Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Good morning, folks. This weekend, why not make time for a retro game like Battleship or Trivial Pursuit? They’re hall of famers for a reason. Now, on to the news.Subscribe to get this newsletter in your inbox each morning.NEED TO KNOWAndrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty ImagesAnti-obesity drugs would become more available to Medicare enrollees, and drugmakers would reduce the average cost of the meds to about $250 over the next two years, under new deals announced by President Trump yesterday.The details: The deals with Eli Lilly, which makes Zepbound, and Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy and Ozempic, would dramatically lower…
In Mount Pleasant, it’s not unusual for first-grade teacher Danielle Bruursema to have a quarter of her 24 students absent on the same day, an alarmingly higher rate than just a few years ago.In Ypsilanti last year, plummeting attendance in now-retired Debbie Swanson’s fifth grade class made it difficult to build course lessons. Maybe 50% of students bothered to show up for scheduled half days.And in Holt, third-grade teacher Michael Adams draws a straight line between rising absenteeism and declining standardized test scores. Days when attendance was too low to teach new material put his class one and a half…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cornell University has agreed to pay $60 million and accept the Trump administration’s interpretation of civil rights laws in order to restore federal funding and end investigations into the Ivy League school.Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff announced the agreement on Friday, saying it upholds the university’s academic freedom while restoring more than $250 million in research funding that the government withheld amid investigations into alleged civil rights violations.The university agreed to pay $30 million directly to the U.S. government along with another $30 million toward research that will support U.S. farmers.“This agreement revives that partnership, while affirming the…
By Bhanvi Satija and Chad TerhuneLONDON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -A Trump administration deal to cut prices for popular weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound will allow millions more Americans to give them a try, but the cost may still be too high to keep patients long term, U.S. obesity specialists said.President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Novo Nordisk would reduce monthly prices for Wegovy to $350. Eli Lilly said Zepbound would cost about $300 monthly for the lowest dose, used by many patients solely to start treatment. At higher doses, the cost will go up to $450 per month for…
By Bhanvi Satija and Chad TerhuneLONDON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -A Trump administration deal to cut prices for popular weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound will allow millions more Americans to give them a try, but the cost may still be too high to keep patients long term, U.S. obesity specialists said.President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Novo Nordisk would reduce monthly prices for Wegovy to $350. Eli Lilly said Zepbound would cost about $300 monthly for the lowest dose, used by many patients solely to start treatment. At higher doses, the cost will go up to $450 per month for…
Mortgage rates are at least a half-point lower than one year ago. According to Freddie Mac, the national average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose five basis points this week to 6.22% — 57 basis points lower than one year ago. The 15-year rate was up nine basis points to 5.50%, a half-point lower than last year at this time. “This week the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.22%,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “On a median-priced home, this could allow a homebuyer to save thousands annually compared to earlier this year, showing that affordability is slowly improving.” Here are…
In the fast-emerging market for AI legal tools, a two-horse race is taking shape. Harvey, the OpenAI-backed startup that has become the industry’s breakout success, is now facing an ambitious challenger: Stockholm-based Legora, which is pitching law firms a new way to protect and monetize their intellectual property.Harvey has sprinted to $100 million in annual recurring revenue and an $8 billion valuation, turning the AI-for-law market into a serious money sport.Legora, fresh off a $150 million funding round, is countering with workspace software that it says enables law firms to collaborate with clients and sell secure, private access to their…
Tesla won the war for Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package. Now it’s prepared to win future legal battles.Shareholders voted to approve the record-breaking compensation plan by a 75% margin on Thursday, paving the way for Musk to become the world’s first trillionaire should he meet a series of ambitious product and financial goals.It came after the Tesla CEO’s previous $56 billion pay package, which was approved by Tesla shareholders in 2018 and again in 2024, was struck down by a Delaware judge last year following an investor lawsuit.Since then, Tesla has made a series of moves to ensure Musk’s…
BEIJING (Reuters) -China lifted a ban linked to Brazil’s avian influenza outbreak, the country’s General Administration of Customs said in a notice released on Friday.China issued a countrywide embargo on all imports of poultry and related products from Brazil over a bird flu outbreak in May.The ban has been repealed effective immediately “on the basis of risk analysis results,” the Chinese customs agency said in the notice, which was released on Friday but dated October 31.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBrazil, the world’s largest poultry exporter and China’s biggest chicken meat supplier, confirmed a bird flu outbreak on a commercial poultry farm in mid-May, triggering…
BEIJING (Reuters) -China lifted a ban linked to Brazil’s avian influenza outbreak, the country’s General Administration of Customs said in a notice released on Friday.China issued a countrywide embargo on all imports of poultry and related products from Brazil over a bird flu outbreak in May.The ban has been repealed effective immediately “on the basis of risk analysis results,” the Chinese customs agency said in the notice, which was released on Friday but dated October 31.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBrazil, the world’s largest poultry exporter and China’s biggest chicken meat supplier, confirmed a bird flu outbreak on a commercial poultry farm in mid-May, triggering…