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  • A new round of confusing economic data is muddying the picture

    A new round of confusing economic data is muddying the picture

    A barrage of post-shutdown data this week has left economists with more questions than answers about the state of the U.S. economy.

    Unemployment rose to a four-year high in November, inflation improved more than expected, and retail sales appeared surprisingly resilient in October — though economists say all of that is likely to be bogged down by low response rates, disruptions in data collection and other shutdown-related complications.

    The result: More confusion about an economy that’s already confounded policymakers, politicians, and business owners for much of the year.

    “We knew we’d have to take this data with a grain of salt; I just didn’t know we’d have to make it this salty,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. “This week’s data really adds more confusion than clarity.”

    Employment data on Tuesday showed a decline of 41,000 jobs in October and November, while the unemployment rate inched up to 4.6%, offering a sobering picture of an already slowing labor market. Two days later, the Consumer Price Index came with more optimistic economic news: Inflation, it said, had cooled from 3% in September to 2.7% in November. But economists largely shrugged off both reports, saying they were unlikely to be reliable snapshots because the 43-day government shutdown had upended the way federal agencies gather data.

    The Labor Department’s monthly household survey, used to calculate the unemployment rate, was scrapped altogether for October. The data for November was far less reliable than usual, with a survey response rate of 64%, the lowest on record. (Two years ago, by comparison, 70% of households responded.) As a result, some said they weren’t putting much stock into the 4.6% unemployment rate. It’ll take a few more months of data, they said, to get a better read on the job market.

    “Yes, the unemployment rate rose, but I didn’t pay too much attention to it, to be honest,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide. “The survey process was completely disrupted by the shutdown.”

    That was also the case for Thursday’s Consumer Price Index. Economists widely dismissed the figures, saying it was probably skewed lower by delays in data collection. Government officials didn’t begin tabulating prices until Nov. 14, when many items had already been marked down for Black Friday sales and other holiday promotions. More significantly, a third of the inflation index looks lower than it otherwise would because the government’s data appears to show no increase at all in rent and homeowners’ housing costs for October.

    “This inflation data was flawed, at best — and I think it would be inappropriate to be making policy or investment decisions based off the November report,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US. “We have definitely entered a season of noise in economic data that isn’t likely to clear until early spring.”

    A third government report this week, a delayed retail sales reading, showed that spending picked up at grocery stores, furniture shops, and online retailers in October but declined at restaurants, gas stations, and hardware stores. Economists, though, cautioned against reading too much into the findings, calling them “unusually noisy” because of the shutdown.

    Even data unaffected by the government closure did little to shed light on exactly what’s happening. A consumer sentiment reading from the University of Michigan on Friday showed Americans’ views on the economy inched up slightly in December but are down significantly from last year, with 63% saying they expect worsening unemployment in the coming year.

    Although the U.S. economy generally seems to be on stable footing, economists are concerned that weakness in the job market, worsening inflation, or a pullback in consumer spending could easily tip the scale toward recession.

    President Donald Trump has also recently shifted his focus back to the economy, kicking off an “affordability tour” and addressing the nation in a prime time address this week, saying he is “bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast.” He was expected to speak about the economy again Friday evening in North Carolina.

    The next snapshot of the economy comes Tuesday, with a Gross Domestic Product report that is expected to show another three months of brisk growth between August and October.

    The lack of clarity is a particular challenge for the Federal Reserve, which is looking to the job market and inflation for clues on whether it should continue lowering interest rates early next year. Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell last week cautioned that upcoming economic reports should be viewed with a “skeptical eye” because they “may be distorted by very technical factors.”

    “We’re going to get data, but we’re going to have to look at it carefully and with a somewhat skeptical eye,” he said at a news conference this month.

  • In tribute to late wife, husband rebuilds her snowman village at Kansas mall

    In tribute to late wife, husband rebuilds her snowman village at Kansas mall

    The hundreds of snowman figurines on display at a Kansas mall might look alike, but each was important to Kathy Allen Duncan.

    Some are skiing, others are caroling in front of houses or lounging in the snow made from cotton. A handful are using the bathroom.

    For five decades, Kathy created detailed snowman displays in her home with the roughly 1,000 figurines she collected. But the tradition was in peril when Kathy, 73, died in September of complications from diabetes.

    Kathy created a snowman display each year in her home over five decades.

    Her husband, R.E. “Tuck” Duncan, looked back at photos of Kathy’s displays before her funeral. He recalled thinking, “We need to build one more, one last one.” He wanted to share it not just with his family, but also with all of Topeka, Kan.

    Tuck, 74, rented a vacant store at a local shopping mall where he and other family members created an exhibit showing hundreds of Kathy’s snowmen — which she called “snowpeople” — enjoying the winter. There’s a banner that reads: “KATHY ALLEN DUNCAN’S SNOWPEOPLE VILLAGE.” Another poster shows Kathy’s obituary.

    Kathy’s family said their goal was to spread joy — something they said Kathy did daily — to as many people as possible. They exceeded their expectations.

    Thousands of people have visited the free exhibit, Tuck told the Washington Post. More than 1 million people have seen photos of it on social media, where one user wrote:

    “Guys I’m sobbing a local woman passed away in September and her husband/family rented a whole store at the mall to show off her Christmas decorations nothing is for sale it’s literally just so everyone can see it and it’s so beautiful I love.”

    Kathy took decorating seriously as a way to express love for the people she cared for, said Joro Martin, who was raised by Kathy and Tuck after he said he left a troubled household.

    “Mom was a safe space for so many people, and what is created there is a safe space to share,” Martin said about the mall exhibit.

    Kathy and Joro Martin, whom she helped raise, in the early 1990s.

    Kathy built her first snowman display on a card table in a one-bedroom apartment in December 1974, shortly after she and Tuck got married. There were only a handful of figurines — she had picked up the hobby of collecting them from her grandmother — and she hoped they would bring smiles to visitors.

    Kathy collected more snowman figurines over the years from antique booths, craft shows, flea markets, and Hallmark stores.

    Kathy’s snowman figurines displayed at the mall.

    There’s a wax candle shaped like a snowman — one of Kathy’s oldest figurines — which has faded paint. There’s one with glasses that Kathy joked was the snowman version of Tuck, an attorney, so the figurine always stood outside a law office in her displays.

    Some are dressed as firefighters, nurses, police officers, chefs, and musicians. Others wear crimson-and-blue clothes to match the colors of her alma mater, the University of Kansas.

    They are built from a wide range of materials, including yarn, plastic, ceramic, cotton, and wood.

    Tessa Olorunfemi, Kathy’s granddaughter, with her 2008 snowman display.

    Kathy started building the display each year after Thanksgiving and finished around Christmas Eve, when the family ate dinner off snowman-themed tableware. She started the display by covering the table with cotton and sprinkling artificial snow on top, then she placed shelves in the back to resemble mountains.

    The displays moved from the roughly 34-by-34-inch card table to a 3-by-6-foot table to two adjoining 3-by-6-foot tables.

    Kathy changed the setting each year. She created rural towns with recreational vehicles, cities with clustered buildings, and ice skating rinks with bridges. One year — even though Kathy pointed out that snowmen can’t survive warm weather — she let their youngest son, Ryan Duncan, build a beach.

    Kathy’s snowman display in 2021.

    Outside the holidays, Kathy and Tuck initially rented a storage unit for the figurines. For the past two decades, snowmen filled half of their garage. But that didn’t mean the snowman decorations were absent in the condo: Kathy had a four-foot-tall metal snowman in the atrium that waved year-round.

    “I can’t remember a Christmas, a holiday — shoot, I can’t remember a July — without something with snowmans in it,” Ryan said.

    About a month after Kathy died, Tuck rented the second-floor space in Topeka’s West Ridge Mall near a Petland and a Spencer’s store. Tuck hired movers to transport 60 plastic boxes of snowman figurines there.

    From left, R.E. “Tuck” Duncan, Martin, and Kathy.

    Tuck and his family placed plywood, a foam board, buffalo cotton, and white and blue sparkles atop a 8-by-16-foot table.

    At the front of the display, they set up a water tower with a snowman head serving as the tank. There’s a lake made of foil. Houses and trees are scattered throughout. Some small pieces of cotton even represent snowman poop.

    The family finished the display and opened the room Nov. 25. Local news WIBW-TV covered the story.

    A Christmas tree with snowman-themed ornaments in the room at the mall in Kathy’s honor.

    There’s a Christmas tree by the front window that holds about 50 snowman ornaments and eight tables on the edges of the room displaying more figurines and snowman-themed items like calendars and quilts.

    “The snow people you see throughout this village and around the room were lovingly collected by Kathy Allen Duncan over the past fifty years,” a poster in the room reads. “In her honor, the Duncan and Allen families have gathered them here with the same care and affection, celebrating the joy they brought to her life.”

    The project cost about $15,000, Tuck said, “and it’s worth every penny.” Many people are learning about his wife, who he said fed peanuts and corn to wild squirrels and who, even in her final days, was still asking about the well-being of others.

    Kathy’s family members wrote a note to welcome visitors to the exhibit.

    A family member opens the mall room every morning and closes it at night. While the exhibit evokes memories that make Tuck emotional — like remembering his 5-foot tall wife trying to grab boxes of snowman figurines from the top of the garage — Tuck said talking about Kathy with visitors has been cathartic.

    More of Kathy’s snowman figurines at the mall.

    He has an ornament on his Christmas tree that says, “Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us everyday.”

    The display will close on Christmas Eve. Afterward, family members — including the couple’s oldest son Spencer, the mayor-elect of Topeka — will take the snowmen back to their homes. Then, the whole family plans to build their own small snowman displays in Kathy’s memory.

  • A ‘recession’ is arriving for people who want jobs in technology

    A ‘recession’ is arriving for people who want jobs in technology

    Newly released jobs market data paints a murky picture ahead for the tech industry, which continues to slash workers.

    The unemployment rate for tech jobs has been steadily rising since May, ticking up to 4% in November, according to an analysis by CompTIA, a company that offers IT training and certifications. Between October and November, the number of technology workers across different industries fell 134,000, while the number of people working in the tech industry declined by more than 6,800. Tech job postings were also down by more than 31,800, the report found, citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and California-based market intelligence firm Lightcast.

    “The data is pretty definitive that the tech industry is struggling,” said Mark Zandi, Moody’s chief economist. “There’s a jobs recession in the industry, and it feels like that’s going to continue given the slide in postings.”

    Over the last year, the tech industry has been reshaping itself amid economic uncertainty, reorganization around artificial intelligence, and a push to become more cost-efficient. Big Tech companies including Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft cut thousands of workers while raking in soaring revenue and making big investments in AI. Economists said the new data signals headwinds ahead even as some tech companies continue to hire, especially for AI roles.

    “For the longest time, tech was the tailwind to jobs and the broader job market,” Zandi said, adding that it’s been a source of high-paying jobs. “That tailwind has now turned into a headwind, and that headwind feels like it may just blow harder going forward.”

    The U.S. economic outlook has continued to be uncertain, with the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates earlier this month for the third time this year, citing a softening labor market. The unemployment rate in the tech industry still sits below the national rate, which in November hit 4.6%, the highest since 2021. However, that gap has been narrowing, with tech unemployment rising faster in recent months than is the case nationally.

    In the tech industry, jobs for software, cybersecurity, and web development consultants have been among the roles to get axed, according to CompTIA. This is likely because companies are spending less on tech projects, and there’s been a pullback in government contracts and the ability to sell services overseas, said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA.

    Herbert said companies struggling from a slowing economy might put tech consulting on hold, which could serve as an insight into companies in other industries. “In some cases, it can be a bellwether on how other types of companies are performing when they stop hiring tech consulting services.”

    Employers are largely in “wait and see” mode when it comes to hiring given the current uncertainties surrounding the economy and impact of AI, so they’re likely to delay backfilling, Herbert said citing CompTIA’s surveys of chief information officers. But Justin Wolfers, professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, said uncertainty is likely to continue in the foreseeable future.

    “I’m feeling substantially more pessimistic,” Wolfers said, recalling that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell recently suggested that federal job numbers may be overstated. “That’s pretty grim.”

    Technology companies have announced more than 141,000 job cuts so far this year, representing a 17% increase from the same period last year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. At the same time Big Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon have announced plans to invest up to $375 billion in AI infrastructure this year.

    Though job postings declined in November, companies continued to hire, with high demand for workers in engineering and tech support. And AI is quickly becoming a requirement, with 41% of all active job postings representing AI roles or requiring AI skills, according to CompTIA’s analysis.

    “If you have AI skills, there seems to be jobs,” Zandi said about the employment market. “But if you don’t, I think it’s going to feel like you’ve been hit by a dump truck.”

    Herbert cautioned that it will be important to watch how the job numbers change over the next several months, as one month’s data may not provide a full picture.

    AI will likely have a different impact depending on the sectors and jobs, Wolfers said. Coders and translators, for example, may feel the squeeze much sooner than other professions, he noted.

  • Kennedy Center adds Trump’s name to building

    Kennedy Center adds Trump’s name to building

    The Kennedy Center began updating signage on the exterior of the building Friday morning, a day after its board voted to rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

    A blue tarp was stretched across a portion of the building as a small team on scaffolding started the work. Loud drilling could be heard nearby. Inside the building, large letters spelling “Trump” could be seen on the floor of the entry hall, according to a photograph obtained by the Washington Post. Signage elsewhere around the exterior of the institution remained unchanged.

    Thursday’s vote by the board of trustees marked a dramatic change to a building established as a “living memorial” to a slain president. The announcement drew swift condemnation from Kennedy family members and Democratic leaders, who called it illegal and said only Congress could change the center’s name.

    For months, Trump had repeatedly joked about the name change, including at the Kennedy Center Honors earlier this month. The center has seen a year of upheaval since Trump overhauled the institution in February, sparking a wave of firings and resignations. Ticket sales have fallen sharply, according to an October analysis by The Post, and many artists have said they will no longer perform there. The new leadership has boasted of hefty fundraising tallies and has begun to ramp up bookings for Christian and right-wing events.

    “The Trump Kennedy Center shows a bipartisan commitment to the Arts,” Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell wrote Thursday on X. Officials did not cite an authority for the board’s ability to change the institution’s name.

    The current board consists of loyalists to Trump following a purge of trustees appointed by former President Joe Biden. They met Thursday in Palm Beach, Florida.

    This is not the only building to which Trump’s name has been added in recent weeks in Washington. Earlier this month, his administration renamed the building that houses the U.S. Institute of Peace downtown, emblazoning “Donald J. Trump” in several areas of the structure.

    “Boy, that is beautiful,” Trump said at the time, thanking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for putting his name on the building.

  • Hunger monitor says Gaza is still seeing acute malnutrition but not famine

    Hunger monitor says Gaza is still seeing acute malnutrition but not famine

    JERUSALEM — The Gaza Strip is no longer facing famine in any of its regions after humanitarian and commercial food deliveries surged following an October ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but more than three-quarters of the population, or 1.6 million people, still experience acute food insecurity and malnutrition, the global authority on hunger said Friday.

    The report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) was the first to be published since the international group of experts declared in August that the Gaza City region was experiencing “man-made” famine as a result of two years of war, displacement, and harsh Israeli restrictions on food and other aid. Although the IPC had projected that by September, more than 600,000 people would experience Phase 5, or “catastrophic” levels of starvation and malnutrition, that figure dropped to 100,000 by the end of November after Israel began loosening the flow of aid as part of an Oct. 10 ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States, according to the latest report.

    Israel has come under intense international criticism this year for choking the flow of humanitarian aid, which Israeli officials said was being stolen by Hamas fighters and resold, prolonging the conflict. In a statement Friday, the Israeli government said the latest report showed “even the IPC had to admit that there is no famine in Gaza” and criticized the group’s findings as based on incomplete data.

    Between “600 and 800 aid trucks enter the Gaza Strip every day, 70% of them carrying food — nearly five times more than what the IPC itself said was required for the Strip,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that criticized the latest IPC report as “deliberately distorted.”

    The IPC said that although the nutrition situation has improved since its August report, acute malnutrition is considered “critical,” or Phase 4 in its five-tier classification, in Gaza City and “serious,” or Phase 3, in the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis regions. North Gaza is also believed to be suffering from malnutrition, the report warned, adding that conditions remain severe for the most vulnerable populations.

    “Over the next 12 months, across the entire Gaza Strip, nearly 101,000 children aged 6-59 months are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition and require treatment, with more than 31,000 severe cases,” the report found. “During the same period, 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will also face acute malnutrition and require treatment.”

  • Trump’s predecessors would be unsettled by his naming obsession

    Trump’s predecessors would be unsettled by his naming obsession

    It is becoming increasingly clear that Donald Trump and his most ardent supporters view the U.S. presidency as a golden opportunity for branding.

    On Thursday, the White House announced that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts would be renamed the Trump Kennedy Center, after what was reported to be a unanimous vote by the board of trustees that the president himself installed there. Trump is the board’s chairman.

    The move was roundly denounced by Democrats and by members of the Kennedy family.

    “Perhaps the board isn’t aware that the Kennedy Center is THE memorial to the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy,” JFK’s nephew Tim Shriver wrote on Instagram. “Would they rename the Lincoln Memorial? The Jefferson? That would be an insult to great presidents. This too is an insult to a great president.”

    Workers install Donald J. Trump above the current signage on the Kennedy Center on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

    It is also questionable whether it could be done without Congress’s approval, given that the center was established by statute. But the new name was already being affixed to the building on Friday — a move very much in line with other actions taken recently by the Trump administration.

    It freshly rechristened the U.S. Institute of Peace to be the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. Tax-deferred investment vehicles for children that are coming in 2026 will be called “Trump accounts.” And a new government website to help people shop for lower-priced drugs can be found at TrumpRx.com.

    This month, the National Park Service added Trump’s June 14 birthday to its list of free-admission days. The president’s birthday coincides with Flag Day. But the Park Service simultaneously dropped its policies of not charging admission on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which unlike Flag Day are federal holidays.

    U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach confirmed in October that the U.S. Mint was drafting $1 coins featuring the image of Trump on both sides to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.

    Trump’s image is not among the designs for the semiquincentennial coins and medals coin unveiled by the Mint thus far, however — the idea possibly impeded for now by a law that presidents cannot appear on coins until two years after their deaths.

    In 2003, there was a move among Republicans in Congress to replace Franklin D. Roosevelt on the dime with an image of Ronald Reagan. The former president was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and unable to speak for himself, but his wife, Nancy, put a stop to the effort.

    “While I can understand the intentions of those seeking to place my husband’s face on the dime, I do not support this proposal and I am certain Ronnie would not,” she said. “When our country chooses to honor a great president such as Franklin Roosevelt by placing his likeness on our currency, it would be wrong to remove him and replace him with another.”

    Though the impulse of a real estate developer is to slap his name on everything around him, the nation’s past chief executives, with rare exceptions, have refrained from doing so while in office.

    Perhaps the most notable of those exceptions was naming the capital city in 1791 after George Washington, the nation’s first president, who had selected the site for the federal district. The decision on what to call it was made by a three-member commission to oversee the city’s development that was appointed by Washington.

    Moves to christen institutions and landmarks after history’s most well-regarded presidents have often risen from the ground up and reflected the wishes of local communities. Across the map, there are countless counties and towns, schools and libraries, streets and squares called George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.

    Sometimes, the way former presidents have been honored for their historic achievements has gone against their wishes. In 1941, Roosevelt put his hand on his presidential desk in the Oval Office, where he had signed the legislation that made the New Deal a reality, and told Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter precisely what kind of monument he would like to see to his presidency.

    “If any memorial is erected to me, I know exactly what I should like it to be. I should like it to consist of a block about the size of this and placed in the center of that green plot in front of the Archives Building,” Roosevelt said. “I don’t care what it is made of, whether limestone or granite or whatnot, but I want it plain without any ornamentation, with the simple carving, ‘In Memory of ____’.”

    Indeed, that modest block of stone was put into place on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1965. But a little more than three decades later, the largest and most grandiose of all presidential monuments was dedicated in Roosevelt’s honor. It stretches across 7.5 acres along the southwest side of the Tidal Basin.

    And there is irony in the gargantuan Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center — a federal building eclipsed only by the Pentagon in size — given the 40th president’s aversion to big government.

    A special poignancy led to the naming of the Kennedy Center. The concept of a national cultural center had been kicking around for decades and was a project embraced by Kennedy’s Republican predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy were enthusiasts, and helped raise money, but still couldn’t get it off the ground.

    In a speech at Amherst College less than a month before his 1963 assassination, Kennedy said: “If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our nation falls short of its highest potential.”

    “I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist,” he added.

    After his death, his widow asked that the center become a reality and a “living memorial” to her husband. There was still a furious fight in Congress over appropriating government money to the project — $15.5 million in federal dollars to match private donations. Republicans in particular decried it as frivolous.

    But where patronage of the arts has usually been the province of the wealthy, this idea caught on with ordinary Americans.

    “A great number of people throughout the United States have sent in small contributions to the Treasury and to the White House, in denominations of $1 to $25,” Rep. James C. Auchincloss of New Jersey, one of the few Republicans to support providing federal funds for the center, argued on the House floor.

    The measure passed two months after Kennedy’s assassination, on Jan. 23, 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson broke ground for the center in December.

    “Pericles said, ‘If Athens shall appear great to you, consider then that her glories were purchased by valiant men, and by men who learned their duty,’” Johnson said. “As this center comes to reflect and advance the greatness of America, consider then those glories were purchased by a valiant leader who never swerved from duty — John Kennedy. And in his name I dedicate this site.”

  • Trump administration appeals ruling in Harvard research funding case

    Trump administration appeals ruling in Harvard research funding case

    The Trump administration has moved to appeal a federal judge’s ruling in favor of Harvard University on research funding, signaling that its high-profile fight with the university continues.

    In September, U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution by freezing federal research funding at Harvard. Burroughs wrote that suspending and canceling more than $2 billion in research grants and other federal actions amounted to retaliation and unconstitutional coercion in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights.

    Burroughs wrote that it was “difficult to conclude anything other than that defendants used antisemitism as a smoke screen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities” that had jeopardized decades of research.

    The court filing did not outline the administration’s legal argument but signaled it would be appealing Burroughs’s decision.

    The Trump administration has sought to compel cultural change at universities, claiming some have not done enough to combat antisemitism on campus, among other complaints. At several schools, it abruptly froze federal research funding.

    Its most forceful actions have been taken against Harvard. In April, the university refused a sweeping list of demands and filed a lawsuit. The Trump administration sought to bar foreign students and scholars from Harvard, opened investigations, and threatened to block it from receiving federal funding.

    The probes included one into possible violation of Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act.

    After the ruling, federal grants and contracts for work in fields such as cancer research and quantum science were reinstated, and most of the funding that was owed to Harvard for that work was restored.

    Late Thursday, lawyers for the government filed a notice of appeal.

    A spokesman for Harvard said Friday that the September ruling reinstated “critical research funding that advances science and life-saving medical breakthroughs, strengthens national security, and enhances our nation’s competitiveness and economic priorities. We are confident that the Court of Appeals will affirm the district court’s opinion.”

    An attorney for a group of faculty who separately sued the Trump administration, a case heard concurrently with Harvard’s, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

    Spokespeople for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. President Donald Trump had vowed to appeal even before Burroughs issued her ruling.

  • Drug companies line up to make deals with Trump after initial hesitation

    Drug companies line up to make deals with Trump after initial hesitation

    When President Donald Trump declared in May that he wanted drug companies to voluntarily cut their prices, few pharmaceutical executives wanted to go first. Now, no one wants to be last — and risk the wrath of the president.

    Nine drug companies announced price cuts with Trump at the White House on Friday, touting discounts on medication to treat diabetes, heart disease, HIV, hepatitis B, and other conditions. The deals will offer discounts on drugs sold to the government and to Americans through a new website, TrumpRx.gov, in exchange for tariff relief and other incentives, including faster FDA reviews for future approvals.

    The program, known as the Most Favored Nation initiative, is an effort to link U.S. drug prices to lower costs abroad.

    “Every president for a generation has promised to reduce drug prices, but … I am the only one of them to ever even think in terms of ‘favored nations,’” Trump boasted Friday, flanked by drug-company executives and health officials.

    Friday’s announcements follow similar deals with five other companies, beginning in September when Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla joined Trump to unveil price cuts. Since then, other drug-company executives have joined Trump to announce discounts on fertility and GLP-1 drugs and other offerings. In return, the administration has lifted the threat of tariffs and offered the companies other benefits, such as priority vouchers to expedite FDA reviews, which can lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue for a company if a new drug is quickly approved.

    Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novartis and Sanofi all announced new price cuts Friday. Three of the 17 pharmaceutical companies initially targeted by the Trump administration — AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson and Regeneron — have yet to appear with the president to tout price cuts, but officials said that those companies are set to make their own announcements soon.

    Trump has heralded his initiative — which he attempted to pursue in his first term — as one of his most significant achievements this year, arguing that even small savings matter amid the difficulty of curbing drug prices. The deep-pocketed pharmaceutical industry has repeatedly blocked most major efforts at reform for decades, and U.S. drug spending continues to rise, outpacing other wealthy countries.

    “This is the biggest thing ever to happen on drug pricing and on healthcare,” Trump claimed. He also criticized other countries for relying on high drug prices in the United States to subsidize the cost of pharmaceutical research and development, saying that global prices needed to be more equitable.

    “We were subsidizing the entire world. We’re not doing that anymore,” the president said.

    Democrats and outside experts have credited the deals as potentially helping some patients but said the initiative’s overall savings to the U.S. health system will be negligible and dismissed Trump’s hyperbole.

    “It’s a bit laughable to call this ‘the biggest thing ever’ in health policy. I’m not even sure this cracks the top 10 health policy changes,” said Craig Garthwaite, director of healthcare at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “Giving Most Favored Nation prices to Medicaid, particularly for older drugs, likely won’t save that much.”

    The president has sought to make regular announcements about his drug-price deals, aiming to show progress and counter voter frustration over rising healthcare costs entering a midterm year that favors Democrats. Trump is timing Friday’s event to be one of his final White House events of the year, before he heads to North Carolina for a rally on affordability and then to his Mar-a-Lago resort.

    Pharmaceutical companies also touted their willingness to cut U.S. prices. A Bristol Myers Squibb executive said the company would provide its blood-thinning drug Eliquis, its most-prescribed medicine, to Medicaid free. Merck said it would offer discounts on its drugs Januvia, Janumet, and Janumet XR, which are used to treat Type 2 diabetes.

    “I reflect on your goal, driving affordability and access to Americans, but equally getting prices up outside the United States,” Merck CEO Robert Davis told Trump. “We’re 100 percent supportive of your actions.”

    Democrats have questioned whether Trump’s dealmaking with the companies is creating a quid pro quo, with pharmaceutical executives striking agreements to give the president a political win in exchange for potential profit.

    “Congress and the American people remain in the dark about the contours of your agreement with the Trump Administration,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and Reps. Richard E. Neal (D., Mass.), Frank Pallone Jr. (D., N.J.) and Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D., Va.) wrote in letters sent this week to pharmaceutical executives participating in the initiative. The lawmakers are the top Democrats on four congressional committees that oversee aspects of the U.S. health system.

    Several former FDA officials — including two physicians who recently oversaw the agency’s drug-regulation center — have warned that the voucher program may be illegal and risk undermining public health by streamlining reviews. While the agency’s drug reviews can traditionally take about a year, as scientists pore over safety and effectiveness data, Trump officials have said that the voucher program can guarantee a review within one or two months. The administration has defended the program, saying that safety and effectiveness remain priorities despite the accelerated timetable.

    Trump officials have used other levers, too. The administration has relied on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’s innovation center, which allows officials to pilot payment changes without seeking congressional approval, to pressure drug companies that do not voluntarily lower prices. Several drug-payment pilots have already been announced, and more are expected on Friday, the people said.

    Wall Street analysts say the companies have incentives to strike quick deals with the administration, rather than tempt Trump’s ire. Medicaid represents a relatively small portion of their business, and many companies are agreeing to price cuts similar to discount programs they have begun.

    Pfizer’s announcement with Trump also sent a signal to the rest of the industry, several pharmaceutical executives and industry analysts have told reporters.

    “When you saw the lack of impact to earnings of the initial companies’ deals, for most coming after, it’s a no-brainer,” said Chris Meekins, a managing director at Raymond James.

    Trump officials have said that the initial negotiations were tough, and securing concessions has become easier over time.

    “I think the first five companies that came through the pipeline were some of the hardest ones to get through,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said in an interview on Dec. 7, pointing to the size of companies like Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly, which were among the first companies to agree to deals.

    Trump officials have leaned on the healthcare companies’ civic responsibilities, in addition to applying pressure through tariffs and the CMS innovation center.

    Chris Klomp, the head of the Medicare program and a lead negotiator on the drug-price cuts, said he stressed “duty and patriotism” in a conversation with one prominent CEO.

    “And when we got done, he said, ‘I didn’t get into this business for [quarterly earnings],” Klomp said in remarks at last month’s MAHA Action summit. “I have children. I want to make them proud. I understand this is important to you and the president. We will show up.’”

  • How brokers gamed the ACA marketplace, roiling subsidy debate in Congress

    How brokers gamed the ACA marketplace, roiling subsidy debate in Congress

    The Florida insurance brokers offered an enticing deal to unemployed and homeless people: Enroll in a Healthcare.gov health plan they weren’t eligible for in exchange for gift cards, food, alcohol, or cash. They coached them to lie about their income to qualify for heavily subsidized coverage, according to court documents. Sometimes they enrolled people without their knowledge.

    A federal jury convicted Cory Lloyd and Steven Strong last month of collecting millions of dollars in commissions between 2018 and 2022 through a widespread plot to defraud the federal insurance marketplace. People earning at least the federal poverty level can get income-based subsidies to help them afford monthly premiums for plans sold through the Affordable Care Act. Under Lloyd and Strong’s scheme, the federal government paid at least $180 million in ineligible subsidies.

    Many more agents and brokers — likely thousands, according to two career staffers at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to press — are gaming the marketplace where 24 million Americans get health insurance.

    Corruption among Healthcare.gov agents and brokers had emerged as a sticking point in Washington as Congress failed to reach a deal to halt the year-end expiration of enhanced subsidies for insurance premiums, which will drive up the cost of plans for millions of Americans. Republicans invoked the fraud to argue against extending the subsidies while Democrats said the solution is better enforcement rather than withholding assistance from Americans who need it.

    Last year, the Biden administration temporarily suspended 850 insurance agents and brokers suspected of fraudulent or abusive conduct. CMS hasn’t terminated any agents or brokers this year — although spokesman Christopher Krepich said the agency has “initiated terminations” — even as it sets up stricter enrollment rules for customers amid Administrator Mehmet Oz’s promises to root out fraud.

    Around 100,000 agents and brokers are authorized by Healthcare.gov. They facilitate more than three-quarters of enrollments. For each person enrolled, insurers pay them a small monthly commission, typically between $5 and $20. Florida, where Lloyd and Strong operated, offers the largest commissions in the country, averaging $28 per enrollee, according to the nonpartisan health policy organization KFF.

    A new government report underscored how easy it is to game the marketplace.

    When the Government Accountability Office, which evaluates federal programs and spending, submitted 20 fraudulent applications to Healthcare.gov for coverage this year, 19 were initially approved even though the agency didn’t submit documents requested to prove income, citizenship, and Social Security numbers. The marketplace terminated one enrollee for insufficient documentation. The government is still paying more than $10,000 a month in subsidies for 18 remaining enrollments.

    Investigators also discovered misuse of Society Security numbers — in one case, a single number was used for 125 policies in 2023 — and identified serious shortcomings in how CMS assesses marketplace fraud.

    Stopping marketplace fraud is “not a priority” for CMS, said Seto Bagdoyan, a director at GAO who worked on the report.

    Krepich said the agency has undertaken “a thorough investigation into improper agent and broker activity” and is committed to “ensuring consumers are never enrolled in coverage without their knowledge or consent.”

    Democrats complain the Trump administration is doing little to fix the problem despite its bluster about waste, fraud, and abuse in federal health programs.

    Rep. Lloyd Doggett (Texas), the top Democrat on a subcommittee overseeing CMS, wrote a letter to Oz last week requesting closer scrutiny of the reinstated agents and brokers. “The remedy is not to deny a mother access to care for her sick child,” Doggett said in a statement. “What we need is effective law enforcement.”

    Like brokers for Lloyd and Strong, who did not return requests for comment, many have enrolled people without their knowledge, switched their plan without their consent or created fake enrollments to maximize commissions.

    The GAO concluded that the enhanced subsidies worsened fraud in recent years as bad actors seized upon the beefier assistance to lure new customers. As enrollments on Healthcare.gov skyrocketed under the extra subsidies, fraudulent sign-ups grew too. The Congressional Budget Office estimated those misstating their incomes to get more subsidies nearly doubled from 1.3 million to 2.3 million between 2023 and 2025.

    “We believe that the expansion of the subsidies — which put more money in the pool — invigorated the financial incentive to sign up as many people as possible,” Bagdoyan said.

    The GAO’s findings were among the hurdles to Republicans in Congress agreeing to extend extra subsidies for a marketplace they’ve accused of failing to sufficiently police from bad actors.

    “These findings validate long-standing Republican warnings: Obamacare’s subsidy system lacks even the most basic guardrails and has created an environment where criminals, identity thieves, and unscrupulous brokers can exploit taxpayers with ease,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said in a statement last week.

    Democrats say the proper response isn’t to let the extra subsidies expire but to go after the brokers.

    “I’ve always said any fraud is too much,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which has oversight of healthcare issues.

    Wyden introduced a bill to create new civil penalties for brokers who commit fraud. He said Republicans haven’t signed onto his bill or offered similar measures.

    After receiving hundreds of thousands of complaints about fraud, the Biden administration started requiring customers to hold a three-way call with their broker and the marketplace call center in July 2024. But the new policy left plenty of loopholes, agents told GAO. The rule didn’t apply to new enrollees. And the marketplace took only “limited steps to verify the identity of the consumer on the three-way call,” the report says.

    Oz has been vowing to root out the abuse, slamming the prior administration for rules he said were too lenient and touting stricter enrollment rules CMS released in June. Those rules don’t include any direct, new restrictions on agents and brokers but could indirectly make fraud harder by ending year-round enrollment for people earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level, roughly $23,000 for an individual.

    “The past administration prioritized achieving big program enrollment numbers over protecting program integrity,” Oz said in a video posted recently to X.

    CMS is also preparing to implement stricter verification requirements laid out in Trump’s sweeping tax-and-spending law he signed this summer. That legislation bans the marketplaces from awarding subsidies before verifying a customer’s personal information, including their income and legal status, before awarding any subsidies, which could make it harder for bad actors to sign people up.

  • Putin says Europe out of step with an increasingly Moscow-friendly U.S.

    Putin says Europe out of step with an increasingly Moscow-friendly U.S.

    MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin told Europe it was out of step with the new priorities of the United States and painted a picture of the world in which America was closer to Russia than its traditional Western allies, during his marathon year-end call-in show Friday.

    Over the course of several hours, Putin answered questions from journalists and the public, playing up the economy, expressing confidence on the Ukraine war and denying responsibility for the massive human casualties taking place. He also blamed the West for the invasion.

    He ridiculed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s warning this month that Russia could attack a NATO country in the next five years by saying such sentiment contradicted the new U.S. National Security Strategy, which does not identify Russia as an adversary to the U.S. and instead seeks “strategic stability.”

    “The United States is the creator of NATO, its main sponsor. All the main resources come from the U.S. — money, military technology, weapons, ammunition, everything,” Putin said. “And in the new U.S. National Security Strategy, Russia is not named as an enemy or a target. Yet the NATO secretary general is preparing for war with us. What is that? Can’t you read?”

    The Kremlin said earlier this month that the security document, which alarmed U.S. allies in Europe, was “largely consistent” with Russia’s vision.

    Putin said that the conflict between U.S. President Donald Trump and European leaders was because “European political elites openly supported the Democratic Party” and its 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and said these same elites were hoping Republican losses in the midterm elections would put pressure on Trump.

    The combined-format event, blending a large news conference with a “Direct Line” call-in from citizens that often runs for four hours, marks Putin’s most significant public address this year and one of his rare moments of engagement with the public. He skipped the traditional state-of-the-nation speech, normally held in the spring.

    While Putin did say he was ready for peace with Ukraine and would compromise to end the conflict, he still repeated his well-worn lines blaming Kyiv for refusing to end the war — although it was Russia that invaded Ukraine. He also said Ukrainian forces were retreating “in all directions.”

    Putin, who has taken a hard line on peace negotiations in recent days, said that Russia was ready for peace — on terms suitable to Moscow that eliminated what the Kremlin calls “the root causes” of the conflict, which would see a Ukraine subservient to its Russian neighbor.

    Putin denied responsibility for human casualties in the war, “as we did not start that war.”

    He said that he had told Trump that Russia was willing to compromise in peace talks when he met him in Alaska in August, although the Russian leader this week insisted that Russia would take more Ukrainian territory — which he called Russia’s “historical lands” — through military force if it failed to gain these through negotiations.

    “When I arrived in Anchorage, I said these would not be easy decisions for us. But we agree to the compromises being proposed,” Putin said, adding that “to say that we reject anything is absolutely incorrect and has no basis.”

    “The ball is entirely in the court of our opponents, so to speak, and, first and foremost, the leaders of the Kyiv regime and their, in this case, and above all, European sponsors,” Putin said.

    Asked by the BBC whether there would in future be new “special military operations,” the Kremlin’s euphemism for the war — Putin said: “Western leaders created this situation themselves and continue fanning the flames by saying they are preparing for war with Russia,” adding it was “nonsense” that Russia wanted to go to war with Europe.

    During the conference questions from Russians flashed up on screens in the hall, including one that suggested that Russian elections were “a fiction” and another that asked why ordinary Russians lived so badly.

    “When you will return the ‘normal internet?’ It’s impossible to even send a question to the president!” one asked. Another asked, “Are you going to nominate yourself to run for president in 2030?”

    When the Levada Center independent polling agency asked Russians last month what questions they had for Putin, 21% wanted to know when the war would end, and 16% wanted to ask when pensions and benefits would increase.

    Putin adopted a triumphalist tone, boasting that Russia would have new military successes before year’s end. “I have no doubt that you and I will witness new successes of our armed forces, our troops on the contact line before the end of this year. That’s the plan.”

    Putin also rolled out a list of statistics to show the economy was doing well, including an unemployment rate of just 2.2% and a national debt that he boasted is among the lowest of developed countries. While growth this past year was only 1%, he maintained it was deliberate.

    “This was done in the course of targeting inflation,” he said. Inflation has dropped from nearly 10 percent down to 5.7%, he said. He added that an increase in sales tax on Jan. 1 from 20% to 22% was needed to balance the budget and would not be permanent.

    But in a sign that Western sanctions are taking a real toll on Russia’s economy, questions addressed high prices of chicken and other essential items, as well as a shortage of fish.

    “Stop price increases!” said a message from one Russian displayed on the screens in the hall.

    “There really isn’t enough fish on people’s tables. We’re not meeting the standard here,” Putin admitted.

    A question from a child was read out asking, “Why the pastries in the cafeteria rise but my parents salary does not?”

    The press marathon comes amid a burst of diplomatic activity as Trump pushes for a deal to settle the conflict in Ukraine. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected in Miami this weekend for talks with Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s key investment envoy and a central figure in back-channel discussions, Axios and Politico reported.

    On Thursday, the Kremlin confirmed Russia is preparing for American contacts to clarify details from recent U.S. consultations with Ukraine and Europeans held in Berlin earlier this week.

    Putin’s address comes after European leaders agreed Friday to give Kyiv nearly $105 billion in a loan backed by the bloc’s budget, after the failure of a last-ditch effort to tap Russia’s $246 billion in frozen assets to finance Ukraine’s state and army. Putin called the attempt to tap the assets “open robbery” during the event.

    Moscow had stepped up anti-European rhetoric and vowed retaliation against any seizure, warning that without fresh funding, Kyiv’s resources could dry up within months.

    The Kremlin said about 3 million questions had been received by Friday, according to spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Putin’s approval rating remains steady at 84%, according to a Levada poll in October and November published last month.

    But as the Ukraine war — planned by the Kremlin to last just a few days — approaches its fourth year, war fatigue has set in, with casualties skyrocketing as Russia presses on with limited territorial gains.

    More than 65% of people surveyed by Levada in mid-November believed it was time for peace talks instead of continued military action, a four-percentage-point increase over the previous month. Tellingly, 55% in a separate Levada poll the previous month said they would not want a family member to sign a military contract to fight in Ukraine, 14% higher than in May 2023.

    According to the recent Levada poll, 65% of Russians believe the country is heading in the right direction, down from 74% in March, while 21% feel Russia is on the wrong path, compared with 16% in March.

    With Russia’s economy under intense pressure amid sanctions, declining oil prices and high interest rates, dozens of Russian companies have laid off workers or cut wages, while residents grapple with inflation and a rising cost of living. According to the poll, 25% said their life had gotten worse in the past year.

    In the lead-up to Putin’s question session, residents in villages and towns across Russia recorded videos complaining of local issues: a lack of heating in their homes; terrible roads; public transport failures; odorous smoke from local landfills; and other matters that will probably be featured during the event.

    Dixon reported from Riga, Latvia. Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia contributed to this report.