The bill, as amended by the Senate, passed in the House on Thursday with a vote of 218 to 214.
President Donald Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful” bill into law on Independence Day, marking a large legislative victory for his first year back in office.
The signing ceremony was held at the White House, where the president called the bill “the greatest victory yet” and the “single most popular bill ever signed.” He commended lawmakers who got the bill done, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, who gifted Trump the gavel used to enact the Big Beautiful Bill.
Tucker Carlson, who seems fully dedicated to the anti-Israel movement now, provided yet another platform for the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism (Iran) to lie to the world. One of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s denials is disprovable with a simple internet search — yes, Iran has repeatedly called for Donald Trump’s assassination.
Carlson rarely seems to do any research that would enable him to call out his interviewees’ lies, allowing multiple guests in recent months to make preposterous claims that the barest journalistic prep would have warned him are false claims. In this case, he was so focused on trying to claim Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lying to trick Americans into fighting a regime that has been at war with us for four decades that he let Pezeshkian make a mendacious semi-denial. Ignore the fact that Iran’s grand ayatollah just issued a fatwa saying Trump must receive the punishment of death.
Netanyahu said in June about Iran, “They want to kill [Trump]. He’s enemy number one.” And if Tucker weren’t an antisemite more interested in irritating other conservatives than in fact-checking foreign dictators’ claims, he’d know that Iran’s desire to see Trump dead isn’t a big secret — Iran has been posting online about it for years.
“Has Iran ever backed an assassination attempt against Donald Trump?” Carlson asked. Predictably, Pezeshhkian lied without an outright denial, while cleverly manipulating Carlson by using one of Tucker’s favorite phrases: “This is actually what Netanyahu is trying to insinuate and to make your people or the president of your country to believe. But this is wrong because Netanyahu, who has his own agenda, wants to drag the U.S. into forever wars as I said and to bring insecurity and instability and onwards to the whole region.” Pezeshkian also denied Iranian sleeper cells in America, about which the Department of Homeland Security is raising alarms.
US President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law a major spending and tax bill, which includes key parts of his second-term agenda. The legislation, dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” by Trump, was passed by the US House of Representatives on Thursday just before the July 4 deadline.The House passed the bill on Thursday with a narrow 218-214 vote, following its approval in the Senate on Tuesday, where it passed by a 51-50 margin. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.“Our Country is going to explode with Massive Growth, even more than it already has since I was Re-Elected,” Trump posted on Truth Social shortly after Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote to send the bill back to the House.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday made his first public appearance since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran began, attending a mourning ceremony on the eve of Ashoura.
Khamenei’s absence during the war suggested the Iranian leader, who has final say on all state matters, had been in seclusion in a bunker — something not acknowledged by state media. State TV in Iran showed him waving and nodding to the chanting crowd, which rose to its feet as he entered and sat at a mosque next to his office and residence in the capital, Tehran.
There was no immediate report on any public statement made. Iranian officials such as the parliament speaker were present. Such events are always held under heavy security.
After the United States inserted itself into the war by bombing three key nuclear sites in Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump sent warnings via social media to the 86-year-old Khamenei that the U.S. knew where he was but had no plans to kill him, “at least for now.”
On June 26, shortly after a ceasefire began, Khamenei made his first public statement in days, saying in a prerecorded statement that Tehran had delivered a “slap to America’s face” by striking a U.S. air base in Qatar, and warning against further attacks by the U.S. or Israel on Iran.
Trump replied, in remarks to reporters and on social media: “Look, you’re a man of great faith. A man who’s highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth. You got beat to hell.”
Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ camp perched on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas, was a place of laughter, prayer and adventure just days ago.
But just before daybreak on Friday, the Fourth of July public holiday, the river rose 26ft (8m) in about 45 minutes amid a torrential downpour.
Many of the girls were sleeping in low-lying cabins less than 500ft (150m) from the riverbank.
Many of those bunk beds are now mud-caked and toppled, the detritus of a summer camp cut tragically short.
Destroyed personal belongings are scattered across soaked interiors where children once gathered for Bible study and campfire songs.
So far 78 fatalities have been confirmed from the floods in central Texas. At least 68, including 28 children, were in Kerr County, where Camp Mystic was located.
Among the dead is the camp’s longtime director, Richard “Dick” Eastland, and several young campers. Ten girls and a counsellor from the camp are still missing.
The BRICS bloc of developing nations at their summit in Brazil on Sunday condemned the increase of tariffs and attacks on Iran, but refrained from naming US President Donald Trump.
The group’s declaration, which also took aim at Israeli military actions in the Middle East, spared its founding member Russia from criticism and mentioned war-torn Ukraine only once.
The bloc issued a declaration in which they raised “serious concerns” about the rise of tariffs which it said were “inconsistent with WTO (World Trade Organisation) rules.” In an indirect swipe at the US, they said those restrictions ”threaten to reduce global trade, disrupt global supply chains and introduce uncertainty.”
Lula also criticised NATO’s decision to hike defence spending up to 5% of member states’ GDP. He said it was “always easier to invest in war than peace.”
The declaration also criticised the attacks on Iran without mentioning the US or Israel, the two nations who conducted them.
BRICS leaders expressed “grave concern” for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, called for the release of all hostages, a return to the negotiating table and reaffirmed their commitment to the two-state solution.
The group’s 31-page declaration mentions Ukraine just once, while condemning “in the strongest terms” recent Ukrainian attacks on Russia.
The Irish government is reportedly set to reject demands from the European Union to implement hate speech legislation after Dublin abandoned plans to do so last year.
In September of last year, the Irish government scrapped plans to criminalise so-called hate speech in its Criminal Justice Bill, which would have allowed the state to send someone to prison for up to five years for “incitement to hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics”.
The move to abandon the controversial section of the bill came as Justice Minister Helen McEntee admitted that it did “not have a consensus” among the Irish population.
In response, the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, warned that Dublin may face legal action from Brussels for failing to meet the bloc’s stringent speech standards.
The commission said in May that Ireland “still fails to transpose the provisions related to criminalising the public incitement to violence or hatred against a group or a member of such group based on certain characteristics, as well as the conducts of condoning, denial and gross trivialisation of international crimes and the Holocaust”.
… On the one side, you had the Normans, led by their Duke, William. Normans — aka Northmen — were partially Franco-fied Vikings, invited to settle in France in 911 at the behest of the West Frankish king, Charles the Simple.
On the other side, you had the English — descended from Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from northern Germany — led by the just-crowned King Harold Godwinson.
OK, so now you can give your flip answer. Here’s mine: those armies were whiter than an all-albino Osmonds tribute band.
But not to the BBC, whose new miniseries — “King and Conqueror” — features “a diverse group of actors” telling the story of Harold and William’s fight for the English throne.
“Adding diversity to a high medieval period setting follows the BBC’s ‘colour-blind’ casting of non-white stars as Tudor courtiers in another upcoming historical drama,” according to The Telegraph.
That isn’t color-blind casting — it’s historical revisionism, full stop. They’re remaking history to suit a particular agenda. It’s the same agenda introduced by Tony Blair’s New Labour government a quarter century ago to remake the British electorate.
Today’s report also goes right back to a conversation with my wife last week.
(LifeSiteNews) — United Nations (UN) women’s rights advisor Reem Alsalem called on governments to define gender based on biology, not ideology.
During the June 26 59th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem presented her new report condemning the erasure of women and girls due to LGBT ideology.
“You cannot protect what you cannot define,” Alsalem declared.
“I never thought the day would come where the mandate would deem it necessary to prepare a report affirming that the words ‘women’ and ‘girls’ refer to distinct biological and legal categories,” she continued.
The report emphasized that sex-based violence is rooted in the biological distinctions of sex, defined as the physical and physiological characteristics that differentiate males and females.
It further recommended “the proper and effective consideration of sex in understanding the experiences of discrimination of women and girls, preventing further violence and responding to the needs of survivors.”
Leading researchers in Denmark are sounding the alarm after uncovering a disturbing link between Covid mRNA “vaccines” and surging cases of disabling neuropathy.
A bombshell new study led by Danish scientists has reignited concerns that the mRNA injections are responsible for soaring reports of Small Fiber Neuropathy (SFN), a serious neurological condition affecting the nerves.
The peer-reviewed case series was led by Dr. Giulia Carolina Primicerio at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen.
The results of the study were published in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences (Volume 474).
Dr. Primicerio and the team of researchers found compelling clinical evidence linking mRNA and viral vector Covid vaccines to new-onset nerve damage.
Expert Tal Beeri discussed how it is unknown why the religious directive had not been given, but if it were, Hezbollah would have joined the war against Israel on Iran’s side.
Hezbollah refrained from entering the war between Israel and Iran on Iran’s side due to a lack of religious directive, expert Tal Beeri said.
Beeri is the head of the Research Department at the Alma Center for the Study of Security Challenges in the North. He has published a detailed analysis titled “Why Didn’t Hezbollah Join Iran in the War against Israel?” In it, the Middle East expert challenged prevailing explanations for Hezbollah’s decision to refrain from entering the war on Iran’s side and also discussed the perceived gap between Hezbollah’s weakness and the actual reality.
Beeri noted: “There is a significant gap between the existing portrayal of Hezbollah’s supposed weakness and the actual reality.”
In the days before a return deadline set for Sunday, tens of thousands of Afghans crossed the border from Iran, creating an “emergency” situation at border crossings, according to the United Nations.Iranian authorities said that out of six million Afghans living in Iran, about four million could be affected by a late May order asking them to leave the country by July 6.Unicef’s representative in Afghanistan, Tajudeen Oyewale, called the situation an “emergency” in a country already facing a “chronic returnee crisis.” He said that 1.4 million Afghans have returned this year from long-time host countries like Iran and Pakistan.Men, women, and even entire families are crossing the border with little money or belongings. “What is concerning is that 25 percent of all these returnees are children… because the demographics have shifted,” Oyewale was quoted as saying to news agency AFP on Thursday.
Brazil is playing host to a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies Sunday and Monday during which pressing topics like Israel’s attack on Iran, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and trade tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to be handled with caution.
Analysts and diplomats have said the lack of cohesion in an enlarged BRICS, which doubled in size last year, may affect its ability to become another pole in world affairs. They also see the summit’s moderate agenda as an attempt by member countries to stay off Trump’s radar.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has some of his priorities, such as debates on artificial intelligence and climate change, front and centre for the talks with key leaders not in attendance.
Lula said in his speech on Sunday that “we are witnessing the unparalled collapse of multilateralism” and that the meeting is taking place “in the most adverse global scenario” of the four times Brazil has hosted it. He called for the group to promote peace and mediate conflicts.
When Russia sought assistance from China, North Korea and Iran amid its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, some Western officials expressed concern about the formation of a new axis against Western countries.
But none of these countries came to Iran’s aid during the Iran-Israel war or when American forces attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities.
China and Russia, the most powerful countries in the axis, have only expressed verbal condemnation of Washington’s actions but stopped short of providing any financial, material or military assistance to Tehran.
Alexander Gaboyev, Director of the Carnegie Centre for Russian and Eurasian Affairs, told the New York Times: “Each of these countries is completely pacifist and they don’t want to get involved in each other’s wars. Unlike the US and its allies, these countries do not necessarily have the same structures, values and institutional links with each other.”
The four countries have authoritarian regimes and are hostile to the United States, which has always tried to undermine them and question their legitimacy. They also have some strategic ties with each other which seek to circumvent US-led economic sanctions by advancing trade and exchanging weapons technology.
Michael Kimge, a professor of history at The Catholic University of America and a former US State Department official, also believes that “there is probably little coordination between China, North Korea, Iran and Russia, so that they share views and have conversations around the centre of dissatisfaction with the United States, but not very meaningful coordination with each other.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday for what some analysts have dubbed a “victory lap” following the US joining Israel in strikes against Iran. But as they meet for the third time this year, the outwardly triumphant visit will be dogged by Israel’s 21-month war against Hamas in Gaza and questions over how hard Trump will push for an end to the conflict.
Russia’s former transport minister Roman Starovoit has been found dead with a gunshot wound in his car just hours after it was revealed he had been sacked from his role.
Mr Starovoit, the ex-governor of the Kursk region, is reported to have taken his own life.
The report of his death comes after he was dismissed from his transport role by President Vladimir Putin.
In a statement on Monday, the Investigative Committee of Russia said: “The body of the former minister of transport of the Russian Federation, Roman Vladimirovich Starovoit, was discovered in his personal vehicle with a gunshot wound today in the Odintsovo city district.”
The circumstances surrounding Mr Starovoit’s death are being investigated, with the statement adding: “The main version is suicide.”
Earlier on Monday, it was revealed Mr Putin had fired Mr Starovoit after just over a year in the job.
Mr Starovoit was appointed transport minister in May 2024 after spending almost five years as governor of the Kursk region bordering Ukraine.
A few months after he left his role as governor, Ukrainian troops crossed over the border into Kursk as Kyiv launched the biggest foreign incursion into Russian territory since the Second World War.
The U.K. Royal Family’s X account posted a clip of the Coldstream Guards playing Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan – widely recognized as an LGBT anthem – with the hashtag #Pride2025 along with emojis of a rainbow, sparkles, and a disco ball to mark London Pride. This is the first time the Royal Family has publicly acknowledged the annual event of the LGBT movement.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex – the widely loathed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – have previously celebrated “pride” month, posting to their Instagram account: “This month we pay tribute to the accounts supporting the LGBTQ+ community – those young and old, their families and friends, accounts that reflect on the past and are hopeful for a deservedly more inclusive future. We stand with you and support you. Because it’s very simple: love is love.”
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil will play host to a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies Sunday and Monday during which pressing topics like Israel’s attack on Iran, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and trade tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to be handled with caution.
Analysts and diplomats said the lack of cohesion in an enlarged BRICS, which doubled in size last year, may affect its ability to become another pole in world affairs. They also see the summit’s moderate agenda as an attempt by member countries to stay off Trump’s radar.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will have some of his priorities, such as debates on artificial intelligence and climate change, front and center for the talks with key leaders not in attendance.
China’s President Xi Jinping won’t attend a BRICS summit for the first time since he became his country’s leader in 2012. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will make an appearance via videoconference, continues to mostly avoid traveling abroad due to an international arrest warrant issued after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The restraint expected in Rio de Janeiro marks a departure from last year’s summit hosted by Russia in Kazan, when the Kremlin sought to develop alternatives to U.S.-dominated payment systems which would allow it to dodge Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The talks would focus on conditions for a possible ceasefire, including hostage and prisoner releases, and Hamas would also seek the reopening of Gaza’s Rafah crossing to evacuate the wounded, the official told AFP.
Hamas’s delegation, led by its top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, was in Doha, the official told AFP. Israel’s public broadcaster said the country’s delegation had left for the Qatari capital in the early afternoon.
Qatar’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the indirect negotiations had begun.
‘Enough blood’
Two Palestinian sources close to the discussions told AFP the proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.
However, they said, the group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system.
On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported 26 people were killed by Israeli forces on Sunday.
Ukraine said it struck a Russian air base on Saturday, while Russia continued to pound Ukraine with hundreds of drones overnight as part of a stepped-up bombing campaign that has dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the more than 3-year-old war.
Ukraine’s military General Staff said that Ukrainian forces had struck the Borisoglebsk air base in Russia’s Voronezh region, describing it as the home base of Russia’s Su-34, Su-35S and Su-30SM fighter jets.
Writing on Facebook, the General Staff said it hit a depot containing glide bombs, a training aircraft and “possibly other aircraft.”
Russian officials did not immediately comment on the attack.
