Novartis‘ CEO warned Tuesday that the U.S. drug pricing policy under President Donald Trump poses a “very difficult situation” and the reality will soon catch up with both drugmakers and patients.
“The longer-term implications are significant,” CEO Vas Narasimhan told CNBC’s Carolin Roth.
Novartis is focused on getting European and Japanese governments to quickly change how they reward innovation, he said, adding that if this doesn’t happen, then novel medicines might see delayed entry into these markets and patients won’t have access to the drugs.
“The reality of MFN is going to set in in the next 18 months.”
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
WASHINGTON − Syria was embroiled in a violent civil war when Adham, a Syrian now in his forties, came to the United States in 2018 on an academic scholarship.
After earning his master’s degree, Adham − who asked to be identified by that pseudonym because he fears retaliation from the Trump administration − was allowed to stay in the U.S. through a humanitarian relief program for people from dangerous countries.
Since then, Adham has worked as a pharmacist, grateful for having been given “a place to settle and a moment to breathe.”
So he was stunned last September when the Trump administration abruptly ended the Temporary Protected Status program for approximately 6,000 Syrians living in the United States, despite the still perilous conditions in his home country. Adham and his wife, who also works in health care, had 60 days to leave or face potential deportation.
“In a matter of weeks, we were facing the prospect of going from legal residents to people hunted by law enforcement,” he said.
The Supreme Court will review on April 29 the administration’s push to end deportation protections for Syrians and for 350,000 Haitians – including whether the decision to terminate protections for Haitians was racially motivated.
The case could affect the future of the entire humanitarian program, which is providing legal residency and the ability to work to about 1.3 million immigrants. Ending the program for everyone, immigrant rights advocates say, would be the largest stripping in U.S. history of legal status from people who currently have it.
Curtailing the Temporary Protected Status program is a significant part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, which also includes his attempt to limit birthright citizenship that the Supreme Court is already considering.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs’
Trump has referred to the program as a “little trick.” He’s been particularly vocal about ending it for Haitians, a group he’s repeatedly maligned – including falsely accusing Haitians living in Ohio of eating people’s pets. During the 2024 campaign, Trump promised “large deportations in Springfield.”
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” Trump said during a presidential debate. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Elected officials and others have defended the immigrants in Ohio and elsewhere, saying they have become valuable members of their communities and contribute to the local economy, taking on jobs in health care, elder care and other industries that are hard to fill.
Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has said the Haitians have helped revive Springfield.
“Springfield is an industrial city, manufacturing city that was down,” DeWine said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” in February. “It has been coming back. And frankly, one of the reasons it’s coming back is because of the Haitians who are working there.”
But critics say the humanitarian program, which was supposed to be temporary, is being exploited.
“In practice, what’s happened is once TPS has been granted in the past, administrations have always just consistently renewed it. They never terminate,” said James Rogers, a lawyer with American First Legal, a group supporting Trump’s policy priorities.
Protections from war, natural disasters or other crises
Created in 1990, the program allows the homeland security secretary to protect immigrants already in the U.S. from being deported to countries experiencing war, natural disasters or other crises.
The immigrants, who must pass background checks, are also allowed to work.
The protections initially last for up to 18 months but are automatically extended unless the government determines that conditions in a country have sufficiently improved.
Since Trump returned to office in 2025, his administration has moved to end protections for immigrants from 13 of the 17 countries that previous administrations deemed unsafe. Renewal deadlines for the remaining four countries – including Ukraine – will be triggered in the coming months.
Haiti deemed too dangerous after earthquake
Haiti was first designated as too dangerous in 2010 because of a devastating earthquake. (Two of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s seven children were adopted from Haiti, one after the earthquake. Barrett told USA TODAY last year that a previous case involving Haitian migrants was a good example of how judges must put their feelings aside and not be swayed “by things that move you emotionally and situations in which you have very deep empathy.”)
Haiti remains under a national state of emergency, and the State Department warns Americans not to go to the Caribbean country because of civil unrest, limited health care, crime, terrorism and the risk of kidnapping. Anyone traveling to Haiti or to other countries under the government’s highest risk warning are encouraged to leave DNA samples with a doctor and dental records with a family member in case they’re needed to identify remains.
Decapitated Haitian women dumped in a river
In February, the decapitated bodies of four Haitian women deported from the U.S. several months earlier were found dumped in a river, according to lawyers for the Haitians.
Three months earlier, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had said parts of Haiti were “suitable to return to” and allowing Haitians to remain in the United States was no longer in the national interest. The secretary cited the executive order Trump signed his first day back in office – titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” – that laid the groundwork for his crackdown on immigration.
Ending the program for Haitians, Noem also said, “reflects a necessary and strategic vote of confidence” in that nation’s future.
Noem − who was fired in March − reached a similar conclusion about Syria, which is also subject to the State Department’s highest-level travel warning.
While “some sporadic and episodic violence occurs in Syria,” she concluded, “the situation no longer meets the criteria for an ongoing armed conflict that poses a serious threat to the personal safety of returning Syrian nationals.”
The United Nations estimated that more than 1.2 million Syrians have returned to their home country since the regime of Bashar al-Assad fell in 2024, according to the Justice Department.
Terminations blocked by judges
Over the past year, Syrians and Haitians have challenged the terminations and judges blocked them from going into effect while their lawsuits hang in the balance.
The Justice Department argues not just that the terminations were done legally, but also that the law creating the program bars judges from even reviewing any part of the government’s decision-making process.
“Indeed, Congress barred judicial review in sweeping terms,” the department’s lawyers wrote in a filing. “The Court should respect Congress’ choice to leave quintessential Executive Branch decisions to the Executive Branch.”
Lawyers for the immigrants contend that Congress didn’t prevent courts from evaluating whether the government followed the required procedures for making its determination.
Otherwise, lawyers for the Haitians wrote in an April filing, the administration could rule a country in or out “based on the flip of a coin or the Secretary’s preference for a particular flavor of ice cream.”
The challengers say they can show Noem didn’t adequately consult with the State Department about the conditions in Syria and Haiti and instead manufactured reasons to reach her pre-determined outcome.
“What you have in the situation now is really stark incongruities between what the (Department of Homeland Security) is saying and what the State Department is saying about these countries,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, the lawyer who will be representing the Syrians before the justices. “We think the statute requires them to actually find whether the country is safe to accept a return or not.”
A researcher at the homeland security department complained in a 2025 email, since turned over to the courts, that she was being forced to make conclusions about the program that she believed were not supported by evidence.
Racial discrimination?
A separate question in the Haitians’ lawsuit is whether the administration’s termination of the program was racially motivated, a potential violation of constitutional protections against discrimination.
“The most damning evidence is President Trump’s own words, his own actions,” said Sejal Zota, one of the lawyers representing the Haitian immigrants. “For years, he has used violent and dehumanizing rhetoric against immigrants of color.”
During a December speech in Pennsylvania, for example, Trump referred to Haiti as a “hellhole.”
“Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few? Let’s have a few from Denmark,” Trump said, recounting how in 2018 he had complained about immigrants coming from “shithole” countries. “Send us some nice people.”
Were Trump’s comments taken out of context?
The Justice Department said Trump’s comments are being taken out of context and were not connected to Noem’s decision to end deportation protections for Haitians.
“None remotely justifies an inference that the Secretary was motivated by an `invidious discriminatory purpose,’” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in a filing.
Trump is counting on the justices to reject the discrimination charge as a majority did in 2018 when upholding his immigration travel ban against predominantly Muslim countries.
And in 2020, the court blocked the Trump administration from ending protections for immigrants brought to the court illegally as children – but did so without finding the move was racially motivated.
Immigrant advocates say the previous situations were different.
“In those cases, you had these sort of general anti-Muslim, or general anti-immigrant sentiments. These statements are about our clients specifically,” Geoff Pipoly, one of the lawyers representing the Haitians, said on the Lawfare Daily podcast. “It’s not so easy to brush it off as the court has done in the past.”
`A war on this congressional statute’
The dispute reached the high court on the preliminary issue of whether the administration’s decision to end protections should remain on hold while the challenge is being fully litigated.
How the court decides that question will affect not just the immediate futures of the Syrians and Haitians in the U.S., but also how easy it will be for the Trump administration to effectively do away with the temporary protected status program.
“This really is about a war on this congressional statute,” Arulanantham said.
In the meantime, Adham said he and his wife go to bed each night “not knowing what tomorrow looks like.”
A decision is expected by the end of June or early July.
US President Donald Trump’s national security team is reviewing an Iranian peace plan to halt the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, while postponing talks on its nuclear programme.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg and says Tehran is considering a US request to restart negotiations.
Democrats blast latest move by the administration to radically restructure the federal government.
United States President Donald Trump’s administration has fired all 22 members of the board that sets the policies of the government-funded national science agency, according to an ex-board member and lawmakers.
The dismissals at the National Science Board (NSB), the policy and advisory arm of the National Science Foundation (NSF), mark the Trump administration’s latest move to radically restructure the government following the gutting of multiple agencies, including the Department of Education and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Roger Beachy, who was reappointed to a second six-year term on the science board by Trump in 2020, said he and his colleagues were not given a reason for their dismissal.
“The termination email was brief and to the point, with a ‘thank you for your service,’” Beachy, an emeritus biology professor at Washington University in St Louis, told Al Jazeera on Monday.
Beachy said he expected the Trump administration to appoint a new board but expressed concern about the nature of the research and education that would be supported by the agency in the future.
“The nature of the board – partisan or independent? – and how it interacts with the agency is of critical importance to the continuing success of the NSF,” Beachy said.
Democratic lawmakers, who had earlier reported hearing of the dismissals from unspecified sources, blasted the Trump administration’s action.
“This is the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to harm science and American innovation,” Zoe Lofgren, the most senior member of the US House of Representatives’ science committee, said in a statement.
“Will the president fill the NSB with MAGA loyalists who won’t stand up to him as he hands over our leadership in science to our adversaries?” Lofgren said, calling the firings a “real bozo the clown move”.
The headquarters of the National Science Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia, on May 29, 2025 [File: Mark Schiefelbein/AP]
The White House and the NSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside of usual business hours.
Trump has yet to publicly confirm or comment on the firings, but his administration previously targeted the NSF for sweeping cuts instituted by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Under last year’s cost-cutting drive, officials scrapped or halted more than 1,600 NSF grants worth nearly $1bn.
The NSF, established as an independent federal agency in 1950, spent more than $8bn on scientific research and education in 2025, making it one of the largest individual funders of science worldwide.
Beachy said it was too early to predict how the dismissals would affect science funding in the long term.
“It is important to note that support for the NSF, both statutorily and in terms of its budget, has been bipartisan in the past,” he said.
“If such support continues, we can have greater optimism for its future and can look forward to the continuing excellence of the US science enterprise.”
Jimmy Kimmel has responded to Donald and Melania Trump calling on Monday for ABC to fire him in the wake of the late-night comic making a joke last week in which he described the first lady as having “the glow of an expectant widow.”
The remark about the president’s wife was part of a routine on Thursday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in which he pretended to deliver a comedy routine at the then-upcoming White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
That event two nights later was cut short when a man armed with guns and knives tried to enter the Washington ballroom where the Trumps and much of the nation’s political leadership had gathered.
“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” Melania Trump said in a social media post later echoed by her husband. … “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”
In a post on his Truth Social platform Monday afternoon, Mr. Trump called Kimmel’s joke a “despicable call to violence” and said “this is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Kimmel described the joke during his Monday night monologue as being about the Trumps’ age difference, calling it “a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination. And they know that.
“I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular. But I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend. … And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
After noting that all Americans have a right to free speech, Kimmel said, “I am sorry that you and the president and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that. I really am. Because no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic and scary. And we should come together. … But do you want us to believe that a joke I made three days before this dinner had any effect on anything that happened (Saturday night)?”
CBS News has reached out to ABC for comment.
Prior Trump-Kimmel clash
Kimmel was pulled from the air for several nights in September after being criticized by conservatives, including Mr. Trump, for his remarks in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk assassination. Kimmel had said that America “hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Kimmel did not issue a blanket apology for the remarks, but he did say he could see how they were offensive to some. When he returned to the air on Sept. 23, he said it was “not my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual,” referring to the alleged gunman, who is in custody pending trial.
His late-night competitor, Stephen Colbert, another frequent Trump critic, is seeing his CBS show end next month.
More criticism of Kimmel’s joke
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Kimmel’s Thursday joke was part of a campaign of rhetoric from Democrats and some in the media that “has helped to legitimize this violence.”
“Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?” Leavitt said. There was no indication that Kimmel was referring to violence.
The National Religious Broadcasters association filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission, asking the agency to investigate ABC.
“We’re seeing a pattern of violence in this country that didn’t appear overnight,” said Troy Miller, NRB’s president and CEO. “When influential voices joke about death or treat political opponents as disposable, it contributes to a culture where violence feels thinkable to the already unstable.”
Jimmy Kimmel has received a torrent of backlash from the White House over the joke
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has defended a joke in which he called Melania Trump an “expectant widow” just days before a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The first lady described a Kimmel sketch which aired last Thursday as “hateful and violent”, and the White House urged his network, ABC, to fire the comedian.
Three days later, a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ dinner in Washington DC, which Donald Trump attended with Melania. Authorities have said the gunman’s attack may have targeted members of the Trump administration.
Kimmel said the original joke was a “light roast” about the 23-year age difference between the president and his wife.
Police: Correspondents’ dinner suspect charged checkpoint, had multiple weapons
“Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel said during the Thursday night sketch.
Delivering his first monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the shooting, the comedian said the joke was “a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s [President Trump] almost 80 and she’s younger than I am”.
“It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination and they know that, I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular,” he added.
“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject, I think a great place to start to dial that back is having a conversation with your husband about it.”
On Monday, Melania wrote in a post on X that “people like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate”.
“His monologue about my family isn’t comedy – his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America… How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”
President Trump also said he appreciated that so many people were “incensed by Kimmel’s” remarks, claiming they were a “call to violence”, in a post on Truth Social on Monday afternoon.
“[T]his is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” he added.
The BBC has contacted ABC for comment.
Getty Images
Kimmel was taken off air last September after he made comments about the shooting of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
In a monologue, Kimmel said the “Maga gang” – a reference to Trump’s followers – was trying to “score political points” from the murder of Kirk. His show was reinstated a week later.
After returning to the show, Kimmel said he accepted that some people felt his remarks about Kirk’s death had been “ill-timed or unclear or maybe both”, adding: “I get why you’re upset.”
In the latest incident, a resurfaced clip of Kimmel’s Thursday joke sparked backlash on social media after the shooting, with critics accusing the comedian of encouraging political violence. Several conservative social media users called for Kimmel to be taken off air.
Trump and Melania were evacuated unharmed from the gala dinner on Saturday night after a gunman opened fire near a security checkpoint at the event, held at the Washington Hilton.
Trump told reporters that the dinner was “a rather traumatic experience” for his wife.
The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, was tackled by agents near a staircase leading down to a ballroom where the dinner was taking place, with hundreds of journalists, officials and public figures attending.
Allen appeared in court on Monday where he was charged with attempting to assassinate the president.
He was also charged with weapon offences relating to the incident. He did not enter a plea.
Moment Trump escorted out of White House Correspondents’ Dinner after suspected gunshots
“You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the First Lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job,” comedian Jimmy Kimmel said in the opening monologue of his late-night show Monday evening. “We’ve all been there, right?”
Kimmel, in a skit that aired on April 23 that satirized the then-upcoming White House Correspondents’ Dinner, pretended to address Melania and joked that the First Lady had “a glow like an expectant widow.”
But after the actual dinner on April 25 was disrupted by a shooting, suspected to be the third assassination attempt on the President, Melania claimed on social media that Kimmel’s “hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country” and that “his monologue about my family isn’t comedy.” The President also chimed in, referencing Kimmel’s “expectant widow” joke and claiming that it was “far beyond the pale.”
Kimmel defended himself on Monday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, saying that his remark was not a call for violence but rather “obviously was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together.”
Kimmel continued: “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80, and she’s younger than I am. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that.”
He noted, facetiously, that if the Trumps really believe his remarks could have induced violence, they should also look into a remark made by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt before the dinner. “It will be funny. It will be entertaining,” Leavitt had told Fox News. “There will be some shots fired tonight.”
While Kimmel said he understands that the incident may have been particularly “stressful” for the Trumps and agreed to reject “hateful and violent rhetoric,” he argued that the First Lady should first speak to her husband about dialing back inflammatory language against his critics and the press.
“Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I, as are all of us, because under the First Amendment, we have, as Americans, a right to free speech,” Kimmel said, while noting that he’s a vocal advocate against gun violence. “I am sorry that you and the President and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that. I really am,” he said. “Just ’cause no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic and scary, and we should come together and be best.”
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel responded to calls from the White House for him to be fired by Disney and ABC by telling first lady Melania Trump to speak to President Donald Trump about what he called the president’s “violent rhetoric.”
“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject, I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it,” Kimmel said during his monologue on the April 27 episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!“
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” Melania Trump wrote on X. “How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”
The Trumps’ outrage stems from a joke Kimmel told as a part of a segment billed as an “alternative” to the annual media gala on the April 23 episode.
Kimmel stood behind a faux-podium and called Trump “a delicate snowflake” as part of a roast traditionally performed by a comedian at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. But the organization opted for mentalist Oz Pearlman during Trump’s first appearance at the event while in office.
“Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel said in the segment.
Kimmel addressed the comment, saying it was “a very light roast joke” that was about “their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together.”
He added that he was sorry for those who were in the room for the shooting, including the president and first lady. “Just (because) no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic and scary,” Kimmel said.
Kimmel addresses viral moments that followed the DC shooting
Kimmel rebutted scathing comments made earlier in the day by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt by playing a clip of her saying “there will be some shots fired” in a red-carpet interview at the dinner.
“If you want us to believe that a joke I made three days before this dinner had any effect on anything that happened, well then maybe someone should look into this psychic lady too,” Kimmel said of Leavitt.
The segment also touched on viral moments from the event, including the evacuation of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, a woman seen taking bottles of wine from the event, and calm, salad-eating Creative Artists Agency agent Michael Glantz.
Pearlman was originally slated to be a guest on the show but was replaced by “Pod Save America” cohost Jon Lovett. Late Nighter was the first to report the guest change.
The Trump administration has fired members of an independent board that oversees the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Members of the National Science Board received an email on Friday sent from the Presidential Personnel Office “on behalf of President Donald J Trump” stating that their position was “terminated, effective immediately”.
“I wasn’t entirely surprised, to be honest,” dismissed board member Keivan Stassun said. Stassun, who works at Vanderbilt University, added that the decision was “enormously disappointing”.
The National Science Board was created in 1950 to advise the president and Congress on science and engineering policy, approve major funding awards and guide NSF’s future.
It is typically made up of 25 members appointed by the president who serve staggered, six-year terms. The fired scientists hail from academia and industry and specialise in areas including astronomy, maths, chemistry and aerospace engineering.
Every member of the current 22-person board was let go, according to terminated member Yolanda Gil. The board had planned to meet in person next week and was finalising a report on the state of US science, Gil said.
“I think this is one more indication of the sweeping changes that the administration has in mind for the NSF,” said Gil, who works at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California.
Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation, said the move was “a dangerous attack on the institutions and expertise that drive American innovation and discovery”.
The Trump administration tried to cut the science foundation’s $9bn budget by more than half last year. Congress maintained NSF’s funding, but a similar slash is again on the table for the coming year.
Without an advisory board in the way this time, Stassun said, such cuts might be easier to execute.
It could “eviscerate investments in fundamental research and in the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers for our nation”, Stassun said.
The science foundation’s headquarters was also relocated to a smaller building. Last year, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it would be moving into the NSF’s former base in Alexandria, Virginia.
The National Science Foundation directed a request for comment to the White House. In a statement, the White House said the powers given to the National Science Board when it was created might need to be updated. The science foundation’s work “continues uninterrupted”, the statement said.
