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How major US stock indexes fared Monday, 12/23/2024
President-elect Donald Trump on Friday nominated Dr. Marty Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration , selecting a surgeon and author who gained national attention for opposing vaccine mandates and some other public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Makary, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, is the latest in a string of Trump nominees who have declared the U.S. health system “broken” and in need of a shakeup. In books and articles Makary has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators. He will need to be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate to take the post. Trump announced the nomination in a statement Friday night, saying Makary “will restore FDA to the gold standard of scientific research, and cut the bureaucratic red tape at the agency to make sure Americans get the medical cures and treatments they deserve.” Headquartered in the Maryland suburbs outside Washington, the 18,000 employees of the FDA are responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs , vaccines and medical devices as well as a swath of other consumer goods, including food , cosmetics and vaping products . Altogether those products represent an estimated 20% of U.S. consumer spending annually, or $2.6 trillion. Makary gained prominence on Fox News and other conservative outlets for his contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic. He questioned the need for masking and, though not opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine, had concerns about vaccinations in young children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that COVID-19 vaccinations prevented more than 686,000 U.S. deaths in 2020 and 2021 alone. While children faced much lower rates of hospitalization and death from the virus, medical societies including the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that vaccinations significantly reduced severe disease in the age group. Trained as a surgeon and cancer specialist, Makary was part of a vocal group of physicians calling for greater emphasis on herd immunity to stop the virus, or the idea that mass infections would quickly lead to population-level protection. In a February 2021 Wall Street Journal piece , he wrote that “COVID will be mostly gone by April, allowing Americans to resume normal life.” That summer the delta variant of the virus ripped through the U.S. , followed by omicron in the winter, leading to hundreds of thousands of additional deaths. If confirmed, Makary would be expected to report to anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , Trump's pick to oversee the nation’s Department of Health and Human Services , which includes the FDA. Makary does not share Kennedy’s discredited views on vaccines , but he has a similar distrust of the pharmaceutical industry. Makary has lamented how drugmakers used misleading data to urge doctors to prescribe OxyContin and other opioids as low-risk, non-addictive pain relievers. That marketing was permitted under FDA-approved labeling from the 1990s, suggesting the drugs were safe for common ailments like back pain. In more recent years, the FDA has come under fire for approving drugs for Alzheimer's , ALS and other conditions based on incomplete data that failed to show meaningful benefits for patients. A push toward greater scrutiny of drug safety and effectiveness would be a major reversal at FDA, which for decades has focused on speedier drug approvals . That trend has been fueled by industry lobbying and fees paid by drugmakers to help the FDA hire additional reviewers. Kennedy has proposed ending those payments, which would require billions in new funding from the federal budget. Other administration priorities would likely run into similar roadblocks. For instance, Kennedy wants to bar drugmakers from advertising on TV , a multibillion-dollar market that supports many TV and cable networks. The Supreme Court and other conservative judges would likely overturn such a ban on First Amendment grounds that protect commercial speech, experts note. Makary would also inherit a raft of ongoing projects at the FDA kicked off by outgoing Commissioner Robert Califf, including the reorganization of the agency's food division and plans to regulate artificial intelligence in medical technology. In the event of other controversial initiatives under Trump, career staffers may simply drag the work out until a new administration comes to power. “The bureaucracy can wait anybody out, and that’s an attitude I think you’ll hear a lot,” said Wayne Pines, a former FDA official under Republican and Democratic administrations. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Thousands rally after Georgian PM vows 'no negotiations' with pro-EU oppositionNone
FBI tells telecom firms to boost security following wide-ranging Chinese hacking campaignValladolid loses again and Getafe ends winless run in La LigaEAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If the Giants’ franchise-record 10th straight loss proved anything, it’s that New York could use a young franchise quarterback. Rookie Michael Penix Jr. showed what a young QB can do on Sunday against the Giants, who need to learn from it. The No. 8 overall pick in the draft, Penix played a nearly flawless game in his first career start to help the Falcons thrash the woeful Giants 34-7 in their best performance in weeks. The Giants gambled in 2019 that Daniel Jones would be their franchise QB and it really never panned out. The one exception was the 2022 season, when the No. 6 overall pick had a career year and led New York to a 9-7-1 record and a playoff berth in the first season after Joe Schoen was hired as general manager and Brian Daboll was named coach. The Giants even won a playoff game. With the release of Jones last month, the Giants (2-13) are now a team without a quarterback who can perform at the level required of an NFL starter. Tommy DeVito and Drew Lock have split the last four starts but neither has provided much of a spark for the league’s worst offense. Lock handed the Falcons the game with two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns. To turn things around next season, the Giants must find a quarterback. “I’d say it’s very important,” Daboll said Monday. New York is going to have a high pick in the draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in late April. It could even be the No. 1 overall selection. Choosing the right quarterback is going to be hard. There isn’t a can’t-miss choice in 2025 draft and forcing one early would be a mistake. Unless the Giants are convinced that Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, Jalen Milroe or someone else is the next franchise player, they have so many needs that it would be better to wheel and deal and fill as many holes as possible. Even if the Giants take a quarterback in the second round, there’s bound to be someone available who has a chance to be better than what they have now. The calendar. The season ends in less than two weeks. The franchise is in disarray, and a shakeup appears likely. Daboll’s future as the coach is not bright, considering the current skid and two straight losing seasons. Schoen has to share the blame and so do co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, who hired the GM and coach. LB Darius Muasau. The sixth-round draft pick out of UCLA has started the last three games since Bobby Okereke (back) was hurt and eventually put on injured reserve last week. Muasau had 11 tackles Sunday along with a quarterback hit and a tackle for a loss. He made the defensive calls after LB Micah McFadden left with a neck injury. Lock. In his starts, Lock has had three interceptions returned for touchdowns. He also lost a fumble on a strip-sack at Atlanta. Lock sustained a shoulder injury during the game and had an MRI on Monday. Besides Lock and McFadden, S Jason Pinnock (eye) also left the game. C John Michael Schmitz and RB Tyrone Tracy were evaluated for ankle injuries on Monday. 1 — Thanks to the Raiders’ victory over the Jaguars, the Giants will have the No. 1 overall pick in the draft with two more losses.
NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers formally asked a judge Monday to throw out his hush money criminal conviction , arguing continuing the case would present unconstitutional “disruptions to the institution of the Presidency.“ In a filing made public Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers told Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan that dismissal is warranted because of the extraordinary circumstances of his impending return to the White House. “Wrongly continuing proceedings in this failed lawfare case disrupts President Trump’s transition efforts,” the attorneys continued, before citing the “overwhelming national mandate granted to him by the American people on November 5, 2024.” Trump’s lawyers also cited President Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges . “President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ and ‘treated differently,’” Trump’s legal team wrote. The Manhattan district attorney, they claimed, had engaged in the type of political theater “that President Biden condemned.” Prosecutors will have until Dec. 9 to respond. They have said they will fight any efforts to dismiss the case but have indicated openness to delaying sentencing until after Trump’s second term ends in 2029. In their filing Monday, Trump’s attorneys dismissed the idea of holding off sentencing until Trump is out of office as a “ridiculous suggestion.” Following Trump’s election victory last month, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed his sentencing, previously scheduled for late November, to allow the defense and prosecution to weigh in on the future of the case. He also delayed a decision on Trump’s prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. Trump has been fighting for months to reverse the conviction, which involved efforts to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 campaign. He has denied any wrongdoing. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Merchan hasn’t set a timetable for a decision. The defense filing was signed by Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who represented Trump during the trial and have since been selected by the president-elect to fill senior roles at the Justice Department. A dismissal would erase Trump’s historic conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record and possible prison sentence. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office. Merchan could also decide to uphold the verdict and proceed to sentencing, delay the case until Trump leaves office, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court or choose some other option. Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, just before the 2016 presidential election, to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier. He says they did not and denies any wrongdoing. Prosecutors cast the payout as part of a Trump-driven effort to keep voters from hearing salacious stories about him. Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels. Trump later reimbursed him, and Trump’s company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses — concealing what they really were, prosecutors alleged. Trump has pledged to appeal the verdict if the case is not dismissed. He and his lawyers said the payments to Cohen were properly categorized as legal expenses for legal work.CVRx to Present at the 43rd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
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Guardiola denies rift with De Bruyne during Man City's dramatic slumpMozambique’s president-elect Daniel Chapo on Friday called for “non-violence” and “unity” after widespread rioting this week sparked by his ruling party’s contested election win. Chapo, who said he “regretted” the violence, promised that after his inauguration in mid-January, he would be “the president of all” in the southern African country, despite opposition claims of vote-rigging. Mozambique’s top court on Monday confirmed that Frelimo, Chapo’s party that has been in power for 50 years, won the October 9 vote, triggering four days of unrest that saw streets blocked, shops and businesses torched, and looting. Some 134 people were killed in the unrest, according to local NGO Plataforma Decide, taking the overall death toll since the elections to at least 261. Chapo said in his first public statement since the court decision that the worst affected cities were the capital Maputo, neighbouring Matola, the central city of Beira and Nampula in the north. “These acts only contribute to the decline of the country and the increase in the number of Mozambicans who are heading towards unemployment and poverty,” added the former provincial governor, who takes over an impoverished nation with glaring inequality in just a few weeks. Chapo thanked citizens who helped remove makeshift barricades to try to get life back to normal and praised security forces for “mitigating the harmful effects of political polarisation”. Several police officers died during the clashes, he added. He promised to turn around the country’s economy and to do “everything to renew” Mozambique. International observers also pointed to electoral irregularities in the disputed presidential poll, which the Constitutional Council said Chapo won with 65.17 percent of the vote. The country’s electoral commission had initially said Frelimo won nearly 71% of the vote. Before this week, Mozambique had seen a wave of demonstrations, strikes and blockades in protest at the election. Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, is limping back to normal but residents are still fearful because of widespread looting and vandalism sparked by confirmation that the ruling party won contested elections. Food, fuel and medicine are running low for the city’s inhabitants while the daring escape of more than 1,000 inmates from a maximum-security prison is fuelling wild rumours and prompted the creation of neighbourhood patrols. “My neighbour woke me up, telling me that men armed with machetes were walking around,” Maria Amelia, a 55-year-old cleaner who lives in Matola, near Maputo, told AFP. “When I went out, I saw my neighbours, armed with knives to defend themselves against these invaders. But I didn’t see anyone. I was terrified.” Maputo bank worker Armand Tembe, 40, was also dragged out of bed before dawn. “I haven’t seen any criminals outside. But it’s starting to get scary. I don’t know where the country is going,” he said dejectedly. “We stayed up until 4:30 in the morning and patrolled for something we only heard about and that no one saw,” said another woman who wanted to remain anonymous. “It was just hearsay, it makes it seem like a macabre plan.” Borges Nhamirre, a Pretoria-based Mozambican researcher, said that so far “there have been no verified reports of attacks of this kind”. But the fact that the police chief, speaking to the press on Wednesday evening, “announced that detainees could ‘visit’ houses has fuelled concern”, he added. “The prevailing sentiment in the conversations suggests that the government may have invented this crisis to control the ongoing social unrest,” he said. Venancio Mondlane, Mozambique’s main opposition leader, has denounced the October 9 election results as rigged. On Monday, the country’s highest court confirmed victory for the ruling Frelimo party, which has been in power for half a century. That set off riots that left more than 125 dead over several days, according to the local NGO Plataforma Decide. “We know who the real bandits are, it’s Frelimo,” Mondlane said on social networks on Friday. On the streets of Maputo, makeshift barricades were slowly being dismantled, while the army was clearing some roads, according to AFP reporters on the ground. Residents were cautiously leaving their homes to look for basic necessities. “I’m looking for bread,” explained Isabel Rocha, 29, in the Laulane district of the city, after a sleepless night because of security fears. “The bakeries have been closed for four days. In fact, we lack everything. Even the small grocery stores are closed.” Lina Chauque, 47, sat despondently on the pavement with a large bundle containing lettuces and cabbages next to her. She had been waiting for two hours with several other women for a bus to arrive to sell her products at market. “We tried to ask for help from some trucks that passed but the drivers did not want to take us,” she said. A short distance away, cars queued patiently outside a petrol station where only one pump still had fuel. “I am looking for medicine for me and my mother,” explained Tomas Panguene, 65, who suffers from knee pain. “Yesterday I went out to find a pharmacy but the streets were still barricaded. I found what I needed this morning.”
American rugby sevens star Ilona Maher will join 15-a-side club Bristol in January in a bid to play in next year's women's Rugby World Cup, the English club announced on Monday. Maher, 28, helped the USA to a bronze medal at this summer's Olympic Games in Paris and is the sport's most popular player on social media. "This is a huge coup to be able to bring Ilona Maher to Bristol Bears on a short-term deal," Bristol head coach Dave Ward said. "She is one of the biggest names in women's sport, let alone rugby, and we believe she will add real value to our programme on and off the field." Last week Maher finished second on US television show "Dancing with the Stars", and she was on the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition in July. Maher has signed a three-month deal with Bristol ahead of the World Cup, which starts in England in August. She made her 15-a-side debut for the USA in 2021. "I am excited to join the Bristol Bears and put myself in the best position to earn a spot to represent USA in the 2025 Rugby World Cup alongside such a talented and driven group as the Bears," Maher said in a club statement. Bristol's first game next month is on January 4 against local rivals and Premiership Women's Rugby champions Gloucester-Hartpury, in a repeat of last season's final. obo/iwd/mw
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