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A Trump administration initiative to impose $100,000 fees on employers seeking visas for skilled foreign workers amounts to an unlawful tax on those companies and must be voided “in its entirety,” a federal judge ruled on Monday. The decision by Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts nullified one of a series of tactics the Trump administration has used to restrict legal immigration, even in fields in which foreign skilled labor helped address severe shortages. ... About 85,000 new visas have been provided annually to hire so-called high-skilled foreign workers at companies through the program’s lottery process. Technology, finance, hospitals and universities have all made ample use of those visas. (Montague, 6/8)

A second detainee has died in less than two months at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana where a recent inspection report found insanitary conditions, problems with medical care and the use of excessive force. Mamuka Artmeladze, a 43-year-old from the country of Georgia, was found unresponsive June 4 at Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana, ICE announced in a press release Sunday. ICE said staff began lifesaving measures before he was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where a doctor pronounced him dead less than an hour later. (Foley, 6/8)

Attorneys for the president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque say he is being denied basic medical care for diabetes and has lost 30 pounds in the two months since he was detained by immigration officers. Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian-born legal permanent resident of the United States, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in April. His attorneys say he is being detained on baseless claims that he is a foreign policy threat, but they believe he was actually targeted for speaking out against Israel and for a conviction as a minor by Israeli military courts. (Boone, 6/9)

Tighter US sanctions on Cuba have led to a spike in infant mortality and plummeting survival rates for child cancer patients, the United Nations warned in one of its strongest rebukes of Washington’s pressure campaign against the island. US President Donald Trump’s push to force change in Cuba by cutting off almost all fuel shipments to the government is depriving the nation of 10 million people of access to water, food and healthcare, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Monday in a statement. (Wyss, 6/8)

Hospital finance leaders rolled out the red carpet for the Trump administration’s new health care affordability czar at an industry conference on Monday. He promptly took the main stage to champion Medicaid cuts that threaten their bottom lines. (Bannow, 6/9)

Many enrollees don’t know they’ll need to report work, education or volunteer hours starting in less than six months in order to stay covered, according to a recent survey from the Health Management Academy. (Olsen, 6/8)

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Monday that numerous medical school accrediting organizations and assessors have agreed to increase nutrition requirements for U.S. medical education. HHS said in a release that eight medical school organizations had agreed to “increase nutrition requirements at every level of U.S. medical education, competency-evaluation, training, and residency.” (Choi, 6/8)

Shortly after the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in Africa a public health emergency, a reporter asked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. if he was worried about the virus. Six Americans had already been exposed. His response was brief: “Yeah, we’re working on it.” In the nearly three weeks since, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention imposed travel restrictions to keep the virus from coming to the United States, Mr. Kennedy has made no public comments about the spreading outbreak. (Gay Stolberg, 6/7)

Trump administration officials earlier this year killed a federal criminal investigation into the coal empire owned by Sen. Jim Justice, a Republican from West Virginia and a close ally of the president’s. The investigation examined potential criminal violations of the Clean Water Act by the multistate mining operations largely run by Justice’s son, Jay, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. (Redden and Asher-Schapiro, 6/8)

Kidney disease is a leading cause of death in the United States, and it is getting worse. For veterans living in rural areas, a national shortage of nephrologists — along with the reality that the nearest kidney specialist may be hours away — compound the problem. Rural veterans with chronic kidney disease and refractory hypertension are hospitalized more frequently and die at higher rates than veterans in urban or suburban areas. Many go years with their kidney care managed exclusively by a primary care provider who may not have the training or time to adjust the specialized medications these patients need. (Wile, 6/8)

Two more cases of the New World screwworm have been confirmed, including one outside the main cluster in Texas, demonstrating the difficulty of stopping a pest that could potentially devastate the nation's cattle industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Monday. So far, there are four confirmed cases: three calves in Texas and a dog from neighboring Lea County, New Mexico. The dog, which the USDA initially reported as a Texas case, lives in New Mexico and was reclassified as the first in that state. The animal's travel history is being investigated. (Collins, 6/8)

The Trump administration, fearing that international travel could accelerate the spread of Ebola as the World Cup hits America, is pressuring Europe to dramatically shift its strategy for preventing infections, sources tell Axios. (Isenstadt, 6/9)

Police in Kenya have fired tear gas to break up a protest in the central town of Nanyuki against the construction of an Ebola quarantine centre for US citizens. Small groups of demonstrators, who were waving Kenyan flags, carrying placards and holding a coffin with the word "Ebola" written on the side, were demanding the plan be reversed. (Rukanga, 6/9)

Efforts to trace contacts in the Democratic Republic of Congo to try to contain the country's ​Ebola outbreak have improved but are below target, the World ‌Health Organization said on Tuesday. There have been 550 confirmed cases of Ebola, including 101 deaths, according to the WHO's latest figures, as well as 94 ​suspected cases. (Le Poidevin, 6/9)

In March 2025, Nicholas Enrich was the top U.S. official for global health when two major events were happening at the same time: The Trump administration was dismantling USAID, and an Ebola outbreak was spreading in Uganda. It was Enrich's job to manage the U.S. response. He says he was stymied at every turn. (Tanis, 6/8)

A Dutch virologist who has been honored for helping to advance the development of the Covid vaccine now finds himself under the microscope of U.S. federal investigators. The virologist, Dr. Vincent Munster, has been charged with conspiring to smuggle vials full of deactivated mpox and other biological materials into the United States in January, according to a criminal complaint unsealed last week. Dr. Munster, 53, leads the virus ecology section at Rocky Mountain Laboratories, a National Institutes of Health center in Montana. (Livni, 6/8)

From 2021 to 2023, American Indian and Alaska Natives (AIANs) reported higher rates of COVID-19 and long COVID than their non-AIAN counterparts, according to a non–peer-reviewed study published on the Research Square preprint platform. Led by a researcher from the US National Bureau of Economic Research, the study team surveyed more than 20,000 adult respondents, including public-use files (datasets stripped of identifying information) and an oversample of AIANs, to the California Health Interview Survey from 2021 to 2023. (Van Beusekom, 6/8)

For many people, the ability to work from home is one of the COVID-19 pandemic's most enduring changes. Remote work has increased significantly since the start of the pandemic, rising from roughly 7% of US workers in 2019 to 28% in 2023. But a new study suggests that the shift away from the office may have come with a cost: more time spent alone and poorer mental health. (Bergeson, 6/8)

Thirteen. At the earliest. That’s when parents should consider getting their child a smartphone, according to a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics. Parents are often told to wait until their children hit the teen years to give them their first phone, as research continues to roll in showing health worries tied to young people’s social media habits. The new findings back up conventional wisdom, showing a delay of even one year can lead to measurably better mental and physical health. (Inampudi, 6/8)

Apple Inc. is expanding tools for parents to protect children online, a move that comes as governments around the world increasingly ban social media for young people. The iPhone and iPad maker at its Worldwide Developers Conference Monday previewed new features that will let parents better control on devices when kids can use apps, what content they can access and with whom they can communicate. (Purnell, 6/9)

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is preparing to announce a ban on under-16s using social media within days after his position hardened following parents’ response to a government consultation. Nine in ten parents who responded to the consultation said they wanted to see such a ban, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told Sky News on Tuesday morning. She said she’s considering two broad options: a “blanket” ban on under-16s using social media, or age restrictions on key features of social networks and apps. “A ban is on the table,” she said. (Wickham, 6/9)

Long championed as a leader in adopting digital technology, Sweden is set to ban mobile phones in schools beginning in the fall for the next academic year as part of a broad, international reversal on the use of screens in classrooms. (Brooks, 6/9)

A report on alcohol’s health effects, commissioned by the federal government but unreleased under President Trump, came out Tuesday — in a scientific journal. The study finds even low levels of drinking may increase the risk of various diseases or even death. (Cueto, 6/9)

Parents used to be advised to keep allergenic foods like eggs away from babies, especially if allergies ran in the family. But based on recent and evolving evidence, the advice is now almost the opposite – and new research suggests the shift in guidance is paying off. (Howard and Anos, 6/8)

On Memorial Day, D. locked himself out of his East Bay apartment. It was the fourth or fifth time he’d done this recently. When a neighbor saw him sitting in front of his locked door sometime later, on a chair he’d dragged over from the communal patio, she invited him inside her unit, where he spent the night until he found someone who could let him back into his own home. (Allday, 6/8)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Trivia Nights, Valentine’s Cards: Overlooked Social Connections Can Prevent Suicide

Nearly every Tuesday for a decade, Steve Siple attended a bar trivia night with friends in Birmingham, Alabama. After moving to North Carolina, he developed a new ritual — joining other Charlotte locals on Saturdays to pick up trash along the city’s light rail. These are more than fun outings to Siple. They help keep him alive. Siple has battled suicidal thoughts in the past. He lost his father to suicide, and one of his sons has struggled with thoughts of hurting himself. That’s made Siple vigilant about protecting himself and his family. (Pattani, 6/9)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Could Your Kid Benefit From Counseling? Experts Offer 3 Questions To Help You Decide

HealthQ’s Cara Anthony and Blake Farmer share know-how for parents navigating the decision to seek out mental healthcare for a child. Divorce rocked the lives of Marcela Cabay and her daughter, who was a preschooler at the time. But counseling didn’t come until years later, when Cabay noticed her daughter was tensing up every time a storm rolled through or whenever they were preparing to be apart. “She was experiencing just a lot of anxiety, really starting to think worst-case scenarios all the time, just really struggling in her daily life,” said Cabay, who is a life insurance broker outside Austin, Texas. (Farmer and Anthony, 6/9)

In the wake of clinicians and researchers being kicked out of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) meeting here, at least two of the organization's leaders have resigned. President-Elect Jennifer Green, MD, and Scientific Sessions Planning Committee Chair Mark Atkinson, PhD, have both left their positions with ADA, several sources confirmed to MedPage Today. Reports of at least two additional experts abdicating their positions with ADA could not be confirmed as of press time. (Fiore and Monaco, 6/8)

GoHealth has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the health insurance exchange and Medicare brokerage announced Sunday. A voluntary and prepackaged plan filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has the support of all lenders and more than 60% of common stockholders, GoHealth said in a news release. Operations will continue as the company carries out its reorganization, which it aims to complete in time for the Medicare annual enrollment period, which begins Oct. 15, GoHealth said in a court filing. (Tong, 6/8)

UnityPoint nurses marched across downtown Des Moines Monday to call attention to the months-long delay in getting the results on their vote to unionize. Nurses voted in early December, but they’re still waiting on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to review the validity of ballots that were challenged by Teamsters Local 90. The initial vote was 871 to 666 in favor of forming the union, but it doesn't include the 251 ballots that are under review. (Krebs, 6/8)

The administration of Virginia’s nursing scholarship programs will be moved to a new agency after a state study found that money for those programs has not been fully used each year because the state Health Department doesn’t have the capacity to effectively manage them. (Beyer and Schabacker, 6/9)

Dr. Mollie James was embarrassed when her functional medicine practice filed for bankruptcy in 2019. She felt like a complete failure. “I thought it was the worst thing that could happen,” James said. “I’m the ‘A’ student, the valedictorian, all those things. I didn’t want anybody to know.” Fast-forward seven years, and James is the owner of a multimillion-dollar concierge practice with two locations in Iowa, a third in Missouri and a fourth slated to open in Texas later this year. She also offers virtual care services. (Hudson, 6/8)

Three U.S. hospitals and emergency departments have closed in 2026, compared to 13 through the same point in 2025, according to Becker’s reporting. However, those data points might not signal a sign of structural improvement. In total, 2025 saw 23 closures, nearly matching the 25 reported in 2024. Becker’s has reported on just three closures or planned closures in 2026: Searcy, Ark.-based Unity Health closed its emergency department and medical unit at its acute care hospital April 15 to convert it to a psychiatric facility; Bradford (Pa.) Regional Medical Center ended inpatient and emergency services in mid-May; and Gaithersburg, Md.-based Adventist HealthCare plans to close its Germantown (Md.) Emergency Center on July 1. (Scheetz, 6/8)

Artificial intelligence is here to stay in healthcare, and the industry's largest players, like CVS Health, are making huge commitments to the tech. But embracing AI requires a workforce that's ready for the revolution. With that backdrop, CVS has rolled out its internal AI Learning Academy, which aims to educate its workforce on practical applications for the technology and how it can impact and improve their workflows. (Minemyer, 6/8)

Dr. Nicholas Gavin, an emergency medicine doctor at Mount Sinai in New York City, was working an overnight shift last summer when a patient came in with a puzzling set of symptoms. Within seconds, his three younger colleagues — two medical students and a resident — were consulting a free artificial-intelligence-powered app for physicians, OpenEvidence. Dr. Gavin soon learned that they were far from outliers. A third of Mount Sinai’s 9,000 doctors were already regular OpenEvidence users, the health system’s executives found out in a meeting last year with the start-up’s leaders. (Lohr, 6/8)

A major selling point for wearable devices is the promise that they’ll help identify hidden health conditions before they lead to major harm. But a nagging issue has been the connection to clinician guidance when a smartwatch or ring raises the alarm. (Aguilar, 6/9)

The Cleveland Clinic will not provide gender-affirming care for minors for at least two decades under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and Ohio attorney general. Ohio law currently bans gender-affirming care, but the agreement would remain in effect if a court challenge to overturn the law succeeds. (Ferrise, 6/8)

Ohio Republicans backed away from one of the most controversial pieces of their Medicaid overhaul bill Monday, removing language that would have banned family members from serving as paid caregivers. (Staver, 6/8)

More than 40,000 Coloradans will be shopping for a new health insurance carrier for next year because of Cigna’s decision to withdraw from the individual insurance market nationwide. (Ingold, 6/8)

Teens, children and staff at youth treatment centers in Colorado called the state child abuse hotline 1,154 times in the past five years to report injuries, sexual allegations, children running away and other problems. Most of those — about 92% — were “screened out” by county child welfare officials, who decided to investigate 89 of the abuse and neglect reports from 11 youth treatment centers. (Brown, 6/8)

More than seven months after the final gavel in a high-stakes Johnson County bench trial that could reshape access to reproductive healthcare in Kansas, no ruling has been handed down. The challenge to existing abortion restrictions and a slate of strict new requirements that Republican lawmakers intend to impose on providers remains unresolved. Now, the judge who presided over the trial is one of three finalists for a seat on the Kansas Supreme Court. (Kelly, 6/5)

Before narrowly clinching the GOP nomination for Iowa governor, Zach Lahn took a stance once unthinkable for Republicans in the Corn Belt: Big Agriculture is making Americans sick. The message, which aligns with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement, helped Lahn deliver a rare defeat over a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump. (Roubein, Weber and Ence Morse, 6/8)

Gov. Kelly Ayotte has signed a bill into law that would require organizations that provide clean syringes as part of needle exchange programs to report the ratio of the number of needles disposed at their sites to the number they hand out on a quarterly basis. Needle exchange programs must also have free disposal sites available to the public. (Richardson, 6/8)

When Tracy Lee worked as a probation/parole officer in Mecklenburg County, he found himself supervising people with serious mental illness — and feeling ill-equipped to do so. “I had no idea what I was dealing with,” Lee, now chief deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Adult Correction’s Division of Community Supervision, told NC Health News. “I didn’t know what I was looking at. I didn’t know how to respond to their behavior." (Crumpler, 6/9)

Growing up witnessing the devastating effects of HIV in her family and community in South Africa pushed Olwam Plaatjie to start using preventive HIV medications three years ago. “Sometimes they’d lose weight, they would get sick and have to go to the clinic, and I didn’t want that for me,” she told The Associated Press. “I’d see the people I live with taking (antiretroviral) pills for HIV every day, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle that life.” The 19-year-old is one of thousands of South Africans who signed up for clinical trials of lenacapavir, a highly effective, twice-yearly injectable prevention drug that addresses the drawbacks of daily oral prevention pills. (Gumede, 6/9)

GSK said Tuesday it would buy the cancer-focused biotech Nuvalent in a deal worth $10.6 billion, as the British firm continues its expansion in oncology. (Joseph, 6/9)

Roche Holding AG agreed to pay Nurix Therapeutics Inc. as much as $2.3 billion for rights to an experimental blood-cancer drug, betting it can help patients whose disease stops responding to existing treatments. Nurix will receive $700 million upfront for bexobrutideg, a pill being developed for certain blood cancers and potentially other immune-system and neurological diseases, Roche said Monday. The firms will share development costs and split US profits equally, and Roche will commercialize the therapy outside the US. (Kinzelmann, 6/8)

The race for No. 3 in obesity drugs just got tougher. At the American Diabetes Association meeting in New Orleans, market leader Eli Lilly & Co. asserted its dominance with data showing its next-generation shot, retatrutide, can help patients lose 30% of their body weight over about two years. Novo Nordisk A/S, the No. 2, said its new Wegovy obesity pill surpassed 3 million prescriptions. (Muller and Kresge, 6/8)

AstraZeneca’s investigational GLP-1 pill showed promise in mid-stage obesity and diabetes studies, but it may still be too early to determine how it stacks up against oral treatments already on the market. (Chen, 6/8)

Patients taking GLP-1 receptor agonists for obesity had a 41% lower risk of obesity-related cancers as compared with patients treated with diet or exercise, a large propensity-matched cohort study showed. (Bankhead, 6/8)

Winning elections — or achieving any success — often is about being in the right spot at the right moment. (George Skelton, 6/8)

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seeks to end all federally funded animal testing after concluding that “the predictivity of animal models is very, very poor for human health outcomes.” (Joshua Mezrich, 6/9)

Recently, one of my friends asked me, “How do you connect with Skye if she can’t talk?” I thought, Well, that’s easy — there are plenty of things we do together that naturally don’t require much speech. I’ve had the privilege of growing up with her and, to the best of my knowledge, learning what she needs from her body language and facial expressions. But to someone who hasn’t, it can be hard to imagine how that type of connection is possible. (Cheyenne Buckingham, 6/9)

My niece Jill’s death at age 45 was unexpected. She had battled alcoholism for decades. After several years of sobriety, she relapsed last summer. We (the family) knew she was drinking, but she stayed in contact and maintained her job. We had hopes that she would go back to rehab soon. Jill’s death was all the more stunning because her mother, my sister Linda, died from the same disease, from drinking the same liquor, exactly twenty years earlier. (Suzanne B. Robotti, 6/8)

Michael Callen was famous. And important. He saved a lot of lives through his AIDS self-empowerment messages, his book Surviving AIDS, and originating “safer sex” through How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach with Richard Berkowitz and their doctor and mentor, Dr. Joseph Sonnabend. On a trip back home from a doctor’s appointment, Michael asked me if I would help him die. (Karen Ocamb, 6/8)