Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday.
Trump proposed slashing $163 billion in spendingThe White House sent a letter today to Congress that laid out President Trump’s proposals for government spending in the next fiscal year. The blueprint called for $163 billion in cuts that would eliminate a vast set of climate, education, health and housing programs, and whittle down domestic spending to its lowest level in the modern era. Trump’s plan, which administration officials called a “joint project” with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, would formalize his campaign to drastically remake the federal government. The proposal depicted many core government functions as woke, weaponized, wasteful or radical. Democrats immediately rebuked it, and even some big-name Republicans took issue. Others, like Speaker Mike Johnson, endorsed the plan. Sometimes, presidential budget recommendations are not all that important, our economics reporter Tony Romm told me. Congress controls spending, and it can simply ignore the proposal. “But Trump’s budget this year carries extra significance,” Tony said. Republicans are eager to cut spending to offset a package of tax cuts — a draft of which they hope to release soon. Tony added: Trump has adopted the contentious view that he has expansive power to dictate spending even if Congress instructs otherwise — “meaning some of the ideas here may foreshadow big changes to come.” Here are some highlights from the proposal, which you can read in full here:
Trump said he was ‘taking away’ Harvard’s tax-exempt statusTrump said today that Harvard would be stripped of its tax-exempt status, doubling down on his threat after the school rejected a list of government demands. “It’s what they deserve!” Trump wrote on social media. It’s not clear if the I.R.S. will proceed with such a move; federal law prohibits the president from directing the tax agency to investigate specific institutions. For more: Harvard has hired a deep bench of conservative lawyers to fight the administration.
The U.S. and China remain at a standoff over tariffsOfficials in Beijing said today that China was considering holding trade negotiations with the Trump administration, but they reiterated a precondition: The U.S. must first cancel its tariffs on Chinese goods, which are now being taxed at a minimum of 145 percent. The standoff signals that a protracted economic fight could lie ahead. Already, some American consumers have started to notice higher prices. A loophole that allowed cheap goods from companies like Temu and Shein to enter the U.S. duty-free was eliminated today. And some companies have publicly blamed tariffs for higher sticker prices. On the bright side, today’s jobs report suggested that the labor market remained healthy. Also, the S&P 500 rose 1.5 percent today, erasing the losses from April’s sharp sell-off.
Universal antivenom may grow out of a Wisconsin manFrom his home in Two Rivers, Wis., Tim Friede has been allowing venomous snakes to bite him — about 200 times over the years. Some venomous snake bites can kill a human within an hour, but Friede survives because, for 18 years, he has injected himself with carefully escalating doses of venom to build his immunity. Now, scientists say that his daredevilry could help to solve a dire global health problem. Venomous snakes kill at least 120,000 people a year, and research on Friede’s blood might be able to be used to create an antivenom. More top news
The Story Behind the Man Kilmar Abrego Garcia has become an avatar for both sides of America’s immigration debate. We interviewed people who knew him in Maryland and El Salvador to construct a fuller portrait.
Remembering Ruth BuzziOn “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” NBC’s prime-time comedy show that aired in the late ’60s and early ’70s, there was hardly a more memorable character than Ruth Buzzi’s Gladys. She was a wary spinster who wielded a vicious pocketbook to fend off male advances. Audiences loved her. Buzzi had other roles onstage and on TV, but Gladys was by far her most enduring: a vivid representation of the confusion that reigned among an older, more conservative generation surprised by the sexual revolution. She died yesterday at 88.
Nicolas Cage is more than just his crazy charactersWhen assessing Nicolas Cage’s career, it is easy to focus on the unhinged characters for which he famously has a propensity. But it’s also a mistake, our critic Alissa Wilkinson argues. Sure, Cage is good at playing crazy. But over his expansive career, he has proved that he contains multitudes, over and over again. Alissa pulled together seven of Cage’s roles that show off more texture and soul than he’s given credit for.
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