Trump sets 30-day deadline for pharmaceutical companies to lower US drug prices

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has signed an executive order setting a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to electively lower the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. or face new limits down the road over what the government will pay. The Republican president’s order Monday calls on the health department to broker new price tags for drugs. If deals are not reached, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be tasked with developing a rule tying the price the U.S. pays for medications to lower prices paid by other countries. The nation’s pharmaceutical lobby calls Trump’s order a “bad deal” for American patients. Drugmakers argue threats to their profits could impact research to develop new drugs.

Bright auroras on Jupiter are captured by Webb Space Telescope

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jupiter’s dazzling auroras are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth, new images from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal The solar system’s largest planet displays striking dancing lights when high-energy particles from space collide with atoms of gas in the atmosphere near its magnetic poles, similar to how the northern lights are triggered on Earth. But Jupiter’s version has much greater intensity, according to an international team of scientists who analyzed the photos from Webb taken on Christmas in 2023. Webb previously captured Neptune’s glowing auroras in the best detail yet, many decades after they were first faintly detected during a flyby of the Voyager 2 spacecraft.

Trump administration welcomes 59 white South Africans as refugees

DULLES, Virginia (AP) — The Trump administration is welcoming a small group of white South Africans as refugees, saying they face discrimination and violence at home. That’s despite pushback from the country’s government denying they are facing persecution. The decision to admit the 59 people Monday also has raised questions from refugee advocates about why the group should be admitted when the Trump administration has suspended efforts to resettle people who are fleeing war and persecution and have gone through years of vetting before coming to the United States. The group of white South Africans arrived at an airport just outside Washington on a private charter plane.

Defense concedes Combs had violent outbursts, but say no federal crimes occurred

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal prosecutor says the public knew Sean “Diddy” Combs as a larger-than-life cultural icon and business mogul, but in private he was coercing women into drug-fueled sexual encounters and using violence to control them for years. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson made the accusation Monday during opening statements in Combs’ sex trafficking trial in Manhattan. One of Combs’ lawyers, though, said the trial is a misguided overreach by prosecutors who see consensual sex between adults as prostitution and sex trafficking. Combs has pleaded not guilty. Witness testimony began later Monday and the jury saw video footage of Combs attacking his then-girlfriend at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.