Foreign News

Cat makes history in Sydney to Hobart yacht race

Published

2 years ago

2023/12/25

Priyan

Bob and Oli are accidental pioneers (pic BBC)

When Oli queues up on the starting line for the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Tuesday, he’ll be making history.

That’s because Oli is a cat.

Since the event began as a casual cruise down the east coast of Australia in 1945, it has attracted all manner of colourful competitors – from media magnate Rupert Murdoch to Australian cricket legend Michael Clarke and former UK Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath.

But there’s no record of any feline seafarers in the gruelling regatta. Carrier pigeons – sure: they were once used to send messages back to shore and have graced many a deck during the ocean classic. But cats? No.

Oli’s owner Bob Williams says the pair didn’t set out to be pioneers. The moggy is simply part of the furniture on Sylph VI and leaving him behind on the boat’s jaunt south was out of the question.”I’ve done lots of crazy things, but this isn’t one of them,” Williams told the BBC ahead of the race.

Organisers – while initially bemused – are also on board.

There are no race rules prohibiting animals, and cats have a long history in maritime travel, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia pointed out.

“One of the great things about the Rolex Sydney Hobart is all the wonderful characters in the race and the diversity of boats,” Commodore Arthur Lane said.

While most eyes will be on the speedy super maxis – giant yachts with up to 24 crew – during the Boxing Day race, Sylph, a 12m (40ft) yacht made in 1960, will set off in the two-handed division where smaller boats compete with a slimmed down team.

“We’re jokingly saying it’s the two-handed and four-pawed division,” Williams said. A friend of his is co-skippering, he explains, and as for Oli: “He’s SC – ship’s cat.”

While Sylph is an old hat – having taken part in six Sydney to Hobarts many decades ago – this is William’s first time racing it. But both he and Oli have plenty of experience at sea.

A retired navy officer, Williams has spent his life traversing the ocean – including a recent single-handed circumnavigation of the globe – much of it with a feline companion by his side.

Oli, who is about 10 years old, joined him five years ago and quickly earned his sea legs. “He used to get seasick, and he was a bit stressed to start off with… but now he’s fine. He quite enjoys life,” Williams said.

The laidback kitty can usually be found meowing orders or napping on the job in the boat’s cockpit. “He’s very sensible… Whenever it gets rough, he’ll disappear down below to find a nice, safe spot to curl up.”

Yachts sail during the 2021 Sydney to Hobart — *Each year, the race is followed by fans all over the globe (pic BBC)*

And get rough it just might. The 630 nautical mile (1,166km) dash has long been characterised by unpredictable and often brutal conditions – the worst, 25 years ago.

Competitors in the 1998 race were battered by a monster storm, which sank five boats and claimed the lives of six sailors.

This year forecasters have warned that the fleet could be in for thunderstorms, strong winds, and even hail along parts of the course.

Williams jokes that he hasn’t lost a cat at sea yet. But turning serious, he stresses that he is prepared for any emergency. “The cat overboard routine is just to have something like a towel or a thick rope handy so that they can climb back on board.”

There’s no life jacket for Oli though, because he simply wouldn’t wear it: “They’re Houdinis, they’ll escape from anything they don’t like,” Williams says.

But although cats hate the water, he knows for a fact Oli can swim, because he once legged it into the ocean to avoid an overzealous dog.

Sylph and her occupants will be playing it safe though and proceeding towards Hobart at a comparatively leisurely pace.

The record for the fastest finish – set in 2017- is one day and nine hours. But that was a massive, modern super yacht built for speed. “Sylph is an older slower boat… Our ambition is to get to Hobart in time for the New Year’s celebration.”

There they’ll mark the occasion with a nip of rum, and perhaps some milk on the rocks for Oli.

(BBC)

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Foreign News

Vivek Ramaswamy wins Republican nomination for Ohio governor

Published

5 hours ago

2026/05/6

Priyan

[pic BBC]

Vivek Ramaswamy won the Republican nomination for Ohio governor on Tuesday, putting the staunch ally of Donald Trump on a path to running the Rust Belt state.

In unofficial results, he defeated Casey Putsch, a car designer with an automotive-themed YouTube channel, for a place in the general election, according to US media reports.

Ramaswamy, a health-technology entrepreneur, gained national recognition during his unsuccessful run against Trump for president in 2024. He later threw his support behind Trump.

In the Ohio primary, even as he ran against Republicans, he focused on Democratic nominee Amy Acton, the former Ohio public health director who guided the state’s response to the Covid pandemic and ran unopposed.

During a victory speech, Ramaswamy thanked Ohio voters “for getting us to this point”, adding, “The real destination is in November.”

Acton, who will face Ramaswamy in the general election, said during her own victory speech that she is running for governor to make Ohio more affordable again.

“It shouldn’t be this hard,” she said. “It is time to put working families first.”

Ohio’s current governor, Republican Mike DeWine, cannot run for re-election because of term limits.

Trump boosted Ramaswamy in a social media post on Tuesday: “I know Vivek well, competed against him, and he is something SPECIAL. He is Young, Strong, and Smart!”

Vice President JD Vance, who previously represented Ohio in the US Senate, travelled to Cincinnati on Tuesday to cast his ballot for Ramaswamy and others.

The state has shifted towards Republicans in recent years, and Ramaswamy benefitted from name recognition and shuffling in the top ranks of the state’s Republican Party caused by the ascension of Vance to the vice presidency.

Ramaswamy burst onto the national political scene in 2023 as a neophyte with a knack for using social media and podcast appearances to bolster his image. His mile-a-minute cadence and brash attacks resulted in viral moments during the 2024 Republican presidential debates, but he dropped out early due to lackluster support from voters.

Ramaswamy went on to serve as a top Trump surrogate during the 2024 presidential race and was involved in the effort to start Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, before ceding control of the project to Elon Musk.

When he announced his run for Ohio governor, Ramaswamy cleared the Republican primary field of most competitors. He has drawn on his personal fortune to help fund his campaign; The Columbus Dispatch reported he loaned his operation $25m (£18.4m).

His victory sets up a general election campaign focused on the lingering fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Acton had a highly visible role as the state’s public health director during the height of the crisis. Under DeWine’s leadership, Ohio took a more moderate approach to the pandemic response than other Republican-controlled states. Still, Ohio suspended in-person dining and postponed its presidential primary in 2020 as the virus spread.

But ongoing political backlash to Covid-19 restrictions, including masking and school closures, has opened up a path for Republicans to attack Acton six years later.

Ramaswamy recently released an ad claiming that Acton “called off Ohio’s election at the last minute, defying a judge’s order and abusing her power.”

DeWine – who has endorsed Ramaswamy – took the unusual step of defending Acton from the ad’s claims.

“I told her to issue the health order,” DeWine told NBC4 news station. “The decision was mine.”

The race promises to get more intense and expensive heading into the general election in November.

Meanwhile, seven Republican senators in Indiana who voted against Trump’s redistricting plan faced challengers in Tuesday’s primary election.

Five of the Trump-backed challengers have beat the incumbents, while one has lost. Results for the seventh race have not yet been determined.

The Indiana Republicans defied intense pressure from Trump last December by rejecting his demands to pass a voting map meant to favour their party in midterm elections, scheduled for November.

In one of the most conservative states in the US, 21 Republicans in the Senate joined all 10 Democrats to torpedo the redistricting plan last year.

Trump warned at the time that Republicans who did not support the initiative could risk losing their seats.

[BBC]

Foreign News

Spain seizes record amount of cocaine in Atlantic Ocean, authorities say

Published

1 day ago

2026/05/5

Priyan

The cocaine was found by Spain's Civil Guard (file image BBC)

Spanish police have seized what is thought to be a national record haul of cocaine from a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Between 30,000 to 45,000kg were found when the Civil Guard intercepted a freighter in international waters, the body’s main union, the AUGC, announced. It called the move a “historic blow to drug trafficking”.

The vessel was intercepted off Spain’s Canary Islands on Friday and around 20 people were arrested, the AUGC told the AFP news agency. It had travelled from Sierra Leona and was on its way to Libya.

The Civil Guard has declined to give details of the investigation for legal reasons.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters in Madrid that the seizure was “one of the biggest, not only nationally but internationally”.

The Civil Guard shared a photograph on X showing the drugs stuffed into the hold of the intercepted vessel.

“Today history is being written in the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard,” it wrote.

“Intercepted in international waters the largest known seizure: between 30,000 and 45,000 kg of cocaine on board a freighter.”

While the boat was headed to Libya, AFP reported that the pattern of previous operations suggests that it was due to offload the drugs onto smaller vessels for distribution in Europe.

In January, Spanish authorities made its biggest seizure of cocaine at sea from a ship that was carrying almost 10 tonnes.

[BBC]

Foreign News

Three dead in suspected virus outbreak on Atlantic cruise ship

Published

1 day ago

2026/05/5

Priyan

MV Hondius during a trip from Argentina to Antarctica via South Georgia in November 2021 [BBC]

Three people have died and a UK national is seriously ill in hospital after a suspected hantavirus outbreak on a small cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

The operator of the MV Hondius ship, tour company Oceanwide Expeditions, said a Dutch husband and wife, as well as a German national, had died but the cause has not yet been established.

However, the Dutch company said hantavirus has been confirmed in the case of the 69-year-old UK national who is in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Hantavirus is usually passed to humans from rodents via their faeces, saliva or urine. It can cause severe respiratory illness. Rarely, it can be transmitted between people.

The MV Hondius vessel is currently off the coast of Cape Verde and has 149 people onboard.

Oceanwide Expeditions said there were also two crew members on board “with acute respiratory symptoms, one mild and one severe”.

They were of British and Dutch nationality and both required urgent medical care, it said. It said it had not been established that hantavirus had been confirmed in the pair. And it added that no other persons with symptoms had been identified.

Negotiations are in progress with local authorities following what Oceanwide Expeditions described as “a serious medical situation”.

Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa’s minister of health, said of the British patient that he was critical and had been admitted to a private facility.

“He’s being taken care of. As you know, hantavirus, like all viruses, don’t have any specific treatment, so they are giving symptomatic treatment and support as much as they could.”

He said health workers and anyone who had contact with the patient would now be traced and tested.

Outlining a timeline, the company said a passenger had become unwell while onboard and died on 11 April.

His cause of death could not be determined, and his body was taken off the ship after it docked at St Helena on 24 April.

The passenger’s wife also disembarked on St Helena and the firm said it was told she had become unwell during the return journey and later died.

“At this time, it has not been confirmed that these two deaths are connected to the current medical situation on board,” it added.

On 27 April, the firm said, another passenger – the British national – became seriously ill and was “medically evacuated” to South Africa.

The 69-year-old remains in a critical but stable condition in Johannesburg after it was confirmed a variant of hantavirus had been identified.

The firm added that on Saturday, a third passenger onboard MV Hondius died.

The cause of death has not been established, Oceanwide Expeditions said. It confirmed the passenger was German.

Oceanwide Expeditions said the cause of the deaths were being investigated.

“The disembarkation of passengers, medical evacuation and medical screening require permission from, and co-ordination with, the local health authorities,” it said. “Local health authorities have visited the vessel and assessed the situation.

“The medical transfer of the two ill persons on board has not yet taken place.”

It added that the option of sailing on to Las Palmas or Tenerife was being considered “to be the gateway for disembarkation, where further medical screening and handling could take place”.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “acting with urgency” to support the MV Hondius, and thanked South African authorities for taking care of the British patient.

WHO’s regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, said: “I am in close contact with our teams to ensure a co-ordinated, science-based response.

“Hantavirus infections are uncommon and usually linked to exposure to infected rodents.

“While severe in some cases, it is not easily transmitted between people. The risk to the wider public remains low. There is no need for panic or travel restrictions.”

According to the South African government, MV Hondius departed from Ushuaia in southern Argentina about three weeks ago, before it completed its journey to Cape Verde, where it is anchored outside the capital, Praia.

It is described as a 107.6m (353ft) polar cruise ship, with space for 170 passengers in 80 cabins, along with 57 crew members, 13 guides and one doctor.

One passenger onboard the MV Hondius, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC: “The latest word is that a plane is on its way and once it gets here three people will be evacuated from the ship and flown straight to Europe.

“Then the rest of us will almost certainly sail to the Canary Islands.

“The Cape Verde authorities clearly want nothing to do with us. This is what we’re hearing from the captain and staff. From what I can see the mood (on the ship) is pretty good.

“Only one person has been tested (the one now in South Africa) and he tested positive for hantavirus. So, we don’t actually know yet if the other cases are that or something unrelated.

“If they are all hantavirus then the transmission is a bit mysterious. We’ve been informed that there are no rodents on board, and person-to-person transmission is difficult/rare.

“Hopefully the other patients on board will be tested soon and then we’ll know better what’s going on.”

President of the Cape Verdean Public Health Institute, Maria Da Luz, said passengers would not be disembarking in Cape Verde in order to protect the local population, Cape Verde’s media outlet A Nacao reports.

Oceanwide Expeditions said strict precautionary measures were in process on board, including isolation measures, hygiene protocols and medical monitoring.

“All passengers have been informed and are being supported,” it said.

“Oceanwide Expeditions is in close contact with those directly involved and their families, and is providing support where possible.”

Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles told the BBC the time between people being exposed to hantavirus and showing symptoms could be anywhere from one to eight weeks.

“With this incubation period are we going to see more people coming down with the disease in the next days and weeks?”

The UK Foreign Office told the BBC it was monitoring reports, and ready to support British nationals.

Hantavirus was in the headlines last year after the wife of Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman died from a respiratory illness linked to hantavirus in March 2025.

[BBC]