New York Times: “Under Mr. Trump, the federal government is still spending roughly as much on research — about $200 billion this year — as the administrations that came before. Scientists across the country are still receiving grants; universities are still being funded. But beneath the surface, the system of federally funded science that helped make the United States a global superpower is under intense strain from Trump policies, jeopardizing the nation’s advantages in defense, medicine and technology.”
Trump Cuts to Satellites Will Harm Weather Forecasts
“The Trump administration’s cuts to weather satellites will set the country back nearly a decade,” CNN reports.
“The loss of data used to observe, forecast and research extreme weather could prevent the country from making major advances in weather prediction in the coming years.”
Trump to Give Elon Musk Top U.S. Science Medal
“President Donald Trump will present close ally Elon Musk and other tech bosses with the top U.S. scientific award at a ceremony on Thursday,” Agence France-Presse reports.
Pennsylvania’s Measles Outbreak Is the Largest in Decades
“Pennsylvania has surpassed 1,000 measles cases this year, state health officials said Monday, making it the largest state outbreak in more than three decades,” MS NOW reports.
“The U.S. is enduring its worst year for measles since 1991, with nearly 3,900 reported cases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nation has seen eight reported measles-associated deaths in the past two years — more than the combined total of reported deaths over the previous three decades.”
Trump Diverted $1.4 Billion in Science Funds
“The National Science Foundation, one of the biggest sources of federal research funding, withheld $1.4 billion that Congress had intended for research over the course of the past year,” the New York Times reports.
“The extraordinary move — holding back about one-fifth of the NSF’s primary research budget — is the latest sign of how the Trump administration is finding creative ways to work around Congress.”
The Lost Descendants of Thomas Jefferson
New Yorker: “America’s longest-running paternity dispute has seemingly come to an end: Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings, his enslaved chambermaid, and the Smithsonian has the DNA to prove it.”
“Richard Kurin, a fifty-year veteran of the institution, launched a top-secret study of the question in 2011. Starting with a few hair samples, he and a team of scientists sequenced Jefferson’s genome and compared it with those of Hemings’s descendants, after a sprawling effort that involved everything from compiling genealogies to scouring rural Virginia for a lost grave.”
White House Moves to Take Control of NIH Grants
“The White House has begun drafting a new executive order that could further cement President Trump’s ability to control billions of dollars in scientific grants and expand the administration’s pressure campaign against elite universities,” the New York Times reports.
“Discussed at a highly contentious meeting at the White House on Friday, the order aims to create a new external committee with the power to veto awards in the National Institutes of Health’s vast research portfolio that do not conform to Mr. Trump’s political agenda.”
Older Adults Outnumber the Youngest Children Worldwide
“People 65 and older now outnumber children ages 5 and younger worldwide for the first time in recorded history, according to a new report by the U.S. Census,” Axios reports.
“Why it matters: A global plunge in fertility — demographers’ term for the number of children being born — and increased longevity are creating a demographic inversion that’s projected to deepen for decades.”
The CDC Hasn’t Added 2 Deaths to Its Measles Database
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is excluding two deaths reported by Pennsylvania from its weekly updates of a national measles death tally, a decision that came from new CDC director Erica Schwartz,” the Washington Post reports.
“The highly unusual decision departs from the agency’s practice of including such data from state health departments, which historically make the determinations.”
This El Niño Will Be Unlike Any in the Past Eight Decades
The Atlantic: “In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, along the equator, scientists have drawn a box. It’s a big box, two-thirds the size of China, yet hardly anyone lives inside it. This rectangular swath of open ocean is monitored by satellites and a network of moored buoys that measure minute changes in the temperature of the water, with an eye toward anomalies.”
“Every few years or so, driven by changing winds and currents, the water temperature in this part of the ocean starts to rise; even a half degree Celsius above normal over months warrants a designation that an El Niño phase has begun. That’s enough warming to unleash floods and fires, drought and famine, around the world. The box is called Niño 3.4. Right now, it’s hot in the box.”
USDA Cyclospora Research Projects Shelved
“The Trump administration is shuttering research projects key to the federal government’s fight against cyclospora, the foodborne parasite sickening thousands of Americans this summer,” Politico reports.
Two Unvaccinated People Died From Measles
“Two unvaccinated people in Pennsylvania have died from measles, as a large outbreak there continues to spread,” the New York Times reports.
“The deaths come during a record-setting year for measles in the United States: More cases have been reported in 2026 than in any other year since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000. Outbreaks have popped up all over the country.”
Measles Cases Are Reaching Record Highs in America
“The U.S. recently reached a grim milestone: As of July 23, more measles cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention than in any year since 1991. It took less than seven months to blow past the three-decade high recorded last year,” ProPublica reports.
“This potentially deadly disease is easily prevented. Shots are widely available and, in many cases, free. Still, since the beginning of last year, more than 4,850 people here have been infected, and three have died. Among them were two unvaccinated girls in West Texas whose deaths made national headlines.”
“It may feel like the continuous stream of cases is just the way things are now. But it is dangerous to shrug off the resurgence of measles.”
NIH Is Holding Up Medical Research Funding
“It used to be that once a National Institutes of Health grant award hit ‘status 19,’ the money was about to go out the door,” NOTUS reports.
“That’s not the case anymore. The Trump administration has enacted an unprecedented political review process, pushing hundreds of awards into limbo. Status 19 — an administrative code describing awards with senior leadership sign-off — is being used as the holding cell.”
Trump Weighs Executive Order On Vaccines and Autism
“The Trump administration is actively considering issuing an executive order on vaccines and autism as soon as next week,” Bloomberg reports.
“The effort is prompted by President Donald Trump’s interest in seeing additional action… The contents of the order under consideration are unclear, and the timing could still change. Scientific evidence has shown no link between autism and childhood vaccines, and decades of research has failed to identify a single cause of autism.”
FDA Approves the First mRNA-based Flu Shot
“The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first mRNA-based flu vaccine, paving the way for a new type of shot that will be available for adults 50 and over looking to get immunized against the respiratory illness,” the Washington Post reports.
Senate Aims to Block White House Over Science Funding
“Senate Republican leaders unveiled a spending bill Sunday that would temporarily block President Donald Trump from implementing a rule change that would give political appointees sweeping power over hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants,” the Washington Post reports.
”The provision was tucked into a bipartisan measure to fund the government through Dec. 11 that was negotiated by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and reviewed by other Senate GOP leaders. It marks another notable rebuke of the president by senators from his own party.”
Stat: Senate measure would block Trump plan to politicize federal grants, for now.
Measles Cases Hit New Record in U.S.
“The United States has now recorded more cases of measles in 2026 than in any other year since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000, a grim sign that the country may be headed toward a new era in which the disease regularly sickens thousands every year,” the New York Times reports.
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Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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