IMF cuts 2026 global growth forecast on Mideast war

Michigan measles outbreak shows high cost of stopping even a small number of infections from spreading

The small measles outbreak that health officials are combating in Michigan began last month with an unvaccinated young woman returning home from visiting Florida, a state where there have been more than 140 cases this year.

Her first symptoms around March 7 seemed like a cold. By the time the telltale measles rash appeared a few days later, she had exposed her family and scores of other people in public settings, according to health officials in Washtenaw County, near Detroit.

The Michigan outbreak is one of 17 new outbreaks nationwide reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since January. There have been 1,671 confirmed cases of measles reported this year across 32 states, according to CDC data.

Most of this year’s cases (94%) have involved outbreaks. Some — like those in Texas and Florida — involve more than 100 infections. In a few, cases have surged into the hundreds, as is the case in the outbreak in Utah, which is still growing, and the outbreak in South Carolina, which appears to be ending.

Many of the outbreaks are small — just a few cases. But as public health officials in Washtenaw County, Michigan, are learning, the resources required to keep them that way can be enormous.

Staffing costs for managing a handful of measles cases: $45,000

“We’re still at seven cases,” Beth Ann Hamilton, communications coordinator for the Washtenaw County Health Department, told Healthbeat this week. “We’re definitely not out of the woods yet.”

Meanwhile, another measles case announced on April 2 in neighboring Monroe County has state health officials concerned that measles may be silently spreading in the community. No definitive link has been established to the cases in Washtenaw County, but the timing and location of the new case are concerning, officials at the state health department said.

Because of this risk, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is recommending young children receive their first measles shot early — at 6 to 11 months of age.

Yet even with just a handful of known measles cases, the containment workload is already taking its toll.

At the Washtenaw County Health Department, measles control is taking priority over many other health department services as staff have been needed to help track down and counsel hundreds of exposed people, test them for immunity to measles when they don’t have vaccination records, and monitor those in quarantine.

“Seven cases may not seem like a lot, but it is, and it’s hundreds and hundreds of contacts that our staff have to follow up on and monitor,” Jimena Loveluck, the department’s health officer, told the Washtenaw County Board of Health on March 27.

“We’re not able to get other work done,” she said. “We just don’t have the capacity to respond and then continue all our regular level of services. The expense also is tremendous.”

Exposures have occurred at a popular mall in Ann Arbor, a community college, a hospital, urgent care clinics, several stores, and a restaurant.

Investigating and managing the exposures of just the initial three or four cases cost $45,000 in staff time, Ruth Kraut, the department’s deputy health officer, told the board. Other health department staff noted that $100,000 in funding from the state to help with the outbreak had been largely spent.

“It’s been a huge effort,” Dr. Juan Luis Marquez, the department’s medical director, told the board. “We get lists of students or patients or whatnot. We don’t have much information to go by other than their name and date of birth. So that basically means our team of nurses and other folks calling everybody to verify their immunization status.”

Because two doses of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is 97% effective at preventing the disease, public health officials are mostly trying to identify those who aren’t protected so they can be advised to quarantine at home and not spread the disease to others.

But people often don’t remember whether they’ve been vaccinated or don’t have access to their immunization records, Marquez said. So then they need to come to the health department clinic to have a blood test to check to see if they have measles immunity from past vaccination or infection.

The result is that the health department’s clinic is largely focused on measles and vaccine response, he said, and communicable disease efforts are being limited to measles and other high-risk cases.

Like forest fires, measles outbreaks are ‘sending out sparks’

A significant challenge for public health officials is that it’s difficult to know which small measles outbreaks can be quickly and easily contained, and which ones will spread to hundreds of people.

Dr. William Moss, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and director of the school’s International Vaccine Access Center, compared the measles landscape across the United States to a map of forest fires.

“You’ve got these bigger outbreaks, they’re kind of sending out sparks,” Moss said. “If that spark lands in a county or a community with high vaccine coverage, you don’t get much spread. And so you see one of these small outbreaks. But if it does land in a community with a large number of individuals who are under vaccinated or unvaccinated, then you get these larger outbreaks.”

It would be helpful to overlay measles cases onto maps with detailed vaccination coverage data, he said. But sources of vaccination data are limited and fragmented, and while school vaccination data can be helpful, it doesn’t include information about adults in the community.

“We and many other groups have been trying to develop ways to predict or forecast, as best we can, where the hotspots are. It’s just very difficult with measles,” Moss said.

Moss said that to know how easily measles will spread requires having detailed information about the coverage levels of vaccination and immunity within very localized communities where people socialize. But such data isn’t readily available, he said.

The places Moss and his team are watching closely are those where cases have been increasing the most in the past few weeks. That includes Hudspeth County, Texas, where the Johns Hopkins U.S. Measles Tracker has tallied 31 cases in recent weeks, and several counties in Utah, which are in the midst of a surge in their outbreak. Many of the cases in Hudspeth County, Texas, involve a federal detention facility.

Since it began last year, Utah’s measles outbreak has sickened 559 people, 362 since January. South Carolina’s measles outbreak, the largest in the United States in decades, has had 997 known cases since October — more than 660 of them since January.

The good news: South Carolina health officials haven’t had a measles case reported to them in more than two weeks. If that trend continues for 42 consecutive days — which is two incubation cycles for the measles virus — that outbreak will be declared over after April 26.

As of early March, the South Carolina Department of Public Health told Healthbeat it had spent $1.6 million on its response to the outbreak.

This story was produced by Healthbeat and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

(The Center Square) – U.S. Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, will retain taxpayer-funded benefits after leaving their positions in Congress.

Swalwell and Gonzales are leaving Congress amid allegations that both men sexually harassed female staffers. Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., said they planned to lead a resolution to expel both Swalwell and Gonzales if they did not resign.

“There is no such thing as consent when the imbalance of power is this profound,” Leger Fernandez said. “That power can never be separated from the harm inflicted in these sexual abuse cases.”

Despite leaving Congress before completing their terms, both men can receive taxpayer-funded Congressional pensions as they meet the minimum amount of time served in the legislative body to receive a pension. Members of Congress with at least five years of service can be eligible for a pension plan at age 62 that rivals jobs of similar pay in the private sector, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.

The amount of pension benefits are determined by a formula that accounts for a member’s length of service, average of the three years of highest salary and initial election to office.

On average, lawmakers receive an annual annuity of $45,276. This rate can be substantially more or less depending on the lawmaker’s time of service.

Demian Brady, vice president of research at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, estimated Swalwell’s pension would start at just over $22,000 once he turns 62 in 2042. This estimate assumes his final day is May 1 and he took all the steps possible to increase his pension amount.

Gonzales’ pension will be lower, since he was sworn into office in 2021. Brady estimated his pension would start at just over $8,900 in 2042. Despite lower rates, pensions can increase substantially year over year. 

Most recently, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., drew backlash after she announced she would resign just in time to recieve a congressional pension. NTUF estimated Greene would start with a pension of $8,717 annually at age 62, which could total more than $265,000 over her lifetime. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Coretz, D-N.Y., criticized the timing of Greene's departure at the time. She pointed to the timing of her resignation and expected pension benefits. 

"She's carefully timing her departure just 1-2 days after her pension kicks and after making millions of dollars insider trading stocks for weapons manufacturers and others while in office," Ocasio Cortez wrote on social media. 

Annual pension benefits for members of Congress cost taxpayers $38 million per year to pay out.

Russian strikes killed seven people, including a child, and wounded dozens across Ukraine on Tuesday, regional authorities said.

Moscow has pummelled its neighbour with hundreds of drones almost nightly since the beginning of the four-year war, but recently had expanded daytime strikes. 

A morning attack on the central Dnipropetrovsk region claimed the lives of five and wounded 27, said local governor Oleksandr Ganzha. 

"The enemy attacked four districts of the region more than 30 times with missiles, drones, and artillery," Ganzha said. 

In the afternoon, a Russian drone killed an elderly woman in the frontline city of Kherson in the south, said regional prosecutors. 

Later in the evening, another drone killed an eight-year-old boy and wounded nine in the central Cherkasy region, said its military administration. 

Separately, authorities in the port city of Odesa said Russian drones hit two civilian vessels and the harbour infrastructure. 

The industrial hub of Dnipropetrovsk lies more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the front line, which snakes through eastern and southern Ukraine.

Russian troops have captured a sliver of territory in the wider Dnipropetrovsk region, which is not one of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claimed to have annexed after its invasion.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia invaded in February 2022.

US-brokered talks on the conflict have failed to push the sides closer to a deal, with negotiations frozen for weeks.

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Mizzou men's basketball secured its second portal acquisition with the commitment of small forward Jamier Jones on Tuesday afternoon.  

Jones, a rising sophomore from Florida, spent his freshman season playing under Mizzou alum Kim English at Providence. Following English's firing, Jones entered the portal and was immediately linked to Mizzou because of his ties to general manager Tim Fuller. 

Fuller served on English's staff from 2023-25 and helped recruit Jones to Providence. In his lone season with the Friars, Jones impressed, averaging 11.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. He appeared in 31 games and made 19 starts.

With the arrival of Jones, the Tigers have now made two additions to the portal. He joins Tennessee forward Jaylen Carey as two of the five current newcomers who will be coming to Columbia next season. Along with the three freshman arrivals — McDonald's All Americans Jason Crowe Jr. and Toni Bryant and sharpshooter Aidan Chronister — Mizzou coach Dennis Gates will continue to explore options in the portal to bolster his roster for next season. 

French luxury group Kering saw sales slide by six percent in the first quarter of this year, with its troubled flagship Gucci fashion house still dragging down its performance.

The group, which embarked on a deep restructuring effort with the hiring of CEO Luca de Meo last year, plans to unveil a roadmap to turning around its performance to investors on Thursday.

The six-percent drop in sales to 3.57 billion euros ($4.21 billion) was comparable to that suffered by rival LVMH, the world's largest luxury group.

Sales were flat on a like-for-like basis that strips out exchange rate fluctuations and changes in the business. 

"Group revenue stabilized, marking an important first step in our recovery and a further sequential improvement," said de Meo in comments on the first quarter.

Sales by Gucci fell by 14 percent to 1.35 billion euros.

The drop was eight percent on a like-for-like basis, which constitutes an improvement from pervious quarters.

"Gucci remains our top priority," said de Meo, who previously helped turn around the fortunes of French carmaker Renault.

"A comprehensive turnaround is underway, with decisive actions across client, distribution and, above all, the offer," he added.

Kering has struggled to turn things around at Gucci, its flagship Italian fashion house famous for its handbags. Last march it wooed Georgian designer Demna to take over as artistic director.

Gucci is Kering's main money-spinner, until recently accounting for almost half of revenues and two-thirds of operating profit.

The group no longer provides a breakdown of sales by its other fashion brands that include Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, McQueen and Brioni. 

Overall that division saw sales fall by nine percent to 2.85 billion euros, or by three percent on a like-for-like basis.

The much smaller jewellery and eyewear divisions both saw sales rise in the first quarter.

Kering said revenue in the Middle East fell by 11 percent in the first quarter after having posted growth in the first two months.

After initial disruptions due to the war launched by the United States and Israel on Iran, the company said its retail network is back in operation.

The group reiterated its objective to return to growth in 2026.

Last year, sales fell 13 percent to 14.7 billion euros, with net profits tumbling to 532 million euros.

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(The Center Square) – The twin Gulf cities of Houston and New Orleans are hosting maritime events in April and May as part of America 250 celebrations.

Houston is hosting the first Navy Fleet Week in Texas history Wednesday, April 15, through Wednesday, April 22. 

New Orleans is hosting the inaugural Sail 250 event in the country from May 27 through June 1.

America 250 is the official nationwide celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary.

Houston Fleet Week is being hosted by the city of Houston in collaboration with the Port of Houston, Houston First Corporation and other groups. It’s identified “eight can’t miss events” taking place between Wednesday and Sunday.

U.S. Navy Admiral Daryl Caudle, Commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command said, "At least 1,000 sailors and Marines will 'flood the zone' around your great city," when first making the announcement with Houston Mayor John Whitmire.

"Fleet Week will build on the positive relationships between the military and the community and allow Houstonians and all other visitors to learn more about the U.S. Navy's proud history of courage and service to the country," Mayor Whitmire said, adding that “Houston and the Navy share a special maritime connection. Billions of dollars-worth of trade flow in and out of the Houston Ship Channel every day, and the Navy is responsible for protecting that seaborne trade as it travels across the oceans.”

Multiple events are planned, including a Parade of Ships in Galveston on Wednesday morning. Visitors can also attend wreath laying ceremonies, events downtown and aviation exhibits at the Lone Star Flight Museum. On Sunday, they can attend a naval exhibition at Sylvan Beach in La Porte and concerts and band performances in the Museum District. 

Visitors will also be able to tour one of three Navy ships, including an amphibious assault ship and two combat ships. They include USS Kearsarge (LHD-3), a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship designed for multi-purpose operations, including troop transport and aircraft support; USS Minneapolis-St. Paul (LCS-21), a Freedom-class littoral combat ship optimized for operations in near-shore environments with high speed and agility; and USS Cooperstown (LCS-23), a Freedom-class littoral combat ship.

They will also be able to tour a U.S. Coast Guard cutter: USCGC Edgar Culbertson (WPC-1137), a Sentinel-class fast response cutter equipped for a range of missions including search and rescue, law enforcement, and port security. 

In neighboring Louisiana, Sail 250 New Orleans will transform the city's Mississippi River waterfront into a display of tall ships, U.S. naval vessels, and maritime heritage. A welcoming parade, fireworks and other events are planned.

New Orleans & Company and the Port of New Orleans are hosting the celebration. Walt Leger, III, pesident and CEO of New Orleans & Company, said, “As one of the world’s great cultural crossroads and home to the Port of New Orleans — a vital gateway connecting global commerce to the American heartland — our city has long stood at the intersection of nations, ideas, and maritime enterprise. There is no more fitting place to begin this momentous national commemoration. We proudly invite visitors from around the globe to experience our remarkable culture while celebrating America’s enduring maritime legacy.” 

An international fleet of ships will be docked along the riverfront representing the navies of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, the Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Uruguay. Free deck tours will be available daily.

Visitors will also be able to tour the only square-rigged vessel currently in government service: U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle, a 295-foot three mast barque used to teach navigation to future officers. 

"Sail 250 represents an extraordinary opportunity for the U.S. Navy, Marines Corps., and Coast Guard to connect with the American people, and our international partners, as we commemorate our nation's 250th anniversary. The historical significance and advantageous positioning of New Orleans at the southern delta of the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast makes it the perfect launching point for this celebration,” Rear Adm. Calvin M. Foster, Deputy Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic, said.

All naval America 250 events are free and open to the public. Registration is required to tour vessels and security measures are in place, authorities said.

Far from the downturn that has shaken many luxury houses in recent years, Britain's Rolls-Royce on Tuesday launched an ultra-luxury, limited-series electric car. 

The imposing bonnet, crowned by the marque's iconic Spirit of Ecstasy mascot, remains, but the new convertible series marks a further step into fully electric luxury motoring. 

Limited to just 100 clients, the collection will be available by invitation only. 

The company intends to offer an opportunity "to be part of that journey, to be able to meet our designers, meet our craftspeople" and personalise every detail, Julian Jenkins, Rolls-Royce director of sales and brand told AFP. 

"Our clients have over 44,000 colours to choose from of our current palette."

While the company, owned by BMW since 1998, has not disclosed the price of the vehicles, it placed them between its most complex private commissions and other bespoke creations, which can reach several million pounds. 

The carmaker recorded a slight decline in sales last year, with a total of 5,664 vehicles sold -- a six percent drop from its record 2023 performance. 

The dip remains modest compared with the turbulence faced by other luxury brands, such as fellow British brand Burberry. 

In fact, 2025 was the company's "fourth best year", Jenkins said. 

"We've seen an increasing strength, particularly in our bespoke operation with our clients really wanting to commission something very special, something unique."

The company already knows who will be the 100 clients, and they will receive their cars from 2028.

They are mainly based in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and the Middle East, but not in China, where the car "is not homologated" due to "the efficiency regulations for electric vehicles", he said. 

The pastel blue prototype, named Project Nightingale, is a convertible two-seater with a sleek, streamlined silhouette. 

The model is inspired by the brand's experimental high-speed 'EX' models of the 1920s. Its range has not been revealed.

It is Rolls-Royce's second electric model, following the launch of the Spectre three years ago.

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South Africa on Tuesday handed back to Zimbabwe ancestral human remains and a centuries-old stone carving of its sacred national emblem, the Zimbabwe bird, stolen more than 100 years ago during the colonial era.

The restitution was part of a worldwide push for the repatriation of artefacts looted from African countries during colonisation.

Eight coffins draped in the Zimbabwean flag stood at an event for the handover in a Cape Town museum which was attended by officials from both countries.

Little was known about the remains except that they were of people who had been exhumed as "scientific specimens", officials said.

One was believed to have been a tribal chief whose skull and jaw were collected in 1910, culture minister Gayton McKenzie said.

"He was somebody's leader, a lot of people's ancestor. He has been sitting in the museum drawer for 116 years," McKenzie said.

Another was believed to be a man murdered over accusations of witchcraft.

"They were removed from their graves -- not found, not donated," McKenzie said.

Once repatriated, the remains would be returned to "where they belong", Zimbabwean government representative, Reverend Paul Damasane, said.

- Identity and spirit -

The soapstone carving of a Zimbabwe bird that was returned at the event was the first of several looted from the stone ruins of the ancient complex of Great Zimbabwe built in the 11th to 13th centuries, officials said. 

A British explorer had ripped it from its pedestal in the late 19th century and sold it to British mining magnate Cecil John Rhodes, the 1890-1896 prime minister of the Cape Colony.

It was displayed at Rhodes's Cape Town estate which was bequeathed to the government on his death in 1902. 

Nearly "140 years since the first one was taken and sold to Cecil John Rhodes, that very same statue ... is finally making its journey home," South Africa's culture ministry said.

South Africa had returned four other ancient carvings of the birds the year following the former British colony's independence in 1980, officials said. 

The original grey-green birds are around 33 centimetres (13 inches) in height and most were perched on stone columns more than a metre high at Great Zimbabwe, the centre of a once-powerful civilisation.

They are the national emblem of Zimbabwe, depicted on banknotes, coins and the national flag, and considered. 

Great Zimbabwe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site situated in the southeast of the country, is undergoing a $5-million revamp funded by the French development agency that is due for completion in the coming weeks.

The complex is Africa's second-largest remaining pre-colonial structure after the pyramids of Egypt.

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An art-loving engineer from Paris was the lucky winner of an original Picasso painting worth over a million euros at a charity raffle in Paris on Tuesday.

Ari Hodara, 58, who only bought his ticket at the weekend, was picked at a ceremony in Paris that was livestreamed from auction house Christie's, with the funds raised from the event to be donated to research into Alzheimer's disease.

A total of 120,000 tickets were sold at 100 euros ($118) apiece, with a portrait of Dora Maar, one of Picasso's muses, up for grabs. 

Titled "Tête de femme" ("Woman's head"), the inky grey and blue gouache work was painted in 1941 and was purchased from a private art dealership, Opera Gallery.

"How do I know this isn't a prank?" Hodara asked when called from the auction house after being picked from a list of ticket-buyers in 52 countries.

Organisers, led by French journalist Peri Cochin with backing from the painter's family and foundation, put on two similar raffles of the Spanish master's work in 2013 and 2020.

A 25-year-old American from Pennsylvania won the first, while an accountant from Ventimiglia in northwest Italy claimed the second after being given a ticket as a Christmas present by her son.

The 12 million euros raised will be donated to the Alzheimer's Research Foundation.

"The funding for research is ridiculous," head of the foundation, Olivier de Ladoucette, said Tuesday. "In our developed societies, we still haven’t understood that this is a major public health issue and that absolutely everyone needs to get involved. 

"This Picasso initiative is one more building block so that one day Alzheimer’s will be nothing more than a bad memory," he added.

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(The Center Square) – Concurrent with the Trump administration’s War on Fraud, a survey shows that most American voters believe government fraud is responsible for the nation’s high cost of living, with one expert saying that fraud is the “invisible tax.”

Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks told The Center Square that the survey commissioned by the State Financial Officers Foundation “makes clear that Americans across the political spectrum are concerned about their tax dollars being lost to fraud and waste.”

“That concern reflects a straightforward reality,” Oaks said. “When accountability weakens, the financial burden ultimately falls on households.”

“Efforts to reduce the cost of living and to strengthen oversight are closely connected,” Oaks said.

“As financial officers, we are committed to ensuring that public funds are managed responsibly and transparently,” Oaks said.

“We will work with the Trump administration to protect taxpayer resources and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse,” Oaks said.

State Financial Officers Foundation is a collection of state treasurers, auditors, and comptrollers whose top job is to be a “watchdog of taxpayer dollars,” according to the organization’s media relations.

State Financial Officers Foundation CEO OJ Oleka told The Center Square in regards to his organization’s survey: “Americans rightly understand that fraud is the invisible tax worsening the affordability crisis.”

Oleka said that “taxpayer dollars being stolen and wasted by fraudsters isn't just a criminal issue, it's an economic one.”

“The Trump administration's war on fraud and waste is popular, justified, and absolutely necessary for reducing the cost of living for American families,” Oleka said. 

“Fortunately, dozens of principled state treasurers and auditors are bringing the same might to this fight as they brought to our battles against ESG, debanking, and every other threat to Americans' financial security,” Oleka said.

According to the poll conducted by Deep Root Analytics for the State Financial Officers Foundation, 87% of U.S. voters are very concerned (50%) or somewhat concerned (37%) about “fraud or misuse of taxpayer money in government programs.”

Misuse of tax dollars is no doubt important to these pollees and their standard of living, since the total household income before taxes for 40% of them is less than $50,000 a year, according to the poll.

Eighty-three percent of surveyed voters believe that “fraud or misuse of government funds contributes to higher taxes or costs for families” a great deal (46%) or a fair amount (37%).

Additionally, 70% of voters believe “there is too little oversight over government spending and people who want to misuse taxpayer money have too easy of a time doing it.”

This same percentage believes the nation needs “more aggressive fraud investigation and prevention measures to ensure taxpayers’ money isn’t wasted.”

Interestingly, At 32%, those with "moderate" political views were the largest political bracket surveyed.

Thirty-seven percent of those polled identified as Republicans, while 38% identified as Democrats.

The survey was conducted in March 2026 and surveyed slightly more females (52%) than males (48%).

The Trump administration’s War on Fraud began March 2026, with the establishment of a “task force to eliminate fraud.”

At the beginning of April, Colin McDonald was sworn in by Vice President Vance to lead the new National Fraud Enforcement Division, with the State Financial Officers Foundation stating it is "exactly the accountability America needs.”