 31 strike on a Russian-held area of the southern Kherson region had killed or injured some 500 Russian troops.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield accounts.

Ukraine’s presidential administration said three people had been killed and 10 wounded in Russian strikes over the past 24 hours, two of them in Kherson region and one in Donetsk region.

The governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said in a Tuesday morning update for his region that Russian forces had attacked Ukrainian positions overnight along the front line.

Reuters footage showed a team of Ukrainian volunteers known as “Black Tulip” exhuming dead soldiers’ bodies near the front line in Donetsk region.

“Whenever you dig up a boy, you live through his nightmare and the horror he went through in his last moment, when he understood that this is the end,” said volunteer Oleksii Iukov, 37. “This is very, very difficult because you understand that you’re about to tell his family that their close one is gone.”

Russian military bloggers said the extent of the destruction at Makiivka was a result of storing ammunition in the same building as a barracks, despite commanders knowing it was within range of Ukrainian rockets.

Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian troops in eastern Ukraine who is now one of the highest-profile Russian nationalist military bloggers, said hundreds had been killed or wounded. Military equipment stored at the site was uncamouflaged, he said.

“What happened in Makiivka is horrible,” wrote Archangel Spetznaz Z, a Russian military blogger with more than 700,000 followers on the Telegram messaging app.

“Who came up with the idea to place personnel in large numbers in one building, where even a fool understands that even if they hit with artillery, there will be many wounded or dead?” he wrote. Commanders “couldn’t care less”, he said.

Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine and Zelenskiy did not address the Makiivka strike in his nightly speech on Monday.

The fury in Russia extended to lawmakers.

Grigory Karasin, a member of the Russian Senate and former deputy foreign minister, not only demanded vengeance against Ukraine and its NATO supporters but also “an exacting internal analysis”.

Sergei Mironov, a legislator and former chairman of the Senate, Russia’s upper house, demanded criminal liability for the officials who had “allowed the concentration of military personnel in an unprotected building” and “all the higher authorities who did not provide the proper level of security”.

Unverified footage posted online of the aftermath of the blast at the Russian barracks in Makiivka showed a huge building reduced to smoking rubble.

Having suffered defeats on the battlefield in the second half of 2022, Russia resorted to mass air strikes against Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine said on Monday it had shot down all 39 drones Russia had launched in a third night of air strikes on civilian targets in Kyiv and other cities.

Ukrainian officials said their success proved that Russia’s tactic in recent months of raining down missiles and drones to knock out Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was increasingly failing as Kyiv beefs up its air defences.

Russia denies targeting civilians in what it calls a “special military operation” against its southern neighbour launched on Feb. 24.

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