FEMA has started releasing disaster declarations in batches. All 35 this year came on seven days
FEMA approved five major disaster declarations at once on Monday. Every one of 2026's 35 has landed on one of seven days, and the median wait from a state's request is now 47 days.
Cyclospora’s first two deaths, and Michigan alone reports six times the national outbreak count
Michigan attributes the deaths to its own 11,234-case outbreak, not to the nine-state outbreak the CDC has been counting at 1,947. One state is reporting 67% more cases than the CDC records for the whole country.
Tariff refunds have reached $119bn, and the trade court is taking cases at a pace it has seen once before
Treasury’s daily ledger shows $118.9bn paid out through the Customs and Border Protection account in the first ten months of this fiscal year, against $10.8bn in all of the last one. The money started moving in May.
The FDA’s drug shortage database holds 1,181 open records. They are 73 drugs
The agency writes one shortage record per package, per manufacturer, so the same drug can appear ninety times. Counted properly, half the list has been in shortage for more than four and a half years, and four entries date from early 2012.
The lettuce outbreak now accounts for under a third of confirmed cyclospora cases, down from about half
The CDC’s named outbreak has been frozen at 1,947 cases since 24 July, while its national surveillance page — updated on the 28th — moved from 4,173 laboratory-confirmed cases to 6,707 across 45 states.
The national wildfire scoreboard says this year is 130% of normal. In the Northwest it is missing more acres than it counts
The federal situation report’s year-to-date table credits the Northwest with 776,014 acres burned. Its own active-incident table, on the same page, puts the fires currently assigned there at 1,835,823 — a gap of more than a million acres, and the report footnotes why.
COVID emergency-room visits hit their lowest level on record in June, and the summer rise is starting from there
CDC’s emergency-department surveillance recorded COVID at 0.09% of visits in mid-June, the lowest in the series’ 1,400-day history. Late July is running at 0.21% — a rise, but 71% below the same week last year.
West Virginia and Kentucky are waiting on three disaster declarations. FEMA’s own records show the median wait this year is 53 days
Two governors have three pending requests between them, one of them expedited. The federal register of declarations shows what usually happens next — and that emergency declarations arrive in a day while the ones that pay households take months.
CDC figures show the lettuce recall accounts for under half of this year’s confirmed cyclospora cases
The Taco Bell-linked outbreak has grown to 1,947 cases across nine states. But the CDC has logged 4,173 laboratory-confirmed cyclosporiasis cases nationally since 1 May, plus more than 7,400 awaiting confirmation — which resolves the case-count gap this site reported last week.
Cyclospora: Michigan alone reports 7,171 cases as FDA retracts its only positive test
Michigan’s state count of 7,171 is more than four times the federal outbreak figure, and the FDA has withdrawn the one lettuce sample that tested positive.
Cyclospora outbreak tied to Taco Bell lettuce reaches 1,644 cases in five states
Cyclospora infections linked to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell have reached 1,644 reported cases across five states, with 94 hospitalisations. The FDA traced the lettuce to a single Mexican supplier.
Andrew and Tristan Tate arrested in Miami as UK seeks extradition on 38 new charges
US Marshals arrested the Tate brothers in Miami on Saturday on a sealed warrant. British prosecutors have brought 38 further charges including rape and sex trafficking, taking the total to 59.
Heat Dome's Record Tally Comes Into Focus as Relief Nears for the East
As the Fourth of July heat dome that put more than 185 million Americans under alerts begins to break down, the record tally is coming into focus — from Newark's 105°F to Atlantic City's 105°F — with cooler air set to reach the East by midweek.
Sail250 Fills New York Harbor With Tall Ships for America's 250th Fourth of July
The Sail250 parade sent 45 tall ships and more than 40 warships up the Hudson on the Fourth of July — organizers' pick for the largest maritime gathering in U.S. history, and the biggest tall-ship fleet New York has seen since the 1976 Bicentennial.
AI Screen Turns Up New Weapons Against Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea
A machine-learning search through millions of molecules has identified two experimental antibiotics that kill drug-resistant gonorrhea in new ways — including one that disables a bacterial enzyme no existing drug targets, a lab at Harvard, MIT and the Broad reports.
Heat dome peaks for July Fourth with 185 million under alerts and 300-plus records in reach
The heat dome The Fold tracked building in late June crested over the holiday weekend, with more than 185 million Americans under heat alerts and over 300 daily records expected to fall from the Plains to the East Coast by Saturday.
A study of 720,000 patients finds most referred for a kidney transplant never reach the waitlist
Analyzing records from 720,348 adults referred for kidney transplantation, researchers found nearly half never began the evaluation and only about 19 percent made the waitlist — a bottleneck the authors say the usual referral count conceals.
US declines to renew USMCA, pushing North American trade pact into a decade of annual reviews
The Trump administration refused to renew the USMCA at its July 1 deadline, triggering yearly reviews of a pact covering $1.6 trillion in trade. Without a deal, it expires in 2036.
USMNT beats Bosnia 2-0 for first World Cup knockout win since 2002, loses Balogun to red card
Folarin Balogun scored then saw red as ten-man USA beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 at Levi's Stadium. Malik Tillman's free kick sealed a Round of 16 date with Belgium.
Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship 6-3, voids Trump order
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly all children born on U.S. soil, striking down President Trump’s order to deny it to babies of unauthorized and temporary-visa parents.
Supreme Court upholds state bans on transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports
In a 6-3 decision on the final day of its term, the Supreme Court upheld West Virginia and Idaho laws barring transgender girls from female school sports, ruling states may set eligibility by biological sex without violating Title IX or the Constitution.
FDA peptide panel stacked with industry insiders as RFK Jr. pushes to widen access
The FDA's advisory panel set to review controversial peptide drugs next month includes more than a half-dozen members with financial ties to the peptide industry, even as career scientists question whether the evidence supports the expansion Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants.
Extreme heat warnings cover 47 million from Midwest to East Coast into July 4 week
About 47 million Americans across the Midwest and Ohio Valley were under extreme heat warnings Tuesday, with heat indexes near 105 in Chicago and Minneapolis as the dangerous dome of heat spreads east and threatens records through the July 4 holiday.
Supreme Court lets Trump fire independent agency heads, overturning Humphrey's Executor
In a 6-3 ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court overruled the 1935 precedent that shielded officials at the FTC and dozens of independent agencies from at-will removal, vastly expanding presidential control of the bureaucracy.
Supreme Court upholds mail-ballot grace periods, rejecting RNC challenge
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Watson v. RNC that states may count mail ballots postmarked by Election Day but received afterward, preserving grace-period laws in 14 states and D.C. ahead of the midterms.
USMNT clinches World Cup Group D, its best group-stage start in 96 years
The United States won Group D at its home World Cup after back-to-back wins, the team's first time opening with two victories in 96 years. The Americans closed group play against Turkiye at SoFi Stadium with a knockout berth already secured.