☕ Why you should care about budget votes

Welcome to Tuesday.

An apology for this being a lunchtime email, instead of your usual morning read - I’m currently on my way to DC to participate in a discussion about how we rebuild trust in the media (I’ll let you know how that not-so-small task goes!) and fell victim to airlines just doing their own thing. Nonetheless, the news continues - and we’ll be back in your email at a normal morning time tomorrow.

I’ve got 30 seconds

Some headlines from this morning:

French President Emmanuel Macron has met with President Trump at the White House for talks over the future of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a joint news conference following the meeting, Macron said the desired outcome “must not be a surrender of Ukraine, it must not mean a ceasefire without guarantees”. Macron said Europe had given more money to Ukraine than the US, correcting President Trump who said US aid to Ukraine was triple what Europe had given. President Trump also refused to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a dictator, in contrast to President Macron who called out Russian aggression.

Tech giant Apple has announced a plan to invest more than $500 billion in the US over the next four years, particularly in the creation of new jobs in AI. CEO Tim Cook met with President Trump yesterday, following a release from the Trump Administration that signified a priority on corporate investment in the US. Apple said it was its “largest-ever spend commitment”, beating the $430 billion it announced for a four-year period in 2021.

The CDU-CSU, Germany’s center-right party, won the election with 28.9% of the vote, below its predicted 30%. Likely new leader Friedrich Merz used his victory speech to criticize US indifference to Europe, and urged EU unity for greater independence. The far-right AfD came second with 20%, reflecting growing public frustration over immigration and economic policies. Merz is seeking to form a government with other parties over the coming months, but has previously refused to work with the AfD.

Hackers have stolen $1.5 billion in digital assets from Bybit, a major crypto exchange, in what is being hailed as the largest cryptocurrency heist in history. The hackers compromised one of Bybit’s cold wallets, offline security storage for cryptocurrency, then rapidly distributed the stolen coin to obscure recovery efforts. The Lazarus Group have been identified as the culprits, they are a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group whose activities fund the dictatorial regime. CEO Ben Zhou has stressed that all cold wallets and transfers are secure.

I’ve got 1 minute

A Texas court has rejected Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’ appeal, meaning she’s expected to remain in jail until 2032.

Holmes was found guilty of fraud over claims she had created a device that could run a range of tests with a small amount of blood.

Theranos reached a market value of $9 billion at its peak.

Holmes, 41, unsuccessfully argued some of the prosecutor’s evidence was flawed and warranted her release.

Theranos

Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 as a 19-year-old. She produced a device she claimed could run multiple tests from a tiny amount of blood.

The company raised almost $1 billion from investors including business titans Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison.

In 2015, the Wall Street Journal investigated Theranos’ claims, finding the blood-testing technology was inaccurate and accusing Holmes of defrauding investors. The company collapsed in 2018.

The trial

Holmes and Theranos president Ramesh Balwani were found guilty in 2022 of fraudulent conduct.

The pair were found to have inflated the estimated value of Theranos to attract investors, by making false claims about their product’s effectiveness.

Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Two years have since been removed for good behaviour.

The U.S. Prison Bureau shows she is due to be released in March 2032 from a Texas prison.

The appeal

Holmes appealed her sentence, alleging flaws in the prosecutors’ use of evidence.

In a legal filing, her lawyers also argued that “highly credentialed scientists” had told Holmes the blood-testing technology was effective.

Holmes also conducted her first interview from prison earlier this month with People magazine.

She maintained her innocence but admitted “there are things I would have done differently.”

Judge Jacqueline Nguyen dismissed Holmes’ appeal.

In her remarks, Nguyen upheld Holmes’ sentence, saying: “The grandiose achievements touted by Holmes and Balwani were half-truths and outright lies.”

“Pharmaceutical companies never validated the technology, as Holmes and Balwani had told investors,” Nguyen ruled.

“Contrary to the rosy revenue projections shared with investors and business partners, Theranos was running out of money.”

I’ve got 2 minutes

An impending vote on a budget resolution has been in the news a lot recently as Republicans feud about what is to be included in what is essentially the government’s budget blueprint for the next year.

We explain how the process works, why this is such a big deal and what the big fights are about this time around.

What’s a budget resolution, and why should I care?

A budget resolution is a non-binding outline of how the government intends to spend its money for that fiscal year.

If the Senate and the House agree on identical budget, the leading party can start a process called budget reconciliation, where they enacts laws in accordance with the budget resolution.

Budget reconciliation is immune from a technique called a filibuster which is used by minority party senators to block or delay the approval of a bill. It is immune because legislation limits debate on budget reconciliation bills to 20 hours.

Wait, what’s a filibuster?

Once a bill is voted to the Senate floor by a Senate appropriations committee, Senators begin debate.

The Senate requires 60 votes to end debate and hold a simple majority vote. Minority parties often continuously debate (filibuster) bills, knowing the majority lacks enough votes to break it.

So, budget reconciliation is exciting for lawmakers because in order to approve spending taxpayer dollars without a budget resolution, an appropriations bill must be passed which is not immune to the filibuster and would therefore require 60 senate votes.

‘One big beautiful bill’

The House and Senate must approve identical budget resolutions, but Republicans remain divided. On Friday, the Senate approved a resolution focused on immigration and Trump’s key policies, planning a later resolution on spending and tax cuts.

With a slimmer majority, House Republicans doubt they can pass two budget resolutions and prefer a single bill outlining all of Trump’s proposed spending. Trump has backed their approach, calling for "one big beautiful bill."

House Republicans hold a majority of 218 to the 215 Democrats, they can only afford one vote against the party line from one of their own, assuming all Democrats vote against the bill.

The budget resolution proposes $880 billion in cuts, dividing Republicans—some say it's too little, others warn it would impact social programs like Medicaid and Social Security.

President Trump promises that these programs will not be touched but has endorsed the proposed budget resolution.

What could happen now?

The budget resolution faces Republican opposition, with Rep. Victoria Spartz vowing to vote against it and others expressing concern.

Speaker Mike Johnson is open to the Senate’s bill if his fails.

If passed, the resolution moves to the Senate for a vote.