📊 Congo, Vaccine Order, and LA Lakers

Ebola outbreak, childhood schedule, and record sale.

Aug 12, 2026

Greetings! Happy Middle Child Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

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🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇨🇩 Congo’s Ebola outbreak races toward a grim record. The World Health Organization (WHO) says Congo’s Ebola outbreak is on pace to become the deadliest ever recorded. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the outbreak could surpass the 2014-2016 West African epidemic, which killed more than 11K people. Eastern Congo has already recorded more than 4.3K cases and over 2K deaths. Health authorities declared the outbreak on May 15th. Genetic sequencing indicates infections actually began in February, giving the virus months to spread undetected. The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo Ebola virus. Unlike the better-known Zaire strain, it has no approved vaccine or treatment. Cases have spread across five provinces. Remote communities near South Sudan, Uganda, and Rwanda remain especially difficult to reach. Poor roads and understaffed health centers are slowing surveillance and treatment. Some health workers have also gone on strike over unpaid wages. Misinformation and distrust are keeping some sick people away from clinics. WHO emergency-response director Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud says the outbreak could peak in about six months under a moderate scenario. A worse scenario could stretch nine to 12 months. Two Bundibugyo-specific vaccines are now being tested in people for the first time. Clinical trials of two possible treatments are also underway in Ituri province. Congo is racing not merely to stop transmission, but to prevent the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak from becoming history’s deadliest.

🇪🇸 Spain crowds the path of a once-in-a-century eclipse. Millions of people gathered across Spain on August 12th for the country’s first total solar eclipse in more than a century. Northern and central Spain offered some of mainland Europe’s best viewing locations. Parts of Greenland, Iceland, and Portugal also fell along the path. Totality was expected to last less than 2.5 minutes at its maximum. By the time the shadow reached Spain near sunset, total darkness would last roughly one minute. The eclipse was expected to end over the Mediterranean. Spanish officials anticipated at least 500K additional visitors. Hotels filled rapidly in cities including A Coruña, Bilbao, and Santiago de Compostela. The Interior Ministry established 350 official viewing sites. Another 123 locations faced access limits because of wildfire or evacuation risks. More than 33.5K law-enforcement officers were deployed around viewing areas and transportation routes. Temperatures exceeded 35 degrees Celsius across many eclipse zones. Recent wildfires made dry vegetation a particular concern. Officials urged visitors to avoid fires, litter, and parking on combustible ground. Eclipse glasses also became scarce as pharmacies and shops sold through supplies. Madrid Planetarium director Telmo Fernández Castro warned that proper filtered glasses are essential whenever any portion of the sun remains visible. In towns such as Medinaceli, visitors claimed grassy viewing spots hours early. Spain turned a few minutes of darkness into a national event measured in millions of spectators.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

💉 Doctors warn President Trump’s vaccine order could endanger kids. Pediatricians are warning that President Trump’s new vaccine order could increase confusion and vaccine hesitancy. Trump signed the order on August 10th. The order urges separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three individual shots. It also favors giving childhood immunizations at separate appointments when possible. No separate childhood vaccines for those three diseases are currently available in America. The order directs federal health officials to develop a plan to offer them. Trump also revived claims linking vaccine timing or quantity to autism. Decades of studies have found no causal link between vaccines and autism. American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Andrew Racine says that evidence is unequivocal. Vaccine researcher Dr. Paul Offit says the new recommendations are not science-based. Michigan pediatrician Dr. Molly O’Shea says separating the MMR components offers no immunological benefit. Doctors say the combination vaccine has undergone extensive safety testing and monitoring. The dispute comes during America’s largest measles epidemic in more than 30 years. Kindergarten vaccination rates have fallen while exemption rates reached a record high in the 2024-2025 school year. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. previously replaced a 17-member vaccine advisory committee. A federal judge later blocked restrictive recommendations made by its replacements. The pediatrics academy still recommends immunization against 18 diseases in its 2026 schedule. Physicians fear conflicting federal guidance could leave children unprotected between delayed appointments.

🚨 Minnesota daycare killings leave a woman and child dead. A man killed a woman and their child inside a licensed home daycare in Hopkins, Minnesota, before taking his own life, police say. The killings occurred on August 12th at Brown Bear Childcare in the Minneapolis suburb. Six other children were inside during the attack. All six were later reunited with their parents without physical injuries. Hopkins Police Chief Brent Johnson says another parent witnessed the violence while arriving to drop off a child. That parent called police. Authorities have not released the names of the woman, child, or man. Police have also not publicly disclosed how the three died. Johnson said the two adults owned the daycare. Investigators believe the child who died was theirs. Officers entered a quiet residential neighborhood and surrounded the two-story home. Neighbor and nurse Amanda Marx saw police trying to force their way through the front door. She later watched several young children emerge from the property. State records show Brown Bear Childcare has been licensed since 2019. The home had capacity for 10 children. Inspections in 2023, 2024, and 2025 found the daycare in compliance. Johnson described killings as rare in Hopkins and said responding officers were visibly shaken. The investigation now centers on a family killing that unfolded inside a place entrusted with other families’ children.

🗂️ MISC

🏀 Kushner and Iger agree to buy the Lakers for $12.5B. Venture capitalist Josh Kushner and former Walt Disney Company ($DIS) CEO Bob Iger have agreed to buy the Los Angeles Lakers. A person familiar with the deal values the transaction at $12.5B. That would set a record for an American professional sports franchise. The Lakers were valued at $10B only last year when owner Mark Walter bought control from the Buss family. Walter is selling after roughly 10 months of official ownership. Kushner and Iger had previously explored pursuing a potential National Basketball Association (NBA) expansion franchise in Las Vegas. Their Lakers purchase removes the need to wait for possible expansion after 2028. The deal still requires approval from the NBA Board of Governors. Its next scheduled meeting is in September. Lakers legend Magic Johnson publicly praised the prospective owners. The franchise has won 17 NBA championships, second only to Boston’s 18. Its most recent title came in 2020. The current roster is built around scoring champion Luka Doncic, who is signed through the 2028-2029 season. LeBron James left Los Angeles after eight seasons and signed with Philadelphia. Kushner currently owns a minority stake in the Miami Heat. Iger and wife Willow Bay already control National Women’s Soccer League club Angel City FC. A $12.5B Lakers sale would more than quadruple the $3B valuation attached to Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Hornets sale only three years ago.

📈 AI stocks lift Wall Street as inflation cools slightly. American stocks moved toward record territory as strong AI earnings and softer inflation eased investor anxiety. The Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) rose 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 23 points, less than 0.1%. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.6%. Super Micro Computer ($SMCI) jumped 17.8% after quarterly earnings per share beat analyst expectations by 84%. CoreWeave ($CRWV) surged 18.3% after stronger revenue and a smaller-than-expected loss. CEO Michael Intrator says customer demand is accelerating as large companies adopt AI. Nvidia ($NVDA) climbed 3% and provided the biggest lift to the S&P 500. The gains revived confidence that massive AI spending may translate into sufficient profit growth. Inflation supplied another tailwind. Consumer prices rose 3.4% from one year earlier in July. That was slightly below June’s 3.5% rate. Traders cut the probability of a Federal Reserve (Fed) rate increase in September to 38%. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.67% from 4.70%. It remains well above the 3.97% level seen before the Iran war. Brent crude slipped 0.5% to $88.50 per barrel. Housing-related stocks remained under pressure as mortgage rates sit near one-year highs. D.R. Horton ($DHI) fell 3%, while PulteGroup ($PHM) lost 2.1%. Wall Street is again testing whether AI profits and softer inflation can outweigh expensive energy and high borrowing costs.