Extra, Extra
Get the Low Down: “The Food and Drug Administration approved a daily pill on Thursday that can lower cholesterol levels far below what can be achieved with statins, the cheap cholesterol-reducing pills.”
+ Board of Piece: “Even the envisaged pilot scheme – involving a temporary camp for a tiny fraction of Gaza’s 2 million displaced people, with a Palestinian administration, police and a small international security force – is not expected to take shape before the end of the year.” Trump’s Board of Peace drops full Gaza recovery plan in favour of tiny pilot scheme. Meanwhile, the administration’s focus is definitely elsewhere in the region. Here’s the latest on the stepped-up fighting in Iran (and its neighbors).
+ The Young and the Wrested: “President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shook up his wartime government, drawing thousands into the streets Thursday across Ukraine to protest the ouster of his youthful defense minister — seen as an innovator of the country’s successful drone technology but who clashed with the traditional military establishment.” Mykhailo Fedorov is the tech-savvy leader behind many of Ukraine’s drone advances, and he’s very popular from Kiev to Silicon Valley. This is a story to watch. Zelenskyy fires Ukraine’s tech-savvy defense minister in government reshuffle.
+ Speech Recognition: “President Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator is believed to have made tens of thousands of dollars by placing bets on more than a dozen of Trump’s speeches on the prediction market Kalshi.” (Do the people who predicted stories like this win anything?)
+ Trial and Jair: “President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs on Brazil — even though it is one of the few Latin American countries with which the US has a trade surplus — in response to what he said is the unfair prosecution of the former Brazilian president and his close ally, Jair Bolsonaro.” US slaps 25% tariffs on Brazil.
+ Houring Inferno: In what is part of a bigger story about trying to keep temporary, unconfirmed prosecutors in place, Trump fired a new US attorney in Seattle an hour after federal judges appointed him.
+ Backpact: “Mr. Conner and Mr. Newman began their efforts in 2018 with a few armfuls of backpacks. By 2026, they and almost 40 volunteers had distributed more than 180,000 packs to people living on the streets of Manhattan.” The couple, who died within a few days of each other, provided needed supplies, like socks and wet wipes, to people living on New York City’s streets.
