In a tense Oval Office meeting, President Donald Trump accused South African President Cyril Ramaphosa of allowing violence against South Africa’s predominantly white farming communities. Here are five takeaways from the remarkable exchange.
The House Rules Committee late on Wednesday advanced a sweeping bill to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda after a marathon 21-hour session, clearing the legislation for a House floor vote.
Two members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed near a Jewish museum.
Taiwan wants to have peace with China but must prepare for war in order to deter conflict, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said after delivering a speech marking his first year in office.
🍵Culture: Five lessons I learned from traveling to the remote edges of the Earth.
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The U.S. Capitol is seen as the House Rules Committee prepares to meet for an overnight markup of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in Washington on May 20, 2025. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The House Rules Committee late on Wednesday advanced a sweeping bill to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda after a marathon 21-hour session, clearing the legislation for a House floor vote.
The legislation, called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed the committee in an 8–4 party-line vote.
Republican leaders unveiled an amendment to the megabill on Wednesday evening, tailored to address objections from fiscal conservatives and moderates in the Republican conference. Its release followed a day of hurried negotiations between Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La), and conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus.
The amendment makes consequential changes to several key components of the bill, including the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction and Medicaid.
It would accelerate the start date of Medicaid work requirements—which are strengthened under the bill—from 2029 to 2026. It also speeds up the phasing out of Inflation Reduction Act energy tax credits for wind, solar, and battery storage in 2028, with some exceptions.
The amendment also bumps the SALT deduction cap up to $40,000 per household with an income of up to $500,000.
The two changes could assuage conservatives, who have demanded steeper cuts, as well as a contingent of purple district moderates who have pushed for increasing the SALT deduction and gradual phasing-out of certain Inflation Reduction Act projects.
The package of changes also features $12 billion in potential grants to states for border security actions and a provision to remove the requirement to register silencer attachments under the National Firearms Act of 1934. (More)
More Politics:
The Department of Defense has taken control of a gifted aircraft from Qatar that is intended to become the new Air Force One.
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated his order compelling officials to maintain custody of illegal immigrants being deported to South Sudan while the court determined the legality of their removal.
Nine out of 10 U.S. companies surveyed by Allianz Trade Global say they expect to bring some or all of their production or sourcing back home in response to new tariffs imposed under President Donald Trump’s trade policy.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—the Republican-backed reconciliation package to enact a big part of the Trump Agenda—would lead to a net increase in resources to households nationwide over the next decade, but at the cost of a $3.8 trillion increase in the federal deficit.
Senators seeking to block California from enforcing new zero-emission vehicle standards and strict emissions regulations are set to vote on the matter this week.
The Federal Trade Commission escalated its efforts to lower prescription drug costs, renewing challenges to more than 200 patents it says were improperly listed to prevent generic versions of brand-name drugs from reaching the market.
The commission sent warning letters to seven pharmaceutical companies: Novartis, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Mylan Specialty, Covis Pharma, and three Teva entities.
The agency accused the drugmakes of using invalid or misclassified patents to delay generic competition for 17 drugs, including asthma inhalers, diabetes treatments, and epinephrine autoinjectors (EpiPen). These patents are listed in the FDA’s Orange Book, a database that helps determine which products are eligible for generic approval and exclusivity protections.
“Improper patent listings can delay generic alternatives from entering the market, keeping drug prices artificially high and preventing patients from accessing lower cost drugs,” the FTC on Wednesday.
The latest round of challenges follows FTC actions in November 2023 and April 2024 that led to the delisting of patents on 22 drugs, the agency said. In December 2024, a federal appeals court ruling upheld a lower court decision ordering Teva to remove improperly listed inhaler patents, siding with the FTC in that case.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the enforcement is part of a broader push by the Trump administration to reduce prescription drug costs. ( 💬 Comment)
More U.S. News
The CEOs of 10 airlines wrote an open letter to members of Congress on Wednesday, asking them to take “bold action” and rebuild an aging air traffic control system that is “failing Americans.”
A bipartisan group of 39 attorneys general are calling on Congress to secure long-term funding for a health care programthey call a “lifeline” for people with illnesses related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Tech giant Microsoft warned that nearly 400,000 computers with its Windows operating system were infected with a type of malware used by malign actors to steal bank account information, credit card data, passwords, and cryptocurrency wallets.
The Food and Drug Administration has directed COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to expand the warning for two forms of heart inflammation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021 planned to recommend that people who suffered heart inflammation following COVID-19 vaccination not engage in rigorous activity for months, according to a newly disclosed document.
Sponsored Message
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Taiwan wants to have peace with China, but must prepare for warin order to deter conflict, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said after delivering a speech marking his first year in office.
Laisaid Taiwan is “happy to” have dialogues and exchanges with China as an equal partner.
Beijing responded by saying that any discussions must be based on its “One China” principle, which claims that the communist regime is the only legitimate ruler on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never governed Taiwan, but views the self-ruled democracy as a renegade province. It pledged to “unite” Taiwan with the mainland and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of using force to absorb the island.
Since Lai took office last year, the Chinese regime has stepped up its rhetoric against those it calls Taiwan separatists and ramped up military and patrol activities in the Taiwan Strait. According to U.S. intelligence, Xi had ordered the Chinese military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.
Lai has also taken a tougher stance on the Chinese regime. The president vowed last year to maintain the status quo, saying China and Taiwan “do not belong to one another.” In March, he declared the communist-ruled neighbor a “foreign hostile force,” and unveiled a series of measures to counter Chinese infiltration and espionage activities in Taiwan.
On Tuesday, the president announced in his speech that the Taiwanese government will set up a sovereign wealth fund, build a national-level investment platform, and expand its presence in the global market. He said Taiwan’s democratic values are “the most significant mark of distinction between us and authoritarian regimes.” ( 💬 Comment)
More World News:
A group of Cuban American members of Congress and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for Cuba’s freedom, an end to the communist rule, and the release of more than 1,000 political prisoners as part of a commemoration of the archipelago’s Independence Day.
European Union’s foreign ministers have agreed to lift economic sanctions on Syria, mirroring a move by President Donald Trump earlier this month.
The EU is reviewing its political and economic agreement with Israel because of the “catastrophic” situation in the Gaza Strip.
The runner-up in Romania’s presidential election rerun asked the nation’s top court to annul the election results over alleged foreign interference and coordinated manipulation, which he said affected the vote.
Andriy Portnov, a former senior Ukrainian official and political ally of the country’s previous president, Viktor Yanukovych, was shot and killed on Wednesday morning outside a private school in the upscale Madrid suburb of Pozuelo de Alarcón.
☀️ A Few Good Things
📷 Photo of the Day: Newly commissioned officers toss their hats during the US Coast Guard Academy’s 144th Commencement in New London, Conn., on May 21, 2025. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)
🎙️ Podcast: Independent Los Angeles builder John Gregorchuk says obtaining a permit for one tree took him more than three months. His experience highlights how red tape, appeals, and siloed departments can quietly stall housing projects in the California city. (Listen)
Here are some valuable lessons learned along the way by a traveler to the remote edges of the earth.
Inhospitable Places Are Especially Warm and Welcoming (and You Should Be, Too)—In rich, affluent places where the living is easy, you don’t really need your neighbors. But in parts of the world where scarcity and difficulty are common, you need all the help you can get. Your neighbor will provide you with aid today, knowing that they might need you tomorrow.
The Earth Is So Much Bigger Than You Can Imagine—While problems are real and sometimes serious, the lesson here is similar to gazing through a telescope at the boundless universe. Realizing that the world is so big can help you understand that perhaps your problems aren’t quite as massive as you think.
Always, Always Pack a Coat—Every destination that experiences frequent inclement conditions tells the same two jokes. The first one: We can have all four seasons in a single day. The second joke: If you don’t like the weather, wait around for five minutes.
Never Give Up—It’s a truly remarkable thing to watch a penguin scale a cliff to find a good place to lay their eggs. They’re excellent swimmers, an animal surely built for the water, but they’re awkward on land. The toughness of penguins can teach us that we can climb cliffs, too—even if they’re metaphorical.
Embrace the Spirit of Discovery—Ernest Shackleton once said that explorers need to possess optimism, patience, imagination, and courage. These are qualities you can display in your everyday life. And, like Shackleton, never stop being curious—even if it’s just a matter of checking out an area of town you’ve never visited. (More)
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