Reuters World News - SCOTUS rulings, tax bill, shadow Fed and Bezos wedding

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

We look at some of the hurdles Congress will face to pass U.S. President Donald Trump's tax bill by the July 4th holiday. Investors worry about a "shadow" Fed chair. And Venice gets ready for Jeff Bezos' wedding extravaganza. *The episode has been updated with the latest news on the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings.   Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court hands Donald Trump a victory, curbing the power of federal judges to impose nationwide rulings that impede the president's powers. Trump expresses hope that Congress will pass his tax bill by the July 4th holiday. And Venice gets ready for Jeff Bezos' wedding extravaganza. It's Friday, June 27th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. And I'm Christopher Wal Jasper in Chicago. A busy day at the Supreme Court with a flurry of rulings. U.S. President Donald Trump's been quick to claim victory after a decision on birthright citizenship. Well, this was a big one,

wasn't it? This was a big decision. The court's decision curbs the power of federal judges to impose nationwide rulings that challenge executive power. The court's 6-3-3-4. The court's 6-3 ruling authored by conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett didn't let Trump's birthright citizenship order go into effect immediately. In other rulings, the top court ruled elementary school parents can opt out of classes when books featuring LGBTQ characters are read. The court declined to rule in a dispute over adding a black majority congressional district to Louisiana's electoral map, ordering the case to be argued again. The High Court says a Texas law requiring pornographic websites to verify the age of users is lawful.

Justices also upheld a part of the Affordable Care Act that helps guarantee that health insurers cover preventative care at no cost to patients. And the Supreme Court says the FCC can continue charging telecom providers to fund rural Internet and phone service expansion. For more details on any of the Supreme Court's decisions, check out Reuters.com. Republicans in the U.S. Senate are rushing to pass their version of Trump's big, beautiful tax bill. But while GOP leaders are showing optimism that the bill will become law by the July 4th Independence Day holiday, our politics reporter, David Morgan in Washington, D.C., has been reporting on the hurdles that remain in their way.

Well, the Senate Republicans are determined to pass it before the, you know, July 4th holiday, they need to pass it in time for the House to then take it up so that it'll be on Trump's desk to sign. And because the Republicans are trying to pass this legislation without any input from Democrats, they need to use a procedure called budget reconciliation, which restricts the kind of legislation that can be in the bill. And the Senate parliamentarian is looking at the provisions that have been proposed, and she has identified some of the Medicaid provisions as not qualifying for reconciliation. The knock on effect of all this could be a delay in the timeline for passing the bill. Senator Thune said that their aim was to potentially pass it on Saturday,

which would allow the House of Representatives to take it up next week. But that schedule may slip now and they're acknowledging that because of the ongoing discussions with the Senate parliamentarian, they may not be able to hold their initial vote on Friday that pushes everything back. The dollar is under a lot of pressure this week. A report about a potential shadow Fed chair has investors spooked. Kamel Krimmins is here to shed a bit of light on things. Kamel, what is a shadow Fed exactly? So the nervousness you're saying, seeing stems from a story in the Wall Street Journal this week, saying President Trump may announce his pick to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell early, perhaps even this summer. Now, that's well before

Powell's term expires in May, and it would give a Fed chair in waiting the ability to influence market expectations. Now, that person would presumably represent Trump's preferences for lower interest rates and could potentially have more influence on the market than Powell. So creating a kind of shadow Fed, and under cutting perceptions of the Fed's independence, which is a core pillar of dollar strength. What has the White House said about that? So it's declined to comment. It has, though, referred to Trump's public statements on Powell. Those include calling the Fed chair stupid for not cutting interest rates. There was also a recent statement that he would name Powell's replacement very soon, and we had a statement this week that he had narrowed the list of replacements to three or four.

Who are the names on the list? So potential nominees include former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, as well as Kevin Hassett, who's the director of the White House's National Economic Council. You've also got current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the mix and current Fed Governor Christopher Waller. That's according to a person familiar with the deliberations. Japan has executed a man who killed nine people after contacting them on social media. It's the first use of capital punishment in the country in nearly three years. Takehiro Shirachi was dubbed the Twitter killer as he contacted victims via the social media platform. The Trump administration's planning to deport migrant Kilmar Albrego Garcia for a second time.

That's according to a lawyer for the administration, who's told a judge they don't plan on sending him back to El Salvador where he was wrongly deported in March. The deportation will not happen until after Abrago Garcia is tried in federal court, on migrant smuggling charges. And Vogue's editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, says she's stepping down as the editor of a fashion magazine after nearly 40 years. She'll continue as Vogue's global editorial director

and chief content officer at Condé Nast, which publishes Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and GQ. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Laurence Sanchez are in Venice for a three-day wedding extravaganza featuring celebrity guests as well. as public protests. Our reporter Sarah Rossi is out and about in Venice.

Excuse the Siegel sounds on her recording. I'm not jealous at all, honestly. I am sitting on a bridge over a canal in Venice in a hot night. And I'm not far from the site where Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are holding their first party here in Venice for their wedding celebrations. All the ceremonies here in Venice are surrounded by extremely tight security measures, but we know, for instance, that there are three parties from Thursday to Saturday. The first one at the cloister of the Madonna de Lorto Church.

Madonna de Lort is a very beautiful medieval church in the center of Venice. Many of the guests have arrived, such as Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, actor Orlando Bloom, Kim and Chloe Kardashian, along with US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and Sonia Lowe, J.R. Kashner. So they're pulling out all the stops then. What do we know about how much this will cost? We can say that the estimated total cost of the wedding celebrations for the couples should be around 48 million euros. And there are many local parents, pastry shops, taxi boat and so on, involved in the organization of that wedding.

We still don't know who will be the main chef at the parties, but for example, a historical pastry shop here in Venice has provided typical Venetian biscuits called Zayti and made with maize flour and raisins for the couple's guests. And there has been some pushback and even some protests around Venice, right? Bezos is, let's see, a catalyst for all protests, from the environment to those for the growing social gap between rich and poor, to those against exploitation of workers.

And the protests are also unprecedented because no wedding in Venice has ever had such massive media coverage, such high security measures. It is therefore a unique case, even for a city like Venice, a costume for centuries to hosting kings, emperors and popes. Tune into our special weekend episode of Reuters World News. It's about a trial that's gripped Australia, where the defendant stands accused of murdering three of her estranged husband's elderly relatives using toxic mushrooms. That pod will drop on Saturday, and you can catch it wherever you get your podcasts. For more on any of the stories from today, Check out rotors.com or the Reuters app.

Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player and we'll be back on Monday with our daily headline show.