1/ The U.S. surgeon general called for social media companies to include a surgeon general’s warning label stating that the platforms can harm people’s mental health. Dr. Vivek Murthy, who cannot unilaterally add warning labels, urged Congress to enact legislation requiring the label to “regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe” and that “social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.” Murthy cited a 2019 American Medical Association study that showed teens who spend three hours a day on social media double their risk of depression. On average, teens spend nearly five hours a day on social media apps. “The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency,” Murthy added, “and social media has emerged as an important contributor.” (New York Times / Washington Post / Associated Press / ABC News / CNN / Axios)

2/ A federal judge blocked the Biden administration from enforcing new protections for LGBTQ+ students in six states. The new rule expands Title IX civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ students, as well as the definition of sexual harassment at schools and colleges, and adds safeguards for victims. Compliance with the rules is required to receive federal education aid. However, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves called the regulation as “arbitrary in the truest sense of the word” in blocking it in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The ruling comes days after a different federal judge temporarily blocked the new rule from taking effect in Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Montana. More than 20 Republican states are attempting to block the rules from taking effect as scheduled on Aug. 1. (CNN / Associated Press / New York Times)

3/ The Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic rifles to be fired like fully automatic machine guns. The court split 6-3 along ideological lines in deciding that the federal government was wrong to classify a bump stock as a machine gun because “with or without a bump stock, a shooter must release and reset the trigger between every shot.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the majority opinion an “artificially narrow definition” to reach a conclusion that will have “deadly consequences.” The Trump administration imposed the prohibition after the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017, where a man using bump stocks killed 60 people and injured hundreds more. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. (NBC News / New York Times / Washington Post / NPR / Associated Press / CNN / Politico)

4/ House Republicans passed defense policy legislation that would restrict access to abortion and transgender medical care in the military, and eliminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at the Pentagon. The National Defense Authorization Act passed 217-199, mostly along party lines. The Democrat-controlled Senate, however, is unlikely to support the House-passed bill, setting up a prolonged negotiation for the two chambers to reconcile their separate versions of the legislation. “The extreme MAGA Republicans are not interested in governing,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. “And so they have hijacked the National Defense Authorization Act in order to jam their extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people […] Instead, all they care about is bending the knee to Donald Trump.” (Politico / Washington Post / Axios / New York Times / NBC News)

5/ Trump confused the name of his former White House physician immediately after demanding that Biden “should have to take a cognitive test.” While bragging how he’d gotten “every question right” and “aced” a cognitive test administered by Dr. Ronny Jackson, Trump forgot his doctor’s name while doing so. “Doc Ronny Johnson. Does everyone know Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas? He was the White House doctor, and he said I was the healthiest president, he feels, in history, so I liked him very much indeed immediately.” Trump took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in 2018, and later said it was “difficult” and “not that easy” because he had to correctly recall the phrase “person, woman, man, camera, TV.” Trump, who turned 78 years old Friday, frequently tried to paint Biden, 81, as mentally incompetent. (Washington Post / NBC News / The Guardian / Rolling Stone / The New Republic)

✏️ Notables.

  1. The Resistance to a New Trump Administration Has Already Started. “An emerging coalition that views Trump’s agenda as a threat to democracy is laying the groundwork to push back if he wins in November, taking extraordinary preemptive actions.” (New York Times)

  2. The Overlooked (But Real) Possibility of a Big Democratic Win. “Democrats have a real chance to sweep the presidency, House, and Senate.” (The Atlantic)

  3. New Polling Shows the Real Fallout From the Trump Conviction. “Among the most notable findings in our poll: 21 percent of independents said the conviction made them less likely to support Trump and that it would be an important factor in their vote. In a close election, small shifts among independent and swing voters could determine the outcome.” (Politico)

  • 📅 The WTFJHT Calendar: Now until then.

  • ⛔️ June 19: Juneteenth – No WTFJHT.
    📺 June 27: Biden-Trump debate.
    ⛔️ July 4: Independence Day – No WTFJHT.
    ⚖️ July 11: Trump is sentenced.
    🐘 July 15: Republican National Convention.
    🇮🇱 July 24: Netanyahu addresses joint session of Congress.
    🫏 Aug. 19: Democratic convention.
    ⛔️ Sept. 2: Labor Day – No WTFJHT.
    📺 Sept. 10: Biden-Trump debate.
    📆 Oct. 6: Last day to register to vote in some states.
    ⛔️ Oct. 14: Indigenous Peoples’ Day – No WTFJHT.
    🗳️ Nov. 5: Presidential Election.