NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (Nov. 27)

Welcome to NTD Evening News. I'm Iris Tao, in for Tiffany Meyer. Our top story tonight, the Trump campaign reporting violent threats. President-elect Trump's cabinet picks receiving threats to their lives. How the FBI is responding, and who's the latest administration appointee. The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire comes into effect, ending over a year of fighting. Role leaders welcome the deal, while residents of the border return to damaged homes. And lawmakers applauding the ceasefire deal, but also demanding a plan to bring back hostages from Gaza. Three Americans released from China after years of being detained. More on this prisoner swap in the last week of the Biden administration. How are Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy planning to get rid of what they call inefficient government regulations? Is their plan legally sound? Our legal correspondent breaks it down. This is NTD Evening News. Live from our global headquarters in New York City, here's Tiffany Meyer. Good evening, and thank you for joining us tonight. Several of President-elect Trump's new cabinet nominees and White House appointees say they were targeted with bomb threats. The FBI saying it's taking these threats seriously. Some of Trump's new administration picks are targeted with threats to their lives. That's according to the Trump transition team, which says such attacks range from bomb threats to swatting. The FBI confirming the incident says it's working with law enforcement partners and taking all potential threats seriously. Among those targeted, Trump's pick for UN ambassador, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who says she was informed of a bomb threat to her home in upstate New York. Trump's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, former Congressman Lee Zeldin, also posting about a pipe bomb threat targeting his home with a pro-Palestinian-themed message. And Brooke Rollins, Trump's pick for Agriculture Secretary, says the threat was issued against his home and family. Luckily, no one was harmed in these incidents. Trump's transition teams thanks law enforcement for their swift action and vows that acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us. The latest threats come as Trump continues to staff his new administration. Trump named health economist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Investor Jim O'Neill as the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services. Businessman John Phelan as Navy Secretary. Lawyer and China hawk Jamieson Greer as trade representative. And retired General Keith Kellogg as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, who served as chief of staff to the National Security Council during Trump's first term, is expected to play a key role in helping Trump broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. Fighting has stopped in Lebanon as a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah officially starts. Both sides are withdrawing from southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, residents of both Lebanon and Israel return to damaged homes. NDD's international correspondent Malcolm Hudson has the story. Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah implemented a ceasefire on Wednesday morning local time. It's part of a U.S.-proposed deal for a 60-day truce and ends more than a year of hostilities between the two. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the results of the military campaign against Hezbollah create additional pressure on Hamas. From here we look towards the southern front. Where the most important goal is to return all the hostages home, this is the most important moral goal we are facing now. This is the ultimate goal. Key provisions to the ceasefire include a halt to fighting. Israel will withdraw forces from Lebanon within 60 days in a phased manner. Hezbollah forces will move north. The Lebanese army will deploy 5,000 troops in southern Lebanon. A monitoring mechanism will expand to include the United States and France to review breaches to the ceasefire. The deal also includes language that preserves both Lebanon's and Israel's rights to self-defense. World leaders reacted to the ceasefire. This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities. I wanted to salute the ceasefire deal agreed upon today between Israel and Lebanon. We must seize this opportunity to build trust, de-escalate tensions, and push for a wider ceasefire. We must seize this opportunity and work now with conviction to a long-term stabilization of the Israeli-Lebanese border. We are pleased with the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon. Meanwhile, long-displaced residents of south Lebanon started returning to their homes early on Wednesday. Cars were seen driving back to Beqa with belongings and mattresses on top of their cars. Some were holding up peace signs as they passed through checkpoints. Thank God it feels great. Thank God for everyone's safety. We are returning well. I hope Lebanon stays safe always. Other Lebanese returned to homes damaged during the fighting. In the end, what is gone is gone. We will return to our normal lives. We don't know what will happen in the future. Israelis also returned to the north of their country. Israel evacuated over 60,000 residents of border communities. Farmers assessed the damage to their farms and communities dotted along the border with Lebanon. There's nothing. Total destruction. That's what there is. Look here at the house. Look, look. That's how a house needs to look. It's a heartache. All the good work that the IDF has done, unfortunately, will go to waste. Hezbollah will put in all the effort to restore everything, and unfortunately, the residents of the north are going to pay for it. Many say they will wait to see if the ceasefire holds before returning to their homes. Malcolm Hudson, NTD News, London. Lawmakers are welcoming the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah, but they're also stressing the need to bring the hostages kidnapped by Hamas back from Gaza. Our Washington correspondent, Luis Martinez, has more. Republican Congressman Mike Walz, who has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be his national security advisor, welcomed the ceasefire deal. On a social media post, Congressman Mike Walz said, everyone is coming to the table because of President Donald Trump. I'm glad to see concrete steps towards de-escalation in the Middle East. According to Congressman Walz, President Donald Trump's electoral victory has sent a strong message to the world, in particular, U.S. adversaries. For Congressman Jim Hines, a Democratic-ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, it's the hostages in Gaza and the conflict against Hamas that should be the center of attention. So, you know, it was obviously important to the Prime Minister that he could move his population back up into the northern part of the country. But Gaza is going to be a lot harder. My hope is that a final deal can be struck. It's going to be a lot more challenging, but I do suspect that the President is going to double down on his efforts to use the momentum from this Lebanese deal for a Gaza ceasefire, for a hostages deal. Both Republican and Democratic senators have expressed optimism that the ceasefire deal could be a building block to broader regional peace. And that's good news for the Lebanese people who want peace. It's also obviously good news for Israelis who want to return home in the north. I also think this now undermines even further Hamas. Israel has taken out the Hamas leadership. We need to end the in Gaza as well. And it will ensure that there will be no October 7th generated from that border against Israel. Compromise is always difficult, but I think the ceasefire was the right decision. Lawmakers have yet to approve the National Defense Authorization Act for 2025. This is a bill that sets the spending priorities for the Defense Department for the fiscal year. These new developments in the Middle East will surely play a part in the negotiations here in Capitol Hill. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Luis Eduardo Martinez, NTD News. Senator Lindsey Graham was in Jerusalem today. He issued a sharp warning against the enforcement of the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants targeting Israeli leaders. The International Criminal Court's issuance of an arrest warrant for the Prime Minister of Israel and the former Defense Minister is beyond outrageous. It tramples on every concept that I hold near and dear as a lawyer—the rule of law. I am going back to Congress and introduce legislation very soon that would sanction any country that tried to enforce the arrest warrant against Israel. So you could be a close ally, Canada, Britain, France, you name it. If you buy into this arrest warrant is legitimate, then you're going to meet stiff bipartisan resistance in America. Graham also spoke on the broader challenges in Gaza. He stressed that the U.S. would neither rebuild the region or oversee its governance. He suggested that Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were best positioned to lead Gaza's reconstruction. He said they should play a leading role in creating a peaceful entity alongside Israel. A prisoner swap between Washington and Beijing. China has released three Americans who have been in custody for years. The White House says they will return soon and reunite with their families for the first time in many years. The released Americans are Mark Sweetan, Kai Lee, and John Niang. It's unclear who would be sent back to China in exchange for them walking free. Mark Sweetan is a businessman from Texas. A Chinese court upheld his death sentence with a two-year reprieve. Sweetan was first arrested on drug-related charges. His mother previously said she was afraid that he might try to take his own life after spending over a decade behind bars. Kai Lee was detained during a 2016 visit to see relatives in Shanghai. He was serving a 10-year prison sentence until his release. He was interrogated without a lawyer and accused of providing state secrets to the FBI. A UN working group called his sentence arbitrary. As for John Niang, China sentenced him to life in prison this May. The charge is related to spying, but Chinese authorities did not give details. He's a 70-year-old U.S. citizen. China also confiscated about $70,000 worth of his personal property. As Trump's tariff proposals settle in, will businesses reduce supply chain reliance on China? Tune in to Capture Report with Steve Lance to hear from the chief strategy officer of Fredo's Group here on NTD at 7 p.m. Eastern time. And now we turn to The Legal Hub, where our legal correspondent Arlene Richards gives us an overview of one way Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy plan to make the government more efficient. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have an assignment to reduce the size of the federal government. They say in a recent Wall Street Journal article that they will focus on three major kinds of reform, regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings. Let's focus on regulatory rescissions or removing thousands of federal agency regulations. Musk and Ramaswamy point to two Supreme Court rulings that came down during the Biden administration, West Virginia vs. Environmental Protection Agency and Loper-Bright vs. Raimondo. In both of these cases, the justices found that the courts don't have to accept federal agencies' interpretations of laws. Federal agencies create regulations based on their own interpretations of laws created by Congress. For 40 years, the court has accepted the agency's interpretations. But in the Raimondo case, the court said from now on they will use their own judgment to decide legal questions. Because of these two rulings, Musk and Ramaswamy say these cases suggest that a number of current federal regulations exceed the authority Congress has granted under the law. With the help of various legal experts, they plan to dig out those regulations and provide a list to President Trump. They say Trump will then issue executive orders to immediately pause agency enforcement until the proper review and removal process has been completed. It's unclear how quickly or easily it will be to complete that process. And it's also not clear how they will deliver on their promise. Musk and Ramaswamy have a self-imposed deadline of to present the president with the list. And we have breaking news. Music mogul Sean Diddy Combs has been denied bail. He's currently behind bars on federal sex crime charges. A federal judge made a decision moments ago following Combs' third bail hearing earlier this week. The decision comes after Combs appeared in court on Friday, November 22nd, for a third bail hearing. Prosecutors who fought to keep him behind bars argued that Combs would tamper with witnesses if released. Combs' defense attorneys argued for a 50 million dollar bail package with strict release conditions such as no access to cell phones and 24-7 monitoring. Combs faces charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He will go on trial in May 2025. And Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign leaders are saying that time is responsible for the Democrats' defeat three weeks ago. During an interview yesterday, members of Harris' campaign defended their decisions and blamed a variety of external factors. David Plouffe, a senior advisor to Harris, and three other advisors spoke out for the first time on the podcast Podsafe America. They said an 107-day campaign did not give Harris time to distinguish himself from President Joe Biden, nor to craft a message that could warm up the cold political climate for Democrats. Although no one called out Biden by name, they repeatedly referred to political, quote, headwinds. Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke out about the election during a call with grassroots supporters. She did not pass a long blame but also suggested that a short campaign hurt her chances. We raised an historic $1.4 billion, almost one and a half billion dollars from grassroots supporters alone, the most in presidential campaign history. I just have to remind you, don't you ever let anybody take your power from you. You have the same power that you did before November 5th. And breaking just moments ago, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announcing a federal court has allowed the state to build razor wire on the border wall. The fence is located in the Eagle Pass area, which has seen a rise in legal broader crossings in recent years. Previously, there have been multiple legal battles on whether to keep the razor wires in place. Coming up, Google Ads bidding costs keep rising for well-known competitors of Xin and Timo. How might a Chinese e-commerce company be sneaking into Black Friday online searches? That story and more after this short break. I actually like them better than my old $5,000 hearing aids. They're so comfortable, I forget I'm wearing them. And the sound is amazing. The Atom Pro 2 is our smallest hearing aid yet, featuring advanced background noise cancellation and is the world's first hearing aid with built-in UV cleaning that kills 99% of bacteria. I could not believe how my hearing and life changed without seeing a doctor or having a hearing test. Join over 500,000 happy customers today and get the hearing you deserve. Call 1-800-433-6359 or go to audionhearing.com to get your pair of Audion hearing aids starting at just $189. We said we'd never give in to a meltdown. We babysit with a screen. We said we'd never let the toys take over. Never leave the house looking, well, out of our sight. Cars get hot fast and kids can be at risk. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. A painting that has true beauty. I imagine it's like a door. The artist holds the key to open the door. And bring people to a pure world. A world where people are more compassionate. And Russia today again criticizing alleged plans by the West to give Ukraine nuclear weapons. That's as Moscow says Kyiv keeps using American long-range weapons to strike Russia. NDD's international correspondent Ariane Pastor has the war update. Moscow on Wednesday again commenting on reports saying the West allegedly plans to provide Ukraine with nuclear weapons. We regard this as madness. This is absolute madness which is being imposed by Westerners. A Russian security official previously warned of a nuclear response if the West actually takes the step to provide nukes to Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday suggesting Russia might be engaging in nuclear activity itself. We also are looking attentively at what Russia is and may be doing for North Korea including potentially boosting its missile and nuclear capacity. This comes as new satellite images indicate North Korea is expanding a weapons manufacturing facility. Those weapons are then reportedly being used by Russia in the Ukraine war. That's according to a US-based think tank called the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. And Moscow says Ukraine has been using American-supplied long-range weapons to strike Russia over the last three days. The Pentagon on Tuesday commenting on the strikes. There has been a shift in policy that the Ukrainians may employ attack comes in defense of their nation focused right now of course on the Kursk region. Russia says Ukraine used 13 such missiles, 10 of which were intercepted. Three of them hit different objects causing damage to a Russian military radar station. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Wednesday suggesting more action is still needed. The recent authorization for long-range strikes on military facilities in Russia helped. But the pressure on Russia must be maintained and increased at different levels so that Russia feels what war is. The US is still scheduled to provide more support. The Biden administration said it'll send all aid approved by Congress before President-elect Trump returns to office. Walmart announces that it's moving away from its diversity equity and inclusion practices or DEI. It's the largest so far to do so. Other companies are starting to embrace something called MEI. NDD's correspondent Jason Blair brings us more. Walmart plans to end its diversity equity and inclusion initiatives also known as DEI. The retail giant made the announcement on Monday in a statement. It said we've been on a journey and know we aren't perfect but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone. The chain employs 1.6 million workers in the US and it's the largest company to make this kind of move. It made a five-year commitment back in 2020 for an equity racial center after the death of George Floyd. Influencer Robbie Starbucks says he spoke with Walmart after telling them he was planning to do a story on them involving their quote, wokeness there. According to Starbucks, the company told him some of the changes they intend to make include the removal of inappropriate sexual and or transgender products marketed at children as well as funding for similar content. They will no longer use the term Latinx in official communications. Their racial equity training center will be discontinued and they will no longer use the term DEI while ensuring a According to Starbucks, other companies who have ended their DEI practices include Lowe's, Jack Daniels, Ford, Coors, Harley-Davidson and others. Then in contrast to DEI, there is a rise of what some are calling MEI or Merit Excellence and Intelligence. It could be seen as a commitment by an organization to make hiring or admission choices based on those concepts. The University of Austin is one among a growing number of organizations doing so. We are putting resources into finding talent of an intellectual variety and if you're interested in diversity, I recommend you look at the social backgrounds of our students, at the family circumstances of our students. Jason Blair, NTD News. New York City's Rikers Island Jail complex is on the verge of a federal takeover. A federal judge today found the city in contempt for failing to staunch violence and brutality at its jails. U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan said the city had placed incarcerated people in unconstitutional danger. This is because the city's jail failed to comply with court orders pertaining to security, staffing, supervision, use of force and the safety of young detainees. As a result, the judge ordered the city as well as lawyers suing on behalf of detainees to meet with a court-appointed monitor. That's the discussed framework for what's called a federal receivership. The proposal would seize city control of one of the nation's largest and most notorious jail systems. Today's ruling stemmed from litigation started more than a decade ago. It accused the city's Department of Correction of excessive and unnecessary force. New York City Mayor Eric Adams opposed the federal takeover. He responded to the ruling by saying that the city had made significant progress towards addressing the issues on Rikers Island. And heavy online marketing spending by Chinese e-commerce platforms Timu and Xin is making it more costly for other retailers and brands to reach shoppers on Black Friday. Marketing industry experts say this is due to both platforms betting heavily on search keywords used by competitors. NDT's Sean Marshall has more details. China's kings of cheap e-commerce products Timu and Xin are driving up cost of advertising for other companies. That's according to data on Google search ads compiled by online marketing platform SEMrush for Reuters. In the United States, Timu has bid on keywords including Walmart Black Friday deals, Kohl's Black Friday deals and Bed Bath Beyond. And Xin has bid on keywords including Walmart clothes, Zara jeans, mango dresses and Nordstrom rack shoes in the U.S. And with Black Friday approaching, why not find out what people are shopping for and what people think about Timu and Xin. I used to buy on Xin previously and then I watched this documentary about how they do things in you know those places in China and then I stopped. Yeah it's really really like fast fashion monster you know. It's so bad for the environment. The cost per click for Walmart clothes increased by 16 times from August 2022 to August 2024. The greater the demand for a keyword, the more the search engine charges for each click on an ad appearing in those results. A metric called cost per click. So Black Friday is coming up this week. Any specific items you plan to look for? Actually we're just out shopping for scarves and gloves and I'm always looking for women's shirts. Generic keywords like cheap clothing online and shopping have also become much more costly according to the data. Retailers compete for their advertised products to appear high up in online search results by bidding on keywords. Have you seen a lot of like Timu and Xin ads here and there on the internet? No but word on the street is stay away from the clothing sold on those sites because it's always coming back in like an extra small. Everything's not what it appears to be. So stay away from Xin and Timu as far as clothes are concerned. I mean maybe electronics but uh man like little uh accessories like balaclavas or maybe even gloves but cheaper cheaper stuff stuff those sites I don't recommend for like you know high like uh stuff that's gonna last. Mikhailo Shuffman, director of communications at Jacklynx gave this advice to not get caught up in the bidding war with Timu and Xin. Smaller brands need to focus on what makes them unique and lean into marketing strategies that don't rely solely on paid search. At the same time they can explore less competitive niche words or even rethink their timing. Maybe targeting shoppers before or after Black Friday instead of trying to compete head-to-head. Sean Marshall, NTD News. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and much more. What are Americans' favorite Thanksgiving dishes? NTD's Sam Wang was out in D.C. to hear from the crowd. Are you cooking this Thanksgiving? I can not cook so I'm not cooking no. My sister-in-law Heather is cooking it this year. We don't have to host it that's worth it worth the plane flights from California. I am cooking corn casserole and macaroni and cheese. My grandmother had a tradition she'd make her uh her biscuits so so my aunt my mom they they carried on that tradition and yeah yeah so we always look for our dough. Thanksgiving we're doing that we're doing the traditional we're doing turkey we're doing uh mashed potatoes we're doing gravy we're doing the stuffing and again cranberry homemade. I'm hosting and all of our kids and grandkids are coming over. What's good on the table? I would say my specialty is my mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. And what's your favorite Thanksgiving dish? Um oh stuffing for sure. Inside the turkey or on the side? Oh inside the turkey it's got to be cooked inside the turkey and then just straight into my mouth. Stuffing by far the more bread the better. Inside the turkey or? I'm not a turkey person I don't I usually like the ham. I love the combination of the turkey cranberry and the stuffing. My favorite dish is green bean casserole. The turkey. Oh yeah turkey and stuffing. A lot a lot of turkey. The turkey and I like some uh cranberry sauce. Probably our marshmallow float. Yeah pineapple float. We're gonna go to a restaurant where they're serving Thanksgiving meal. I love sweet potato pie so hopefully the restaurant will have what I want. His mom made this fruit salad it's like a marshmallow whip thing from the 1950s and it's got pineapple and cherries and bing cherries. The key is to get the bing cherries in advance because they're a little bit of a challenge to get. Cranberry sauce homemade or in the can? Oh uh I like it homemade yeah. Homemade. Homemade definitely homemade. No no no no not homemade not cans either. No don't like it never did. Favorite part of that meal? Favorite part of the meal is honestly getting together with people that you love and that you care about and being just to have that camaraderie. NTD will have live special coverage of the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Tune in tomorrow from 9 a.m to 1 p.m eastern right here on NTD. We wish you a happy Thanksgiving. Coming up President-elect Trump picks Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford to leave the National Institutes of Health. An attorney in Murphy versus Missouri. A case about pandemic censorship joins us to explore what the choice means. And Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons spring into life as they're inflated a day before they flow through the canyons of New York City. That and more when we return on NTD News. Shop the Mathis Design Studio for Black Friday savings on luxury designer furniture. Get factory authorized savings on all the top brands with heirloom quality pieces for every room in your house. Choose from our incredible in-stock selection or let our complimentary design staff help you create a custom look to match your own personal style for less than you ever imagined. Get the lowest prices of the year through Black Friday at the Mathis Design Studio. Looking for a healthy and smooth tasting brew? Drop by Day's Coffee Roasters today and explore our wide selection of specialty grade small batch roasted coffee. Home to North America's first enzyme fermented coffee, we source a wide selection of specialty grade coffee beans from around the world and our baristas are ready to craft your customized brew. Visit Day's Coffee at 28 North Street, Middletown, New York. Come experience a brew like no other. Whispered across generations, a hidden secret unveils the essence of longevity and vitality. A timeless legend regarding energy and wonder. Rooted in ancient health wisdom, we proudly introduce Puritang Black Ginseng, a 100% natural organic energy drink made from premium six-year-old Korean ginseng. It takes 2,260 days and nights from seed to growth undergoing a meticulous nine-step process of steaming and drying. Black ginseng reaches its full potency enriched with ginsenicide RG3 and enhanced absorption efficiency. No sugar, no caffeine, no artificial ingredients. Experience the pure natural power of Puritang Black Ginseng. Nourish your body, strengthen your immunity, and boost your energy. To order Puritang Black Ginseng, please visit puritang.com. Will radical lies determine your child's future or will timeless truths fathom the good, equips children with wisdom against the world? Our homeschool curriculum teaches high schoolers to think critically. We provide primary texts, original content, reasoning tools, and mentoring videos to help them transform America. Teach your children to navigate the world's woke confusion. Teach them to fathom the good. Welcome back. If you're just joining us now, here are some of today's top headlines. President-elect Trump named lawyer and China hawk Jameson Greer as U.S. trade representative. This is while several of Trump's nominees and appointees have reported threats to their lives. Thousands of residents displaced by the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah started to return to homes along the Israeli-Lebanese border. The 60-day ceasefire appears to be holding as of day one. Congressional lawmakers welcomed the ceasefire deal. But both Republican and Democratic senators are saying that optimism that a ceasefire would be a building block to broader regional peace. Three American citizens in prison for years in China were released in a prisoner swap. The State Department had designated them as wrongfully detained. The Biden administration negotiated the deal. And joining us now to discuss President-elect Trump's nominating Jay Batyutria to lead the National Institute of Health is Janine Yunus, an attorney for him in the Murthy versus Missouri case. Janine is also a litigation counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Janine, thanks for joining us tonight. You have known him for a number of years now. First, your initial reaction to his nomination for this post? Well, I'm thrilled. I can't say that I'm surprised because I couldn't think of a better pick for this. Jay is one of the most humble, kind and intelligent people I've ever met. And he really understands what science is. He knows it's not about certainty. Rather, it's about a process. And I believe that after what we saw during the COVID era, that he's going to restore integrity to the NIH and to government science. And of course, we know that Batyutria is most well known for the Great Barrington Declaration. It was also revealed via Freedom of Information Act request that the former head of the NIH actually attempted to suppress it. Now tell us more about the Great Barrington Declaration and what was discovered via those FOIA requests? So the Great Barrington Declaration was written in October of 2020 by J. Martin Kulldorff, who was an epidemiologist at Harvard, and Sunetra Gupta, an epidemiologist at Oxford in the UK. And basically, it said that the harms of lockdowns outweighed any benefits, that if they worked, they were going to cause immense harm to young people. And so they advocated for what they call focus protection, which is devoting resources, societal resources to protecting vulnerable people who are actually at significant risk from the virus while the rest of society continued to operate as normal. And this was met with great vitriol from a lot of people in government, a lot of establishment, like the New York Times sneered it. And it turned out that Francis Collins, the current director of the NIH, and Anthony Fauci, the director of NIAID, had written that they needed to do a takedown of the declaration because it was so dangerous. And those were emails that were revealed pursuant to a FOIA request. And supporters of Bhattacharya are saying that his potential leading the NIH now is quite a twist of fate, a type of poetic justice almost. In your view, was a large part of President-elect Trump's win down to voters seeking a reckoning, if you will, for the handling of the I think so. I think that most of the country now realizes that what happened during COVID was horribly wrong, that lockdowns did, as Dr. Bhattacharya and others predicted, do far more harm than good. We've seen record numbers of people suffering from substance abuse issues, mental health issues, suicide due to the depression they suffered during lockdowns, worst of all, kids suffering extreme learning loss, depression, and all sorts of other health problems arising because of lockdowns. For instance, missed cancer screenings, people were getting less healthy because they're not getting out. So I think the public saw that went wrong. And then that's not to mention mask and vaccine mandates, where we were forced to wear coverings over our faces for years. People were forced to get a vaccine that really hadn't been tested and turned out not to stop transmission, despite what we've been told. I actually remember speaking to Jay about the vaccine in early 2021. And he said, I looked at the data, you know, this thing does not, it's not doing what they say it's going to do. It's not going to stop transmission. And the idea of mandating it is going to do so, it's going to undermine public health so much, because people are going to see that it has side effects that they didn't know about, because it hasn't been tested for that long, and that it doesn't do what they say it's going to do. And that's going to have massive implications. And he was right about all of that. And you've said that you have the utmost faith in that Bharatacharya will bring integrity back to public health and science. So if confirmed, what do you expect Bharatacharya to do as the head of the NIH? And what reforms would you hope to see? Well, I can say personally, we've become friends over the past four years. He's also my client in the case. So I can just say on a personal level, he is one of the most moral people I've ever met. He doesn't do anything for personal gain. He only does things because he believes it's the right thing to do. As far as what I believe he'll do, I think he's going to really ensure that the scientific process is utilized. I think during the COVID era, we saw a sort of, we saw science, the term science really being abused. And for instance, the CDC and various other agencies were putting out studies that were just designed to reach a certain conclusion, such as that masks work or the vaccine stopped transmission or this and that. And people who really took a good look at them said, wait, these studies don't do what they say, don't actually reach the valid conclusions that they say that they reached. And I believe that Jay is going to do everything in his power to make sure that this doesn't happen anymore, that NIH is going to do real science, the kind of subversive things that we saw during the COVID era, where we know that Dr. Fauci covered up evidence that the virus had originated in a lab, most likely because he may have been responsible for funding the gain of function research that led to the virus. This kind of extremely immoral, unethical business doesn't happen anymore. And Dr. Fauci is also known, it was revealed through a congressional hearing that he deleted emails and used Gmail in order to get around FOIA requests. So I have absolute faith that Jay will put in process safeguards to ensure that this kind of thing doesn't happen anymore. And before I let you go here, what will it mean for the Murthy versus Missouri case if Baracharia is confirmed by the Senate? That's a good question. We're still going forward with the case in the district court. Jay is a plaintiff in the case, and we're suing the office of the NIH, so technically he would also be a defendant if he's leading the NIH. I don't think this has ever happened before, so I'm not sure how it would be dealt with. So that will be a question for the lawyers on the down the road. Well, a lot to watch for when it comes to both legal matters, of course, public health matters in coming weeks and months. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Americans eat turkey at Thanksgiving, mainly because it's a long-standing tradition. But one professor says Thanksgiving dinner looked quite different from its origin. NTT's David Lam has the story. Troy Bickham, a history professor at Texas A&M University, says most agricultural societies have some sort of fall festival, such as Thanksgiving. The great thing about the American Thanksgiving is it ties us into a long-standing global tradition that dates back thousands of years. Every agricultural society every year gives thanks in some way at harvest time, whether it was the ancient Inca or the Americans today. In the U.S., the tradition stopped not long after what is considered the first Thanksgiving. It didn't return until the 19th century, when moral reformers sought to unite the country, which had been divided by the Civil War. Traditional foods that we associate with Thanksgiving probably were not eaten by the pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving. We do know that they ate venison, because those were brought by the Native Americans who joined the feast. But they wouldn't have had something like pumpkin pie. They may have had pumpkin or a type of squash that was available, but they certainly wouldn't have had the butter or the sugar or the cream to make the crust and the custard that makes up pumpkin pie. Cranberries were available, but not widely eaten until centuries later. So when did turkey become popular this time of year? It could be credited to author Charles Dickens and the prized turkey at the end of his classic tale, A Christmas Carol. Also in the 1800s, writer Sarah Josepha Hale began pushing for Thanksgiving to become a national holiday. Thanksgiving was created to some extent to unify the country, but on a very specific moral footing. So the idea that it would be a family holiday that gave thanks for what they had, the emphasis was on the family unit or the larger extended family. That's why it wasn't a big time of gift exchange or anything like that. It was coming together, breaking bread, and having sort of a relative sense of harmony. American presidents, including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, also issued proclamations for Thanksgiving. Lincoln addressed the Civil War and referenced the almighty hand restoring the nation with, quote, divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union. David Lam, NTD News. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade kicks off tomorrow in Manhattan. They're inflating this year's 17 giant character balloons on the Upper West Side. NTD's Chris Spears went out to check out the fun. I'm here at the start of the place where people can come and see the incredible Macy's balloons being inflated. Of course, to my right is Minnie Mouse. Massive, massive Minnie Mouse. She is towering above me, almost rivaling these buildings, strapped down to the floor. But tomorrow, she will be set free of these ropes and this mesh and these sandbags and sail through the skies of midtown Manhattan. So what about the parade will be different this year? Well, every year we add new elements to it. And of course, even returning elements are tweaked. So we have six new giant balloons that will be debuting this year. You'll see some of them being inflated right now. We have Minnie Mouse that will open the parade, a new Spider-Man balloon. Then over here we have Dora the Explorer and her trusty map. You can see the map pointing out from the back of her backpack there, his little eyes. And she's about to gain some lift, it looks like. These workers here are making sure that she doesn't float away while she's doing this. And of course, just like Spongebob and Gary, you see Dora has this net over her with those sandbags to make sure she doesn't float away. Hi, what do you think? We think it's very, very cool. What's the plan, mom? Rain jackets. What's your favorite one? Blue. Which one? Blue. Okay, and you miss? Minnie Mouse. This is great, we're watching them come to life. Maybe avoid the rain. This to my right is the gigantic leg of Ronald McDonald towering over me, filled with helium. Of course, that's how he floats in the air. But where does all this helium come from? Well, over here are these enormous helium tanks. In New York City, we're expecting over 3 million people to come and watch it live along the two and a half mile parade route. In spite of the rain? In spite of the rain, people come, you know, we've had the parade goats are on rain or shine, and people are so devoted to this event. It only comes on once a year. We've taken 18 months to plan it for them. It's filled with entertainment. So they'll just come in bundled up with all the rain gear and hopefully they'll have a good time. And then of course, 30 million people plus watch it on television. These majestic things, they're so much bigger in person. So if you guys ever get the chance, definitely come see the parade in Manhattan on Thanksgiving. Chris Beers, NTD News. And coming up, the Thanksgiving travel rush continues with Southern California's roads seeing heavy congestion and longer airport lines as millions of residents hit the road. NTD's Christina Corona reports. And in college football, the latest playoff rankings are out and not very favorable for Indiana. Dave Martin joins us to discuss when we return. Kids love it. Parents trust it. Obviously. Obviously. Explore GJW Plus Kids series and Gone Dune campus courses led by expert educators. This is spectacular. Children will learn values like respect, responsibility, and knowledge in language, science, and more. Wow. All while having fun. Perfect. Subscribe today at GJW Plus Kids where learning meets fun. Shen Yun Creations, the streaming platform from Shen Yun featuring world-class dance, past programs, and all original music, masterclasses, behind the scenes, comedy, and more. Explore ShenYunCreations.com. Hi everyone and welcome to Legal Help Center. This is where we have professionals standing by to answer your questions regarding personal injury. So if you've been injured in an accident that was not your fault, like a car accident or a slip and fall, we can help. As a matter of fact, we are here to help. So take that first step and call the number on your screen right now. We have legal professionals standing by to answer your questions. They'll tell you if you have a case and how much your case is potentially worth. Thank you for joining us everyone. I'm Gina Belich here with TV anchor and spokesman Tom Mustin. So Tom, you've been in television for over 20 years. You've participated in a number of big events. Tell everyone watching at home what makes the Legal Help Center so special and what it means for you to be here with us in the studio. Well Gina, first let me thank you for having me join you here today. Now as far as who should call in right now, the answer is anyone who's been injured in an accident that was not their fault. Because when you give us a call, you're going to speak with a live person, not some automated greeting or computer message, but an actual person who's ready to help. You'll receive a free consultation. You can get all your questions answered and more importantly, find out how much your case is potentially worth. Now this is a service to you, the viewers, offering you a free consultation and getting you access to legal help. So if you've been injured in an accident that was not your fault or you know someone recently in an accident, give us a call right now. You'll speak with a live agent, not some automated greeting, but an actual person right now who's ready to help you. Like Gina said, if you've been injured in an accident like a car accident or a slip and fall, the team is available to help. So take that first step. We have agents available for you right now. We'll answer any questions you have, let you know how much your case is potentially worth. Take care everyone and thank you for watching. Today is expected to be one of the busiest days for air travelers with hundreds of thousands heading out for the holiday. NTD's Christina Corona is at the Los Angeles International Airport where passengers are making their way through. We're here at LAX where experts are predicting a record-breaking number of travelers this Thanksgiving holiday. AAA says about 80 million people will be traveling, the highest it's been since before the pandemic. TSA expects to screen 2.9 million people on Wednesday and more than 3 million people on Sunday. Over 200,000 people are expected to travel through LAX on Wednesday. While the roads near the airport were congested Wednesday morning, inside the Southwest Airlines terminal the scene was a lot more calm. I spoke to several travelers who told me where they were Well we just got done with a 10 or 11 day road trip. We hit Chicago, San Diego and LA so we're going back to Cedar City, Utah where our school is located. Well we have practice so we're going to practice tomorrow on Thanksgiving. As a team we're going to all get together go to one of our teammates house and have Thanksgiving as a family. Most flights are running on time today. One traveler told us his journey was smooth and hassle-free. So far super smooth, really nice coming in probably under an hour to get to LAX and it's picked up in the airport but it's been going well so far. But I spoke with one traveler who told me her frontier flight to Texas was delayed twice. Forecasters don't expect weather to cause major flight delays on Wednesday but rain and snow in the east could slow down traffic on Wednesday and Thursday. Airport officials say the Sunday following Thanksgiving, December 1st, is expected to be the second busiest day at LAX with around 206,000 passengers. On the roads AAA says nearly 72 million people will travel by car this year which is 1.3 million more than last year. Whether you're hitting the road or taking a flight stay safe this holiday season and enjoy the festivities. Reporting from the city of Los Angeles, Christina Corona, NTD News. And now for sports news we're joined by NTD's Dave Martin. A lot going on today but let's start with the latest news in the college football playoff rankings. Of course the biggest question has been how far Indiana has dropped. Do you agree with them having been dropped to number 10? You know I agree with dropping them and keeping them in the playoffs like the committee did. I don't know if I'd have dropped them that far you know all the way down to 10. You know not the knock against them is their schedule. Though normally you beat Nebraska, UCLA, Michigan State, and Michigan in the same season you had a good year. Just not this year. None of those teams are ranked right now. But I mean look at Miami. Just like Indiana they only won loss. Just like if Indiana had some very convincing wins over unranked opponents. But the Hurricanes won losses against unranked Georgia Tech. Indiana's loss came against number two Ohio State. Now look at SMU too. Also just one loss against the only team on their schedule that's currently ranked. That's BYU which is ranked number 19. But both SMU and Miami are ranked higher. I mean maybe because their losses were more recent. I'm not really sure. In the case of Miami though I mean Miami used to be a powerhouse program. I think they kind of benefit from that a little bit. In any case these aren't the final rankings. I think if Indiana beats Purdue this weekend though they should be safe for playoffs. And now moving to baseball news. The Los Angeles Dodgers made the first big splash of the offseason. Reportedly signing pitcher Blake Snell to a five-year contract worth over 180 million dollars. What do you make of that? I mean in some ways I was surprised. Only because Blake Snell is he's about to turn 32 years old. Now he has won two Cy Young awards. It's always risky signing some of these pre-agent pitchers over the age of 30 to these giant contracts. I mean technically 30 is usually when players start to decline if not earlier. Snell in particular he's pitched in the big leagues nine years now. Only twice though has he pitched enough innings in a season even to qualify for an ERA title. That's 162 innings by the way. But both those times both those times he ended up winning the Cy Young award as the best pitcher. So when he does pitch obviously he's very good. Now you know on the on the other hand the Dodgers are desperate for starting pitching in the playoffs. They were down to just three starters in the postseason. Of course it was enough. They won the World Series despite that. Next season though they plan to get Shoei Otani back onto the mound. That'll be a nice boost. Maybe to get Clayton Kershaw. I mean he's going to go in the Hall of Fame whenever he does retire but he's been so injured recently. So anyway they had they had really had to upgrade the rotation. Really just keep up with the rest of the roster is stacked. So anyway he was the best available. That's what they did. So from that perspective I understand. And now in more NFL news the Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid says that they plan to activate running back Isaiah Pacheco for Friday's game against Las Vegas Raiders. What does he bring to the offense here? Another playmaker. He was just starting running back while for the past two seasons. Unfortunately he got injured in week two. Kareem Hunt then came in for him. He's done a great job. Meanwhile the Chiefs they're 10-1 right now. This is a nice luxury for them. So we'll have to see if they can keep up this season and head back to the Super Bowl where they won the last two titles. And now finally shifting gears to women's college volleyball. A recent lawsuit filed seeking to prevent alleged transgender athlete for San Jose State from playing has been rejected. What's the latest in that case? Well Monday a judge rejected the request to keep this alleged transgender player from playing in this week's conference tournament. Yesterday an appeals court upheld that. So they will go ahead and play. Now San Jose State is probably going to play one of those two. There's five teams that forfeited previously against their games. They probably will have to play them in the second round. So it'll be interesting if one of those teams that's either Boise State or Utah State decides to play them or not. It's obviously a big thing going on right there. So that'll be played. That'll be played Friday though. The first round is played right now with San Jose State doing a bye in this first round. Well so a lot to offer in the coming days then. Thank you so much Dave. Hey thank you. And that's all for today's news. For around the clock coverage visit us at NTD.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Iris Tao. Good night.