Good Morning! Today’s edition is 1,033 words, a 4-minute read.

What’s on tap: 

• Cartel investigation

• California to redraw congressional map

• Cutting an onion using math

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Big Stories

AI Designs New Antibiotics 

• MIT researchers used AI to design two new antibiotics atom-by-atom that killed drug-resistant gonorrhea and MRSA in laboratory and animal tests. The generative AI analyzed 36 million compounds to create completely new drugs rather than searching through existing chemicals. The study is the first time AI has designed antibiotics from scratch. Researchers say it could start a "second golden age" in antibiotic discovery.

• Drug-resistant infections now kill more than 1 million people annually as bacteria like MRSA and gonorrhea evolve to dodge existing treatments. MRSA can cause deadly blood infections, while gonorrhea increasingly resists all available antibiotics, leaving some patients with no treatment options. There has been a shortage of new antibiotics for decades as traditional drug discovery methods have struggled to keep pace with bacterial resistance.

• The compounds need 1-2 years of refinement before human clinical trials can begin, and only 2 of the top 80 AI-designed treatments could actually be manufactured in laboratories. New antibiotics also face an economic paradox - they must be used sparingly to prevent resistance, making them commercially unattractive despite their life-saving potential.

US Drinking Hits Record Low

• The US drinking rate hit 54%, the lowest in Gallup's 90-year trend, marking three consecutive years of decline from 67% in 2022. Young adults are leading the drop, falling from 59% to 50%, while Republicans saw the steepest decline at 19 percentage points to 46%. The sustained decrease is unprecedented in Gallup's tracking since 1939.

• For the first time, a majority of Americans (53%) now believe moderate drinking is bad for health. This represents a sharp increase from just 28% who held this view in 2018, driven by mounting research that any level of alcohol consumption may negatively affect health. Young adults are most likely to view drinking as harmful, with about two-thirds now holding this belief.

• Even Americans who still drink are consuming significantly less, averaging 2.8 drinks per week compared to 3.8 last year and nearly 4.0 in previous years. A record-low 24% of drinkers had alcohol in the past 24 hours, while 40% haven't had a drink in over a week. The trend mirrors tobacco's decline after Surgeon General warnings in the 1960s.

Car Crash Leads to Cartel Indictment

• The Justice Department unsealed indictments Thursday against five leaders of United Cartels, a major Mexican drug organization that rivals the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The investigation began in 2019 when drug dealers threw a meth-filled case while fleeing a car crash in a small Tennessee town. Authorities are offering a $10 million bounty on the top leader, Juan José Farías Álvarez, known as 'El Abuelo,' and multimillion-dollar rewards for four others.

• Authorities used wiretaps and surveillance to trace the Tennessee drugs to Eladio Mendoza's suspected drug ring in Atlanta. During surveillance of his operation, a chase and shootout erupted when a suspect fired an AK-style rifle at officers, hitting one in the leg. When authorities searched Mendoza's properties, they found 850 kilograms of methamphetamine hidden in a tractor-trailer from Mexico and phone messages connecting Mendoza to cartel leader 'El Abuelo.

• Mendoza fled to Mexico, where the cartel killed him for losing their drugs and cash. All five indicted leaders remain in Mexico, where United Cartels controls the Michoacan state. The US designated United Cartels as a foreign terrorist organization as part of broader efforts to target organized crime.

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Quick Stories

US News

• Florida Gov. DeSantis unveiled a second immigration detention center with 1,300 beds dubbed "Deportation Depot" at a state prison to boost the Trump administration's deportation capacity. (More)

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to redraw congressional maps targeting five more Democratic seats in retaliation for Texas Republicans' similar GOP redistricting effort. (More)

• First Lady Melania Trump threatened to sue Hunter Biden for over $1 billion after he claimed Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump. (More)

World

• Israel's finance minister announced plans to build a controversial West Bank settlement that would cut Palestinian territory in half and "bury the idea of a Palestinian state." (More)

• Erik Prince, the founder of private military company Blackwater, will deploy hundreds of fighters to Haiti to battle gangs as part of a 10-year deal with the government. (More)

• Protesters demanding Serbian President Vucic's resignation clashed with police and loyalists for a third day, demolishing ruling party offices in multiple cities. (More)

Business & Economy

• US stock markets closed mixed on Thursday (S&P +0.03%, Nasdaq -0.01%, Dow -0.02%). Stocks rebounded when investors bought the dip after a poor wholesale inflation report. (More)

• Air Canada started canceling flights on Thursday as 10,000 flight attendants threatened to strike over "poverty wages," potentially grounding Canada's largest airline by Saturday. (More)

• Intel stock surged 7% on reports that Trump's administration may take a government stake in the only US company that manufactures advanced chips domestically. (More)

Sports & Entertainment

• "Stranger Things" creators the Duffer Brothers are negotiating to leave Netflix for a new overall deal at Paramount. The film and TV deal will emphasize big-budget movies. (More)

• The NBA released its 2025-26 schedule with new partners NBC and Amazon joining Disney, creating a seven-day streaming lineup across multiple platforms. (More)

• Tim Tebow and Deion Sanders made the Associated Press All-Time All-America team, chosen from nearly 2,000 players over college football's 100-year history. (More)

Science, Health, & Tech

• Meta's internal guidelines allowed AI chatbots to engage children in "romantic or sensual" conversations and generate racist content, according to leaked documents reviewed by Reuters. Meta has since changed the policies. (More)

• Imperial College scientists found that Mars rovers already carry equipment capable of detecting active life, potentially saving millions on developing new instruments for alien life detection. (More)

• Apple brought back the blood oxygen feature to newer Apple Watches following a customs ruling that ended its intellectual property dispute with Masimo. (More)

Extra Credit

The mathematical way to cut an onion.

DOJ fires a man for assaulting officer with a Subway sandwich.

See photos of European wildfires burning from space.

The hardest to pronounce town name in every US state.