Pricks Everywhere, Meta's Morphosis
Finding someone not on Ozempic is like trying to find a piece of hay in a needle stack. People are poking, prodding, puncturing, and piercing themselves for reasons ranging from high blood sugar to obesity. And a whole lot of us are taking a stab at it just … because. It’s gotten to the point that Lin-Manuel Miranda might have to tweak some of his most famous lyrics. I am not throwin’ away my shot. Ay, yo, I’m just like my country, I’m young, scrappy and not at all hungry, and I’m not throwin’ away my shot. “A large new study confirms what many people have long suspected: A sizable number of people taking drugs like Ozempic have no medical reason to do so.” Here’s the skinny from the NYT (Gift Article): GLP-1 Prescriptions for People With No Medical Need Are Climbing. “‘It’s the first time that I can recall that the general public knows so much’ about a drug, said Dr. Nils Krüger, a researcher at Harvard Medical School who has studied GLP-1s … These medications might pose unique risks to people who are not overweight … ‘We don’t know how this will play out. It’s like this big Ozempic experiment.'” That’s quite the parting shot.
Crock Block
A judge ordered the Trump administration to allow the media outlets the president had banned back into the White House because the ban itself was (in layperson’s terms) a load of constitutionally crazy-ass bullshit. The White House still barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from entry. As CNN’s Dana Bash noted, as Trump was hosting the leader of a communist power, he was “blocking American media and defying a federal judge.” After some additional legal wrangling, the journalists were allowed back in. (Congrats, you won. Your prize is being lied to and attacked nonstop, while inhaling the off-gassed particles of whatever chemicals are used to manufacture the orange makeup) This is just “the latest twist in a nearly weeklong standoff between President Trump and the press corps that covers him, and which has not yet been fully resolved.” There’s no way a serious judge would say the barring of journalists is OK, and the ban meant less coverage for a person obsessed with coverage. On some level, Team Trump must think this story is good politics. If it is, we’ve got even bigger problems. Here’s the latest from the NYT.
Need Any Help With Your Bags?
When it comes to superpower summits, the real negotiations are done ahead of time. The actual interactions between leaders are all about the visuals. The latest Trump/Xi get-together began on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews with “a remarkable act of deference. By tradition, American presidents don’t make the 12-mile trip to the base to greet a foreign leader. They instead wait at the White House, backed by the grandeur and power of the executive mansion. But not this time.” Jonathan Lemire in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Deferential President. “It was not that long ago when Trump, a self-styled international bully, could credibly claim to ‘run the country and the world.’ But he seems far smaller on the global stage now. ”
+ Here’s the latest on the meetings, the press conferences, and the upcoming state dinner from The Guardian.
+ We may not get to agreements on Iran, Taiwan, or AI, but we can at least celebrate the impending arrival of Ping Ping and Fu Shuang. AP: Xi says 2 giant pandas from China will arrive in the coming days at Atlanta’s zoo. (It’s gonna be a major bummer if these turn out to be AI pandas…)
Meta’s Morphosis
The “$14.3 billion deal Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg made to buy up all the employees of hot AI startup Scale AI in 2025 — including well-connected wunderkid Alexandr Wang, who got about $5 billion as part of the deal” seemed a little over the top at the time. But if the downloads of the company’s new Muse AI agent (and the upswing of its marketcap) is any indication, the investment might pay off in a big way. Meta’s $14 billion AI bet looks like it’s finally paying off. (Of course, $14 billion in AI money is like seventy-five grand in human dollars…)
Extra, Extra
Blame the Messenger: Bibi Netanyahu gave a defiant speech at the UN in which he attacked Mamdani and said that “devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard. It was very hard to do. But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister, because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.” Bibi isn’t meeting with Trump during his very short trip, as his brand is currently toxic in the US. I worry that his actions and messaging have done similar damage to Israel’s brand abroad. But nothing about Bibi’s speech has anything to do with the international audience. It’s all campaign messaging for his upcoming election at home.
+ Junior’s Mint: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accepted $4 million in book advances and more than $270,000 in gifts over the past year from close allies who are working to advance his Make America Healthy Again agenda … Cheryl Hines, Mr. Kennedy’s wife, accepted $210,000 in consulting fees from MAHA Action, a nonprofit advocacy.” (In fairness, if he’s gonna spend so much time trying to kill us all, you can’t blame him for wanting to make a buck.) Meanwhile, RFK Jr.’s Enhanced Security Was Funded With Money From Minority Health Office.
+ Rogue Agents: “OpenAI’s artificial intelligence went rogue this year in at least four additional incidents, hacking and trying to break into government and university websites without being instructed to do so.” And from NPR: “Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday he was extremely concerned about OpenAI ‘s breach of an Australian health department website that the artificial intelligence company took too long to reveal.” Meanwhile, Google Takes the A.I. Data Center Race to Outer Space. (All we wanted was an easy way to chat with our friends and the occasional funny cat video.)
+ Prediction Friction in This Jurisdiction: “New York sued the prediction market Polymarket on Thursday, arguing the platform is an unlicensed gambling operation and calling for a judge to block the company from operating in the state.”
+ Against the Wind: “Last month, President Trump dismissed concerns about difficult conditions reported aboard the ship. Asked whether he was concerned about the crew’s mental health and whether he thought the deployment had gone on too long, the president said: ‘No. No. No.’ He added: ‘Not nearly long enough.'” 8 Sailors in U.S.S. Lincoln Strike Group Attempted Suicide, Navy Says.
+ Monkey See, Monkey Do: “Chimpanzees are known to use rudimentary tools when foraging for food. According to a new paper in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, this learned behavior is passed down from adults to offspring through social learning. Specifically, adult chimps deliberately model the behavior, then turn their tools over to the youngsters so they can mimic the same motions.” (This was how I was gradually teaching my kids how to gather and summarize news. Then they switched to TikTok and Claude.)
Bottom of the News
“Affected fridges ‘suddenly lost power and stopped functioning immediately after’ trying to issue a firmware update through SmartThings, Samsung’s smart home platform.” Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges. Just let us plug it in, and that’s it. We need a cold fridge, not cold fusion.
