by Brittney Melton

July 2, 2025

Good morning. Fans of The Tiny Chef Show on Nickelodeon are protesting its cancellation. Over $120,000 has been raised to help producers continue making the animation shorts. Here’s the news we’re following today:

President Trump’s megabill narrowly passed the Senate yesterday with a 51-50 vote. Vice President Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. The House plans to vote on the bill today, as Republicans hope to get the package on the president’s desk by Friday. The legislation is expected to add $3.3 trillion to the U.S. budget deficit through 2034. Here’s what is inside the plan.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., wearing dark-framed glasses, a blue suit and a light red tie, looks off to the side as he stands at a podium at the U.S. Capitol on June 4.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

🎧 House Speaker Mike Johnson can’t afford more than three people voting against the package and has said the weather is a factor. Flights were delayed and canceled last night as members of the House tried to make it to the nation’s capital to vote. NPR’s Deirdre Walsh tells Up First that some conservatives threatened to vote no because the Senate bill costs significantly more than the version the House passed in May. The GOP message is that Congress has to pass the bill to avoid a tax hike since the tax cuts passed during Trump’s first term expire at the end of this year. Walsh says that it is a complicated message, as most people won’t see significant changes in their paychecks.

Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" aims to reduce federal spending on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces by approximately $930 billion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This latest estimate represents a cut of $100 billion more than what the House voted to cut in May. If passed, the bill would reverse many of the health coverage gains achieved during the Biden and Obama administrations, which made it easier for millions of people to access health care and lowered the U.S. uninsured rate to record lows.

🎧 There are 26 million Americans without health insurance right now. That number is expected to go up by a third because of this bill, according to the CBO. The primary way the bill will separate people from their insurance is increased paperwork, says Julie Rovner with KFF Health News. The bill would require people to prove their eligibility every six months instead of once a year. The process would be more than filling out a form; people would need to upload lots of documentation to prove their claims about their income or health status. This can be a difficult task for those who are physically or mentally sick.

The Trump administration is restructuring the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. DOGE is collaborating with ATF on around 50 regulatory changes, many of which aim to relax gun regulations, according to people NPR’s Meg Anderson spoke with who are familiar with the matter. One proposed change would extend the validity of background checks for firearm purchases from 30 days to 60 days. Another change would permit gun dealers to destroy records after 20 years, rather than requiring them to keep those records indefinitely.

🎧 The Department of Justice has also proposed cuts to over 500 investigators. The ATF is the only agency in the U.S. with the ability to trace guns involved in crimes, a service police use all the time. The agency maintains a database of markings found on bullets and casings after they have been fired. “It’s like a gun’s fingerprint,” Anderson says. Brandon del Pozo, who used to be the police chief in Burlington, Vt., says cuts to the agency are at odds with the Trump administration’s claim that they’re tough on crime.

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An illustration of an island in the shape of a heart with blue waters, palm trees, two beach chairs and an umbrella. On the left side of the image is a reddish-orange circle and over it are the words ‘It’s Been a Minute.’

Getty Images

Whether you watch reality TV, you might have noticed the new season of Love Island USA taking over your social media. The show, which brings a group of people together to compete for love and $100,000, is garnering a lot of attention. To make it more exciting, the show is produced in real-time, allowing the audience to truly engage with what is happening. But this season has many viewers scratching their heads because of the extreme lack of romance. On It’s Been A Minute, host Brittany Luse chats with co-owner of Defector Media, Kelsey McKinney, and co-host of Scamfluencers, Sarah Hagi, about how the show might be a reflection of the current dating woes.

The air traffic control tower at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Ala. on June 21. Planes are seen on the runway. Off in the distance are large hills filled with trees and a yellow sky.

Russell Lewis/NPR

The current Trump administration is focused on reforming air traffic control following a recent spate of technical outages and staffing shortages. This is not the first time the administration has attempted such reforms. The Trump administration tried to privatize U.S. air traffic control in 2017, but the effort never took off. This time, the goal is a multibillion-dollar investment in the Federal Aviation Administration. Talks of privatization seem to be on hold. Aviation industry groups are rallying behind Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s plan to modernize the system by upgrading outdated equipment and ramping up hiring. However, some FAA critics argue that the best way to improve the nation’s air traffic control system is to remove it from direct government oversight altogether.

✈️ In 1996, Canada privatized its air travel system, making it easier to acquire new technology that enhanced air travel without enduring the lengthy public procurement process.
✈️ Canada shifted from funding air traffic control mainly through tax revenue to implementing fees based on flight weight and distance.
✈️ Opponents of privatization argue that it hasn’t always been successful. They cite a recent shortage of air traffic controllers in Canada and a 2023 report from the International Civil Aviation Organization, which downgraded Canada’s flight safety rating.
✈️ Another concern regarding privatization is that it may disadvantage smaller airports and pilots who do not generate the same economic impact as larger airlines.

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Season's greetings from Pop Culture Happy Hour.

Welcome to summer, the sweatiest holiday season. Regardless of where the next few months take you — a faraway destination, the inside of a rental car, or just your air-conditioned living room — Pop Culture Happy Hour has a whole slate of episodes at the ready to keep you cool, whatever your clime.

From our official guide to the movies and TV we’re most excited about this summer, a chat about why we love TV weddings, the TV shows we’d like to live in, and, yes, our debate on the sweatiest movie of all time — we like to think any of our episodes are as quaffable and as seasonally appropriate as a frozen daiquiri. Drink up!

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A close-up shot of Waffle House showing the entrance of one of the chain restaurants. The restaurant’s name can be seen above the window. The building is colored in yellow and red.

Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America

In egg-cellent news, Waffle House is dropping the 50-cent per egg surcharge it added in February, as prices return to more normal levels.

Luxury athletic brand Lululemon is suing Costco, claiming the wholesale giant copied several of its signature designs, selling them at lower prices under its Kirkland Signature brand.

Paramount Global has agreed to pay $16 million to Trump's foundation for his future presidential library. This payment settles a lawsuit he filed concerning the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.

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This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

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