That status has now changed, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday (Nov. 13). The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which is the regional office of the World Health Organization for the Americas, has reevaluated the United States' measles elimination status and determined that it should be revoked. With this decision, the U.S. joins several other nations that have seen a local return of measles, including the U.K. and Canada.

The decision follows a series of major measles outbreaks that kicked off in January 2025. Nearly 2,300 cases were reported nationwide in 2025, and so far in 2026, almost 5,412 confirmed cases have been confirmed, although both tallies are likely undercounts.

"When January 2025 picked up, I felt like this might be the point of no return," Maimuna Majumder, a distinguished scholar in the Computational Health Informatics Program at Boston Children's Hospital, previously told Live Science. "I do want to just stress that measles elimination has always been a tenuous prospect, and it is, by design, tenuous," she added.

It takes work to keep an eliminated disease from resurging. The effort rests largely on keeping vaccination rates above a critical threshold — because the measles virus spreads so easily, at least 95% of the population needs immunity via either vaccination or past infection to prevent large outbreaks from occurring and fueling uncontrolled spread. National measles vaccination rates have been falling in recent years, with just 10 states reporting rates above the immunity threshold among kindergarteners for 2025-2026.

Experts point to several factors to explain the trend, including declining funds and staff for public health efforts and wavering public trust in vaccines and scientific expertise. The appointment of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and the loss of long-standing federal health leadership further fueled the trend, they say, as vaccine guidance has been changed in ways that likely sow confusion and the federal rhetoric around vaccines now frames their safety and effectiveness as open questions when they are actually well-established.

The nation's first measles-related deaths this year were reported in Pennsylvania in August, and five more have followed, according to state health officials. (Some of these deaths have not been confirmed by the federal government.) A death reported in Wisconsin and another in New York have brought the current total to eight, per states' counts.

In the U.S., about 1 to 3 out of every 1,000 measles cases results in death. Pennsylvania has recorded just over 1,500 cases, so its number of reported deaths is higher than expected, hinting that the state's true case rate has not been fully captured in the data.

In survivors, measles can cause long-term health problems, including brain damage and immune amnesia, in which the immune cells tasked with remembering past infections have their "memories" wiped.

The PAHO's meeting to reevaluate the United States' status was originally scheduled for April but was pushed to November.

To regain its measles elimination status, the U.S. must go 12 months without continuous spread of the virus.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

'> Measles is back in the United States, WHO authorities say

The new species were named Alouatta iroi and Alouatta matogrossensis. The adorable creatures have bushy beards, winsome expressions and bright red fur. Their identification raises the number of known howler monkey species to 16, researchers said in a statement.

"Our study shows that the Amazon still holds remarkable biological secrets, even among well-known animals such as howler monkeys," study first author Romina Batista, a biodiversity scientist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and the University of Salford in the U.K., said in the statement.

One of the newfound species, A. matogrossensis, is probably on the brink of extinction. The other newfound species faces threats from a planned dam on the Rio Branco River, according to the study.

In addition to identifying the new species, the study, published Oct. 30 in the journal Communications Biology, used genetic evidence to understand when howler monkeys spread out and diversified. The researchers analyzed the genomes of 11 howler monkey species living in South and Central America, combining existing DNA datasets with new genomic information from specimens in Brazilian zoological collections.

Overall, the genetic data confirmed that howler monkeys diverged from close relatives between 19 million and 13.5 million years ago. But the analysis changed the picture of more recent evolution.

For instance, the team argued that the Tapajós red-handed howler (A. tapajozensis) and the Amazonian black howler (A. nigerrima) are not as closely related as scientists previously thought. The researchers also said that the Trinidad howler (A. insulanus), whose status has been unclear, should be confirmed as a separate species.

"This discovery comes at a critical time, as increasing deforestation, climate change and habitat loss threaten many Amazonian species before they are fully understood or even discovered by science," study co-author Jean Boubli, a professor and chair of primate ecology and evolution at the University of Salford in the U.K., said in the statement.

The scientists found that natural barriers such as the Amazon River, the Xingu River and the Branco River drove many howler monkeys to develop separately. Researchers believe that howler monkeys can swim across small waterways, but big rivers block groups from mixing, which led to different traits and species evolving over time. Natural barriers are a common reason why species emerge in the Amazon, the researchers noted in the study.

Primates Quiz: Go ape and test your knowledge on our closest relatives

'> Scientists discover two adorable species of howler monkey in the Amazon — and they're already endangered

The scans revealed that Bentham was missing many teeth and had advanced arthritis in his lower jaw when he died of natural causes at the age of 84. During the scanning process, project leader Tannis Davidson, curator of UCL's Grant Museum of Zoology, saw how thin the jawbone had become. "He must have been in excruciating pain," she told Live Science.

Bentham's utilitarian philosophy inspired UCL's founders; it was only the third university in England, after Oxford and Cambridge, which was founded as London University in 1826 and opened to students in 1828.

As a young man, Bentham had declared that he would donate his body to science after his death. This was a radical idea at the time; in the U.K., dissection after death was looked down upon, even if it was for scientific purposes, and it was reserved for the worst criminals. After Bentham died in 1832, his remains were fashioned into an auto-icon — a supposed replica of himself — to memorialize him in the way a tombstone might, Davidson said.

Except for brief visits across Europe and to the Met Breuer in New York City, this auto-icon has been in a display case at UCL since the 1850s, where it can be seen by students as they pass by.

Brainless auto-icon

To make the auto-icon (which is not a mummy), Bentham's body was dissected and studied. Then, his skeleton was dressed in his clothes, which were padded with straw. His severed head was badly disfigured during an attempt to preserve it with sulfuric acid, so a wax reconstruction based on paintings and death masks was attached to the body.

Bentham's real head was displayed at the feet of the clothed skeleton that had a lifelike wax head; the real head's eyes were replaced with highly detailed glass eyes, which can be seen in the scans. According to UCL lore, the real head was stolen in 1975 and held ransom for a few days by rivals from King's College London, after which it was locked away.

Davidson explained that Bentham had coined the term "auto-icon" to mean "self-representation" and was setting an example for others. "He imagined a future where people were making auto-icons to keep their dead relatives around," she said.

The CT scans of the real head show that Bentham had dental damage and jaw arthritis, and that his brain had been removed before it was preserved—although some of his dura mater, a layer of connective tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord, was preserved. Davidson said the brain extraction was done to keep with Bentham's instructions that his head be mummified in the same way as Māori heads, which had their brains removed. The scanning process is shown in a short film called "Bentham Revealed."

"Godless" philosopher

Bentham wrote about his dental problems several times, Davidson said, but it is not clear if he understood that he also had severe arthritis in his lower jaw, which must have made the problems with his teeth much more painful. In addition, modern ideas about cleaning teeth had not been established by Bentham's time. "Dentistry 200 years ago was a very different kettle of fish than it is today," Davidson said.

Bentham was a polymath who hoped to improve the lives of ordinary people through social reform. He wrote extensively about subjects as varied as law, economics, education and animal rights, and he believed that society could be engineered to produce better outcomes through legislation and the objective measurement of "utility."

His most famous idea was the panopticon in 1791, a ring-shaped prison with one warden to watch all of the prisoners, which he proposed as a humane alternative to Australia's penal colonies. Today, however, it is a symbol of state control and surveillance. Bentham also invented a "felicific calculus" to numerically assess the benefits and drawbacks of any given action, based on variables like its intensity, duration, certainty, purity and extent.

Bentham's philosophy put him at odds with the established Church of England; he called himself an "unbeliever," while critics called him "godless."

This rift with the church may have played a part in Bentham's wishes for his remains. Davidson suggested that the auto-icon may have been a means for Bentham to avoid being buried with traditional Anglican rites. "Maybe this was a way he could 'stick it to them' a little bit," she said.

'> 'Godless' founder of utilitarianism had severe dental problems and was in 'excruciating pain,' CT scans of his severed head reveal Antonine Wall. But that wall was left undefended after Antoninus Pius died, and the Romans retreated from Scotland.

During that retreat, the Romans may have dismantled any valuable statues that they had set up, according to the statement. An examination of the Milsington leg ahead of a new exhibition showed that the bronze had no cut marks, suggesting it was removed carefully and not "brutally hacked off."

"This contrasts with examples of statues being deliberately destroyed after a battle, when an emperor's memory was condemned, or when they were chopped up for scrap," according to National Museums Scotland.

With the Scottish provenance firmly established, National Museums Scotland curators were able to learn more about Antoninus Pius and his approach to imperial expansion.

"This really turns on its head our understanding of Rome's second attempt at conquering Scotland," Fraser Hunter, principal curator of prehistoric art and Roman archaeology at National Museums Scotland, said in the statement. "This was a big deal for the Emperor, something which was worth celebrating."

But while the boot-clad bronze leg provides a glimpse into the monuments that may have graced southern Scotland nearly two millennia ago, it raises an important question for Hunter: Where is the rest of the statue?

The Milsington leg, the Inveresk Mithras altars and other Roman-period finds are on display beginning Nov. 14 in the exhibit "Roman Scotland: Life on the Edge of Empire" at the National Museum of Scotland.

From Augustus to Nero, see how much you know about ancient Rome's famous leaders with our Roman emperor quiz!

'> Romans carefully dismantled statue of emperor when they withdrew from Scotland 1,800 years ago, leaving only his foot behind

2026 QQ8 is tiny — only about 6 feet (2 meters) across, according to the IAU. If it got too close to Earth, it would likely burn up in our planet's atmosphere. However, researchers don't think there is much chance of that happening, since 2026 QQ8 is currently orbiting at around 1.5 times the average distance of the moon.

2026 QQ8 takes 359 days — almost a full Earth year — to orbit the sun. It comes close to our planet every 10 years or so. This minimoon is classified as an Aten asteroid; this population of space rocks occasionally cross into Earth's orbit and have semimajor axes smaller than Earth's, meaning they typically orbit closer to the sun than our planet does. Large Aten asteroids are considered the most dangerous type of asteroid, as they can easily get lost in the sun's glare before speeding toward Earth — but, again, our new mini companion is far too small to pose a threat.

2026 QQ8 is not the first minimoon discovered circling Earth. That distinction belongs to 1991 VG, which was around 30 feet (10 meters) in diameter when it was detected in November 1991. Astronomers now think Earth grabs minimoons pretty frequently; we are likely to have at least one at any given time. Most of the space rocks stay around for less than a year, although a handful may remain in Earth's gravitational pull for decades.

New telescopes ‪are expected to help researchers spot more minimoons as they enter and leave Earth's orbit. These include the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which began operation earlier this year. The Rubin observatory, which takes a full scan of the entire Southern Hemisphere sky every few days, has already spotted what may be a new dwarf planet lurking in the outer solar system, as well as a new satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. Over its planned 10-year mission, the observatory is expected to detect millions of previously unknown moving objects in space.

'> Astronomers confirm a tiny new moon is orbiting Earth, and it'll stick around for the holidays