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CDC panel votes to end universal hep B shot recommendation for newborns. Following fierce debate, a federal advisory panel voted 8–3 yesterday to scrap the long-standing recommendation that all babies receive hepatitis B shots within 24 hours of birth—a major change that comes as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who handpicked the panel’s members, seeks to overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule. In place of the universal guidance offered since 1991, the panel said families in which the mother does not test positive for the liver disease can opt to wait two months before the first dose. The acting CDC director must still sign off on the decision, and the American Medical Association urged the agency not to, saying the change undermines public confidence in a “proven, lifesaving vaccine.”—AR

SCOTUS to decide if Trump can limit birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court has agreed to consider the constitutionality of President Trump’s controversial executive order stating that children born in the US to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily are not citizens. The president is appealing a court order striking down the restrictions on birthright citizenship, which has long been considered to apply to essentially all babies born in the US under the 14th Amendment. The high court will hear oral arguments in the case in the spring and is expected to issue its decision by summer.—AR

We now know who’s playing whom in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The drawing for the expanded 48-team group stage of next year’s Mundial, taking place in the US, Canada, and Mexico, happened yesterday in a flashy (albeit cringey) ceremony at the Kennedy Center in DC, during which President Trump was awarded the inaugural FIFA peace prize (devised after he didn’t get the Nobel). The tournament will begin on June 11 with Mexico playing South Africa. The US will face Paraguay, Australia, and the winner of the European playoff—which’ll be either Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, or Kosovo. The US team had solid luck with the ball—that is, with the little one used to draw the matchups—since its two known group opponents are teams it beat recently.—SK

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