Free Republic

The suspected hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which has killed three people and sickened at least seven others, has two likely causes — and both are bad news for the 150 passengers on board, experts said. The more likely scenario would be passengers contracting the virus from the feces, urine or saliva of infected rats or mice. That’s the usual transmission vector, according to physician Zaid Fadul, a former Air Force flight surgeon — although the World Health Organization insisted Tuesday that no rodents have been found on the stranded liner. But there’s one strain of the...

Patient Zero in the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak has been identified as ornithologist Leo Schilperoord, whose passion for birds may have cost him his life. The 70-year-old man and his wife, Mirjam Schilperoord, 69, were on a five-month trip to South America. They first landed in Argentina on Nov. 27, and traveling through Chile, Uruguay and then back to Argentina in late March, where they went on a fateful birdwatching adventure. The couple — from Haulerwijk, a small village of 3,000 people in the Netherlands — were identified in obituaries published in their monthly village magazine. They co-authored a study...

Despite a stream of alarmist headlines, the World Health Organization is emphasizing that the risk to the general public is very low. "This is not the start of a COVID pandemic," said Maria Van Kerkhove, the director of epidemic and pandemic management at the WHO, speaking at a press conference on Thursday. "This is not COVID, this is not influenza. It spreads very, very differently." There are not many cases of human-to-human transmission, so medical professionals and scientists ... believe that hantavirus spreads primarily between people who are showing symptoms and in close contact. between people who are showing symptoms...

Rare human-to-human transmission of the hantavirus may have happened aboard a cruise ship of nearly 150 passengers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday, after three passengers died and at least four others were left sickened.

One case of Hantavirus has been confirmed, with five more suspected cases under investigation, it said. One British national is reportedly in intensive care. The outbreak was reported aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, which was travelling from Argentina to Cape Verde. Hantavirus infections are usually linked to environmental exposure, such as contact with urine or faeces from infected rodents, but in rare cases can spread between people, leading to severe respiratory illness. The MV Hondius is run by Dutch-based tour company Oceanwide Expeditions. According to an itinerary on the Oceanwide Expeditions website, MV Hondius departed from Ushuaia in Argentina...

Argentinian President Javier Milei warns that progressive policies and open borders are pushing Europe to the “brink of extinction.” Milei delivered his new condemnation of Europe’s uncontrolled migration on Tuesday during his participation at a economy debate in Buenos Aires titled, “Keynes and the General Theory,” an event that served as a scathing condemnation of John Maynard Keynes and Keynesian economics — which the Argentine President has been a long fierce critic of. During the debate, Milei mentioned Europe’s collapse as a warning of what can happen to a country or region exposed to progressive agendas, pro-abortion policies, a broken...

Sanford's years as governor were overshadowed by his disappearance to go to Argentina to see his lover. Sanford's wife didn't know where he was. Jenny Sanford, moved and relocated with their four sons into the family's home near Charleston and later sued for divorce. Sanford reemerged launching a 2020 primary CHALLENGE to Trump offering his determination to bring fiscal restraint into the national conversation as a counterpoint to what he described as Trump's incendiary rhetoric. Just ahead of the New Hampshire primary, Sanford dropped out of the contest.

Argentine President Javier Milei has launched a new effort to claim control of the Falkland Islands, reigniting a long-standing dispute with the United Kingdom over the archipelago, which once led to war. "THE MALVINAS WERE, ARE, AND ALWAYS WILL BE ARGENTINE,” Milei said on X in Spanish on Friday, using the Argentine name for the islands. In a separate interview with the Argentine digital channel Neura posted by Milei on Friday, he said that the country was doing “everything humanly possible” to return the Falklands to Argentina. “Sovereignty is non-negotiable, but it must be handled judiciously, with brains,” said Milei,...

The White House is considering punishing European countries that have failed to assist Donald Trump wage his war in Iran, according to an official within the Pentagon. Keir Starmer, once described as “very nice”, is now routinely said by the US president to be a “coward” and “no Churchill”. It is claimed that Trump could go further and withdraw American support for Britain’s sovereignty of the Falkland Islands over which the UK and Argentina went to war in 1982. The proposal is said to be contained in an internal Pentagon email.

Argentina President Javier Milei recently had some sharp words for the political left. But his observation is backed by more than his experience. Research makes it clear that the various strains of leftism, from today’s American Democratic Party to Democratic Socialists to green radicals to the tens of millions of voters who are attracted to progressive candidates and policies, are fueled by an emotional crisis. We beg our brothers and sisters on the left to consider why they do what they do. Milei, a defender of laissez-faire economic policy, said he once “thought being on the left was a...

Javier Milei slashed poverty, tamed inflation, and turned a supposed “bloodbath” into a case study in market reform. We were promised an absolute bloodbath. During the 2023 election in Argentina, politicians, academics, journalists, and commentators lined up to denounce populist candidate Javier Milei and his plans for “shock therapy,” symbolized by the chainsaw he had taken to brandishing ominously on the campaign trail while shouting, “¡Viva la libertad, carajo!” (“Long live liberty, damn it!”) Just days before Argentina went to the polls, more than a hundred economists, including superstar Thomas Piketty, published an open letter. They said a win for...

This week is the 44th anniversary of the Falklands War between Great Britain and Argentina. This week, the British Navy is struggling to put a single destroyer to sea to protect its assets. thetimes.com/uk/defence/art… Argentina is now saying it wants the Falklands back...

[Javier Milei:] I thought it was a mental problem. I mean, some kind of block that doesn't even let them see the numbers.They are enemies of numbers. They hate numbers. [Dave Rubin:] Javier Malay in Argentina, well, he's doing a bangup job turning that country, which which its economy had been completely destroyed, their monetary system had been obliterated. They have turned it around almost completely in about two years. Here he is on what is wrong with the left. [Javier Milei:] At one point I thought being on the left was a mental problem. The empirical evidence is...

NATO endures on American backing while many allies demand U.S. action abroad but withhold it when asked, exposing a widening gap between rhetoric and responsibility. NATO members are not legally required to join any member’s military operations that are not formally sanctioned by the alliance or not aimed at protecting the homelands of the membership. But they often do just that. Some NATO members joined the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq on the theory that, in the post-9/11 environment, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein were dangers to all Western security. They followed the precedent set by America’s 1999 intervention in...

How many countries did Islamofascist Republic of Iran attack via its Islamists: al-Quds or or via its hezbollah terrorists? * Lebanon (killing French and American soldiers 1983; kidnapping and torturing of Westerners in Leabnon as well as Lebanese Jews 1982-1992; series of assassination of Christians including PM R. Hariri in coordination with Syria; clashes in 2007-2008 initiated by Hezbollah) * France (bombing shopping centers in Paris, 1985/6). * Israel (katyusha-missiles attacks on civilians in the 1980s, and the recent use of Lebanese as 'human shields,' when targeting Israeli civilians). * Argentina (1992 Israeli Embassy, AMIA building massacre 1994) * Panama...

Serious disagreements have arisen between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, head of the political echelon in the Islamic Republic, and Ahmad Vahidi, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), regarding the management of the war and its destructive consequences for the people and the country’s economy, opposition-linked Iran International reports. Pezeshkian has criticized the Revolutionary Guards’ approach to the conflict by escalating tensions, continuing attacks on neighboring countries, and refusing to negotiate with the U.S., warning of drastic economic consequences from this approach. Iran International cited “informed sources” who said that Pezeshkian has claimed that without a ceasefire, the Iranian...

Yenny/El Ateneo, Argentina’s oldest and largest bookstore chain, publishes weekly charts of the top 10 bestselling books in their retail stores across the country. The Spanish edition of Letters for Life, a new book on the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Torah-based advice for emotional wellbeing, surprised the country’s publishing wizards and emerged as #5 on the list. As a result, the book is now being sold in airports and malls across Argentina. The book’s popularity follows the increased interest in the Lubavitcher Rebbe caused by Argentina’s philo-Semite president Javier Milei. Milei has visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Ohel several times on his trips...

The British people want discussions with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, and those living in the “usurped” territory would accept a handover, a top politician has claimed. Daniel Filmus was the secretary for the affairs concerning the Malvinas - his country’s name for the archipelago - between 2014 and 2015, and later from 2019 until 2021. Speaking to The Express in Buenos Aires via an interpreter he insisted: “The British people want a dialogue about the Malvinas.” When asked why he thinks this, the former senator claimed that surveys have suggested that 95% of the Argentine people uphold sovereignty claims,...

Britain is now militarily incapable of defending the Falkland Islands, a leading Argentinian international relations expert has warned, declaring its power “practically nonexistent” and reigniting concerns over the UK’s ability to protect its overseas territories. Carlos Perez Llana, former Argentine ambassador to France and a respected academic, delivered the stark verdict while analysing Europe’s faltering role in the escalating Middle East crisis involving the United States, Israel and Iran. Speaking on the Argentinian current affairs programme Modo Fontevecchia, broadcast on Net TV and Radio Perfil, Mr Perez Llana said: “It’s plausible to think that today Great Britain couldn’t defend the...

People on the Falkland Islands have said they have forgotten what fresh food looks like with a crucial shipment of supplies delayed. Residents are waiting for the latest supply vessel to arrive from Uruguay, which usually lands every four to five weeks, but there has not been one for three months. It is thought that the boat will arrive on Saturday, March 8. There is a shortage of fresh fruit, vegetables and processed bread, as well as “no cheese”. The shipments are done via Uruguay because Argentina “wouldn’t allow them”. Cathy Jacobson, 67, originally from Southampton, runs the Victory Bar...