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‘Long overdue’: Senate Republicans ram through Trump’s clawback package with cuts to foreign aid, NPR
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Senate Republicans blasted through Democratic and internal opposition to pass President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar clawback package early Thursday morning.
The final vote tally was 51-48, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining every Democrat in voting against it. The package will now be sent to the House, which has until Friday to pass it.
The $9 billion rescissions bill tees up cuts to «woke» spending on foreign aid programs and NPR and PBS that Congress previously approved. Republicans have pitched the bill as building on their quest to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.
SENATE MARCHES TOWARD PASSING TRUMP’S $9B CLAWBACK BILL AFTER DRAMATIC LATE-NIGHT VOTES
President Donald Trump smiles as he meets with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador in the Oval Office of the White House April 14, 2025, in Washington. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that it was a mission shared by the GOP and Trump, whose Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified many of the cuts included in the package.
«I appreciate all the work the administration has done in identifying wasteful spending,» Thune said. «And now it’s time for the Senate to do its part to cut some of that waste out of the budget. It’s a small but important step toward fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree is long overdue.»
The president’s rescissions package proposed cutting just shy of $8 billion from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and over $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the government-backed funding arm for NPR and PBS.
TRUMP’S $9 BILLION CLAWBACK PASSES FIRST SENATE TEST, WHILE MORE HURDLES AWAIT
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., joined by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., (L) and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, at the U.S. Capitol on September 29, 2021, in Washington. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
It’s likely the first of many to come from the White House.
Unlike the previous procedural votes, Vice President JD Vance was not needed to break a tie. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted against the preceding procedural votes to advance the package on Tuesday night, but ultimately backed the bill.
It now heads to the House, where Republicans have warned the Senate to not make changes to the package. But just like during the budget reconciliation process earlier this month, the warnings from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and fiscal hawks fell on deaf ears in the upper chamber.
The Senate GOP’s version of the bill is indeed smaller, by about $400 million, after Senate leaders agreed to make a carveout that spared international Bush-era HIV and AIDS prevention funding.
SENATE GOP BRACES FOR TEST VOTE ON TRUMP’S $9.4B CLAWBACK PACKAGE
Senator Eric Schmitt speaks on Day 2 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 16, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
Other attempts were made during a marathon vote-a-rama process to make changes to the bill, but none were able to surmount the 60-vote threshold in the upper chamber.
Senate Democrats tried to kneecap the bill with amendments that targeted what they argued were cuts that would diminish emergency alerts for extreme weather and disasters, erode America’s and isolate rural Americans by creating news deserts with cuts to public broadcasting, among others.
«Why are we talking about cutting off emergency alerts,» Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, said. «That’s 1,000 times these stations were warned to tell people that their lives were in danger.»
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, contended that much more was at stake than the spending cuts.
The Washington Democrat charged that lawmakers were also «voting on how the Senate is going to spend the rest of this year, are we just going to do rescission after rescission, because we know Russ Vought is just itching to send us more.»
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., rebuked Democrats’ assertions against the bill, and pitched the legislation as a way for lawmakers to «course-correct» wasteful spending that shouldn’t have ever been green-lit.
He told Fox News Digital that what Democrats want to do is «keep as much of this money for their woke pet projects as they can.»
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«They were able to do that for four years,» he said. «That’s how you got to, you know, DEIs in Burma and Guatemalan sex changes and voter ID in Haiti, which is ironic, because Democrats don’t support voter ID here, but they’re willing to pay it for it in another country.»
Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
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What Jay Jones’ victory means for Democrats and the ‘new era of violent rhetoric,’ according to experts
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Democrats in Virginia elected an attorney general who privately fantasized about murdering his political opponents, raising questions from experts who spoke to Fox News Digital about whether the Democratic Party is serious about condemning political violence.
«The moral rot infecting the Democrat Party is here to stay and voters just proved it,» Mehek Cooke, a GOP political consultant and commentator, told Fox News Digital after Jay Jones won the race for Virginia attorney general.
Jones defeated incumbent Republican Jason Miyares despite a campaign plagued with scandal after it was revealed he fantasized in 2022 text messages about shooting former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert in the head while also suggesting that harm should come to that Republican’s young «fascist» children.
«Jay Jones called for the death of political opponents and their children, yet instead of rejecting that extremism, Democrat voters rewarded it,» Cooke said.
INSIDE JAY JONES AND THE DEMOCRATS’ LATE SURGE TO UPSET WINS ACROSS VIRGINIA, FROM THE SUBURBS TO THE SHORE
Virginia attorney general candidates Jay Jones, left, and Jason Miyares, right. ( Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Julian Epstein, a longtime Democratic operative, attorney, and former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital the «near unanimous rationalizations» from Democrats is driven by a «moral relativism that is a race to the bottom for any civilization.»
Epstein explained, «The collective shoulder shrug about a candidate who fantasizes about the assassination of his opponents and the death of his opponent’s children is of the same piece with the new era of violent rhetoric from the left and the data showing that nearly half of young progressives think that political violence can be justified. To look the other way on this because of political expedience is to lose the plot as to why one is in the public square in the first place.»
Ultimately, Cooke told Fox News Digital, the election of Jones in Virginia will help Republicans going forward.
TRUMP APPEARS TO JAB DEFEATED REPUBLICANS, SAYING IT’S ‘EASY’ TO WIN ELECTIONS ‘WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT THE FACTS’
Virginia attorney general candidate Jerrauld «Jay» Jones speaks at an event in Norfolk, Virginia. (Trevor Metcalfe/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
«These reckless choices by the Left, including the election of Jay Jones, will only electrify the Republican base heading into the midterms and beyond,» Cooke said.
Kentucky GOP Rep. Andy Barr, running for U.S. Senate next year, echoed the sentiment that Republicans look better to voters overall than Democrats after Tuesday night.
«The Democrat Party just elected a Socialist to run the financial capital of the world and a Leftist Attorney General who wished for Republican leaders and their children to be killed,» Barr said. «Meanwhile, one year after the greatest political comeback in history, President Trump is Making America Great Again. Our golden age will continue as the Democrat Party disgraces itself.»
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Voting booths and voters are seen at a polling location. (Graeme Sloan for The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to the Jones campaign for comment.
News that Jones had sent the controversial texts, first reported by National Review, sparked a firestorm in early October, with many pundits believing the Jones campaign would be doomed for promoting political violence in a climate still reeling from the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
However, Democrats in Virginia remained behind Jones as gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger and prominent elected Democrats in the state refused to call on him to step down after he apologized for the texts.
«At the end of the day, this election has never been about me or my opponent,» Jones said in his victory speech. «It has always been about every single one of us and the future of Virginia.»
politics,virginia,2025 2026 elections coverage
INTERNACIONAL
Detuvieron a un hombre con antecedentes pedófilos que importó una muñeca sexual con apariencia infantil
Un nuevo caso de importación de muñecas sexuales con apariencia infantil sacudió a Francia y encendió las alarmas de las autoridades. El lunes, empleados de un depósito cercano a Marsella detectaron un paquete sospechoso: era voluminoso, pesado y estaba parcialmente abierto. Al revisarlo, encontraron una muñeca de silicona de 1,30 metros, con rasgos de preadolescente.
El envío, que tenía como remitente a la empresa Zech, de origen chino, fue inmediatamente reportado a la policía. El destinatario, un hombre de 56 años que vive en Bouc-Bel-Air y que ya había sido condenado por delitos de agresión sexual, fue identificado y detenido.
Leé también: Escándalo en Francia: el gobierno suspendió al sitio Shein por vender muñecas sexuales con apariencia infantil
Investigación y allanamiento: la Justicia va tras los compradores
La fiscalía de Aix-en-Provence abrió una causa por “importación, tentativa de adquisición y tentativa de tenencia de imagen de menor con carácter pornográfico”. La policía secuestró la muñeca y realizó un allanamiento en la casa del sospechoso, donde incautó material informático que ahora está siendo analizado.
El hombre, que quedó bajo custodia, “tiene antecedentes penales por agresión sexual y admitió haber encargado la muñeca con fines sexuales», declaró la fiscalía al sitio Actu Marseille.
Shein retiró de la venta las muñecas ante el escándalo. (Foto: gentileza TF1).
El escándalo de las muñecas sexuales infantiles y la reacción oficial
Este caso se da en un contexto de máxima alerta en Francia, luego de que la brigada antifraude francesa denunciara la venta de muñecas sexuales con apariencia infantil en las plataformas chinas Shein y AliExpress. La polémica llevó a que la empresa fuera citada a declarar en la Asamblea Nacional en los próximos días, en el marco de una investigación sobre el control de productos importados.
La fiscalía de París también abrió varias investigaciones contra estas dos plataformas de venta online por “difundir imágenes o representaciones de menores de carácter pornográfico”.
Leé también: Escándalo internacional: denunciaron a Shein por vender muñecas sexuales con rasgos infantiles
Además, el gobierno de Emmanuel Macron anunció que suspenderá el sitio web de Shein después de detectar la venta de muñecas sexuales con apariencia infantil y de armas prohibidas en su plataforma online.
Según el Ministerio de Finanzas, la suspensión se mantendrá “todo el tiempo que sea necesario” hasta que Shein demuestre que cumple con las leyes francesas. La compañía respondió que prohibirá globalmente la venta de dichas muñecas y que cerrará temporalmente su marketplace en Francia para revisar los controles a los vendedores externos.
El portavoz de Shein en Francia, Quentin Ruffat, aseguró que la compañía colaborará “al 100%” con la Justicia y que entregarán los nombres de los compradores de muñecas si así lo requiere la investigación.
Qué dicen los expertos en pedofilia sobre las muñecas con rasgos infantiles
La Alta Comisionada para la Infancia, Sarah El Haïry, fue contundente: “Ir a buscar a quienes compraron estas muñecas en nuestro territorio es una obligación para proteger y controlar el estado de los niños que están en su entorno cercano”.
Según Véronique Béchu, excomandante de policía y directora del Observatorio contra el Ciberacoso y la Violencia contra Menores, el uso de estas muñecas dista mucho de ser inofensivo, sino que “contribuye directamente a la radicalización de la conducta pedocriminal”, afirmó al sitio FranceInfo.
“No es la muñeca la que ‘crea’ la desviación, pero constituye un indicador y un facilitador en el proceso delictivo”, explicó a franceinfo una fuente especializada en caso de abusos de niños. “Este tipo de objeto no canaliza el impulso: lo alimenta y lo estructura”, afirmó.
“Los pedófilos no operan según un modelo de ‘descarga’, sino mediante un condicionamiento progresivo, con desensibilización moral y una búsqueda de escalada en sus prácticas», agregó. Ciudadanos protestan contra la plataforma china Shein tras el escándalo de las muñecas sexuales. (Foto: AFP/Dimitar Dilkoff).
El uso de estas muñecas, a veces provistas de orificios sexuales, forma parte de una “escalada conductual“, continuó esta fuente policial, especificando que “en los casos judiciales, el uso de objetos sexualizados suele ser parte de un proceso progresivo” que comienza con la visualización de fotos y videos de abusos de niños, se intensifica con el uso de muñecas o juguetes sexuales que representan a un menor y alcanza su punto álgido con “la búsqueda de contacto real” . “Esto es lo que la criminología denomina el ciclo de la exteriorización”, resumió la misma fuente.
Florence Thibaut, profesora de psiquiatría y adicciones en el Hospital Cochin de París, especialista en temas de pedofilia, explicó que “entre las personas que tienen fantasías pedófilas, que las expresan y que las padecen, se estima que una de cada dos actuará según sus impulsos contra un niño”.
Medios galos recordaron asimismo que el excirujano Joël Le Scouarnec, condenado en mayo a veinte años de prisión por la violación y agresión sexual de 299 pacientes, en su mayoría niños, vivía rodeado de decenas de muñecas. Incluso había bautizado a algunas con los nombres de sus víctimas.
Francia, China, muñecas sexuales
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A viral video captured the moment a shark leapt out of the water in New Zealand and landed on a fishing boat, stunning the passengers on board.
The incident happened in Whitianga, New Zealand, in early November 2022, according to Storyful.
In the video, the mako shark bursts from the water and lands on the bow of the boat, flopping around before coming to rest near the front of the vessel.
75-FOOT BOAT SURFS WAVE, RUNS AGROUND IN HAWAII
A shark was seen leaping out of the water in New Zealand and landing on a fishing boat, stunning the passengers on board. (Churchys Charters NZ via Storyful)
After several moments, the shark managed to wriggle free and return to the ocean unharmed.
BEACH BLISS TURNS CHAOTIC AS SHARK LUNGES AT SNORKELER: ‘HE COULD HAVE RIPPED MY ARM OFF’
The incident happened in Whitianga, New Zealand, in early November 2022. (Churchys Charters NZ via Storyful)
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The shocked passengers on the boat were also unharmed.
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