GUADALAJARA, June 6 — Two elephants trudged across a makeshift football field at Mexico’s Guadalajara Zoo in a whacky attempt to predict the score of the 2026 World Cup’s opening game.

The creatures faced a prophetic choice: munch on the grass on the side marked with a Mexican flag, or opt for the greenery on the opposing South African side.

Their split-second choice to amble over to the former consolidated the prediction that Mexico will emerge as the winner of the highly anticipated match on June 11.

This fortune-telling exercise follows in the footsteps of South Africa’s unforgettable Paul the Octopus in 2010.

A puma plays during an environmental enrichment activity, predicting the outcome of the FIFA World Cup match between Czech Republic and South Korea, with South Korea winning, at the Guadalajara Zoo in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, on June 5, 2026. — AFP pic

“The idea is that the animals are going to make predictions about different matches that will be played,” zookeeper Ivan Reynoso told AFP.

Next up, the gorillas Chenchi and Faustina were presented with two pinatas shaped like player jerseys—one from Spain, and the other from Uruguay.

There was a tense pause until one of the primates suddenly went for Uruguay’s shirt, suggesting the South American nation will win the June 26 match.

“It’s clear who won!” one zookeeper exclaimed excitedly.

A puma plays during an environmental enrichment activity, predicting the outcome of the FIFA World Cup match between Czech Republic and South Korea, with South Korea winning, at the Guadalajara Zoo in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, on June 5, 2026. — AFP pic

A puma named Muluk seemed sure that South Korea will triumph against the Czech Republic, and six giraffes hedged their bets with the Democratic Republic of Congo over Colombia.

Reynoso said the betting “stimulates many senses” for the animals on top of providing entertainment for an audience giddy with excitement ahead of the world’s biggest football bonanza.

“This kind of activity enriches them a great deal, not only visually for the audience but for them as well,” he said. — AFP

Hong Kong has stepped up precautions over the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda, as the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the epidemic “a public health emergency of international concern.”

The WHO said on Sunday that there had been 246 suspected cases and 80 suspected deaths in the DRC as of Saturday, in addition to a handful of apparent cases in Uganda.

The outbreak was caused by the Bundibugyo virus disease, and there is currently no vaccine.

There are no confirmed cases in Hong Kong, but the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) has enacted a series of precautionary measures, according to a government press release on Sunday.

Although there are no direct flights from the affected areas, “the CHP will strengthen health screening for passengers arriving on flights from Africa at the airport… Suspected cases will be immediately referred to public hospitals for isolation and treatment.”

It will also bolster public awareness and health education efforts, and provide airlines, doctors and hospitals with updated information.

The CHP advises against visiting affected regions.

Highly lethal

Ebola is transmitted to humans through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected animals.

The virus is highly lethal and causes haemorrhagic fever, systemic inflammation, and multi-organ failure. The case fatality rates from past outbreaks range from 25 to 90 per cent, according to the WHO – the average is 50 per cent.

Meanwhile, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is preparing a large-scale response to the outbreak, the humanitarian charity said in a press release on Sunday.

“The number of cases and deaths we are seeing in such a short timeframe, combined with the spread across several health zones and now across the border, is extremely concerning,” said MSF Emergency Programme Manager Trish Newport. “In Ituri, many people already struggle to access healthcare and live with ongoing insecurity, making rapid action critical to prevent the outbreak from escalating further.”

The NGO is mobilising more teams comprising medical, logistical, and support staff experienced in responding to viral haemorrhagic fever outbreaks, it said.

GENEVA, June 6 — Nearly 500 Ebola cases have now been confirmed in the deadly outbreak raging in central Africa, a WHO overview showed Saturday, amid mounting concern over the swelling scale of the epidemic.

In its daily update on the situation, the World Health Organization tallied 452 confirmed cases, including 82 deaths, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the outbreak was declared three weeks ago.

In neighbouring Uganda, meanwhile, it counted 19 confirmed cases, including two deaths.

The total of 471 cases and 84 deaths, based on numbers reported by the DRC and Ugandan governments, marked a hike of 100 cases and 20 deaths from a day earlier.

The increase came amid warnings that the outbreak, which the WHO has declared an international public health emergency, could eventually swell to become the largest on record.

A top official at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that models indicated that without strong public health interventions, the current outbreak risked rivalling the scale of the 2014 West Africa epidemic, which saw over 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths.

“That scale is possible,” said Jason Asher, director of CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, during a press briefing.

Ebola, which is spread through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

The current outbreak was declared on May 15 in northeastern DR Congo, but the virus is believed to have spread under the radar for some time beforehand.

There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola behind the outbreak.

The WHO and the African CDC on Friday launched a $518-million plan to battle the outbreak over the next six months, focusing among other things on boosting surveillance, laboratory testing and infection prevention.

“The outbreak is moving fast, and we are still playing catch-up,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

“We need to stop the outbreak where it is, support countries that are responding today, and ensure that neighbouring countries are ready to detect and act quickly if cases appear,” he said.

“This is a serious outbreak and its one we know how to stop but we need to move fast and together.” — AFP