Protesters disrupt Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Senate hearing – US politics live | US news

Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, has warned that the Medicaid cuts Congress is considering would mean billions of dollars in lost federal aid to the state.

Hundreds of thousands of people could lose access to Medicaid, Shapiro told WILK-FM radio on Wednesday. He said:

I just need to stress: there is no back-filling at the state level. There are no dollars available at the state level to make up for these cuts at the federal level. So if they cut someone off Medicaid, they’re off. We will not be able to fix that for them.

Billions of dollars in funding cuts would also accelerate the shuttering of rural hospitals “which are teetering on the brink of closure”, he added.

Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr described the downsizing of his department as necessary cost-cutting measures as he defended his spending plans under Donald Trump’s budget proposal.

The plans include an $18bn cut to National Institutes of Health funding and $3.6bn from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kennedy, appearing before the House appropriations committee this morning, argued the proposed cuts would save taxpayers $1.8bn per year and make the department more efficient. He said in his opening statement:

Our reductions have focused on aligning HHS staffing levels to reflect the size of HHS prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw around a 15% increase in the number of employees.

Asked about Elon Musk’s involvement in the cuts and firings at his department, Kennedy said:

Ultimately, we executed the decisions, but Elon Musk gave us help in trying and figuring out where there was fraud and abuse in the department. But it was up to me to make the decision, and there are many instances where I pushed back.

Protesters interrupted Robert F Kennedy Jr’s opening remarks before the Senate health committee this afternoon, shouting: “RFK kills people with Aids!”

The health secretary was visibly startled and jumped from his chair when protesters began shouting, before being removed by Capitol police.

“That was a made for C-Span moment,” said senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the committee.

Dozens of federal health workers and offices dedicated to HIV/Aids research have been shuttered under Kennedy’s watch.

Robert F Kennedy Jr has spent the day defending deep staffing cuts, research funding freezes and drastic policy changes in his department during his first appearance on Capitol Hill as health secretary.

Kennedy appeared at a House appropriations hearing earlier this morning to defend the White House’s requested budget for his agency, including a $500m boost for his “make America healthy again” initiative.

Since his confirmation, Kennedy has slashed 10,000 jobs including at the country’s top food and drugs regulator, public health agency and biomedical research institute.

Asked if he would give his children the measles vaccine today, Kennedy sidestepped the question. He said:

Measles? Probably for measles. What I would say is my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant. I don’t think people should be taking advice, medical advice, from me.

Asked if he would vaccinate his kids today against chickenpox and polio, Kennedy refused to answer, only saying: “I don’t want to give advice.”

Republicans’ newest tax bill threatens to exclude millions of families from a tax credit meant to ease household financial burdens, even as conservatives are increasingly claiming to tout policies designed to entice families to have more babies.

One provision in the bill, which runs nearly 400 pages, seeks to raise the child tax credit from the current $2,000 level to $2,500 per child – but an estimated 17 million children would be ineligible to receive the full credit because their parents do not make enough to qualify, according to a congressional estimate.

Another provision of the bill would require a US citizen child’s parent or guardian to possess a social security number in order to claim the credit; if the child’s parents are married and file their taxes together, both parents would need social security numbers.

This requirement would make undocumented immigrants and other immigrants who lack work authorization ineligible to claim the credit on behalf of children who are US citizens or legal permanent residents, stripping the benefit from a number of families who would otherwise receive it.

Under current requirements, families of children with social security numbers are eligible regardless of the parents’ status.

Here are some more photos from Donald Trump’s visit to Qatar where he is attending a state dinner at Lusail Palace. He will no doubt have been pleased by the abundance of marble and camels.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has left Doha and is en route to Antalya, Turkey, where he will meet Nato foreign ministers on Thursday.

It comes ahead of his planned travel onwards to Istanbul on Friday, where the state department says he will attend talks with European counterparts to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Judge orders immediate release of Indian academic detained by Ice over pro-Palestinian views

Marina Dunbar

A Virginia federal judge has ordered the immediate release of Georgetown academic Badar Khan Suri from Ice detention during a hearing on Wednesday.

Khan Suri was among several individuals legally studying in the US who have been targeted by the Trump administration for their pro-Palestinian activism. He has spent two months in detention.

US district judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, said that the ruling is effective immediately with no conditions and no bond.

The Trump administration had ordered the detention of Khan Suri, a citizen of India, on 17 March. He was previously being held at an immigration prison in Alvarado, Texas.

Immigration officials revoked his J-1 student visa, alleging his father-in-law was an adviser to Hamas officials more than a decade ago in addition to claims that he was “deportable” because of his posts on social media in support of Palestine.

Khan Suri, who is married to a Palestinian-American US citizen, Mapheze Saleh, is a senior postdoctoral fellow at the institution’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU). Many students and alumni of the institution signed a letter opposing his detention by Ice.

Giles prohibited federal officials in March from deporting the postdoctoral fellow after his wife filed an emergency court request to prevent deportation.

Adam Gabbatt

According to Boeing, the 747-8 can travel the length of “three FIFA soccer fields” in one second. It has a tail as tall as an average six-storey city building, is the “world’s fastest commercial jet” and is capable, theoretically, of transporting 10,767 solid gold bars from Fort Knox.

What Boeing’s marketing spiel doesn’t mention is that the 747-8 is also capable of serving as a giant flying metaphor for corruption, after it emerged that Qatar planned to gift one of the $400m planes to the Trump administration, with Donald Trump planning to use it as Air Force One before handing it over to his presidential library.

Amid criticism, the president initially defended the move as a money-saving effort. But in the days following it has become clear that another thing was on his mind: that other people have big planes, and he wants one too.

The transaction actually makes little sense financially. Experts told NBC News that converting the 747 into Air Force One would cost more than $1bn and take “years” to complete – potentially not even being ready by the end of Trump’s term.

You can sign up for Adam’s weekly newsletter This Week in Trumpland here.

Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick’s links to El Salvador crypto firm under scrutiny

Jason Wilson

The Trump administration’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and his family have had extensive business interests linked to El Salvador, whose authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has grown close to the White House and who has courted controversy by imprisoning people deported from the US in an aggressive immigration crackdown.

El Salvador also plays host to a booming cryptocurrency and new media industry, which has numerous ties to Donald Trump allies who are seeking to make money from various ventures which have sometimes drawn the attention of authorities or ethics watchdogs.

Securities and Exchange Commission and Office of Government Ethics (OGE) filings, along with public records in the US and El Salvador, indicate that Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm Lutnick headed until weeks ago before handing off to a management team including two of his sons, holds an effective 5% stake in the cryptocurrency firm Tether, has negotiated several investments on behalf of the highly profitable company, and is custodian of the US treasury holdings from which those profits arise.

Donald Trump has doubled down on why he wants to accept a luxury Boeing 747 from Qatar, a country where he traveled to today to negotiate business deals, with the US president portraying the $400m aircraft as an opportunity too valuable to refuse.

“The plane that you’re on is almost 40 years old,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity during an Air Force One interview on the Middle East trip, where he is also visiting Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

When you land and you see Saudi Arabia, you see UAE and you see Qatar, and they have these brand-new Boeing 747s, mostly. You see ours next to it – this is like a totally different plane.

Clearly irritated by questions about the ethical criticism of accepting such a lavish gift as president, Trump insisted American prestige was at stake.

We’re the United States of America. I believe we should have the most impressive plane.

The timing of Trump’s visit has raised eyebrows, coming just weeks after the Trump Organization secured a deal with Qatar for a luxury resort and golf course development outside the capital, Doha, called Trump International Golf Club & Villas.

“My attitude is why wouldn’t I accept a gift?” Trump continued. “We’re giving to everybody else, why wouldn’t I accept a gift? Because it’s going to be a couple years until the Boeings are finished.”

Trump was referring to the incoming Air Force One fleet, a $3.9bn contract given to Boeing in 2018 with an original timetable of 2024 that has since been delayed by a number of years.

The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, who worked as a lobbyist for Qatar while at her previous employer Ballard Partners, has reportedly declared accepting the aircraft “legally permissible”.

A Venezuelan toddler who was separated from her parents when they crossed the US-Mexico border a year ago and who remained in the US when they were deported arrived in Venezuela on a removal flight on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Major figures in Venezuela’s government, which is under extensive US sanctions, had repeatedly called for Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, aged 2, to be returned to her mother, Yorely Bernal, who was deported back to Venezuela in April. Last month the foreign ministry went as far as accusing the US of “kidnapping” the child.

Images on state television showed first lady Cilia Flores holding the child in her arms at the international airport near Caracas.

The toddler’s return has been “a battle every day and today we have a great victory,” said interior minister Diosdado Cabello, who was also at the airport.

Her parents had entered the US in May 2024 seeking asylum, and had been in immigrant detention during their entire stay in the country after turning themselves in at the border. Meanwhile their little girl was placed in the care of a foster family via the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the US.

The baby’s father, Maiker Espinoza, 25, was sent to Cecot, the notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has sent at least 137 Venezuelans under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, in March.

The department of homeland security (DHS) denied that it had kidnapped the child and said she was removed from the deportation flight list “for her safety and welfare”, claiming without evidence in late-April that Espinoza is a member the Venezuela gang Tren De Aragua.

Espinoza’s family roundly denied the claim to Reuters. “At no time has my son been involved with [Tren de Aragua],” his mother, Maria Escalona, told Reuters this month. “I think this is political – they are using the case of my son to cover up the horror that is being committed against all these innocents.”

DHS said the child’s mother Bernal recruited young women for drug smuggling and sex work, though it also provided no evidence. The family has also denied the claim. She was deported without her child – it is unclear if Bernal was given the choice to be deported with her daughter.

The White House has published a “fact sheet” detailing the agreements signed by Donald Trump and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, on Wednesday.

The agreements will “generate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion,” it claims.

They include a $96bn agreement with Qatar Airways to buy up to 210 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X planes, as well as a statement of intent that could lead to $38bn in investments at Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base and other air defense and maritime security capabilities. The fact sheet writes:

The landmark deals celebrated today will drive innovation and prosperity for generations, bolster American manufacturing and technological leadership, and put America on the path to a new Golden Age.

Qatar’s central bank governor, Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al Thani, met with Elon Musk in Doha on Wednesday to discuss developments in global finance and investment, the bank said.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of Donald Trump’s visit to Qatar.

Republican House speaker Mike Johnson declined to weigh in on Donald Trump’s plans to accept a luxury Boeing 747 from Qatar.

“It’s not my lane,” Johnson said during a press conference on Wednesday.

He added that he’s “not following all of the twists and turns” of the case as he focuses on passing a budget reconciliation bill.

The idea of accepting a plane from Qatar has triggered alarm across the political spectrum, including even staunch Trump allies.

Texas senator Ted Cruz warned that the aircraft deal “poses significant espionage and surveillance problems”, while the West Virginia senator Shelley Moore Capito said bluntly she’d “be checking for bugs”. Former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, called the acceptance of foreign gifts “never a good practice” that “threatens intelligence and national security”.

Here are some of the latest images from the newswires from Qatar, where its emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani welcomed Donald Trump for his latest stage of his Middle East tour.

The two leaders signed a number of economic and defense agreements, including an order from Qatar for 160 Boeing jets worth more than $200bn.

Chris Stein

Non-profit groups are sounding the alarm over an attempt by Republican lawmakers to insert a provision allowing the government to cancel the tax-exempt status of organizations it deems “terrorist supporting” in a massive bill under negotiation in the House of Representatives.

The provision’s potential inclusion in the spending and taxation legislation that Donald Trump and his allies refer to as “one big, beautiful bill” has sparked fears that the administration will wield it against groups who file lawsuits or organize voters against his policies.

Lia Holland, campaigns and communications director at tech policy non-profit Fight for the Future, described the provision as “a five-alarm fire for non-profits nationwide”.

“Any organization with goals that do not line up with Maga can be destroyed with a wink from Trump to the treasury”, likely those that oppose his policies towards Israel, or advocate for causes like racial justice and the environment, they said.

Trump had made plain his desire for revenge against his enemies, and since taking office has sought to deport foreign students who engaged in pro-Palestinian activism, blacklisted law firms who have worked for his political opponents and backed the arrest of a county judge on charges of obstructing immigration authorities.

Back in the US, Reuters reports that congressional Republicans advanced elements of Donald Trump’s sweeping budget package on Wednesday after a debate that lasted through the night, as a key committee voted along party lines to approve tax cuts that would add trillions of dollars to the national debt.

The 26-19 vote by the tax-writing House ways and means committee amounts to an initial victory for Republicans, who still have many hurdles to clear before they can get the sprawling package of tax cuts, spending hikes and safety-net reductions to Trump’s desk to sign into law. The vote came after an all-night debate that saw at least one lawmaker fall asleep at his post.

Republicans rejected a series of proposed changes by opposition Democrats, who blasted the bill as a wasteful giveaway to the wealthy that would shred health and food benefits for the poor and worsen the nation’s financial standing.

A separate House committee was still debating a GOP proposal to tighten eligibility for the Medicaid health plan, which covers 71 million low-income Americans, with a vote expected later in the day. That would save the federal government $715bn and kick 7.7 million people off the program, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Police escorted out at least five protesters, including three who were in wheelchairs, at the outset of that debate on Tuesday.

A third panel was due to resume debate on a proposal to require some people who receive Snap food benefits to get a job and shift some costs to states.

Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” would add trillions of dollars to the nation’s debt load, which at $36.2tn now equals 127% of GDP. The package calls for $4tn in additional borrowing, though the total cost is uncertain at this point.

Republicans will need to stay united to pass the bill out of the House, where they hold a narrow 220-213 majority. The proposal will also need to clear the Senate, which Republicans control 53-47.

The country’s looming debt ceiling deadline this summer is also pushing Republicans to work fast. The package would raise the debt limit by $4tn and treasury secretary Scott Bessent has urged lawmakers to act by mid-July to avoid a default that would upend the global economy.