Mazzaltov World News provides you with the latest live coverage of Current Affairs, Sports, Health, Weather, Entertainment, Business and Travel News from around the world.
Here’s where things stand on Tuesday 1 July 2025:
- The United States Senate has started debating US President Donald Trump’s megabill on tax breaks and sweeping cuts to healthcare and food programmes.
- The 940-page proposal has been met with strong criticism from the Democratic Party as well as some members of Trump’s Republican Party.
- Senators narrowly approved the motion to start the debate, with two Republicans siding with 47 Democrats in voting against it and prompting criticism from the president.
- The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said the bill would increase the deficit by an estimated $3.3 trillion over a decade, while 11.8 million more people in the US would become uninsured by 2034 if it became law.
Some Trump allies revert to Islamophobia to attack NYC’s Zohran Mamdani
Over the past year, Islamophobia within the Republican Party appeared to be receding as Trump courted and praised Muslim voters.
But now several of the president’s close allies are using Islamophobic tropes and bigoted language to attack New York City’s presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor.
Read our report here on how Mamdani’s victory is sparking an Islamophobic backlash in the US.
Opposing tax bills, Democrats focus on healthcare cuts
On the Senate floor, Democrats are taking turns sounding the alarm about the cuts that the bill proposes to the Medicaid programme, which critics say could throw millions of people off their health care.
- Jeanne Shaheen: “President Trump calls this the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, but it is a big betrayal of the American people. There’s nothing beautiful about taking away health care and food from working families to give more money to billionaires.”
- Dick Durbin: “This bill is designed to take health insurance away from 11 million families in America; 11 million families in America in a period of time will not have peace of mind that they have access to the best care because they lost their health insurance.”
- Tammy Baldwin: “Cutting Medicaid may save money on a spreadsheet. But it will cost lives in real communities and put the expensive burden of care back on our communities.”
Trump formally orders revoking Syria sanctions
The US president has signed an executive order dismantling a sanctions programme put in place over decades to penalise the Syrian government.
Trump promised to remove the sanctions during a visit to the Middle East in May, months after armed opposition groups overthrew the government of former President Bashar al-Assad.
“The United States is committed to supporting a Syria that is stable, unified, and at peace with itself and its neighbours,” Trump said in a statement.
“A united Syria that does not offer a safe haven for terrorist organizations and ensures the security of its religious and ethnic minorities will support regional security and prosperity.”
Republican tax bill opponent invokes Elon Musk’s criticism
Senator Thom Tillis, one of two Republicans who voted against advancing the bill, cites the billionaire investor’s criticism of the measure.
Musk, a former Trump aide, had called the bill’s cuts to solar energy a “strategic error” that would boost China’s push to excel in renewable energy.
Tillis embraced Musk’s criticism. “We should take his warnings seriously. We can’t let Communist China become the long-term winner,” he wrote in a social media post.
Senate GOP tax bill could crush wind and solar power, advocates say
The Republican-led bill being considered in Senate today is more aggressive in ending incentives for clean energy than a previous version and would even impose new taxes on some wind and solar projects while boosting production of coal used in steelmaking.
The GOP plan is “a death sentence for America’s wind and solar industries” that will lead to a spike in Americans’ utility bills and jeopardize hundreds of renewable energy projects slated to boost the nation’s electric grid, said Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.
Republicans say the tax-cut bill represents historic savings for taxpayers and supports production of traditional fossil-fuel energy sources such as oil, natural gas and coal, as well as nuclear power, increasing reliability.
Some moderates, such as Republican Senator John Curtis were seeking to strip the new tax on wind and solar and make other other changes, but it was unclear whether those proposals would advance.
Environmental advocates say that if approved unchanged, the measure will kill investment in renewable energy and jeopardize hundreds of gigawatts of new power supply that would otherwise help the US meet rapidly rising electricity demand as data centers, artificial intelligence and other growing uses strain the power grid.
Trump signs memo toughening US policy toward Cuba, White House official says
Trump has signed a presidential memorandum strengthening US policy toward Cuba and reversing the policy put in place by then-President Joe Biden, a White House official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the directive will enforce a statutory ban on US tourism to Cuba and supports the economic embargo of Cuba.
Senate GOP tax bill could crush wind and solar power, advocates say
The Republican-led bill being considered in Senate today is more aggressive in ending incentives for clean energy than a previous version and would even impose new taxes on some wind and solar projects while boosting production of coal used in steelmaking.
The GOP plan is “a death sentence for America’s wind and solar industries” that will lead to a spike in Americans’ utility bills and jeopardize hundreds of renewable energy projects slated to boost the nation’s electric grid, said Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.
Republicans say the tax-cut bill represents historic savings for taxpayers and supports production of traditional fossil-fuel energy sources such as oil, natural gas and coal, as well as nuclear power, increasing reliability.
Some moderates, such as Republican Senator John Curtis were seeking to strip the new tax on wind and solar and make other other changes, but it was unclear whether those proposals would advance.
Environmental advocates say that if approved unchanged, the measure will kill investment in renewable energy and jeopardize hundreds of gigawatts of new power supply that would otherwise help the US meet rapidly rising electricity demand as data centers, artificial intelligence and other growing uses strain the power grid.
Trump to host Netanyahu in July: Reports
The Reuters news agency and Axios cite US officials as saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Trump at the White House on July 7.
It will be Netanyahu’s third visit to Washington, DC, during Trump’s second term and his first after the 12-day war between Israel and Iran.
Former presidents say Trump’s decision to gut international aid ‘colossal mistake’
George Bush and Barack Obama have slammed the Trump administration’s decision to gut the international assistance agency USAID and slash funding for global health programmes.
In a rare instance of joint remarks by two former presidents, the pair appeared in a video recorded for USAID staffers, according to the Associated Press.
Obama called the cuts “inexplicable” and “a colossal mistake”, while Bush lamented the loss of life that could stem from decreased funds for PEPFAR, an HIV/AIDS prevention programme that some estimates credit with saving 25 million lives.
“Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live?” said Bush. “I think it is.”
Migrants turned away at US border seek opportunities elsewhere
As Trump has led a crackdown on immigration and implemented measures meant to discourage people from attempting to enter the US, groups of immigrants who had made the arduous journey north have found themselves wondering what do next.
Spots across Central and South America that previously served as jumping-off points for migrants heading to the US are now seeing some head back in the opposite direction, hoping to build a new life for themselves elsewhere.
Read our story on the waves of reverse-migration here.
Trump blames AT&T for technical issues during call with faith leaders
The US president says he experienced technical issues during a conference call with a group of religious figures, calling on the head of telecom company AT&T to fix the problem.
“I’m doing a major Conference Call with Faith Leaders from all over the Country, and AT&T is totally unable to make their equipment work properly,” Trump wrote on social media post.
“This is the second time it’s happened. If the Boss of AT&T, whoever that may be, could get involved – It would be good. There are tens of thousands of people on the line!”
AT&T said in a social media post that it was working to “address the situation”.
Democrats demand answers on push to deport Georgetown scholar
Nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers have penned a letter to the Trump administration calling for information about the case of Georgetown University scholar Badar Khan Suri, who is facing deportation over his support for Palestinian rights.
Khan Suri was detained in March and released from the custody of immigration authorities last month, but he is still facing removal proceedings.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been targeting student activists with a rarely used provision of an immigration law to assert his authority to deport people he deems to be “adversarial” to US foreign policy.
Today, 22 House Democrats – led by Congressman Don Beyer who represents the district where Khan Suri lives – called on the administration to provide Rubio’s full memo to deport the Georgetown scholar as well as any supporting documents and other files related to the case.
“The government has not disclosed information to support that the detention of Mr. Suri was justified. It has not demonstrated that Mr Suri – a husband to a US citizen, a father of three young children, and with no criminal history – needed to be detained,” the legislators wrote.
“An ICE officer involved in his booking stated that they knew he was not a criminal and did not do anything wrong.”
France’s Macron calls tariffs imposed by powerful countries a form of ‘blackmail’
French President Emmanuel Macron says tariffs levied by powerful countries are often a form of “blackmail” rather than instruments to rebalance trade.
He made the comments during a speech at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain, as the EU was negotiating a trade deal with the US ahead of a July 9 deadline although Macron did not specifically refer to the US or Trump.
“We need to restore freedom and equity to international trade, much more than barriers and tariffs, which are devised by the strongest and which are often used as instruments of blackmail, not at all as instruments of rebalancing,” Macron said.
He also urged support – and a rethinking – of the World Trade Organization to bring it in line with goals to fight inequality and climate change.
“Bringing back a trade war and tariffs at this moment in the life of the planet is an aberration, especially when I see the tariffs that are being imposed on countries that are just beginning their economic takeoff,” Macron said.
Trump unveiled sweeping global tariffs in April, which he said would range from 10 to 50 percent, although he later mostly lowered them for 90 days.
France’s Macron calls tariffs imposed by powerful countries a form of ‘blackmail’
French President Emmanuel Macron says tariffs levied by powerful countries are often a form of “blackmail” rather than instruments to rebalance trade.
He made the comments during a speech at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain, as the EU was negotiating a trade deal with the US ahead of a July 9 deadline although Macron did not specifically refer to the US or Trump.
“We need to restore freedom and equity to international trade, much more than barriers and tariffs, which are devised by the strongest and which are often used as instruments of blackmail, not at all as instruments of rebalancing,” Macron said.
He also urged support – and a rethinking – of the World Trade Organization to bring it in line with goals to fight inequality and climate change.
“Bringing back a trade war and tariffs at this moment in the life of the planet is an aberration, especially when I see the tariffs that are being imposed on countries that are just beginning their economic takeoff,” Macron said.
Trump unveiled sweeping global tariffs in April, which he said would range from 10 to 50 percent, although he later mostly lowered them for 90 days.
Justice Department sues Los Angeles over immigration policies
The Trump administration says it has sued Los Angeles over its sanctuary city policies, which limit municipal cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
The announcement comes weeks after the Trump administration sent the National Guard and US Marines to the West Coast city over the objections of state and local officials during protests against a series of aggressive immigration raids.
“Not only are Los Angeles’s ‘sanctuary city’ policies illegal under federal law, but, as alleged in the complaint, Los Angeles’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities contributed to the recent lawlessness, rioting, looting, and vandalism that was so severe that it required the federal government to deploy the California National Guard and the United States Marines to quell the chaos,” the department said in a statement.
Contrary to statements from the administration, National Guard and Marine soldiers played nearly no role in crowd control operations during the protests, some of which turned violent and included acts of vandalism but most of which were peaceful.
White House compares Netanyahu’s legal woes to those faced by Trump
The Trump administration has drawn a parallel between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, currently on trial for corruption charges in Israel, and the US president, who has himself faced numerous legal challenges, some stemming from alleged acts while in office.
Trump and Netanyahu have both depicted their legal woes as smear campaigns driven forward by political opponents, and Trump has said in a series of recent social media posts that the trial should come to an end.
“The president was simply emphasising the empathy that he has for Bibi Netanyahu, seeing him go through what he’s going through with his own judicial system in the state of Israel. Clearly, the president knows that very well. He too was the victim of a judicial system that was trying to put him in jail,” Leavitt told reporters, adding that Trump believes Netanyahu is a “great” leader.
You can find the most recent developments regarding Israel’s war on Gaza and events across the Middle East on our Gaza live blog.
Which cases will the US Supreme Court be taking on next?
The highest United States court has announced a number of new cases that it will consider in the coming term, touching on issues from campaign finance to energy regulations. The next term begins in October.
Here’s a quick rundown of which cases will make their way before the Supreme Court:
- A Republican-led challenge to federal campaign finance laws that place limits on how much money political parties can spend in coordination with candidates running for office.
- A request by the energy company Enbridge to move a lawsuit filed by the Michigan attorney general out of state court and into federal court in an environmental case, which concerns the operation of a pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac that links two of the Great Lakes.
- A dispute involving questions over copyright law between Cox Communications and a group of music labels, over alleged music piracy by Cox customers.
Cases turned down by the court on Monday include a free speech case brought by a Massachusetts public school teacher who says she was fired for previous posts on her social media, as well as a request by American Airlines over a planned partnership with JetBlue Airways that a lower court said violated antitrust laws.
White House says tax bill strengthens Medicaid, despite analysis to the contrary
The Trump administration has stated that the tax bill making its way through the US Congress will not decrease access to federal health insurance programmes such as Medicaid. A recent nonpartisan analysis found that the bill would increase the number of people without health insurance by nearly 12 million people by 2034, and cut Medicaid by more than $900bn over the same period.
“This bill strengthens Medicaid, it will protect those benefits that hard-working Americans need, and that’s why the president wants this bill to pass,” said Leavitt.
Trump will sign executive order to terminate Syria sanctions, White House says
US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order terminating US sanctions on Syria, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
The move follows through on Trump’s decision in May to unwind the measures to help Syria rebuild after a devastating civil war.
White House says Harvard violated civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students
“The Department of Health and Human Services concluded after a thorough investigation that Harvard University is in a violent violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, colour and national origin,” Leavitt says.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Harvard “called for genocide and murder and denied Jewish and Israeli students access to campus spaces”, she added.
The Trump administration has frequently equated statements of support for Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism, even seeking to deport one foreign graduate student for signing a letter calling for an end to US support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
White House: Trump is meeting with trade team this week to set country tariff rates
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tells reporters that Trump has planned meetings with his trade team this week to set tariff rates for individual countries if they do not negotiate with the US.
Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ but controversial bill faces crucial vote
Republicans are trying to get Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill passed by the US Senate despite opposition from Democrats, who say it will be the most expensive bill in history and will benefit the wealthy.
Republican lawmaker says he will not seek re-election amid charged political climate
US Representative Don Bacon, a Republican lawmaker from the state of Nebraska who has struggled to balance the priorities of Trump and his party’s move further to the right with his reputation as a moderate, has announced he plans to retire.
“It is disconcerting to get attacked from the right,” Bacon said, noting that his district in Nebraska is home to a large number of progressive voters and requires a moderate approach.
Bacon has been one of the party’s few frequent critics of Trump, and he faced down a primary challenge in 2024 backed by the Nebraska Republican Party. He said he believes he could win a sixth term in office in 2026 but wants to spend more time with his family.
US revokes visa of British band over chants against Israeli military
The US State Department says that it has revoked visas for the British punk-rap group Bob Vylan, which led a chant against the Israeli military during a British music festival over the weekend.
During Bob Vylan’s performance at Glastonbury, the band led the crowd in a chant of “death to the IDF” – an acronym for the Israeli military, which been accused of committing large-scale and systematic war crimes in Gaza.
“The State Department has revoked the US visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in a social media post. “Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country”.
You can follow all of the most recent developments on Israel’s war on Gaza on our live page.
If you’re just joining us
Let’s get you up to speed with the latest developments:
- The US Senate is debating a mammoth tax and spending package that is one of the key legislative priorities for President Donald Trump’s administration.
- An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office indicates that the bill will add $3.3 trillion to the national debt and leave 11.8 million more people without health insurance by 2034. Some Republican and Democratic lawmakers are expressing concern about the bill’s fiscal impact.
- A report in The Wall Street Journal states that an investigation launched by the Trump administration into Harvard University found that the elite college violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students, warning that failure to take additional steps sought by the government could result in “loss of all federal financial resources”.
What impact would the bill have on the US immigration system?
As the Trump administration’s push for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants continues to prompt alarm from immigrant rights and civil liberties groups, the Republican tax bill would pour funding into border security and immigration agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
According to an analysis by the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration policy organisation, the bill would inject nearly $150bn into immigration enforcement, with funds going towards areas such as border security, expanding immigrant detention centres, and increasing personnel at agencies such as ICE.
That would be an enormous increase in spending on immigration enforcement, which the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute has pointed out already outpaces all other federal law enforcement spending.
The bill would provide around $80bn for internal immigration enforcement, with a 365 percent increase in ICE’s current yearly detention budget. Additionally, about $67bn would be provided for border enforcement, including nearly $50bn for additional barriers along the border.
The bill would also levy new fees on immigrants. Applying for asylum, previously free, will cost $1,000, with a biannual fee of $550 for work permit applications. Appealing the decision of an immigration judge will also jump from $110 to $900.
Photos: Busy day on the Hill
How does Trump’s federal deficit compare to previous presidents?
The term federal deficit refers to how much more money the government spends than it brings in during a single year. A federal surplus would mean the US would be bringing in more money than it is spending.
The deficit grew sharply during Trump’s first term, especially in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when the government spent heavily while tax revenues dropped due to job losses. That year, the deficit reached nearly 15 percent of the nation’s economic output.
Under former President Bill Clinton, there was a federal surplus – the result of favourable economic conditions, such as the dot-com boom, as well as tax increases that raised revenues.
Polls show low favourability for bill
As Republicans push forward with Trump’s most significant legislative priority, a number of recent polls have found that the One Big Beautiful Bill is widely unpopular with US voters.
A Pew Research Center poll conducted in early June suggested that 49 percent of people in the US oppose the bill and 29 percent are in favour. The poll also found that 47 percent of respondents believed the bill would have a negative impact on them and their families, compared with 24 percent who expected a positive impact.
A June Quinnipiac poll indicated 53 percent of Americans oppose the bill while 27 percent support it.
A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found 64 percent of respondents had an unfavourable view of the bill with Democrats and independents strongly opposed and Republicans in favour.
Trump’s administration finds Harvard violated students’ civil rights: Report
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump informed Harvard University that its investigation found the university violated federal civil rights law over its treatment of Jewish and Israeli students.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” the report quoted a letter sent to Harvard President Alan Garber on Monday and viewed by the WSJ.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
Trump has said he is trying to force change at Harvard – and other top-level universities across the US – because in his view, they have been captured by leftist “woke” thought and become bastions of anti-Semitism.
The administration warned Harvard that failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources, the WSJ reported.
What are Treasury securities?
When the US wants to borrow money, it turns to the Treasury – the finance department of the federal government. To borrow money, the Treasury sells various types of debt securities, such as Treasury bills (T-bills), Treasury notes (T-notes) and Treasury bonds (T-bonds) to investors.
These securities are essentially loans made by investors to the US government, with a promise to repay them with interest. They have long been considered a safe asset because the risk of the US failing to repay its investors has been very low.
Different debt securities mature over varying periods – this is when the debt is repaid to the investor.
- T-bills are short-term and mature within one year
- T-notes are medium-term and mature between two and 10 years
- T-bonds are long-term and mature in 20 to 30 years
Fact-checking Trump’s claims about Medicaid cuts in GOP bill
Trump has previously said the House bill is “not changing Medicaid”, only cutting “waste, fraud and abuse”.
The legislation includes provisions that could improve the detection of beneficiaries who aren’t eligible for coverage.
But other provisions would change Medicaid to align with Trump’s ideology and Republican priorities. The bill would incentivise states to stop using their own funds to cover undocumented people in the US; it requires people to work or do other approved activities to secure benefits; and it bans Medicaid payments to nonprofits such as Planned Parenthood, which provide abortions among other services.
Other changes aim to cut expenses, including the imposition of copays and a shorter window for retroactive coverage. Those provisions don’t specify how they’d cut waste, fraud or abuse.
We rate the statement false.
What is US debt?
As we’ve reported, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates Trump’s sweeping tax cut and spending measure will increase the US debt by $3.3 trillion over the next 10 years.
But what exactly is national debt?
In simple terms, it is the total amount of money the US government owes to its lenders, currently amounting to $36.2 trillion.
This represents 122 percent of the country’s annual economic output, or gross domestic product (GDP), and it is growing by about $1 trillion every three months.
The highest US debt-to-GDP ratio was during the pandemic in 2020 when it rose to 133 percent.
The US is among the top 10 countries in the world with the highest debt-to-GDP ratios.
Bessent says tax bill coming together, is ‘a start’ on controlling debt
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says he is confident the Republican tax and spending policy bill will progress in the coming hours.
Speaking to Bloomberg Television, he called the legislation “a start” towards controlling the US debt because it will boost growth.
Bessent said he also believes interest rates could be lowered because inflation is “very tame”.
Increase in deficit, loss of health insurance access for millions remain concerns with bill
No vote scheduled as yet.
The Republicans are keen to get this towards the finish line, but there are also discussions going on behind the scenes to make sure that Republicans who have expressed concern are actually on board.
So what does this bill do? Well, it delivers on a lot of Donald Trump’s election promises. No tax on tips, that’s in there. More money for border security, that’s in there. More money for the military, particularly his “Golden Dome” idea, also in there.
But what some Republicans and all the Democrats are worried about is the impact it will have on other things.
Some Republicans are concerned that, according to the government’s own budget office, this could blow up the deficit by around $3 trillion over the next 10 years. There’s also the fact that around 11 million people will lose some form of their health insurance.
‘Americans will not forget what Republicans do in this chamber today’: Schumer
We have some more lines from the Democratic US Senate leader’s opening remarks.
Chuck Schumer concluded his speech by offering “a warning in good faith” to Senate Republicans.
“You all know that Donald Trump makes things up. He has no regard for the truth,” he said.
Schumer accused Trump of “lying” when saying the bill would not cut Medicaid and would grow the economy.
“When he says this is the best thing Congress could pass for our country, he’s lying,” added Schumer.
“So what are my colleagues on the Republican side going to do? Listen to someone who just makes things up? Listen to someone who peddles lies and fantasies? Follow Donald Trump off a political cliff by passing a bill that would be disastrous for the people back home?
“Or will my colleagues stand up for the American people? Stand up to protect healthcare, good-paying jobs, middle-class families?
“The American people will not forget what Republicans do in this chamber today.”
‘If you want higher taxes, this bill is your nightmare’: Graham
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has told the Senate that “if you’re for open borders, this bill is your worst nightmare … If you want higher taxes … this bill is your nightmare because we’re going to keep tax cuts.”
“If you want to have a weak military, this is a bad bill for you, because we give the military $150bn,” he said.
“We’re starting a process that is long overdue in this town, controlling spending, keeping taxes down, making the military strong, and finally, finally looking at a way to get efficiency in government,” he added.
More from Thune
The Senate majority leader says “it’s time to vote” on the mega-bill, pushing back against Democratic arguments that it would harm working people.
He noted Congress adopted new work requirements for welfare recipients under President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, in the 1990s.
Trump’s bill includes new work requirements for Medicaid and food stamp recipients, among other cuts to those programmes.
“This is good for the American people,” Thune said.
Thune questions full reading of text
Senate Republican leader John Thune has begun his speech by questioning the Democrats’ move to force a full reading of the bill’s text, which took some 16 hours.
“I don’t think there was a big American audience for that,” he said. “In the end of the night, nobody watching.”
Thune defended the bill, saying it will help ordinary US families avoid facing major tax increases and also help them cope with daily challenges.
Referring to Medicaid, the senator also argued that certain programmes have been growing “at an unsustainable rate” that would “wreck” the US economy if no changes are made.
“So yes, there are some improvements and reforms to Medicaid to make it more efficient, to make sure the people who are supposed to benefit from Medicaid do, and that it doesn’t go to people who shouldn’t benefit from Medicaid,” Thune said.
Senate session opens
The US Senate has begun an all-day session of amendment votes before the expected final vote on the bill.
Democrats are expected to offer amendments to strike tax breaks for the wealthy and cuts to the Medicaid programme, among other initiatives.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, said in opening remarks that he will start with an amendment that would block any provisions that increase costs for working families or small businesses “to pay for tax cuts for billionaires”.
“The American people will not forget what Republicans do in this chamber today,” Schumer said.
The session could last into the night
Senate version of bill will add $3.3 trillion to debt: CBO
A new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office has found that 11.8 million more people in the US would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law, an increase over the scoring for the House-passed version of the bill, which predicts 10.9 million more people would be without health coverage.
The nonpartisan body’s assessment on Sunday also said the package would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the decade, figuring that it would add about $800bn more than the version passed last month in the House.
Many Republicans dispute that claim, contending that extending existing policy will not add to the debt.
Senate Republicans, who reject the CBO’s estimates on the cost of the legislation, are set on using an alternative calculation method that does not factor in costs from extending the 2017 tax cuts. Outside tax experts, such as Andrew Lautz from the nonpartisan think tank Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), call it a “magic trick”.
Using this calculation method, the Senate Republicans’ budget bill appears to cost substantially less and seems to save $500bn, according to the BPC analysis.
Lutnick thanks Canada after it scraps digital services tax
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has welcomed Canada’s decision to rescind its digital services tax in a bid to advance trade negotiations with the US.
The Canadian levy on technology firms had been set to go into effect on Monday.
Canada’s move came two days after Trump called off talks in retaliation for the tax. Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement on Sunday that he and the US president had now agreed to resume trade negotiations.
“Thank you Canada for removing your Digital Services Tax which was intended to stifle American innovation and would have been a deal breaker for any trade deal with America,” Lutnick wrote on X.
Musk reignites Trump feud calling bill ‘utterly insane and destructive’
On Saturday, Elon Musk criticised Trump’s bill, calling it “utterly insane and destructive” and stating that it “will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country”.
“It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future,” the tech billionaire who heads Tesla and SpaceX wrote on X, the social media platform he owns.
In early June, Musk, a huge campaign donor to Trump and key aide, called the bill a “disgusting abomination”, leading to a public fallout with the Republican president.
The two had appeared to cool tensions, with Trump telling reporters that he wished Musk well while the latter wrote on X that he had gone “too far”. It came as Musk deleted one of the explosive allegations he had made on X during their fallout, linking the president with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
What’s Trump saying?
The US president has used his Truth Social platform in recent hours to comment about the developments in the Senate
“ONE GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL, is moving along nicely! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump posted late on Sunday.
“The Trump Administration has gotten costs down, very substantially, for the American Consumer. There has never been anything like this!”
In April, official data showed the US economy had contracted by 0.3 percent in the first quarter, the first such drop in three years.
Dollar on track for biggest first-half-year drop since early 1970s
We have a trading update as the dollar has plunged to its lowest in almost four years against the euro, while also sliding against the Japanese yen.
The US currency slumped 0.4 percent to 144.11 yen, while the euro was at $1.1723, not far from its highest since September 2021 it touched last week.
The dollar also languished near a four-year low against pound sterling and a trough of more than a decade versus the Swiss franc.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency against six major counterparts, is on track for its biggest fall in the first six months to a year since the era of free-floating currencies began in the early 1970s.
‘Republicans are about to pass the single most expensive bill in US history’
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, had called for the entire text of the bill to be read on the floor – a process that began before Saturday midnight and ran well into Sunday afternoon.
“Republicans are doing something the Senate has never, never done before, deploying fake math and accounting gimmicks to hide the true cost of the bill,” he said.
“Republicans are about to pass the single most expensive bill in US history, to give tax breaks to billionaires while taking away Medicaid, SNAP benefits and good-paying jobs for millions of people.”
More than 41 million people receive food benefits under SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Separately, Mark Warner, a Democrat senator from Virginia, said the bill would come to haunt Republicans if it gets approved.
“Many of my Republican friends know … they’re walking the plank on this and we’ll see if those who’ve expressed quiet consternation will actually have the courage of their convictions,” Warner told CBS News.
Who are the senators to watch?
There are a few Republicans who do not appear fully satisfied as the final package emerges.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis announced on Sunday that he would not seek re-election after Trump pressured him over his opposition to the package, saying he shares the president’s goals of cutting taxes and reducing spending.
But Tillis said this package is a betrayal of Trump’s promises not to kick people off healthcare, especially if rural hospitals close.
“We could take the time to get this right,” he said.
Tillis voted against the bill on Saturday, as did Rand Paul of Kentucky, who opposed the legislation because it would raise the federal borrowing limit by an additional $5 trillion.
At the same time, some loosely aligned conservative Senate Republicans – Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming – have pushed for steeper cuts.
How many dissenters can the Republicans afford in Congress?
As we’ve reported, two Republican senators have already voted to block the bill.
Overall, Republicans can afford three dissenters in the Senate, where they hold a 53-47 edge over Democrats.
They are also faced with approximately the same number in the House of Representatives, assuming all members are present and voting.
What does the proposed bill include?
It includes about $4 trillion in tax cuts, making permanent the tax rates that Trump lowered in 2017, which would otherwise expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act. It also adds new tax cuts that Trump campaigned on, including no taxes on tips.
The Senate package would roll back billions in green energy tax credits that Democrats warned would wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide, and it would impose $1.2 trillion in budget cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements and making sign-up eligibility more stringent.
Medicaid is the US government programme to provide healthcare to low-income people. It serves about one in five people in the US and is paid for by the federal government and states
Additionally, the bill would provide a $350bn infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of which would be paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.
According to the American Immigration Council, the bill includes as much as “$45 billion for building new immigration detention centres, including family detention facilities”.
Trump’s bill ‘gift to billionaires, not what US people want’: Sanders
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who has run in Democratic presidential primaries, told Congress on Sunday the bill is a “gift to the billionaire class”.
He said it was “an absolute reflection of a corrupt campaign finance system, which allows billionaires to buy elections”.
“And when billionaires spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars trying to elect a president or a senator or a member of Congress,
they’re not making that investment just for the fun of it,” he continued.
“They want something in return, and this legislation, big time, is what they are getting,” he said.
Trump’s mega-bill: Where do things stand now?
Senators are scheduled to begin voting on a potentially long list of amendments to the bill starting at 14:00 GMT – that’s in fewer than three hours.
The Senate formally opened debate on the 940-page bill late on Saturday, after Republican holdouts delayed what should have been a procedural vote.
Senators narrowly passed the motion to begin debate, with two Republicans – Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina – joining the Senate’s 47 Democrats in opposing it.
Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama told CNN she expected the final vote on the bill would happen on Monday.
If passed in the Senate, the bill would go back to the House of Representatives for approval.
Trump wants the bill passed before the July 4 Independence Day holiday, a self-imposed deadline.
Welcome to our live coverage
Hello, and thank you for joining our live coverage of the Trump administration.
Senators could vote as early as today on the president’s signature tax-cutting spending bill, which has divided members of his Republican Party and is fiercely opposed by the Democrats.
Stay with our live team as we bring you all the latest developments, reactions and analyses throughout the day.