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For the first time in a decade, obesity in the U. S. is declining — and a new study suggests it’s because of wildly popular medications such as Ozempic. The number of obese Americans has been steadily climbing for years, and the country’s average body mass index, or BMI, has been creeping up along with it.

Hackers trying to extort the Rhode Island government infiltrated the state's public benefits system, causing state officials to shut down online services that let residents apply for Medicaid and other assistance programs. "As part of this investigation today, we discovered that within the Rhode Island Bridges system, a cybercriminal had installed dangerous malware that constituted an urgent threat," Governor Dan McKee said at a Friday night press conference, according to The Providence Journal.

The final Chicago-area home that former Bulls Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen once owned — a five-bedroom, 10,000-square-footer in Highland Park complete with an indoor basketball court — sold Nov. 1 for $2.28 million, which was an amount barely higher than what Pippen and then-wife Larsa had paid for it in 2004. During his time both with and after he starred for the Bulls, Pippen owned a pair of mansions in Highland Park as well as a condo on Lake Shore Drive on the Gold Coast. He owned his first mansion in Highland Park, an eight-bedroom, 8,228-square-foot mansion on Shady Lane, from the time he custom-built it in the 1990s until selling it in 1996 for $1.75 million. It most recently sold in early 2023 for $1.53 million. In 2004 — shortly before his second tour of duty with the Bulls came to an end — Pippen and then-wife Larsa paid $2.225 million for the 10,000-square-foot mansion in Highland Park on Old Mill Road that currently is for sale.

Just as Amazon warehouse workers are threatening to launch the "first large-scale" unfair labor practices strike at Amazon in US history, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released a report accusing Amazon of operating "uniquely dangerous warehouses" that allegedly put profits over worker safety. As chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Sanders started investigating Amazon in June 2023.

T-Mobile today said it opened registration for the "T-Mobile Starlink" beta service that will enable text messaging via satellites in dead zones not covered by cell towers. T-Mobile's announcement said the service using Starlink's low-Earth orbit satellites will "provid[e] coverage for the 500,000 square miles of land in the United States not covered by earth-bound cell towers." Starlink parent SpaceX has so far launched over 300 satellites with direct-to-cell capabilities, T-Mobile noted. A registration page says, "We expect the beta to begin in early 2025, starting with texting and expanding to data and voice over time.

The incoming Trump administration has even more plans to delay electric vehicle adoption than previously thought. According to Reuters, which has seen transition team documents, the Trump team wants to abolish EV subsidies, claw back federal funding meant for EV charging infrastructure, block EV battery imports on national security grounds, and prevent the federal government and the US military from purchasing more EVs. During the campaign, candidate Trump made repeated references to ending a supposed EV mandate.