Axios PM

December 30, 2025
Today's newsletter, edited by Alex Fitzpatrick, is 623 words, a 2½-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.
🕯️ Tatiana Schlossberg — environmental journalist and granddaughter of John F. Kennedy — died at 35 today. She revealed her acute myeloid leukemia diagnosis last month in a moving and widely shared first-person piece in The New Yorker. "She will always be in our hearts," the family said in a statement.
- Read her essay, "A Battle with My Blood."
1 big thing: Health care sticker shock coming

More than 20 million Americans who buy health insurance on Affordable Care Act marketplaces are set to see their premiums more than double next year, Axios Future of Health Care author Caitlin Owens writes.
- Why it matters: Enhanced ACA subsidies — which lower health insurance costs on marketplaces — will expire tomorrow.
🧮 By the numbers: ACA insurers themselves are raising premiums by an estimated 26%, in part due to rising hospital costs, higher demand for pricey drugs and the threat of tariffs.
- But add in the loss of those federal subsidies, and the increase is 114% — or more than double what enrollees currently pay, according to KFF.
- 22 million out of 24 million marketplace enrollees now receive subsidies.
Zoom out: Democrats are planning to hammer Republicans for high costs in all forms of health insurance ahead of next year's midterm elections.
2. 🥙 Food biz faces new GLP-1 challenge

Food brands may need to overhaul more of their products as GLP-1 pills become available next month, analysts tell Reuters.
- 💊 GLP-1 pills will be cheaper and easier than injections, likely driving even more Americans to try them for weight loss.
🍔 The medication is fueling demand for more protein and smaller portions — while also driving down food sales.
- 📉 Households using GLP-1s cut spending at grocery stores by 5.3% and at fast-food restaurants by about 8% on average, one study found.
🌾 Packaged food company Conagra has started labeling some of its Healthy Choice frozen meals with high protein and fiber as "GLP-1 friendly."
- It plans to introduce new offerings with the same labeling in May, and it will work with grocers to market them.
Nestle has introduced new "Vital Pursuit" frozen meals that cater specifically to GLP-1 users.
- 🍗 Fast-casual Mexican chain Chipotle recently added a High Protein Menu that includes a single cup of chicken or steak.
3. ⚡️ Catch me up

- 🇮🇱 Israel is suspending more than two dozen humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, for failing to meet its new rules for international organizations working in the Gaza Strip. Go deeper.
- 🏥 The Trump administration can share basic Medicaid information about undocumented immigrants with ICE, a federal judge ruled. Go deeper.
- 💰 Meta's acquisition of Manus AI could be worth around $2.5 billion, Axios' Dan Primack learned from a source. The startup claims its general AI agent can complete various real-world tasks, going beyond chatbot or workflow functions. Go deeper.
- 🇫🇷 George Clooney, his wife Amal, and their twins Ella and Alexander have been awarded French citizenship. "I was worried about raising our kids in L.A., in the culture of Hollywood," Clooney recently told Esquire. "I don't want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don't want them being compared to somebody else's famous kids." Go deeper.
4. 🦞 1 for the road: $400K lobster heist

Lobster thieves allegedly made off with a $400,000 truckload of the prized shellfish earlier this month.
- 🚔 The heist took place Dec. 12 at a Taunton, Mass., warehouse, USA Today reports.
- It involved a shipment meant for Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota.
📰 Dylan Rexing, CEO of freight broker Rexing Companies, told the paper: "In this instance, we hired someone we thought was legitimate, but the legitimate carrier company was being impersonated by someone else in a very sophisticated way."
- 💰 Rexing estimates the thieves could wind up pocketing $200,000 after reselling the pilfered delicacy.
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