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A long-beaked echidna, named after David Attenborough and thought to be extinct, has been rediscovered in the mountains of Indonesia. 

The long-lost species of mammal is described as having the spines of a hedgehog, the snout of an anteater and the feet of a mole.

It was caught on camera in Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains more than 60 years after it was last recorded – on the very last day of a four-week expedition led by Oxford University scientists.

Biologist James Kempton found the images of the small creature in the forest undergrowth on the last memory card retrieved from more than 80 remote cameras.

“There was a great sense of euphoria, and also relief having spent so long in the field with no reward until the very final day,” he said of the moment he first saw the footage.

“I shouted out to my colleagues that were still remaining… and said ‘we found it, we found it’ – I ran in from my desk to the living room and hugged the guys.”

Echidnas share their name with a half-woman, half-serpent Greek mythological creature, and were described by the team as shy, nocturnal burrow-dwellers who are notoriously difficult to find.

“The reason it appears so unlike other mammals is because it is a member of the monotremes, an egg-laying group that separated from the rest of the mammal tree-of-life about 200 million years ago,” Dr Kempton said.

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This particular species, Zaglossus attenboroughi, has only been scientifically recorded once before, by a Dutch botanist in 1961.

A different echidna species is found throughout Australia and lowland New Guinea.

Dr Kempton’s team survived an earthquake, malaria and even a leech attached to an eyeball during their trip.

They worked with the local village, Yongsu Sapari, to navigate and explore the remote terrain of northeastern Papua.

The echidna is embedded in the local culture, including a tradition that says conflicts are resolved by sending one party into the forest to search for the mammal and another to the ocean to find a marlin.

Both creatures were seen as so difficult to find that it would often take decades or a generation to locate them – but once found, the animals symbolised the end of the conflict and a return to harmonious relationships.

Astronaut Frank Borman, who commanded NASA’s first Apollo mission to the moon, has died aged 95. 

Borman commanded Apollo 8’s historic Christmas 1968 flight, which saw the spacecraft circle the moon 10 times – paving the way for the following year’s lunar landing.

He died on Tuesday 7 November in Billings, Montana, NASA said.

Paying tribute to “one of NASA‘s best,” the space agency’s administrator Bill Nelson said: “Astronaut Frank Borman was a true American hero.

“His lifelong love for aviation and exploration was only surpassed by his love for his wife Susan.”

Borman’s wife Susan was his childhood sweetheart. She died in 2021.

The Apollo 8 mission launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 21 December 1968 and together with his crew, James Lovell and William Anders, Borman spent three days travelling to the moon before slipping into lunar orbit on Christmas Eve.

They then circled the moon 10 times on 24 and 25 December, before beginning their journey home on 27 December.

On Christmas Eve, a live telecast from the orbiter saw the astronauts read from the Bible’s Book of Genesis, saying: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

Ending the broadcast, Borman said: “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you – all of you on the good Earth.”

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In his book, Countdown: An Autobiography, Borman recalled how the Earth looked from space.

“We were the first humans to see the world in its majestic totality, an intensely emotional experience for each of us,” he wrote. “We said nothing to each other, but I was sure our thoughts were identical – of our families on that spinning globe.

“And maybe we shared another thought I had, This must be what God sees.”

After NASA, he moved into the aviation industry and joined Eastern Airlines, who were the fourth-largest airline in the US at the time.

EXPLAINER

As the conflict between Israel and Gaza enters its 35th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Friday, November 10, 2023:

The latest developments

• Israel has agreed to four-hour daily pauses in its war on Gaza, the White House said on Thursday.
• On Thursday, 695 foreign passport holders and dependents were able to leave Gaza for Egypt through the Rafah crossing, according to the Red Cross.
• Thousands of Palestinians are continuing to escape to the south of Gaza through a “corridor” announced by the Israeli military. On November 9, more than 50,000 people left areas in the north, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
• Top diplomats and defence chiefs of India and the United States discussed the Israel-Hamas war at a meeting in New Delhi, the Associated Press news agency reported on Friday.

Human impact and fighting

• At least 243 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza between Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, according to the UN. In all, 10,812 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s military campaign started on October 7, including 4,412 children.
• Gaza’s hospitals have been under fire during the past day. On Thursday, Israeli raids hit Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, killing six and injuring four according to the hospital’s director. The vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital was hit by 11 missiles, according to its director. Al-Awda Hospital, which already warned of fuel depletion and a shutdown on Thursday has also been struck overnight, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. Early on Friday, strikes were reported by Al Jazeera Arabic in the vicinity of Gaza Patient’s Friends Hospital, while the Red Crescent reported a “violent bombardment” near al-Quds Hospital.
• Israel continuing its war for another month could push an additional half a million people in Gaza into poverty, the United Nations reported on Thursday.
• Israel’s military said it launched strikes on Syria early on Friday in response to a drone that hit a school building in Eilat.
• On Thursday, Yemen’s Houthi group targeted Israel with drones and missiles, including sites in Eilat. The attacks also disrupted internet service in Yemen, according to the AP.

Diplomacy

• More than 500 former campaign staffers who helped Joe Biden secure his election as United States president are pushing for him to call for a ceasefire.
• In the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak is being put under pressure to sack British Home Secretary Suella Braverman for her comments against pro-Palestine demonstrations.
• In a push for international action, three Palestinian rights groups have filed a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the body to investigate Israel’s “apartheid”.
• In the Middle East, Iran’s foreign minister said on Friday that expansion of the Israel-Gaza war has now become “inevitable”.
• Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim is travelling to Egypt, according to a statement from the Qatari government’s website. The talks are expected to focus on the crisis in Gaza and the release of captives held by Hamas.
• On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he discussed the possibility of allowing 500 humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza daily when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ankara. He added that Blinken took a “positive approach” to the passage of more aid, and that Turkey is ready to take Palestinian patients into its hospitals, Reuters is reporting.

Arrests and attacks in the occupied West Bank

• At least 19 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank over the past 24 hours, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. In all, at least 183 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7.
• Israeli arrests and raids were under way early on Friday and involved fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Drones and explosives have targeted a convoy and two airbases.

United States troops in Iraq have been targeted in new attacks using drones and explosives, according to military and security sources.

Three attacks took place on Thursday, the sources said, adding to the more than 40 assaults that US and allied troops based across the Middle East have come under since the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7.

As well as two drone assaults at bases, a US-led coalition convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in the vicinity of Mosul Dam.

The security sources said the patrol was accompanied by Iraqi counterterrorism forces and that a vehicle in the patrol was damaged. Three US troops sustained minor injuries but had returned to duty, the official added.

Drone attacks targeted American and coalition forces at the Ain al-Asad airbase west of Baghdad and al-Harir airbase in Erbil. Both drones were destroyed before reaching their target, the sources said.

A statement from Iraqi Kurdistan’s counterterrorism service added that the attack at al-Harir had caused a fire at one of its fuel depots, but added that US-led coalition forces had evacuated the airbase on October 20.

Since the war between Israel and Hamas began, US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 40 times in Iraq and Syria. So far, 56 American personnel have been injured in these attacks, although all have returned to duty, according to the Pentagon.

The US has accused Iran of “actively facilitating” rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups on its forces in Iraq and Syria.

Tehran denies these claims, saying groups engaging in the attacks were doing so on their own accord.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has said that Tehran “neither gives orders to the resistance groups across the region, nor stop them from taking decisions in their own countries based on their own interests”.

On Friday, he stated that it is “inevitable” that the scope of the war in Gaza will expand.

The groups in Iraq who have targeted US military assets say the attacks will continue as long as the US supports Israel in its war on Gaza.

The US has occasionally retaliated against Iranian-backed forces in the region, including a strike on October 26 in Syria.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin asserted in a statement that Washington “does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities”.

But he added that “these Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop”.

Surgeons have performed the world’s first ever whole-eye transplant, a feat hailed as a breakthrough despite the patient not yet regaining his sight.

Doctors “never expected it to work at all”, patient Aaron James said, but the eye has shown signs of health, such as functioning blood vessels and a promising retina.

It has been six months since the 21-hour surgery, performed during a partial face transplant in New York, but the surgeon who led the procedure said Mr James, 46, may yet see out of his left eye again.

Warning: This article contains a graphic picture of the patient

“I don’t think anyone can claim that he will see. But by the same token, they can’t claim that he will not see,” Dr Eduardo Rodriguez said.

“The mere fact that we transplanted an eye is a huge step forward, something that for centuries has been thought about, but it’s never been performed.”

Mr James, a military veteran from Arkansas, survived a work-related high-voltage electrical accident that destroyed the left side of his face, his nose, his mouth and his left eye in June 2021.

He said he knew he might not regain his vision, but he had hoped that surgeons could “learn something to help the next person”.

“Hopefully this opens up a new path,” he said.

“It feels good. I still don’t have any movement in it yet. My eyelid, I can’t blink yet. But I’m getting sensation now,” he added.

Until now, doctors have only been able to transplant the cornea, the clear front layer of the eye.

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Initially, doctors were just planning to include the eyeball as part of the face transplant for cosmetic reasons, Dr Rodriguez said.

“If some form of vision restoration occurred, it would be wonderful, but… the goal was for us to perform the technical operation,” Dr Rodriquez said, adding they aimed to have the eyeball survive.

“At this point, I think we’re pretty happy with the result that we were able to achieve with a very technically demanding operation.”

Mr James’s eye will continue to be monitored, but right now it is not communicating with the brain through the optic nerve.

To encourage connection between the donor and recipient optic nerves, surgeons harvested adult stem cells and injected them into the optic nerve during the transplant, hoping they would replace damaged cells.

Transplantation of a viable eye opens many new possibilities, Dr Rodriguez said, even if sight is not restored in this case.

Other research teams are developing ways to connect nerve networks in the brain to sightless eyes through insertion of electrodes, for example, to allow vision, he said.

“If we can work with other scientists that are working on other methods of restoring vision or restoring images to the visual cortex, I think we’re one step closer,” he added.