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Recent rumours about a potential divorce between former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, have sparked widespread speculation and confusion. Despite the swirling gossip, the couple has consistently addressed these rumours with calm and defiance. Both have publicly denied any issues in their marriage, emphasising their strong bond and shared commitment to family. Michelle Obama, in particular, has spoken about the challenges of being in the public eye but also how they have worked through tough moments together. With a relationship that has been closely followed for years, the Obamas continue to reaffirm their unity and love, dismissing the divorce rumours as unfounded.

Here are some of the notable statements the couple has made recently in response to the ongoing rumours.

Michelle Obama’s Response

Michelle Obama recently spoke with Sophia Bush on the “Work in Progress” podcast, dismissing divorce rumours and sharing that she’s prioritising her own decisions and well-being since leaving the White House. She expressed frustration that people assume she’s making choices based on her husband’s career rather than her own desires. Michelle emphasised the importance of women making their own decisions and not being judged for it.

Last month Michelle Obama complained about how difficult it was to follow her husband after he became the president of the United States for eight years. She admitted that her initial response upon hearing that Barack Obama was a candidate for the White House was “no way”.

“Being married to the president of the United States [is a] thing that none of us kind of banked on,” Michelle Obama said in the first episode of her podcast, “IMO”, which debuted on Wednesday, as per The NY Post.

Having never concealed her dislike for politics, Michelle Obama also expressed her annoyance at her husband’s continued tardiness when they first began dating at the Sidley Austin law office in Chicago.

“I’ve got this husband who, when it’s time to leave, is getting up and going to the bathroom,” Michelle Obama, who left the White House in 2017, said.

Barack Obama’s Response

Barack Obama acknowledged the challenges his presidency placed on their marriage, stating he was in a “deep deficit” with Michelle due to his busy schedule. To strengthen their bond, he’s made an effort to engage in fun activities with her. He shared this sentiment with Hamilton College President Steven Tepper, highlighting the strain his eight years in office put on their relationship.

During the conversation, Obama, 63, acknowledged that his eight years in office from 2009 to 2017 had placed a strain on his relationship with Michelle.

“I was in a deep deficit with my wife,” Obama admitted in a conversation. “So I have been trying to dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally fun things,” the former president added.

Their Marriage

The Obamas have been married since 1992 and have consistently denied any issues in their marriage. Michelle has spoken about the difficulties of being in the public eye but also how they’ve worked through tough moments together.

Picture this: you are walking into a home where the bedroom is situated in India and the kitchen lies in Myanmar. Confusing much? Well, such a place actually exists in Nagaland’s Longwa village. Located a few kilometres away from Moh town, this quaint hamlet nestles between the international borders of India and Myanmar. Recently, travel vlogger @ar_akshay_jangid visited this unique village and documented his experience on Instagram. Trust us, one look at the video and you would be willing to pack your bags and jet off to the location right away. 

Also Read: Traveling With Heavy Luggage? Try This Easy Hack For A Hassle Free Journey

The clip offers a glimpse of the rustic-looking house with carved elements and motifs on the walls. The house, which blurs the borders between India and Myanmar, belongs to the Angh aka King. Angh oversees 35 villages in Myanmar and 3 villages in India. The flags of the two countries are attached to the fence as well. Upon entering Angh’s residence, we see both the Myanmar-side kitchen and the India-side dining area. Do you know that the villagers here have dual citizenship? It means they can work in both countries. How convenient is that? Additionally, the children here also go to schools on either side of the border. 

Watch the full video below:

More About Longwa Village

The village is inhabited by the Konyak Tribe. They are considered to be India’s last headhunters. After head-hunting was outlawed in the village, the residents resorted to preserving their cultural heritage and identity through activities like music, storytelling and traditional crafts. Every year, Longwa Village hosts the Aoleang Festival, celebrating the harvest season. Expect to witness vibrant dance and singing performances, alongside grand feasts, if you visit here during this time. 

Things To Do

Visit The Viewpoint: There is an unnamed viewpoint which is said to be the highest point in Longwa. You can soak in the beauty of the Myanmar hills from here. 

Explore Gunmakers’ Factory: After headhunting was banned, some of the villagers resorted to gun-making. You can visit the factory and witness how these local weapons are made. 

Shop Handicrafts: Since the Konyak Tribe is great at making handicraft items, you can purchase items like statues, beaded jewellery and other souvenirs. 

Also Read: 8 Incredible Treks In Northeast India That Feel Almost Unreal

How To Reach

By Air: The nearest major airport to Longwa village is Dibrugarh in Assam. From Dibrugarh, you can travel by road to Mon town in Nagaland. The drive takes around 4 hours.

You can also fly to Jorhat Airport. From Jorhat, the road journey to Mon takes over 5 hours.

By Train: The closest railway stations to Longwa are Simaluguri and Dibrugarh, both in Assam. From these stations, you can hire a taxi or take a bus to Mon town in Nagaland. The road journey from Sibsagar to Mon takes about 5-6 hours.

By Road: From Sibsagar to Mon, Shared taxis and buses take approximately 5-6 hours.

From Mon to Longwa village: Shared taxis depart from Mon to Longwa village early in the morning. The distance is about 42 km, and the journey takes around 90 minutes.

K Unnikrishnan, father of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan who received Ashok Chakra for his bravery during 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, described the extradition of accused Tahawwur Rana as a “diplomatic success” for India.
Speaking to ANI over the phone, K Unnikrishnan said, “There was talk of bringing him back after US consent, he is only one of the links. It is the diplomatic success that India gained after a long time. It is not an end thing or a big achievement; there are a lot of layers that we have to achieve. For a common man, he was a link. He made 231 calls when David Coleman Headley was in India. All the evidence is here. This (Rana) is a learned man who can handle everything alone. Let’s see what comes out of this.”
Major Sandeep was a part of the national security guard unit which was called in to neutralise the terrorists at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, on 26 November 2011. However, he sustained critical injuries during a fierce gun battle with the terrorists. Struck by multiple bullets, including a fatal shot from the left, he continued to engage the attackers with precise fire, even as he rescued an injured fellow commando. In the process, he was also hit in the right arm.
Talking about his son’s heroism, he said, “Sandeep is not a victim of 26/11. He was one of security personnel who went there. The real victims are the people who suffered, and lost their lives in the attack. He was the hand of the Indian people. The real victims are the people who suffered. Who lost their lives in the attack.”
“If he had not done this in Mumbai, he would have done it somewhere else. He has been doing his duty,” he added.
Rana, a Pakistani-Canadian national, was convicted in the United States for supporting the banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was behind the attacks that claimed more than 174 lives.
After years of legal proceedings, the US Supreme Court has now cleared the path for his extradition to India, where he is wanted for his alleged role in aiding the attackers.
Meanwhile, Devika Natwarlal Rotawan, one of the youngest survivors and a key witness who identified Ajmal Kasab during the trial, has demanded the death penalty for Rana.
“Tahawwur Rana being brought to India is a big victory for the Government of India. Hafiz Saeed, Dawood Ibrahim and other terrorist masterminds in Pakistan should also be brought to India and hanged till death,” she said.
Rana’s extradition is a major development in India’s long-standing efforts to bring all those responsible for the 2008 attacks to justice.

Dr Narendra John Camm claimed to have trained under the world’s best surgeons in the US and UK. Then, seven of the 13 patients he has operated upon died, exposing a life, career and online persons built entirely on lies

In the two months that he was based at the Mission Hospital at Damoh in Madhya Pradesh, the ‘highly qualified surgeon’ examined nearly 70 patients and performed surgeries on 13 of them.
The surgeon claimed to have trained initially in India and then in the UK and US under multiple specialists. He said he’d performed over 15,000 complex procedures in his three decades as a surgeon.
However, seven of the 13 patients he operated on allegedly died soon after the procedures. Suddenly, there were doubts about the highly paid Dr Narendra John Camm, who had conducted these surgeries.
District president of the Child Welfare Committee Deepak Tiwari told TOI that several families alerted the administration after they noticed discrepancies in the doctor’s qualifications and credentials.
Some patients, who were sceptical of the doctor’s expertise, took their relatives to a different hospital in Jabalpur, where it was discovered that the ‘surgeon’ was impersonating a foreign-trained cardiologist.

In response to concerns raised by the District Collector, an investigation team led by three senior doctors was formed. The team confirmed that several patients had died following surgeries performed by Dr Camm. It also turned out his name was Dr Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav.
But when the investigation team attempted to locate the surgeon, they discovered he had resigned from his post. The hotel room he stayed in during his two-month stint at the hospital was empty.
The highly reputed Dr Camm
On a website, Yadav is said to have studied at the prestigious St. George’s Hospital London and then said he’d received extensive training in Interventional Cardiology under ‘Dr. A John Camm’. Dr A John Camm, a prominent cardiologist who lives in the UK, told a newspaper that he had never interacted with Yadav ever.
Yadav claimed to have been awarded membership by the prestigious British Cardiac Society and said he joined the St. George’s Hospital in London as an interventional cardiologist in 2002. He also claimed to have been an editor with the British Medical Journal.
According to the website, Yadav claimed to have joined Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi in 2003 and then worked in Chicago where he trained with other specialists for years.
“He came to India in January 2006 and joined Wockhardt Heart Centre, Hyderabad, as Consultant Interventional Cardiologist. He performed a few outstanding cases which were published in a couple of national dailies,” his profile claimed.
In the last decade alone, he claimed to have performed more than 15,000 complex angioplasties.

The red flags that were missed
In the complaint filed with the police on April 6 by Dr MK Jain, Chief Medical and Health Officer of Damoh, said that Yadav had performed angiographies and angioplasties without the necessary registration with the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council.
Dr Jain’s investigation also uncovered serious discrepancies in the surgeon’s credentials, with documents from Mission Hospital failing to provide essential registration details.
“The registration was neither displayed on his documents nor available on the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council’s official portal, despite the hospital presenting it as his issuing body,” the FIR noted.
The hospital manager was also under scrutiny for presenting degree certificates and registration documents that lacked official verification numbers from any recognized university or council. There had also been multiple cases filed against Yadav in different states over the years, but they somehow were missed.
Police registered a case under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections related to fraud, forgery, misappropriation, and criminal conspiracy. Investigators say the accused not only fabricated documents but also posed as a UK-educated doctor, exploiting the name of the real Prof. John Camm.
However, there’s no case of medical negligence filed against him so far for the deaths of patients.
Police discovered that Yadav had been staying at Damoh’s Utsav Villas hotel Room 105 since joining Mission Hospital on a salary of Rs 8 lakh a month, and that the bill was being paid by the hospital management. Hotel staff said that he never allowed anyone to enter his room while he lived there.
Yadav was finally arrested in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh on April 7.
The UK-based Dr Camm told The Indian Express that this impersonation was an issue that came up five years ago. But just a couple of years ago, the Twitter handle of Dr N John Camm had sparked a controversy that put the doctor in the spotlight.
The online controversies of Dr N John Camm
While Parliamentary records pointed out that one Dr Narendra Yadav was punished by the Medical Council of India in 2014 for professional impropriety, little is known about his past. There was also a case filed in Telangana in 2019 related to the kidnapping of a UK-based doctor.
In 2023, the handle made national headlines after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s office retweeted a tweet by him on riots in Paris.
“India must send @myogiadityanath to France to control riot situation there and My God, he will do it within 24 hours,” the N John Camm handle wrote in the tweet.
In March 2023, a cardiologist Dr Rohin Francis had pointed out multiple issues with the claims made by the Camm’s handle on various subjects. Among them was the fact that he didn’t seem to have worked at some of the hospitals he claimed to have worked at and a ‘hospital’ was actually a photo of a residential complex.

Fact-checker Mohammed Zubair from AltNews had tweeted in 2023 that he got a legal notice from the handle claiming that it was in no way linked to Yadav.

For Donald Trump, the target was always China. Beijing knew about it and was getting ready to mount a challenge.  Last month, when Trump began with a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports, Beijing warned it was ready to fight any type of war with the US. 

“If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” China’s US embassy said on X, reposting a line from a government statement earlier. Since then, the trade war between the world’s two superpowers and largest economies has vastly escalated, with neither Trump nor Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, prepared to back down. 

When Trump announced massive tariffs against China and most of the world on what he called “Liberation Day”, bringing enormous turmoil to global markets, his aides suggested that he wanted to negotiate better terms with the US trade partners and that he would lower them after negotiations.  

‘Bad Actors’

On Wednesday, when Trump paused the tariffs for the rest of the world for 90 days, except China, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said investors didn’t understand Trump’s tariff strategy. “The market didn’t understand, those were maximum levels,” Bessent said, adding that Trump “created maximum negotiating leverage for himself”, and that the Chinese have “shown themselves to the world as the bad actors”.

There is no doubt that Trump was under a lot of pressure from his supporters to make a strategic retreat as his tariffs on most of the world threatened the health of the American economy as well as the global economic system itself. It also created a rift within his administration, as was evident in the public row between Elon Musk and his trade advisor, Peter Navarro.

Although Trump says he still wants to make a deal with China, he does not appear very keen to offer any big concessions to Beijing. This is because he genuinely believes that the Communist country’s trade practices and growing presence in the US economy must be checked – and that if anyone can dare to challenge China, it can only be him. 

Why Has Trump Singled Out China?    

It is true that Trump has been a strong advocate of tariffs for nearly 40 years. He even applied them during his first term, though not so rigorously. It was his campaign promise to restore America’s manufacturing base to its former glory and bring back jobs lost to China and other countries during decades of globalisation. 

Most Americans, not just Trump supporters, believe that China has unfairly benefited from globalisation. The United States helped Beijing to join the World Trade Organisation in 2001; China never looked back after that. The government used its   Communist system and massive manpower to make China the world’s factory. 

Within eight years of joining the WTO, Beijing went on to become the world’s largest goods exporter, from being the seventh-largest in 2000. Within 20 years, its economy grew 12 times and foreign exchange reserves increased sixteenfold to $2.3 trillion. 

China’s share of world manufacturing grew from just 6% in 2000 to 32%. Its production is now bigger than the combined manufacturing of the United States, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Britain. But Trump and his advisors feel China has grown at the expense of the United States and other industrialised countries. 

Unfair Trade Practices

It’s a common notion in the US and many other countries that China does not play by the rules. There have been allegations that it has been stealing technology from the West to develop its high-tech industries. It has been using massive state subsidies to underprice its products, manipulating its currency and applying restrictive practices to protect its own markets from imports.

The result has been massive trade deficits with the rest of the world-a trillion dollars in total, according to some estimates. In 2024, its trade deficit with the United States, its largest trading partner, was a whopping $295 billion.

In response to the tariffs imposed by Trump in his first term and maintained by Biden, China outsourced some of its manufacturing to other East Asian countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. It then dispatched the finished products to the US from those countries to evade the tariffs. This is the main reason behind Trump’s draconian tariffs.  

China’s Export-Oriented Plants

However, what appears to worry the United States most is how China is gearing up for the future. It’s now developing new industrial capabilities and opening new manufacturing units to boost its exports. This poses a threat to manufacturing in the United States. “On the fringes of cities all over China, new factories are being built day and night, and existing factories are being upgraded with robots and automation,” The New York Times reported last week. 

Chinese companies are also setting up plants overseas to capture foreign markets. Last year, after India decided to allow foreigners to enter electric car manufacturing, the Chinese auto giant, BYD, had proposed to invest $1 billion in the country. The Modi government rejected this and later agreed to a similar proposal from Tesla. The message was clear: ‘no’ to China but ‘yes’ to America or the West. 

These export-oriented industries go hand in hand with China’s mining and processing of rare earth minerals, crucial for modern high-tech products. China controls 70% of their deposits and 90% of their processing technology. The United States heavily depends on these imports.  

Losing US Market Would Pinch

As a result of tariffs since Trump’s first term and diversification of sources, the US share of imports of goods from China fell to 13% last year, from 21% in 2016. 

If the new US tariffs on China stay, the prices of some US products will rise, which could be a challenge for the Republican Party in Congressional elections due in two years. But Trump believes his political base understands his concern about China. 

Of course, tariffs on the whole world would have been a different issue, which explains his decision on Wednesday to target only China and pause the action on the rest of the world. 

What Xi Is Thinking

In China though, the scenario is different. President Xi may not have to fight an election, but he can’t afford to tank his economy, which relies on export income. The Communist Party leadership has pledged to pump billions of dollars into the ailing economy. That is now under threat. 

The expansion of the factory network across the country is based on the assumption that exports will continue to grow. If Beijing loses its biggest market, its products will find it hard to find alternative buyers. Already, the Chinese economy has not yet fully recovered from the collapse of the housing market in 2021. That crash made many Chinese people poorer, hitting domestic consumption. So, the Chinese manufacturers’ industry can’t sell spare consumer goods at home.

What Can China Do?

China has already announced its retaliatory tariffs against the United States. It has targeted Trump’s base, American farmers, and imposed more restrictions on the export of critical minerals.  
Beijing has also lodged a complaint against the US at the WTO. But the trade body is practically toothless; Trump can easily ignore it. 

Nonetheless, President Xi has other options if he really wants to hurt the United States.  China is the second-largest holder of US debt after Japan, which it can dump.  There were rumours in the US market earlier this week that the Chinese were at play when, briefly, the value of the US treasury went down and yields went up. 

If China does take such an action on a big scale, it can hike the borrowing costs in the US. Beijing can also decide to sell a large section of its dollar assets, which are estimated to be around $3 trillion. 
But that is unlikely to happen because Beijing knows the US Federal Reserve will immediately intervene to protect the fiscal system and Trump will take massive retaliatory action against China.  He can isolate Beijing and Xi in the same manner as Biden isolated Russia and Putin. Imagine China being expelled from the SWIFT banking system! 

There is a fear in the West and some other countries that China will try to dump the products it can’t sell to the US in other countries. The European Union has already warned against that. India also needs to be on guard. 

Diplomatic Campaign

Chinese officials have never been so active in seeking cooperation from other countries in recent memory. On Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in Delhi called on India and China to “stand together” against what it called America’s “abuse of tariffs”.  The embassy also stressed the need for the Global South to stand together.

On the same day, Chinese Premier Li Qiang spoke to the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, and said Beijing was committed to fostering collaboration and fair trade.  On the eve of Trump’s big announcement of tariffs, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Seoul for the first meeting of their trade ministers in over five years. 
Chinese state media said the three countries agreed to respond to US tariffs jointly, an assertion Seoul called “somewhat exaggerated”, while Tokyo said there was no such discussion.

These are attempts by China to unite some of America’s allies against Trump’s tariff policy and fight it along with them. But these countries have reasons to remain sceptical about China’s intentions. Beijing has been in boundary disputes with most of its Asian neighbours. And the European Union views Beijing as as big a strategic threat as the US does. No surprises if the West finally starts seeing India as an alternative to China. 

So, there is no option for China but to negotiate with Trump. The trade war between the world’s two largest economies will hurt both, but China will be the bigger loser. Tit for tat will not take them anywhere. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” The question is, who will blink first? Trump or Xi?

(Naresh Kaushik is a former editor at the Associated Press and BBC News and is based in London)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, whose Jan Suraaj Party is gearing up for its debut in Bihar polls later this year, is open to contesting against Tejashwi Yadav, RJD’s heavyweight candidate and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.

Mr Kishor spoke to NDTV in an exclusive interview, during which he outlined his party’s vision and shared how they are preparing for the big fight.

Asked if he would jump into the polls arena, he replied, “If the party decides, I will certainly contest (the polls). If the party wants me to contest from Raghopur against Tejashwi Yadav, I will do so.”

Raghopur is an RJD stronghold that has elected RJD founder Lalu Yadav, his wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav several times.

Mr Kishor said the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar is up against a wave of anti-incumbency. “They messed up the Covid management. People are annoyed. Nitish Kumar is in his last political innings. BJP will never let Nitish Kumar become the Chief Minister again. And NDA will not form the next government in Bihar. Even if the INDIA bloc comes to power, Nitish Kumar would never be made the Chief Minister, so he is the Chief Minister of Bihar for only five months,” he said.

Mr Kumar, known for his frequent jumps across the political aisle, is in his ninth term as Chief Minister. He is prepping for the polls with current ally BJP and is up against the alliance of RJD and Congress. 

Asked about the issues Jan Suraaj is focusing on, Mr Kishor said, “Corruption, migration and lack of governance, we will fight the election on these three issues. Nitish Kumar is defunct and his officers and close political friends are running the government. He has no idea what is going on. We all know who is running the government. We will raise these issues in the coming election.”

To a question on whether such issues resonate with the electorate in Bihar, widely perceived as being driven by caste equations, he replied, “Let’s not doubt the wisdom of the people of Bihar. They understand development very well. That is why they voted for Nitish Kumar against Lalu Prasad Yadav and brought him to power. Lalu Prasad Yadav was at his peak then. People voted him out because he did not believe in development. Similarly, Nitish Kumar has also been exposed. That’s why his power was cut to size in the last Assembly election,” he said.

Mr Kishor had joined Nitish Kumar’s party in 2018. He quit two years later after disagreements with the leadership over the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Asked about his presence at Iftar parties and whether it is aimed at appeasing minorities, he replied, “There is nothing wrong in attending Iftar parties when I am moving in the field. If it is Ramzan and an Iftar party is going on, I will certainly attend that. I don’t believe in hosting Iftar parties,” he said.

Asked about rivals’ charge that he was also planning his moves as per caste equations, Mr Kishor said, “It’s a wrong allegation. I am above caste politics. I would give representation to all castes in ticket distribution, in proportion to their population. We will give representation to all castes, especially worthy people. I don’t hold caste meetings. Tejashwi and Lalu Yadav do typical caste politics, whereas Chirag Paswan does not do it. That is the difference.”

He also said caste equations are key in several states, including South India, “but we talk only about states like Bihar and UP”.

Speaking about the caste survey conducted by the Mahagathbandhan government before Nitish Kumar’s latest flip-flop, he said, “The government here just conducts caste surveys, but nobody talks about what’s after that. You need to work on the survey results.”

In a personal question, Mr Kishor was asked if his image of a poll strategist hampers his political prospects. “I have also worked in the UN. I worked as a political consultant, but now I am a full-time politician. Please don’t judge me by my past profession,” he replied.

WASHINGTON: After abruptly halting votes, House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to try again Thursday to approve a Republican budget framework, having worked into the night to satisfy GOP holdouts who refused to advance trillions of dollars in tax breaks without deeper spending cuts.
Even a hefty push from President Donald Trump couldn’t heave the package to approval. Johnson was forced to abandon Wednesday’s scheduled action as the Republican hardliners left him without enough support, and risked upending what the president calls the “big, beautiful bill,” which is central to his agenda of tax cuts, mass deportations and a smaller federal government.
“The president is very anxious for us to get this done,” Johnson, R-La., said as he left a late-night meeting with the GOP lawmakers. He said he expects votes on Thursday. Pushing the budget framework forward would log another milestone for Johnson, who can only lose a few detractors from his slim majority. A failed vote, particularly as the economy was convulsing over Trump’s trade wars, would be a major setback for the Republican agenda in Washington.
“Stop grandstanding!” Trump had admonished Republicans during a black-tie fundraising dinner at the National Building Museum earlier in the week. Trump told the Republicans, “Close your eyes and get there.”
But by Wednesday afternoon, the outcome was in flux. At least a dozen conservative Republicans, if not more, stood firmly against the plan. Several of them, including members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, made the unusual move of walking across the Capitol to meet privately with Senate GOP leaders to insist on deeper cuts.
As night fell, Johnson pulled a group of Republicans into a private meeting room as House proceedings came to a standstill. They stayed into the night hashing out alternatives. Johnson said he spoke with Trump for about five minutes while the GOP meeting was taking place. The GOP speaker said they’re trying to figure out the minimal number of cuts and savings “that will satisfy everyone.”
Options include amending the Senate bill or having a conference committee work out the differences, among others. “There’s a few different ideas on the table,” Johnson said.
“We want everybody to have a high degree of comfort about what is happening here, and we have a small subset of members who weren’t totally satisfied with the product as it stands,” Johnson said.
But House GOP conservatives, including several of those who met personally with Trump at the White House this week, remained concerned that the Senate GOP’s blueprint, approved last weekend, does not slash spending to the level they believe is necessary to help prevent soaring deficits. “The math does not add up,” representative Chip Roy, Republican party- Texas, posted on social media. He said he would not support it.
Representative Andy Harris, R-Md, the chair of the Freedom Caucus, led others to met with Senate majority leader John Thune, R-S.D., and other top Senate Republicans.
“All we can do is make sure that they understand where we’re coming from and how close we want to work with them to get to the final product,” Thune said afterward.
But the Senate GOP leader panned the idea of the House sending back an amended version, which would require another potential all-night voting session like the one senators endured last weekend. “We can’t do that – another vote-a-rama, that drags it on indefinitely,” Thune said.
The House and Senate are still at the beginning phase of a process that will take weeks, if not months, as they turn their budget resolutions into legislative text – a final product with more votes ahead later this spring or summer. Democrats, in the minority, do not have enough votes to stop the package, but have warned against it.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the Republicans’ budget plan is reckless and callous as it proposes slashing budgets to give tax breaks to the wealthy. “We’re here to make it clear,” Jeffries said. “Hands off everyday Americans struggling to make ends meet.”
Central to the budget framework is the Republican effort to preserve the tax breaks approved in 2017, during Trump’s first term, while potentially adding the new ones he promised on the campaign trail. That includes no taxes on tipped wages, social security income and others, ballooning the price tag to some $7 trillion over the decade.
The package also allows for budget increases with some $175 billion to pay for Trump’s mass deportation operation and as much for the defense department to bolster military spending.
It all would be partly paid for with steep cuts to domestic programs, including health care, as part of the $2 trillion in reductions outlined in the house GOP version of the package, though several GOP senators have signaled they are not willing to go that far.
To clip costs, the Senate is using an unusual accounting method that does not count the costs of preserving the 2017 tax cuts, some $4.5 trillion, as new spending, another factor that is enraging the House conservatives.
Two Republican senators voted against their package during an overnight weekend session – Maine Sen. Susan Collins objected to steep cuts to Medicaid in the House’s framework, while Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul argued the whole package relied on “fishy” math that would add to the debt.
The package would also boost the nation’s debt limit to allow more borrowing to pay the bills. Trump had wanted lawmakers to take the politically difficult issue off the table. With debt now at $36 trillion, the Treasury Department has said it will run out of funds by August.
But the house and Senate need to resolve their differences on the debt limit, as well. The house GOP raises the debt limit by $4 trillion, but the Senate GOP boosted it to $5 trillion so Congress would not have to revisit the issue again until after the fall 2026 midterm election.
With Trump’s trade wars hovering over the debate, house Republicans tucked a provision into a procedural vote that would prevent house action – as the Senate has taken – to disapprove of Trump’s tariffs.

THE HAGUE: Sudan told the United Nations’ top court on Thursday that the United Arab Emirates is breaching the genocide convention by arming and funding the rebel paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, in a case vigorously contested by the UAE. The northeast African country is asking the International Court of Justice to issue emergency orders, known as provisional measures, including telling the UAE to do all it can to prevent the killing and other crimes targeting the Masalit people during Sudan’s two-year civil war.
“The genocide against the Masalit is being carried out by the Rapid Support Force, believed to be Arab from Darfur, with the support and complicity of the United Arab Emirates,” acting Justice Minister Muawia Osman said in his opening statements at The Hague-based court.
In a briefing ahead of the hearing, a top official at the UAE Ministry of foreign affairs told journalists the case was baseless. “This is not a legitimate legal action; it is a cynical and baseless PR stunt, designed to distract from the Sudanese Armed Forces’ own appalling record of atrocities,” Reem Ketait said.
Ketait will make arguments on behalf of her country later on Thursday afternoon.
Both Sudan and the UAE are signatories to the 1948 genocide convention. The United Arab Emirates, however, has a caveat to part of the treaty which legal experts say makes it unlikely that the case will proceed.
“The ICJ has previously said that this kind of reservation is allowed and is a barrier to a case going forward. The court is most likely to say the same thing in this case, meaning that this case will not go forward,” Melanie O’Brien, an associate professor of international law at the University of Western Australia and an expert on the Genocide Convention, told The Associated Press.
Sudan descended into a deadly conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary rebels broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions.
Both the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces have been accused of abuses.
The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and a US ally, has been repeatedly accused of arming the RSF, something it has strenuously denied despite evidence to the contrary.
Conflict Observatory, a monitoring group which is funded by the US State Department and has been monitoring the war in Sudan, has identified aircraft it says carried UAE arms transfers to the RSF. Those flights went through Marechal Idriss Deby international airport in Amdjarass, Chad. The UAE says the purpose of the flights was to support a local hospital.
In January, the US Treasury Department announced that RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, also known as Hemedti, had been targeted for sanctions along with seven RSF-owned companies in the United Arab Emirates, including one handling gold likely smuggled out of Sudan. That came as the US declared the RSF rebels are committing genocide.
The war has killed more than 24,000 people and driven over 14 million people – about 30 per cent of the population – from their homes, according to the United Nations. An estimated 3.2 million Sudanese have escaped to neighbouring countries.
The Sudanese Armed Forces have broadly retaken Khartoum from the RSF. Last month, the military said it had recaptured Khartoum’s international airport.

Retired Mumbai Police Inspector Hemant Bavdhankar, who, along with his team, took on the 26/11 terror attack accused and caught Kasab, has welcomed the extradition of Tahawwur Rana from the US, saying it is India’s significant achievement and congratulated the NIA for the feat.

Remembering the unfateful day of 26/11, he shared how, along with his 15 colleagues, Tukaram Omble and Bhaskar Kadam, he fought the terrorists.

Recalling the sequence of events, he said, “I was on the front with Bhaskar Kadam. When we asked the accused to surrender, they shot at us, and was retaliated. I shot at Abu Ismail. Kasab deboarded from the car, after which Tukaram Omble, who was positioned behind the barricade, came out to catch hold of Kasab. Kasab fired indiscriminately with his AK-47 at Tukaram Omble, but despite that, he didn’t loosen his grip on Kasab.”

NCP leader Dhananjay Munde’s relationship with a woman, claiming to be his first wife, is prima facie “in the nature of marriage” and she is entitled to claim relief under the Domestic Violence Act, a sessions court here has said.

Additional sessions judge Shaikh Akbar Shaikh Jafar, in the order on Saturday, dismissed the former Maharashtra minister’s appeal against an interim maintenance order of a magistrate.

The Nationalist Congress Party leader had claimed in his appeal that he was never married to Karuna Munde, the applicant.

The court said whether she is a legally wedded wife or not, it has to be decided by the appropriate forum.

But the former state minister’s “relationship with the woman is in the nature of marriage” as she has given birth to his two children and it is “not possible without residing in a shared household”, as per the court’s detailed order available on Wednesday.

Considering the “lifestyle of a renowned political figure”, the magistrate was justified in granting interim maintenance to Karuna Munde, the court said.

Karuna Munde and her children were entitled to the same lifestyle which is being enjoyed by the NCP leader, it said.

The court dismissed the politician’s appeal against an interim order, which directed him to pay maintenance to Karuna Munde.

On February 4, the Bandra magistrate court partly allowed Karuna Munde’s interim plea and directed the NCP legislator to pay Rs 1,25,000 per month to the woman and 75,000 per month to their daughter as interim maintenance.

The woman filed a domestic violence case against Dhananjay Munde in 2020 and the magistrate court is yet to decide the main plea.

The former minister had filed an appeal before the sessions court against the interim order.

While rejecting his plea, the court said is well settled that “a woman who is subjected to domestic violence and was in a live-in relationship which is in the nature of marriage known to the society is entitled for the reliefs as provided under the Domestic Violence Act.” However, the politician contended she was neither “his wife nor he was in a live-in relationship” with her.

His lawyer argued the woman “may be at the most termed as concubine of the appellant and she is not entitled to any relief”.

The court rejected the contention, saying prima-facie the two documents – ‘Vasiyatnama’ and ‘Swikrutipatra – placed on record “show that respondent number 1 (woman) is in a relationship with the appellant in the nature of marriage”.

While deciding the application under the Domestic Violence (DV) Act, this court need not declare the status of the parties relating to their marriage, it said.

“Thus, I am of the view that prima facie the respondent No. 1 was in a relation with the appellant in the nature of marriage and she has given birth to two children of the appellant, which is not possible without residing in a shared household,” the judge said.

Therefore, she is entitled to claim the reliefs as provided under the DV Act, the court ruled.

On the submission that the woman has sufficient source of income, the court said it should assess whether the earning is “sufficient to maintain herself similar to the status of respondent”.

Dhananjay Munde is a political leader. Therefore, his financial capacity cannot be in question, nor can it be compared with, the court noted.

“Even if it is presumed that respondent No. 1 is earning, she is also entitled for maintenance to maintain their lifestyle as of the appellant,” the court said.

Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, the court was of view that the “magistrate is justified in granting interim maintenance and quantified the same in a proper manner which needs no interference”.

“Therefore, I am of the view that the appeal deserves to be dismissed,” the sessions court judge said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)