“7 stories to know” is a new Monday series showcasing stories that may have been ignored in the crush of news over the past few weeks, and stories that have continued to evolve over the weekend. Expect to read coverage about health, science, and climate that frequently take second chair to what’s happening at the top of the page, plus information from local sources that the national media may have overlooked.
1. Go watch the eclipse if you can
It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that on Monday, the moon will slip between the Earth and sun at a point where all three celestial bodies happen to be in the same plane. When this happens, the moon will cast a shadow on the Earth along a moving path roughly 120 miles wide. There is going to be a total solar eclipse in North America.
Solar eclipses usually happen about twice a year, but because much of the Earth is covered in water, most of the time the path of totality traces an arc over places where few people get to see them. If you have the money and the inclination, you can probably find a tour company that will take you to see an eclipse in almost any year. On the other hand, if you’re a homebody unwilling to scour the world for an adventure that may last under two minutes, expect to wait an average of 375 years before getting an eclipse delivered to your door.
If this is your first eclipse, don’t try to take photographs. Don’t worry about telescopes, cameras, or trying to find some way to capture the moment other than with your own eyes (with eclipse glasses, of course). And ears. And skin.
The eeriness of these events, the glassy, underwater sheen that falls across the sky, the coolness that suddenly gathers, the way the wind can seem to half in its course—this is something you want to experience. Fuck your camera. This is a very, very brief event. It happens very, very rarely. You might never have another opportunity. Savor every second.
Even if you are the world’s least sentimental person, or your schedule is filled with a full day of saving the world and battling evil, take a break. Witness the eclipse if at all possible.
If you have any questions about where you might go in your area, or when the eclipse reaches you, NASA has all the details.
And if you happen to be an old hand at eclipses and are looking for more to do than just enjoy the incredible reminder that we live on a small ball of rock orbiting around a nuclear furnace, why not join in an experiment to explore how birds react to this event?
2. Trump’s drug déjà vu
On Thursday, Donald Trump gave an extended interview on conservative loon Hugh Hewitt’s radio show. During this appearance, Trump—who notoriously avoided any debates during the Republican primaries—claimed he was anxious to debate President Joe Biden. However, Trump had a stipulation before he would agree to that debate.
Trump: I think what happened is you know that white stuff that they happened to find, which happened to be cocaine in the White House, I don’t know, I think something’s going on there, because I watched this State of the Union, and he was all jacked up at the beginning. By the end, he was fading fast. There’s something going on there. I want to debate. And I think debates, with him, at least, should be drug tested. I want a drug test.
Trump repeated the claim later in the interview, telling Hewitt that Biden was “obviously … getting some help.”
While everyone from Forbes to “Saturday Night Live” took time to scoff at Trump’s unsupported claim (with SNL suggesting that Trump seems to know a lot about the behavior of someone taking cocaine), what escaped the notice of most news outlets is that Trump’s whole claim is simply a repeat.
Here’s how CNN reported a statement Trump made about Hillary Clinton during a rally in 2016.
“I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate,” Trump said during a rally here. “Because I don’t know what’s going on with her, but at the beginning of her last debate, she was all pumped up at the beginning, and at the end it was like, huff, take me down. She could barely reach her car.”
What Trump said about Biden in 2024 was almost exactly what he said about Clinton in 2016. Trump can’t even manage to think up new lies to throw at his opponent. He’s just recycling the old ones.
Maybe Trump needs some drugs.
3. One group of drugs tackles diabetes, weight loss, heart disease and now … Parkinson’s?
The most recent edition of The New England Journal of Medicine contains exciting results about tests of a drug called lixisenatide. In a phase 2, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial (about the best that can be done) involving patients who had been diagnosed within the previous three years, lixisenatide showed evidence of slowing progressions of the motor damage associated with Parkinson’s disease. In fact, the 78 people who received lixisenatide showed a small degree of improvement over the first 12 months.
That’s pretty amazing considering how difficult it has proven to slow the progress of Parkinson’s.
The drug did cause about half of those who received it to report some degree of nausea, but that’s a common side effect for all drugs in this class, which are known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptors agonist drugs, or GLP-1 receptor agonists.
If that name sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because this class of drugs has some relatively new and rather famous members. Other drugs in this class include semaglutide, which is sold under the names Ozempic and Wegovy, and dulaglutide, which is sold as Trulicity.
These drugs were originally developed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. However, doctors soon noticed that patients prescribed these drugs were also losing weight, and they rapidly gained popularity as treatments for weight loss (Wegovy is specifically sold for that purpose).
The connection to significant weight loss has already made these drugs into pharmaceutical superstars that are earning their makers billions. But the benefits don’t seem to end there.
A 2019 meta-analysis connected the use of these drugs to a reduced chance of depression. A 2022 study suggested that drugs in this class were at least as effective as existing strategies for treating fatty liver disease. A 2023 study on Wegovy showed clinically significant results in treating heart disease and reducing the risk of heart attacks.
If these benefits hold up to additional study, these drugs may be life-transforming in multiple ways. In addition to those already being sold, there are several other GLP-1 receptor agonists undergoing trials. That includes oral versions of some drugs currently available only as injections.
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1776947885285728527
4. Trump’s secret plan to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine by rewarding Russia
Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that he has a plan to immediately end Vladimir Putin’s illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Trump has been reluctant to provide many details for that plan, but The Washington Post reports that it’s simple enough: Trump means to give Putin what he wants.
Trump’s proposal consists of pushing Ukraine to cede Crimea and the Donbas border region to Russia, according to people who discussed it with Trump or his advisers and spoke on the condition of anonymity because those conversations were confidential. That approach, which has not been previously reported, would dramatically reverse President Biden’s policy, which has emphasized curtailing Russian aggression and providing military aid to Ukraine.
Trump reportedly believes that parts of Ukraine would “be okay” with being parts of Russia. His plan also doesn’t seem to contain any assurances that would protect Ukraine from Russia simply gathering additional forces, replacing the thousands of tanks and armored transports they’ve lost in the war, and starting the whole thing up again.
This seems to be a deal completely to Russia’s liking, suggested by a man who can’t do enough to show his love for Russia’s dictator.
Trump has consistently complimented Putin, expressed admiration for his dictatorial rule and gone out of his way to avoid criticizing him, most recently for the death in jail of political opponent Alexei Navalny. He has not called for the release of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter held in Russia for a year without charges or a trial.
5. Tesla drops plans for $25,000 electric vehicle
At a “battery day” event in 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that he eventually wanted to make “about 20 million vehicles a year” with most of those electric vehicles being something new: a $25,000 EV based on a newly announced battery architecture. Since then, that inexpensive vehicle has appeared annually as a sheet-draped image of something that was coming soon, but never seemed to arrive. Tesla even described a new method of construction that it would use to build these cars, breaking with the production line scheme that’s been the mainstay of automakers since Henry Ford.
That inexpensive Tesla might seem especially vital to the company’s plans following a hugely disappointing quarter in which the company badly underperformed even lowball estimates.
That disappointing result can be laid directly at Musk’s feet. A Gallup survey last year showed that willingness to consider an electric vehicle is sharply different along party lines, with only a tiny number of Republicans seriously considering EVs. Meanwhile, Musk has worked almost around the clock to offend the people who might buy his cars.
On Friday, Reuters reported that Tesla has dropped its plans to build a low-cost car. Musk immediately said that the news service was lying. However, within hours he seemed to confirm the Reuters report by indicating that the company had shifted its attention to building a “robotaxi,” which is something it’s been promising for more than a decade. This time Musk has at least promised to show a prototype in August. But considering that the company has a history of hyping prototypes that eventually turn into disappointing reality years later, or never appear at all, don’t hold your breath.
In the meantime, note that GM already sells the Chevy Bolt for barely over $25,000, and that’s before the $7,500 tax incentive. This version of the car is on its way out, with a new Bolt scheduled for next year. But hey, I bought one.
6. A radio host and his right-wing school board candidates crash and burn
Marc Cox is a right-wing radio host, with a show very much in the mold of Rush Limbaugh. He kicks off the daily broadcasting at a local FM talk station, setting the tone for hours of angry rhetoric based on all the expected Republican fantasies, and leaning heavily into the racial divide that marks the St. Louis region.
Recently, Cox backed a slate of candidates in school board elections across the region, declaring that they would fight against the “woke agenda.” But in elections on April 2, Cox’s candidates lost. All 13 of them.
Whether it was in wealthy white suburbs or poorer rural districts, voters rejected these candidates. Even a district that had been dominated by reactionary conservatives over the past three years saw the conservatives who were up for reelection lose their seats.
Local conservative PACs raised over $20,000 to capture school board seats from candidates backed by the teacher’s union. It didn’t work.
As The Advocate reports, “conservative candidates lost in Clayton, Francis Howell, Fort Zumwalt, Lindbergh, Maplewood Richmond Heights, Mehlville, Parkway, Rockwood, St. Charles City, and Wentzville. School district funding initiatives also passed with overwhelming support in Lindbergh, Orchard Farm, Riverview Gardens, University City, and Valley Park.”
Parents uniformly rejected the conservatives who wanted to repeat the catastrophes seen in Florida and other states where extremists have taken over local schools. They also backed the schools and teachers with additional funds.
Even in a state that’s become so deeply red, good things still happen.
7. Get out your yardsticks and measure the universe
PBS’ SpaceTime series can be one of the most challenging channels on YouTube. Viewers can be perplexed by subjects like how an infinite universe may still have a finite edge, learn to deal with the cause-and-effect-breaking implications of the double-slit experiment, or wade through an entire sequence of quantum weirdness before learning how 3D space might originate from a 2D hologram.
However, this week the topic is slightly less difficult to grapple with, and very timely to events in our sky. Not only will the eclipse put on a show for those lucky enough to be in the right place with good weather, it can also provide clues that help unravel the nature of the solar system.