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A common decongestant ingredient of numerous popular over-the-counter cold and flu remedies does not work, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded on Tuesday.

An advisory panel spent two days looking at studies of phenylephrine, an active ingredient in well-known medicines including Benadryl, Mucinex, Sudafed PE and Tylenol, and reported to the FDA that it is no more effective than a placebo.

The announcement raises the likelihood of the medicines disappearing from shelves this fall while manufacturers scramble to formulate alternative formulas without it, according to the New York Times, which first reported the development.

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A Senate hearing on book bans and censorship on Tuesday spotlighted the growing phenomenon in America and highlighted a partisan split on the issue, with Democrats decrying censorship as Republicans and rightwing activists push for many works to be taken out of schools and libraries, claiming it should be parents’ rights to do so.

Many of the most commonly banned books deal with topics such as racism, sexuality and gender identity. Conservatives also argue that some books, many exploring queer identity and LGBTQ+ themes, include sexually explicit content inappropriate for students. School librarians opposing such book bans have been attacked and harassed.

U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos in Manhattan sentenced Karl Sebastian Greenwood, a dual citizen of Sweden and the United Kingdom, who pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges in December 2022.

Ramos also ordered Greenwood to forfeit $300 million.

Greenwood has been detained in New York since his 2018 arrest in Thailand and extradition to the United States over his role in promoting OneCoin.

The Center for Reproductive Rights sued on behalf of eight women and four doctors in Idaho, Tennessee and Oklahoma, three states that have passed some of the strictest abortion bans since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted federal abortion rights by overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The lawsuits follow a similar case brought by the center in Texas, where a judge last month sided with five women who were denied abortions and exempted women experiencing pregnancy complications from Texas' stringent abortion ban.

The lawsuits in Idaho and Tennessee ask the state courts to clarify those states' legal exceptions for abortions in cases of medical emergencies, so that doctors may perform abortions when they deem them necessary without fear of prosecution.

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Officials expected the death toll to rise further after Storm Daniel barrelled across the Mediterranean into a country divided and crumbling after more than a decade of conflict.

In Derna, a city of around 125,000 inhabitants, Reuters journalists saw wrecked neighbourhoods, their buildings washed out and cars flipped on their roofs in streets covered in mud and rubble left by a wide torrent after dams burst.