Foreign
House GOP Bill Adds $2.4T To Deficit, Says CBO
House Republicans’ sweeping tax and spending cuts package would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) analysis of the bill that GOP lawmakers narrowly approved last month.
Also, nearly 11 million more people would be uninsured in 2034 due in large part to the package’s historic cuts to Medicaid, the CBO found.
The highly anticipated score, which was released Wednesday, could complicate Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s task of crafting a version of the legislation that his divided conference would approve. Several GOP senators have already expressed concern about the House package’s potential impact to the deficit and want to make deeper spending cuts, while others are wary of the major reductions to the nation’s safety net – particularly Medicaid – in the House bill.
The analysis also adds ammunition to billionaire Elon Musk’s attacks on the package, which he wrote on X Tuesday would bankrupt America. The posts follow an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, in which Musk said the bill would increase the deficit and undermine the work of his Department of Government Efficiency.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk, who recently stepped back from his role with the federal government, posted on X, later adding, “Congress is making America bankrupt.”
Senators began working on the legislation this week, but whatever changes they make would have to pass muster in the House. Thune is hoping to send it to President Donald Trump’s desk by July 4.
The CBO analysis also adds fuel to Democrats’ and budget watchdogs’ claims that the package, which aims to fulfill Trump’s agenda, would worsen the nation’s fiscal outlook while providing big tax cuts for the wealthy.
Trump and House GOP leaders have already sought to undercut the CBO’s projections, arguing that nonpartisan agency has missed the mark in the past and that its analyses don’t properly account for the economic growth that would result from the tax breaks. They have made similar claims about estimates from independent groups that also project a big hit to the deficit.
Minutes after the CBO released its analysis, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise attacked the agency, saying it is once again ignoring the business boom – and resulting revenue growth – that the package will spur.
“Anybody who repeats CBO’s analysis is also making those same mistakes,” he said at a House GOP press conference, adding that when the bill becomes law “you’re going to see economic growth in this country like we haven’t seen in generations, meaning more pay in the pockets of workers, and you’re going to see more Treasury money coming in because of the growth of the American economy.”
The CBO said an analysis that takes into account the economic effects of the legislation is forthcoming.
Some Senate leaders are looking to dodge the question of the package’s deficit impact by arguing that extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act should be considered a continuation of current policy, and, therefore, would not contribute to an increase in the deficit. The CBO analysis is based on the standard approach of current law, in which the tax cuts expire at the end of the year, so their extension would entail a cost.
The House package calls for making permanent essentially all of the individual income tax cuts contained in the 2017 tax cuts act. The bill would also temporarily provide tax relief to certain senior citizens and workers who earn tips and overtime, which Trump promised on the campaign trail last year. And it would temporarily restore two TCJA tax breaks for businesses, including allowing them to immediately deduct the cost of research and development and equipment.
To help offset the cost of the tax relief, the House bill would enact historic cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, two of the nation’s key safety net programs. The package would institute work requirements in Medicaid, which provides health insurance to low-income Americans, and would expand the work mandate in the food stamp program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. These provisions would result in millions of people losing their access to health coverage and nutrition assistance, according to preliminary CBO projections released earlier.
The bill would also boost spending on defense, border security and immigration enforcement, which are among Trump’s top priorities.
Big spending cuts, bigger tax cuts
The House package would cut close to $1.3 trillion in spending over a decade, according to the CBO. But the legislation would lower revenue by nearly $3.7 trillion.
Independent analyses show that the tax relief in the package would disproportionately benefit higher-income households, with the impact being even more pronounced if the spending cuts are considered. Those in the lowest income groups would see their incomes fall, after taxes and certain government benefits are taken into account, while the highest earners would enjoy an income boost, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model’s estimate of the final House bill.
Some 10.9 million more people would be uninsured in 2034 under the bill, CBO estimated. That includes 7.8 million Americans who would lose health insurance because of the Medicaid provisions and roughly 1.4 million people without verified citizenship or satisfactory immigration status who would not be covered in 2034 by health programs funded only with state dollars. Others would lose coverage because of the Affordable Care Act measures in the bill.
“This would be the biggest rollback in federal support for health care ever,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the nonpartisan KFF, posted on X.
Democrats quickly sought to amplify the CBO’s findings about the bill’s impact.
“It’s shocking House Republicans rushed to vote on this bill without an accounting from CBO on the millions of people who will lose their health care or the trillions of dollars it would add to the national debt,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement.
“The truth is Republican leaders raced to pass this bill under cover of night because they didn’t want the American people or even their own members to know about its catastrophic consequences.”
Edition.cnn.com
No fewer than six people, including popular billionaire businessman, Wicknell Chivayo and his wife, Lucy Muteke, have been killed in a helicopter crash.
Naija News learnt that the family spokesperson, Herbert Chivayo, confirmed the deaths to ZBC News, saying those closest to the couple were struggling to come to terms with the loss.
Similarly, the Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary, Nick Mangwana, also confirmed the incident in a statement on 𝕏.
He said the helicopter was carrying the businessman, three other passengers and two pilots when it crashed in Marondera, Mashonaland East on Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
The government extended its condolences to the victims’ families and friends.
The statement read, “The Government wishes to confirm that a helicopter crash has occurred, involving one high-profile businessman, three other passengers, and two pilots.
“Current information indicates that there were no survivors in this crash. The Zimbabwe Republic Police will confirm the names of the victims in due course.
“We extend our deepest condolences and prayers to the victims, their families, and their friends during this difficult time.”
In other news, the Chairman of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Fiidi Council Ward, Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State, Igbu Job Terhemen, has reportedly been killed by unknown assailants.
Terhemen was allegedly attacked in the early hours of Wednesday and later found unconscious near his residence along the Makurdi-Otukpo Road.
According to Daily Trust, a friend of the deceased, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Terhemen left his home on Tuesday evening to watch a local football match in the Kanshio area of Makurdi.
According to the source, he did not return home after the match, prompting relatives and friends to search for him.
The source said Terhemen was eventually found around 2 am in a bush near his residence, close to the NNPC depot.
A court in The Hague sentenced Kosovo’s former president Hashim Thaci to 25 years in prison on Thursday after finding him guilty of war crimes committed during the late 1990s conflict in which Kosovo broke away from Serbia
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers convicted Thaci, 58, of murder, torture, cruel treatment, and the illegal detention of civilians
The tribunal determined that he bore criminal responsibility as the top commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the ethnic Albanian separatist force that fought Serbian security forces between 1998 and 1999. Presiding judge Charles Smith said Thaci “actively participated in and encouraged crimes.”
The court established that KLA forces under his command murdered 96 people identified as political opponents or perceived collaborators with Serbian authorities. A further 385 people were arbitrarily detained, 303 were tortured, and around 50 others suffered cruel treatment.
Judge Smith told the court: “The scale and nature of the crimes committed were very serious. The so-called intelligence on which many of these victims were arrested, detained and killed was little more than unverified rumours. Based on that information, victims were called and described as spies and collaborators and violently treated.”
The American judge was careful to clarify that the proceedings were “not about the legitimacy of the Kosovo Liberation Army” or Kosovo’s goal of independence. Thaci, who denied all charges, stood in silence as the sentence was delivered. He retains the right to appeal.
Three other former senior KLA figures were tried alongside Thaci. Jakup Krasniqi also received a 25-year sentence, while Kadri Veseli was jailed for 18 years and Rexhep Selimi for 13 years. All four had denied the charges.
The panel acquitted the four men on six counts of crimes against humanity, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove those crimes were part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.
The verdicts drew an immediate public response in Kosovo, where Thaci remains a revered figure for many ethnic Albanians. Thousands had gathered in the capital Pristina ahead of the ruling, with crowds filling a central square waving red and black Albanian flags and banners calling for the men’s acquittal. When the guilty verdicts were announced on a big screen, many in the crowd booed and wept.
Thaci had resigned from the Kosovo presidency in late 2020 to face the charges, after nearly three years of trial proceedings. In his closing address to the court in February, he said: “Throughout my life, I stood with the people of Kosovo defending freedom, life and dignity. I was always guided by the Western ideals of democracy, equality and justice.”
Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama reacted to the verdict by posting an image of barbed wire stretched across a map of Europe, with a single word: “Unbelievable.”
A new investigation by The New York Times claims Sudan’s military ran an organized program in 2024 to develop and produce chlorine-based munitions, escalating long-standing allegations of chemical weapons use in the country’s war.
According to the report, the Times reviewed nearly 150 documents, plus photos, videos, audio recordings and thousands of messages. The materials describe months of work to design, test and manufacture about 300 bombs filled with chlorine.
Brigadier General Tariq Hussein is named as one of the principal supervisors. The documents detail a munition that combined explosives with large quantities of chlorine, and tests carried out before production.
One of the most serious claims involves the source of the chemical. The dossier alleges that some chlorine was taken from a water-treatment facility in Omdurman, at a time when Sudan is facing cholera outbreaks and a collapse of basic services.
The investigation also points to senior leadership. Voice and text messages reportedly implicate army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in knowledge of the program, and in orders to “remove all traces” after U.S. pressure and sanctions.
This is not the first time chemical weapons have been alleged in Sudan. Independent.ng reported that the Sudanese Alliance for Rights filed a case at the International Criminal Court against four senior Port Sudan Authority leaders, including al-Burhan, accusing them of using chemical weapons and committing serious violations against civilians. The lawsuit also names Yasser al-Atta, Shams al-Din al-Kabashi and Major General Taher Mohammed, and calls for an urgent ICC investigation.
The U.S. has already acted on earlier findings.
Independent.ng noted that Washington imposed additional penalties in May 2025 over the alleged use of chemical weapons, further linking Sudan’s war to international politics.
Chlorine is permitted for water purification, but using it as a weapon violates the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Sudan ratified. Experts say its civilian availability makes it easier to obtain and harder to monitor than military-grade agents.
With the conflict since April 2023 already causing mass displacement and famine, rights groups are now calling for an independent international investigation with access to sites, documents and the chain of command.
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