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couldn’t moor, two stars
If this was a monster or outbreak movie, it would only end one way. Just stay well out of range of Trump’s missile capabilities.
If you were unaware, a luxury cruise is currently hovering around Cape Verde unable to moor due to the rare and deadly virus spreading on board. The MV Hondius had hosted 149 passengers from 23 countries, three of whom have now died with a further seven becoming infected.
The virus is called hantavirus, which is usually spread through contact with infected rodents and their urine, droppings, saliva, little plates of Italian food, whatever they leave behind. Reuters says the suspected strain is the Andes virus, which is one of the few known versions that can spread from person to person. The phrase ‘up shit creek without a paddle’ has never been more fitting.
The most cursed part is that this wasn’t some low-cost booze cruise full of sunburnt blokes in tight football shirts. It was a bougie expedition ship, the sort designed to make everyone onboard feel quietly superior about having chosen nature over all-inclusive excess.
It set sail from southern Argentina with maritime veterans excited to get stuck into exotic birdwatching and other eco-spiritual trimmings. However, despite probably spending less on health insurance than 20-somethings off for a weekend in Shagaluf, they’ve somehow ended up in a maritime nightmare that could be the basis for a disaster film with 38% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Reuters is saying that, at the time of writing, one British passenger is in intensive care in South Africa and Oceanwide Expeditions is scrambling to work out where the ship can go next. The Canary Islands are being looked at as a possible option – which locals must be thrilled about – with containment zones obviously to be set up upon entry.
In terms of wider public risk, the official line is that it remains low. But that won’t provide much comfort to those trapped for another 900 miles aboard a floating quarantine with binoculars, body bags, and WHO briefings.
We wholeheartedly hope that the rest of the passengers make it home safe and get the treatment they need. I reckon a few refunds are probably in order too.
Keep track of the live story here.
🌿 touch grass
Gen Z leads birdwatching boom as more Britons reach for the binoculars – the guardian
Preferably in situations of less duress, Gen Z are also jumping on the bird watching bandwagon. The Guardian reports that almost 750,000 of us in the UK are now self-confessed bird watchers with the hobby being adopted at a rate second only to jewellery making. Some will be taken aback by this news, given our rap for having goldfish attention spans and numb dopamine receptors, but it makes sense given many of us are swapping algorithms for National Trust walks, early nights, and other things we used to take the piss out of our grandparents for. Damn that jay is strutting the driveway.
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Why hay fever sufferers have it worse than ever – the telegraph
The G20 is ridiculously nihilistic about the devastating impacts climate change is having on distant parts of the world, but what if they knew it’s directly linked to their itchy eyes and running noses? The Telegraph reports that hayfever sufferers now have it worse than in the 1990s because climate change is shifting flowering seasons of plants that release allergenic pollen. Warmer temperatures mean trees including birch, alder, and olive are firing out pollen earlier, stretching the season by 1 to 2 weeks. It doesn’t quite fit into the typical disaster rhetoric, but it’s a nice, seasonal ‘hold dat’ from nature for our incessant ignorance.
Spring sneezes coming earlier? 🌼 #ClimateChange is extending #HayFever season, with symptoms potentially starting as early as January for allergy sufferers.
Read our blog post on how rising temperatures are changing #Pollen patterns: https://t.co/ciMcf7w0sy pic.twitter.com/10Y7NgpOHd
— UK Health Security Agency (@UKHSA) April 3, 2025
👗 read the room
The Met Gala happened again, which meant the Thred office spent the morning trawling through photos befitting labels from stylish and creative to hilariously stupid. Given all that is going on in the world, it felt very inconsequential, and our deputy editor Charlie wanted to delve into the subject. His piece asks whether the obscene wealth, celebrity theatre, and $100,000 tickets being flaunted are becoming tiresome against a backdrop of war, inequality, and cost-of-living misery. Fashion undoubtedly deserves its flowers and funding, but you can’t dig people out for feeling like the whole shindig is misreading the room. Look at your credit balance, and then at Sam Smith.
