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KEY WEST, Fla. — Ruthie Browning dove into the calm, blue water off Key West, Fla., expecting to see “a big, old rock with stuff growing all over it.”

She was on a pilgrimage with other Black divers and community members, visiting sacred sites including one where a British slave ship — the Henrietta Marie — sank 326 years ago.

The vessel had delivered 200 enslaved people from West Africa to Jamaica and was heading back to Britain in 1700 — near the peak of the trans-Atlantic slave trade — when it was swallowed up in the churning waters of New Ground Reef where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Gulf of Mexico.

A concrete marker at the site memorializes the people on that ship.

As Browning and her group prepared to dive in early May, the water was calm. The marker, 20 feet below, was visible from the glassy surface. “I thought I’d look at it, pay my respects and that’ll be that,” she said.

But something unexpected happened. Tears filled her eyes. She gently told herself: If you can be quiet, maybe they will speak.

Staring at the monument, which is now a small living reef covered in corals and sponges, she felt her ancestors’ words: “My daughter, we’re so glad you’re here.”

Overwhelmed, Browning lingered by the marker bearing the words: “Henrietta Marie. In memory and recognition of the courage, pain and suffering on enslaved African people. Speak her name and gently touch the souls of our ancestors.”

She felt submerged in gratitude.

“Without their stamina, their spirit and survival, I wouldn’t be here today. None of us would be here today,” she said.

Pilgrimages aren’t meant to be easy

For the pilgrims in Key West, the gathering was an act of devotion, a quest for connection with their roots and for spiritually nourishing generations to come. They had tried to dive to the marker last summer, but the water was too choppy.

“The ancestors were not smiling down on us then,” said Jay Haigler, master diving instructor with Underwater Adventure Seekers, the world’s oldest Black scuba diving club. “This year was different.”

Such a pilgrimage was never meant to be easy, said Michael Cottman, who has written two books about the Henrietta Marie and was part of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers that installed the marker in 1992.

Cottman believes the site contains “spiritual turbulence.”

“Even if it wasn’t carrying enslaved people, it embodies the oppression of our people,” he said.

The group organized an annual pilgrimage in the 1990s, but it didn’t continue. The latest trip was spurred by an underwater interview project proposed by Stanford University anthropologist Ayana Omilade Flewellen, who serves on the board of Diving With a Purpose, a Black scuba diving nonprofit dedicated to documenting slave shipwrecks.

The submerged interviews also helped her connect as a pilgrim, Flewellen said. “I felt a kind of tenderness in my heart.”

The spiritual experience helped her process a traumatic history rooted in death and suffering.

“It’s hard to attach your life with this history,” she said. “The only way I could do that was turn toward what the divers were experiencing on this pilgrimage. That’s where it all bloomed and blossomed.”

Ancient ritual at African refugee cemetery

The pilgrims also gathered on land. At Higgs Beach on the south side of Key West, they visited a memorial and burial ground for 297 African refugees who died in 1860 after being rescued by the U.S. Navy from three slave ships — Wildfire, William and Bogota. Over 1,400 refugees were housed by the government in a compound and provided food and medical care, said Corey Malcom, the Florida Keys History Center’s lead historian.

While many were sent back to Africa, hundreds died due to the horrific conditions on the ships, he said.

Largely forgotten for decades, the grave site was discovered by historians and geologists using ground-penetrating radar. In 2010, a large pit containing 100 more bodies was located at a community dog park across the street. The area is now fenced off, Malcom said.

On Saturday, pilgrims met at the cemetery and held an emotional libation ceremony, a sacred, ancient ritual rooted in Afro-Caribbean spiritual tradition. One by one, group members tearfully thanked their ancestors and poured white rum on the beach. The clear spirit is believed to act as a messenger, inviting ancestral souls for their blessings.

“To honor your ancestors and the road they’ve traveled is very, very important because we’re all connected,” said Addeliar Guy, one of the elders and an avid diver.

Underwater monument represents a living history

Joel Johnson trained for weeks for his first open-water dive at the Henrietta Marie site. Johnson, the president and CEO of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, said what surprised him as he approached the monument was the vibrancy surrounding it. Fish darted among the corals that swayed with the currents; shells rested on the sandy bottom.

Conservation and protecting these habitats also preserve the history below the waves, Johnson said.

“This was not a place of death, but a place of life,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I was grieving for my ancestors. I felt like I was in the stream of history, recognizing that I’m a part of that. It made me happy.”

While underwater, Michael Philip Davenport, president of Underwater Adventure Seekers, was inspired to create art showing ancestors emerging from the monument.

“Their spirituality is still in that space,” he said. “I was feeling their lives and their tragedy.”

Dr. Melody Garrett, an anesthesiologist, started training with Diving With a Purpose in 2011 and has gone on missions to find the Guerrero, a Spanish pirate ship that wrecked in 1827 while carrying 561 enslaved Africans.

“A pilgrimage like this is so important now more than ever because there is an effort to cover up, rewrite and change history,” she said. She cited the Trump administration’s moves to remove references to slavery and Black history at National Park Service sites and federal museums, labeling it as divisive “anti-American propaganda.”

For Garrett, seeing these pieces of history gives her a strong sense of identity as an American, as the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday.

“Black people have been here since before this country’s inception, longer than many other people have,” she said. “This is our country.”

Exhibit displays shackles used in slave trade

Remnants of the Henrietta Marie’s wooden hull are embedded at the site under layers of sand. The shipwreck was discovered in 1972 by treasure hunter Mel Fisher, but it wasn’t until 1983 that hundreds of intact items were recovered. Only a few slave ships were found out of the 35,000 used to transport over 12 million enslaved Africans; most vessels were intentionally destroyed to hide the illicit trade.

The artifacts, which occupy an entire floor of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, include over 80 sets of iron shackles, many of them child-size.

When Kory Lamberts first walked over wooden planks in the exhibit, they unexpectedly creaked.

“It was visceral,” he said. “It took me to a place. It also tells me that these were young people — children. These are baby shackles. There’s no sugarcoating it. The truth really hits you.”

While in Key West, Lamberts — who runs a nonprofit to make aquatics more equitable — said he brought back fish from the Henrietta Marie site, which he imagines would have absorbed the DNA of the ancestors. The group ate that fish for dinner the night after the dives — like a sacrament.

“I don’t practice a faith, but isn’t this what people are doing every Sunday at church?” he asked. “I wasn’t just bonded with this site through the experience of being there, but at this molecular level with a full circle moment of connection with myself and my history.”

Bharath writes for the Associated Press.

BORDEAUX — Passengers unaffected by an illness outbreak on a British cruise ship have been allowed off the ship in Bordeaux, while authorities confirmed the cause of the outbreak is norovirus, a nasty stomach bug that spreads easily.

French authorities had initially ordered over 1,700 passengers and crew on The Ambition cruise ship to remain on board, but then decided late Wednesday to let those unaffected disembark. One passenger was spotted raising his arms in triumph while leaving the vessel.

It was not immediately clear how many left the ship.

French authorities said there is no link to a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch vessel that has put European health authorities on alert in recent weeks.

The Ambition was midway through a 14-night cruise from Belfast and Liverpool, with scheduled stops in northern Spain and along France’s Atlantic coast when it was struck by the outbreak. It reached Bordeaux on Tuesday evening, according to the operator, Ambassador Cruise Line. It was not immediately clear if or when it would resume its journey.

Samples analyzed at Bordeaux University Hospital confirmed an outbreak of norovirus. Local authorities said at this stage no serious cases have been reported and that sick passengers were cared for onboard by the ship’s medical team.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks outbreaks on voyages that call on U.S. and foreign ports, recorded 23 gastrointestinal outbreaks on cruise ships last year. Most were caused by norovirus, including a new strain.

Ambassador Cruise Line, a British operator catering to passengers over 50, was founded in 2021.

One French passenger and one from the US test positive after being evacuated from the vessel in the Canary Islands.

A French woman and an American man have tested positive for hantavirus infections as countries around the world repatriate passengers from a cruise ship hit by a deadly outbreak.

French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said on Monday that a French passenger who was on the MV Hondius cruise ship tested positive for the virus and her condition was deteriorating, the Reuters news agency reported.

“What is key is to act at ⁠the start and break ⁠the virus transmission chains,” Rist told France Inter radio, pointing to the “decree ⁠that came out today that will allow us to ⁠strengthen isolation measures for ⁠contact cases and to protect the population”.

Another four French passengers have so far tested negative, and authorities have identified 22 contact cases.

The US Department of Health and Human Services said on Sunday that an American on a repatriation flight had tested “mildly positive” for the virus and another had mild symptoms. Both were travelling “in the plane’s biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution” and all 17 MV Hondius passengers on board would undergo clinical assessment upon arrival in the US.

The two new cases bring the total number of confirmed cases to 10. The World Health Organization (WHO) has so far confirmed two deaths and one probable death, and as of Friday, four people were hospitalised with one in intensive care in South Africa.

The MV Hondius was anchored near the Canary Island of Tenerife after being stranded for weeks following an outbreak of the hantavirus on the luxury cruise ship. Health authorities have been locating and monitoring passengers who disembarked from the ship before the outbreak was identified.

Investigations into the source of the outbreak are ongoing.

The evacuation ⁠of passengers from the cruise ship will be completed on Monday with flights to Australia and the Netherlands, Spain’s health minister said.

One flight to Australia will evacuate six passengers ⁠from Tenerife and another to the Netherlands will take 18 passengers. Both flights are to also carry passengers from other countries that did not send their own repatriation flights, officials said.

Hantaviruses can cause severe respiratory illness and are usually spread by rodents but can also, in more rare cases, be transmitted between people. Symptoms can begin between one and eight weeks after exposure and include headaches, fever, chills, gastrointestinal issues and respiratory distress.

The fatality rate of the Andes strain of the hantavirus, identified in the ship’s outbreak, can reach 40 to 50 percent, particularly among elderly people.

The WHO has recommended a quarantine of 42 days for the cruise passengers. Experts are stressing the need for calm, noting that the virus is far less contagious than COVID-19.

Robin May, chief scientific officer at the United Kingdom Health Security Agency, said the risk to the public was “extremely low”, the Press Association news agency reported.

A former Philippine Navy warship was sent to the bottom today by the combined effects of maritime strike drills launched by Japanese, Philippine, and U.S. forces in the Luzon Strait, one of the world’s most strategic and tense bodies of water. The maneuvers, which reportedly involved a variety of anti-ship missiles and rocket artillery, were part of the broader Balikatan exercise, which is especially important in the context of rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific.

Located roughly 50 miles offshore, the target vessel for a live-fire sinking exercise (SINKEX) campaign was the decommissioned Philippine Navy Rizal class patrol corvette, the former BRP Quezon. The ship was originally completed for the U.S. Navy as an Auk class minesweeper during World War II, serving as the USS Vigilance before being transferred to the Philippines and serving in a new role in the late 1960s. The BRP Quezon, which had a standard displacement of 890 tons, was decommissioned in 2021.

The maritime strike (MARSTRIKE) drills were conducted on the island of Luzon, which sits at the northern end of the Philippines, and is the country’s largest and most populous island. Specifically, the live-fire drills took place around the Paoay Sand Dunes, in the coastal region of Ilocos Norte.

The drills began around 10:00 a.m. local time with a U.S. Army M30/31 Guided Multiple-Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) fired as a “probing round,” with the location of the target vessel being confirmed around 10:15 a.m.

The GMLRS artillery rocket is a highly precise, rapid-strike weapon that can attack targets to a distance of around 50 miles, which would put it right at the limit of its range. It is fired from the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) that can launch six guided or unguided 227mm artillery rockets or a single Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missile without reloading. GMLRS is not capable of engaging moving targets, so it has limited application in the traditional anti-ship mission set.

In a combined strike, anti-ship missiles were reportedly then launched from a U.S. Marine Corps Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) and from a Philippine Navy C-Star system.

Of these, NMESIS employs an uncrewed variant of the 4×4 Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), also known as the Remotely Operated Ground Unit Expeditionary-Fires (ROGUE-Fires), on which is mounted a launcher with two ready-to-fire Naval Strike Missiles (NSM). These have a range of around 130 miles and have low-observable features, making them harder for enemy air defenses to detect and engage.

NMESIS is meant to be rapidly deployable and capable of highly dispersed operations in austere areas. As an uncrewed vehicle-launcher combo, small teams of Marines monitor multiple launchers dispersed around an area and move them regularly to keep them from being targeted by the enemy. The system was first deployed in a Balikatan exercise last year, as you can read about here.

While Philippine media reports that the NMESIS, operated by the Hawaii-based 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, fired a missile during today’s drill, this is refuted by a report from Stars and Stripes. The 3rd MLR is notable in itself, being expressly designed to fight within an enemy’s own littorals, with all the challenges that brings.

Meanwhile, the C-Star is the Philippine Navy’s primary anti-ship missile. Produced by South Korea’s LIG Nex1, a version of this missile is used by the Republic of Korea Navy as the Haeseong. The Philippines uses the C-Star to arm its two Miguel Malvar class and two Jose Rizal class frigates, which are also made in South Korea. Similar to the U.S.-made Harpoon, the C-Star is a turbojet-powered, sea-skimming missile with a range of around 90 miles.

In the drill, the C-Star was likely fired from the Philippine Navy frigates BRP Miguel Malvar and Antonio Luna, both of which are known to be taking part in Balikatan.

These were followed by two rounds fired from a Japanese land-based Type 88 anti-ship missile system, fired for the first time during a Balikatan exercise, and for the first time anywhere outside Japan. The Japanese missiles reportedly struck the hull of the target ship around 10:30 a.m.

JSDF Type 88 missiles fire for the first time in Balikatan 2026 | GMA News

Developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in the 1980s, the Type 88 (also known as the SSM-1) is the primary coastal anti-ship missile system of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, with a range of around 100 miles, although more capable and further-reaching weapons are now in development, as you can read about here.

Interestingly, in a video released of the live-fire event in Ilocos Norte, close protection was being provided to the truck-mounted Type 88 launcher by a Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS), also from the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment. MADIS utilizes the JTLV and distributes different sensors and effectors between individual JLTVs, as you can read more about here. In this kind of scenario, it would be tasked with protecting the coastal missile battery against kamikaze drones and other aerial threats at short ranges.

The vessel sank rapidly, meaning that the Philippine Air Force wasn’t able to deliver more munitions onto the target. FA-50 light combat aircraft and A-29 Super Tucano turboprop close support aircraft had both been prepared to strike the same ship, but were stood down.

Other air assets taking part included a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and an MQ-9 drone.

With the ship sunk or sinking, a coup de grace was provided by a U.S. HIMARS, which fired onto the same coordinates.

Also involved in Balikatan is the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Charlottetown, although it appears that it didn’t take part in the live-fire event.

According to a Philippine military spokesperson, another round of live-fire drills will take place tomorrow as part of Balikatan, utilizing a stand-by target vessel. This will also allow Philippine Air Force aircraft to take part.

The live-fire drills, conducted under the Balikatan exercise, signaled a notable expansion of Japan’s military role in the region as Tokyo strengthens security partnerships with its allies amid growing tensions with Beijing.

Overall, the live-fire exercise is highly significant due to its proximity to the Chinese mainland and the long range of some of the missiles that have been employed.

The Luzon Strait, into which the various missiles and rockets were fired, sits between Taiwan and the Philippines, spanning about 220 miles at its narrowest point. It serves as a vital shipping route and a highly strategic military corridor, particularly for China’s rapidly expanding naval forces. From this passage, assets stationed in the South China Sea can move into the Philippine Sea and the wider Pacific, and back again. This includes China’s growing fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, some of which underpin its second-strike nuclear deterrent.

The strait is also a crucial gateway for the U.S. Navy entering the South China Sea and would likely be a central battleground in any major conflict over Taiwan. Because of its importance, the area is closely monitored for activity both above and below the surface. In the event of war, it would quickly turn into a dense anti-ship missile engagement zone (SMEZ). The live-fire campaign today gave just a small taster of that kind of contingency.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Army test-fired a Tomahawk cruise missile from a Typhon launcher in the central Philippines, successfully hitting a target around 370 miles away in Nueva Ecija.

On this occasion, the Tomahawk missile was supporting ground troops in a night land maneuver exercise led by the 25th Infantry Division in Fort Magsaysay, part of the Balikatan exercise.

The Typhon ground-based missile system can also fire SM-6 multi-purpose missiles, which are used in this application in a quasi-ballistic missile land-attack mode. As for the Tomahawk cruise missile, this provided land attack and anti-ship capabilities. 

As we have discussed before, Typhon’s arrival in the Philippines in 2025 sent a clear signal to Beijing and throughout the region. It is a glimpse of what’s to come as the service works through plans to permanently base these systems in China’s backyard.

Compared to the longer-range Typhon, which is deployed further from the Luzon Strait, for the Balikatan exercise, the shorter-range NMESIS and Type 88 anti-ship missiles are pushed much closer to the zone in which their likely wartime targets would be found. As we have explored in the past, anti-ship missiles of this kind, and especially NMESIS, can also be deployed deeper into the strait, making use of smaller Philippine islands, like the Batanes island chain, although that ratchets up their exposure to counterstrikes considerably.

For both these kinds of missiles, their survival would rely upon the dispersal of launchers and other vehicles, as well as regularly moving them around to help prevent them from being targeted by the enemy. Of course, with the uncrewed NMESIS, this is designed from the ground up to not put personnel in harm’s way. All of this kind of doctrine is central to the Marines’ Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) strategy, which is now a core tenet of how it would fight in the Pacific.

Already, China has voiced its displeasure at the deployment of the U.S. Army’s Typhon system to the Philippines. What is now becoming a regular appearance of NMESIS, backed up by other highly mobile strike systems, including allied anti-ship missiles, within reach of the Luzon Strait, will undoubtedly trigger similar concerns in Beijing. However, the live-fire sinking exercise today underscores how critical this waterway is to the U.S. military and its allies in the region, just as it is to China. Having more varied and more mobile anti-shipping assets in the northern Philippines complicates targeting for China, while extending the capabilities of the anti-access strategy of the U.S. military and its allies in the Luzon Strait, should a conflict break out.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

South Korea says it is investigating an incident on May 4 when two unidentified objects struck a Korean-operated cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
The strike caused a fire and damaged the vessel’s stern.

May 10 (UPI) — A cruise ship stricken with a hantavirus outbreak is evacuating its nearly 150 passengers in the Spanish island Tenerife on Sunday.

The MV Hondius docked in Tenerife Sunday morning to begin evacuating passengers who will be sent to their home countries. A small boat is being used to transport passengers to shore where they are received by a medical tent.

The first group of passengers left Tenerife on Sunday morning by plane. Fourteen Spanish passengers were boarded on a plane bound for Madrid.

Passengers were seen in face masks and full-body personal protective equipment. They have been isolated from the general public during transport off the vessel.

Before being released from the ship, passengers were screened for symptoms and all were asymptomatic.

The next group of passengers to leave the island will be passengers from the Netherlands, Spain’s health minister Monica Garcia said. Some crew members will also be part of that flight.

Passengers from the United States are set to be received at the University of Nebraska Medical Center where they will be monitored. It is a one-of-a-kind medical facility in the United States with specially designed rooms for the purpose of monitoring.

Three cruise ship passengers have died from hantavirus infection, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Chile has reported a fatality rate of 33% in hantavirus cases this year. Last year it confirmed 44 cases and eight deaths.

The cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak has arrived near the Port of Granadilla in Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius arrived at the Spanish port early on Sunday, escorted by a Civil Guard vessel, according to data from the maritime tracking service VesselFinder.

The ship had left for Tenerife on Wednesday from the coast of Cape Verde after the World Health Organization (WHO) and European Union asked Spain to manage the evacuation of its passengers after the hantavirus outbreak was detected.

The WHO said on Friday that at least eight people on the ship had fallen ill, including three who died – a Dutch couple and a German national. Six of these people are confirmed to have contracted the virus with another two suspected cases, the WHO said.

All passengers on the luxury cruise ship are being considered high-risk contacts as a precautionary measure, Europe’s public health agency said late on Saturday as part of its rapid scientific advice.

In Tenerife, the passengers will be tested by Spanish health authorities to ensure they remain asymptomatic and will then be transported to land in small boats, according to Spanish officials.

Sealed-off buses will take the passengers to the Spanish island’s main airport about 10 minutes away, where they will board planes heading to their respective countries.

The evacuation is expected to begin between 7:30am and 8:30am (06:30 and 07:00 GMT), according to Spanish authorities.

Spanish nationals are set to disembark first with other nationalities to follow in groups, government officials said. Thirty crew members will remain on board and will sail to the Netherlands, where the ship will be disinfected.

‘This is not another Covid’

Hantavirus is usually spread by rodents but can in rare cases be transmitted person to person.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived on Saturday evening in Tenerife with Spain’s interior and health ministers and its minister for territorial policy to coordinate the arrival of the ship.

He gave people in Tenerife assurances and thanked them for their solidarity.

“I need you to hear me clearly,” Tedros wrote in an open letter to the people of Tenerife on Saturday: “This is not another Covid.”

WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director, Maria Van Kerkhove, said that while everybody on board will be classified as “a high-risk contact”, the risk to the general public and the people of the Canaries remained low.

In the city of Granadilla de Abona early on Sunday, life appeared largely normal. Some people were swimming, others shopping at the market or sitting at cafe terraces.

“There are worries there could be a danger, but honestly, I don’t see people being very concerned,” David Parada, a lottery vendor, told the AFP news agency.

Tracking and tracing around the world

The MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 for a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde.

Argentinian provincial health official Juan Petrina said there was an “almost zero chance” the Dutch man linked to the outbreak contracted the disease in Ushuaia based on the virus’s incubation period, among other factors.

Health authorities in several countries have been tracking passengers who had already disembarked and anyone who may have come into contact with them.

A flight attendant on the Dutch airline KLM, who came into contact with an infected passenger from the cruise ship and later showed mild symptoms, tested negative for the hantavirus, the WHO said on Friday.

The passenger, the wife of the first person to die in the outbreak, had briefly been on a plane bound from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25 but was removed before takeoff. She died the following day in a Johannesburg hospital.

Spanish authorities said a woman on that flight was also being tested for the hantavirus after having developed symptoms at home in eastern Spain. She is in isolation in hospital, Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla said.

Two Singapore residents who had been on the ship tested negative for the disease but will remain in quarantine, the city-state’s authorities said on Friday.

British health authorities also said on Friday that there was a suspected case on Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic, one of the world’s most isolated settlements with about 220 residents. The MV Hondius had stopped there on April15.

NEW YORK — No quick dispatching of disease investigators. No televised news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.

In the midst of a hantavirus outbreak that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government’s top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been uncharacteristically missing in action, according to a number of experts.

To President Trump, “we seem to have things under very good control,” as he told reporters Friday evening.

To experts, the situation aboard a cruise ship has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, hantavirus does not spread easily. It has been health experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the last week.

“The CDC is not even a player,” said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. “I’ve never seen that before.”

Not until late Friday did CDC actions accelerate.

Health officials confirmed the deployment of a team to Spain’s Canary Islands, where the ship was expected to arrive early Sunday local time, to meet the Americans onboard. They said a second team will go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate U.S. passengers from the ship to a University of Nebraska quarantine center for evaluation and monitoring. Also, the CDC issued its first health alert to U.S. doctors, advising them of the possibility of imported cases.

At their first briefing, held Saturday by telephone only for invited reporters, officials pledged to be transparent in updating the public but said the media could not cite the speakers by name under rules set by aides to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They did not directly answer a question about whether the U.S. passengers could leave the university medical facility when they wanted.

The CDC’s diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said.

The hantavirus outbreak is “a sentinel event” that speaks to “how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. And right now, I’m very sorry to say that we are not prepared,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

How the outbreak unfolded

Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. More people became sick, including the man’s wife and a German woman who both died.

Hantavirus was first identified as a cause of sickness of one of the cases on May 2. The World Health Organization swung into action and by Monday was calling it an outbreak. About two dozen Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on board.

It’s WHO taking center stage

For decades, the CDC partnered with the WHO in such situations. The CDC acted as a mainstay of any international investigation, providing staff and expertise to help unravel any outbreak mystery, develop ways to control it and communicate to the public what they should know and how they should worry.

Such actions were a large reason why the CDC developed a reputation as the world’s premier public health agency.

But this time, the WHO has been center stage. It made the risk assessment that has told people the outbreak is not a pandemic threat.

“I don’t think this is a giant threat to the United States,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. But how this situation has played out “just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now,” she said.

Tumult under Trump

The current situation comes after 16 tumultuous months during which the Trump administration withdrew from the WHO, has restricted CDC scientists from talking to international counterparts at times and embarked on a plan to build its own international public health network through one-on-one agreements with individual countries.

The administration has laid off thousands of CDC scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency’s ship sanitation program.

As this was playing out, Kennedy said he was working to “restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.”

Waiting to hear from the CDC

The CDC has not been completely silent on hantavirus.

The agency on Wednesday issued a short statement that said the risk to the American public is “extremely low,” and described the U.S. government as “the world’s leader in global health security.”

Said Nuzzo: “Not only was that not helpful, it actually does damage because a core principle of public health communications is humility.”

The CDC’s acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, posted a message on social media that the agency was lending its expertise in coordinating with other federal agencies and international authorities. Arizona officials this week said they learned from the CDC that one of the Americans who left the ship — a person with no symptoms and not considered contagious — had already returned to the state. WHO officials said the CDC has been sharing technical information.

The CDC also is “monitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all of the American passengers on the cruise,” Bhattacharya wrote.

But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests.

COVID-19 comparison

In interviews this week, some experts made a comparison with a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Japan that became the setting of one of the first large COVID-19 outbreaks outside China.

The CDC sent personnel to the port, helped evacuate American passengers, ran quarantines, shared genetic data on the virus, coordinated with the WHO and Japan, held public briefings and rapidly published reports “that became the world’s reference data on cruise ship COVID transmission,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director.

Some aspects of the international response to the Diamond Princess were criticized, and it did not halt the outbreak or stop COVID-19’s spread across the world. But some experts say it was not for the CDC’s lack of trying.

“The CDC was right on top of it, very visible, very active in trying to manage and contain it,” Gostin said, while the agency’s work now is delayed and subdued.

Instead of working with nearly all of the world’s nations through the WHO, the Trump administration has pursued bilateral health agreements with individual nations for information sharing, public health support, and what it describes as “the introduction of innovative American technologies.” Roughly 30 agreements are currently in place.

That’s not sufficient, Gostin said. “You can’t possibly cover a global health crisis by doing one-on-one deals with countries here and there,” he said.

Stobbe writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Ali Swenson in New York, Darlene Superville in Washington and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque contributed to this report.

The island is a popular holiday destination for Brits

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has moved to reassure concerned residents in Tenerife that they will not come into contact with passengers from a hantavirus-affected cruise ship due to arrive on the island. Nearly 1million people call the island home, which also serves as a major holiday destination for British tourists and visitors from across Europe.

The UN health body confirmed there had been six cases of hantavirus linked to the MV Hondius vessel, with four patients currently receiving hospital treatment. It revealed that a total of eight cases, including three fatalities, had been recorded — though one suspected case has since been ruled out after returning a negative hantavirus test.

Around 22 British passengers and crew members aboard the ship are due to arrive in Tenerife on Sunday, with plans to fly them back to the UK on the same day. Representatives from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Foreign Office will meet the MV Hondius when it arrives in Spain’s Canary Islands, with British nationals on board undergoing hantavirus testing before disembarking.

Those who test negative and show no symptoms will be transported directly to a specially arranged repatriation flight with medical staff on board. British citizens returning home will be required to self-isolate for 45 days and will be prohibited from using public transport to reach their residences. The WHO confirmed on Saturday that no symptomatic passengers were currently aboard the vessel. In a letter to the residents of Tenerife, WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged locals were “worried”.

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The Ethiopian public health official described the virus as “serious” but stressed the outbreak was “not another Covid” and the “current public health risk from hantavirus remains low”.

He explained: “Spain’s authorities have prepared a careful, step-by-step plan: passengers will be ferried ashore at the industrial port of Granadilla, far from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor, and repatriated directly to their home countries.

“You will not encounter them. Your families will not encounter them. Nearly 150 people from 23 countries have been at sea for weeks, some of them grieving, all of them frightened, all of them longing for home. Tenerife has been chosen because it has the medical capacity, the infrastructure, and the humanity to help them reach safety.”

Two British men are currently being treated for hantavirus in the Netherlands and Johannesburg, South Africa, while a third British man with symptoms is being cared for on the isolated South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha. The Foreign Office confirmed that a total of 30 passengers and crew aboard the MV Hondius are British nationals, with 22 still remaining on the vessel. The outbreak has been linked to a birdwatching trip in Argentina, which two of the passengers attended prior to embarking on the ship.

Protesters in Tenerife are voicing opposition to the imminent arrival of a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak. Authorities say the ship will anchor inside Granadilla port. Passengers will be screened before disembarking and being taken directly to evacuation aircraft.

A passenger from the cruise ship hit with a Hantavirus outbreak has spoken to Al Jazeera from isolation about what took place on board. Three passengers died from respiratory illness on the MV Hondius as it travelled from Argentina to West Africa.

May 6 (UPI) — A cruise ship with a hantavirus outbreak onboard that has killed at least three people and sickened more was due to set sail for the Canary Islands on Wednesday after Spain agreed to allow passengers and crew to disembark there.

The Spanish Health Ministry said in a post on X that it had agreed to “host the MV Hondius in the Canary Islands in compliance with International Law and humanitarian spirit” at the request of the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

It was believed that 14 Spanish citizens are among the 149 British, American and passengers from 20 other countries stranded aboard the Dutch-flagged vessel which is at anchor off the main Santiago island of Cape Verde which on Monday said it would not allow the Hondius to dock on “public health protection” grounds.

The ministry didn’t say to which port in the islands the Hondius was headed but said it would depart Cape Verde upon completion of “a thorough examination of the ship” by ECDC officials to identify those who needed to be urgently evacuated from the ship for emergency medical care.

The BBC reported two crew members, including the ship’s British doctor, and a passenger were due to be transferred to the Canary Islands by air ambulance.

“The specific port has not yet been determined. Once there, crew and passengers will be properly examined, treated, and transferred to their respective countries. The process will be carried out using a common case and contact management protocol developed by the WHO and the ECDC, and will have all the necessary safety guarantees,” said the Spanish health ministry.

“Both medical care and transfers will be carried out in special spaces and transports specifically set up for this situation, avoiding all contact with the local population and ensuring the safety of healthcare personnel at all times,” it added.

However, it was unclear if the ship would be permitted to dock in the Canaries after the island’s president, Fernando Clavijo, posted on X on Wednesday that he would not allow the Hondius to enter without “sufficient information” to guarantee the safety of residents.

“Today I have requested a meeting with [Spanish] President [Pedro] Sanchez due to the lack of coordination and information regarding the cruise ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak. The Canaries always acts with responsibility, but it cannot accept decisions taken behind the backs of the Canary Islands institutions and without sufficient information to the population,” he wrote.

Two passengers died during the Hondius’ five-week Antarctica-South Atlantic cruise and the wife of one of the deceased died in Johannesburg en route back to her home in the Netherlands. She and a 69-year-old Briton, who is being treated in hospital in South Africa, are confirmed hantavirus infection cases.

World Health Organization officials said Tuesday said there may have been human-to-human transmission of the virus as they had identified it as the South American Andes strain which, while it originates from rodent droppings in common with other Hantavirus variants, can jump between humans through close direct contact.

Prices for the Oceanwide Expeditions cruise, which starts from Ushuaia in Argentina, the world’s southernmost city, taking in the Antarctic Peninsula and the islands of South Georgia, St. Helena and Cape Verde, start from $19,025.

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Spain has granted permission for a luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and anchored off the coast of Cape Verde to sail to the Canary Islands.

Spain’s Ministry of Health said in a statement late on Tuesday that the World Health Organization (WHO) had explained that Cape Verde in West Africa was unable to receive the 147 crew and passengers of the MV Hondius.

“The Canary Islands are the closest location with the necessary capabilities,” it said. “Spain has a moral and legal obligation to assist these people, among whom are also several Spanish citizens.”

The ministry said it would receive a medical flight carrying the ship’s doctor, a Dutch national, who it said was gravely ill, following a formal request from the Dutch government.

A Dutch couple and a German national have died of the rare disease, which is usually spread from infected rodents through urine, droppings and saliva, on board the ship in early April. A British national, who was evacuated from the ship, is in intensive care in South Africa, officials said.

Two crew members require urgent medical care, ⁠according to the Dutch-flagged ship’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions. Another person on board with a suspected case has only reported a mild fever.

Medical evacuations

The Spanish Health Ministry said the MV Hondius will journey on to the Canary Islands once those who need evacuation are taken off the ship.

The Dutch government said earlier on Tuesday that it was preparing to receive the evacuated passengers. Oceanwide Expeditions said the journey to the Canary Islands will take three days of sailing and that the MV Hondius will dock in either Gran Canaria or Tenerife.

When the rest of the crew and passengers arrive in the Canary Islands, they will be examined, treated and repatriated to their respective countries, Spain’s Health Ministry said, in coordination with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the WHO.

All necessary safety measures would be taken, the ministry said, with medical care and transportation provided in special facilities and vehicles to avoid contact with the local population and protect health workers.

According to the WHO, the cruise ship, which set sail from Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 for Cape Verde, had 88 passengers and 59 crew members from 23 countries on board.

A WHO official said on Tuesday that she suspected some rare human-to-human transmission had occurred between close contacts on board the ship.

“We do believe that there may ⁠be some human-to-human transmission that’s happening among the really close contacts, the husband and wife, people who have shared cabins,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention at the WHO, told reporters in Geneva.

Van Kerkhove also sent a direct message to the people on board.

“We just want you to know we are working with the ship’s operators,” she said. “We are working with the countries where you are from. We hear you. We know that you are scared.”

Andes strain

Human-to-human transmission is not common, and the WHO reiterated that ⁠the risk to the wider public was low, adding that it had been told that “there are no rats on board” the ship.

A limited spread among close contacts has been observed in some previous outbreaks of the Andes strain of the virus, which spreads in South America, including Argentina.

Van Kerkhove said the typical incubation period for hantavirus was between one and six weeks, leading the WHO to believe that the Dutch couple, who had been travelling in Argentina before boarding the cruise, “were infected off the ship”.

Other cases may also have been infected while on bird-watching trips to islands where birds and rodents live, the WHO said.

Such trips are part of the cruise.

The Hondius is carrying mostly British, American and Spanish passengers on the luxury cruise, which set off from the southern tip of Argentina in late March.

The cruise visited the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha, some of the remotest islands ‌on the planet.

The voyage was marketed as an Antarctic nature expedition, with berth prices ranging from 14,000 to 22,000 euros ($16,000 to $25,000).

The first stricken passenger, the Dutch man, died on April 11. His body remained on board until April 24, when it “was disembarked on St Helena, with his wife accompanying the repatriation”, Oceanwide Expeditions said.

His wife had gastrointestinal symptoms when she was disembarked, and deteriorated during a flight to Johannesburg. She died upon arrival at the emergency department on ‌April ‌26, the WHO said, adding that contact tracing was under way for passengers on the flight.

South African authorities have confirmed that the British patient, who is being treated in a Johannesburg hospital, tested positive for the hantavirus.

Rearming U.S. Navy warships at sea might be a new mission for its pair of Montford Point class expeditionary transfer dock ships, which it acquired between 2013 and 2014. Four years ago, the service had tried to inactivate these floating logistics nodes, which are unlike anything else in its inventory today, but was blocked by Congress. At that time, TWZ noted that this was a curious decision, given the relatively young age of the ships and their adaptability to supporting new concepts of operations.

The Navy is seeking just over $177.7 million for what is blandly titled “Shipboard Crane Systems/Shipboard Cargo Systems” in its budget request for the 2027 Fiscal Year, which was rolled out last month. This money would go, in part, to completing a demonstration of an At-Sea Reload of Vertical Launch System (ASRV) capability on the USNS Montford Point, also known by its hull number ESD-1, according to the service’s budget documents. No mention is made of any plans to utilize the second ship in the class, USNS John Glenn (ESD-2), as part of this work.

USNS Montford Point, the Navy’s newest afloat forward-staging base

The documents say this same line item would also fund continuing “investigation and demonstration of shipboard crane/cargo system improvements including T-AKE [Lewis and Clark class dry cargo and ammunition ship] Expeditionary Reload and MK 41 Strike Up/Strike Down System.” It would support the initiation of “Naval Strike Missile and MK 48 torpedo reloading system improvements efforts” and the start of a “Mobile Supply Platform (MOSUP) demonstration effort,” as well.

In the current physical year, the Navy also plans to “continue investigation and demonstration of shipboard crane/cargo system improvements including Vertical Launch System (VLS) Rearming and transfer capabilities,” and “initiate design and fabrication for At-Sea Reload of VLS (ASRV) demonstration on ESD-1.”

The budget documents do not provide any further details about the ASRV capability beyond that it will offer a “cost-effective Vertical Launch System (VLS) rearm at-sea solution that will be fully compatible with all CRUDES and Allied/Partner Mk41 equipped vessels.” CRUDES here stands for “Cruiser-Destroyer,” and is a collective term for the Navy’s Ticonderoga class cruisers and Arleigh Burke class destroyers. Whether ASRV is related in any way to the Transferrable Reload At-sea Method (TRAM) that has already been tested in conjunction with Lewis and Clark class ships is unclear.

With 25,000 square feet of open main deck area, the semi-submersible Montford Point class design, derived from the Alaska class oil tanker, is ideally suited to hosting outsized items. They were also designed from the start to conduct operations involving the transfer of cargo from ships sitting alongside. As an aside, it is worth noting that the Montford Point and John Glenn are cousins of the Lewis B. Puller class of Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) ships.

CNO Talks About the Mobile Landing Platform

In their primary “transfer dock” configuration, the ESDs act as floating self-propelled piers through which materiel and personnel can move from cargo ships to shore via ‘connectors’ like Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) hovercrafts. They have special docking lanes that allow up to three LCACs to load and/or unload at a time. Amphibious vehicles can also drive right off into the sea and head for shore.

It is worth noting that the Navy’s stated plan now is simply to demonstrate the ASRV capability on Montford Point. At the same time, with all of the above in mind, it is not hard to see the ESDs acting as at-sea reloading nodes operationally in the future. The core transfer dock design could even potentially allow them to offload munitions from one ship on one side, like a member of the Lewis and Clark class, and then load them right into waiting VLS cells on a destroyer or cruiser sitting on the opposite side. They could also help transfer munitions to a separate pier for loading onto ships in need of rearming.

As it stands now, the Navy still has no real capacity to conduct at-sea rearming of VLS arrays on its warships. The service’s Emory S. Land class submarine tenders do have the ability to load missiles and torpedoes onto submarines at sea, but there are only two of these ships in the fleet today, something we will come back to later on. All of this, in turn, creates operational challenges that have become increasingly glaring in recent years.

At the Surface Navy Association’s main annual conference last year, Navy officials disclosed that warships supporting operations in and around the Red Sea had to leave their stations for up to two weeks to rearm in friendly ports. The distances and transit times involved could be much greater in future conflicts, especially in a future fight in the Pacific region against China. In the context of a high-end fight against a major adversary, friendly port facilities might not be readily available at all. Having to sit in an established port waiting for more munitions presents vulnerabilities of its own. A ship in need of rearming is also inherently one with a depleted magazine with which to defend itself, wherever it might be, in the interim.

At-sea reloading, whether it be from an ESD, a Lewis and Clark class cargo ship, or some other platform, would help Navy warships keep up a more persistent forward presence during sustained operations and reduce their vulnerability. There would still be risks entailed, especially if the ships have to be at anchor during rearming operations. The Navy is fully aware that an adversary like China would contest its logistics chains, in general, well into rear areas in any future major conflict.

There is also a capacity question. Making rearming at sea a more routine affair will require tasking ships to perform those duties, which can only increase the operational demands on the Navy’s existing combat support fleets. As mentioned, the Navy budget documents do show plans to work on expanding at-sea reloading capability on its 14 Lewis and Clark class ships, which are already heavily taxed conducting existing at-sea replenishment activities. They would also be high-priority targets in a major conflict. Recent operations against Iran have underscored threats to existing maritime logistics concepts, which would be far more pronounced in a high-end fight.

Making use of other existing auxiliaries in the at-sea rearming role could help address the capacity question, but there are limits there, too. The Navy only has two ESDs, and while it has backed off from its previous push to inactivate them, they are both currently on reduced operating status, which increases the time it takes to get them ready for deployment.

There is also the mention of demonstrating a “Mobile Supply Platform (MOSUP)” in the Navy’s latest budget request. What this might entail is not entirely clear, but it might point to interest in a new class of auxiliaries.

In terms of additional auxiliaries, the Navy is looking to finally order two new submarine tenders, currently referred to as AS(X), in Fiscal Year 2027, but to replace the aging Emory S. Land class ships. Since January, General Dynamics NASSCO, the shipbuilder behind the new tender design, has been pitching a companion vessel optimized for at-sea arming of surface warships, which it calls AD(X). The Navy has yet to show any formal interest in the AD(X) concept, at least that we are aware of at the time of writing.

Gibbs and Cox, a division of Leidos, has also previously put forward a concept involving repurposing semi-submersible oil rigs as forward logistic nodes, as well as missile defense platforms and sea bases.

Gibbs & Cox MODEP concept at SNA 2025

What is clear now is that the Navy is continuing to explore options for fielding sorely needed at-sea reloading capabilities, which are set to be ever-more critical for supporting future operations. An operational role in all this for the highly flexible and adaptable Montford Point class ships increasingly looks to be on the horizon.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

BEIRUT — Confusion reigned on Monday over the fate of a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran after a wave of fresh strikes on the United Arab Emirates and Oman, along with reports of attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, undermined confidence in the truce.

The drone and missile strikes, the first since a ceasefire halted fighting in early April, come after the Trump administration launched a wide-scale naval operation on Monday to “guide” stranded maritime vessels out of the vital waterway.

But fears over a return to war have driven another surge in oil prices, pushing them above $114 per barrel — levels not seen since the ceasefire nearly a month ago. Hundreds of cargo ships from dozens of countries remain stuck in the Gulf. And strikes in Dubai have raised concerns about further disruptions to international air travel at one of the world’s busiest airports.

Iran’s state-run news agency, IRNA, said the new U.S. operation was part of President Trump’s “delirium,” after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that passage through the strait required prior approval from Tehran.

“We warn that any foreign armed force, especially the invading American army, will be attacked if they attempt to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz,” said Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, according to a statement reported by the Iranian state-run Mehr News Agency on Monday.

The operation, which Trump over the weekend dubbed “Project Freedom,” is supported by 15,000 U.S. servicemen and 100 aircraft, according to U.S. Central Command. Their aim is to deny Tehran control over the strait, a narrow, 21-mile-wide passageway through which a fifth of global energy supplies flows.

On Monday, Trump vowed Iran’s forces will be “blown off the face of the Earth” if they attempt to disrupt Project Freedom.

“We have more weapons and ammunition at a much higher grade than we had before,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview with Fox News.

“We have the best equipment. We have stuff all over the world. We have these bases all over the world. They’re all stocked up with equipment. We can use all of that stuff, and we will, if we need it.”

Iran blocked traffic through the strait soon after the United States and Israel launched their campaign on the country. Last month, days after a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran came into effect, the United States enforced its own naval blockade on Iranian ports in a bid to pressure Iran to make concessions in stalled negotiations.

On Monday, Central Command said in a statement that two American-flagged merchant ships were able to successfully transit the strait, while Central Command head Adm. Brad Cooper said the U.S. military sank six Iranian boats and intercepted missiles and drones targeting civilian vessels.

“We have defeated each and every one of those threats through the clinical application of defensive munitions,” he said.

“Project Freedom is a defensive operation, and we have deployed anti-ballistic missile destroyers,” he added. “Ships in the Gulf waters belong to 87 countries, and we urge ships to cross the strait.”

IRIB, Iran’s state-run broadcaster, quoted a senior Iranian military official who denied Cooper’s claim of sunk Iranian boats. The IRGC said in a statement on the messaging app Telegram that claims of commercial vessels or tankers traversing the strait were “baseless and completely false.”

Though Cooper did not clarify if the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran was now over, a raft of attacks throughout Monday spiked fears that the war would restart, spurring sharp price increases in already-jittery energy markets.

The UAE said a fire broke out and three Indian nationals were injured in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, a key export hub for the country, after what it described as an Iranian drone attack.

It also accused Iran of targeting a tanker linked to the country’s state oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in the Strait of Hormuz, while the country’s defense ministry also reported four cruise missiles launched from Iran, saying that it intercepted three of them while the fourth fell in the sea.

“These attacks constitute a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable transgression,” said a statement from the UAE’s foreign ministry, adding that it “reserves its full and legitimate right to respond to these attacks.”

Elsewhere, two foreign workers were injured in an attack on a residential building in the Omani coastal province of Bukha, according to a statement from an unnamed security source quoted by the state-run Oman News Agency. Authorities were investigating the incident but did not elaborate on the perpetrator.

The U.K.’s Maritime Trade Operations Center reported on Monday that a commercial vessel was on fire off the coast of the UAE, while a South Korean bulk carrier ship said it suffered an explosion and a fire in its engine room and the cause was being investigated.

Bulos reported from Beirut, Wilner from Washington.

Raman Kapoor, an Indian oil tanker captain stranded in the Gulf, says no vessel will attempt to exit the Strait of Hormuz without assurance of safety, despite the announcement of a US evacuation plan for ships stranded by the war.

The United States has transferred 22 crew members from the Iranian container ship, the Touska, to Pakistan, in what Islamabad describes as a “confidence-building measure” during tension in the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman, Captain Tim Hawkins, said the crew had been handed over for repatriation. Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed the transfer, saying the sailors would be returned to Iranian authorities.

The Touska was seized by US forces in the Gulf of Oman in the early hours of April 20, in what Tehran described as an act of “piracy”, after the US declared a naval blockade of Iranian ports. Iran had effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz following the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

On Monday, tensions continued to escalate in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

First, US President Donald Trump announced that US naval ships would help guide stranded vessels through the strait in an operation he dubbed “Project Freedom”.

Iran issued a new map of the strait with new boundaries further to the east, and warned shipping not to attempt to pass without coordinating with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Then, state media reported that two Iranian missiles struck a US naval vessel near Jask Island in the strait after ignoring warnings from the IRGC to turn back. Washington denied any attack.

Amid continued interceptions and seizures of vessels by both sides, questions remain over whether the two countries can de-escalate and reach a broader peace agreement. Pakistan has been central to these efforts, seeking to keep diplomatic channels open, but talks hosted in Islamabad last month ended without a breakthrough.

Iran’s foreign ministry says it is reviewing Washington’s response to its 14-point proposal aimed at ending the conflict sent via Pakistan on Friday. As Pakistan continues to mediate, Trump previously described Tehran’s offer as “unacceptable”.

What happened to the Touska?

The Iran-flagged Touska was seized by US forces in the Gulf of Oman, close to the Strait of Hormuz, on April 20 after Washington accused the crew of failing to comply with the US naval blockade on Iranian ports. Shortly after midnight local time in Iran, CENTCOM said the USS Spruance fired its 5-inch (127mm) deck gun at the vessel’s engine room, disabling it.

According to the US military, the ship was attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz en route to Iran’s main commercial port, Bandar Abbas.

The Touska, a small container ship operated by the sanctioned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), was boarded near Iran’s Chabahar port. US Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit captured the vessel after what CENTCOM said were repeated warnings over six hours.

Video released by the US military showed Marines descending from helicopters launched from the USS Tripoli and securing the Tusk.

Iran condemned the capture as a violation of international law and an act of “piracy“, before demanding the immediate release of the vessel and its crew.

What does the release of the Touska’s crew mean, diplomatically?

Pakistan has positioned itself as a mediator between Washington and Tehran, and is now framing the transfer of the Touska crew as a step towards de-escalation of tensions. In a statement, the Pakistani foreign ministry said the move reflected a “confidence-building measure” and reaffirmed its commitment to facilitating dialogue.

US and Iranian delegations met in Islamabad last month for their first talks since 1979. Although negotiations ended without a deal, they marked a rare moment of direct engagement.

Pakistan has since coordinated with regional powers, including Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Qatar and Egypt, while maintaining close communications with China, in an effort to build broader support for de-escalation.

In a call with Iran’s Foreign Minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, on Monday, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister, Ishaq Dar, reiterated that diplomacy remains the only viable path to stability. Tehran, in turn, acknowledged Islamabad’s mediation efforts.

Will this de-escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz?

There are not many signs that it will.

Indeed, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have continued to increase despite the release of the crew members.

Most notably, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard published a new map on Monday outlining what it claims is an expanded zone of control in the waterway, stretching from Iranian and Omani territory to include the territorial waters of the United Arab Emirates as well.

Analysts say this new claim exceeds internationally recognised boundaries. The UAE has accused Iran of launching drones at an oil tanker linked to Abu Dhabi’s national energy company, while Washington has dismissed Iranian reports of an attack on a US warship as false.

Military analyst Alexandru Hudisteanu, a maritime security expert who served 13 years in the Romanian navy, told Al Jazeera on Monday that the conflicting claims reflect a broader test of resolve. “Any attempt to open the strait will likely be met with resistance from Iran,” he said, adding that Tehran views control of Hormuz as its primary leverage in negotiations.

Hudisteanu warned that the situation carries a high risk of miscalculation, with both sides continuing to operate in close proximity. For Iran, the Strait of Hormuz is the “only leverage” it has for peace negotiations, Hudisteanu said.

Iranian analyst Foad Izadi argued that the ceasefire effectively collapsed when the US imposed its blockade, which he described as “an act of war”. He added that the targeting and seizure of ships along the Strait of Hormuz further undermined any notion of a truce.

“Attacking an Iranian ship’s engine is an act of war as well,” he added, despite the release of the Touska’s crew signalling some short-term goodwill between the US and Iran.

Three of six passengers who fell ill from suspected rodent-transmitted virus have died, and one is in intensive care, the WHO says.

Three people have died on a cruise ship in the Atlantic, with at least one confirmed to have suffered from hantavirus, a rare disease transmitted to humans from rodents.

Health authorities are now investigating a suspected outbreak of the virus on the MV Hondius, which is sailing from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde.

In a statement on Sunday, the World Health Organization said that one case had been confirmed and at least five other passengers were suspected of being infected.

“Of the six affected individuals, three have died, and one is currently in intensive care in South Africa,” WHO said in a statement.

“Detailed investigations are ongoing, including further laboratory testing and epidemiological investigations. Medical care and support are being provided to passengers and crew. Sequencing of the virus is also ongoing.”

WHO added that it was “facilitating coordination” between countries to evacuate the two other passengers showing symptoms of the infection.

Hantavirus, a rare disease transmitted to humans through the droppings or urine of infected rodents, can be fatal in severe cases and cause hemorrhagic fever.

Infected couple among casualties

South Africa’s National Department of Health said earlier on Sunday that there had been an outbreak of a “severe acute respiratory illness”, which had killed at least two people, and that a third person was in intensive care in Johannesburg, according to the AFP news agency.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Foster Mohale, confirmed that the patient being treated in Johannesburg tested positive for hantavirus.

A 70-year-old was the first to develop symptoms. He died on the ship, with his body now being held on the island of Saint Helena, a British territory in the South Atlantic, the spokesman said.

The patient’s 69-year-old wife also fell sick and was evacuated to South Africa, where she died in a Johannesburg hospital, he added.

Mohale told AFP that authorities have not confirmed the nationalities of the deceased. But the person in intensive care was reported by AFP to be a 69-year-old Briton.

Ukraine’s attacks on Russia injure at least six people in the region of Vologda and the annexed Crimea.

Ukrainian officials say Russian attacks in several regions have killed at least five people and damaged a ship in the port of Odesa – as Moscow claimed to have intercepted more than 200 Ukrainian drones.

A Russian drone attack killed two men on Saturday in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, according to Governor Oleh Hryhorov. He said civilians were hit in Bilopil close to the Russian border.

In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian attacks on four districts killed one person and injured four others, Governor Oleksandr Ganzha said.

In the southern region of Kherson, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Russian shelling wounded seven people.

Further east, Russian forces launched more than 700 attacks on 50 settlements in the Zaporizhia region over the past 24 hours, killing two people and injuring four, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov.

Homes, vehicles and infrastructure were damaged, he added.

In Odesa region, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said Russian forces again targeted port infrastructure.

“The attack damaged port and logistics infrastructure facilities, warehouses, technical equipment, cargo storage tanks, administrative buildings, as well as freight transport,” Kuleba said on Telegram.

He added that a civilian vessel flying the flag of Palau was damaged while loading in port. No injuries to the crew were reported.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down or disabled 124 of 144 drones launched by Russia overnight with impacts recorded at 11 locations.

Russia reports Ukrainian drone attacks

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences destroyed 203 Ukrainian drones between Saturday evening and Sunday morning over Russian regions and the Black Sea.

The ministry said 95 Ukrainian drone control centres were destroyed over the previous 24 hours.

In Russia’s Vologda region, Governor Georgy Filimonov said five people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a nitrogen complex.

In Sevastopol in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia, debris from downed drones struck the cardiology department of a hospital, injuring one person, according to Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev. He said 16 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the city overnight.

Razvozhayev added that drone debris also fell on rail tracks, damaging overhead power lines and causing train delays.

Peace efforts continue

The latest attacks came as diplomatic efforts to end the war, now in its fourth year, remained stalled.

Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he signed agreements on security and energy cooperation with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Saturday.

Zelenskyy said Kyiv wanted to draw on its experience defending airspace from Russian attacks. He also said he had discussed the possibility of holding future talks between Ukraine and Russia in Azerbaijan.

“We are ready for the next talks to be in Azerbaijan, if Russia will be ready for diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said.

A collaboration between relative military newcomer Saildrone and defense contracting giants Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri has resulted in Spectre, a 170-foot drone boat capable of traveling nearly 35 miles per hour and optimized for anti-submarine warfare.

Spectre can also come loaded for bear for a multitude of missions, with space for an optional payload of two Lockheed Mk 70 vertical launching system (VLS) containers. These are capable of slinging everything from Tomahawk cruise missiles to long-range SM-6s air defense and surface strike missiles. Other potential payloads, according to Saildrone, include twin-line towed sonar arrays like the TB-29 and Lockheed’s Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) Quad Launcher (JQL, pronounced jackal), which is in the process of being integrated on Saildrone’s smaller Surveyor platform. Total payload is two 40-foot containers, five 20-foot containers, or a configurable mixture of both.

Saildrone Spectre: A new class of unmanned surface vessel

The Navy’s work with far smaller Saildrone platforms dates to 2021. In the Middle East, the 33-foot Voyager, specializing in persistent surveillance, has been at the heart of testing and experimentation by the service’s Task Group 59, focused on unmanned capabilities and teaming.

In the U.S. 4th Fleet area of responsibility, which includes the Caribbean and Central and South America, solar-powered Voyagers have been the USV of choice for Operation Windward Stack. This is an effort to integrate uncrewed systems into the work of apprehending drug trafficking and illegal fishing.

The Spectre design, which was unveiled Monday at the Sea-Air-Space Exposition near Washington, D.C., at which TWZ was in attendance, is the result of two years of work. It precedes the Navy’s current competition for a family of Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels, which formally launched last month. However, company executives said they now plan to enter Spectre.

“We didn’t fit to that. We didn’t change our course,” Saildrone founder and CEO Richard Jenkins said. “Now it’s changed, MUSV … it actually fits perfectly. We meet 100% of all the specs.”

Spectre comes in two variants. One is the Silent Endurance variant with the trademark sail, or “wing.” The other is the Stealth Strike variant that relies totally on its more powerful internal propulsion. While the sail-equipped variant is more focused on anti-submarine warfare and surveillance, it too can be equipped with modular VLS cells or other “concealed payloads.” The Stealth Strike variant possesses “higher-speed” and is capable of “low observable missions,” according to the company.

Powered by a 5,000-horsepower Caterpillar diesel engine, the Stealth Strike variant is designed to cruise at around 25 knots, or just under 29 miles per hour. The 30 knot, or around 35-mile-per-hour, speed that the company cites as the maximum for Spectre is likely reserved for brief “sprints” that the Stealth Strike variant may execute during operations.

The Silent Endurance variant is optimized for “infinite endurance,” Jenkins said, with an electric engine that can maintain speeds of 12 knots, or about 14 miles per hour, or the signature wing, a 43-meter composite structure made by yacht racing team American Magic Services that can harness the wind for propulsion “without any engine at all.”

Tony Lengerich, vice president of Naval Programs at the United Kingdom-based Thales Defense and Security, which made the active sonar for Spectre, described the drones as a forward lookout presence for conventional Navy ships. 

“We’re looking forward to bringing that capability in active sonar … to the Navy fleet, particularly in the theater ASW context, where you really need a vessel that can take a sensor far out ahead of the battle group, if you will, loiter there, deploy the sensor and then move again,” he said. “That’s exactly what Saildrone brings to the table, and it’s exactly what we think the Navy needs.”

Paul Lemmo, vice president and general manager for sensors, effectors & mission systems (SEMS) at Lockheed Martin, called the drones a cost-effective way of “putting more players on the field.”

“The Chief of Naval Operations [Navy Adm. Daryl Caudle] has said it’s an important thing, so you’ve got more shooters on a fairly inexpensive platform instead of a multi-billion dollar destroyer,” he said.

From an ASW perspective, Lengerich said, the platform works for clearing and assessing “broad ocean areas” before moving a manned battle force in.  

“This provides that capability to take an active sonar source forward – ping, if you will, and then your shooters … pick up the ping and identify where you have an adversary in an area that you eventually want to move the force to. So we think of this as a theater asset, one that means far ahead of the force, both in time and space, and then advances the ability for the battle force to move in and be certain of what’s waiting for them.”

The unit price of Spectre is around $40 million, Jenkins said. That’s compared to about $7.5 million for the unarmed, much smaller 20-foot Surveyor.

The Navy has struggled to get its arms around what it wants out of its drone ships and how exactly they will integrate with the manned fleet. One of its earliest unmanned surface vessel test articles, Sea Hunter, was christened a decade ago. Navy officials announced earlier this year that Sea Hunter, a medium-sized USV, and its sister ship, Seahawk, would finally leave experimental status in 2026. One of these vessels, reportedly Seahawk, is expected to deploy this year with a carrier strike group. 

Last year, the Navy unveiled plans for a family of uncrewed Modular Surface Attack Craft (MASC), emphasizing containerized missile launchers and highly configurable payloads. The service replaced this strategy last month, however, with what it called a “marketplace” for MUSVs, giving would-be competitors a matter of weeks to submit proposals for mature vessels that could be fielded in Fiscal Year 2027. Core requirements were laid out for seakeeping, long range and endurance, and cargo capabilities, as you can read more about here. The need to be able to carry two forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU) containerized payloads is a key demand, though the Navy has not yet specified publicly what might go in them.

“Honestly, inside you could have a sensor, you could have repair equipment for ships,” Rebecca Gassler, the Navy’s Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Robotic and Autonomous Systems (PAE RAS), told TWZ and other outlets during a press call in March. “You could have any number of payloads inside those, and you basically are able to just swap them on.”

Navy officials have said they want 11 operational MUSVs by next year, and have projected that half the surface fleet will be uncrewed by 2045.

Saildrone has plans to demonstrate the ability of Surveyor to carry a JAGM launcher at the joint Rim of the Pacific exercise in July. Lemmo said the team plans to demonstrate the same capability on Spectre soon. The company says construction on Spectre is about to begin shortly, with sea trials for the first vessel set for early next year.

Contact the editor: Tyler@twz.com

WASHINGTON — President Trump has turned to naval blockades to pressure the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and now Iran to meet his demands, but his preferred tactic is confronting a very different reality in the Middle East than in the Caribbean.

Unlike Cuba or Venezuela, Iran choked off a crucial trade route for energy shipments, meaning the longer the standoff persists, the more the global economy will suffer. Tehran also poses a greater military threat than those two adversaries in America’s own hemisphere and requires a sustained military presence far from U.S. shores.

Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz gives it power during a shaky ceasefire because the widening economic risks, especially higher U.S. gas prices in an election year, could force the Republican president to end the blockade on Iran’s ports and coastline, experts say.

“It’s really a question now of which country, the U.S. or Iran, has a greater pain tolerance,” said Max Boot, a military historian and senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Iran presents ‘major differences’ from other blockades

The effectiveness of Trump’s use of the world’s most powerful navy to block the trade of Iran’s sanctioned oil and other goods is very much up for debate. But it certainly appears to be intensifying as the war grinds on.

The U.S. military on Thursday announced the seizure of another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil, a day after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards took control of two vessels in the crucial waterway.

Trump also announced he has ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” Iranian small boats laying sea mines in the strait.

But the situation in Iran is not exactly analogous to what is playing out with the U.S. operations in Venezuela and Cuba.

Some experts say Trump’s success in Venezuela probably had more to do with the U.S. military raid that captured leader Nicolás Maduro than American warships seizing sanctioned oil tankers to enforce U.S. control over the South American country.

A U.S. oil embargo on Cuba, meanwhile, has caused the island’s most severe economic crisis in decades. While U.S. and Cuban officials have met recently on the island for rare talks, the financial strangulation has failed to produce the Trump administration’s stated goal of leadership change.

“I do think that the success of the Maduro mission in Venezuela has probably emboldened the president,” said Todd Huntley, director of Georgetown University’s National Security Law Program.

That does not make the situations in Venezuela and Iran similar — geographically, militarily or politically. “There are some major differences,” said Huntley, a retired Navy captain and judge advocate general.

While the blockade against Iran has delivered a severe blow to its economy, including stopping freighters from importing various supplies, the country has still been able to move some of its sanctioned oil, ship-tracking companies say.

Iran has rejected Trump’s demands to reopen the strait, where 20% of the world’s oil normally flows, and it has been firing on ships again this week. Stalled shipments through the strait have sent gasoline prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and a wide array of other products, creating a political problem for Trump before the November’s elections.

“Blockades are usually just one tool of a mechanism used in a conflict,” said Salvatore Mercogliano, a maritime history professor at Campbell University in North Carolina. “They can be important. But it’s only one element. And I don’t think it’s going to be enough to convince the Iranians.”

Effectiveness of U.S. blockade called into question

Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, claimed last week that “no ship has evaded U.S. forces.” The command overseeing the Middle East said it has directed 31 ships to turn around or return to port as of Wednesday.

Merchant shipping groups are skeptical.

Lloyd’s List Intelligence said “a steady flow of shadow fleet traffic” has passed in and out of the Persian Gulf, including 11 tankers with Iranian cargo that have left the Gulf of Oman outside the strait since April 13.

The maritime intelligence firm Windward said this week that Iranian traffic continues to flow “via deception.”

Iranian ships have several ways to sneak through the blockade, including spoofing their location tracking data or traveling through Pakistani territorial waters, Mercogliano said. He also noted that the sheer volume of shipping traffic the military needs to screen is a challenging task.

Blockades require patience to work

The last time the U.S. mounted a blockade similar to the one focused on Iranian ships was during the Kennedy administration in the early 1960s, against Cuba, Huntley said.

“And it wasn’t even called a blockade,” he said. “We called it quarantine.”

Some naval blockades over the course of history have had an impact, such as Britain’s blockade on Germany during World War I. “But they tend to be very long-term impacts, whereas Trump is looking for short-term, quick results,” according to Boot, the military historian.

He said Trump probably saw the blockade on sanctioned oil tankers tied to Venezuela as playing a large role in the success of leadership changes in that country. But Boot said it had more to do with the U.S. ousting Maduro and the subsequent cooperation from his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who is now the acting president.

“There is no Delcy Rodríguez in Cuba or Iran,” Boot said. “I think his success in Venezuela led him astray, thinking that this was a template that could be replicated elsewhere. He sees it as a huge success at little cost. And, in fact, it turns out to be a unique set of circumstances.”

Finley, Klepper and Toropin write for the Associated Press.