Copyright reason
"At least three U.S. military aircraft, including a heavily armed attack plane, have begun flying missions out of El Salvador's main international airport in an expansion of the extraordinary U.S. troop buildup in the Caribbean, according to an analysis of satellite images, air traffic control communications and flight tracking data," reports The New York Times. "The attack plane, an AC-130J Ghostrider, is designed to destroy targets on the ground or at sea using missiles or barrages from its cannons and machine guns. It is operated by the Air Force Special Operations Command, a unit that carries out sensitive missions for the military. The New York Times also identified a Navy reconnaissance plane and a rarely seen, unmarked Air Force jet at the airport." The missions started in August and appear to be related to the increasing pressure the U.S. is exerting on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's regime. "Business people, smart business people, going into [New York's new era] are thinking, 'Watch your ass, you're in combat,'" John Catsimatidis, a billionaire oil executive, told Politico. "I talked to [Zohran Mamdani] once. He's a young kid….He never ran anything. If he came in with a job application I wouldn't hire him to run a supermarket.…What I'm going to do is reduce my exposure to New York. I have a lot of businesses in New York, I have a lot of assets in New York." "A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to release full funding for November's food assistance benefits by Friday," reports The Washington Post. "It comes after the partial funding disbursed by the Agriculture Department earlier this week had yet to reach those who qualify for the benefits." Yesterday, President Donald Trump announced deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk that will cut the prices of certain obesity drugs. "The agreements will cut prices of so-called GLP-1 drugs for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries in 2026 and offer the treatments directly to consumers at a discount on a website the Trump administration is launching in January called TrumpRx.gov," reports CNBC. "One out of every three deliveries happens in an operating room, a figure that far exceeds public health recommendations," writes Sarah Kliff for The New York Times. "The surgery can prolong a woman's recovery, complicate future births and sometimes risk her life. The top justification for C-sections in healthy pregnancies is fetal distress, a diagnosis made by the [continuous fetal heartrate] monitor." Should hospitals shift away from using this tool? Is risk aversion/fear of liability causing an inappropriately high C-section rate, and doctors using surgery to deliver babies that are actually totally fine? Kliff investigates. Solid free speech victory
