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TODAY’S HEALTH story

RFK Jr. to allow sale of unapproved peptides

What happened
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. yesterday said he will allow small compounding pharmacies to make and sell six unapproved and untested peptides, waiving enforcement of a Food and Drug Administration ban on the injections. The peptides are popular with Make America Healthy Again and wellness influencers, and Kennedy has called himself a “big fan” and criticized the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of them and other controversial treatments.

Who said what
The six peptides — BPC-157, epitalon, KPV, MOTS-c, semax and TB-500 — have been promoted online for “everything from faster healing to younger-looking skin and a longer lifespan,” said NBC News. Allowing their sale “faced overwhelming pushback among FDA drug staffers,” who voiced “major safety concerns” about the peptides, The Associated Press said, citing sources. In a “highly unusual turn of events,” The New York Times said, the decision to “bypass” standard FDA safeguards appears to be “unilateral” and “Kennedy’s alone.”

What next?
The draft proposal will be open for two weeks of public comment after it’s published in the Federal Register tomorrow. Meanwhile, “federal officials continue to hammer out permanent rules” for selling the peptides, The Washington Post said.

TODAY’S SPORTS Story

Milwaukee Brewers win their 1st World Series

What happened
The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 of the World Series last night, clinching their first-ever MLB championship. “Half of the sellout crowd” at Tampa’s Tropicana Field were Brewers fans there “to witness the most glorious day of baseball in the history of Wisconsin,” said USA Today. Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski pitched nearly 6 scoreless innings, while rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt, who made his major league debut in June, had two hits and two RBIs.

Who said what
The Brewers, a “once-wayward franchise purchased out of bankruptcy court” from Seattle in 1970, play in the smallest market in the major leagues, The Athletic said. “Often viewed as a cute success story” more than a “real contender,” they now set the “standard for small-town success.” The Brewers’ “only previous trip to the World Series in 1982 ended in heartbreak,” The Associated Press said. The Rays are now one of four MLB teams without a World Series pennant, alongside Colorado, San Diego and Seattle.

What next?
Milwaukee’s triumph last night could be the last MLB game “for an extended period,” the AP said, as a management lockout “likely to start” Dec. 2 “could threaten the 2027 season.” The owners are pushing for a salary cap, purportedly to “give the little guy a chance,” The Athletic said. But “at least in Milwaukee, that guy doesn’t need the help.”

It’s not all bad

New research suggests that a marine compound, rutamycin B, could kill the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri faster than any available drug. The compound “demonstrates significant potency at low concentrations” and “achieves full potency within just four hours,” outpacing the “current gold-standard treatment” against N. fowleri, said UC San Diego in a news release. The ocean “contains a diverse library of chemicals,” said William Fenical, co-author of the study, published in the journal Marine Drugs. “We have only just scratched its surface.”

Under the radar

Woman joins ranks of elite Japanese board game

Tomoka Nishiyama has become the first woman kishi, a professional player of shogi, a Japanese board game often compared to chess. Shogi has two professional classifications: kishi and joryū kishi, which is for women only. Theoretically, the kishi classification is also open to women, but since the Japanese Shogi Association was established in 1924, every kishi player has been a man. Now Nishiyama has earned the honor of “breaking a century-old ceiling” in the overwhelmingly “male-dominated game,” said The Japan Times.

Professional shogi matches bring together “some of the country’s most brilliant minds in subtle contests of technique, strategy and intuition,” said The Times, but there’s an “atmosphere of stifling maleness.” For years, women were thought to be “intellectually incapable” of competing at the highest levels. Nishiyama’s achievement finally put that to rest.

In her path to kishi, she encountered “repeated setbacks,” said The Japan Times. Her first effort, in 2021, fell short, and she was narrowly defeated in another bid last year, losing 2-3 in a trial where candidates must win three matches against five professionals. She finally earned her rank under a new ruling that allows five-time winners of the “prestigious” women’s Hakurei title to qualify for professional standing, which she formally accepted this week.

Senior women players have “always been kind to me” and “taught me about the difficulties of being a woman” in shogi, Nishiyama said ffter confirming her kishi status. “I’m very aware that the history built up by those players is what has allowed me to be where I am today.”

On this day

October 29, 1966

The National Organization for Women was officially established at an organizing conference in Washington, D.C. The women’s rights group elected Betty Friedan as its first president and released its statement of purpose, calling for members to “confront, with concrete action,” conditions preventing “equality of opportunity and freedom of choice” for women in the U.S.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Si, se puede’

“High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 68 and injures dozens,” The Philadelphia Inquirer says on Thursday’s front page. “Another crash plunges Spain in grief again,” The New York Times says. “Labor icon Dolores Huerta dies at 96, leaving lasting legacy,” The Sacramento Bee says. “‘Si, se puede’ — and yes, she did,” says the Houston Chronicle. “Fed holds steady, with two dissenters,” The Wall Street Journal says. “U.S. military spending on Iran war tops $47B,” says the Arizona Republic. “GOP works to blunt blue wave,” says USA Today. “Attack ad on Acton may have backfired,” The Columbus Dispatch says. Conservative influencers James O’Keefe, Cam Higby “facing ID theft charges,” The Minnesota Star-Tribune says. Federal prosecutor Bill Essayli “found to be serving illegally,” says the Los Angeles Times.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Fight for your ’mite

Andre McKechnie, an Australian man serving a life sentence for murder in Victoria state, has lost his legal battle to eat Vegemite in prison. McKechnie had argued in court that being denied the pungent yeasty spread violates his human rights because it’s an “integral part” of Australian culture. A judge ruled that the prison’s obligation to provide adequate meals did not extend to foods of cultural significance. Vegemite has been banned in Victoria prisons since 2006 over concerns it interferes with narcotic detection dogs.

Morning Report was written and edited by Will Barker, Nadia Croes, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.