Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Trump’s nominee for health secretary — sits for his senate confirmation hearing this morning. Will he stand behind vaccines? Speak on his work in Samoa? We shall find out. (Watch via The Wall Street Journal here.)
In the meantime, here are some news notes from stories I read this morning:
Syrians Mourn Their Alexei Navalny
In the Middle East, Syrians mourned the legacy of Mazen al-Hamada, an activist who once testified in the U.S. against Assad’s torturous regime–saying he’d been beaten and sodomized by a metal pole. He will be remembered as a martyr, like Alexei Navalny in Russia.
Starbucks Sales Slump
On the heels of holiday protests, Starbucks announced a 23% slump in sales compared with the same period last year. The chain’s new CEO Brian Niccol, who was poached from Chipoltle, remains confident in his plan to revamp the brand: asking baristas to write kind notes on coffee cups. He also made some controversial calls: banning bathrooms for those who don’t buy a drink and saying no to customers who want free water. (Really?)
Trump Stalls Funding To Developing Nations
Yesterday, Trump paused all U.S. funding to developing countries. But today, Marco Rubio, Trump’s secretary of the state, announced America would be rolling cuts back–to now include medical care. Though, a Kenyan newspaperwelcomed the decision: “It is hard to justify aid to countries whose leaders pilfer resources rather than invest in public programmes on behalf of the citizens,” she wrote.
New White House Press Secretary Holds First Briefing
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s 27-year-old press secretary, held her first briefing yesterday. She promised to tell the truth, encouraged any and all independent journalists to apply for White House press credentials, and made several jabs at legacy media. CNN’s Brian Stelter said, “She is there for an audience of one,” referring to Mr. Trump.
New York Bill To Help Replace Lead Pipes
Ritchie Torres, a Democratic congressman from the Bronx, introduced a bill yesterday that would give New Yorkers a 20% tax credit to replace their lead pipes. Last year, the EPA announced home owners and landlords would have 10 years to replace lead pipes, but Trump’s team has promised to rescind this requirement. Torres’ bill would help folks like me–living in the Upper West Side–who recently found out their pipes are made of lead!
Nvidia: The Fall From Heaven
Over the weekend, a Chinese-owned AI company released a new version of its large language model–DeepSeek. (This led to an emergency episode of Hard Fork.) The success of Open AI’s Chinese competitor spurred a selloff of chipmaker Nvidia–marking the largest “one-day loss in market value for any public company” at about $600 billion.
Is Mayor Eric Adams Playing Sick?
In the Big Apple, amid a mayoral campaign, Eric Adams issued an unusual announcement: he is sick and will be staying out of the spotlight. The city’s comptroller Brad Lander is the candidate who’s raised the most money–$3.2 million–in the race to replace Adams, but he trails in the polls behind Scott Stringer and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
In local New York City news site, HellGate, today’s newsletter called out Adams: “Sure would be a good time for New York City to have a mayor solely focused on delivering services to New Yorkers during a broadside assault on its social programs from a presidential administration intent on destroying New York’s social safety net programs. Instead, Eric Adams is nowhere to be found,”
Ashley Elizabeth Miller 
Please leave your thoughts!