The Republican-led House seeks to pass the bill for Donald Trump’s agenda before the end of the week. The Pentagon pauses a shipment of weapons to Ukraine. And jurors reach a verdict in four of the five counts against Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Here’s what to know today.
House Speaker Mike Johnson races to pass Trump’s megabill
House Speaker Mike Johnson is racing against a July 4 deadline to approve the sweeping domestic policy package for President Donald Trump’s agenda after it cleared the Senate. The bill might not have an easy path to passage in the House, where Republicans can only spare three votes and changes made by the Senate could be met with opposition.
The Senate narrowly passed the legislation yesterday in a 51-50 vote. Vice President JD Vance broke the tie after three Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul, Thom Tillis and Susan Collins — joined all Democrats in opposing the legislation. In the marathon overnight session that spanned more than 24 hours, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and his team made several eleventh-hour changes to appease holdouts like Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who had expressed concerns about the bill’s cuts to social safety net programs.
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The Senate-approved bill includes an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, provisions to temporarily eliminate taxes on tips and overtime pay, and new funding for the military and Trump’s immigration and mass deportation plans. It would also raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion.
Also notable: Republicans used a trick known as “current policy baseline” to obscure the cost of extending the tax cuts, essentially lowering the sticker price of the bill by $3.8 trillion, and setting a lasting precedent in weakening the Senate’s usual 60-vote threshold.
A hurdle to passage in the House could come from the far-right Freedom Caucus, which fought for a $40,000 state and local tax, or SALT, deduction cap. The Senate’s bill keeps the $40,000 cap, but the deduction would be cut back to a $10,000 cap after five years.
Meanwhile, several House members were scrambling to get to Washington, D.C., to vote on the bill after storms caused flight delays across the country.
Read the full story here, and follow our live blog for the latest updates.
More politics news:
- Paramount has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump that had alleged an interview that aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” last year with Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent for the presidency, was deceptively edited.
- Trump attended the opening of a new immigration detention center in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” He had some nice things to say about Gov. Ron DeSantis and rated their relationship a 10 — or “maybe a 9.9.”
- Zohran Mamdani has officially won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary with 56% of the vote. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who conceded on election night but will still be on the November ballot as an independent, received 44% of the vote.
- What is it like working in Trump’s West Wing? More than a dozen past and current administration officials described a freewheeling atmosphere that mirrors the president.
- Trump and Elon Musk are fighting — again. Now, Musk’s business interests and the billions in government contracts they enjoy are in the crosshairs.
Trump says Israel has agreed to ceasefire conditions
Israel and Hamas have yet to comment after President Donald Trump said on social media that Israel had “agreed to the necessary conditions” to finalize a ceasefire deal to end the yearslong war in Gaza. In a Truth Social post yesterday, Trump said the 60-day ceasefire would allow for time to “work with all parties to end the War.” He urged Hamas to take the deal and warned, “it will only get worse.”
The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Hamas has yet to weigh in. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit the White House next week. Read the full story here.
Pentagon halts weapons shipment to Ukraine
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a pause in sending a shipment of missiles and ammunition to Ukraine over concerns about the U.S. military’s stockpiles, according to two defense officials, two congressional officials and two sources with knowledge of the decision. The pause comes weeks after Hegseth ordered a review of the U.S. stockpile of munitions. The supply has been depleted in recent years as the U.S. sent assistance to Ukraine in its war against Russia and to the Middle East as the U.S. fought Houthi rebels in Yemen and defended Israel and allies against Iran, four officials said.
Among the thousands of weapons being delayed are dozens of Patriot interceptors. President Donald Trump said last week after a NATO conference that the U.S. is trying to find such missiles to send to Ukraine. If the munitions are found to be in short supply or needed in other parts of the world, they could be held back even after the Hegseth-ordered assessment is complete. Read the full story here.
Jurors deliberate on final count in Sean Combs’ trial
Jurors in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal trial are set to continue deliberations today behind closed doors on the racketeering conspiracy charge against the music mogul. Yesterday, the jury announced it made up its mind on four of the prosecution’s five counts against Combs — two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution — but said it could not reach a unanimous decision on the racketeering conspiracy charge. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian instructed the jurors to keep talking.
The racketeering conspiracy charge was always going to be tough for the jury to come to a decision on, NBC News legal analyst Danny Cevallos wrote in an analysis, because it’s a tough charge for even attorneys to understand. Read more about Tuesday’s developments, and follow our live blog on NBCNews.com for key updates today.
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The Dalai Lama says he plans to reincarnate, signals China should stay out of succession process
The Tibetan Buddhist institution led by the Dalai Lama will live on after he dies, with the spiritual leader putting an end to speculation that he would be the last person to hold the role.
The exiled religious figurehead, who is 89 and has spent almost 70 years living in exile in India, said that no one outside his organization has authority “to interfere in this matter” amid growing worry about Chinese government intervention in the selection process.
The Chinese government responded to the comments swiftly, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson saying that any succession planning must comply with laws and regulations. In March, the Dalai Lama said in a new book that his successor would be born in the “free world” outside China. Read the full story here.
Read All About It
- Bryan Kohberger will appear at a hearing today about his apparent plea deal in the murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022. Here’s what we know about the proposed deal.
- A warehouse storing fireworks in California caught fire and exploded, causing pyrotechnics to detonate above the site and sparking a wildfire.
- Jimmy Swaggart, one of the first televangelists to take his ministry to a massive TV audience before being embroiled in a damaging sex scandal, has died at the age of 90.
- Lululemon is suing Costco, accusing the big box store of selling dupes of its apparel and claiming to suffer “significant harm” to its reputation.
- Over 143,000 pounds of bologna from a New Jersey-based company is being recalled for containing “meat or poultry source materials” not declared on the product labels.
Staff Pick: A look into Mexico’s dangerous ‘panic houses’
A 19-year-old who managed to escape a so-called “panic house” in Mexico a year ago said he lived in fear after developing a drug addiction and falling victim to drug trafficking in Guanajuato, in central Mexico. “Unfortunately, they’ve already killed my best friend and my relatives,” he told our colleagues at Noticias Telemundo. Panic houses are places to purchase and do drugs, but they also serve as recruitment bases for young people to become hitmen and operatives for criminal groups. And with a growing methamphetamine epidemic, one expert said more minors are getting roped into the deadly lifestyle. — Elizabeth Robinson, newsletter editor
NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
Talking Shop is an NBC Select series where we talk to interesting people about their most interesting buys. We recently spoke to Peach & Lily founder Alicia Yoon about her favorite sunscreen, daily conditioner, hair mousse and much more. Plus, we found over 29 nifty problem-solving kitchen gadgets on Amazon that every home chef could use.
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