What happened
More than 20 British nationals are unable to leave the MV Hondius after a suspected hantavirus outbreak left three passengers dead. The vessel has been held offshore near Praia, Cape Verde since the weekend. Authorities there are refusing permission for anyone to come ashore. The ship, carrying 148 people, had been on a weeks-long voyage from South America.

Who said what
There are three reasons why the virus may have spread, said Donna Lu in The Guardian: the first is the “possibility of rodent contamination in the vessel itself”; the second is that the outbreak could have come from “land-based activities”; and “the third – but least likely – is person-to-person transmission”.

What next?
Vaithi Arumugaswami, an infectious disease researcher at University of California, Los Angeles, told Nature that hantaviruses do not pose a pandemic risk, but feels the incident is a warning that the viruses should be monitored and more research is needed to develop vaccines and treatments for them.

A Travel vlogger on board the MV Hondius, Jake Rosmarin, posted on social media: “We’re not just a story, we’re not just headlines, we’re people.”

What happened
Keir Starmer is to call for a nationwide response to rising antisemitism, warning that expressions of support alone are insufficient. Due to speak ahead of a Downing Street roundtable, he will point to a series of recent incidents – including a knife attack in Golders Green and cases of arson – as evidence of a worsening pattern.

Who said what
“It is not enough to simply say we stand with Jewish communities. We must show it,” Starmer is expected to say. Golders Green MP Sarah Sackman said there had been a “lack of vocal solidarity” from parts of the liberal left despite recent attacks leaving many Jewish people feeling unsafe.

“The racists have not got us here on their own. The state permitted this to happen,” said Danny Cohen in The Telegraph. “It seems that only now that there is Jewish blood on the streets have politicians begun to wake up to the racist toxicity that has been allowed to build in plain sight.”

What next?
What is needed now is “a response that recognises the seriousness and persistence of the threat”, said London Mayor Sadiq Khan in an opinion article for The Guardian. “We must always ensure that antisemitism carries real consequences.”

Hundreds of migrants, most of them from Haiti, left the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on foot last month in search of better living conditions further north, according to The Associated Press. Many Haitians have “lost hope of making it to the US” due to Trump administration restrictions on asylum seekers and instead now seek to “settle down in large Mexican cities”.

As Haiti faces widespread violence and serious humanitarian issues, more than one million people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands have fled the country to seek asylum.

According to Mexico’s national agency for refugees, 127,000 Haitians filed petitions for asylum in the country between 2020 and 2024, and Haitians account for about 25% of all claims filed in Mexico. Many arrive after lengthy journeys that include stops in countries such as Brazil or Chile.

Mexico’s asylum system is overwhelmed; the process is supposed to last just 45 business days, but in reality “the wait can take more than one year”, said The Haitian Times.

Those who are able to find work while waiting are usually restricted to low-paid, irregular jobs such as construction or street vending. The language barrier can often impose further limitations, with many refugees speaking limited Spanish.

But despite the challenges, many Haitians have been able to build a better life in Mexico. “Haitians are very resilient,” Andrés Ramírez, former co-ordinator of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid, told Yucatán Magazine. “They can integrate into Mexican society despite coming from quite a different culture.”