The spread of measles in the Southwest now constitutes the largest single outbreak since the United States declared the disease eliminated in 2000, federal scientists told state officials in a meeting Monday.

The New York Times obtained a recording of the meeting. Until now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had not publicly described the outbreak in such stark terms.

More measles cases were reported mostly in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York City and New York state in 2019. But health officials regard those as separate outbreaks, because they were fueled by multiple introductions of the virus by international travelers.

CDC officials now view the spread of measles in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico as a single outbreak, Dr. Dan Filardo, who leads the agency’s task force for the measles response, told state health officials at the meeting.

“This is the largest outbreak in the U.S. since measles elimination was declared in 2000,” he said. The agency was sending seven additional officials to Texas, epicenter of the escalating crisis, he added.

Texas health officials have reported 624 cases since late January. Two young, unvaccinated girls have died, the first measles deaths in a decade in the country.

As of Thursday, the CDC had reported 800 measles cases nationwide, but the current tally is likely to be higher because it takes time for the agency to collate state reports.

N.Y. Times prevails in Sarah Palin libel suit

The New York Times did not libel former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for an error in a 2017 editorial that she says damaged her reputation, a jury concluded Tuesday.

The jury deliberated a little over two hours before reaching its verdict after lawyers for Palin and the newspaper delivered closing arguments at a Manhattan federal court civil trial that was in its second week.

Palin was sullen immediately after the verdict was announced by a jury foreperson who said the Times was “not libel.”

She testified Monday that death threats against her increased and her spirits fell after an editorial about gun violence said her political action committee had contributed to political rhetoric that enabled an atmosphere of violence.

The Times corrected the article less than 14 hours after it was published.

She said she had not yet discussed with her lawyers whether to appeal.

Justices lean toward parents in book case

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Tuesday signaled support for the religious rights of parents in Maryland who want to remove their children from elementary school classes using storybooks with LGBTQ characters.

The court seemed likely to find that the Montgomery County school system, in suburban Washington, could not require elementary school children to sit through lessons involving the books if parents expressed religious objections to the material.

The case is one of three religious rights cases at the court this term. The justices have repeatedly endorsed claims of religious discrimination in recent years.

The school district introduced the storybooks in 2022, with such titles as “Prince and Knight” and “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding,” as part of an effort to better reflect the district’s diversity.

Parents initially were allowed to opt their children out of the lessons for religious and other reasons, but the school board reversed course a year later, prompting protests and eventually a lawsuit.

The case hit unusually close to home, as three justices live in the county, though none sent their children to public schools.

“I guess I am a bit mystified as a lifelong resident of the county how it came to this,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said.

‘60 Minutes’ producer resigns in protest

With his show involved in a bitter dispute with President Donald Trump, the top executive at the storied CBS News show “60 Minutes” abruptly resigned on Tuesday while saying he’s losing the freedom to run it independently.

Bill Owens, executive producer of television’s most popular and influential newsmagazine since 2019, said in a note to staff that it has “become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.”

“The show is too important to the country,” he wrote. “It has to continue, just not with me as the executive producer.”

Trump sued “60 Minutes” for $20 billion last fall, claiming it deceptively edited an interview with his Democratic election opponent Kamala Harris. CBS denied it had done anything to give an advantage to Harris, and released the full transcript of its interview.

When Trump took office for his second term, his Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, announced CBS would be investigated for the same issue.

Feds fault air safety at Las Vegas airport

A federal review of helicopter safety around some of the busiest U.S. airports, prompted by the deadly midair collision in January between a passenger jet and Army helicopter in Washington, D.C., revealed dangerous flying conditions at the Las Vegas airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday the potential for a collision between air tour helicopters and planes at Harry Reid International Airport led the agency to make immediate changes to flying rules. In the first three weeks after implementation the number of collision alerts for planes dropped 30%.

The FAA said after the collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter in January, which killed 67 people, that it planned to use artificial intelligence to dig into the millions of reports it collects to assess other places with busy helicopter traffic, including Boston, New York, Baltimore-Washington, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and along the Gulf Coast.

Buffalo Diocese to pay $150M in abuse case

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, N.Y., agreed to a provisional settlement of $150 million with more than 800 victims of sexual

abuse, a lawyer for dozens of the accusers said Tuesday, bringing one of New York’s most embattled and scandal-plagued dioceses closer to resolving years of legal wrangling.

Bishop Michael W. Fisher of Buffalo said in a statement Tuesday that the total amount “remains subject to a creditor vote and court approval,” but he hailed the proposal as “an essential milestone on this protracted and arduous journey” that “enables us to finally provide a measure of financial restitution to victim-survivors.”

The scale of the misconduct by clergy members and their supporters in the Diocese of Buffalo — which is home to about 600,000 Catholics in New York’s second largest city — was striking in scope.

Rubio to skip today’s Ukraine peace talks

Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided Tuesday to skip the next stage of the Ukrainian ceasefire talks, while Ukraine rebuffed one of President Donald Trump’s key proposals for a deal that would halt the fighting with Russia.

Negotiators from the United States, Europe and Ukraine will still meet in London on Wednesday to continue hammering out a ceasefire proposal. But the back-to-back developments are a double blow, raising fresh questions about how much progress is being made toward winding down the three-year war.

Rubio took part in a meeting on Ukraine last week in Paris, but afterward warned that Trump was growing impatient with the peacemaking process and might move on to “other priorities.”

While in Paris, two European officials said, the negotiators were briefed on the Trump administration’s framework for a ceasefire deal, which includes demands that Ukraine recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea and rules out NATO membership for Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine told reporters Tuesday that he was open to talks with Russia once a ceasefire was in effect, but that Ukraine would not accept any deal that recognized Moscow’s legal control of Crimea.

Israeli strikes kill 17 in Gaza, hits equipment

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 17 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and destroyed bulldozers and other heavy equipment that had been supplied by mediators to clear rubble. Separate strikes killed two people in Lebanon.

Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump spoke by phone, two weeks after the two met in Washington. Trump wrote on his social networking site Truth Social that the two spoke about trade and Iran, among other issues. “The call went very well — We are on the same side of every issue,” he wrote.

Netanyahu’s office did not have an immediate comment.

Israel’s 18-month offensive against Hamas has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, raising fears that much of it may never be rebuilt. The territory already had a shortage of heavy equipment, which is also needed to rescue people from the rubble after Israeli strikes and to clear vital roads.

The Israeli military said it struck and destroyed around 40 pieces of heavy machinery. Israel said Hamas used the vehicles, including bulldozers, for planting explosives, digging tunnels, and breaching fences, including during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

At least 26 tourists killed in India attack

Gunmen shot and killed at least 26 tourists on Tuesday at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said in what appeared to be a major shift in a regional conflict in which tourists have largely been spared.

Police said it was a “terror attack” and blamed militants fighting against Indian rule. “This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media.

Two senior police officers said at least four gunmen, whom they described as militants, fired at dozens of tourists from close range. The officers said at least three dozen people were wounded, many of them reported to be in serious condition.

Most of the killed tourists were Indian.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Police and soldiers were searching for the attackers.

— From news services