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Shane MacGowan’s wife has said The Pogues singer is out of hospital.

MacGowan, 65, is believed to have been in intensive care for the past few months after he was diagnosed with viral encephalitis last year.

It is a serious condition where the brain becomes inflamed. It can be life-threatening and requires urgent treatment in hospital.

On Thursday, his wife, Irish journalist Victoria Mary Clarke, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Shane got out of the hospital!

“We are deeply and eternally grateful to all of the doctors and nurses and staff at St Vincent’s it’s the best!

“And special thanks to Tom Creagh and Brian Corscadden for your help.”

Ms Clarke had previously posted an update on the singer’s health, saying he was “feeling much better”.

She had also thanked well-wishers when posting a photo of the Fairytale Of New York singer in a hospital bed last week.

The singer’s bandmates Spider Stacy and Terry Woods had visited him recently, she revealed.

The 57-year-old earlier this month also wrote about her fears in an Instagram post, saying she was “facing terrifying fears of loss”.

She wrote: “Love is the most beautiful and powerful thing that we can experience as humans but love can also feel painful especially if you are afraid of losing a person or anything else that you love.”

“Sometimes when you love very deeply you will find yourself facing terrifying fears of loss that can feel so big and devastating that you don’t know how you can survive them and you can’t imagine life without this person that you love,” she added.

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The couple married in 2018 at Copenhagen City Hall in Denmark after more than 32 years together.

Ms Clarke previously revealed MacGowan’s bandmates Spider Stacy and Terry Woods had visited him recently.

The singer has faced several health issues in recent years.

In 2015, MacGowan broke his pelvis and has used a wheelchair since.

Six years later, he broke his knee in a fall before tearing ligaments in his left leg.

He never fully recovered from his injuries and confirmed in April that he “can’t walk anymore”.

MacGowan has also been open about his battle with addiction.

In 2015, he received a full set of teeth implants as his real teeth were destroyed by decades of drinking and drug use.

The World Health Organisation has asked China for more detailed information about an outbreak of a respiratory illness and reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children.

Since mid-October, the WHO said northern China had reported an increase in influenza-like illnesses compared with the same period in the previous three years.

In recent days, local media in cities such as Xian in the northwest have posted videos online of hospitals crowded with parents and children waiting to be seen by medics.

The WHO has responded by making an official request to China for additional information as well as laboratory results from the reported outbreaks among children.

In the meantime it has recommended Chinese communities take preventative measures including getting vaccinated, wearing masks, keeping a distance from sick people, staying at home when ill, as well as regular hand-washing.

Chinese authorities have attributed the spike to a cold snap – and to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens, namely influenza and common bacterial infections that affect children, including mycoplasma pneumonia, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

As temperatures plummeted in the Chinese capital of Beijing, located in the north of the country, the city “entered a high incidence season of respiratory infectious diseases”, Wang Quanyi, deputy director and chief epidemiological expert at the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told state media on Wednesday.

The city “is currently showing a trend of multiple pathogens coexisting”, he added.

On Wednesday, the WHO said groups including the Programme for Monitoring Emerging Diseases reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China.

The WHO said it was unclear if these were associated with an overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities – or separate events.

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The WHO has also asked for further information about trends in the circulation of known pathogens and the burden on healthcare systems. It said it is in contact with clinicians and scientists.

The WHO’s office in China on Thursday described the action as a “routine” check.

An increase in incidence of respiratory disease was first disclosed during a news conference last week by Chinese officials from the National Health Commission.

Both China and the WHO have previously faced questions about the transparency of reporting on the earliest COVID cases.

Three years on from when the cases were first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in the latter months of 2019 – there is still debate about the origins of the coronavirus outbreak.

From reactions to the Israel-Hamas truce deal to an Israeli attack on southern Lebanon – here are major updates.

Here is what to know about the situation on Thursday, November 23, 2023:

Latest developments

• Former Obama White House adviser Stuart Seldowitz was arrested by New York police over multiple charges, including hate crime, on Wednesday after videos of him harassing a halal cart vendor went viral. Threatening the vendor, Seldowitz also remarked that not enough Palestinian children have been killed.
• Israeli official Tzachi Hanegbi said late on Wednesday that Israeli captives would not be released by Hamas before Friday, adding that discussions around their release were “advancing and continuing constantly”. On Wednesday, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the US was “hopeful” that implementation of the truce agreement would start on Friday.
• In a media briefing in London on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan said the truce agreement should be extended and become a first step towards a full cessation of hostilities, including the resumption of talks for a two-state solution.
• On Wednesday, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, al-Quds Brigades, said it targeted 11 Israeli military vehicles in Gaza.
• Concerns of censorship in Hollywood are rising after Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and Scream star Melissa Barrera were dropped by their companies following comments against Israel, according to The Associated Press news agency.

Human impact and fighting

• An Israeli attack on southern Lebanon has killed five Hezbollah members, including the son of a Lebanese parliamentarian, the group confirmed late on Wednesday.
• As the clock ticks towards the start of a pause in fighting, Israel continues its bombardment in Gaza. At least six different areas across the enclave were attacked based on reports from Al Jazeera Arabic and the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Deadly strikes also hit the Jabalia refugee camp in the north while 15 people were killed in Khan Younis.
• The United States Central Command said on Wednesday that its USS Thomas Hudner warship downed several “one-way attack drones” fired from Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen while it patrolled the Red Sea.
• A total of 190 patients were evacuated from al-Shifa Hospital to the south of Gaza on Wednesday. While dialysis patients were taken to Abu Youssef Al Najjar Hospital in Rafah, the others were moved to the European Hospital, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Diplomacy

• Over a phone call on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden thanked his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for Cairo’s efforts towards the Israel-Hamas truce deal. He reassured el-Sisi that “under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, or the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza”, according to a White House readout.
• In another phone call on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani for Doha’s mediation in the truce deal, according to the White House. The two also discussed securing the release of remaining captives and increasing the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
• White House briefings of the various phone calls since the deal was announced note discussions of achieving peace and stability but make no mention of a long-term ceasefire, for which public pressure has been mounting.
• US Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren released a statement on Wednesday supporting the truce agreement and calling for its extension. She also criticised Netanyahu’s military strategy, which she said has led to “a humanitarian catastrophe, the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza, and endangered the region’s long-term stability”.
• The European Commission welcomed the truce in a statement on Wednesday and said it will step up aid deliveries to Gaza during the four-day pause in fighting.
• Head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said at his Wednesday general audience that the fighting between Israel and Hamas has gone beyond war to become “terrorism”. He also met separately Palestinians and the families of Israeli captives, according to the AP. He told the Palestinian delegation that he is in daily contact with the church in the Gaza Strip, according to Wafa.

Arrests and attacks in West Bank

• At least nine different areas across the occupied West Bank faced Israeli raids overnight based on reports from Al Jazeera Arabic and Wafa.
• A 17-year-old Palestinian was shot in the head while another Palestinian man, shot in the back, was injured, according to the Palestine Red Crescent. Israeli forces also detained Red Crescent rescue workers attempting to reach the victims, confiscating their keys and phones, the organisation said on Thursday.
• Israeli forces demolished six homes, a sheep barn, and a well, and destroyed a water network and agricultural crops in a village near Hebron on Wednesday, Wafa reported. Local sources said the activities were part of expanding the Avigal settlement built adjacent to the village.

A temporary truce and the release of dozens of captives taken by Palestinian armed group Hamas in its assault on Israel on October 7 will not start before Friday, Tel Aviv has said, as Israeli forces continued to bombard the besieged enclave of Gaza.

The release is part of a temporary truce, initially expected to last four days, that was agreed by Israel and Hamas on Wednesday and also includes the deployment of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The captives are supposed to be exchanged for a number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

“The negotiations on the release of our hostages are advancing and continuing constantly,” Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in a statement released by the prime minister’s office.

“The start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday,” it said.

Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, quoting an unidentified Israeli official, reported there was a 24-hour delay because the agreement had not been signed by Hamas and Qatar, which was the key mediator in the deal. The official said they were optimistic the agreement would be carried out when it was signed.

“No one said there would be a release tomorrow except the media … We had to make it clear that no release is planned before Friday, because of the uncertainty that hostages’ families are facing,” Kan quoted an unnamed source in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office as saying.

Other Israeli media published similar reports, quoting anonymous officials, that the pause in fighting with Hamas would not start before Friday.

More than 14,500 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its attacks on the territory in response to Hamas’s assault on Israel that left at least 1,200 people dead.

About 240 people were taken by Hamas fighters, and only four have been released so far.

There were about 5,200 Palestinians in Israeli prisons prior to October 7, although that number has more than doubled in the weeks since, according to Palestinian authorities.

Amid the apparent delay to the truce agreement, Israeli aircraft and artillery struck Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis in at least two waves early on Thursday.

In Israel, sirens warning of incoming rocket fire from Gaza blared in communities near the border with the enclave, the military said. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

Tensions also rose on Israel’s northern border early on Thursday after the Iran-backed Hezbollah group said five of its fighters, including the son of a senior lawmaker, had been killed.

In the Red Sea, meanwhile, US Central Command said the USS Thomas Hudner had “shot down multiple one-way attack drones launched from Houthi controlled areas in Yemen”, referencing another Iran-backed group.

‘I want everybody back’

The delay caused frustration among families on both sides.

Under the terms of the agreement, 50 Hamas captives are due to be released, with a minimum of 10 being freed each day.

“We don’t know who will get out because Hamas will release the names every evening of those who will get out the next day,” said Gilad Korngold, who was still awaiting word of relatives. Seven of his family members, including his three-year-old granddaughter, were kidnapped by Hamas.

“I want everybody back. But I think – and it’s a very tough decision – but I think the children and women must be [first]. They are most fragile. You know, they need to get out.”

Netanyahu’s office has said the truce could be extended as long as an additional 10 hostages were freed each day.

On Israel’s list of 300 eligible Palestinian prisoners of 123 children and 33 women is Shorouq Dwayyat, who is serving a 16-year sentence for attempted murder in a 2015 knife attack. Campaigners say she is one of many Palestinians to have been unjustly tried and sentenced on unfair or fabricated charges.

“I had hoped that she would come out in a deal,” her mother, Sameera Dwayyat, said but added that her relief was tempered by “great pain in my heart” over the dead children in Gaza.

The US also hoped that aid would begin reaching Gaza in large volumes in the coming days, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.

Hamas said the initial 50 captives would be released in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children imprisoned in Israel. Hundreds of trucks of humanitarian, medical and fuel supplies would enter Gaza, while Israel would halt all air sorties over southern Gaza and maintain a daily six-hour daytime no-fly window in the north, it added.

The truce agreement, the first in a nearly seven-week-long war, was reached after mediation by Qatar and seen by governments around the world as potentially easing the suffering in the Gaza Strip, which is home to more than two million people.

In a statement shared by US media outlets, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson stressed the deal “was agreed and remains agreed”.

“The parties are working out final logistical details, particularly for the first day of implementation,” CBS News and CNN reported Watson as saying.

“It is our view that nothing should be left to chance as the hostages begin coming home. Our primary objective is to ensure that they are brought home safely. That is on track, and we are hopeful that implementation will begin on Friday morning.”

Israel has continued its attacks on Gaza in advance of an agreed truce with Hamas, killing dozens of Palestinians across the bombarded territory.

The relentless raids on Wednesday dimmed hopes that the expected four-day pause would lead to a permanent ceasefire.

“The ongoing mass bombardment of the Gaza Strip keeps creating tragedies and misery for Palestinians,” said Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Khan Younis.

Three attacks in northern Gaza killed dozens of people, including entire families. There were also deadly air raids in the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, including a building that houses a charity next to the Kuwait Speciality Hospital in Rafah.

Southern Gaza has been designated as a supposedly safe area by the Israeli army, but its continuous bombardment there means that the area is “equally dangerous” to the north and “people are equally at risk of losing their life”, Mahmoud said.

In central Gaza, Israeli forces hit residential buildings in Deir el-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, sparking fears of multiple deaths and injuries.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued raiding towns across the occupied West Bank. In one such incident, six Palestinians were shot dead in Tulkarem, the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health said.