Hi Global Recap readers,
For some reason, my feed got flooded with hantavirus news today.
And while I wasn’t planning to add to the pile-on over the outbreak of this “rare variant,” a new tinfoil theory just surfaced.
So obviously, I have to talk about it. 👇🏼
👀 At a Glance
This week…
🇮🇷🇺🇸 IRAN & US
US pauses Hormuz escort operation
Iran reportedly strikes UAE as ceasefire strains
🇷🇺🇺🇦 RUSSIA & UKRAINE
Russia announces Victory Day ceasefire
Zelenskyy says Russian strikes killed at least 23
🇨🇳🇺🇸 CHINA & US
China tells refiners to ignore sanctions
🌐 OTHERS
Trump widens Germany troop drawdown
Alberta separatists submit referendum signatures
Romania government falls after no-confidence vote
London synagogue arson probe opens
🇪🇸 SPAIN
Virus Ship Standoff
A suspected hantavirus patient is being hauled off the MV Hondius cruise ship.
A hantavirus-hit cruise ship with 3 deaths and 8 confirmed or suspected cases is now heading from Cape Verde to Tenerife after 3 people were medically evacuated.
The worry is this particular strain (Andes-linked hantavirus) is a very rare variant that can spread between people in close contact, unlike most hantaviruses.
That said, the World Health Organization says that public risk is still very low.
Current Status of returnees:
2 Brits are back in the UK (quarantined).
1 Swiss man is back in Switzerland (isolated in hospital).
At least 3 Americans are back in the states (being monitored).
Authorities are trying to track down around 40 people who got off at St. Halena before the outbreak was discovered.
14 Spaniards are expected to be quarantined after repatriation.
146 passengers and crew are aboard under strict precautions
Time Traveller
Yet again, we come to another tinfoil hat theory.
Remember that random X account that somehow posted the name of the would-be Trump assassin from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner years before it happened?
Looks like the internet found this guy too:
This was posted in June, 2022.
The running theory is that these accounts make tons of random predictions, then once one comes true, they hide all the wrong ones and leave the “correct” one public to gain followers.
🇷🇺🇺🇦 RUSSIA & UKRAINE
Ceasefire Gets Torched
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
President Zelenskyy said Ukraine will "respond in kind" after accusing Russia of wrecking Kyiv's May 6 unilateral ceasefire with 1,820 violations in its first 10 hours, including shelling, drone strikes, air attacks, and assaults.
He says the “justified responses” will be judged "depending on the situation tonight and tomorrow."
What We Know:
Russia's version: It announced a May 8-9 "Victory Day truce" around Moscow's Red Square parade.
Ukraine's version: An earlier pause starting May 6 to test whether Russia would actually stop.
Could Zelenskyy be signaling that Russia’s Victory Day parade is now in the crosshairs?
Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico (left) and Russian President, Vladimir Putin (right).
That said, hitting anything connected to the parade would be an extremely high-risk move. Foreign leaders, including Slovak PM Fico, are expected to attend, which would massively raise the stakes for Ukraine.
🇮🇷🇺🇸 IRAN & US
Deal On Paper
US President, Donald Trump (left), and the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei (right).
US and Iran are supposedly nearing a draft memorandum to end their 67-day war, with Pakistan mediating and Trump pausing the US Strait of Hormuz escort push (Project Freedom) while Tehran reviews the proposal.
The Deal Includes:
30 days: follow-on talks to reopen Hormuz, ease sanctions, release frozen Iranian funds, and set nuclear curbs.
Nuclear pause: a proposed enrichment moratorium, with 12 to 15 years reportedly under discussion.
Big caveat: no agreement yet, and Iranian lawmakers are calling the text an American wish list.
Click to watch the interview from September 2023. Here’s Raisi being asked about the $6 billion in Iranian funds unfrozen due to be released by the Biden administration.
What’s wild about this memorandum is the sanctions relief and the potential release of frozen Iranian funds.
Biden got torched in 2023 when his administration approved the unfreezing of Iranian funds on the condition that they be used for humanitarian purposes, and then-Iranian-President Raisi said Tehran would spend the money "where we need it."
However, note that the funds were frozen again following the October 7 attacks on Israel.
Trump also spent years attacking Obama’s Iran nuclear deal for giving Tehran access to previously frozen Iranian funds.
Although many believe this draft memo is unlikely to turn into anything real, if it does (and if it includes sanctions relief or access to frozen Iranian funds) then the argument that it is meaningfully different from the Obama deal Trump tore up becomes much harder to make.
🇨🇳🇮🇷 CHINA & IRAN
Keep Drone
Parts Flowing
Chinese firms have kept shipping drone parts and dual-use goods to Iran and Russia despite US sanctions.
These small suppliers are now openly marketing engines, batteries, fiber-optic cables, and chips usable in military drones.
What We Know:
Xiamen Victory Technology offered German-designed Limbach L550 engines, barred by the US for Iran and Russia.
These engines have been tied to Iran’s Shahed-136 drones—the low-cost attack drone Russia uses in Ukraine.
China says it enforces "dual-use export controls" under Chinese law.
Many of these suppliers are small Chinese companies with little US financial exposure (meaning, harder to sanction).
