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The destructive fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the Guadalupe River in just 45 minutes before daybreak Friday, washing away homes and vehicles. The danger was not over as torrential rains continued pounding communities outside San Antonio on Saturday and flash flood warnings and watches remained in effect. https://apnews.com/article/texas-floods-missing-hill-country-5044c169b59921b2b4f65a2568c354c0
The president, who has a history of spewing sometimes vile insults at rivals, has in recent days escalated his attacks against the 33-year-old self-described democratic socialist. Trump has threatened to arrest Mamdani, to deport him and even to take over the country’s largest city if he wins the general election in November.
“As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York. Rest assured, I hold all the levers, and have all the cards,” Trump wrote in an ominous message on his Truth Social site Wednesday morning. “I’ll save New York City, and make it ′Hot′ and ′Great′ again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!” https://apnews.com/article/trump-zohran-mamdani-new-york-communism-attacks-nyc-mayor-c66707800e55eb4e72b06af5e159a680
In Trump’s case, the tax cuts may almost become lost in the debates over other parts of the multitrillion-dollar bill that Democrats say will force poor Americans off their health care and overturn a decade or more of energy policy.
Through persuasion and browbeating, Trump forced nearly all congressional Republicans to line up behind his marquee legislation despite some of its unpalatable pieces.
He followed the playbook that had marked his life in business before politics. He focused on branding — labeling the legislation the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” — then relentlessly pushed to strong-arm it through Congress, solely on the votes of Republicans. https://apnews.com/article/trump-tax-cuts-health-care-medicaid-elections-ec859e18ddc3619f529dcdfd6e087dd8
“We’re working on it right now,” Trump said Tuesday. “We have a lot of cases where ICE would go into a farm and these are guys that have been there 10 or 15 years, and the farmers know them – it’s called farmer responsibility. Or owner responsibility. But they’re going to be largely responsible for these people. And they know these people. They’ve worked at the farms for 15 years.”
Senior administration officials have had discussions with stakeholders as they quietly try to find a durable compromise on the fate of migrant workers, floating various new ways of granting them legal status, multiple sources told CNN. But it’s unclear what, if any, solution they can reach without Congress, according to experts. https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/03/politics/trump-migrant-farmworkers-deportations
Always wear sunglasses that block 100% of UVA and UVB rays when outdoors.
But lawmakers are still potentially changing the fine print as they consider amendments on the Senate floor, so that will have to wait for tomorrow.Two Republicans, Sens.Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have indicated their opposition in a procedural vote over the weekend.
It is possible any changes in the coming hours could derail this version of the bill, which is passed through budget reconciliation and so immune from the filibuster.
Republicans can only afford one or two more no votes.Here's how CNN's Stephen Collinson describes it:
"The measure, dubbed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' with the president’s trademark provocative hyperbole, is Trump’s attempt to engineer lasting change through legislation in an administration that is also wielding huge and questionable executive power."
The Senate version pares back Medicaid, guts climate change efforts, places new taxes on solar and wind programs in an effort to smother them, extends Trump's first-term individual tax cuts and adds an estimated $3.3 trillion in deficit spending.Republican deficit hawks have largely fallen in line with the bill. https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/17513240834505f85232ff645/raw?utm_source=cnn_What+Matters+for+June+30%2C+2025&utm_medium=email&bt_ee=miZ%2FldOhQusCftEoJqskRKIUI4UvZE0%2FTPQi%2FvsE72vj3uyvxIvmGugj50LiTvBo&bt_ts=1751324083452
In the face of higher tariffs on virtually everything the United States imports, plus a Middle East crisis, the United States economy has, remarkably, held its ground. Inflation has mostly held steady, while the unemployment rate remains near historic lows. Stocks, meanwhile, hit fresh record highs last week.
That could soon change as crucial deadlines near.
The first is July 9, which marks the end of President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on what he termed as “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of America’s trading partners. Unless those countries reach trade deals with the US, they could potentially face much higher tariffs.
Then, just around the corner from that is the so-called X-date, when the government could default on its debt obligations. That will occur at some point in August, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a recent letter to congressional leaders. The consequences of the US defaulting on debt, which has never happened, are grave and would likely cause global economic upheaval. That’s why Bessent argued lawmakers need to raise the debt ceiling before Congress’ one-month recess starts on August 4.
The president has essentially pressured Congress to raise it by July 4. But complicating that effort is the fact that raising the nation’s borrowing limit is just one of several measures included in his “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which is what he really wants to sign into law by then.
Another pressing situation that could overturn the current calm is the fragile ceasefire Trump brokered between Iran and Israel. It could quickly become undone and cause oil prices to surge at a time when inflation from his tariffs may already be picking up.
“We know it’s coming. There’s a lag between changes in tariffs and when they show up in prices you and I are paying,” said Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics.
And there are other cracks in the economy that could rapidly evolve into fault lines, such as the number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits hitting a four-year high and consumers reining in their spending. https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/30/economy/trump-summer-of-economic-hell
Mamdani has proposed five municipally owned stores, one in each New York City borough, to offer groceries at lower prices to customers with limited access to supermarkets. In some New York City neighborhoods, more than 30% of people are food insecure.
But a government-owned supermarket “concept is sound” and can take a “variety of formats,” Cohen said. “Rather than giving incentives to private supermarkets without the assurance of low prices, a city-focused program that puts affordability front and center is a better approach.” https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/30/business/zohran-mamdani-grocery-stores
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