U.S. Pauses Iran Strikes Amid Growing Risks, and Measles Cases Hit a New Record

0:00I'm Dani Blum. I'm a health reporter at The New York Times. We're bombarded with claims about how to live better and feel better. It's really hard to separate fact from fiction. I am scouring the science, speaking with leading experts, making sure that everything I write is rigorously researched, reported, and that I can back it up. When the science isn't clear, sometimes that is the story. That's a level of nuance and depth you're not going to get just floating around the Internet. And it's what you get when you subscribe to The New York Times.

0:33From The New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, July 27th. Here's what we're covering.

0:44You told Axios that you were considering a, quote, massive attack on Iran. What is the tipping point for you to make the decision? Well, I can't tell you that. Right now we're talking to them. So, you know, maybe there won't be a tipping point and maybe there will. We're ready to go. After 13 straight nights of attacks on Iran and multiple threats to target the country's infrastructure, the Times has learned that President Trump has now set aside plans to escalate the conflict, at least for now. Maybe they will cry uncle or maybe they'll just give up or maybe they'll just go into a cave and hide.

1:18The change in approach came after Trump met with top advisers and senior members of his cabinet on Friday. According to two people briefed on the discussions, one of the big concerns was that intensifying the conflict could drain the U.S.'s stockpile of air defense munitions in the Middle East. U.S. military officials have said the stock of Patriot interceptor missiles, for example, is already concerningly low, at the same time as Iran's been launching thousands of drones and missiles at all kinds of targets in the region, at Israel, at U.S. allies, and at American military bases. Each Iranian attack compounds the problem, since defense strategy calls for firing two interceptors at each incoming missile, so defensive stockpiles are used up twice as fast.

2:07The stockpile concerns are just one of several considerations that would make returning to major combat operations risky. Trump and his aides are also wary of alienating key American allies in the Gulf who've been targeted by Iran in retaliation, as well as the growing energy crisis set off by the war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The people briefed on the discussions told The Times that few, if any, in the president's inner circle believe that Trump's talk of escalating the conflict was wise. Plus, one senior U.S. official said the recent strikes have had the opposite effect of what was intended and have enabled Iranian leaders to keep the focus on an external threat rather than having to deal with the country's internal divisions.

2:58In the U.S., cases of measles have now hit a new record, according to data released by the CDC. Authorities have reported more than 2 ,300 cases this year, the most since the virus was declared eliminated back in 2000. Infection rates of the highly contagious disease have been climbing recently as vaccination rates have dropped. One expert told The Times that measles finds people who aren't immune, quote, like a heat-seeking missile. More than 70 % of the confirmed cases have been among children. In many cases, their parents opted them out of the measles vaccine, while others were too young to get the shot.

3:38Some have been hospitalized with dangerous complications like pneumonia and brain swelling. Getting measles under control in the U.S. would require a nationwide push to improve vaccination rates. But experts say that seems unlikely under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has downplayed the risks of measles and pushed for research into whether vaccines are unsafe. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said federal authorities had launched a, quote, aggressive outbreak response and that the CDC has provided assistance to communities facing high caseloads. But a former chairman of the CDC's Vaccine Advisory Committee said, we have seen virtually no national messaging.

4:20We have seen no ad campaigns. Adding, I think that really tells us something about their priorities.

4:33Now, two other quick updates on the Trump administration. Federal officials have admitted to canceling billions of dollars in funding to states simply because those states didn't back President Trump in the 2024 election. When the grants, which were for energy projects, were canceled last year, the administration claimed that it was a move to protect taxpayer funds from waste. But this month, in response to a lawsuit challenging those funding cuts, officials filed court documents saying the grants had been terminated based solely on political criteria. The documents said that none of the grants were canceled because of, quote, any programmatic, statutory, cost reduction, or performance-based factor.

5:16The canceled funds would have gone to hundreds of energy projects, including upgrades to electrical grids in California and Oregon, and efforts to reduce methane leaks in Colorado. By contrast, energy grants kept flowing to states that went for Trump in 2024 and which are represented by Republicans. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Also, the Times has learned new details about the rushed effort to get President Trump's new Qatari-donated Air Force One into service. Experts say it would have taken years to give the plane the full upgrade to match Air Force One standards, but my colleagues learned that Trump personally oversaw a compressed eight-month retrofit of the luxury 747.

6:01Because of that rush, some security features were skipped, as the Times has covered. And costs also soared, beyond the roughly$400 million that the administration has publicly acknowledged. For example, the Air Force spent hundreds of millions of dollars to buy an extra 747 that was the exact same model as the Qatari jet, so that pilots could get trained up to fly the refurbished plane as soon as it was ready. The Pentagon has tried to mask the total price tag of the project from the public and from Congress by taking funds from a classified budget for nuclear modernization. You can find the full investigation in the Times app or NYTimes.com.

6:55In Germany, authorities say they shot and killed the man suspected of carrying out a deadly attack on a gay pride celebration. On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in a park in central Berlin when authorities say a rented minivan sped through the crowd, striking pedestrians before eventually crashing into a tree. The attacker also wielded what appeared to be a machete. One woman was killed and nearly 30 people were injured, some with stab wounds. The attack set off a 24-hour manhunt for the suspect, who was eventually killed after police said he charged at officers with a weapon.

7:32German officials have called the attack on the Pride celebration a likely act of Islamist terrorism, and Berlin's mayor said it targeted, quote, our openness and our freedom. The suspect was a 21-year-old German citizen whose family members migrated from Lebanon. Germany's interior minister said he had a criminal record and that he had been undergoing a court-ordered de-radicalization course. The attack has reignited a debate in Germany about migration, religious extremism, and public safety, and it has rattled the city's prominent LGBTQ community.

8:10And finally... It's not looking good. I just got told people were booking tickets last year for The Odyssey at IMAX. If you're trying to see Christopher Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey as he intended in IMAX 70mm, good luck. People keep asking me how I secure 70mm IMAX tickets here in New York City. There are only about 40 of the screens worldwide, and most of the showtimes are sold out through September. Some theaters, like AMC's Lincoln Square IMAX in New York, which is the largest IMAX screen in the U.S., have been offering screenings at 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. to try and meet demand. All of the fuss is because there's basically never been a movie done like this.

8:53IMAX used to be the domain of nature and space documentaries, but Christopher Nolan has pushed the format. The IMAX company said it designed a new camera specifically to film The Odyssey. For the record, if you're not interested in staying up all night or booking a flight around the world to find an open screening, which some people are doing, you can just see it on a regular screen, where The Odyssey has still gotten rave reviews. Or you can always wait to watch it, where all great cinema is meant to be watched on the back of an airplane seat. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.