First Thing: ‘Corrupt kleptocracy’ – Democrats furious over passage of Trump bill

House passes sweeping bill that will slash Medicaid and food stamps. Plus, Israel steps up Gaza bombing before ceasefire talks

Good morning.

The House of Representatives passed Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill by 218 to 214 votes yesterday, handing the president a significant legislative victory.

The Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, made an unsuccessful last-ditch effort to halt the bill’s passage by giving a floor speech lasting eight hours and 44 minutes, the longest ever. Among other things, the plan will increase immigration enforcement, cut social security, damage the green energy industry and extend and deepen the large-scale tax cuts – which benefit wealthy earners most – that Trump first enacted in 2017.

Democrats erupted in outrage over the bill’s passage. The congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Bluesky: “I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.”

• What will it mean for deportation policy? Thousands of new immigration enforcement officers, tens of thousands of extra detention beds, fees on asylum applications and further construction on the border wall. Here’s how Trump’s bill will supercharge mass deportations by funneling $170bn to Ice.

• What about social security? According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the welfare cuts will result in about 10.6 million people losing their Medicaid healthcare and 8 million people losing their Snap food stamp benefits.

• And the deficit? It comes with a huge price tag, increasing the deficit by $3.3tn through 2034, according to the non-partisan congressional budget Office. Most of that is the extension of the 2017 tax cuts.

Israel steps up deadly bombardment of Gaza before ceasefire talks

Israel has escalated its offensive in Gaza before imminent talks about a ceasefire, with warships and artillery launching one of the deadliest and most intense bombardments in the devastated Palestinian territory for months.

Medics and officials in Gaza reported that about 90 people were killed overnight and on Thursday by Israeli bombing, including many women and children. On Tuesday night and Wednesday the toll was higher, they said. Casualties included Marwan al-Sultan, a cardiologist and director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, who died in an airstrike that also killed his wife and five children.

In all, about 300 people may have been killed this week and thousands more injured, the officials say.

• What’s the latest on ceasefire talks? Hamas leaders are close to accepting a proposed deal for a ceasefire in Gaza but want stronger guarantees that any pause in hostilities would lead to a permanent end to the 21-month war, sources close to the group have said. Hamas officials met on Thursday in Istanbul to discuss the ceasefire proposals.

New book details how Obama criticized Biden’s re-election bid: ‘Your campaign is a mess’

Barack Obama sounded the alarm about Joe Biden’s ailing re-election attempt almost a year before polling day, warning his former vice-president’s staff “your campaign is a mess”, a new book reveals.

The former president’s intervention came amid tensions between the Obama and Biden camps as they braced for a tough fight against Donald Trump.

Obama’s prescient anxiety is captured in the forthcoming book 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, by the journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf.

• What does the book say? It says that at a lunch meeting with Biden in December 2023, Obama argued that dividing the campaign leadership between Wilmington and Washington was not suitable for the fast decision-making required in a modern presidential election. Obama allegedly bluntly told White House staff: “Your campaign is a mess.”

In other news …

• Tributes have poured in for the actor Michael Madsen, who died at home in Malibu after a cardiac arrest. The star of Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and Donnie Brasco was 67.

• A wildfire fanned by gale-force winds has forced the evacuation of more than 1,500 people on the Greek island of Crete, as swathes of continental Europe faced a continuing heatwave.

• Moscow confirmed a deputy commander of the Russian navy has been killed near the frontline with Ukraine. Maj Gen Mikhail Gudkov had previously led one of the military’s most notorious brigades.

• It came as Russia launched a devastating attack with a record number of drones and ballistic missiles on Kyiv, hours after Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone.

• The Liverpool soccer player Diogo Jota has been killed in a car accident in north-western Spain. He was 28, recently married and had three young children.

Stat of the day: US adds 147,000 jobs in June, surpassing expectations amid Trump trade war

The US economy added 147,000 jobs in June, surpassing expectations as economists largely anticipated a fall in openings. There were job gains in state government and healthcare of 47,000 and 39,000 respectively. But in the same month employment in federal government and the private sector fell, by 7,000 and 33,000 respectively.

Don’t miss this: Time blindness can explain chronic lateness – some of the time

The phrase “time blindness”, which can be a symptom of ADHD or other conditions such as anxiety or autism spectrum disorder, seems everywhere right now. But, asks Alaina Demopoulos, is it always a get-out-jail-free card? “Everyone has their slow days, but some TikTokers argue that people who are habitually 30 or 45 minutes late are claiming time blindness when in reality they’re being inconsiderate,” she writes.

Climate check: Extreme heatwaves may cause global decline in dairy production

Dairy production will be threatened by the increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves, suggests a study from researchers at the Universities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Chicago. Drawing on records from more than 130,000 cows over 12 years, the report suggests extreme heat reduces dairy cows’ ability to produce milk by 10%.

Last Thing: Banned hotdog champion Joey Chestnut returns for 4 July contest

Last year Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, 41, was excluded from entering Nathan’s annual hotdog-eating competition in New York City after he signed a deal with a rival plant-based meat company. But this year the world champion – who won the accolade for scoffing 83 dogs and buns in a single 10-minute period – returns, in pursuit of his 17th mustard belt.

Happy 4 July!

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