Headlines
American Passengers from Hantavirus-Infected Cruise Ship Evacuated to the U.S.
Passengers began disembarking from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, on Sunday morning, with the operation proceeding by nationality as individual countries’ evacuation flights became ready on the runway. The 17 American passengers aboard are being transported to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where teams will assess them for any necessary quarantine measures. As of Saturday, none of the 17 Americans had tested positive for hantavirus. Read More
Murdaugh Murder Conviction Overturned
The South Carolina Supreme Court overturned Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions and life sentence for the deaths of his wife and son, ruling that the court clerk at his trial improperly tampered with the jury to push a guilty verdict. Prosecutors say they plan to retry Murdaugh, who will remain behind bars on a separate 40-year federal sentence for financial crimes. Find out More
Gas prices have surged more than 50% since the Iran war began on February 28, hitting a high of $4.52 a gallon on Sunday. President Trump said in a CBS News interview that he wants to suspend the federal gas tax — 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel — for an unspecified period, though doing so would require an act of Congress and would cost the government roughly $500 million per week. See Details
Prices that consumers pay for a wide range of goods and services increased at a faster-than-expected pace in April, as another burst in energy prices raised further concerns about inflation’s impact on the U.S. economy — the consumer price index rose at an annual pace of 3.8%, the highest since May 2023. The report also contained bad news for workers, as real average hourly wages slipped 0.5% for the month. Source
Politics
The Republican-led South Carolina state Senate blocked a Trump-backed effort to redraw the state’s congressional map before midterm elections, with five Republicans joining Democrats to defeat the measure. South Carolina’s governor is expected to call lawmakers back for a special session to continue the redistricting push. Source
Sen. Chris Van Hollen questioned FBI Director Kash Patel about alleged excessive drinking during a Senate hearing, to which Patel shot back, accusing Van Hollen of misconduct during an El Salvador trip. The heated exchange escalated into each man offering to take an on-the-spot sobriety test in front of committee members. Source
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) of revealing classified information during his Sunday appearance on “Face the Nation,” escalating a political fight over congressional oversight of the Iran war. Kelly had publicly questioned what Americans are getting out of the conflict. Read More
The Senate voted on a motion to discharge S.J. Res. 163, a measure to direct the removal of U.S. armed forces from hostilities with Iran that have not been authorized by Congress, as debate continues over the legal basis for the ongoing military conflict that the Pentagon says has cost $29 billion so far. Find out More
The Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that blocked access to mail-order abortion pills. The case continues to make its way through the legal system. Source
Following Trump’s call to suspend the federal gas tax, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said Monday he would introduce legislation to halt the tax, while GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida announced a companion House bill. Several Democratic lawmakers had already introduced similar legislation ahead of the president’s comments. Read More
A federal judge scheduled a criminal trial for former FBI Director James Comey for July 15, advancing a case that has drawn significant political attention. See Details
U.S. News
Health experts and the WHO emphasized that the hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius does not pose a transmission risk comparable to COVID-19, noting that the Andes strain spreads only among people in close proximity and has not historically caused widespread outbreaks. The CDC classified the situation as a Level 3 emergency response, but said the overall public health risk to Americans remains extremely low. See Details
The Illinois Department of Public Health is investigating a potential hantavirus case in a Winnebago County resident with no connection to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, believed to have been acquired while cleaning a home where rodent droppings were present, with the CDC conducting additional testing. See Details
A federal court unsealed an indictment charging three defendants — Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, Synergy Maritime Pte Ltd, and a shoreside superintendent — with conspiracy to defraud the United States and with causing the death of six construction workers on the bridge, among other charges. The indictment alleges the economic loss in the case is at least $5 billion. See Details
The hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius remains a low risk to the general public as 18 passengers from the cruise ship arrived at specialized U.S. facilities, with several health officials saying Americans should not panic because the virus does not spread easily between people. One American passenger has tested positive and is under quarantine in Nebraska. Source
Parents Leila Turner-Scott and Angus Scott filed a lawsuit against OpenAI after their son Sam Nelson, 19, died after ChatGPT advised him it was safe to combine kratom with Xanax — an anti-anxiety medication — providing guidance the suit alleges the AI was not qualified to dispense. Read More
Business
Bank of America economists formally abandoned their forecast for any Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2026, pushing their first-cut expectation to the second half of 2027. JPMorgan laid out three inflation scenarios — all of which keep CPI above the Fed’s 2% target before early 2027 — as futures traders already price in zero cuts this year. Read More
U.S. consumers spent $757.1 billion on retail and food services in April, a 0.5% increase over March, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday, signaling continued consumer resilience even as war-fueled energy costs keep inflation elevated. Source
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang joined President Trump’s China trip as part of the U.S. delegation, potentially paving the way for exports of more advanced chips to China, with NVIDIA’s stock gaining on speculation that the summit could ease semiconductor export restrictions that have limited sales to the world’s second-largest market. Find out More
Rising inflation could lead to Social Security recipients receiving a cost-of-living adjustment of nearly 4% in 2027. That increase would boost the average monthly check to $2,152. See Details
Food prices rose 2.9% in April as fuel costs increased due to the Iran War. This was the highest year-over-year inflation increase for food prices since August 2023. Find out More
World News
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer remained in post despite a growing chorus of calls for his resignation, including four junior ministers who quit, with traders at their most bearish on the pound in five weeks and odds placing his chances of surviving beyond this year at 1-in-5. Labour lost nearly 1,500 seats in English local council elections last week, while the hard-right Reform UK party won 1,454 seats in England. See Details
A regional source close to the Iran negotiations told CNN that diplomatic progress is unlikely until the results of Trump’s Beijing meeting are clear, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi expected to attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Delhi at the same time, where Saudi and Egyptian mediators will also be present to facilitate back-channel talks. Find out More
The Philippine Senate was engulfed in chaos as gunshots were fired inside the building during a standoff over the ICC arrest of Sen. dela Rosa, while impeachment articles against Vice President Sara Duterte also arrived at the Senate for trial, piling one constitutional crisis atop another in Manila. See Details
Spain is coordinating the complex multinational evacuation of the MV Hondius with 22 countries and the World Health Organization, with nearly all countries sending evacuation aircraft for their nationals, and the EU providing two additional planes for passengers without assigned flights. The Spanish government insisted that all foreign nationals leave the Canary Islands promptly, even those requiring medical care. See Details
Entertainment
Hannah Harper, a 25-year-old wife and mother of three from Missouri, was crowned the winner of “American Idol” Season 24 during Monday night’s three-hour live finale on ABC. Harper is the first female country singer to win the competition since Carrie Underwood in Season 4, bursting into tears as she performed her coronation song with confetti falling around her. Source
The Miami police officers whose 2016 drug bust seized $22 million are suing Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s production company for defamation, claiming the Netflix movie ‘The Rip,” which was inspired by their operation, portrayed them as corrupt. Read More
The Netflix “Roast of Kevin Hart” generated significant backlash after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made a joke about George Floyd during the special, with Floyd’s family and representatives expressing outrage and accusing Hart of giving Hinchcliffe the green light to make the remark. Find out More
Former child star Hillary Duff is the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover girl. Duff rose to fame in the early 2000s in the Disney Channel hit show Lizzie McGuire, which ran from 2001 to 2004. Source
Sports
A Super Bowl rematch between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks kicks off the 2026 NFL season. The league made public its entire slate of games. Source
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke has died at 29, according to NBC Los Angeles. Paramedics responded to a 911 call at a home in the San Fernando Valley on Monday evening and found Clarke dead, with drug paraphernalia present, and the incident is being investigated as a possible overdose. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he was “devastated,” calling Clarke “a beloved teammate and leader who played the game with enormous passion and grit.” Source
Baseball’s coaching fraternity and former players flooded social media with tributes for Bobby Cox on Sunday, with Hall of Famer Andruw Jones calling Cox “a second father” and Deion Sanders describing him as “a good man, a good manager, a more than fair person.” The Dodgers honored both Cox and media mogul Ted Turner — who died earlier in the week — before Saturday’s game against the Braves. Read More
Several games from the 2026 NFL schedule leaked, including the Philadelphia Eagles traveling to Dallas to take on the Cowboys for the annual Thanksgiving Day game. See Details
The NFL ended a rule mandating all 32 teams to interview at least one minority candidate for assistant coaching positions. The state of Florida had threatened legal action, arguing the NFL’s “Rooney Rule” violated the state’s laws on racial discrimination. See Details
Off the Wall
British academics confirmed Thursday that a badly faded document sitting in Harvard Law School’s archives — purchased for less than $28 in 1946 — is in fact one of the world’s most valuable documents: an authentic original Magna Carta from 1300. A scholar said it took him “all of 30 milliseconds” to recognize its authenticity when he spotted it online. Source
J. Schuberth, a write-in candidate for Oregon governor who legally goes by “Pencil,” has been campaigning on Portland street corners to draw attention to the state’s last-place national ranking in fourth-grade reading. His campaign slogan leans into the name, arguing that a pencil is exactly what Oregon’s schools need. Source
A 22-year-old voice actor and content creator has rallied more than 370,000 online pledgers, totaling $337 million in commitments, to buy the bankrupt Spirit Airlines, proposing to run it like the publicly owned Green Bay Packers. An aviation mergers firm told him the plan is “doable,” though a court-ordered asset auction is fast approaching. Source
