Trump’s $9 billion clawback passes first Senate test, while more hurdles await
President Donald Trump’s clawback of billions in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting narrowly passed through its first hurdle in the Senate, but it still faces a rocky road ahead with dissent among the Senate GOP ranks. Senate GOP leaders hoped that an agreement to carve out $400 million in global HIV and AIDS prevention funding will get some of the holdouts on board. However, doing so shrank the expected cuts from $9.4 billion to $9 billion. But a trio of Senate Republicans joined with all Senate Democrats to vote against advancing the bill from the Senate Appropriations Committee, which required Vice President JD Vance to cast the deciding vote. Trump’s rescissions package would yank bank congressionally approved funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting. But some Senate Republicans have sounded the alarm and want changes made to the bill before it reaches the finish line. SENATE GOP BRACES FOR TEST VOTE ON TRUMP’S $9.4B CLAWBACK PACKAGE The bill that advanced out of committee Tuesday includes just shy of $8 billion in cuts from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and over $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the government-backed funding arm for NPR and PBS. Republicans’ successful test vote comes after huddling with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who worked to shore up support and apply pressure from the White House to get the ball rolling on the bill. “We’re fine with adjustments,” Vought said. “This is still a great package, $9 billion, [it’s] substantially the same package, and the Senate has to work its will.” ‘GUT CHECK TIME’: DISSENT AMONG SENATE GOP RANKS THREATENS TO REDUCE TRUMP’S SPENDING CUT DEMAND While concerns were still raised about other aspects of the spending cuts package during the closed-door meeting, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., believed that carving out the cuts to Bush-era President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) helped ease concerns among lawmakers. But the changes didn’t sway all Senate Republicans. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, bluntly said “no” when asked if the PEPFAR carveout helped gain her support and argued, “I’d like to do some legislating.” “What a crazy thing, what a crazy thing,” she said. “What have we been doing around here? We did a reconciliation bill. We’re doing a rescissions bill. We’re doing nominations. Nominations are important, but let’s, like, legislate.” And Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she liked the changes but ultimately decided to vote against advancing the bill through its first hurdle. She argued in a statement that the bill had a “big problem – nobody really knows what program reductions are in it.” “That isn’t because we haven’t had time to review the bill,” Collins said. “Instead, the problem is that OMB has never provided the details that would normally be part of this process.” Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also joined in to vote against the bill. Fox News Digital reached out to his office for a statement on his decision to vote against the package. TRUMP’S PLAN TO SLASH ‘WOKE’ FOREIGN AID, NPR FUNDS CLEARS HOUSE AS SENATE BATTLE LOOMS It now moves to yet another procedural vote, which, if successful, will open up 10 hours of total debate time on the bill and eventually set the stage for a vote-a-rama, where lawmakers on either side of the aisle can offer an unlimited number of amendments to the package. But, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., made clear that he would prefer the Senate not make any changes to the bill. However, that request already fell on deaf ears — as it did during the budget reconciliation process that unfolded in the upper chamber last month. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Those demands already have fiscal hawks in the House grumbling, but like the budget reconciliation process before it, an amended rescissions package will likely glide through the House GOP and onto Trump’s desk.
Trump challenges AOC and Jasmine Crockett to intelligence test after calling them ‘very low IQ’
President Donald Trump lobbed a signature zinger on Tuesday as he paused to speak with reporters before boarding Marine One en route to an artificial intelligence summit. “[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], look, I think she’s very nice, but she’s very low IQ, and we really don’t need low IQ,” Trump said, smiling as cameras rolled. He added, “Between her and Crockett, we’re going to give them both an IQ test to see who comes out best.” TRUMP DARES AOC TO TRY TO IMPEACH HIM: ‘MAKE MY DAY’ Trump went on to share his own credentials: “I took my test. I took a real test at Walter Reed Medical Center, and I aced it. I got every one of all those questions right,” he told the waiting press. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has ramped up her criticism of President Trump recently, calling him a “rapist” in a post on X following a DOJ update related to Jeffrey Epstein. She appeared to be referencing the 2023 civil trial leveled against Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll. A jury found Trump liable of sexual assault, but not of rape. Critics said she defamed the president with the remark. Back in May, Crockett said “you’re terrified of smart, bold Black women telling the truth and holding you accountable” after President Trump called her a “low IQ person” on Meet the Press. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Whether Ocasio‑Cortez or Crockett will take the bait and accept the IQ test challenge remains to be seen. The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.
Democrat DA in hot seat after retail theft surges in major American cities
Progressive Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is being slammed by his GOP opponent, Maud Maron, for policies she said give criminals a “get out of jail free card,” contributing to a massive surge in shoplifting and organized crime in America’s largest city. This comes after retail industry leaders testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday on the dramatic rise in organized retail theft in recent years. According to the most recent data from the National Retail Federation, retailers reported a 93% increase in the average number of shoplifting incidents per year in 2023 compared to 2019, and a 90% increase in dollar loss due to shoplifting during the same period. The study further said that retailers surveyed saw a 26% increase in shoplifting incidents on average from 2022 to 2023. NRF’s report said shoplifting has become a problem retailers across the country face on a “daily basis.” ‘EXISTENTIAL THREAT’: JEWISH LEADERS WARN OF NYC ‘MASS EXODUS’ IF ZOHRAN MAMDANI WINS IN NOVEMBER The report stated that those surveyed experienced an average of 177 shoplifting incidents per day in 2023; however, this number increased to over 1,000, depending on the retail sector. The report listed New York as the second city most impacted by organized retail crime in 2024. Maron, a former Democrat public defender, now running for Manhattan district attorney as a Republican, told Fox News Digital that the “surge in shoplifting” is “not surprising.” “Shoplifters, lawbreakers, got the message: You can do this, and you will not go to jail,” said Maron, adding, “The get-out-of-jail-free card that Alvin Bragg has been issuing for the last three and a half years is not subtle.” “Five years ago, 10 years ago, if you used to go into a store and dump a bunch of retail goods into your bag and then walk out right past the security guard and right past the cashiers, you would be arrested. And if you did it more than once, you wind up going to jail,” she said. “Now maybe someone will call the police; maybe someone won’t. Maybe the police will arrest you; maybe they won’t. Because everybody knows at the end of the line, the prosecutor is not going to prosecute the case.” WATCH: FORMER DEM OUSTED FROM PARTY OVER ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ TAKES ON MANHATTAN DA ALVIN BRAGG Maron claimed that when Bragg took office in January 2022, he published a day one memo that “explained that there were just whole categories of crime that he was not going to prosecute.” “Alvin Bragg ran as a George Soros-backed progressive prosecutor, and his implementing progressive criminal justice policies means that he tries to keep as few people in jail as possible. He tries to prosecute as few people as possible, and he tries to prosecute the lowest possible charge that he can get away with doing,” she went on. “You can see there are no consequences. I will not get in trouble if I go into that store and take all of the clothes off of a shelf and walk out with them in broad daylight without even hiding my face. I can do it and get away with it. That’s why we see a surge.” “Actions either have consequences or they don’t. And in Alvin Bragg’s New York, stealing doesn’t have a consequence,” she claimed. In response, Richard Fife, a spokesperson for Bragg’s campaign, contested Maron’s take on the report, saying that “while there is much more to do, in the last two years, NYPD stats report that burglary is down 11%, robbery is down 8%, grand larceny is down 11%, and murder is down 35%.” NYC SOFT-ON-CRIME DA ALVIN BRAGG ADMITS TO GETTING ‘A KNOT’ IN STOMACH WHEN FAMILY TAKES SUBWAY: REPORT “Perennial candidate Maud Maron, who recently lost her campaign for the School Board, is once again distorting and misleading to hide her lack of qualifications,” said Fife. He said that “when experienced prosecutor Alvin Bragg took office as Manhattan DA in January 2022, NYC—like nearly every city—was still reeling from the COVID national crime spike.” “Alvin brought together business owners, law enforcement, and community-based organizations to stop the rise in shoplifting and targeted repeat offenders, prosecuted organized crime rings that resell stolen goods, and improved coordination with local businesses and the NYPD,” he claimed. For her part, Maron shot back that “if Alvin Bragg were half as good at prosecuting retail theft as he is at cherry-picking statistics, New Yorkers wouldn’t have to ask security to unlock a $6 stick of deodorant just to get through the day.” DEMOCRAT ACCUSES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OF NOT BEING ‘SERIOUS ABOUT COMBATING CRIME’ “Bragg can point to handpicked NYPD numbers all he wants, but New Yorkers live the reality: more closed storefronts, more brazen shoplifting, and more fear for working people just trying to commute or run errands,” she added. “You don’t need a spreadsheet to know Alvin Bragg’s criminal-coddling Day One Memo turned every store owner into a sitting duck for the criminals he’s emboldened. You just need to walk into a pharmacy or talk to a bodega owner.”
National security experts raise concerns after Microsoft program exposed as possible avenue for Chinese spying
A new ProPublica report accused Microsoft of allowing China-based engineers to assist with Pentagon cloud systems with inadequate guardrails in an effort to scale up its government contracting business, raising espionage concerns from national security experts. The report cited current and former employees and government contractors who worked on a cloud computing program deployed by Microsoft in 2016 that would allow the tech giant to sell its cloud services to the government, known as a “digital escort” framework. The security measure, meant to meet federal contracting regulations, was effectively a program that included a “digital escort” chaperone for global cybersecurity officials, such as those based in China, so they can work on agency computing systems. CHINA IS EXPLOITING OUR GOVERNMENT’S TECH WEAKNESS. WE NEED A RAPID REBOOT Defense Department guidelines require that people handling sensitive data be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. According to sources who spoke to ProPublica, including some who had intimate familiarity with the hiring process for the $18-per-hour “digital escort” position, the tech employees being hired to do the supervising lacked the adequate tech expertise to prevent a rogue Chinese employee from hacking the system or turning over classified information to the CCP. The sources elaborated that the escorts, often former military personnel, were hired for their security clearances more than their technical abilities and often lacked the skills to evaluate code being used by the engineers they were supervising. In China, people are governed by sweeping laws compelling government cooperation with data collection efforts. “If ProPublica’s report turns out to be true, Microsoft has created a national embarrassment that endangers our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. Heads should roll, those responsible should go to prison and Congress should hold extensive investigations to uncover the full extent of potential compromise,” said Michael Lucci, the CEO and founder of State Armor Action, a conservative group with a mission to develop and enact state-level solutions to global security threats. “Microsoft or any vendor providing China with access to Pentagon secrets verges on treasonous behavior and should be treated as such.” “This is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse and arming the chickens with sticks in case the fox gets mad,” Michael Sobolik, a Hudson Institute foreign policy senior fellow, added. “It beggars belief.” CHINA TARGETS US MILITARY MEMBERS IN OVERSEAS SPY OPERATIONS, FORMER CIA STATION CHIEF WARNS Microsoft uses its escort system to handle sensitive government information that falls below “classified,” which includes “data that involves the protection of life and financial ruin,” ProPublica reported. At the Defense Department, the data is categorized as “Impact Level” four and five, which ProPublica reported includes materials directly supporting military operations. A Microsoft spokesperson defended the company’s “digital escort” model, saying all personnel and contractors with privileged access must pass federally approved background checks. “For some technical requests, Microsoft engages our team of global subject matter experts to provide support through authorized U.S. personnel, consistent with U.S. government requirements and processes,” the spokesperson added. “In these instances, global support personnel have no direct access to customer data or customer systems.” The Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) public information office was initially unaware of the program when ProPublica began asking questions about it, but it eventually followed up to point out that “digital escorts” are used “in select unclassified environments” at the Defense Department for “advanced problem diagnosis and resolution from industry subject matter experts.” Fox News Digital reached out to the DISA and DOD but did not immediately receive a response. In 2023, Chinese hackers infiltrated Microsoft’s cloud servers and stole data belonging to senior U.S. government officials, including data and emails from the commerce secretary, the U.S. ambassador to China and others involved in national security work. Hackers were able to access tens of thousands of emails from the Defense Department. A postmortem from the federal Cyber Safety Review Board, which has since been disbanded, cited Microsoft security failures that allowed hackers to infiltrate the cloud. However, the after-incident report did not include any links to the “digital escort” program, according to ProPublica. Microsoft said in response to the recent ProPublica report that it considers “anyone” with access to sensitive government systems, no matter their location or role, a potential risk. “We establish layers of mitigation at the platform level with security and monitoring controls to detect and prevent threats. This includes approval workflows for system changes and automated code reviews to quickly detect and prevent the introduction of vulnerabilities,” a company spokesperson told Fox News Digital. The spokesperson added that Microsoft adheres to the federal security requirements outlined by the Defense Department and the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, which was established in 2011 to address the risks associated with moving from entirely government-controlled servers, to cloud-based computing. “This production system support model is approved and regularly audited by the U.S. government,” the spokesperson concluded. Still, if the ProPublica allegations are true, Lucci says the federal government should cease its work with Microsoft. “If these [ProPublica] allegations are credible, the federal government should never again rely on Microsoft to protect the data that keeps our men and women in uniform safe, especially given Microsoft’s extensive record of being compromised by the CCP,” Lucci said Monday. “Our military cannot operate in security and secrecy if a vendor repeatedly and intentionally invites the enemy into the camp.”
Border crossings plummet to historic lows; Trump’s enforcement policies yield big results
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported the lowest number of border crossings in recorded history in June. Nationwide, there were 25,228 CBP encounters, the lowest monthly number the agency has recorded, including a “historical low” of 8,024 apprehensions. Encounters include legal ports of entry, whereas apprehensions are arrests of those coming into the United States illegally. At the southern border alone, there were only 6,072 apprehensions in June, which is “15% lower than the previous March record.” June also brought along the lowest number of apprehensions in a day on June 28 with just 136. ‘TRUMP EFFECT’ TOUTED AS SOUTHERN BORDER NUMBERS STAY LOW, INCLUDING NEW RECORD “From shutting down illegal crossings to seizing fentanyl and enforcing billions in tariffs, CBP is delivering results on every front. Under this administration, we are protecting this country with relentless focus, and the numbers prove it.” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a press release Wednesday. Like May, there were no parole releases, compared with 27,766 in 2024.. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE On drug seizures, the department said there was a 3% uptick from last month in fentanyl seizures, with 742 pounds confiscated. Notably, there was a 102% increase in meth seizures from May, a 19% increase in heroin seizures and a 9% increase in cocaine seizures. According to the press release, CBP has also collected $108.9 billion in “all tariffs, taxes and fees,” specifically noting the tariffs imposed by the president. NEW DATA REVEALS BORDER CROSSINGS REACH RECORD LOWS AMID TRUMP ADMIN’S CRACKDOWN TEXAS BORDER SHERIFF SAYS ILLEGAL CROSSINGS HAVE SEEN ‘DRAMATIC DECLINE’ AS CA MIGRANT CENTER SHUTS DOWN Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls told Fox News Digital the change has been “peaceful” after a major strain on local resources, like the regional hospital, while crossings were soaring. Earlier Wednesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced there was an 830% increase in assaults on ICE agents from last year. This comes as both border and immigration policies have seen major shifts in recent months since the border crisis under the Biden administration. “This new data reflects the violence against our law enforcement in cities across the country in the last few weeks. Politicians across the country, regardless of political stripe, must condemn this,” Noem posted to X. BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN REVEALS UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS IN TRUMP’S BORDER STRATEGY As for Border Patrol, a gunman was killed and a local police officer was injured in a shooting in McAllen, Texas. ICE also recently faced a riot at the Prarieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where 12 individuals are facing charges, including some for attempted murder of federal officers. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP While the border is considered much quieter, protests and riots against federal immigration authorities amid mass deportation efforts have continued. Democrats in Congress recently introduced the VISIBLE Act to prevent agents from wearing face coverings in most instances and require visible identification. “When federal immigration agents show up and pull someone off the street in plainclothes with their face obscured and no visible identification, it only escalates tensions and spreads fear while shielding federal agents from basic accountability,” Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said in a statement July 8.
‘My heart is broken’: Indigenous Australians lose landmark climate case
Federal court says government not obliged to shield residents of Torres Strait Islands from the effects of climate change. Indigenous Australians living on a string of climate-threatened islands have lost a landmark court case to hold the government responsible for lacklustre emissions targets, dealing a blow to Indigenous rights in the country. Australia’s Federal Court ruled on Tuesday that the government was not obliged to shield the Torres Strait Islands from the effects of climate change. “The applicants have not succeeded in making their primary case in negligence. The Commonwealth did not and does not owe Torres Strait Islanders the duty of care alleged by the applicants in support of their primary case,” Justice Michael Wigney was quoted by SBS news outlet as saying in his ruling. Scattered through the warm waters off Australia’s northernmost tip, the sparsely populated Torres Strait Islands are threatened by seas rising much faster than the global average. Torres Strait elders have spent the past four years fighting through the courts to prove the government failed to protect them through meaningful climate action. “I thought that the decision would be in our favour, and I’m in shock,” said Torres Strait Islander Paul Kabai, who helped to bring the case. “What do any of us say to our families now?” Fellow plaintiff Pabai Pabai said: “My heart is broken for my family and my community.” In his decision, Justice Wigney criticised the government for setting emissions targets between 2015 and 2021 that failed to consider the “best available science”. But these targets would have had little effect on global temperature rise, he found. Advertisement “Any additional greenhouse gases that might have been released by Australia as a result of low emissions targets would have caused no more than an almost immeasurable increase in global average temperatures,” Wigney said. Australia’s previous conservative government sought to cut emissions by about 26 percent before 2030. The incumbent left-leaning government in 2022 adopted new plans to slash emissions by 40 percent before the end of the decade and reach net zero by 2050. Torres Strait Islanders and allies march during a protest in Melbourne, Australia, November 13, 2019 [File: EPA] Fewer than 5,000 people live in the Torres Strait, a collection of about 274 mud islands and coral cays wedged between Australia’s mainland and Papua New Guinea. Lawyers for traditional land owners from Boigu and Saibai – among the worst-affected islands – asked the court to order the government “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a level that will prevent Torres Strait Islanders from becoming climate refugees”. Sea levels in some parts of the archipelago are rising almost three times faster than the global average, according to official figures. Rising tides have washed away graves, eaten through huge chunks of exposed coastline, and poisoned once-fertile soils with salt. The lawsuit argued some islands would soon become uninhabitable if global temperatures rose more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The World Meteorological Organization has warned this threshold could be breached before the end of the decade. More than one billion people will live in coastal areas at risk of rising sea levels by 2050, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Global sea levels could rise by up to 60cm (24 inches) by the end of the century, even if greenhouse gas emissions are not dramatically reduced, it said. Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli forces bomb Syrian military after sectarian fighting
NewsFeed Israel’s military has carried out air attacks against Syrian forces sent to a southern region where sectarian fighting has left dozens of people dead. Israel says it was acting to protect the Druze community after gun battles in Suwayda. On Tuesday, the Syrian defence minister announced a ceasefire. Published On 15 Jul 202515 Jul 2025 Adblock test (Why?)
Australian activist sends “shoutout” to Tel Aviv embassy
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Aboard the flotilla to Gaza, activist Tania Safi slams Australia’s Tel Aviv embassy for urging her to drop the mission.
LoP Rahul Gandhi lashes out at S Jaishankar over meeting with Xi Jinping, says ‘EAM running full blown circus’
“I guess the Chinese foreign minister will come and apprise Modi about recent developments in China-India ties. The EAM is now running a full-blown circus aimed at destroying India’s foreign policy,” Rahul Gandhi wrote in a post on X.
Axiom-4 Dragon spacecraft lands safely on Earth, PM Modi welcomes Shubhanshu Shukla
The re-entry was done following the completion of the deorbit burn and the jettisoning of the trunk, as confirmed by SpaceX.