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Oct. 18, 2025, 7:00 AM EDTBy Carlo AngererRIGA, Latvia — They’re dotted on dozens of buildings across the Latvian capital: signal green signs with white stick figures of a family and the word “patvertne,” which means shelter.Installed everywhere from art deco buildings to wooden gates, the signs alert people to places to hide in the event of an attack — and have become one of many symbols of war preparedness in this charming city, which is crisscrossed with canals and looks nervously east at its Russian neighbor.After a string of recent aircraft incursions along NATO’s eastern flank and suspicious drones shutting down airports in several European countries including Germany, Denmark and Norway, fears about Russian aggression are growing in Latvia and its fellow Baltic nations, Estonia and Lithuania, already spooked by Moscow’s war in Ukraine.“We are on the front line. We are the eastern flank countries. We are neighboring Russia, an aggressive country,” Andris Sprūds, Latvia’s defense minister, told NBC News earlier this month at the Riga Conference, a meeting of international political and military leaders.A building marked “patvertne,” the Latvian word for “shelter,” in the capital, Riga.Carlo Angerer / NBC NewsHe added that Latvia, which launched a drone initiative earlier this year, had to some extent “already developed some resilience” in the face of any Kremlin aggression.Other attendees openly talked about a direct conflict between NATO and Russia. In an onstage discussion at the conference, Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to the organization, publicly theorized with his fellow panelists about weapons systems, including long-range missiles and strategic bombers, that could be used against the Kremlin’s forces.But he also emphasized that modern warfare begins before troops and military hardware are deployed.“The first shot of the next war is not going to be tanks through the Suwalki Gap,” he said in a separate interview with NBC News, referring to the narrow land bridge between Poland and the Baltic states, seen as a potential attack point in a Russian invasion. “It’s going to be a cyberattack. It’s going to be knocking out airports or critical infrastructure.”Latvia and other Baltic countries have been very receptive to recent NATO initiatives and are on track to reach defense spending targets soon, he said, adding that they were “investing in things that are going to field more capabilities for our defense and deterrence.”Emergency services have identified hundreds of existing shelters in Riga and authorities are planning to build new ones.Carlo Angerer / NBC News“The investments that make each individual ally stronger and therefore the collective alliance stronger are the important investments, and a country like Latvia is certainly doing it best in class right now,” he added.Adm. Rob Bauer, who chaired NATO’s military committee from June 2021 until January, also suggested that a new conflict with Russia would be fought “in a different way.”Ukraine, he said, lacked air power and strong naval assets, adding that NATO fighter jets had been carrying out missions over the Baltics from the USS Gerald Ford after it was deployed to the North Sea earlier this year.Others, like Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, openly acknowledged that it took “way too long” for other nations to listen to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, which were occupied by the Soviet Union for decades and more recently have been at the forefront of pushing NATO allies to take the Russian threat seriously.Airis Rikveilis, the national security adviser to Latvia’s Prime Minister Evika Silina, said his country was not only focusing on increasing military capabilities, but also on preparing civil society for conflict.“This is not going to be 1940,” he said, referring to the first Soviet occupation, when the Red Army was able to take over within weeks. “Should that battle start tomorrow, we’ll be ready to fight tomorrow with what we have,” he added.After Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there have been visible changes across Latvia, which has installed a fence along its 176-mile border with Russia. It has also cut itself off from the shared power grid with Russia and Kremlin ally Belarus, which sits to Latvia’s south, and is now relying on energy from its other neighbors.Ukrainian flags fly outside the Russian Embassy in Riga, Latvia.Carlo Angerer / NBC NewsIn Riga, officials have demolished the 260-foot victory memorial dedicated to the Soviet army and renamed the road where the Russian Embassy is located to Ukrainian Independence Street.The blue street sign sits at the corner building next to the embassy’s CCTV cameras and under its large flag. Dozens of Ukrainian flags fly in the square just across the road.Linda Ozola, who served as Riga’s deputy mayor for five years until this summer, oversaw the rebuilding of the shelter network, among other civil protection measures. She said her staff had to scout museums and archives for old documents, as well as reinspect old shelter spaces, some of which had fallen into disrepair.Emergency services have identified hundreds of existing shelters, and updated legislation has cleared the way to build new ones. Their locations are available on a website and cellphone app.Some of them will likely be funded by an 85 million euro ($99.4 million) deal signed on the sidelines of the Riga Conference by Arvils Ašeradens, Latvia’s finance minister, and European allies. The majority of that funding will be used to enhance the civil protection infrastructure, and some will also be used to install generators at health care facilities.Ozola said the city has also started to build up a stock of emergency supplies including canned food and sleeping cots. Riga has been an example for the other regions of Latvia and could also be one for cities across Europe, she said.“The truth is not good because we have a crazy neighbor who wants to destroy our country. And the neighbor is not hiding that, really,” she said. “They haven’t physically crossed the border, but they have crossed the airspace and they have cut our critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.”Carlo AngererCarlo Angerer is a multimedia producer and reporter based in Mainz, Germany. 

- Latest News - October 18, 2025

RIGA, Latvia — They’re dotted on dozens of buildings across the Latvian capital: signal green signs with white stick figures of a family and the word “patvertne,” which means shelter

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Oct. 18, 2025, 7:00 AM EDTBy Mustafa FattahAfter a rough, record-setting flu season, doctors and health officials are bracing for another wave of fever, misery and respiratory distress. In the U.K., health officials are warning about an early rise in flu levels among children and young adults. In Japan, health officials recently declared a flu epidemic and closed schools after experiencing an unusually high number of flu cases early in the season. What does that mean for the U.S.? Typically, flu cases start to rise in November, along with RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and enteroviruses, and peak in February. But job-cut chaos at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the government shutdown could make it hard to know how the virus is playing out this fall, experts worry. The CDC’s last influenza report for the U.S. was for the week ending Sept. 20, when there was minimal activity. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, is concerned about the possibility of limited flu surveillance by the CDC, leaving the U.S. blind to the scale and scope of flu outbreaks.“Everything from outreach campaigns to more logistical efforts to actually get vaccines out” could be affected, Rasmussen said. “That information just may not be available, so it will be very difficult to coordinate a national response,” she said.Last year’s flu was harsh. There were about 1.1 million hospitalizations associated with the flu, the highest rate in 14 years, according to the CDC. And there were the highest number of doctor visits for flu-like illnesses in more than a decade. An estimated 38,000 to 99,000 deaths were associated with the 2024-2025 flu season, according to a preliminary assessment by the CDC. For kids, it was one of the deadliest years on record: 280 children died from flu. At least three of those children died this June and July, far outside of the typical flu season.How bad will the flu be? Flu is notoriously hard to predict, and this year, things are already looking a little different. The CDC predicted at the end of August that this flu season will be more moderate than last year’s. However, there’s the possibility that some age groups could be hit hard, especially if people don’t get their flu shots. The main strains of flu currently circulating are similar to those that caused the severe outbreaks last season: H1N1 and H3N2 for flu A, as well as flu B. “It’s a little early to know which strains will predominate this year for flu season, but certainly there is risk that similar very virulent strains could circulate again this year,” said Dr. George Diaz, a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and chief of medicine at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington. “This prediction for a moderate season could be off, and it could be another severe flu season,” he said.“We’re still very early in the flu season in North America, and it’s a little hard to know with certainty,” he added. Even if someone got the flu last year, they’ll still be vulnerable to the new version because immunity wanes over time, especially in older people and the immunocompromised, experts say. When is the best time to get the flu shot? The strain is only one factor in how bad it could be this year. Vaccine hesitancy and a weakened public health infrastructure in the U.S. could contribute to flu spread. “It’s going to be largely driven more by social and policy changes than it is going to be driven by virologically related ones,” Rasmussen said.Last flu season, less than half of kids were vaccinated against the flu, a decline of over 20 percentage points from the 2019-2020 season. This year, that trend is expected to continue, said Rasmussen.Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said that it’s difficult to know how severe it will be this year in the U.S, but that it’s very unusual to have “two ultra-severe seasons back to back.” So, even though the virus hasn’t changed much, getting vaccinated is the best way to protect against the worst of the season.“October is the ideal time to get vaccinated,” he said. “That ought to provide quite reasonable protection throughout what we consider the influenza season, through February and into March.”Mustafa FattahMustafa Fattah is a medical fellow with the NBC News Health and Medical Unit. 

- Latest News - October 18, 2025

After a rough, record-setting flu season, doctors and health officials are bracing for another wave of fever, misery and respiratory distress.

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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 18, 2025, 7:35 AM EDTBy Sara Monetta and Daniele HamamdjianPalestinian detainees have spoken of their shock at returning to a Gaza unrecognizable from the one from which they were taken, as some are freed from Israeli detention with stories of brutal treatment.Gaza is now gone, Shadi Abu Sido, 35, shouted to the cameras as he emerged from a bus in the southern city of Khan Younis on Monday. “It’s like a scene from ‘Judgment Day,’” he said of the destruction.Later, he was reunited with his wife and children, who he said his captors had falsely told him had died.Shadi Abu Sido, 35, and his children.Abu Sido is among 1,718 Palestinian detainees released in exchange for Israeli hostages, in addition to 250 security prisoners convicted of serious crimes including murder. The detainees, taken captive since the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, had faced no charges. All 20 surviving Israeli hostages held in Gaza were released under the exchange.Abu Sido, a cameraman for a Lebanon-based TV station who was arrested in March 2024 while filming at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, told NBC News over the phone that he was stripped naked, handcuffed and had his rib broken when he was first arrested 19 months ago. In prison, he says he was left handcuffed and blindfolded for weeks.Israeli soldiers stand by a truck packed with bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainees in Gaza in December 2023.Moti Milrod / AP file”No food, no bathroom, no talking, no lifting your head,” he said. Those who disobeyed were ” hung on the wall and beaten,” he added.Abu Sido said soldiers picked on him because of his job, with one interrogator hitting him repeatedly in his eye so that he would lose his ability to operate a camera. He said he now needs specialist treatment that he worries won’t be available in Gaza.Moureen Kaki, a Palestinian American aid worker from the medical nongovernmental organization Glia, was at Nasser Hospital on Monday as the released detainees arrived for health checks, most appearing gaunt, limping and shrunken.“Everybody was affected by scabies,” she said in a video call on Tuesday evening. “It wasn’t just one person that shared the same story of torture, of being withheld food, of being forced to drink toilet water since the announcement of the ceasefire. It was every single person that we talked to that had the same stories. It was truly horrifying.”She said that three people who had been imprisoned for months arrived at the hospital with fresh gunshot wounds that appeared to have “happened within the span of the last three weeks.”Palestinian inmates after being released from the Ofer military prison near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Monday.Hazem Bader / AFP – Getty ImagesIsrael also returned the bodies of 120 detainees. On Thursday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza posted photos of what it said were bodies returned showing signs of torture and with various toes and fingers missing.The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment over the allegations of torture and abuse. In a separate case in February, five Israeli reservists were charged over the beating and stabbing of a detainee, accused in an indictment of breaking the man’s ribs, puncturing his lung and tearing his rectum.Dozens of detainees released on Monday were health care workers. Among them was Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, the director of Al-Awda Hospital, detained during a December 2023 raid when he ignored IDF warnings to leave, choosing instead to stay with his patients.Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, director of Al-Awda Hospital, was welcomed by his colleagues and medical staff after being released as part of a prisoner-hostage exchange in Gaza City on Monday.Hassan Jedi / Anadolu via Getty ImagesMuhanna, after nearly two years in detention, addressed a crowd that gathered to welcome him back to the hospital.“They directly targeted medical staff,” he said. “But we will never leave our hospitals.”The Israeli military has previously defended strikes at hospitals, repeatedly saying medical facilities in Gaza were being used as operating bases for Hamas.According to the monitoring group Healthcare Workers Watch, there are at least 115 health care workers from Gaza among the thousands of Palestinians still in Israeli detention.Hussam Abu Safiya, center, treating a patient who was injured in an Israeli strike on Beit Lahia on Nov. 21.AFP via Getty Images fileThey include a prominent pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who, according to his family, had been approved for release. On Thursday, an Israeli court extended Abu Safiya’s detention by another six months.Sara MonettaSara Monetta is a multimedia producer based in London.Daniele HamamdjianDaniele Hamamdjian is an NBC foreign correspondent based in London.

- Latest News - October 18, 2025

Palestinian detainees have spoken of their shock at returning to a Gaza unrecognizable from the one from which they were taken, as some are freed from Israeli detention with stories.

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Oct. 17, 2025, 11:22 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 18, 2025, 4:11 AM EDTBy Rohan Nadkarni and Phil HelselShohei Ohtani hit three home runs Friday as the Los Angeles Dodgers swept the Milwaukee Brewers to advance to the World Series for the second time in two years.The Dodgers won the National League Championship at home Friday with the 5-1 win over Milwaukee. The win clinches the team’s berth to the World Series, but their opponent has not been decided.The Dodgers jumped to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning, with Ohtani hitting a leadoff home run, and never lost it. Ohtani crushed a second homer in the fourth inning, sending the ball 469 feet and over the roof of the park.Ohtani, also pitching, struck out 10 and gave up only two hits until being relieved at the top of the seventh. The home crowd chanted “MVP” at his next at-bat — and Ohtani then struck his third home run of the night.“It was really fun on both sides of the ball today,” Ohtani, who is from Japan, said through an interpreter after the team was crowned league champs. “As a representative, I’m taking this trophy, and let’s get four more wins.”In the American League, the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays are battling for the championship and their spot in the World Series. The Mariners lead 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, with a 6-2 win Friday.The Dodgers will be looking for their third World Series title since 2020.The Dodgers finished first in the NL West this season, edging out the San Diego Padres by three games to win the division. Though they finished slightly behind last year’s pace in the regular season, the Dodgers have been dominant in the playoffs. They swept the Cincinnati Reds 2-0 in the wild card round before beating the Philadelphia Phillies 3-1 in the divisional round. While the Dodgers’ highly-priced lineup has been hitting well — they entered Friday second among postseason teams with a .254 average — the pitching staff has especially shined in October.Entering Friday’s Game 4, Los Angeles had the best ERA 2.60 of all remaining playoff teams, as well as the best WHIP (1.02) and opponent batting average (.174).Starting pitcher Blake Snell has been the team’s most effective starter so far. He’s 3-0 in three postseason starts with 28 strikeouts in only 21 innings pitched and a minuscule 0.86 ERA. The Dodgers’ World Series berth continues a run of NL dominance that stretches back to the previous decade.After appearing in zero World Series from 1989 to 2016, the Dodgers has made the Fall Classic five times since 2017. After losing back-to-back years in 2017 and 2018, the Dodgers took home championships in 2020 and 2024.The Dodgers have been willing to spend on its recent success. The Dodgers’ payroll this season is roughly $350.3 million, the most expensive roster in MLB. Ohtani’s teammates, who are no slouches themselves, said they were impressed with Ohtani’s performance Friday.“Oh man, that was special,” Dodgers first baseman and nine-time All Star Freddie Freeman said after the win. “We’ve just been playing really good baseball for a while now, and the inevitable happened today with Shohei — Oh my God, I’m still speechless.”Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell was asked Friday night after the win what impressed him more, Ohtani’s 10 strikeouts or three home runs, and he did not hesitate.“The three home runs,” Snell said. “That was crazy.”Despite the fireworks Friday night, Ohtani said the Dodgers as a team won the championship and are headed to the World Series.”We won it as a team, and this was really a team effort,” he said. “So I hope everybody in L.A. and Japan and all over the world can enjoy a really good sake.”Rohan NadkarniRohan Nadkarni is a sports reporter for NBC News. Phil HelselPhil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - October 18, 2025

Shohei Ohtani hit three home runs Friday as the Los Angeles Dodgers swept the Milwaukee Brewers to advance to the World Series for the second time in two years

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