Washington Post - 9.10.26

0:00Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Thursday, September 10, 2026, as a reminder, radio I is a reading service intended for people who are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to reprinted material. Your reader for today is Roger Hemperean. Today's front page headlines from the Washington Post are as follows. Europeans probing Epstein say DOJ isn't helping. Next, for 9-11 survivors, cancers toll grows. Next, Trump stumps on his record. Next, non-profit is quiet as Trump remodels the White House. Next, sweeping census proposal could exclude millions. Finally, the largely hidden force helping drive the weight drug craze. The first article from the front page of today's edition is titled, Europeans investigating Epstein say DOJ has not agreed to request for help.

1:04Some European law enforcement agencies chasing leads spurred by information in the Epstein files say the Justice Department has not responded to their requests. By Megan Vasquez. European law enforcement agencies chasing leads from the US investigative files on deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein say that one year after the first batch of files was released, the Justice Department has yet to respond to their requests for help. In the United States, no charges have resulted from the release of the Epstein files, but the documents expose the financier's relationships with influential people around the world, both before and after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges and have sparked a slew of international investigations. Several European law enforcement officials said in interviews that DOJ has not responded to their requests for mutual legal assistance, which could permit foreign investigators to

2:04obtain evidence, information, and testimony from the US. Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019 and died in federal custody later that year in what officials ruled a suicide. Justice and lawmakers say that over decades he abused, trafficked, and molested women and girls, many of whom have come forward in court and in other public forums. The Justice Department said it doesn't comment on the status of mutual legal assistance requests with foreign law enforcement partners. Last month, a DOJ spokesperson told the telegraph, the Department of Justice has not refused to assist any jurisdiction investigating potential criminal conduct related to Jeffrey Epstein. The Department remains committed to cooperating with all jurisdictions, pursuing potential crimes, and will continue to do so in accordance with federal law and long-standing practice. Poland says it is continuing to pursue an investigation related to the Epstein files.

3:09Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in February that his country would open an investigation that included a focus on possible links between Epstein and Russian intelligence. Przemyslal Noak, a spokesman for the National Prosecutor's Office of Poland, said in a statement that his office has sought, among other things, the disclosure of unredacted documents from the so-called Epstein files relating to any Polish aspects of the case. The Justice Department has not responded to Warsaw's request in April for mutual legal assistance, Noak said. In Norway, three prominent figures face corruption charges related to their relationship with Epstein, former Norwegian diplomats, Terje Rod Larson, and Mona Jewel, as well as former Norwegian Prime Minister Thor Bjorn Jogland, all say they are innocent of any wrongdoing. Rod Larson's lawyer, John Christian Eldon of the Norwegian law firm Eldon Law, welcomed Norwegian law enforcement efforts to seek additional evidence from DOJ.

4:13He said Norwegian authorities had sought additional investigative steps at the International Peace Institute in New York, where Rod Larson previously served as president. The publication of a selectively chosen set of documents from the Epstein seizure is the basis for the investigation of my client. We are therefore very pleased that Norwegian prosecutors have requested surrender of relevant records from DOJ and investigative steps to be taken regarding IPI in New York, Eldon said. Marian Bender, a state prosecutor for the Norwegian Economic Cronons Investigations Unit, known as Ocochrom, said that her office is cooperating with several European countries on Epstein-related matters, but that the US has not fulfilled its request for information. We are in communication with officials from the Department of Justice, but they have not at this time approved the request, Bender said, in a statement. This is very unfortunate for the Norwegian investigation, and Ocochrom hoped that the

5:13US Department of Justice will approve our request at some point. The state police of Latvia say they are also conducting a criminal investigation in connection with the files and have identified one Latvian victim. Simone Grabitt, a spokeswoman for the state police, said investigators have sent several requests for mutual legal assistance to the relevant authorities in the United States. However, no responses have yet been received. In Britain, the Times newspaper reported in May that London had submitted a formal request to the US asking for access to unredacted copies of some Epstein files. Police in February investigated Lord Peter Mendelssohn, a former British ambassador to the United States on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to Epstein. The request was made after informal discussions between the Justice Department and British law enforcement did not produce the unredacted information the Times reported. The telegraph reported late last month that the Justice Department and the FBI had not

6:17responded to the formal request related to Mendelssohn who has denied any wrongdoing. The Crown Prosecution Service, the agency responsible for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales, declined to comment. This September, a House committee began releasing Epstein related files it had received from the Trump administration. Many lawmakers complained that the information was incomplete, and two months later, Congress voted overwhelmingly to force the Justice Department to release all of its material on Epstein. American lawmakers continue to press the Justice Department to be more transparent about its investigations of Epstein and his associates, saying that relevant documents are still missing and that some of the publicly disclosed material has been unnecessarily redacted. The legal process for obtaining evidence and information through a mutual legal assistance request can be cumbersome and take weeks or months official to say. The DOJ office responsible for processing legal assistance requests from other countries

7:21called the Office of International Affairs has long faced operational challenges. A 2021 report from the Justice Department's Inspector General found that the office was hampered by high staff turnover and equated technology and oversized case loads. Sammer Corcor, a white-colored defense lawyer who previously worked with the DOJ's Office of International Affairs, said mutual legal assistance requests are inherently complex, and that complexity only increases in cases involving voluminous records and contested reduction issues. Corcor explained that requests must meet a legal threshold and that reviewed time may be extended if the material being requested is the subject of ongoing litigation. In Germany, federal police officials say they remain in contact with American authorities about the possibility of any crimes by Germans that may be suggested by the Epstein files. Two Green Party lawmakers, Constantine Van Notz and Irene Mahalek, have pressed the German

8:24government to open an investigation of potential links between Epstein and German nationals. In response, the government has said the Criminal Police Office has no information regarding any criminally relevant links to Germany. Federal criminal police have also been in touch with the FBI and requested that they involve German authorities in any cases with relevant connections to Germany, the government said. The next article from the front page of today's edition is titled, Cancer's toll on 9.11 survivors is accelerating 25 years later. The number of victims receiving aid has tripled in recent years, a post-analysis finds, as the illnesses toll becomes more apparent. By Daniel Wu and Chris Hacker. When Maryama James returned to her lower Manhattan apartment on the evening of September 11, 2001, it was covered in dust. She'd left the windows open that warm day, and the clouds of toxic material released when the twin towers collapsed had rushed in.

9:26Everything was blanket and white, like after a good snow, James said. A few years later, James developed skin cancer. In 2013, James's mother Juanita, who was on her way to work in the financial district on the morning of the attacks and covered in the dust, was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. She died in 2023. I immediately connected it to 9.11, James said of her and her family's diagnoses. First responders and other New Yorkers around the World Trade Center that day have reported conditions including respiratory issues, mental health impacts, and dementia. Toxins were present in the air soon after the attacks, even though people were assured it was safe, according to a trove of records released this week by New York City officials. Twenty-five years later, attention is increasingly falling on cancer. The number of 9.11 survivors who are receiving aid for cancer has roughly tripled over the last five years, according to a Washington Post analysis of reports from the World Trade

10:29Center Health Program, which funds health care for first responders and 9.11 survivors in New York. In June 2021, 8,870 survivors received aid for cancer treatment, jumping to 27,300 survivors in 2026, numbers that sharply outpaced cancer claims among first responders. Of the roughly 54,000 survivors enrolled in the health program as of June, about half are receiving aid for cancer. Five years ago, that share was 35%. A recent New York University study of a smaller cohort of 9.11 survivors receiving medical aid as of 2024 reported a similar increase in cancer cases. It found that cases had increased around 2.5 fold between 2019 and 2024. This is something that we are worried about, said Alan Arsland, an associate professor of population health at NYU, and one of the authors of the study.

11:32We're seeing more and more patients. Matt Kowalski, the WTC Health Program's research and evaluation branch chief, said in a statement to the post that the group also expects more patients with serious conditions like cancer to enroll in the coming years as 9.11 survivors age. The program has seen record enrollment in recent years, he said. Experts stressed that drawing definitive conclusions about 9.11 associated cancer rates from the WTC Health Program's data is limited because survivors self enroll. But the trends that have emerged still shed light on how the disease is impacting a cohort that was exposed to a unique mix of carcinogens in a deadly man-made disaster researchers said. When we first started looking at cancers in this population, we thought, okay, you'd have smoke inhalation. And therefore, what we were going to see was lung cancer, said Joan Reedman, and a junked professor of medicine at NYU and another author of the study.

12:35And instead, what we started to see was all different cancers. The fumes and debris that blanketed lower Manhattan after the attacks included asbestos, benzene, and a mixture of other known carcinogens released from the burning rubble, Arsland said. Those chemicals spread long after the attack as some fires continued to burn for months and dust lingered in homes and workplaces. Experts had raised concerns about continued asbestos exposure in lower Manhattan in the months following the attacks, according to the documents released by New York City this week. Kate Jenkins, an environmental protection agency chemist who would later clash with the agency over allegations it was downplaying health risk for residents near ground zero. Estimated in a December 2001 memo that a resident who continued to live in a contaminated lower Manhattan building for 15 years after the attacks would face a one in 10 risk of mesothelioma, a cancer often caused by asbestos exposure.

13:38Data from recent years shows the most common cancers among 9.11 survivors include breast and prostate cancer, which mirrors national trends, but breast cancer cases among 9.11 survivors were diagnosed around four years earlier than the national average and included a higher proportion of more aggressive breast cancers, Arsland said. One potential explanation is that World Trade Center exposure contributes to earlier onset for breast cancer, or it can accelerate progression, Arsland said. Lung cancer, the deadliest cancer for Americans, was also among the most common cancer types in the study. Email 9.11 survivors who had never smoked, made up a high proportion of lung cancer patients, another abnormal trend according to the study. Roger Flores, chairman of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai said he has seen an increase at his practice of patients with lung cancer who were 9.11 survivors.

14:39I don't know if we've hit our peak yet, Flores said, these cancers can take 20, 30, 40 years to develop. I think we're going to be seeing more. Flores urged that anyone who may have been exposed to dust and debris from the 9.11 attacks contacted WTC Health Program to discuss cancer screenings and other medical checkups. Officials involved in the program have said that the medical aid it provides is making a difference. A 2021 study by the New York City Fire Department and the WTC Health Program found that the cancer-specific mortality rate for enrollees in the program was 34% lower than that of demographically similar New York residents with cancer. James said her family continues to grapple with health impacts from the disaster. She has regular screenings to check for any recurrence of skin cancer while her children have sought treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder as well as for respiratory and gastrointestinal issues.

15:40The heightened risk that they could develop cancer weighs on her. Imagine being raised in a family where everyone's sick and then you're sick too due to an event that occurred before you were even born, James said. James said support for 9.11 survivors in the years to come should focus on cancer screening, especially for younger generations whose health impacts may only be starting to appear. We want to be sure that our children are educated about this and are getting checked out and staying on top of their health issues, she said, because we expect that something's definitely going to happen to us. The next article from the front page of today's edition is titled Trump Makes Case for a Ron War, Promises $5,000 Payouts if GOP wins midterms. The president accused Iran of trying to influence the midterm elections as escalating violence in the Middle East, loomed over his convention by Isaac Arnstorf and Natalie Allyson.

16:40President Donald Trump used the Republican Party's first midterm convention to justify the Iran War rather than trying to put it behind him as escalating violence and spiking oil prices loomed over the elaborate Trump-centered showcase in Dallas. In a speech billed as an opening argument for the peak campaign season, he defended his record and encouraged supporters to vote as if he were on the ballot. He also debuted a new enticement, promising to reward Republican congressional majorities by giving every American a $5,000 dividend to spend within the country. But Trump also repeatedly departed from his script to argue that he had to attack Iran to prevent it from building a nuclear bomb. That posture contrasted with his declarations in recent months that the conflict was one and done. We have no choice, right? He said in one riff, warning of possible strikes against another Iranian nuclear facility called Pickaxe Mountain. Can Iran have a nuclear weapon?

17:42Absolutely not. Well then, I'm right. Then I win. He also used that the Strait of Ormuz, the choke point for global oil traffic that Iran has been blocking, should be called the Trump Strait, expanding on his efforts to rename the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario, and seemingly ingest New Mexico. I should get something out of it, Trump said of the war. Hours earlier, he acknowledged for the first time that the conflict, which he originally said would last four to six weeks, and the higher gas prices it resulted in would continue past the November midterms. The global crude oil benchmark price topped $100 a barrel in Wednesday trading as the US sank Iranian tankers and Iran fired missiles at a US base in Jordan. Trump argued that wasn't an accident. Accusing Iran of trying to influence the midterm elections, he extended charges he has previously made against prosecutors, media organizations, social media companies, pollsters, China,

18:44Ukraine, male ballots, and voting machines. The war will be over very shortly after the election, he said, on stage, framed by supporters waving American flags. Iran is hanging out for dear life, hoping that we lose so they can deal with dumb, weak Democrats. Trump casts Republican majorities as necessary to preserve and further his policies, dangling what he called a Trump dividend to galvanize voters. The White House did not immediately elaborate on how the benefit would work. As described, the payout could easily total more than $1 trillion and add to the national debt. Trump also introduced fresh policy pledges to restrict credit card, swipe fees, and surprise medical bills without specifying how he would build on a 2020 law addressing the practice. He further renewed his call for subsidizing people buying health insurance instead of companies providing it. The new campaign promises came as Americans continued to give Trump poor marks on the country's

19:46direction and cost of living. There's two-thirds say the country is on the wrong track and disapprove of Trump's job performance as president, according to the latest Reuters Ipsos National surveys. Almost half ranked the cost of living as their top priority in the August poll, and 35% said Democrats had a better plan to address it, compared with 26% who said so of Republicans and 28% who said they didn't know. The bizarre Republican midterm convention here can't paper over the fact that Republicans have done nothing to earn your vote. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said at a news conference with fellow Democrats earlier on Wednesday. Donald Trump is hoping that a flashy prime time event will make you forget that well, his trade war is killing costs for families at the grocery store. Trump's answer was to try to shift the blame to Democrats. It was them that caused the affordability to use their word crisis, he said. I'm bringing the prices way down, way way down.

20:49The speech highlighted the Republicans in key Senate battlegrounds, Justice's political operation expanded its air support by booking $47.8 million in ads, according to the Tracking Company ad impact. The reservations were made through a new Super PAC, no going back PAC, which was formed on September 1. A person involved in the effort said the group was connected to Trump's flagship Super PAC MAGA Inc. A spokesman declined to comment. Trump also committed to campaigning in every hotly contested race, including in the host state of Texas where he urged voters to elect Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to the U.S. Senate, despite extensively raving Paxton on his clothes and appearance. Some of the loudest cheers and laughs came for Trump's attack on Paxton's opponent, state representative James Tallerico, including a fictional account of his vomiting after eating barbecue. The crowd booed Trump's mention of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican of South

21:51Dakota. The president tried to suppress the jeers. Set up inside the American Airlines Center in Dallas, echoed the 2024 Republican National Convention, with special viewing seats set up within the crowd for Trump, his family, and other notable guests. Trump opened the speech, which lasted 105 minutes by falsely saying the event was the first midterm convention held by either party. Democrats held them from 1974 to 1982, but decided they were too expensive and counterproductive by elevating infighting. He then falsely claimed the arena was packed, when in fact many of the seats in the upper decks remained empty. An hour before he took the stage, usher shouted in the main concourse, asking attendees to relocate their seats to a section just off the stage that remained empty, noting that the president would see. Trump acknowledged that the president's party usually loses the midterms and again urged his supporters to vote as if he were on the ballot just one more time.

22:56Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Republican of Georgia, said the convention could boost GOP enthusiasm. Phase 1, it's going to rebuild morale among the Republicans and it helps remind people that this is a team election, he said, if this is a team election, we win. If it's a series of individual races, we could lose. Carolyn Atkinson, 66, says she traveled to Dallas from her home state of New America, adopting the term Trump recently began using for New Mexico as he floated, changing its name, something the president does not have the authority to do. Trump has faced criticism from some Republicans after announcing last month that the U.S. government would begin calling Lake Ontario, Lake America. An initiative critics say is a distraction from addressing voters' top concerns ahead of the midterms. Atkinson said she doesn't actually care to see the name of her state change, saying Trump's proposal was only a joke, and she dismissed concerns about whether the party can appeal

23:58to independent and swing voters this fall, insisting as GOP leaders also have that Republicans simply need to focus on turning out their own. We have registered people that don't vote, and that's what will hurt the Republicans the most, he said. I don't think the dependence mattered to us as much. The crowd responded with muted applause for many of the earlier lesser known speakers, purking up for two UFC fighters and Treasury Secretary Scott Besent. Wednesday's lineup included Attorney General Todd Blanche, who would become the first sitting Justice Department leader in modern history to address a political convention. For decades, Department guidelines under administrations of both parties have instructed top political appointees to steer clear of explicitly political events to avoid the perception that partisanship could influence law enforcement. Blanche's predecessor, Pam Bondy, revised those guidelines this year. The Justice Department said Wednesday that Blanche's participation in the midterm convention

25:02had been cleared by the department's internal ethics advisors, and that he spoke only in his personal capacity. He was listed on the events official program as the Honorable Todd Blanche. The next article from the front page of today's edition is titled, Trump is remodeling the White House, the group set up to protect it has stayed quiet. The White House Historical Association, a nonprofit set up by Jacqueline Kennedy to preserve the building's character, has declined to criticize the president's changes by Dan Diamond. When President Donald Trump tore down the White House's East Wing last October, the public, members of Congress, and even some members of his administration said they were shocked. Leaders of the White House Historical Association were not surprised. A spokesperson said they had understood since at least the end of July that Trump planned to demolish the East Wing to build his ballroom, but opted not to fight the president. The general public learned of the demolition plan only when the wrecking equipment began

26:05work nearly three months later. Instead of public comment, the Historical Association staff worked to take photos of the decades-old rooms Trump planned to destroy, including the former office of the founder of the Association, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The group's leaders said they were cataloging the spaces for history. The Historical Association has remained similarly silent as Trump works to remake much of the White House and its grounds, including paving over Kennedy's Rose Garden and building a 90,000 square foot ballroom. Some of Trump's changes have prompted lawsuits from other associations and hundreds of preservation groups and assorted allies have denounced the president's unilateral demolition of the East Wing as illegal and damaging to the nation's history. Inside the White House Historical Association, some current and former staff and donors have asked CEO Stuart McLaren and other leaders whether the group should do more to fight Trump's changes according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private

27:08conversations. But leaders of the Association established in 1961 to preserve the building's character, ensure it remained the people's house, and teach its history to future generations, say it is not their place to resist Trump as he remakes the White House to his taste. Inside the Association has continued to cultivate close ties with Trump, who has publicly championed the organization, helped it with fundraising and previously donated his salary to it. We have a lot of things in common. We love the White House, right? Trump said last year when visiting the Association where flanked by McLaren, he touted his renovations to the White House while wearing a hat and blazoned Trump was right about everything. He asked about the White House Historical Association's posture toward Trump and which Aquaman Kennedy would have made of Trump's changes, the Association said its work was nonpartisan. We cannot speak for Mrs. Kennedy, but our work remains aligned with the mission she laid out, a spokesperson said in an email.

28:11The Association continues its work in historical research, education, and preservation of the White House collection. White House spokesperson declined to comment about the administration's relationship with the Association. First Lady Melania Trump is scheduled to host the Association at the White House on Wednesday evening, according to a copy of an invitation obtained by the Washington Post. Past First Ladies, including Jill Biden and Michelle Obama, had also held receptions for the group the Association's spokesperson said. Our mission stays the same no matter who is president, and we are grateful that the majority of Association donors have remained committed to that nonpartisan mission, even while political and media climates have heightened the spokesperson said. The White House Historical Association's silence on Trump's changes has hurt some past staff and supporters, as well as fellow preservationists and historians. Some say the 65-year-old Association has spent decades raising money with the implication

29:13that it was protecting the White House and that its leaders are failing to meet the moment now that a challenge has arrived. Jackie Kennedy founded the organization because she thought the White House should be treated like a museum, said Rebecca Miller, the executive director of the DC Preservation League. The White House Historical Association's complicity towards this administration's actions is not in that spirit. Ed Langle, who worked for two years as a historian at the Association, said the group is wrongly trying to equate Trump's changes with past renovations at the White House. Langle pointed to a June 2025 essay posted by McLean, the Ever-Changing White House, which asserted that many once controversial changes to the White House were eventually accepted. Media and congressional criticisms have often focused on costs, historical integrity, and timing. Yet many of these alterations have become integral to the identity of the White House, and it is difficult for us to imagine the White House today without these evolutions and additions

30:17McLean wrote in the essay, which was posted after Trump told reporters he planned to build a ballroom and said he had conducted a site inspection. Administration officials have cited McLean's essay when defending the ballroom and other changes to the White House. But said Langle, every president who has made a change, and that includes Harry Truman and his gutting of the interior of the White House, has consulted carefully with Congress, with architects, with historians to ensure that the changes they make were consistent with the founders' vision of what the White House should be, and to ensure that these changes are an organic growth from past development. This is not the same thing. The Association's silence on Trump also may be hindering legal efforts to constrain the president's construction agenda. Five to four majority on Supreme Court ruled last month that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit charged by Congress with preserving historic buildings likely lack standing to challenge Trump's ballroom plans.

31:20The ruling appeared to clear the way for Trump to finish his project. But the White House Historical Association, with its explicit mission to preserve the White House's character, could have a stronger case for proving it has been harmed by Trump's changes to the building and have standing to sue according to legal experts in historic preservation. Under the Court's ruling, potential plaintiffs may still exist, Sarah Brunan, a George Washington University law professor who chaired the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation during the Biden administration, wrote in a text message, singling out the Historical Association. The posts spoke to eight former White House Historical Association staff and supporters, as well as current supporters of the Association. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the Association, which is led by a board made up of wealthy and influential Washingtonians. John F.W. Rogers, the White House Historical Association's current chairman and a Goldman

32:21Sachs executive advised Melania Trump during the recent presidential transition. The Association declined to comment on Rogers and other leaders' relationships with the White House. Its spokesperson also defended the Association's approach to the East Wing demolition, including its decision to commission photographs. Association leadership first learned of the plan demolition to the East Wing when the White House issued a press release on July 31, 2025, announcing the ballroom plans and citing the chosen location of the ballroom as the location of the current East Wing, the spokesperson wrote in an email. The photography began about a week before demolition started. The Association learned about the president's plans to demolish the East Wing the same way the public did. The White House news release on July 31, however, did not say that the East Wing would be demolished. Trump himself said during an oval office event that day that his new ballroom won't

33:21interfere with the current building. It won't be. It'll be near it, but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of. It's my favorite. It's my favorite place. I love it, Trump said. In an October 2025 interview with the Associated Press, McLaren discussed how the Association prepared for the demolition of the East Wing, including embedding a photographer at its start. We had known since late summer that the staff of the East Wing had moved out, McLaren said. The White House Historical Association's leaders and some of its supporters have also drawn a distinction between preserving the White House's internal furnishings compared with protecting the building's structure. We keep the White House inside in order, said Marlene Malach of philanthropists who sits on the Association's board, offering examples such as replacing damaged chairs or purchasing new paintings. I don't think it has anything to do with the outside.

34:23The Association was created by Jacqueline Kennedy after President John F. Kennedy took office in January 1961. The new first lady was shocked by the White House's appearance after decades of different administrations imposing their own styles and with no one appointed to safeguard the building's condition or furniture. Past presidents and their staff had even auctioned off items that they found inside historians have said. She told Leticia Baldridge, her new social secretary, that the place looked like a hotel that had been decorated by a wholesale furniture store during a January clearance. Arthur C. David Heyman wrote in his 1989 biography of Jacqueline Kennedy. The first lady launched a major White House restoration project which extended to preserving historic buildings in Lafayette Square, the public park across the street from the White House that were at risk of demolition. She also cultivated donors to fund new furnishings and went on television to promote her agenda

35:24in a CBS News special. Today, the Association's headquarters is located in Decatur House, one of the historic buildings located within the perimeter of Lafayette Square that Trump has fenced off from the public. Outside the building sits a by-re-leaf rendering of Jacqueline Kennedy above one of her quotes, the White House belongs to the American people. That message has featured heavily in the Association's past promotional materials including serving as the theme of a 2022 conference. The Association has traditionally funded its operations through donations and sales of White House-related merchandise, but its ambitions have grown in recent years. A new People's House exhibit offering a life-size recreation of the Oful Office and other White House features opened in September 2024 across the street from the White House grounds. The $85 million 33,000 square foot project was funded by private donations. Some new Trump appointees, fresh to Washington, soon visited the People's House, hoping to

36:29prepare themselves for the experience of first visiting the Oful Office, according to two administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. Trump also visited the exhibit last year. Parts of the exhibit are now outdated. The recreation of a stone path to the West Wing has not been updated since Trump remade the real-life path with Black Granite earlier this year. The exhibit's Oful Office lacks the extensive gilding and other golden items that decorate it now. Staffers at the People's House said that they expect to update their version of the Oful Office to more closely resemble Trump's in the coming weeks. The next article from the Front Page of Today's Edition is titled, Trump administration proposes changes to census that could exclude millions. They could also reshape congressional representation and federal funding allocations by Amy Wang. Millions of residents could be excluded from the U.S. census, congressional representation,

37:31could be reshaped, and federal funds could be reallocated across states under changes proposed by the Trump administration. In the proposal posted to the Federal Register Wednesday, the Census Bureau suggested adding a citizenship question to the disenial questionnaire which President Donald Trump has wanted since his first term. The proposal argues that the census count should exclude any undocumented immigrants and non-citizens without permanent residency because they are not true inhabitants, members of the body politic, or persons with a usual residence in the United States due to their lack of a sufficient tie and allegiance to the United States. Under the newly proposed rules, refugees, and asylum seekers would be excluded from the population count. Trump administration officials also want to prohibit the Census Bureau from asking certain demographic questions, including about race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, claiming the survey should be colorblind and should not be distorted in any way by questions about

38:34immaterial personal characteristics. The Census has collected data on race and ethnicity since 1790. Trump has for years pushed to alter how the American population is tallied every decade, including unsuccessful efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The Supreme Court ultimately froze that plan, saying Trump officials had provided a contrived reason for wanting such information. Just later said the citizenship question was needed to affect the redistricting process and argument the Justice Department did not use in its legal defense. Census results every 10 years determine how the houses 435 seats are allocated among states. Number one, you need it for Congress. You need it for Congress for Districting, Trump said in 2019, you need it for appropriations. Where are the funds going? How many people are there? Are they citizens? Are they not citizens?

39:35You need it for many reasons. Last August, Trump announced he was directing the Department of Commerce to again overhaul the Census amid a nationwide redistricting battle. People who are in our country illegally will not be counted in the Census he wrote on true social then. The Trump administration's latest proposal will almost certainly face legal challenges. The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution mandates that representatives in Congress be a portion to states based on the whole number of persons in each state without specifying citizenship or immigration status. Currently, the U.S. Census counts native-born U.S. citizens, naturalized U.S. citizens, non-citizen U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents and temporary migrants such as foreign students, refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented immigrants. New York Attorney General Latisha James, who let a lawsuit against Trump's efforts to change the 2020 Census, said Wednesday the state is again exploring legal options to fight

40:40back against the administration's proposed changes to the 2030 Census. The Constitution is clear, every person living in the United States, regardless of immigration status, must be counted in the Census she wrote on X. Federal rights and public health groups have also warned against the removal of questions about race and ethnicity from the Census, saying doing so would hamper officials' ability to address health disparities starting with how to appropriately allocate federal funding. If you change what the Census counts, then you change where the money can help most, ID, Lee, and Melania Klein of the Federation of American Scientists wrote last week. Having raised and ethnicity data does not make health disparities go away, they wrote, it merely makes them harder to find, harder to measure, and harder to fix. The next article from the front page of today's edition is titled, The Largely Hidden Force Helping Drive America's Craze for Weight Loss Drugs.

41:41Firms are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to convince doctors to prescribe GLP-1 drugs, like Christopher Rowland, Lydia Sit-Home, and Ariana Yoon Jung-Cha. Carlos Campos spends most of his days as a family physician, seeing patients for all manner of conditions, especially obesity and diabetes, but he has built a steady side gig beyond his practice in South Central Texas. Over the past seven years, drug manufacturers have paid Campos nearly $1 million to spread the gospel of weight loss and diabetes drugs, known as GLP-1s, to colleagues in his home state and beyond. I'm a lot like an evangelical preacher, man, Campos said. They hire me to sell the science. Whether speaking in a private dining room at a fancy steakhouse or over bags of Chick-fil-A in a primary care office, Campos is part of a vast effort by drug companies to build sales of their revolutionary weight loss drugs by targeting the prescribers who act as the

42:43gatekeepers to the American healthcare system, according to an analysis of public federal government data by the Washington Post, and interviews with six physicians involved in the marketing program. The analysis shows that Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, the largest manufacturers of the weight loss drugs, have made at least one payment to more than a quarter of a million individual doctors and other prescribers, including nurse practitioners since 2018, the first full year at that olympic, Novo Nordisk's blockbuster medicine was on the market. No other class of prescription drugs was promoted as heavily over this period. In total, companies spent more than $270 million on these promotional efforts, according to the data, which is reported to the federal government by the manufacturers. The spending, which the federal government says encompasses both direct payments and in-kind payments for food and beverages, was spread among 140,000 individual prescribers

43:44in 2025 alone, the most of any year in the post-analysis. The GLP1 craze, stoked by TV advertising and word of mouth for the novel class of drugs, including Wagovi and Zepbound, has generated abundant patient demand. But the lesser known spending on doctors, which is legal and disclosed publicly, represents promotional efforts largely hidden from consumers of the drug's success that some medical experts say pose a conflict of interest. Physicians paid by the drug companies say they are helping colleagues overcome hesitancy and even skepticism among practitioners who may not be familiar with how the drugs work or still view obesity as a matter of patient willpower. In interviews, they said payments don't influence their views of the drugs. Opinions they said have been shaped by phenomenal results in their own patients. They described how in meetings with other doctors, they observed government limits on what claims can be made while sharing unbiased evidence-based data about benefits and side effects.

44:49But some doctors warned that these sessions and the money that physicians receive as direct payments on the side carry a number of risks both to patients and to the healthcare system at large. The costly drugs, which most users have to take for life to maintain their results, are relatively new, with underappreciated side effects in some patients the critics say. The patient comes in saying, I want it, and if they don't give it to them, they will find another doctor who will, said Robert Lustig, a doctor and professor emeritus at the University of California at San Francisco, who advocates for reducing sugar and processed foods in the American diet. The problem is getting worse, he said, and now people have taken their eye off the ball. Oh, I can just take a drug, a shot, and eat whatever the hell I want. It's just a bandaid. Spending to purchase the drugs by consumers and health insurance companies has exploded. Several sales, excluding rebates and discounts in 2025, it clicks all other drugs.

45:54With Eli Lilly's Monjaro and Zepbound leading the way at $63 billion, and Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wogovie close behind at $59 billion. Private health plans are cracking under the burden, and some are beginning to cancel coverage. Federal costs are poised to shoot into the billions now that Medicare, as of July, is covering the drugs for weight loss. Nearly one in five US adults has reported having taken one of the drugs for diabetes or weight loss, according to a survey by KFF, the Independent Healthcare Policy Organization. The drug companies defended their promotional practices as appropriate and important for health. This responsible interaction and collaboration between industry and the medical community benefits patients by advancing care and science. Novo Nordisk's spokeswoman Liz Grikova said, in all our engagements with the medical community, we follow the highest ethical standards as well as all legal and regulatory requirements.

46:56Eli Lilly said its programs are grounded in science. These interactions from medical education to clinical consultation help ensure health care professionals have accurate, current information to make informed treatment decisions to the company said, all such engagement is conducted under Lilly's rigorous compliance standards and disclosed transparently. Lectures over stake dinners. The drugs initially rolled out years ago for diabetes are seeing their fastest prescription growth outside of diabetes clinics. Providers at Internal Medicine and Cardiology practices are writing prescriptions at the highest rate, according to IQVIA, pharmaceutical data and consulting firm, which is called GLP1's the Swiss Army Knife of Health Care. In addition to diabetes and weight loss, the drugs are now also approved for reducing cardiovascular risk and sleep apnea, and many other indications are being researched.

47:56The post-tracked Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are using the traditional pharmaceutical marketing playbook to boost sales behind the scenes. They are making payments to doctors who serve on the boards of prominent diabetes and obesity medical societies. Those boards shape how medicine is practiced. They are dispatching hundreds of doctors who they pay tens of thousands of dollars a year each to help discuss the drugs at medical conferences and in private meetings with doctors in every corner of the country. A key opinion leader, as industry insiders call these paid ambassadors, Campos said he visits with doctors and physician assistants in their offices over takeout or local restaurants, often traveling to other states. He is typically accompanied by a sales representative whose job is to market the drug while Campos explains how it works, he said. His payments placed him among the most handsomely compensated physician GLP1 promoters in the country according to the post review. A review of invitations to doctors to attend promotional dinners shows the broad geographical

49:01reach of these efforts. Physician promoters such as Campos extolled the benefits of the drugs over Mexican inspired fair at a brew pub in Missoula, Montana, plates of pasta in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and in the unmatched grandeur of a Pittsburgh waterfront state can see food house. The gatherings often occurred in the private dining rooms of upscale chains such as Ruth's Chris and Capitol Grill. The post review drew from mandatory federal reports by drug companies, data that is posted online for public examination by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In addition to doctors, the data includes spending on nurse practitioners and physician assistants who also prescribed drugs. The Food and Drug Administration's instructions for use of the drugs said they are supposed to be taken in tandem with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity. Marketing materials for Eli Lilly's Zepbound aimed at doctors and obtained by the post show those elements are mentioned as part of the prescribing regimen, but they are not

50:06emphasized as key pillars of treatment. Even though a joint advisory from major medical groups in 2025 said doctors should make those elements a priority. The marketing materials display side effects, including nausea and constipation, which cause large numbers of patients to stop taking them. But what is not discussed is a major subject of concern in the medical community. The metabolic dangers of weight cycling, when the fat returns of patients stop taking the drugs, a common occurrence, and the risk of cardiovascular events increases. Eli Lilly said that its promotional materials carefully adhered to the FDA approved label and that it views obesity as a chronic disease that may need continuous treatment, otherwise the weight can return. The drugs are also being prescribed to people with eating disorders, as well as the elderly who are risk of falls and fractures if they lose too much bone and muscle mass, a serious concern with the rapid weight loss driven by GLP1s.

51:08The drugs carry black box warnings from the Food and Drug Administration that they can cause cancer in rats and state that they could cause thyroid cancer in humans. Those warnings are prominently displayed in marketing materials. Campos said he believes in the revolutionary nature of the drugs, which are remarkably effective at reducing weight and simultaneously bringing down blood pressure, lowering cholesterol and reducing inflammation. From his home practice in New Braunfels, Texas near San Antonio, Campos travels to states such as Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee to meet with groups of doctors, he said. Many of his colleagues do not learn how to treat obesity in medical school, Campos said. When he asks for a show of hands, he said, about a third of doctors in a room indicate they do not believe obesity as a disease, even though the American Medical Association recognized it as one in 2013. You need to know this, he said he tells other doctors to develop a tremendous empathy

52:10for this patient that needs your help. Now we have tools in our toolbox that we can use to help them. Expanding on a clinical trial finding that semi-glutide, the key ingredient in NOVO Nordisk Wagovi and OZEMPIC can reduce heart attacks, Campos said cardiologists should be writing prescriptions for this with both hands. Food companies have marketed medicines directly to doctors for decades. It is even recognized by the Food and Drug Administration as an important source of information for prescribers. FDA rules require that promotional claims stay within the boundaries of scientific evidence contained in a drug's label. But the dangers of the practice emerged during the opioid crisis that began in the 1990s, when Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of oxycontin and other companies were found to have heavily marketed addictive opioids while minimizing risks. Doctors say the trips to the Caribbean and free booze of the past are no longer common,

53:11but free-state dinners and in-office lunches continue to be a staple of the trade. Nowadays if doctors at the dinners want an alcoholic beverage, they have to purchase their own participants said. When a drug company is financing it, they presented in the best possible light, said Bruce Roe, a Wisconsin physician who recalled attending an event about Wagovi led by a colleague at Mr. B's Steakhouse outside Milwaukee. Anytime you go to one of these presentations, you have to have a little bit of skepticism. He said the clinical trial data in the events slide deck was encouraging, but what really won him over were results in patients who lost weight and had better glucose control. About 25% of his patients are now taking one of the drugs he said. It's a really important tool in our toolkit right now. Medication for life Paying physicians has raised questions of conflict of interest. Decades of research has shown that financial relationships between physicians and pharmaceutical

54:15companies are associated with higher prescribing rates of the sponsoring company's drugs. Even relatively modest financial relationships can potentially create unconscious bias, making industry payments to influential doctors a persistent ethical issue in medicine, according to researchers who have examined the question. In interviews about G.A.P.1's, some physicians paid by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk said a part of their effort has been helping other physicians overcome hesitancy. Many providers are wary of prescribing a costly new drug that a patient probably will need to take for many years if not for life to keep their weight under control. Doctors also ask how and when they can wean patients off the drugs. The first question is always, when do you stop the medication, set Ethan Lazarus and obesity medicine doctor who practices outside of Denver and has been paid about $585,000 to promote the drugs? He said he tries to reset their expectations.

55:16We should go into this with our eyes wide open that these are long-term treatments. He added, if they want to have a successful practice, they need to understand how to use these drugs. Responding to critics of paid arrangements for key opinion leaders, Lazarus cited American Medical Association ethical guidance that he said permits legitimate consulting and educational programs provided the physician offers genuine objective scientific services. Interviewed by phone recently from his car, Long Island obesity medicine doctor Michael Kaplan said he was on his way to meet with four doctors over lunch to promote Fondeo Eli Lilly's oral G.L.P.1. He said he would meet an Eli Lilly sales representative for a pre-game huddle 10 minutes before the meeting. Kaplan disputes that drugs such as Wagovie and Fondeo are over-prescribed. On the contrary, he said just 11% of people with a body mass index BMI over 40 are being treated with a G.L.P.1.

56:18The market is gigantic, he said. Oveesity doctors say their field has long been neglected by the medical establishment. Now Kaplan said, promotional efforts by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are helping educate physicians on how to treat obesity. Weight loss clinics once operated on the fringes of health care, but that began to change after the American Medical Association recognized obesity as a disease in 2013. The medical establishment hasn't stepped up. The pharmaceutical industry has been the only ones trying to make sure that the providers have knowledge, said Kaplan, who was paid about $648,000 between 2018 and 2025 by G.L.P.1 manufacturers. Critics of these practices say the paid physician ambassadors may not be giving a full objective picture of the drugs and their side effects. They are generally chosen for their charisma and their willingness to save what the drug company wants them to say, said Stephen Brown, a family physician and Phoenix, who has

57:21urged doctors to refuse drug company largest, including meals and free samples, which he said distort physician decision making. The drugs sell themselves, he said of the G.L.P.1s. The reason for all this marketing is the competition between the companies to sell more of theirs compared to the others. Doctors interviewed by the post acknowledged competition between Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk may be boosting the number of meetings, but said competition also is driving innovation and bringing down prices, which is improving clinical outcomes. They disputed the contention they are parroting corporate talking points. Pay-to-play prescribing or accepting compensation just to say what a company wants is unequivocably unethical, Lazarus said, again citing AMA guidelines. Due to time constraints, we'll need to end this article at this time. This concludes the reading of the Washington Post for today, Thursday, September 10th, 2020-26.

58:21Your reader for today has been Roger Hamperian. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call us at a59-422-6390. Thank you for listening, and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio Eye.