Plus: The case against fireworks ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Richard Hall | July 02, 2026

Hello and welcome to The Brief. A dangerous heat wave is hitting the United States this week, and we’ve spoken to climate scientists who warn that extreme temperatures could become the new norm for millions of Americans. We also have a piece from our Ideas section making the case against fireworks, just in time for July 4.

Five Must-Reads

Nearly 450,000 New Yorkers Are Losing Health Coverage Today
Nearly 450,000 New Yorkers are losing health coverage on July 1. They are among the millions of people expected to become uninsured over the next year because of federal changes to Medicaid funding. —TIME

Trump Announces Republican Midterm Convention
President Donald Trump has announced that the Republican Party will hold a convention in Dallas this September to rally voters ahead of the midterms. Trump has pitched the event as an opportunity to showcase his Administration’s "achievements." —TIME

The Case Against Fireworks
This year’s Fourth of July fireworks promise to be especially explosive. Unfortunately, the costs of this fleeting spectral wonder are high, and come with real costs to our environment and health. —TIME

What to Know About South Africa’s Anti-Migrant Protests
More than 900 people were arrested amid nationwide anti-migrant protests in South Africa on Tuesday that saw thousands take to the streets to mark a “deadline” by which organizers demanded that undocumented immigrants leave the country. —TIME

America’s World Cup Dreams Fueled By ‚Pretty‘ Soccer
The U.S. soccer team beat Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday with a World Cup brand of soccer we haven’t really seen from the Stars and Stripes: beautiful, pretty, full of flair. —TIME

IN FOCUS

The new normal? What the U.S. heat wave tells us about our climate future

After watching Europe suffer through one of its most brutal starts to a summer on record, it’s now America’s turn.

A dangerous heat wave is expected to strike the United States this week, stretching from the Midwest across the East Coast and some parts of the South.

The National Weather Service said more than 200 million Americans are under some kind of heat advisory heading into the July 4 weekend, and called the incoming heat wave “potentially historic.”

New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., are expected to see record high temperatures into the 100s, combined with high humidity.

These frequent bouts of extreme heat are something climate scientists have been warning about for years. Climate change has raised global temperatures by almost 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, a threshold long considered a tipping point with cascading environmental consequences worldwide.

Record-breaking heat is now the norm. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its climate report issued earlier this year that the last 11 years were the hottest 11 years on record.

“From the scale of local communities to cities or villages, states, and the entire nation, the United States, like the rest of the world, needs to prepare for heat waves that will last longer, and grow more intense and more frequent,” Auroop Ganguly, professor at Northeastern University and an expert in climate extremes, tells TIME.

That extreme heat has led to a rapid rise in heat-related deaths. More than 1,300 excess deaths have been recorded in Europe since June 21, the World Health Organization said, with around 1,000 of them in France alone. Heat-related deaths in the U.S. have surged by more than 50% since 2000.

My colleague Simmone Shah has written before about ways you can protect yourself from extreme heat, but experts are warning that no one is prepared for what is coming.

“Most cities are underprepared for heat events because it touches nearly all aspects of daily life,” says V. Kelly Turner, co-director of the Luskin Center for Innovation at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies urban design and the environment.

She tells TIME that “communities may lack the capacity to manage and organize action because heat hasn’t been the central organizing principle for governing until recently.”

“I don’t think we are psychologically prepared for all the soccer practices that will be canceled, all the festivals that won’t be fun because we’re roasting in the sun, all the energy bills we have to pay to keep our homes cool,” she adds.

ONE NUMBER

$246.7 billion

Americans are on track to gamble away a record-high $246.7 billion this year, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

A report in the Argumentfinds that gambling losses have increased dramatically since the Supreme Court removed federal bans on sports gambling in 2018, sparking a wave of states legalizing it in some form.

It adds that gambling losses have increased by some 67% since 2019.

SOURCE: BEA/THE ARGUMENT

A VIRAL MOMENT

A marriage proposal 1,454 feet above Manhattan

Two Russian climbers scaled the Empire State Building on Wednesday and unfurled a banner about the “power of love,” before one of them proposed to the other.

Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, who were the subject of the 2024 Netflix documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story, were captured on video at the top of the skyscraper displaying a banner that read: "when the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace."

Beerkus then got down on one knee for the proposal.

The two were arrested soon after.