📊 Malaria Vaccine, DST Bill, and Meta Lawsuit

Disease mitigation, daylight saving permanence, and AI-driven layoff.

Jul 15, 2026

Greetings! Happy Bastille Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

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🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇨🇲 Malaria vaccine faces a fourth-dose gap. Cameroon became the first country to add the RTS,S malaria vaccine to routine childhood immunization more than two years ago. Health workers say severe illness has declined since the rollout began. The vaccine requires four doses to extend protection through early childhood. The first three arrive at six, seven, and nine months, while the booster comes near age 2. That long interval has become the program’s weakest link. The World Health Organization (WHO) says malaria kills one child younger than 5 nearly every minute, overwhelmingly in Africa. Cameroon is among 11 countries carrying roughly 70% of the global burden. It recorded an estimated 7.6M cases and 11.7K deaths in 2024. Health facilities counted 33K fewer cases in 2025, although officials cautioned that no model isolates the vaccine’s contribution. WHO-backed pilots found RTS,S reduced deaths among eligible children by 13%. Trials found RTS,S and the newer R21 vaccine cut clinical cases by more than 50% during the first year after three doses. More than 52M doses have reached 25 high-risk African countries through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Cameroon’s first-, second-, and third-dose coverage rose to 68%, 58%, and 59% in 2025. Fourth-dose coverage reached only 25%. The immediate challenge is ensuring families return nearly a year after the third shot.

🇨🇺 Cuba suffers its third nationwide blackout in two weeks. Cuba’s National Electric System (SEN) collapsed again, leaving the island without power. Officials blamed a generating-unit problem in eastern Holguín province that triggered a sudden frequency change. The outage was the country’s third nationwide failure within two weeks. Two blackouts last week left more than 9M Cubans in darkness, following two additional nationwide outages in March. Fuel supplies have dwindled since January. President Trump threatened tariffs on countries providing oil to Cuba, intensifying an American energy embargo. Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it consumes and has not identified replacement imports. Public transportation has largely stopped. Officials have canceled tens of thousands of surgeries as the energy crisis constrains hospitals. Authorities began creating small electrical islands before reconnecting them to the national grid. Hospitals and food-processing facilities received priority. Only 4% of Havana had regained service by the afternoon. Guantánamo and Cienfuegos restored electricity to hospitals, while Matanzas powered its historic center. The outages disrupt cooking, water pumps, internet access, telephone service, work schedules, and flights. Some households now rely on solar panels, portable batteries, and electric motorcycles. Cuba can restart sections of the grid, but it still lacks the fuel required to stabilize the system.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

⏰ House votes to make daylight saving time permanent. The House approved the Sunshine Protection Act by a 308-117 vote. The bill would end twice-yearly clock changes across most of the country. Daylight saving time would remain in place throughout the winter. States could opt out through legislation enacted before the federal measure takes effect. The Senate must still pass the bill before it can become law. Its path there remains uncertain. The White House called the proposal a popular, common-sense reform. Advisers said they would recommend that President Trump sign it. Supporters argue later sunsets would better match when Americans work, shop, exercise, and spend time outdoors. Florida Representative Gus Bilirakis said predictable evening light would support families, workers, tourism, and local businesses. Opponents warned that winter mornings would become darker and potentially more dangerous. Pennsylvania Representative Mary Gay Scanlon cited children waiting for buses and commuters traveling before sunrise. A 2025 national poll found 56% preferred permanent daylight saving time. About 4 in 10 favored permanent standard time instead. Congress first adopted daylight saving time as a wartime measure in 1942. The Senate passed similar legislation in 2022, but that effort stalled in the House.

🏛️ Senate Democrats block the $1T defense bill. Senate Democrats refused to advance the annual defense package in protest of President Trump’s war against Iran. The procedural vote failed 50-46, largely along party lines. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would increase Pentagon spending and authorize a military pay raise. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the bill could not become implicit permission for an open-ended conflict. The war has entered its fifth month without a clear endpoint. The White House formally notified Congress that American bombing of Iran had resumed. That decision unraveled a fragile ceasefire and renewed pressure on fuel prices. Congress has voted more than 10 times on measures seeking to constrain the hostilities. None has succeeded, while most congressional Republicans continue supporting Trump. Senate Majority Leader John Thune argued that troops require sufficient resources for any assigned mission. Thune changed his vote after the measure failed, preserving his ability to seek reconsideration. This year’s measure is the 66th annual NDAA. The administration wants Pentagon spending to reach $1.5T, up from about $900B last year. It also requested $350B through budget reconciliation, although House leaders have discussed a figure nearer $87B. Some Republican deficit hawks remain skeptical of the proposed increases. The bill remains alive, but the Iran war has converted a traditional bipartisan measure into congressional leverage.

🗂️ MISC

⚖️ Meta workers sue over AI-assisted layoff selections. Twenty-six employees sued Meta Platforms ($META), alleging its layoff process penalized workers taking protected leave. They are among 8K employees, about 10% of the workforce, selected for cuts announced in May. The federal complaint was filed in Oakland, California. It says Meta used internal AI systems, keystroke data, activity monitoring, token-usage dashboards, and algorithmically assisted performance rankings. The plaintiffs argue those measures automatically depressed scores for employees absent on medical, parental, or family leave. All 26 plaintiffs took protected leave and requested or received disability accommodations. They remain employed, but their separations are scheduled to begin July 22nd. About half took leave related to pregnancy or caregiving. The group includes eight women who took maternity or pregnancy leave and four men who took parental leave. One plaintiff alleges a manager warned that medical leave could place him in the anticipated cuts. Meta denied the claims and said people, not AI, made workforce decisions. The lawsuit invokes the Family and Medical Leave Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. It also argues that a facially neutral system produced an unlawful disparate impact. President Trump’s administration has deprioritized federal enforcement of that doctrine, but private lawsuits remain available. The plaintiffs seek to preserve their employment while the dispute proceeds to arbitration. The case tests whether algorithmic productivity metrics can lawfully treat protected absence as missing performance.

📈 Stocks rise as cooler inflation softens rate fears. The S&P 500 gained 0.4%, the Nasdaq composite rose 0.9%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 9 points. June consumer prices were 3.5% higher than a year earlier. That was below May’s 4.2% rate and economists’ 3.9% forecast. The report eased pressure on the Federal Reserve (Fed) to raise interest rates. Traders reduced the probability of an increase at the next meeting to below 17%, from nearly 42% one day earlier. Micron Technology ($MU) rebounded 4.9%. Nvidia ($NVDA) climbed 4.1% after both chipmakers fell sharply in the previous session. International Business Machines ($IBM) plunged 25.2%, its worst day since at least 1972. CEO Arvind Krishna said software and infrastructure performance missed expectations as customer spending shifted toward hardware before anticipated AI-related price increases. Five major American banks reported quarterly profits above analysts’ forecasts. Goldman Sachs ($GS) jumped 9%, while Citigroup ($C) fell 5.3%. Brent crude briefly exceeded $87 after gaining nearly 10% in the prior session. It settled at $84.73, up 1.7%, after President Trump retreated from a proposed 20% charge on cargo transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.58% from 4.62%. Shanghai stocks rose 1.4% after China reported a 27% annual jump in June exports. Markets advanced, but oil volatility and uneven earnings kept the relief conditional.