Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed/Anadolu via Getty Images
(PARIS) — As a heat wave scorches most of Europe, the Eiffel Tower announced it will be closing early on Tuesday with France expected to hit triple-digit temperatures.
With temperatures in Paris expected to reach 38.3 degrees Celsius — approximately 101 degrees Fahrenheit — on Tuesday, the Eiffel Tower will “exceptionally close at 4:00 p.m.,” according to a statement on the monument’s official website.
Last entry for ticket holders is at 2:30 p.m. local time and visitors without tickets are “asked to postpone their visit until after Thursday,” the website said.
During this heat wave, people are encouraged to “please remember to protect yourselves from the sun and stay hydrated regularly,” the website said.
The Eiffel Tower’s website said fountains leading to the monument’s forecourt are available for individuals seeking respite from the heat.
Other countries — including Portugal and Spain — have broken heat records this week, while in London, it was the hottest Wimbledon opening day ever, with temperatures hitting 93 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday.
The temperature hit a record 46 degrees Celsius (about 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the southern Spanish town of El Granado on June 28, the hottest ever in the country, according to the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization.
“Everybody is at risk,” Clare Nullis, spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization, said in a statement Tuesday. “If you go out without water in the middle of the day, to do jogging, have a bike ride, you will probably have health problems or even die.”
Officials in Scotland also continue a “round-the-clock” effort to battle wildfires in the Cairngorms, a mountain range located in the eastern part of the country, according to the Scottish Gamekeepers Association.
“Extreme heat is no longer a rare event — it has become the new normal. The planet is getting hotter and more dangerous — no country is immune,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
Higher temperatures are expected on Wednesday, before rain brings relief to some areas, according to The Associated Press.
“What is exceptional — and I would stress exceptional but not unprecedented — is the time of year,” Nullis said in a statement. “We are July 1, and we are seeing episodes of extreme heat which normally we would see later on.”
(WASHINGTON) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday he would not rule out a potential interest rate cut as soon as this month. The remarks come amid a public pressure campaign from President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly urged Powell to slash interest rates.
When asked on Tuesday about a possible interest rate cut at the Fed’s meeting this month, Powell said, “I wouldn’t take any meeting off the table or put any on the table. It depends on how the data evolve.”
Speaking on a panel at the European Central Bank forum in Sinatra, Portugal, Powell deflected a question from the moderator about challenges posed by Trump’s barbed criticism.
“I’m very focused on just doing my job,” Powell said, drawing applause. The central bank remains “100% focused” on its dual mandate of controlling inflation and delivering maximum employment, Powell added.
The moderator then asked European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde whether she would do anything differently if she were in Powell’s position.
“I speak for myself but I speak for all my colleagues on this panel, who would do the exact same thing as Jay Powell,” Lagarde said. “The exact same thing.”
Since Trump took office he has criticized Powell on numerous occasions, despite a longstanding norm of political independence at the central bank. The Fed is an independent government agency established by Congress.
In a social media post on Monday, Trump said Powell and other central bankers “should be ashamed of themselves.”
“We should be paying 1% Interest, or better!” Trump said, calling for a sharp reduction in interest rates from a current level of between 4.25% and 4.5%.
The social media post included an image of an apparent hand-written letter to Powell, which bore Trump’s signature.
The Fed held its benchmark interest rate steady last month, continuing a wait-and-see approach adopted by the central bank in recent months as it observes potential effects of Trump’s tariff policy. Four meetings and six months have elapsed since the Fed last adjusted interest rates.
The Fed last month forecasted two quarter-point interest-rate cuts over the remainder of 2025, carrying over a prediction issued in March.
On Tuesday, Powell affirmed that a majority of members of the Fed’s policy-making board support additional interest cuts this year. The central bank will hold four rate-setting meetings over the remainder of 2025 – and the first will happen on July 29 and 30.
“A majority of us do feel it will be appropriate in the remaining four settings of the year to begin reducing rates again,” Powell said.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — The father of University of Idaho murder victim Kaylee Goncalves is blasting the plea deal offered to Bryan Kohberger, accusing the prosecutors of mishandling and rushing the deal.
“We were not prepared for this — we had no idea that this was going to happen,” Steve Goncalves told ABC News hours after the plea deal was announced.
Kohberger — who was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in connection with the Nov. 13, 2022 killings of roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin — will be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences on the murder counts and the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count, according to the plea agreement.
The plea comes just weeks before Kohberger’s trial was set to begin. Opening arguments were scheduled for Aug 18.
In advance of Kohberger’s acceptance of the proposed deal, prosecutors met late last week with some of the victims’ relatives and got their input on whether such a plea deal should be proposed to the defense team, sources told ABC News.
Steve Goncalves told ABC News the subject of a possible plea deal was first broached at the end of their Friday meeting.
“Up until that point, we had never even considered it,” he said. “It was described to me as, like, due diligence. We’re going to, like, look at this option, see if it could fit.”
“At the least, justice starts with an interview of the families to ask them what justice is. And we didn’t get that,” he said.
Over the weekend, Latah County prosecutors said in a letter to the families that they were planning to make an offer that would take the death penalty off the table in exchange for guilty pleas to all four murders and an agreement to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the letter reviewed by ABC News. Idaho law requires the state to afford violent crime victims or their families an opportunity to communicate with prosecutors and to be advised of any proposed plea offer before entering into an agreement, but the ultimate decision lies solely with the prosecution.
In explaining their decision to make the offer, the prosecutors cited the risks of going to trial even in a case where the state was confident in the strength of its evidence. Among those concerns were a mistrial, a hung jury or the potential for an acquittal. The state also referenced the heavy toll a monthslong trial could impose on the families as well as the possibility of lengthy appeals even if Kohberger were to be convicted and sentenced to death, according to the letter reviewed by ABC News.
But Steve Goncalves slammed the prosecutors for being willing to negotiate with Kohberger.
“We can’t just let people come from other states and come in here and kill our kids while they’re sleeping, getting an education, and then just negotiate with those types of people,” he said. “It’s sad, it’s disgusting, and I can’t pretend like I feel like this is justice.”
The prosecutors acknowledged that some of the family members may disagree with resolving the case via a plea deal, but contended that the most realistic path to closure is through the entry of guilty pleas. On Monday, prosecutors sent another letter to the families informing them that Kohberger had accepted the proposed terms of the deal and would enter guilty pleas at a change of plea hearing on Wednesday.
“All of a sudden,” Steve Goncalves said, “the trial’s over. Two-and-a-half years of your life is over.” “It’s the opposite of what we wanted and it’s the opposite of the majority of what the families wanted,” he said.
The Goncalves family is also frustrated with how little time they were afforded to mentally prepare — and make travel arrangements — for Kohberger’s Wednesday hearing.
“A miracle has to happen in 24 hours for me to get justice,” Steve Goncalves said.
In Monday’s letter to the families, prosecutors called the deal a “sincere attempt to seek justice for your family.”
“Your viewpoints weighed heavily in our decision-making process, and we hope that you may come to appreciate why we believe this resolution is in the best interest of justice,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors anticipate sentencing to take place in late July, as long as Kohberger enters the guilty plea as expected on Wednesday, according to the letter.
As a part of the deal, Kohberger — a Pennsylvania native who was a criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University at the time of the crimes — will waive all right to appeal, the agreement said. The state also will seek restitution for the victims and their families for funeral expenses and crime victims compensation reimbursement, according to the agreement.
23andMe Founder Anne WojcickiAndrew Harnik/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A bankruptcy court this week approved the $305 million sale of genetics testing firm 23andMe to a nonprofit organization led by the company’s former CEO Anne Wojcicki, the company announced.
The 23andMe bankruptcy earlier this year elicited fears about the security of genetic data belonging to the company’s roughly 15 million customers.
The TTAM Research Institute, or TTAM, a California-based nonprofit set to acquire 23andMe, plans to maintain the company’s customer privacy policies and add further data security measures, 23andMe said in a statement.
The sale replaces a previous $256 million bid announced in May by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which said the genetic information could improve drug development.
Last month, 27 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit to block the sale of customers’ genetic information without their consent.
Wojcicki, 23andMe’s co-founder and former chief executive, said TTAM aims to operate for “the public good.”
“I am thrilled that TTAM will be able to build on the mission of 23andMe to help people access, understand and benefit from the human genome,” Wojcicki said. “As a nonprofit, TTAM will be a champion of improving our knowledge of DNA – the code of life – for the public good, creating a resource to advance human health globally.”
“Core to my beliefs is that individuals should be empowered to have choice and transparency with respect to their genetic data and have the opportunity to continue to learn about their ancestry and health risks as they wish. The future of healthcare belongs to all of us,” Wojcicki added.
The acquisition of 23andMe will include Lemonaid Health, a telemedicine service that 23andMe purchased for about $400 million in 2021.
In March, 23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, saying it would enter a “court-supervised” sale process. At the same time, Wojcicki resigned from her role as chief executive.
The move followed a series of setbacks for the company, including a 2023 class-action settlement over a data breach and a mass resignation among its board of directors in 2024.
Founded in 2006, 23andMe helped pioneer consumer genetic testing but faced difficulty turning the service into a sustainable business.
The sale received approval on Monday from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks, 23andMe said in a statement.
All customers will receive an email informing them of the sale prior to closure of the acquisition, the company said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday his administration will “have to take a look” at deporting Elon Musk after the billionaire reignited the feud with the president over his spending bill.
Musk, a South African national and a naturalized U.S. citizen, made several weekend X posts slamming Republicans over the “Big Beautiful Bill,” arguing that it was adding more debt.
“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!,” Musk posted Monday afternoon.
Trump pushed back with a Truth Social post early Tuesday claiming Musk was upset about the bill eliminating the electric vehicle mandate and that “Elon would have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa.”
When asked by reporters later in the morning if he would deport Musk, Trump said, “We’ll have to take a look.”
“We might have to put DOGE on Elon,” he said.
Musk posted his response to Trump’s Tuesday morning comments on X.
“So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now,” Musk wrote.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(CHEROKEE COUNTY, N.C.) — A North Carolina detention officer was fatally shot during a “scuffle” at a medical facility after a federal inmate who had been taken to the facility for treatment managed to seize his weapon, authorities said.
The inmate was apprehended after fleeing in a stolen vehicle and now faces a murder charge, according to Cherokee County Sheriff Dustin Smith.
“This has probably been one of the worst days of my career,” Smith said during a press briefing Monday evening. “This is a tough day for law enforcement for Cherokee County.”
The inmate — identified as 48-year-old Kelvin Simmons — had been transported to a medical facility for orthopedic treatment after he complained of foot pain, according to Smith.
Two detention officers were escorting Simmons — a heightened protocol after the inmate had previously attempted a failed escape from the Cherokee County detention center last year, Smith said.
One of the officers, 56-year-old Francisco Flattes, was shot at the medical facility, the sheriff said.
“There was a scuffle, and that’s when the officer’s weapon was taken from him,” Smith said.
Flattes was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The other officer, George Feinauer, was injured during the incident but is expected to recover, Smith said.
Simmons is then accused of carjacking a vehicle from someone who was at the medical facility and fleeing the scene. He was later apprehended in Macon County, North Carolina. No one else was in the vehicle. He was transported to a hospital in the area after complaining of foot pain, the sheriff said.
Simmons is a federal inmate who was being housed in Cherokee County on bank robbery charges, according to Smith. Online records show he pleaded guilty to bank robbery by force or violence and motor vehicle theft in 2023 but has not yet been sentenced.
Simmons also faces escape charges after attempting to break out of the Cherokee County detention center in October 2024 by climbing over a fence, according to Smith.
He is going to be charged with first-degree murder in Flattes’ death, according to the local district attorney, Ashley Hornsby Welch.
“We anticipate that more charges will be forthcoming,” she said at the briefing. “We’ve also been in contact with the United States Attorney’s Office, and I do believe that charges are likely coming from them as well.”
Flattes had been with the sheriff’s office for four years, Smith said. His wife also works for the Cherokee County detention center and his son-in-law works for the sheriff’s office.
“I just ask that you pray for our office, for Officer Flattes’ family,” Smith said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is traveling to the new “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention center in Florida’s Everglades on Tuesday.
“We’re going out to Alligator Alcatraz. It’s the East Coast version, and it should be very exciting, very good,” Trump said as he left the White House on Tuesday morning. “Worked very hard on it with Ron [DeSantis] and everybody, and I think it’s going to be great.”
The Trump administration is turning the remote Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport into a facility that officials say will eventually hold up to 5,000 people. Officials say operations will start on Tuesday. The facility is part of Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations by expanding detention capacity. The president has already sent migrants to Guantánamo Bay and the mega-prison in El Salvador.
Leavitt said Trump’s visit will be a chance for the president to tout the funding for more detention facilities and efforts to enact Trump’s mass deportation policy that are in his megabill that the Senate could vote on Tuesday before sending to the House before Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.
“I think his trip to this detention facility actually underscores the need to pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill because we need more detention facilities across the country,” Leavitt said.
A source familiar with the planning tells ABC it will cost Florida $450 million a year, and officials say some of that money will be reimbursed from FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program.
Leavitt described the facility’s remote location in her briefing on Monday.
“There’s only one road leading in, and the only way out is a one-way flight,” she said. “It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain. The facility will have up to 5,000 beds to house, process and deport criminal illegal aliens.”
“This is an efficient and low-cost way to help carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history,” Leavitt added.
When asked about the remote and dangerous location, Leavitt said that it was a feature of the facility to help prevent detainees from escaping.
“Well look, when you have illegal murderers and rapists and heinous criminals in a detention facility surrounded by alligators, yes, I do think that’s a deterrent for them to try to escape,” she said. “We do know that some of these illegal criminals have escaped from other detention facilities, like one in New Jersey, which I know was recently reported on. So, of course, we want to keep the American people safe, and we want to remove these public safety threats from our streets, and we want to effectively detain them as best as we can.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier posted on X that the facility is a “one stop shop” to carry out Trump’s mass deportation agenda, claiming the location saves money on security since it’s surrounded by dangerous animals.
“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,” Uthmeier posted.
Among officials who will join Trump at the facility are Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Congressman Byron Donalds.
In a statement released Monday, Noem said, “Alligator Alcatraz, and other facilities like it, will give us the capability to lock up some of the worst scumbags who entered our country under the previous administration. We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida. Make America safe again.”
DeSantis touted the facility last week as “as safe and secure as you can be.”
Environmental groups are suing to stop construction, alleging the government violated the Endangered Species Act by building on protected land.
Protesters gathered along the highway that cuts through the Everglades to demonstrate on Saturday. They included environmental activists and Native Americans advocating for their ancestral homelands. Others demonstrated against the treatment of migrants.
destroyed house caused by Noto Peninsula earthquake on New Year’s Day 2025/ Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)
(HONG KONG) — Some believe she foretold the devastating 2011 tsunami in Japan that killed more than 15,000 people and urban legend goes she also predicted the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, another premonition of a major disaster from manga artist Ryo Tatsuki is about to hit its alleged due date, spooking tourists in Asia and even causing some cancelled flights.
Social media is abuzz with Tatsuki’s prophecy of a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami wrecking her home country of Japan — a place prone to natural disasters but also a top destination for many in Asia — sometime between July 5 and 7.
In a 1999 Japanese comic book, also known as manga, Tatsuki wrote of a “great disaster” striking in March 2011. That same month, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a deadly tsunami, causing a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, leading to one of the biggest nuclear disasters in history.
Tatsuki updated her book, titled “The Future I Saw,” in 2021, claiming that “the real catastrophe” was due in July this year.
The predictions have irked local officials, with one local governor calling it a “serious issue” that “unscientific rumors are impacting tourism.”
Seismologists say there is no scientific basis for these predictions and, in a post on X last month, the Japanese Cabinet Office Disaster Prevention Division said that “with current scientific knowledge, it is difficult to predict an earthquake by specifying its date, time and location,” adding that “earthquakes can occur at any time.”
But with other psychics sharing warnings similar to Tatsuki’s foretelling, some travelers are getting cold feet, cancelling trips and prompting travel agencies to incentivize Japan-bound journeys by offering discounts.
Demand has plummeted so much that regional carrier Hong Kong Airlines cancelled all its flights to the southern Japanese prefectures of Kagoshima and Kumamoto in July and August.
However, statistics released by Japan’s National Tourism Organization in May showed that overall inbound tourism remains strong this year for the country.
(WASHINGTON) — Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — a staunch deficit hawk has been critical of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and immigration bill — signaled Monday that he would back the bill when it comes to a vote.
On Saturday Johnson flipped his vote to support a motion to move the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to the Senate floor only after huddling with Republican leaders about further reductions to the federal debt.
CNN’s Jake Tapper prompted Johnson to say he was a yes vote on the bill, to which the senator corrected him, saying he was “a yes on the motion to proceed” and “hopefully” add a provision that would prevent new enrollees in Medicaid expansion states from receiving Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) if they are are not disabled and don’t have dependent children.
Johnson then pivoted to signal his support for the final bill, which will come to a floor vote when an ongoing vote-a-rama wraps up.
“This is about as good as we can get. I don’t like it. I would like to get a lot more. But at some point in time you have to recognize reality. And if we don’t pass this bill, we have a massive $4 trillion tax increase,” Johnson said.
The FMAP amendment, led by fellow conservative holdout Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, had not yet been considered Monday evening.
The Senate plowed ahead toward a final vote on the bill as Republicans rush to get it across the finish line by July 4, with lawmakers voting on amendments through the night into Tuesday morning.
The self-imposed deadline by Trump meant a rare weekend session for lawmakers, one filled with partisan drama and some GOP infighting.
On Monday morning, senators began the “vote-a-rama” — a series of votes on proposed amendments to the megabill.
There is no limit to the number of amendments lawmakers can seek. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s top Democrat, promised his party would bring amendment after amendment during the marathon session. Democrats forced a reading of the 940-page bill over the weekend, which took nearly 16 hours. “Every senator will soon have an opportunity to reject this nonsense and vote for common-sense budgeting. Americans will be watching,” Schumer said on Monday as he slammed Trump’s bill as a break for billionaires that will hurt working-class families.
Democrats used the early hours of the vote-a-rama to force votes highlighting cuts the megabill makes to Medicaid, SNAP and rural hospitals and to hammer Republicans on the tax cuts they say the measure gives to the wealthiest Americans.
The Senate voted down, 47-53, an amendment led by Schumer that he said would have undone “the travesty that is at the core of the Republican bill.”
“Their bill the so-called big beautiful bill, which is really a big, ugly betrayal, cuts taxes for billionaires by taking away health care for millions of people. So what my amendment simply says, if people’s health care costs go up, the billionaire tax cuts vanish,” Schumer said.
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey’s effort to strip provisions that would negatively impact rural hospitals due to cuts to Medicaid also failed, but did receive the support of two Republicans: Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
The two moderate Republicans, who both have a history of voting across party lines, have raised concerns about how cuts to Medicaid and SNAP would hit their constituents. In total, Murkowski supported five Democratic-led measures in the ongoing vote-a-rama and Collins supported four.
Collins proposed her own amendment that aimed to increase the amount of money in the rural hospital relief fund. It failed by a vote of 22-78, with Collins subsequently criticizing what she called the “hypocritical approach” of the Democrats that voted against it.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture committee, argued that the SNAP provisions in the bill creates “chaos for state budgets and hardship for families” and violate budget rules. Her motion related to SNAP was waived by Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune defended the bill as delivering Trump’s campaign promises to eliminate tax on tips and overtime pay while boosting spending for defense and border security.
“It’s been a long debate,” Thune said in his own floor remarks ahead of the votes on amendments. “I know people are weary. But at the end of the day, we want to get this done so that this country is safer and stronger and more prosperous, not only for today but for future generations of Americans.”
So far, Republicans have defeated all Democratic efforts to modify or reconsider the bill — but the session ran into Tuesday morning.
As he walked off the floor in the early hours of Tuesday, Thune was asked if he could pull the bill back or if he may be forced to hold a final passage vote on the bill, even if he knows it will fail.
“Those are options I don’t want to have to worry about,” Thune replied.
Senate Finance Committee chairman Mike Crapo, a Republican, argued against several of the Democratic amendments.
“The reality is, the reforms we are putting into place are to try to reign in control of wasteful and fraudulent and abusive spending that actually diverts resources away from the people who these programs really deserve to receive,” Crapo said of Schumer’s amendment on Medicaid.
The vote-a-rama is the last hurdle before a vote on final passage of the bill in the Senate.
There is little room for error in the Republican-controlled chamber. A procedural vote on Saturday night to open debate on the bill narrowly passed in a 51-49 vote after two Republican defections.
GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina voted against advancing the bill. Tillis railed against the changes to Medicaid in the bill, saying it would hurt his constituents and would represent a betrayal of Trump’s promise not to touch the entitlement program upon which millions of people rely for health care coverage. Tillis’ opposition drew Trump’s ire, with the president threatening to support a primary challenger to the two-term senator. Tillis then suddenly announced he would not seek reelection, saying later he texted Trump on Saturday night suggesting he “probably needed to start looking for a replacement.”
“I respect President Trump. I support the majority of his agenda, but I don’t bow to anybody. When the people of North Carolina are at risk. And this bill puts them at risk,” Tillis said.
As of early Tuesday morning, the GOP leadership were still pushing for sufficient support.
One of the main targets was Murkowski, whose indecision came after reports that the Senate parliamentarian may have ruled some carve out provisions meant for her home state of Alaska’s Medicaid recipients out of order.
Also under pressure were Scott and Sen. Mike Lee, who were yet to receive a vote on their amendment that strips back additional funding for Medicaid. Collins had also not yet said which way she would vote.
Paul, meanwhile, offered an amendment that would significantly reduce the amount of money attributed to raise to the federal debt limit. The current bill raises the debt limit by $5 trillion dollars. Paul’s amendment would raise it by only $500 billion.
What’s next for OBBB in the House?
If the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passes in the Senate, it will have to go back to the House for members to consider the changes made to the bill.
House Republican leaders say Wednesday is the earliest chance for a megabill vote.
“Members are advised that votes are now expected in the House as early as 9 a.m. Wednesday, July 2. Please stay tuned to future updates for additional information regarding this week’s schedule,” a notice from Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s office said.
Speaker Mike Johnson expressed optimism that the Senate’s version of the One Big Beautiful Bill will pass in the GOP-led House despite opposition from moderates and conservatives.
“We’re going to pass this bill one way or the other,” Johnson said leaving the Capitol Monday evening. “And I have prevailed upon my Senate colleagues to please, please, please, put it as close to the House product as possible. I have been very consistent from the very beginning.
Johnson did not rule out passing the Senate version as is and said, “there’s still a lot of amendments, and a lot of game to play.”
Asked if GOP House leaders would make changes to what the Senate sends over, Johnson said, “We’ll see what the final product is. I am very hopeful as always. We will get this job done. We’ll see what happens.”
The speaker did not respond to a question about passing the bill by the Fourth of July deadline.
Republican leaders have told members they will receive 48 hours notice before a vote is called and will have 72 hours to review the bill text.
The House passed the Trump megabill by just one vote back in May. The Senate version of the bill will face an uphill battle in the House, given the GOP’s razor-thin majority.
California moderate Republican Rep. David Valadao said he will vote no given the Medicaid changes in the Senate bill. Several conservatives, including Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Josh Breechen of Oklahoma and Eric Burlison of Missouri have also expressed opposition to the Senate’s version of the bill.
Johnson and other Republican leaders worked through the weekend to lock down the votes even as several lawmakers have expressed opposition to the Senate’s version, which is still not finalized. Johnson can only afford to lose three defections if all members are voting and present.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump was working “hand in hand” with Johnson and Thune, and that the two leaders had met with him at the White House earlier Monday.
“Republicans need to stay tough and unified during the home stretch, and we are counting on them to get the job done,” Leavitt said during the White House briefing.
But sources familiar with the matter told ABC News Thune and Johnson have not met with President Trump at the White House, and as of now the two leaders have no current plans to meet with the president on Monday as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” progresses in the Senate.
A spokesman for Thune said he is preoccupied as the Senate moves through amendments to the megabill.
“Teams are obviously in close contact/coordination, as always, but we’re continuing to move through vote-a-rama in the Senate as we work to move this bill one step closer to the president’s desk,” the spokesman said in a post on X.
Speaker Johnson is in Washington working through House members’ concerns as the Senate works through the bill, including several provisions that could spell problems later in the week if the bill is sent back to the House.
ABC News’ John Parkinson contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump campaigned for president on the promise of mass deportations that targeted criminals — and while ICE agents have arrested over 38,000 migrants with criminal convictions, new data shows a recent shift toward also arresting those who have not been accused of crimes.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has arrested an increasing number of migrants with no criminal convictions, according to an ABC News analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.
The numbers, which were obtained through a public records lawsuit and released by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California Berkeley, give the first real glimpse of how Trump’s immigration enforcement policy is playing out in the streets.Over the first five months of the Trump administration, ICE has arrested over 95,000 individuals, according to data analyzed by ABC’s owned television stations’ data team.
At the start of the administration, ICE tended to target migrants with pending or criminal convictions. From Inauguration Day to May 4, 2025, 44% of those arrested had a criminal conviction, while 34% of those arrested had pending charges and 23% had no criminal history, according to the data.
But beginning May 25, the data appears to show there was a shift in enforcement — with individuals with criminal convictions making up only 30% of those arrested. Those arrested with pending criminal charges accounted for 26% of the individuals arrested and 44% had no criminal history.
“It looks like there’s been a shift from about Memorial Day this year up until now, to an increasing number of people who have been detained who have no criminal charges,” said Austin Kocher, a professor at Syracuse University who reviewed the data.
“We hear a lot about the administration deporting the worst of the worst. And as far as we can tell from all available data up to this point, the data has not really supported that,” Kocher said.
The data is largely divided into three groups of individuals: those who have criminal convictions, those with pending charges, and those who may be facing civil immigration charges, labeled as “other immigration violators.” However, the data provides no indication of what kind of crimes the individuals may be accused or convicted of.
In Los Angeles, where ICE raids recently sparked large demonstrations, and in the New York City area, almost 60% of those arrested by ICE in the first ten days of June had no criminal convictions nor any pending criminal charges, according to the data.
Asked about the shift, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told ABC News, “We are not going to disclose law enforcement sensitive intelligence and methods. 70% of the arrests ICE made were of criminal illegal aliens.”
“We are continuing to go after the worst of the worst — including gang members, pedophiles, and rapists,” McLaughlin said. “Under Secretary [Kristi] Noem, we are delivering on President Trump’s and the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens and make America safe.”
The majority of administration’s migrant arrests have taken place in Texas, the state with the longest southern border. But the data also shows that enforcement has largely shifted away from apprehensions at the southern border to apprehensions in the interior of the country.
John Sandweg, the former acting director of ICE under President Barack Obama, told ABC News that the shift in enforcement is not a surprise, considering that illegal border crossings are down dramatically.
“For the last probably 15 years at least, the majority of ICE arrests, people booked into ICE custody or ICE apprehensions, were individuals apprehended at the border. But now, the administration is very sensitive to the numbers and has started putting ICE under pressure,” Sandweg said, referring to Trump’s call for more migrants to be deported.
“The problem is that you are now engaged in operations that are, frankly, more likely to find non-criminals than criminals,” Sandweg said.
As ABC News previously reported, ICE’s latest tactic has been arresting individuals at immigration courts. In most cases, when a deportation case is dismissed, it is a positive outcome for a migrant, attorneys told ABC News — but according to immigration attorneys and advocates, immigration enforcement officers have been waiting in immigration court buildings and coordinating with DHS lawyers to arrest migrants promptly after their cases are dismissed, after which the migrants are placed into expedited removal proceedings without allowing them to fight their case.
“If there’s anything that says this isn’t about serious criminal enforcement, it’s this wholesale dismissal of cases of the people who are showing up in immigration court,” Sandweg said. “I mean, you want to find the place where you’re least likely to find dangerous criminals — it’s the people who show up for their immigration court hearings.”
Sandweg said these new types of enforcement, including courthouse arrests, are being made in an effort to achieve quotas set by the Trump administration.
“It’s another way to just quickly make some arrests,” Sandweg said.
The administration, meanwhile, says it’s continuing its efforts to target accused criminals.
At a press conference on Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said federal authorities have arrested 2,711 alleged multinational gang members since Trump re-took office in January.
“You should all feel safer that President Trump can deport all of these gangs and not one district court judge can think they’re emperor over this Trump administration and his executive powers,” she said.
