Jerusalem (CNN) — The first groups of Israelis and Palestinians have been released under a truce brokered between Israel and Hamas that brought a temporary halt to fighting in Gaza after weeks of conflict, officials said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed 13 Israeli hostages had returned to Israel on Friday, where they have undergone initial medical assessments.

And Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, which helped broker the agreement, confirmed that the Palestinian prisoners released as part of the deal were on the way to the West Bank.

The Red Cross, which transported the detainees on Friday from Gaza to the Rafah border with Egypt, said 24 hostages had been freed.

Ten Thai citizens and one Filipino citizen have also been freed under a separate agreement.

Among the Israelis freed are 5-year-old Emilia Aloni and Adina Moshe, who was seen being driven away on a motorbike after being abducted from her kibbutz during the October 7 Hamas attacks.

“They’re now en route to hospitals where they will be reunited with their families – or rather, should I say, what’s left of their families,” Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy told CNN. “Many of them, of course, their families were murdered on October 7.”

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the 11 freed foreign nationals were returned to Israel alongside the Israeli hostages released on Friday night. “They all underwent an initial medical assessment at the Kerem Shalom crossing, and their lives are not at risk,” he said in a briefing.

Levy said the initial release still left 215 hostages inside Gaza. “None of us here are free until all of them are free. We are committed to that pledge: There will be no one left behind,” he said.

Israel also released 39 Palestinian prisoners in return on Friday. Buses reported to be carrying some of the released Palestinian women and teenagers were seen leaving Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank.

The Red Cross later confirmed that the group leaving Ofer prison had arrived in Ramallah.

The Israeli intelligence service Mossad and the IDF have received the second list of Israeli hostages due to be released on Saturday as part of the framework agreed on with Hamas, the office of Israel’s Prime Minister said in a written statement on Friday.

Security officials are reviewing the list of names, the statement said.

Israel’s Hostage Coordinator Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch has given the information to the families of the hostages, the statement added.

The list will not be released to the public until the hostages are safely in Israeli hands.

A major breakthrough

The hostages and Palestinians released Friday were the first to be freed through a deal between the two sides that was finalized after weeks of tense negotiations and took several agonizing days to come into effect.

The agreement, accompanied by a four-day truce between Hamas and Israel, represents a first major diplomatic breakthrough in the conflict.

The released hostages entered Egypt through the Rafah crossing before returning to Israeli soil, where they were taken to local hospitals.

Well-wishers gathered outside the Schneider Children’s Medical Center near Tel Aviv cheered and clapped as helicopters carrying now-freed hostages arrived on Friday after dark. Eight freed hostages from three families are receiving care at the center, according to hospital staff.

One nurse from a neighboring hospital who came to witness the moment told CNN it was like a “drop of joy in a sea of sadness.”

“I needed to see this moment with my own eyes,” the nurse, who asked to be identified by her first name, Elena, said.

The concurrent halt in fighting began at 7 a.m. local time (12 a.m. ET) Friday, and is believed to be holding – the first sustained break in hostilities after nearly seven weeks of conflict.

It allowed relief to flow into the besieged Gaza Strip, marking some respite in a humanitarian crisis that has worsened by the day. The United Nations said Friday that 137 trucks of humanitarian goods were offloaded in Gaza on day one of the pause in fighting, marking the largest aid convoy that has moved into the strip since October 7.

“During the humanitarian pause that has been in place since this morning, the UN was able to scale up the delivery of humanitarian assistance into and across Gaza,” a statement from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

On Friday, 129,000 liters of fuel and four trucks of gas were also delivered to Gaza, OCHA said.

OCHA added that “21 critical patients were evacuated in a large-scale medical operation from the north of Gaza.” It is not clear where those patients were taken.

While Friday saw the first batch of Israeli hostages released, more – totalling 50 women and children – are expected to be exchanged over the course of the truce.

Speaking to reporters Friday, President Joe Biden called the release of hostages a positive start and sounded an optimistic note on the potential release of Americans in the coming days.

Biden said he expected soon to get the names of the hostages who will be released on Saturday, saying he was “hopeful it’s as we anticipate.” He said he did not know when the three Americans who fall into the category of women or children, including now-four-year-old Abigail Edan, would be released, but confirmed he still does “expect it to occur.”

“My hope and expectation is it’ll be soon,” he said of the possibility of the three Americans being released.

Pressure on the Israeli government had been mounting for weeks from the families of the hostages, who have demanded answers and action from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

International calls for more humanitarian support for the people of Gaza had also been growing, and the truce is expected to give respite to those in the enclave who have endured weeks of attacks. The number of people killed since October 7 now stands at 14,854, according to information from Hamas authorities in the Strip.

Hundreds of people gathered outside Tel Aviv’s Museum of Art – in an area that has gained the name “Hostages Square” among locals – ahead of the announcement, waiting anxiously for confirmation of the hostages’ safe transfer.

Tamar Shamir said she had been visiting the square for weeks to show support for the hostages and their families. While the confirmation of the transfer came as a relief, she said more needed to be done to return all hostages taken by Hamas.

“We are not happy. We cannot be happy until everyone comes back home,” Shamir told CNN.

Residents of Gaza meanwhile began moving across parts of the Strip after Friday’s truce began, though some displaced Palestinians trying to return to homes in northern Gaza were allegedly blocked by Israeli forces, a journalist told CNN.

The IDF warned residents against attempting to travel from the south to the north, where combat between Hamas and Israel has been concentrated.

Social media videos showed people running away amid the sound of gunfire, presumed to be Israeli, on Salah Al-Din street. A journalist told CNN that Israeli tanks were seen and gunfire could be heard on Salah Al-Din street.

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment on whether people attempting to enter north were fired on.

Israel declared war on Hamas following the militant group’s bloody October 7 terror attack on its territory, in which more than 1,200 people were killed – the largest such attack on Israel since the country’s founding in 1948.

Militants were holding more than 200 people captive inside Gaza from mass abductions that day, according to figures from the Israeli military.

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London (CNN) — Britain’s beleaguered Prime Minister Rishi Sunak carried out a dramatic Cabinet reshuffle on Monday, firing his divisive home secretary and bringing back former premier David Cameron to the heart of government after a seven-year absence from politics.

The hardline Home Secretary Suella Braverman was fired early on Monday morning, after making inflammatory comments about the policing of pro-Palestinian protests in central London over the weekend. Her tenure was wrought with scandals and divisive remarks, which had long caused fractures in Sunak’s government.

Sunak then announced he was bringing Cameron back to frontline politics as foreign secretary, in a stunning move that has few parallels in recent British political history.

Cameron served as prime minister from 2010 to 2016, resigning after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum that he had called.

His premiership set the course of 13 years of Conservative rule, but the self-inflicted chaos of the Brexit referendum and its aftermath threw his party into years of instability from which it is still struggling to emerge.

Downing Street confirmed that James Cleverly, formerly the foreign secretary, will take over from Braverman, a shift that made space for Cameron’s remarkable return to Cabinet.

Braverman had served as Sunak’s interior minister throughout his tenure in Downing Street, but her confrontational rhetoric towards migrants, protesters, the police and even the homeless had caused rifts in the government and sparked speculation that she was plotting a future leadership bid.

She most recently courted criticism by accusing London’s police force of applying “double standards” in the way they manage protests, in an op-ed in the Times of London newspaper condemning a pro-Palestinian march that Downing Street said had not been cleared by Sunak.

On Saturday, far-right counter-protesters clashed with police in central London after Braverman called the pro-Palestinian demonstration a “hate march,” stoking tensions around a rally taking place on Remembrance Sunday.

Braverman’s comments on policing and her severe criticism of Saturday’s pro-Palestinian rally were criticized by figures across the political spectrum.

“You have a chance of inflaming both sides when you make such divisive remarks,” Neil Basu, the former head of counter-terrorism policing in the UK, told the BBC on Monday morning. “Making comments that are potentially divisive is a very dangerous thing to do… no home secretary we’ve served under would have done the same thing.”

Her departure from government comes as Sunak’s party remains deeply unpopular among voters, with polls suggesting the Conservatives are drifting towards a potentially catastrophic electoral defeat next year.

Sunak has apparently gambled that bringing Cameron back into the fold would project a stability that has been missing from Westminster for some time. But it risks deepening a view among large swathes of the public that the party has run out of ideas.

Cameron resigned as an MP shortly after leaving Downing Street, meaning that King Charles was required to rapidly approve his ascension to the House of Lords on Monday in order for him to become a minister.

In recent decades, the move can only be compared to Alec Douglas-Home – prime minister for a year from 1963 – who returned as foreign secretary in 1970 under Edward Heath’s government.

The arrangement has led to questions over how Britain’s new foreign secretary will be held to account; it is virtually unheard of in modern politics for a very senior minister to sit in the Lords, and not in the Commons, where MPs operate.

“I know it’s not usual for a prime minister to come back in this way but I believe in public service,” Cameron told broadcasters in his first interview after taking the role.

Cameron makes stunning comeback

Cameron wrote on Monday that he “gladly accepted” Sunak’s offer to become foreign secretary, but acknowledged criticisms he has made of the Prime Minister — such as when Sunak scrapped a long-awaited and expensive high speed rail project that Cameron had championed.

“Though I may have disagreed with some individual decisions, it is clear to me that Rishi Sunak is a strong and capable Prime Minister, who is showing exemplary leadership at a difficult time,” Cameron said.

His return to Cabinet is a staggering twist in an influential political career that had seemingly and abruptly ended seven years ago.

Cameron returned the Conservative Party to government in 2010 in a coalition with the centrist Liberal Democrats, having repaired the Tories’ then-broken image as an out-of-touch and antiquated political group.

He melded liberal social policies — pushing his party to approve the legalization of same-sex marriage — with austere economics, drastically cutting back the budgets of Britain’s public services and reducing the size of the state.

But Cameron stepped down after unsuccessfully campaigning to remain in the EU.

His appointment as foreign secretary suggests that the Tories’ experiment with populism — which first flourished during the Brexit campaign and captured the heart of the party during the tenures of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss — has been ditched in the run-up to next year’s general election.

Barely a month ago Sunak addressed the Conservative Party membership at their annual conference, describing himself as the change candidate and directly attacking aspects of his own party’s past 13 years in office. He signaled that he was ready to lean into culture war politics on trans rights and climate change.

Now, two of his three most senior Cabinet posts are filled with moderate veterans of 21st century Conservatism — in Cameron and Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor.

Cameron was ardently opposed to Brexit; despite calling the 2016 referendum to appease right-wingers in his party, he campaigned against the split from the EU and told The Times in 2019 that some people “will never forgive me” for holding the vote.

Unlike Braverman, neither Cleverly nor Cameron are likely to go off script and lash out at the police or protesters. It would be hard to imagine, for example, either man advocating for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights so it can more easily send refugees to Rwanda –- a key Braverman policy that courts have been blocking for months.

But Braverman’s influence is unlikely to disappear. Sunak has made a powerful enemy of Braverman and handed ammunition to critics who will see today as confirmation of something they’d already suspected: that the Prime Minister is a centrist sellout who is more comfortable surrounded by other centrist Conservatives than pushing populism.

Braverman dismissed after string of controversies

Braverman has long been a controversial figure within the Conservative Party. She has attempted to excite the group’s right-wing grassroots with populist messaging, and become the face of Britain’s hardline stance against asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants, but her rhetoric and controversy-ridden tenure in government has appalled many moderate members of the party.

Days before her comments on Saturday’s protest deepened discord between her office and the police, she claimed in a post on the social media platform X that rough sleepers were “living on the streets as a lifestyle choice,” and advocated a policy to stop homeless people accessing tents.

Sunak had insisted as recently as Thursday that he had confidence in Braverman. But his spokesperson said Monday that there were “issues around language” that emerged over the course of their working relationship, as well as “differences of style.”

“It’s right that we can move forward now and focus on what matters to people,” his spokesperson said.

Sunak is understood to have spoken with Braverman over the phone on Monday morning after taking the decision to fire her.

But her dismissal sets up a potential power battle at the top of the ruling party, pitching Britain towards yet another spell of political infighting and instability.

While a leadership challenge against Sunak would be a dramatic risk for a party that has already cycled through five prime ministers in seven years, there is a growing murmur of discontent in its ranks at Sunak’s inability to reverse the Conservatives’ fortunes.

Alternatively, Braverman may be eyeing a run for leadership after the impending general election, expected late next year, should the Conservatives lose power to the buoyant opposition Labour Party.

But even in that scenario, Braverman will be expected to use the coming months to position herself as a radical alternative to Sunak – a pitch that could complicate the prime minister’s electoral campaign in the new year.

Monday marks the second time in just over a year that Braverman has been sacked as home secretary. She served in the post for six weeks during Liz Truss’s shambolic premiership last year, before resigning for breaching ministerial rules by using a private email address.

But she was back in the same position just days later; her resignation sparked Truss’s downfall, and her successor Sunak speedily reinstated her after seizing power.

Under Sunak, Braverman spearheaded a heavily publicised push to clamp down on small boat crossings made by asylum-seekers. The government’s flagship illegal migration bill, approved by MPs earlier this year, would essentially hand the government the right to deport anyone arriving illegally in the United Kingdom.

She is an equally furious culture warrior, borrowing rhetoric from the American right when lambasting “woke” culture, transgender rights and climate protesters.

Her frequent headline-snatching remarks have given ammunition to the government’s critics. Last week, after Sunak’s government unveiled its plan for the new session of Parliament, opposition leader Keir Starmer told Sunak in the House of Commons to “think very carefully about what she is committing your government to do.”

“Without a serious home secretary, there can be no serious government and he cannot be a serious prime minister,” Starmer said.

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(CNN) — Sudan’s military leader condemned what he called an “attempted coup” after a day of intense fighting left at least 180 people dead in the country and saw hospitals coming under attack from missiles as they battled to save lives.

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is involved in a bloody tussle for power that has gripped Sudan for three days, told CNN that the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is leading “an attempted coup and rebellion against the state.”

Clashes first erupted Saturday between the country’s military and the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, who told CNN on Sunday the army had broken a UN-brokered temporary humanitarian ceasefire.

Burhan, who alongside Dagalo ousted Sudan’s long-time leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and played a key role in the military coup two years later, said his former ally had “mutinied” against the state, and if captured, would be tried in court of law.

On Monday, residents in the capital Khartoum endured sounds of artillery and bombardment by warplanes. Clashes re-erupted around the Army Command building and the Presidential Palace in the capital Khartoum, eyewitnesses said, as fighter jets hovered over the capital, and ground anti-aircraft defenses fired at the planes.

An eyewitness sheltering in the Sudanese capital told CNN that Monday has been the heaviest day of shelling since the outbreak of violence began on Saturday.

Heavy bomb blasts were heard in the city of Bahri in the north of the capital Khartoum, witnesses added.

Hospitals in the country — which are short of blood supplies and life-saving equipment — are being targeted with military strikes by both the Army and the RSF, according to eyewitness accounts to CNN and two doctors’ organizations, leaving medical personnel unable to reach the wounded and to bury the dead.

One doctor at a Khartoum hospital — whom CNN is not naming for security reasons — said his facility has been targeted since Saturday. “A direct strike hit the maternity ward. We could hear heavy weaponry and lay on the floor, along with our patients. The hospital itself was under attack.”

CNN has reached out to the Sudanese military and the RSF for comment.

Another doctor at the same al-Moallem Hospital told CNN that hospital staff stayed on site under bombardment from the RSF for two days, before being evacuated by the Sudanese military. “We were living in a real battle,” the doctor said. “Can you believe that we left the hospital and left behind children in incubators and patients in intensive care without any medical personnel? I can’t believe that I survived dying at the hospital, where the smell of death is everywhere.”

International leaders have urged for calm.

The European Union ambassador to Sudan was assaulted in his residency in Sudan, the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell said on Monday.

“A few hours ago, the EU Ambassador in Sudan was assaulted in his own residency,” Borrell said on Twitter, without providing further details on the incident, which he described as a “a gross violation of the Vienna Convention.”

He added that “security of diplomatic premises and staff is a primary responsibility of Sudanese authorities and an obligation under international law,” he said.

Borrell also said the EU is working to persuade the leadership of the two rival parties to “consider humanitarian pause” in Sudan.

The White House condemned the escalating violence and called “for an immediate ceasefire without conditions between the Sudanese armed forces and the rapid deployment of support forces,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters.

Dispute over ceasefire

The sound of gunshots rang out in the background as Burhan spoke to CNN on Monday, despite an agreed-on ceasefire at 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET). He claimed that for a second day, the RSF’s leader had violated that agreed ceasefire.

“Yesterday and today a humanitarian ceasefire proposal was put forward and agreed upon. Sadly, he did not abide by it. You can hear right now the attempts to storm the Army headquarters, and indiscriminate mortar attacks. He’s using the humanitarian pause to continue the fight,” he said.

When asked about that allegation, a spokesperson for the RSF told CNN that the RSF was trying to abide by the ceasefire, but “they keep firing which leaves no choice” but for the RSF to “defend itself by firing back.”

Hemedti said Monday his group will pursue the leader of Sudan’s Armed Forces Abdel Fattah al-Burhan “and bring him to justice,” while Sudan’s army called on paramilitary fighters to defect and join the armed forces.

Verified video footage shows military jets and helicopters hitting the airport; other clips show the charred remains of the army’s General Command building nearby after it was engulfed in fire on Sunday.

Residents in neighborhoods east of the airport told CNN they saw warplanes bombing sites east of the command. “We saw explosions and smoke rising from Obaid Khatim Street, and immediately after that, anti-aircraft artillery fired massively towards the planes,” one eyewitness said.

An eyewitness, Amal Bakhit, spoke to CNN alongside her cousin Asiel Mohamed. Both women are United States residents, but recently traveled to Khartoum to visit family, and are now stuck inside the country.

She said shelling on Monday was the heaviest since the fighitng began. “It’s been going on since early morning today. Today was the heaviest artillery we have heard during the past three days. We couldn’t sleep,” she said.

Bakhit said that people in Sudan are used to hearing artillery and gunshots since 2018 when widespread unrest rocked the country, but the past several days have not been the same.

“This time it’s different because it’s between two forces, and we seem not to be ready for that. This is war. We are not prepared for that.” she said.

Confusion amid the crisis

Amid the chaos, both parties to the fighting are working to portray a sense of control in the capital. The armed forces said Monday the Rapid Support Forces are circulating “lies to mislead the public,” reiterating the army have “full control of all of their headquarters” in the capital Khartoum.

Sudan’s national state television channel came back on air on Monday, a day after going dark, and is broadcasting messages in support of the army.

A banner on the channel said “the armed forces were able to regain control of the national broadcaster after repeated attempts by the militias to destroy its infrastructure.” Although the armed forces appear to have control of the television signal, CNN cannot independently verify that the army is in physical control of the Sudan TV premises.

A banner on the channel said “the armed forces were able to regain control of the national broadcaster after repeated attempts by the militias to destroy its infrastructure.”

In the Kafouri area, north of Khartoum, clashes and street fights broke out at dawn Monday, prompting residents to begin evacuating women and children from the area, Sudanese journalist Fathi Al-Ardi wrote on Facebook. In the Kalakla area, south of the capital, residents reported the walls of their houses shaking from explosions.

Reports also emerged of battles hundreds of miles away in the eastern city of Port Sudan and the western Darfur region over the weekend.

As of Monday, at least 180 people have been killed and at least 1800 others were injured in the ongoing clashes, according to Volker Perthes, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sudan.

The WHO has warned that doctors and nurses are struggling to reach people in need of urgent care, and are lacking essential supplies.

Water and power cuts are affecting the functionality of health facilities, and shortages of fuel for hospital generators are also being reported,” the WHO added.

In the CNN interview, Dagalo blamed the military for starting the conflict and claimed RSF “had to keep fighting to defend ourselves.”

He speculated that the army chief and his rival, al-Burhan, had lost control of the military. When asked if his endgame was to rule Sudan, Dagalo said he had “no such intentions,” and that there should be a civilian government.

Amid the fighting, civilians have been warned to stay indoors. One local resident tweeted that they were “trapped inside our own homes with little to no protection at all.”

“All we can hear is continuous blast after blast. What exactly is happening and where we don’t know, but it feels like it’s directly over our heads,” they wrote.

Access to information is also limited, with the government-owned national TV channel now off the air. Television employees told CNN that it is in the hands of the RSF.

Services halted, evacuations begun

The conflict has put other countries and organizations on high alert. The United Nations along with its humanitarian partners will temporarily shut down many of its more than 250 programmes across Sudan amid the intense hostilities taking place in the country, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said Monday in a statement.

This comes after the UN’s World Food Program temporarily halted all operations in Sudan after three employees were killed in clashes on Saturday.

UN and other humanitarian facilities in Darfur have been looted, while a WFP-managed aircraft was seriously damaged by gunfire in Khartoum, impeding the WFP’s ability to transport aid and workers within the country, the international aid agency said.

Qatar Airways announced Sunday it was temporarily suspending flights to and from Khartoum due to the closure of its airport and airspace.

On Sunday, Dagalo told CNN the RSF was in control of the airport, as well as several other government buildings in the capital.

Meanwhile, Mexico is working to evacuate its citizens from Sudan, with the country’s foreign minister saying Sunday it is looking to “expedite” their exit.

The United States embassy in Sudan said Sunday there were no plans for a government-coordinated evacuation yet for Americans in the country, citing the closure of the Khartoum airport. It advised US citizens to stay indoors and shelter in place, adding that it would make an announcement “if evacuation of private US citizens becomes necessary.”

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(CNN) — More than 4,300 people have died and rescuers are racing to pull survivors from beneath the rubble after a devastating earthquake ripped through Turkey and Syria, leaving destruction and debris on each side of the border.

One of the strongest earthquakes to hit the region in a century shook residents from their beds at around 4 a.m. on Monday, sending tremors as far away as Lebanon and Israel.

In Turkey, at least 2,921 people were killed and more than 15,800 others injured, according to Turkey’s head of disaster services, Yunus Sezer.

In neighboring Syria, at least 1,451 people have died. According to the Syrian state news agency SANA, 711 people have died across government-controlled areas, mostly in the regions of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, and Tartus.

The “White Helmets” group, officially known as the Syria Civil Defense, reported 740 deaths in opposition-controlled areas. Much of northwestern Syria, which borders Turkey, is controlled by anti-government forces amid a bloody civil war that began in 2011.

The epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude quake was 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, in Turkey’s Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers (14.9 miles), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

A series of aftershocks have reverberated throughout the day. The largest, a major quake that measured 7.5 in magnitude, hit in Turkey about nine hours after the initial quake, according to the USGS. That aftershock hit around 95 kilometers (59 miles) north of the original.

Video from the scene in Turkey showed day breaking over rows of collapsed buildings, some with apartments exposed to the elements as people huddled in the freezing cold beside them, waiting for help.

A host of countries have sent rescue workers to help the stricken region, where a colossal effort to find and free trapped civilians is underway. A cold and wet weather system is moving through the region, further hampering that challenge.

Monday’s quake is believed to be the strongest to hit Turkey since 1939, when an earthquake of the same magnitude killed 30,000 people, according to the USGS. Earthquakes of this magnitude are rare, with fewer than five occurring each year on average, anywhere in the world. Seven quakes with magnitude 7.0 or greater have struck Turkey in the past 25 years — but Monday’s is the most powerful.

Karl Lang, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech University’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, told CNN the area hit by the quake Monday is prone to seismic activity. “It’s a very large fault zone, but this is a larger earthquake than they’ve experienced any time in recent memory,” Lang said.

“We cannot use the buildings anymore. Maybe for hours. Maybe until tomorrow. I don’t know,” Dr. Mazen Kewara, Turkey director of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), told CNN from near the earthquake’s epicenter in Gaziantep, where he and his family were taking shelter in their car.

“Next to my building, about 200-300 meters, there’s a collapsed building. There are many buildings that have collapsed in Gaziantep,” said Kewara.

SAMS is a medical relief organization, working in Syria and neighboring countries. But their efforts to provide support will be hampered by the damage to buildings.

“We have four of our hospitals damaged severely by the earthquake. We have evacuated two of them,” said Kewara, who is originally from Damascus, Syria.

‘It felt like it would never be over’

Eyad Kourdi, a CNN producer in Gaziantep, who was staying with his parents when the earthquake struck early Monday, said “it felt like it would never be over.”

When the shaking stopped, Kourdi and his parents walked out of their home still wearing their pajamas, he said.

With several inches of snow on the ground, they waited outside in the rain for about 30 minutes before he could go back inside to grab coats and boots.

Strong aftershocks have been felt in southern and central Turkey. About 11 minutes after the main quake hit, an aftershock of 6.7 magnitude hit about 32 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of the main quake’s epicenter. Another intense aftershock with a magnitude of 5.6 then occurred 19 minutes after the main quake.

Kourdi described Monday’s aftershocks as being “like Armageddon.”

“I actually don’t believe I made it out,” Kourdi said, adding that when it began, his parents screamed and that he did his best to calm them down — assuring them it would be over soon.

Kourdi said there were up to eight “very strong” aftershocks in under a minute after the 7.8 magnitude quake struck, causing belongings in his home to fall to the ground. Many of his neighbors had left their homes following the quake, he said.

He also visited Pazarcik, a neighboring town, and said that the situation there “were even more catastrophic.”

Photos showing the true scale of the disaster emerged as day broke in Turkey. Entire buildings have been flattened, with metal rods scattered across the streets. Cars have toppled over, while bulldozers work to clear the debris. Gaziantep Castle has been heavily damaged.

A winter storm in the region is exacerbating the disaster, according to CNN meteorologists.

“Hundreds of thousands of people are impacted by this. It is cold. It is rainy. Roads could be impacted, that means your food, your livelihood, the care for your children, the care for your family,” CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis said.

“Anything as far as crops or anything growing across this region will be impacted as well. The ramifications of this are broad and will impact this region for weeks, and months.”

Meanwhile, the situation in Syria appears to be dire. More than 4 million people rely on humanitarian assistance in the region of northwest Syria where the deadly earthquake struck, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The majority of these people are women and children. Along with the devastation from the earthquake, Syrian communities are battling an ongoing cholera outbreak amid a harsh winter with heavy rain and snow over the weekend, OCHA said in its statement.

Eyewitnesses in northwest Syria tell CNN the conditions in northwest Syria are “terrifying” in the aftermath of the quake, leaving “entire families dead” and “survivors sleeping on the streets in the freezing cold”.

One of the eyewitnesses who has lived in Idlib for the past three years, Dr. Mostafa Edo, a Country Director for the U.S.-based NGO MedGlobal, said: “One of my colleagues, who I’ve worked with for more than five years, was killed about two years ago in Russian airstrikes. I found out today that his whole family, his wife and kids, all passed away today when their building collapsed.”

Another eyewitness, Khalil Ashawi, who is a photojournalist based in Jindayris in Syria’s northwest, says that in his ten years of covering war in Syria, he hasn’t witnessed scenes as “disastrous” as the ones he did on Monday.

“Paramedics and fire fighters are trying to help but unfortunately there is too much for them to deal with. They can’t handle it all.”

The quake damaged several archeological sites in Syria, according to Syria’s Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums (DGAM), including Imam Ismail Mosque and the Shmemis Castle in the Hama Governorate, and the 13th century Aleppo Citadel.

Syria’s ancient city of Aleppo in the country’s northwest was seriously damaged in the ongoing civil war. DGAM says that artifacts inside the National Museum in Aleppo were also damaged in Monday’s earthquake.

Searching for survivors

Search and rescue teams have been dispatched to the south of the country, Turkey’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, said. AFAD said it had requested international help through the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), the European Union’s humanitarian program.

Nearly 1,000 search and rescue volunteers have been deployed from Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, along with dogs, trucks and aid, according to its governor, Ali Yerlikaya.

The World Health Organization has activated its network of emergency medical teams in the two countries to assist those affected by the earthquake, the organization’s director-general tweeted. Erdogan also said in his televised address that NATO, the European Union and dozens of other countries had offered to help.

The governor of Gaziantep, Davut Gul, said on Twitter that “the earthquake was felt strongly in our city,” and advised the public to wait outside their homes and stay calm.

“Please let’s wait outside without panic. Let’s not use our cars. Let’s not crowd the main roads. Let’s not keep the phones busy,” he said.

Gaziantep province has a number of small- and medium-sized cities, with a sizable refugee population, according to Brookings Institute fellow Asli Aydintasbas.

“Some of these areas are rather poor. Some are more richer, urban areas … but other parts that we’re talking about that seem to have been devastated, are relatively lower income areas,” she said.

Video from the city of Diyarbakir, to the northeast of Gaziantep, shows rescue workers frantically trying to pull survivors out of the rubble.

Erdogan said the quake was felt in many parts of the country.

“I convey my best wishes to all our citizens who were affected by the earthquake that occurred in Kahramanmaraş and was felt in many parts of our country. All our relevant units are on alert under the coordination of AFAD,” Erdogan wrote on Twitter.

Messages of condolences and support started pouring in Monday morning as world leaders woke to the news of the deadly earthquake.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was “profoundly concerned” about the destruction in Syria and Turkey.

“I have been in touch with Turkish officials to relay that we stand ready to provide any & all needed assistance. We will continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with Turkiye,” Sullivan wrote on Twitter.

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 (CNN) — If you’re still wearing a cloth or surgical mask when you’re out and about, it’s time to rethink your face covering.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to update its mask advice this week to best reflect the available options and the different levels of protection they provide, a CDC official told CNN Tuesday.

Many experts say cloth and surgical masks don’t provide enough protection, and instead encourage N95 or FFP2 coverings.

Upgraded masks are already the norm in much of Europe. Germany mandates FFP2 coverings in stores, on public transport and in other public places. Neighboring Austria made FFP2 masks mandatory outdoors on Tuesday, when it is not possible to keep a minimum two meters from people outside one’s household, and they have been required indoors since last month.

Italy mandated the heavy-duty masks to enter stadiums, museums, cinemas and theaters, and use public transport from December. And in Greece, anyone who has left self-isolation must wear them in any public place for five days.

The differing terminology for the masks can be confusing, but all the terms refer to the level of filtration offered by the covering — and there’s no doubting that FFP2, N95 or KN95 models offer better protection than those made from cloth or other fabrics.

Cloth masks — encouraged earlier in the pandemic — can stop large droplets, while more effective masks can also filter smaller aerosols or particles potentially laden with airborne virus.

Properly fitted N95 respirators that are approved by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health can filter up to 95% of particles in the air, according to the CDC.

A cloth face covering, by contrast, also has 75% inward and outward leakage, which the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists defines as the “percentage of particles entering the facepiece” and the “percentage of particles exhaled by a source exiting the facepiece,” respectively.

People concerned about the best way to protect themselves and their loved ones during this surge of Omicron variant cases should “get the highest-quality mask that you can tolerate and that’s available to you,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday, signaling a switch in the official advice.

The issue thus far is that filtration masks are generally more expensive, a bit less convenient to wear and earlier in the pandemic they weren’t always widely available.

That explains why the CDC has until now actively encouraged members of the public against buying N95 masks — currently stating on its website that they should be “prioritized for healthcare personnel.”

But Fauci told CNN that “right now, [there] doesn’t seem to be any shortage of the masks that some time ago were not available.”

“What the CDC has said — and it gets misinterpreted — they’re saying, wearing any mask is better than no mask at all,” Fauci said. “But there is a gradation of capability of preventing you from getting infected and from you transmitting it to someone else. So we should be wearing the best possible masks that we can get. That’s a fact.”

CNN’s Nina Avramova contributed reporting

YOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED.

Q: When is it safe to leave isolation if I’ve had Covid-19?

A: Guidance around isolation times is continuously changing across the world — and can at times be confusing and contradictory.

If you’ve tested positive, the first step is to check what the guidance is where you are. In the US, people can leave isolation after five days if their symptoms have resolved — no negative test is required — and they should then wear a mask around people for five more days.

In other countries, it can be as long as 14 days. But more regions are allowing early exits from isolation if patients are asymptomatic, which leaves it up to you to judge whether you should be doing so.

The chance that you’re still infectious drops as time goes on. The longer you stay isolated, the less likely you’ll expose someone else to the virus. Ten days after testing positive, the percentage of people still contagious is estimated to be about 5%, according to researchers at the UK Health Security Agency.

However, at day five, the end of the CDC isolation period, a significant percentage of people (31%) are still contagious. By day seven, the percentage of people still contagious drops by half — to about 16%.

If you have access to a rapid antigen test, it can be helpful to take one or two during your isolation. Combining a negative result with self-assessment of your symptoms should help you reach a conclusion as to whether you should leave isolation at the earliest stage allowed in your country.

Send your questions here. Are you a health care worker fighting Covid-19? Message us on WhatsApp about the challenges you’re facing: +1 347-322-0415.

READS OF THE WEEK

Covid cases in children are surging. Schools aren’t prepared

As Covid-19 cases skyrocketed across Britain in late December, Stuart Guest spent his vacation poring over scientific reports about air cleaning and filtration systems.

Guest, a head teacher at an elementary school in Birmingham, England, scoured Amazon for affordable air purifiers in the hopes of stopping the more transmissible Omicron variant from spreading among his 460 students, who are between 3 and 11 years old.

“I got what I think is the best air purifier for the budget I have available. I hope I’ve got something that’s doing the job, but I’m not an expert. And there’s been no guidance put out by the Department for Education. I’ve had to do it all myself, and I shouldn’t have to do that when it’s a national crisis,” Guest said.

Millions of British students have returned to school following the Christmas and New Year holidays, amid a record surge in infections and hospitalizations. For teachers and parents, the situation has brought a grim sense of déjà vu, writes Eliza Mackintosh.

And in the US, more children are being admitted to hospitals than ever before. The Biden administration has said schools are “more than equipped” to stay open, as Omicron rips across the country.

But some elected officials are erring on the side of caution by delaying the new term, while a teachers’ union forced public schools in Chicago, Illinois, to shutter for a week amid criticism from members that conditions in classrooms are dangerous.

Beijing on high alert as China’s first Omicron cluster edges closer before the Olympics

Officials in Beijing are on high alert just weeks out from the start of the Winter Olympics, after China’s first local outbreak of the Omicron variant spread from the northern port city of Tianjin to the central province of Henan.

Tianjin, located just 80 miles southeast of Beijing, reported at least 40 positive cases over the weekend, including 24 children, though health authorities have yet to confirm whether they are infected with Omicron.

But the virus has already spread far outside the city. State media reported Monday that two more Omicron cases had been identified in Anyang city, Henan province, more than 300 miles from Tianjin, Nectar Gan and Steve George report.

In recent months, Chinese authorities have imposed ever more stringent restrictions to curb local Covid flare-ups as Beijing prepares for the Olympics. An Omicron outbreak on the doorstep of the capital just weeks before the Games kick off on February 4 represents something of a nightmare scenario for officials — who are now likely to ramp up efforts to protect Beijing.

No, you shouldn’t deliberately catch Omicron to ‘get it over with’

The question hung in the air like a bad odor, silencing the small group of fully vaccinated and boosted friends and family at my dinner table.

“Why not just get Omicron and get it over with? It’s mild, right? And it can boost immunity?” The fully vaccinated, boosted, well-educated friend who asked was sincere, echoing opinions heard on many social platforms.

The idea of intentionally trying to catch Omicron is “all the rage,” said Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, with an exasperated sigh.

“It’s caught on like wildfire,” agreed Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of the Havey Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“And it’s widespread, coming from all types of people, the vaccinated and boosted and the anti-vaxxers,” he added, with a warning. “You’d be crazy to try to get infected with this. It’s like playing with dynamite.”

TOP TIP

The US Food and Drug Administration is cautioning against adding self-collected throat swabs to nasal Covid-19 tests and says people should use the tests as instructed.

“FACT: When it comes to at-home rapid antigen #COVID19 tests, those swabs are for your nose and not your throat,” it said on Twitter.

Why the warning? After anecdotal reports of sore throats with coronavirus infection and early studies suggesting that saliva may be a better way to detect the Omicron variant, some people began taking antigen test swabs intended for nasal samples and using them to swab their throats.

The home test tweak took off after people began posting their results on social media with the hashtag #SwabYourThroat.

The FDA warned last week that throat swabs “are more complicated than nasal swabs — and if used incorrectly, can cause harm to the patient. The CDC recommends that throat swabs be collected by a trained healthcare provider.”

Throat swabs are common in some places, such as the United Kingdom, but in the United States, most self-tests require nasal specimens; a few involve saliva collected by spitting into a tube.

You can read more here.

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Award-winning actor Tom Hanks has urged filmmakers to tackle racism more often, suggesting that Black history and the societal impact of racism is underrepresented in the entertainment industry and the American education system.

In an op-ed for the New York Times Friday, days after the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, Hanks wrote that history is “mostly written by white people about white people like me, while the history of Black people — including the horrors of Tulsa — was too often left out.”

“Until relatively recently, the entertainment industry, which helps shape what is history and what is forgotten, did the same. That includes projects of mine,” he added.

And in a call to his colleagues, he said that “historically based fiction entertainment must portray the burden of racism in our nation for the sake of the art form’s claims to verisimilitude and authenticity.”

Hanks has starred in or produced a number of historical films and TV series, including “Band of Brothers,” “The Pacific” and “John Adams,” and has also had roles in documentaries about US history.

His message to filmmakers and producers comes after years of debate about a lack of diversity in the film industry, an issue that makes headlines virtually every awards season.

Hanks noted that the industry has begun telling a greater variety of stories, citing the TV series “Watchmen” and “Lovecraft Country” for depicting the Tulsa massacre.

A USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study last year revealed that 32% of top-grossing films in 2019 featured an underrepresented actor in the lead or co-starring role — a significant rise compared to the 13% figure recorded in 2007, the study’s inaugural year.

But the field of nominations at the industry’s biggest award ceremonies routinely attracts criticism for lacking diversity; the #OscarsSoWhite campaign has dogged the Academy Awards for several years, while the Golden Globes was this year embroiled in controversy over its overwhelmingly White membership.

The Tulsa massacre, which took place over two days in 1921, saw a White mob kill 300 Black people and destroy a once-booming neighborhood in Oklahoma, in one of the worst acts of racial violence in US history.

Its 100th anniversary was marked with a day of remembrance in the United States Monday.

During a speech, US President Joe Biden also highlighted the event’s erasure from the American historical discourse. “This was not a riot. This was a massacre — among the worst in our history, but not the only one,” he said. “And for too long, forgotten by our history. As soon as it happened there was a clear effort to erase it from our memory — our collective memories.”

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Buckingham Palace is under mounting pressure to respond in the wake of Harry and Meghan’s seismic interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex leveled a series of damning accusations in their first sit-down since stepping back from their roles as senior members of the British royal family and moving to the US last year.

Some of these claims have the potential to deeply impact the monarchy’s reputation and they left a cloud of suspicion over some of its members.

Yet the interview, first broadcast in the US on Sunday, and its aftermath are still being met with a wall of silence from the palace on Tuesday.

One of the most biggest bombshells came from the Duchess, who revealed an unnamed member of the family had approached Harry to discuss the color of the couple’s unborn baby’s skin. Winfrey said Monday that the Duke later clarified that neither of his grandparents, Queen Elizabeth or Prince Philip, had been part of those conversations.

In the two-hour blockbuster screened in the UK on Monday night, the couple touched upon a string of issues including racism, mental health, royal family dynamics and lack of institutional support.

In a shockingly brave admission, Meghan disclosed to Winfrey that life as a senior working royal had driven her to contemplate suicide, adding she “just didn’t want to be alive anymore.”

The couple cited a lack of support over invasive press coverage and the royal institution’s decision to deny their son Archie a title — and with it his eligibility for protection — as the basis for their decision to relocate from the UK.

Harry meanwhile admitted to an estrangement with his father, Prince Charles, whom Harry said stopped taking his calls shortly after the couple announced they were stepping back from the royal family last January. He added that he felt “really let down, because he’s been through something similar — he knows what pain feels like.” However, the Duke added that despite the hurt, repairing the relationship in time will be “one of my priorities.”

Harry also revealed his connection with his brother, Prince William, had taken a hit, saying the “relationship is space at the moment,” implying the pair weren’t on speaking terms but again hoped time would heal the wounds. He explained to Winfrey that he and William “had been through hell together” but that they were “on different paths.”

‘I just didn’t want to be alive anymore’

The palace faced storms on multiple fronts by sunrise in London on Monday.

The interview had been relentlessly previewed in the media over recent days, drawing comparisons with a royal tell-all given by Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, in 1995, which shed light on the breakdown of her marriage to Charles.

But the revelations in Sunday’s broadcast may have dwarfed even those in magnitude, as Harry and Meghan’s scorched-earth confessional posed problem after problem for palace staffers and senior royals.

Perhaps the most pertinent was Meghan’s allegation that an unnamed family member had asked about Archie’s skin color and “what that would mean or look like.” She said those discussions were relayed to her from Harry.

Harry declined to name the family member but said he was “a bit shocked” by the conversation. Winfrey said on CBS on Monday morning that “it was not his grandmother nor his grandfather that were part of those conversations.” In Britain, the shadow education secretary, Kate Green, said Buckingham Palace should launch an investigation.

Palace officials are also scrambling to respond to claims from both the Duke and Duchess that their pleas for help with their mental wellbeing and security were ignored by the institution.

Fighting back tears at one point, Meghan said her thoughts of suicide were incredibly difficult to bear, and she was reticent to share them with her husband. “But I knew that if I didn’t say it, that I would do it — and I just didn’t want to be alive anymore,” she said.

Harry, whose mother Diana was killed when he was a boy, said he was “terrified” by his wife’s admission. The prince, who is sixth in line to the throne, said there is a culture of suffering in silence in the royal family. But Meghan’s race and the abuse she endured made the situation even more difficult for the couple, and their perceived lack of support ultimately led, above all other factors, to their dramatic decision to quit as working royals.

They described in emotional detail the most difficult moments — Meghan revealing her thoughts to Harry hours before they were due to go to an event; the Prince arriving home from work each day to find his wife crying while breastfeeding their newborn — and said a “lack of support and lack of understanding” were the reasons they chose to step away.

Meghan said the situation was exacerbated by often racist and “outdated, colonial undertones” that repeatedly appeared in coverage of the couple in Britain’s notoriously vitriolic tabloids. Both described a toxic blend of press intrusion, bitterness on social media and isolation from a support structure.

Missed opportunities

Harry added that he pushed the issue with the royal family. He told Winfrey he believed there were many opportunities for the palace to “show some public support” in the face of continued racial abuse in the press, “yet no one from my family ever said anything. That hurts.”

“I regret believing them when they said I would be protected,” Meghan told Winfrey.

CNN has reached out to the royal family for comment.

Perhaps the only silver lining for the family is that its leader survived the interview relatively unscathed. Harry and Meghan both spoke effusively of the Queen, describing her as caring and kind from the beginning.

“My grandmother and I have a really good relationship, and an understanding and I have a deep respect for her,” Harry said. Meghan said she has spoken to her frequently in the past year, including on the day that Prince Philip was admitted to hospital last month.

Meghan added that despite the ordeal, it was important to differentiate the royal family from “the people running the institution.”

She discussed rumors of a dispute with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. Meghan said reports she made Kate cry over the dresses of flower girls at her wedding were untrue, and it was in fact the Duchess of Sussex who cried. But “there was no confrontation,” Meghan said, describing her sister-in-law as a “good person.”

But the evidently strained family dynamic will overshadow the royals’ upcoming engagements. No statements have yet been issued by any of their communications teams in the wake of the interview.

Breathless reaction in Britain

As the hours ticked by and the dust from the broadcast settled on Monday, the British media leapt to cover the fallout, with some newspapers publishing extra early editions overnight in order to feature the interview on their front pages.

As has so often been the case with the couple, coverage ranged from the measured to the hysterical. The Daily Mail ran a headline reading “Kate Made Me Cry” on its 2 a.m. edition, before leading on Meghan’s accusation of racism later in the morning. The tabloid’s website also included a prominent banner that read: “I WANTED TO KILL MYSELF.”

The Sun featured a new nickname for Meghan amid her rift with the royal family: “Megxile,” and the Daily Express dismissed the broadcast as “a self-serving TV chat with Oprah.”

On Monday afternoon, several journalists used Boris Johnson’s press conference on Covid-19 to ask for his thoughts on the Oprah interview. The Prime Minister declined to weigh in, aside from saying he’d always had “the highest admiration for the Queen and the unifying role that she plays in our country.”

The media’s treatment of the royal couple formed a significant part of the interview, with the pair both taking aim at sections of the press.

Harry said the palace is in “fear” of its media coverage, meaning they had little freedom while part of the family.

“To simplify it, it’s a case of if you as a family member are willing to wine, dine and give full access to these reporters, then you will get better press,” Harry said. “There is a level of control by fear that has existed for generations.”

The interview was broadcast in Britain at 9 p.m. Monday, with terrestrial broadcaster ITV winning the race to acquire rights. But its main talking points were already being dissected in detail by Brits and in the media long before its UK airing.

Charles Anson, a former press secretary to the Queen, said on Monday the couple raised “issues that need to be looked at carefully,” but claimed to the BBC that there “wasn’t a strand of racism” within the royal household.

But Julie Montagu, Viscountess Hinchingbrooke, told the BBC that their revelations were “astounding,” and that as an American woman who married into British aristocracy, she could relate to Meghan’s descriptions. “You don’t really know until you’re in it, and I think that she made that very well known last night in her interview,” she said.

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Joe Biden was sworn in Wednesday as the 46th United States President, taking the reins of a country in crisis. But his task on the global stage will be daunting, too.

World leaders reacted to Biden’s inauguration by offering congratulations, jockeying for position at the forefront of his foreign policy agenda, and in some cases pleading for the reversal of his predecessor’s policies.

Among most messages was a palpable sense of relief, as the international community embraced Biden’s pledge to reenter a series of global pacts and organizations that President Donald Trump cut loose.

Here’s what leaders have said so far.

Europe

“Once again, after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday, leaving no uncertainty about her verdict on Trump’s relationship with the bloc.

“This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been waiting for so long. Europe is ready for a new start with our oldest and most trusted partner,” she said in the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.

Von der Leyen said Biden’s inauguration would “be a message of healing for a deeply divided nation and it will be a message of hope for a world that is waiting for the US to be back in the circle of like-minded states.”

On Twitter, she added: “The United States is back. And Europe stands ready. To reconnect with an old and trusted partner, to breathe new life into our cherished alliance.”

Biden has signaled a warmer partnership with Europe than Trump, who frequently criticized the EU on trade during his administration. His attacks on some European leaders led to frosty scenes at a number of summits.

“From our perspective, Trump saw Europe as an enemy,” a senior European diplomat told CNN last week. “The lasting impact of ‘America First’ is the US having fewer friends in Europe.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also offered her “warmest congratulations,” adding that she looks forward to a “new chapter” in Germany’s relationship with the US, according to a tweet from her spokesman Steffen Seibert.

And Germany’s President expressed relief that Biden would be sworn in Wednesday, calling it “a good day for democracy.” “In the United States, (democracy) held up against a lot of pressure,” Frank Walter Steinmeier said in a statement. “Despite internal hostility, America’s institutions have proven strong — election workers, governors, judiciary, and Congress. I am relieved that Joe Biden is sworn in as President today and coming into the White House. I know that this feeling is shared by many people in Germany.”

Steinmeier also warned against the populist brand of politics that Trump embraced. “Despite all the joy we have about today, we must not forget that populism has seduced even the most powerful democracy in the world,” he said. “We must resolutely oppose polarization, protect and strengthen the public space of our democracies, and shape politics on the basis of reason and facts.”

French President Emmanuel Macron marked the day with a tweet welcoming the US back into the Paris climate agreement. “We are together. We will be stronger to face the challenges of our time. Stronger to build our future. Stronger to protect our planet. Welcome back to the Paris Agreement,” Macron said.

Biden will sign a slate of executive actions in the Oval Office on Wednesday, including one to rejoin the Paris Agreement.

China

Hours before the inauguration, Beijing expressed hope that Biden would “look at China rationally and objectively” to repair “serious damage” in bilateral ties caused by the Trump presidency.

“In the past four years, the US administration has made fundamental mistakes in its strategic perception of China … interfering in China’s internal affairs, suppressing and smearing China, and causing serious damage to China-US relations,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press briefing Wednesday.

The Biden administration should, Hua said, “look at China rationally and objectively, meet China halfway and, in the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, push China-US relations back to the right track of healthy and stable development as soon as possible.”

One of the main planks of Trump’s foreign policy platform has been his trade war with China. The Trump administration’s 11th-hour declaration that China is committing genocide against Uyghur Muslims will heighten tensions with Beijing, though Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State said Tuesday that he agreed with the designation.

“If the new US administration can adopt a more rational and responsible attitude in formulating its foreign policy, I think it will be warmly welcomed by everyone in the international community,” she added.

Russia

Russia said it hoped for a “more constructive” relationship between the US and Moscow as Biden took office.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that it wanted to extend the landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with the United States for a maximum stipulated five-year period.

The US-Russia arms treaty is currently due to expire just 16 days after Inauguration day.

“We consider it possible to prolong it only in the form in which the Agreement was signed and without any preconditions. An extension for the maximum five-year term stipulated in the Agreement looks preferable,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement released just after Biden was sworn in.

The statement added that Moscow hoped for a “a more constructive approach in the dialogue with Russia and will take into account all the points mentioned above.”

It concluded: “For our part, we are ready for such work on the principles of equality and mutual consideration of interests,” the statement concluded.

Biden has previously signaled that he intends to take a tough line against potential Russian aggression.

Antony Blinken, Biden’s pick to lead the State Department, said Tuesday that Biden intends to seek an extension of the New START Treaty, but suggested he has not made a decision on the length of the extension.

Middle East

Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, called on Biden to return to the 2015 nuclear deal and lift US sanctions on Iran, overturning a key part of Trump’s foreign policy program.

“The ball is in the US’ court now. If Washington returns to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, we will also fully respect our commitments under the pact,” Rouhani said in a televised cabinet meeting.

He also launched a scathing attack on the outgoing President. A “tyrant’s era came to an end and today is the final day of his ominous reign,” Rouhani said of Trump’s departure. “Someone for whom all of his four years bore no fruit other than injustice and corruption and causing problems for his own people and the world.”

Biden has said he plans to return to the nuclear deal with Iran, which was signed when he was Barack Obama’s Vice President. Biden’s national security aides have suggested they would like further negotiations on Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities, though Rouhani has said the missile program is non-negotiable.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif notably did not congratulate President Biden or Vice President Harris. Zarif did say that he hoped the pair could learn from what he described as the Trump administration’s mistakes.

“Trump, Pompeo & Co. are relegated to the dustbin of history in disgrace,” Zarif said on Twitter Wednesday, shortly after the inauguration ceremony. “Perhaps new folks in DC have learned.”

Elsewhere in the region Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Biden and Harris on what he called their “historic inauguration,” and reminded the new US leader he sees Iran as their number one challenge to confront.

“President Biden, you and I have had a warm personal friendship going back many decades. I look forward to working with you to further strengthen the US-Israel alliance, to continue expanding peace between Israel and the Arab world and to confront common challenges, chief among them the threat posed by Iran,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also congratulated the pair Wednesday and stressed his willingness to continue with the peace process.

“We look forward to working together for peace and stability in the region and the world,” he said in a letter to Biden, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

In the letter, Wafa reports, Abbas “affirmed his readiness for ‘a comprehensive and just peace process that would achieve the aspirations of the Palestinian people in freedom and independence.'”

The Palestinian Authority broke political ties with the United States in December 2017 after then-President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, with President Abbas declaring the US could no longer be an honest broker in peace talks.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II also welcomed Biden to the world stage.

“Warmest congratulations to [Joe Biden] on his inauguration today. We highly value our strategic partnership and enduring friendship with the United States, and we look forward to working with you in pursuit of global peace and prosperity,” the monarch said on Twitter.

United Kingdom

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was looking forward to a close relationship with Biden’s administration.

“In our fight against Covid and across climate change, defence, security and in promoting and defending democracy, our goals are the same and our nations will work hand in hand to achieve them,” Johnson said in a statement Tuesday.

Johnson warmly welcomed Trump on his visits to the UK, with Trump once claiming that the Prime Minister was nicknamed “Britain Trump.” But the outgoing US leader was unpopular among Britons, and Johnson will be keen to secure a post-Brexit trade deal with Biden.

The new President could end up making two trips to the UK in 2021, with Johnson saying he looks forward to welcoming him to the G7 summit and to the hotly anticipated 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. “Only through international cooperation can we truly overcome the shared challenges which we face,” Johnson said on Tuesday.

Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, was more blunt in her remarks in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday. Sturgeon wished Biden and Kamala Harris well, adding: “I’m sure many of us across the chamber and across Scotland will be very happy to say cheerio to Donald Trump today.”

“I think ‘don’t haste ye back’ might be the perfect rejoinder to him,” she added.

Queen Elizabeth also sent a private congratulatory message ahead of the inauguration to Biden, a royal source said Wednesday.

The letter’s content was not disclosed, but the move does follow precedent. The monarch typically congratulates fellow heads of state at their inauguration.

Canada

Shortly after Biden swearing-in, Canadian leader Justin Trudeau said he would work with the new US President “to make our countries safer, more prosperous, and more resilient.”

“Canada and the United States enjoy one of the most unique relationships in the world, built on a shared commitment to democratic values, common interests, and strong economic and security ties,” he said. “Our two countries are more than neighbours — we are close friends, partners, and allies.

“Canada and the United States have worked side-by-side to tackle some of the greatest challenges we have faced in our history,” Trudeau also said.

Latin America

Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, wished Biden well ahead of his inauguration on Wednesday.

During his daily briefing, López Obrador outlined three themes as key areas of the bilateral relationship with the US. “Those three themes are very important: pandemic, economic recovery and migration,” he said.

López Obrador also said Biden should take steps to settle the immigration status of Mexicans working in the US.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, widely considered a Trump ally, took to Twitter to congratulate the incoming US leader.

“I salute Joe Biden as the 46th President of the USA,” Bolsonaro wrote.

“The relationship [between Brazil and the US] is long, solid and based on higher values such as the defense of democracy and individual liberties. I continue committed and ready to work towards the prosperity of our nations and the well-being of our citizens.”

Bolsonaro said he had written Biden a letter “congratulating him for his inauguration and explaining my vision for an excellent future for the Brazil-US relationship.”

Ecuador’s leader Lenin Moreno was particularly enthusiastic in his well wishes.

“It is a great day for the United States,” he wrote on Twitter. “Democracy triumphs, respect for the will of the people prevails, and those principles are strengthened in all the nations of the region.”

The leaders of Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia also congratulated Biden and Harris.

The Vatican

The Vatican published Pope Francis’ message to President Joe Biden, the United States’ second Catholic President, following his inauguration.

“On the occasion of your inauguration as the forty-sixth President of the United States of America, I extend cordial good wishes and the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will grant you wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high office,” the message says.

“Under your leadership, may the American people continue to draw strength from the lofty political, ethical and religious values that have inspired the nation since its founding.

“At a time when the grave crises facing our human family call for farsighted and united responses, I pray that your decisions will be guided by a concern for building a society marked by authentic justice and freedom, together with unfailing respect for the rights and dignity of every person, especially the poor, the vulnerable and those who have no voice,” the Pope wrote.

India

In a series of tweets, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his “warmest congratulations” to US President Joe Biden. Modi said he looks forward to working with Biden and “to strengthen (the) India-US strategic partnership.”

“The India-US partnership is based on shared values,” he wrote. “We have a substantial and multifaceted bilateral agenda, growing economic engagement and vibrant people to people linkages. Committed to working with President @JoeBiden to take the India-US partnership to even greater heights.”

NATO

NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called Biden’s inauguration “the start of a new chapter for the transatlantic Alliance.”

“U.S. leadership remains essential as we work together to protect our democracies, our values and the rules-based international order,” he said.

“NATO Allies need to stand together to address the security consequences of the rise of China, the threat of terrorism, including in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a more assertive Russia.”

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Actress Zoe Saldana has apologized for playing Nina Simone in a 2016 biopic, four years after she was heavily criticized for darkening her skin and wearing a prosthetic nose for the role.

Saldana had previously defended her portrayal of the legendary soul singer in the film “Nina,” which was not endorsed by Simone’s estate and caused outrage among many of the star’s fans.

But the actress, who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, said in an interview broadcast on Instagram on Tuesday: “I should have never played Nina.”

“I should have tried everything in my power to cast a Black woman to play an exceptionally perfect Black woman,” she said.

Much of Simone’s work centered on her marginalization as a dark-skinned black woman in America, and fans condemned the casting since it was first announced in 2012. When promotion for the film began, Simone’s estate tweeted at Saldana: “Cool story but please take Nina’s name out your mouth. For the rest of your life.”

A tearful Saldana said on Wednesday: “I thought back then that I had the permission because I was a Black woman. And I am. But it was Nina Simone, and Nina had a life and she had a journey that should be honored to the most specific detail, because she was a specifically detailed individual.”

“I’m so sorry because I love her music,” Saldana said.

The controversy marked one of the most high-profile incidents of “whitewashing” in Hollywood. In recent years, a number of well-known actors have caused outrage by being cast to play historical figures of a different race or ethnicity, or altering their skin color for a biographical role.

In recent weeks, Black Lives Matter protests and renewed discussions about systemic racism have prompted a number of filmmakers and TV producers to apologize for using blackface or making insensitive casting choices.

Saldana had initially defended her casting, telling Allure in 2016: “I made a choice. Do I continue passing on the script and hope that the ‘right’ Black person will do it, or do I say, ‘You know what? Whatever consequences this may bring about, my casting is nothing in comparison to the fact that this story must be told.'”

“For so many years, nobody knew who the f**k she was. She is essential to our American history. As a woman first, and only then as everything else,” the actress added at the time.

But this week she said: “She’s one of our giants and someone else should step up. Somebody else should tell her story.”

“Nina” was ultimately panned by critics on its release.

Anger around the casting was heightened by Simone’s legacy as a fixture of the 1960s civil rights movement. A number of her songs addressed racism in the United States; she wrote “Mississippi Goddam” after the killing of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, while “Four Women” described the experiences of four women of different skin tones.

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L’Oreal has asked model Munroe Bergdorf to advise the company on diversity and inclusion, three years after it dropped her for comments about systemic racism.

The fashion company cut ties with Bergdorf in 2017 after she reportedly wrote on Facebook about “the racial violence of white people” following a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which a counter-protester was killed.

Earlier this month, the British model accused L’Oreal of hypocrisy after its top retail brand, L’Oreal Paris, posted a message on its social media accounts following the death of George Floyd that said “speaking out is worth it.”

“Excuse my language but I am SO angry. F**K YOU @lorealparis. You dropped me from a campaign in 2017 and threw me to the wolves for speaking out about racism and white supremacy. With no duty of care, without a second thought,” wrote Bergdorf.

The black and trans model had featured prominently in one of the brand’s UK advertising campaigns before she was dropped.

On Tuesday, L’Oreal Paris brand president Delphine Viguier said in a statement on social media that following a “honest, transparent and vulnerable” conversation, Bergdorf had agreed to serve on the brand’s UK Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board.

“I regret the lack of dialogue and support the company showed Munroe around the time of the termination. We should have also done more to create a conversation for change as we are now doing,” said Viguier. “We support Munroe’s fight against systemic racism and as a company we are committed to work to dismantle such systems.”

The reconciliation is the latest example of how protests sparked by the death of Floyd are forcing companies to take a hard look at their policies. Floyd died after a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota used his knee to pin the unarmed black man’s neck to the ground for nearly nine minutes.

Adidas announced Tuesday that it will fill at least 30% of new US positions with black or Latinx people after hundreds of employees walked out of the company’s North American headquarters in Portland, Oregon in protest. Twitter and Square are making Juneteenth (June 19) — a celebration of the end of slavery in the United States — a corporate holiday.

Viguier said in her statement that “3 years ago, Munroe felt silenced by a brand, L’Oreal Paris, that had the power to amplify her voice.”

“I understand much better the pain and trauma that were behind Munroe’s words back then and the urgency she felt to speak in defense of the Black community against systemic racism,” Viguier said.

Munroe said that more companies need to understand their responsibility with regard to diversity and inclusion.

“I hope this reconciliation is proof that we can all find a way to put aside our differences and work together to push for a more progressive, fair and equal world,” she said in a statement.

CNN has contacted L’Oreal for further comment.

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