海角大神

House GOP pushed Trump鈥檚 big bill closer to a vote. Up all night, House Republicans voted pre-dawn to advance President Donald Trump鈥檚 tax and spending cuts package. The House is now starting a round of debates ahead of a final vote expected later Thursday morning. GOP leaders worked almost around the clock trying to persuade skeptical holdouts. Some GOP lawmakers are criticizing the legislation as straying from the party鈥檚 fiscal goals. 鈥� The Associated Press
Our coverage: We looked at what the bill means for taxpayers.听

Wisconsin鈥檚 Supreme Court struck down an abortion ban. A liberal majority ruled 4-3 on Wednesday that the 176-year-old ban is no longer valid because newer abortion restrictions superseded it. The ban was in effect until 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nullified it, and it was never repealed. Conservatives argued that the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 2022 decision to overturn Roe reactivated it. 鈥� AP
Our coverage: In March, we reported on the high-stakes state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin and its national ramifications.

A judge blocked Trump鈥檚 ban on asylum at the Mexico border. A federal judge said Wednesday that an order by President Trump suspending asylum access at the southern border was unlawful, throwing into doubt one of the key pillars of the president鈥檚 plan to crack down on migration at the southern border. The Trump administration has two weeks to appeal. The ruling comes after illegal border crossings have plummeted. 鈥� AP

Kilmar Abrego Garcia recounted torture in notorious El Salvador prison.听He said he faced severe beatings, sleep deprivation, and psychological torture in the prison the Trump administration deported him to in March, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Mr. Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland when he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and became a flashpoint in President Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown. After being returned to the United States, he is awaiting trial on criminal charges. 鈥� AP

Haiti鈥檚 gangs have 鈥渘ear total鈥� control of the capital. Senior U.N. officials estimate 90% of Port-au-Prince is now under control of criminal groups who are expanding attacks not only into surrounding areas but beyond. Gangs have grown in power since the assassination of President Jovenel Mo茂se in July 2021, with authorities struggling to stop escalating violence across the impoverished Caribbean nation. 鈥� AP

Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement in Trump lawsuit. The president filed a $10-billion lawsuit against CBS in October, alleging the network deceptively edited an interview that aired on its 鈥�60 Minutes鈥� news program with then-vice president and presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Paramount, the parent company of CBS, said it would allocate the money to Mr. Trump鈥檚 future presidential library, and not pay him 鈥渄irectly or indirectly.鈥� 鈥� Reuters
Our coverage: President Trump is battling a slew of lawsuits. Here鈥檚 an overview of how courts are responding.

Since the Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran last month, optimism has grown that the Middle East may be on the cusp of historic change. American President Donald Trump has called for a 60-day truce in the war in Gaza, the longest conflagration in a century of Israeli-Palestinian hostilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due in Washington next week. His government, meanwhile, is seeking to establish diplomatic ties with Syria and Lebanon.听

The legislation Republicans hope to pass this week to enact President Donald Trump鈥檚 policy agenda would cut Medicaid to offset proposed tax cuts and other spending priorities. Changing eligibility requirements to that cornerstone health care safety net for poorer Americans would come at a time when two-thirds of those grappling with opioid addiction rely on the social benefit for treatment.

As I sit working in this Parisian caf茅, any last romantic notions of a life abroad in France have gone down like a lead balloon. There is no air conditioning, my legs are stuck to these cheap leather seats, and there is nary a fan in sight. But saying to a French person that you yearn for air conditioning is enough to get yourself banned from social gatherings here for the rest of your life. At this point, I鈥檓 willing to try anything. In the meantime, if you need me, I鈥檒l be in the frozen-food aisle.

According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (yes, that鈥檚 a thing), Americans eat more than 20 billion hot dogs each year. July is National Hot Dog Month. On Friday, July Fourth, we鈥檒l thumb our noses at tyranny by eating about 150 million of what the folks down in Texas call tube steaks. Much like America itself, the hot dog is an idea 鈥撀燼 culinary act of pluralism. Declare your independence with the mustard of your choice.

Today鈥檚 essayist writes: The day my daughter Chloe turned 16 years old, I handed her a box. Inside was a 48-star American flag, folded into a square. 鈥淵our great-grandfather wanted you to have this today,鈥� I said. Like many Americans today, he and I sharply disagreed on politics and what our country represents. But staring at the flag anew recently, I felt a glimmer of hope. Like my memories of him, the colors hadn鈥檛 faded at all. The stitches holding the red and white stripes together held firm, and the proud stars pierced through a sea of blue, waiting for someone to believe in them again.

Colombia鈥檚 political foundations, as well as its ability to quell armed rebel groups, are under severe stress. An assassination attempt on a presidential candidate, followed by an alleged plot to overthrow the country鈥檚 first left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, has jolted the nation. Yet the Latin American country鈥檚 commitment to democracy is holding so far.

鈥淲e are a country that has bled, but also one that has built,鈥� wrote Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia in the Miami Herald June 23, acknowledging a long history of civil war and political violence. 鈥淎nd millions of Colombians still believe that ideas, not bullets, will shape our future.鈥�

After the June 7 shooting of Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay, a conservative running for president, both government and opposition leaders condemned the attack. 鈥淭his act of violence is an attack ... against democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia,鈥� President Petro鈥檚 office stated. Security forces arrested the 15-year-old gunman and others, but have not yet determined who ordered the attack or why.

Colombia has enjoyed a measure of peace since a landmark 2016 pact with the country鈥檚 then-main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known as FARC). Yet more than a dozen splinter cells are still active, many affiliated with drug and criminal cartels. Some groups recruit youth to participate in armed violence and targeted hits.

Political tensions have risen as Mr. Petro鈥檚 agenda to pass liberal reforms and negotiate with remaining rebels has faltered. After the assassination attempt, however, the Senate quickly passed the president鈥檚 labor reforms. And, after the revelations by El Pa铆s newspaper about an alleged plot to overthrow Mr. Petro, center and right-wing opposition politicians unanimously condemned such a notion.

Ordinary Colombians have no wish to see a return of the rampant political violence of the past. This experience is in part what鈥檚 driving a younger generation of political leaders to actively participate in shaping Colombia鈥檚 democracy. Several of them 鈥� such as Mr. Uribe, Sen. Mar铆a Jos茅 Pizarro, and Sen. Juan Manuel Gal谩n and his brother, Bogot谩 Mayor Carlos Fernando Gal谩n 鈥� lost a parent to killings during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

As security analyst Sergio Guzm谩n put it to the Miami Herald, 鈥淲hat the country really needs right now is a president who serves as a healer.鈥�