News for May 18th, 2026
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order on May 18 suspending entry into the United States for certain travelers linked to three African countries at the center of a deadly Ebola outbreak, invoking the same public health statute that became a flashpoint during the border crisis earlier this decade.
The 30-day order covers any traveler, regardless of nationality, who departed from or was present in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan during the previous 21 days. It was issued under Title 42, the section of federal public health law that grants health authorities the power to block migrants from entering the country to prevent the spread of contagious diseases.
The move comes as the World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a public health emergency. The virus is suspected to have killed around 80 people in recent weeks, and two confirmed cases have surfaced in neighboring Uganda, raising the prospect that the disease is no longer contained within the DRC’s eastern provinces.
What the CDC order does, and who it exempts
The order, as reported by Reuters, draws a clear line. If you were in the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan at any point in the past 21 days, you cannot enter the United States for the next 30 days, unless you fall into a specific exemption category.
Those exemptions are not small. U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents, members of the U.S. military, government personnel stationed overseas, and their spouses and children are all excluded from the suspension. Customs officers also retain discretion to except individual travelers, and the Department of Homeland Security may approve entry for non-citizens on a case-by-case basis.
That framework mirrors the structure of earlier Title 42 orders, broad authority, categorical exemptions, and enforcement discretion at the port of entry.
The 21-day incubation window
The CDC grounded its order in a specific epidemiological fact: the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola can incubate for up to 21 days. An infected person can board a plane, clear routine symptom-based screening, and land in the United States without showing a single sign of illness.
Michigan Democratic Senate Frontrunner Abdul El-Sayed Has Never Held Medical License Despite Calling Himself ‘Physician’
Abdul El-Sayed is the frontrunner in the Democratic primary to fill Senator Gary Peters’ seat. His credentials dazzle on paper: medical degree from Columbia, doctorate in public health from Oxford, former Detroit Health Department director.
His LinkedIn identifies him as a “physician.” At a recent Detroit debate, he called himself “a physician and epidemiologist.” In interviews, he’s claimed he’s “been a doctor” his “whole career.”
There’s just one problem: A Politico investigation revealed something El-Sayed’s polished campaign materials conveniently omit.
“According to a review of Michigan and New York state medical records, he’s never been granted a medical license in those states.
El-Sayed’s hands-on experience treating patients appears to be a short clinical rotation called a sub-internship at a small hospital in Manhattan for four weeks at the end of medical school.”
Four weeks. That’s it. And El-Sayed himself described that brief rotation in unflattering terms on a 2022 podcast, admitting his “job was to be the, like, worst doctor on the team” and that he was “cosplaying a doctor.”
It gets worse, though: When Senator Bernie Sanders appeared alongside El-Sayed at a Medicare town hall, Sanders told the audience he was backing El-Sayed partly because “there are no people in the Democratic caucus who are physicians.” El-Sayed sat silently. Didn’t correct him. What kind of person lets that slide?
Democratic strategist Chris Dewitt put it bluntly: “The perception in Michigan is that he is, at least at one point in his life, a licensed physician. That apparently is not the case, and it blows up a big part of his campaign.”
His campaign’s response is telling. Spokesperson Roxie Richner insisted El-Sayed “has earned the right to be called ‘doctor’ twice over,” but she notably declined to address his repeated use of “physician”—a term that implies actually treating patients.
Are we really supposed to believe this is just a misunderstanding? This isn’t semantics; El-Sayed built his medical credentials into a central campaign narrative, letting audiences assume he’d saved lives and made difficult decisions under pressure. He hadn’t. He’d completed a four-week rotation where, by his own admission, he was pretending.
Michigan voters deserve a candidate whose biography survives basic scrutiny—not someone who got caught cosplaying his way to credibility. A diploma on the wall doesn’t make you a physician any more than owning a hammer makes you a carpenter.
Trump says he’s called off Iran strike planned for Tuesday at request of Gulf allies
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is holding off on a military strike on Iran planned for Tuesday because “serious negotiations” are underway. Trump’s announcement in a social media post Monday came as he had threatened the clock was ticking for Iran to strike a deal or fighting would renew after a fragile ceasefire. The president did not offer details about the planned attack but said but he instructed the U.S. military “to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached.”
San Diego police say they are responding to an active shooter at a local Islamic Center
San Diego police are responding to an active shooter at the Islamic Center of San Diego. Officer Anthony Carrasco says they believe people have been shot. Aerial television footage showed a heavy police presence outside the mosque Monday afternoon. The mosque is in a heavily residential neighborhood about 9 miles north of downtown San Diego. Its website says it is the largest mosque in San Diego County. The campus includes the Al Rashid School, which the website says offers courses in Arabic language, Islamic studies and the Quran.
An American doctor is among the newest cases in rare Ebola outbreak in Congo
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — An American doctor is among the newly confirmed cases in a Congo outbreak of a rare Ebola variant with no approved vaccines, according to Congolese officials. Deaths have surpassed 100 in two provinces. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency on Sunday. As of Monday, there were over 300 suspected cases and 118 deaths in Ituri and North Kivu provinces. The Bundibugyo strain spread undetected for weeks. Experts criticize the delayed response and lack of resources. The U.S. CDC says the risk to Americans is low but urges caution for travelers in the region.
Redistricting debate shifts to South Carolina as Republicans seek clean sweep of US House seats
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina House is debating legislation that could redraw congressional districts to help Republicans possibly win an additional seat in the November elections. Monday’s debate is expected to be lengthy. Similar debates already have unfolded in Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana. The Southern redistricting efforts come after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened Voting Rights Act protections for minority districts. That has opened the door for Republicans to redraw districts with large Black populations that have elected Democrats. The effort is being encouraged by President Donald Trump, who is hoping to hold on to a narrow Republican House majority in the midterm elections.
Judge allows gun and notebook as evidence at Mangione’s trial in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing
NEW YORK (AP) — A gun and notebook that prosecutors say link Luigi Mangione to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson can be used as evidence at his murder trial. The judge’s ruling Monday partially rejects a defense argument that those items were seized illegally, before a search warrant was obtained. It’s a major win for prosecutors, enabling them to show the jury a possible murder weapon and evidence they say points to motive. But the judge also ruled that other evidence found during an initial search of Mangione’s backpack must be suppressed. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges.
Riders navigate the first weekday of a strike that has shut down the largest US commuter rail system
NEW YORK (AP) — Commuters are navigating a maze of car, bus and subway routes after a strike shut down the Long Island Rail Road in New York. Negotiators failed to reach a deal in time for service to resume Monday morning, leaving 250,000 commuters to scramble for alternatives to using North America’s largest commuter rail system. The strike began Saturday. Negotiations to end the action ran past 1 a.m. Monday before participants called it a night for about six hours. The five unions representing about half the railroad’s workforce and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the railroad, have resumed negotiations.
Argentina’s icy outpost at the end of the world fears the hantavirus will chill tourism
USHUAIA, Argentina (AP) — The city of Ushuaia in Argentina, which bills itself as the “end of the world,” has found itself at the center of a global media storm involving a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise that departed from its port. Tourism operators and officials are scrambling to stem fallout from the nautical nightmare that they fear could cause foreigners to reconsider their Antarctic cruise plans. Tourism is an economic lifeline for the wider province of Tierra del Fuego. Argentine scientists searching for the source of the outbreak arrived Monday in the city. They plan to capture and analyze rodents for the possible presence of the virus that has never been recorded in the province.
