Global News Podcast - US Senate narrowly passes Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

US Senate approves Trump's mega-bill on tax and spending, after Vice-President JD Vance casts tie-breaking vote. Also: Delhi bans fuel sales to old cars to tackle air pollution, and TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart dies.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Andrew Peach and in the early hours of Wednesday the 2nd of July these are our main stories. The US Senate narrowly approves President Trump's big beautiful bill, with the Vice President casting the decisive vote. The authorities in the Indian capital Delhi ban fuel sales to millions of ageing vehicles in an effort to tackle air pollution. Women in Denmark face being called up for military service because of heightened security

concerns in Europe. Also in this podcast, a father and daughter miraculously survive falling off a cruise ship and... Prince Charles, making his first contact with the world of steam engines and stations, stands in the doorway of the carriage. Determined not to miss anything. Now King Charles axes the royal train. President Trump has come a step closer to getting what he's been calling his big, beautiful bill into law. It is his signature piece of legislation which will affect virtually every

American's tax and healthcare. The US Senate passed it after a marathon session of 26 hours, debating almost a thousand pages of legislation, but only just with the casting vote of the Vice President, JD Vance. On this vote, the yeas are 50, the nays are 50, the Senate being evenly divided, the Vice President votes in the affirmative, the bill as amended is passed. The US Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota welcomed the result. Since we took office in January, Republicans have been laser focused on achieving the bill before us today. And now we're here passing legislation that will permanently extend taxually for hard-working

Americans. legislation that will permanently extend tax relief for hard-working Americans. As president that will spur economic growth and more jobs and opportunities for American workers. That will rebuild our military, secure our borders, unleash American energy and cut waste, fraud and abuse in federal programs. Democrats were of course against it, arguing it'll take benefits and protections from poorer people to allow for tax cuts for the rich. This is the US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Today's vote will haunt our Republican colleagues for years to come. As the American people see the damage that is done, as hospitals close, as people are laid off, as costs go up, as the debt

increases, they will see what our colleagues have done and they will remember it. And we Democrats will make sure they remember it. The American people will not forget the betrayal, the betrayal that took place today. Of course, this isn't the end of the road. The bill now heads back to the House of Representatives where it's likely to face resistance from some within Mr Trump's own party who fear it'll add trillions of dollars to the US national debt. President Trump though is hoping to sign it into law by the 4th of July. Just moments after the US Senate passed the bill, Evan Davis got reaction from our North

America editor Sarah Smith. It scraped through the Senate at the end of a 26-hour session. They've been at it all night. 48 different amendments were voted on during this session, but mostly behind the scenes what was going on was a huge amount of pressure being put on some of the Republican senators who were potentially going to vote against it. Now, in the end, three did. That's as many as the party could afford to lose and still get the vote out at 50-50 with, as you say, the vice president able to cast the tie-breaking vote.

And they had to try and deal with potential rebels on two different wings of the party, really, because you had some fiscal hawks who were really worried about the spending in the bill that will pile well over $3 trillion onto the national debt. But on the other side, you had people who were deeply concerned about the cuts to government spending that were also included in the bill, which will really significantly cut the access to health insurance for the lace well off, some food stamps programs that allow for nutritional assistance for people living in poverty. And a lot of these are now Republican voters and some senators were very worried about that. So they just about managed to change the bill in a few

ways that made it acceptable for 50 senators to pass it. But as you say, it now has to go back to the House of Representatives. And the very changes that have been made in the Senate to get it through may be completely unacceptable to Representatives in the house. So this is not over yet I'm the sort of independent analysts office for the management of budget They are all saying this will add trillions basically to the to the US national debt And that is why I suppose a lot of commentators are looking at this wondering whether this is a good idea Yeah a lot of commentators are looking at this and wondering whether this is a good idea. Yeah, and there will probably be a response from the markets as well to something that

puts so much money onto the national debt, largely to pay for tax cuts, which will benefit the wealthiest in America. What it does is it extends the tax cuts that Donald Trump brought in in his first term, which are due to expire, but it also adds some more that he promised during the campaign when he insisted that there would be no tax on tips and no tax on social security, where some of his big campaign promises. So he's wanted to put them in. And there's more spending in it as well. I mean, it really is an enormous bill. There's extra money for defence. There's extra money for border security, while it cuts things like subsidies for green energy. Donald Trump says that's one of the reasons why Elon Musk is so opposed to it, because

he won't get subsidies for electric vehicle manufacture. He has been posting like crazy in opposition to this bill, saying that he's really, really worried about the extra spending that's in it and it's madness to add this much to the national debt. So there's another skirmish in the war between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has broken out over this on social media. And actually this morning, Donald Trump was asked if he would look into deporting Elon Musk who was born in South Africa. And he said, yeah, that was something that he was going to have to take a look at as he railed against him and his criticism of the bill. So that's fired up as well. But Donald Trump has just been told on a visit to Florida that the bill has passed

and he said it's music to his ears. He will be disappointed though. It's not actually called the one big beautiful bill anymore, which is what he insisted it be named. One of the amendments that got passed in the last few minutes removed that title and said it can never be called that. And that was our North America editor Sarah Smith. Another of President Trump's policies when he took office was to ban transgender people from the military, saying they were unfit for service. Once the Supreme Court ruled in his favour, transgender service members had two choices – retire or get kicked out. For many of the around 2,500 people affected, it isn't just the end of a career they loved,

it's the loss of a regular wage. Our gender and identity correspondent, Megan Moen, has been talking to one transgender soldier affected by the ban. We have 30 days to voluntarily separate where we get benefits. If you choose not to voluntarily separate in 30 days, then you will likely lose those benefits and get something other than an honourable discharge. Major Kara Corcoran has served 17 years in the army, including leading troops in Afghanistan. When the executive order landed, she was just a few months away from graduating from an elite military leadership degree.

Is this as bad as you expected? No, it's worse. It gives us less time. Kara lives on base in Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. And if she's discharged from the military, she'll lose her home. I have a cooler in here that has a few things, a five gallon water jug.

To prepare for the worst, she's turned her car into a mobile survival station. It's a 4x4 and the back has been kitted out, ready to live in. This is my bed and on top of here is an 8 gallon water tank for showers. So you fill that up with water and you're able to take a shower out in the wild. And I don't know how much more is going to change over the next couple of weeks, but I'm ready to live out of my car if I have to. President Trump's executive order states that being transgender is incompatible with the

physical and mental fitness standards necessary for military service. It's an issue he campaigned on. We will get transgender ideology the hell out of our military. It's going to be gone. In 2016, trans people were allowed for the first time to serve openly in the military. The army approved Kara's medical transition and she carried on in her job. But her parents found the news hard. I was married.

I had daughters on the way. And when I came out to them, they were pretty devastated. And Kara's family has been torn further apart by the administration's moves to ban transgender people from serving. Her parents voted for Donald Trump. I told them, you know, if you vote a certain way, you're going to ban me from the army.

And did not believe it. After the Department of Defense banned trans service members, a federal judge blocked it, calling it likely unconstitutional. President Trump asked the Supreme Court to decide. Cara is set to graduate and start a new posting in a few weeks. None of us truly know what's going to happen and a lot of service members are extremely anxious right now. Hey everyone, we do have a bit of breaking news to bring you out of our nation's capital.

Looks like the Supreme Court is allowing President Trump to implement his ban on transgender people serving in the military, at least for now. Kara's new posting has been cancelled. She learns that now there are conditions to her graduating. I have now been directed that the only way I can cross the stage is if I am in the male uniform and that my hair and grooming standards are within the male standards. Even though nothing about me is a man, this is beyond wrong. Reluctantly, Kara complies with the order, cutting her long blonde hair.

Welcome to the School of Advanced Military Studies Class of 2025 Welcome to the School of Advanced Military Studies Class of 2025 graduation and academic honors ceremony. On a stage in an auditorium, one by one, military personnel are awarded their graduation certificates. Major Kara Cochran, infantry. Kara has crossed the stage in the male uniform with short hair. Here I was walking on stage going, this is the end. I am not going to be able to do the job that my country asked me to do. The US Department of Defence declined to give a statement to the BBC, but has previously said that they are committed to treating all service members impacted by the policy with

dignity and respect. You can hear more of that report by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts. The authorities in the Indian capital Delhi have banned fuel sales to millions of ageing vehicles in an effort to tackle the city's hazardous air pollution. Garages The authorities in the Indian capital Delhi have banned fuel sales to millions of aging vehicles in an effort to tackle the city's hazardous air pollution. Garages are no longer able to sell fuelled petrol cars older than 15 years or diesel vehicles older than 10. Delhi is regularly ranked one of the most polluted cities in the world.

I asked our South Asia regional editor, Ambaras Ethenrajan, what it's like. If you go during especially winter time, just before the onset of winter, you will see an accurate smog, mainly caused by vehicular emission as well as the industries all around the megacity of Delhi. If you go out, you can breathe this air, polluted air. You can feel that it is going down your throat and you feel this congestion in your chest. And it is especially bad for people with conditions like asthma and other breathing difficulties. And if you hang your cloth, dry your white colored towel or something, by the evening you can see that black soot kind of particles. I personally know that our families and friends who have moved out of Delhi and moved to places

like Goa or Bangalore because of this pollution affecting their children and it is now common for many houses in Delhi to have these air purifiers. And that's why they're trying to do this and yet I bet it's going down really badly because people don't want to be told you can't sell your car and we're going to put all these rules in place. Successive governments have been battling for years, imposing various measures like you can use cars like odd and even number license plates, reducing the number of cars coming into central Delhi. Now the government says the new rules, which means you won't get fuel at fuel stations,

what they have done is they have installed the number plate registering cameras and also physically maybe for the first few days the police and municipal workers will be watching which cars have the world registration like old cars, petrol cars of 15 years old and then diesel 10 years. And they say we will immediately call the junk companies to come and take this car. What about people's ability to buy a new car? Because it may cost of $10,000 to $20,000 if you want a decent car in Delhi. Whether people can afford that?

And do climate experts think this will actually make that much difference, the idea of restricting car sales? They have seen in places like in Beijing and other parts of the world where they're reducing the number of, for example, in London the congestion charge and what the experts are saying that by reducing the number of vehicles coming into the city it can have an impact. But this is also going with people converting to electric cars, electric vehicles. So that's a massive thing in, for example, in China. But in India, it is slowly picking up because you need to have the infrastructure for, you know, getting charging points and all those stuff. And we're talking about six million vehicles like this around Delhi.

How can this, you know, policy can really have an impact? Because we're talking about millions of people having to invest extra money. How can they dispose of all these vehicles all of a sudden? Who's going to benefit? It is only the automobile industry and the taxes for the car. So these are some of the issues being debated currently on social media. Anbarasan Ehtirajan with me. A father has been described as a hero for jumping into shark-infested waters to save his daughter, who fell overboard a Disney cruise ship. The girl was taking pictures with her father

when she fell from the ship, traveling from the Bahamas to Florida. John Donelson reports. Oh, my god. He was his daughter's savior. That's a dad that needs to have a hero. But it was touch and go. A Caribbean cruise on the Disney Dream turned into the stuff of nightmares.

The five-year-old girl had been posing for a photo on the fourth deck when she fell over the railing. Dad dropped the camera and dived in behind her. Laura Amador was a passenger on board. The ship was moving quickly, so quickly it's crazy how quickly the people became tiny dots in the sea and then you lost sight of them. The pair were in shark-infested waters for around 20 minutes before a lifeboat managed to get to them. Tracy Robinson Hughes witnessed the rescue.

Everybody was cheering, everyone was supporting, everyone was trying to help them with locating the father and the daughter. And the boat got out there and it rescued them and everyone was cheering on the ship and just the amazing quick response of Disney made a big difference. But there will be questions about how the little girl managed to fall from the ship, which cost almost a billion dollars to build. Most people who go overboard are never seen again. This father and daughter know they're lucky to be alive

and with quite a story to tell. John Donnison reporting. And still to come. Everyone that doesn't know Jesus Christ is doomed to destruction, just as surely as I breathe and I stand on this platform. Jimmy Swagger, the hugely popular American TV evangelist of the 1980s, has died. More than 18,500 people have reached the UK on small boats in 2025, a record figure for the first six months of the year. But despite new measures planned by the British and French governments, migrants gathering

in France aiming to cross the Channel say they're undeterred. The proposals include French coastards intervening in shallow waters to prevent so-called taxi boats picking up migrants from the beaches. I heard more from our correspondent in Calais, James Waterhouse. Well the impression you get immediately is the desperation that people feel, the drive they have to reach what they see or hope will be a better life in the UK. We've met people from Eritrea, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, all they say are fleeing, fighting, failed states where there's no healthcare, no schooling for their children.

We met one guy whose wife died through a lack of access to healthcare, and he was camping in these boiling temperatures and had been for the last couple of months. Many people, interestingly, have lived in Germany for long periods of time but what is almost propelling their journey to the UK are European countries on the continent tightening their immigration laws and so they see the UK as the kind of last hope but of course the UK is trying to do the same by trying the kind of last hope but of course the UK is trying

to do the same by trying to get these numbers down but of course they're doing the opposite. We spoke to a young Syrian called Mohammed who was hoping to cross yesterday but he had to jump out of the boat to rescue his two-year-old daughter who was struggling in the sea. My mother, my father and all my family live in England. I want to go there, both for my children's future and for my mother to help me with them. That was Mohammed, one of the people you got to speak to, James. Obviously, this is a very complicated issue facing many countries around the world, but there's a whole history of failing to find a solution to it in the UK.

That absolutely has. The last UK government, the Conservative government, agreed a deal with France to pay a few hundred million pounds to help the French police what is a 180-kilometre-long stretch of northern coastline. But what we hear here is just how difficult that is to police. And once the migrants, once the smugglers, once the boats are in the shallow water, they choose not to intervene over fears of drowning. Now, the French are hoping to get more regulations, more guidelines that will give them the powers to intervene

even once they are in the water. But it's true there has been no political cohesion, there's been complications for France in trying to act independently from the European Union. And of course for the UK, when you consider that it has seen record numbers of asylum applications, pressure is mounting on ministers, this very subject, albeit that it makes up a minority of entries into the UK, illegal entries. It's become symbolic of what is seen by critics as the lack of control on its borders. And France and the UK, it seems to having a more cooperative relationship. They are going to discuss tougher measures in a meeting later this month.

relationship, they are going to discuss tougher measures in a meeting later this month. But as of now they are facing criminal gangs who are evolving and only becoming more sophisticated and more streamlined in their criminal operations and mounting numbers of migrants still motivated to make that dangerous journey. James Waterhouse with me from Northern France. Women in Denmark face being called up for military service amid heightened security concerns in Europe. New legislation means women turning 18 now join men in lottery system for conscription. Klytia Salah has the story. Women in Denmark were already allowed to join the military service on a voluntary basis. As a matter of fact, almost a quarter of last year's volunteers were female.

But a law coming into force today requires Danish women turning 18 to register to be assessed for potential military conscription, in line with existing measures for men. Volunteers will be recruited first and the remaining places will be filled through a draw. Those selected will then undertake 11 months of military service. This will not be without its challenges for the new conscripts, as Katrine, a recruit in the Danish Royal Lifeguard, explains. There are different things that they need to improve,

especially in terms of equipment. Right now it's made for men, so perhaps the rucksacks are a bit too large and the uniforms are large as well, but I do know that they are working on it. Denmark sees the new law as a further step towards increasing security in the region. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, European countries have sought to build up their military forces, a move that Katrine welcomes. In the world situation we're in right now, it's necessary to have more conscripts and I think that women should contribute to that equally as men do. So actually I think

it's a positive change but I do think that a lot of women as well as men that might be forced to get into the military, it hasn't been like that in many years. Not only is Denmark bringing in conscription for women as neighbouring Sweden and Norway have done. In March it also increased military spending by almost six billion dollars for the next five years. The Christian televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who was one of the most influential in America before a dramatic fall from grace, has died at the age of 90. Swaggart, who in the 1980s had a television audience of millions, called himself a shouting, weeping preacher.

I don't care who you are. I don't care how educated, how cultured, how refined, how powerful, how rich, how famous. You do not know Jesus Christ, you are marked for the most agonising, horrifying, hellish, diabolical destruction that the schemer of death could ever bring. There is no way except the way Jesus Christ." He also played the piano and sang. From Los Angeles, Reagan Morris looks back at his life. Jimmy Swaggart's charismatic sermons and honky-tonk songs were made for television. He created a megachurch in Louisiana with a global reach, beaming into millions of homes around the world

and collecting tens of millions of dollars in donations. Swaggart was a powerful force during the moral majority U.S. political movement, which helped elect Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. But in 1988, he was photographed with a sex worker outside a Louisiana hotel. He tearfully begged for forgiveness, live on television. I have sinned against you, my Lord. And I would ask that your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain.

Many forgave him for his sins, including his wife, Frances, who remained by his side. The incident led to him being defrocked by the Assemblies of God, though he continued to preach, but with much less influence. Here in the UK, the Royal Train is to be taken out of service in a cost-saving measure by Buckingham Palace. King Charles travelled on the Royal Train many times with his parents as a child. It was used extensively during the late Queen Elizabeth's golden and diamond jubilee celebrations, but the latest royal account showed it was only used twice in the last financial year. Dickon Ross is the editor of Rail magazine in the UK and told Paul Henley why he thinks the royal train has gone off the rails.

I think it's cost-effectiveness, it's shame, it's the end of an era. But Charles has not used it as much as his mother did in recent times. When he was younger, it was used a lot to take her children up to Balmoral and so on because one of the great advantages of the sleeper is that it's a sleeper train and they can sleep over it overnight and arrive refreshed and so on. So he's just not been using it that much recently. I think that a couple of trips he's done and the last one was costing, when he worked it out, around £44,000. So that doesn't look terribly economic and, you know, out of all the modes of transport at

his disposal, I guess he's decided, well, you know, we have to do without that one. But do you mourn the loss of this sustainable mode of transport? It costs a lot, but so do the helicopter trips and private jets that the Royal Family routinely take around the UK. Yeah, sure. It's a bit ironic that it's come. Rail is obviously an environmentally friendly mode of transport, generally speaking. It's come in the 200th anniversary year of the invention of rail in Stockton Darneton

Railway 200 years ago. So it's ironic that it's come at this time and from a king who you know shown environmental awareness in the past. But I think that the economic that is complex it is a biofuel powered train actually. But then if you're taking so few trips and it was coming to the end of its lifetime it needed to be refurbished. The carriages are old 70s 80s stock and need to be refurbished. The carriages are old 70s, 80s stock and need to be refurbished. The contract with the company that runs it and maintains it for him was

approaching an end. So they obviously thought now is the time to call a halt to this 150 years of remarkable history of the Royal Train. So the end of an era. Yes. And the historical significance of the train can't be lost here, can it? No, I'm sure it'll end up in a museum. However, I mean, of course, there's been numerous trains over the years. Queen Victoria first travelled on the railway in the 1840s, maybe 15 years or so after its invention. And a few decades later, she then commissioned a Royal Train.

Now in those days, obviously, it was a steam train. That's how we perhaps like to think of a kind of stately royal train powered by steam with velvet everywhere and amazing luxurious furniture and so on. It's still pretty nice, but it's changed over the years. The royal aides have described it in the past as a bit G-plan sort of mid-century kind of bare wood look, which is quite fashionable these days, but a long cry from the Queen Victoria's 23 carat gold. Dickon Ross, the editor of Rail Magazine. And that's all from us for now. There'll be a new edition of Global News to download later. If you'd like to comment on this podcast, drop us an email globalpodcast

at bbc.co.uk or you'll find us on x at BBC World Service. Just use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll, the producers were Judy Franko and Camilla Mills, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach. Thank you for listening and until next time, goodbye.