At least two dozen GOP lawmakers in the House have declared themselves open to rejecting the bill
Trump is seeking final approval in the
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RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Hamas seeks ceasefire guarantees as scores more are killed in Gaza
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas, Reuters A woman carries a plastic container at Mustafa Hafez school, sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war, after the school was hit during an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City, on July 3, 2025. Photo: AFP / Omar Al-Qattaa Hamas is seeking guarantees that a new US-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza would lead to the war's end, a source close to the militant group said on Thursday (local time), as medics said Israeli strikes across the territory had killed scores more people. Israeli officials said prospects for reaching a ceasefire and hostage deal appeared high, nearly 21 months since the war between Israel and Hamas began. Efforts for a Gaza truce gathered steam after the US secured a ceasefire to end a 12-day aerial conflict between Israel and Iran, but on the ground in Gaza intensified Israeli strikes continued unabated, killing at least 59 people on Thursday, according to health authorities in the territory. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said that Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalise a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which the parties will work to end the war. Hamas is seeking clear guarantees that the ceasefire will eventually lead to the war's end, the source close to the group said. Two Israeli officials said those details were still being worked out. Egyptian and Qatari mediators have been working to secure US and international guarantees that talks on ending the war would continue as a way of convincing Hamas to accept a two-month truce proposal, Egyptian security sources said. A senior Israeli official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said preparations were in place to approve a ceasefire deal. A separate source familiar with the matter said that Israel was expecting Hamas' response by Friday and that if it was positive, an Israeli delegation would join indirect talks to cement the deal. The proposal includes the staggered release of 10 living Israeli hostages and the return of the bodies of 18 more in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, an official familiar with the negotiations said on Thursday. Of the 50 remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 are believed to still be alive. Aid would enter Gaza immediately, and the Israeli military would carry out a phased withdrawal from parts of the enclave, according to the proposal. Negotiations would immediately start on a permanent ceasefire. "We sure hope it's a done deal, but I think it's all going to be what Hamas is willing to accept," US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Israel's Channel 12 on Thursday. "One thing is clear: The president wants it to be over. The prime minister wants it to be over. The American people, the Israeli people, want it to be over." Huckabee added that he would be taking part in talks next week at the White House, when Netanyahu is due to meet with Trump . US President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in Washington, DC, on 7 April, 2025. Photo: AFP In Gaza, there was no sign of immediate relief on Thursday. According to medics at Nasser Hospital, at least 20 people were killed by Israeli fire en route to an aid distribution site. Further north, at least 17 people were killed in an Israeli strike at a school in Gaza City, according to medics. The Israeli military said it targeted a key Hamas gunman operating there and that it took precautions to reduce risk to civilians. "Suddenly, we found the tent collapsing over us and a fire burning. We don't know what happened," one witness, Wafaa Al-Arqan, who was among the people sheltering there, told Reuters. "What can we do? Is it fair that all these children burned?" The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel on 7 October, 2023, killing 1200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent military assault has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, while displacing most of the population of more than 2 million, triggering widespread hunger and leaving much of the territory in ruins. Israel says it won't end the war while Hamas is still armed and ruling Gaza. Hamas, severely weakened, says it won't lay down its weapons but is willing to release all the hostages still in Gaza if Israel ends the war. -Reuters
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
The winners and losers of Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill'
By Matt Egan and Tami Luhby , CNN President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on 26 March. Photo: Francis Chung/Politico/Getty Images via CNN Newsource Analysis - President Donald Trump has promised that the "big, beautiful bill" passed by Congress will be one of the most successful pieces of legislation in American history. Of course, the ultimate beauty of this sweeping legislation is very much in the eye of the beholder. The bill could end up boosting some workers and industries, while others may be left worse off. Corporate America Big business groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable, applauded the Senate's passage of the bill on Tuesday. Corporations are betting they will benefit from the legislation making permanent the tax breaks in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The package would restore a tax break from the 2017 tax package that allowed businesses to fully write off the cost of equipment in the first year it was purchased. The incentive has been phasing out since 2023. Also, the legislation would once again allow businesses to write off the cost of research and development in the year it was incurred. The TCJA required that companies deduct those expenses over five years, starting in 2022. Manufacturers Manufacturers are especially happy that the bill would make significant changes to how the US tax code treats the construction of new manufacturing facilities. Businesses will be allowed to fully and immediately deduct the cost of building new manufacturing facilities. This temporary provision is retroactive to 19 January, 2025 and continues for construction that begins before 1 January, 2029. And in a bid to incentivise more chipmaking in America, the legislation would enhance tax credits for semiconductor firms building manufacturing facilities in the United States. Small businesses and partnerships The National Federation of Independent Business, the leading small business lobbying group, praised the legislation for making permanent a special deduction for the owners of certain pass-through entities who pay businesses taxes on their individual tax returns. That deduction, which applies to small businesses and partnerships formed by lawyers, doctors and investors, would get increased in the House version of the bill from 20 percent to 23 percent. The Senate bill kept it at 20 percent. High-income Americans The net income for the top 20 percent of earners would increase by nearly US$13,000 per year, after taxes and transfers, according to an analysis of a near-final version of the Senate bill by Penn Wharton Budget Model. That amounts to a 3 percent average increase in income for those households. For the top 0.1 percent of earners, the average annual income gain would amount to more than US$290,000, according to Penn Wharton. Americans living in high-tax states should also benefit because the bill temporarily increases limits on deductions for state and local taxes for householders making up to US$500,000 annually to US$40,000 per year for five years. However, millionaires who lose their jobs will not be able to collect unemployment benefits, according to a recent provision added to the Senate bill. Workers who receive tips and overtime Certain workers will receive an extra tax break through 2028. Employees who work in jobs that traditionally receive tips could deduct up to US$25,000 in tip income from their federal income taxes, while workers who receive overtime could deduct up to US$12,500 of that extra pay. However, highly compensated individuals, who make more than US$160,000 in 2025, would not qualify. Low-income Americans Many people at the lowest end of the income ladder would be worse off because the package would enact historic cuts to the nation's safety net program, particularly Medicaid and food stamps. Among the many changes to these programs would be the addition of federally mandated work requirements to Medicaid for the first time in its 60-year history and the expansion of the work mandate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the formal name for food stamps. Parents of children ages 14 and up are among those who would have to work, volunteer, take classes or participate in job training to keep their benefits. Millions of low-income Americans are expected to lose their benefits because of the work requirements and the bill's other measures affecting Medicaid and food stamps. Notably, few of those dropped from Medicaid coverage would have access to job-based health insurance, according to a Congressional Budget Office report about the House version of the package. Those in the lowest-income group, earning less than US$18,000 a year, would see a US$165 reduction in their after-tax, after-transfer income, once the safety net cuts are taken into account, according to Penn Wharton. That's a 1.1 percent decrease. The next level, who earn between US$18,000 and US$53,000, would get a US$30 bump in income, or 0.1 percent. Middle-income households would see their income rise by US$1.430, or 1.8 percent. They earn between US$53,000 and US$96,000. The health provisions won't only hit low-income Americans. The Senate is also tightening verification requirements for the Affordable Care Act's federal premium subsidies, which could also leave some middle-income Americans uninsured. All told, the bill could result in more than 10 million more people being uninsured in 2034, according to a CNN analysis of the bill and CBO forecasts. Hospitals Hospitals are not happy with the health care provisions of the bill, which would reduce the support they receive from states to care for Medicaid enrollees and leave them with more uncompensated care costs for treating uninsured patients. "The real-life consequences of these nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts - the largest ever proposed by Congress - will result in irreparable harm to our health care system, reducing access to care for all Americans and severely undermining the ability of hospitals and health systems to care for our most vulnerable patients," said Rick Pollack, chief executive of the American Hospital Association. The association said it is "deeply disappointed" with the bill, even though it contains a US$50 billion fund to help rural hospitals contend with the Medicaid cuts, which hospitals say is not nearly enough to make up for the shortfall. Clean energy and EVs The Senate removed a last-minute excise tax on wind and solar that experts warned would have been a "killer" for the clean energy industry. However, the Senate bill still strips tax incentives for wind, solar and other renewable energy projects by 2027 and gives developers stringent requirements to claim them. The American Clean Power Association slammed the legislation as a "step backward for American energy policy" that will eliminate jobs and raise electric bills. Electric vehicle makers could also be left worse off because the GOP bill ends EV tax credits of up to US$7500 at the end of September. Previously those tax credits were scheduled to last through 2032, providing a powerful incentive for car buyers. Deficit hawks The Senate version of the package would increase the deficit by about US$3.4 trillion over the next decade, according to CBO. Adding trillions to the debt risks lifting already elevated interest rates. That in turn will make it more expensive for Americans to finance the purchase of a car or a home and for businesses to borrow money to grow. Not only that, but higher rates would force the federal government to devote even greater resources to finance its own mountain of debt. The CBO expects US federal government interest costs to surpass US$1 trillion per year. US spending on interest has already more than tripled since 2017, surpassing what the federal government's entire defense budget. - CNN
NZ Herald
an hour ago
- NZ Herald
House passes tax and immigration bill, sending it to Trump's desk
Republicans on Thursday notched the first major legislative victory of President Donald Trump's second term, a mammoth tax and immigration agenda the GOP hopes will reshape the US economy and unwind many of the Biden administration's accomplishments. The House, in a 218 to 214 vote, passed Trump's so-called 'One Big
