Read the daily news to learn English

EU’s Kallas criticises Putin’s ‘very cynical’ Ukraine ceasefire calls and rejects suggestion of Schröder as mediator – Europe live

Meanwhile, Poland’s former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, wanted by Polish authorities with allegations of over 20 criminal charges, moved to the US over the weekend, leaving Hungary where he held political asylum granted by the previous government of Viktor Orbán. Ziobro was one of the most prominent faces of the PiS government and played a central role in its controversial judiciary reforms, which critics say undermined the rule of law and the independence of courts, leading to prolonged conflict with the EU. He is being investigated on 26 charges, with prosecutors alleging that he ran a criminal group and abused his position through the misuse of resources from a fund designed to help victims of crime. He denies the allegations, and claimed asylum in Hungary in January. His move to leave Budapest coincides with the inauguration of the new pro-European government of Péter Magyar, who publicly said he would revoke the previous government’s decision to grant him protection and extradite the minister back to Poland. Ziobro confirmed his whereabouts in an interview with the right-wing broadcaster Republika TV which also announced him as their “political commentator” based in the US. “I am in the United States, I arrived yesterday,” he said, adding the US was “an extremely complex, beautiful country, the strongest democracy in the world,” and Poland’s “ally, the guarantor of Poland’s security.” Ziobro had his Polish passports revoked last year as part of the investigation into 26 alleged abuses of power, but given his asylum status in Hungary, he was given an international refugee passport. “These are well-known procedures associated with granting a citizen the right of asylum, [when] one also uses appropriate documents that allow them to move around the world. I have had such a document all the time and I used it effectively,” he told Republika. The so-called Geneva passport, however, would require a visa to enter the US, raising questions over whether the broadcaster, with close links to Donald Trump and the US Republicans, may have applied for a US visa for the former minister. Despite being wanted by Poland under domestic law, a follow-up motion to issue a European Arrest Warrant has yet to be decided by courts. Ziobro insisted that he “will gladly stand before any court, and an … American court is certaintly an independent court.” “If they want to bring an extradition case, go ahead; as prosecutor general [in the past], I remember my battles in extradition cases involving the US, and it is a demanding procedure,” he said. The former minister doubled down on his claims that he could not face a fair trial in Poland, implying that Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk would try to politically interfere with his case. “That’s the advantage of this situation, this American freedom,” he said. “You can fight [in court] on fair terms, before an independent American court, and certainly, if such a moment comes, I will do so and not have a single bit of fear that Donald Tusk will have an influence on the case by handpicking a judge.” Poland’s deputy foreign minister Marcin Bosacki told journalists on Monday morning that Polish authorities were “clarifying the matter and looking forward to serious talks with our American partners on how did Zbigniew Ziobro end up in the United States?” “We very much hope that this matter will not cast a shadow over … traditionally good bilateral relations between Poland and America,” he said. Bosacki revealed that “not so long ago the American ambassador assured us that the United States had no intention of hosting Zbigniew Ziobro on its territory.” Separately, Poland’s public prosecutor’s office said it was investigating the circumstances surrounding his travel to the US to determine if anyone helped him to “flee and evade criminal responsibility, thereby obstructing the investigation” into alleged irregularities. “Everything suggests the suspect, Zbigniew Ziobro, has chosen to continue evading the Polish justice system,” the prosecutor’s office’s spokesperson, Przemysław Nowak, told a press conference. “Zbigniew Ziobro has not had a passport for many months, so one thing is certain: [he] certainly did not enter the United States under general rules,” Nowak said. He also said the prosecutors will ask the US to clarify if Ziobro or his deputy, Marcin Romanowski, who also claimed asylum in Budapest but reportedly left over the weekend, were granted US visas. If the US confirmed it granted Ziobro a visa, prosecutors would seek to request extradition from the US, he said, but warned that it would likely be an extremely complex “and often difficult” procedure and could take even “years”. “The extradition procedure with the United States is usually lengthy and is not an easy procedure. I am speaking of … ‘a standard’ extradition, when it concerns non-media proceedings and persons … on standard terms. Well, there is a suspicion that perhaps in this case we have certain non-standard rules for crossing the border by the suspect,” he said. (Amazingly, Nowak said the extradition process was last updated in 2006, when Ziobro was… the justice minister.)

Researchers find 42% drop in Canadians visiting US metro areas amid Trump 2.0

A new research tool that tracks cell phone activity has found a 42% drop in visitors from Canada to big metropolitan areas in the US that is much higher than official border-crossing data, suggesting Canadians during the second Trump administration are avoiding US cities in particular. Researchers from the University of Toronto said the tool showed a “year-over-year median decline of approximately 42% in Canadian visits to US metropolitan areas – significantly higher than official border-crossing data, which showed a roughly 25% decline”. The economies of US border towns reliant on Canadian traffic have been slammed as their northerly neighbours think twice about travelling to the US, put off by immigration enforcement operations and border crackdowns, and anger at Donald Trump’s tariffs and his threats of making Canada “the 51st state”. But the researchers said that their data also showed steep declines in Canadian visitors to cities, in states such as New York, New Hampshire and Vermont. It also found declines to major tourist destinations such as Las Vegas and Walt Disney World, and to winter recreation areas, including in Florida – typically a central destination for overwintering Canadians. The researchers analyzed Canadian devices travelling to US metro areas between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2026. As potential explanations of why the 42% figure is so much higher than border crossing estimates, they noted that cell phone data also captured freight traffic, which border crossings do not, and could also track changes in Canadians previously living in the US who left. On the blog that accompanies the tool, the researchers said they were struck by “the marked decline in visits to large metropolitan economies”. “High-tech and financial centers like San Francisco and Houston appear to be experiencing reductions not only in tourists but also in business-related travel, reflecting changing travel preferences due to broader economic uncertainties on both sides of the border,” they wrote. Karen Chapple, director of the School of Cities at the University of Toronto and a co-author of the report, said one finding that popped out to her immediately was the decline in travel to Grand Rapids, Michigan, a city with “deep economic connections with Ontario because of the auto industry”. “There used to be a lot of back and forth between the two places” for work purposes, Chapple said. Since the US imposed tariffs on some Canadian goods including vehicles, however, fewer Canadians appeared to be travelling there. The researchers also noted that their data measured “not only Canadians crossing the border, but also Canadians living temporarily in the US, suggesting that the decrease in activity may reflect return migration to Canada”. According to data from the Canadian government, the number of Canadian-resident return trips from the US was down 25% in 2025, while the number of trips to Canada by US residents also decreased, albeit by 7.5%.

Disappearances in Mexico involving state at ‘alarming’ rate, says report

State actors are involved in disappearances in Mexico at an “alarming” rate, according to a report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The sweeping investigation, to which the Guardian was given exclusive access, presents a dire picture of the crisis of disappearances in Mexico, where more than 130,000 people have gone missing, mostly in the last 20 years since the government declared its war on drug cartels. While criminal gangs are responsible for the vast majority of disappearances, the IACHR report found that “many of the disappearances committed by organised crime occur in deep collusion and coordination with state agents”. Meanwhile, “disappearances committed [directly] by state agents have not yet been eradicated”, the report reads, noting that, in some parts of the country, at times there were almost as many disappearances carried out by government officials as there were by criminals. The report also described an “alarming” number of cases involving “torture, forced disappearances and disappearances which include state security actors”. Forced disappearance – where a person is detained, extrajudicially killed by the state and their body then destroyed or hidden – has a long history in Mexico, going back to the country’s so-called dirty war of the 1960s and 70s where dissidents were even thrown out of planes and into the Pacific Ocean. In more recent years, the tactic has been adopted by organised crime groups to sow terror in local communities, intimidate rivals or erase evidence of homicides by burning bodies, burying them in mass graves or dissolving them in vats of acid. In the last 10 years, disappearances have increased by more than 200%. However, as the IACHR report makes clear, state actors are often involved, either directly by snatching people from their homes or cars without warrants and handing them off to criminal groups, or indirectly by looking the other way as these crimes take place. The IACHR also found that “organised crime in Mexico recruits state agents in charge of security tasks, law enforcement, and even political authorities”. Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and her government have repeatedly rejected such assertions. When the United Nations intimated last year that there was possible evidence of enforced disappearance in Mexico “being practised on a widespread or systematic basis”, Sheinbaum did not mince words. “In Mexico there is no forced disappearance by the state,” the president said during a press conference. “We have fought against that all our lives; that does not exist in Mexico.” When the UN last month stated that there were “indications that enforced disappearances in Mexico have been and continue to be committed as crimes against humanity”, the Mexican government was equally prickly, rejecting the report as “biased and dismissive”. Activists say this is part of a wider effort to underplay the seriousness of the issue. In March, the authorities presented a report suggesting that a third of disappearance cases lacked sufficient data to be found, in effect washing their hands of about 40,000 missing people. “They were trying to minimise the scale of the problem and put the responsibility on families to carry out the search,” said Maria Luisa Aguilar Rodríguez, the head of the Centro Prodh human rights centre. This too is a critical issue according to the IACHR, which said: “Given the magnitude of disappearances and the meagre state response, it has been the families themselves who have organised into collectives to search for their loved ones. As a result, they face a series of institutional challenges and risk their lives.” Chillingly, the report describes how “disappearance affects entire families in Mexico, several of whom have lost almost all their relatives because of this crime, or by searching for them, other family members have also been disappeared or killed”. Since 2010, at least 27 people who were looking for lost family members have been killed, most of them mothers. The IACHR report did recognise that, in the last few years, the Mexican government had “adopted a series of actions to confront disappearances”, including reactivating the National Search Commission to find the missing, and recognising the problem as a humanitarian crisis. But the country continues to grapple with a forensics fiasco; there are 70,000 dead bodies in state custody that are yet to be identified, according to the report. Meanwhile, Mexico’s feeble justice system has been unable to meet the demands of such a catastrophic crisis. “Impunity in Mexico is an insurmountable problem,” the IACHR said. Since 2014, just 357 people have been charged with the crime of disappearance or enforced disappearance and of those, just nine have been convicted. “The numbers are staggering,” said Aguilar.

Evacuated US and French MV Hondius passengers test positive for hantavirus

A French woman and an American national evacuated from the cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak have tested positive for the virus, as the complex operation to repatriate those onboard continued on Monday. The French woman was one of five French passengers who disembarked from the ship in Tenerife on Sunday before being flown to a hospital in Paris. The French health minister, Stéphanie Rist, said the woman was in a serious condition on Monday. Rist said the woman started to feel very unwell on Sunday night and “tests came back positive”. Rist told France Inter radio: “Unfortunately, her symptoms worsened overnight.” She is being treated in a specialised infectious diseases unit of a hospital in Paris. An American passenger who was flown to Nebraska along with 16 others on Sunday evening also tested positive but had no symptoms. The US health department said one American national evacuated from the ship had tested positive for the Andes strain – the only hantavirus strain that is transmissible between humans – and another had “mild symptoms”. Personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks began escorting the travellers from ship to shore in Tenerife in the Canary Islands on Sunday in an effort that was continuing on Monday. More than 100 people of 23 nationalities are to be evacuated in less than 48 hours in an operation described by Spanish authorities as “complex” and “unprecedented”. Three passengers from the MV Hondius – a Dutch couple and a German woman – have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents. No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, from where the ship departed in April. But health officials have said the risk for global public health is low and played down comparisons with the Covid-19 pandemic. Rist said 22 more contact cases had been identified among French nationals, including eight people who had travelled on a 25 April flight between Saint Helena and Johannesburg, and 14 more on a flight between Johannesburg and Amsterdam. The Dutch woman who died was on the flight to Johannesburg and later briefly boarded a flight to Amsterdam but was removed before takeoff. Health authorities in several countries have been tracking passengers who had already disembarked from the ship, plus anyone who may have come into contact with them. The French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, will hold a meeting of medical advisers and ministers this afternoon to follow the issue. The French government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, told BFMTV that it was important not to spread a sense of “panic”. She said: “We’re following the situation with the greatest vigilance, on the basis that it is a virus that we know, that a 42-day isolation period has been decided and the objective remains the same: protecting the French people.” The repatriation operation in Tenerife evacuated 94 people of 19 different nationalities on Sunday, the Spanish health minister, Mónica García, said. Spanish officials said the evacuation of most of the ship’s nearly 150 passengers and crew, which includes 23 nationalities, would continue until the final repatriation flights to Australia and the Netherlands on Monday afternoon. The ship will refuel in the morning and is expected to depart for the Netherlands with about 30 crew members on Monday evening. Passengers wearing blue medical suits began disembarking the Dutch-flagged vessel on Sunday to reach the small industrial port of Granadilla on Tenerife. They boarded Spanish army buses and travelled to Tenerife South airport in a convoy before boarding their repatriation flights. The World Health Organization recommends a 42-day quarantine and “active follow-up”, including daily checks for symptoms such as fever, the UN body’s lead for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, Maria Van Kerkhove, said in Geneva.

Hantavirus cruise ship passengers enter isolation facility after evacuation to UK

Passengers evacuated to the UK from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak are spending their first day at an isolation facility after being repatriated from Tenerife. A chartered Titan Airways flight transported the MV Hondius passengers from the Canary Islands to Manchester airport on Sunday evening. The evacuation of passengers of all nationalities will be completed on Monday, with flights arriving from Australia and the Netherlands, Spain’s health minister has said. The UK’s initial Covid quarantine site at Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral, Merseyside, is being used to house 20 British passengers who were tested for hantavirus before boarding the flight. One German national, who is a UK resident, and one Japanese passenger are also being monitored there. The Japanese passenger, whom the UK government took at Tokyo’s request, will complete their isolation in line with UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) guidance. A flight from Australia will evacuate six passengers from Tenerife and another from the Netherlands will take 18 passengers, with both flights also carrying passengers from other countries that did not send their own repatriation flights, officials have said. Eight people no longer on the ship have fallen ill, according to a World Health Organization tally from Friday, of whom six are confirmed to have contracted the virus. Three people have died – a Dutch couple and a German national. On Sunday, the US Department of Health and Human Services said one of the 17 Americans being repatriated had tested positive for the Andes strain of the virus while a second had mild symptoms. The French health minister said a French passenger had tested positive for the virus, and that their health was deteriorating. It was unclear whether these two cases were included in the six reported by the WHO. For those on the journey back to the UK, strict infection control measures were in place, with passengers, crew, drivers and medical teams all wearing personal protective equipment such as face masks. Within a 72-hour period, the passengers are to receive clinical assessments and testing at the isolation facility, which has six floors of self-contained flats with their own bedrooms, en suite bathrooms, kitchen and lounge facilities. Janelle Holmes, the chief executive of Wirral university teaching hospital NHS foundation trust, told the media that Arrowe Park would carry out “welfare checks on each individual”. She said: “There’s nobody being transferred to us that has been symptomatic in any way. There’s no impact on the hospital. Services are running as normal, patients should still attend their appointments.” Holmes said that if passengers developed symptoms, they would be taken to Royal Liverpool university hospital, which houses the regional tropical and infectious diseases unit. She said hantavirus was “very different” to Covid and that the risk to the general public was “really low”. She added: “You’ve got to have really, really close contact. It’s not like Covid or flu or those types of viruses.” During the period passengers are at Arrowe Park, public health specialists will assess whether they can isolate at home or at another location, based on their living arrangements. Those returning to the UK will stay in self-isolation for 45 days and will not be allowed to take public transport to their homes. During their isolation period, passengers will have daily contact with UKHSA health protection teams to check on their wellbeing and ensure they are supported to isolate safely. The public health minister, Sharon Hodgson, said: “None of the passengers are symptomatic, but we will monitor them closely over the next 72 hours at the hospital, as part of a precautionary isolation period. With no cases or symptoms among them and both our stringent monitoring and isolation measures, the risk to the public remains extremely low.”

‘It was either this or the pool’: hantavirus ship becomes latest Tenerife tourist attraction

On a dusty hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in the south of Tenerife, groups of tourists and locals are gathered to witness one of the island’s best new attractions. Some are gazing through binoculars while others are taking photos on their phones of a vessel only a few hundreds metres away, anchored near the Granadillo commercial port. It is the MV Hondius, the small cruise ship at the centre of a giant global commotion. Christened the “rat virus boat” by the internet after three people travelling onboard died of hantavirus, a disease normally carried by rats and mice, its story has enraptured people all over the world. And now, after reaching the Canary Islands shortly before dawn on Sunday, the ship is finally being evacuated, ending the ordeal for the remaining 149 passengers and crew. The scene is watched from the hire car of Amy Byres and Emma Armitage from Sheffield, on holiday in Tenerife for Byres’s 22nd birthday. “We’ve got some time to kill before our flight later,” Armitage said. “It was either this or lay by the pool all day,” added Byres. The pair said they had spent their holiday fascinated by the story of the passengers trapped on board and confined to cabins, in between their whale-watching and quad biking activities. “We saw this at the start of our trip – we arrived on Monday – and we’ve been following it all week on TikTok,” Byres said. “We were looking at TikTok trying to find out where it was and then we saw the name of the port and came here. It’s just really interesting, isn’t it?” The novelty has attracted dozens of others who came to the island to enjoy sun, sand and cerveza (beer) – and stayed for the international rescue operation. But down at the dock, the mood is more sober. First, only a handful of Spanish passengers appear, looking dazed and bewildered, wearing face and hair coverings and large blue ponchos over their clothes. Clutched in one hand are small plastic bags containing only a few possessions. The rest of their luggage needs to remain on the ship to be taken to the Netherlands for decontamination. It is the first time many of them have been outside since they were locked down in their cabins several days ago, after the deaths of a Dutch couple and a German passenger. It took a while for the cause to be diagnosed as hantavirus. The disease, though not uncommon, is rarely spread person-to-person. The variant is not new, and health bodies have sought to reassure people that it is a known pathogen, not a new disease such as Covid-19. There are few parallels with the virus that caused the global pandemic in 2019 but all over the world people have feared what would happen if another disease was able to get out of control. The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus repeated the refrain that the outbreak was “not the start of a Covid pandemic” dozens of times in the lead up to the 24-hour evacuation period in Tenerife. The passengers and crew from 23 countries are being repatriated thanks to an enormous international effort led by the WHO and coordinated by the Spanish government, which offered Tenerife as a base to launch the rescue. It was Spain’s obligation under international law to offer the Canaries’ assistance as one of the closest territories that had the resources to help and, on Sunday, the plan appeared to be being successfully executed. Boatload after boatload of blue plasticky figures appeared, to be loaded on to coaches by health workers in hazmat suits and face masks. Inside, plastic sheets cover the seats and, in scenes reminiscent of the Covid-19 pandemic, hazard tape marks seats that cannot be used. Those leaving the ship are not allowed to sit next to each other. But what happens when each passenger gets home is a matter of some contention. While the WHO recommends each passenger isolate for 45 days from the last contact point, 6 May, it cannot enforce that. The UK and Spain have put in place hospital quarantines for those coming off the ship but many countries have not. Causing further concern is the absence of testing. Those onboard have had their temperatures taken by WHO tropical medicine doctors and have shown no symptoms of a possible infection. But only a PCR test would confirm whether hantavirus – which has an incubation period of up to eight weeks – is present in their systems. Every country would need to carry out their own. Among the media brought to the island by the MV Hondius’s arrival, questions were being asked about whether this was enough. Tedros was asked at a press conference at the Granadilla port late Saturday night whether allowing passengers to travel all over the world and relying on them to self-isolate with no oversight could cause further outbreaks. “Based on our assessment, what you have said is not going to happen,” he told the media. The planned approach by the US caused particular alarm, after the country’s withdrawal from the WHO last year. Returning passengers to the country are being asked to self isolate, something an American journalist asked Javier Padilla Bernáldez, the Spanish secretary of state for health, for his opinion on. He said the European Commission and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control were “trying to achieve a certain degree of coordination, and not a high variation among the different countries”. “But every country has its own confidences,” he said.

Monday briefing: Will the international effort to stop the further spread of hantavirus be successful?

Good morning. This is Michael Segalov – as of today, I’ll be popping up into your inboxes from time to time. There’ll be no shortage of infighting, intrigue and briefing in Westminster this week, as the dust settles on the government’s disastrous election results. We’ll be bringing you the latest on backbench MP Catherine West’s (likely futile) attempt to topple Keir Starmer, alongside the rest of the fallout. Today, though, we kick off with something else … the race to contain a rare, deadly virus. On 2 May, the outbreak of a lethal hantavirus strain onboard a luxury cruise liner was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). As of this morning, nine probable cases have been identified, with three fatalities. It has left experts scrambling to conduct a track-and-trace exercise of global proportions. While 149 passengers and crew remained on the ship once the virus had been identified, at least 29 passengers of 12 nationalities had already disembarked. Seven of them were British. For today’s First Edition, I spoke to infectious diseases epidemiologist Dr Charlotte Hammer, and our reporter Robyn Vinter who is on the ground in Tenerife where the ship has been evacuated. But first, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Keir Starmer faces a fight for his political life in the next 24 hours as potential Labour leadership rivals from Wes Streeting to Angela Rayner position themselves for a contest. Iran conflict | Donald Trump has rejected an Iranian response to a US peace proposal as “totally unacceptable”, on a day the ceasefire showed signs of fraying as drone strikes were reported around the region and Benjamin Netanyahu warned the war was “not over”. UK news | Labour has accused Nigel Farage of attempting to dodge scrutiny as the Reform leader continued to face questions over the £5m gift he received from a crypto billionaire shortly before the last general election. Business | The full nationalisation of British Steel is expected to be announced in the king’s speech this week, a year after the government took over the daily running of the loss-making business from its Chinese owner. Health news | Experts have called for a four-day week in the UK as research suggests those who work longer hours are more likely to be obese. In depth: ‘You follow and monitor anyone who may have been exposed to the virus’ Departing Argentina on 1 April, passengers onboard the MV Hondius embarked on an Atlantic adventure to Cape Verde, via some of the world’s most remote locations. A dream holiday turned into the stuff of nightmares when a deadly pathogen found its way on to the ship. Within days, symptoms were showing: fever and gastrointestinal issues, pneumonia and breathing difficulties. On 11 April, a 70-year-old Dutch man died onboard, while his 69-year-old wife died two weeks later in Johannesburg, having travelled to South Africa. A third passenger, a German woman, died on 2 May. Currently, there are at least a further six probable or confirmed cases from this outbreak, including the ship’s doctor and one of its guides. Three of those patients are British. When the ship arrived in Cape Verde, authorities refused to let it dock. On 6 May, it headed to the Canary Islands. Anchored beyond the shores of Tenerife, the first tranche of passengers disembarked yesterday, under tightly controlled conditions. The remaining 22 British nationals onboard (19 passengers, three crew) were taken to shore, with 20 of them transferred to a Merseyside hospital to isolate. *** What is hantavirus? Dr Charlotte Hammer leads an infectious disease research team at Cambridge University, and previously worked on the frontline in public health, investigating outbreaks just like this one. “All the evidence suggests this is a known strain of hantavirus,” says Hammer, “which makes the mission to contain it far easier”. First identified in the mid-twentieth century, hantaviruses are zoonotic – primarily infecting rodents and occasionally transmitting to humans. The specific strain onboard is known as the Andes hantavirus. It can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. “It’s transmitted from specific species of rodent,” says Hammer, “and we already have evidence of it transmitting from human to human. But being on a boat with 20 plus nationalities represented makes it a challenge in both epidemiology and international coordination.” *** The disease detectives Once the WHO identified and confirmed the outbreak, Hammer says, attention turned to the patients’ stories. “Hypotheses developed to establish how transmission happened,” says Hammer. “Systematically, you eliminate all incorrect options. Simultaneously, we are studying published reports and studies on this strain of virus. Past and present evidence come together to form a coherent picture. It’s why we call these experts ‘disease detectives’.” As the ship is flagged to the Netherlands, Dutch authorities were involved early. “En route to the Canary islands, Spanish authorities also stepped in. The WHO leads the international coordination, with all countries affected or with nationals onboard contributing. There’ll be a rolling team working 24/7.” Currently, says Hammer, the most likely scenario “is that one or two people caught the virus while travelling in South America prior to embarking, and they brought it on to the ship, with limited person-to-person transmission on the ship itself”. *** Anatomy of an outbreak From that point on, containment is key. “You follow and monitor anyone who may have been exposed to the virus,” says Hammer. “As a precautionary measure, that includes everyone who embarked on the cruise.” While utterly miserable for the passengers themselves, the outbreak occurring onboard a cruise ship is a massive benefit for public health. “Cabins are tight and small with limited air circulation,” says Hammer. “Passengers remain in close, sustained contact for extended periods of time.” But, once the outbreak was identified, keeping the remaining passengers onboard until their tightly choreographed departure was organised was relatively straightforward. Slightly trickier was the task of tracking down the 29 passengers who disembarked early. “But thanks to the isolated nature of the locations where they departed the ship,” Hammer says, “all will have had some sort of traceable ticket. Plus, they have a rather pressing motivation to identify themselves to the authorities – it’s a scary disease. And given how much attention this story has received globally, the chances they’ll be unaware are low.” *** Crisis Averted In short, says Hammer, there’s little risk posed to the public. “This type of virus requires significant close contact for human-to-human transmission to occur.” And while there is a short, initial period of milder symptoms, the onset of serious illness is rapid. “If this was a virus like Covid – with relatively easy pre-symptomatic transmission in transient contexts – it would be close to impossible to control by this point.” Overnight, two more passengers displayed symptoms of the virus and another tested positive. One French national showed symptoms while on a chartered flight to Paris, leading all five nationals onboard to be placed in “strict isolation”. US authorities said that of the 17 Americans returning home, one has tested positive but does not have symptoms, while another has mild symptoms. Both were “travelling in the plane’s biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution,” the US Department of Health and Human Services said. Robyn Vinter has been on the ground in Tenerife all weekend. “Throughout Sunday, dozens of people were brought to shore in blue plastic ponchos and face coverings,” Robyn tells me. “From where I was standing, it was hard to gauge their expressions. But their body language portrayed exhausted, even bewildered, people. By early evening, flights had taken off bound for several countries, including the UK. Today, the process will happen all over again for passengers from the US and Australia, who will be the last passengers to leave. After that, the seas are due to get too rough, and the ship will return to the Netherlands.” The experts stress there is no need to panic about this specific outbreak. This virus has been known for decades. And while rare, it is not uncommon. “Argentina sees 50-100 cases annually,” says Hammer, “even if we aren’t used to dealing with hantaviruses of this type in Europe. I would be surprised if any of this was a massive challenge for the authorities beyond the practical logistics.” The WHO has repeatedly made clear this is not the start of a pandemic, with risks to public health “absolutely low”. Still, this scare should offer a moment for reflection. “Another pandemic is certainly likely,” says Hammer, “even if the timescale remains unknown.” Much like this incident, she believes “it will probably originate from a zoonotic virus through human-to-animal contact, and through some sort of major transport hub.” A global, coordinated response will prove vital. Meanwhile, the United States has slashed funding for infectious disease research under Trump, and quit the WHO. Last year, Argentina followed suit. This relatively contained drama feels like a rather ominous warning. Your election questions, answered From 10am today, Guardian political journalists Jessica Elgot and Peter Walker will be answering your questions about the fallout from last week’s elections in an AMA over on Reddit’s r/ukpolitics forum. It’s not too late to get your questions in by heading here. (And if you have any questions you’d like First Edition to dig into in more detail hit reply on this email, or contact us on First.Edition@theguardian.com). What else we’ve been reading If you share your birthday with another significant date – Christmas Day, Valentine’s, St Patrick’s day – celebrating a half birthday might be just the ticket. What has led to the rise of this new special event? Katy Vans, newsletters team Spend your morning salivating over this colossal collection of sandwich-based stories (egg and cress, anyone?). Michael As someone trying to learn Welsh, a language legislated against for centuries before being added to the school curriculum in the 1990s, I found this piece by Sophie Smith Galer on what it means to lose a language, a must-read. Katy In schools and universities across the globe, educators are confronting the presence of AI. This account from one professor dealing with students producing “words without work” is fascinating. Michael It is the 25th anniversary of BalletBoyz, formed the same year as smash hit film Billy Elliot brought male dancing to the masses. Despite this there is still some stigma around men dancing on stage with other men. Katy Sport Football | Arsenal kept control of the title race with a 1-0 win but West Ham had an added-time equaliser ruled out for a foul on David Raya amid penalty area wrestling. Football | Goals from Marcus Rashford and Ferran Torres fired Barcelona to the La Liga title with their 2-0 victory at home to Real Madrid in the clásico. Women’s cricket | England’s biggest summer got off to an underwhelming start at Chester-le-Street, as they limped to a one-wicket win in the first one-day international against New Zealand. The front pages “Labour leadership rivals circle as Starmer tries to cling to power”, is the Guardian’s splash today. The Times goes with “PM fights to save his skin after Rayner ultimatum”, and the FT says “Starmer fights for his survival as threat of leadership challenge mounts”. The Telegraph has “Streeting: I’m ready to be PM”. The i Paper leads with “Today or never to save your job, Labour MPs tells Starmer”, the Mail says “Streeting and Rayner ready for Starmer’s fall” and the Mirror’s headline on the same topic is “Change … before it’s too late”. “Fight or go, challenger tells Starmer”, is the Metro’s front page. The Express leads with “How dare he, PM plots to rip up Brexit.” The Sun deviates from politics with: “Strictly: it’s Emma” Today in Focus The mysterious death of the teenager who posed as a Russian billionaire The journalist Patrick Radden Keefe tells Nosheen Iqbal how he tried to unravel the double life and tragic death of 19-year-old Zac Brettler – and what it tells us about London’s dark underbelly. Cartoon of the day | Tom Gauld The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Tilton, a small village in Leicestershire, launched a community electric car‑sharing scheme after residents struggled with transport access. The club offers two shared EVs and volunteer drivers, improving mobility for locals. Miriam Stoate, a local regenerative farmer, worked with other volunteers and community energy organisation Green Fox to set up this new scheme. In the UK transport is the largest source of carbon emissions, and despite rising EV sales, experts warn progress is too slow. Even if the government invests heavily in rail and buses, they won’t meet climate goals without reducing overall car use. Shared EV fleets and community‑led solutions are essential to cutting emissions and congestion. Says Stoate: “We now have a viable transport option that everyone can use without buying more and more cars – and it has helped to build our community, too.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

‘It’s like we went bankrupt overnight’: poorest Somalis suffer as piles of worthless shillings mount up

As US troops withdrew from Somalia in the spring of 1994, a teenaged Muse Omar Jama began working as an exchange trader in Mogadishu’s Bakara market. More than three decades later, he still does the same job, but wonders for how much longer. Jama, 49, sits in a plastic chair in the one-room office he shares with other traders. The auto-rickshaws speed by outside, but inside is quiet; the noise of bargaining has faded and the traders exchange few words between themselves. Their battered metal safes, filled with millions of Somali shillings, are closed and locked. The paper fortunes inside have suddenly become worthless. “It’s like we went bankrupt overnight,” says Jama. Last month, fed up with greasy, ripped and aged banknotes, a handful of traders in Mogadishu decided they would no longer accept them. Soon businesses, shops and even bus drivers were following suit, and the decision quickly spread to regions outside the capital. The impact on prices was immediate, pushing up everyday expenses such as groceries, medicines and public transport. A small bag of powdered milk, for example, more than doubled in price. Amid global food price rises and Somalia’s ongoing drought, poor people are bearing the brunt of the effects of an economy that is becoming completely “dollarised”. Somalia is one of the most remittance-dependent countries in the world. The diaspora sends billions annually – primarily in US dollars. These remittances flow into the economy via informal money-transfer operators, known as hawala in Arabic. The heavy presence of international bodies in Somalia – such as the UN, aid organisations, foreign forces and security firms – has further reinforced the use of US dollars. Somalia has not printed any banknotes since 1991, when the then government of Siad Barre was overthrown, the central bank ceased to operate, and the country gained the infamous title of “failed state”. In the following years, the 1,000 Somali shilling note, the highest-value bill, became the only officially recognised money in circulation. In the absence of an agreed unified currency amid factional conflict and politics – the breakaway territory of Somaliland launched its own shilling – the US dollar and phone transfers have become increasingly commonplace. Soon the only regions that accepted shillings were Mogadishu and some towns and districts in the country’s south. Before last month’s revolt from businesses, people from all walks of life would come to Jama’s office at Zoobe junction to exchange their shillings for dollars via mobile money, or vice versa, cashing in mobile remittances for Somali shillings. Now, just like hundreds of thousands of others who are not paid in dollars through banks, Jama’s life has been turned upside down. “Prior to the rejection of the Somali shilling, I was able to make enough to cover the basics such as rent, electricity and water,” says Jama. He now walks the three miles (5km) to work because he cannot use shillings on the bus. “The rejection of the Somali shillings has hurt poor people the most, even the beggars. They used to be given a couple of thousand Somali shillings by passersby and for them, it was a form of survival that helped them purchase food and small goods but now the notes they have are worthless,” Jama says. “When they come to me trying to exchange their Somali shillings for mobile money in dollars, I have to turn them away because my safes, shelves and tables are already full of Somali shillings that I’m unable to exchange for US dollars anywhere.” On 4 May, dozens of exchange traders staged a protest, waving wads of the old banknotes as they walked through the streets of Mogadishu, shouting: “Somalia is the only country without a currency.” Jama was too disillusioned to join them. “It doesn’t seem like things will ever be the same again. Our currency is dead and so is our way of life.” Asha Ali Ahmed, 39, who sells vegetables at what used to be her mother’s market stall in Mogadishu, has similar concerns. “We were raised off the earnings from this vegetable stand,” she says. “I would take the Somali shillings to [the farming town] Afgoye to buy vegetables, then return to Mogadishu and sell them in the market.” Now farmers refuse to accept the shillings and request payments in mobile money instead, increasing vegetable prices. “Vegetables were already expensive because of the drought,” she says. “The rejection of the shilling only exacerbated our situation.” Somalia is enduring a dire drought that has caused widespread crop failures, raising food prices and disrupting livelihoods. According to the World Food Programme, nearly a third of the country’s population, 6.5 million people, face severe hunger, and 2 million children under the age of five face acute malnutrition. “Most people who bought vegetables from my stand were people that could only afford to make purchases in shillings. Paying with mobile money means they have to pay more, and most can’t afford to,” says Ahmed. In a televised press conference, the federal government announced that the rejection of the Somali shilling would constitute a crime and ordered traders and businesses to continue accepting it. But Jama and others doubt the ruling can be enforced by the fragile state. “The government’s decree to save the shilling is good but we need action to back the directive. There are no police, or anyone for that matter, helping us,” he says. “What would help would be [for the government] to go to businesses and hold people accountable for refusing to accept the Somali shilling. Even fines would help,” he adds. Jama leans back in his chair. Across the street, guards stand watch behind mounted machine guns at the ministry of foreign affairs. “Millions are going to suffer,” he says quietly. “More families will be pushed into poverty.”