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The son of famed Hollywood director Rob Reiner could be medically cleared to appear in court as soon as Wednesday to face charges over the killing of his parents, the man’s lawyer said.Nick Reiner, 32, who has a history of substance abuse stretching back to his teenage years, is facing two counts of first-degree murder over the killing of his parents, the chief prosecutor of Los Angeles said Tuesday.District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s office said in a statement that Reiner had been charged with “two counts of murder with the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.”If convicted, he could face life in prison without parole or the death penalty, given the special circumstances included in the charges.Reiner is expected to be arraigned as soon as he is able to appear at a Los Angeles courthouse.His lawyer, Alan Jackson, told reporters on Tuesday that Reiner had so far not been medically cleared to appear, a process he described as “procedural.””The bailiff has indicated that the sheriff’s department will take it on a day-by-day basis, and so hopefully he’ll be cleared tomorrow, and we can get him here.”Reiner was arrested on Sunday after the bodies of his 78-year-old filmmaker father and mother, photographer Michele Singer Reiner, 70, were discovered at their home in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.Prosecutors said Rob Reiner — who directed huge hits including “When Harry Met Sally” and “A Few Good Men” — and his wife were stabbed to death.According to US media reports, Nick Reiner had argued with his parents at a glitzy Hollywood party the prior evening.Entertainment outlet TMZ said the couple’s daughter found the bodies on Sunday afternoon.Rob Reiner, the son of legendary comedian Carl Reiner, started his showbiz career in acting.He won fame as the oafish son-in-law Michael “Meathead” Stivic on groundbreaking 1970s sitcom “All in the Family,” before transitioning to directing. Even while leading behind the camera, he often appeared in cameo roles in his own films.As a director, he struck Hollywood gold.His output included classic films like 1984’s rock music mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap,” fantasy gem “The Princess Bride” from 1987, and seminal coming-of-age movie “Stand By Me.””A Few Good Men,” starring Hollywood heavyweights Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.- ‘Heartbroken’ -Entertainers and politicians paid tribute to the beloved filmmaker following his death.Actor-director Ben Stiller described Reiner as “a kind caring person who was really really funny,” and someone who “made some of the most formative movies for my generation.”Former Democratic president Barack Obama said he and his wife Michelle were “heartbroken.””Beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people,” he said on X.The former first lady said on the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show on Monday that she and her husband had planned to see the Reiners Sunday night.California Governor Gavin Newsom said Reiner had “made California a better place.”President Donald Trump, meanwhile, unleashed an extraordinary broadside, suggesting that Reiner brought on his own murder by criticizing him.Trump claimed the Reiners had died “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.””He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession,” the Republican leader wrote.The comments were blasted by two prominent right-wing Republicans, including Representative Thomas Massie, who called them “inappropriate and disrespectful.”Reiner was politically active, an outspoken supporter of progressive causes, and had warned that Trump was mounting an authoritarian takeover.

South African authorities have arrested and will expel seven Kenyans accused of working without the correct documentation on a US government programme to accept white Afrikaners as “refugees”, the home affairs department said Wednesday.US President Donald Trump’s administration in May offered refugee status to the minority white Afrikaner community, claiming they were victims of discrimination and even “genocide”, which the Pretoria government strongly denies.The US government reportedly engaged Kenyans from a Christian NGO based in Kenya to come to South Africa to fast-track the processing of applications for resettlement under the programme.During a raid on an application processing centre in Johannesburg on Tuesday, “seven Kenyan nationals were discovered engaging in work despite only being in possession of tourist visas, in clear violation of their conditions of entry into the country,” the South African home affairs department said.”They were arrested and issued with deportation orders, and will be prohibited from entering South Africa again for a five-year period,” it said in a statement.The raid came after “intelligence reports indicated that a number of Kenyan nationals had recently entered South Africa on tourist visas and had illegally taken up work at a centre processing the applications of so-called ‘refugees’ to the United States,” it said.Trump essentially halted refugee arrivals after taking office in January but made an exception for the Afrikaners despite Pretoria’s insistence that they do not face persecution.A first group of around 50 Afrikaners — descendants of the first European settlers of South Africa — were flown to the United States on a chartered plane in May. Others have reportedly followed in smaller numbers and on commercial flights.The South African home affairs department said no US officials were arrested in the raid, which was not conducted at a diplomatic site. No prospective “refugees” were harassed, it said, adding that the government had contacted US and Kenyan officials over the issue.- ‘Unacceptable’ -Ties between Washington and Pretoria have plummeted since Trump took office in January, with his administration lashing out at South Africa over a range of policies, expelling its ambassador in March and imposing 30-percent trade tariffs.After reports emerged of a raid, US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement to US media that “interfering” in US refugee operations was “unacceptable”.Washington officials were “seeking immediate clarification from the South African government and expect full cooperation and accountability,” he said.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday sharply expanded a travel ban by barring people from seven more countries including Syria, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, from entering the United States.The latest move brings to nearly 40 the number of countries whose citizens face restrictions in coming to the United States solely by virtue of nationality, with Trump also tightening rules for routine travel from Western nations.It comes as Trump, who has long made hostility to immigration a signature issue, orders mass deportations and takes an increasingly strident tone against non-white new Americans.The White House in a proclamation said it was banning foreigners who “intend to threaten” Americans.Trump also wants to prevent foreigners in the United States who would “undermine or destabilize its culture, government, institutions or founding principles,” the proclamation said.Syrians were banned days after two US troops and a civilian were killed in the war-torn country, which Trump has moved to rehabilitate internationally since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a member of the security forces who was due to be dismissed for “extremist Islamist ideas.”The Trump administration had already informally barred travel for Palestinian Authority passport holders as it acts in solidarity with Israel against the recognition of a Palestinian state by other leading Western countries including France and Britain.Other countries newly subjected to the full travel ban came from some of Africa’s poorest countries — Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan — as well as Laos in southeast Asia.In a series of new actions, Trump also imposed partial travel restrictions on citizens of other African countries including the most populous, Nigeria, as well as Ivory Coast and Senegal, which qualified for the World Cup set to be played next year in the United States as well as Canada and Mexico.The Trump administration has promised to let in athletes for football’s signature competition, but has made no such promises for fans of blacklisted countries.Other countries slapped with partial restrictions were from Africa or largely Black nations in the Caribbean — Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe — plus the Polynesian country of Tonga.Angola, Senegal and Zambia have all been prominent US partners in Africa, with former president Joe Biden hailing the three for commitment to democracy.- Ramping up anti-immigrant tone -Global Refuge, a Christian-based group that supports refugees, warned that the travel ban would push vulnerable people further into harm’s way.”The administration is once again using the language of security to justify blanket exclusions that punish entire populations, rather than utilizing individualized, evidence-based screening,” said the group’s president and CEO, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah.Trump has used increasingly loaded language, complaining at a rally last week that the United States was only taking people from “shithole countries” and instead should seek immigrants from Norway and Sweden.He also recently described Somalis as “garbage” following a scandal in which Somali Americans allegedly bilked the government out of money for fictitious contracts in Minnesota.Trump had already banned the entry of Somalis. Other countries remaining on the full travel ban are Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, and Yemen.Trump last month made the ban even more sweeping against Afghans, severing a program that brought in Afghans who had fought alongside the United States against the Taliban, after an Afghan veteran who appeared to have post-traumatic stress shot two National Guards troops deployed by Trump in Washington.The White House acknowledged “significant progress” by one initially targeted country, Turkmenistan.The Central Asian country’s nationals will once again be able to secure US visas, but only as non-immigrants.Trump has also all but ended refugee admissions, with the United States now only accepting South Africans from the white Afrikaner minority.

US President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC, seeking $10 billion in damages over a misleading edit of his 2021 speech before the US Capitol riot.Here’s what we know about the row:- Why Florida? – Trump filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Miami, Florida, the state where he is a legal resident and where he has filed previous lawsuits against US media outlets.His lawyers argue that many of the scenes in the Panorama documentary — which aired in Britain in October 2024 — were shot in Florida, including around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.He was too late to file a libel claim in the UK, which generally has a one-year time limit to bring such cases.- What are the arguments? -The documentary spliced together two separate sections of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021 in a way that made it appear he explicitly urged supporters to attack the Capitol, where lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.The lawsuit alleges that the edit was a deliberate attempt to give a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction” of Trump to try to “interfere and influence” the 2024 presidential election.They say it harmed Trump’s reputation as a “politician, leader, and businessman”, even though he went on to win the election and his team was apparently unaware of the broadcast for about a year.- Can Trump win? -While the BBC has previously apologised for its “mistake”, it insists there is no basis for a defamation case and said on Tuesday it would fight the lawsuit.The broadcaster contends that the documentary did not air in the United States and its streaming platform cannot be accessed outside the UK.Trump is arguing that people in Florida would have been able to view the documentary through the use of VPNs and the broadcaster’s US distributor.But Canadian company Blue Ant, which owns the rights to the documentary outside the UK, told AFP on Tuesday that “none” of its buyers “have aired it in the US”.Legal experts say the BBC has a strong case.”Defamation cases are difficult to win,” University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias told AFP, noting a 1964 Supreme Court ruling that “requires plaintiffs to prove actual malice, which is an onerous proof burden”.Trump has launched several recent legal actions against media companies, including CNN and The New York Times, but these have not yet gone to court.The BBC could choose to settle, but Mark Damazer, a former BBC Radio 4 controller, said it would be “damaging” to the BBC’s reputation not to fight the case.- Could it cost the British public? -British taxpayers largely fund the cash-strapped broadcaster through an annual licence fee that is mandatory for anyone in the country who watches television.Some commentators in the UK have speculated that the legal costs of fighting or settling the defamation case could result in an increase to the £174.50 pound ($234) annual license.In December 2024, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million in a defamation case brought by Trump. In July, CBS forked out $16 million to settle another case.- Why it’s bad timing for the BBC -The lawsuit coincides with the launch in the UK of a politically sensitive review of the BBC’s Royal Charter, which outlines the corporation’s governance.The current charter ends in 2027 and will need to be renewed, with the BBC’s funding model and editorial priorities up for debate.It also comes as the broadcaster seeks a replacement for outgoing director general Tim Davie who announced his resignation over the edit. In the decade to 2020, the BBC’s income overall fell by about 30 percent in real terms, Davie said last year.Last month, lawmakers revealed that the BBC is losing more than £1 billion a year from households evading the licence fee.

US President Donald Trump will boast of his achievements in an address to the nation Wednesday as voters sour on his handling of the economy after nearly a year back in power.Republican Trump is also expected to tease policies for 2026, following a blitz of hardline protectionist and nationalist policies at the start of his second term.With next year’s US midterm elections looming, the 79-year-old faces mounting anger among Americans about the high cost of living.Trump did not say what he would talk about in the primetime speech from the White House at 9pm, saying only on social media that “it has been a great year for our Country, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”But the White House said it would focus on his “historic accomplishments” including tackling inflation, which Trump blames on his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, and tackling immigration.”It’s going to be a really good speech. I was just in the Oval Office with the President discussing it,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing on Tuesday.”He’s going to talk a lot about the accomplishments over the past 11 months, all that he’s done to bring our country back to greatness, and all he continues to plan to do to continue delivering for the American people over the next three years.”Leavitt separately told Fox News that Trump would be “maybe teasing some policy that will be coming in the New Year as well.”Billionaire Trump, the oldest elected president in US history, has boasted of a new “golden age” in America.He recently rated the economy as “A++++” and rages against what he called an “affordability hoax” by rival Democrats.- ‘Make America affordable again’ -But US voters are increasingly angry about high prices of everything from gas to and groceries, which experts say are partly fueled by the tariffs he has slapped on trading partners. According to a poll by the University of Chicago for The Associated Press, published last week, only 31 percent of Americans are satisfied with Trump’s economic policy.He also faces criticism from within his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement for focusing on peace deals in Ukraine and Gaza and on tensions with Venezuela instead of domestic issues.Now there are signs that his team have started to realize the issue could hurt Republicans in next year’s midterm elections for the control of Congress.Republicans lost heavily in elections in November for the mayor of New York and governorships in Virginia and New Jersey, while running them close in a previously safe area Tennessee.The president is ramping up his domestic travel to push his economic message.Last week in Pennsylvania he promised to “make America affordable again,” and on Friday he is due to give another campaign-style rally in North Carolina on Friday.Vice President JD Vance — who is rapidly becoming Trump’s messenger on the issue as he eyes his own presidential run in 2028 — urged voters to show patience during a speech on Tuesday.”They know Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Vance said in the key, blue-collar swing state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday. “They know what Joe Biden broke is not going to get fixed in a week.”Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles said in a Vanity Fair article published Tuesday that his program would feature “more talks about the domestic economy and less about Saudi Arabia.”

Donald Trump said Tuesday he stood by his chief of staff Susie Wiles after she said the US president had an “alcoholic’s personality” in an astonishing interview with Vanity Fair.Wiles also called Vice President JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist,” branded tech tycoon Elon Musk an “odd, odd duck,” and gave juicy opinions on other Trump administration figures in the lengthy piece.Trump has previously described Wiles, the first female White House chief of staff, as the “ice maiden” and credited her for her role in driving forward his second presidency behind the scenes.But the 68-year-old Wiles now finds herself firmly in the headlines after the Vanity Fair story, which the magazine said was based on a series of interviews with veteran political journalist Chris Whipple over the past year.Wiles dismissed the article as a “disingenuously framed hit piece,” accusing the magazine of trying to “paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative” about Trump’s team.”Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story,” she wrote.Trump himself told the New York Post that Wiles was right to describe him as having an alcoholic’s personality — even though he is teetotal.”You see, I don’t drink alcohol. So everybody knows that — but I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic. I have said that many times about myself, I do. It’s a very possessive personality,” Trump said.He added that Wiles had “done a fantastic job.”Vanity Fair quoted Wiles — whose own father, the NFL announcer Pat Summerall was an alcoholic — as saying that Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality,” and “operates (with) a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”In the wide-ranging series of interviews, Wiles said she was “not an enabler” to Trump, who has unleashed an unprecedented display of presidential power since his return to power in January, adding “I’m also not a bitch.”- ‘Conspiracy theorist’ -But she was forthright about Space X and Tesla boss Elon Musk’s role as head of the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency in the first months of Trump’s term.Describing billionaire Musk as a “complete solo actor” and “avowed” ketamine user, she criticized DOGE’s shutdown of the USAID international aid department. “No rational person could think the USAID process was a good one,” Vanity Fair quoted her as saying.Wiles hailed what she called a “core team” of Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller but said Vance had been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade” regarding the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.Trump’s chief of staff had barbed comments for Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying Bondi “completely whiffed” on the promised release to right-wing influencers of documents about convicted sex offender Epstein.She called Russ Vought, the hardline chief of the White House Office of Management and Budget, a “right-wing absolute zealot,” Vanity Fair said.The magazine said Wiles gave revealing insights into Trump’s policies on key domestic and foreign policy issues too.She said she had a “loose agreement” with Trump to end the “score settling” against his political enemies after 90 days, even as he has continued to target his foes with calls for their prosecution.On Ukraine, Wiles said that Trump believes Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants the whole country,” despite Washington’s push for a peace deal.Top Trump cabinet members lined up to defend Wiles and lash out at the Vanity Fair piece.Vance said in a speech in Pennsylvania that he and Wiles had “joked in private and in public” about him believing conspiracy theories.”We have our disagreements, we agree on much more than we disagree, but I’ve never seen her be disloyal to the president of the United States,” Vance said in a speech in Pennsylvania.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X that there was “absolutely nobody better!”White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing that Wiles was “incredible” and accused Vanity Fair of the “bias of omission.”

Netflix will continue to distribute Warner Bros. films in cinemas if its takeover bid for the storied studio is successful, the streaming service’s chief executive Ted Sarandos said in an interview Tuesday in Paris.”We’re going to continue to operate Warner Bros. studios independently and release the movies traditionally in cinema,” he said during an event in the French capital, while admitting his past comments on theatrical distribution “now confuse people”.Previously, Sarandos had suggested that the cinema experience was outdated, surpassed by the convenience of streaming. The Netflix boss was being interviewed by Maxime Saada, head of France’s Canal+ media group, in a Paris theatre that was presenting Canal+’s projects for 2026.Netflix only began to produce its own programmes a dozen years ago, Sarandos explained, so “our library only extends back a decade, where Warner Bros. extends back 100 years. So they know a lot about things that we haven’t ever done, like theatrical distribution.”In early December, Netflix announced that it had reached an agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to acquire most of the group for $83 billion. However, doubts remain about whether the deal will be approved by regulators, and in the meantime television and film group Paramount Skydance has made a counter-offer valued at $108.4 billion.If Netflix’s bid is successful, it would acquire HBO Max, one of the world’s largest media platforms, and it would find itself at the head of a movie catalogue including the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings sagas, as well as the superheroes of DC Studios.

Stock markets mostly fell Tuesday as the US jobless rate hit its highest level since 2021, while oil prices slumped on renewed hopes for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.The US Labor Department reported that unemployment climbed to 4.6 percent in November, its highest level in four years.The report, delayed by a lengthy government shutdown, also indicated that the US economy lost 105,000 jobs in October.Hiring picked up again in November to 64,000, but this was still a slower pace than before.”Today’s US data releases were overall weaker than expected, although not as bad as some had feared either,” said Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada.He noted that market expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut in March increased to 60 percent after the jobs report, up from around 50 percent.While poor data boosting the chance of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve can often prop up stocks, Wall Street’s main indices pushed lower on signs of a weaker economy.Separate data showed US retail sales held stable in October, while analysts had been looking for a small gain, and September’s rise was revised down to 0.1 percent.But eToro analyst Bret Kenwell pointed out that part of the report that is used for calculating gross domestic product hit its highest level since the summer.”Today’s update underscores two themes that have been in place: A resilient consumer and a cooling labor market,” he said.Meanwhile, the Brent international oil benchmark dropped below $60 per barrel for the first time since May, while the main US crude contract, the WTI, briefly fell below $55 per barrel for the first time since 2021.A deal to end the war in Ukraine could ease sanctions on Russian oil, adding to oversupply concerns already weighing on the market.US President Donald Trump said Monday that a deal to end the war was closer than ever, after Washington said it offered Kyiv NATO-like security guarantees and voiced confidence Moscow would accept.Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, also pointed out that prices on Middle Eastern oil for immediate trade are lower than those for futures contracts. “When this happens, expectations are that future prices will fall back towards spot price levels, which can aggravate price declines,” she said.European defense stocks slid Tuesday following the update on the talks, analysts said. “A peace deal between Russia and Ukraine looks to be back on the agenda but there have already been multiple false dawns this year,” noted Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.Weak UK jobs data strengthened expectations that the Bank of England will trim borrowing costs on Thursday. The European Central Bank is set to hold interest rates steady this week.The yen held gains against the dollar ahead of an expected rate hike by the Bank of Japan on Friday.Among individual companies, Pfizer fell 3.4 percent after it projected a dip in full-year adjusted profits per share on roughly flat revenues. The big drugmaker is ramping up investments in new products to offset declines in Covid-19 revenues.- Key figures at around 2115 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.6 percent at 48,114.26 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.2 percent at 6,800.26 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite:  UP 0.2 percent at 23.111.46 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.7 percent at 9,684.79 (close) Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.2 percent at 8,106.16 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.6 percent at 24,076.87 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.6 percent at 49,383.29 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.5 percent at 25,235.41 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 1.1 percent at 3,824.81 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1747 from $1.1753 on MondayDollar/yen: DOWN at 154.80 yen from 155.23Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3422 from $1.3376Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.52 pence from 87.86Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 2.7 percent at $58.92 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.7 percent at $55.27 per barrelburs-jmb/des

The second of two doctors who supplied “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine in the months before he fatally overdosed was sentenced to home confinement by a California court on Tuesday.Mark Chavez, 55, had admitted one count of conspiracy to supply the drug, which the actor was buying for up to $2,000 a vial in the weeks before his 2023 death in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home.Chavez, who ran a ketamine infusion clinic near San Diego, was ordered to be confined at home for eight months. He must also perform 300 hours of community service.The disgraced medic wrote a fraudulent prescription to obtain ketamine — an anesthetic that is also used in depression therapy, but can be misused as a party drug — that he then supplied to fellow doctor Salvador Plasencia.Plasencia, who mused in text messages to Chavez “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” was jailed this month for two-and-a-half years.Both men have surrendered their medical licenses.Three other people who have also admitted their part in supplying drugs to the actor will be sentenced over the coming months.They include Jasveen Sangha, the alleged “Ketamine Queen” who supplied drugs to high-end clients and celebrities, who could be jailed for up to 65 years.Perry’s live-in personal assistant and another man pleaded guilty in August to charges of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.- Addiction struggles -The actor’s lengthy struggles with substance addiction were well-documented, but his death at age 54 sent shockwaves through the global legions of “Friends” fans.A criminal investigation was launched soon after an autopsy discovered he had high levels of ketamine in his system.Perry had been taking ketamine as part of supervised therapy for depression.But prosecutors say that before his death he became addicted to the substance, which also has psychedelic properties and is a popular party drug.First airing between 1994 and 2004, the comedy “Friends” followed the lives of six New Yorkers navigating adulthood, dating and careers.It drew a massive following and made megastars of previously unknown actors.Perry’s role as the sarcastic man-child Chandler brought him fabulous wealth, but hid a dark struggle with addiction to painkillers and alcohol.In 2018, he suffered a drug-related burst colon and underwent multiple surgeries.In his 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” Perry described going through detox dozens of times.”I have mostly been sober since 2001,” he wrote, “save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps.”

Pfizer signaled Tuesday it expects a challenging 2026 as it invests in new products to offset declines in Covid-19 revenues while limiting shareholder payouts.Shares of the big drugmaker fell sharply after it projected a dip in full-year adjusted profits per share on roughly flat revenues.Pfizer expects 2026 revenues of between $59.5 billion and $62.5 billion, compared with $62 billion in 2025.The pharma giant last month completed an acquisition of biotech firm Metsera, deepening its portfolio of products in the fast-growing market for weight loss drugs. Pfizer has also identified oncology as a major growth area, while Chief Executive Albert Bourla insisted the company would continue to invest in vaccines in the face of recent controversial policies under the vaccine-skeptic Trump administration.The drugmaker expects a drop of $1.5 billion in 2026 revenues tied to lower Covid-19 sales and the decline of another $1.5 billion from products experiencing a loss of exclusivity.Pfizer has maintained a dividend but not undertaken share repurchases in 2025. Executives said they would continue to steer cash into development programs rather than stock repurchases.”Obviously I would love to do share repurchases,” Chief Financial Officer David Denton said on a conference call. “The reality is at this point in time, I think the best and highest use of capital is continued investment in business development.”Briefing.com said the results underscored Pfizer’s “painful transition” out of the Covid-19 era. The tepid outlook “indicates that earnings will likely remain stagnant or decline slightly as the company digests the Metsera deal and ramps up R&D,” Briefing.com said in its note. On vaccines, Bourla characterized recent policy shifts under US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy as misguided.”Vaccines are an essential part of any health care system,”  Bourla said. “We will continue investing in vaccines because … this is an anomaly that will correct itself. I hope pretty soon.”Under Kennedy, an appointee of Donald Trump, the Centers for Disease Control recently revised its website with language that undermines its previous, scientifically grounded position that immunizations do not cause autism.Bourla has also touted a deal announced in September with the Trump administration in which the company promised to lower some drug prices in exchange for a three-year reprieve on planned tariffs.Shares of Pfizer fell 3.8 percent in afternoon trading.