Monday briefing: Will the international effort to stop the further spread of hantavirus be successful?

Good morning. This is Michael Segalov – as of today, I’ll be popping up into your inboxes from time to time. There’ll be no shortage of infighting, intrigue and briefing in Westminster this week, as the dust settles on the government’s disastrous election results. We’ll be bringing you the latest on backbench MP Catherine West’s (likely futile) attempt to topple Keir Starmer, alongside the rest of the fallout. Today, though, we kick off with something else … the race to contain a rare, deadly virus. On 2 May, the outbreak of a lethal hantavirus strain onboard a luxury cruise liner was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). As of this morning, nine probable cases have been identified, with three fatalities. It has left experts scrambling to conduct a track-and-trace exercise of global proportions. While 149 passengers and crew remained on the ship once the virus had been identified, at least 29 passengers of 12 nationalities had already disembarked. Seven of them were British. For today’s First Edition, I spoke to infectious diseases epidemiologist Dr Charlotte Hammer , and our reporter Robyn Vinter who is on the ground in Tenerife where the ship has been evacuated. But first, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Keir Starmer faces a fight for his political life in the next 24 hours as potential Labour leadership rivals from Wes Streeting to Angela Rayner position themselves for a contest. …