☕️ Aussies disembark Hantavirus cruise

As this newsletter goes out, TDA’s team is heading to Canberra for Budget lockup.

What’s that? It’s when journalists from all over the country are locked in Parliament for six hours, with no access to the outside world, while they read through the Federal Budget before it’s made public.

They’ll have no phones. No internet. Just snacks. And highlighters.

We’re allowed to press publish at precisely 7:30pm tonight over on our Instagram. Or sign up to our weekly finance newsletter. It will drop into your inbox at 8am tomorrow.

The quote: “I have spent all day detained at the Canadian border and denied entry back into the U.S. despite having the proper visa documentation in place.”
Australian musician Keli Holiday in a post to his Instagram story over the weekend announcing he had been refused entry back into the U.S. while on tour across North America. Holiday’s final show was set to be in New York and has since been cancelled.

The stat: 115%. The increase in the number of NSW households on the priority list for social housing from 2021 to 2026, according to Homelessness NSW.

The big question:

Yesterday’s results: 68% of you said you support the arrest of the women associated with ISIS last week, while 10% of you said you didn’t support it. 22% of you said you weren’t sure what you thought about their arrests. Thanks for voting - your responses inform TDA's journalism and research. [2,598 votes].

The Treasurer's budget playbook

Ahead of Budget night, Treasurer Jim Chalmers is outlining a bigger-picture shift.

He says the 2026 budget will focus on building Australia’s “fourth economy” — centred on productivity, cleaner energy, technology and resilience in a more fragmented world.

So what does that actually look like in practice, and what could it mean for the economy from here?

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A new report from UNICEF shows a significant gap in learning between Australian students from higher and lower socio-economic backgrounds.

The finding comes from a new analysis of data from a 2022 assessment of almost 700,000 students globally.

UNICEF found 50% of students in less advantaged families meet basic academic proficiency, compared to 85% of those children in high-income families.

Here’s a breakdown of the findings.

4 in 10: The proportion of 15-year-old Australians who aren’t meeting basic learning standards.

65% of students in higher-income families regularly do their homework, compared to 42% of children in lower-income families.

1 in 3: The proportion of children in the world’s richest countries who aren’t meeting basic learning standards.

“It’s clear too many children are not being given the best possible start in life... When children fall behind at school, it isn’t just a learning issue – it shapes their opportunities for the rest of their lives,” UNICEF Australia Head of Policy and Advocacy John Livingstone said in a statement to TDA.

Reporting by Annabel Whitehouse.

🎧 On today’s TDA podcast, Editor-in-Chief Billi and Features Editor Emma discuss the Liberal Party’s historic loss in the Farrer by-election.

💶 In need of a full budget explainer? The TDA team is attending the budget lockup in Canberra today to find out all of the details. Sign up to TDA Finance here to make sure all the info is in your inbox on Wednesday morning.

✏️ If you love working with children, you can turn that into a real career – and get financial support while you study. Early childhood teachers shape how young Victorians learn, grow and connect with the world around them. Explore university, Free TAFE and traineeship pathways at vic.gov.au

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Passengers aboard a cruise ship linked to a deadly hantavirus outbreak have begun disembarking in Spain’s Canary Islands.

The move comes after three people died and the vessel spent weeks at sea struggling to find a port willing to accept it.

The Australian Government confirmed four Australian citizens and one permanent resident were onboard.

They are expected to be flown home on Tuesday before undergoing quarantine measures.

The MV Hondius is a Dutch expedition cruise ship that departed Argentina on 1 April for a voyage to Antarctica and remote South Atlantic islands.

A passenger died from hantavirus on 11 April. Since then, at least eight cases have been reported, including three deaths.

The ship spent days anchored off Cabo Verde after local authorities said their facilities could not support a safe evacuation. Spain later approved plans for the Hondius to dock in the Canary Islands, citing international law and humanitarian principles.

Hantavirus is a serious infectious disease spread by rodents. Humans can contract it through contact with urine or faeces from an infected rodent.

Early symptoms include fever, muscle aches and fatigue, typically appearing between one and eight weeks after infection.

The strain detected onboard the Hondius is the Andes virus, one of only two hantavirus strains known to spread between humans in rare cases, usually through close or prolonged contact.

“This is not coronavirus. This is a very different virus. We know this virus, hantaviruses, has been around for quite a while, but I want to be unequivocal here. This is not SARS-CoV2. This is not the start of a Covid pandemic. This is an outbreak that we see on a ship. There’s a confined area,” Acting Department of Pandemic Management Director for the World Health Organisation Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said last week.

The Government has said it is repatriating four Australian citizens and one permanent resident from Tenerife on a flight that will land in Perth on Tuesday.

One New Zealand citizen will also travel on the flight.

The passengers live in NSW and Queensland. None are displaying symptoms of the virus.

Medical personnel will be onboard the flight, and the passengers will be placed in quarantine at medical facilities on arrival.

The WHO has recommended a 42-day quarantine for all passengers from the MV Hondius, given that the incubation period for the virus is up to six weeks.

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Health Minister Mark Butler said flights home were “still being finalised,” and that when the Australians do return, the Federal Government will take control of quarantine arrangements.

American passengers were flown to the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska, where they are being assessed. However, they will not be required to quarantine.

One of the five French passengers developed symptoms during the repatriation flight, prompting authorities to place all five in strict isolation.

While passengers begin returning home, most crew members will remain onboard as the ship travels to the Netherlands for disinfection.

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.

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Princess Margriet of the Netherlands attended a ceremony to mark the start of this year’s festival in Canada’s capital Ottawa. The Royal Family of the Netherlands took refuge in Ottawa during the war, and Princess Margriet herself was born there in 1943. The Canadian army then led an eight-month campaign with allied troops to free the Dutch people from Nazi occupation in 1945. The Dutch Government began sending Canada an annual gift of tulip bulbs to show its gratitude – a tradition that has blossomed into the world's largest tulip festival. Over 11 days each May, more than 300,000 tulips bloom across Ottawa, drawing thousands of visitors to take in the display.

Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

From operating theatres to viral political celebrations, Hungarian politician Zsolt Hegedűs is fast becoming Europe’s most unexpected dance sensation.

The surgeon-turned-MP first gained attention last month after breaking into dance when Péter Magyar defeated Hungary’s long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a landslide election win.

Over the weekend, Hegedűs was at it again during Magyar’s inauguration in Budapest, despite previously joking he’d try to keep the dancing to a minimum.

His routine featured everything from air guitar solos to jumping and clapping on the steps of Parliament, with fellow politicians soon joining in.

Reporting by Annabel Whitehouse.