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Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Prize-winning author, dies at 89

Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian-Spanish Nobel Prize-winning author whose work focused on the evils of totalitarianism and who once ran for president, has died at age 89, according to his family.

“It is with deep sorrow that we announce that our father, Mario Vargas LLosa, passed away peacefully in Lima today, surrounded by his family,” said a family statement shared by his son Álvaro Vargas Llosa on X on Sunday.

Vargas Llosa will be best remembered for novels including “Conversation in the Cathedral” (1969), “The War of the End of the World” (1981), and “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter” (1977), which was adapted for the 1990 feature film “Tune in Tomorrow,” starring Barbara Hershey and Keanu Reeves.

In 2010, Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Swedish academy called “his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.”

In their statement Sunday, the novelist’s three children said Vargas Llosa’s “departure will sadden his relatives, his friends and his readers around the world.”

“But we hope that they will find comfort, as we do, in the fact that he enjoyed a long, adventurous and fruitful life, and leaves behind him a body of work that will outlive him,” they said.

Vargas Llosa will be farewelled by his family and close friends at a private event, the statement added.

Born in Arequipa, southern Peru, Vargas Llosa spent his early years in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where his grandfather was the Peruvian consul, before attending a military school and the National University of San Marcos in the Peruvian capital Lima.

By 1952 he had published his first work, a play called “La guide del Inca,” and he soon became a regular contributor to the Peruvian literary press.

Vargas Llosa worked as a journalist and broadcaster, and attended the University of Madrid before moving to Paris.

In 1963 he published his first novel, “La ciudad y los perros” – known in English as “The Time of the Hero” – to wide acclaim. It was eventually translated into more than a dozen languages. It was followed by novels including “The Green House” (1966) and “Captain Pantoja and the Special Service” (1973).

After stints in London, where he lectured at King’s College; the United States, where he spent a year as writer in residence at Washington State University; and Barcelona, he moved back to Lima in 1974. A translated collection of his essays was published in English in 1978.

In 1990, Vargas Llosa ran for president of Peru, on a platform of what he called classical liberalism – a belief in individual initiative, free from interference by the state.

After losing the election to outsider candidate Alberto Fujimori in a second-round landslide, he moved to Spain, becoming a Spanish citizen in 1993. He won the Cervantes Prize, a prestigious Spanish literary award, a year later.

Later novels included “The Feast of the Goat” in 2000 and “The Bad Girl” in 2006.

When Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010, he told the organizers in an interview that he had been inspired by French writer Gustave Flaubert, “because he managed, not being a born genius, to build his genius through effort, commitment, perseverance, discipline.”

Vargas Llosa also revealed how he believed that literature and politics were linked.

“I am convinced that, for example, democratic culture, culture based on freedom, on respect of human rights, was something that was possible because we had people that were sensibilized by art, by literature, by culture in general, about the sufferance, the injustices, the inequalities, the abuses who were so extended in real life,” he said.

“So, I think literature is pleasure but it’s also a very important instrument to move forward in life.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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North Korea is making what could be its largest, most advanced warship ever, new satellite photos show

New satellite images show what could be North Korea’s biggest warship ever – possibly more than double the size of anything in leader Kim Jong Un’s naval fleet.

Images taken by independent satellite providers Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs on April 6 show the ship under construction in the water at the Nampo shipyard on North Korea’s west coast, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of the capital Pyongyang.

Analysts say the pictures show ongoing construction of weapons and other internal systems of the ship, which is likely a guided-missile frigate (FFG) designed to carry missiles in vertical launch tubes for use against targets on land and sea.

“The FFG is approximately 140 meters (459 feet) long, making it the largest warship manufactured in North Korea,” an analysis by Joseph Bermudez Jr. and Jennifer Jun at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said.

For comparison, the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are about 505 feet long and its under-construction Constellation-class frigates will be 496 feet long.

The existence of the warship is not a surprise.

The Kim regime has been engaged in a rapid modernization of its armed forces, developing a range of new weapons and testing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach almost anywhere in the United States.

It’s done that despite United Nations sanctions that have puts strict limits on its access to the materials and technology to develop those weapons.

But the closer ties with Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine war could be helping North Korea overcome that sanctions, analysts say.

Kim Duk-ki, a retired South Korean admiral, said he thinks Moscow may be providing the technology for the frigate’s missile systems.

Pictures of the vessel appeared in a report by state-run Korean Central Television released late last year on the ruling Workers’ Party’s end-of-year plenary session. The images showed leader Kim inspecting the ship’s construction.

The images shown in the KCTV video show the warship could have the kind of weaponry possessed by modern navies, including vertical launch cells that could be used to fire a variety of missiles.

Analysts also noted the ship seems to be set up to have phased-array radar, which can track threats and targets more quickly and accurately than previously displayed North Korean capabilities.

Despite those indications of advanced warfighting abilities, analysts urged caution in making assumptions.

The challenge of building warships

Almost any shipbuilder can get the hull and propulsion systems right, said Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain and Hawaii-based analyst.

“However, modern warships represent an integration challenge of communications, electronics, weapons, and both electronic and acoustic sensor technologies” that is not so easily achieved, he said.

“Operating such a big military warship takes significant amount of budget. They not only have to build a warship, but make a team that would operate it, and it costs to operate it including the equipment and fuel. Also, one huge warship cannot go out on its own. So the question is, can North Korea afford the cost?” he said.

Kim, the retired South Korean admiral, was cautious on not underestimating what the final product may look like, especially its lethality.

“If North Korea equips the new frigate with the hypersonic ballistic missile it claimed to have successfully tested in January, that will cause a game changing impact in the regional security,” the former naval officer said.

“This ship’s construction is being delayed by the lack of the superstructure, sensor and weapons systems intended for installation,” he said.

North Korea’s aged fleet

North Korea’s navy has about 400 patrol combatants and 70 submarines, according to the most recent estimate from the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in a 2021 report.

Though that’s a large number of vessels, most of them are old and small.

Joseph Dempsey, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, wrote in a January blog post that Pyongyang has only two principal surface combatants. Those Najin-class frigates – 1,600-ton warships dating to the early 1970s – are obsolete, he wrote.

The DIA report said the North Korean navy would largely be reduced to coastal defense in any conflict with South Korea or the United States, both of which have vastly superior naval forces.

But North Korean leader Kim has been pushing to modernize his naval fleet. It is also developing submarine-launched missiles and the subs to carry them.

In September, Kim inspected the site for a new naval port.

“Now that we are soon to possess large surface warships and submarines which cannot be anchored at the existing facilities for mooring warships, the construction of a naval base for running the latest large warships has become a pressing task,” he said at the time.

Yu Yong-won, a South Korean lawmaker, said the ship under construction at the Nampo yard is only one example of Kim trying to modernize his navy.

A nuclear-powered submarine is under construction at a shipyard in the North Korean port of Sinpo and another frigate or destroyer is in the works in Chongjin, Yu said.

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China’s Xi heads to Southeast Asia to strengthen ties as Trump focuses his trade war on Beijing

Xi Jinping has appealed to Vietnam to join China in upholding multilateral trade, as he begins a high-stakes diplomatic tour of the region’s major export-reliant economies in a bid to position his country as a stable partner in contrast to the United States.

Xi arrived in communist-ruled Vietnam on Monday and is set to visit Malaysia and Cambodia from Tuesday to Friday – countries that have seen growing trade and investment ties with China in recent years.

The trip comes just days after US President Donald Trump paused his “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries for 90 days – narrowing the focus on his trade war squarely on China.

As Washington and Beijing exchange record-high levies, Southeast Asian nations – still catching their breath from the now-suspended US tariffs – are growing increasingly anxious about being caught in the crossfire between the world’s two largest economies.

Seeking to capitalize on the turmoil unleashed by Trump’s tariff whiplash, Xi is expected to cast China as a reliable partner and defender of global trade. Vietnam and Cambodia were among the highest hit by Trump’s tariffs, set at 46% and 49% respectively before the pause.

But while countries are rolling out the red carpet for Xi, they also need to tread carefully – and avoid the appearance they are siding with China, and potentially risk provoking Trump during their own negotiations over pending tariffs.

Some are wary of being flooded with cheap Chinese goods that are now shut out of the US markets due to the sky-high tariffs. China already runs a trade surplus with Vietnam, exporting 1.6 times the value it imports from its southern neighbor.

As a bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has overtaken the US and the European Union as China’s largest export market since 2023, according to Chinese customs data.

In a signed article published Monday in Vietnam state media, Xi reiterated that there are no winners in a trade war or tariff war, and protectionism will lead nowhere.

“Our two countries should resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment,” Xi wrote, according to China’s official state news agency Xinhua.

Vietnam, a rising manufacturing powerhouse, has seen a surge in Chinese investments in recent years as manufactures move supply chains out of China to take advantage of lower labor costs and hedge against US levies. China’s trade with Vietnam nearly doubled between 2017 and 2024, making the communist state China’s biggest trade partner in Southeast Asia.

While in Hanoi, Xi is expected to further strengthen those ties. The two countries are set to sign about 40 agreements across multiple sectors – including cooperation on railways, agricultural trade and the digital and green economy, Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

Vietnam has approved plans to build a $8.3 billion railway linking its northern port city of Haiphong to China, which will be partially funded by Chinese loans. The country is also looking to purchase China’s homegrown mainline passenger aircraft made by Chinese state-owned planemaker COMAC.

Wen-ti Sung, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said Xi’s high-profile visit is two pronged: economically, it’s about finding a way to diversify China’s economic footprint around the world; on the foreign policy front, it’s also aimed at pulling countries closer to China while they are unsettled by Trump’s on-and-off-again tariffs.

“What Xi is trying to do now is to go there in person. Instead of fear and pressure, Xi is going to show them love, maybe some ‘souvenirs’ along the way,” he said, referring to possible new trade deals and upgrades to their strategic partnerships.

“All these are ways for China to show that I’m on your side. It’s safe to hang out with China, especially if you’re concerned about the US.”

But relations between China and its neighbors have been strained in recent years, with tensions flaring over claims of disputed sovereignty in the South China Sea. In February, Chinese warships held live-fire drills in waters near Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, known as the Beibu Gulf in China, after Hanoi published a map defining its territorial claims there.

In his signed article in Vietnam’s Nhan Dan Newspaper, Xi urged the two countries to “properly manage differences and safeguard peace and stability in our region.”

“The successful delimitation of our boundaries on land and in the Beibu Gulf demonstrates that with vision, we are fully capable of properly settling maritime issues through consultation and negotiation,” Xi was quoted as writing.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Sudan’s RSF claims control of major Darfur camp, civilians flee

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of a major camp for displaced people in North Darfur, the paramilitary group said on Sunday, after a four-day assault the government and aid groups have said left hundreds dead or wounded.

The fighting has centered around the Zamzam camp, which, along with the nearby Abu Shouk camp, hosts some 700,000 people displaced by Sudan’s war. The assault has destroyed shelters, markets, and healthcare facilities, aid groups said.

The RSF said the camp was being used as a base by what it called “mercenary factions.” But humanitarian groups denounced the assault as a targeted attack on vulnerable civilians, including women, children and elderly people, who are already facing famine.

The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), a Darfur militia allied to the national army, has been fighting the RSF around the city of al-Fashir, around 15 km (9.3 miles) from Zamzam, with the help of other local armed groups.

Tens of thousands of camp residents have fled to al-Fashir on foot, overwhelming shelters, and are now sleeping outdoors without food, water, or medicine, SLA spokesperson El-Sadiq Ali El-Nour said on Sunday.

The city – the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur province – came under heavy shelling and RSF ground attacks on Sunday, the SLA said, calling for military support from Sudan’s armed forces and allied factions.

The Sudanese army has a base with several thousand troops in al-Fashir.

“The leadership of the armed forces must act swiftly to save the lives of approximately 1.5 million people in al-Fashir urgently,” the SLA said in a statement. “Darfur must not fight alone.”

The RSF has denied targeting civilians and, on Saturday, accused its rivals of orchestrating a media campaign using actors and staged scenes within the camp to falsely incriminate it.

On Sunday, it said it had organized voluntary evacuations for families fleeing al-Fashir and surrounding camps and welcomed humanitarian agencies to respond to the deteriorating conditions.

The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, sparked by a power struggle between the army and the RSF, shattering hopes for a transition to civilian rule.

The conflict has since displaced millions and devastated regions like Darfur, where the RSF is now fighting to maintain its stronghold amid army advances in Khartoum.

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The wrong tattoo can get you stopped by police. But artists in El Salvador say more people want their ink

Gang tattoos were once a vital currency in El Salvador, just a few years ago when it was known as the “murder capital of the world.”

Some designs confirmed membership of MS-13 or 18th Street —ultra-violent street organizations that ruled with machetes and intimidation — and commemorated slain gang members while issuing warnings to the living.

Now, under the strict rule of President Nayib Bukele, suspected gang tattoos can be used as evidence of membership in an illegal organization, and lead to detention. Intelligence on those tattoos has also been shared by El Salvador with European countries dealing with gangs, and with the United States, where on Monday Bukele is set for a White House meeting with President Donald Trump.

Tattoos have been used as evidence to deport people from the US and while there are accusations the designs have been misread, El Salvador’s Security and Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro said he could identify very specific meanings.

“In the past, they had to kill someone, kidnap someone, extort someone to be brought to trial. Now, having tattoos for these organizations is a crime,” García explained.

Evidence of that crime is all around him, in the communal cells where convicted men and those still going through the court process are held.

Cecot was built and opened after Bukele suspended some constitutional rights as he vowed to restore security to El Salvador. Critics say human rights have been forgotten in the mass roundup of men said to be gangsters, with innocents swept up in the dragnet, but the streets are undoubtedly more secure, and many residents say they have new freedom.

The men taken off those streets and put in Cecot — officially named the Terrorism Confinement Center — now stare at visitors from behind bars, meekly obeying orders from armed guards.

Both times we have seen former sworn enemies from MS-13 and 18th Street placed together in cells. In former times, their tattoos would have been enough for a turf war, now they are bunkmates.

“We’re mixed up, and that’s the hardest thing,” Hector Hernandez, a prisoner, told us. “It used to be different, but today the government has taken control.”

His tattoos showed him to be an active member of MS-13, a status he said was still valid, even inside Cecot. He said each design had to be earned, mainly through murder.

“The main thing is to kill and deserve to be a gang member.”

The ink covers some faces, necks, arms and torsos, but García says law enforcement knows there are “very specific” marks that point to gang affiliation and not something innocent.

He had two men remove their prison-issue plain white T-shirts as he explained the new regulations.

“This isn’t a hunt just because a person has tattoos,” he said. “Authorities are searching for members of terrorist organizations who have specific tattoos that identify them with that type of organization.”

Tattoos were used by gangs to commemorate fallen members and issue warnings, officials said.
Evelio Contreras/CNN
An M and an S adorn a prisoner’s chest, said to represent the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang.
Evelio Contreras/CNN

The clearest are the letters and numbers from the gang names: MS with 13 in regular or Roman numerals, or 18 for their rivals in the 18th Street gang.

García pointed to the body of a man he said was a clique leader of MS-13 who had been convicted for aggravated homicide.

“He has various tattoos on his body related to MS-13. He is an active member,” García said.

On the man’s back was a large design of Santa Muerte, a female Grim Reaper that became a symbol of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico before becoming adopted by MS-13.

García said the other man was an assassin for 18th Street. He had X, V, III running down one side of his torso. Both inmates confirmed their associations with various cliques and areas where they operated.

García said some symbols he had seen warned people to see nothing, hear nothing and do nothing against the gangs, while others commemorated dead comrades or other personal connections: “Women they love, women who’ve betrayed them.”

Tattoos honoring Real Madrid and depicting a hummingbird

Once Bukele’s regime started retaking control of the streets and locking up people with tattoos, the gangs stopped requiring inked bodies as proof of loyalty, García said, so law enforcement focused on other ways to identify criminals.

But elsewhere, tattoos are still seen as evidence of guilt.

Authorities in the United States have deported hundreds of Venezuelans accused of being part of the Tren de Aragua gang, as well as Salvadorans alleged to be MS-13, to El Salvador, where they are now being held in Cecot.

Jerce Reyes and his partner Mariyin Araujo in 2018. Reyes’s soccer themed tattoo is visble on his left arm.
Courtesy Jerce Reyes family

“My brother has tattoos because he’s an artist but that doesn’t make him a criminal,” Nelson said.

From gang allegiance to art

Alejandra Angel, a tattooist in the capital San Salvador, explained: “Never in the history of this country would you see a guy with tattoos working in a restaurant or in a Walmart, never.

“After they ‘cleaned up’ the country everything has changed (with) the visibility of tattoos.”

Angel said she had been a little nervous when the ongoing “temporary” state of emergency was first imposed in March 2022. One of her arms is blacked out, she says to cover designs she no longer liked, but it could appear suspicious to police.

Camilo Rodriguez says these days his clients include professionals like doctors and lawyers.
Evelio Contreras/CNN
Tattoos are becoming more common among all kinds of people choosing to show their style, artists said.
Evelio Contreras/CNN

Another artist, Camilo Rodriguez, from a different salon, said he had been questioned twice by police about his tattoos at the beginning of the crackdown. But once he explained their significance he said he was free to go.

They said the gangs used to have their own tattooists or coerced people to ink designs.

But now people are free to choose, the artists said, and are no longer afraid of having something on their arm.

“Tattoos are for everyone,” said Rodriguez, who added his clients now included doctors and lawyers. “It’s a very personal language, and you can do whatever you want with it.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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White House plans ‘extraordinary’ Holy Week as Trump honors Easter with ‘the observance it deserves’

The White House is gearing up for an ‘extraordinary’ celebration for Holy Week ahead of Easter, with President Donald Trump participating in a number of events to celebrate and honor the holiday ‘with the observance it deserves.’ 

The new White House Faith Office organized the Holy Week schedule.

‘The newly created White House Faith Office is grateful to share that President Trump will honor and celebrate Holy Week and Easter with the observance it deserves,’ Jennifer Korn, faith director of the White House Faith Office, told Fox News Digital. 

‘Throughout the week, we will distribute a Holy Week proclamation, a special presidential video message (and) host a pre-Easter dinner and White House staff Easter service.’

Korn said it ‘will be a special time of prayer and worship at the White House to be shared with Americans celebrating the week leading up to Resurrection Sunday.’ 

On Palm Sunday, the president is expected to issue a presidential Easter proclamation that will speak directly to Christians as Holy Week begins and maintain his commitment to defend the Christian faith in schools, in the military, in workplaces, hospitals, in government and beyond. 

On Monday, the president is expected to release a Holy Week video and will host an Easter dinner Wednesday evening. 

The dinner will feature hymns from the Marine Corps Band, Christian opera by singer Charles Billingsley, prayers and remarks from President Trump. 

Christian pastors, priests and faith leaders are expected to attend the dinner along with the president, Korn, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Pastor Paula White, the senior advisor to the White House Faith Office. 

On Holy Thursday, the president is expected to host a staff worship service at the White House, where White, the Rev. Franklin Graham, Pastor Greg Laurie and Pastor Jentezen Franklin will participate in prayer, scripture, service and communion. 

During the service, an ensemble from Liberty University will perform worship music. 

‘President Trump promised millions of Christians across the country that he would create a White House Faith Office, and he delivered on that promise,’ Leavitt said. ‘The White House Faith Office has put together an extraordinary weeklong celebration for Holy Week ahead of Easter Sunday.’ 

Leavitt stressed that this ‘is another sharp contrast from the previous administration.’ 

Leavitt noted that, last year, the Biden White House marked Easter Sunday, which fell on March 31, 2024, the most solemn Christian holiday, as Transgender Day of Visibility.

‘On Transgender Day of Visibility, we honor the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans and reaffirm our Nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect Union — where all people are created equal and treated equally throughout their lives,’ a statement released by the Biden White House stated. 

‘Today, we send a message to all transgender Americans: You are loved. You are heard. You are understood. You belong. You are America, and my entire Administration, and I have your back,’ it added. ‘NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility.’

Biden’s defenders were quick to say he didn’t choose March 31 as the date for Transgender Day of Visibility, and that, since 2021, when Biden took office, the White House had issued the same proclamation every year on March 31.

At the time, Leavitt, who was serving as the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, blasted Biden’s proclamation as ‘appalling and insulting,’ calling it an example of the Biden administration’s ‘yearslong assault on the Christian faith.’

‘We call on Joe Biden’s failing campaign and the White House to issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration only — the resurrection of Jesus Christ,’ she said last year.

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How Mike Johnson rescued Trump’s tax agenda from jaws of likely defeat

When lawmakers arrived on Capitol Hill last Monday, House GOP leaders’ plans to sync up with the Senate on sweeping legislation to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda seemed an all-but-impossible task.

House fiscal hawks were furious with Senate Republicans for passing an amended version of the former’s budget framework, one that called for a significantly lower amount of mandatory spending cuts than the House’s initial plan.

By late Thursday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was celebrating victory in front of reporters after a narrow 216-to-214 vote.

‘I told you not to doubt us,’ a triumphant Johnson told the media. ‘We’re really grateful to have had the big victory on the floor just now. It was a big one, a very important one.’

The hard-fought win came after long hours and late nights as House Republican leaders — and leaders in the Senate GOP as well — worked to persuade holdouts, while Trump and his aides worked those same critics from the sidelines.

White House aides were at House Republicans’ weekly conference meeting on Tuesday, a rare sight but not unexpected, given the importance of the coming vote.

But GOP lawmakers filed out of that meeting doubting whether Trump’s influence could help this time, after he played a key role in helping shepherd earlier critical bills across the finish line this year.

‘I don’t see it happening,’ a House Republican told Fox News Digital when asked whether Trump would be enough to sway critics.

Nevertheless, a select group of those holdouts were summoned to the White House alongside House GOP leaders on Wednesday afternoon, hours before the expected vote.

Fox News Digital was told that Trump commanded the room for roughly 20 to 30 minutes, and told House conservatives he agreed with them on the need to significantly slash government spending.

Trump also communicated to holdouts that Senate leaders felt the same, but, like the House, were working on their own tight margins, Fox News Digital was told.

The president, meanwhile, has been concerned in particular with the looming debt limit deadline, Fox News Digital was told.

It’s one of the issues that Republicans are looking to tackle via the budget reconciliation process. By lowering the Senate’s passage threshold from 60 votes to 51, it allows the party controlling the House, Senate and White House to enact broad policy changes via one or two broad pieces of legislation.

In this case, Republicans are looking for some added funds for border security and defense and to raise the debt ceiling — while paring back spending on the former Biden administration’s green energy policies and in other sections of the federal government, likely including entitlement programs.

GOP lawmakers are also looking to extend Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the provisions of which expire at the end of this year. They will also need new funding for Trump’s efforts to eliminate taxes on tipped and overtime wages.

But first, Republicans wanted the House and Senate to pass identical frameworks setting the stage for filling those frameworks with actual legislative policy.

Whereas the House version calls for at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, the Senate mandated a floor of $4 billion — a wide gap to bridge.

The Wednesday-afternoon White House meeting did sway some holdouts, but far from enough. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., also met with House GOP critics of the bill for more than an hour on Wednesday evening ahead of the planned vote.

‘He couldn’t have been more cordial and understanding in talking to us about what we needed to know. And honestly, he had some of the same concerns that we did,’ Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital.

‘You know, he’s got to get it over the finish line, and he had to make certain commitments. But he committed to us to work with us.’

Ultimately, however, plans to advance the measure that evening were hastily scrapped as an unrelated vote was held open for over an hour, leading to confusion and frustration on the House floor.

‘He looked like he was in no better spot than he was at the beginning,’ one House Republican said of that night.

Trump was not called to address the group during that huddle with holdouts, two sources in the room told Fox News Digital. 

However, the president did have individual conversations with some holdouts on Wednesday and Thursday, one person said.

The Wednesday night failure gave way to a late night of negotiations involving both holdouts and House GOP leaders.

Two House GOP leadership aides told Fox News Digital that Johnson had huddled with Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., until late Wednesday to figure out a path forward.

When they emerged shortly before midnight, they had settled on a plan — a televised promise by Johnson and Thune to put both leaders on the record committing to deep spending cuts.

‘I’m happy to tell you that this morning, I believe we have the votes to finally adopt the budget resolution so we can move forward on President Trump’s very important agenda for the American people,’ Johnson said.

Thune added, ‘We are aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings. The speaker has talked about $1.5 trillion. We have a lot of United States senators who believe in that as a minimum.’

A senior Senate GOP aide argued to Fox News Digital, ‘Absent Thune’s intervention, Mike Johnson would not have gotten this resolution through the House.’

But the speaker was also putting in his own long hours with holdouts.

The office of Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who ultimately voted to advance the framework, told Fox News Digital that critics were sent a memo by Johnson early on Thursday, assuring them that he was committed to deep spending cuts.

‘The Senate amendment to H. Con. Res. 14 preserves untouched language from the original House-passed resolution, including the reconciliation instructions to House committees and Section 4001 — Adjustment for spending cuts of at least $2 trillion,’ the memo said.

It referred to a measure in the House-passed framework that suggested funding toward tax cuts would be reduced by a corresponding amount if final spending cuts did not equal $2 trillion.

‘This language reflects a critical principle — that deficit-increasing provisions of the final reconciliation bill are accompanied by concomitant spending cuts,’ it said.

Then, as the vote was called around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, a final huddle between holdouts and leaders sealed the Republicans’ victory.

‘At some point, it was heated. And then the speaker’s leadership team [House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.] made sure we were clarified on some issues which are very important to some of the members,’ Burchett said.

‘And then Steve Scalise, really batting cleanup, and he came in with the final with the final conclusion, which everybody agreed to pretty much. And then the speaker closed the deal.’

Burchett said he believed that Johnson had spoken to Trump separately at some point during that huddle.

A senior House GOP aide said McClain was also present for that meeting.

Republicans clinched the win minutes after 11 a.m. on Thursday, with the GOP side of the House chamber erupting in applause.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., who helped lead the opposition, told reporters after the vote, ‘We made tremendous progress over the last two days in making certain that whatever we do on reconciliation, we don’t increase this country’s budget deficit.’

‘We take the Moody report from two weeks ago pretty seriously, that you can’t have unpaid-for tax cuts, and we made progress in making, getting assurances both from the Senate and the House leadership that that’s not going to occur,’ Harris said.

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PETA, animal rights groups praise Trump admin for phasing out ‘cruel tests on dogs’ and other animals

The Trump administration is receiving an outpouring of support from animal advocacy groups, lawmakers and others for recent announcements to end animal testing within programs at the FDA and EPA. 

‘PETA applauds the FDA’s decision to stop harming animals and adopt human-relevant testing strategies for evaluating antibody therapies,’ Kathy Guillermo, PETA senior vice president, said in a statement.

‘It’s a significant step towards meeting the agency’s commitment to replace the use of animals – which PETA has worked hard to promote. All animal use, including failed vaccine and other testing on monkeys at the federally-funded primate centers, must end, and we are calling on the FDA to further embrace 21st-century science,’ the PETA statement continued. 

PETA’s statement followed the Food and Drug Administration announcement on Thursday that it is phasing out an animal testing requirement for antibody therapies and other drugs in favor of testing on materials that mimic human organs, Fox Digital first reported. 

‘For too long, drug manufacturers have performed additional animal testing of drugs that have data in broad human use internationally. This initiative marks a paradigm shift in drug evaluation and holds promise to accelerate cures and meaningful treatments for Americans while reducing animal use,’ FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary, said in comments provided to Fox News Digital. 

‘By leveraging AI-based computational modeling, human organ model-based lab testing, and real-world human data, we can get safer treatments to patients faster and more reliably, while also reducing R&D costs and drug prices. It is a win-win for public health and ethics.’ 

Dogs, rats and fish were the primary animals to face testing ahead of Thursday’s announcement, Fox Digital learned. 

The phase-out focuses on ending animal testing in regard to researching monoclonal antibody therapies, which are lab-made proteins meant to stimulate the immune system to fight diseases such as cancer, as well as other drugs, according to the press release. 

Instead, the FDA will encourage testing on ‘organoids,’ which are artificially grown masses of cells, according to the FDA’s press release.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin announced on the same day that the agency would reinstate a 2019 policy from the first Trump administration to phase out animal testing at that federal agency. The EPA said in comment that the Biden administration moved away from phasing out animal testing, but that Zeldin is ‘wholly committed to getting the agency back on track to eliminating animal testing.’

‘Under President Trump’s first term, EPA signed a directive to prioritize efforts to reduce animal testing and committed to reducing testing on mammals by 30% by 2025 and to eliminate it completely by 2035. The Biden administration halted progress on these efforts by delaying compliance deadlines. Administrator Zeldin is wholly committed to getting the agency back on track to eliminating animal testing,’ EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou told the Washington Times. 

The EPA’s and FDA’s recent announcements also received praise from animal rights groups, including the White Coat Waste Project, which reported in 2021 that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spent hundreds of thousands of dollars under Dr. Anthony Fauci’s leadership to test beagle dogs with parasites via biting flies.

‘Thank you @DrMakaryFDA for your years of advocacy & outstanding leadership to eliminate FDA red tape that forces companies & tax-funded federal agencies to conduct wasteful & cruel tests on dogs & other animals!’ the group posted to X last week. 

‘White Coat Waste made historic progress under Trump 45 to cut wasteful and cruel animal testing at the EPA and FDA, some of which was undone by the Biden Administration,’ Justin Goodman, senior vice president at White Coat, told Fox News Digital on Sunday. 

‘We applaud Administrator Zeldin and Commissioner Makary for picking up where Trump left off and prioritizing efforts to cut widely-opposed and wasteful animal tests. This is great news for taxpayers and pet owners as it sends a message to big spending animal abusers across the federal government: Stop the money. Stop the madness!’

Other animal rights groups and lawmakers praised the Trump administration for its recent moves to end animal testing. 

‘We’re encouraged to see the EPA recommit to phasing out animal testing – a goal we’ve long championed on behalf of the animals trapped in these outdated and painful experiments,’ Kitty Block, president and CEO of Humane World for Animals, said in a press release. ‘But promises alone don’t spare lives. For too long, animals like dogs, rabbits and mice have endured tests that inflict suffering without delivering better science. It’s time to replace these cruel methods with modern, humane alternatives that the public overwhelmingly supports.’

Other groups have come out and warned that there is not yet a high-tech replacement for animals within the realm of biomedical research and drug testing, and that humane animal testing is still crucial to test prospective drugs for humans. 

‘We all want better and faster ways to bring lifesaving treatments to patients,’ National Association for Biomedical Research President Matthew R. Bailey said in a press release provided to Fox Digital. ‘But no AI model or simulation has yet demonstrated the ability to fully replicate all the unknowns about many full biological systems. That’s why humane animal research remains indispensable.’

Under his first administration, Trump took other steps to protect animals, including signing the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act into law in 2019, which made intentional acts of cruelty a federal crime.

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Americans witnessing crippling federal regulations can go directly to DOGE to report red tape rule

The Department of Government Efficiency launched a website where Americans can directly report and suggest how to deregulate policies within the federal government, Fox News Digital learned. 

‘Your voice in federal decision making,’ reads the website Regulations.gov, ‘Impacted by an existing rule or regulation? Share your ideas for deregulation by completing this form.’

DOGE worked with the Government Services Administration, an independent agency tasked with helping support the functioning of other federal agencies, and the Office of Management and Budget, which is the federal office frequently charged with overseeing deregulation efforts, to launch the website earlier this month, Fox Digital learned. 

‘DOGE is combining the administration’s goals of adding transparency and slashing waste, fraud, and abuse by offering the American people the unique opportunity to recommend more deregulatory actions. This DOGE-led effort highlights President Trump’s priority to put the people first and government bureaucrats last,’ White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox Digital. 

The website’s main page directs users to a form where they can report ‘deregulatory suggestions,’ which provides users with more than a dozen prompts regarding their issue. 

The prompts include describing which federal agency had promoted a regulation at issue, if the regulation is finalized or in the midst of the rule-making process, justification for the deregulation, the history of how the regulation operates, and the title and name of the agency’s leader, as well as other detailed information on the regulation. 

The form prompts users to provide their name, but the box is not mandatory to complete before submission. The person who submits a deregulatory suggestion could see the Trump administration name the rescission to the rule after the individual. 

‘Only answer if you would like the rescission to be named after you or your organization. Providing your name does not guarantee that it will appear on any final agency action, and we reserve the right to refrain from using names that are inappropriate or offensive,’ the prompt asking for the user’s name states. 

DOGE’s public leader, Elon Musk, has railed against government regulations for months, including when he joined President Donald Trump’s campaign in key battleground states to rally support. 

In a Pennsylvania rally ahead of the election, Musk recounted how his company SpaceX was wrapped up in ‘bunch of nutty stories’ related to government overregulation, including studying the probability of the company’s Starship rocket hitting a whale or shark and facing lofty fines from the EPA for ‘dumping fresh water on the ground.’ 

‘I’ll tell you like a crazy thing, like we got fined $140,000 by the EPA for dumping fresh water on the ground. Drinking water. It’s crazy. I’ll just give you an example of just how crazy it is. And we’re like, ‘Well, we’re using water to cool the launch pad during launch. You know, we’re going to cool the launch pad so it doesn’t overheat. And in excess of caution, we actually brought in drinking water, so clean, super clean water,’’ Musk said to the audience in Folsom, Pennsylvania, last year. 

‘And the FAA said, ‘No, you have to pay a $140,000 fine.’ And we’re like, ‘But Starbase is in a tropical thunderstorm area. Sky water falls all the time,’’ Musk recounted, referring to SpaceX’s headquarters in Texas. ”That is the same as the water we used’ So, and it’s like… there’s no harm to anything. And they said, ‘Yeah, but we didn’t have a permit.’ We’re like, ‘You need a permit for fresh water?’’ Musk recounted. 

Trump went on a deregulation blitz targeting energy and climate regulations last week in a series of executive orders aimed to ‘unleash’ the power of coal energy in the U.S., including ending a pause to coal leasing on federal lands, promoting coal and coal technology exports, and encouraging the use of coal to power artificial intelligence initiatives. 

‘President Trump knows that the bureaucracy is built to regulate, not deregulate. The result is an ever-increasing number of regulations that stifle innovation and limit American freedom,’ the White House said in a fact sheet on the EOs last week. 

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Navarro brushes off feud with Elon Musk: ‘Boys will be boys’

White House trade advisor Peter Navarro brushed off concerns about a feud between him and billionaire Elon Musk, arguing the two administration advisors had a ‘great’ relationship.

‘First of all, Elon and I are great. It’s not an issue,’ Navarro said during an appearance on NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday.

The comments come after Navarro and Musk got tangled in a public war of words last week after Navarro said in an interview that Musk’s Tesla is more of a ‘car assembler’ than ‘car manufacturer’ that relies on parts from other countries.

‘We all understand in the White House (and the American people understand) that Elon’s a car manufacturer. But he’s not a car manufacturer – He’s a car assembler,’ Navarro said on CNBC. ‘In many cases, if you go to his Texas plant, a good part of the engines that he gets (which in the EV case are the batteries) come from Japan and come from China. The electronics come from Taiwan.’

The point seemingly didn’t sit well with Musk, who took to X to defend his auto company.

‘Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,’ Musk said.

‘Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,’ Musk added in a subsequent post.

But Navarro downplayed the public war of words Sunday, praising Musk’s contributions to the Trump administration.

‘Everything’s fine with Elon,’ Navarro said. ‘And look, Elon is doing a very good job with his team, with waste, fraud and abuse. That’s a tremendous contribution to America. And no man doing that kind of thing should be subject to having his cars firebombed by crazies.’

The White House has also downplayed concerns between them, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt arguing the feud shows that President Donald Trump is willing to hear vastly different views at the highest level.

‘These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue,’ she said during a press briefing last week. ‘You guys should all be very grateful that we have the most transparent administration in history.’

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