Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,
President Donald Trump on Friday morning urged Senate Republicans to pass a bill that makes daylight saving time permanent, coming months after the measure cleared the House of Representatives.
President Donald Trump at U.N. Headquarters in New York City on Sept. 22, 2026. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images"A ridiculous Clock changing process that takes place twice a year, costs our Country a fortune, is bad for Crime, stress on people, Sports, and just about everything else you can imagine," Trump said in a long Truth Social post early Friday.
He added that people don't want to change their clocks while asserting that "most people like having an hour of extra sunlight in the evening, rather than in the morning."
The House in July passed the measure, dubbed the Sunshine Protection Act, on a 308-117 vote before sending it to the Senate for approval. But the bill has not been considered.
"It is foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases, very costly. For Cities and States with Watchtowers, and hard to reach places, it costs Millions of Dollars. A recent case was made that it is also bad for your health in the anxiety it creates," the president said.
Blaming Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for holding up the bill, Trump wrote that the bill has bipartisan support. "Democrats and Republicans want it to happen. It's now up to the U.S. Senate where it would be another Great Bipartisan Victory," he added.
Last year, Cotton told the Senate that he would oppose the measure and said a similar measure was repealed in the mid-1970s.
In 1973, Congress passed a law instituting permanent daylight saving time for what was supposed to be a trial period from January 1974 to April 1975. It lasted until October, when it was repealed. Among the concerns was worry that schoolchildren would have to start the school day without daylight.
"While briefly popular, it proved deeply unpopular when reality set in," Cotton said, adding that polls taken at the time show that support for permanent daylight saving time dropped by 30 percentage points in three months.
"Only a few weeks after it was implemented, it was underwater. Congress beat a hasty retreat, repealing the law and changing the clocks back in October. What was supposed to be a two-year experiment ended in abject failure after less than one year."
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said he's also concerned about that. He said that it would be dark past 9:30 a.m. in some areas of his state. "You'd be sending kids to school in the dark," he told The Associated Press last year.
Before it was passed in the House, some Democratic lawmakers including Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) explained why they supported the Sunshine Protection Act.
The measure, Pallone said in July, would deal with "an issue on which many Americans actually agree," adding that only around 12 percent of Americans want to switch their clocks twice per year.
"Far more Americans recognize that the practice is inconvenient and, frankly, disruptive," he said.
Cotton's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tyler Durden Sun, 10/04/2026 - 20:00Summary:
Brazil's presidential election is headed for a runoff on Oct. 25.
Right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro held about 47.8% of the vote against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's 44.2%, with roughly 92.3% of ballots counted.
Paulo Abreu, founding partner and portfolio manager at Rio de Janeiro-based Mantaro Capital, told Bloomberg he expected a strong opening for Brazilian assets on Monday morning, saying investors had been lightly positioned for the result.
"Tomorrow will be a much better day than even the most optimistic investors had expected," Abreu said, adding that the outcome would encourage investors to increase their exposure.
Currency futures trading on CME also signaled expectations of a stronger real, with the quoted exchange rate moving to about 5.01 from Friday's close of 5.25.
Brendan McKenna, an emerging-markets strategist at Societe Generale, expects the Brazilian real to jump 4% to 5% on Monday following Bolsonaro's first-round lead.
"Assuming no new scandals, always possible, and Bolsonaro is set to win the runoff, I think local assets can continue to rally into the second round, he said.
Bloomberg reporter Beatriz Reis wrote:
With more than 91% of ballots counted and Bolsonaro holding a surprise first-round lead, his campaign's theory suddenly looks more plausible: that some voters were reluctant to publicly admit they planned to back the right-wing senator. Whether that phenomenon actually explains the polling miss will take time to determine, but the result exposed support for Bolsonaro that pre-election surveys failed to fully capture.
Now the challenge flips for both campaigns. Lula has just three weeks to understand where he lost ground and win those voters back. Bolsonaro has to protect an advantage few expected him to have and prove that Sunday's surprise can survive all the way to the Oct. 25 runoff.
Latest Election DevelopmentBrazil's presidential election is headed for a runoff, Datafolha projected just moments ago, setting up a second-round contest between socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro on Oct. 25.
Latest Election CountRight-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro leads socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 51.2% to 40.7%, with just 18.7% of votes counted in Brazil's first-round presidential election Sunday.
Polymarket:
Right-Wing Bolsonaro Leads Socialist LulaPolls closed at 4 p.m. Brazil time, and the latest figures from the Superior Electoral Court show right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro leading socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 50.2% to 41.3%, with just 4.3% of votes counted in Brazil's first-round presidential election Sunday.
The preliminary results offer only a limited indication of the final outcome, with most votes still to be counted.
These preliminary results sent Bolsonaro's Polymarket odds soaring from 64% around 4 p.m. New York time to 77% around 4:43 p.m. Lula's odds on the betting platform cratered to just 23%.
Brazil Votes In Tight Presidential Election With South America's Future On The LineBrazilians began voting earlier this morning in a statistically tied presidential election, with incumbent socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva holding a narrow polling lead over right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Election results are expected later this evening, and the race is likely headed for a runoff later this month.
Lula and Bolsonaro are effectively deadlocked in a potential runoff. The latest AtlasIntel poll puts Lula at 47.6% against Bolsonaro's 47.4%, while Datafolha showed the incumbent ahead 47% to 46%. Quaest has Bolsonaro at 44% against Lula's 42%, within its two-point margin of error.
However, Polymarket bettors see a clearer favorite, giving Bolsonaro a 63.3% chance of winning versus 37% for Lula as of early Sunday morning.
Polls close nationwide at 5 p.m. Brazil time, or 4 p.m. in New York. Brazil's electronic voting system allows counting to begin immediately, with the electoral court expected to deliver a definitive result between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Brazil time.
The race will determine whether Brazil continues down its destructive socialist path or cements what could be a once-in-a-generation political shift across South America, with the continent's largest economy potentially moving to the right. Recent elections in Colombia, Peru, Chile and other countries have shifted from left-wing regimes to right-wing governments.
We outlined on Friday the potential market impacts and expected volatility following the first-round results:
One notable chart shows that the Brazilian real's one-week implied volatility has jumped above 31%, its highest level since late 2022. That exceeds the one-month measure, which captures both voting rounds but remains below 25%, highlighting the extreme concentration of risk ahead of Sunday's vote.
"We expect the biggest surprise to come in the first round, with Flávio likely to finish ahead of Lula," Fabricio Taschetto, CIO at Ace Capital, wrote in a note. He added that the market reaction could exceed the move already priced into options.
Citigroup and JPMorgan analysts have told clients to use options that would benefit from a stronger real, while Brazilian hedge funds, including Ibiuna and Verde, have told clients they have positioned themselves with options for a potential stock rally.
Tyler Durden Sun, 10/04/2026 - 19:54Within three months of firing Tracy Beth Høeg, its top drug regulator, the FDA had approved the first mRNA flu shot, cleared a Sanofi diabetes treatment for children that she had held up, and approved a twice-rejected melanoma drug whose maker went to the White House.
"I'm worried about approvals that we've seen recently, like the mRNA influenza vaccine," Høeg told journalist Paul Thacker in an interview posted Wednesday, citing "very concerning safety issues."
Of the melanoma drugmaker's White House meeting, she said: "I guess that's what you do now if you're angry that your product is not approved. One has to wonder, is it approved based on the data or do they just know the right people?"
Høeg still doesn't know who ordered her firing. When agency lawyers came to her office on May 15, three days after Commissioner Marty Makary was pushed out, she refused to resign. The lawyers told her the order came from "someone way above their pay grade."
The person who supposedly wrote her termination memo denies writing it or ever seeing it, she says. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. only learned of the firing after she was gone, the New York Times reported.
Thacker told Høeg his sources inside the Department of Health and Human Services say Chris Klomp effectively runs the department. The White House installed Klomp, the Medicare director, as HHS chief counselor in February. He also helped negotiate the administration's pricing deals with drugmakers.
Those sources say Klomp pushed out Makary and "probably" Høeg too, and that CEOs "have Chris Klomp on the phone all the time." "You're not the first person to suggest that to me," Høeg replied.
The day Høeg was fired, Reuters reported that Klomp was leading a push to clear controversial appointees out of the FDA. HHS told Reuters it does not comment on personnel matters.
Makary resigned on May 12 after other administration officials forced through flavored-vape authorizations he had opposed, CBS News reported. Politico reported that Kennedy made the final call on pushing him out. Drugmakers had soured on the agency's reversals on experimental drugs and vaccines and wanted a more predictable FDA, according to NPR.
Klomp's nomination as Kennedy's deputy cleared the Senate Finance Committee 15-12 last Thursday and awaits a floor vote. "I'm responsible for personnel, among other things," he told senators this month.
The mRNA shotIn February, with Makary leading the FDA and Vinay Prasad running its vaccine center, the agency refused even to review Moderna's application. About two weeks later, it reversed course and agreed to take it up.
Prasad left at the end of April, followed by Makary on May 12 and Høeg three days later. In June, the FDA's outside vaccine advisers voted unanimously to recommend the shot. On Aug. 5, the agency approved it as mFlusiva for adults 50 and older.
Moderna's trial of more than 40,000 adults found that the shot cut the odds of flu-like illness by 27% compared with a standard-dose vaccine. Neither the company nor FDA staff reviewers identified new or serious safety concerns. Approval for those 65 and older is conditional on a follow-up study.
"I don't think we can say that the benefits outweighed the harms," Høeg said, adding that she would probably detail her concerns later.
Held up, then approvedSanofi's Tzield was first approved in 2022 to delay the onset of clinical type 1 diabetes in patients with early-stage disease. In October, Sanofi's bid to extend its use to newly diagnosed patients 8 and older entered Makary's new voucher program, which promises reviews in one to two months.
Career staff recommended approval, but Høeg disagreed, and Sanofi pulled the drug out of the fast-track program. The FDA missed its April 21 goal date, STAT reported.
On June 12, four weeks after Høeg was fired, the FDA granted Tzield accelerated approval for newly diagnosed patients 8 to 17. The decision was based on its effect on C-peptide, a marker of the body's own insulin production, rather than on a clinical outcome. No outside advisory committee weighed in. The drug's known risks include cytokine release syndrome and viral reactivation.
"That was supposed to go to an advisory committee," Høeg said. "And that's a drug that's given in children. And if you look at the pivotal clinical trial at that stage of the disease, there's no clear evidence of clinical benefit for these children with type 1 diabetes." Sanofi is running a confirmatory trial to support full approval.
A meeting at the White HouseThe FDA rejected Replimune's RP1, an engineered virus injected into melanoma tumors, in July 2025 and again in April. After the second rejection, the company took its case to the White House in early May, arguing that the decisions clashed with the administration's push to help terminally ill patients. The White House then pressed health officials to take another look, the Wall Street Journal reported. The White House declined to comment to the Journal.
On May 29, two weeks after Høeg was fired, Replimune announced that it would try a third time. Company officials had met with FDA and White House officials two days earlier. Its shares jumped as much as 70% in premarket trading.
In briefing documents, FDA reviewers argued that the way Replimune designed the trial and measured responses made it difficult to separate RP1's effect from that of Bristol Myers Squibb's Opdivo, which patients also received. The trial had no control arm. An outside panel sided with the company 10-3 on July 30. On Aug. 6, the FDA granted accelerated approval. Replimune set the list price at $450,000 per course.
"It went against everything the career staff had said about the limitations in the data," Høeg said.
Whose report was it?Høeg's reputation as an mRNA skeptic dates to the pandemic. A 2021 study she led concluded that, for healthy teenage boys, the rate of heart inflammation after a second dose exceeded their four-month risk of being hospitalized with COVID. At the FDA, she reviewed reports of children who died after COVID vaccination and asked why the findings had never been made public.
Prasad's Nov. 28 memo, which set off the uproar, credited career staff in the FDA's pharmacovigilance office with finding that at least 10 children had died "after and because of" vaccination. When Høeg was fired, The Hill reported that she helped author the report, while CBS News reported that she helped write Prasad's memo. It was "the career staff, not me" who linked the 10 deaths to the vaccine, Høeg said.
The final staff review, dated Dec. 5 and made public by Sen. Ron Johnson in May, examined 96 pediatric deaths reported from 2021 to 2024. It rated two "probably" and five "possibly" related to vaccination. None was rated definitively related.
Johnson later released drafts showing how the assessment had changed. Høeg suggested that staff who had handled the cases for years had a vested interest in the deaths not coming to light. "Why are we sitting on them for years if they're concerning?" she asked. ZeroHedge detailed the fight over the review in May.
Still on saleTavneos is still on sale in the US, five months after Høeg's drug center moved to pull it. Amgen's pill for a rare autoimmune disease of the blood vessels was approved in 2021 on the strength of a single pivotal trial. The FDA had told its developer that the trial had to show the drug beat steroids at 52 weeks.
In January, the FDA asked Amgen to withdraw it voluntarily. Amgen declined. In April, the agency formally proposed withdrawal, saying unblinded study personnel had manipulated the trial's results and the application contained untrue statements of material fact. The FDA has also linked the drug to 76 cases of liver injury, including eight deaths.
On June 26, Europe's medicines committee recommended revoking the drug's license. Three days later, the New England Journal of Medicine retracted the pivotal trial at the request of its two academic authors. The journal said nine patients' results had been re-adjudicated after the data were unblinded, without the authors' knowledge. Britain stopped new patients from starting the drug in September.
"People have died taking this drug and we don't know if it works," Høeg said.
Amgen, which acquired the drug's developer, ChemoCentryx, for $3.7 billion in 2022, says it strongly disagrees with the proposal and has requested a hearing. It points to an independent re-analysis from Duke that it says supports the drug's efficacy.
Its own prescriber page states that superiority "was not demonstrated at week 52." Tavneos brought in $459 million last year, and first-quarter US sales rose 32% to $119 million.
Under federal law, the drug stays on the market until the FDA commissioner rules on Amgen's hearing request and on withdrawal. Since May, the agency has been led by acting commissioner Kyle Diamantas, a lawyer who oversaw food regulation. Trump's pick for the permanent job, White House aide Heidi Overton, had her confirmation hearing last week and is awaiting a vote.
Tyler Durden Sun, 10/04/2026 - 19:30