CVS disputes Planned Parenthood’s ‘strategic partnership’ claim as report language changes; critics push back
CVS is disputing a Planned Parenthood claim of a “strategic partnership” on abortion pill access after the organization’s website no longer includes language that previously referenced such a relationship. “The team that manages our reproductive health program is unaware of anything related to that organization beyond standard abortifacient dispensing for individuals with prescriptions,” a CVS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. The company added that it “do[es] not have a formal partnership with Planned Parenthood of Greater New York beyond filling prescriptions.” CVS added it did not indicate any agreement or coordination with Planned Parenthood beyond dispensing legally prescribed medication. ABORTION PILL MIFEPRISTONE STAYS AVAILABLE BY MAIL FOR NOW AS FDA FACES 6-MONTH REVIEW DEADLINE “There’s a little bit of mystery here,” Shawn Carney, president of 40 Days for Life, told Fox News Digital. “CVS is for sure downplaying their role,” he added. “They say they’re just distributing abortion pills — that’s exactly what Planned Parenthood wants them to do.” But Planned Parenthood of Greater New York’s annual report previously described a “strategic partnership with CVS,” stating that patients can “pick up the abortion pill from their local pharmacies.” That language was removed from the report as of April 24, 2026. SUPREME COURT DIVIDED OVER STATE EFFORT TO DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD “Through our strategic partnership with CVS, patients can now pick up the abortion pill from their local pharmacies, allowing them to experience abortion care, with the supportive guidance of our expert clinicians, in the comfort of their homes,” the report previously stated. The report also stated that patients can pick up medication abortion prescriptions at CVS pharmacies. Carney said he believes the arrangement would mark a first of its kind. “This would make CVS the first publicly traded company in the United States to distribute abortion pills,” he said. CVS maintains its role is limited to standard prescription dispensing, where permitted. PLANNED PARENTHOOD ATTACKS HAWLEY EFFORT TO STRIP FDA APPROVAL OF MIFEPRISTONE Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, however, did not directly address its use of the term “strategic partnership.” “PPGNY makes strategic decisions about its operations and its association with various companies, partners and organizations,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. “We are happy our patients are able to fill their abortion pill prescriptions at local pharmacies, including CVS, which expands access to critical healthcare.” Planned Parenthood of Greater New York’s report appears to have been updated between April 23 and April 24. Fox News Digital contacted the organization for comment during that same timeframe. A version of the report viewed by Fox News Digital April 23 described a “strategic partnership with CVS,” while the current version, as of April 24, no longer includes that language. The organization did not address the change in its statement. Medication abortion, which typically involves a two-drug regimen, has increasingly been offered via telehealth in recent years after the FDA expanded access around the COVID-19 pandemic. Mifepristone also remains under federal scrutiny. The FDA said as of April 2026 that it was conducting a safety study on the drug and had received reports of serious adverse events, including deaths, in patients associated with mifepristone while also saying those events cannot be definitively attributed to the drug. “Nobody wants to go to their CVS and buy a Snickers bar and buy their milk and think, ‘Oh, they’re distributing abortion pills through the drive-thru,’” Carney told Fox News Digital. “That’s not what we want.” Planned Parenthood reported performing 19,673 medication abortions in its most recent fiscal year.
Winery belonging to Ilhan Omar’s husband shut down amid financial spotlight
A California winery partially owned by the husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., abruptly shut down in early April as House Republicans scrutinized Omar’s net worth. Omar’s financial disclosures show Tim Mynett owns a stake in eStCru Wines, a California wine business that shut down as of April 4, according to California business records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. “Ilhan Omar has spent her entire career covering up Democrat-enabled fraud that cost taxpayers billions, so it’s no surprise that she would do the same for her husband,” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Delanie Bomar told Fox News Digital. ILHAN OMAR VINEGAR ATTACKER CHANGES PLEA AFTER CHAOTIC ONSTAGE RUSH “Voters see right through the corrupt lies of Ilhan Omar and her Democrat colleagues, and they’ll pay the consequences of their crimes at the ballot box this November.” The shutdown comes amid a House Oversight Committee probe into Omar’s finances, with her husband’s assets a major area of focus. “Financial disclosure forms, filed by your wife Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, show eStCru LLC and Rose Lake Capital LLC, which you hold ownership stakes in, went from being worth as much as $51,000 in 2023 to as much as $30 million in 2024,” House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., wrote to Mynett in a February letter. “Given that these companies do not publicly list their investors or where their money comes from, this sudden jump in value raises concerns that unknown individuals may be investing to gain influence with your wife.” JAMES COMER RAISES FELONY QUESTIONS OVER ILHAN OMAR’S FINANCES AFTER DISCLOSURE DISCREPANCY Comer requested documents and communications related to eStCru and Rose Lake Capital LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based venture capital firm Mynett co-founded in 2022. Mynett, a political consultant, started eStCru Wines in 2021. Omar’s 2025 financial disclosures listed her husband’s stake in eStCru as worth between $1 million and $5 million, a significant jump from the $15,001 to $50,000 her 2023 disclosures listed. Comer pointed to the discrepancy in the disclosure forms in his letter, but Omar brushed it aside as an accounting error. “The original filing was based on incomplete information from Mr. Mynett’s businesses’ accountants in good faith and deference to professional judgment. It listed assets without liabilities, and it significantly overstated her husband’s net worth. The accounting error created a misleading picture of far greater wealth,” a spokesperson for Omar told the Minnesota Star Tribune. After amending her disclosures, Omar claims that the value of her and her husband’s assets is between $18,004 and $95,000 and not, as originally reported, between $6 million and $30 million. “The amended disclosure confirms what we’ve said all along: The congresswoman is not a millionaire,” Omar’s communications director, Jacklyn Rogers, told The Wall Street Journal. Fox News Digital contacted Omar and the House Oversight Committee for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Trump cancels Witkoff, Kushner’s Pakistan trip for Iran talks, says regime is suffering from ‘infighting’
President Donald Trump revealed to Fox News Saturday he unilaterally canceled U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s planned trip to Pakistan for talks with Iran. The president said in an exclusive interview with Fox News’ White House correspondent Aishah Hasnie it’s not worth the U.S. delegation making the 18-hour flight to Pakistan when the U.S. holds all the cards in the conflict with Iran. “I’ve told my people a little while ago they were getting ready to leave, and I said, ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18-hour flight to go there. We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing,’” Trump said. “And I canceled the trip, and I said, ‘Anytime they want to phone us, we’re ready, willing and able, but we’re not going to waste a lot of time,’” Trump told Fox News. LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP CANCELS US TRIP TO PAKISTAN FOR IRAN NEGOTIATIONS Then, in a post on Truth Social, Trump said Iran is suffering from “tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’” “Nobody knows who is in charge, including them,” Trump wrote. U.S. special envoy Witkoff and Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, were supposed to travel to Pakistan this weekend for the second round of U.S.-Iran negotiations during Operation Epic Fury. US TURNS TO DRONES AFTER RETIRING MINESWEEPERS TO REOPEN STRAIT OF HORMUZ Prior to the cancellation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday, “We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days” regarding a potential deal to end the conflict. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Saturday to meet with Pakistan’s prime minister. “Very fruitful visit to Pakistan, whose good offices and brotherly efforts to bring back peace to our region we very much value,” he said on X after the trip. “Shared Iran’s position concerning workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran. Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy.” Vice President JD Vance was supposed to travel to Pakistan earlier this week for a second round of talks, but he was called back to the White House for meetings, and the trip was postponed indefinitely. Vance, Witkoff and Kushner were in Pakistan earlier this month for the first round of talks with the Iranians, but no deal was reached after their in-person meeting.
FLASHBACK: Obama tried to make Trump a punchline at 2011 dinner before rise stunned Washington
President Donald Trump will attend the White House Correspondents‘ Dinner Saturday, marking his first appearance at the annual event as commander in chief after skipping it throughout his first term. The decision puts Trump back at a Washington ritual long tied to his fraught relationship with the press and political establishment. His return also revives memories of the 2011 dinner, when President Barack Obama and comedian Seth Meyers mocked Trump from the dais in a moment that later became a widely discussed part of Trump’s political story. “Donald Trump is here tonight,” Obama said at the 2011 dinner. “Now, I know he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald. HOLLYWOOD TAKES SHOTS AT TRUMP WHILE CELEBRATING CONAN O’BRIEN AMID KENNEDY CENTER SHAKE-UP “And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter — like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?” he continued. Trump had publicly called for the release of Obama’s birth certificate, which the State of Hawaii did release that year. The exchange underscored longstanding tensions between Trump and the Washington establishment that predated his entry into politics. Speculation mounted that the jabs helped fuel Trump’s eventual decision to launch a presidential run, culminating in a stunning upset victory in 2016. Trump denied that Obama’s 2011 jokes prompted his candidacy, telling The Washington Post in 2016 that “there are many reasons I’m running, but that’s not one of them.” PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP RECEIVES THE ‘PATRIOT OF THE YEAR’ AWARD AT FOX NATION’S PATRIOT AWARDS “Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising since I just assumed he’d be running as a joke,” comedian Seth Meyers added when he took the podium that night. Trump told Fox News’ “The Five” earlier this year he was treated “rudely and crudely” during the dinner, which he said influenced his decision not to attend while he was first in office. “The press was so nasty, I just – so I didn’t do it,” said Trump. TRUMP SAYS TRANSGENDER BATHROOM DEBATE LESS IMPORTANT THAN OTHER ISSUES He once again denied it was the 2011 dinner that sparked his interest in running for office. “There is this theory: I was there while Barack Hussein Obama was speaking, and he was hitting me a little bit. Actually, it was very nice, and I was actually – I loved it. I really loved it,” said Trump. WHCA PRESIDENT OPENS DINNER HIGHLIGHTING TRUMP’S ABSENCE AND ‘EXTREMELY DIFFICULT’ YEAR FOR THE PRESS Trump announced he would attend this year’s dinner as part of America’s 250th birthday celebration. The first lady will join him. “The White House Correspondents Association very nicely asked the President to join them at their annual dinner this year as the honoree, which he gladly accepted,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle previously told Fox News Digital. Trump did not attend during his first term due to a contentious relationship with the media at the height of coverage of the Russia investigation. The banquet was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic and revived in 2022 during President Biden’s administration. Trump also did not attend last year.
Deporting soldiers? Why immigrant veterans fear removal from the US
Seeking citizenship from a warzone Hernandez has spent most of his life in the US. He was brought across the border by his mother as a baby. He now has three children, all US citizens. As of 2022, nearly 731,000 military veterans like Hernandez were immigrants. They comprise roughly 4.5 percent of the US’s veteran population. For decades, faced with declining enlistment numbers, the US military has depended on immigrants to serve alongside its US-born citizens. Most have citizenship, too — but an estimated 118,000 immigrant veterans do not. Hernandez is one of them. Like many other veterans struggling to reintegrate into society after their military service, Hernandez struggled to find his place in the civilian world. He was jailed on illegal gun charges shortly after returning from his deployment. When he was released a few weeks later, he found he had been evicted from his apartment, and all his possessions, including military memorabilia, had been confiscated. “I came out with nothing,” he told Al Jazeera. With few options left, he became involved in selling drugs, which led him to be in and out of prison on multiple convictions. Without US citizenship — and especially with convictions on his record — the threat of deportation now hangs over him. His experience is not an outlier. Roughly a third of veterans are arrested at least once in their lifetimes, and surveys estimate that as many as 181,500 are imprisoned each year. Many veterans struggle with traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorders and substance abuse issues, which can lead them to commit criminal offences. Hernandez was among those who enlisted after the attacks in the US on September 11, 2001. In the military frenzy afterwards, a recruiter at his California high school convinced him to sign up. Hernandez was just 18, and the structure, ambition and steady income of military service appealed to him. “I was trying to make a difference, trying to defend the land that was supposed to be my country — that adopted me,” he said. Hernandez was deployed when the US invaded Iraq in 2003 and then deployed two more times after that. He worked on the USS Kearsarge LHD-3, an amphibious assault group in the US Navy. “They said I was going to get to see the world,” he said. “I didn’t. It was nothing but sea.” During his first deployment on the ship, he filed his application for citizenship. The process was supposed to take only about six months. Then-President George W Bush had pledged to expedite naturalisation applications for active-duty service members who served during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in an effort to boost recruitment. But like other immigrant soldiers at the time, Hernandez’s naturalisation was delayed. The US immigration system has been chronically overwhelmed, and after the September 11 attacks, stricter background checks led to even slower service. By the time Hernandez was finally called for his citizenship interview in 2006, two years had passed since his return from his final deployment. He already had a criminal conviction for drug possession. As he was no longer in the military, Hernandez’s expedited naturalisation case was denied. Adblock test (Why?)
African governments need to take urgent action on fertiliser shortages
Food security in Africa could face major disruptions due to continuing uncertainty in the Strait of Hormuz. The conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran is disrupting global fertiliser trade flows – and this stands to leave millions of African farmers without the ammonia, urea, phosphate, sulphur and other fertiliser inputs vital to growing more food in sub-Saharan Africa. Fertiliser shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz account, for example, for roughly one-quarter of global ammonia trade and more than a third of seaborne urea. Even the slightest perceived risk can drive up fertiliser prices, stall shipments and cause a seismic shift in food price inflation. This food insecurity scenario is not new: COVID-19 pandemic disruptions and the war in Ukraine drove fertiliser prices to record highs, exposing how dependent we have become on a handful of export hubs and bottlenecked transport routes. About 80 percent of fertiliser used across sub-Saharan Africa is imported, often at prices much higher than in Europe due to freight, financing and logistics. When global supply falters, Africa’s farmers often feel the economic shocks the hardest. For many governments, fertiliser security is tied to food security, which, in turn, is linked to economic and social stability. Africa’s smallholder farmers are at the forefront of this crisis. They produce nearly 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s food, and unlike large commercial farms which have the cash to secure a supply earlier, smallholder farmers often have limited fertiliser options or face steep price hikes. Advertisement According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, even a 10 percent reduction in fertiliser availability could result in up to 25 percent less maize, rice and wheat grown in sub-Saharan Africa. This could trigger food inflation of up to 8 percent on the continent. In 2022, the African Development Bank Group launched the $1.5bn African Emergency Food Production Facility to help countries respond to supply disruptions amid the war in Ukraine. The initiative has supported nearly 16 million smallholder farmers in 35 countries with climate-smart seeds and fertiliser, helping generate 46 million tonnes of food worth about $19bn, with nearly $323m in cofinancing from international partners. Having delivered 3.5 million metric tonnes of fertiliser to date, the facility is rolling out a second phase that supports a shift from immediate emergency relief to consolidating, scaling up and institutionalising long-term national food sovereignty. This African-created solution has a role in helping African countries mitigate fertiliser flow uncertainty in the Strait of Hormuz. But African policymakers, partners and allies also need to act to cushion the Iran conflict’s immediate risks and build long-term resilience. They should move across five fronts. First, they need to strengthen market intelligence. Real‑time tracking of trade flows, shipping routes, and price trends helps policymakers anticipate disruptions. UN Trade and Development’s Strait of Hormuz ship traffic monitoring demonstrates how trade data can guide decisions before shortages escalate. Data sharing between regional institutions like those led by the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership would allow countries to assess exposure and coordinate action. Second, African governments and regional organisations need to coordinate regional procurement and buffer stocks. By pooling fertiliser demand, they can negotiate better prices and reduce the risk of export bans or freight spikes. Shared, commercial channel reserves can stabilise markets during shortages. Partnerships with Africa’s major fertiliser producers like Morocco and Nigeria could help stabilise markets and limit panic buying. Third, African states need to urgently expand domestic and regional production. Countries such as Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia are building fertiliser manufacturing and blending capacity, but the scale remains limited relative to demand. Public-private partnerships should invest in upgrading blending plants, ports and railways while promoting organic fertilisers and soil‑specific nutrient management. Advertisement Fourth, African governments need to protect smallholder farmers from price spikes. Well-targeted subsidies, digital voucher systems and expanded access to seasonal credit can help reduce the burden of global volatility falling on those least able to absorb it. Finally, we must support the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Initiative. Adopted during the African Union-hosted Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit in 2024, the initiative’s 10-year action plan is designed to reverse Africa’s soil degradation, boost agricultural productivity, triple fertiliser use, restore almost a third of degraded soil and double cereal yields. As the 2026 planting season advances, Africa’s ability to navigate fertiliser supply risks will depend on how quickly governments, regional organisations and private sector partners work together and with a wide reach. The World Bank’s AgriConnect programme, launched in late 2025 in collaboration with the African Development Bank Group and other organisations, shows what this partnership approach can look like. By combining digital farming advice, facilitating access to credit and climate-smart farming, AgriConnect can help farmers get fertiliser and other inputs they need, show farmers how to use them more efficiently and equip farmers to be more resilient to global market swings. Tensions in the Gulf are a reminder that a disruption in a distant shipping lane can translate into higher food prices in African households thousands of kilometres away. Multilateral banks, regional agencies and other development partners need to align funding with fertiliser security priorities. When we act quickly, these partnerships could transform today’s crisis into an opportunity that builds Africa’s long‑term food and economic sovereignty. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)
After years of avoidance, Trump to attend first White House press dinner
Washington, DC – Donald Trump — whose political career has been built, in part, on deriding the United States press — is set to attend his first White House Correspondents’ Dinner as president. Saturday’s event continues a decades-long tradition, dating back to 1921. Still, the black-tie gala held in Washington, DC, remains a divisive event. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list For years, detractors have argued its chummy approach to the presidency risks blurring the independence of the press corps. Trump himself is one of the dinner’s critics. Until this year, Trump had refused to attend, appearing poised to defy a tradition of sitting presidents dining at least once with the press corps during the annual event. Since he launched his first presidential campaign, Trump has taken a bellicose approach towards the media, issuing both personal attacks on journalists and lawsuits against news organisations for coverage he deems unfair. His presence at Saturday’s dinner has only heightened questions about the event’s role in the modern era. Trump has previously declined five previous invitations to attend, across his first and second terms. His inaugural visit on Saturday has been accompanied by changes to the dinner’s format: Most notably, the longstanding practice of having a comedian perform has been nixed. Journalist organisations and rights groups, meanwhile, have called on the event’s host, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), to send a “forthright message” to the president about protecting the freedom of the press. Advertisement “We also urge the WHCA to reaffirm, without equivocation, that freedom of the press is not a partisan issue,” a coalition of groups, including the Society of Professional Journalists, wrote in an open letter. A return for Trump? Saturday is set to be the first time Trump attends the correspondents’ dinner as president, but it is not his first time attending the event. He was present as a private citizen at the 2011 dinner, years before launching his first successful presidential campaign. At the time, Trump had begun his foray into national politics, pushing the so-called “birtherism” theory: the racist claim that then-President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and had faked his US birth certificate. It is tradition for the sitting president to speak at the event, and Obama seized the moment to lob barbs at Trump’s conspiracy theories and his nascent political career. In one instance, Obama poked fun at Trump’s work hosting the reality television show The Apprentice. Referring to Trump’s “firing” of actor Gary Busey, Obama mockingly praised his decision-making. “These are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night,” he quipped. “Well played, sir.” Obama also envisioned what a future Trump presidency would look like, displaying a mock-up of a “Trump White House Resort and Casino”. Comedian Seth Meyers, who hosted the night’s event, also took aim at Trump’s birtherism claims and political ambitions. “Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican,” he quipped at one point, “which is surprising since I just assumed he was running as a joke.” Trump sat stone-faced in the audience, with several confidants later crediting the night as a major motivator for his 2016 presidential bid. The White House Correspondents’ Association was launched in 1914, as a response to threats by then-President Woodrow Wilson to do away with presidential news conferences. The organisation has worked to expand White House access for reporters. Comedians became mainstays of the annual dinner in the early 1980s, with both presidents and journalists often the subject of their pointed jokes. Defenders of the event have argued that the presence of comedians helps to celebrate free speech and ground the black-tie proceedings, underscoring that no attendee is above ridicule. But since President Trump first declined to attend the event after taking office in 2017, that norm has shifted. Michelle Wolf’s no-holds-barred performance in 2018 is often seen as a breaking point. Advertisement In her jokes, she seized upon Trump’s past statements appearing to praise sexual assault, and she charged that Trump did not have a “big enough spine to attend” the event. She also mocked the mainstream media’s coverage of the president. While praised by fellow comedians and some members of the press, her performance divided the White House press corps. Trump and his top officials took particular issue with the material, with the president decrying Wolf as “filthy”. The following year, the association instead invited historian Ron Chernow to speak at the event. The dinner did not have another comedian until 2022, during the administration of US President Joe Biden. Last year, during Trump’s first term back in office, the association abruptly cancelled a planned performance by comedian Amber Ruffin, with the board’s then-President Eugene Daniels saying it wanted to avoid “politics of division”. This year, a mentalist, Oz Pearlman, is set to perform instead of a comedian. Calls for press freedom The Society of Professional Journalists, Freedom of the Press Foundation, and The National Association of Black Journalists are among the organisations and hundreds of individual journalists urging their colleagues to use the event to make a statement. In an open letter, it said the actions by the Trump administration “represent the most systematic and comprehensive assault on freedom of the press by a sitting American president”. The organisation pointed to a series of hostile actions the Trump administration has taken against journalists. They include limiting the White House and Pentagon press pools, threats by the Federal Communications Commission against broadcasters, immigration enforcement actions against non-citizen journalists, and an FBI raid of a Washington Post reporter’s home. The letter also pointed to the White House’s launching of a “hall of shame” page on its website, which highlights news organisations accused of biased coverage, as well as Trump’s repeated verbal attacks on reporters. But the Trump administration has rejected allegations that it treats journalists unfairly or that it has prevented public access to information. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, for example, has regularly touted Trump as the “most transparent” president
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