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Hip-hop legend LL Cool J announced that he was pulling out of a Fourth of July festival in Philadelphia in support of municipal workers’ ongoing strike in the city.

“There’s absolutely no way that I could perform, cross a picket line and pick up money when I know that people are out there fighting for a living wage,” he said Thursday in a video posted on X.

He made the announcement the night before the Wawa Welcome America Festival, Philadelphia’s annual July Fourth celebration. LL Cool J was set to headline the festival along with Grammy-winning singer Jazmine Sullivan.

He continued by saying he hoped “the city can make a deal” and that he plans to be in Philadelphia “in case it works out.”

The union, District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, began its strike at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday morning after no new agreement for a higher-paying contract was reached. Union members are responsible for essential public services, such as 911 dispatch and sanitation.

The union responded to LL Cool J on social media, saying it was encouraging to see him use his influence “to champion causes that matter to everyday people.”

“LL Cool J’s decision to stand in solidarity with the labor movement by choosing not to cross a picket line is a powerful testament to his respect for workers’ rights,” the union said in a statement.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said she was aware of LL Cool J’s decision to not perform and she had “spoke personally” with him.

“I respect his decision, and understand his desire to see the city unified. He is always welcome in Philadelphia,” she said in a statement.

Hours before she was set to perform, Sullivan also announced she was backing out of the festival in solidarity with the union.

“Today I choose to not perform at the Wawa Welcome America concert and stand with Philly’s DC33 until the city and union find a way to bring fair living wages to our working class,” Sullivan wrote on Instagram.

Parker confirmed that Sullivan had also decided not to perform, saying, “I respect Jazmine’s decision, and understand her desire to see our City unified,” adding: “Jazmine, your hometown loves you!”

Greg Boulware, the union president, said he was “profoundly humbled” by Sullivan’s decision to back out of her performance.

“It’s truly refreshing to witness a celebrity of her stature and a native Philadelphian recognizing and valuing the tireless dedication of municipal workers,” he said in a statement.

Wawa Welcome America is one of the nation’s largest July Fourth celebrations. A representative for the festival did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On July 1 — after the city of Philadelphia was granted three injunctions — a judge ordered some union members to return to work. In response, the union encouraged affected members to “comply with this directive immediately to avoid any legal consequences.”

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law his sweeping tax cut and spending package, what he’s called the “big, beautiful bill,” in a Fourth of July ceremony packaged with patriotic pomp and symbolism.

The White House ceremony, which took place alongside a military picnic, included an armed forces flyover and was attended by jubilant Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both of Louisiana, who helped muscle the legislation through their chamber Thursday by a razor-thin margin.

“Our country has had so much to celebrate this Independence Day as we enter our 249th year. America’s winning, winning, winning like never before,” Trump said before signing the bill.

“We have officially made the Trump tax cuts permanent. That’s the largest tax cut in the history of our country,” he continued. “We’re setting all sorts of economic records right now, and that’s before this kicks in. After this kicks in, our country is going to be a rocket ship, economically.”

The Senate on Tuesday passed the bill on a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance needed to break the tie. That sent the bill to the House, which passed it on a mostly party-line vote of 218-214 Thursday, just one day before Trump’s arbitrary July Fourth deadline.

As a band played the National Anthem, a B-2 Spirit bomber, accompanied by two F-35 jets, flew over the White House in honor of the U.S. strike on nuclear facilities in Iran last month. The pilots who participated in those strikes, Operation Midnight Hammer, were invited to the event by Trump.

Trump, first lady Melania Trump and their guests were expected to watch the annual Independence Day fireworks celebration over the National Mall on Friday night. The president visited his Virginia club earlier in the day.

The bill signing capped a grueling monthslong process, during which the House and the Senate publicly quarreled over whether the GOP should try to pass Trump’s domestic policy priorities in one bill or break them up into two. Moderate and conservative Republicans also battled over how much they should cut federal safety net programs — Medicaid and food aid (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) — as well as how much to raise the deduction cap on state and local taxes, or SALT.

The mammoth package fulfills many of Trump’s 2024 campaign promises. It extends the expiring tax cuts he enacted in his first term, in 2017, while temporarily slashing taxes on tips and overtime pay and allowing deductions on auto loan interest payments. It also includes hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on the military and on carrying out Trump’s mass deportation plans.

The legislation partly pays for that with steep cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and clean energy funding.

And despite conservative calls to tackle the ballooning debt and deficit, the Trump law is projected to increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO also estimated that 11.8 million people could lose health insurance coverage because of the legislation’s Medicaid cuts and other provisions.

A raft of recent polls shows Trump’s big bill is deeply unpopular. A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that 53% of registered voters oppose the bill, while only 27% support it. And Democrats, eager to win back control of the House and possibly the Senate in 2026, are salivating at the chance to make the Trump bill a central campaign issue in the midterm elections.

“Not a single thing in Donald Trump’s one big, ugly bill will meaningfully make life more affordable for everyday Americans, and that’s just one of several reasons why House Democrats are hell no on this legislation,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Thursday in a record-breaking, nearly nine-hour floor speech.

“We were a hell no last week, a hell no this week, a hell no yesterday, a hell no today,” he said to raucous cheers from Democrats. “And will continue to be a hell no on this effort to hurt the American people.”

Just a day after Congress passed the bill, Republicans have already started talking about making changes to the law. As he touted the tax cuts and spending cuts in the package, Vance on Friday opened the door to changing some of the policies in it.

Trump “makes a reform, he sees how it plays out, and he’s always willing to have a conversation in order to make things even better,” the vice president, who played a key role in House and Senate negotiations this week, told reporters in North Dakota.

A 6-year-old Honduran boy with leukemia whose arrest sparked a public outcry after he, his mother and sister were seized by ICE agents and sent to a Texas detention center is back in Los Angeles, one of the family’s lawyers said Friday.

The family, which had been held for a month in the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, was released on Wednesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a lawsuit was filed on their behalf in San Antonio federal court.

“We were in the process of putting together a reply brief explaining why the government was wrong to hold them when we learned they were being released,” Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told NBC News. “ICE released the family without a court order.”

The family was dispatched from the detention center to a shelter in south Texas, Mukherjee said.

“From there, they were put on a plane today and flown to LAX, where they were reunited with their family in Los Angeles,” Mukherjee said.

Mukherjee said “public pressure” over the plight of this family and the media coverage “helped free this family.”

Their release “demonstrates the power we have when we fight back against harmful, un-American policies,” attorney Kate Gibson Kumar of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which also represented the family, said on the group’s Facebook page.

“The practice of courthouse arrests is a blatant disregard for those lawfully seeking safety through the government’s own processes, and an even bigger disregard for our Constitution and the protections it provides, including Due Process,” wrote Gibson Kumar.

NBC News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment and an explanation of whether the agency will continue trying to deport that family back to Honduras.

Gibson Kumar’s organization and the Columbia University Immigrants’ Rights Clinic sued ICE seeking to win the family’s release after they were seized following their May 29 asylum hearing in Los Angeles. The mother had been instructed to bring her children, who are out of school, to the hearing, Gibson Kumar said last week.

“They arrested the family in the hallway as they were leaving,” Gibson Kumar said. “The children were really scared. They were crying.”

While in detention, the 6-year-old, identified as N.M.Z. in a habeas corpus complaint, also missed a June 5 medical appointment, according to a court filing.

DHS had insisted repeatedly that the boy was examined several times while he and his family were locked up. In a post on X, DHS called allegations of medical neglect “fake news.”

“ICE always prioritizes the health, safety and well-being of all detainees in its care,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said last week.

The little boy was still living in Honduras when he was diagnosed at age 3 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a kind of blood cancer that can progress rapidly but is considered curable in most children.

Mukherjee told NBC News earlier that when she visited the family in the facility, the 6-year-old exhibited some conditions that are known symptoms of his cancer.

“He has easy bruising,” Mukherjee said. “His right leg had a lot of black-and-blue marks on it, his left leg had black and blue marks on it, he had black-and-blue marks on his arms. He has bone pain occasionally. He has lost his appetite. These are all pretty concerning things.”

The family entered the U.S. legally on Oct. 26 when they applied for asylum with the now-defunct CBP One app and were given parole status.

The family declared it had fled Honduras after being subjected to “imminent and menacing death threats,” according to the habeas corpus petition.

The U.S. government determined they were not a flight risk and not a danger to the community and the mother was not put on an electronic monitor.

DHS gave the family a notice to appear at the May 29 court hearing to pursue their claims for humanitarian relief, Mukherjee said.

Meanwhile, according to their attorneys, the family set down roots in Los Angeles and the children enrolled in public school and were learning English. They also attended church every Sunday.

But after President Donald Trump returned to the White House, his administration directed judges to dismiss the cases of immigrants who have been in the country for less than two years, so ICE could more quickly deport them.

After the judge abruptly dismissed the family’s asylum request, the ICE agents were waiting for them in the hallway when the mother and her children left the courtroom.

The UFC plans to host a fight card on the White House grounds, a spokesperson for the promotion confirmed to NBC News on Friday. Further details were not available, but President Donald Trump said he would like it as part of a celebration honoring America’s 250th birthday on July 4, 2026.

“We’re going to have a UFC fight on the grounds of the White House,” Trump said in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday. “We have a lot of land there.”

He said he expects the card to include a title fight in front of 20,000 to 25,000 people.

“Every one of our national parks, battlefields and historic sites are going to have special events in honor of America 250. And I even think we’re going to have a UFC fight,” Trump said.

It’s not clear how far along planning for the event is — or how definite it is that it will happen — and the UFC spokesperson said more details would be released “in due time.”

Former two-division champion Conor McGregor, who has not competed since July 2021, said on social media he is interested in returning for the White House event.

“I would be honoured,” he wrote. “Count me in!”

Trump is close friends with UFC President Dana White, who has appeared at rallies during both presidential bids. Immediately after winning the 2024 election, Trump brought White on stage to thank him for his efforts in helping him get reelected.

Days after reclaiming the White House last November, Trump — along with Elon Musk, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. — attended a pay-per-view card at Madison Square Garden.

Trump has long ties to combat sports. Dating back to the 1980s, he hosted several marquee boxing matches at his hotels in Atlantic City and has often been seen at UFC matches.

Famed competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut reclaimed his title Friday at the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot-dog eating contest after after skipping last year’s gastronomic battle in New York for the coveted Mustard Belt.

Chestnut, 41, consumed 70 1/2 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, falling short of his record of 76 wieners and buns set on July 4, 2021. It marked the 17th win in 20 appearances for the Westfield, Indiana, eater at the internationally televised competition, which he missed in 2024 over a contract dispute.

Defending champion in the women’s division, Miki Sudo of Tampa, Florida, won her 11th title, downing 33 dogs, besting a dozen competitors. Last year, she ate a record 51 links.

A large crowd, many wearing foam hot dog hats, braved high temperatures to witness the annual eat-a-thon, held outside the original Nathan’s Famous restaurant in Coney Island, Brooklyn, since 1972. Many show up to see Chestnut’s much-awaited return to an event he has called “a cherished tradition, a celebration of American culture, and a huge part of my life.”

Chestnut bested 14 fellow competitors from across the U.S. and internationally, including Australia, the Czech Republic, Ontario, England and Brazil.

Last year, Major League Eating event organizer George Shea said Chestnut would not be participating in the contest due to a contract dispute. Chestnut had struck a deal with a competing brand, the plant-based meat company Impossible Foods.

Chestnut told The Associated Press last month that he had never appeared in any commercials for the company’s vegan hot dogs and that Nathan’s is the only hot dog company he has worked with. But Chestnut acknowledged he “should have made that more clear with Nathan’s.”

Last year, Chestnut ate 57 dogs — in only five minutes — in an exhibition with soldiers, at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. He said that event was “amazing” and he was pleased to still have a chance to eat hot dogs — a lot of them — on July Fourth.

“I’m happy I did that, but I’m really happy to be back at Coney Island,” he said.

Last year in New York, Patrick Bertoletti of Chicago gobbled up a 58 to earn the men’s title.

Apple had two major launches last month. They couldn’t have been more different.

First, Apple revealed some of the artificial intelligence advancements it had been working on in the past year when it released developer versions of its operating systems to muted applause at its annual developer’s conference, WWDC. Then, at the end of the month, Apple hit the red carpet as its first true blockbuster movie, “F1,” debuted to over $155 million — and glowing reviews — in its first weekend.

While “F1” was a victory lap for Apple, highlighting the strength of its long-term outlook, the growth of its services business and its ability to tap into culture, Wall Street’s reaction to the company’s AI announcements at WWDC suggest there’s some trouble underneath the hood.

“F1” showed Apple at its best — in particular, its ability to invest in new, long-term projects. When Apple TV+ launched in 2019, it had only a handful of original shows and one movie, a film festival darling called “Hala” that didn’t even share its box office revenue.

Despite Apple TV+ being written off as a costly side-project, Apple stuck with its plan over the years, expanding its staff and operation in Culver City, California. That allowed the company to build up Hollywood connections, especially for TV shows, and build an entertainment track record. Now, an Apple Original can lead the box office on a summer weekend, the prime season for blockbuster films.

The success of “F1” also highlights Apple’s significant marketing machine and ability to get big-name talent to appear with its leadership. Apple pulled out all the stops to market the movie, including using its Wallet app to send a push notification with a discount for tickets to the film. To promote “F1,” Cook appeared with movie star Brad Pitt at an Apple store in New York and posted a video with actual F1 racer Lewis Hamilton, who was one of the film’s producers.

Although Apple services chief Eddy Cue said in a recent interview that Apple needs the its film business to be profitable to “continue to do great things,” “F1″ isn’t just about the bottom line for the company.

Apple’s Hollywood productions are perhaps the most prominent face of the company’s services business, a profit engine that has been an investor favorite since the iPhone maker started highlighting the division in 2016.

Films will only ever be a small fraction of the services unit, which also includes payments, iCloud subscriptions, magazine bundles, Apple Music, game bundles, warranties, fees related to digital payments and ad sales. Plus, even the biggest box office smashes would be small on Apple’s scale — the company does over $1 billion in sales on average every day.

But movies are the only services component that can get celebrities like Pitt or George Clooney to appear next to an Apple logo — and the success of “F1” means that Apple could do more big popcorn films in the future.

“Nothing breeds success or inspires future investment like a current success,” said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

But if “F1” is a sign that Apple’s services business is in full throttle, the company’s AI struggles are a “check engine” light that won’t turn off.

Replacing Siri’s engine

At WWDC last month, Wall Street was eager to hear about the company’s plans for Apple Intelligence, its suite of AI features that it first revealed in 2024. Apple Intelligence, which is a key tenet of the company’s hardware products, had a rollout marred by delays and underwhelming features.

Apple spent most of WWDC going over smaller machine learning features, but did not reveal what investors and consumers increasingly want: A sophisticated Siri that can converse fluidly and get stuff done, like making a restaurant reservation. In the age of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini, the expectation of AI assistants among consumers is growing beyond “Siri, how’s the weather?”

The company had previewed a significantly improved Siri in the summer of 2024, but earlier this year, those features were delayed to sometime in 2026. At WWDC, Apple didn’t offer any updates about the improved Siri beyond that the company was “continuing its work to deliver” the features in the “coming year.” Some observers reduced their expectations for Apple’s AI after the conference.

“Current expectations for Apple Intelligence to kickstart a super upgrade cycle are too high, in our view,” wrote Jefferies analysts this week.

Siri should be an example of how Apple’s ability to improve products and projects over the long-term makes it tough to compete with.

It beat nearly every other voice assistant to market when it first debuted on iPhones in 2011. Fourteen years later, Siri remains essentially the same one-off, rigid, question-and-answer system that struggles with open-ended questions and dates, even after the invention in recent years of sophisticated voice bots based on generative AI technology that can hold a conversation.

Apple’s strongest rivals, including Android parent Google, have done way more to integrate sophisticated AI assistants into their devices than Apple has. And Google doesn’t have the same reflex against collecting data and cloud processing as privacy-obsessed Apple.

Some analysts have said they believe Apple has a few years before the company’s lack of competitive AI features will start to show up in device sales, given the company’s large installed base and high customer loyalty. But Apple can’t get lapped before it re-enters the race, and its former design guru Jony Ive is now working on new hardware with OpenAI, ramping up the pressure in Cupertino.

“The three-year problem, which is within an investment time frame, is that Android is racing ahead,” Needham senior internet analyst Laura Martin said on CNBC this week.

Apple’s services success with projects like “F1” is an example of what the company can do when it sets clear goals in public and then executes them over extended time-frames.

Its AI strategy could use a similar long-term plan, as customers and investors wonder when Apple will fully embrace the technology that has captivated Silicon Valley.

Wall Street’s anxiety over Apple’s AI struggles was evident this week after Bloomberg reported that Apple was considering replacing Siri’s engine with Anthropic or OpenAI’s technology, as opposed to its own foundation models.

The move, if it were to happen, would contradict one of Apple’s most important strategies in the Cook era: Apple wants to own its core technologies, like the touchscreen, processor, modem and maps software, not buy them from suppliers.

Using external technology would be an admission that Apple Foundation Models aren’t good enough yet for what the company wants to do with Siri.

“They’ve fallen farther and farther behind, and they need to supercharge their generative AI efforts” Martin said. “They can’t do that internally.”

Apple might even pay billions for the use of Anthropic’s AI software, according to the Bloomberg report. If Apple were to pay for AI, it would be a reversal from current services deals, like the search deal with Alphabet where the Cupertino company gets paid $20 billion per year to push iPhone traffic to Google Search.

The company didn’t confirm the report and declined comment, but Wall Street welcomed the report and Apple shares rose.

In the world of AI in Silicon Valley, signing bonuses for the kinds of engineers that can develop new models can range up to $100 million, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“I can’t see Apple doing that,” Martin said.

Earlier this week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent a memo bragging about hiring 11 AI experts from companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google’s DeepMind. That came after Zuckerberg hired Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to lead a new AI division as part of a $14.3 billion deal.

Meta’s not the only company to spend hundreds of millions on AI celebrities to get them in the building. Google spent big to hire away the founders of Character.AI, Microsoft got its AI leader by striking a deal with Inflection and Amazon hired the executive team of Adept to bulk up its AI roster.

Apple, on the other hand, hasn’t announced any big AI hires in recent years. While Cook rubs shoulders with Pitt, the actual race may be passing Apple by.

Donald Trump’s influence over Congress is proven with the passage of his megabill. A military analysis contradicts Pete Hegseth’s stated reason for halting a weapons shipment to Ukraine. And why some feel like the verdict in Sean Combs’ trial is a setback for the #MeToo movement. 

Here’s what to know today.

Trump takes victory lap after Congress advances his agenda

President Donald Trump is expected today to sign the megabill containing many of his agenda priorities after the Republican-led House passed the legislation in a 218-214 vote, capping a tense 24 hours of negotiations and arm-twisting. The Fourth of July signing ceremony at the White House will include fireworks, sources said, and the possibility of a military plane flyover.

Trump applauded Republicans after the bill passed, writing on social media that the effort signaled a unified Republican Party. He continued celebrating yesterday evening at a rally in Iowa organized to mark Independence Day, telling his audience there was “no better birthday present for America” than this bill.

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The 887-page package, dubbed the “one big, beautiful bill,” includes a tax-cut and spending package that is projected to increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion over a decade. The bill also adds $5 trillion to the debt ceiling.

The House vote yesterday was mostly along party lines, with just two Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — joining all Democrats in voting against the bill. Before the House passed the bill, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries gave the longest House floor speech ever and stalled a vote for over eight hours.

The bill’s passage through Congress, regardless of the hurdles along the way, displays Trump’s influence over the Republican Party that many of his predecessors would have envied. In a procedural vote Wednesday night that stretched into Thursday morning, Republican critics folded one by one and accepted demands they insisted they wouldn’t, thanks to efforts by Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The president’s demands didn’t always match reality. For example, the bill includes Medicaid cuts despite Trump’s insistence that he wouldn’t touch the program. And since Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party, its core tenet of fiscal conservatism has been set aside.

So will the bill unleash the economic growth that Trump predicts? Or will the steep cuts in the social safety net alienate some of the same blue-collar voters that Trump wrested from the Democratic coalition? Next year’s midterm elections will serve as a huge test.

Read the full story here.

More coverage of Trump’s megabill:

• Bettors are worried about a provision in the bill that some fear could lead to the professional gambling industry folding.

• Two states with Medicaid work rules already in place offer a preview of what’s to come.

• Federal lands and waters will be opened up for oil and gas drilling, as well as coal mining, under the new law, while key support for solar and wind power will end.

More politics news:

• Trump said he “didn’t make any progress” toward a potential ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday by phone.

• Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center has so far received no federal funds despite assurances otherwise from Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis, court documents reveal.

• The judge presiding over Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s criminal case directed both the government and Abrego’s lawyers to stop making public statements about the case.

• The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to send eight convicted criminals to South Sudan despite them having no ties to the war-torn country.

Beach closures in several states over fecal bacterial concerns

As millions set out to celebrate Fourth of July weekend, at least five states have issued advisories for certain beaches and lakes that have tested positive for above-safe levels of fecal bacteria. Almost two dozen beaches in Massachusetts are closed, as well as four beaches in New York and three beaches in Michigan. Meanwhile, Illinois has issued at least eight advisories in the past few weeks, and Los Angeles County has released eight ocean water quality advisories. And in North Carolina, officials urged people to keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue or scummy over concerns about cyanobacteria algae blooms.

The bacteria being monitored include E.coli, which is more likely to be found in freshwater, and Enterococcus, which can form in both marine and freshwater. Here’s what else to know.

Hegseth’s reason for halting weapons to Ukraine contrasts military analysis

The Defense Department halted a shipment of U.S. weapons to Ukraine this week over what officials said were concerns about low stockpiles. But an analysis by senior military officers found that the aid package would not jeopardize the American military’s own ammunition supplies, according to three U.S. officials.

Suspending the shipment of military aid to Ukraine was a unilateral step by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, three congressional aides and a former U.S. official familiar with the matter said. This week’s move blindsided the State Department, members of Congress, officials in Kyiv and European allies, multiple sources said. In fact, some of the weapons had already been loaded onto trucks in Poland and other European countries, only for those handling the shipment to receive word that the delivery had been called off.

While the White House has defended the decision, bipartisan lawmakers have expressed disapproval. Read the full story here.

What the Sean Combs verdict says about the #MeToo movement

Dozens of news crews, hundreds of curious bystanders and law enforcement were set up outside the Manhattan courthouse this week when the verdict in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-trafficking trial was read. Among them were also influencers, content creators and provocateurs who hoped to boost their online followings. And then there were Combs’ supporters — some dressed in costumes, others wielding baby oil — who cheered “Free Puff!” when he was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking.

The celebratory mood among Combs’ supporters stood in contrast to the reactions from some sexual assault survivors and advocates who feel the trial’s outcome was a devastating “step back” for the #MeToo movement, which gained prominence in 2017 after producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of assault.

In the years since the movement took hold, it has “suddenly started to shift to ‘Don’t believe all women,’ or ‘Women are liars,’” said Kaja Sokola, who was one of three women who testified in Weinstein’s May retrial. Nicole Bedera, a sociologist who studies sexual violence, said she “we’re in a new era where instead of people trying to convince us not to believe survivors, they tell us the survivors deserved it.” Read the full story here.

Meanwhile, Combs’ team described the verdict as a “great victory.” But Combs did not come out of the trial scot-free, with the jury convicting him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. His future in the music industry will depend heavily on how he owns up to the “freak offs” and other transgressions that his legal team didn’t dispute.

Read All About It

• Michael Madsen, a prolific character actor known for his frequent collaborations with filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, has died at the age of 67.

• Men in the U.S. are spending a record-high amount of time on household activities, a new analysis found. These charts show which tasks they’re tackling most.

• ICE agents arrested renowned Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. outside his Los Angeles home on allegations that he is involved in organized crime and trafficking and is an affiliate of the Sinaloa Cartel.

• Indie rock band Velvet Sundown is gaining traction on Spotify, but some critics are convinced the band and its music are 100% AI-generated.

• The 2025 Tour de France kicks off this weekend, promising another showdown between two frontrunners and a more challenging finish to the race.

Staff Pick: ICE shut down this Latino market — without even showing up

Latinos across the Las Vegas Valley have flocked to the thriving Broadacres Market, a massive swap meet where items like semilla pipianera, micheladas and banana leaves are part of the standard fare. With little warning, the marketplace, which has been in operation for nearly 50 years, announced that it was closing indefinitely.

The reason? To avoid an ICE raid, which recently happened at another swap meet in Southern California that the Broadacres owners also manage. The act of caution has further affected small business owners who run the stalls and the shoppers who rely on them for food and community.

“As a family, we’re facing questions like: What are we going to do about the mortgage payment, with groceries? How are we going to recover from this?” Rico Ocampo — whose family has run their business selling nuts, seeds, cheeses, and other goods at Broadacres for 20 years — told reporter Denise Chow, who spoke to Ocampo and other community members reeling from the market’s sudden closure. Ocampo’s family’s stock is slowly running out, and with it, the safety of their steady business, as they call on lawmakers and Broadacres management to do something to protect those whose lives might be disrupted by an ICE raid. — Michelle Garcia, BLK editorial director

NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified

July Fourth is here, and so are the sales. Here are 50 deals worth checking out, with discounts on brands like Apple, Yeti, Dyson and more. And get up to 80% off during Amazon’s Fourth of July sale, which has deals on TVs, mattresses, outdoor gear and more.

Sign up to The Selection newsletter for hands-on product reviews, expert shopping tips and a look at the best deals and sales each week.

Thanks for reading today’s Morning Rundown. Today’s newsletter was curated for you by Elizabeth Robinson. If you’re a fan, please send a link to your family and friends. They can sign up here.

      

LONDON — Thomas Partey, who formerly played for English Premier League soccer club Arsenal, has been charged with rape and sexual assault, London’s Metropolitan Police said on Friday.

Partey, a Ghana international, was charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, with the charges relating to three women and the offences reported to have taken place between 2021 and 2022, the statement said.

Partey‘s management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

He is due to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Aug. 5.

Partey, 32, was signed by Arsenal from Atletico Madrid for 50 million euros ($59 million) in October 2020 and became a key member of Arsenal’s first team.

He was first arrested in July 2022, though he was not named at the time and continued to play for Arsenal while investigations were ongoing.

President Donald Trump used an antisemitic slur to describe exploitative bankers during a speech Thursday as he touted congressional passage of his massive domestic policy bill.

Trump made the remark in Des Moines, Iowa, at what was billed as an event by a nonpartisan group to kick off celebrations for next year’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But Trump’s campaign-style speech quickly took on a partisan tone, with the president expressing “hate” for the Democrats who voted against his “big, beautiful bill.”

While ticking through the bill’s provisions, Trump described one aimed at protecting family farmers by allowing them to pay a reduced estate tax when transferring ownership to their children.

“No death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker, and in some cases, shylocks and bad people,” Trump said. “They destroyed a lot of families, but we did the opposite.”

“Shylock” is a Jewish character in “The Merchant of Venice.” In its description of the Shakespeare play, the Anti-Defamation League notes that the character, who serves as an antagonist, is frequently portrayed as a “conniving and cruel” money lender, reinforcing stereotypes of Jewish people as money-hungry and greedy.

Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said Thursday night in a post on X the term is “among the most quintessential antisemitic stereotypes.”

“This is not an accident. It follows years in which Trump has normalized antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories — and it’s deeply dangerous,” she added.

When asked by reporters after his speech about the antisemitic connotations of the term “shylock,” Trump said, “I’ve never heard it that way.”

“To me, Shylock is somebody that’s a money lender and high rates” he added.

Former President Joe Biden faced backlash in 2014 for using the same antisemitic term while serving as vice president. He later apologized for “poor” word choice.

The Anti-Defamation League, which criticized Biden’s remarks at the time, said Trump’s use of the term was “very troubling and irresponsible,” adding that it “underscores how lies and conspiracies about Jews remain deeply entrenched in our country.”

“The term ‘Shylock’ evokes a centuries-old antisemitic trope about Jews and greed that is extremely offensive and dangerous,” the ADL said in a statement on X. “Words from our leaders matter and we expect more from the President of the United States.”

The remark by Trump came as he delivered a more than hour-long speech praising the passage of the “big, beautiful bill,” before a cheerful crowd of several hundred supporters, some holding signs that read “Make Agriculture Great Again.”

Trump has previously faced accusations of antisemitism, including in 2024 after his former chief of staff John Kelly said Trump praised Hitler as doing “some good things, too.”

During his first term in office, Jewish groups criticized Trump after he put white supremacists chanting “Jews will not replace us” on the same level as counterprotestors at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

During his second term, Trump’s administration created a “Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism” that plans to visit 10 university campuses in a bid to “eradicate antisemitic harassment.”

The State Department has also moved to revoke visas for foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian protests, including Mahmoud Khalil who was detained for more than two months despite holding a green card, for leading protests at Columbia University.

And, the Department of Homeland Security implemented a new vetting policy in April enabling the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to consider a foreign national’s “antisemitic activity on social media” as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests, including those applying for lawful permanent resident status.