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Monday, May 4, 2026

Ship at center of suspected deadly hantavirus outbreak refused permission to dock

The luxury MV Hondius cruise ship at the center of a deadly suspected hantavirus outbreak has been refused permission to dock in the West African island nation of Cape Verde, officials said Monday.

Roughly 150 people are currently trapped on the Dutch cruise liner off the African coast after three passengers died and others became seriously sick with symptoms.

The ship, which was on a weekslong polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica, had requested help from local health authorities on Sunday following the latest death.

So far, no one has yet been allowed to disembark, the company operating the cruise said.

Authorities in Cape Verde, for their part, said they had not allowed the Dutch-flagged ship to dock as a precaution, citing the “aim of protecting national public health.”

The ship’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said it was “managing a serious medical situation” and looking into whether passengers could be screened and disembarked on the islands of Las Palmas and Tenerife.

Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – have died in recent weeks following the suspected hantavirus outbreak.

Medics are now also working to try to evacuate at least two people with symptoms of the deadly virus.

A 70-year-old Dutch man died back on April 11 after developing a fever, headache, abdominal pain, and diarrhea, officials said.

His sick 69-year-old wife was later transferred to South Africa, but collapsed at a Johannesburg airport and died at a nearby hospital.

An ill British man was taken off the ship and evacuated to South Africa on April 27, where he later tested positive for hantavirus — a rare infection spread by rodents that can cause serious respiratory illness or hemorrhagic fever.

A third passenger — identified as a German national — died on the ship on Saturday.

The three fatalities haven’t yet been confirmed as hantavirus.

https://nypost.com/2026/05/04/world-news/mv-hondius-cruise-ship-at-center-of-suspected-deadly-hantavirus-outbreak-refused-permission-to-dock/

To Get to a Flat Tax, Tax the Tax Exempt

Unleash Prosperity is a non-profit, so this is an admission against our own interests, but non-profit tax status is one of the largest and most destructive distortions still in the federal tax code.

Why are hospitals and universities – with hundreds of billions of dollars of endowments – and credit unions tax exempt?

In a new study, Scott Hodge, Roger Meiners, and Andrew Morriss make the case that we’ve been making for years that these commercial activities should be taxed.

They find:

Of the $2.5 trillion in revenues collected by section 501(c)(3) organizations in 2019, 55 percent were generated by nonprofit hospitals and health insurance firms, and another 12 percent were generated by higher education entities such as colleges and universities.

It is no coincidence that these are the two sectors that have seen the steepest price increases for consumers and a neverending flow of explicit taxpayer subsidies on top of their tax benefits.

The idea that some sectors are so important that they should be non-profit is exactly backwards: the profit-motive is the single best mechanism for allocating resources yet discovered. Taking on these tax exempt giants is the next frontier for federal tax reform. We could reduce tax rates by more than 20% if every industry paid their fair share.

https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/hotlines/to-get-to-a-flat-tax-tax-the-tax-exempt/

How the SPLC Got into America’s Classrooms

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been indicted for a variety of crimes. To laymen, the allegation is that the organization has been paying hate groups to engage in hate and broadcast their hate so that the organization can cast itself as a champion of anti-hate and fundraise. The charges will play out in the courts in one way or another. But battling bigots and haters isn’t the only activity of the SPLC. It’s a multimillion-dollar operation with many legs, one of which reaches into American classrooms.

In National Review in December 2020, Stanley Kurtz reported on illinoiscivics.org, a resource to help teachers in the state implement a civics requirement. The Inclusive Curriculum Law mandated that by the end of eighth grade, students will have been taught about the contributions of LGBTQ individuals to U.S. and Illinois history. Among the materials was an LGBTQ Best Practices Guide that showed teachers how to create a safe and inclusive classroom open to LGBTQ history and (so said the law) provide “LGBTQ+ students the opportunity to see themselves represented in history.” It also recommended a film, Bibi, that portrays a “Latinx” homosexual youth and his late father.

Those lesson plans and materials, which are geared to sixth grade and up, are the creation of Learning for Justice, a project of the SPLC. The “About” page says that the project goes back to the 1990s and has provided curricula to “thousands of educators across the country.” It seeks to “educat[e] for liberation” and insists that “white supremacy and racism” continue to perpetuate harm. Kurtz calls the entire project (and others like it) a “veritable festival of woke.”

Illinois isn’t the only state. Connecticut adopted Learning for Justice materials in several public school systems in the state. The National Education Association recommends Learning for Justice programs and content as part of its Freedom to Learn initiative.

The reach is extensive, the outlook a matter of dogma among many educators in the public and private spheres. This vision is hard and fast: Our country is a cauldron of injustice, a factory of victims. Kids as young as ten must realize it. One reads the SPLC website and knows that there is no discussion to be had, no debate. Every assertion simmers with moral objection. How can it be otherwise when “practices that seek to disenfranchise our communities” are on the rise, as the Learning for Justice “About” page declares? This is a matter of “resisting hate.” Is there anyone who wishes to dispute the matter? Any haters in the room?

Given the illiberal, coercive, intimidating nature of the approach, we shouldn’t be at all surprised if it turns out that the SPLC really did pay figures to stage race-baiting spectacles and followed the payoff by soliciting funds to defeat such abominations. Let us hope that, if the SPLC is found guilty, legislators take action to remove these insidious catechisms in resentment. SPLC wishes to get them while they’re young—lawmakers can stop it. In fact, whatever the outcome of the current case, the Trump administration should cut federal funds right now to any district that inflicts this bilious propaganda on kids.

https://firstthings.com/how-the-splc-got-into-americas-classrooms/

Migraine Med Shows Weight-Loss Benefit

Atogepant (Qulipta, AbbVie), an oral, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist FDA-approved for the prevention of migraine, may do more than reduce headache frequency — it may also drive meaningful weight loss in patients with overweight or obesity.

In an open-label extension study, nearly one third of patients consistently taking atogepant 60 mg once daily experienced a 5% or greater weight reduction over 1 year of treatment, with about 13% having 10% or greater weight loss.

For weight loss, patients “must take the 60 mg dose and they must take it consistently over time,” said Jessica Ailani, MD, director of the Medstar Georgetown Headache Center, Washington, DC.

The study was presented on April 21 at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 2026 Annual Meeting.

Weight Problems Common

Ailani noted that up to 60% of adults with migraine have overweight or obesity, which is associated with increased migraine frequency and severity. A previous analysis of five clinical trials demonstrated that atogepant 60 mg once daily was associated with modest, dose- and duration-dependent weight loss among patients with migraine, irrespective of weight status.

The weight loss potential with atogepant emerged in a post hoc subgroup analysis within a large, ongoing 156-week open-label extension study of the drug.

The analysis focused on 279 adults (mean age, 42 years; 83% women) with episodic and chronic migraine and a BMI ≥ 25 who received at least one dose of atogepant 60 mg daily. Most patients had two or more cardiovascular risk factors.

Outcomes included change in mean weight over time, the proportion of patients achieving ≥ 5% or ≥ 10% weight loss at week 52, and the incidence of weight-related adverse events.

Reductions in body weight with atogepant began early and continued over time, Ailani reported.

“Within the first 4 weeks, participants were starting to have weight loss to the degree of about 2 lb,” Ailani said, describing the pattern that was “steady” and “consistent.”

The trajectory showed incremental reductions in weight across multiple timepoints through week 52. Importantly, the pattern was not strictly linear but cyclical, with periods of plateau followed by further decline — “very similar to what you see with weight loss in general,” Ailani told conference attendees.

By 1 year, 34.9% of participants achieved at least 5% weight reduction, whereas 12.8% achieved at least 10% weight loss. Among those who reached these thresholds, mean reductions were approximately 10 kg (22 lb) and 16.5 kg (36 lb), respectively.

The incidence of weight-related treatment-emergent adverse events was low, with no events leading to treatment discontinuation.

Ailani said it’s not clear why atogepant leads to weight loss, but it doesn’t appear to be explained by gastrointestinal side effects.

“Side effects of nausea or constipation are very transient and didn’t seem to correlate with those patients that actually were experiencing weight loss,” she said.

A Compelling Signal

While the analysis offers a “compelling signal” it should not be “overinterpreted” said Shaheen Lakhan, MD, PhD, neurologist, and researcher based in Miami, who was not involved in the research.

“At present, the clearest weight-loss signal appears to be with atogepant, and we do not yet have comparable long-term data showing the same magnitude consistently across the broader gepant class. For now, I’d view this as an intriguing agent-specific observation rather than a confirmed class effect,” Lakhan told Medscape Medical News.

The signal, he said, is biologically plausible, as CGRP pathways contribute to appetite control, satiety, gastrointestinal signaling, and overall metabolic function. He also said that improvements in migraine symptoms alone may promote weight loss, even without a direct effect from the drug.

He noted that patients with frequent migraine often struggle with exercise consistency, sleep disruption, irregular meals, stress eating, and reduced day-to-day activity. When migraine burden improves, many become more active, sleep better, and re-establish healthier routines.

“That distinction is important because some of the weight signal may reflect pharmacology, while some may simply reflect better functioning from having fewer migraines,” Lakhan said.

There is also a broader body of research connecting migraine and obesity, he added. Obesity has been linked to more frequent migraines and a higher likelihood of developing chronic migraine, while weight loss, whether through lifestyle changes or bariatric surgery — has been associated with fewer headache days, reduced pain intensity, and improved functioning. This suggests the relationship is likely bidirectional.

In his view, what makes these data “noteworthy is the durability of the signal over 1 year and the proportion of patients achieving clinically meaningful weight reduction. Still, this was a post hoc analysis from an open-label extension study, so it should be viewed as hypothesis-generating rather than practice-changing,” said Lakhan.

“Would I consider atogepant in a patient with migraine and obesity? Certainly as a favorable tiebreaker if efficacy, tolerability, access, and comorbidities otherwise align. But I would not choose it solely as a weight-loss strategy at this stage,” Lakhan said.

“The broader takeaway is that successful migraine prevention may carry metabolic benefits, and that is an area deserving much closer study,” he added.

This study was supported by AbbVie. Disclosure information for study authors is available in the original study publication. Lakhan had no relevant disclosures.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/migraine-med-shows-weight-loss-benefit-2026a1000dm5

Russia declares ceasefire on May 8-9

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Monday that it will declare a ceasefire in the conflict with Ukraine on May 8 and 9, to mark Victory Day.

"Pursuant to the decision of Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, a ceasefire is declared on May 8–9, 2026, to commemorate the Soviet people’s victory in the Great Patriotic War," the ministry said in a statement. It added that it expects Kiev to follow Moscow's example.

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country did not receive any proposal for a ceasefire, claiming that Russia aims to exploit the holiday, but after May 9, the situation could flare up again.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Russia-declares-ceasefire-on-May-8-9/66212240

Hospitalization Rates for Younger Patients With HF Increased Over a 12-Year Span

People younger than 65 years had an increased rate of hospitalization for heart failure (HF) between 2010 and 2022, whereas the rate for older individuals declined, according to a new study.

This pattern may reflect improved treatment and management in older adults, alongside a rising burden of cardiometabolic risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension in younger populations, said senior author Boback Ziaeian, MD, PhD, cardiologist and outcomes researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The analysis included more than 14 million records of inpatient treatment for HF, divided into two age-standardized groups of younger and older patients. The samples were further stratified by demographic data to assess the rates of HF hospitalizations over the time span.

“What stood out was the clear divergence by age group, which can be obscured when only overall rates are examined,” Ziaeian said. “While overall heart failure care has improved over time, these findings highlight that younger adults may be experiencing a growing disease burden.”

Trends Before and During COVID

The end of the study period coincided with the emergence of the COVID pandemic, which probably had a substantial impact on the observed trends, Ziaeian said. People delaying care or avoiding healthcare settings and hospitals’ higher thresholds for admission probably led to fewer recorded HF hospitalizations.

“In addition, COVID-related morbidity and mortality, especially among older adults with cardiovascular disease, may have altered the underlying at-risk population, making late-period trend interpretation more complex,” he said.

HF is the leading cause of hospitalization for cardiovascular conditions and the third most expensive condition for inpatient care in the US, with a high risk for readmissions.

“Our goal was to determine whether overall improvements in heart failure outcomes are occurring uniformly or whether they differ across populations,” Ziaeian said. The study was published online in JACC: Heart Failure.

Using de-identified health records in the public National Inpatient Sample database, researchers located 14,287,733 hospitalizations for HF. The overall trend in hospitalizations per 100,000 people decreased slightly from 406 in 2010 to 395 in 2022 (P = .002). In-hospital mortality did not improve from 2010 to 2022 and trended upward significantly in 2020 (P = .001).

Among patients younger than 65 years, hospitalization rates rose from 124 per 100,000 in 2010 to 161 in 2022, an average annual change of 2.2% (95% CI, 1.6-2.8; P < .001). Among those aged 65 years or older, hospitalization rate decreased from 1775 to 1525 over the same period, an average annual change of -1.2% (95% CI, -2.8 to 0.9; P = .15).

Non-Hispanic Black adults showed the highest rate of HF hospitalization, possibly due to a higher burden of cardiometabolic conditions and structural and socioeconomic barriers to care, researchers said. Hospitalization rates declined in rural hospitals compared with those in urban areas, from 249 to 176 per 100,000 people, which the authors suggest could be partially explained by widespread rural hospital closures, changes in rural demographics, and the transfer of patients to urban hospitals.

Preventing HF Earlier

“It will be interesting to see what happens after 2022,” Abdul Mannan Khan Minhas, MD, cardiovascular disease fellow at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said, noting that other databases show HF modalities increasing despite the drop in overall HF hospitalizations during the pandemic. Minhas was not involved in the current study.

The results suggest clinicians could help younger patients control comorbidities earlier, potentially by modifying HF risk factors and administering guideline-directed therapies, Minhas said.

“More broadly, these findings support shifting emphasis toward prevention and chronic disease management strategies that reduce the future burden of hospitalization rather than relying primarily on inpatient care,” Ziaeian said.

Ziaeian reported being supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (#P50-MD017366 UC END-DISPARITIES Pilot Award) and the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences grant (UCI ICTS UL1TR000153). All other authors reported having no relevant financial relationships. Minhas reported having no disclosures.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/hospitalization-rates-younger-patients-hf-increased-over-12-2026a1000e6w

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