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Good afternoon and welcome to your afternoon news update from AP. Today, new data shows the impact of the Iran war on rising inflation; the split between Trump and the pope over Iran; and how declining vaccination rates are eroding herd immunity protection for babies who are too young for the measles vaccine.
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Chuck Byrd wraps up after filling two tanks for a truck at a gas station on Tuesday in Aurora, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
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Iran war kicks US inflation into high gear after gas prices soar
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The largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades caused a sharp spike in inflation in March, creating major challenges for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve and heightening the political challenges of rising costs for the White House. Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Friday, up sharply from just 2.4% in February and the biggest yearly increase since May 2024. Read more.
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A president and a pope: The world’s most influential Americans are at odds over Iran
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It’s an unprecedented situation, with the first American pope directly assailing the American president over the war in Iran, where a fragile ceasefire took hold this week. The announcement came after Pope Leo XIV declared that Trump’s belligerence was “truly unacceptable.” Never before has the relationship between Washington and the Vatican revolved around two Americans, who come from the same generation and share some common cultural roots, yet bring jarringly distinct approaches to their positions of vast power. Read more.
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Too young for the MMR shot, babies are at high risk in measles outbreaks
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Babies too young to be vaccinated are among the most vulnerable in a measles outbreak. The disease can wreak havoc on their fragile bodies, making them so sick they stop eating and drinking. They can develop pneumonia or brain swelling, and sometimes die. Babies depend entirely on herd immunity — at least 95% of a community must be vaccinated to prevent measles outbreaks. But dropping vaccination rates have eroded protection and across the nation. “Babies become sitting ducks,” said Dr. Deborah Greenhouse, a pediatrician. “The burden is on all of us to protect all of us.” Read more.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs arrives at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, 2022. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
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NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman with his wife Carroll Taylor Wiseman. (Wiseman Family via AP)
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Artemis II astronauts name lunar crater after commander’s late wife
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Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew asked permission to name one crater after his late wife, Carroll. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen made the request right before Monday’s lunar fly-around. Wiseman was too emotional to talk. Carroll Wiseman, a neonatal nurse, died of cancer in 2020. The three Americans and one Canadian of Artemis II are the first lunar visitors since Apollo 17 closed out that grand epoch in 1972, and their crater-naming request temporarily left ground controllers speechless. “It was definitely a very emotional moment. I don’t think most of us knew it was coming,” NASA lunar scientist Ryan Watkins told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Johnson Space Center in Houston. “There was not a single dry eye.”
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Please let us know what you think of this newsletter. You can sign up for more and invite a friend here. For news in real time visit APNews.com. - Mark
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