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The Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed the principle that almost everyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen, a major decision that rejects a push by President Donald Trump to fundamentally redefine who is American in ways not seen for more than 150 years. The justices struck down an executive order by the president that said citizenship would not be granted to children born to parents who are in the country illegally or those on temporary visas for work, travel, school or humanitarian reasons. (Jouvenal, 6/30)

Some civil rights advocates, lawyers and legal scholars were surprised that four justices — Clarence Thomas, Brett M. Kavanaugh, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch — said that they did not see birthright citizenship as a constitutional right for certain groups. In the end, birthright citizenship as a constitutional right survived by one vote — the latest sign of how far the conservative legal movement has shifted on the issue. “This should have been a 9-0 decision,” said Bethany Li, executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed an amicus brief against the president’s order. (Qin, 7/1)

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on Congress to end birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional right and struck down his executive order seeking to redefine who is American. (Diamond and Alfaro, 6/30)

A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld two state laws barring the participation of transgender female athletes from girls’ and women’s sports teams. The court’s 6-to-3 ruling deals with laws from West Virginia and Idaho but has implications for the 25 other states with similar restrictions, and for athletes who compete in school and collegiate sports nationwide. (Marimow, 6/30)

The Supreme Court’s ruling that states can block trans women and girls from competing in female events allows 27 states to keep their bans in place. It does not require any action from the other 23 states, though they’re already feeling pressure from advocates. “Blue states with boys on girls’ podiums … you’re next,” Kristen Waggoner, the president of the Alliance Defending Freedom, posted on social media soon after the court ruled on Tuesday. Her organization defended the laws in Idaho and West Virginia that prompted the decision, and is eager to see similar laws enacted nationwide — whether by lawmakers, judges or voters. (Harmon, 6/30)

The Supreme Court’s ruling Tuesday upholding state bans on transgender athletes in women’s sports is prompting questions about whether trans rights litigators have made strategic missteps, saddling the ascendant legal movement with sweeping precedents that could hurt their cause for years to come. Critics, including some trans rights advocates, say the movement has rushed to tee up causes that the court’s 6-3 conservative majority is not ready to embrace — particularly expanded rights for trans athletes, which polls show most Americans oppose. Given the high court’s solidly conservative record on LGBTQ+ issues, some supporters of trans rights are delivering a sobering message: Keep cases away from the Supreme Court. (Mark, 7/1)

The Food and Drug Administration will announce today that it will allow Zyn nicotine pouches to be marketed as less harmful to human health than cigarettes. The FDA will allow 20 Zyn products to be marketed with the claim that "using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis." That's a win for Philip Morris International, the parent company of Zyn manufacturer Swedish Match, which has previously argued that adult smokers need accurate information about the relative risks of different products. (Owens, 6/30)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the food supply issues it seeks to tackle by year’s end. The FDA’s Human Food Program aims to prevent foodborne illness, reduce diet-related chronic disease and ensure chemicals in food are safe. Its proposed agenda, announced June 29, emphasizes more information for consumers about what’s inside their food, reduced health risks and clarification on how certain foods are marketed. (Neff, 6/30)

The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would freeze federal funding for New York’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, a state agency responsible for investigating and prosecuting fraud in the safety-net government healthcare program. In a letter sent to New York officials, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Thomas March Bell accused the state of not securing enough criminal indictments and convictions and said millions of dollars in funding would be suspended through at least Sept. 30. (Swenson and Mulvihill, 6/30)

A boundary-pushing federal health research program has secured thousands of electronic medical records as it aims to plug gaps in its data, through an innovative use of patient data-sharing networks primarily used to coordinate clinical care. (Palmer, 6/30)

For decades, disabled people have fought for their rights to go to school and live alongside peers without disabilities — rights that some fear could be losing ground under the Trump administration. Last month, the Education Department announced it would offload oversight of special education to the Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose comments on the limits of disabilities such as autism have drawn sharp rebukes from advocates and lawmakers. Meanwhile, following a White House push to police homelessness, the Department of Justice released guidance that lowered the barrier to institutionalizing any person with a disability. (Ma, 7/1)

Last year, when the Trump Justice Department dropped its oversight of troubled police departments in cities such as Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis, it argued that the reform efforts were “factually unjustified.” But according to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union, officers in those places were continuing to engage in the very behaviors that attracted federal scrutiny in the first place, including using excessive — and dangerous — force against people experiencing mental health crises. (Sanders, 6/30)

Len Lichtenfeld had a long-overdue apology to make. He was haunted in late 2024 by an exchange with a New York Times reporter almost a decade earlier, during which Lichtenfeld defended the American Cancer Society’s official stance that a drink or two a day was safe, even for cancer prevention. (Cueto and Facher, 7/1)

California is making food labels less confusing by banning "sell by" dates. The new law starting Wednesday requires manufacturers to use just two labels: "Best if Used By" for peak quality and "Use By" for safety. (Rodriguez, 7/1)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Newsom Vowed To Transform Kids’ Mental Health. Many California Schools Are Still Waiting

When Taletha Washburn and the staff at Plumas Charter School first heard that California wanted to help schools treat more kids struggling with mental health, it felt like a well-timed remedy for a rural community where families struggle to find care. Getting the program funding up and running, however, has proved difficult. Employees spent two years “spinning our wheels,” attending state-led webinars, filling out countless forms, and researching electronic health record systems to prepare, said Washburn, the school’s executive director. When they reached out for assistance, she said, they waited months for a state response. (Mai-Duc, 7/1)

New survey data show rural adults are falling behind urban and suburban adults in medical screenings. Only 48% of rural Americans have had a routine medical visit or cancer screening in the past year, as opposed to 56% of urban and suburban adults, revealing a widening care gap, according to Prevent Cancer Foundation’s 2026 Early Detection Survey. (Meyers, 6/30)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Affordable Healthcare Emerges As A Voter Priority In Purple Nevada

One issue will decide Steven Cohen’s vote for Nevada governor this fall: Which candidate can best protect him from getting kicked off Medicaid? Cohen is a 38-year-old Las Vegas resident with autism and has dual enrollment in Medicaid and Medicare. He said he’s very concerned that he could lose his Medicaid coverage once work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks take effect in January, under congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act. “When you’re going to some providers, notably mental health, once a month, or in the case of one provider, a couple of times a week, those copays quickly add up,” Cohen said. (Rodriguez, 7/1)

Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday he’s working to get Chicago Police Department terminals back to the city’s mental health crisis teams, which have struggled to find psychiatric emergencies they can help defuse since police took the equipment away. (Yin, 6/30)

Mackenzie Wesley sports a big grin and bright blue Lilo & Stitch swim gear as she runs into her weekly swim lessons. It's fitting, because the 5-year-old has something in common with movie character Lilo: She adores water. "Whether it's the pool or beach, she enjoys it fully," says her dad Steven Wesley. (Mehta and Lee, 7/1)

A 6-year-old girl is recovering after being bitten by a rabid bat outside her Wisconsin home — before her brother killed the animal with a homemade “Braveheart”-inspired sword, her family and health officials said Tuesday. Cecilia “Cece” Kale was playing on a tree in front of the family’s home in Tigerton, about 60 miles west of Green Bay, last week when the winged mammal attacked her left thigh. (Li and Deverson, 6/30)

More recalls have been announced tied to a deadly listeria outbreak that has been traced back to a Maryland-based cheese producer. La Ceiba Foods Latin Market Inc. is recalling products marketed under the La Colonia and Selectos Latinos brands. It includes Requesón Salvadoreño (Salvadoran Cottage Cheese) and Requesón Mexicano (Mexican Cottage Cheese). The products were distributed to markets and restaurants in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. (Sitz, 6/30)

Nature’s oven was on high Tuesday for millions of people in the Midwest and Great Lakes states as intense heat and humidity baked the regions with no immediate relief before the misery shifts to the eastern U.S. The National Weather Service was blunt: Conditions were “dangerous” as the heat index, a combination of air temperature and humidity, exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) in some areas. It warned about a risk for heat-related illnesses, especially among people without air conditioning. (White, 6/30)

AI giant Anthropic has already become a dominant player in technology and a household name for everyday users of artificial intelligence. Can it make drugs too? (Trang, 6/30)

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence firm, on Tuesday announced the availability of Claude Science, an application that optimizes the company’s large language model for use in scientific laboratories and, especially, within the research operations of pharmaceutical companies. (Herper and Trang, 6/30)

Starting Wednesday, people on Medicare will be able to get weight loss drugs, including Wegovy and Zepbound, for $50 a month. But patients hoping for quick or permanent access to the drugs may be disappointed. (Lovelace Jr., 6/30)

A nationwide recall has been issued for a medication used to reduce the risk of hospitalization in patients with heart failure. Nearly 1 million bottles of Corlanor, known generically as ivabradine, are being recalled because they may contain a foreign substance, according to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recall alert. Corlanor is prescribed for adults with chronic heart failure to lower the risk of hospitalization due to worsening conditions. It is also used to treat children aged 6 months and older with stable heart failure symptoms caused by an enlarged heart, according to the Mayo Clinic. (Euzarraga, 6/30)

The American Hospital Association selected Steve Walsh of the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association as its next president and CEO. Starting this fall, Walsh will lead one of the biggest lobbying spenders in healthcare after serving as Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association president and CEO since 2017. The organization did not specify Walsh’s start date. He will succeed Rick Pollack, who announced his retirement plans last year. (Kacik, 6/30)

Northern Louisiana Medical Center, a 130-bed hospital in Ruston, La., could lose its Medicare participation status Aug. 30 if it fails to address deficiencies reported by hospital surveyors. A June 1 survey cited 24 deficiencies, according to a CMS report published June 15 and accessed by CBS and ABC affiliate KNOE. The same day, the Louisiana Department of Health penned a letter to the hospital, saying it is out of compliance with three conditions of participation for Medicare: governing body, patient rights and nursing services. (Twenter, 6/30)

New Jersey Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. disclosed Tuesday that he was being treated for depression during his unexplained four-month absence from the House, suggesting in a brief floor speech that he remained silent about his condition until now because he is a “private person by nature.” Depression, Kean said, “is physical, it is emotional, and until you experience it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be.” (Catalini and Cappelletti, 6/30)

During his two decades in the New Jersey Senate, Kean consistently opposed paid sick leave for his constituents. He voted against New Jersey’s historic Earned Sick Leave Act, which mandates 5 paid sick leave days per year for New Jersey workers. He also voted against New Jersey’s No Surprise Medical Bills act and two of its paid family leave laws, in 2008 and 2018. For Yarrow Willman-Cole of the nonprofit New Jersey Citizen Action, who organized for the Earned Sick Leave Act in 2018, Kean’s four-month absence is bitterly ironic. “He’s been able to rely on things he directly voted against,” Willman-Cole said. (Hurwitz and Métraux, 6/30)

Depression is staggeringly common in the United States, with more than one in four adults reporting having been diagnosed with the condition in their lifetimes. In a given year, more than 8 percent of U.S. adults might report a major depressive episode. And there are more than 500,000 hospitalizations for a depressive disorder each year. Representative Thomas Kean Jr., a Republican from New Jersey, announced on Tuesday that he had joined the ranks of those who had been hospitalized for depression. (Goldstein and Smith, 6/30)

Physician practices participating in a Medicare accountable care organization (ACO) may have an easier time submitting quality data to Medicare if a bill passed Monday by the House becomes law. H.R. 5347, the Health Care Efficiency Through Flexibility Act, would allow Medicare ACOs to continue to collect quality data through three types of measures -- electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs), Merit-Based Incentive Payment System clinical quality measures, and Medicare clinical quality measures -- through performance year 2029. Previously, ACOs were supposed to begin using only eCQMs starting last year, according to a regulation issued by CMS in 2024. (Frieden, 6/30)

Concern over healthcare consolidation is growing on Capitol Hill, but the private equity firms that some lawmakers blame for intensifying industry concentration have mostly escaped legislative attention. That may be about to change. Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee pledged last Thursday to work on bipartisan draft legislation that would require extensive reporting of private equity investors’ healthcare holdings. (McAuliff, 6/30)

Democrats face an uphill battle to win control of the Senate but have pulled within striking distance of enough Republican-held seats to put the majority in play this fall, according to new New York Times/Siena polls in six Senate battleground states. Republicans are hampered by the unpopularity of President Trump and his diminished standing on the economy, while most of the Democratic candidates are so far running ahead of their party’s own struggling brand, the polls show. (Goldmacher, Igielnik and Baker, 7/1)

Uganda formally reported to the World Health Organization on Tuesday that it had detected a Marburg disease outbreak in the western part of the country, a spokesperson for the Geneva-based global health agency told STAT. The development could further complicate the effort to contain what is already the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record in Central Africa. Both diseases are viral hemorrhagic fevers. (Branswell, 6/30)

Congolese health authorities are tracing people potentially exposed to Ebola in two provinces not previously affected by the latest outbreak, amid fears ​the virus could spread further, a health ministry report and ‌a senior health official said. (6/30)

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda could have a long-lasting detrimental effects on Africa’s economies, with the DRC likely being the hardest hit, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said today in a report. The outbreak could lead to an additional 985,000 people living in poverty, with women experiencing the brunt of it. The report also anticipates that the impact on healthcare services could contribute to as many as 2,520 additional infant deaths unrelated to Ebola in the DRC. (Holohan, 6/30)

As the window of opportunity shrank in the search for earthquake survivors trapped under rubble in Venezuela, relief efforts on Tuesday began to focus on the longer-term ripple effects of disaster that are often less reported. One of the most pressing consequences is the destruction of what little infrastructure for clean water existed in affected areas, raising the risk of contamination and the spread of illnesses like cholera and typhoid fever. (Irwin, 6/30)

Ice. Urgently and in large quantities. At a Paris-region hospital, emergency medics needed it to plunge patients into cold-water baths to speedily bring down their temperatures so they wouldn’t join the growing tally of dead from a record-smashing heat wave. But lacking an ice-making machine, where to get it? A fast-food restaurant helped out last week, saying the hospital could take its ice. Staff also bought ice from the supermarket. The Paris-Saclay Hospital has now ordered its own ice machine, eagerly awaited in the emergency department for a future attack of sizzling heat. (Leicester, 7/1)

The EU plans to exempt palm oil derivatives used in medicines and soybeans used for sowing from its landmark rules tackling global deforestation in its latest attempt to blunt the law’s impact on sensitive sectors. The carve-outs were among amendments added by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, according to a draft seen by Bloomberg, which could still change ahead of its adoption. (Ramsay and Krukowska, 6/30)

Despite Mehmet Oz not formally endorsing Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican primaries, Trump has now put him in charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and he is using that perch to dismantle the health care that working-class families actually depend on. (Al Sharpton, 7/1)

When we talk about men’s mental health, we tend to focus on what men are not doing: Not going to therapy. Not opening up. Not doing the work. If the hope was to shame men into better mental health, it has not worked. (Wes Moore, 7/1)

A few weeks ago, I posted on social media what I called “unhinged” advice I’ve given to families. I’m a pediatrician and a mom of two, and I chose that word deliberately — it’s half sarcasm and half scroll stopper, but the point is that many parents have lost the plot when it comes to children needing to be comfortable with discomfort. (Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, 6/30)

As the ongoing Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak spreads across the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, global attention has understandably focused on the absence of licensed vaccines and therapeutics for this rare species of Ebola virus. Yet one of the outbreak’s most consequential failures has received far less attention: our inability to rapidly and reliably diagnose the pathogen in the first place. (Krutika Kuppalli and Placide Mbala, 7/1)

In upholding trans athlete bans, the Supreme Court leaned on unsupported claims about fairness and safety. (Kimberly Atkins Stohr, 6/30)