Today’s Big Story

The HIV Vaccine

How close are we to a reliable vaxx or a possible cure?

At a major HIV conference this summer, scientists announced that a seventh person had been ‘cured’ of the disease. A 60-year-old man in Germany, after receiving a stem-cell transplant, has been free of the virus for almost six years, researchers reported. However, researchers say most long-term interventions remain a distant prospect.

But serious progress is being made on a vaccine to prevent infection. One major reason why it has been so difficult to develop an effective HIV vaccine is that the virus mutates very rapidly, allowing it to evade the antibody response generated by vaccines. But recently, researchers have now found that they can achieve an effective immune response with just two doses, given one week apart. The first dose, which is much smaller, prepares the immune system to respond more powerfully to the second, larger dose.

Each year, HIV infects more than 1 million people around the world, and some of those people do not have access to antiviral drugs. An effective vaccine would likely prevent many of those infections. But now, as is often the case with new medications, the question comes down to costs. The drugmaker Gilead Sciences on Wednesday announced a plan to allow six generic pharmaceutical companies in Asia and North Africa to make and sell at a lower price its groundbreaking drug lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injection that provides near-total protection from infection with HIV.

According to the New York Times, those companies will be permitted to sell the drug in 120 countries, including all the countries with the highest rates of HIV, which are in sub-Saharan Africa. Gilead will not charge the generic drugmakers for the licenses. Gilead says the deal, made just weeks after clinical trial results showed how well the drug works, will provide rapid and broad access to a medication that has the potential to end the decades-long HIV pandemic.

But the deal leaves out most middle- and high-income countries—including Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, China and Russia—that together account for about 20 percent of new infections. Gilead will sell its version of the drug in those countries at higher prices. Gilead charges $42,250 per patient per year for lenacapavir in the United States, where it is approved as a treatment for HIV. The generics makers—four companies in India, one in Pakistan and one in Egypt—are expected to sell it for much less. Researchers at Liverpool University found the drug could profitably be produced for as little as $40 per patient per year, if it were being purchased in large volumes.

Judge Unseals New Evidence in Federal Election Case Against Trump

The former president “resorted to crimes” to try to keep power in 2020, Jack Smith alleges

Special counsel Jack Smith outlined in a motion unsealed by a judge on Wednesday what he called former President Trump’s “increasingly desperate” efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election results. Trump and his legal team had opposed the motion, arguing it would interfere with the November election results. The filing unveils new details in connection to the Republican presidential nominee’s Jan. 6th case.

The filing offers the most comprehensive view to date of what prosecutors intend to prove if the case charging Trump with conspiring to overturn the election reaches trial. Although a months-long congressional investigation and the indictment itself have chronicled in stark detail Trump’s efforts to undo the election, the filing cites previously unknown accounts offered by Trump’s closest aides to paint a portrait of a president who, while losing his grip on the White House, “used deceit to target every stage of the electoral process.”

Among some of the new details: When told by an aide that Vice President Mike Pence was in danger and moved to a secure location at the Capitol on Jan. 6th, President Trump replied, “So what?” When one of his lawyers told him that his false claims that the election had been marred by widespread fraud would not hold up in court, Trump responded, “The details don’t matter.” Though the prospects of a trial are uncertain, particularly if Trump wins the presidency and a new attorney general seeks the dismissal of the case, the brief nonetheless functions as a roadmap for the testimony and evidence prosecutors would elicit before a jury. It’s now up to Judge Chutkan to decide which of Trump’s acts are official presidential conduct for which Trump is immune from prosecution and which are, in the words of Smith’s team, “private crimes” on which the case can proceed.

Formula 1 and LVMH Announce ‘Historic’ 10-Year Global Partnership

The luxury conglomerate took over the Paris Olympics. Now it’s come for F1’s global ascendance.

LVMH will become a top sponsor of car-racing franchise Formula One as the leading luxury group pushes further into the world of sport. (Remember how they were everywhere during this summer’s Olympics?) The decade-long deal is being called “historic” and will involve several of Bernard Arnault’s luxury empire’s top brands, including Louis Vuitton—the world’s biggest luxury brand by sales—drinks division Moët Hennessy and watchmaker Tag Heuer.

Luxury groups have increasingly targeted sports to grow their audience and popularity. While luxury has long been associated with elite sports like show jumping and tennis, links with more mainstream sports like basketball and football are becoming more frequent.

The deal comes despite the wider downturn in the luxury industry as aspirational consumers have cut back spending on products such as watches, jewelry and Champagne. The Wall Street Journal says that LVMH, which owns a stable of some 75 brands, sees F1 and its global reach as a vehicle for maintaining the upscale image of its brands while speaking to a broader audience. Neither LVMH nor F1 disclosed the terms of the deal, which people familiar with the matter said was worth just under €100 million, or about $110 million, a year.

The Cold Foam-ification of Coffee

Why einspänners are everywhere

Have you heard of an einspänner? It’s a Viennese drink that’s named after a horse-drawn carriage. According to Eater, carriage drivers wanted to insulate their hot coffees and prevent spillage as they drove, thus they topped their drinks with thick, dense layers of whipped cream. As with horse-drawn carriages, the hot part of the drink has dropped off. Now, the einspänner is generally made with ice and finished with a layer of frothed, sweetened cream, or a combination of milk and cream. Today, it’s suddenly everywhere.

Call it an einspänner, cold foam or a cream top. The drink has seen its highest search interest ever, in both the United States and globally, in the past two years; most of that growth has happened since late 2023, and much of it has come from South Korea. This is because as much as the einspänner is a product of Vienna, it’s also become synonymous with Seoul’s ascendant coffee culture, with some TikTok videos referring to einspänner drinks as “Korean-style.”

Of course, you’ll save a few bucks by making your coffee at home instead of swinging by the coffee shop. Silk—the popular vegan brand best known for bringing soy milk to the masses—has just debuted two varieties of canned cold foam creamers just in time for fall.

The Long Read

How Southern California became the epicenter of hype diets and twenty-dollar smoothies

Have faith.