Here's what to know about Timmy, the humpback whale that's sick and stranded in the Baltic Sea

BERLIN (AP) — A humpback whale's likely final days in the Baltic Sea have been livestreamed across the globe as multiple rescue efforts failed to coax it back into deeper waters while the marine mammal gets sicker and weaker.

Nicknamed Timmy by local media, many fear the whale may soon die in the Baltic Sea's shallow waters near the eastern German town of Wismar.

The animal faces long odds in finding its way back out into the North Sea, a journey of several hundred kilometers (miles), and then to the Atlantic Ocean.

Here's what to know:

Timmy was first spotted swimming in the region on March 3. It is not clear why the whale swam into the Baltic Sea, far from its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean. Some experts say the animal may have lost its way while swimming after a shoal of herring or during migration.

Since then, the mammal has become repeatedly stranded in shallow waters. It's in clear distress, breathing irregularly and mostly barely moving for days.

Timmy is also suffering from a bad skin condition, related to the Baltic Sea’s low salt content, and rescuers have applied kilos (pounds) of zinc ointment.

On top of all that, the whale keeps swimming in the wrong direction when it does move.

Local media have produced dayslong livestreams to feed the outsized public attention over the fate of the whale. Online newspapers have blasted push alerts with the smallest developments about Timmy’s health.

Activists have staged protests on the beach in Wismar calling for the animal’s liberation, while influencers have debated whether the best way to help the animal is to let it die in peace or keep trying to assist its return to the Atlantic Ocean.

Interest has been so strong that police had put up a 500-meter (1,640 foot) protection zone to keep curious bystanders from getting too close and stressing the stranded whale even more.

Despite these efforts, a 67-year-old woman jumped off a boat on the weekend trying to get close to the whale before she was stopped.

Attempts to refloat the mammal with the help of police boats, excavators and inflatable boats had temporarily freed it. But the whale, which measures 12 to 15 meters (39 to 49 feet) long and weighs 12 metric tons (nearly 26,500 pounds), never found its way back to the North Sea.

Experts then came up with a sophisticated plan to use air cushions to lift the animal onto a tarp, which would have been secured to two pontoons and attached to a tugboat. State officials approved the private initiative, but the whale started swimming again Monday as the tide rose. Boats attempted to guide the mammal toward the right path, though some have lost all hope.

Thilo Maack, a marine biologist at Greenpeace, told The Associated Press the efforts are actually causing the animal severe stress.

“I believe the whale will die very soon now. And I would also like to raise the question: What is actually so bad about that?" he said. "Yes, animals live, animals die. This animal is really, really very, very, very sick. And it has decided to seek rest.”

A humpback whale is stuck off near the island of Poel, Weitendorf-Hof, Germany, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (Philip Dulian/dpa via AP)

Helpers approach a humpback whale that is stuck off near the island of Poel, Weitendorf-Hof, Germany, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (Philip Dulian/dpa via AP)

Two helpers approach the humpback whale off the island of Poel, Germany, Friday, April 17, 2026. (Bernd Wüstneck/dpa via AP)

A work pontoon with a special excavator and smaller escort boats are in use near the stranded humpback whale off the island of Poel, near Wismar, Germany, Sunday, April 19, 2026. (Stefan Sauer/dpa via AP)

The humpback whale, nicknamed Timmy, remains trapped near the island of Poel, Germany, Friday, April 17, 2026. (Jens Büttner/dpa via AP)

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he wouldn’t have appointed Peter Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to Washington if he had known about failed security checks.

Starmer told lawmakers on Monday that “I would not have gone ahead with the appointment” had he known.

He said the fact Mandelson had failed security vetting “could and should have been shared with me before he took up his post.”

Starmer earlier said he made the wrong judgment in appointing Mandelson.

Starmer is facing calls to resign after the revelation that Mandelson was given the job despite failing security checks. Mandelson was fired nine months into the job over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will try on Monday to get a grip on a crisis that has left power slipping from his grasp.

Starmer will face a tough barrage of questions in Parliament when he stands up to explain why Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished politician and friend of Jeffrey Epstein, became Britain’s ambassador to Washington despite failing security checks — and seemingly without Starmer being told about the concerns.

The revelation has left furious opponents calling for Starmer to resign and uneasy allies wondering what else the nation’s leader didn’t know about.

Starmer repeatedly told lawmakers that “due process” was followed when Mandelson was appointed. He now says he’s “furious” that he wasn’t informed that an intensive vetting process had recommended Mandelson not be given security clearance. The Foreign Office, which oversees diplomatic appointments, cleared him anyway.

“The fact that I wasn’t told that Peter Mandelson had failed his security vetting when he was appointed is astonishing,” Starmer told the Daily Mirror. “The fact that I wasn’t told when I said to Parliament that due process had been followed is unforgivable.”

Starmer fired the top Foreign Office civil servant, Olly Robbins, within hours of the revelation by The Guardian last week. But allies of Robbins say he would never have been able to share sensitive vetting information with the prime minister.

Robbins is expected to give his own version of events to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

All the main opposition parties have called on Starmer to resign. Right-of-center Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said in the Mail on Sunday that he had “misled Parliament over Mandelson, misled the country and is taking the public for fools.”

Ed Davey, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, said Starmer had “showed catastrophic misjudgment.”

Senior government colleagues have defended the prime minister. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said that if Starmer had known about the failed security vetting, “he would never, ever have appointed him ambassador.”

But lawmakers in Starmer’s center-left Labour Party, already anxious about the party’s dire poll ratings, are restive. Starmer has already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to resign over the Mandelson appointment.

He could face a new challenge is, as expected, Labour takes a hammering in local and regional elections on May 7, which give voters a chance to pass a midterm verdict on the government.

Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of a failure of judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024. Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and has been forced into repeated policy U-turns.

He picked Mandelson for one of Britain’s most important diplomatic jobs despite being warned by his staff that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

Mandelson’s business links to Russia and China also set off alarm bells. But his expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with President Donald Trump’s administration.

He lasted less than nine months in the job. Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025 after evidence emerged that he had lied about the extent of his links to Epstein.

A trove of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice in January included emails suggesting Mandelson had passed on sensitive, and potentially market-moving, government information to Epstein in 2009 after the global financial crisis.

British police launched a criminal probe and arrested Mandelson in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks as Starmer hosts social media industry leaders to discuss child safety online Thursday, April 16, 2026, in London. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer co-hosts a multinational virtual summit with French President Emmanuel Macron, not pictured, at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, Friday April 17, 2026 (Tom Nicholson/Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - Peter Mandelson, the former U.K. ambassador to the United States, leaves his house in London, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)