"Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Skivone.
The U.S. military says no ships have evaded as blockade of Iranian ports, and PR's
“Quill Lawrence reports a dozen U.S. warships and more than a hundred aircraft have been”
enforcing the naval blockade that began Monday morning." U.S. Central Command states on social media that no vessels headed to or from Iran have passed the state of Hormuz since the American blockade began, and that six merchant ships had obeyed U.S. orders to return back to Iranian ports. sitcom says the blockade will be enforced against any nation's ships, and allows free navigation
in and out of the Persian Gulf, except for Iranian ports. Iran, for its part, has effectively blocked any other commerce through the straight for weeks, with the mere threat of Iranian mines and drone attacks keeping all but a trickle of shipping anchored in the Gulf. Iran has charged a few ships, millions of dollars for safe passage, now the U.S. blockade will likely
end that practice, Quill Lawrence and PR News. In Washington, the DC Court of Appeals has blocked an effort to investigate former homeland
“security secretary Christy Nome, as well as other top Trump officials for possible criminal”
contempt, and PR's himmenobestio reports. The Appeals' panel ruled two to one that district judge James Boesburg's attempt to probe the executive branch is a "clear abuse of discretion." The two Trump appointees ruled against Boesburg's "content investigation."
The third judge on the panel and appointee a former president Joe Biden dissented, saying
the panel's decision would hurt the future of all federal judges to hold the executive branch to account. Judge Boesburg sought to investigate the administration. After he said, it defied his orders not to proceed with deportation fights to El Salvador. This is the second time, in this case, that the courts have blocked any attempt to investigate
the Trump administration for contempt. He menobestio and PR News, Washington.
“The U.S. is experiencing a resurgence of measles with more than 1,700 confirmed cases”
so far this year. Now a new study finds that rising measles cases come with significant human and economic costs. And PR's Maria Goodoy has that story. Last year, the U.S. confirmed 2,287 measles cases.
The highest number in decades. In a new modeling study, researchers at Yale estimated that responding to those cases cost
a country, some $244 million.
The average cost per case was more than $104,000. The researchers also found that even a small 1% drop in measles vaccination rates could result in more than 4,000 hospitalizations and 36 preventable deaths from measles each year. That 1% drop in vaccinations would also cost the nation in additional $1.5 billion per year between now and the year 2030 in related health costs.
The findings appear in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Maria Goodoy and PR News. On Wall Street, the Dow closed up 317, this is NPR. The International Monetary Fund is warning that the Iran Wars likely to push global economic growth lower than last year to a 3.1% rate below a first predicted 3.3%.
After years of financial struggles, Hampshire College and Amherst Massachusetts will close at the end of 2026, from GPH in Boston, Kirk Carapesa reports. The decision comes as hundreds of other private colleges face tough financial decisions. The alternative liberal arts school with no grades or majors first opened in 1970. Hampshire leaders declined an interview request saying they're focused on supporting the
campus community amid news of the shutdown. Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clean and Christensen Institute, which has long-predicted widespread college closures. He says declining enrollment shows Hampshire's offbeat profile wasn't selling with potential students.
While they had a unique value proposition, the market was clearly telling them it was a unique value proposition that was not valued. A new analysis from the Huron Consulting Group says more than a quarter of private non-profit four-year colleges are at risk of closing within the next 10 years. Mr. and Pierre News, I'm Kirk Carapesa in Boston.
Christy's auction house in Paris conducted a raffle offering the prize of a million-dollar
Picasso portrait, 120,000 tickets were sold worldwide. Now a Parisian man has won a 1941 Picasso entitled Head of a Woman. Raffle proceeds go to Alzheimer's Research. It's the third one Picasso for 100 euros lottery with previous raffles supporting cultural and humanitarian causes.
I'm Luis Givoni and PR News.
