The Senate passed President Trump's sweeping tax and spending package Thursday in a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaker after Republicans Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, and Rand Paul broke ranks to vote no. The bill extends the 2017 tax cuts, adds exemptions for tips and overtime pay, allocates $320 billion for military and border enforcement, and raises the federal debt ceiling by $5 trillion. It now heads back to the House for reconciliation.
Following a disappointing jobs report, the White House argued Thursday that Trump's tariff policy combined with the newly passed bill will turn the labor market around. Factory employment has slipped since April's Liberation Day tariff rollout, but officials are pointing to more than $4 trillion in pledged foreign investment as proof the long-game strategy is working even if near-term numbers look rough.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer confirmed Thursday that Washington will honor the tariff caps agreed to in trade deals with the European Union, Japan, and other partners. Greer also noted that new planned tariffs targeting forced labor operate on a separate legal basis, signaling the administration can pursue additional levies without undermining existing agreements.
The Five Eyes intelligence alliance issued a joint warning Thursday that China is systematically using LinkedIn, Indeed, Upwork, and other job platforms to recruit Americans with access to sensitive government information. The scheme follows a consistent playbook — job listing, interview, trial report on Chinese interests, then payments of hundreds to thousands of dollars per report. Government employees and military personnel are the primary targets.
The Gaza ceasefire showed serious new cracks Thursday, with Palestinian Islamic Jihad accusing Israel of more than 2,400 violations since the truce was agreed. Separately, Hezbollah formally rejected the latest ceasefire deal between Israel and the Lebanese government, demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal as a precondition. Trump's peace envoy talks with Palestinian militant groups have also been postponed amid unresolved disarmament disputes.
Russia launched one of its most devastating aerial assaults of the war overnight, sending more than 600 drones and 73 missiles into Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure, killing at least 22 people. Kyiv alone sustained damage across eight districts, with three children among the wounded. Military analysts say the massive strike reflects Russia's growing battlefield desperation, compounded by command-and-communication failures after SpaceX cut off the Russian army's illicit Starlink access.
President Trump has privately told aides he would consider pulling out of the US-Iran ceasefire if Tehran kills American troops, according to US officials, though they stress the truce currently holds. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described recent back-and-forth strikes as purely defensive in nature rather than a renewed outbreak of hostilities. The private signal adds significant tension to a fragile arrangement both sides have repeatedly tested since it took effect.
A rare "cannibal coronal mass ejection" — formed when a faster solar blast overtook and merged with a slower one — is on track to strike Earth's magnetic field tonight into early Friday. The merged impact could trigger a G3-class geomagnetic storm strong enough to push aurora displays as far south as Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Three major solar flares erupted from sunspot region 4455 within a 24-hour window to create the event.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected methane on interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS — the first time methane has ever been found on any object originating from outside our solar system. The comet's chemical composition is strikingly alien, with methane and carbon dioxide levels relative to water far exceeding anything seen in our solar neighborhood. Scientists say the readings point to a formation environment and chemistry that are fundamentally unlike our own.
Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French graphic novelist and filmmaker whose memoir Persepolis gave millions of readers a personal window into life in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, died Thursday at age 56. Her illustrated memoir became an Academy Award-nominated animated film and remains one of the most widely read works of political autobiography of the past 25 years. No cause of death has been reported.
