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Much has been written in recent days about the war of words between Supreme Court justices Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown-Jackson in the opinions handed down in Trump v. Casa, Inc., the case involving an injunction issued in a case challenging birthright citizenship.

But as I pointed out in a Post on X Friday morning, Barrett’s decision was written on behalf of herself and the five other justices in the majority. The fact that Barrett was assigned this opinion by the chief judge (the chief judge decides who writes the opinion when he votes with the majority) is a signal that the other five justices turned her loose on Jackson. Such an unsparing smackdown of the most junior justice with a vastly different view of the judicial function would have been received much differently had it come from one of the other five justices in the conservative wing of the Court.

But coming from another female justice, one with only two more terms on the Court than Jackson, it was the least harsh way to deliver the rebuke that the majority opinion represented. But the language was anything but gentle, and the point was anything but subtle. 

If Jackson seems out of her element, there’s a reason. There have been many career paths followed by justices who have been appointed to the Supreme Court. But it is quite uncommon for someone to be appointed to the Supreme Court without meaningful experience at the level of an appellate court, as is the case with Jackson.

Justice Elena Kagan charted a very different course to the Supreme Court, largely through academia. However, before joining the court she did serve in various DOJ positions in the Clinton administration, and as the solicitor general of the United States under President Obama. The solicitor general argues cases on behalf of the United States before the Supreme Court.  Kagan also wrote extensively on legal issues during the nine years she served as both a professor and dean at Harvard Law School.

Another outlier was Justice Lewis Powell, who joined the Court in 1972 directly out of a large law firm where he had practiced corporate law for 35 years, never having been a judge in any court at any level. 

Jackson did not join the Court with no experience as a judge as was the case with Justices Kagan and Powell. But the judicial experience she had is not necessarily conducive to the largely cerebral approach of judging that happens on the Supreme Court.

Jackson hashad  a distinguished academic career, having graduated from both Harvard College and Harvard Law School with honors. In the 17 years between Harvard Law School and her first judicial appointment, she had several noteworthy positions in various legal enterprises, including five years as a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Jackson also served as an assistant federal defender in the District of Columbia for three years, during which she enjoyed success as a trial lawyer.

Her first judicial appointment was to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 2014, where she served as a district judge for seven years. In June of 2021, following President Biden’s nomination, Jackson was confirmed to replace Merrick Garland on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

But only eight months later, Biden named her to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. In her eight months on the Court of Appeals, Justice Jackson authored only two opinions. 

The practical reality was that Biden nominated a district court judge to a seat on the Supreme Court consisting of nine justices who decide cases by majority vote. 

District court is where federal cases begin – where ‘cases’ and ‘controversies’ are first decided. The district judges are the ‘referees’ between the litigants, and sometimes they serve as the decision-makers on the outcome of the cases. There is a significant amount of trial work where the district judge presides alone over the proceedings. Many quick decisions and judgments are made during a trial, often with little time for research or considered analysis.   

Even where time and research are available, the district judge is still working ‘solo’ with the assistance of one or more law clerks. The final decision on such motions belongs to the judge alone. 

District judges largely operate independent of their peers in the same courthouse. Their decisions are not binding on each other. They preside over their own dockets and make decisions in the cases assigned to them as they see fit.

Under this system, legal mistakes and errors are inevitable. The only requirement for proceedings at the district court level – including trials – is that they be fair. It is not required that they be ‘error-free.’ Only when errors result in unfairness that prejudices one side or the other is the outcome of the case called into doubt.       

Appellate courts sit in review of the outcomes in trial courts. They focus on the errors in the case presented. While broader legal questions are sometimes an issue on appellate review, the focus is primarily on the presence or absence of errors in the case in the district court, and whether any identified errors justify altering the outcome in that court. 

The Supreme Court plays a very different role. While it does make a judgment about the correctness of the outcome of cases, the focus of the Supreme Court is normally on the broader legal implications for hundreds/thousands of other cases in the future from affirming or reversing the case being reviewed.   

The federal district judge often plays the role of interrogator of the attorneys representing each side. Anyone who has been a trial attorney for any substantial period of time in federal district courts understands this. The questioning by that district judge can be hostile, aggressive, condescending, dismissive, humiliating, etc.  But that questioning is focused on the facts and specific legal issues presented in that case, and not the broader implications of how the outcome of that case might impact other cases. Part of the reason is because that district judge’s decisions are not binding on other district judges.

Jackson just completed her third term on the court. This chart, which is from the 2024-2025 term, is highly revealing in terms of one of the issues that stands between her and her colleagues – her conduct as a justice is still influenced by her eight years as a district judge, i.e., she spends much more time examining the attorneys before the court than do her colleagues.

The same source has a similar chart for the 2023-2024 Term of the Court, and the numbers are no different.

Setting aside this quantitative measure, in listening to many oral arguments of the Court this past term, one gets the very familiar vibe from Jackson of a district judge interrogating one counsel or the other to wring out admissions or concessions about the specifics of the case. The focus is on the outcome of the case, and not the broader implications that the outcome might foretell.       

Justice Samuel Alito can often present in the same manner, but he spoke less than half the number of words as Jackson. She separates herself from her colleagues both in terms of how much time she is involved in the dialogue and her sharply partisan tenor that gives away what her likely vote will be in pretty much every case with any political implications.

Her rhetoric in dissenting from the Trump v. Casa – ‘With deep disillusionment, I dissent’ – seems an almost unintended peek behind the curtain of her thinking.  What the majority did was take away one of the most powerful weapons possessed by a district court judge to shape how a case goes forward from the outset. 

The progressive activist inner district judge in her – who seeks only to ‘do right’ – is protesting that loss.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for his third visit to the White House this year, his host has made his expectations clear. US President Donald Trump, who has spoken often about his desire to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, said on Tuesday: “We’re looking for it to happen next week.”

Though the two leaders will celebrate the US and Israeli strikes in Iran, Gaza is very much on their agenda. “We want to get the hostages back,” Trump said.

Netanyahu, who is set to meet the US president on Monday, faces a critical decision at the crossroads of two very different conflicts: one precise and short, the other brutal and protracted. The long-time Israeli leader held two high-level meetings on Gaza already this week and is expected to hold another on Thursday, according to an Israeli official.

But the government has yet to decide on how to proceed in Gaza, a source familiar with the discussions said. That choice boils down to whether to pursue a ceasefire agreement or to intensify a military bombardment of the enclave that has already killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, as Israel tries to increase pressure on Hamas.

Earlier this week, the Israeli military recommended pursuing a diplomatic path in the strip after more than 20 months of fighting and the elimination of much of Hamas’ senior leadership.

“It’s harder now to achieve tactical goals,” the official said. The military could keep pursuing the destruction of Hamas’ military and governance capabilities, they added, but a political agreement could also be effective.

The far-right members of Netanyahu’s government are demanding an intensification of Israel’s campaign.

“No agreements. No partners. No mediators. Only a clear outcome: the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages from a position of strength,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism party, on Monday.

But after almost two years of war, others have made clear that the release of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza is the priority.

“In my opinion, everything must be done to release the hostages. And we are over 600 days late. Everything must be done to bring everyone back – the living and the fallen. Not out of weakness – out of strength,” Minister of Welfare Ya’akov Margi said on Israel’s religious Kol B’ramah radio. Pressed on whether that includes an end to the war, Margi said, “I think we should enter negotiations, and everything should be on the table.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) already controls some 60% of Gaza’s besieged territory, forcing more than two million Palestinians – many of whom have been displaced several times – into shrinking areas near the coast. But negotiations have been stalled for weeks, unable to bridge a key gap. Hamas demands a permanent end to the conflict as part of any ceasefire agreement, while Israel has refused to commit to end the war.

“The IDF has reached the limit of what you can achieve with power,” said Israel Ziv, a retired major general who once led the military’s operations department. “Netanyahu has reached a crossroads, and he must make a choice,” he added.

One path is to leverage the achievements against Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas and push for a regional agreement that could include upgrading relations with Syria and Lebanon, Ziv said. Such an option would end the war in Gaza and secure the release of the hostages, but it risks collapsing Netanyahu’s government if the far-right parties quit the coalition.

“The second path is continuing the war – and even if it’s not officially declared, it would mean the conquest of Gaza,” said Ziv.

Over the weekend, Netanyahu said “many opportunities have opened up” following Israel’s military operations in Iran, including the possibility of bringing home everyone still held captive by Hamas. “Firstly, to rescue the hostages,” he said. “Of course, we will also need to solve the Gaza issue, defeat Hamas, but I believe we will accomplish both missions.”

The comments marked a potentially significant shift in how Netanyahu has laid out Israel’s goals in Gaza. For the vast majority of the war, he has prioritized the defeat of Hamas. In May, he said that was the “supreme objective,” not the return of the hostages.

But after the campaign against Iran, Netanyahu has signaled a newfound flexibility on negotiations, one that may quickly be put to the test at the White House as he meets an American president pushing for a deal.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Athena Gold Corporation (CSE: ATHA) (OTCQB: AHNRF) (‘Athena Gold’ or the ‘Company’) is pleased to announce the closing of a non-brokered private placement previously announced on April 21, 2025 (the ‘Offering’). The Company has issued 3,322,000 units (the ‘Units’) at a price of CAD $0.05 per Unit for gross proceeds of CAD $166,100.

Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (a ‘Common Share’) and one-half of a common share purchase warrant (a ‘Warrant’). Each whole Warrant is exercisable into one Common Share at a price of CAD $0.12 per Warrant for a period of thirty-six months from the date of issuance, subject to the following acceleration provision. If, at any time after the date that is 4 months and one day after the date of issuance of the Warrants, the average volume weighted trading price of the Company’s Common Shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange (or such other stock exchange on which the Common Shares may be traded from time to time) is at or above CAD $0.20 per share for a period of 10 consecutive trading days (the ‘Triggering Event’), the Company may at any time, after the Triggering Event, accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by giving ten calendar days notice to the holders of the Warrants, by way of news release, and in such case the Warrants will expire on the first day that is 30 calendar days after the date on which such notice is given by the Company announcing the Triggering Event.

Proceeds of the Offering will be used to fund exploration work on the Company’s various properties and for general working capital purposes.

No finder’s fees were paid in connection with the closing of the Offering.

One insider, Koby Kushner, President and CEO of the Company, purchased 1,440,000 Units in the Offering for proceeds of CAD $72,000. This constitutes a related party transaction pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (‘MI 61-101’). The Company relied on Sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 for an exemption from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements, respectively, of MI 61-101, as, neither the fair market value of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the Units purchased by the insiders under the Offering exceed 25% of the Company’s market capitalization.

All securities issued in connection with the Offering are subject to a four-month and one-day hold period.

None of the foregoing securities have been or will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the ‘1933 Act’) or any applicable state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) or persons in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor will there be any sale of the foregoing securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About Athena Gold Corporation

Athena Gold is engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets. Its objective is to locate and develop economic precious and base metal properties of merit and to conduct additional exploration drilling and studies on its projects across North America. Athena Gold’s Laird Lake project is situated in the Red Lake Gold District of Ontario, covering over 4,000 hectares along more than 10 km of the Balmer-Confederation Assemblage contact, where recent surface sampling results returned up to 373 g/t Au. This underexplored area is road-accessible, located about 10 km west of West Red Lake Gold’s Madsen mine and 34 km northwest of Kinross Gold’s Great Bear project. Meanwhile, its Excelsior Springs Au-Ag project is located in the prolific Walker Lane Trend in Nevada, where it us currently under option by Firetail Resources Limited. Excelsior Springs spans over 1,500 hectares and covers at least three historic mines.

For further information about Athena Gold Corporation and our Excelsior Springs Gold project, please visit www.athenagoldcorp.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Koby Kushner

President and Chief Executive Officer, Athena Gold Corporation

For further information, please contact:

Athena Gold Corporation

Koby Kushner, President and Chief Executive Officer

Phone: 416-846-6164

Email: kobykushner@athenagoldcorp.com

CHF Capital Markets

Cathy Hume, CEO

Phone: 416-868-1079 x 251

Email: cathy@chfir.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, ‘forward-looking statements’) within the meaning of applicable Canadian and US. securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding future exploration plans, future results from exploration, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: ‘believes’, ‘will’, ‘expects’, ‘anticipates’, ‘intends’, ‘estimates’, ”plans’, ‘may’, ‘should’, ”potential’, ‘scheduled’, or variations of such words and phrases and similar expressions, which, by their nature, refer to future events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this press release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that there will be investor interest in future financings, market fundamentals will result in sustained precious metals demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the future exploration and development of the Company’s projects in a timely manner.

The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this press release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise stated.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its regulation services provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Source

Click here to connect with Athena Gold Corporation (CSE: ATHA) (OTCQB: AHNRF) to receive an Investor Presentation

This post appeared first on investingnews.com

With the global shift to electric vehicles (EVs) accelerating, China is cementing its dominance over the lithium supply chain by pouring investment into African mines, creating a new center of gravity for the battery metal.

Speaking at a recent industry conference, Claudia Cook of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence offered a sweeping assessment of how China is reshaping global lithium flows and why Africa will be crucial in the next decade.

Cook laid out in detail how China’s lithium strategy is evolving. As the world’s largest EV market, China needs a consistent, low-cost supply of lithium — but its domestic production is increasingly insufficient.

“China needs growing feedstock to supply its chemical demand,” Cook explained at Fastmarkets’ Lithium Supply & Battery Raw Materials event, “and Africa is of growing importance in fulfilling this gap.”

Between 2025 and 2035, lithium production across Africa is projected to increase by a staggering 127 percent, driven by new mines in Zimbabwe, Mali, Ethiopia and Namibia. Cook highlighted that against that backdrop Africa’s share of global lithium supply will surge from a small fraction today to around 80 percent by 2030.

The motivation for China is clear: the Asian nation cannot meet demand by tapping domestic sources alone. China’s hard-rock lithium supply has a growing deficit that will multiply fivefold by 2035.

“That deficit is growing and is said to be a five times increase from 2020 to 2035,” Cook said, pointing to forecasts of rising chemical demand from Chinese battery producers. As a result, Chinese firms have aggressively invested in African lithium projects, locking up supply in countries with looser regulatory controls and cheaper production costs.

In Zimbabwe and Mali, Chinese ownership of lithium mines is expected to remain significant, even if the share of Chinese-owned production in Africa declines modestly from 79 percent in 2025 to 65 percent by 2035.

“In 2025, African output is set to have 79 percent of it being China owned, and that percentage reduces down to 65 percent in 2035,” Cook stated, adding that overall output will still nearly double.

As a result, total Chinese-controlled volumes will keep rising.

Zimbabwe’s rising role in the lithium sector

Zimbabwe in particular has positioned itself at the heart of Africa’s lithium expansion.

Under its Vision 2030 program, introduced in 2018, the country is aiming to transition to an upper- to middle-income economy by building more domestic value from its minerals. As part of this framework, authorities have prioritized increasing value addition and beneficiation of raw materials as a central pillar of economic growth

Zimbabwe’s 2022 ban on raw lithium ore exports, coupled with a planned 2027 ban on concentrate exports, is designed to force local upgrading and refining. Chinese-backed operators have already responded to this move, investing in midstream processing facilities that convert lithium ore into more valuable chemicals.

Cook said there were no surprises in Zimbabwe’s 2027 concentrate ban because Zimbabwe’s largest lithium projects — Arcadia and Bikita — had already planned sulfate plants late last year.

Both projects are already dominated by Chinese investors. In fact, Cook said Zimbabwe could soon become the fifth-largest producer of mined lithium globally, with Chinese interests controlling as much as 90 percent of its output.

Slide from Cook showing Zimbabwe

Slide from Cook showing Zimbabwe’s future lithium supply dominance in Africa.

Image via Georgia Williams.

Despite this surge, Africa’s lithium boom is hardly risk-free. Cook flagged serious challenges in transport, electricity and worker conditions in her presentation at the Fastmarkets conference.

“Local workers often also tend to be within the lower skilled jobs, and unlike the Australian mines, a lot of that work is done manually, which can mean there is an increased risk to personal safety,” she said.

Road bottlenecks and port congestion in countries like South Africa hamper exports, while rolling blackouts push some miners to build their own power infrastructure. However, China’s Belt and Road Initiative is easing some of those pain points, upgrading key transport corridors to keep African lithium flowing.

China pushing to secure lithium supply

Domestically, China is also seeing a shift in how it sources lithium.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence data shows that brine-based production, once a major source for China, is declining relative to hard rock. By 2035, hard rock will make up the majority of Chinese feedstock.

Cook speaks on stage at the Fastmarkets event.

Cook speaks on stage at the Fastmarkets event.

Image via Georgia Williams.

While the reopening of CATL’s (SZSE:300750,HKEX:3750) mine in Jiangxi province this year will help, Cook argued that China is still structurally dependent on Africa and other regions to fill the supply gap.

That dependence, she said, is at the heart of Beijing’s long-term lithium security push. “China is directly investing to secure supply, to get that hard-rock feedstock,’ she commented.

Future regional lithium players in Africa

While Zimbabwe, along with Mali, is grabbing attention now, Cook forecast that new African lithium suppliers will emerge by 2035, including Ethiopia, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

She also noted potential future lithium supply growth from Rwanda, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, even though these countries are still years away from commercial production.

This potential dominance could come with price advantages too.

African lithium projects often have lower upfront costs compared to Australia because of their lower grades and cheaper labor, even though they may face higher impurities and weaker ESG oversight.

“It also means that in terms of pricing, we see that the spodumene price that’s coming out of some of these projects is typically around US$20 to US$30 lower than the spot price that you’ll see quoted by Newcastle,” Cook noted.

Still, quality issues and chronic underinvestment in African infrastructure could slow progress. Cook emphasized that transport, electricity reliability and governance will determine whether Africa can live up to its lithium promise.

Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

This post appeared first on investingnews.com

Clean energy stocks fell Monday as President Donald Trump’s spending legislation now includes a tax on wind and solar projects using Chinese components and abruptly phases out key credits.

Shares of NextEra Energy, the largest renewable developer in the U.S., fell 4%. Solar stocks Array Technologies, Enphase and Nextracker were down between 1% and 9%.

The Senate is voting Monday on amendments to the legislation. The current draft ends the two most important tax credits for solar and wind projects placed in service after 2027.

“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on X over the weekend. “Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”

Previous versions of the bill were more flexible, allowing projects that began construction before 2027 to qualify for the investment and electricity production tax credits, according to Monday note from Goldman Sachs.

The change “compresses project timelines and adds significant execution risk,” Bank of America analyst Dimple Gosal told clients in a note Monday. “Developers with large ’25 pipelines, may struggle to meet the new deadlines — potentially delaying or downsizing planned investments.”

The Senate legislation also slaps a tax on solar and wind projects that enter service after 2027 if they use components made in China.

“The latest draft in the Senate has become more restrictive for most renewable players, moving toward a worst case outcome for solar and wind, with a few improvements for subsectors on the margin,” Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco told clients in a Sunday note.

To be sure, the rooftop solar industry is viewed by Wall Street as a relative winner from the bill, with Sunrun shares up more than 13% and SolarEdge trading more than 6% higher on Monday. The legislation seems to allow tax credits for leased rooftop systems to remain in place through the end of 2027, which was not the case in previous versions, according to Goldman Sachs.

And First Solar is up more than 9% as the legislation seems to allow the manufacturer to claim credits for both components and final products, according to Bank of America.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

The Senate has completed consideration of President Donald Trump’s $3.3 trillion, 940-page agenda bill, sending it back to the House of Representatives to sync up before hitting the commander in chief’s desk for his signature.

It first passed the House by just one vote in late May, and now it must advance through the chamber one more time before it can be signed into law.

That’s because the Senate made some key changes to the legislation, chiefly to pass the ‘Byrd Bath’ process in which its various measures are weighed for whether they adhere to the strict guidelines of the budget reconciliation process.

Republicans are using budget reconciliation to pass Trump’s agenda on taxes, the border, energy, defense and the national debt. It allows the party in power to pass fiscal legislation while sidelining the minority – in this case, Democrats – by lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 to 51. 

Here are some of the key changes between the two versions:

Medicaid

Stricter work requirements have been the crown jewel for the GOP, being included in both versions. The bill would require ​​able-bodied, childless adults between the ages of 18 and 64 to work at least 80 hours a month to maintain their benefits, or by ​​participating in community service, going to school or engaging in a work program.

But there are more divisive changes, like tweaks to the Medicaid provider tax rate. The rate change would, year-by-year, lower the provider tax in Medicaid expansion states from 6 %to 3.5%. The plan was tweaked to comply with Senate rules, and now starts in fiscal year 2028. 

The House bill, in comparison, would have frozen states at their current rates and placed a moratorium on new provider taxes.

It’s a sticking point for moderate House Republicans who could see their states be forced to foot more of the bill for Medicaid than they currently do, risking politically damaging cuts to the program.

The Senate bill also includes a $50 billion fund to help rural hospitals in a bid to ease the concerns of Republicans in their own chamber.

Debt ceiling

The Senate bill aims to raise the debt limit by $5 trillion, $1 trillion higher than the House bill called for.

The U.S. national debt is currently just over $36 trillion.

We must

A failure to raise that limit – also called the debt ceiling – before the U.S. government runs out of cash to pay its obligations could result in a downgrade in the country’s credit rating and potential turmoil in financial markets.

Trump has made it a priority for congressional Republicans to deal with the debt ceiling and avoid a national credit default.

A bipartisan agreement struck in 2023 suspended the debt ceiling until January 2025.

Multiple projections show the U.S. is poised to run out of cash to pay its debts by sometime this summer.

Taxes

The Senate version of the legislation provides more generous corporate tax benefits than the House version, while placing limits on Trump’s newer policies, eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay.

Both bills sought to permanently extend the income tax brackets of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

The Senate bill makes permanent some corporate tax breaks that the House bill only temporarily expanded. It also makes permanent the standard deduction for personal income taxes, while the House bill only extended it through 2028.

The Senate bill would also allow people to deduct taxes on up to $25,000 of tipped wages. That deduction would begin to phase out for people making $150,000 per year or $300,000 as a married couple.

On the House side, the deduction is eliminated for both married and single filers making above $160,000. There is no cap of any kind on the amount that can be deducted, however.

Those same income differences are at play between the Senate and House versions of Trump’s ‘no tax on overtime pay’ promise. Whereas the Senate bill would allow people to deduct up to $12,500 in overtime pay, the House version did not include a stated limit.

Artificial Intelligence

The House version of the bill would have effectively blocked states from implementing their own AI regulations – a provision that was stripped out of the Senate bill even despite negotiations with critics to salvage the measure.

Sen. Masha Blackburn, R-Tenn., led the Senate GOP opposition to the measure, arguing it would prevent states from shielding populations who are vulnerable to the pitfalls of AI.

After talks with key senators fell through, Blackburn and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., co-sponsored an amendment to remove that provision. It passed 99 to 1.

Outside of Washington, 17 Republican state governors wrote to Congress objecting to the AI moratorium. 

‘This is a monumental win for Republican governors, President Trump’s one, big beautiful bill, and the American people,’ Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, one of the signatories, wrote on X after it was removed.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

USAID will no longer send foreign assistance across the globe, with the State Department taking over any such programs that President Donald Trump’s administration wishes to continue, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday.

Rubio made the announcement in a Tuesday statement, saying USAID had for decades failed to ensure the programs it funded actually supported America’s interests. The State Department will take over foreign assistance programs beginning July 1, he said.

‘Beyond creating a globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War. Development objectives have rarely been met, instability has often worsened, and anti-American sentiment has only grown,’ Rubio wrote.

‘This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end. Under the Trump Administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests. As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance. Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies—and which advance American interests—will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency,’ he continued.

The move comes after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gutted USAID as part of Trump’s effort to remove waste, fraud and abuse from the federal government.

The agency came under fire for many funding choices, including allocating $1.5 million for a program that sought to ‘advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities’ and a $70,000 program for a ‘DEI musical’ in Ireland.

As a result, Rubio announced on March 11 that the State Department had completed a six-week review and would cancel more than 80% of USAID programs — cutting roughly 5,200 of USAID’s 6,200 programs.

Democrats have blasted the Trump administration’s efforts to trim foreign aid programs, and many activists have protested the plans. Actress Charlize Theron lashed out at the administration on Monday.

‘The world feels like it’s burning because it is,’ Theron said at the annual Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Program Block Party, according to Variety.

‘Foreign aid cuts brought HIV and AIDS programs in my home country of South Africa to an absolute standstill,’ Theron said. ‘All of this is not just detrimental, it’s dangerous. People will lose their lives. Many have already, unfortunately, and at a frightening rate. It’s absolutely heartbreaking to see this kind of unnecessary suffering.’

Theron also criticized recent immigration raids in Los Angeles and claimed that women and LGBTQ people are also under threat of ‘being erased.’

‘Here in Los Angeles, in the U.S. and across the globe, we are moving backwards fast. Immigration policy is destroying the lives of families, not criminals. Women’s rights are becoming less and less every day, queer and trans lives are increasingly being erased, and gender-based violence is on the rise. This isn’t just policy, it’s personal. F— them,’ she said.

Theron emphasized, however, that there is hope in ‘standing up, organizing, protesting, voting and caring for each other, and refusing to accept that this is the new normal.’ She touted her charity as an example.

Fox News’ Diana Stancy and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

The House of Representatives is expected to take up the Senate’s modified version of President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ this week.

The Senate passed the bill after a marathon weekend session, which included Democrats forcing a read-through of the entire 940-page text. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.

The bill first passed the House in late May by just one vote – and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will have a margin of just three Republicans to advance it again.

Both moderate and conservative House Republicans still had various concerns about the bill as of the weekend, but it’s not immediately clear if it will be enough to force GOP leaders to pause their ambitious timeline of getting the bill to the president’s desk by Fourth of July.

‘The House will work quickly to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill that enacts President Trump’s full America First agenda by the Fourth of July. The American people gave us a clear mandate, and after four years of Democrat failure, we intend to deliver without delay,’ House GOP leaders said in a joint statement.

‘This bill is President Trump’s agenda, and we are making it law. House Republicans are ready to finish the job and put the One Big Beautiful Bill on President Trump’s desk in time for Independence Day.’

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital on Monday that the House could start voting as early as Wednesday at 9 a.m. on the first procedural hurdle, with final passage possible later that day or Thursday.

House GOP leadership held a brief call with lawmakers on Saturday to discuss their expectations on the timing of the bill, while also urging them to air concerns with their Senate counterparts directly – rather than on social media.

Meanwhile, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and his team began taking temperatures in the House GOP conference remotely on Sunday, even as the Senate still considered the bill.

‘We want to get on this as soon as possible, so be prepared,’ Emmer told lawmakers, Fox News Digital was told.

But a source familiar with whip team operations told Fox News Digital on Sunday that conservative fiscal hawks had concerns about the Senate’s version of the bill, particularly after the parliamentarian said key provisions must be stripped out.

Republicans are using the budget reconciliation process to fast-track a massive bill advancing Trump’s agenda on taxes, the border, defense, energy and the national debt. 

Budget reconciliation allows the party in power to sideline opposition – in this case, Democrats – by lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51. But the legislation must adhere to certain guidelines, including only adding measures that deal with the federal budget or national debt.

The parliamentarian is a nonpartisan, unelected Senate staffer who helps guide the chamber through its complex procedures. The parliamentarian is chosen by the Senate majority leader, without term limits, and is typically selected from someone already working in the parliamentarian’s office due to their deep knowledge of its mechanisms.

Measures deemed non-germane to the final bill included a provision banning Medicaid funding from covering transgender medical services and a measure aimed at slashing funding to states that allow illegal immigrants to use Medicaid services.

But the Senate made its own changes to the House bill even without the parliamentarian’s input; the Senate added a $50 billion rural hospital fund to offset concerns from Senate Republicans about Medicaid cuts still in the bill.

A provision was also added late Saturday morning that raised tax deductions for whale hunters, an apparent bid to court Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who had various concerns about the bill.

The Senate bill would also increase the debt limit by $5 trillion, compared to the House bill’s $4 trillion. The U.S. debt is currently over $36 trillion.

House Freedom Caucus Policy Chair Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote a lengthy post on X listing his issues with the bill.

‘The Senate BBB has a deficit problem. 1) CBO shows the Senate bill misses the House framework by $651 billion EXCLUDING interest. Even adjusted for dynamic growth revenues – interest in light of front-loaded cost vs. backloaded savings lifts cost to $1.3 Trillion,’ he began.

Among his other issues were the debt limit increase and the added benefit aimed at Alaska.

‘There remain numerous substantive problems – from illegals on benefits to funding sex change operations, no REINS Act regulatory relied,’ he posted.

Roy told reporters on Tuesday that he was not confident in the final vote happening by July 4, ‘I think the odds are hell of a lot lower than they were even 48 hours ago, or 72 hours ago.’

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., said on ‘Fox Report’ on Sunday, ‘If it does pass the Senate and comes over with those significant changes, it changes the framework that we agreed upon in the House from a spending perspective.’

‘When you do that, there are a lot of us that are going to have pause because we’re not cutting as much spending as we wanted to cut previously because of decisions that the parliamentarian has made. So it’s going be challenging,’ Steube said.

Meanwhile, multiple House GOP moderates are threatening to vote ‘no’ over Medicaid cuts – specifically, changes that would shift a greater cost burden onto states that expanded their Medicaid populations under ObamaCare.

A source close to Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital that she would vote against the bill if the Senate did not adhere to the House’s Medicaid language on Saturday.

Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., said in a public written statement, ‘I’ve been clear from the start that I will not support a final reconciliation bill that makes harmful cuts to Medicaid, puts critical funding at risk, or threatens the stability of healthcare providers across [California’s 22nd Congressional District].’

‘I urge my Senate colleagues to stick to the Medicaid provisions in H.R.1 – otherwise, I will vote no,’ Valadao wrote.

On the lawmaker-only call Saturday, both Johnson and Scalise urged Republicans to keep their negotiations and concerns about the bill private.

‘They’re not going to be reading your social media, so putting it there doesn’t help. You need to reach out to them directly, they’re in the thick of it,’ Johnson said, Fox News Digital was told.

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Senate Republicans rallied to send President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ back to the House, notching a major victory in their record-shattering march toward getting the legislation signed into law.

Nearly every Republican in the upper chamber coalesced to advance Trump’s $3.3 trillion megabill, save for Sens.Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Rand Paul, R-Ky, and Susan Collins, R-Maine. No Senate Democrat crossed the aisle to support the bill.

Vice President JD Vance’s tie-breaking vote was needed to push the bill across the finish line – unlike on Saturday, when the Ohio Republican descended on Capitol Hill in anticipation of a tight vote to proceed with debate on the bill.

That comes after Republican leadership tried to win over the votes of Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, with sweeteners in the final, amended version of the bill. 

The bill now heads to the House, where fiscal hawks in the House Freedom Caucus are frustrated with what they say are shallow spending cuts, and moderates are concerned over cuts to Medicaid. All have warned that they may not support the bill. 

Still, Republican leaders have made clear that they intend to have the bill on Trump’s desk by Friday.

Many House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called on the Senate to change as little as possible. A product that could pass the House was front of mind for some Senate Republicans as the day dragged on. 

‘We’re talking to the House,’ Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said. ‘We know they’re going to have some issues over there, just like we had some issues when it came over here, too. But we think we’re going to pass a bill that they can pass.’

House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, the chief tax writer in the House, said he was ‘optimistic’ about the bill on his way to the Senate floor Tuesday morning. 

‘We’re moving to the point that we’re getting more balance, and what I’ve said all along is let’s have balance in the bill,’ the Missouri Republican said. ‘We’re going to get this done, we’re going to get this to the president by July 4.’ 

Republicans pushed the chamber from the end of June to the beginning of July after a marathon weekend that saw a high drama unfold on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., bleed time, hours of mostly one-sided debate, the occasional protest in the Senate gallery, a grueling blast of amendments and the penultimate vote to move the ball forward for the president’s ambitious agenda.

The blur from Monday to Tuesday, like the weekend slog before it, was not without its own dramatics.  

Senate Democrats tried numerous times to shelve the legislation during the ‘vote-a-rama,’ while Republicans sought to revive certain measures that were scrapped – like provisions that would have booted illegal immigrants from Medicaid – or amendments to sate key Republican holdouts. 

And before the bill was put on the floor for a final vote, last-minute deals were struck and changes made in a ‘wraparound’ amendment to attract holdouts. 

Included was the doubling of the rural hospital fund to $50 billion, which was pushed by Collins, and a rollback of the start date of supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) work requirements for states with higher payment error rates, like Alaska. 

Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ is crammed with his and congressional Republicans’ legislative priorities, including billions for the Pentagon and to bolster the White House’s border and immigration agenda, the permanent extension of his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, deep spending cuts and an effort to reform Medicaid.

Senate Republicans have pitched the bill as a way to both turbocharge the economy and as a means to prevent Trump’s first-term tax cuts from expiring. They have simultaneously used it as a vehicle to achieve deep spending cuts in the neighborhood of $1.5 trillion.

But Senate Democrats have railed against the package for the millions it could boot off of Medicaid and the trillions it could add to the federal deficit.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released two sets of scores Saturday and Sunday that reflected both current policy and current law. Under current policy, the bill would tack on just over $507 billion over the next decade. But under current law, the package would add roughly $3.3 trillion.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., countered that when it came to spending, Senate Democrats were being hypocritical. 

‘I’ve been here a long time,’ Thune said. ‘And I’ve not been involved in a single spending debate and fight in which Republicans were trying to spend less, and Democrats were trying to spend more, with one exception. 

‘And that’s national security,’ he continued. ‘Democrats are always willing to cut defense but never want to cut anywhere else.’

But Schumer accused Trump of ‘lying’ about the bill, particularly over the nature of proposed cuts to Medicaid and the economic growth potential tied to the tax package. 

And in one final act of defiance ahead of the bill’s final passage, Schumer had the official title of the legislation ‘The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act’ nixed. 

‘The American people will not forget what Republicans do in this chamber today,’ Schumer said. 

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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk threatened to support primary challenges of GOP senators who vote in favor of President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ prompting pushback from some senators who spoke to Fox News Digital. 

I’ll take President Trump’s endorsement over Elon’s any day of the week back home,’ Kansas GOP Sen. Roger Marshall told Fox News Digital.

‘Look, we need to pass this bill because it helps fulfill President Trump’s agenda. His priorities were to secure the border, bring back prosperity and security. I think if we do those things, if we bring back the prosperity and the security, we’re going to get re-elected. Elon’s continuing his little spat, we are ignoring him. Let’s get this bill across the finish line.’

GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama told Fox News Digital that the ‘bottom line’ is that ’51 of us are going to vote for this tonight.’

I saw some of the things he’s upset over, the subsidies that we’re cutting out of energy, you know, the wind and solar. He thinks that we need to do more with energy, and I agree with that, but we can’t keep funding it through the federal government. We’ve got to go out there and do it the right way through private enterprise like he’s done it.’

Missouri GOP Sen. Schmitt praised Musk’s work at DOGE, saying he has a ‘ton of respect’ for the former DOGE chief and said he should be congratulated for the ‘incredible thing’ he did for the country, finding waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.

‘Everybody’s entitled to their opinions,’ Schmitt said. 

GOP Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty told Fox News Digital that by the time primary elections come up in 2026, the country will ‘already be seeing the benefits of the bill.’

We’re going to see more growth and more tax benefits, more revenue benefits, I should say, so, I don’t think that the doom and gloom being predicted by many is actually going to manifest itself,’ Hagerty explained. ‘In fact, I think we’re opening the door to a new golden era, as President Trump likes to say.’

South Dakota GOP Sen. Jon Hoeven pushed back on the criticism that the bill would increase the deficit by arguing the deficit would be reduced via revenue growth and savings. 

I think people understand that he, you know, didn’t like the one big, beautiful bill,’ Hoeven said. ‘So I don’t know that people have paid, you know, nearly as much attention to it this time around.’

Marshall, when asked if he thought Musk’s primary threats would hurt Republicans in the midterms, said, ‘I haven’t given it a second thought today.’

It would be a big speed bump in certain states, in Kansas, probably not so much. I think President Trump was wildly popular in most of these states. I think we need to find a way to get Elon back on board. He’s a smart person, brings a lot to our economy. Let’s figure out how to bring Elon back into the fold here.’

Musk intensified his ongoing feud with Trump and his allies this week in a political warning to lawmakers that he would work to unseat them if they voted in support of Trump’s bill.

‘Anyone who campaigned on the PROMISE of REDUCING SPENDING, but continues to vote on the BIGGEST DEBT ceiling increase in HISTORY will see their face on this poster in the primary next year,’ Musk posted to X Monday evening.

The message was accompanied by an image of Pinocchio sitting on fire and the caption, ‘LIAR Voted to increase America’s DEBT by 5,000,000,000.00’

‘Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,’ Musk declared in a post on X on Monday.

On Tuesday morning, as the bill was being debated in the Senate, Trump warned that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a ‘monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.’

‘DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible?’ Trump told the media Tuesday morning as he departed for a trip to the Florida Everglades to visit a new migrant detention center. ‘He gets a lot of subsidies. But, Elon was very upset that the EV mandate is going to be terminated.’ 

His response followed a question regarding whether he would deport Musk, who is originally from South Africa. Trump responded, ‘I don’t know, we’ll have to take a look.’

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

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