GOP unites on Trump budget framework, Dems try to corner them in marathon vote session
The Senate approved changes to the House’s budget resolution on Saturday after an hourslong series of amendment votes during which Democrats sought to put Republicans on record on issues like tariffs and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
It passed mostly along party lines in a 51 to 48 vote.
The amended framework would raise the debt ceiling by up to $5 trillion within the reconciliation process, taking future leverage away from Senate Democrats. It would also make President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent by using what’s called a current policy baseline that Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., decides.
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The scoring tool essentially means the cost of making Trump’s tax cuts permanent would be factored at $0 because it extends current policy, rather than counting it as new dollars being added to the federal deficit.
Budget reconciliation lowers the vote threshold in the Senate from 60 to 51, which lets Republicans approve certain priorities with no Democrat support.
Washington’s Republican trifecta thus sees reconciliation as a key tool for delivering on Trump agenda items.
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The Senate’s Friday night “vote-a-rama” was triggered by the chamber agreeing to a motion to proceed to the budget resolution amendment on Thursday night. Nearly a day of debate followed before the vote series was initiated.
During this type of voting series, senators of both parties can introduce an unlimited number of amendments, and many get floor votes.
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The budget would address border funding for the Trump administration as well as extend the hallmark tax cuts Trump passed in 2017.
Initially, there was stark disagreement between Republicans in the House and Senate on how to organize a budget reconciliation resolution. The House GOP leaders preferred one bill with both the border and taxes included, while those in the Senate wanted to have two separate resolutions for them.
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But the House’s approach ultimately won out, with Trump supporting their plan.
Suspect’s alleged comments to authorities moments after teen brutally killed at track meet
The 17-year-old suspect accused of stabbing another teen to death at a Texas high school track meet allegedly confessed to a police officer shortly after the deadly attack.
Authorities have charged Karmelo Anthony, a student-athlete from Frisco Centennial High School, with murder after he allegedly stabbed 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, a junior at Memorial High School in Frisco, to death on Wednesday morning over a seating dispute.
A school resource officer was the first to arrive at the scene and confront Anthony, according to an arrest report obtained by FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth.
“I gave the suspect instructions to keep his hands up in the air. During this time, the suspect said verbally out loud, ‘I was protecting myself,’” the report from the responding resource officer states.
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The suspect also allegedly told the officer that Metcalf “put his hands on” him.
When the officer told some others that he had the alleged stabbing suspect in custody, Anthony apparently said, “I’m not alleged. I did it,” according to the arrest report obtained by FOX 4.
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“He put his hands on me. I told him not to,” Anthony allegedly said as authorities walked the teenager to a police vehicle.
Anthony also asked the officers if Metcalf was “going to be okay” and asked if what happened could be considered “self-defense,” FOX 4 reported, citing the police document.
Metcalf’s twin brother, Hunter, who spoke on “The Will Cain Show” Wednesday alongside his grieving mother, Meghan, recalled the moment he saw his brother with a wound to his chest after the altercation with Anthony.
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“I whipped my head around, and then all of a sudden I see him running down the bleachers just grabbing his chest… I put my hand on there, tried to make [the bleeding] stop, and I grabbed his head and I looked in his eyes. I just saw his soul leave, and it took my soul, too,” Hunter said.
Anthony is being held in a Collin County jail on $1 million bail.
YouTuber arrested for allegedly visiting forbidden island with violent history
A daredevil YouTube influencer has been arrested after visiting a remote Indian island, where he tried to make illegal contact with indigenous people, according to global reports.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, of Arizona, allegedly traveled to the restricted North Sentinel Island, where he tried to offer a coconut and can of Diet Coke as “offerings for the Sentinelese,” The Andaman Chronicle and The Washington Post reported, citing local police.
Police in Andaman and Nicobar Islands reportedly said he visited the region because of “his passion for adventure and his desire to undertake extreme challenges,” police said. It was apparently his third time trying to make the trip, according to The Post.
Polyakov was also apparently wearing a GoPro portable camera, showing him entering the island’s shore “claiming unofficial representation of the U.S.,” police said in a statement.
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He stayed on the island for about five minutes, collecting samples and recording video footage, but reportedly did not make contact with any indigenous people. He then remained offshore in a boat for about an hour before local fisherman saw him and contacted authorities, The Post and the Chronicle reported.
Polyakov, who goes by Neo-Orientalist on YouTube, has a six-part video series showing his travels through “Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.”
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Contact with the Sentinelese people is strictly prohibited due to their protected indigenous way of life, the Chronicle reported.
“We are getting more details about him and his intention to visit the reserved tribal area. We are also trying to find where else he had visited during his stay in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. We are questioning the hotel staff where he was staying in Port Blair,” Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal, director general of police of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said in a statement to the Chronicle.
Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, a nonprofit seeking to help indigenous and tribal societies around the world, called Polyakov’s actions “deeply disturbing” and noted the death of an American missionary who attempted to make contact with people on the island in 2018.
“The Sentinelese have made their wish to avoid outsiders incredibly clear over the years – I’m sure many remember the 2018 incident in which an American missionary, John Allen Chau, was killed by them after landing on their island to try to convert them to Christianity,” Pearce said in a statement. “It’s good news that the man in this latest incident has been arrested, but deeply disturbing that he was reportedly able to get onto the island in the first place”
Pearce added that uncontacted indigenous peoples across the globe “are experiencing the invasion of their lands on a shocking scale.”
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“Countless uncontacted peoples in the Amazon are being invaded by loggers and gold-miners. The uncontacted Shompen of Great Nicobar Island, not far from North Sentinel, will be wiped out if India goes ahead with its plan to transform their island into ‘the Hong Kong of India,’” Pearce continued. “The common factor in all these cases is governments’ refusal to abide by international law and recognize and protect uncontacted peoples’ territories.”
Polyakov is currently in judicial custody and has a hearing scheduled for April 17, The Post reported.
Bill Murray’s movie theater altercation goes viral — and divides social media
Bill Murray is putting his foot down.
The actor was at a movie theater in New York recently to promote his new film, “The Friend.” In a video that’s been making the rounds on social media, Murray got into an altercation with a man in the lobby of the theater he seemed to believe was being aggressive toward him.
At the beginning of the video, Murray is walking with a security guard inside the theater. A man is walking close behind him, and Murray suddenly stops and stomps on the ground, seemingly at the man’s feet.
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“Stop it,” he said, turning and pointing at the man, who immediately puts his hands up. “If you attack me like that again, I’ll step on your foot.”
“No, no,” the man responded, stepping back and keeping his hands up, but Murray kept talking to him as security guards guided him away.
“Don’t do it,” he says. “That’s a physical assault you just made. Don’t do it again. Don’t do it again. You’re not big enough to do that.”
The man can be heard yelling, “Sorry” as Murray is led off.
Fox News Digital reached out to reps for Murray for comment.
As the video of the interaction has been circulating online, many people have weighed in on Murray’s behavior in the video, with some empathizing with his frustration, and others suggesting he was out of line.
“Honestly, if someone stepped on Bill Murray’s foot and disrespected him, he’s got every right to snap,” one person wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “The man’s a legend, give him some space. Fans need to remember, celebrity or not, people still deserve basic respect.”
“That was a pretty restrained reaction considering dude was following him so close he stepped on him,” another commented.
With a more critical interpretation, one person tweeted, “Privileged old actor that thinks he’s entitled to do or say anything. I’d love to know exactly how he was ‘attacked’!”
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Another joked, “Don’t get too close to the porcelain people guys they get angry when we dirty them with our presence.”
Murray isn’t the only celebrity who’s snapped at someone he considered rude.
In October, another legendary actor, Denzel Washington, made waves when a video shared to social media showed him lashing out at fans who were gathered to ask for his autograph.
Washington visited New York City’s Museum of Modern Art to attend a film benefit honoring Samuel L. Jackson. He stopped outside to pose for photos with fans, but another group stood nearby, calling out to him and asking him for autographs. He didn’t acknowledge them while he took the photos but turned to speak to them before going inside.
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In video obtained by Fox News Digital, Washington could be heard saying, “Put this down. I heard you. You talk about showing love … respect me.”
“We always do,” one fan responded.
“I said, ‘I’ll see you when I get out.’ Which part of that don’t y’all understand?” Washington said.
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“Or not, or not! We can do it another way. Either way I can do it both ways, y’all.”
Story about crash that left Jeffrey Epstein accuser with ‘days to live’ thrown into doubt
Several parents whose children were aboard the Australian school bus involved in a collision with Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent accuser, Virginia Giuffre, are taking issue with her portrayal of the incident and defending the driver, according to a new report.
Giuffre was involved in a crash with a loaded school bus on March 24, according to a spokesperson.
In an Instagram post that included a picture that appears to show her covered in bruises, Giuffre claimed she had gone into life-threatening kidney failure as a result of her injuries. Her spokesperson later said she had mistakenly shared the image on her public page and meant to put it on her private Facebook account.
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Giuffre claimed to have been struck by a bus while traveling at about 70 mph. The driver, Ross Munns, was reportedly going just 45 at the time of the crash, and the parents appeared miffed that the man they trust to take their kids to school was being accused of wrongdoing, they told The Telegraph, a British newspaper.
“If an occupant of a vehicle had been injured, there’s no way he would have left and not called the ambulance,” Emmie-Rose Wright told the paper.
She had three children aboard the bus at the time of the crash and said it was not serious.
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“There’s no damage to the bus and none of the kids are injured,” she told the paper. “They weren’t worried or traumatized at all.”
Hayley Miller, another parent, told the paper she was “disgusted” by Giuffre’s hospital bed selfie.
“The whole story is sick and I don’t know what’s true and what is not but I do know [the injuries] are not from the bus incident,” she said. “It’s lies. I don’t know what she is trying to get from all of it . . . but I do feel bad for her and I hope she gets help.”
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Giuffre has been a central figure in the Epstein saga and has accused him, his longtime lover Ghislaine Maxwell, and the British Prince Andrew of sex crimes. Thousands of pages released from her court battles continue to shed light on Epstein’s behavior, years after his death.
On Sunday, she shared the shocking post, claiming to have just four days to live.
“This year has been the worst start to a new year, but I won’t bore anyone with the details but I think it [is] important to note that when a school bus driver comes at you driving 110km (about 70 mph) as we were slowing for a turn that no matter what your car is made of it might as well be a tin can,” Giuffre posted along with an image of herself showing bruises on her face, head and torso from a hospital bed. “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist hospital in urology.”
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Dini von Mueffling, a spokesperson for Giuffre, said earlier this week she had been seriously hurt and hospitalized. She did not immediately respond to messages Friday.
“On March 24, in rural Western Australia, a school bus hit the car in which she was riding,” she told Fox News Digital. “The police were called but said that there was no one available to come to the scene. They asked if anyone was injured and suggested that if they were, they should make their way to the hospital.”
The driver took the children to safety and filled out a police report later, she said. Giuffre went home at first with some bruising and later checked into a hospital.
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Epstein, already a convicted pedophile in Florida, died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was convicted at the end of her own trial in 2021. She is appealing.
Prince Andrew has denied allegations of wrongdoing, was not charged criminally, and reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre stemming from a civil lawsuit.
DOGE saves $1,000,000 after discovering agency uses magnetic tapes to store data
The U.S. General Services Administration has saved $1 million by converting decades-old information storage technology, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said Friday.
In a post on X, DOGE said that the agency, which supplies office space, transportation and other basic services to federal agencies, saved money by converting 14,000 magnetic tapes to permanent modern digital records.
The move is part of the Elon Musk-led group’s mission to get rid of wasteful government spending.
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Earlier this week, the group said The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a month for website changes before canceling the contract and having an internal staffer take over.
While combing through loads and loads of data, DOGE discovered a previous contract by the VA for its website maintenance.
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“Good work by @DeptVetAffairs,” DOGE said in an X post on Wednesday. “VA was previously paying ~$380,000/month for minor website modifications. That contract has not been renewed, and the same work is now being executed by 1 internal VA software engineer spending ~10 hours/week.”
GAS said on Thursday it will save $4.5 million by “optimizing leases & reducing our footprint” with less unused office space.
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“Smart moves like this mean more efficiency & better spaces for agencies to deliver for the American people,” a GSA post on X states.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the GSA, but did not hear back by the time of publication.