In 2022, ransomware attacks targeted 105 state or municipal governments or agencies in the US, reads a report published by Emsisoft.

According to the “The State of Ransomware in the US: Report and Statistics 2022” report published by Emsisoft, the number of ransomware attacks against government, education and healthcare sector organizations is quite similar to the number of attacks in previous years.

The report aggregates data from disclosure statements, press reports, Tor leak sites, and third-party information feeds. Experts pointed out that some incidents will have escaped their attention and so the figures reported in the study could be just the tip of the iceberg.

It is important to note that figures reported in the study were dramatically affected by a single incident in Miller County, AK, where an infection of a mainframe caused the compromise of endpoints in 55 different counties.

Below are the attacks reported by Emsisoft:

• 105 local governments
• 44 universities and colleges
• 45 school districts operating 1,981 schools
• 25 healthcare providers operating 290 hospitals

“When it comes to cybersecurity incidents, it has always been hard to get accurate statistical information.” reads the report published by Emsisoft. “What data is available is based largely on publicly available reports, but not all incidents are made public, even in the public sector and, consequently, the true number of incidents in all sectors of the economy is and has always been higher than reported.”

The ransomware attack against local governments resulted in data theft in at least 27 of the 105 incidents (26 percent). The only local government known to have paid a ransom in 2022 was Quincy, MA., which paid a $500,000 ransom.

In 2022, 89 education sector organizations were impacted by ransomware, while in 2021 the number of impacted organizations in the same industry was 88. 

In at least 58 incidents (65 percent) the experts reported data breaches.

The most severe incident in 2022 was suffered by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which is the second-largest district in the U.S.

The report also states that 25 ransomware attacks involved hospitals and multi-hospital health systems, potentially impacting patient care at up to 290 hospitals.

The most significant incident of 2022 was the attack suffered by CommonSpirit Health, which resulted in the exposure of the personal data of 623,774 patients.

In at least 17 incidents (68 percent), threat actors exfiltrated data including Protected Health Information (PHI).

“Early ransomware attacks were simple and mostly automated. However, today’s attacks are often complex, human-directed events in which data is exfiltrated and encryption, if it happens at all, is the very last step in the attack chain.” concludes the report. “A better way of thinking about incidents is simply “data extortion events.” “Encryption-based data extortion” and “exfiltration-based data extortion,” which are not mutually exclusive, are subcategories to that.”

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, malware)

The post Ransomware attacks hit 105 US local governments in 2022 appeared first on Security Affairs.

Tesla Inc’s (TSLA.O) China chief Tom Zhu has been promoted to take direct oversight of the electric carmaker’s U.S. assembly plants as well as sales operations in North America and Europe, according to an internal posting of reporting lines reviewed by Reuters.

The Tesla posting showed that Zhu’s title of vice president for Greater China had not changed and that he also retained his responsibilities as Tesla’s most senior executive for sales in the rest of Asia as of Tuesday.

The move makes Zhu the highest-profile executive at Tesla after Chief Executive Elon Musk, with direct oversight for deliveries in all of its major markets and operations of its key production hubs.

The reporting lines for Zhu would keep Tesla’s vehicle design and development – both areas where Musk has been heavily involved – separate while creating an apparent deputy to Musk on the more near-term challenges of managing global sales and output.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Reuters reviewed the organizational chart that had been posted internally by Tesla and confirmed the change with two people who had seen it. They asked not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

Zhu and a team of his reports were brought in by Tesla late last year to troubleshoot production issues in the United States, driving an expectation among his colleagues then that he was being groomed for a bigger role.

Zhu’s appointment to a global role comes at a time when Musk has been distracted by his acquisition of Twitter and Tesla analysts and investors have urged action that would deepen the senior executive bench and allow him to focus on Tesla.

Under Zhu, Tesla’s Shanghai plant rebounded strongly from COVID lockdowns in China.

Tesla said on Monday that it had delivered 405,278 vehicles in the fourth quarter, short of Wall Street estimates, according to data compiled by Refinitiv.

The company had delivered 308,600 vehicles in the same period a year earlier.

The Tesla managers reporting to Zhu include: Jason Shawhan, director of manufacturing at the Gigafactory in Texas; Hrushikesh Sagar, senior director of manufacturing at Tesla’s Fremont factory; Joe Ward, vice president in charge of Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Troy Jones, vice president of North America sales and service, according to the Tesla notice on reporting lines reviewed by Reuters.

Tesla country managers in China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand continued to report to Zhu, the notice showed.

Zhu does not have a direct report at Tesla’s still-ramping Berlin plant, but a person with knowledge of the matter said responsibility for that operation would come with the reporting line for Amsterdam-based Ward. Ward could not be immediately reached for comment.

Zhu, who was born in China but now holds a New Zealand passport, joined Tesla in 2014. Before that he was a project manager at a company established by his MBA classmates at Duke University, advising Chinese contractors working on infrastructure projects in Africa.

During Shanghai’s two-month COVID lockdown, Zhu was among the first batch of employees sleeping in the factory as they sought to keep it running, people who work with him have said.

Zhu, a no-fuss manager who sports a buzz cut, favors Tesla-branded fleece jackets and has lived in a government-subsidized apartment that is a 10-minute drive from the Shanghai Gigafactory. It was not immediately clear whether he would move after his promotion.

He takes charge of Tesla’s main production hubs at a time when the company is readying the launch of Cybertruck and a revamped version of its Model 3 sedan. Tesla has also said it is developing a cheaper electric vehicle but has not provided details on that plan.

When Tesla posted a picture on Twitter last month to celebrate its Austin, Texas, plant hitting a production milestone for its Model Y, Zhu was among hundreds of workers smiling on the factory floor.

Allan Wang, who was promoted to vice president in charge of sales in China in July, was listed as the legal representative for the operation in registration papers filed with Chinese regulators in a change by the company last month.

Tesla board member James Murdoch said in November the company had recently identified a potential successor to Musk without naming the person. Murdoch did not respond to a request for comment.

Elecktrek previously reported that Zhu would take responsibility for U.S. sales, delivery and service.

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South Korea and the United States are discussing joint planning and implementation of U.S. nuclear operations to counter North Korea and hope to conduct a tabletop exercise soon, officials from both sides said on Tuesday.

The plan came amid South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s push to strengthen American extended deterrence – the U.S. military capability, especially its nuclear forces, to deter attacks on its allies – since taking office in May, in the face of evolving North Korean threats.

In a newspaper interview released on Monday, Yoon said the allies are discussing joint nuclear planning and exercises and that would help clear doubts about the extended deterrence, with its existing concept “falling short of convincing” South Koreans.

“In order to respond to the North Korean nuclear weapons, the two countries are discussing ways to share information on the operation of U.S.-owned nuclear assets, and joint planning and execution of them accordingly,” Yoon’s press secretary, Kim Eun-hye, said in a statement.

A senior U.S. administration official said both sides are looking at enhanced information sharing, joint contingency planning and an eventual tabletop exercise following a request from their presidents after a meeting in Cambodia in November to explore ways to address North Korea’s threats.

But the official noted regular nuclear exercises would be “extremely difficult” because South Korea is not a nuclear power, echoing the comment from U.S. President Joe Biden that the allies were not discussing such activities.

“This is going to be done through a variety of ways, including as President Yoon said, through enhanced information sharing, joint planning and expanding the range of contingencies that we plan for, as well as training, and with the idea eventually leading up to a tabletop exercise,” the official told Reuters.

The timing of the planned tabletop exercises has not been finalised, but they would take place “in the not-too-distant future” and cover scenarios including nuclear situations, the official said.

“The idea is to also try and make sure that we’re able to fully think through the range of possibilities based on the DPRK capabilities which they’ve demonstrated, as well as their statements,” the official added, using North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

A National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement that the United States is committed to providing extended deterrence, and that the allies are working on “an effective coordinated response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by North Korea.”

When asked about the tabletop exercises, a spokesman for South Korea’s defence ministry said talks were under way but declined to provide details.

The two countries have revived consultations on extended deterrence this year after a years-long hiatus amid North Korea’s increasing nuclear and missile capability.

Pyongyang defined South Korea as “undoubted enemy” and vowed to beef up its nuclear arsenal this year, after firing a record number of missiles in 2022 and fuelling tension by sending drones into the South in December.

“The U.S. countermeasures have not kept up with the North’s advancing nuclear programmes, and the extended deterrence strategy is almost no different from when their nuclear capability was insignificant and weaker,” said Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

But Kim Dong-yup, a professor at Kyungnam University, said the comment from Biden, who has sole authority to authorise the use of U.S. nuclear weapons, suggests an American reluctance to share nuclear operations, given their sensitivity and security concerns.

“Given growing voices for tactical nuclear weapons, Washington could try to give reassurances and send more nuclear assets when we want, but they’re unlikely to fully materialise President Yoon’s push for greater extended deterrence,” Kim said.

Japan plans to boost financial support to households to move away from the capital to combat depopulation in other areas of the country, according to multiple local media reports.

Eligible families in the Tokyo metropolitan area will be able to receive 1 million yen ($7,700) per child starting in the fiscal year 2023 if they move to a disadvantaged local area — more than triple the 300,000 yen incentive already in place, the reports said.

The financial incentives highlight the challenges that Japan is facing with its low birth rate and long life expectancy. Rural areas have seen rapid depopulation as the young move away for opportunities in cities, leaving the localities dotted with empty homes and contending with dwindling tax revenue.

The increased support for children comes on top of a flat 1 million yen that families can get for moving. Under the new proposal, a household with two children could receive 3 million yen in support if they left the Tokyo area.

Japan’s national government began the initiative to attract people to regional areas in 2019, allowing households who have lived in the central Tokyo metropolitan area for five years to apply for support funds if they move.

Families can continue to work remotely at their current job, work at a local small or medium sized business, or start a business in the local area — which would allow them to apply for even more financial support.

The scheme saw 1,184 household participants in 2021, compared to 71 the first year it launched, according to the Nikkei.

CINCINNATI — Bills safety Damar Hamlin was in critical condition after he collapsed on the field Monday night, the NFL said, and Buffalo’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals was suspended.

Hamlin was administered CPR on the field, ESPN reported, and he was surrounded by teammates, some of them in tears, after he was hurt while tackling Bengals receiver Tee Higgins.

Higgins led with his right shoulder, which hit Hamlin in the chest. Hamlin then wrapped his arms around Higgins’ shoulders and helmet to drag him down. Hamlin 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.

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Hamlin was treated on the field by team and independent medical personnel and local paramedics, the NFL said, and he was taken by ambulance to University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Teammate Stefon Diggs later joined Hamlin at the hospital.

About 100 Bills fans and a few Bengals fans gathered on a corner one block from the emergency room entrance with some of them holding candles.

The NFL announced more than an hour after the injury that the game would not resume.

“Our thoughts are with Damar and the Buffalo Bills. We will provide more information as it becomes available,” the league said in a statement. “The NFL has been in constant communication with the NFL Players Association which is in agreement with postponing the game.”

An ambulance was on the field four minutes after Hamlin collapsed, with many players in tears, including cornerback Tre’Davious White. The quarterbacks — Buffalo’s Josh Allen and Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow — embraced.

“Please pray for our brother,” Allen tweeted.

Hamlin collapsed at 8:55 p.m., and when he was taken off the field about 19 minutes later, the Bills gathered in prayer. A few minutes after the ambulance left the field, the game was suspended, and players walked off the field slowly and into their locker rooms.

Hamlin’s uniform was cut off and he appeared to be getting CPR from medical personnel. ESPN reported on its telecast that Hamlin was also given oxygen.

“No one’s been through this,” Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman said on the ESPN telecast. “I’ve never seen anything like it, either.”

The Bengals led 7-3 in the first quarter of a game between teams vying for the top playoff seed in the AFC. Cincinnati entered at 11-4 and leading the AFC North by one game over Baltimore, while AFC East champion Buffalo was 12-3.

“The NFLPA and everyone in our community is praying for Damar Hamlin,” the players’ union said in a statement. “We have been in touch with Bills and Bengals players, and with the NFL. The only thing that matters at this moment is Damar’s health and well being.”

It was unknown when or if the game would resume as the NFL enters the final week of the regular season. The outcome has major playoff implications with the wild-card round scheduled to begin on Jan. 14.

The aftermath of the injury was reminiscent of when Bills tight end Kevin Everett lay motionless on the field after making a tackle on the second-half opening kickoff in Buffalo’s 2007 season-opening game against the Denver Broncos.

Everett sustained a spinal cord injury that initially left him partially paralyzed.

The 24-year-old 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.

He was drafted in the sixth round by the Bills in 2021, played in 14 games as a rookie and then became a starter this year once Micah Hyde was lost for the season to injury.

By late Monday night, a community toy drive organized by Hamlin had surged to more than $1.2 million in donations. His stated goal was $2,500.

Kathryn Bersani and her mother, Gayle, were among the Bills fans who traveled from Buffalo for the game and went to the hospital from the stadium.

“This is our family Christmas,” Kathryn Bersani said. “We thought it would be a great game. Joe (Burrow) and Josh (Allen) are such great men. Sad, sad time. Such a shock. I just hope he can live a normal life. It stunned us.”

Chuck and Janet Kohl went to the hospital after watching the game at home.

“This is much more important than football,” Chuck Kohl said. “Had to come and pray for Mr. Hamlin.”

Entering the game, the 6-foot, 200-pound Hamlin had 91 tackles, including 63 solo tackles, and 1 1/2 sacks.

A tweet from the Pitt football account was simple and clear: “Damar Hamlin is the best of us. We love you, 3,” the tweet said, referring to Hamlin by his college jersey number. “Praying for you.”

RENO, Nevada — Jeremy Renner suffered blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries in a snow plow accident in Reno, Nevada, on Sunday, a representative for the actor said Monday, and remains in critical but stable condition after undergoing surgery.

A publicist for Renner said in a statement that the 51-year-old “Avengers” star is in an intensive care unit following surgery on Monday.

“Jeremy’s family would like to express their gratitude to the incredible doctors and nurses looking after him, Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue, Washoe County Sheriff, Reno City Mayor Hillary Schieve” and others, read the statement. “They are also tremendously overwhelmed and appreciative of the outpouring of love and support from his fans.”

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Authorities and Renner’s representative haven’t said how the accident occurred. The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said late Sunday that Renner had to be flown by helicopter to a hospital for treatment.

Renner was injured in an area near Mt. Rose Highway, a road linking Lake Tahoe, which straddles the Nevada-California border, and south Reno. Renner owns a home in Washoe County, which includes Reno, and told the Reno Gazette Journal in 2019 that he chose the area because Reno was the right-sized city for him, it has majestic scenery and it allowed him and his family to ski frequently.

Renner was the only person involved in Sunday’s accident, and the sheriff’s office said in a news release that it is investigating.

Renner plays Hawkeye, a sharp-shooting member of the superhero Avengers squad in Marvel’s sprawling movie and television universe.

He is a two-time acting Oscar nominee, scoring back-to-back nods for “The Hurt Locker” and “The Town.” Renner’s portrayal of a bomb disposal specialist in Iraq in 2009’s “The Hurt Locker” helped turn him into a household name.

“The Avengers” in 2012 cemented him as part of Marvel’s grand storytelling ambitions, with his character appearing in several sequels and getting its own Disney+ series, “Hawkeye.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spent the first two days of the new year trying to shore up GOP support for his bid to be Speaker by releasing a series of proposals aimed at winning over hard-right detractors who stand to torpedo his ascension.

The part of his proposed changes to House rules that drew the most attention was allowing just five House members to call for a vote at any time on ousting the Speaker; that would render McCarthy beholden to the most extreme members of his caucus, should he get on their wrong side. But buried in the text was another provision that could be highly consequential for the new Congress being sworn in on Tuesday: language that would effectively gut the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), as the independent panel faces pressure to investigate lawmakers who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

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Most significantly, McCarthy’s proposal would require OCE to hire its staff for the 118th Congress within 30 days of the resolution’s adoption, a requirement that sources familiar with the process tell TIME would make it exceedingly difficult for the office to have the resources it needs to conduct its investigations, given how long it takes to hire candidates for roles in the federal government. The proposal would also block OCE from hiring new employees over the next two years if someone leaves their position, sources say.

“Republicans get to take control of the House, and on their first day in Congress, they are not trying to take a hammer to the OCE—they’re being a little smarter about it—but they’re taking a scalpel to it,” a Hill source familiar with the ethics process tells TIME.

The resolution would also impose eight-year term limits for members of OCE’s eight-member board, which is composed of four Democrats and four Republicans. The move would result in three of the four Democrats being forced to vacate their seats effective immediately. While the new Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, would be able to appoint replacements, the changes could still significantly slow down the panel’s work and zap it of valuable institutional knowledge.

“This could easily kill the only body that’s investigating ethical issues in Congress,” says Kedric Payne with the Campaign Legal Center. “There’s no investigations in the Senate. And the only investigations that happen in the House of any significance are done by the OCE.”

“This is a very smart way to do it,” adds Payne, a former OCE deputy chief counsel. “Because it looks as though the office still lives, but, in fact, it doesn’t.”

This isn’t the first time Republicans have tried to dismantle the Congress’s independent ethics panel. In 2017, the House Republican Conference took steps to curtail the power of the OCE, but the proposal was opposed by then-Speaker Paul Ryan and even McCarthy.

This time around, circumstances have changed. A handful of ultra-conservative lawmakers, including Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, have vowed to vote against McCarthy for speaker. With the Republicans’ slim majority, the California legislator can only afford four defections.

Some of the defectors also happen to be among the lawmakers who stand to benefit the most from a castrated OCE. Last month, more than 30 former members of Congress of both parties requested the ethics panel to investigate the lawmakers who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, a move that increases the spotlight on OCE and which investigations it chooses to pursue in the new Congress.

The OCE was also expected to investigate George Santos, the Republican Congressman-elect from New York who appears to have fabricated large swaths of his biography, including his employment history, his educational credentials, and even the circumstances of his mother’s death.

On Monday, as details of McCarthy’s proposal drew more attention, the good-government watchdog group Public Citizen called on him and the next Congress to get rid of the provisions that would weaken the OCE, saying in a statement Monday that the panel “has a proven track record of enhancing transparency and enforcement of ethics rules and has gained widespread support among the American public.”

McCarthy did not respond to a request for comment.

The Office of Congressional Ethics was established in 2008 by then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi after a wave of Democratic victories in the 2006 midterms and after corruption scandals that sent multiple members of Congress to jail. The panel was intended to be an independent body separate from the House Ethics Committee, which advocates have long criticized as ineffectual and lacking in transparency.

But the two work hand-in-hand. When the OCE finds evidence of misconduct, it sends a report of its findings to the House Ethics Committee, which then chooses whether to censure a member for a violation.

While the OCE lacks the subpoena power of full House committees, it has been effective at probing wrongdoing by lawmakers of both parties. Shortly after its inception, it found that then-Rep. Charlie Rangel, a New York Democrat, improperly accepted trips to Caribbean islands as gifts from a nonprofit group. The entire House later sanctioned Rangel for violating 11 House ethics rules. In 2017, it was the first entity to investigate then-Rep. Chris Collins, a New York Republican, of insider trading. He later pleaded guilty to insider trading and lying to federal investigators. (Trump pardoned Collins in 2020.)

The OCE was poised to have a full plate over the next two years, with a heavy emphasis on the members who participated in the Jan. 6 attack. It’s a scenario that leads Congressional watchdogs to suspect that McCarthy is offering to debilitate the agency of resources and institutional knowledge to shield his members from scrutiny in order to hold onto power.

“Today’s Republican Party is rife with ethical transgressions,” says Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen. “And it is now trying to make it much harder to hold members of Congress accountable to the standards of decency we expect.”

As COVID-19 infections in China continue to rise, and as concerns grow over the reliability of the country’s reporting and sequencing of cases, more than a dozen countries have announced new entry restrictions on travelers arriving from China at a time when they’re largely on the way out.

Some countries, including the United States and Britain, are reintroducing compulsory pre-flight COVID-19 tests for people flying from China. Others, such as Japan and Italy, are requiring testing upon arrival and quarantine for those who test positive. One country, Morocco, has even decided to ban entry to all travelers coming from China outright in a measure that will go into force on Tuesday.

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Read More: China’s Stunning U-Turn on Zero-COVID Takes Xi Jinping From Suffocating Control to Callous Inaction

The new restrictions haven’t gone down well in Beijing, which in a stunning reversal began dismantling its draconian zero-COVID policies last month following rare public protest. Chinese state media labeled the new testing requirements “discriminatory” and a politically-motivated effort to undermine the Chinese government. Meanwhile, some public health experts have cast doubt on the effectiveness of these measures. “Trying to ban a virus by adjusting what we do with travel has already been shown not to work very well,” Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told the BBC.

As China prepares to lift its own border restrictions on Jan. 8, here are the countries that have announced their own restrictions on travelers from the country so far.

Italy

Italy was among the first to announce new entry requirements for travelers arriving from China, with its health minister announcing on Dec. 28 that all airline passengers would be subject to mandatory testing upon arrival. Italy is the first and only European country to require such testing so far. Among one of the first flights subjected to testing, more than a third of all its passengers tested positive for COVID-19. On another flight, half of the passengers tested positive.

The United States

On Dec. 28, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the U.S. will require travelers arriving from China, Hong Kong, and Macau to present a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than two days before their departure. The new restrictions, which go into effect on Jan. 3, come amid rising concerns over China’s lack of transparency over its outbreak as well as its failure to adequately track and sequence variants within the country.

“Variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continue to emerge in countries around the world,” the CDC said in its announcement. “However, reduced testing and case reporting in the [People’s Republic of China] and minimal sharing of viral genomic sequence data could delay the identification of new variants of concern if they arise.”

France

From Jan. 5, the French government announced that it will require travelers from China to present a negative COVID-19 test no less than 48 hours before departure. Passengers will also be required to wear a mask in flight and commit to undergo random testing on arrival.

The United Kingdom

From Jan. 5, travelers from China to the U.K. will be required to show a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than two days prior to departure. In addition, a sample of passengers will also be subject to testing upon arrival.

“The decision has been taken to introduce these measures specifically for China arrivals due to a lack of comprehensive health information shared by China,” the country’s health department said in a statement. “If there are improvements in information sharing and greater transparency then temporary measures will be reviewed.”

Spain

From Jan. 3, the Spanish government will require travelers arriving from China to provide a negative COVID-19 test or proof of vaccination. For the latter, Madrid said that it would accept any vaccine recognized by the World Health Organization, which includes Chinese-made Sinovac and Sinopharm.

Around one-third of China’s population—over 250 million people—have not received a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The figure climbs to 60% for those aged 80 and up.

Australia

From Jan. 5, people traveling from China, Hong Kong, and Macau to Australia will be required to show a negative COVID-19 test taken within 48 hours prior to travel. “This is a temporary measure reflecting the lack of comprehensive information right now about the situation in China,” said Mark Butler, Australia’s health minister.

Canada

From Jan. 5, all air travelers over the age of two arriving from China, Hong Kong, and Macau will be required to provide a negative COVID-19 test no more than two days before their departure or proof of a recent COVID-19 infection. The measures will be reassessed after 30 days, according to Canada’s public health agency. Masking in-flight will be strongly recommended, but not required.

Japan

Japan, which was among the first countries to impose new entry requirements, has from Dec. 30 required that all travelers from China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) submit to testing on arrival. Those who test positive will be required to quarantine for seven days.

South Korea

From Jan. 5, travelers from China will be required to undergo a COVID-19 test before and after arriving in the country, the government announced on Dec. 30. South Korea also said that it would also restrict issuing short-term visas for Chinese nationals until the end of the month and temporarily halt increasing flights between the neighboring countries.

India

As of Jan. 1, India announced that it will require travelers arriving China and Hong Kong, as well as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand, to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test no more than 72 hours prior to departure. The Indian government previously announced that it would also begin testing 2% of international arrivals for COVID-19 at random.

Malaysia

On Dec. 30, the Malaysian government announced that it will begin screening all inbound travelers from China and elsewhere for fever, and will administer those who are detected to have a fever or other symptoms with a COVID-19 test. The government said it would also test wastewater on aircrafts arriving from China in a bid to detect new variants.

Israel

Israel announced on Dec. 30 that all non-Israeli travelers arriving from China would be subject to pre-flight PCR tests taken within 72 hours before departure.

Qatar

From Jan. 3, all travelers from China must submit a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of departure, regardless of their vaccination status.

Morocco

From Jan. 3, all travelers from China regardless of nationality will be banned from entering Morocco. The announcement, which came just days before the ban was due to be imposed, is the strictest measure yet taken by any country in response to China’s surge in cases.

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 Ukraine war’s deadliest strikes.

* In a rare disclosure, Russia said 63 Russian soldiers had been killed in a Ukrainian New Year’s Eve attack on their quarters in the town of Makiivka when four rockets fired from U.S.-made HIMARS launchers hit the site. Ukraine said the Russian death toll was in the hundreds, though pro-Russian officials called that an exaggeration.

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

* Ukraine said on Monday it had shot down all 39 drones Russia had fired in a third straight night of air strikes against civilian targets in the capital Kyiv and other cities.

* Russia is planning a protracted campaign of attacks with Iranian drones to “exhaust” Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

* 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.

* A Russian-backed military information centre in the Donetsk region said there had been 69 Ukrainian attacks on the region, including Makiivka, on Monday.

* Zelenskiy said Ukraine awaiting 2023’s first tranche of European Union (EU) macrofinancial aid in January, after speaking to European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

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