Trump’s approach to lowering drug costs is raising questions

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is turning to an unconventional approach to lowering drug prices in the United States: striking deals directly with big pharma companies in an attempt to bring U.S. prices in line with what other countries pay.

Trump and the nation’s health care officials have touted these “most-favored nation” deals as the most effective means to getting pharmaceutical prices down, beyond even the power of the Medicare drug price negotiations already in place.

The key issue, health experts say, is that the public has had little visibility into these deals.

“The hard part, of course, is we don’t know exactly what’s in there,” said Spencer Perlman, managing partner and director of health research at the consultancy Veda Partners. The administration has held news conferences and put out fact sheets with bullet points, but experts have yet to review the fine print.

—CQ-Roll Call

Cuomo comes under fire for engaging in ‘Islamophobic’ 9/11 rhetoric about Mamdani on radio show

NEW YORK — Independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo came under fire Thursday over his role in an exchange during which conservative talk show host Sid Rosenberg said Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim, would be “cheering” for a second 9/11.

As he sought to make a point about Mamdani’s lack of experience, Cuomo posed the question: “God forbid, another 9/11— can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?”

“He’d be cheering,” Rosenberg replied. Cuomo paused and appeared to laugh briefly as Rosenberg guffawed over his own comment.

“That’s another problem,” Cuomo continued. Mamdani later excoriated the former governor over the exchange on Rosenberg’s WABC radio show “Sid & Friends in the Morning,” saying Cuomo’s goal was to “smear and slander.”

—New York Daily News

Toxic ink: Synthetic drugs smuggled by mail ignite prison overdose crisis

LAS VEGAS -- Difficult-to-detect synthetic drugs smuggled into Nevada’s prison system through ink on mailed correspondence has caused a substantial increase of overdoses among the inmate population, according to the state’s prisons chief.

At least 127 inmates have been hospitalized with suspected overdoses this year, compared with 59 for the entirety of 2024, Nevada Department of Corrections Director James Dzurenda said at an Oct. 16 Interim Finance Committee meeting.

“That’s all being driven by the synthetic drug problem we have,” Dzurenda said. By comparison, only five inmates overdosed four years ago, he added.

Additionally, six out of seven prison homicides reported in 2025 were connected to the synthetic drug, Dzurenda told state lawmakers.

—Las Vegas Review-Journal

King Charles and Pope Leo make history with joint prayer in Vatican

ROME — Britain's King Charles III and Pope Leo XIV made history when they prayed together in a symbolic moment of unity for Anglicans and Roman Catholics across the globe.

The pontiff led the prayer during the ecumenical service in the Vatican’s famous Sistine Chapel, likely to be seen as another milestone in the journey of the two Churches.

It was the first time a British monarch, the supreme governor of the Church of England, had prayed at a public service with the pope, head of the Catholic Church, since the Reformation.

Charles and Queen Camilla, making a two-day state visit to the Vatican, sat together a few feet from Pope Leo at the front of the congregation that featured ranks of cardinals. At the end of the short service Pope Leo led the symbolic moment with the words: “Let us pray.”

—dpa