Top Items:
Steve Benen / MSNBC:
Budget office: Republicans' megabill would give to the rich and take from the poor — If GOP officials are looking for good news in the Congressional Budget Office's new report on the party's reconciliation package, they won't find any. — Common sense might suggest that congressional Republicans …
Discussion:
CBO Publications, ACA Signups, Daily Caller News Foundation, ABC News, UPI and The Hill
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Ben Leonard / Politico:
Wealthy gain, low-income people lose from GOP megabill, analysis finds — The report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is already fueling Democratic accusations that the legislation is a giveaway to the rich. — Tax cuts in House Republicans' megabill would lead to increased assets …
New York Times:
U.S. Debt Is on Pace to Set a Record High, Going All the Way Back to 1790 — If Republicans pass their tax and spending megabill, the record will arrive even sooner — putting America's debt at more than 113 percent of the size of its entire economy. — The United States hit its record debt level …
Discussion:
Fortune, American Enterprise Institute, Raw Story and Politico
Michael Gold / New York Times:
House G.O.P. Races to Revamp Major Policy Bill, Grasping for Votes to Pass It — A key committee met after midnight on Wednesday and worked through dawn as Republican leaders finalized changes aimed at winning over holdouts in hopes of bringing the bill to the floor in short order.
Discussion:
CNN, The Hill, LifeNews.com, NOTUS, Reuters, Mediaite, PBS NewsHour, CBS News, Fox News, ABC News, NPR, Washington Examiner and Deseret News
Tami Luhby / CNN:
House GOP lawmakers are proposing nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and food stamps. Here's who could be impacted — House Republicans are pushing to slash nearly $1 trillion from two of the nation's bedrock safety net programs, Medicaid and food stamps, as part of their sweeping package aimed …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, KDFX-TV, Chicago Tribune and House Budget Committee …
Washington Post:
Divided House GOP tries to push Trump's tax bill over the finish line
Discussion:
NOTUS, Fox News, Reuters, Washington Examiner, The Hill, CBS News, MSNBC, Associated Press, WTTG-TV, New Jersey Online, FOX 32 Chicago, CNBC, Al Jazeera and Politico
Charles Gaba / ACA Signups:
Surprise! GOP Medicaid Massacre bill is also a Medicare Massacre bill!
Surprise! GOP Medicaid Massacre bill is also a Medicare Massacre bill!
Discussion:
Politico and New Republic
Wall Street Journal:
Trump's Economic Agenda Hinges on Tax Bill That Divides His Own Party
Trump's Economic Agenda Hinges on Tax Bill That Divides His Own Party
Discussion:
NOTUS, Bloomberg, Breitbart, Deseret News, HuffPost, The Mahablog, The Hill, The Daily Signal, WTTG-TV, The Daily Wire, Townhall, New Jersey Online, Washington Examiner, New York Post, Slate, Raw Story, Steady, KDFX-TV and Washington Post
Kathryn Anne Edwards / Bloomberg:
The GOP Tax Bill Ignores Decades of Economic Research
Melissa Quinn / CBS News:
Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly dies at 75 — Washington — Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia died Wednesday, his family announced. He was 75 years old. — Connolly's death comes weeks after he announced that he would not seek reelection in 2026 and would be stepping back from his post …
Discussion:
CNN, Axios, PoliticusUSA, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Mediaite, USA Today, Washington Times and Grabien
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Anusha Mathur / Washington Post:
Gerry Connolly, congressman who protected federal workforce, dies at 75 — The nine-term Virginia Democrat pushed back against the Trump administration's efforts to strip protections from civil servants and federal unions. — Gerry Connolly, a Democratic congressman who played a large part …
Discussion:
NBC News, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner, ABC News, MSNBC, USA Today, The Guardian, New York Post, Newsweek, The Post Millennial and Washingtonian
David Cohen / Politico:
Northern Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly dies at 75 — The Virginia Democrat fought on behalf of the many government workers in his district. — Gerry Connolly, a longtime Democratic member of Congress from Northern Virginia known for his advocacy of the federal workforce, died Wednesday.
Fox News:
Virginia Democratic Rep Gerry Connolly dead at 75
Virginia Democratic Rep Gerry Connolly dead at 75
Discussion:
CNBC, RedState, Scripps News, WTTG-TV, Roll Call, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite and IJR
Camilo Montoya-Galvez / CBS News:
U.S. put Asian migrants on deportation flight to South Sudan, lawyers allege — Immigration lawyers told a federal judge on Tuesday that they received information indicating the U.S. government may have put migrants from countries like Myanmar and Vietnam on a deportation flight to South Sudan …
Discussion:
NPR, Politico, Fox News, Reuters, Townhall, UPI, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Axios, The Independent, USA Today, NBC News and Associated Press
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New York Times:
Official Pushed to Rewrite Intelligence So It Could Not Be ‘Used Against’ Trump — An assessment contradicted a presidential proclamation. A political appointee demanded a redo, then pushed for changes to the new analysis, too. — New emails document how a top aide to Tulsi Gabbard …
Chiara Eisner / NPR:
Diseases are spreading. The CDC isn't warning the public like it was months ago — To accomplish its mission of increasing the health security of the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that it “conducts critical science and provides health information” to protect the nation.
Devlin Barrett / New York Times:
Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Cuomo, Singling Out Another Political Target — After killing a criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams, the Trump administration has begun investigating his chief rival in the New York City mayoral race over his testimony about the pandemic.
Discussion:
CNN, Fox News, New York Post, USA Today, The Guardian, Townhall, CBS News, Reason, Breitbart, Mediaite, UPI, The Hill, New York Daily News, Streetsblog New York City, Forbes, abc7NY, Washington Examiner, NBC News, Axios, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, The Post Millennial and Scripps News
Indradip Ghosh / Reuters:
Weak US economic outlook persists despite brief trade truce with China: Reuters poll — The outlook for the U.S. economy remains weak despite a temporary cooling of the U.S.-China trade war, a Reuters poll of economists showed, with a debate over the country's fiscal health hanging in the balance.
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
JD Vance on His Faith and Trump's Most Controversial Policies — On this episode of “Interesting Times,” Ross Douthat interviews Vice President JD Vance about the Trump administration's deportations, the tariff backlash and how Vance's faith influences his politics.
Discussion:
Raw Story
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Reuters:
Exclusive: Hacker who breached communications app used by Trump aide stole data from across US government — A hacker who breached the communications service used by former Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz earlier this month intercepted messages from a broader swathe of American officials …
Alexandra Hutzler / ABC News:
Trump to host South Africa's president amid tensions over US resettlement of white Afrikaners — Trump claims a “genocide” is taking place, which South Africa disputes. — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the media during a press briefing at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa, April 24, 2025.
Discussion:
New York Times, CBS News, The American Spectator, USA Today, The Independent, Bloomberg, PolitiFact, Semafor, The Guardian, RNS and The Root
Michael Gold / New York Times:
Noem Incorrectly Defines Habeas Corpus as the President's Right to Deport People — The right allows people to legally challenge their detentions by the government and is guaranteed in the Constitution. — Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, bungled answers on Tuesday about habeas corpus …
Discussion:
Techdirt, Associated Press, Raw Story, NPR, The Atlantic, HuffPost, Reason, Daily Kos, Truthout, Lawyers, Guns & Money, ABC News, Politico, Axios, NBC News, The Independent, New York Post, CNBC, The Hill, Mother Jones, Newsweek, New York Daily News, Above the Law, Washington Times, Rolling Stone, USA Today, New Republic and MSNBC
Leigh Kimmins / The Daily Beast:
Musk Insults Interviewer for Daring to Ask About His Big DOGE Promise — TOUCHY SUBJECT — Musk said the cost-cutting task force would save $2 trillion. By its own estimate, just $160 billion has been saved. — A defensive Elon Musk shut down an interviewer by saying …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Gizmodo, Blaze Media and RedState
Wall Street Journal:
Inside Kristi Noem's Polygraph Operation — The information that DHS employees are accused of sharing with media often isn't classified — WASHINGTON—In a small interrogation room in Virginia with a one-way mirror, employees from across the Department of Homeland Security are being summoned and hooked up to a polygraph machine.
George Joseph / The Guardian:
Revealed: UnitedHealth secretly paid nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers — A Guardian investigation finds insurer quietly paid facilities that helped it gain Medicare enrollees and reduce hospitalizations. Whistleblowers allege harm to residents — UnitedHealth Group …
Discussion:
LifeNews.com
Melissa Repko / CNBC:
Target cuts sales outlook as retailer blames tariff uncertainty and backlash to DEI rollback … Target on Wednesday cut its full-year sales outlook, as executives said weaker discretionary spending, consumer uncertainty about tariffs and backlash to the company's rollback of key diversity …
Discussion:
Forbes, Washington Times, FOX 32 Chicago, Associated Press and Fox Business
Jamelle Bouie / New York Times:
Trump Is Waging War on the Future — It's fitting that a political movement whose slogan is the backward looking “Make America Great Again” — and whose tribune, Donald Trump, appears to live in an eternal 1990 of his own mind — is waging war on the American future. — This war has four theaters of conflict.
New York Times:
Trump's New Position on the War in Ukraine: Not My Problem — In a reversal, President Trump appears to have backed off joining a European push for new sanctions on Russia, seemingly eager to move on to doing business deals with it. — For months, President Trump has been threatening …
Discussion:
Politico, The Guardian, The Kyiv Independent, Al Jazeera, The Hill, Slate and Bloomberg
Jennifer Rubin / The Contrarian:
The Spanish Historical Lesson — Spain committed national suicide through mass deportation — Travel has a way of emphasizing historical lessons. Spain is no different. — As I've mentioned, when traveling around this gorgeous, fascinating country, you constantly see evidence of the rise …
Liz Dye / Public Notice:
DOJ politicization escalates with bogus arrest of congresswoman — 🏛️ ⚖️ 👩🏻⚖️ With corporate outlets obeying in advance, supporting independent political media is more important right now than ever.
Discussion:
The Atlantic, The Hill, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Washington Examiner, The Week, CNN, NPR, Advocate, CBS News, New Republic, Al Jazeera, Truthout, Fox News, UPI, The Dean's Report, The Post Millennial, Daily Kos, Forbes, Axios, RedState, Raw Story, The Intercept, NBC News, The Guardian, ABC News, Bloomberg and New York Times
Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
National Science Foundation Ends 196 Grants To Harvard Amid Feud With Trump — “Pure retribution,” one NSF staffer said of the administration axing $46 million in unfinished research. “We as a nation are shooting ourselves in both feet.” — WASHINGTON ― The National Science Foundation …
Discussion:
Fox News, CBS News, Washington Examiner and Reuters
Susan Heavey / Reuters:
Democratic US Representative Connolly dies, his family says — Democratic U.S. Representative Gerald Connolly has died, his family said in a statement posted to his account on X on Tuesday following the Virginia lawmaker's cancer diagnosis last year. He was 75.
Discussion:
ABC News and The Independent
Reuters:
US to appoint Thomas Barrack as special envoy for Syria, sources say — The United States will appoint President Donald Trump's longtime friend and current U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Barrack, as a special envoy for Syria, a person with direct knowledge of the matter and a diplomat in Turkey said.
Discussion:
UPI, Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera and Semafor
Scott Macfarlane / CBS News:
Changes at Trump's Justice Department could shift which local police agencies get federal grants — The Justice Department is shaking up the priorities for a popular grant program that provides millions of dollars in aid to budget-strapped local police departments across America, according to public documents reviewed by CBS News.
Financial Times:
Russian-linked Ukrainian politician shot dead in Spain — A former high-ranking Ukrainian politician connected to the country's ousted pro-Russian president was shot dead on Wednesday outside an exclusive international school near Madrid, according to Spanish and Ukrainian authorities.
Discussion:
CNN, The Kyiv Independent, CBS News, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Metro.co.uk, Daily Mail and The European Conservative
Philip Bump / Washington Post:
The conspiracy theory that broke Dan Bongino — Trumpism is built on conspiracy theories — but it's never Trump who's accountable when they implode. — Dan Bongino's podcast on Jan. 4, 2024, began the way his podcasts usually did. — “Get ready to hear the truth about America,” …
Discussion:
New Jersey Online and The Bulwark

