Politics

Connected media - Associated media Mike Duggan and his hockey buddies were strapping on their gear one recent morning when their banter turned, as it often does, to the topic of joint replacement surgeries. Duggan, 74, the proud owner of an artificial hip, marveled at the sheer number of titanium body parts in the locker room. He nodded toward Mitch Boriskin, who was putting on a pair of skates along the opposite wall. “I don’t think there’s an original part to you,” Duggan said. Boriskin, 70, smiled. “Two fake knees, a spinal cord stimulator, 25 surgeries,” he began, as if…

Related media - Connected media For many Americans, the rising tide of prescription drug prices feels like a relentless force, threatening to drown household budgets and healthcare access. While pharmaceutical companies often take the brunt of public blame, the web of influences on drug costs is far more intricate. Today, we train our spotlight on a critical, yet typically shrouded, player in this system: pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. Rebecca Robbins, a leading investigative journalist specializing in pharmaceuticals for the New York Times, will take us on a deep dive into the world of PBMs. We’ll explore their role as…

Associated media - Related media Ending a years-long legal saga, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is poised to return to Australia after pleading guilty to a single charge related to the publication of classified US documents. The 52-year-old Australian national avoided a lengthy prison sentence by admitting guilt in a remote court hearing on a US territory in the Pacific. This agreement marks a significant development in a case that has become a battleground for press freedom and national security concerns. From Celebrated Whistleblower to Legal Standoff Assange rose to prominence in the 2010s when WikiLeaks published a trove of sensitive…

Connected media - Associated media INDIANAPOLIS — Athletes often speak in general terms as a defense mechanism. Rather than delve into a potentially controversial topic, or even address the issue, they provide non-answers, using clichés and pre-planned talking points to stay at a safe distance. Part of me would like to believe that this is what Caitlin Clark did Thursday morning when I asked her if she was bothered by fans using her name as a weapon in the culture wars dividing the country. The Indiana Fever’s star guard hasn’t closed the door on the topic; she refused to even…

Related media - Connected media It can take years before generic drug makers are ready to produce a drug, and they need to have an idea of the potential market to commit to investing in production. So in the meantime, Gilead will aim to ship “sufficient volumes” of lenacapavir to low-income countries as soon as it wins regulatory approval, he said. Lenacapavir and the two pills studied are all known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, drugs. Another effective injectable PrEP drug is available in some African countries, but its introduction has been plagued by access problems. Long-acting cabotegravir, which is…

Associated media - Linked media The Ukrainian government and army have already started major reconstruction projects. Bucha and Irpin, the devastated suburbs of Kiev, have become important construction sites. Architect Norman Foster has been hired for a new master plan for Kharkiv, whose extraordinary density of modern architecture is exposed to almost daily bombing. But this exhibition continues to focus on informal, bottom-up efforts in Ukrainian architecture. It showcases the work of architects inside and outside the country, but also some of Ukraine’s most notable artists, not to mention the ravers and DJs from Kiev’s world-leading electronic music scene, who…

Related media - Associated media Last week, Israeli soldiers adjusted the tracks of a tank near the Gaza border in southern Israel.Credit…Jack Guez/Agency France-Presse — Getty Images The intense phase of Israel’s war against Hamas “is coming to an end,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Sunday evening interview on Israeli television, although he stressed that this does not mean the conflict is coming to an end.After the operation in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city and the latest hub of Israel’s ground offensive, the prime minister said, Israel will continue to “mow the lawn” – a term long used in…

Linked media - Linked media She and her team hunted down image negatives containing fireballs stored at the German Aerospace Center in Augsburg. After digitizing the images, the researchers estimated various parameters related to the incoming meteors, such as their masses, shapes, speeds and entry angles. Using this data, the researchers identified a dozen events that most likely produced sizable meteorites. Before 1976 only three had occurred. The team reconstructed the trajectory of each of those three fireballs and calculated where the meteorites would most likely be found. There was only one match to the location where the Ischgl meteorite…

Connected media - Linked media The announcement came seemingly out of the blue on Sunday, when it was first publicized across the Israeli army’s English- and Arabic-language channels: The army would “pause” daylight fighting along a key humanitarian aid corridor in southern Gaza until further notice.Amid some immediate confusion about the scope of the pause, a clarification quickly followed, this time in Hebrew and apparently for domestic use. The change does not mean a cessation of fighting in the southern Gaza Strip, the statement said, adding that the campaign in the southernmost city of Rafah continues. Military officials said the…