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The billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Muskon Saturday criticized the latest version of Donald Trump’s sprawling tax and spending bill, calling it “utterly insane and destructive, The Guardian reported.

“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” Musk wrote on Saturday as the Senate was scheduled to call a vote to open debate on the nearly 1,000-page bill.

“Utterly insane and destructive,” Musk added. “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”

Passing the package, Musk said, would be “political suicide for the Republican Party.”

Musk’s comment reopens a recent fiery conflict between the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and the administration he recently left. They also represent yet another headache for Republican Senate leaders who have spent the weekend working overtime to get the legislation through their chamber so it can pass by Trump’s Fourth of July deadline, according to Guardian.

The Senate is taking a key procedural vote that has dragged on for more than two hours during a rare Saturday evening session as Republicans struggled to advance President Donald Trump’s package of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds by his July Fourth deadline, Associated Press reported.

The proceedings came to a standstill and Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Capitol to break a potential tie. Tense scenes were playing out in the chamber as senators huddled in negotiations. Several Republican senators were registering their opposition to proceeding to open debate on the bill.

Republicans are using their majorities in Congress to push aside Democratic opposition, but they have run into a series of political and policy setbacks. Not all GOP lawmakers are on board with proposals to reduce spending on Medicaid, food stamps and other programs as a way to help cover the cost of extending some $3.8 trillion in Trump tax breaks.

“It’s time to get this legislation across the finish line,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., as the session was underway, according to Associated Press.

Japan on Sunday successfully launched a climate change monitoring satellite on its mainstay H-2A rocket, which made its final flight before it is replaced by a new flagship designed to be more cost competitive in the global space market, Associated Press reported.

The H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan, carrying the GOSAT-GW satellite as part of Tokyo’s effort to mitigate climate change. The satellite was released into a planned orbit about 16 minutes later.

The launch follows several days of delays because of malfunctioning of the rocket’s electrical systems. 

Sunday’s launch marked the 50th and final flight for the H-2A, which has served as Japan’s mainstay rocket to carry satellites and probes into space with a near-perfect record since its 2001 debut. After its retirement, it will be fully replaced by the H3, which is already in operation, as Japan’s new main flagship, according to Associated Press.

Around 100,000 people defied a government ban and police orders Saturday to march in what organizers called the largest LGBTQ+ Pride event in Hungary’s history in an open rebuke of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government, Associated Press reported.

Marchers gambled with potential police intervention and heavy fines to participate in the 30th annual Budapest Pride, which was outlawed in March by Orbán’s right-wing populist governing party.

The march began at Budapest City Hall and wound through the city center before crossing the capital’s Erzsébet Bridge over the Danube River. Police diverted the crowd from its planned route to keep it separated from a small group of far-right counterprotesters, while members of Hungary’s LGBTQ+ community and masses of supporters danced to music and waved rainbow and anti-government flags.

One marcher, Blanka Molnár, said it was “a fantastic feeling” that more people had attended the Pride march than ever before despite it being outlawed. She said it was “increasingly important” for Hungarians, “even those who have never been to Pride before,” to push back against the government’s policies, according to Associated Press.

Israeli strikes killed at least 72 people across Gaza overnight and into Saturday, health workers said, as ceasefire prospects were said to be improving after 21 months of war, Associated Press reported.

Three children and their parents were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent camp in Muwasi near the southern city of Khan Younis. They were struck while sleeping, relatives said.

“What did these children do to them? What is their fault?” said the children’s grandmother, Suad Abu Teima, as others knelt to kiss their bloodied faces and wept. Some placed red flowers into the body bags.

Also among the dead were 12 people near the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced people, and eight more in apartments, according to staff at Shifa Hospital. More than 20 bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital, according to health officials, according to Associated Press.

The National Examinations Board, Examinations Control Office has published the results of this year's Secondary Education Examinations (SEE).  According to the board, 61.81 per cent student passed the exam.

NEB Chairman Mahasram Sharma informed that 48,177 students secured 3.60 to 4.00 GPA in this year's examination. Examinees can see their results through the NEB website https://www.neb.gov.np/ or by dialing 1600. This year the SEE was held from March 20 and that a total of 514,071 students had appeared in SEE this year.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Thursday that no arrangement or commitment had been made to resume negotiations with the United States. In an interview with state broadcaster IRIB, Araghchi said the possibility of restarting talks was under consideration but would depend on whether Tehran's national interests were protected.Araghchi confirmed that the damage caused by the 12-day war with Israel was "serious" and experts from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran were conducting a detailed assessment.On the same day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the United States has no meetings scheduled with Iran, one day after U.S. President Trump said that the two sides would talk and meet "next week."

Also on Thursday, Iran's Constitutional Council approved a bill, already ratified by the parliament, to suspend the country's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The bill has been reviewed by the council and is in line with Iran's religious regulations, laws and constitution, council spokesperson Hadi Tahan Nazif said in an interview with state-run IRIB TV on Thursday. Following the approval, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that the bill has been submitted to the government for implementation.

Global goods trade posted a strong uptick in early 2025 driven by importers frontloading purchases ahead of anticipated higher tariffs; however, weakening export orders suggest that this momentum may not be sustained. The latest WTO Goods Trade Barometer rose to 103.5 — up from 102.8 in March, while the forward-looking new export orders index fell to 97.9, pointing to weaker trade growth later in the year.

The Goods Trade Barometer is a composite leading indicator for world trade, providing real-time information on the trajectory of merchandise trade relative to recent trends. Barometer values greater than 100 are associated with above-trend trade volumes, while barometer values less than 100 suggest that goods trade has either fallen below trend or will do so in the near future.

While the current barometer reading of 103.5 (represented by the blue line in the chart) exceeds both the baseline value of 100 and the quarterly trade volume index (represented by the black line), the decline in export orders and the temporary nature of frontloading suggest that trade growth may slow in the months ahead as enterprises import less and start to draw down accumulated inventories.

The most predictive barometer component, the new export orders index (97.9), has dipped below its baseline value of 100 into contraction territory, signalling weaker trade growth later in the year. On the other hand, most other barometer components have risen above trend. Transport-related indices, including air freight (104.3) and container shipping (107.1), reflect increased movement of goods. The automotive products index (105.3) also is above trend due to resilient vehicle production and sales. The electronic components index (102.0) has climbed above trend after underperforming in 2023 and 2024. Finally, the raw materials index (100.8) shows only modest growth, just above baseline.

World merchandise trade volume growth moderated in the fourth quarter of 2024 but it is likely to rebound in the first quarter of 2025 based on the goods barometer and preliminary trade data. The WTO Secretariat's Global Trade Outlook and Statistics report of 16 April 2025 projected stable trade growth of 2.7% for 2025 under a low-tariff scenario reflecting policy conditions at  the start of the  year, and a ­‑0.2% contraction under actual policies in place as of mid-April. Subsequent developments, including US-China and US-UK trade agreements as well as higher tariffs on steel and aluminium, have nudged the forecast up and down slightly leaving the overall outlook basically flat at 0.1%.  However, trade contraction is possible, for example if US reciprocal tariffs are reinstated, or if trade policy uncertainty spreads globally. Source WTO