Biden visits El Paso in first trip to border, new Alzheimer's drug approved: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Biden visits El Paso in first trip to the border

President Joe Biden visited the U.S.-Mexico border Sunday. Plus, supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro storm the Brazilian Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace, Reviewed Editor-in-Chief David Kender recaps CES, California braces for more severe weather, and USA TODAY Health Reporter Nada Hassanein looks at a new Alzheimer’s drug that appears to slow the disease.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Monday, the 9th of January, 2023. Today, a look at Biden's visit to the border, plus Bolsonaro supporters storm government buildings in Brazil, and we look back at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

♦

President Joe Biden visited the US-Mexico border yesterday for the first time since taking office. He went to El Paso, Texas and walked along the border wall with Juarez, Mexico. On the trip, Biden met with local officials, community leaders, and others dealing daily with a humanitarian crisis that involves migrants sleeping on the streets. The number of migrants crossing the border has risen dramatically during Biden's first two years in office, and El Paso is the biggest corridor for illegal crossings. The city's mayor declared a state of emergency last month.

Biden's trip came after he announced a new policy to confront the surge of asylum seekers at the border. The policy calls for expulsions of up to 30,000 migrants a month from four countries, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba. The US has difficult diplomatic relations with several of the countries and Mexico has agreed to accept migrants.

President Joe Biden:

If you're trying to leave Cuba, Nicaragua or Haiti, do not. Do not just show up at the border. Stay where you are and apply legally from there.

Taylor Wilson:

The new policy has angered asylum and immigration advocates. Meanwhile, the Title 42 Trump era policy that allows the government to quickly expel asylum seekers will go in front of the Supreme Court at some point this year, after the court ruled last month that the Biden administration cannot stop the expulsion of migrants under the program.

Churches and other organizations are helping asylum seekers at the border, many in limbo who are unable to continue to the US interior. They've pleaded with Biden to give them an opportunity to stay. Biden next heads to Mexico to meet with North American leaders on immigration and other issues.

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Supporters of former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed their Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace yesterday in the capital of Brasilia.

[Audio from the scene]

The scene, reminiscent of January 6th US attacks, came a week after his leftist rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated. Lula was not in Brazil at the time of the breach. Bolsonaro has been in Florida since before Lula's inauguration. Like former President Donald Trump, he spent the months since his defeat making claims that the election was rigged. His supporters yesterday broke through security barriers, scaled walls and invaded government buildings. Some called for a military coup to restore Bolsonaro to power. Videos on social media showed attacks on police officers, and demonstrators building barricades to keep police out. It took three hours for security forces to regain control.

But the violence came with few workers inside the buildings. Bolsonaro wrote on Twitter yesterday that peaceful protest is part of democracy, but that vandalism and invasion of public buildings are exceptions to the rule.

♦

The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, returned to its usual form in Las Vegas this past week after a couple of scaled down years because of the pandemic, and the tech show had lots to offer reviewed. Editor-in-chief, David Kender, just got back from the show in Vegas and joins me now. David, thanks for coming on the pod.

David Kender:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, so what were some of the coolest things you saw this year?

David Kender:

Two of the big categories at CES are cars and televisions, and they did not disappoint. And in a weird way, the lines between cars and TVs are starting to blur a little bit. One of the big, big products that people were talking about was a color-changing BMW. It's a concept car that was covered in 200 e-ink panels, so it could do all these different colors and make patterns and it was pretty wild. But also in cars, Sony and Honda premiered a new car brand that they're going to be launching called Afeela. That's a very, very high tech electric car and it's slated for a 2025 release.

And on the TV side, LG had a completely wireless television, so you don't need to run audio cables, you don't need to run HDMI cables, any of that. All the video inputs, they go into something that they call a connect box, and you can put that anywhere in the room, it works pretty far away and then it blasts the signal to your TV. And it was really amazing. Every year, I feel like I see a lot of Jetsons stuff and that's what I love about the show.

Taylor Wilson:

David, tell us about the CES Editors Choice Awards you've published on the site. What were some of the big tech products to make the list?

David Kender:

We had a smartwatch from Citizen. We had this really beautiful high tech fridge from Samsung. We had a bunch of laptops. We found products from all over, at all different price points.

Taylor Wilson:

David, I'm really excited about this one, Reviewed this year is debuting it's first ever accessibility awards at CES. So, tell me about some of the groundbreaking new accessibility tech that Reviewed is recognizing.

David Kender:

One big area that we've been seeing a lot of changes in is hearing aids. So, just recently, hearing aids became over-the-counter products. Previous to that, if you had a hearing issue and you needed a hearing aid, you needed to go to a doctor, so you had to have access to a doctor or had insurance. It was very expensive to get the prescription. The products themselves could cost several thousand dollars.

That has all changed in the last few months, and suddenly you have consumer electronics brands like Bose and others, getting into that space and figuring out ways to do it with a little bit more of a tech edge because they're tech companies, but also trying to figure out how to bring that price down. And we loved a product called Lexie, which partnered with Bose in order to figure out how to do that diagnostic test, so that the hearing aid actually works for you without having to go to a doctor. All of this is making hearing aids much cheaper and more accessible to the millions of people with hearing loss issues.

Taylor Wilson:

David Kender, editor-in-chief of Reviewed, thanks so much for making the time.

David Kender:

So long.

Taylor Wilson:

You can find out more from this year's show at reviewed.com.

♦

California is set to be hit by more severe weather today, the latest amid weeks of storms to slam the state. Governor Gavin Newsom said yesterday that he'll ask President Joe Biden to declare a federal emergency, with up to a foot of rain in some areas and widespread flooding, high winds and potential mudslides. Evacuation warnings are in place for areas north of San Francisco and more than half of Sacramento's residents were in the dark at the height of heavy rains yesterday. Authorities say recent conditions are responsible for at least six deaths in the state.

♦

On Friday, federal drug regulators approved one of the first Alzheimer's drugs that appears to slow the memory-robbing disease, despite debate among some experts over the drug safety and efficacy. Producer PJ Elliott spoke to USA TODAY Health Reporter Nada Hassanein to find out more.

PJ Elliott:

Nada thanks so much for jumping on 5 Things.

Nada Hassanein:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

PJ Elliott:

I want to start off by asking you to just talk about this drug that just got approval from the FDA with treating Alzheimer's, and what is it being shown to do?

Nada Hassanein:

So, lecanemab was approved by the FDA under an accelerated pathway and studies have shown or suggested that it can slow down the plaque that's been associated with Alzheimer's disease. This approval comes just a week after another Alzheimer's drug was found to have too broad of a label and a congressional investigation found that that drug company and the FDA went against protocol when studying the drug. And so, experts were holding their breath when this drug came along, for this anticipated approval.

But the approval also comes two days after researchers detailed a death possibly linked to the drug in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine. And that patient, after receiving the drug, received emergency treatment for stroke and actually suffered multiple brain hemorrhages and died.

PJ Elliott:

At what point can those diagnosed with Alzheimer's start taking the medication?

Nada Hassanein:

So Eisai, the drug sponsor, has said that they will try to make it available within the months, but the issue is there's a policy that the agency that oversees Medicare has established that drugs approved under the accelerated pathway aren't really covered. So, until Eisai files for traditional approval and the FDA approves it through that way, it'll be really limited to patients who are not on Medicare.

PJ Elliott:

What were some of the results from the testing phase?

Nada Hassanein:

The clinical trials did find that the drug reduced cognitive decline by about 27%, but experts do worry about side effects, including brain swelling and bleeding.

PJ Elliott:

So, is this drug for all patients with Alzheimer's?

Nada Hassanein:

So, it's important to note that the FDA only approved this drug for Alzheimer's patients with early stage disease, mild stage disease, because that is the population that was studied in the clinical trials.

PJ Elliott:

Nada, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Nada Hassanein:

Thanks so much for having me, PJ.

Taylor Wilson:

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us seven mornings a week right here, wherever you're listening right now. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden's first trip to the border, Brazil's Jan. 6: 5 Things podcast