By Meg Tirrell, Deidre McPhillips, Jamie Gumbrecht, CNN

(CNN) — The fast-growing measles outbreak in South Carolina is now the largest in the United States since the disease was declared eliminated in this country more than two decades ago.

With 789 cases reported as of Tuesday, the South Carolina outbreak surpassed a massive outbreak in Texas, which reached 762 cases before it ended in August last year. Two children died during the outbreak in Texas.

South Carolina, which first reported cases in October, has added more than 600 cases in 2026 alone. At least 18 people – adults and children – have been hospitalized for complications of measles, the state health department said Tuesday, and no deaths have been reported.

There are an additional 557 people in quarantine in South Carolina, meaning they may have been exposed to measles and don’t have immunity to it through vaccination or prior infection. The health department reported exposures at three additional schools Tuesday, on top of existing quarantines among students at 20 others.

Cases in North Carolina and Washington have also been linked to the South Carolina outbreak.

Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, meaning there has not been continuous transmission for more than a year at a time.

Before 2025, there were an average of about 180 measles cases reported each year since elimination, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The US reported more than 2,200 confirmed measles cases in 2025 — significantly more than there have been in any year since 2000.

The CDC said on Friday that there have been 416 confirmed measles cases reported in the US so far in 2026, but its update included data up until Thursday, before South Carolina’s latest numbers came in. At least 14 states have reported a confirmed measles case so far this year, and another large outbreak continues to grow along the Arizona-Utah border.

The spread of measles over the past year has left the US at risk of losing elimination status, which the Pan American Health Organization could decide to revoke when it meets in April.

The CDC previously called measles elimination “a historic public health achievement,” possible in large part because of vaccination.The measles vaccine was licensed in 1963 and the combination measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine that is most commonly used first became widely available in the US in the 1970s.

Previously, the country’s elimination status was threatened in 2019, amid large outbreaks in New York concentrated in Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County.

Under US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, the federal government’s posture toward measles has changed.

CDC Principal Deputy Director Dr. Ralph Abraham, a former Louisiana surgeon general who ended some vaccine promotion in his state before Read more

Por Jeff Winter y Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

Agentes federales de inmigración han estado recopilando información personal sobre observadores y agitadores en Minneapolis, dijeron fuentes a CNN, y habían documentado detalles sobre Alex Pretti antes de que fuera baleado el sábado.

No está claro cómo Pretti llamó por primera vez la atención de las autoridades federales, pero fuentes dijeron a CNN que, alrededor de una semana antes de su muerte, sufrió la fractura de una costilla cuando un grupo de agentes federales lo derribó mientras protestaba contra su intento de detener a otras personas.

Un memorando enviado a principios de este mes a agentes asignados temporalmente a la ciudad les pidió “capturar todas las imágenes, placas, identificaciones e información general sobre hoteles, agitadores, observadores, etc., para que podamos reunirlo todo en un solo formulario consolidado”, según correspondencia revisada por CNN.

El encuentro previo de Pretti es otro reflejo del enfoque agresivo que los agentes federales están adoptando frente a observadores y manifestantes, una filosofía subrayada por la solicitud de que los agentes recolecten información sobre personas cuyas actividades están ampliamente protegidas por la Primera Enmienda.

El Departamento de Seguridad Nacional ha advertido en reiteradas ocasiones sobre amenazas contra agentes federales durante operaciones migratorias y ha criticado a observadores que, según sostiene, están obstaculizando esas acciones. El martes, el departamento también difundió un formulario en línea para compartir información sobre personas que presuntamente acosan a agentes de ICE.

El DHS no respondió a preguntas sobre el encuentro previo de Pretti ni sobre más detalles de los esfuerzos para recopilar información sobre observadores.

El incidente anterior comenzó cuando Pretti detuvo su auto tras observar a agentes de ICE persiguiendo a lo que él describió como una familia a pie, y empezó a gritar y a soplar un silbato, según una fuente que pidió no ser identificada por temor a represalias.

Más tarde, Pretti le contó a la fuente que cinco agentes lo derribaron y que uno se apoyó sobre su espalda, un episodio que le dejó una costilla fracturada. Los agentes lo liberaron rápidamente en el lugar.

“Ese día pensó que iba a morir”, dijo la fuente.

Posteriormente, Pretti recibió medicación acorde con el tratamiento de una costilla fracturada, según registros revisados por CNN.

A comienzos de este mes, un funcionario del DHS en Minneapolis envió un memorando a agentes de Investigaciones de Seguridad Nacional de ICE asignados temporalmente al estado, pidiéndoles que usaran un formulario para ingresar información sobre observadores y agitadores.

El formulario, titulado “recolección de inteligencia sin arrestos”, permite a los agentes completar datos personales de agitadores y observadores con los que se encuentren. No está claro si otras agencias en Minnesota también están usando el formulario.

Antes, los agentes compartían de manera informal información sobre observadores y agitadores entre ellos, señala el memorando.

El nombre de Pretti era conocido por agentes federales, según una fuente, aunque no está claro si el nuevo formulario se utilizó para compartir su información.

Tampoco está claro si los agentes federales que se encontraron con Pretti el sábado lo reconocieron antes de confrontarlo, hasta finalmente reducirlo en el suelo, quitarle un arma de la pretina y luego dispararle de forma fatal.

Algunos funcionarios del Gobierno de Trump han hablado públicamente de la idea de crear una base de datos de observadores, aunque no está claro qué ha hecho ICE con la información recopilada a través del formulario distribuido entre agentes en Minneapolis.

“Una cosa que estoy impulsando ahora mismo… vamos a crear una base de datos donde esas personas que sean arrestada

CNN

By Kristen Rogers, CNN

(CNN) — At the dawn of the nuclear age, scientists created the Doomsday Clock as a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to destroying the world. On Tuesday, nearly eight decades later, the clock was set at 85 seconds to midnight — the closest the timepiece has ever been to midnight, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which established the clock in 1947.

Midnight represents the moment at which people will have made Earth uninhabitable.

Last year, the Bulletin set the clock at 89 seconds to midnight, which was, at that point, the closest the world had ever been to that hour. After setting the clock at 90 seconds to midnight in 2023 and 2024, the scientists made the 2025 change due to insufficient progress in combatting or regulating global challenges including nuclear risk, the climate crisis, biological threats, and advances in “disruptive technologies” such as artificial intelligence. Bulletin scientists also cited the spread of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories as other existential threats to humanity.

“Humanity has not made sufficient progress on the existential risks that endanger us all,” said Bulletin President and CEO Alexandra Bell of the reasoning for this year’s change. “The Doomsday Clock is a tool for communicating how close we are to destroying the world with technologies of our own making. The risks we face from nuclear weapons, climate change and disruptive technologies are all growing. Every second counts and we are running out of time.

“It is a hard truth, but this is our reality,” Bell said.

Last year, the Bulletin scientists warned that countries needed to change course toward international cooperation and action on the most critical existential risks, said Dr. Daniel Holz, chair of the Bulletin’s science and security board, in a news briefing Tuesday.

“Rather than heed this warning, major countries became even more aggressive, adversarial and nationalistic,” added Holz, also a professor in the department of physics, astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago. “Conflicts intensified in 2025 with multiple military operations involving nuclear-armed states. The last remaining treaty governing nuclear weapons stockpiles between the US and Russia will soon expire on February 4. For the first time in over half a century, there will be nothing preventing a runaway nuclear arms race.”

Additionally, “grave dangers persist in the life sciences, particularly in emerging areas such as the development of synthetic mirror life, despite repeated warnings from scientists worldwide,” Holz added. “The international community ha

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