House Budget chairman explains why there’s no ‘pork’ in Trump tax bill after Elon Musk attacks
FIRST ON FOX: The chairman of the House Budget Committee is pushing back on Elon Musk’s claim that President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is full of “pork.” Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital it was not possible for “pork barrel spending” to be included in the legislation, called a budget reconciliation bill, because the reconciliation process was simply not the mechanism for such federal funds. “Reconciliation does not have anything to do with discretionary spending – earmarks, and all of that,” Arrington said. “And quite frankly, the [Department of Government Efficiency] findings were, I think, almost entirely an issue for . . . annual appropriations.” “Discretionary spending” refers to the annual dollars allocated by Congress each year through the appropriations process – also known as “spending bills.” HOUSE GOP TARGETS ANOTHER DEM OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF BLOCKING ICE AMID DELANEY HALL FALLOUT It’s a process that’s historically known to be rife with “pork barrel spending” from both Republicans and Democrats – funding for pet projects or other specific initiatives benefiting a certain member of Congress’ district. But reconciliation deals with the government’s “mandatory spending” – largely government welfare programs that can only be amended by changing the law. “We’re dealing with mandatory spending programs – entitlements, health care, welfare and the tax code,” Arrington said. “We did a responsible bill. There’s no pork in it. The question, I think, for some folks and the objective of mine and my budget committee members was, whatever we’re doing on tax or security to unleash growth and to buy greater security for the American people, we wanted it to be done in a fiscally responsible way.” Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller echoed that sentiment on X: “The reconciliation bill cuts taxes, seals the border and reforms welfare. It is not a spending bill. There is no ‘pork.’ It is the campaign agenda codified.” MIKE JOHNSON, DONALD TRUMP GET ‘BIG, ‘BEAUTIFUL’ WIN AS BUDGET PASSES HOUSE The vast majority of the trillions of dollars in the bill are aimed at Trump’s tax policies – extending his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) while implementing new priorities like eliminating taxes on tips and overtime wages. There’s also $4 trillion in House Republicans’ versions of the bill aimed at raising the debt limit. The legislation is also aimed at amending current laws to enable new funding for border security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – projected to boost those priorities by billions of dollars. To offset those costs, House GOP leaders are seeking stricter work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps, while shifting more of the cost burden for both programs to the states. Republicans are also looking to roll back green energy tax subsidies in former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). But Musk and other fiscal hawks’ main concern has been that the legislation does not go far enough with those spending cuts. They’ve also raised concerns about the overall bill adding to the national debt – which is currently nearing $37 trillion. As part of his social media campaign against the bill, Musk called for both eliminating the tax cuts and removing the debt limit increase from the final legislation. Musk reposted another X user who wrote, “Drop the tax cuts, cut some pork, get the bill through.” He’s also shown support on X for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and his call to strip the debt limit provision out of the bill. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has projected that the bill would cut taxes by $3.7 trillion while raising deficits by $2.4 trillion over a decade.
What are ‘crypto kidnappings’ and why are they on the rise?
Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan was renting a luxury New York townhouse for $40,000 a month, enjoying the fruits of his highly lucrative investments in cryptocurrency. But in May, his 17-room Manhattan home became a torture chamber in which he was held by kidnappers for 17 days. Carturan’s captors, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, who wanted access to his cryptocurrency accounts, used brutal methods in their bid to prise open Carturan’s Bitcoin wallet, purportedly containing some $28m worth of cryptocurrency. Among other torture methods, they hung him from the building’s roof, shocked him with electrical wires and threatened him with a chainsaw. When all else failed, they forced him to smoke crack cocaine. Ultimately, they were unsuccessful. After more than two gruelling weeks, Carturan managed to escape the townhouse and Woeltz and Duplessie were subsequently arrested and charged with kidnapping and assault. William Duplessie appears in Manhattan Criminal Court as an indictment is prepared to be handed down for his involvement in a cryptocurrency kidnapping, in New York City, on May 30, 2025 [Jefferson Siegel/Pool via Reuters] Carturan’s ordeal was one of the latest in a spate of “wrench attacks”, which include so-called “crypto kidnappings”, combining high-tech cybertheft with old-fashioned thuggery and have been taking place in several countries around the world. Have arrests for crypto kidnapping attacks been made elsewhere? Yes. On May 31, 26 people were charged for several attempted kidnappings of a top figure in France’s cryptocurrency world, French prosecutors said. Advertisement It was the culmination of a police investigation into an “attempted kidnapping by an organised gang” of the daughter and grandson of the CEO of crypto firm Paymium in Paris on May 13, and “other unsuccessful plans”, a failed attempt on the same targets the day before, and another attempt near the western city of Nantes on June 2. “Eighteen people have been placed in pre-trial detention, three have requested a deferred hearing, and four have been placed under judicial supervision,” the Paris public prosecutor’s office said, concerning the Paris attack. The suspects are all aged between 16 and 23. France has been the centre of several attacks on prominent crypto entrepreneurs in recent months. But crypto-linked kidnappings have occurred in other countries, too. A woman walks her dog on Rue Pache, near the location where a masked gang attempted to kidnap the daughter and grandson of a crypto businessman in Paris, France [Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters] Where else have crypto kidnappings taken place? In addition to the recent attempted abductions in Paris, a group of criminals kidnapped David Balland, cofounder of the cryptocurrency firm Ledger, and his wife in central France in January. In a particularly gruesome turn of events, the kidnappers cut off one of Balland’s fingers and sent the video of the mutilation to Ledger. Within two days, however, the French gendarmerie had freed both victims. Nine suspects are under criminal investigation in that case. In December 2024, the wife of crypto investor and influencer Stephane Winkel was kidnapped from the couple’s home in Belgium. She was rescued after her kidnapper crashed his car during a dramatic police chase. Advertisement Canada and Australia have also witnessed high-profile kidnappings, with crypto executives and traders abducted and forced to pay ransoms ranging from $40,000 to $1m in digital assets. It is unclear whether the recent spate of crypto kidnappings is connected in any way. What is cryptocurrency? Bitcoin, which began trading in January 2009, was the very first cryptocurrency. This form of monetary exchange allows people to bypass central banks and traditional payment methods. It is now a functioning, decentralised monetary system, with hundreds of millions of users worldwide. Bitcoin was first used in a transaction in 2009, valued at just $0.004 per Bitcoin. Yesterday, Bitcoin’s price closed at nearly $101,576 per Bitcoin – about 53 percent higher than a year ago, and nearly 2.5 trillion percentage points higher than in 2009. Initially, the digital currency was favoured by internet libertarians who were drawn to the idea that money should be free from government interference. It quickly gained more mainstream popularity, and the price has shot up. More recently, United States President Donald Trump has taken steps to mint several cryptocurrencies, meaning they would be included in a “Crypto Strategic Reserve”, boosting their price even more in the process. While cryptocurrency thefts are nothing new, they have historically involved hacking digital accounts holding large sums of the currency. In 2022, for instance, internet thieves stole an estimated $570m from Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. Advertisement But as Bitcoin and other digital assets continue to climb in value, criminals are shifting their efforts from online hacking to real-world extortion, via kidnappings and torture. How do criminals target victims in crypto kidnappings? Victims are not hard to find. Some crypto tycoons, many of whom are young men, have a habit of flaunting their wealth on social media or by appearing at cryptocurrency conferences, which allows criminals to easily identify targets. Many have continued to flaunt their wealth in spite of the 2016 Kim Kardashian kidnapping incident. The US reality TV star was tied up in her hotel room in Paris as robbers made off with millions of dollars worth of jewellery. The men – dubbed the “grandpa robbers” because of their ages – were later caught and sentenced to prison by a French court. That was not a crypto attack, but as more crypto tycoons have appeared, there is little to differentiate them from the fabulously wealthy like the Kardashians. Even those with large crypto wealth who are more cautious about displaying their wealth on social media and in public have been exposed to criminal activity via data breaches at cryptocurrency exchanges, however. In May 2025, Coinbase Global announced that hackers had managed to obtain personal information, including the home addresses of almost 70,000 customers in the previous few months, putting thousands at risk of attack or extortion. Besides hacking the accounts of crypto millionaires for this sort of information, criminals have also bribed insiders at crypto exchanges for
Trump v Musk: How did we get here?
[unable to retrieve full-text content] The US president and the world’s richest man appear to have fallen out, how did we get here?
US-backed GHF says Gaza aid sites remain shut as Israeli attacks kill 22
At least 22 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera, as the US-backed group distributing aid in the Palestinian territory said all its centres were closed until further notice. In northern Gaza, at least 10 people were killed in Israeli tank fire in Jabalia, local health authorities said. At least five people were killed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza when Israeli drones struck tents housing displaced people, medical sources said. A journalist who was wounded in an Israeli strike on Ahli Hospital on Thursday succumbed to their injures, raising the number of journalists killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war to 226, Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Friday. The office called on “all journalistic bodies in all countries of the world to condemn these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in the Gaza Strip”. “We also call on them to exert serious and effective pressure to stop the crime of genocide, protect journalists and media professionals in the Gaza Strip, and halt their killing,” it added. Advertisement Aid sites remain closed The attacks come as the US-backed group tasked with distributing aid in Gaza said its hubs would remain closed until further notice, despite a growing hunger crisis in the territory. Aid agencies have warned that all residents in Gaza face the threat of famine after Israel imposed a severe blockade on the territory in March, blocking the entry of food, medicine and fuel. Amid international pressure, Israel allowed some aid to enter Gaza last month, but aid groups have warned the amounts are inadequate. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a previously unknown group that is overseeing the aid distribution effort, advised people to stay away from the aid distribution hubs “for their safety”. GHF, which began distributing aid last week, said in a Facebook post on Friday that details about reopening would be announced later. Operations at the group’s aid distribution hubs were halted earlier this week following several incidents of deadly violence near the sites, in which Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian aid seekers. Only two sites distributed aid on Thursday. On Sunday, thousands of people headed towards the distribution site hours before dawn. As they approached, Israeli forces ordered them to disperse and come back later. When the crowds reached the Flag Roundabout, 1km (0.6 mile) away, at about 3am, Israeli forces opened fire, witnesses said. “There was fire from all directions, from naval warships, from tanks and drones,” said Amr Abu Teiba, who was in the crowd. Advertisement Goher Rahbour, a surgeon working in Gaza’s Khan Younis, told Al Jazeera that the bullets extracted from victims of the shooting near the aid distribution centre on Sunday were from M16 assault guns, consistent with those used by the Israeli military. “I operated on two patients and we removed M16 bullets from abdominal injuries,” Rahbour told Al Jazeera. “When I spoke to these patients, they were very clear to say they came from Israeli forces.” The surgeon also said hospitals were operating with little or no resources. “There is a lack of everything – antibiotics, swabs, surgical instruments,” he said. The GHF’s approach has been fiercely criticised by humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations. The GHF says private security contractors guarding its sites have not fired on crowds. Israel’s military has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 54,677 Palestinians and wounded 125,530, Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Thursday. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive. On Thursday, mediators Qatar and Egypt announced renewed efforts to secure a ceasefire deal based on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce and the entry of humanitarian aid. Previous ceasefire efforts have, however, repeatedly broken down over Israel’s rejection of key terms. In past rounds of negotiations, Israel has walked back commitments related to a permanent halt to the war and a full withdrawal of its troops from Gaza. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
Risch urges ‘top to bottom’ USAID spending review after waste, fraud exposed
Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said a thorough review of spending from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is warranted, following the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the agency. USAID was an independent agency to provide impoverished countries aid and offer development assistance, but the agency was upended since February when President Donald Trump installed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to oversee the organization amid concerns that USAID did not advance U.S. core interests. Since then, the agency has faced layoffs and is being absorbed into the State Department. This increased scrutiny on USAID spending is valid, according to Risch. “The amount of money that we’re spending on that has to be reviewed top to bottom,” Risch said during an event Wednesday at the Washington-based think tank the Hudson Institute. ‘FIRED ME ILLEGALLY’: EMOTIONAL EX-USAID EMPLOYEES LEAVE BUILDING WITH BELONGINGS AFTER MASS LAYOFFS Risch said that several weeks into the Trump administration, he and others, including Rubio, evaluated a list of programs that detailed $3 million in funding for “promotion of democracy in Lower Slobovia.” According to Risch, the description didn’t provide enough information and items like these are totaling up to billions of dollars that must undergo review. “Lower Slobovia” is a fictional place and a term used by Americans to describe an underdeveloped foreign country. “We can do so much better, not only in how, how much money we spend, but how we spend it,” Risch said. “So, if you say, well, we’re eliminating this program, be careful you don’t say, ‘Oh, that means we’re walking away from human rights.’ Look, America is human rights. If America leads the way on human rights. We are the world standard on human rights. We have no intention of giving that position up.” The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) targeted USAID in its push to eliminate wasteful spending. The agency came under fire for many funding choices, including allocating $1.5 million for a program that sought to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities” and a $70,000 program for a “DEI musical” in Ireland. ‘HYSTERIA’: WHITE HOUSE SHUTS DOWN CONCERNS OVER USAID DOCUMENT PURGE As a result, Rubio announced on March 11 that the State Department completed a six-week review and would cancel more than 80% of USAID programs — cutting roughly 5,200 of USAID’s 6,200 programs. Fox News Digital was the first to report later in March that the State Department planned to absorb the remaining operations and programs USAID runs so it would no longer function as an independent agency. The move means eliminating thousands of staff members in an attempt to enhance the existing, “life-saving” foreign assistance programs, according to a State Department memo that Fox News Digital obtained. NEXT US NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR? HERE’S WHOM TRUMP MIGHT PICK TO REPLACE WALTZ “Foreign assistance done right can advance our national interests, protect our borders, and strengthen our partnerships with key allies,” Rubio said in a March statement to Fox News Digital. “Unfortunately, USAID strayed from its original mission long ago. As a result, the gains were too few and the costs were too high.” “We are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens,” Rubio said. “We are continuing essential lifesaving programs and making strategic investments that strengthen our partners and our own country.” Meanwhile, Democrats slammed the restructuring of the agency, labeling the move “illegal.” “Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s destruction and dismantling of USAID is not only disastrous foreign policy and counter to our national security interests; it is plainly illegal,” the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said in a statement in March. “Congress wrote a law establishing USAID as an independent agency with its own appropriation, and only Congress can eliminate it.”
Elon Musk may speak to Trump aides in push to calm feud
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk may speak to White House aides Friday in an effort to calm his ongoing feud with President Donald Trump, Fox News Digital has learned. Musk and Trump have been arguing over social media in recent days. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Seven times federal judges ruled against the Trump admin this week
Federal judges are continuing their pushback against the Trump administration by issuing orders blocking a number of actions, including the deportation of the family of Mohamed Soliman, who is facing a hate crime charge in the wake of a firebombing attack in Colorado. The rulings – some from judges appointed under the Biden administration – come after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that “President Trump had more injunctions in one full month of office in February than Joe Biden had in three years.” “The real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch, where district court judges in liberal districts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump’s basic executive authority,” Leavitt also has said. Here are seven cases in which federal judges ruled against the Trump administration this week: A Biden administration-appointed federal judge in Colorado on Wednesday halted the deportation of the wife and five children of Mohamed Soliman, the Egyptian national under federal investigation for the Boulder firebombing attack on Sunday. The temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher prevents federal immigration authorities from removing Soliman’s wife, Hayem El Gamal, and the couple’s five children from the country, at least for now. TRUMP FOE JUDGE BOASBERG RULES DEPORTED MIGRANTS CAN CHALLENGE REMOVALS, IN BLOW TO ADMINISTRATION The ruling will remain in effect until a scheduled hearing on June 13. It came after El Gamal’s friend, Susanna Dvortsin, sought emergency legal protection for the family and argued that they faced imminent deportation by the Trump administration without the opportunity to present their case in court. According to Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, citing sources, El Gamal and her five children have all overstayed their visas. However, an asylum application had already been submitted on their behalf by Soliman. A federal judge granted a request Wednesday from more than a dozen major news outlets and publishers to unseal certain records in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian migrant and alleged MS-13 member who was deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March in what administration officials have acknowledged was an administrative error. Separately on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis granted a request from Abrego Garcia’s legal team to file a motion for sanctions against the Trump administration. The one-two punch from Xinis could give plaintiffs new ammunition to pursue more formal punishments against the Trump administration if officials are found to have been acting in bad faith or knowingly defying court orders. The Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. A federal judge in Washington state on Tuesday granted Denver and other local governments a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s threats to withhold federal funding for transportation programs. Denver and dozens of other plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in May, claiming that the Trump administration’s threats to withhold an estimated $4 billion in critical federal grants exceed the Executive Branch’s authority and were thereby “unlawful and politically motivated funding conditions,” according to the injunction order. The judge ruled that the Trump administration likely violated the Separation of Powers doctrine, and that its threats to cut funding constitute harm. A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to restore millions of dollars in grant funding for AmeriCorps and to reemploy thousands of employees, ruling that the administration’s abrupt dismantling of the organization violated federal law. U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman agreed to reinstate thousands of terminated AmeriCorps employees across 24 U.S. states and D.C., which sued the administration earlier this year over the steep cuts to the agency ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. FEDERAL JUDGE RULES AGAINST TRUMP ORDER HALTING SEX CHANGE PROCEDURES IN PRISONS She also ordered the Trump administration to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in congressionally approved funding for AmeriCorps programs, which were also slashed by DOGE earlier this year. A federal judge on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order that stops the Trump administration from closing Job Corps centers. The motion, filed by the National Job Corps Association, was to stop the Department of Labor’s closure of 99 Job Corps campuses nationwide, according to a news release. Job Corps was created by Congress in 1964 and allows 16- to 24-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds to obtain high school diplomas or an equivalent, vocational certificates and licenses, and on-the-job training. The program currently serves about 25,000 people at 120 Job Corps centers run by contractors. When the Department of Labor announced it was pausing Job Corps center operations, it said the program was not cost-effective, had a low graduation rate and was not placing participants in stable jobs. The department also said there had been thousands of instances of violence, drug use and security breaches at Job Corps centers. A federal judge in Oregon on Tuesday issued an order barring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from removing a Mexican asylum seeker from a Washington detention facility, according to local reports. The migrant, a 24-year-old transgender woman identified as “O-J-M” in court documents, was arrested outside a Portland courtroom on Monday and transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio, a President Joe Biden appointee, also demanded that ICE provide the exact date and time of the removal from Portland and explain why it was deemed immediately necessary. A federal judge on Thursday issued a fresh order blocking ICE from arresting Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia University student whom the Trump administration is seeking to deport back to South Korea after she participated in an anti-Israel protest earlier this year, according to the Washington Post. The newspaper reported that federal agents first sought to detain Chung in March, yet were unable to locate her. She then sued to block them from doing so. “This is a win not just for Yunseo and for the legions of people who stand up for Palestinians and oppose the daily atrocities in Gaza
EXCLUSIVE: Bill strengthening ‘special relationship’ with UK military introduced on D-Day
EXCLUSIVE: Just in time for the 81st anniversary of D-Day, a House Republican is introducing a bill to allow greater military technology sharing between the United States and the United Kingdom, promising “we will never forget their friendship.” Titled the Special Relationship Military Improvement Act of 2025, Rep. Mark Green said his bill is meant to further build up the U.S.’s relationship with one of its closest allies. Green asserted that in the current climate of escalating global conflict and tension, sharing technological advances with America’s closest allies is “crucial.” “On the 81st anniversary of D-Day, I’m reintroducing the Special Relationship Military Improvement Act of 2025,” the Tennessee Republican said in a statement announcing the bill. “Our nation can never forget the sacrifice of thousands of Allied soldiers who lost their lives on D-Day and the invasion of Normandy. The price they paid ensured that millions could live free from tyranny. And the best way to commemorate this momentous day is to strengthen our partnership with the United Kingdom—and that’s exactly what this bill does,” he said. CHALLENGES POSED BY TRUMP AND PUTIN PUSH UK TO ADOPT NEW NATO FIRST DEFENSE POLICY Under the current rules of International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), advances in military technology are the U.S.’s exclusive property when sold to the government. Although Canada is granted exemptions under this regulation, the United Kingdom currently is not. Green’s bill would amend the Arms Export Control Act to add an exemption for sharing military technology with the United Kingdom as well. Green called the practice of sharing advancements in American military technology with close allies “common sense.” “The U.S. and the U.K. work together in almost every aspect to share intelligence, fight terrorism around the globe, and ensure that, through our combined military strength, the world can enjoy unprecedented peace,” he said. TRUMP BANS TRAVEL TO US FROM SEVERAL COUNTRIES TO BLOCK ‘DANGEROUS FOREIGN ACTORS’ Green also said that as a veteran and former commander in the 82nd Airborne Division, which made the jump on D-Day, the anniversary “is very personal to me.” He also shared he was “honored” to join several other veterans in Congress in jumping out of original C-47 transport planes over Normandy in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day in 2024. “American and British soldiers have fought shoulder to shoulder for over 100 years,” Green said. “There are no better warriors to fight alongside the United States. Our friendship cannot be overstated.” BRITISH PM KEIR STARMER MOVES UK MILITARY INTO ‘WAR-FIGHTING READINESS’ In a statement to Fox News Digital Green added that “on the beaches of Normandy, it was British soldiers who ran in the sand alongside Americans” and that “when we were attacked on 9/11, it was the United Kingdom that sent soldiers into Afghanistan to help us destroy al-Qaeda and the Taliban that gave them safe haven.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE “We will never forget their friendship in our time of need,” he said, adding: “With global threats increasing, sharing technology is crucial.”
Delhi CM Rekha Gupta receives death threat, probe underway
Delhi Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rekha Gupta received a death threat via a phone call made to the Ghaziabad PCR.
Texas reined in recreational THC for more medical marijuana this legislative session
Texas passed sweeping changes to cannabis policy, including expanding the medical marijuana program and banning hemp products, while also boosting psychedelics research.