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Soham Parekh was the perfect software engineering candidate. The problem was that several tech startups thought so.

At least 10 tech company executives have said publicly in recent days that they had recently employed Parekh, sparking a wave of internet discussion about the tech industry’s remote work practices and the relatively recent phenomenon of tech employees’ surreptitiously holding multiple jobs at once.

Parekh’s name first began to circulate after Suhail Doshi, the former CEO of the analytics startup Mixpanel, wrote a post Wednesday warning those in the tech industry that Parekh was trying to work at several startups at the same time. Parekh didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.

“PSA: there’s a guy named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups at the same time. He’s been preying on YC companies and more. Beware,” he wrote on X, referring to startups that have received funding from the accelerator Y Combinator.

“I fired this guy in his first week and told him to stop lying / scamming people. He hasn’t stopped a year later. No more excuses,” wrote Doshi, who didn’t respond to a request for comment.

People in the comments shared similar stories.

“We just signed him up for our work trial next week. Saw this tweet. Cancelled work trial. Thank you for sharing!” a user wrote under the post.

“LMFAOOO I INTERVIEWED THIS GUY YESTERDAY BRO IM DYINGG,” wrote another.

As claims about him circulated, Parekh began to give interviews.

Parekh admitted working at several startups at once in an interview Thursday with the online daily tech show “TBPN.”

“I’m not proud of what I’ve done,” Parekh said. “That’s not something that I endorse, either. But, you know, financial circumstances, essentially. No one really likes to work 140 hours a week, right? But I had to do this out of necessity. I was in extremely dire financial circumstances.”

Parekh said that to pull off having multiple jobs at once, he is a “serial nonsleeper” and doesn’t “do anything outside coding.” He also shot down online rumors that he had a team of engineers working for him or that he was using artificial intelligence tools to acquire more jobs.

The share of people in the United States with multiple jobs recently increased from 5.3% and 5.5%, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In an X discussion with Andriy Mulyar, the CEO of Nomic AI — another startup that Parekh worked at — Parekh said the most jobs he had at a single time was four, at least several of which had six-figure salaries. He estimated that he was bringing in $30,000 to $40,000 per month. Mulyar confirmed to NBC News that the account in the X discussion belonged to Parekh and that Parekh was previously employed at Normic AI.

Parekh said in the “TBPN” interview that he began juggling multiple jobs in 2022. He re-emphasized that he did so out of financial necessity, adding that he had deferred an offer to graduate school and opted for an online degree. A picture of his résumé posted by Doshi, which Lowe confirmed was the one he had received, says he attended Georgia Tech from September 2020 to May 2022. A spokesperson for the school said in a statement to NBC News that it had no record of a student by that name.

“There’s a lot being said about me right now, and most of you don’t know the full story,” Parekh said on his X account, which he confirmed to be his in the “TBPN” interview. “If there’s one thing to know about me, it’s that I love to build. That’s it. I’ve been isolated, written off and shut out by nearly everyone I’ve known and every company I’ve worked at. But building is the only thing I’ve ever truly known, and it’s what I’ll keep doing.”

Marcus Lowe, the founder of the tech startup Create, shared an experience similar to those of other employers who spoke out online. Lowe confirmed to NBC News that Parekh was the person featured in the “TBPN” video.

Lowe said Parekh aced his in-person interview back in February and even outperformed most candidates. But as his first day of work approached, more and more issues kept arising.

Whether it was that he was sick or that he had family visiting, Lowe said, Parekh would come up with excuse after excuse for why he couldn’t show up to work. He said that at first they seemed believable, until he began to look into Parekh’s GitHub account.

“I happen to notice, actually, on his GitHub profile that he was actually committing code the prior two weeks, too, including the week that he was sick,” Lowe said. “So it was a little odd to me — I mean, maybe you’re offline if you’re sick. Typically you’re not committing a ton of code.”

Lowe added that when he did some searching, he found that Parekh was committing code to another company called sync.so. He sent a message to the company’s founder, who confirmed to him that Parekh was working there, as well.

“This was a huge waste of time for us, a big distraction. We’re a small company,” Lowe said. “We’re trying to survive, and just such direct immoral behavior felt worth speaking out about.”

Parekh can be seen at sync.so in several posts by employees at the company, as well as in videos featured on its YouTube channel. An employee confirmed that Parekh was employed at sync.so but declined a request for an interview.

Parekh now says he signed a deal to work at “one company and one company only.” He told “TBPN” that he would be working at another startup called Darwin.

Sanjit Juneja, its founder and CEO, said in an emailed statement: “At Darwin, we are solely focused on building the most innovative software products for both brands and content creators. Soham is an incredibly talented engineer and we believe in his abilities to help bring our products to market.”

An Oklahoma pediatrician was accused of murder after, authorities said, she staged her daughter’s accidental death at a vacation rental in suburban Miami, court records obtained Thursday show.

Dr. Neha Gupta, 36, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in Oklahoma City and is awaiting extradition to Florida in the June 27 death of her daughter, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

The 4-year-old girl, identified in an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant as A.T., was found unresponsive in a pool at the home, but her lungs and stomach contained no water, prompting authorities to rule out drowning as the cause of death.

A lawyer for Gupta said Thursday that he was disappointed the sheriff’s office “decided to hastily arrest a grieving mother who fully cooperated with the police and who is absolutely devastated for the loss of her child.”

“We look forward to more evidence, evidence that the Miami Dade Sheriff’s office could not possibly have obtained in the 24-hour investigation that they completed,” the lawyer, Richard L. Cooper, said in an email.

According to the affidavit, Gupta traveled to Florida from Oklahoma, where she is a doctor, on June 25 and rented a home in El Portal, north of Miami.

Gupta told authorities that she arrived at the rental with her daughter between 7 and 8 p.m. June 26 after having spent the day at the beach. Gupta awoke the girl to feed her dinner at 9 p.m., and the 4-year-old remained awake until 12:30 a.m., the affidavit says.

Gupta told authorities she was awakened about 3:20 a.m. by a noise and saw that her daughter was not in the bed they were sharing, according to the affidavit.

A sliding glass door to the patio was open, Gupta told authorities, even though she said she had locked it before bed.

Gupta “stated she then observed the ‘deceased victim’ submerged underwater within the swimming pool of the residence,” the affidavit says. ‘The Subject’ stated she attempted to remove the victim from the pool; however, she was unsuccessful due to the fact that she is unable to swim.”

Gupta said she tried to help the girl for 10 minutes before she dialed 911, according to the affidavit.

First responders performed CPR, but A.T. was pronounced dead at a hospital at 4:28 a.m., the affidavit says.

During an autopsy Sunday, a pathologist with the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department found that the girl’s lungs and stomach were “dry” and that cuts in her mouth and bruising in her cheeks were “not consistent” with the first responders’ lifesaving efforts, according to the affidavit.

The pathologist concluded that the girl was dead before she was put in the pool, the affidavit says.

While the cause and manner of death are pending, the pathologist’s preliminary findings indicate that the girl’s injuries are consistent with asphyxiation by smothering, the affidavit says.

The autopsy also showed that the girl’s stomach was empty, contrary to what Gupta told authorities about having fed her at 9 p.m., the affidavit says.

Gupta “attempted to conceal the killing of the ‘deceased victim’ by staging an accidental drowning within the swimming pool of a rental property,” it says.

The affidavit does not identify a possible motive.

Gupta was in a custody battle with her ex-husband when his daughter died, and he was unaware that she had left Oklahoma, according to the document.

NEW YORK — Nissan is recalling more than 480,000 of its vehicles across the U.S. and Canada due to potential manufacturing defects that could cause engine failure.

The recall covers certain Nissan Rogues between 2021 and 2024 model years and 2019-2020 Altimas — as well as a number of 2019-2022 Infiniti QX50s and 2022 Infiniti QX55s sold under the automaker’s luxury brand, according to Nissan and documents published by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this week.

The vehicles affected carry specific “VC-Turbo” engines that may have manufacturing defects in their bearings, the NHTSA’s recall report notes. This may cause engine damage and possibly lead to engine failure while driving, the regulator warns — increasing crash risks.

Engine bearing failures “are not typically instantaneous and tend to progress over time,” the NHTSA’s recall report notes. That means effected drivers may see multiple warning signs to look out for — including abnormal noises or malfunction indicator lights.

In the U.S., 443,899 vehicles are covered in this recall, per NHTSA documents. And in Canada, 37,837 are affected, a Nissan spokesperson confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday.

As a remedy, the NHSTA’s recall report notes, Nissan and Infiniti dealers will inspect the engine pan of these-now recalled cars — and repair or replace the engine if necessary. The recall covers vehicles with either 3-cylinder 1.5L or 4-cylinder 2.0L VC-Turbo engines. Potential repairs — which will be performed free of charge — will depend on the engine and whether debris is detected during the inspection.

In an emailed statement, Nissan said it initiated this recall as part of its “ongoing commitment to customer safety.” And in late August, the company added, notification letters will be mailed out to affected owners “with instructions to bring their vehicle to a Nissan dealer or INFINITI retailer for inspection and repair if necessary.”

In the meantime, drivers can also confirm if their specific vehicle is included in this recall and find more information using the NHTSA site or Nissan’s recall lookup.

U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite hitting fresh record highs, after a better-than-expected jobs report fueled optimism the U.S. economy was hanging tough despite fast-changing trade policy and geopolitics.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 344.11 points, or 0.77%, settling at 44,828.53. The S&P 500 added 0.83% to close at 6,279.35, while the Nasdaq gained 1.02% and ended at 20,601.10. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite also closed at records.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 147,000 in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. That’s above the Dow Jones forecast from economists for 110,000 and the upwardly revised 144,000 in May. The unemployment rate also fell to 4.1%, while economists had projected an increase to 4.3%.

The strong jobs report also spurred a spike in Treasury yields and reduced expectations for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates soon. Fed funds futures traders are currently pricing in a roughly 95% chance that the central bank will hold rates steady at its meeting later this month, per CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

“The biggest implication from the employment report would seem to be there’s no way the Fed’s cutting rates in July, and it’s a question mark as to whether rates are cut at all this year,” Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management, said in an interview with CNBC.

Thursday’s report comes a day after ADP released data showing that private payrolls decreased by 33,000 last month, raising fears that perhaps the economy was starting to stumble under the weight of rapid policy changes out of Washington. Thursday’s official government data knocked down that notion.

Meanwhile, after President Donald Trump announced the U.S.-Vietnam trade agreement Wednesday, investors eagerly awaited any potential future deal announcements as the president’s early July deadline on his 90-day tariff pause approaches next week. While the market trading at all-time high levels leaves it open to downside, especially if Trump chooses to be “really tough” in negotiations, Ellerbroek believes the market is ultimately taking a more optimistic view.

“We will see a real tariff impact for a lot of businesses, but the market is going to digest that without too much trouble,” he also said.

Investors are also following along the progress on Trump’s tax megabill, which finally passed the Senate Tuesday and has since returned to the House. The bill is now headed for a final vote after the Republican-controlled House advanced the legislation Thursday.

Thursday was a shortened trading session, with the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq closing at 1 p.m. ET. U.S. markets are closed on Friday for Independence Day.

All three major U.S. averages closed out the week in positive territory. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were up 1.7% and 1.6% week to date, respectively, while the Dow posted a 2.3% gain for the period.

President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act ends long-standing federal support for solar and wind power, while creating a friendly environment for oil, gas and coal production.

The House of Representatives passed Trump’s megabill Thursday ahead of a White House-imposed deadline, after the Senate narrowly approved the controversial legislation Tuesday.

Trump has made his priorities on energy production clear. The U.S. will rely on oil, gas, coal and nuclear to meet its growing energy needs, the president said last weekend, bashing wind and solar power.

“I don’t want windmills destroying our place,” Trump told Fox News in an interview that aired June 29. “I don’t want these solar things where they go for miles and they cover up a half a mountain that are ugly as hell.”

The president’s embrace of fossil fuels and hostility to renewable energy is reflected in his signature domestic policy law. It delivers most of the oil and gas sector’s top priorities, according to the industry’s lobby group, while ending tax credits that have played a crucial role in the growth of solar and wind power.

Oil, gas and coal are winners

The law opens up federal lands and waters to oil and gas drilling after the Biden administration enacted curbs, mandating 30 lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico over 15 years, more than 30 every year on lands across nine states and giving the industry access to Alaska.

The law also slashes the royalties that producers pay the government for pumping oil and gas on federal lands, encouraging higher output.

“This bill will be the most transformational legislation that we’ve seen in decades in terms of access to both federal lands and federal waters,” Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, n industry lobbying group, told CNBC. “It includes almost all of our priorities.”

The law also spurs oil companies to use a carbon capture tax credit to produce more crude. The tax credit was designed to support nascent technology that captures carbon emissions and stores them underground. Under Trump’s bill, producers would receive an increased tax benefit for injecting those emissions into wells to produce more oil.

The law ends the hydrogen tax credit in 2028, later than previous versions of the bill. Chevron, Exxon and others are investing in projects to produce hydrogen fuel.

“I have a number of members who plan on investing significantly in hydrogen and so the extension to the end of 2028 was a welcome priority that was fulfilled,” Sommers said.

The coal industry is also a big winner from the law, which mandates at least 4 million additional acres of federal land be made available for mining. The law also cuts the royalties that coal companies pay the government for mining on federal land, and allows the use of an advanced manufacturing tax credit for mining metallurgical coal used to make steel.

Solar and wind are losers

The law phases out clean electricity investment and production tax credits for wind and solar that have played a crucial role in the growth of the renewable energy industry. The investment credit has been in place since 2005 and the production credit since 1992. The Inflation Reduction Act extended the life of both until at least 2032.

Solar and wind farms that enter service after 2027 would no longer be eligible for the credits. There is an exception, however, for projects that start construction within 12 months of the bill becoming law.

The phaseout is more gradual than previous versions of the legislation, which had a hard deadline of December 31, 2027. That gave all solar and wind projects just 2.5 years to come online in order to take advantage of the credits.

“Despite limited improvements, this legislation undermines the very foundation of America’s manufacturing comeback and global energy leadership,” Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in a statement when the bill passed the Senate.

A related tax credit for using U.S.-made components in solar and wind farms ends for projects that enter service after 2027. A carveout allows projects that start construction within one year of the law’s enactment to claim the credit. The credit was designed to spur demand at U.S. factories in order to break the nation’s dependence on equipment from China.

“If nothing changes, factories start to close,” Michael Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers Association, told CNBC. “Factories that are on the drawing board that probably penciled [favorably] two weeks ago, maybe don’t pencil now. We’ll see investment slow down in the sector going forward.”

Sean “Diddy” Combs may be considered a convicted felon following his explosive, seven-week federal trial, but many in and around the music industry said his decadeslong career as a revolutionary producer and hitmaker could grant him a pathway to resume his career.

The music mogul and founder of the renowned Bad Boy Records was found guilty on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution but acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.

Combs, who is responsible for a slew of hit songs during the 1990s and 2000s, will have a lot of work to do to avoid public rejection in the vein of other Black celebrities who have been at the center of damning criminal trials, such as R. Kelly, O.J. Simpson and Bill Cosby.

Industry professionals who spoke to NBC News said Combs can control the narrative of his legacy — and potentially reinvent himself. While the jury acquitted him of the more serious charges, the trial exposed Combs’ unorthodox “freak offs” and revealed multiple accusations of sexual and physical abuse — transgressions that often make celebrities persona non grata.

Entertainment attorney Yemi Adegbonmire of Los Angeles said Combs’ next step to salvage his public persona and career will have to be made with intent and purpose.

“The path forward is probably going to require him to do something different than we’ve seen with other folks, which is really to engage with accountability, look at rebuilding trust now that we know so much more about the man behind the legend,” she said. “He has to put himself into a space that allows folks to feel comfortable listening to new music or accepting new ventures from him.”

Doing that will not be easy. People saw surveillance video of Combs beating, kicking and dragging his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. They heard the graphic testimony of witnesses during the trial, many of whom spoke of rampant drug use by Combs and some of whom testified that they were either physically abused by him or witnessed him abuse others.

The industry sources said Combs would need to show humility, become a genuine advocate against domestic violence and drug abuse and enter counseling. And even that may not enable him to reach his previous level of acclaim.

The public perception of Combs “is irrevocably changed,” culture writer Shamira Ibrahim said. “A large part of that was the mystique of the person who was bigger than the world.”

His meteoric ascent as a hustler and producer, working with some of the biggest rising stars in East Coast hip-hop, cemented his place in the industry.

“Sean Combs’ impact on music and culture is as undeniable as the music was infectious,” Adegbonmire said.

Combs founded Bad Boy Records in 1993 and forged a roster of stars that jettisoned hip-hop into the mainstream, including the late Notorious B.I.G., Mase, Faith Evans and the groups 112 and Total, among others.

He became a face of the genre, serving as an innovator in producing and marketing, while also projecting an image of wealth and influence, hosting extravagant parties that drew celebrities like Denzel Washington and Kevin Costner. He branched out into fashion, cable TV, alcohol and even politics, urging people to the polls through his “Vote or Die” campaign during Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential run. His label, Bad Boy, was estimated to be worth $100 million at its peak, and according to Forbes, Combs’ net worth was as high as $825 million in 2018.

Before the accusations of abuse emerged, Combs remained well known but was “losing steam” as a music influencer, Ramal Brown, a Tulsa, Oklahoma, radio deejay said. “He once had control over the media, powerful connections to tell his narrative.”

But he was becoming increasingly less central to hip-hop as tastes shifted away from the Bad Boy style.

The “mystique” Ibrahim said Combs once had as a hip-hop mogul “is gone,” which will make a return to music difficult. “He’s not going to be able to generate that level of cultural cachet in his older years,” she said.

Ibrahim suspects, however, that not everyone will abandon Combs. “I do think he will retain a group of advocates, a group of emissaries, that will continue to protect him, and he will be allowed to be in specific spaces,” Ibrahim said. “While R. Kelly might not get played as much at parties, R. Kelly is ubiquitous.”

Warren Ballentine, an activist and national talk radio host, said the charges Combs was acquitted of may boost him in some respect.

“The fact that he beat a racketeering case is actually going to give him stronger credibility within the hip-hop community,” Ballentine said. “So, because of that, you may have a lot of these young artists mentioning his name in their songs. It’s sad to say that, but it’s the truth.”

Vibe music reporter Amber Corrine said the Combs trial may bring about a larger reckoning in the industry.

“I think this case forces a larger conversation about accountability amongst those power figures in entertainment,” she said. “Are we ready to confront these big power players about things that they do?”

When Combs will be free again is uncertain. He has been in jail since his arrest last September and will remain there until his sentencing hearing on Oct. 3. The prosecution is seeking a sentence of four to five years. Considering he faced life in prison with a racketeering conviction, Combs made out far better than the worst-case scenario.

Corrine said the braggadocious producer may have been humbled by the experience, but will still likely “use this opportunity, especially with the not guilty verdicts, to say, ‘Hey. I told you I wasn’t guilty of that.’”

He may even pop up from time to time, “but do I think he’s going to be dropping music anytime soon?” she said. “Do I think we’ll see any more music videos from him? Any major business moves? No, not at this time.”

He will also have to heed advice, Ballentine said.

“If he has the right team around, and he has a good PR person, and he’s willing to listen to other people and not get caught up in his own emotion, he can show true remorse, and in 10 years, people will say, ‘Diddy is a good guy.’”

Ibrahim said she hopes people keep the accusations of abuse in mind, but expects public outrage to diminish over time into acceptance, which “would be unfortunate.”

“I would love to say that the stigma that has come out of the allegations would stick to Diddy forever,” she said. “But people are more willing than everyone wants to admit to slowly let things that are controversial back to their space if it has good memories.”

Adegbonmire agreed, saying time has a way of making people forget and forgive, sometimes no matter how egregious the violation. Combs’ legacy of producing lasting music could prevail as he moves toward redemption.

But he has to live a life without further controversy.

“Things fade into the rearview mirror,” Adegbonmire said. “That happens naturally. But people won’t remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel. And Sean Combs has had a legacy where he’s made folks feel really good. The question is: Can he make us feel good without doing harm?”

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Despite assurances from both President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that federal money would be used to operate the controversial Everglades immigrant detention center, the state has so far received “no federal funds,” according to court documents filed Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security.

In filings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, DHS officials said that the facility has relied only on state funding so far and that Florida has not yet applied for federal funding.

“Florida has received no federal funds, nor has it applied for federal funds related to the temporary detention center,” it reads. “Courts cannot adjudicate hypothetical future funding decisions or render advisory opinions on contingent scenarios that never materialize.”

The filing was the agency’s response to a lawsuit filed by two environmental groups asking that the facility be shuttered. DHS argued it has no such authority because the department has not “implemented, authorized, directed, or funded Florida’s temporary detention center.”

The facility, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” gained national attention even ahead of its opening Tuesday. Trump and some of his top administration officials joined state officials for a tour of the facility, and the president said he’d like to see similar facilities constructed in other states. It is expected to cost $450 million a year to operate, according to Florida officials.

During the event, Trump said the federal government was not just going to help reimburse the state for costs, but that it also helped with construction — which was done in just eight days under the authority of an emergency immigration order DeSantis signed in 2023 and has extended several times since then.

Trump pointed to the source of the funds as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program, which has been used in the past to house undocumented people. During President Joe Biden’s administration, the same pot of money was used to house undocumented people, a point Trump and other Republicans have long criticized, at times baselessly, as spending taxpayer dollars to house undocumented migrants in “luxury” hotels in New York City.

“We took the FEMA money that Joe Biden allocated to pay for the free luxury hotel rooms where he’s paying hundreds of millions of dollars in New York City, and we used it to build this project” Trump said.

Last week, DeSantis also told reporters that the facility will be “funded largely” by the FEMA program.

“Alligator Alcatraz will be funded largely by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which the Biden administration used as a piggy bank to spend hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars to house illegal aliens,” he said. “Now, it is being used to detain criminal illegal aliens while they await deportation.”

DHS on Thursday said the federal government will still use the FEMA funds to pay “in large part” for the facility.

“These new facilities will in large part be funded by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which the Biden Administration used as a piggy bank to spend hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars to house illegal aliens,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.

The Shelter and Services Program is a reimbursement-based program, which means states must apply for reimbursements related to eligible costs. The facility has been open for fewer than three days, so the issue could center on Florida just not yet applying for the FEMA funds because of the early work.

The Florida Attorney General’s Office and the Florida Department of Emergency Management, the agency responsible for applying for reimbursements, did not return requests seeking clarification.

The admission that no federal funding has yet been sent to the state comes amid behind-the-scenes tension between top DHS officials, including Secretary Kristi Noem, and DeSantis over the governor’s handling of the facility’s rollout. Federal officials wanted the main unveiling to coincide with Trump’s visit Tuesday, but DeSantis did a tour of the facility with “Fox and Friends” last Friday, something that caught both federal and some state officials off guard.

DHS called the claims “fake news” when NBC News first reported the tensions Tuesday but did not refute the claims.

“DeSantis upset Noem and Lewandowski with his Fox News tour of the detention site,” a Republican operative familiar with the process told NBC News on Tuesday, referring to Corey Lewandowski, Noem’s close adviser. “Noem wanted an event for Tuesday and didn’t want anyone having eyes on the site and needed to push until Tuesday because she was traveling.”

The first group of detainees arrived Thursday, and the facility is supposed to hold 3,000 people.

WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House on Thursday passed a multitrillion-dollar package of tax cuts and spending, sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk after a tense 24 hours of negotiations and arm-twisting.

The mostly party-line vote of 218-214 came one day ahead of Trump’s July 4 deadline and caps an arduous process that lasted more than four months, rife with ideological clashes and acrimony between the House and Senate, where Republicans had little margin for error given their narrow majorities.

In the end, the GOP largely unified to pack the bulk of Trump’s domestic agenda into a single measure, with just Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., voting against it. A bloc of Republican holdouts had initially opposed a procedural vote Wednesday to advance the bill, leading to an hourslong overnight standoff. But Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., managed to sway all but one of them, teeing up final passage in the House.

Trump is now expected to sign the bill into law on Independence Day, marking the party’s biggest legislative accomplishment since taking full control of Washington in January.

The 887-page package extends the tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017, while temporarily slashing taxes on tips and overtime pay. It approves hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on the military and to carry out Trump’s mass deportation plans. And it partially pays for all that with steep cuts to Medicaid, food aid benefits and clean energy funding. That includes an estimated $930 billion in spending reductions under Medicaid, violating Trump’s promise not to cut the program.

Overall, the bill is projected to increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion over a decade, with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finding that the revenue losses of $4.5 trillion outstrip the spending cuts of $1.2 trillion. The bill also increases the debt ceiling by $5 trillion.

Throughout the process, Republican leaders had an ace in the hole to corral the votes even as the competing demands of rival factions appeared irreconcilable: They knew their members wouldn’t ultimately say no to Trump, from the most conservative to the least ideological and politically vulnerable.

Republicans often turned to Trump throughout the process to help close the deal on key votes. He regularly held meetings with and made phone calls with key lawmakers, while issuing the occasional threat on Truth Social to holdouts who stood in the bill’s way. Vice President JD Vance was also a regular presence in Senate and House meetings around the bill.

“If President Trump and Vice President Vance had not engaged at the time they did, it wouldn’t have passed,” said conservative Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who attended White House meetings in the Oval Office and Cabinet Room Wednesday and ultimately voted for the bill.

Speaking to reporters in the wee hours of the morning, Johnson said Trump had been making phone calls to recalcitrant holdouts as late as 1 a.m. Thursday to help break an impasse on the floor.

“He doesn’t really sleep a lot,” said Johnson, who also dangled the prospect of future bills to address concerns and demands from a variety of members.

In his 1 a.m. call with holdouts, Trump and other White House officials made promises to aggressively implement key provisions in the bill — from clean energy tax credit phase outs to new Medicaid restrictions, a source familiar with the call said.

One by one, the GOP critics folded and accepted demands they insisted they wouldn’t. Conservatives swallowed a bill that adds trillions to the debt. Politically vulnerable Republicans endorsed steep cuts to Medicaid and health care spending that are projected by CBO to cost 11.8 million people their insurance. Republicans whose districts and states benefit from clean energy incentives ended up voting to strip them away.

“They’re just afraid of Trump and the backlash that would ensue if he called them out,” Massie, who opposed the bill, told NBC News the day before the final vote. “I’m not concerned.”

Trump and his allies sought to strike fear in GOP lawmakers by vowing to support a primary challenger to Massie in his next election. Massie said Trump’s real goal was to keep other Republicans in line by sending a message that defying him comes with political pain.

“They’re whipping this horse, because I’m out of the barn, to keep the other horses in the barn,” he said.

Later, on the 1 a.m. call with Trump, Massie remarked how it’d be nice if Trump stopped attacking him, the source said, then flipped from no to yes on the key procedural vote.

The House took up the bill after the Senate voted 51-50 to pass the legislation on Tuesday, with Vance breaking the tie. The only Republicans who voted against it were Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Thom Tillis, R-N.C. and Susan Collins, R-Maine. The party used the filibuster-proof “budget reconciliation” process to get around the 60-vote threshold, which meant that some non-budgetary provisions were stripped out.

Every Democrat in both chambers voted against the bill, blasting it as a tax cut for the wealthy that is paid for by cutting programs like Medicaid that benefit the working class. They plan to place a heavy focus on the bill in their message to voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, emboldened by polls showing that the legislation is unpopular.

At the start of a record-breaking floor speech Thursday morning that lasted for 8 hours and 44 minutes, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., ripped what he called the “big, ugly bill, this disgusting abomination,” and accused Republicans of working through the night to pass it because it would kick millions of Americans off Medicaid and food stamps. Republicans argued that work requirements would target waste, fraud and abuse in those programs.

“Why did debate begin at 3:28 a.m. in the morning?” Jeffries asked with House Democrats filling the seats behind him. “Republicans are once again, which has been the case, Mr. Speaker, through every step of this journey, trying to jam this bill through the House of Representatives under cover of darkness.”

Republicans began making plans for their reconciliation package even before last year’s presidential election. In March 2024, House Republicans huddled at their annual retreat, at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, to brainstorm what should be included in the bill so they’d be better prepared than in 2017.

But after Republicans took unified control of the White House and Congress in January, fissures in the party quickly began to emerge. Senate leaders pushed to carry out Trump’s agenda in two separate bills, before the president endorsed the House approach of passing his agenda in “one big, beautiful bill,” which eventually became the title of the legislation.

Along the way, all 53 Senate Republicans voted to set a novel precedent by using a budget trick known as “current policy baseline” that treats $3.8 trillion in Trump tax cut extensions as costing $0, in order to avoid satisfying Senate rules requiring that they be paid for. Democrats said it was akin to the “nuclear option” will weaken the 60-vote threshold going forward.

Still, Democrats did get a jab at Trump in the process: They deleted the title, “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” by successfully arguing that the name wasn’t budgetary in nature. The legislation’s official title is instead, “An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14.”

Astronomers are rolling out a welcome mat for a newly identified visitor from beyond our solar system.

The object — thought to be a comet — is only the third-ever confirmed interstellar visitor to pass through our cosmic neighborhood.

Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the comet poses no danger to Earth and will remain roughly 150 million miles away as it speeds by, according to NASA.

The interstellar comet was first spotted on Tuesday by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Rio Hurtado, Chile. The NASA-funded survey telescope — which is actually made up of two telescopes in Hawaii, one in Chile and a fourth in South Africa — is designed to scan the entire sky several times each night, searching for asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth.

Researchers combed through archival data from three different ATLAS telescopes and the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in California, and found corresponding observations that helped confirm the discovery. Other telescopes around the world also joined the effort, according to NASA.

“ESA’s Planetary Defenders are observing the object, provisionally known as #A11pl3Z, right now using telescopes around the world,” the European Space Agency said Wednesday in a post on X.

The comet is currently about 420 million miles away, moving quickly from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, NASA said in a blog post about the discovery. Sagittarius is a prominent constellation in the Southern Hemisphere that points toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

The agency said 3I/ATLAS will swing closest to the sun around Oct. 30, passing at a distance of approximately 130 million miles, or just inside the orbit of Mars.

NASA said the comet should be visible to ground-based observatories through September, allowing time for scientists to glean additional details about the cosmic interloper, including its size. After September, 3I/ATLAS will be too close to the sun to observe with telescopes, but the object is expected to be visible again in early December, when it emerges on the other side of the sun.

The months ahead offer a rare opportunity to study a celestial tourist from beyond our solar system. The first confirmed interstellar object seen passing through the solar system was discovered in 2017 by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS1 telescope. The rocky object, named Oumuamua (Hawaiian for “a messenger from afar arriving first”), has a reddish hue and is elongated like a cigar, according to NASA.

The only other known interstellar object to pay a visit is 21/Borisov, a comet that was discovered in 2019 by an amateur astronomer named Gennady Borisov.

LOS ANGELES — Some Southern California communities are canceling or rescheduling July Fourth events as immigration arrests spread fear across the region.

But organizations that oppose President Donald Trump’s immigration policies plan to proceed with protests in downtown Los Angeles, where large demonstrations last month sometimes turned violent, prompting Trump to call in the state National Guard and U.S. Marines over the governor’s objections.

The city said it would postpone its annual Fourth of July block party “in light of recent events affecting a portion of Downtown Los Angeles and the ongoing circumstances impacting the region.”

The event is held each year in Gloria Molina Grand Park near City Hall and several federal buildings, including one now being used as a detention center that has been a focal point for demonstrations against raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

During a “No Kings” march on June 14, protesters fled from tear gas, pepper spray and less-lethal munitions fired by law enforcement officers, and large crowds were pushed away from federal buildings and into Grand Park, where demonstrators scrambled up a small hill to safety.

More than 1,618 people in Los Angeles have been arrested by the federal government since it began clamping down on residents without citizenship last month, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The detentions have spread fear across Southern California, where some 1.4 million people are estimated to live without full legal authorization, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

Several L.A.-based organizations said they will launch another round of protests Thursday near Grand Park, and a coalition of multifaith organizations, labor unions, activists and artists will hold a “freedom” car cruise and rally outside City Hall.

Later, activists with the group Centro CSO will hold a march outside the federal courthouse, calling for charges to be dropped against Alejandro Orellana, who was arrested in connection with distributing face shields to “suspected rioters.”

He faces charges of conspiracy to commit civil disorder and aiding and abetting civil disorders. He was released on bond last month and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

On Friday, the local chapter of 50501, which organized the “No Kings” rally, will hold an all-day demonstration outside City Hall to demand an “end to the occupation” of Los Angeles by ICE, the National Guard and the Marines.

“This isn’t a celebration,” the group said in a statement. “It’s a stand.”

Smaller communities throughout Los Angeles County with large immigrant populations are also rethinking Fourth of July celebrations. In East Los Angeles, a historically Latino area, the neighborhoods of Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights and El Sereno have postponed July Fourth festivities after several high-profile immigration arrests.

Federal agents last month rammed and trapped a car carrying four U.S. citizens, including a man, woman and two children, in Boyle Heights. The Department of Homeland Security said its target was Christian Damian Cerno-Camacho, who was arrested in connection with punching an immigration officer.

A lawyer representing Cerno-Camacho’s family said he is planning to file a lawsuit against the federal government.

This week, Boyle Heights activists shut down a bridge that links downtown Los Angeles to the small enclave and marched with mariachis to the site of another recent arrest.

Demands for the National Guard to return to normal duties were answered in part this week when 150 members were reassigned to wildfire season preparation. Some 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines remain at federal buildings in Los Angeles while a lawsuit filed by the state against the Trump administration is pending in court.

A three-judge appeals court panel has said that the White House likely lawfully exercised its authority when Trump federalized the National Guard without Gov. Gavin Newsom’s consent. The ruling halted a lower court’s decision, which found the Trump administration had illegally activated the troops.

Newsom said last month that he will pursue legal action to regain control of the guard.

Lawmakers and legal organizations are waging their own court battles ahead of the holiday weekend. On Wednesday, immigrant rights groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, seeking to block an “ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law” during immigration raids in Los Angeles.

“Since June 6th, marauding, masked goons have descended upon Los Angeles, terrorizing our brown communities and tearing up the Constitution in the process,” said Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.

“No matter their status or the color of their skin,” he added, “everyone is guaranteed Constitutional rights to protect them from illegal stops. We will hold DHS accountable.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the claims are false.

This week, county supervisors approved a motion to pursue legal action against the Trump administration. The vote came after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles over its sanctuary city policies, which prevent local police agencies from voluntarily cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

The U.S. government claims sanctuary city ordinances discriminate against federal law enforcement agencies by treating them differently from other policing authorities.