[Up First] SCOTUS Upholds Birthright Citizenship, Colorado Primary Results, World Cup Heats Up

The Supreme Court ended its term with a significant defeat for President Trump, ruling that children born on U.S. soil are citizens under the 14th Amendment. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, called the outcome “not a close call,” citing more than 150 years of settled law. He was joined by the court’s three liberal justices and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

The decision backfired on Trump, who had taken the unusual step of attending oral arguments personally — a gesture the justices never formally acknowledged.

Justice Clarence Thomas filed a dissent of 91 pages, arguing the majority misread the amendment and urging a new requirement that parents be legally domiciled in the U.S.

Justice Alito raised separate concerns about “birth tourism,” the practice of traveling to the U.S. specifically to give birth on American soil.

Beyond the birthright ruling, the court’s term also produced decisions allowing states to ban transgender women from school sports programs and striking down a post-Watergate law limiting coordination between political parties and candidates — a ruling framed as a free-speech matter. Legal analysts noted a pattern: the court’s conservative bloc tended to win on broad ideological questions but occasionally ruled against the specific interests of the Trump administration.

Twenty-nine-year-old attorney Melat Kiros pulled off a stunning upset in Colorado’s Democratic primary, defeating 15-term Congresswoman Diana DeGette in a Denver district where the incumbent had held her seat for nearly three decades.

Kiros, a self-described democratic socialist, had been fired from her law firm after publishing a post criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza. Rather than apologize, she channeled that experience into a congressional run, galvanizing younger voters hungry for generational change.

Her victory is the third such win for the left flank of the Democratic Party in a single week, signaling a growing appetite among progressive voters for candidates willing to break from the party’s established leadership. Kiros specifically named Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries as representatives of an old guard she intends to challenge. Because Denver is a deep-blue district, she is widely expected to win the general election.

Elsewhere in Colorado, veteran Senator Michael Bennet lost his Democratic bid for governor, a defeat analysts attributed to a broader anti-Washington sentiment. Republicans were quick to argue that Kiros’s win proves the Democratic Party has shifted too far left, though supporters counter that voters simply demanded someone willing to pass the baton to a new generation.

The FIFA World Cup enters its knockout stage at a precarious moment: a brutal heat wave has placed more than 100 million people in the eastern United States under extreme heat warnings.

Several of the biggest matches of the tournament are scheduled to be played in cities already struggling with dangerous outdoor temperatures, raising urgent questions about player safety and fan welfare.

The knockout bracket format leaves no margin for error — a single loss ends a team’s tournament entirely — which means athletes must perform at peak intensity while enduring conditions that sports medicine experts describe as genuinely hazardous. Organizers and health officials are under pressure to ensure adequate hydration, cooling stations, and adjusted kickoff times where possible.