By Kaanita Iyer, Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

(CNN) — The Department of Homeland Security announced its intention to pause a visa program intended to admit certain individuals to the United States, though it’s unclear whether it’s been suspended entirely.

The move comes after the suspect in the Brown University shooting was identified as a green-card holder who immigrated to the country through the program. It’s the latest attempt by the administration to broadly tighten the US immigration system following domestic incidents.

“At President (Donald) Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X late Thursday. DHS oversees the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Claudio Neves Valente, the suspect in Saturday’s shooting at Brown University who is also accused of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor on Monday, was found dead Thursday night.

Valente was identified as a 48-year-old former Brown University student and Portuguese national. Noem said Thursday that he came to the United States in 2017 on a DV1 visa and received a green card.

The State Department runs the diversity visa program, which is designed for individuals in countries that are determined by a formula to have a low enough level of immigration to the US. Those who arrive to the US under the program are also issued green cards. The issuance of those green cards is handled by DHS.

The bulk of the program falls under the State Department, which would presumably be charged with pausing the program. It’s unclear what direction Noem could provide, aside from pausing the issuance of green cards for those in the program.

“The horrific incidents this week demonstrate the threat the diversity visa program poses to American security and safety, which President Trump has long worked to fix. The Department of State is working closely with Department of Homeland Security to put in place all necessary measures to protect America from this threat,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

CNN also reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for additional details.

Trump has long sought to end the program

The diversity visa program has long been a target of President Donald Trump’s ire — he took aim at it during his first term after an Uzbek national who was a recipient of the program was suspected of killing eight people in a terrorist attack in New York City.

At the time, Trump backed a Republican-led effort to eliminate the diversity visa program and certain categories of family-based green cards, and then transform the remaining employment-based visas into a point system that favors heavily highly skilled, highly educated, English-speaking immigrants.

The diversity visa program offers green cards for people “from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States,” according to the State Department website.

The US admits up to 55,000 immigra

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By Nadeen Ebrahim, Eugenia Yosef, CNN

(CNN) — There is no longer famine in Gaza, a United Nations-backed hunger monitor announced on Friday, after an influx of humanitarian aid into the strip following a ceasefire agreed in October between Israel and Hamas.

“Following a significant reduction in conflict, a proposed peace plan, and improved access for both humanitarian and commercial food deliveries, food security conditions have improved in the Gaza Strip,” the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said. “No areas are classified in Famine,” it added.

The global watchdog had said in August that parts of Gaza are officially experiencing a “man-made” famine.

The organization noted, however, that despite these improvements, most of Gaza’s population faced high levels of acute food insecurity.

“Although humanitarian assistance, including food aid, has increased, only basic survival needs are being met,” the IPC said.

Still a risk of famine

While Gaza’s classification has changed, the IPC warned that the risk of the enclave falling back into famine remains.

“Under a worst-case scenario involving renewed hostilities and a halt in humanitarian and commercial inflows, North Gaza, Gaza Governorate, Deir al-Balah, and Khan Younis would face a risk of Famine through mid-April 2026,” it said.

Israel in August heavily disputed that there was famine in Gaza, saying it was doing all it could to allow aid into the strip.

In response to Friday’s IPC report, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said: “In the face of the facts, even the IPC is forced to admit. There is no famine in Gaza,” adding that there are “hundreds” of aid trucks entering the strip every day.

The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli agency tasked with facilitating aid distribution in Gaza, said that between 600-800 aid trucks enter the Gaza Strip every day, approximately 70% of which carry food.

Hamas has previously disputed figures from COGAT, saying that not enough aid is making it into the enclave.

CNN, along with other media outlets, has widely reported on hunger and starvation in Gaza. Before the ceasefire, during its two years of war, Israel has at times restricted or cut off the entry of aid to the ravaged enclave.

While some people have died of starvation and hunger, others have been killed trying to receive aid at distribution sites.

August was the first time the IPC had confirmed famine in the Middle East. Under the IPC system – a five-phase scale used to measure the severity of food insecurity – a famine can only be declared if data shows certain thresholds are met.

Those conditions are: at least 20% of all households must face an extreme food shortage, 30% or more of children must be acutely malnourished or 15% of children suffering from acute malnutrition based on body measurements, and at least two in every 10,000 people die every day because of outright starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.

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