The Walt Disney Company’s stock price soared on Wednesday, up by 10% at the time of publishing, as the company surpassed earnings expectations and unveiled its first new theme park development in 15 years.
Following Disney’s second quarter earnings report, the entertainment giant announced an agreement to build a new resort and theme park in Yas Island, United Arab Emirates.
“As our seventh theme park destination, it will rise from this land in spectacular fashion, blending contemporary architecture with cutting edge technology to offer guests deeply immersive entertainment experiences in unique and modern ways,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement.
While no opening date or project timeline has been released yet, the Abu Dhabibased experiences company Miral Group is set to develop and build the new shoreline resort, with Disney imagineers leading operational oversight and creative design.
Our resort in Abu Dhabi will be the most advanced and interactive destination in our portfolio,” said chairman of Disney Experiences Josh DAmaro.
Prior to the theme park announcement, Disney also released its favorable second quarter earning report, recognizing “that uncertainty remains regarding the operating environment for the balance of the fiscal year,” the company said in the report.
Disney reported a 7% increase in revenues this quarter in comparison to the same period last year, increasing to $23.6 billion. Notably, Disney’s entertainment saw significant growth, with a 2.5 million subscription growth for Disney+ and Hulu from this years first fiscal quarter.
“We have a lot more to look forward to, including our upcoming theatrical slate, the launch of ESPNs new DTC offering, and an unprecedented number of expansion projects underway in our Experiences segment,” Iger said in the report. “We remain optimistic about the direction of the company and our outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year.”
House Republicans have added a provision to their sweeping tax cut package that would authorize the sale of thousands of acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah, prompting outrage from Democrats and environmental groups who called the plan a betrayal that could lead to increased drilling, mining and logging in the West.
Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee adopted the land sales proposal early Wednesday morning. The initial draft had not included it amid bipartisan opposition.
The land sale provision put forward by Republican Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada and Celeste Maloy of Utah would sell thousands of acres of public lands in the two states, and calls for some of the parcels to be considered for affordable housing projects. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., called the plan deeply irresponsible.
Public lands shouldnt have a price tag on them. But [President] Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are working like mad to hand over our public lands to billionaires and corporate polluters to drill, mine, and log with the bare minimum oversight or accountability,” said Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Clubs Lands Protection Program. The lands potentially for sale belong to all Americans. They shouldnt be given away to pad corporate bottom lines,” Manuel said.
The sales were approved as the Natural Resources Committee voted 26-17 to advance legislation that would allow increased leasing of public lands for drilling, mining, and logging while clearing the path for more development by speeding up government approvals. Royalty rates paid by companies to extract oil, gas, and coal would be cut, reversing former Democratic President Joe Bidens attempts to curb fossil fuels to help address climate change.
The measure is part of Trumps big bill of tax breaks, spending cuts, and beefed-up funding to halt migrants. House Speaker Mike Johnson has set a goal of passing the package out of his chamber by Memorial Day. All told, 11 different House committees are crafting portions of the bill.
Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Republican and former interior secretary in the first Trump administration, had said before the vote that he was drawing a red line on public land sales.
“It’s a no now. It will be a no later. It will be a no forever,” said Zinke, whose state includes large parcels of federally owned lands.
Zinke and Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-New Mexico, are set to lead a new bipartisan Public Lands Caucus intended to protect and expand access to Americas public lands. The caucus was set to launch on Wednesday, hours after the resources panel vote.
Oil and gas royalty rates would drop from 16.7% on public lands and 18.75% offshore to a uniform 12.5% under the committee-passed bill, which still faces a vote in the full House and Senate once it is incorporated into the final legislative package. Royalties for coal would drop from 12.5% to 7%.
The measure calls for four oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge over the next decade. It also seeks to boost the ailing coal industry with a mandate to make available for leasing 6,250 square miles of public landsan area greater in size than Connecticut.
Republican supporters say the lost revenue would be offset by increased development. Its uncertain if companies would have an appetite for leases, given the industrys precipitous decline in recent years as utilities switched to cleaner burning fuels and renewable energy.
Drew McConville, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, denounced the committee vote.
The Trump tax bill was already a massive and historic sellout of U.S. lands and waters to corporate interests. This dark-of-night maneuver shows how shamelessly focused congressional Republicans are on sacrificing public benefits to pay for Trumps reckless tax cuts. If this bill passes, the losses to Americas great outdoor legacy will be felt for generations, McConville said in a statement.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner in March proposed using underutilized federal land for affordable housing. Turner said some 7 million homes are needed. Officials under Biden also sought to use public lands for affordable housing, although on a smaller scale.
The agencies have not yet released more details of the proposal.
Matthew Daly and Matthew Brown, Associated Press
The vertical video feed is coming to the Netflix app.
The streaming service announced Tuesday that in the coming weeks it will pilot the new feature, which it will populate with short-form clips of movies and shows tailored to the end-user’s viewing habits. Netflix users will be able to swipe through the feed to watch, save, or share content with friends, just like Tiktok. Yep the user interface that took over social media is making its way into streamingbut most importantly for Netflix, it’s a play for improving its own content discovery engine.
“We know that swiping through a vertical feed on social media apps is an easy way to browse video content, and we also know that our members love to browse our clips and trailers to find their next obsession, so in the coming weeks well be testing a vertical feed filled with clips of Netflix shows and movies to make discovery easy and fun,” Netflix’s chief product officer Eunice Kim said during a virtual presentation.
[Image: Netflix]
During this mobile-only test, the vertical video feed won’t be available to every single member, Netflix tells Fast Company, but those who get it will see recommendations personalized to them, with feature clips from their top picks for you. Netflix previously tried vertical-video feeds in 2021 with two themed apps, Fast Laughs for comedy clips and Kids Clips for clips from its children’s programming, but it’s forthcoming in-app pilot expands on that concept across the streamer’s library.
The announcement was one of a number of design changes Netflix announced Tuesday, including a new My Netflix tab with listed content, reminders for upcoming shows, and a continue watching feed, as well as a homepage designed to show more information at a glance, including callouts like “New Episode,” “Recently Added,” “Oscar Winner,” and “We think you’ll love this” that appear with their own emoji-style icons next to shows. The company is also considering expanding into video podcasts. But it’s the vertical video feed that seems aimed at killing two birds with one stone.
[Image: Netflix]
Netflix head of design Steve Johnson told Fast Company last year that the two things that keep him up at night are discovery and competition for viewing time from a generation that spends a majority of its viewing hours on mobile devices. By piloting its own short-form, vertical video feed, Netflix is trying to both improve discovery and carve out more viewing time on its app with a swiping experience borrowed from social media. Already, TikTok’s social media competitors like Instagram have made design changes that mirror its vertical video layout, and that trend is now creeping into other app categories. (Tubi launched its own TikTok-ified discovery format, called “Scenes,” last fall.)
As TikTok became more popular, full-length, professionally shot shows had to compete with more and more short-form video content, and even with amateur, recorded snippets of their own IP popping up in social feeds.
Now, Netflix is trying to meet viewers where they are, with a few potential benefits. By offering viewers shareable clips of its own shows, Netflix has a say in how its content appears on other platforms, while still taking advantage of the soft marketing of user-generated fandom.
And if cutting up its shows into bite-size videos and organizing them in a format familiar to social media natives provides Netflix a better discovery funnel for new shows, the format could soon find other closed platform imitators.
CrowdStrike reiterated its fiscal 2026 first quarter and annual forecasts on Wednesday and announced a plan to cut about 500 roles, roughly 5% of its workforce, to streamline operations and reduce costs.
The cybersecurity company will incur about $36 million to $53 million in charges related to the layoffs, of which about $7 million will be recognized in the first quarter ended April 30, it said in a regulatory filing.
Austin, Texas-based CrowdStrike said the rest of the charges will be seen in the second quarter. The charges primarily consist of future cash expenditure related to severance payments, employee benefits, and related costs.
The company’s shares were down nearly 4% in morning trading.
CrowdStrike had 10,118 full-time employees as of January 31, according to its annual report.
“While we will continue to prudently hire, primarily in customer-facing and product engineering roles, we are reducing roles in some areas of the business,” CEO George Kurtz said in a note to the company’s employees.
Cybersecurity remains a priority for businesses and governments at a time when high-profile hacking incidents have hit companies such as Microsoft, UnitedHealth Group and Walt Disney.
Analysts have said CrowdStrike’s prompt handling of the Windows outage last year, which disrupted internet services globally, helped the company maintain customer trust.
CrowdStrike reiterated its full-year 2026 revenue forecast to be between $4.74 billion and $4.81 billion and reaffirmed its annual adjusted profit-per-share estimate of $3.33 to $3.45.
The company’s forecast for first-quarter revenue was between $1.10 billion and $1.11 billion.
“This will likely spark debate on if this announcement is coming from a place of weakness or strengthto which we broadly believe it is the latter,” multinational financial services company Piper Sandler said in a note.
CrowdStrike will release financial results for its first quarter on June 3.
Jaspreet Singh, Reuters
The latest TikTok trend is leading to fire evacuations at schools across Connecticut.
As part of the trend, students are filming themselves inserting items such as pencils, paper clips, and pushpins into the charging ports of their school Chromebooks to set them on fire. Why? For a laugh and a brief break from schoolwork.
One such tutorial gained 1.5 million views on TikTok before being removed, showing a student pushing a lead pencil into the back left corner of the port. You might have to wiggle it a bit, the user explained.
Another student tried to film a how-to video last week, managing to cause a laptop fire and triggering an evacuation at Newington High School, as reported by WDBJ7. Since Monday, both Derby High School and Cromwell High School have experienced similar incidents.
On Thursday, I was alerted by both my director of security and high school principal that we had a Chromebook that was smoking, Maureen Brummett, superintendent of Newington Public Schools, told NBC Connecticut.
She further explained that after an investigation, it was clear that the damage to the laptop was “done intentionally” rather than being a result of a malfunction, and that students would be held accountable for replacing the school equipment.
Chromebooks are expensive and theyre going up in price, so when a student does intentionally destroy a Chromebook, its their responsibility to replace it. We have an insurance program, but its not covering intentional damage, she added.
DJ Zordon, a Newington fire marshal, described arriving at the scene to find a room filled with smoke. We did see video from students . . . and thats one of the biggest things. The batteries that are essentially catching on fire, once they burn, theyre producing this toxic smoke, Zordon told NBC Connecticut.
For those thinking about participating in the trend, the consequences go beyond just a damaged Chromebook. The school has to be evacuated, firefighters respond to the firehouse and subsequently to the scene, and it takes resources away from any other emergencies that might be happening at that time,” Zordon added.
While no injuries have been reported, when batteries like those in laptops catch fire, there is a risk of explosion, which could lead to burns or injury from flying shrapnel. Investigations are ongoing across the schools, and warnings have been issued to students and their families.
Maybe this is one trend to skip.
LinkedIn just released its 2025 Grad Guide highlighting the fastest-growing cities, industries, and job titles for new workers with and without a bachelor’s degree.
A variety of industries and professions made the list. However, the new data offers a few surprises when it comes to what grads and non-grads are pursuing most often, with many non-grads heading into careers that once required college degreesand many graduates in fields that don’t.
When it comes to where young professionals are moving post-college, the Sun Belt states, including Tucson, Dallas, Tulsa, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, are turning into hot locations for new graduates to get to work. Entry-level non-grads are heading to big cities more often. San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Boston, Miami, and D.C. all made the list. But so did a few smaller hubs like Detroit and Orlando.Entry-level workers without a degree joining a variety of industries, with the fastest-growing fields being customer service, education, and real estate. Notably, financial services, a field which has typically required a college degree, is also on the list, meaning young professionals are breaking into the field in other ways that don’t involve four years of formal education.
Marketing seems to be hugely popular for non-grads, too. It shows up three times on the list of the fastest-growing entry-level jobs, meaning marketing skills can be learned outside of a four-year collegeperhaps by tech-savvy Gen Zers leaning into skills they learned by coming of age with social media at their fingertips. Non-grads are more frequently becoming marketing specialists, social media marketing specialists, and marketing coordinators.College grads are also joining a variety of industries, including in fields that don’t traditionally require a college degree. Case in point: Number one on the list of fastest-growing fields is construction. Real estate, utilities, wholesale, and administrative services were all growing fields for college graduates, too. Perhaps least surprisingly, new grads are leaning into technology, with artificial intelligence engineers landing as the fastest-growing job on the list.
A hearing Wednesday before Nevada’s high court could provide the first public window into a secretive legal dispute over who will control Rupert Murdoch’s powerful media empire after he dies.The case has been unfolding behind closed doors in state court in Reno, with most documents under seal. But reporting by The New York Times, which said it obtained some of the documents, revealed Murdoch’s efforts to keep just one of his sons, Lachlan, in charge and ensure that Fox News maintains its conservative editorial slant.Media outlets including the Times and The Associated Press are now asking the Nevada Supreme Court to unseal the case and make future hearings public. The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the afternoon in Carson City, the capital.Murdoch’s media empire, which also includes The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, spans continents and helped to shape modern American politics. Lachlan Murdoch has been the head of Fox News and News Corp. since his father stepped down in 2023.The issue at the center of the case is Rupert Murdoch’s family trust, which after his death would divide control of the company equally among four of his children Lachlan, Prudence, Elisabeth and James.Irrevocable trusts are typically used to limit estate taxes, among other reasons, and can’t be changed without permission from the beneficiaries or via a court order.Rupert Murdoch has attempted to alter the trust, however, and Prudence, Elisabeth and James have united to try to stop that. James and Elisabeth are both known to have less conservative political views than their father or brother, potentially complicating the media mogul’s desire to keep Fox News’s political tone.The dispute has had many twists and turns, including a probate commissioner ruling against Rupert Murdoch in December.In a 96-page opinion, the commissioner characterized the plan to change the trust as a “carefully crafted charade” to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles” inside the empire “regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries” of the family trust, according to the Times.Adam Streisand, a lawyer for Rupert Murdoch, told the newspaper at the time that they were disappointed with the ruling and intended to appeal. Another evidentiary hearing is scheduled for this month.
Associated Press
The Federal Reserve could keep its key rate unchanged for several more months as it evaluates the impact of President Donald Trump’s widespread tariffs on hiring and inflation, some economists say, even as the White House pushes for a rate cut.The Fed is nearly certain to keep its rate unchanged when it concludes its latest policy meeting Wednesday. Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials have signaled that they want to see how the dutiesincluding 145% on all imports from Chinaimpact consumer prices and the economy.The central bank’s caution could lead to more conflict between the Fed and the Trump administration. On Sunday, Trump again urged the Fed to cut rates in a television interview and said Powell “just doesn’t like me because I think he’s a total stiff.” With inflation not far from the Fed’s 2% target for now, Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argue that the Fed could reduce its rate. The Fed pushed it higher in 2022 and 2023 to fight inflation.If the Fed were to cut, it could lower other borrowing costs, such as for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards, though that is not guaranteed.Trump also said Sunday he wouldn’t fire Powell because the chair’s term ends next May and he will be able to appoint a new chair then. Yet if the economy stumbles in the coming months, Trump could renew his threats to remove Powell.A big issue facing the Fed is how tariffs will impact inflation. Nearly all economists and Fed officials expect the import taxes will lift prices, but it’s not clear by how much or for how long. Tariffs typically cause a one-time increase in prices, but not necessarily ongoing inflation. Yet if Trump announces further tariffsas he has threatened to do on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and copperor if Americans worry that inflation will get worse, that could send prices higher in a more persistent way.Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, said this could keep the Fed on the sidelines until September.“It’s hard for them to cut sooner because they’ve got to weigh, what’s the inflation impact?” Bostjancic said. “Is this going to be somewhat persistent and add to inflation expectations?”Economists and the Fed are closely watching inflation expectations, which are essentially a measure of how much consumers are concerned that inflation will worsen. Higher inflation expectations can be self-fulfilling, because it Americans think prices will rise, they can take steps that push up costs, such as asking for higher wages.For now, the U.S. economy is mostly in solid shape, and inflation has cooled considerably from its peak in 2022. Consumers are spending at a healthy pace, though some of that may reflect buying things like cars ahead of tariffs. Businesses are still adding workers at a steady pace, and unemployment is low.Still, there are signs inflation will worsen in the coming months. Surveys of both manufacturing and services firms show that they are seeing higher prices from their suppliers. And a survey by the Federal Reserve’s Dallas branch found that nearly 55% of manufacturing firms expect to pass on the impact of tariff increases to their customers.“The bottom line is that inflation will be rising significantly over the next six months,” Torsten Slok, chief economist at the Apollo Group, said in an email.Yet the tariffs could also weigh heavily on the economy, particularly because of the uncertainty they have created. Huge tariffs on about 60 other nations, announced April 2, were then postponed until July 9, but could be reimposed. Business surveys show that firms are postponing investment decisions until they have greater clarity.Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, said the uncertainty surrounding trade policy gives him “night terrors.”“The economics of uncertainty are absolutely suffocating,” Sweet said. “Businesses that don’t know the rules of the road, their knee-jerk reaction is to sit on their hands. And that’s what they’re doing.”But if the uncertainty delays hiring, slows the economy and pushes up the unemployment rate, the Fed could quickly shift toward interest rate cuts. A sharp economic slowdown could eventually cool inflation by itself, economists say.“If you felt like the economy was really slowing down, then I think that would probably take precedence (over inflation), because usually the way the committee thinks is that will also drag inflation somewhat with it,” said Jim Bullard, former president of the Federal Reserve’s St. Louis branch, and currently dean of Purdue University’s business school.In March, the Fed signaled that it could cut rates twice this year. But since then, the Trump administration imposed duties that Powell said last month were larger and broader than the Fed expected.The duties, Powell acknowledged, could both slow growth and lift prices, which puts the Fed in a tough spot. It would usually cut rates to boost growth and hiring, while it would raise them to cool spending and inflation. Powell signaled that if the two goals came into conflict, Fed officials would put more weight on inflation concerns.“Without price stability, we cannot achieve the long periods of strong labor market conditions that benefit all Americans,” Powell said.
Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
North Dakota is the 11th state in the U.S. with a measles outbreak, logging its first cases since 2011.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s confirmed measles case count is 935, more than triple the amount seen in all of 2024. The three-month outbreak in Texas accounts for the vast majority of cases, with 702 confirmed as of Tuesday. The outbreak has also spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas.Two unvaccinated elementary school-aged children died from measles-related illnesses in the epicenter in West Texas, and an adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated died of a measles-related illness.Other states with active outbreakswhich the CDC defines as three or more related casesinclude Indiana, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.North America has two other ongoing outbreaks. One in Ontario, Canada, has resulted in 1,243 cases from mid-October through April 29. And the Mexican state of Chihuahua had 922 measles cases and one death as of Tuesday, according to data from the state health ministry. Health officials in Mexico and the U.S. say all three outbreaks are of the same measles strain.Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.As the virus takes hold in U.S. communities with low vaccination rates, health experts fear that spread could stretch on for a year. Here’s what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.
How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?
Texas state health officials said Tuesday there were 19 new cases of measles since Friday, bringing the total to 702 across 29 countiesmost of them in West Texas. The state also added two hospitalizations to its count Friday, for a total of 91 throughout the outbreak.State health officials estimated about 1% of casesfewer than 10are actively infectious.Fifty-seven percent of Texas’ cases are in Gaines County, population 22,892, where the virus started spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county has had 403 cases since late Januaryjust over 1.7% of the county’s residents.The April 3 death in Texas was an 8-year-old child, according to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Local health officials in Texas said the child did not have underlying health conditions and died of “what the child’s doctor described as measles pulmonary failure.” A unvaccinated child with no underlying conditions died of measles in Texas in late FebruaryKennedy said age 6.New Mexico was steady Tuesday with 67 total cases. Seven people have been hospitalized since the outbreak started. Most of the state’s cases are in Lea County. Three are in Eddy County, two in Dona Ana County and one in Chaves County.
How many cases are there in Indiana?
Indiana confirmed two more cases April 21 in an outbreak that has sickened eight in Allen County in the northeast part of the statefive are unvaccinated minors and three are adults whose vaccination status is unknown.The cases have no known link to other outbreaks, the Allen County Department of Health has said.
How many cases are there in Kansas?
Kansas added nine cases Wednesday for a total of 46 across eight counties in the southwest part of the state. Gray County is up to 15 cases. The state also reported its first hospitalization.Kansas’ health department didn’t elaborate Wednesday about a discrepancy in the number of new cases at the state and county levels beyond noting that case counts are “fluid as the outbreak progresses.”The state’s first reported case is linked to the Texas outbreak based on genetic testing.
How many cases are there in Michigan?
Montcalm County, near Grand Rapids in western Michigan, has an outbreak of four cases that state health officials say is tied to the Ontario outbreak. The state had nine confirmed measles cases as of Friday, but the remaining five are not part of the Montcalm County outbreak.
How many cases are there in Montana?
Montana state health officials announced five cases April 17 in unvaccinated children and adults who had traveled out of state, and later confirmed it was an outbreak. All five are isolating at home in Gallatin County in the southwest part of the state.They were Montana’s first measles cases in 35 years. Health officials didn’t say whether the cases are linked to other outbreaks in North America.
How many measles cases are there in North Dakota?
North Dakota announced its first measles case since 2011 on Friday, and by Tuesday, there were nine cases.All are in Williams County in western North Dakota on the Montana border. The state health department said Monday that three of the confirmed cases are linked to the first casean unvaccinated child who health officials believe got it from an out-of-state visitor.The other five cases, announced Tuesday, were people who were not vaccinated and did not have contact with the other cases, causing concern about community transmission. The state health department said four people diagnosed with measles attended classes while infectious at a Williston elementary school, middle school and high school.
How many cases are there in Ohio?
The state has two outbreaks. Ashtabula County near Cleveland has 16 cases. And Knox County in east-central Ohio has 2014 among Ohio residents and the rest among visitors.The Ohio Department of Health on Thursday confirmed 33 measles cases and one hospitalization. That count includes only Ohio residents. Defiance County in the northwestern part of the state has logged its first case.Allen and Holmes counties have had one case each.
How many cases are there in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma added one case for a total of 14 confirmed and three probable cases as of Tuesday. The outbreak is linked to Texas and New Mexico.The state health department is not releasing which counties have cases, but Cleveland, Oklahoma and Sequoyah counties have had public exposures in the past couple of months.
How many cases are there in Pennsylvania?
There are eight measles cases in Erie County in far northwest Pennsylvania, officials said Friday. The county declared an outbreak in mid-April. The state has said it has 13 cases overall in 2025, including international travel-related cases in Montgomery County and one in Philadelphia.
How many cases are there in Tennessee?
Tennesse had six measles cases as of last week. Health department spokesman Bill Christian said all cases are the middle part of the state, and that “at least three of these cases are linked to each other” but declined to specify further. The state also did not say whether the cases were linked to other outbreaks or when Tennessee’s outbreak started.The state health department announced the first measles case March 21, three more on April 1 and the last two on April 17, but none of the news releases declared an outbreak. However, Tennessee was on a list of outbreak states in a CDC report April 17.
Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.?
Cases also have been reported in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.Cases and outbreaks in the U.S. are frequently traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles.
What do you need to know about the MMR vaccine?
The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says. People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from “killed” virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said.People who have documentation that they had measles are immune and those born before 1957 generally don’t need the shots because most children back then had measles and now have “presumptive immunity.”In communities with high vaccination ratesabove 95%diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.”But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots. The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60.
What are the symptoms of measles?
Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
How can you treat measles?
There’s no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
AP Science Writer Laura Ungar contributed to this report.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Devi Shastri, AP Health Writer
New AI features from LinkedIn will soon help job seekers find positions that best suit themwithout the need for exact keyword matches or specific job titles.
LinkedIns new AI-powered job search interface allows users to express their goals in plain language, says Rohan Rajiv, LinkedIns head of career products. For example, users can type a phrase like business development or partnership roles in video games and still be matched with relevant positions in the gaming industry, even if job listings dont use those exact terms.
Job seekers can also enter more abstract goals like using brand marketing skills to cure cancer to uncover marketing roles at pharmaceutical companies and oncology centers, Rajiv demonstrated in a session with Fast Company.
Powered by large language model (LLM) AI, the new search tool interprets the intent behind job seeker queries and job descriptions, making it easier to match people with opportunities in a job market that often frustrates both applicants and employers.
[Image: LinkedIn]
LLMs are amazing at looking at a job description and extracting semantics out of them and nuance out of them, and inferring things from them, says Erran Berger, VP of engineering at LinkedIn.
Recent survey data from LinkedIn shows that job seekers are applying to more positions than before, increasing the volume of applications that hiring teams must review.
They say they are spending three to five hours a day sifting through applications, and less than half of these applications meet the required criteria, Rajiv notes.
The enhanced AI search can also surface jobs and employers that applicants may not have previously considered. LinkedIn currently lists more than 15 million job postings.
Another new feature, job match, helps users assess their fit for a role before applying. By analyzing both job descriptions and user profiles, the AI identifies how closely someone matches a job’s criteria and highlights areas where qualifications are strong or lackingsuch as experience with a particular technology.
[Image: LinkedIn]
Unlike traditional keyword searches, LLMs are less likely to overlook relevant experience. For example, the AI understands that a web developer likely knows HTML, even if its not explicitly listed. This insight allows users to refine their profiles with relevant skills or consider roles better aligned with their background, saving time for both candidates and recruiters.
Another feature will provide context around whether a position is actively hiring, whether it’s being promoted on LinkedIn, and, when available, how long applicants typically wait to hear back.
These AI innovations build on tools introduced last year to help recruiters identify strong matches and come roughly 20 years after LinkedIn first began helping users connect with job opportunities. At that time, the company recognized that its vast career and network data could help recruiters discover candidates not actively searching for roles, Berger explains.
Twenty years ago, LinkedIn transformed the traditional job search by connecting recruiters with passive candidates, CEO Ryan Roslansky says in a statement to Fast Company. And today, with the launch of AI-powered job search, were not just introducing a new way to find a job, but an entirely new way to discover what’s possible.
LinkedIn has steadily expanded its job-matching capabilities, introducing automated job recommendations around 2010 and consolidating job search tools into a dedicated tab on its main platform in 2016. These changes reflect how users often combine job searches with other research activities, such as exploring company profiles.
Currently, more than 11,000 LinkedIn users apply for a job every minute. The company expects that its rich history of job and job seeker data will continue to enhance its AI matching tools.
We’re really uniquely positioned to take this rich data that we haveand what’s possible with AI nowto build this feature in a way that few, if any, other companies can, Berger says.
