Less than a week after NBC News detailed how the hospital system Atrium Health of North Carolina aggressively pursued former patients’ medical debts, placing liens on their homes to collect on hospital bills, the nonprofit company announced it would cancel those obligations and forgive the unpaid debts associated with them. Some 11,500 liens on people's homes in North Carolina and five other states will be released, Atrium’s parent company, Advocate Health, said with some dating back 20 years or more.

Advocate Health said it is changing its policy now as “the next logical step” following a 2022 decision to stop filing lawsuits and property liens to collect on patients’ medical debts. The company declined NBC News’ request for an interview about the shift.

The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday it had broadened the approval of the FluMist nasal spray to become the first "self-administered" influenza vaccine — though a delay in the change means the vaccine will not be available to ship to homes until next year's flu season at the earliest.

"Today's approval of the first influenza vaccine for self- or caregiver-administration provides a new option for receiving a safe and effective seasonal influenza vaccine potentially with greater convenience, flexibility and accessibility," Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

The FluMist vaccine, manufactured by AstraZeneca, had previously been approved back in 2003 to be given by health care providers similar to other flu shots. Now the vaccinemaker has approval to sell FluMist to adults for use at home on themselves or to administer to their children.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved AstraZeneca’s bid to allow its nasal spray influenza vaccine, FluMist, to be sold for home administration. 

Starting next flu season, people who want to order the vaccine to give it to themselves or their children at home will be able to do so. 

FluMist is the only flu vaccine administered by nasal spray, not injection. It is licensed for individuals between the ages of 2 and 49. This FDA approval makes it the only flu vaccine in the United States that can be administered at home and that does not need to be administered by a health care professional.

The key battleground state of Georgia's election board voted Friday to force ballots to be hand-counted three times before a result is declared.

As one of multiple motions on changing how elections are run, less than 50 days out from the November 5 election, the new rule was passed 3-2 by the conservative-leaning panel.

The changes come after Donald Trump heavily criticized the way the state handled the 2020 election results, repeatedly and falsely claiming he won the state.

President Joe Biden narrowly won in Georgia, with 49.5 percent of the vote against Trump's 49.2 percent.

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Critics have claimed the board, which has swung more to the right, is trying to rewrite the rules to favor former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump.

In a letter Thursday, the office of Georgia's Attorney General issued a warning that the board was pushing rules that "very likely exceed the board's statutory authority", while voting rights groups had also raised concerns.

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This week, ProPublica released two studies tracing the deaths of two women to Georgia’s six-week abortion ban—the first to be reported since the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Twenty-eight-year-old Amber Thurman took abortion pills but did not completely expel the fetal tissue from her body. She developed a serious infection and went to the hospital, where physicians would ordinarily have performed a dilation and curettage to remove the remaining tissue. In Thurman’s case, however, physicians failed to act for roughly 20 hours. They waited to operate until the situation was dire, and Thurman died.

Candi Miller, a mother of three, suffered from lupus, diabetes, and hypertension, and she was warned that her health was so fragile that she might not survive another pregnancy. When she accidentally became pregnant again, she ordered abortion pills online. Like Thurman, Miller didn’t entirely expel the fetal tissue and developed a serious infection. But Miller did not seek out care. Her family reported that she was aware of Georgia’s criminal abortion law and afraid of what would happen if she sought emergency care. Her husband found her unresponsive in bed, her 3-year-old daughter at her side.

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Rep. Matt Gaetz was at a 2017 party with a 17-year-old girl at the heart of an alleged sex trafficking scandal, according to legal documents filed Thursday. 

The filings cite affidavits based on three witness testimonies—which remain sealed—which put the Florida congressman at the party, according to Notus. One witness cited by the filings says the girl, a high school junior, was naked and said people were there to “engage in sexual activities” while drugs including cocaine and ecstasy were present. 

The documents were filed by lawyers trying to recoup legal fees in a lawsuit filed by Chris Dorworth—a lobbyist friend of Gaetz’s who hosted the alleged party at his Florida home.

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During a campaign event for former President Donald Trump Tuesday, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested Vice President Kamala Harris is not humble because she does not have biological children.

The comments came during a town hall the governor moderated in Flint, Michigan, at first joking about how her children’s innocent remarks can make her feel humble despite her high-profile position.

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Trump predicted that if Biden won, the economy would crash, crime would soar and Christmas would be canceled. None of that happened, but he's reusing those claims anyway.

If the election does not go his way, the economy will tank, Christmas will be canceled, and America as we know it will be “finished,” Donald Trump promised in the run-up to the 2020 election.

That race did not go his way, of course, and none of Trump’s prophesied cataclysms materialized under Joe Biden’s presidency. But that has not stopped Trump from recycling some of the same dark portents about a Kamala Harris presidency.

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Florida's two state health agencies clarified for doctors on Thursday morning that an abortion is allowed at "any stage in pregnancy" to save the life and health of the mother, according to a press release.

"Providers are reminded that Florida requires life-saving medical care to a mother without delay when necessary, and the Florida Department of Health and the Agency for Health Care Administration will take regulatory action when a provider fails to follow this standard of care," the press release says in bold text.

The release, aimed to dispel what the state called "misinformation" about abortion in Florida, also says "miscarriage is not an abortion" in bold text and warns health care facilities and providers that a failure to provide life-saving treatment for pregnant women may constitute malpractice.

Springfield mayor Rob Rue says the order will allow city officials to ‘acquire resources to address potential threats’

The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, has issued an emergency proclamation following the continued rise in public safety threats over false rightwing rumors about the city’s migrant communities.

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According to a city statement, the proclamation allows Rue and other city officials to “swiftly acquire resources needed to address potential threats” and will “enable departments to respond more efficiently to emerging risks, including civil unrest, cyber threats and potential acts of violence”.

In recent days, following Donald Trump, JD Vance and other rightwing politicians publicly repeating falsehoods about the city’s Haitian immigrants eating other locals’ pets, the city has received more than 30 bomb threats against its schools, government buildings and city officials’ homes.

Gisèle Pelicot, who was drugged by her husband with dozens of men accused of raping her, has emerged as a defiant public voice for victims of sexual abuse in France.

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, struck a defiant note during her testimony Wednesday as defense lawyers raised doubts about whether she was fully unconscious during the alleged rapes by dozens of men over a decade, suggesting she may have consented to the repeated assaults orchestrated by her former husband, Dominique Pelicot, 71.

“I have felt humiliated," an outraged Gisèle Pelicot said of the arguments alleging she was an alcoholic or being her ex-husband's co-conspirator. “In the state I was in, I absolutely could not respond. I was in a comatose state; the videos show that.” 

At least 83 men were recorded on video and photos assaulting an unconscious Pelicot; 50 of them have been identified and are currently on trial accused of raping her, which many of them deny. Two defense lawyers for some of the men had asked the court to display photos which they said raised doubts whether the victim was aware of what was happening to her.

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Many of the defendants deny raping Pelicot. Some claim they were tricked by her husband, others say they believed she was consenting and others argue that her husband’s consent was sufficient.