MercoPress https://en.mercopress.com/ South Atlantic News Agency en Copyright 2026, MercoPress. https://en.mercopress.com/web/img/en/mercopress-logo.gif MercoPress http://en.mercopress.com/ <![CDATA[Labs across three continents confirm passenger-to-passenger spread on hantavirus cruise]]> Hantavirus shows a reduced capacity to mutate compared with other pathogens such as influenza or coronaviruses A comparative genomic analysis of five people infected aboard the polar cruise ship MV Hondius has confirmed that the hantavirus spread from passenger to passenger during the voyage, according to a study published on the open scientific platform Viriological and produced jointly by laboratories in South Africa, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The scientific finding supports the hypothesis handled since the outbreak began, which has left ten people infected and three dead, and completes the epidemiological picture after weeks of investigation.

]]> Tue, 12 May 2026 02:27:00 GMT <![CDATA[Over 70 Labour MPs call for Starmer's resignation after election rout]]> Photo: Ian Forsyth / Getty Images More than 70 Labour Party MPs have publicly called for the resignation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer following the electoral collapse the governing party suffered in last Thursday's local and regional elections. The count, which was rising hour by hour through Monday according to a tracker maintained by the specialist outlet LabourList, includes around ten parliamentarians who joined the pressure in the last 24 hours, alongside a trickle of resignations from government posts.

]]> Mon, 11 May 2026 20:27:00 GMT <![CDATA[Delcy Rodríguez defends Essequibo claim at The Hague under temporary EU sanctions waiver]]> For Venezuela, the Essequibo appears on its official maps as a “zone of reclamation.” For Guyana, the Venezuelan claim represents an existential threat to its territorial integrity Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday to defend her country's claim to the Essequibo, the border region disputed with Guyana, before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The trip, authorized under a specific waiver to the European Union sanctions imposed on her, marks her first major international journey outside the Caribbean since the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by US forces in January, which paved the way for her to assume office as interim leader.

]]> Mon, 11 May 2026 14:42:00 GMT <![CDATA[PM Starmer’s dreadful Monday: will a speech overcome the greatest challenge to his political future]]> President Trump has defined Sir Keir Starmer as a ‘loser with no future’ and has repeatedly said “he’s no Winston Churchill” UK’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer this Monday will be facing the greatest threat to his premiership and political future, with a speech in which he is expected to promise bolder action to tackle “big challenges” facing the country, as he battles to persuade his MPs not to ditch him as Labour leader.

]]> Mon, 11 May 2026 08:40:00 GMT <![CDATA[Trump calls Iran's response to his peace proposal “totally unacceptable”]]> Trump said on Truth Social that Iran had been “playing games” with the United States for 47 years and warned the country would “not be laughing any longer” US President Donald Trump described Iran's response to Washington's latest proposal to end the war that has pitted the two countries against each other since 28 February as “totally unacceptable” on Sunday. “I have just read the response from Iran's so-called 'Representatives.' I don't like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform.

]]> Mon, 11 May 2026 04:42:00 GMT <![CDATA[Trade, Iran and Taiwan dominate agenda of Trump-Xi summit beginning Wednesday in Beijing]]> Trump will attend the official welcome ceremony on Thursday, hold his bilateral meeting with Xi, visit the Temple of Heaven, and attend a state banquet China confirmed on Monday that US President Donald Trump will pay a state visit from 13 to 15 May at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. It will be the first trip by a US president to the country in nearly a decade —since Trump's own November 2017 visit— and will unfold against the backdrop of the US war against Iran, the fragile trade truce between the two powers, and the dispute over Taiwan's sovereignty.

]]> Mon, 11 May 2026 03:55:00 GMT <![CDATA[Up to 8,000 Latin Americans fight in Ukraine for Russia, many deceived, international report finds]]> In Peru, lawyers representing affected families report at least 13 dead, 73 missing, and more than 600 nationals recruited An international report presented in Kyiv in late April estimates that between 1,000 and 8,000 Latin Americans are serving in the Russian army in its war against Ukraine, in what its authors describe as a global human-trafficking network run to replenish front-line casualties. The document, titled "Fighters, Mercenaries or Victims of Human Trafficking?", was produced by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Ukrainian organization Truth Hounds, and the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights.

]]> Mon, 11 May 2026 03:51:00 GMT <![CDATA[British paratroopers drop onto Tristan da Cunha to treat suspected hantavirus case]]> 3.3 tonnes of medical equipment were airdropped in three batches, including bottled oxygen, the island's supplies of which had fallen to critical levels A British military team parachuted onto Tristan da Cunha on Saturday, the United Kingdom's most remote overseas territory, to assist a British national suspected of contracting hantavirus, in the first humanitarian operation of its kind carried out by the British Armed Forces. The island, home to 221 residents, has no airstrip and is normally accessible only by sea.

]]> Sun, 10 May 2026 17:08:00 GMT <![CDATA[US removes 13.5 kilos of highly enriched uranium from Venezuela's RV-1 reactor]]> The material, enriched above the 20 percent threshold separating low-enriched from highly enriched uranium, had been considered surplus since the reactor ceased operations in 1991 The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has completed the removal of 13.5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from the former RV-1 research reactor at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC), in Miranda state, in an operation coordinated with the United Kingdom, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and Venezuela's transitional government.

]]> Sat, 09 May 2026 14:59:00 GMT <![CDATA[Tenerife braces for race-against-time operation to evacuate 140 from MV Hondius]]> The operational window is narrow. Canary Islands government spokesman Alfonso Cabello warned that the evacuation must be completed between Sunday and Monday Spain faces a complex international operation in Tenerife on Sunday to evacuate the passengers and crew of the cruise ship MV Hondius, struck by a hantavirus outbreak that has left three dead and five laboratory-confirmed cases among the eight identified by the World Health Organization. The Dutch-flagged vessel, carrying more than 140 people and one body still on board, will anchor off the port of Granadilla between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. local time.

]]> Sat, 09 May 2026 06:43:00 GMT