An international effort is underway to contain an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda that has infected hundreds of people and caused dozens of suspected deaths, as the United States looks to relocate a “small number” of its citizens affected. On Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola epidemic a “public health emergency of international concern.” The latest outbreak does not yet meet the criteria of a “pandemic emergency,” but WHO warned the high positivity rate and increasing number of cases and deaths across health zones point toward “a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported.” More than 100 suspected deaths have been linked to the outbreak in the DRC, the director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya, told CNN on Monday.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/18/africa/ebola-outbreak-global-efforts-americans-intl-hnk
The bodies of four missing Italian scuba divers who died last week have been found, Maldives government said Monday, following a fraught mission to locate their remains in a network of sea caves. Five Italians died while exploring the Vaavu Atoll caves on Thursday, prompting a multinational effort to find and retrieve their remains. One body was discovered that same day at the entrance to the maze-like underwater caves. International cave divers teamed up with Maldivian experts to try to locate the remains of the other four dead.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/17/asia/maldives-diving-italians-die-cave-hnk-intl
For the past three decades, China has been a nation of homeowners — supercharging the world’s second-largest economy and fulfilling the dreams of millions. Since the decline and eventual end of a welfare housing policy in the 1990s, government planning has coalesced with deep-seated cultural norms to create a level of private ownership unfathomable in the West. While tens of millions of Americans are laden with tuition loans – many well into their 30s, leaving renting their only option – their Chinese counterparts start planning the purchase of their first homes straight out of university.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/17/china/china-homeownership-rate-tested-intl-hnk
Workers with boots dyed an “American Flag Blue” have painted over about two-thirds of the iconic Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, covering the dull gray with bright azure following a directive by President Donald Trump to expedite the pace of the project. Trump earlier this month laid out a timeline that put the project on track to be done this week. However, workers on the ground told CNN recently that they need another month until they are finished, and Trump said Saturday it “should be completed” by July 4, ahead of the US’ 250th birthday. Time has quickly become one of the most essential factors in this project — one of many in Washington, DC, where Trump is racing to put his stamp on the nation’s capital.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/18/politics/reflecting-pool-trump-paint
An asteroid roughly the size of one to two school buses will fly by Earth Monday, coming as close as 91,593 kilometers (56,913 miles), according to the European Space Agency — equivalent to about one quarter of the distance between Earth and the moon. Astronomers at the Mount Lemmon Survey in Tucson, Arizona, discovered the asteroid on May 10 and named it 2026JH2. The object belongs to a class of asteroids called Apollo, which orbit the sun on trajectories that intersect with Earth’s own orbit around the sun. At its closest pass, 2026JH2 will be about 24% of the average distance between Earth and the moon, and about two and a half times the distance at which hundreds of geosynchronous satellites orbit, providing services such as telecommunications and weather forecasts. The close pass is expected to occur on Monday just before 6 p.m. ET, according to NASA’s JPL Small-Body Database.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/18/science/asteroid-earth-close-pass