WELL, GOOD: U.S. to Make More Drugs Easily Available, Cutting Role Docs Play.

The Food and Drug Administration in a draft guideline on Tuesday outlined how such a status, which the agency said could help lower health-care costs, would work. Patients could answer questions on a mobile-phone app to help determine whether they should be able to access a medication without a prescription.

“Our hope is that the steps we’re taking to advance this new, more modern framework will contribute to lower costs for our health care system overall and provide greater efficiency and empowerment for consumers by increasing the availability of certain products that would otherwise be available only by prescription,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement.

The proposal is meant to help companies start thinking about how they might seek approval for such drug sales. A new FDA regulation that would make the pathway official is expected next year. The move isn’t expected to lower the bar for shifting prescription drugs to over-the-counter status, Gottlieb said.

Finding a way to expand access to widely used prescription drugs has been a goal of regulators in recent years.

Try relaxing some drug regulations, fellas.

AVNER ZARMI: The Truth About George Soros.

CHANGE: Japan, EU sign free trade pact amid worries about Trump.

SEA STORY: USS Harry S. Truman Now Operating in Cold War Era Submarine Hot Spot.

A mere three months after deploying from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., a portion of the carrier strike group is now operating in the area of operations of U.S. Fleet Forces Command – which will soon be the territory of the reestablished U.S. 2nd Fleet – closer to Canada than to Europe. The region is where the Atlantic Ocean is its most deep and used to be a Cold War stalking ground for U.S. attack boats on the hunt for Soviet submarines.

U.S. Fleet Forces Command did not directly answer USNI News questions regarding Truman‘s activities so far west in the Atlantic, but the command did issue a statement late Monday.

“The National Defense Strategy directs us to be operationally unpredictable while remaining strategically predictable. As such, select units from the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) Carrier Strike Group (CSG) will return to Norfolk, Virginia, this week – a direct reflection of the dynamic force employment concept, and the inherent maneuverability and flexibility of the U.S. Navy,” commander of Fleet Forces Command Adm. Christopher Grady said in a statement.

The Navy had its size cut in less than half since 1989, in part on the dangerous assumption that no one would contest the Atlantic again.

OUCH: New Poll Suggests Dems Turn Against Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders for 2020. “73 percent want ‘a fresh face’.”

TYLER O’NEIL: Trump Attacked NATO Allies, Fist-Bumped Turkey’s Authoritarian Leader Erdoğan. “Leader of the free world says of authoritarian, ‘He does things the right way’.”

PERHAPS HE CAN FIND NEW WAYS TO MOTIVATE THEM: Kim Jong Un ‘extremely enraged,’ berates North Korean officials for unfinished projects.

Flashback: Kim Jong-Il Looking at Things.

WHAT THE HELL? Day care worker who tried to kill toddler by hanging him avoids prison as judge cites ‘perfect storm’ of events.

Nataliia Karia avoided prison time despite pleading guilty to attempted murder, third-degree assault and criminal vehicular operation for hitting a pedestrian, a bicyclist and another driver as she fled from her home in November of 2016.

A father was dropping off his son at Karia’s home when he found a toddler hanging from a noose in the basement. He released the child, and the 16-month-old boy survived.

Karia fled in her vehicle, striking a bicyclist and dragging another motorist 10 blocks after striking his car, according to the Star Tribune. The bicyclist needed a rod inserted in his leg to avoid amputation, according to the newspaper.

She would also hit a vehicle driven by a pregnant woman. Karia threatened to jump off an overpass before she was taken into custody.

Hennepin County District Judge Jay Quam sentenced her to 10-years probation on Monday after agreeing with doctors that she was a “low risk” to commit more crimes. Judge Quam said her actions were “the perfect storm of factors unlikely to ever be repeated,” according to the Star Tribune.

What’s the risk of her hanging any more toddlers from prison?

RELIEF: Oil Prices Plunge as Saudi Arabia Prepares Record Output.

BAKE THE CAKE, HATER: Uber Driver Boots Group of NC Young Republicans From Vehicle, Dumps Them at Gas Station. “Welcome to the resistance.”

HEALTH: Weight loss surgery may affect the risk of cancer.

This national population-based cohort study used data from the Hospital Episode Statistics database in England collected between 1997 and 2012. A total of 8794 obese patients who underwent gastric bypass, gastric banding, or sleeve gastrectomy were matched with 8794 obese individuals who did not have surgery.

Patients who underwent surgery had a 77% decreased risk of developing hormone-related cancer (breast, endometrial or prostate cancer) when compared with patients who did not have surgery.

Gastric bypass resulted in the largest risk reduction (84%) for hormone-related cancer but was associated with a greater than twofold increased risk of colorectal cancer.

Hmm.

GREAT NAME: U.K. Introduces New Fighter Jet: The Tempest.

The British government says the fighter should be ready for service by 2035.

U.K. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson introduced a full-sized model of the new Tempest multi-role fighter today at the Farnborough Air Show. The Tempest incorporates a host of new technologies that would surpass what’s in the F-35, meaning the British plane would join the growing group of “sixth-generation” fighters now on the drawing board.

One of Tempest’s most important technologies is optional manning, meaning it will be able to fly with a human pilot or without one. Tempest also would be able to direct a group swarming drones, complicating the enemy’s defense and enhancing the plane’s survivability.

It’s been a long time since the storied British aircraft industry produced a world-leading plane, but they’re certainly aiming high with this one.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: The Red Scare Heats Up and Much, Much More. “Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence, also countered Trump: ‘The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the President and policymakers,’ Coats said in a statement. ‘We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security’.”

SUBTEXT: Ukrainian troops keep Russia on their minds as they train with US Marines.

Exercise Sea Breeze, which launched July 9 and brings together 19 nations, is a lot like many other annual drills at the operational level, and it brought with it the standard messages from U.S. officials about European partnership and cooperation.

But in this case, Ukrainians are going to use what they learn to fight separatists backed by Russia, which took the Crimean Peninsula from them in 2014 and whose leader, Vladimir Putin, is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump on Monday in Helsinki.

Diplomacy is the art of saying “Nice doggie” until you can find a rock.

ALLIES: Congress Wants Recognition of Israeli Sovereignty Over Golan Heights.

The House’s National Security Subcommittee, led by chairman Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) will hold a hearing Tuesday to examine how recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the territory could bolster U.S. national security efforts to stem the flow of terrorists in the Jewish state and elsewhere in the region by giving the Jewish state unilateral control over the Syrian territory, where Iranian-backed fighters and other jihadists have been spotted since the start of a bloody civil war.

The push to have the Trump administration formally recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territory comes following a Monday afternoon press conference between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladamir Putin, where the two leaders discussed efforts to decrease tension in Syria.

When DeSantis and other Republicans pushed a congressional resolution recognizing Israeli control over the Golan Heights in May, it was nixed by GOP leadership who were seeking to prevent such a vote on the heels of the Trump administration’s successful effort to relocate the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The resolution had won support from Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and others.

The Heights have been in Israeli possession since 1967 and Syria hasn’t seriously contested that since 1973.

WHITE MAN’S BURDEN: How Venezuela Became China’s Money Pit. “Beijing is reportedly throwing good money after bad to the Latin American producer, but it has its reasons.”

The CSIS tallies $55 billion in energy-related loans alone that it has extended. Unable to come up with hard currency to service them, Venezuela has been paying in discounted barrels of oil but struggled even to do that after prices collapsed in 2014. China offered a “grace period” on some loans.

At one point when prices were higher and its oil industry less decrepit, Venezuela was sending China 600,000 barrels a day, according to Russ Dallen, the chief executive of Caracas Capital Markets, who has done extensive work untangling Venezuela’s opaque finances. He estimated that has brought the balance down to about $20 to $23 billion, plus another $3 billion to $4 billion owed to Russian oil company Rosneft.

The cash drain from these enormous debts may have exacerbated the decline in output, and there is scant chance that China’s latest infusion will do much to arrest the fall. Hence the market’s shrug at the news. But why does cash keep flowing in?

Part of it is the potential equity value of that bad debt.

They’ll pick the bones of Venezuela’s corpse, then expect us to take care of the humanitarian cleanup.

UNEXPECTEDLY: The $15 Minimum Wage Is Wreaking Havoc On New York City Dining.

This minimum wage spike has forced several New York City businesses to shutter their doors and will claim many more victims soon. Businesses must meet the $15 wage by the end of 2018, the culmination of mandatory increment increases that began in 2016. Restaurants where staff earn tips are subject to a $5 per hour tip credit, but must pay $10 per hour. That is nearly double the 2014 minimum wage of $8 with a $3 tip credit.

For many businesses, this egregious law is not just an inconvenience, it is simply unaffordable. The most recent victim is long-time staple, The Coffee Shop, a tremendously popular Union Square bar and café favored by many celebrities.

In explaining his decision to close following 28 years of high-volume business, owner Charles Milite told the New York Post, “The times have changed in our industry. The rents are very high and now the minimum wage is going up and we have a huge number of employees.”

If only there were some kind of predictable relationship between price and demand which politicians could look to before passing laws like this one.

HMM: DOJ Says Arrested Russian Agent Built Back Channel at National Prayer Breakfast, Gun-Rights Events.

VOX: To be clear: Trump only won the presidential election in 2016 because of the Electoral College.

CARL KOZLOWSKI: Meet the Other Side of Movie Star Dennis Quaid. “The veteran actor finds his inner rock star and shares why you won’t hear him getting political anytime soon.”

NARRATOR: IT’S A CHRISTMAS MOVIE. Bruce Willis officially declares that Die Hard is not a Christmas movie.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Worldwide Elites Still Don’t Understand Why They Keep Losing. “Yet so far the liberal world order has made no serious intellectual effort to understand the Wave, leaving the task to late-night comedians. They have preferred to depict it as the product of subhuman, bigoted minds whose feeble arguments can be contemptuously dismissed by symbolically floating rubber blimps over London; or by falling back on explanations such as Nazism, despite the fact we are in the wrong century, without a recent world war, in the middle of an economic boom and the beneficiaries of too many decades of politically correct instruction for that thesis to be easily accepted.”

Read the whole thing.

BLUE ON BLUE: Rhode Island Progressive Democrats Threaten to Topple Party Leadership. “Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo faces a tight race in November against GOP challenger Allan Fung, but first faces a party insurgency.”

ASHE SCHOW: Henry Cavill Caves, Apologizes For #MeToo Comments.

TONI AIRAKSINEN: Gym Profs Shun ‘Team Sports’ to Promote Social Justice.