5 million-plus kindergartners now live in counties where schools don’t have “herd immunity” for measles, Washington Post reporters found. WaPo also built a tool to look up your own county. Exceptional, and alarming work by @laurenweberhp.bsky.social @caitlingilbert.bsky.social et al. (Gift link.)

2025 has been an incredibly hard year for trans people. And yet... the political project to erase us is failing. In spite of them having so many levers of power, many of us have continued to thrive, and new pathways open up every day to get around the attacks. My case for hope for 2026.

A spokesman for Summers said he “had absolutely no knowledge that he was included in an early version of Epstein’s will and had no involvement in his financial matters or the administration of his estate”. www.ft.com/content/cff3...

A lovely honest piece by Diane Coyle, better known for her work on GDP www.the-independent.com/life-style/i...

A pedestrian was killed by the driver of a massive SUV while crossing the street on the Lower East Side on Thursday night. buff.ly/Pp5HbJ6

To all the young people in New York and across our country who count on gender-affirming care: I won't let this administration come for you, your doctors, or your lifesaving health care.  Your health care is still legal and protected.  I'll always fight for you.

7. The proposed rule nevertheless asserts that these guidelines would preempt state laws, placing a direct target on the “shield laws” enacted by states like California, Minnesota, and New York. The text is explicit in its intent to override state sovereignty.

5. This rule violates multiple U.S. statutes and constitutional limits on federal authority. Most notably, Section 1801 of the Social Security Act explicitly bars the federal government from using Medicaid regulations to exercise direct supervision or control over the practice of medicine.

1. The federal government has just attempted to enact a national trans youth care ban. A new HHS rule would shutter most gender-affirming care for trans youth nationwide. It violates multiple laws and the constitution, and will likely go into effect in a few months. Our latest story here:

Warnock tells me he intends to vote against the anti trans bill passed by Marjorie Taylor Greene

I take it all back we should absolutely let AI run the vending machines

Another banger from George www.ft.com/content/e39a...

Rep. Leigh Finke statement on proposed rules and actions from HHS on Trans Health Care

BREAKING: Trump admin officially proposes new CMS rules to restrict trans health care for young people, including one that would change the conditions for hospitals to participate in Medicare/Medicaid by barring those that offer gender-affirming care to minors. www.statnews.com/2025/12/18/t...

"A new review of 15 years of research concludes that the evidence of its benefits is often weak or inconclusive, and that nearly 30 percent of medical cannabis patients meet criteria for cannabis use disorder" www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/h...

Good inaugural Breakingviews prediction www.reuters.com/commentary/b...

Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people

Beaten to the punch by @mattpeterson.bsky.social, but this backs up our piece from last week about concerns among bigwigs on Wall Street about the race for Fed chair www.ft.com/content/df10...

Scoop from Claire! “But the decision to carry on with additional interviews shows that Hassett’s selection is not guaranteed. Officials have also raised the prospect of Hassett serving for a truncated term.” www.ft.com/content/307c...

Trump to kick off final round of Fed chair interviews this week on.ft.com/4rLpd2n

Big old scoop from George tonight www.ft.com/content/e3c8...

Optimistic defibrillator locations, an occasional series...

Super interesting post on fertility from @mtkonczal.bsky.social mikekonczal.substack.com/p/the-eldest...

"When Hassett, a career economist whose work has focused on tax policy, met with TBAC earlier this year, he spent little time talking about markets, instead pitching White House priorities, including a discussion about Mexican drug cartels, these people said." www.ft.com/content/ad4b...

Four-byline alert: 🚨 (FT) - Bond investors have told the US Treasury they are concerned about Kevin Hassett’s potential appointment as Federal Reserve chair, worrying he will cut interest rates aggressively to please President Donald Trump. @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/ad4b...

SCOOP: Bond investors warned US Treasury over picking Kevin Hassett as Fed chair www.ft.com/content/ad4b...

My latest: Bond investors warned US Treasury over picking Kevin Hassett as Fed chair www.ft.com/content/ad4b...

I support the LGBTQ community but I am very slightly annoyed that "giving tuesday" is now ambiguous

Very good piece on the quite fast rollout of "AI-powered" textbooks in South Korea. The government went from making the textbooks mandatory to supplementary because of complaints and now the textbook companies are suing because "the market suddenly disappear[ed]." restofworld.org/2025/south-k...

Dimon practicing some risk management here is a big tell.

big late breaking news: the market monitor for the largest energy grid in the u.s., covering much of the midwest and mid-atlantic, has called to block new data centers connections to the grid, saying current course of growth assures regular blackouts

Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’

The Office for Budget Responsibility has undermined claims made by government officials that they decided to U-turn on plans to raise income tax because they received an improved fiscal forecast from the watchdog via our FT Budget live blog: www.ft.com/content/d0a5...

Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees is now all but impossible. A smart piece on the likelihood of making that “overshoot” temporary heatmap.news/climate/cop-...

Despite all the talk of market bubbles, Miran's old shop has put out a call for the S&P500 to triple. Because MAGA. on.ft.com/4rpFNVp

“I don’t know who, really, she thinks I am, and whether she will feel or remember, when I am gone, that I am her mother.” www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

It's Alphaville week www.ft.com/content/87ac...

works again today

Big warning from Vanguard's bonds boss Sara Devereux: the market is pricing in way too many Fed cuts www.ft.com/content/22b5...

Timely interview from @kateduguid.bsky.social of Vanguard's fixed income head "The market is over-relying on [expected rate cuts]" www.ft.com/content/22b5...

maybe big dealers can use the SRF just so I don't have to keep talking about Canadian year-end

“Mr. Ackman’s pivot to dating coach is the latest swerve in a career that has included helping to fund President Trump’s third campaign, crusading against Harvard’s former president Claudine Gay and competing in a professional tennis tournament.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/s...

“He tells clients that they need to separate trading performance from their view of their self-worth.” www.wsj.com/finance/inve...

"Gloo hopes to pull the Christian faith into the digital age by using “values-aligned” generative AI to distribute content and sell marketing services to ministries and community outreach groups." Another banger from George: www.ft.com/content/e567...

”Google Trends is handy for retrofitting data around an argument. What it’s not is a reliable or even methodologically consistent predictor of future performance” www.ft.com/content/f872...

Bloomberg follows up the @kateduguid.bsky.social scoop last week reporting on a primary dealer-NY Fed meeting re: the SRF. Most of it is rehash but a couple notable points. It looks like the capital costs of sitting between non-dealers and the Fed are too high to incentivize SRF uptake.

UBS trying to blackmail Swiss regulators per this FT scoop

This is a fun story. What's happening is that a non-traded fund is being rolled into a publicly traded fund. On a NAV (third party marks on the underlying) basis, no losses. But the public vehicle (ticker ODBC) has a market price $2.83 below its $14.89 NAV, so the rolled-in fund gets marked down.