Today’s Big Story

Pressure Cooking

Soaring rates of high blood pressure among young people, new data shows

The number of young people, including children, with high blood pressure has doubled in the last two decades—an increase that “should raise alarm bells," according to researchers. An exhaustive global review published in the medical journal The Lancet examined medical data from 443,914 children aged 18 and younger, and found that between 2000 and 2020, the percentage of children with high blood pressure went from 3% to 6%. That's an estimated 114 million children.

That’s concerning, since the condition is associated with a raised risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. The researchers said that rising childhood obesity, salt intake and sedentary behavior could be driving the increase. Another recent paper found broadly similar results. A likely factor is that screening and measurement have improved, meaning more cases of hypertension are detected than in the past, but the evidence suggests the rise is largely real.

Steve Turner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, spoke to The Guardian about the study. “These findings mirror what paediatricians are seeing on the frontline. Children are presenting not only with hypertension, but also other serious conditions linked to obesity such as type 2 diabetes—once unheard of in children—asthma and mental health problems.”

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, one physician who was an author of a study, explained to CNN. “The good news is that this is a modifiable risk … with better screening, earlier detection, and a stronger focus on prevention, especially around healthy weight and nutrition, we can intervene before complications arise.”

While the average age for being diagnosed with heart disease in the United States is typically in the mid-60s for men and early 70s for women, the factors, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and bad cholesterol levels, often start years, sometimes decades, earlier. Thankfully, a new online heart risk calculator could help younger adults learn whether they're likely to develop heart disease, as much as 30 years in the future.

U.N. Security Council Approves Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan

The U.S.-sponsored resolution turns the president’s plan into an international mandate

President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan was passed by a majority vote at the United Nations on Monday, though world powers were still divided over whether it can convert a fragile ceasefire into the long-term solution that has eluded the Middle East. According to the BBC, the resolution was backed by 13 countries—including the U.K., France and Somalia—with none voting against the proposal. Russia and China abstained.

Much about the plan remains uncertain, with occasional outbreaks of violence between Israel and Hamas threatening the tenuous diplomacy at every turn and Palestinians inside Gaza suffering hunger and now flooding at the onset of a bitter winter. Designed to usher Gaza from rubble-strewn war zone into a new era, the resolution backs establishing a “Board of Peace,” headed by the president himself, to temporarily govern the territory. Alongside that, an International Stabilization Force, known as the ISF, would take over responsibility from the Israel Defense Forces currently occupying parts of the Gaza Strip.

In a statement after the vote, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Michael Waltz expressed thanks to the members “for joining us in charting a new course in the Middle East for the Israelis and Palestinians and all the people in the region.” However, Hamas, in a statement, said the resolution “does not meet the level” of Palestinian political and humanitarian demands. “It imposes a mechanism to achieve the [Israeli] occupation’s objectives,” the group said. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon attended the meeting but did not speak. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel would never agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Another Attack on Late Night?

President Trump wants Seth Meyers fired. The FCC chair amplified the message.

It’s no surprise that Seth Meyers has consistently made President Trump the target of his jokes. The NBC late night host’s latest bits include teasing about a recent decline in Republican support of the president and his comments to Fox News host Laura Ingraham that America doesn’t have enough skilled workers for certain jobs.

But the president has had enough, denouncing Meyers on Truth Social, claiming he "is suffering from an incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) … Aside from everything else, Meyers has no talent, and NBC should fire him, IMMEDIATELY!” Less than an hour later Trump's tirade was reposted on X by Brendan Carr, chairperson of the Federal Communications Commission, the independent agency that regulates radio, TV, wire, satellite and cable across the country. Trump has repeatedly targeted multiple late-night TV hosts, including Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert.

Meyers offered a wry response to the president’s over-the-weekend public lashing, describing Donald Trump‘s public call for the late-night host to be fired a “thoughtful piece of fan mail.” He added, “I’m also aware that being attacked by the president doesn’t make me special in any way, shape or form” and that now he and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have found unlikely common ground.

Is the Global Internet Pulling Apart?

A closer look at the rise of the national messaging app

The rise of the internet suddenly brought the world together, right? But then there was China, which limited the reach of most western tech companies, maintained strict control over its domestic networks, and started building a parallel internet-centric economy of its own. And now, that kind of digital sovereignty is gaining traction around the globe.

The Intelligener put it bluntly: “the global internet as we knew it is pulling apart.” Russia, which has a long history of internet censorship and state-aligned tech companies, has taken the extraordinary recent step of interfering with access not just to WhatsApp but also Telegram, the messaging app founded by Pavel Durov, a creator of VK, Russia’s Facebook alternative, who left the country more than a decade ago. The throttling coincided with the launch of MAX, a new government-controlled everything app—basically a messaging app with other features layered on top, modeled on China’s Weixin—and an all-out marketing campaign to get people to switch.

In India, the government is talking more openly about favoring homegrown apps for economic and security reasons and highlighting its own domestic “super-app.” As of this fall, French ministries and agencies are required to use the state-developed messenger Tchap for official correspondence. And in the United Arab Emirates, WhatsApp and Telegram remain available but calls through them are blocked due to VoIP licensing rules. Local operators now offer paid alternatives such as Botim and ToTok. It’s clear this trend of shifting from international messengers to national platforms is gaining momentum.

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