In order to combat obesity, the Biden administration intends to mandate that Medicare and Medicaid provide coverage for weight-loss drugs. Proposed by the administration on Tuesday, the new rule would significantly increase access to anti-obesity drugs such as Mounjaro, Ozempic, and Wegovy. These medications have only been covered by Medicare and Medicaid up until now when they are used to treat diseases like diabetes. The modification would significantly lower the medications' out-of-pocket expenses. According to a White House official, the cost of a month's supply of weight loss medications might now reach $1,000 or higher. Over 40% of Americans are categorized as obese. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that obesity is a chronic disease that increases the risk of hear...

Pakistan's Peshawar As thousands of supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan breached government barricades and engaged in combat with law enforcement in the nation's capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday, four members of Pakistan's security services were slain. The paramilitary personnel were run over by automobiles in a protester convoy, according to a statement from the interior ministry. It's not a nonviolent demonstration. In a different statement released by his office, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared it to be extremism. Demands for Khan's release from prison and the federal government's resignation over what they claim were rigged general elections this year served as the impetus for the protests. Roadblocks, such as shipping containers, that had been erected on highways and...

Israel's war cabinet met with Lebanon's Hezbolla on Tuesday to negotiate a cease-fire proposal after the latter's military began more attacks on southern Beirut. On October 8 of last year, a day after the Hamas terrorist strike from Gaza, Hezbollah, Iran's most significant proxy and a potent Lebanese political and militant organization, started exchanging gunfire with Israel. Israel views it as another attempt by Tehran to attack the Jewish State, while Hezbollah claims it is backing the Palestinian resistance. Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, stated on Monday that the proposed truce would probably be discussed by his nation's security cabinet when it convened the next day. An Israeli source knowledgeable on the situation verified this to NBC News. According to Ali Hamdan's advi...

Australia's SydneyMeta Platforms, the company that owns Google and Facebook, encouraged the Australian government on Tuesday to postpone a measure that would prohibit children under 16 from using most forms of social media, stating that more time is required to evaluate the potential effects of the policy. By the end of the parliamentary year on Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's center-left government hopes to enact the bill, which would include some of the strictest restrictions on children's use of social media that any nation has ever imposed. Last Monday, the bill was introduced in Parliament and was only available for one day for public comment. In their arguments, Google and Meta stated that the government should hold off on taking action until the outcome of the age-verifi...

South Korea's SEOUL After attempting to eat his way out of mandatory military service, a South Korean man who wanted to escape it was found guilty. An official at the Seoul Eastern District Court told NBC News on Tuesday that the guy, who has not been officially identified, was convicted of evading national service after he purposefully attempted to put on so much weight that he would be disqualified for combat duty. Under the Military duty Act, which stipulates that escaping mandatory military duty without a valid reason can result in terms of up to three years, he was given a one-year prison sentence with a two-year suspension. Due to a contentious policy that began in the 1950s following the Korean War, South Korea mandates that nearly all physically fit male citizens between the ages...

Washington In contrast to eight years ago, when he narrowly defeated his opponent and took office while police pepper-sprayed protesters who were terrified by his ascent, Donald Trump wants his second inauguration to be more widely accepted and applauded. An someone close to the president-elect told NBC News, speaking on condition of anonymity, that he hopes this time there would be fewer protests and less division. Unlike in 2016, Trump won both the popular vote and the electoral college by a wide margin in this year's election. According to the source, Trump is confident that his presidency won't be stigmatized in the same way as it was in the past after those outcomes. Trump hopes that. His advisors are currently working on an inauguration that will be unlike any that the United State...

Boston In a case that U.S. authorities said showed a growing nationwide torrent of antisemitism following the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza last year, a man from Massachusetts entered a guilty plea on Monday to accusations that he threatened to kill Jews and bomb a synagogue. At a federal court hearing in Boston, John Reardon entered a guilty plea to charges of threatening to kill children and bomb the Congregation Agudas Achim in a voicemail he left with the synagogue in Attleboro, Massachusetts, in January. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the defendant's threats to kill Jewish children and bomb synagogues incited fear among the congregation at a time when Jews are already dealing with an alarming rise in threats. The increase in threats came after...

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump, who views his 2024 triumph as confirmation of a voter yearning for disruption, is set to begin his second term by presenting an unusual slate of nominations to the Senate for influential executive branch jobs. However, what level of disturbance will America's cooling saucer accept? By successfully blocking Trump's nomination of far-right former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., for attorney general because to claims of sexual misconduct and doubts about his qualifications, the soon-to-be Republican-led chamber is already demonstrating its limitations. Republicans can lose no more than three votes to confirm nominees without needing some bipartisan support because the Senate will be divided between 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats in the upcoming session. Vi...

According to a prosecutor who spoke to Reuters, a Malaysian court on Monday ordered the government to release rainbow-colored timepieces and accessories manufactured by Swatch Group that were seized for LGBTQ rights-celebrating designs last year. In Muslim-majority Malaysia, homosexuality is prohibited, and rights organizations have expressed concern over the country's increasing intolerance of the LGBTI population. Due to the inclusion of the abbreviation LGBTQ on the timepieces, Malaysia seized 172 rainbow-colored watches from the Swiss watchmaker's Pride line from 16 stores in May 2023. Subsequently, the government outlawed all LGBTQ references on Swatch watches, boxes, wrappers, accessories, and other products, citing concerns that they could undermine public interest and morality. In ...

After Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, it seemed only natural that births would increase and abortion rates would decline. Conversely, last year saw a rise in abortions and a historic low in the nation's fertility rate. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that advocates for access to abortion, the number of abortions performed in the United States in 2023 exceeded one million, the most in ten years. Preliminary data indicates that abortion rates so far this year have not changed significantly from the final six months of 2023. Diana Greene Foster, a reproductive health researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, stated that the post-Dobbs world wasn't as horrible as we had anticipated. Before Dobbs, abortions were actually prohibit...