Author: Reporter

The number of prescription opioid pills shipped in the U.S. in the second half of the 2010s decreased sharply even as a nationwide overdose crisis continued to deepen, according to data released in September. The decline in painkiller prescriptions — finally dropping below the quantities sold in the mid-2000s when the overdose epidemic accelerated — happened after state and federal governments tightened prescribing guidelines and state, local and Native American tribal governments sued the industry over the toll of the addictive drugs. “We are still at an epidemic proportion of pills,” Peter Mougey, a lawyer representing governments that are...

Hundreds of thousands of older Americans could pay less for some of their outpatient drug treatments beginning early next year, the Biden administration announced on December 14. The White House unveiled a list of 48 drugs — from chemotherapy treatments to growth hormones used to treat endocrine disorders — whose prices increased faster than the rate of inflation this year. Under a new law, drugmakers will have to pay rebates to the federal government because of those price increases. The money will be used to lower the price Medicare enrollees pay on the drugs early next year. “For years,...

The year 2023 started with high hopes for Ukrainian troops planning a counteroffensive against Russia. It ended with disappointment on the battlefield, an increasingly somber mood among troops, and anxiety about the future of Western aid for Ukraine’s war effort. In between, there was a short-lived rebellion in Russia, a dam collapse in Ukraine, and the spilling of much blood on both sides of the conflict. Twenty-two months since it invaded, Russia has about one-fifth of Ukraine in its grip, and the roughly 620-mile front line has barely budged this year. A crunch has come away from the battlefield....

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brutal military campaign in Gaza, experts say, now sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history. In just over two months, the disorganized offensive has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the U.S.-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the Islamic State group. The Israeli military has said little about what kinds of bombs and artillery it is using in Gaza. But from blast fragments...

The holiday travel rush hit its peak on December 22 as mild weather and lower flight cancelation rates raised hopes for merrier drivers and airline passengers than last year. U.S. airlines are predicting a blockbuster holiday season and have projected confidence they can handle the crowds after hiring thousands of pilots, flight attendants and other workers, seeking to avoid the delays and suspensions that marred travel last year and culminated with the Southwest Airline debacle that stranded more than 2 million people. Airlines have canceled just 1.2% of U.S. flights so far this year, the lowest in five years,...

It is normally a moment of pure joy for the Rev. Khader Khalilia, the excitement, the giggles, the kisses, as his young daughters in their Christmas pajamas open their gifts. But this year, just the thought of it fills Khalilia with guilt. “I’m struggling,” said the Palestinian American pastor of Redeemer-St. John’s Lutheran Church in New York. “How can I do it while the Palestinian children are suffering, have no shelter or a place to lay their heads?” Thousands of miles away, near Jesus’ biblical birthplace of Bethlehem, Suzan Sahori has been working with artisans to bring olive wood...