Florida’s surgeon general said he didn’t calculate the costs of ending vaccine mandates in the state. But scientists have.
Florida’s surgeon general said Sunday that he had not weighed the cost – in terms of infections, hospitalizations or deaths – of ending vaccine mandates in his state. But scientists who have done those calculations say those costs may be high. Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether he had done any data analysis or projections of how many new cases of vaccine-preventable disease there would be if the mandates were lifted for everyone in Florida, including schoolchildren, as he proposed last week, Dr. Joseph Ladapo answered, “Absolutely not.” “Do I need to analyze whether it’s appropriate for parents to be able to decide what goes into their children’s bodies? I don’t need an analysis on that,” he said. Scientists have crunched the numbers, however. Infectious disease forecasters at Stanford University who recently looked at the effects of falling vaccination rates across the country found that in Florida alone, a 15% decline in vaccinations against measles over 25 years would lead to 1 million measles cases. The state is particularly vulnerable because of its large population and brisk tourism industry, according to lead study author Dr. Mathew Kiang. Disney World in Orlando has often been the site of measles cases imported from other countries, for example. “Unvaccinated groups in the United States are sort of like tinder, and vaccines are sort of fire protection, and so every imported case is like throwing a match into the fire,” said Kiang, an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health. “For most of them, nothing is going to happen, but what you don’t want is a situation where one happens and then it comes roaring back like a wildfire.”For every 1,000 measles cases, there are between 1 and 3 deaths from breathing complications or brain swelling. If there are a million cases, that’s about 1,000 deaths that doctors consider preventable with the use of vaccines.
Everything Apple announced at its big event: iPhone Air, iPhone 17, new Apple Watches and more
New York — Apple announced the first major redesign of the iPhone in years on Tuesday when it confirmed the launch of a new, thinner model called the iPhone Air. CEO Tim Cook called it the “biggest leap ever for iPhone.” That was one of a number of product upgrades that came during Apple’s annual hardware event at its Cupertino, California, headquarters, which also included improvements to the Apple Watch and AirPods Pro. The iPhone maker had teased the event with the phrase “awe dropping” — a nod to the fact that the pressure for Apple to impress with its latest devices was especially high this year. iPhone sales have been bumpy for years, Apple has fallen behind competitors on artificial intelligence and the company has been caught in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s trade wars. During Tuesday’s event, Apple seemed to double down on its hardware leadership, noting how its new devices could enable AI features without making its “Apple Intelligence” the star of the show. And analysts were impressed. “Apple’s iPhone 17 Air was the headline announcement, reflecting the company’s push to prove it can still differentiate through design,” Emarketer analyst Gadjo Sevilla said in emailed commentary following the event. “It’s a reminder that Apple’s competitive advantage remains rooted in product experience rather than raw AI as a product.” With the new iPhone lineup, “there is an iPhone for everybody at a reasonable price,” tech analyst and PP Foresight founder Paolo Pescatore said in an email. Still, Apple shares (AAPL) were down around 1.5% following the event, bringing the stock down nearly 4% since the start of this year and suggesting that even a new model may not be enough to wow shareholders. That could be because some of the new releases and features Apple announced on Tuesday are trailing similar offerings previously released by rivals. For example, the iPhone Air will compete with Samsung’s thin Galaxy S25 Edge model, which was announced in May.
Elon Musk is on the cusp of losing his title as world’s richest person
Elon Musk is on the verge of losing his “world’s richest person” title to Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison. Ellison’s wealth jumped $70 billion to $364 billion after Oracle’s stunningly strong earnings report Tuesday evening, putting him in striking distance of Musk’s net worth of $384 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Oracle (ORCL) reported surging demand for its data center capacity from AI customers, launching the stock into the stratosphere. It’s rocketing 33% higher in premarket trading Wednesday. CEO Safra Catz announced Tuesday after the stock market closed that Oracle signed four multibillion-dollar contracts with customers during the quarter, and she expects to sign several more in the coming months. As Oracle has become a powerhouse in AI technology, it has ridden the recent tech boom that has propelled Nvidia to become the world’s most valuable company, with a valuation north of $4 trillion. Microsoft briefly joined Nvidia above the $4 trillion mark. The eight most-valuable stocks in the S&P 500 are all tech stocks with some stake in building the AI-powerd future. As the AI boom accelerates, Oracle’s stock has risen 45% this year. Musk first captured the title in 2021 and has largely held on to it for the past few years thanks in part to his various investments in Tesla and SpaceX. Over the years, Musk has briefly lost it twice, first in 2021 to LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and in 2024 to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Nevertheless, Musk has prevailed despite his various trials and tribulations. He was even give a new pay package that could be worth close to $1 trillion once Tesla hits certain milestones. For Ellison, his road to becoming the world’s richest person traces back to 1977, when he dropped out of college and helped establish Oracle.
Israel’s Qatar strike questioned at home and condemned abroad as Trump ‘not thrilled’
What we’re covering • Israel is facing growing condemnation after it attacked Hamas leadership in the capital of Qatar, a US ally and key mediator in Gaza ceasefire talks — putting hostage negotiations at risk. • Hamas said the strike killed five members but failed to kill the targeted negotiating delegation, the target of the strikes. Doubts are now emerging about the success of the attack, according to two Israeli officials. • USPresident Donald Trump has criticized the strike, saying that by the time his administration learned of the attack and told the Qataris, there was little he could do to stop it. • The attack is the first publicly acknowledged strike on a Gulf state by Israel. Qatar’s prime minister was visibly angry and said his country’s tradition of diplomacy “won’t be deterred.”
In groundbreaking study, researchers publish brain map showing how decisions are made
Neuroscientists from 22 labs joined forces in an unprecedented international partnership to produce a landmark achievement: a neural map that shows activity across the entire brain during decision-making. The data, gathered from 139 mice, encompass activity from more than 600,000 neurons in 279 areas of the brain — about 95% of the brain in a mouse. This map is the first to provide a complete picture of what happens across the brain as a decision is made. “They have created the largest dataset anyone has ever imagined at this scale,” said Dr. Paul W. Glimcher, chair of the department of neuroscience and physiology and director of the Neuroscience Institute at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, of the researchers. In the field of neuroscience, “this is going to go down in history as a major event,” Glimcher, who was not involved in the new research, told CNN. To construct the map, researchers first created a standardized procedure to be shared across laboratories and then tracked neural activity in mice as the rodents responded to visual prompts, integrating all the data gathered by each lab. Seven years in the making and presented in two studies, the findings were published on September 3 in the journal Nature. “There are basically two big results, which is why we have two papers,” said Alexandre Pouget, a full professor in basic neuroscience at the University of Geneva. One study outlined the widespread distribution of electrical activity related to decision-making. The other used the data to evaluate how expectations shape choices. Pouget is a coauthor of the first study and senior author of the second. “We started from scratch,” he told CNN. “Nobody had ever attempted to do something like this before.”
Poland shoots down Russian drones in its airspace for the first time, accuses Moscow of ‘act of aggression’
Poland’s military said early Wednesday that it had shot down drones that violated its airspace during a Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine, the first time it has taken such a step in what is a major provocation for Europe and NATO. Addressing the country’s parliament, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said there were 19 intrusions of its airspace, and that a “large proportion” of the drones entered it from Belarus. He announced that Poland has invoked Article 4 of NATO, meaning the alliance’s main political decision-making body will meet to discuss the situation and its next steps. Tusk called the incident an “unprecedented violation of (its) airspace” and said it lasted all night – from just before midnight local time on Tuesday until 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Poland’s military said early Wednesday that it had shot down drones that violated its airspace during a Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine, the first time it has taken such a step in what is a major provocation for Europe and NATO. Addressing the country’s parliament, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said there were 19 intrusions of its airspace, and that a “large proportion” of the drones entered it from Belarus. He announced that Poland has invoked Article 4 of NATO, meaning the alliance’s main political decision-making body will meet to discuss the situation and its next steps. Tusk called the incident an “unprecedented violation of (its) airspace” and said it lasted all night – from just before midnight local time on Tuesday until 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday.