MAGA voters warm to a Vance 2028 run and FDA approves Wegovy weight loss pill: Morning Rundown

Vance finds critical support for a 2028 presidential run at a conservative conference. The FDA approves a pill form of a popular weight loss drug. And, the journey from new parent to the Olympics.

Here's what to know today.

Vice President JD Vance has not made a formal announcement that he will attempt to succeed President Donald Trump, but a pivotal component of the grassroots MAGA coalition is beginning to support him nearly three years ahead of the 2028 election.

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Not only did Vance get an endorsement from Erika Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA and widow of Charlie Kirk, but a straw poll of attendees at its AmericaFest conference showed Vance taking 84% of support for the next presidential election, followed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at 5% and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 3%.

The results broadly reflect the sentiments AmericaFest attendees expressed in more than a dozen interviews at the four-day conference in Arizona, and they suggest Vance, who is also a favorite of some of the right's wealthiest tech leaders, is finding early success in holding together disparate segments of Trump's base at a fractious moment for other conservative luminaries.

None of the conference attendees who spoke to NBC News said they were opposed to Vance, who is widely expected to run. The last Republican vice president to run for president at the tail end of his term, George H.W. Bush, won a contested 1988 primary campaign and the presidency, and many Republicans foresee Vance trying to follow the same path.

Despite the general warmth for Vance, some attendees weren't yet ready to lock down their votes so early in the process, and others named candidates they might prefer.

Read the full story.

• Chuck Schumer said he would be introducing a resolution directing the Senate to "initiate legal action against the DOJ" for releasing only some of its records related to Jeffrey Epstein.

• CBS News announced it would pull a "60 Minutes" report about the Trump administration sending detainees to a maximum security "mega prison" in El Salvador just hours before its scheduled broadcast.

• Incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will be sworn into office by New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

• George Conway, the former conservative lawyer-turned-Trump critic, filed paperwork to run for Congress in New York City as a Democrat.

The Food and Drug Administration approved a pill version of Wegovy, Novo Nordisk's blockbuster weight loss drug.

The Wegovy pill is the first oral version of a GLP-1 drug that has been brought to market for weight loss. A second pill, from Eli Lilly, is also expected to be approved in the coming months.

Novo Nordisk hasn't released the list price for the pill, which must be taken daily, but it's expected to be cheaper than the weekly injections. Questions remain over insurance coverage.

Read the full story.

For almost two years, Samed Abu Zarifa and Samir Al Boji covered the Israel-Hamas war from inside Gaza as it unfolded around them. In a rare, intimate portrait of their daily lives since Oct. 7, when the war started, a documentary, "Filmed in Gaza," captured the camaraderie they developed in the face of challenges over the course of the fighting.

Samed, 32, has been a journalist with NBC News in Gaza for more than a decade. Samir, 42, has been a camera operator in Gaza for about 20 years. Prior to the war, their lives in Gaza were not perfect, but Samir said "Life was normal and suddenly you wake up to the sound of rockets and shelling."

International journalists were barred from entering Gaza unless escorted by the Israeli military, creating a yearslong foreign media blackout. The vast majority of coverage from inside Gaza has come from Palestinian journalists like Samed, Samir and the NBC News team there.

They jumped into action on the first day of airstrikes.

Read their story and watch "Filmed in Gaza."

• Singer-songwriter Barry Manilow announced he has lung cancer and will reschedule his shows to undergo surgery.

• Paramount and its controlling shareholders, the billionaire Ellison family, said the company was building out its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.

• Doctors across the country said flu season arrived earlier than usual and is hitting people — mainly kids, so far — especially hard.

• Teachers across the country are increasingly wrestling with knotty questions about whether and how to embrace AI in their classrooms.

• The Kansas City Chiefs will leave their longtime home in Missouri and play in Kansas starting in 2031.

• The NFL suspended Pittsburgh Steelers receiver DK Metcalf for two games without pay after he took a swing at a fan in Detroit.

By the time Olympic gold-medalist skier Ashley Caldwell returned home last July after giving birth to her son, she already had done the math on how long she had to qualify for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Italy — just seven months.

Making the games is already one of the most difficult feats in sports. Trying to do it as a new mother is even more challenging. The travel required for training and competitions can span the globe with an infant in tow. In often low-paying Olympic sports where athletes commonly have second jobs, finances can make or break a season. And that is on top of other postpartum concerns, including receiving enough support to physically and emotionally recover.

Caldwell and U.S. Ski & Snowboard teammate Faye Gulini might be athletic outliers as multi-time Olympians, yet in recent months each has undergone a universal struggle to balance their personal lives with their professional ambitions — part of the Olympic journey that is rarely seen. I wanted to know more about what went into their comebacks only months after giving birth. — Andrew Greif, sports reporter

From a small Massachusetts gym to the Olympic podium, Frederick Richard has become one of the sport's most electric young stars — and he's using the spotlight to open doors for boys who rarely see themselves represented.

Through high-energy videos, viral collaborations and his traveling "Frederick Flips Fair," he's bringing gymnastics straight to communities and inspiring kids to give the sport a try. Parents said his visibility is changing lives. Richard just calls it his mission.

Watch the video to see how Richard is changing gymnastics, one flip at a time.

NBCU Academy is a free, award-winning education program for developing new skills and advancing careers in journalism, media and tech.

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