“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 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.”
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.”
“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 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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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 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.
“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.
“The Trump administration plans to accelerate its overhaul of federal research by supporting more individual scientists and the use of artificial intelligence rather than universities, its latest attempt to accelerate technological discovery to combat China,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“In a new report and memo released Tuesday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy argues individual scientists can help the nation move faster to use AI in scientific research. The directives from the office will help shape a roughly $200 billion annual federal research and development budget across the government for the rest of President Trump’s second term.”
“The new guidance could further hurt large universities that rely on federal research funding.”
Zeke Hausfather: “I’m generally pretty measured in how I discuss climate data. There has been only one time in recent years when I was truly shocked: when global temperatures came in for September 2023 at a full 0.5C warmer than any prior September on record.”
”Once until today, that is. With the July runs now in from 667 ensemble members across 14 different seasonal forecast models, it looks like this year’s El Niño is not only very likely to be the strongest event since reliable records began – it may end up the strongest by a truly mind-blowing margin.”
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week ordered annual testosterone-deficiency screening for active-duty and reserve service members age 30 and older, which he says will help to maintain military readiness,” Reuters reports.
“But many medical professionals warn it might do nothing of the sort and instead could increase service members’ risk of infertility or other consequences if testosterone is prescribed inappropriately.”
“An analysis of a torrent of public comments submitted on a White House proposal to change the way federal contracts and grants are doled out shows a widespread rebuke of the potential change by scientists and others,” Stat reports.
NBC News: “NASA’s push to return to the moon and historic levels of investment in the private space sector have fueled a gold rush to the stars. Roughly a decade ago, a new wave of investor interest in the commercial space sector began, but experts say this time is different.”
“The pace of rocket launches has broken records this year, with more than 125 orbital liftoffs worldwide. Of that total, 75 were by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose recent splashy IPO heralds how lucrative this next chapter of commercial space flight could be.”
New York Times: “For more than a half-century, a prestigious scientific arm of the federal government did groundbreaking research aimed at saving American lives. It studied fertility, asthma, wildfires, drinking water, climate change and myriad other health threats.”
“In just one year, it has been almost completely dismantled.”
Washington Post: “Multiple scientists who serve on an independent board established to guide the nation’s nearly $9 billion basic science funding agency were terminated from their positions Friday by President Donald Trump.”
“Members of the National Science Board, which helps govern the National Science Foundation, were dismissed in a message from the Presidential Personnel Office thanking them for their service.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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