The Morning: The cruise from hell

Plus, election results, the trade deficit and a carnivore convention.

View in browser|nytimes.com May 6, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. President Trump said he was suspending his plan for the U.S. Navy to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz. And, in Indiana, challengers he backed mostly won primary races. We’ll get to more, below — including my favorite recipe for beef and broccoli. But first, let’s go to sea. The cruise ship MV Hondius near Cape Verde yesterday. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Seeking safe harbor It’s the plot of a horror movie: A mysterious virus creeps through a luxury cruise ship that’s following the spring migration of ocean birds out of the Antarctic. The bug, which can cause lung and kidney failure, isn’t supposed to be able to leap between humans. Except maybe it can? Three passengers are dead, and four more have fallen ill. The hantavirus crisis aboard the Hondius has been unfolding for nearly a month, and the uninfected passengers have been stuck aboard the whole time. The ship now sits at anchor near Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa, and was supposed to sail to the Canary Islands yesterday. Spanish officials said the vessel would need to be inspected before they could decide where exactly it might go. Officials from Oceanwide Expeditions, the ship’s operator, said they had locked down the cruise with “isolation measures, hygiene protocols and medical monitoring.” The World Health Organization advises against panic. “Based on the current information, including how hantavirus spreads, W.H.O. assesses the risk to the global population from this event as low,” the agency said yesterday. Still, yikes. Can you imagine? These trips are meant to be edifying, adventuresome, cool. The company that runs this one offers cruises for tens of thousands of dollars. (The Hondius is a handsome ship.) It offers quiet luxury. “The point of a cruise like this isn’t cocktails by the pool or reconfigured versions of Broadway shows,” Amy Virshup, The Times’s travel editor, told me. “It’s to explore faraway places, to learn about them from scientists, naturalists, people who can talk about the ecosystems you’re observing.” Instead, voyagers got a seaborne season of “The White Lotus,” with pathogens. Here’s what we know. The virus may be jumping between people. Typically, the microbe spreads from rodent droppings. Humans contract the disease when they inhale fine particles of dung or urine. But the W.H.O. isn’t ruling out human-to-human transmission here. “Some of the cases had very close contact with each other,” a health official said, adding that one couple may have been infected before they boarded the ship. Hantavirus is dangerous. The disease may be uncommon, but the C.D.C. says it has a fatality rate of 35 percent in the U.S. (it’s closer to 15 percent in Asia and Europe). It presents early on as a fever with chills, body aches, headaches. Shortness of breath follows and, in some instances, lung or heart failure. There’s no drug to treat it, so doctors have to rely on oxygen and heart-lung machines if things get bad. Last year, colleagues reminded me, Betsy Arakawa, wife of the actor Gene Hackman, died from the effects of the virus. Cruising is back. After getting walloped by the coronavirus pandemic, the cruise industry now sees more people aboard its ships than ever before. Some 35 million people took cruises in 2024, according to the industry’s trade association, up from 30 million in 2019. (Most people go to the Caribbean: water slides, rum punches, repeat. “Exploration” cruises of the sort the Hondius takes to the Antarctic and the Arctic carry about 1 percent of global passengers.) Quarantines are scary. Being confined to quarters on a ship infected with a virus can be terrifying. In 2020, my colleague Motoko Rich reported on a vessel quarantined in Japan at the start of the pandemic. “I know that stress and anxiety compromise my immune system,” one passenger told her. “But every day it’s anxiety-provoking when we see the ambulances line up on the side of the ship.” Jake Rosmarin, a travel influencer aboard the Hondius today, echoed that anxiety in a tearful social media post on Monday. “All we want right now is to feel safe, to have clarity and to get home,” he said. THE LATEST NEWS War in Iran The White House has insisted that the war is over, though Iranian missile and drone attacks have continued. Trump’s push for a deal relies on tactics that suggest he doesn’t understand Iran’s motivations, analysts say. Midterm Elections Indiana: Trump mostly prevailed in his attempt to punish Republican legislators who opposed his redistricting plans. At least five Trump-backed challengers won primary races. Ohio: Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican billionaire entrepreneur, and Amy Acton, a Democrat and the state’s former Covid czar, won their primaries and will face off in November’s race for governor. Michigan: Democrats kept their majority in the State Senate with a special election win. More on Politics Construction at the White House last month. Doug Mills/The New York Times Senate Republicans inserted $1 billion for Trump’s White House ballroom into an ICE spending package. Trump has previously said that the ballroom will be privately financed. The F.D.A. blocked publication of research showing that widely used Covid-19 and shingles vaccines were safe. The U.S. trade deficit grew more than 4 percent in March from February, after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Technology People fear that A.I. will replace their jobs, and economists warn that our social safety net isn’t ready for that possibility. But lawmakers are doing little to prepare. Five book publishers and a best-selling novelist accused Meta of stealing their work to help train A.I. models. Around the World One of the captive orcas at Marineland, a shuttered park in France.  Valery Hache/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images France: The country’s last two captive orcas are waiting for the government to decide whether to move them to another marine park or release them. China: A big national bet on wind power is paying off as the war in Iran strangles oil and gas supplies. Poland: The government is training civilians in defense tactics to prepare for a possible attack from Russia. THE MORNING QUIZ This question comes from our recent coverage. Click an answer to see if you’re right. (The link will be free.) Nina Westervelt for The New York Times Which designer dressed Chase Infiniti, Adut Akech, Skepta and Bill Skarsgård for this year’s Met Gala? Thom Browne Valentino Christian Siriano Gucci See which looks Times readers liked best. OPINIONS American kids are taking GLP-1 drugs. That’s a sign that the system has already failed to protect them, writes Julia Belluz. Here are columns by Bret Stephens on a Democrat who wants to restore old-school patriotism and Jamelle Bouie on John Roberts’s America. The Times Sale ends soon: Expand your knowledge with our experts. Take advantage of our best offer and gain understanding and insight in every area of life. Just $1 a week for your first year of unlimited access to news, culture, cooking and more. MORNING READS At a carnivore convention in Gatlinburg, Tenn. Juan Diego Reyes for The New York Times Where’s the beef? At Meatstock, carnivores shared their beliefs about the benefits of an all-protein diet and got up close with their favorite meatfluencers. “Cannot say”: The stand-up comic Chizi wants to be known for his jokes, not his defiance of China’s censors. “It’s easy to be a rebel,” he says. “It’s much harder to be a good comedian.” Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was the list of the Pulitzer Prize winners. TODAY’S NUMBER 22,000 — That is how many homes a developer plans to build in Pittsboro, North Carolina. The town’s current population is 5,000. Can its charms survive the growth? SPORTS N.B.A.: The Oklahoma City Thunder brought a 108-90 blowout to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals series. In the Eastern Conference, the Detroit Pistons looked like a real contender again with a 111-101 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Women’s hockey: Marie-Philip Poulin’s goal in triple overtime for the Montreal Victoire tied the semifinal series against the Minnesota Frost at 1-1. Here are the playoff standings. Subscribe to The Pulse, The Athletic’s morning newsletter, for more sports in your inbox daily. RECIPE OF THE DAY Gentl and Hyers for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Rebecca Bartoshesky. Here’s my super-simple recipe for a Chinese-takeout standby: beef and broccoli. The chef Jonathan Wu taught me the velveting technique that keeps the meat tender, and the chef Dale Talde taught me to swirl a little cold butter into the sauce at the end to make it luxurious. I figured out how to add chile crisp for spice all by myself. 🥩🥦 THE TONY AWARDS Daniel Radcliffe in “Every Brilliant Thing.” Sara Krulwich/The New York Times A lot of stars are acting on Broadway this season, which means a lot of stars received Tony nominations yesterday. John Lithgow, Daniel Radcliffe, Lesley Manville and Rose Byrne all picked up nods, as did two longtime Broadway favorites, Nathan Lane and Kelli O’Hara. “Liberation,” one of the candidates for best new play, won a Pulitzer for drama on Monday. Read about all the Tony nominees here. And consider the snubs and surprises. (Poor Lea Michele!) More on culture When “The Late Show” goes dark later this month, we’ll lose more than just Stephen Colbert, says Jason Zinoman, our comedy critic. Its last months have left him a little sentimental for generations of midnight laughs. We’re losing an institution, he writes. The New York Times’s “Book Review” podcast turned 20 last month. For its anniversary episode, our journalists look back at some of the titles, trends and turning points that defined the last two decades in publishing. Remember the implosion of James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces”? That’s where they start. Ferrantes and Mantels follow, along with much, much more. Late night hosts wondered why Trump was telling kids about nuclear weapons. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Ruthie Darling/NYT Wirecutter Remember that Mother’s Day is Sunday. The dutiful sons and daughters of Wirecutter assembled a sizable selection of gift ideas. (My mom hated even a card. “It’s just a Hallmark holiday,” she’d sniff.) Read Dwight Garner’s review of Siri Hustvedt’s memoir about her life with the writer Paul Auster, even if you’ll never read the book. Dwight’s electric: “She was blond and he was dark-haired; they were almost photonegatives. She looked as if she’d been in Bergman films. He was, visually, America’s Camus — wary, heavy-lidded, wreathed in cigarillo smoke, an intellectual turned out in black Levi’s and sheepskin-lined leather jackets.” Avoid miracle-cure supplements advertising on Facebook. Sometimes they’re selling things the authorities have classed as dangerous. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was abundance. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren If you received this newsletter from someone else, subscribe here. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving The Morning, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. 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