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• Declares America is ‘winning, winning, winning like never before’
• Democrats worry ‘big beautiful bill’ will slash health, welfare support
• New legislation poised to add $3.4tr to US deficit over 10 years

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed his flagship tax and spending bill into law, capping a grandiose White House Independence Day ceremony featuring a stealth bomber fly-by.

“America is winning, winning, winning like never before,” Trump said before signing the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” on Friday, flanked by Republican lawmakers who helped push it through Congress.

Trump also played down criticism by Democrats that the unpopular legislation will slash social welfare programmes, saying: “You won’t even notice it.”

With First Lady Melania Trump at his side, Trump watched from the White House balcony as two B-2 bombers — the same type that recently struck Iranian nuclear sites — roared overhead, accompanied by F-35 and F-22 fighter jets.

The 79-year-old’s victory lap came a day after Republicans fell into line and passed the sprawling mega-bill, allowing him to sign it as he had hoped on the Fourth of July holiday.

The bill honours many of Trump’s campaign promises: extending tax cuts from his first term, boosting military spending and providing massive new funding for Trump’s migrant deportation drive.

‘Never been anything like it’

The legislation’s signing caps two weeks of significant wins for Trump that have seen him tighten his grip on power and his party alike. The successes include the recent Iran-Israel ceasefire that was sealed after what he called the “flawless” US air strikes on Iran.

Pilots who carried out the bombing on Iran were among those invited to the White House event, which included a picnic for military families on the South Lawn.

“The last two weeks, there has never been anything like it, as far as winning,” said Trump.

Trump had however forced through the tax bill despite deep misgivings in the Republican Party that it would balloon the national debt. The legislation is expected to pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the US deficit.

It squeezed past a final vote in the House of Representatives 218-214 after Republican Speaker Mike Johnson worked through the night to corral the final group of dissenters. Trump thanked Johnson at the White House event, saying: “What a job.”

Democrats and many voters have meanwhile expressed concerns that the “big beautiful bill” will slash health and welfare support.

The bill will force through the largest cuts to the Medicaid health insurance programme for low-income Americans since its 1960s launch, while also shrinking federal food assistance programs.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2025

KABUL: Russia’s decision to formally recognise the Taliban government has been seen as an opening for a stronger economy by some Afghans, while others were sceptical that it would improve their lot.

Russia became the first country to acknowledge the Taliban authorities on Thursday, after a gradual building of ties that included removing their “terrorist organisation” designation and accepting an ambassador in recent months.

The Taliban authorities had not been recognised by any state in the nearly four years since sweeping to power in 2021, ousting the foreign-backed government as US-led troops withdrew after a two-decade war. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world and in a fragile recovery from four decades of conflict.

“With the current situation in Afghanistan, with all the challenges, everyone is worried. If the world recognises Afghanistan, we will be happy, currently, even the tiniest thing matters,” Gul Mohammad, 58, said on Friday in the capital Kabul.

Despite having bitter memories of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, when he “lost everything” and became a refugee in Pakistan, he acknowledges that “the priorities are different now”.

Jamaluddin Sayar, 67, predicted that “trade and economic prosperity will now blossom”. The retired pilot said other countries, “both western and eastern”, should recognise the government and “stop spreading propaganda against the Islamic Emirate”, using the Taliban authorities’ name for their administration.

Won’t ‘lead to anything’

Russian and Afghan officials praised the move as an opening for deeper cooperation, notably in economic and security arenas. Security concerns have been a key avenue for coordination between the Taliban authorities and the international community, amid fears Afghanistan would become fertile ground for increased militant activity.

The authorities have prioritised security and made repeated assurances that Afghan soil would not be used by any group to plan attacks on other nations. However, Pakistan’s ties with the Taliban authorities have been strained over a surge in militant activity since their takeover and last year, an attack claimed by the militant Islamic State group’s branch in Afghanistan killed 137 people in a Moscow concert hall.

In a country where dissent and protest is tightly controlled, some Kabul residents were afraid to openly criticise the Taliban authorities. Atef, not his real name, was unconvinced better relations between Afghanistan and Russia would improve the livelihoods of ordinary Afghans.

“I think Afghanistan will fall into the traps of the Russians again, the issues and challenges will increase, and there is nothing that can help ordinary people,” the unemployed 25-year-old said. “People are struggling, and they will still struggle with or without the recognition.”

For Afghan women’s rights activists, particularly those who have advocated for isolating the Taliban government, the recognition was seen as a setback that “legitimises” restrictions on women.

Norway-based Afghan women’s rights activist Hoda Khamosh was defiant against the impact of the Russian move. “Human rights organisations right now are trying to recognise gender apartheid in Afghanistan because the Taliban are a repressive regime against women,” she said. “Therefore, these recognitions will not lead to anything.”

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2025

BEIRUT: Lebanon said one person was killed and six wounded on Saturday in a series of Israeli strikes in the south despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

An “Israeli enemy drone strike on a vehicle” in the town of Bint Jbeil “killed one person and wounded two”, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement carried by the official National News Agency (NNA).

The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces “struck and eliminated” an operative from Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in the area. The health ministry also reported one person wounded in a drone strike on another car in the same town, and two others seriously wounded in a similar raid on a vehicle in nearby Shaqra.

Also on Saturday, the ministry reported that a separate Israeli drone strike wounded one person in Shebaa, elsewhere in the south, with NNA reporting that a house was targeted.

Israel has kept up its bombardment of Lebanon since a Nov 27 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of all-out war that left the Iran-backed group severely weakened.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2025

HUNT: Rescuers searched on Saturday for 27 girls missing from a riverside summer camp in the US state of Texas, after torrential rains caused devastating flooding that killed at least 27 people — with more rain on the way.

“So far, we’ve evacuated over 850 uninjured people, eight injured people and have recovered 27 deceased fatalities at this time,” said Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha, adding that nine children were among the dead.

Addressing a press conference, Kerrville city official Dalton Rice said hundreds of people were taking part in rescue operations, many of these via helicopter. “One thing I want to tell you and assure y’all is that we will not stop till every single person is found,” said Leitha.

The flooding began Friday as months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours, causing the Guadalupe River to rise by 26 feet (eight meters) in 45 minutes.

7 girls missing from riverside summer camp

The National Weather Service warned of more extremely heavy rain and “locally catastrophic” flash flooding to come in the region, located northwest of San Antonio.

In Kerrville on Saturday, the usually calm Guadalupe River was flowing fast, its murky waters filled with debris. “It rained in a day what it usually rains in a year,” said local resident Gerardo Martinez, 61. “The water reached the top of the trees. About ten meters or so,” he added.

“Cars, whole houses were going down the river. That was pretty bad.” Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual.

But scientists say that in recent years human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events like floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense.

‘Still missing’

A massive rescue operation began on Friday, with around 500 personnel and 14 helicopters helping in the search for survivors. On Saturday, city official Rice said 27 children from the Camp Mystic Christian summer camp in the flooded Kerr County were still missing.

US media reported that two of the missing girls were dead, citing their families. The missing were among the roughly 750 children at Camp Mystic, a girls summer camp along the banks of the Guadalupe River.

The Heart O’ The Hills summer camp, located about a mile away from Camp Mystic, confirmed on Saturday that its director Jane Ragsdale was among the dead.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signed a disaster declaration to boost resources for counties in the region, and President Donald Trump has promised federal support.

Trump said his Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, would visit the affected area on Saturday.

‘Boots on the ground’

Rice said that rescuers were facing “very difficult” conditions. “We did start boots on the ground operations about 8am this morning,” he said, warning residents not to launch their own searches. “They are going to be in very debris-ed terrain, very difficult, challenging contours along the river banks.” Rice added that it was not known how many people may have been visiting the popular camping area, and declined to give an overall figure for how many people were missing.

State and local officials warned against residents traveling to the area, which includes campgrounds dotted along the river, with dozens of roads impassable. Videos on social media showed houses and trees swept away by the flash flood caused by heavy overnight rain of up to 12 inches — one-third of Kerr County’s average annual rainfall.

Governor Abbott shared a video on X of a victim being plucked from the top of a tree by a rescuer dangling from a helicopter, as floodwaters raged below.

Soila Reyna, 55, a Kerrville resident who works at a local church helping people who lost their belongings, witnessed the devastation unfold. “It has been years since we had a flood, but nothing like this,” Reyna said.

“Nothing like as catastrophic as this, where it involved children, people and just the loss of people’s houses and you know, it’s just crazy,” she added. Martinez said Friday’s flooding was some of the worst he had ever seen.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2025

The fallout between the US president, Donald Trump, and tech billionaire Elon Musk has reached a new low, with Musk declaring this weekend that he will bankroll a new political party to rival the president.

Musk, the world’s richest man, only departed from the White House this May but has been critical of Trump’s signature policy bill, which he has described as “utterly insane and destructive”.

“Today, the America party is formed to give you back your freedom,” Musk wrote on X on Saturday, adding that: “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party, and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy.”

Here are the key stories:

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Elon Musk’s ‘America’ party could focus on a few pivotal congressional seats

The new US political party that Elon Musk has boasted about bankrolling could initially focus on a handful of attainable House and Senate seats while striving to be the decisive vote on major issues amid the thin margins in Congress.

The Tesla and SpaceX’s multibillionaire CEO mused about that approach on Friday in a post on X, the social media platform he owns, as he continued feuding with Donald Trump over the spending bill that the president has signed into law. On Saturday, without immediately elaborating, the former Trump adviser announced on X that he had created the so-called America party.

_{Read the full story}

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Hegseth falsely cited weapon shortages in halting shipments to Ukraine, Democrats say

Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, unilaterally halted an agreed shipment of military aid to Ukraine due to baseless concerns that US stockpiles of weapons have run too low, it has been reported.

A batch of air defense missiles and other precision munitions were due to be sent to Ukraine to aid it in its ongoing war with Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022. The aid was promised by the US during Joe Biden’s administration last year.

_{Read the full story}

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Social Security Administration email praising Trump’s tax bill blasted as a ‘lie’

An email sent by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) that claims Donald Trump’s major new spending bill has eliminated taxes on benefits for most recipients is misleading, critics have said.

The reconciliation bill – which the president called the “one big, beautiful bill” before signing it on Friday after Republicans in Congress passed it – includes provisions that will strip people of their health insurance, cut food assistance for the poor, kill off clean energy development and raise the national debt by trillions of dollars.

_{Read the full story}

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Bernie Sanders, the venerable democratic socialist senator from Vermont, was not in a mood to pull punches.

“Trump is undermining our democracy and rapidly moving us towards authoritarianism, and the billionaires who care more about their stock portfolios than our democracy are helping him do it,” he fumed in a statement last week.

Such outbursts have been common in recent months as Sanders has taken up a leading position opposing Donald Trump’s second term, and flagging his concern that the president is waging a war against the media – and winning.

_{Read the full story}

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Revealed: the far-right, antisemitic men’s club network spreading across US

A nationwide US network of dozens of far-right, men-only fraternal clubs has what members describe as “literally hundreds” of participants who include past and currently serving military personnel, lawyers, civil servants and prominent antisemitic influencers, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

The Old Glory Club (OGC) – which has at least 26 chapters in 20 US states and until now has drawn little attention – exemplifies the alarming rise of organized racist political groups in the past few years but especially during the rise of Donald Trump and his return to the White House.

_{Read the full story}

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What else happened today:

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Catching up? Here’s what happened on 4 July 2025.