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Sky News
03-08-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
New US plan for Gaza starting to emerge despite sanitised tour for Trump peace envoy
We've seen this many times before. Highly anticipated talks and meetings with America, Israel's closest ally and the one country with the power to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change course, then nothing changes. We need to give Steve Witkoff time to report his assessments back to the White House before we can give a complete verdict on this visit but what we've seen and heard so far has offered little hope. The pressure on Donald Trump to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is mounting after a small but vocal contingent of his base expressed outrage. Even one of his biggest supporters in Congress, Marjorie Taylor Green, has referred to it as a genocide. It was little coincidence Mr Witkoff was dispatched to the region for the first time in three months to speak to people on both sides and "learn the truth" to quote US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who accompanied him to an aid site in Gaza. 1:56 The pair spent five hours in Gaza speaking to people at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation centre and it's understood saw nothing of the large crowd of Palestinians gathering a mile away waiting for food. Their sanitised tour of Gaza did not include a visit to a hospital where medics are receiving casualties by the dozen from deadly incidents at aid sites, and where they're treating children for malnutrition and hunger. A critical trauma nurse at Nasser hospital told us a 13-year-old boy was among the people shot while Mr Witkoff was in the enclave. An American paediatrician at the same hospital who had publicly extended an invitation to meet with Mr Witkoff heard nothing from the US delegation. 2:12 Dr Tom Adamkiewicz described people "being shot like rabbits" and "a new level of barbarity that I don't think the world has seen". The US delegation was defensive of the controversial GHF aid distribution that was launched by America and Israel in May, hailing its delivery of a million meals a day. But if their new system of feeding Gaza is truly working, why are we seeing images of starved children and hearing deaths every day of people in search of food? The backdrop of this trip is very different to the last time Mr Witkoff was here. In May, life was a struggle for Palestinians in Gaza, people were dying in Israeli bombings but, for the most part, people weren't dying due to a lack of food or getting killed trying to reach aid. Mr Netanyahu's easing of humanitarian conditions a week ago, allowing foreign aid to drop from the sky, was an indirect admission of failure by the GHF. Yet, for now, the US is standing by this highly criticised way of delivering aid. A UN source tells me more aid is getting through than it was a week ago - around 30 lorries are due to enter today compared to around five that were getting in each day before. Still nowhere near enough and it's a complex process of clearances and coordination with the IDF through areas of conflict. Lorries are regularly refused entry without explanation. Then there was Mr Witkoff's meeting with hostage families a day later where we began to get a sense of America's new plan for Gaza. The US issued no public statement but family members shared conversations they'd had with Mr Trump's envoy: bring all the hostages home in one deal, disarm Hamas and end the war. Easier to propose than to put into practice. Within hours of those comments being reported in the Israeli media, Hamas released a video of hostage Evyatar David looking emaciated in an underground tunnel in Gaza. 0:55 Now 24 years old, he was kidnapped from the Nova festival on 7 October and is one of 20 hostages understood to be still alive. The release of the video was timed for maximum impact. Hamas also poured water on any hopes of a deal in a statement, refusing to disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established. Hamas has perhaps become more emboldened in this demand after key Israeli allies, including the UK, announced plans for formal recognition in the last week. It's hard to see a way forward. The current Israeli government has, in effect, abandoned the idea of a two-state solution. The Trump administration's recent boycott of international conferences on the matter suggests America is taking a similar line, breaking with its long-standing position. Arab nations could now be key in what happens next. In an unprecedented move, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt joined a resolution calling for Hamas to disarm and surrender control of Gaza following a UN conference earlier this week. This is hugely significant - highly influential powers in its own backyard have not applied this sort of pressure before. For all the US delegation's good intentions, it's still political deadlock. Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza left to starve and suffer the consequences.
Sky News
03-08-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Steve Witkoff's sanitised Gaza tour snubbed US doctor who said people being 'shot like rabbits'
We've seen this many times before. Highly anticipated talks and meetings with America, Israel's closest ally and the one country with the power to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change course, then nothing changes. We need to give Steve Witkoff time to report his assessments back to the White House before we can give a complete verdict on this visit but what we've seen and heard so far has offered little hope. The pressure on Donald Trump to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is mounting after a small but vocal contingent of his base expressed outrage. Even one of his biggest supporters in Congress, Marjorie Taylor Green, has referred to it as a genocide. It was little coincidence Mr Witkoff was dispatched to the region for the first time in three months to speak to people on both sides and "learn the truth" to quote US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who accompanied him to an aid site in Gaza. 1:56 The pair spent five hours in Gaza speaking to people at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation centre and it's understood saw nothing of the large crowd of Palestinians gathering a mile away waiting for food. Their sanitised tour of Gaza did not include a visit to a hospital where medics are receiving casualties by the dozen from deadly incidents at aid sites, and where they're treating children for malnutrition and hunger. A critical trauma nurse at Nasser hospital told us a 13-year-old boy was among the people shot while Mr Witkoff was in the enclave. An American paediatrician at the same hospital who had publicly extended an invitation to meet with Mr Witkoff heard nothing from the US delegation. 2:12 Dr Tom Adamkiewicz described people "being shot like rabbits" and "a new level of barbarity that I don't think the world has seen". The US delegation was defensive of the controversial GHF aid distribution that was launched by America and Israel in May, hailing its delivery of a million meals a day. But if their new system of feeding Gaza is truly working, why are we seeing images of starved children and hearing deaths every day of people in search of food? The backdrop of this trip is very different to the last time Mr Witkoff was here. In May, life was a struggle for Palestinians in Gaza, people were dying in Israeli bombings but, for the most part, people weren't dying due to a lack of food or getting killed trying to reach aid. Mr Netanyahu's easing of humanitarian conditions a week ago, allowing foreign aid to drop from the sky, was an indirect admission of failure by the GHF. Yet, for now, the US is standing by this highly criticised way of delivering aid. A UN source tells me more aid is getting through than it was a week ago - around 30 lorries are due to enter today compared to around five that were getting in each day before. Still nowhere near enough and it's a complex process of clearances and coordination with the IDF through areas of conflict. Lorries are regularly refused entry without explanation. Then there was Mr Witkoff's meeting with hostage families a day later where we began to get a sense of America's new plan for Gaza. The US issued no public statement but family members shared conversations they'd had with Mr Trump's envoy: bring all the hostages home in one deal, disarm Hamas and end the war. Easier to propose than to put into practice. Within hours of those comments being reported in the Israeli media, Hamas released a video of hostage Evyatar David looking emaciated in an underground tunnel in Gaza. 0:55 Now 24 years old, he was kidnapped from the Nova festival on 7 October and is one of 20 hostages understood to be still alive. The release of the video was timed for maximum impact. Hamas also poured water on any hopes of a deal in a statement, refusing to disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established. Hamas has perhaps become more emboldened in this demand after key Israeli allies, including the UK, announced plans for formal recognition in the last week. It's hard to see a way forward. The current Israeli government has, in effect, abandoned the idea of a two-state solution. The Trump administration's recent boycott of international conferences on the matter suggests America is taking a similar line, breaking with its long-standing position. Arab nations could now be key in what happens next. In an unprecedented move, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt joined a resolution calling for Hamas to disarm and surrender control of Gaza following a UN conference earlier this week. This is hugely significant - highly influential powers in its own backyard have not applied this sort of pressure before. For all the US delegation's good intentions, it's still political deadlock. Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza left to starve and suffer the consequences.
Forbes
24-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
As The Byrd Bath Continues, Here's A Look At What Will Likely Be Out Of The Big Beautiful Bill
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 23: U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) speaks to reporters after leaving the Senate Chambers in the U.S. Capitol on June 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by) Getty Images With less than a week remaining before U.S. Senators return to their home states for the summer, there is still work to do. The Senate has not yet passed a version of the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' (OBBBA), and once it does, it must precisely match the House-passed version to become law. Republicans in the Senate remain optimistic about their chances, but they first need to wait for the final word on what's allowed in the bill before voting. Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate Parliamentarian, has been reviewing the hundreds of pages in the proposed bill and has already flagged several problematic provisions that would be prohibited under the Byrd Rule. (You can find a summary of the House-passed version of OBBBA here.) Some of those getting thumbs down were expected, but others—including efforts to transfer the Space Shuttle from the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum to a nonprofit in Houston, Texas—were a surprise. The sheer number of 'extras' found to be unrelated to the budget in the Senate bill (shared by the House) gives you a good idea of the scope of the bill and how very likely it is that members of Congress have not completely read it, as confirmed by several members of Congress, including Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) in the House. The majority of provisions in the early stages that have been found to be in violation come from Sen. Tim Scott's (R-S.C.) Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, one of 20 Senate committees tasked with conducting Senate business related to specialized areas of legislative interest. Those included attempts to eliminate funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which Senate Republicans claim would save nearly $6.4 billion. The CFPB was established as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, following the 2008 economic crisis, to protect American consumers from financial fraud and bad actors. Republicans now opposethe CFPB, calling it another example of government overregulation. Another banking committee provision, one that would end the Treasury Department's Office of Financial Research (OFR), was also found to be in violation of the Byrd Rule. The creation of the OFR was also a result of the Dodd-Frank Act. The move to change Federal Reserve employees to a new pay scale calculated at just 70% of the pay of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) employees shouldn't be allowed in the final version of the bill, according to MacDonough. Finally, an effort to transfer the functions and duties of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to the Securities and Exchange Commission was also deemed inappropriate. The PCAOB was created by the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 to oversee the audits of U.S. public companies following the multi-billion-dollar accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom. (You can find out more about the Enron scandal and whistleblower Sherron Watkins here.) Environment At least three provisions from Sen. Shelley Moore Capito's (R-W.V.) Committee on Environment and Public Works are in line to be stricken. Those include efforts to repeal authorizations for Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) programs (this is separate from the clawback of unobligated IRA funds, which would not be prohibited), the repeal of Environmental Protection Agency vehicle tailpipe emissions rules for new cars put into service after 2027, and an attempt to amend the National Environmental Policy Act to prevent judicial reviews of environmental assessment or environmental impact statements when a one-time fast-track fee is paid (the fee provision may stand, but barring judicial review may not). Military Part of Roger F. Wicker's (R-Miss.) Armed Services Committee proposal would also have to be rewritten. As proposed, it would require the Defense Secretary to provide a plan explaining how previously approved funds would be spent, with quarterly updates, or face dramatic budget reductions of $100,000 per day—a move found to be in violation of the Byrd Rule. Judiciary An effort to limit the power of the courts was also deemed out of order. The controversial language, which Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) famously acknowledged he didn't know was in the bill when he voted for it, limits the ability of federal judges to hold government officials in contempt for flouting court rulings. Typically, if federal officials defy a court order, judges may hold them in contempt (that can look like fines, jail time, or other penalties to induce compliance), but as proposed, federal courts may not issue those contempt penalties against anyone who disobeys preliminary injunctions or temporary restraining orders if the party seeking the order did not post a monetary bond, or financial guarantee that would cover damages if a party is found to have been wrongfully enjoined. Since the federal government has far more resources than average citizens, this creates a potential hardship for those bringing actions, leaving judges with few options to demand compliance—and creating an imbalance of power. A provision limiting grant funding for 'sanctuary cities,' and cities where the Attorney General disagrees with states' and localities' immigration enforcement was found to be out of scope, as was language in this section that gives state and local officials the authority to arrest any noncitizen suspected of being in the U.S. unlawfully. Finally, a section that limits when the federal government can enter into or enforce settlement agreements that provide for payments to third parties was found to be subject to the Byrd Rule. Commerce, Science, and Transportation A provision that appropriates $250 million to Coast Guard stations significantly damaged by fire in 2025 (referring to South Padre Island, Texas) was found to be in violation, as was an effort to transfer the Space Shuttle currently on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum to a nonprofit in Houston, Texas. Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry The Parliamentarian ruled that a requirement for states to cover part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, with a growing contribution as error rates increase, violated the Byrd Rule. SNAP, sometimes referred to as food stamps, provides food assistance to low-income families to help with their grocery costs. Another effort to regulate SNAP, including removing eligibility for immigrants who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents, was found to be inappropriate under the Byrd rule. An extension of the suspension of permanent price support authority, which has traditionally been addressed in the Farm Bill, was found to be out of scope. The permanent price support authority dictates how the government supports the prices of certain agricultural commodities like corn, cotton, rice, and wheat, through loans, purchases, or other operations. A Surprise Save A proposed 10-year ban on state-level artificial intelligence (AI) regulations was found not to be subject to the Byrd Rule. Under the rule, states that establish their own AI regulations would risk losing access to federal broadband funds—a step intended to pull the provision into compliance with the Byrd Rule. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who voted for the bill in the House, later said she never would have voted for the provision, posting on X (formerly Twitter), 'Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years. I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there.' Why Does It Matter? Since agreeing on a final budget can be slow, to speed things up, the Senate often jumps straight to a process called reconciliation. Reconciliation is especially beneficial when one party has the majority (more than 50 votes) but not a filibuster-proof majority (60 votes). The process can be complicated, but generally, under reconciliation, the goal is to combine spending and revenue provisions into a single bill. Reconciliation bills are subject to special rules in the Senate. First, debate is limited to 20 hours, which can help a reconciliation bill get to a vote quickly. More importantly, the bill cannot be filibustered—the 60 votes necessary to stop a filibuster are not required. Republicans currently hold the majority in the Senate, with 53 seats, compared to the Democrats' 47 seats, including two independents (Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine) who caucus with the Democrats. The Byrd Rule Thanks to the Byrd Rule, named after the late Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), there are limits to reconciliation. For example, under the Byrd Rule, you can't tack on policy changes that are unrelated to the budget or have only 'incidental' effects on the budget. (Congress often tacks on extras to push potentially unpopular measures through on the coattails of government funding, but that's not allowed with reconciliation.) Also notable, any bill under reconciliation cannot increase the deficit beyond the fiscal years covered—that's usually limited to 10 years (and why tax cuts rarely last forever). To avoid violating the Byrd rule, key provisions of reconciliation bills—typically tax cuts—are written to expire. That's why certain provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)—like those lower income tax rates or the $10,000 limit on the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT)—will, unless they are renewed, 'sunset" at the end of 2025. They were passed originally with an expiration date—you can thank reconciliation and the Byrd Rule for that. The Byrd rule would also apply if a reconciliation bill recommended a change in Social Security. The Parliamentarian and The Byrd Rule Since the reconciliation rules can be tricky, the Parliamentarian is often called upon to determine what is—and isn't—allowed, especially when it comes to interpreting the Byrd Rule. If the Parliamentarian determines a provision in a bill violates the Byrd Rule, the provision must be removed from the bill unless the Senators vote to waive the rule—that requires 60 votes. The presiding officer of the Senate (currently J.D. Vance, since the Vice President serves as the presiding Officer of the Senate) can overrule the Parliamentarian, though this is extremely rare. And simply ignoring the Parliamentarian has the potential to become a political landmine. Keep In Mind It's important to note that these provisions aren't 'illegal'—they're violations of Senate rules. If the Senate opted out of reconciliation, the Byrd rule wouldn't apply, and the Senate would vote as it would on any other bill. It sounds like a simple solution, but there's one big problem: Republicans don't have enough votes to make that happen. The Senate Republicans currently hold a slim majority, and at least four of their 53 senators, have publicly expressed concerns over parts of the bill (they include Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski). And there's yet another complications: Changes forced by the Byrd rule could tip the balance of votes in the House—the original OBBBA passed with a squeaky close 215-214 vote. (Some of these provisions, if removed, could still return as stand-alone votes and be subject to the 60-vote filibuster.) Still In Dispute The Parliamentarian is still scrutinizing the bill, and more provisions are certain to get a look, including efforts to make Trump-era tax cuts permanent by relying on a 'current‑policy' baseline rather than current law, and provisions related to Medicaid. Check back as we continue to update this information accordingly. Forbes This Woman Could Block Some Controversial Parts Of Trump's Big Bill By Kelly Phillips Erb Forbes House Passes Trump Tax Bill After Marathon Session, Now It Moves To The Senate By Kelly Phillips Erb Forbes A Guide To The Tax Cuts In (And Out) Of Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' By Kelly Phillips Erb Forbes House And Senate Propose Form 1099 Reporting Relief For Gig Workers And Those Who Use Payment Apps Like PayPal For Business By Kelly Phillips Erb
The Independent
24-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Karoline Leavitt dismisses MAGA dissent on Iran while praising Trump for ‘steps towards peace'
Karoline Leavitt has responded to Republican criticism following Donald Trump 's strikes in Iran, claiming that the president is taking steps to "successfully implement peace in the Middle East.' Speaking to Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on Monday (23 June), the White House press secretary was grilled on discontent from high-ranking GOP figures, including Steve Bannon and Marjorie Taylor Green. Ms Leavitt said: 'One of the things that makes President Trump a great leader is his ability to listen to people with different perspectives but ultimately make a decision based on his own instinct and the intelligence that he saw.' The president is taking steps to forge a 'peaceful, prosperous Middle East', she added.
Telegraph
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Trump will not lose Maga support over bombing Iran. This is why
'I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?' Donald Trump boasted at an event in Iowa during his first campaign for president in 2016. 'It's, like, incredible.' Will he lose his Maga base after bombing Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities? Clearly he doesn't think so. On June 19 the president told journalists: 'My supporters are for me. My supporters are America First and Make America Great Again. My supporters don't want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon.' In the aftermath of the attack he ordered on Iran on June 21, Trump likely has Fifth-Avenue-style immunity from mutinies by most of his conservative populist supporters, in spite of their scepticism toward overseas military interventions. He is helped by the fact that the pundits and elected representatives who claim to speak for his Maga followers do not agree. There are hawks like the TV and radio pundit Mark Levin and advocates of restraint like Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Green. Tucker Carlson himself engaged in a harsh debate with Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz about U.S. policy toward Israel and the Middle East. Fox News leans toward the pro-war side. His former aide Steve Bannon, host of the popular podcast 'Bannon's War Room,' whom Trump invited to the White House before the attack, has urged restraint. But even without these divisions over Middle Eastern strategy on the populist Right, Trump has little reason to fear a significant loss of support. The reason is that Maga is not a creed or a movement with many leaders who share a common and well-understood set of principles; it is a cult of personality around a single charismatic leader. Charismatic presidents with cults of personality have existed in America's past. Their ranks include Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. (Lincoln and Kennedy were only deified in the public mind after their assassinations). Because he served an unprecedented four terms, FDR showed how powerful a cult of personality can be. Between his first inauguration in 1933 and his death during World War II in 1945, he abandoned or reversed policies many times. As a candidate in 1932, FDR denounced President Herbert Hoover for the 'reckless growth of government.' Once in power, however, he dramatically expanded the federal government's role in the economy and society. He promised to keep the U.S. out of World War II but made the U.S. a de facto co-belligerent of the UK and Soviet Union even before Pearl Harbour. He was a deficit hawk at times and a deficit dove at others. He backed anti-trust reformers in the 1930s then reined in government attacks on big businesses whose help was needed during the war. In spite of his inconsistency, FDR retained the loyalty of millions of Americans, particularly members of the working class majority. Trump's base, like that of FDR, is found among working-class whites, along with a growing number of working-class Hispanics and blacks. They don't follow disputes about the questionable constitutionality of many of his executive orders, but they approve of his campaigns to enforce border laws and take on the oppressive woke Thought Police in their journalistic and academic bastions. Charisma cannot be passed on when a charismatic president leaves office, as Jackson's successor Martin van Buren, TR's successor William Howard Taft, and FDR's successor Harry Truman found out. A cult of personality is a kind of celebrity worship, not a body of political or economic principles. On May 23, at an investment conference in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, Trump echoed the themes of the anti-interventionist Right and the anti-imperialist Left while condemning previous American administrations. 'In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built. And the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand.' Now he has carried out the long-sought goal of the neoconservatives who despised him and has bombed Iran; something that even George W. Bush refused to do. If Trump commits U.S. troops to an open-ended war with Iran, rather than limiting hostilities with Iraq to air strikes, some of his followers no doubt will defect, accusing him of betraying them by launching a new Forever War in the Middle East like Bush's Iraq war. Most of his followers, however, will stick with him – not only because of the rally-round-the-flag effect in war-time, but also because their loyalty is to him, not to a particular domestic agenda or foreign policy. Meanwhile, conservative pundits who fear losing access and favour no doubt will try to rationalise the apparent inconsistency of his policy toward Iran shows that Trump is playing a brilliant game of three-dimensional chess – 'peace through strength,' or something like that. In 1077, following his excommunication, Emperor Henry IV of the Holy Roman Emperor journeyed through the snow to Canossa Castle in Italy to beg forgiveness from Pope Gregory VII. On June 18 of this year, before the bombing and after he denounced the Trump administration for being 'complicit' in Israel's attacks on Iran, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson spoke to the president. Trump told reporters: 'He called and apologised the other day because he thought he said things that were a little bit too strong, and I appreciated that.' Following the strikes on Iran, Republican Representative Thomas Massie denounced them as unconstitutional and unnecessary: 'There was no imminent threat to the United States which is what would authorise that.' On Truth Social, his personal social media platform, Trump excommunicated him: 'Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is not Maga, even though he likes to say he is. Actually Maga doesn't want him, doesn't know him, and doesn't respect him.' Massie's excommunication, like Carlson's metaphorical road to Canossa, demonstrates that in the Church of Maga Donald Trump is both Emperor and Pope.
