| As the teenage daughter of Kim Jong Un, Kim Ju Ae has experienced what may be the most intense "bring-your-kid-to-work day" on the planet, featuring North Korea's finest selection of sniper rifles and missile tests. While some have framed the dictator as a proud "girl dad," the 50 nuclear warheads in Kim's arsenal are not just for performative photo ops with a potential successor.  Photographer: STR/AFP Watching Israel's strikes on Iran, Karishma Vaswani says that North Korea's leader will draw a dangerous conclusion: "Nuclear weapons are the ultimate guarantor of regime survival." Given the turmoil in the Middle East, she adds, his daughter is now all the more certain to inherit the nukes if she becomes the face of North Korea's dynasty. Which brings us to Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, the second-eldest son of Ali Khamenei. Marc Champion says "it is hard to imagine a scenario" in which the Khamenei heir's "ascent turns out to be a good outcome for America's latest war of choice in the Middle East, or for Iranians. Far from regime change, his selection as supreme leader represents regime consolidation. It makes any transition to a less confrontational Iran — let alone a secular democracy — still less likely than it was before." According to Bloomberg News' Golnar Motevalli, Khamenei, a seminarian-turned-real estate mogul with limited political experience, is set to continue his father's hardline approach to rule: "Prioritizing Islam and an anti-US foreign policy above all else. He could also use his leadership to avenge the killing of his father, mother and wife in the Feb. 28 strikes." He's also in deep with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — more so than even his dad. "The nexus of ideological glue, military muscle and financial control that has been the secret to this otherwise incompetent regime's ruthless durability remains intact," Marc warns. "Only a fortune teller can say whether the IRGC and other institutions of the Islamic Republic can endure the extraordinary levels of punishment that US and Israeli jets and missiles are meting out," Marc writes, "but what's clear is that Trump has failed to understand their rules for the game." Khamenei's father spent decades preparing for a fight. Iran, Marc says, "expected to be outclassed in the air. It expected decapitation strikes and had succession and decentralization plans in place." Even with the patriarch gone, he argues, "such a regime is unlikely to collapse or split. It is ready for a long war." Bonus Iran Reading: How does this war end? The US needs a better answer. — Bloomberg Editorial Board According to Lisa Jarvis, what doomed outgoing Food and Drug Administration chief Vinay Prasad wasn't his leaked Covid memo. Nor was it his refusal to consider a novel flu vaccine, or the toxic workplace culture he fostered at the department, or his very public dispute over a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy — although that was a close call. It was his request that some Huntington's disease patients undergo fake brain surgery to test UniQure's gene therapy. "The FDA last month told the company that data from its study of the treatment would be insufficient for approval, despite earlier agency guidance suggesting it was on the right course. Now, Prasad wanted a trial that compared the drug to a placebo," — a suggestion that Lisa says left the Huntington's disease community "stunned." According to UniQure, the sham procedure would involve about 10 hours of anesthesia. During the fake surgery, doctors would "superficially drill a hole on the skull" without going through the bone. The FDA disputes that timeframe, suggesting it would take less than 30 minutes and require "one to three nicks in the scalp." Even if it's the latter, what patient with a fatal neurological condition would go under the knife without guarantee of actual treatment? "When Prasad was appointed, I wondered if he could put aside the hot takes that brought him to this administration's attention and approach the job with humility," writes Lisa. "After all, he would be weighing decisions that for patients and their families are literally the difference between life and death." Let's hope his successor proves to be a different story. | 
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