LEVER WEEKLY: Side Effects Include Corporate Immunity

This is Lever Weekly, a recap of our work from the past week. If you only read one email from us all week, this should be it.

Here’s what The Lever published this week:

Brain Tumors, Big Pharma, And A Legal Escape Hatch. Women say Depo-Provera caused their brain tumors. Pfizer is invoking a powerful legal maneuver to try to silence them.

It’s The Corruption, Stupid. Democrats have a chance to revive their party and save American democracy. Will they take it?

Amazon Prime Day Is A Racket. A new class-action lawsuit claims many of the company’s biannual sale event markdowns aren’t deals at all.

Pfizer And Trump’s Empty Promises. The president claims he convinced Pfizer to voluntarily lower its drug prices, but the panacea is mostly just snake oil.

Four Ways Private Equity Might Kill You. Vulture capitalists want to profit off your health care, from the moment you’re born until the moment you die.

Big Tech Does ICE’s Bidding. At Attorney General Pam Bondi’s request, Apple is preventing communities from sharing information about ICE raids.

Wall Street Bets — On Polymarket. After Trump cleared the way for Polymarket to operate legally in the U.S., Wall Street wants a piece of the prediction market’s profits.

Too Big To Farm. Trump’s trade war and mass corporate consolidation are forcing American soybean farmers to grow crops with no one to sell to.

Kennedy’s MAHA Ally Rips Trump’s Toxic Herbicide Ruling “One can only imagine what the chemical companies hold over our policy makers to compel them to make this tragic decision,” Moms Across America said.

The Zillow And Redfin Convenience Trap. Buying a home has never been easier — so what’s the catch?

Bari Weiss, CBS News, And The Conservative Media Takeover. The billionaire-backed overhaul of CBS News is the culmination of a decades-long master plan.

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Not yet reading Lever Daily? You’re missing out on news like this:

🔥 Up in flames. Tensions are rising between the Trump administration and Belgium over the fate of $9.7 million worth of contraceptives. Instead of distributing the leftover medication from the now-gutted U.S. Agency for International Development, Trump regulators plan to incinerate it in Belgium, where it is stored — rejecting multiple offers from the Belgian government to purchase and distribute the products. Thanks to a local ban, they can’t legally be destroyed until they expire, but the U.S. government appears happy to hold the pharmaceuticals hostage until they reach the end of their shelf life.

🕊️ Kushner’s lucrative ceasefire. Israel and Hamas have agreed to “phase one” of a ceasefire plan that should see Oct. 7 hostages returned in exchange for a partial withdrawal from Gaza. The deal was brokered by two of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers: special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Kushner — a family friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and Witkoff also happen to be major real estate developers with millions of dollars in investments from partners in the region. Earlier this year, Kushner — a self-described “earnest businessman with no political ambitions” —  took a majority stake in an Israeli firm financing new settlements constructed in occupied Palestinian territory after waxing poetic about Gaza’s “waterfront property” and investment potential.

🌱 Soy to the world. Soybeans were America’s most lucrative agricultural export last year, but thanks to China’s retaliatory boycott in response to Trump’s tariffs, U.S. growers have lost their number-one customer. As farmers panic, regulators have announced a potential $20 billion bailout line of credit — not for U.S. farms, but for their competitors in MAGA-allied Argentina, which since “Liberation Day” has replaced America as a major soybean source for China. Monopolization in U.S. agriculture and heavy subsidies for exported soybeans and corn means that American farmers are “trapped” into mass-producing crops that, thanks to Trump, no one will buy.

• U.S. farmers now rely on “simple, but extremely large [cash crop] businesses” instead of smaller multi-crop operations, one U.S. agricultural worker told the BIG newsletter. “Farming has turned to a more corporate model that is solely focused on short-term profits.”

Every week, our paid subscribers receive a newsletter full of policy wins, environmental victories, and social initiatives improving their lives. 

A taste of this week’s good news:

• Price fixing takes a precedent-setting hit.
• The military gets its hands dirty (in a good way).
• Some HOA fees are DOA.
• A major health care hole gets plugged.

Lever Leaders provide us with our highest level of support and score additional perks in return, including an annual gift of limited-edition Lever merchandise, a yearly gift subscription for friends and family, and access to an exclusive Lever staff meeting for a sneak peek at our future plans. Every week, we highlight folks who’ve taken that step.

Join readers like Stephanie E., who had this to say about becoming a Lever Leader:

“There is no democracy without an independent media.”

The Bulwark — The publication published David Sirota’s essay on Democrats’ anti-corruption strategy.

American Campus Podcast — Katya Schwenk joined the university-focused podcast to discuss her reporting on Wall Street’s venture into campus bookstores.

The Sunday Long Read — The weekly roundup featured our story on the rise of bankification.

Racket — The Minnesota-focused publication referenced our reporting on BlackRock’s “scorched earth campaign” to buy up a major utility in the state.

The Western News — The publication referenced our reporting on legislators’ taxpayer-subsidized affordable health care.

Reason — The libertarian magazine criticized our reporting on Bari Weiss’ “corporate media takeover.”