At least 25 people have died in New Jersey from heat-related illness since the dome settled over the Northeast last week, state health officials confirmed over the weekend. Dr. Raynard Washington, the state’s health commissioner, said most victims were found in homes without air conditioning. Governor Mikie Sherrill called extreme heat “the number one weather-related killer in America” and said the state was enduring its hottest stretch in more than fourteen years. Atlantic City recorded 106 degrees. Washington, D.C., hit 100 on the Fourth of July. More than 200 million Americans were under heat alerts at the peak of the dome, a figure that exceeded the population of every country in Europe except Germany. CBS News tracked the death toll and advisories across the affected states.
The heat killed more people in New Jersey last week than the July 3 Russian missile strike killed in Kyiv.
No U.S. president has ever granted a major disaster declaration for extreme heat under the Stafford Act, the 1988 law that governs federal emergency response. The law’s definitions center on physical damage to property and structures. Human deaths from heat, the strain on hospitals, the cost of operating emergency cooling centers across a region don’t meet the threshold for federal disaster relief as written. Three governors formally requested major disaster declarations for heat events over the past four decades; all three were denied. Heat kills more Americans annually than floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes combined, with 2,394 deaths recorded in 2024, nearly double the count from 1999. Legislation pending in the Senate and House would change the Stafford Act’s definition to include extreme heat events. It hasn’t moved out of committee. A Congressional Research Service report documented the gap between the law’s structure and the documented harm caused by extreme heat.
In July 1995, a heat wave settled over Chicago for five days. The temperature peaked at 106 degrees. Seven hundred and thirty-nine people died, most of them found alone in apartments without air conditioning on the upper floors of buildings where the heat had nowhere to go. The city’s response was later criticized for moving too slowly to open cooling centers and check on isolated residents. No federal disaster declaration followed. That is what the federal government officially called 739 deaths in Chicago over five days: not a disaster.
The dome is shifting south this week toward Raleigh and Savannah. New Jersey’s count may still rise as medical examiners work through cases.
Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed the economy added 57,000 jobs in June, roughly half of what analysts had forecast. The unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent from 4.3 percent in May, but labor force participation dropped 0.3 percentage points at the same time, meaning part of the improvement came from workers leaving the labor force rather than finding work. Revisions to April and May cut a combined 74,000 jobs from the previous two months’ totals, making the first half of 2026 look slower in hindsight than it appeared at the time. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the full June employment situation summary on July 2.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told reporters: “If you smooth through the ups and downs over the last three or four months, we’re on a really steep upward trajectory.” Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh called the picture “steady” and said the Fed remains focused on returning inflation to the 2 percent target. Inflation is currently running at 4.2 percent, elevated in part by Hormuz-related energy costs. Futures markets had priced in roughly 64 percent odds of a September rate hike before the report came out. After it, those odds fell sharply. CNBC covered the market and economist reaction through the morning following the release.
There’s an old version of this problem. In 1979, Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker inherited an economy running at 11 percent inflation with slowing job growth on both sides of it. He chose to treat inflation as the primary threat and raised the federal funds rate to 20 percent over the next two years. The cure worked. The recession that followed put roughly 12 million Americans out of work before the labor market came back. Kevin Warsh isn’t Paul Volcker and 2026 isn’t 1979, but an economy with above-target inflation and below-expectation job growth presents the same fundamental question: which problem do you treat first, and what does the treatment cost? The next jobs report comes in August. The September meeting follows three weeks after that.
Iran’s state funeral for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei moved today to Jamkaran Mosque in Qom, roughly 150 kilometers south of Tehran. The six-day ceremony began July 3 and runs through July 9. Iranian authorities say they expect between 15 and 20 million people to attend events across the week. CNN has been covering the ceremonies and the diplomatic context around the transition.
For the fourth consecutive day, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, hasn’t appeared publicly. His three brothers appeared at the Tehran ceremonies. Mojtaba didn’t. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in March that Mojtaba was “wounded and likely disfigured” in the February 28 airstrike that killed his father. Reuters reported in April that Mojtaba may have lost a leg. He’s communicated since the assassination only through written statements and hasn’t spoken publicly or been photographed. CNBC reported on his continued absence from the funeral proceedings.
When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died on June 3, 1989, the Assembly of Experts elected Ali Khamenei as acting Supreme Leader the next day, June 4. The appointment required amending the constitution to remove a clerical qualification Khamenei didn’t hold; it became permanent in August. That transition, which happened without any military pressure, still took months and required significant institutional maneuvering behind closed doors. The current one is happening with an active conflict in the background, a successor whose physical condition hasn’t been publicly confirmed, and U.S.-Iran peace talks that are paused for the duration of the funeral. Those talks resume with someone whose public posture, voice, and position haven’t been established. The pause is more than ceremonial.
Venezuela’s earthquake death toll climbed to 3,535 as of Monday, according to the Bolivarian government, up from the 2,595 figure widely reported earlier last week. Some 16,740 people are injured. Roughly 50,000 remain unaccounted for. The magnitude 7.5 and 7.2 quakes struck 39 seconds apart on June 24 and 25, collapsing buildings before occupants could evacuate the first. An estimated 60,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed. About 12,800 people are sheltering in 80 sites across Caracas and La Guaira. Al Jazeera updated the toll this morning.
Thirteen days after the quake, the emergency has moved into its harder second phase. Shelters are overcrowded and clean water is limited. Diarrhea and infection cases are increasing. Dr. Eugenio Cova, who heads a trauma unit in the affected area, said: “We’ve already gone through a period of complex trauma, which will continue to occur, but now, it’s complicated by infections.” The 50,000 unaccounted figure doesn’t resolve quickly. With 60,000 damaged or destroyed buildings across a coastline, the structural search isn’t finished.
NATO’s Ankara summit opened this morning in Turkey, with Ukraine’s continued support and members’ defense spending commitments as the central items on the agenda. Air Chief Marshal John Stringer, NATO’s deputy commander, said in the lead-up that the summit “must deliver more than words.” That pressure follows Russia’s July 3 strike on Kyiv, which involved 74 missiles and 496 long-range drones, killed 31 people, and hit 33 locations across the capital. Mayor Vitali Klitschko called it the war’s most massive attack on the city. President Zelensky said: “If our partners had delivered what they promised on time, I think we could have saved more homes and more lives.” The Kyiv Independent covered the full scale of the strike and Zelensky’s appeal to NATO allies.
Russia’s military position has been deteriorating. Ukraine estimated 39,490 Russian casualties in June alone, far exceeding Russia’s estimated monthly recruitment capacity. Russia’s net territorial gain for all of the first half of 2026 came to 97 square kilometers, a figure that suggests the offensive is consuming far more than it’s taking. Putin last week rejected two Ukrainian ceasefire proposals, one covering long-range strikes and one covering specific northern and southern regions. He said Russia’s retaliatory capacity made the continuation of the strikes strategically worthwhile. Ukraine’s grid operator, Ukrenergo, reintroduced nationwide rolling blackouts Sunday evening as electricity demand from the European heat wave strained the system. Al Jazeera covered Russia’s response to the ceasefire proposals and the broader battlefield picture heading into the Ankara summit.
Monday in this space belongs to Glenn Suttner, who writes about money, retirement, and estate planning in the Money section. His most recent piece, published June 23, is called “What Is a Power of Attorney (and Why You Probably Don’t Have One).”
Glenn opens with Barbara Stein in the parking lot of a rehabilitation facility, calling from her car. Her husband Martin had a stroke at 69, he was alive, he was probably going to recover, but he hadn’t signed a durable power of attorney. Without one, Barbara had no legal authority over his individual brokerage account, his checking account, or the investment property titled in his name alone. She was his wife of 31 years and couldn’t touch any of it. The court process that followed, a guardianship and conservatorship proceeding, took eight months and cost them just under $9,000 in legal fees. The investment property sat through a cooling real estate market. Martin recovered most of his speech and motor function, and signed the durable power of attorney from his recliner the week after the process finally closed. He told Barbara: “We should have done this years ago.”
Glenn’s piece makes the distinction most people skip: a financial power of attorney and a healthcare power of attorney are separate documents that cover different things, and you need both. He explains the four types (general, limited, durable, and springing), why the durable version is the one that matters for most estate planning purposes, and why the springing version that sounds appealing in theory often creates delays at the worst possible moment. He covers what happens when you don’t have one (court, months, thousands of dollars), what it costs to have one drafted correctly (typically $150 to $300 with an estate attorney), and how state-to-state variation matters more than most people expect, particularly for anyone who’s moved across state lines since their last estate review. The piece is built the way Glenn builds everything: a real case, plain numbers, and no space between the advice and its consequences. It’s in the Money section.
Howard Fenn writes The Day, Monday through Friday.
