Por Mary Beth Sheridan, CNN en Español

Todo comenzó cuando un niño de nueve años fue con sus padres a visitar familiares en Seminole, Texas, a principios del año pasado. Tras regresar a su hogar en México, una erupción roja apareció en su piel. En cuestión de semanas, tantos de sus compañeros de clase enfermaron que la escuela tuvo que cerrar.

Sin que los padres del niño lo supieran, el sarampión había comenzado a propagarse en Seminole durante su visita.

La ciudad pronto se convertiría en el epicentro del mayor brote en Estados Unidos en más de 30 años, uno que mataría a tres estadounidenses. Pero cuando el virus cruzó la frontera hacia México, estaba a punto de comenzar una tragedia aún mayor.

Al menos 40 mexicanos han muerto por complicaciones del sarampión desde principios de 2025, desde bebés hasta trabajadores agrícolas de mediana edad, según la Secretaría de Salud de México. Más de 17.000 infecciones han sido confirmadas en ese periodo, cuatro veces más que en Estados Unidos. El sarampión es en gran medida prevenible con dos dosis de una vacuna común. Pero la mayoría de los infectados no la habían recibido.

El brote de sarampión que continúa en México ofrece un caso de estudio de lo que puede suceder cuando la cobertura de vacunación de un país disminuye. La enfermedad fue identificada por primera vez en el vecindario del niño de nueve años, en una comunidad menonita aislada de granjas de manzanas, trigo y maíz en el estado de Chihuahua, al sur de Texas, según las autoridades. Se propagó a trabajadores agrícolas, muchos de ellos de comunidades indígenas.

A finales de 2025, este estado mexicano, de un tamaño similar al de Michigan, había confirmado alrededor de 4.500 casos, más que en todo Estados Unidos.

Rastrear el movimiento de un patógeno microscópico puede ser difícil. Pero las autoridades mexicanas creen que el virus del sarampión probablemente llegó a la garganta o los pulmones del niño de tercer grado, que no estaba vacunado, y luego se propagó rápidamente.

En Chihuahua, las autoridades realizaron pruebas genéticas en más de 100 casos. Todos arrojaron la huella del virus del sarampión que apareció en Canadá en 2024 y luego en Texas: genotipo D8 y linaje MVs/Ontario.CAN/47.24. Desde entonces, el virus ha viajado por los 32 estados de México.

“Todo proviene del brote en Chihuahua”, dijo el doctor Miguel Nakamura, director de Información Epidemiológica de la Secretaría de Salud de México.

En Estados Unidos, una serie de brotes de sarampión que comenzaron en Seminole generaron preocupación sobre el creciente papel de los escépticos de las vacunas en el gobierno.

El caso de México es algo diferente. La presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum es una política de izquierda con doctorado en Ingeniería que se enorgullece de su formación científica. Lo que une los brotes de las naciones vecinas es otra cosa, dicen los epidemiólogos: la complacencia.

El sarampión fue declarado eliminado en ambos países hace más de un cuarto de siglo, un logro histórico en salud pública. Pero el otrora robusto programa de vacunación de México se ha atrofiado en medio del desorden de su sistema de salud dominado por el gobierno, según epidemiólogos.

“Esta es la paradoja”, dijo Samuel Ponce de León, profesor de Epidemiología en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Gracias al éxito de las vacunas, “ya no ves niños con signos de polio o complicaciones del sarampión, como sordera o meningitis. Dejamos de tener casos de sarampión, así que la gente empezó a decir: ‘¿Por qué debería preocuparme?’”.

El sarampión es una de las enfermedades más contagiosas del mundo, mucho más que el covid-19. Se transmite por una persona infectada al toser, estornudar o incluso solo hablar. El virus puede permanecer en el aire hasta dos horas. Una sola persona puede potencialmente infectar a 18 más.

Muchos casos son leves. El niño de nu

By Manu Raju, Alison Main, CNN

(CNN) — Sherrod Brown stood in front of dozens of supporters at a suburban watering hole, talking glowingly about his final day in the US Senate in 2024.

Then he caught himself.

“Well, I thought it was my last night,” said Brown, eliciting applause in the room. “There are going to be more nights now.”

The former three-term senator from Ohio is mounting a comeback bid that’s critical to national Democrats’ hopes of winning the Senate this fall. He’s trying to become the first person since 1988 to win a Senate seat after losing reelection in the prior election cycle, in a state that was once one of America’s premier battlegrounds but has shifted markedly to the right.

Brown is running the same type of progressive populist campaign that helped him hold public office for half a century, railing on corporations and a “rigged” system – something he believes carries particular resonance at a time of high gas prices and economic malaise. While President Donald Trump won Ohio in 2024 by 11 points, now-Sen. Bernie Moreno beat Brown by less than 4.

In an interview with CNN in Delaware County, a suburban battleground that leans Republican, Brown defended his decision to run again at the age of 73 after serving 32 years in the House and Senate.

“People want somebody that will fight back,” Brown told CNN. “They want somebody to call to stand up to Wall Street and the big banks and the utility companies and the drug companies, and they know I’ll do that.”

He faces Sen. Jon Husted, the former Ohio lieutenant governor appointed to the Senate when JD Vance became vice president. Republicans are already planning to run the same playbook that helped Moreno defeat Brown, attacking the Democrat as out-of-step on issues ranging from immigration to transgender rights.

“Sherrod Brown is the absolute perfect political cicada,” Moreno said in an interview. “This is a guy who comes out of the ground and pretends he’s this moderate, working-class American, and then comes here to Washington, DC, and he’s a hardcore liberal.”

‘I’m not doing punditry’

Brown’s fate is now central to the Democrats’ path to net four seats and flip the Senate, a fact underscored by the massive influx of outside cash poised to flood the airwaves, including roughly $80 million from a leading GOP super PAC, dwarfing the $40 million pledged so far by its Democratic counterpart.

It was Brown himself, in the aftermath of the 2024 election, who criticized his party for falling out of touch with blue-collar and working-class voters. After his defeat, Brown wrote an opinion piece for The New Republic saying that in “large swaths of Ohio, and the country, the Democratic Party’s reputation has become toxic.”

In his interview with CNN, Brown seemed leery about reengaging in that discussion. Asked if the party’s brand was still toxic, Brown said: “You’re the pundit. I’m not.”

Pressed again about his own words, Brown said: “You quoted it a year later. No, I mean, people recognize I’m an Ohio Democrat and the national brand, maybe it is (toxic), but I’m an Ohio Democrat. They know I fight for workers.”

Yet, on some key issues where many in his party have shifted to the left, Brown adopted a more cautious line – like on abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement or whether to stop arms sales to Israel.

Asked if he supported either of those positions, Brown said: “I don’t – I’m not paying enough attention to know what votes are coming up.”

By Maria Santana, CNN

(CNN) — As she walks out of a Latino supermarket in New York, Esmeralda Roustand shakes her head in frustration.

“There’s almost $20 in here and basically nothing,” said the 60-year-old Dominican mother and grandmother while holding a small bag containing just two orange juices and a lunch of chicken with green bananas.

“If you go grocery shopping, food is expensive, and don’t even get me started on housing. You can’t afford an apartment because they’re extremely expensive,” Roustand said.

Roustand has two adult children and three grandchildren in the Dominican Republic. She works as a home health aide and regularly sends part of her paycheck back to her family on the island. But amid rising food, rent and transportation costs, she says it has become harder to help her loved ones while also supporting herself.

“No matter how much you try to stretch your money, you just can’t anymore because it’s not enough,” Roustand said.

Like her, more and more Latinos say they feel overwhelmed by the cost of living in the United States, even as some economic indicators continue to show resilience.

But for many in this community, financial pressure is not measured in charts or statistics. It’s measured in grocery bags that feel lighter every day, in rent that keeps climbing even when wages do not, and in canceled outings and family plans.

“Every month, I have to check whether I can afford to eat out or whether I have enough to pay rent,” said Juan Galván, a young college student in New York. “I have to adjust when I can go out with friends and basically stay inside just to justify all the money being spent on my apartment.”

Growing economic frustration

The concerns expressed by Latinos in New York are not isolated. A new CNN poll shows the cost of living and inflation remain among Americans’ top concerns ahead of the midterm elections.

The survey shows 70% disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy, while more than seven in 10 disapprove of his handling of inflation and gas prices.

Annual inflation rose to 3.8% in April, according to the latest Consumer Price Index released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reaching its highest level in nearly three years, while the national average price of gasoline has climbed above $4.50, according to AAA.

Michael Negrón, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former White House economic adviser under President Joe Biden, says inflation tends to disproportionately hit the Latino community because a large share of their income goes toward basic necessities.

“Latinos are being particularly affected by the inflation we’re seeing,” Negrón said. “According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Hispanics spend a larger share of their budget on food, nearly 15%, and around 8% on energy costs – numbers well above the national average.”

According to Negrón, Latino households also tend to rely more heavily on cars and travel longer distances than other groups to get to work.

“When gas prices go up 40% or 50%, it affects everyone, but it affects Latinos more,” Negrón explained. “When the prices of basic necessities – food, electricity and gasoline – are exactly the things rising the fastest, the impact on families is significant.”

The dollar buys less and less

For many consumers, the impact can be summed up in one phrase: Every day you spend more for less.

“Before, with $100, you could fill up a shopping cart, but now you carry the items in your hand with just two little bags,” said José Rosario, who has worked for seven years at Hamilton Meat Market, a butcher shop and grocery store in Upper Manhattan.

Rosario says he has watched customers’ s

Por Lauren Fox, Sarah Ferris y Annie Grayer, CNN

El impulso para asegurar fondos federales para la seguridad del salón de baile del presidente Donald Trump se volvió más difícil en el Capitolio.

Los demócratas del Senado dijeron el sábado que la disposición que financia el salón de baile de Trump en el último proyecto de presupuesto del Partido Republicano fue considerada fuera de orden por la parlamentaria del Senado, Elizabeth MacDonough, un duro golpe para la prioridad del presidente.

Un asistente del liderazgo republicano advirtió de que el proceso sigue en curso y que los republicanos continúan ajustando la disposición para encontrar una manera de incluirla.

Pero la decisión sigue siendo un giro importante en el futuro del proyecto de renovación del salón de baile de Trump.

Los principales republicanos ya eran escépticos en privado de que tuvieran los votos para impulsar el proyecto del salón de baile de Trump —que, según la Casa Blanca, destinaría el dinero estrictamente a la seguridad del proyecto del ala este y a necesidades separadas del Servicio Secreto de EE.UU.— en un momento económicamente tan turbulento para muchos estadounidenses, según varias fuentes del liderazgo republicano.

La noticia del sábado obliga a los líderes del Partido Republicano a volver a la mesa de dibujo para conseguir el dinero a través del Congreso sin los votos demócratas.

La financiación para el salón de baile asciende a unos US$ 220 millones, según un memorando enviado desde la Casa Blanca a los miembros del Congreso esta semana, pero forma parte de una solicitud de financiación para seguridad de US$ 1.000 millones.

Los republicanos, liderados por el senador Lindsey Graham de Carolina del Sur, habían intentado incluir los fondos en un paquete de dinero para inmigración que podría eludir el umbral de 60 votos del Senado siempre que siguiera una serie de reglas de procedimiento. Pero los demócratas dicen que la árbitra de las reglas del Senado, la parlamentaria Elizabeth MacDonough, informó a los legisladores el sábado que el dinero para el salón de baile, de hecho, no cumple con esas reglas especiales.

Antes del fallo más reciente, McDonough ya había determinado que algunas otras disposiciones tendrían que ser modificadas en el paquete más amplio.

Incluso si los líderes republicanos logran reescribir con éxito el lenguaje relacionado con el salón de baile en cumplimiento con las reglas del Senado, es posible que de todos modos sea eliminado.

Existe una gran consternación sobre la imagen que da el dinero destinado al proyecto del ala este —aunque sea solo para seguridad— a pesar de una intensa campaña de cabildeo de la Casa Blanca. Esa estrategia de venta incluyó una sesión informativa completa por parte del jefe del Servicio Secreto a los senadores republicanos, una sesión informativa del secretario de Seguridad Nacional a un gran grupo de representantes republicanos, una sesión informativa del secretario de Justicia interino Todd Blanche e incluso algunas reuniones privadas en la Casa Blanca con legisladores.

Parte de la estrategia de la administración fue aclarar a los legisladores que solo una fracción de hasta US$ 1.000 millones se utilizaría específicamente en el salón de baile, mientras que el resto sería utilizado por el Servicio Secreto para otros asuntos, según dos fuentes presentes en las reuniones.

Pero incluso con la presión total, todavía hay muchos republicanos que son escépticos sobre el costo en un año electoral.

El representante republicano Michael McCaul de Texas le dijo a CNN que hubo “un debate muy vigoroso” entre los republicano

CNN

By Issy Ronald, James Frater and John Torigoe, CNN

Portsmouth, UK (CNN) — When a vessel under attack in the Strait of Hormuz calls for help, a black phone in the corner of an office rings. It’s nothing special – just a normal office phone, a relic of the 1990s.

But when a call comes in, the three people on shift at this small office just outside Portsmouth, on Britain’s south coast, suddenly become central to the current conflict in the Middle East.

For it’s home to the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) – a Royal Navy-affiliated body that monitors shipping in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and northern Indian Ocean.

And since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz more than two months ago in response to US-Israeli strikes on the country, the number of emergency calls the UKMTO receives has skyrocketed.

The first moments after that call comes in “can get really stressful,” said Commander Jo Black, UKMTO’s head of operations. “The vessel may be actively under attack. You may hear alarms and sirens in the background. On occasion, we’ve even heard gunfire,” she told CNN.

Merchant vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz have faced all manner of threats as Tehran has sought to impose its control over the crucial waterway, through which a significant proportion of the world’s oil, gas and fertilizer supply flows, in response to the US-Israeli campaign. Some ships have been targeted by Iranian missile fire, others attacked by drones, yet others circled by fast attack craft.

As the war drags into its third month, the nature of the threat from Iran in the strait is changing, Black noted.

“At the start of March, we were very much seeing military action. … More recently it seems to be taking a change towards constabulary action, with vessels being challenged as they approach the Strait of Hormuz, interrogated, asked to verify their claims and, in some unfortunate cases, vessels actually being detained,” she said.

Once a ship reports such an attack, the UKMTO office scrambles into action. Its staff, known as watchkeepers, talk to the vessel’s crew and contact other nearby ships, warning them of the danger as well as asking if they can help, or provide more information. They also contact the shipping companies affected, local coastguards and military forces in the region who also might be able to assist.

It’s manned by a team of just 18 people, who cycle through 12-hour shifts, meaning that there are always three watchkeepers on at any given time, sometimes supported by an analyst too.

“If you call UKMTO, you will get a response,” Black said. “We can’t guarantee that there will be an international community available to respond directly, but we will ensure your information is shared with as wide an audience as possible to try to generate a response.”

The body has recorded 44 incidents since the Iran war began – a mixture of what it classifies as damage to ships, close quarters and near misses. Ten seafarers have died in these incidents, Black said.

Even thousands of miles away, connected to the crisis only by a phone line, it can be stressful for the watchkeepers who are “dealing with a highly emotional situation,” she added, and often establish a rapport with those on board.

Collating information

For all the frenzied response when that phone rings, a “typical d