Three Evacuated After Rat Virus Concern on Cruise Ship

Three passengers were evacuated from a cruise ship after rat virus concerns, and Spanish authorities said the vessel would still dock in Tenerife. The passengers taken off the ship were a Briton, a Dutch passenger and a German passenger, while all remaining passengers were said to be asymptomatic.

Tenerife Docking Plan

The plan is for the cruise to arrive in Tenerife, where the next steps split by nationality. Non-Spanish passengers are to be repatriated to their countries after arrival, while Spanish passengers are to be taken to a military hospital in Madrid for quarantine.

Cape Verde Decision

The Canary Islands government leader said healthy passengers could leave the ship in Cape Verde, a detail that shows how the response moved before Tenerife became the destination for formal handling. That left the vessel moving with a reduced group on board and a public-health process waiting at the next port.

Merz And Trump

The cruise case was one part of a broader news cycle that also included Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, marking his first anniversary in the job. In an interview with ZDF released today, Merz said, "We speak on the phone regularly, but a good partnership also involves differences of opinion," and added, "We have disagreements, but I can live with that."

Merz also said he would "continue to speak my mind in the future" when asked about his relationship with Donald Trump. On 27 April, Merz said Iran was "humiliating" Washington at the negotiating table, a remark that sat alongside the more immediate cruise-ship response involving three evacuated passengers and the remaining travelers now heading toward Tenerife.