The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage fell for the fifth straight week to its lowest level since early April, an encouraging sign for potential buyers who have wrestled with rising home prices.
The long-term rate fell to 6.67% from 6.77% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.95%.
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, fell to 5.80% from 5.89% last week. A year ago, it was 6.25%, Freddie Mac said.
High mortgage rates can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers and reduce their purchasing power. Thats helped keep the U.S. housing market in a sales slump that dates back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from the rock-bottom lows they reached during the pandemic.
Last year, sales of previously occupied U.S. homes sank to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. Theyve remained sluggish so far this year, as many prospective homebuyers have been discouraged by elevated mortgage rates and home prices that have continued to climb, albeit more slowly.
High borrowing costs are also putting pressure on the new home market. Last week, the government reported that sales of new U.S. homes fell nearly 14% in May from the previous month.
Recent data suggests sales could pick up in the coming months, especially with the recent decline in mortgage rates. A seasonally adjusted index of pending U.S. home sales rose 1.8% in May from the previous month and increased 1.1% from May last year, the National Association of Realtors said last week.
Theres usually a month or two lag between a contract signing and when the sale is finalized, which makes pending home sales a bellwether for future completed home sales.
Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserves interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors expectations for the economy and inflation.
The key barometer is the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. The yield was at 4.33% at midday Thursday, down from 4.58% just a few weeks ago.
The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has remained relatively close to its high so far this year of just above 7%, set in mid-January. The 30-year rates low point this year was in early April when it briefly dipped to 6.62%.
Mortgage rates have now fallen five weeks in a row, reflecting the recent pullback in bond yields.
The recent decline in mortgage rates appears to have encouraged some home shoppers. Last week, mortgage applications rose 2.7% from a week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Economists generally expect mortgage rates to stay relatively stable in the coming months, with forecasts calling for the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain in a range between 6% and 7% this year.
Matt Ott, AP business writer
Good night, Great America?
Amusement park operator Six Flags Entertainment Corporation may close its Santa Clara, California-based Great America park after five decades, according to comments made by company leaders at its most recent investor day event, which was held on May 20.
The catalyst for the potential closure is that the companys lease is up, and if its not extended, Great America could shut down at the end of its 2027 season.
Unless we decide to extend, and exercise one of our options to extend that lease, that parks last year without that extension would be after the [20]27 season, said Brian Witherow, Six Flags CFO, during that meeting.
Witherow went on to say that the company has had difficulty contending with rising costs in recent years, particularly labor costs. Some parks “have seen their wage rate go from $10, $11 [per hour], to $17, $18. Thats a lot to absorb, he said.
He went on to refer to the Santa Clara park as “low on the ranking of margins.”
That said, nothing is definite, and Six Flags tells Fast Company that no final decision has been made about the park’s fate.
As previously announced at the time of the sale, the parks land lease will expire in 2028 with a potential five-year renewal option,” a spokesperson for Six Flags’ West region said in a statement. “At this time, we are still in the planning stages and are working with stakeholders and engaging the community. Until we know more, we remain focused on the great season that’s already underway at the park and the events ahead.
Reevaluating a sprawling empire of amusements
Six Flags recently announced the closure of another parkSix Flags America and Hurricane Harbor, in Bowie, Marylandwhich the company determined was not a strategic fit with the companys long-term growth plan, in the words of CEO Richard Zimmerman.
Six Flags, whose merger with Cedar Fair was completed a year ago, operates parks in 18 states (17, following the Maryland-based parks closure), as well as parks in Mexico, and in two Canadian provinces. In all, that includes 56 parks42 amusement or theme parks and 14 water parks. Over the years, it has also closed or sold parks in New Orleans (due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005), Ohio, Washington, and Kentucky, among other locations.
Shares of Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: FUN) are down more than 32% year to date.
Great America first opened in 1976 as a Marriott-branded park, called Marriotts Great America, and if it were to close in 2027, it would be shortly after its 51st year in operation.
Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here.
The AI regulation freeze that almost silenced the states
The Republicans One Big Beautiful Bill Act has passed the Senate and is now headed for a final vote in the House before reaching the presidents desk. But before its passage, senators removed a controversial amendment that would have imposed a five-year freeze on state-level regulation of AI models and apps. (The bill also includes billions in funding for new AI initiatives across federal departments, including Defense, Homeland Security, Commerce, and Energy.)
Had the amendment survived, it could have been disastrous for states, according to Michael Kleinman, policy lead at the Future of Life Institute. This is the worst possible way to legislate around AI for two reasons: First, its making it almost impossible to do any kind of legislation, and second, its happening in the most rushed and chaotic environment imaginable, he says. The bill is over 900 pages long, and the Senate had just 72 hours to review it before debate and voting began.
The original proposal called for a 10-year freeze, but the Senate reduced it to five years and added exceptions for state laws protecting children and copyrights. However, it also introduced vague language barring any state law that places an undue or disproportionate burden on AI companies. According to Kleinman, this actually made the situation worse. It gave AI company lawyers a chance to define what those terms mean, he says. They could simply argue in court that any regulation was too burdensome and therefore subject to the federal-level freeze.
States are already deep into the process of regulating AI development and use. California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Utah have been especially active, but all 50 states introduced new AI legislation during the 2025 session. So far, 28 states have adopted or enacted AI-related laws. That momentum is unlikely to slow, especially as real job losses begin to materialize from AI-driven automation.
AI regulation is popular with voters. Supporters argue that it can mitigate risks while still allowing for technological progress. The freeze amendment, however, would have penalized states financiallyparticularly in broadband fundingfor attempting to protect the public.
Kleinman argues that no trade-off is necessary. We can have innovation, and we can also have regulations that protect children, familiesjobs that protect all of us, he says. AI companies will say [that] any regulation means theres no innovation, and that is not true. Almost all industries in this country are regulated. Right now, AI companies face less regulation than your neighborhood sandwich shop.
The new precedent for copyrighted AI training data may contain a poison pill
On June23, Judge William Alsup ruled in Bartz v. Anthropic that Anthropics training of its model Claude on lawfully purchased and digitized books is quintessentially transformative (meaning Anthropic used the material to make something other than more books) and thus qualifies as fair use under U.S. copyright law. (While thats a big win for Anthropic, the court also said the firm likely violated copyright by including 7 million pirated digital books in its training data library. That issue will be addressed in a separate trial.)
Just two days later, in Kadrey v. Meta Platforms, Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed a lawsuit filed by 13 authors who claimed that Meta had trained its Llama models on their books without permission. In his decision, Chhabria said the authors failed to prove that Metas use of their works had harmed the market for those works. But in a surprisingly frank passage, the judge noted that the plaintiffs weak legal arguments played a major role in the outcome. They could have claimed, for example, that sales of their books would suffer in a marketplace flooded with AI-generated competitors.
In cases involving uses like Metas, it seems like the plaintiffs (copyright holders) will often win, at least where those cases have better-developed records on the market effects of the defendants use, Chhabria wrote in his decision. No matter how transformative LLM training may be, its hard to imagine that it can be fair use to use copyrighted books to develop a tool to make billions or trillions of dollars while enabling the creation of a potentially endless stream of competing works that could significantly harm the market for those books.
Chhabria may have laid out a legal recipe for future victories by copyright holders against AI firms. Copyright attorneys around the country surely took note that they may need only present as evidence the thousands of AI-generated books currently for sale on Amazon. In a legal sense, every one of those titles competes with the human-written books that were used to train the models. Chhabria said news publishers (like The New York Times in its case against OpenAI and Microsoft) could have even more success using this market delusion argument than book authors.
Apple is bringing in its ace to rally its troubled AI effort
Siri has a new owner within Apple, and it could help the company finally deliver the AI-powered personal assistant it promised in 2024.
By March, Tim Cook had lost faith that the core Apple AI group led by John Giannandrea could finish and release a new, smarter Siri powered by generative AI, Bloombergs Mark Gurman reported. Cook decided to move control of Siri development to a new group reporting to Apples software head, Craig Federighi. He also brought in a rising star at the company, Mike Rockwell, to build and manage the new teamone that would sit at the nexus of Apples AI, hardware, and software efforts, and aim to bring the new Siri to market in 2026. Apple announced the new Siri features in 2024 but has so far been unable to deliver them.
Rockwell joined Apple in 2015 from Dolby Lbs. He first worked on the companys augmented reality initiatives and helped release ARKit, which enabled developers to build 3D spatial experiences. As pressure mounted for Apple to deliver a superior headset, the company tapped Rockwell to assemble a team to design and engineer what would become the Vision Pro, released in February 2024. The Vision Pro wasnt a commercial hitlargely due to its $3,500 price tagbut it proved Rockwells ability to successfully integrate complex hardware, software, and content systems.
Rockwell may have brought a new sense of urgency to Apples AI-Siri effort. Recent reports say that Rockwells group is moving quickly to decide whether Siri should be powered by Apples own AI models or by more mature offerings from companies like OpenAI or Anthropic. Apple has already integrated OpenAIs ChatGPT into iPhones, but one report says that Apple was impressed by Anthropics Claude models as a potential brain for Siri. It could also be argued that Anthropics culture and stance on safety and privacy are more in line with Apples.
Whatever the case, it seems the company is set to make some big moves.
More AI coverage from Fast Company:
AI chatbots are breaking the weband forcing a 404 makeover
Inside Wikipedias AI revoltand what it means for the media
Why this bank is hiring full-time AI employees
How to tell if the article youre reading was written by AI
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Elon Musks anger over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was evident this week as the world’s richest man took to X, the social media platform he owns, to lambast President Donald Trumps signature legislation. But theres plenty of anger from investors at the performance of his own electric vehicle company, Tesla, which again posted weak delivery results for its electric vehicles.
The company delivered just over 384,000 vehicles in the second quarter, only marginally better than the previous three months, which were the companys worst in more than two years. Overall, the number of cars Tesla delivered in April, May, and June this year was down 13% from the year before.
It caps a difficult time for Musk, whose personal and business brands have taken a tumble. The proportion of people who dislike the EV company has more than doubled in the last two years, according to data from YouGov, which tracks public sentiment about the firm. In all, 35.2% of Americans have a negative view of Tesla, up from just 16.5% two years earlier, and nearly as many as those who now hold a positive view of the company. That correlates with Musks personal popularity in the same YouGov surveys, with people moving from being on the fence about him to reporting actively disliking him.
And his continued engagement in U.S. politics is only turning people against him more, analysts believe. Elon Musks frustration boiled over with the latest Senate budget deficit, reneging on his promise to focus more on his businesses, write Jed Dorsheimer and Mark Shooter, analysts at William Blair. We only see downside from these actions, and would prefer effort to be channeled towards the robotaxi rollout at this critical juncture. (Tesla did not immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment.)
That said, there are green shoots ahead. The number of deliveries this last quarter wasnt quite as bad as William Blair analysts feared. In fact, it beat their estimate by 8%. We expect the stock to react positively as investors feared worse, Dorsheimer and Shooter said.
The issue Tesla faces isnt with brand perception among its own customers, but with trying to attract new ones, suggest analysts at Forrester. Tesla is a compelling case study in the divergence between customer experience and brand perception, explains Keith Johnston, group research director at Forrester. While Tesla remains top-of-mind for many noncustomers, boasting above-average salience, they are less likely to perceive it as trustworthy, and even less inclined to buy it.
Its a major issue, agrees Jay Nagley, a consultant at Redspy Automotive Consultancy. You can still disapprove of a company and buy its products, because nobody else knows youre doing it, he says. You might publicly disapprove of McDonald’s and go and have a crafty burger from time to time, but you can’t do that with Tesla. Its sitting in your driveway. You get out of it. Your friends see you in it all the time. So it’s a constant source of potential awkwardness and embarrassment.
This comes on top of Tesla facing significant challenges in China, which has traditionally been one of its biggest markets. In the first half of 2025, China accounted for nearly half of Tesla’s global deliveries, with Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory alone producing almost 50% of all Tesla vehicles delivered worldwide. The problem is Tesla faces growing competition from Chinese automakers like BYD, which reported one million EV sales in the first half of 2025 compared to Teslas 721,000. BYDs vehicles, often cheaper and equipped with advanced features like a five-minute charging system, are eroding Teslas market share, particularly in China.
While the company has seen significant weakness in China in previous quarters given the rising competitive landscape across EVs, Tesla saw a rebound in June with sales increasing for the first time in eight months reflecting higher demand for its updated Model Y as deliveries in the region are starting to slowly turn a corner, says Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities.
Ives remains bullish on Tesla and Musks ability to turn the ship around. If Musk continues to lead and remain in the drivers seat, we believe Tesla is on a path to an accelerated growth path over the coming years with deliveries expected to ramp in the back-half of 2025 following the Model Y refresh cycle, he says. The company plans to release a lower-cost Model Y in the second half of the year. That would be important because Tesla has traditionally been slow at updating its models, something Nagley attributes to Musks naiveté about how the auto industry operates.
But even if the Model Y succeeds, theres a Trump-shaped obstacle in the way to Teslas success going forward. The U.S. president is eliminating the EV tax credit that helped bolster Teslas sales, which tilts the scales back in favor of gas-powered cars, which are cheaper than electric alternatives. And tariffs from China on battery materials will push Tesla costs up further.
While Musks departure from DOGE brought back Teslas most important asset,” Ives says, “the feud between Musk and Trump brings further frustration to investors with more fear around the Trump administration becoming more hawkish around government-related spending tied to Tesla, especially the autonomous future with AV regulations key for Robotaxis and Cybercabs.”
Restaurant industry leaders are excited for artificial intelligence to make the business better.
But many feel unprepared to handle its implementation.
Thats according to a new survey from consulting firm Deloitte that asked hundreds of restaurant industry executives about their current use and future plans for AI. Overwhelmingly, respondents cited AIs potential to enhance the guest experience; to make a customers time more enjoyable, comfortable, and memorable, as a top benefit of the tech. In fact, almost all98%operators in the survey said they expect a high impact on the customer experience in three years.
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AI is already showing up to help restaurant guests. It answers the phones, works the back office, and helps with marketing efforts. Eventually, itll show up during table service. Plenty of restaurants are already using AI to their advantage; 8 in 10 industry leaders surveyed by Deloitte say theyll increase spending on the tech in the next year.
Most of the surveys respondents work in quick service restaurants; nearly half work as franchise operators for larger brands. But that doesnt mean AI and its benefits are reserved for corporate restaurants.
Big chains are usually first to test new technologies in the restaurant space, and AI is no different, says Emma Blecker, a New York-based operations consultant. It makes sense, the tools are often built for them, and theyve got the resources to spend on research and development, pilot programs, training, and rollouts. But that doesnt mean small operators are missing out.
For now, she advises, restaurants of all sizes can learn from industry early adopters, experimenting with new tech tools and ideas, like these:
AI can handle the conversation
According to Deloittes survey results, less than 1 in 5 surveyed leaders use conversational voice AItech that can talkin their restaurants daily operations now. But they plan to; roughly a third are testing or piloting the tech, with another third planning or developing a conversational AI strategy.
Voice AI can staff a drive-thru, taking orders and upselling to guests with smart add-onsthink: Do you want fries with that? except instead of blindly suggesting a side of fries to every customer, it uses factors like their order, time of day, or even the weather to suggest something else.
It can also answer their phone, providing diners with info on location, hours, reservations, and other details, a boon for busy restaurants, like perennial San Francisco favorite Flour + Water, which tapped a local service called Hostie to work the phones. Its already made guests and employees happier.
We’re finding that people walking in the door already have answers to some of the questions theyd walk in with prior, says Amanda Flores, director of operations for the Flour +Water restaurant group. That means fewer people walk in frustrated and the host gets to spend more time with people that are stoked to be here with their questions already answered.
AI targets the right diners
Restaurant software has long collected data on dinersaverage spend, visit frequency, dining preferencesand AI can help make sense of all the numbers.
For example, a text-based feature from reservations and customer relationship management platform SevenRooms helps restaurants segment customers into target groups and generate text messages to invite them to special events, share new menu items, or offer same-day reservation nudges. Celeb-chef backed Fabio Viviani Hospitality group, an early product tester for SevenRooms, said the tech helped book 1,800 reservations and drove close to half a million dollars in revenue in six months. The groups chief marketing officer said the texts had a 98% open rate.
About half of restaurant operators in the survey say they already see a high impact from AI-enhanced loyalty tech; another quarter think theyll see a high impact in three years.
AI is coming to the table
The case for AI at fast food and other casual restaurants is straightforward; it can make the experience faster, easier, and more pleasant for people on both sides of the transaction. But integrating technology into full-service dining is a trickier proposition; even the best bots cant replace warm, in-person hospitality.
But it can certainly help, and a new generation of devices has the potential to enhance human service. Plenty of companies are working on new, hands-free devicespins, glasses, earpiecesthough transformational change is likely years away. (Jony Ive, the longtime Apple design exec and architect of the iPhone, recently sold his new company to OpenAI with vague promises to right the iPhones wrongs, moving our eyes from screens to reality.)
In fact, its already being tested. Yum China, the Shanghai-based parent company of American brands KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, and also the largest restaurant company in that country, just debuted a hands-free AI assistant for some of its KFC restaurant managers. They wear earphones and smart watches wired to process language and offer help, from inventory reminders to real-time troubleshooting. Its a pilot program, but the point is to help employees look up from screens and better interact with the physical world in front of them.
Still, practicalities might slow progress. In Deloittes survey, less than a third of industry leaders said their businesss tech and talent are ready to implement big AI-related changes.
In a recent conversation, Kelly Esten, chief marketer for restaurant point of sale company Toast, declined to speculate on how soon transformative new hardware might arrive at Americas restaurants. But Esten agrees its coming.
I do think were going to go through another platform shift, she told me, and it creates a tremendous amount of opportunity for restaurants and for restaurant tech.
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Kentucky has its first measles outbreak of 2025, as the U.S. case count sits just short of a 30-year high.There have been 1,267 confirmed measles cases this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. Texas confirmed three more measles cases this week tied to a major outbreak that raged through the late winter and spring.There are three other large outbreaks in North America. The longest, in Ontario, Canada, has resulted in 2,212 cases from mid-October through June 24. The province logged its first death June 5 in a baby who got congenital measles but also had other preexisting conditions.Another outbreak in Alberta, Canada, has sickened 1,169 as of Wednesday. And the Mexican state of Chihuahua had 2,810 measles cases and eight deaths as of Wednesday, according to data from the state health ministry.Other U.S. states with active outbreakswhich the CDC defines as three or more related casesinclude Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Utah.In the U.S., two elementary school-aged children in the epicenter in West Texas and an adult in New Mexico have died of measles this year. All were unvaccinated.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.
How many measles cases are there in Texas?
Texas added three outbreak-related cases Tuesday, for a total of 753 across 36 counties, most of them in West Texas, state data shows.Throughout the outbreak, 99 people have been hospitalized.State health officials estimated less than 1% of casesfewer than 10were actively infectious as of Tuesday.Fifty-five percent of Texas’ cases are in Gaines County, where the virus started spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county has had 414 cases since late Januaryjust under 2% of its residents. Statewide, officials said Tuesday only two countiesGaines and Lamarhad ongoing measles transmission.The state also said Tuesday there are 37 cases across 19 counties that don’t have a clear link to the outbreak now, but may end up added to it after further investigation.The April 3 death in Texas was an 8-year-old child, according to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Local health officials 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 February; Kennedy said the child was 6.
How many measles cases are there in New Mexico?
New Mexico had 94 measles cases Friday. Five cases were confirmed last week in a jail in Luna County, which prompted health officials to urge locals to get vaccinated and halted in-person visits. The jail’s outbreak grew to 13 by Tuesday. All of the cases are in unvaccinated adults.Seven people have been hospitalized since the state’s outbreak started. Most of the state’s cases are in Lea County. Sandoval County near Albuquerque has six cases, Eddy County has three, Dona Ana County has two. Chaves, Curry and San Juan counties have one each.An unvaccinated adult died of measles-related illness March 6. The person did not seek medical care.
How many cases are there in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma held steady Tuesday for a total of 17 confirmed and three probable cases.The state health department is not releasing which counties have cases.
How many cases are there in Arizona?
Arizona has four cases in Navajo County. They are linked to a single source, the county health department said June 9. All four were unvaccinated and had a history of recent international travel.
How many cases are there in Colorado?
Colorado has seen a total of 16 measles cases in 2025, which includes one outbreak of 10 related cases.
The outbreak is linked to a Turkish Airlines flight that landed at Denver International Airport in mid-May. Four of the people were on the flight with the first person diagnosedan out-of-state traveler not included in the state countwhile five got measles from exposure in the airport and one elsewhere.Health officials are also tracking an unrelated case in a Boulder County resident. The person was fully vaccinated but had “recently traveled to Europe, where there are a large number of measles cases,” the state health department said.Other counties that have seen measles this year include Archuleta and Pueblo.
How many cases are there in Georgia?
Georgia has an outbreak of three cases in metro Atlanta, with the most recent infection confirmed June 18.The state has confirmed six total cases in 2025. The remaining three are part of an unrelated outbreak from January.
How many cases are there in Illinois?
Illinois health officials confirmed a four-case outbreak on May 5 in the far southern part of the state. It grew to eight cases as of June 6, but no new cases were reported in the following weeks, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.The state’s other two cases so far this year were in Cook County, and are unrelated to the southern Illinois outbreak.
How many cases are there in Iowa?
Iowa has had six total measles cases in 2025.Four are part of an outbreak in eastern Johnson County, among members of the same household. County health officials said the people are isolating at home, so they don’t expect additional spread.
How many cases are there in Kansas?
Kansas added three more case this week for a total of 83 across 11 counties in the southwestern part of the state, with three hospitalizations. All but three of the cases are connected, and most are in Gray County.
How many measles cases are there in Kentucky?
Central Kentucky has an outbreak of four cases, the state announced Monday. The cases are in Fayette County, which includes Lexington, and neighboring Woodford County.The state has confirmed seven total cases this year.
How many cases are there in Michigan?
Grand Traverse County in northern Michigan has an outbreak of four cases as of Wednesday.The state declared an earlier outbreak of four cases in Montcalm County, near Grand Rapids in western Michigan, over June 2. The state has had 18 cases total in 2025; eight are linked to outbreaks.
How many cases are there in Montana?
Montana had 24 measles cases as of Tuesday, an increase of one since Friday. Sixteen were in Gallatin County, which is where the first cases showed upMontana’s first in 35 years.Flathead and Yellowstone counties had two cases each, and Hill County had four cases.There are outbreaks in neighboring North Dakota and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
How many cases are there in North Dakota?
North Dakota, which hadn’t seen measles since 2011, was up to 34 cases as of June 6, but has held steady since. Two of the people have been hospitalized. All of the people with confirmed cases were not vaccinated.There were 16 cases in Williams County in western North Dakota on the Montana border. On the eastern side of the state, there were 10 cases in Grand Forks County and seven cases in Cass County. Burke County, in northwest North Dakota on the border of Saskatchewan, Canada, had one case.
How many cases are there in Utah?
Utah had nine total measles cases as of Tuesday. At least three of the cases are linked, according to the state health department.State epidemiologist Dr. Leisha Nolen said last week she is aware of at least three different measles clusters in the state. She expects to see more cases because there are other unvaccinated people who were exposed.At least two of the people infected had to be hospitalized and two are pregnant.
Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.?
Measles cases also have been reported this year in Alaska, Arkansas, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.Health officials declared earlier outbreaks in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania over after six weeks of no new cases. Tennessee’s outbreak also appears to be over.Cases and outbreaks in the U.S. are frequently traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. The CDC said in May that more than twice as many measles have come from outside of the U.S. compared to May of last year. Most of those are in unvaccinated Americans returning home. 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 as an adult 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 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 so many children got measles back then that they have “presumptive immunity.”Measles has a harder time spreading through communities with high vaccination ratesabove 95%due to “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.
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.
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
Firefighters were struggling Thursday to bring a major wildfire on Greece’s southern island of Crete under control, hampered by gale force winds whipping up the flames.Thousands of people were evacuated from hotels and homes overnight after the fire started Wednesday afternoon in the Ierapetra area on the island’s southern coast, officials said.The head of the hoteliers’ association of Ierapetra and southeastern Crete, Giorgos Tzarakis, told local media about 5,000 tourists had been evacuated from the area, and that several homes and businesses had been damaged.By Thursday morning, 230 firefighters backed by 10 water-dropping helicopters were battling the flames advancing through forest and farmland.Gale force winds in the area, with gusts reaching about 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour, “are constantly creating . . . new outbreaks, making firefighting work very difficult,” said fire department spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis.Two people were evacuated by boat overnight, while six private boats were on standby in case further evacuations by sea became necessary, the coast guard said.Nektarios Papadakis, a civil protection official at the regional authority, told The Associated Press overnight that tourists who had been evacuated from the area had been taken to an indoor basketball arena and hotels in other parts of the island.Several residents were treated for breathing difficulties, officials said, but there were no reports of serious injuries.The Fire Service and a civil protection agency issued mobile phone alerts for the evacuations and appealed to residents not to return to try to save their property.As fires crested ridgelines and edged toward residential areas overnight, the blaze sent clouds of ash into the sky, illuminated by the headlights of emergency vehicles and water trucks that lined the coastal road near the resorts of Ferma and Achlia on the southeast of Crete.Crete is one of Greece’s most popular destinations for both foreign and domestic tourists.The risk of wildfires remained very high across Crete and parts of southern Greece Thursday, according to a daily bulletin issued by the Fire Service.Wildfires are frequent in the country during its hot, dry summers, and the fire department has already tackled dozens across Greece so far this year.In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on roads as they tried to flee. More than 100 died, including some who drowned while trying to swim away from the flames.
Derek Gatopoulos and Elena Becatoros, Associated Press
Its one thing to declare, We care about our people. Its entirely different to prove it in messy, unscripted moments, especially when no one is watching.
Too often, corporate messaging about empathy and respect falters under pressure. We proclaim well-being, then demand overtime. We champion inclusion, then maintain biased systems. We insist on dignity, then terminate employees over Zoom. This disconnect, which I call corporate message incongruency, erodes trust, corrodes culture, and ultimately undermines everyones performance.
The Cost of Incongruency
When organizations fail to live up to their own rhetoric, employees notice, and they dont stay quiet about it. A 2024 study found that perceiving corporate hypocrisy (characterized by gaps between stated values and actual behavior) is strongly linked to increased employee cynicism, disengagement, and a higher risk of turnover. Meanwhile, only 23% of workers worldwide are engaged in their work, according to Gallupmeaning the vast majority are either emotionally detached or actively disengaged.
Executives often overestimate their impact. In its 2024 Well-Being at Work Survey conducted in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia, Deloitte found that 90% of executives believe working for their company has a positive effect on worker well-being, skills development, career advancement, inclusion and belonging, and [employees] sense of purpose and meaning. At the same time, just 60% (or fewer) of workers agree, according to the survey.
That gap isnt just a miscommunication; its a structural signal. And when leaders default to convenience over care in high-stakes moments, the message reverberates far beyond a single event.
Consider the now-infamous 2021 Zoom layoffs at Better.com, where 900 employees were let go in a terse three-minute video. The backlash was swift and severe, spotlighting a painful truth: When corporate actions contradict their stated values, their reputation takes a hit.
There Doesnt Have to Be a Disconnect
Most misalignment stems from good intentions, not malice. But business values must be lived in practice, not just in glossy branding. And regardless of your rolewhether youre a CEO, director, manager, or individual contributoryou have the power to bridge the gap.
1. Audit intent versus impact. Start with brutal honesty. Map your organizations stated values against real moments where behaviors divergevacation policies that go unused, diversity statements that dont reflect candidate slates. In my leadership sessions, consistently mapping these dissonances reveals opportunities to realign, rather than rebrand. Invite feedback from across levels and treat misalignment not as a failure, but as data.
2. Lead with ritual integrity. Values dont stickthey ritualize. Meaningful, small-scale rituals reinforce intent: a weekly check-in circle to honor well-being, no-meeting afternoons to protect focus, transparent sharing of equity data even when it stings. Culture is less magic and more habit. These rituals become touchpoints for trust and vehicles for transformation.
3. Embed accountability. Accountability is the bridge from talk to trust. Expand success metrics to include psychological safety, sense of belonging, and alignment of personal narratives, a practice I call story audits. Nearly 85% of large U.S. employers offer workplace wellness programs; despite this, anticipated improvements in well-being are not being realized, indicating a mismatch between investment and outcomes. Measuring the invisible matters because it makes visible what is valued. This grassroots approach doesnt just uncover pain points; it creates buy-in and shared ownership for change.
4. Empower action at all levels. Aligned culture isnt a top-down decree; its a distributed commitment. Empower alignment champions across departments. At one biotech firm I advised, peer-led story circles uncovered voice imbalances more effectively than any digital survey and enabled real-time corrections.
5. Normalize vulnerability and repair. Inevitably, we slip. The question isnt whether it happens, but what happens next. Acknowledge missteps publicly. Leaders who say I was wrong often deepen trust more than those who avoid the subject. Vulnerability is strength, not weakness. Repair strengthens culture when its visible and sincere.
Cultural congruence isnt a quarterly campaign; its a daily practice. Every decision, conversation, and interaction carries a message.
When we treat values as design principles rather than billboards, we build systems that reinforce them. Words shape our intentions, but actions shape our outcomes. Try this in your next meeting: Ask, Where are we out of sync, and what might it take to realign? Its a simple question, but it signals a profound commitment. When organizations align their words with their actions, they do more than retain loyalty. They earn trust.
U.S. employers added 147,000 jobs in June as the American labor market continues to show surprising resilience despite uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s economic policies. The unemployment rate ticked down 4.1% from 4.2% in May, the Labor Department said Thursday.Hiring rose modestly from a revised 144,000 in May and beat economists expectations of fewer than 118,000 new jobs and a rise in the unemployment rate.The U.S. job market has cooled considerably from red-hot days of 2021-2023 when the economy bounced back with unexpected strength from COVID-19 lockdowns and companies were desperate for workers. So far this year employers have added an average 124,000 jobs a month, down from 168,000 in 2024 and an average 400,000 from 2021 through 2023.Hiring decelerated after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023. But the economy did not collapse, defying widespread predictions that the higher borrowing costs would cause a recession. Companies kept hiring, just at a more modest pace.But the job market increasingly looks under strain. A survey released Wednesday by the payroll processor ADP found that private companies cut 33,000 jobs last month. “Though layoffs continue to be rare, a hesitancy to hire and a reluctance to replace departing workers led to job losses last month,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson. (The ADP numbers frequently differ from the Labor Department’s official job count.)Employers are now contending with fallout from Trump’s policies, especially his aggressive use of import taxestariffs.Mainstream economists say that tariffs raise prices for businesses and consumers alike and make the economy less efficient by reducing competition. They also invite retaliatory tariffs from other countries, hurting U.S. exporters.The erratic way that Trump has rolled out his tariffsannouncing and then suspending them, then coming up with new oneshas left businesses bewildered.Manufacturers responding to a survey released this week by the Institute for Supply Management complained that they and their customers were reluctant to make decisions until they understood where Trump’s tariffs would end up. “That whiplash has to stop and it has to stay stopped,” said Susan Spence, chair of the ISM’s manufacturing survey committee.Trump’s assault on the federal bureaucracy could also show up in June’s job report. Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, expects federal jobs dropped by 20,000 last month, “reflecting a hiring freeze, voluntary quits and retirements.” For now, she wrote in a commentary Wednesday, court rulings “have put massive federal layoffs on hold.”The president’s deportationsand the threat of themalso are likely to start having an impact on the job market by driving immigrants out of the job market. In May, the U.S. labor forcethose working and looking for workfell by 625,000, the biggest drop in a year and a half.
Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer
The S&P 500 is going through a bit of a changeup. The stock market index announced on Wednesday, July 2, that its adding Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG), a software company, to its lineup. Datadog is replacing Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), which was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE).
Heres what you need to know about the S&P 500 change.
What is the S&P 500?
Launched on March 4, 1957, the S&P 500, officially known as the Standard and Poors 500, tracks the stock price of 500 prominent companies in the United States. As one of the best-known stock market indexes globally, it provides investors with insight into the market over a certain period of time. The S&P 500 aims to cover all U.S. sectors.
Stock market indexes are not the same thing as stock market exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The S&P 500 is one of many stock market indexes across the world. Theres the Dow, Nasdaq-100, S&P Euro, FTSE 100, Nikkei 225, Hang Seng, and more.
Why is Datadog joining the S&P 500?
On Wednesday, July 2, HPE completed its acquisition of Juniper Networks after striking a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Plans for the purchase were first announced in January 2024. As a result, Juniper’s common stock will no longer trade on the NYSE and thus will no longer be part of the S&P 500.
Juniper’s departure from the S&P 500 will leave only 499 companies listed on the stock market index. Datadog is replacing the company to keep the number at 500.
Why was Datadog chosen to join the S&P 500?
An index committee chooses which stocks are included in the S&P 500 and takes into account each companys sector for a broad range. Datadog is a SaaS-based monitoring and security platform for IT and development teams.
The S&P Global lists specific requirements for a company to be selected for the stock market index. These include:
Making a profit in its last quarter, and when considering the previous four quarters together
Sufficient liquidity
Being a large-cap stock (a market capitalization of over $10 billion)
Having enough shares available to the public (sufficient public float)
Contributing to the sector balance
Datadog must have met all of these criteria to have been selected.
How unusual is this?
The S&P 500 makes changes to its roster throughout the year in order to maintain 500 leading companies.
When will this change take place?
S&P Global announced in a press release that Juniper Networks will be removed from the stock market index before trading begins on Wednesday, July 9. Datadog will replace it that morning.
How have Datadog and Juniper Networks stock prices reacted to the news?
Well, Juniper Networks has already been delisted from the NYSE. Anyone holding the stock should receive $40 per share, according to an acquisition filing.
Meanwhile, shares of Datadog were up more than 10% in premarket trading on Thursday following Wednesday’s announcement. The stock has struggled this year and was down roughly 6% year to date before Wednesday’s close.
