Teen drug use hasn’t rebounded from its drop during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results from a large annual national survey released Tuesday. About two-thirds of 12th graders this year said they hadn’t used alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes or e-cigarettes in the previous 30 days. That’s the largest proportion abstaining since the annual survey started measuring abstinence in 2017. Among 10th graders, 80% said they hadn’t used any of those substances recently, another record. Among 8th graders, 90% didn’t use any of them, the same as was reported in the previous survey. The only significant increase occurred in nicotine pouches. About 6% of 12th graders saying they’d used them in the previous year, up from about 3% in 2023.

President-elect Donald Trump sued the Des Moines Register and its pollster for “brazen election interference” in publishing a survey the weekend before the election that showed Democrat Kamala Harris with a surprising lead of three percentage points in the state. The Register’s parent Gannett Co. on Tuesday dismissed the lawsuit as meritless and said it would vigorously defend its First Amendment rights. The lawsuit continues the president-elect’s campaign against media outlets he feels have wronged him. ABC this past weekend agreed to pay $15 million toward a Trump presidential library in order to settle a defamation lawsuit against George Stephanopoulos for inaccurately saying Trump had been found civilly liable for rape. The Des Moines survey, done by since-retired pollster J.

The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO has been charged with murder as an act of terrorism, prosecutors said Tuesday as they worked to bring him to a New York court from from a Pennsylvania jail. Luigi Mangione already was charged with murder in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson, but the indictment could help move along procedural steps toward extraditing the suspect. Mangione’s New York lawyer hasn’t commented on the case. Thompson, 50, was shot dead on a Manhattan street as he walked to a hotel where Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare — the United States’ biggest medical insurer — was holding an investor conference. After days of intense police searches and publicity, Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9 after being spotted in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

The Biden administration recently asked Israel to approve urgent US military aid to Palestinian Authority security forces for a rare operation it is currently carrying out against Iranian-backed terror groups in Yehudah and Shomron, Axios reported. The Biden administration made the request despite the fact that the Palestinian Authority supports terror against Israel and many members of the PA forces have committed terror attacks in Israel. The operation, the largest in years, was launched in the Jenin “refugee camp,”, a hotbed of Iranian-funded terror, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas terror groups. The city became a no-go zone for PA security forces after local terrorists took control of the area over a year ago.

An Australian state government on Tuesday proposed new restrictions on protesters in response to rising antisemitism, including a ban on demonstrations outside places of worship. Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan proposed the new laws after arsonists damaged a Melbourne synagogue this month and protestors kept fearful worshippers trapped inside a Sydney synagogue for three hours a week earlier. “That’s not peaceful protest. It’s menacing behavior,” Allan said. “Antisemitism is a cancer and we must leave no stone unturned to fight the evil of antisemitism, to fight the evil of this racism in all of its forms and also to continue to work to help heal our multicultural community, to help build on that social cohesion and continue to support our strong, united Victoria,” she added.

President Joe Biden endorsed a ban on congressional stock trading in an interview that’s being released this week, belatedly weighing in on an issue that has been debated on Capitol Hill for years. “Nobody in the Congress should be able to make money in the stock market while they’re in the Congress,” Biden said. The interview was conducted by Faiz Shakir, a political adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders, and published by A More Perfect Union, a pro-labor advocacy and journalism organization. The Associated Press reviewed a video of the interview before its release. It’s unclear what impact Biden’s statement could have, coming only a month before his term ends.

At a time of heightened political division, Americans’ confidence in their country’s judicial system and courts dropped to a record low of 35% this year, according to a new Gallup poll. The United States saw a sharp drop of 24 percentage points over the last four years, setting the country apart from other wealthy nations where most people on average still express trust in their systems. The results come after a tumultuous period that included the overturning of the nationwide right to abortion, the indictment of former President Donald Trump and the subsequent withdrawal of federal charges, and his attacks on the integrity of the judicial system. The drop wasn’t limited to one end of the political spectrum.

Israel, through Russian mediation, is reportedly working to locate and repatriate the remains of legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen and a soldier missing since 1982, according to Palestinian officials speaking with AFP on Monday. For decades, Israel has sought to bring home the remains of Eli Cohen, whose daring espionage in Syria in the 1960s left an indelible mark on the country’s history. Cohen infiltrated the highest ranks of the Syrian government, and the intelligence he provided is credited with aiding Israel’s success in capturing the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War in 1967. He was arrested, tried, and executed in 1965, but his final resting place remains unknown.

Congressional leaders are nearing the unveiling of a spending agreement that will keep the federal government funded through March 14 and provide more than $100 billion in emergency aid to help states and local communities recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and other natural disasters. The stopgap measure would prevent a partial government shutdown set to begin after midnight Friday. It would kick final decisions on this budget year’s spending levels to a new Republican-led Congress and to President-elect Donald Trump. The continuing resolution generally continues current spending levels for agencies. Passage of the measure is one of the final actions that lawmakers will consider this week, before adjourning for the holidays and making way for the next Congress.

House Democrats on Tuesday picked 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly to lead the party next year atop an influential congressional committee, pushing aside growing calls for generational change in leadership ahead of a second term for Donald Trump. In a closed-door meeting, the majority of the caucus voted for Connolly to be the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee over 35-year-old Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who campaigned on calls to pass the torch to younger leaders. Connolly has seniority on the committee, having served on it for 16 years. The vote was 131-84.