Author: PolitCens

WASHINGTON — Changes are coming to the cold and cough aisle of your local pharmacy: U.S. officials are moving to phase out the leading decongestant found in hundreds of over-the-counter medicines, concluding that it doesn’t actually relieve nasal congestion.

Phenylephrine is used in popular versions of Sudafed, Dayquil and other medications, but experts have long questioned its effectiveness. Last month the Food and Drug Administration formally proposed revoking its use in pills and liquid solutions, kicking off a process that’s likely to force drugmakers to remove or reformulate products.

It’s a win for skeptical academics, including researchers at the University of Florida who petitioned the FDA to revisit the drug’s use in 2007 and again in 2015. For consumers it will likely mean switching to alternatives, including an older decongestant that was moved behind the pharmacy counter nearly 20 years ago.

Doctors say Americans will be better off without phenylephrine, which is often combined with other medicines to treat cold, flu, fever and allergies.

“People walk into the drugstore today and see 55,000 medicines on the shelf and they pick one that is definitely not going to work,” said Dr. Brian Schroer of the Cleveland Clinic. “You take away that option and it will be easier for them to self-direct toward products that really will help them.”

Why is FDA doing this now?

The FDA decision was expected after federal advisers last year voted unanimously that oral phenylephrine medications haven’t been shown to relieve congestion.

Experts reviewed several recent, large studies indicating that phenylephrine was no better than a placebo at clearing nasal passageways. They also revisited studies from the 1960s and 1970s that supported the drug’s initial use, finding numerous flaws and questionable data.

The panel’s opinion only applied to phenylephrine in oral medications, which account for roughly $1.8 billion in annual U.S. sales. The drug is still considered effective in nasal sprays, though those are much less popular.

Phenylephrine wasn’t always the top choice for cold and allergy products. Many were originally formulated with a different drug, pseudoephedrine.

But a 2006 law required pharmacies to move pseudoephedrine products behind the counter, citing their potential to be processed into methamphetamine. Companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Bayer decided to reformulate their products to keep them readily available on store shelves — and labeled many of them as “PE” versions of familiar brand names.

What are some alternatives for congestion?

Consumers who still want to take pills or syrups for relief will probably need to head to the pharmacy counter — where the pseudoephedrine-containing versions of Sudafed, Claritin D and other products remain available without a prescription. Purchasers need to provide a photo ID.

Beyond those products, most of the other options are over-the-counter nasal sprays or solutions.

Saline drops and rinses are a quick way to clear mucus from the nose. For long-term relief from seasonal stuffiness, itching and sneezing, many doctors recommend nasal steroids, sold as Flonase, Nasacort and Rhinocort.

“These medicines are by far the most effective daily treatment for nasal congestion and stuffiness,” Schroer said. “The biggest issue is they’re not great when used on an as-needed basis.”

Nasal steroids generally have to be used daily to be highly effective. For short-term relief, patients can try antihistamine sprays, such as Astepro, which are faster acting.

Phenylephrine-based sprays will also remain on pharmacy shelves.

Why doesn’t phenylephrine work when taken by mouth?

The experts who challenged the drug’s effectiveness say it’s quickly broken down and rendered ineffective when it hits the stomach.

“This is a good drug, but not when it’s swallowed,” said Leslie Hendeles, professor emeritus at the University of Florida’s College of Pharmacy, where he co-authored several papers on the ingredient. “It’s inactivated in the gut and doesn’t get into the bloodstream, so it can’t get to the nose.”

When Hendeles and his colleagues first petitioned the FDA on phenylephrine, they suggested a higher dose might be effective. But subsequent studies showed that even doses 400% higher than those currently recommended don’t treat stuffiness.

The FDA and other researchers concluded that pushing the dosage even higher might carry safety risks.

“If you’re using very high doses, the risk is raising blood pressure so high that it could be hazardous to patients,” said Randy Hatton, a University of Florida professor who co-led the research on phenylephrine.

Because of its cardiovascular effects, the drug is sometimes used to treat dangerously low blood pressure during surgery, Hatton noted.

What happens next?

Oral phenylephrine medicines will still be with us for a while.

Government regulators must follow a public, multistep process to remove the ingredient from FDA’s list of drugs approved for over-the-counter decongestants.

For six months, the FDA must take comments on its proposal, including from consumers and companies. Then, the FDA must review the feedback before writing a final order. Even after that decision is finalized, companies will likely have a year or more to remove or reformulate products.

Drugmakers could further delay the process by requesting additional FDA hearings.

For now, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association — which represents medicine makers — wants the products to stay available, saying Americans deserve “the option to choose the products they prefer for self-care.”

Hatton says he and his colleagues disagree: “Our position is that choosing from something that doesn’t work isn’t really a choice.” 
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A genetic analysis suggests the bird flu virus mutated inside a Louisiana patient who contracted the nation’s first severe case of the illness, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week.

Scientists believe the mutations may allow the virus to better bind to receptors in the upper airways of humans — something they say is concerning but not a cause for alarm.

Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota infectious-disease researcher, likened this binding interaction to a lock and key. To enter a cell, the virus needs to have a key that turns the lock, and this finding means the virus may be changing to have a key that might work.

“Is this an indication that we may be closer to seeing a readily transmitted virus between people? No,” Osterholm said. “Right now, this is a key that sits in the lock, but it doesn’t open the door.”

The virus has been causing sporadic, mostly mild illnesses in people in the United States; nearly all of those infected worked on dairy or poultry farms.

The patient in the U.S. state of Louisiana was hospitalized in critical condition with severe respiratory symptoms from bird flu after coming in contact with sick and dead birds in a backyard flock. The person, who has not been identified, is older than 65 and has underlying medical problems, officials said earlier this month.

The CDC stressed there has been no known transmission of the virus from the Louisiana patient to anyone else. The agency said its findings about the mutations were “concerning,” but the risk to the general public from the outbreak “has not changed and remains low.”

Still, Osterholm said, scientists should continue to follow what’s happening with mutations carefully.

“There will be additional influenza pandemics, and they could be much worse than we saw with COVID,” he said. “We know that the pandemic clock is ticking. We just don’t know what time it is.”
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Health care organizations may be required to bolster their cybersecurity to better prevent sensitive information from being leaked by cyberattacks like the ones that hit Ascension and UnitedHealth, a senior White House official said Friday.

Anne Neuberger, the U.S. deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, told reporters that proposed requirements are necessary in light of the massive number of Americans whose data has been affected by large breaches of health care information. The proposals include encrypting data so it cannot be accessed, even if leaked, and requiring compliance checks to ensure networks meet cybersecurity rules.

The full proposed rule was posted to the Federal Register on Friday, and the Department of Health and Human Services posted a more condensed breakdown on its website.

She said that the health care information of more than 167 million people was affected in 2023 as a result of cybersecurity incidents.

The proposed rule from the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within HHS would update standards under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and would cost an estimated $9 billion in the first year, and $6 billion in years two through five, Neuberger said.

“We’ve made some significant proposals that we think will improve cybersecurity and ultimately everyone’s health information, if any of these proposals are ultimately finalized,” an OCR spokesperson told Reuters late Friday. The next step in the process is a 60-day public comment period before any final decisions will be made.

Large health care breaches caused by hacking and ransomware have increased by 89% and 102%, respectively, since 2019, Neuberger said.

“In this job, one of the most concerning and really troubling things we deal with is hacking of hospitals, hacking of health care data,” she said.

Hospitals have been forced to operate manually and Americans’ sensitive health care data, mental health information and other information are “being leaked on the dark web with the opportunity to blackmail individuals,” Neuberger said.
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A U.S. appeals court has halted enforcement of an anti-money laundering law that requires corporate entities to disclose the identities of their real beneficial owners to the U.S. Treasury Department ahead of a deadline for most companies to do so.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated late Thursday a nationwide injunction that had been issued this month by a federal judge in Texas who had concluded the Corporate Transparency Act was unconstitutional.

The order marked a change of course for the court. On Monday, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit at the urging of the U.S. Department of Justice put the injunction on hold while the government appealed the Texas judge’s decision.

But a different panel will ultimately decide whether to uphold the judge’s ruling, and in Thursday’s order, the court said it decided to keep enforcement of the law paused “to preserve the constitutional status quo while the merits panel considers the parties’ weighty substantive arguments.”

Those arguments will be heard on March 25, the court said Friday. Before Thursday’s order, most companies had faced a Jan. 13 deadline to submit their initial reports to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

The injunction had been obtained by the National Federation of Independent Business, which along with several small businesses challenged the law through lawyers at the conservative Center for Individual Rights.

“Given that we have established that the CTA is likely unconstitutional, this intrusive form of government surveillance should be halted until the law’s fate is finally resolved,” Todd Gaziano, the Center for Individual Rights’ president, said in a statement.

FinCEN did not respond to requests for comment.

Under the law, which was enacted in 2021, corporations and LLCs were required to report information concerning their beneficial owners to FinCEN, which collects and analyzes information about financial transactions to combat money laundering and other crimes.

The measure’s supporters said it was designed to address the country’s growing popularity as a venue for criminals to launder illicit funds by setting up entities such as limited liability companies under state laws without disclosing their involvement.

U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant in Sherman, Texas, on Dec. 3 ruled Congress had no authority under its powers to regulate commerce, taxes and foreign affairs to adopt the “quasi-Orwellian statute” and that it likely violated states’ rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment.
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President-elect Donald Trump’s threats of mass deportations are harming the mental health of many immigrants, psychologists and organizations warn.

Click here for the full story in Spanish.

  
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump made immigration a key focus of his 2024 presidential campaign. His incoming administration is planning stricter enforcement. VOA’s Immigration Correspondent Aline Barros explains what these policies might mean.
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NEW YORK — Richard Parsons, one of corporate America’s most prominent Black executives who held top posts at Time Warner and Citigroup, died Thursday. He was 76. 

Parsons, who died at his Manhattan home, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and cited “unanticipated complications” from the disease for cutting back on work a few years later. 

The financial services company Lazard, where Parsons was a longtime board member, confirmed his death. 

David Zaslav, the president and CEO of Time Warner successor Warner Bros. Discovery, remembered Parsons as a “great mentor and friend” and a “tough and brilliant negotiator, always looking to create something where both sides win.” 

“All who got a chance to work with him and know him saw that unusual combination of great leadership with integrity and kindness,” Zaslav said, calling him “one of the great problem solvers this industry has ever seen.” 

Parsons’ friend Ronald Lauder told The New York Times that the cause of death was cancer. Parsons stepped down on December 3 from the boards of Lazard and Lauder’s company, Estee Lauder, citing health reasons. He had been on Estee Lauder’s board for 25 years. 

Parsons, a Brooklyn native who started college at 16, was named chairman of Citigroup in 2009, one month after leaving Time Warner Inc., where he helped restore the company’s stature following its much-maligned acquisition by internet provider America Online Inc. 

He steered Citigroup back to profit after financial turmoil from the subprime mortgage crisis, which upended the economy in 2007 and 2008. 

Parsons was named to the board of CBS in September 2018 but resigned a month later because of illness. 

“Dick’s storied career embodied the finest traditions of American business leadership,” Lazard said in a statement. The company, where Parsons was a board member from 2012 until this month, praised his “unmistakable intelligence and his irresistible warmth.” 

“Dick was more than an iconic leader in Lazard’s history — he was a testament to how wisdom, warmth, and unwavering judgment could shape not just companies, but people’s lives,” the company said. “His legacy lives on in the countless leaders he counseled, the institutions he renewed, and the doors he opened for others.” 

Parsons was known as a skilled negotiator, a diplomat and a crisis manager. 

Although he was with Time Warner through its difficulties with AOL, he earned respect for the company and rebuilt its relations with Wall Street. He streamlined Time Warner’s structure, pared debt and sold Warner Music Group and a book publishing division. 

He also fended off a challenge from activist investor Carl Icahn in 2006 to break up the company and helped Time Warner reach settlements with investors and regulators over questionable accounting practices at AOL. 

Parsons joined Time Warner as president in 1995 after serving as chairman and chief executive of Dime Bancorp Inc., one of the largest U.S. thrift institutions. 

In 2001, after AOL used its fortunes as the leading provider of internet access in the U.S. to buy Time Warner for $106 billion in stock, Parsons became co-chief operating officer with AOL executive Robert Pittman. 

Parsons became CEO in 2002 and was named chairman the following year, replacing AOL founder Steve Case, who had also championed the combination. 

The newly formed company’s internet division quickly became a drag on Time Warner. The promised synergies between traditional and new media never materialized. AOL began seeing a reduction in subscribers in 2002 as Americans replaced dial-up connections with broadband from cable TV and phone companies. 

Parsons stepped down as CEO in 2007 and as chairman in 2008. A year later AOL split from Time Warner and began trading as a separate company. 

A board member of Citigroup and its predecessor, Citibank, since 1996, Parsons was named chairman in 2009 at a time of turmoil for the financial institution. Citigroup had suffered five straight quarters of losses and received $45 billion in government aid. Its board had been criticized for allowing the bank to invest so heavily in the risky housing market. 

Parsons, a Republican, previously worked as a lawyer for Nelson Rockefeller, a former Republican governor of New York, and in Gerald Ford’s White House. Those early stints gave him grounding in politics and negotiations. He also was an economic adviser on President Barack Obama’s transition team. 

Parsons, whose love of jazz led to co-owning a Harlem jazz club, served as chairman of the Apollo Theater and the Jazz Foundation of America. He held positions on the boards of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. 

Parsons played basketball at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and received his law degree from Albany Law School in 1971. He is survived by his wife, Laura, and their family. 
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday its analysis of samples from the first severe case of bird flu in the country last week showed mutations not seen in samples from an infected backyard flock on the patient’s property.

The CDC said the patient’s sample showed mutations in the hemagglutinin (HA) gene, the part of the virus that plays a key role in it attaching to host cells.

The health body said the risk to the public from the outbreak has not changed and remains low.

Last week, the United States reported its first severe case of the virus, in a Louisiana resident above the age of 65, who was suffering from severe respiratory illness.

The patient was infected with the D1.1 genotype of the virus that was recently detected in wild birds and poultry in the United States, and not the B3.13 genotype detected in dairy cows, human cases and some poultry in multiple states.

The mutations seen in the patient are rare but have been reported in some cases in other countries and most often during severe infections. One of the mutations was also seen in another severe case from British Columbia, Canada.

No transmission from the patient in Louisiana to other persons has been identified, the CDC said. 
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — As the world prepares for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Taiwan finds itself sandwiched between Washington and Beijing as it grapples with uncertainties about the outlook of U.S.-Taiwan relations and growing military pressure from China.

Trump has already picked several politicians known for their hawkish stances on China as potential nominees for his Cabinet, including Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz, but analysts say the president-elect’s comments about Taiwan on the campaign trail and in recent interviews have not offered much clarity about how he might handle one of Washington’s most delicate relationships.

“We don’t know if [Trump] means it when he wants to return the United States to a more isolationist position,” said J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based senior fellow with the Global Taiwan Institute.

During an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek in July, Trump said Taiwan should pay the United States for defense and compared U.S. military spending on Taiwan to an insurance policy.

“I know the people very well. Respect them greatly. They did take 100% of our chip business. I think Taiwan should pay us for defense,” he said.

In October, Trump pledged to impose additional tariffs on China if Beijing were to “go into Taiwan.”

“I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you, at 150% to 200%,” the President-elect said during an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

In his first post-election interview with NBC News on Dec. 8, Trump didn’t publicly say whether the U.S. would militarily defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.

“I’d prefer that they don’t do it,” Trump said, adding that he has a “very good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that the two have been communicating since last month’s election.

During his time in office, U.S. President Joe Biden has on multiple occasions said his administration would defend Taiwan if it was attacked.

Not panicking, but concerned

Some Taiwanese residents worry about what they describe as a lack of clarity from the Trump administration.

“I’m slightly concerned about how Trump’s return to the White House might affect relations between the U.S. and Taiwan because he always prioritizes U.S. interests, which makes it hard to predict how his administration might form their Taiwan policies,” Angel Chi, a 28-year-old medical worker, told VOA in a recent interview on the streets of Taipei.

Others say while Trump’s position on Taiwan seems uncertain, they do not think his administration will reduce support for Taipei.

“I still have faith in the U.S. democratic system because he can’t decide everything by himself,” Christine Chiu, a 42-year-old accountant, told VOA.

The strong bipartisan support for Taiwan in Congress and some potential Trump Cabinet members’ track records on foreign policy could prevent U.S.-Taiwan relations from undergoing major changes during Trump’s second term, experts said.

“I don’t think there is panic in Taipei because we dealt with this situation before and we have confidence in our congressional support in the U.S.,” said Lai I-Chung, president of The Prospect Foundation, a Taiwan-based think tank made up of academics and government officials.

“The mood [in Taiwan] is we will be careful and watchful about the development, but we are not panicking,” he told VOA in an interview in Taipei.

Taiwan-US relations

In recent weeks, Taiwan’s government has been reaching out to Republican congressional leaders and Trump’s transition team. Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te spoke with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on the phone during his first overseas trip to the Pacific region in early December. On that trip, Lai had stopovers in Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam.

Additionally, two senior national security officials from Taiwan traveled to the U.S. last week to meet members of Trump’s transition team, hoping to establish ties before next month’s inauguration, Reuters news agency reported last on Dec. 19.

Cole said there should be enough “institutional resistance” in the U.S. government to prevent longstanding policies toward Taiwan from being abruptly altered.

During a regular press conference on Dec. 6, China’s Foreign Ministry responded to a question on Lai’s stopover in Guam and Hawaii and said, “No one should underestimate the firm resolve, will and ability of the Chinese government and people to safeguard sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

China’s military pressure campaign

As Taiwan tries to deepen its engagement with U.S. officials and the incoming Trump administration, China has been increasing military pressure on the island throughout 2024.

Beijing has conducted two blockade-style military exercises around Taiwan since Lai took office in May.

Last week, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Beijing deployed the largest number of naval and coast guard vessels to regional waters in almost three decades.

Apart from military exercises, China has increased pressure on Taiwan through a range of what are called gray zone operations, measures that involve irregular tactics but stop short of combat.

China’s use of its coast guard to intimidate and test Taiwan is one example of those gray zone tactics.

Beijing has repeatedly sent coast guard vessels to patrol waters near Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen and Matsu islands since February. Kinmen and Matsu are closer to China than they are to the main island of Taiwan.

The Prospect Foundation’s Lai said China has some coast guard vessels that are similar in size to naval destroyers, making it harder for Taiwan’s coast guard to respond proportionately.

“It would be difficult for Taiwan to [deploy] naval vessels against the Chinese coast guard, and when Taiwan responds by deploying its coast guard forces, the vessels are smaller ships [while] the Chinese coast guard vessels are as big as navy ships,” he told VOA.

Countering China

To counter the growing military pressure and gray zone operations from Beijing, Taiwan has incorporated more unscripted, real-combat drills into its annual military exercises.

The island has also increased its defense budget in recent years, which is set to reach a new high of $19.74 billion dollars in 2025.

This year, Taiwan’s government also established a committee to help strengthen the island’s civil defense capabilities.

Cole said Taiwan still faces challenges in that regard.

“There is still quite a bit of resistance not only within the security apparatus and armed forces, which don’t like the idea of involving citizens in defense, the opposition parties have also sought to derail [relevant] plans and fundings,” he told VOA.

What may come next depends on Taiwan’s actions and Beijing’s assessment of Trump’s policies toward the island after he takes office in January.
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New York — As a Democrat who immersed himself in political news during the presidential campaign, Ziad Aunallah has much in common with many Americans since the election. He’s tuned out. 

“People are mentally exhausted,” said Aunallah, 45, of San Diego. “Everyone knows what is coming and we are just taking some time off.” 

Television ratings — and now a new poll — clearly illustrate the phenomenon. About two-thirds of American adults say they have recently felt the need to limit media consumption about politics and government because of overload, according to the survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. 

Smaller percentages of Americans are limiting their intake of news about overseas conflicts, the economy or climate change, the poll says. Politics stand out. 

Election news on CNN and MSNBC was taking up too much of Sam Gude’s time before the election, said the 47-year-old electrician from Lincoln, Nebraska. “The last thing I want to watch right now is the interregnum,” said Gude, a Democrat and no fan of President-elect Donald Trump. 

Poll finds more Democrats than Republicans stepping away from news 

The poll, conducted in early December, found that about 7 in 10 Democrats say they are stepping back from political news. The percentage isn’t as high for Republicans, who have reason to celebrate Trump’s victory. Still, about 6 in 10 Republicans say they’ve felt the need to take some time off too, and the share for independents is similar. 

The differences are far starker for the TV networks that have been consumed by political news. 

After election night through Dec. 13, the prime-time viewership of MSNBC was an average of 620,000, down 54% from the pre-election audience this year, the Nielsen company said. For the same time comparison, CNN’s average of 405,000 viewers was down 45%. 

At Fox News Channel, a favorite news network for Trump fans, the post-election average of 2.68 million viewers is up 13%, Nielsen said. Since the election, 72% of the people watching one of those three cable networks in the evening were watching Fox News, compared to 53% prior to election day. 

A post-election slump for fans of the losing candidate is not a new trend for networks that have become heavily identified for a partisan audience. MSNBC had similar issues after Trump was elected in 2016. Same for Fox in 2020, although that was complicated by anger: many of its viewers were outraged then by the network’s crucial election night call of Arizona for the Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, and sought alternatives. 

MSNBC had its own anger issues after several “Morning Joe” viewers became upset that hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski visited Trump shortly after his victory last month. Yet while the show’s ratings are down 35% since Election Day, that’s a smaller drop than the network’s prime-time ratings. 

CNN points out that while it has been suffering in the television ratings, its streaming and digital ratings have been consistent. 

Will political interest rebound when Trump takes office? 

MSNBC can take some solace in history. In previous years, network ratings bounce back when the depression after an election loss lifts. When a new administration takes office, people who oppose it are frequently looking for a gathering place. 

“I’ll be tuning back in once the clown show starts,” Aunallah said. “You have no choice. Whether or not you want to hear it, it’s happening. If you care about your country, you have no choice but to pay attention.” 

But the ride may not be smooth. MSNBC’s slide is steeper than it was in 2016; and there’s some question about whether Trump opponents will want to be as engaged as they were during his first term. People are also unplugging from cable television in rates that are only getting more rapid, although MSNBC believes it has bucked this trend eating away at audiences before. 

The poll indicates that Americans want less talk about politics from public figures in general. After an election season where endorsements from celebrities like Taylor Swift made headlines, the survey found that Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of celebrities, large companies and professional athletes speaking out about politics. 

Still, Gude is among those discovering other ways to get news to which he does want to pay attention, including on YouTube. 

MSNBC is also in the middle of some corporate upheaval that raises questions about potential changes. Parent company Comcast announced last month that the cable network is among some properties that will spin off into a new company, which will give MSNBC new corporate leadership and cut its ties to NBC News. 

Advice for networks who want to see the viewers return 

Some of the Americans who have turned away from political news lately also had some advice for getting them engaged again. 

Gude said, for example, that MSNBC will always have a hard-core audience of Trump haters. But if the network wants to expand its audience, “then you have to talk about issues, and you have to stop talking about Trump.” 

Kathleen Kendrick, a 36-year-old sales rep from Grand Junction, Colorado, who’s a registered independent voter, said she hears plenty of people loudly spouting off about their political opinions on the job. She wants more depth when she watches the news. Much of what she sees is one-sided and shallow, she said. 

“You get a story but only part of a story,” Kendrick said. “It would be nice if you could get both sides, and more research.” 

Aunallah, similarly, is looking for more depth and variety. He’s not interested “in watching the angry man on the corner yelling at me anymore,” he said. 

“It’s kind of their own fault that I’m not watching,” he said. “I felt they spent all this time talking about the election. They made it so much of their focus that when the main event ends, why would people want to keep watching?”
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The promised effort by President-elect Donald Trump to remake the U.S. government is set to encompass one of the country’s premier law enforcement and intelligence agencies. VOA national security correspondent Jeff Seldin reports on Trump’s choice to lead and reform the FBI. Kim Lewis contributed.
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ORLANDO, FLORIDA — A man accused of attempting to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump in South Florida won’t be tried until September, a federal judge ruled this week.

Ryan Routh’s trial will begin Sept. 8 instead of the previously scheduled Feb. 10, start date, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said in an order released on Monday.

Routh, 58, a Hawaii resident, has pleaded not guilty.

Routh’s attorneys had asked the judge to delay the trial until no earlier than next December, saying they needed more time to review the evidence against him and decide whether to mount an insanity defense.

Routh owned 17 cellphones and numerous other electronic devices, and there are hundreds of hours of police body camera and surveillance videos that have been provided to the defense, Routh’s attorneys argued during a hearing two weeks ago in Fort Pierce, Florida.

In her order, Cannon said that she wanted to err on the side of providing more time given the seriousness of the allegations, but that starting the trial no earlier than December would be an excessive amount. A September trial date didn’t amount to an “unreasonable delay,” she said.

The judge said that any insanity defense or any request related to Routh’s mental competency must be made by early February. Any visit to the scene of the assassination attempt must be made by the end of February.

Prosecutors say Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15 at his West Palm Beach country club. Before Trump came into view, Routh was spotted by a Secret Service agent. Routh allegedly aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot. Prosecutors say he left behind a note describing his intentions.

He was arrested a short time later driving on a nearby interstate.

Routh’s charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate carries a potential life sentence if he is convicted. Other charges include assaulting a federal officer and three firearms counts. He is being held without bail at the federal jail in Miami.

Routh’s arrest came two months after Trump was shot and wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service acknowledged failings leading up to that shooting but has said security worked as it should have to thwart the potential Florida attack.
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Washington — The bald eagle, a symbol of the power and strength of the United States for more than 240 years, earned an overdue honor Tuesday: It officially became the country’s national bird. 

President Joe Biden signed into law legislation sent to him by Congress that amends the United States Code to correct what had long gone unnoticed and designate the bald eagle — familiar to many because of its white head, yellow beak and brown body — as the national bird. 

The bald eagle has appeared on the Great Seal of the United States, which is used in official documents, since 1782, when the design was finalized. The seal is made up of the eagle, an olive branch, arrows, a flag-like shield, the motto “E Pluribus Unum” and a constellation of stars. 

Congress, that same year, designated the bald eagle as the the national emblem, and its image appears in a host of places, ranging from documents and the presidential flag to military insignia and U.S. currency, according to USA.gov. 

But it had never been officially designated to be what many had just assumed it was — the national bird. 

The bald eagle is indigenous to North America. 
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The Christmas tradition has become nearly global in scope: Children from around the world track Santa Claus as he sweeps across the earth, delivering presents and defying time.

Each year, at least 100,000 kids call into the North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about Santa’s location. Millions more follow online in nine languages, from English to Japanese.

On any other night, NORAD is scanning the heavens for potential threats, such as last year’s Chinese spy balloon. But on Christmas Eve, volunteers in Colorado Springs are fielding questions like, “When is Santa coming to my house?” and, “Am I on the naughty or nice list?”

“There are screams and giggles and laughter,” said Bob Sommers, 63, a civilian contractor and NORAD volunteer.

Sommers often says on the call that everyone must be asleep before Santa arrives, prompting parents to say, “Do you hear what he said? We got to go to bed early.”

NORAD’s annual tracking of Santa has endured since the Cold War, predating ugly sweater parties and Mariah Carey classics. The tradition continues regardless of government shutdowns, such as the one in 2018, and this year.

Here’s how it began and why the phones keep ringing.

Origin story is Hollywood-esque

It started with a child’s accidental phone call in 1955. The Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears advertisement that encouraged children to call Santa, listing a phone number.

A boy called. But he reached the Continental Air Defense Command, now NORAD, a joint U.S. and Canadian effort to spot potential enemy attacks. Tensions were growing with the Soviet Union, along with anxieties about nuclear war.

Air Force Col. Harry W. Shoup picked up an emergency-only “red phone” and was greeted by a tiny voice that began to recite a Christmas wish list.

“He went on a little bit, and he takes a breath, then says, ‘Hey, you’re not Santa,’” Shoup told The Associated Press in 1999.

Realizing an explanation would be lost on the youngster, Shoup summoned a deep, jolly voice and replied, “Ho, ho, ho! Yes, I am Santa Claus. Have you been a good boy?”

Shoup said he learned from the boy’s mother that Sears mistakenly printed the top-secret number. He hung up, but the phone soon rang again with a young girl reciting her Christmas list. Fifty calls a day followed, he said.

In the pre-digital age, the agency used an 18-by-24-meter plexiglass map of North America to track unidentified objects. A staff member jokingly drew Santa and his sleigh over the North Pole.

The tradition was born.

“Note to the kiddies,” began an AP story from Colorado Springs on Dec. 23, 1955. “Santa Claus Friday was assured safe passage into the United States by the Continental Air Defense Command.”

In a likely reference to the Soviets, the article noted that Santa was guarded against possible attack from “those who do not believe in Christmas.”

Is the origin story humbug?

Some grinchy journalists have nitpicked Shoup’s story, questioning whether a misprint or a misdial prompted the boy’s call.

In 2014, tech news site Gizmodo cited an International News Service story from December 1, 1955, about a child’s call to Shoup. Published in the Pasadena Independent, the article said the child reversed two digits in the Sears number.

“When a childish voice asked COC commander Col. Harry Shoup, if there was a Santa Claus at the North Pole, he answered much more roughly than he should — considering the season:

‘There may be a guy called Santa Claus at the North Pole, but he’s not the one I worry about coming from that direction,’” Shoup said in the brief piece.

In 2015, The Atlantic magazine doubted the flood of calls to the secret line, while noting that Shoup had a flair for public relations.

Phone calls aside, Shoup was indeed media savvy. In 1986, he told the Scripps Howard News Service that he recognized an opportunity when a staff member drew Santa on the glass map in 1955.

A lieutenant colonel promised to have it erased. But Shoup said, “You leave it right there,” and summoned public affairs. Shoup wanted to boost morale for the troops and public alike.

“Why, it made the military look good — like we’re not all a bunch of snobs who don’t care about Santa Claus,” he said.

Shoup died in 2009. His children told the StoryCorps podcast in 2014 that it was a misprinted Sears ad that prompted the phone calls.

“And later in life he got letters from all over the world,” said Terri Van Keuren, a daughter. “People saying, ‘Thank you, Colonel, for having, you know, this sense of humor.’”

Rare addition to Santa’s story

NORAD’s tradition is one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Santa story that have endured, according to Gerry Bowler, a Canadian historian who spoke to the AP in 2010.

Ad campaigns or movies try to “kidnap” Santa for commercial purposes, said Bowler, who wrote “Santa Claus: A Biography.” NORAD, by contrast, takes an essential element of Santa’s story and views it through a technological lens.

In a recent interview with the AP, Air Force Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham explained that NORAD radars in Alaska and Canada — known as the northern warning system — are the first to detect Santa.

He leaves the North Pole and typically heads for the international dateline in the Pacific Ocean. From there he moves west, following the night.

“That’s when the satellite systems we use to track and identify targets of interest every single day start to kick in,” Cunningham said. “A probably little-known fact is that Rudolph’s nose that glows red emanates a lot of heat. And so those satellites track [Santa] through that heat source.”

NORAD has an app and website, www.noradsanta.org, that will track Santa on Christmas Eve from 4 a.m. to midnight, mountain standard time. People can call 1-877-HI-NORAD to ask live operators about Santa’s location from 6 a.m. to midnight, mountain time.
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In early December, China tightened export controls on dual-use goods to the United States. A recent report warns that this ban could disrupt the production of over 20,000 components used by the U.S. military, particularly in naval systems and nuclear missile technology. 

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 
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WASHINGTON — NASA’s pioneering Parker Solar Probe made history Tuesday, flying closer to the sun than any other spacecraft, with its heat shield exposed to scorching temperatures topping 930 degrees Celsius (1,700 degrees Fahrenheit). 

Launched in August 2018, the spaceship is on a seven-year mission to deepen scientific understanding of our star and help forecast space-weather events that can affect life on Earth. 

Tuesday’s historic flyby should have occurred at precisely 11:53 Greenwich Mean Time, although mission scientists will have to wait until Friday for confirmation as they lose contact with the craft for several days due to its proximity to the sun. 

“Right now, Parker Solar Probe is flying closer to a star than anything has ever been before,” at 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) away, NASA official Nicky Fox said in a video on social media Tuesday morning.  

“It is just a total ‘yay, we did it,’ moment.” 

If the distance between Earth and the sun is the equivalent to the length of an American football field, 109.7 meters, the spacecraft should have been about four meters from the end zone at the moment of closest approach — known as perihelion. 

“This is one example of NASA’s bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer long-standing questions about our universe,” Parker Solar Probe program scientist Arik Posner said in a statement on Monday. 

“We can’t wait to receive that first status update from the spacecraft and start receiving the science data in the coming weeks.” 

So effective is the heat shield that the probe’s internal instruments remain near room temperature — around 29 C (85 F) — as it explores the sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona. 

Parker will also be moving at a blistering pace of around 690,000 kilometers per hour (430,000 miles per hourph), fast enough to fly from the U.S. capital, Washington, to Japan’s Tokyo in under a minute. 

“Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkine, mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.  

“We’re excited to hear back from the spacecraft when it swings back around the sun.” 

By venturing into these extreme conditions, Parker has been helping scientists tackle some of the sun’s biggest mysteries: how solar wind originates, why the corona is hotter than the surface below, and how coronal mass ejections — massive clouds of plasma that hurl through space are formed. 

The Christmas Eve flyby is the first of three record-setting close passes, with the next two — on March 22 and June 19, 2025 — both expected to bring the probe back to a similarly close distance from the Sun. 
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As he prepares to take office in less than a month, President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to reassert U.S. control over the Panama Canal, and he renewed calls to buy Greenland from Denmark. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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