Americas

New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a statewide disaster emergency on Monday over a measles outbreak, the first such declaration by a US state since cases began ‌surging in 2025. The state ⁠also expanded the pool of health professionals allowed to administer measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) ‌vaccines as cases rise in rural communities. New York ⁠has reported 108 measles cases this year through October 3, including 92 since July 15 in under-immunised rural communities across 18 ‌counties, well above typical annual levels, according to the executive order. Read moreTrump pushes rethink of school vaccine mandates and MMR shots Neighbouring Pennsylvania is battling a fast-spreading outbreak, ‌with 977 cases and five deaths as of October 2, mostly in rural counties that border New York, the orde...

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday calling for a rethink of school vaccine mandates and the separation of the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot into three vaccines, despite scientific evidence supporting its safety and amid the country's worst measles outbreak in decades. ]

The US FDA on Wednesday approved Revolution Medicines' Rasonque for advanced pancreatic cancer, opening a new treatment option for patients with metastatic disease. A large trial found the once-daily pill doubled survival rates, offering fresh hope for people who have exhausted other treatments. ]

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Tuesday the release of tens of thousands of documents showing the city did not disclose all it knew about air toxicity after 9/11. The release comes ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed 2,977 people in the United States, mostly in the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York. In the years since, more than 9,400 have died from illnesses linked to their exposure to the area, according to a federal medical monitoring programme. "These are documents that show what the city knew about the toxic air around Ground Zero, when they knew it, and how they acted to limit liability," the mayor told a news conference following the online release of 170,000 pages of documents on health concerns, air quality and the city's r...