Uganda closes its border with Congo as cases of a rare Ebola type surge

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan authorities on Wednesday ordered the closure of the border with Congo “with immediate effect” as suspected cases surge near 1,000 in its neighbor of a rare type of Ebola and as others emerge at home.

The measure, which goes against World Health Organization guidance, underscored growing fears of contagion in this East African country that, like Congo, has experience responding to Ebola outbreaks but is faced with a type this time, Bundibugyo, with no approved medicines or vaccines.

A local Ebola task force made the decision to close the border after a rise in Ugandan health workers exposed to the virus by Congolese patients who crossed before the outbreak was declared on May 15.

Travel across the Congo border will be authorized only in emergency cases, including for the outbreak response, cargo or security reasons, Dr. Diana Atwine, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, told journalists. Any people entering from Congo under emergency circumstances will be taken into mandatory self-isolation for 21 days.

Tracing and isolating Ebola contacts is seen as key to stopping the spread of the disease, which usually manifests as hemorrhagic fever. The virus is spread through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids. Experts say healthcare workers and family members caring for patients face the highest risk.

The number of suspected cases in eastern Congo is nearing 1,000, with at least 220 suspected deaths. Congo’s health ministry on Tuesday said 101 cases have been confirmed, and they are looking into over 3,000 possible contacts.

The WHO, while declaring this outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, discouraged border closures while acknowledging that neighboring countries are at high risk of contagion.

Closures "push the movement of people and goods to informal border crossings that are not monitored, thus increasing the chances of the spread of disease," the U.N. agency said.

The border between Uganda and Congo is several hundred miles long and crossed by numerous footpaths beyond formal border posts. Many people come and go in the course of a day to visit families or to trade.

Health authorities in Congo are struggling to contain the outbreak that the WHO has said is outpacing them, after the rare type of Ebola was confirmed weeks late as tests were carried out for a more common type.

Challenges include the threat from armed groups in eastern Congo, a large number of displaced people and poor infrastructure.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday called for a ceasefire in the region to allow safe access for responders and others, saying on social media that “attacks on health facilities make tracking cases and their contacts nearly impossible.”

Responders in Congo have said they are underprepared and underprotected for this outbreak, while conflict-traumatized residents long wary of outsiders have attacked a number of clinics and hurled stones and abuse at volunteers trying to make people aware of the virus and its risks.

The WHO has said infected people or those have been in contact should not undertake international travel unless it’s a medical evacuation. On Wednesday, the Trump administration said it is planning to send Americans who are exposed to Ebola to a new facility in Kenya instead of flying them to the United States.

Uganda has reported seven cases of Ebola, including the first case of a 59-year-old man who died in Kampala, the capital, on May 14. While the Ebola case load is not spiking, the number of locals exposed to infection via health workers has been rising.

“They have families, and so the number has been increasing,” Atwine, the health official, said of health workers.

She also said she was dismayed to see some Ugandans forming crowds to celebrate Arsenal as British Premier League champions. The team has a large following in Uganda.

“I don't understand,” Atwine said, urging people to be vigilant, avoid shaking hands and use sanitizer.

Congo has had 17 Ebola outbreaks. Health experts say aid cuts last year by the United States and other rich nations are devastating for eastern Congo because of the region’s unique problems.

Aid groups fighting this outbreak say they don’t have the equipment they need such as face shields and suits to protect health workers from infection, testing kits and body bags needed to safely bury victims.

Muslims gather to pray at Sayo Muhamed School during the Eid al-Adha celebration amid an Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Muslims are reflected in a motorcycle mirror as they gather to pray at Sayo Muhamed School during the Eid al-Adha celebration amid an Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

A Muslim washes his hands as a precaution against Ebola before attending the Eid al-Adha prayers at Sayo Muhamed School in Bunia, Congo, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

A Muslim woman walks towards the prayer grounds at Sayo Muhamed School to perform Eid al-Adha prayers amid an Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

NEW YORK (AP) — The typical CEO compensation package rose nearly 6% in 2025 to $17.7 million, as company boards rewarded their top executives for bigger profits and higher stock prices, and gave them incentives to stick around and make even more money for shareholders.

The median employee at companies in the S&P 500 earned $89,744, reflecting a 4.7% increase year over year. While that gain outpaced the rate of inflation in 2025, many workers were still feeling pinched by the accumulation of higher prices over the past few years and had to cut corners to make ends meet and run up credit card debt to pay for everyday necessities.

The Associated Press’ CEO compensation survey, which uses data analyzed for The AP by Equilar, included pay data for 337 executives at S&P 500 companies who have served at least two full consecutive fiscal years at their companies, which filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and April 30.

Here's a look at some highlights from the survey.

At half the companies in AP’s survey it would take the worker at the middle of the company’s pay scale 200 years to make what the CEO did in one, up from 192 years in last year's survey. Companies have been required to disclose this so-called pay ratio since 2018.

While the biggest gaps occur at companies where the CEO received compensation loaded with one-time awards of stock, the pay ratio also tends to be highest at companies in industries where wages are typically low. For instance, at Coca-Cola, its CEO earned nearly 1,739 times the median pay of $17,947 for its workers. The CEO at the retailer TJX Cos. makes about 1,774 times what a worker making the company’s median pay does.

Sarah Anderson, who directs the Global Economy Project at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies, noted in an email that there are ballot initiative campaigns in San Francisco and Los Angeles to raise taxes on companies with sizable gaps between CEO and worker pay.

“At a time when working families are struggling with rising costs, it’s obscene to see CEO pay continuing to skyrocket,” Anderson wrote.

Overall, wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers in the U.S. rose 3.4% through 2025, according to the Labor Department. The average worker in the U.S. makes $67,000 a year. That figure rises to $96,000 when benefits such as health care and other insurance are included.

While many people may think of a pay package as consisting of salary, bonus and some perks, those components make up only a small percentage of pay for the modern CEO.

Many companies have heeded calls from shareholders to tie CEO compensation more closely to performance. As a result, a large proportion of pay packages consist of stock awards, which the CEO often can’t cash in for years, if at all, unless the company meets certain targets, typically a higher stock price or market value or improved operating profits. And if the CEO delivers on those metrics, companies often give them one-time rewards as incentives to stay on and not look for a bigger payday elsewhere.

Shareholders can weigh in on a CEO's pay package through “say on pay” votes at a company's annual meeting. But the votes are non-binding and most pay plans pass with overwhelming support. The average “yes” vote at companies in this year's survey was around 90%.

As CEO pay has grown significantly over the past few decades, criticism of the lofty payouts has largely come from worker advocates and certain members of Congress.

Elon Musk's pay package is so extraordinary that even the pope weighed in.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla, received compensation valued at $132.3 billion, all in the form of stock awards. To actually get the shares, Musk must meet ambitious targets over the next 10 years for the company's market value and Tesla's electric vehicles, as well as his futuristic goals of developing a fleet of robotaxis and an army of humanoid robots.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shankh Mitra of Welltower received the second-largest compensation package in the survey at $821.1 million, the bulk of it in stock awards. Since October 2020, when he became CEO of the healthcare real estate investment trust, and October 2025, Welltower's stock price tripled. Mitra can only receive the full compensation, beyond a $110,000 annual salary, after a 10-year period.

CEO Hock Tan's pay package at Broadcom, valued at $205.3 million, covers the years 2028-2030 — companies assign a value at the time the package is awarded — and is tied to Tan's ability to greatly increase the revenue Broadcom generates from artificial intelligence, making it one of the few companies at this time to use AI as a benchmark in its compensation plans.

“Use of AI considerations or metrics in incentive plans has not yet taken hold as a majority practice,” said Kelly Malafis, founding partner at Compensation Advisory Partners, in an email, although she expects that could change going forward.

David Zaslav was at the center of a takeover battle that ended with him selling Warner Bros. to Paramount Skydance for $31 a share, up from $12.54 before reports of Paramount’s interest in a deal came out. For negotiating the deal at a premium and also exceeding certain financial and strategic goals, Warner gave Zaslav a pay package valued at $165 million, fourth largest in the survey. Since becoming CEO in 2007, Zaslav's compensation has totaled $1.1 billion, according to Equilar.

CEOs of three the nation's biggest banks got rewarded for yearslong efforts to retool their companies and revive a stagnant stock price.

Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon's pay package totaled almost $119 million — including stock valued at $80 million he can receive after five years. Goldman's board pointed to the 57% gain in the company's shares, as well as a hefty increase in its earnings per share. Solomon also sold off the company's Apple Card portfolio after an unsuccessful effort to expand Goldman's consumer-focused business.

Jane Fraser of Citigroup received a pay package valued at $95.8 million — tops among the 27 women CEOs in this year's survey and the highest-ever for a woman CEO in the survey's history. Fraser received a one-time award valued at $25 million in restricted stock and options after being elected Citi's chairman. She also got a one-time award for overseeing a wholesale reorganization of Citi into a leaner company, including laying off thousands of workers.

Overall, the median compensation for women CEOs in the survey fell 2.6% to $18.1 million, compared to a 6.4% increase for their male counterparts to $17.7 billion.

Wells Fargo gave CEO Charles Scharf a pay package worth $94.5 million after his yearslong effort to lead the bank back from a scandal involving fake bank accounts that landed Wells under federal supervision. And new scandals emerged along the way. The Federal Reserve finally let Wells leave the penalty box last year.

In his last year as CEO of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett received compensation worth $389,488 — down 4% from the year prior.

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg's compensation was valued at $25.1 million and almost all of it involved costs for the company to provide security for him and his family, as well as the use of corporate aircraft.

Jensen Huang of Nvidia, the most valuable publicly traded company, got a pay package valued at $36.3 million. He didn't make the AP survey because Nvidia filed its proxy after April 30.

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Editors Dorothea Degen and Paul Harloff, and reporters Bernard Condon, Matt Ott, Alex Veiga, Ken Sweet and Chris Rugaber contributed.

FILE - Wells Fargo & Company CEO and President Charles Scharf testifies at a Senate Banking Committee annual Wall Street oversight hearing, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - Jane Fraser, CEO, Citigroup, listens during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee oversight hearing to examine Wall Street firms on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is interviewed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - David Zaslav arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2017, file photo, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan speaks as President Donald Trump listens during an event to announce the company is moving its global headquarters to the United States, in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Elon Musk departs after a welcome ceremony with President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)