KELI From Inkwell, this is the Independent News Drop. It's Friday, May twenty-ninth. The time is six a.m. Central. I'm Keli, with Hast.
HAST Good morning. We're leading on tax returns and a immunity story that got buried under transparency talk.
KELI From our Ground News desk: on May twentieth, the Department of Justice waived all pending IRS claims against former President Trump on his pre-settlement filings. Same day, in a gaggle, Trump said he may even release his current returns. Most newsrooms led with the second statement — framed it as a transparency move, a shift in his position. But the structural fact is the first one. For years, Trump cited an ongoing audit as the reason he couldn't release returns. That audit claim, at least the legal cover for it, ended when DOJ dropped all pending claims. The release of current returns is optional. The waiver is permanent. One answers the long-standing question about why he wouldn't show the older filings. The other is a hypothetical. Watch the next forty-eight hours: if he releases current returns, newsrooms will call it a win for transparency advocates. If he doesn't, the story moves on. Either way, the audit excuse is off the table.
HAST Staying with medical news now. ASCO — that's the American Society of Clinical Oncology — is in its second day of meetings, and Pfizer and BioNTech are presenting new data on bispecific antibodies for lung cancer. We've covered this conference before. The takeaway this morning is that Rick Pazdur, who's the FDA's top cancer official, sees what he called a silver lining in the data. Means these drugs, at least in early trials, are showing the kind of response rates that could matter for patients who've run out of options.
KELI Back overseas now. Paris was a scene last night. Thousands of fans took to the streets after PSG beat Arsenal in the Champions League. Police say hundreds were arrested. Some fans were firing flares, and city officials deployed thousands of officers to manage the crowds. It's the third time we're tracking this particular match fallout, so it speaks to how big these continental tournaments get in Europe.
HAST Different scale, but Peru's in its own moment. Thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of Lima yesterday to protest Keiko Fujimori's presidential bid. Fujimori, daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, is running for office again. The protests mark the beginning of what's likely to be a fractious campaign season there.
KELI Before we close, a history note.
HAST On this day in 2008, a doublet earthquake struck near the Icelandic town of Selfoss, with a combined magnitude of six-point-one, injuring thirty people.
KELI That's the Independent News Drop. We'll be back this evening. From Inkwell.