What happened
Swiss voters yesterday rejected a referendum that would have capped the country’s population at 10 million by limiting migration. The initiative, proposed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, lost 55% to 45%, with 59% of voters participating. About 30% of Switzerland’s 9.1 million residents are foreign-born. 

Who said what
Immigration “has long been a sensitive issue in Europe, as nations grapple with an aging population and increasing anti-foreigner sentiment,” The Associated Press said. But unlike in other European countries, “most foreigners in Switzerland are Europeans.” The Swiss People’s Party “favors limits on migration,” The New York Times said, but it “broadened the measure’s appeal by focusing on kitchen-table issues like housing costs and traffic congestion” to try and “appeal to centrist voters who otherwise view immigration positively.”

The referendum “was closely watched in Brussels,” Politico said. “A ‘yes’ vote would have set Switzerland on a collision course” with the European Union, jeopardizing their free-movement and trade agreements.

What next?
Polls had “suggested a tight race,” the Times said, and the “final margin appeared larger than most analysts had expected.” Still, the referendum’s “relatively narrow margin” will “heap pressure on the government to take more concerted action to address the public backlash to immigration,” Politico said. 

What happened
President Donald Trump celebrated his birthday last night by hosting a UFC mixed martial arts cage match on the South Lawn of the White House. Trump began the spectacle by watching a military flyover from the Blue Room Balcony with his friend UFC chief Dana White, and ended it by watching fireworks from inside the blood-splattered cage.

Who said what
Using the White House lawn “for a violent sporting event sponsored by light beer and cryptocurrencies was overwhelmingly unpopular, garnering the support of just 31% of Republicans and 11% of independents in a Reuters-Ipsos poll,” The Washington Post said. But the crowd, which included at least nine Cabinet secretaries, “reveled in the unabashed masculinity of the scene,” The Wall Street Journal said, “cheering on fighters as they bloodied each other’s faces.” 

What next?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the fights as a “gift to the American people.” But it was “streamed exclusively on Paramount+,” a subscription service whose "owners have close ties to Trump," the Journal said. And despite Trump’s effort to "tie the fights to larger celebrations” of America’s 250th anniversary, The Associated Press said, the event “was so geared toward himself” that fellow G7 leaders “pushed back their get-together” so he “could attend his cage-match party and then fly to Europe” overnight.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of bemotrizinol (BEMT) in U.S. over-the-counter sunscreens. The broad-spectrum UV filter chemical has been popularly used in European and Asian brands of sunblock for decades and offers benefits other sunscreen ingredients don’t. 

“For too long, American consumers have been applying sunscreen and believing they were fully protected,” said Alexa Friedman, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, in a statement. Efforts to approve new sunscreen ingredients were “bogged down for decades by the FDA’s bureaucratic system,” said The Associated Press. Bemotrizinol’s approval marks the “first ingredient to go through a streamlined process authorized by Congress in 2020.”

UVB’s “high-energy radiation” is typically “associated with sunburns and can cause genetic mutations that lead to skin cancer,” said Scientific American. The “longer-wavelength radiation” of UVA rays can “penetrate deeper into the skin than UVB, breaking down the skin’s structure and creating harmful skin‑aging molecules.” 

While most U.S. sunscreens are effective against UVB radiation, they provide “significantly lower UVA protection,” said a 2021 study in the journal Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine. But BEMT is capable of “protecting against both ultraviolet A and B rays” and without “leaving white streaks” like sunscreens with zinc oxide, said the AP. In addition, BEMT is “highly photostable,” said Yahoo Health, so it “remains effective when exposed to sunlight for extended periods.”

An anti-sunscreen movement has grown amid an “increasing distrust of the medical establishment,” said The Washington Post. Much of the concern focuses on chemical sunscreens, which get absorbed into the skin. Another benefit of bemotrizinol, said NBC News, is its “low levels of absorption.”