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From The Youth, For The Youth
Weekly Updates
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Political Landscape
"One, Big, Beautiful bill"
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May 22nd: The House of Representatives passed (by a majority vote) the One Big Beautiful Bill Act set forth by President Donald Trump.
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In order for this legislation to be enacted, it now needs to win a majority vote in the Senate(at least 51/100 votes)
Here's what it includes:
$4 trillion in Tax Cuts
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Making permanent the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from his last presidency - increases standard deduction(the amount of money one can subtract from their salary before income tax, serves the purpose of reducing the amount of a person's income that can be taxed) for corporations(including small businesses) and individuals
What's changing?
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$500 increase in child tax credit(a type of tax return for people with children) bing it to a total of $2,500, expires in 2028
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Estate tax exemption(the threshold that decides the maximum amount of land one can own before receiving a tax on that land) rises to $15 million - exempts more landowners from taxes on their estates(owned land)
What's new?
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Enacts entirely new tax cuts - No tax on tips, no tax on overtime pay, and $4,000 tax reduction available to those 65 and older - expire 2028
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Increases the limit on State and Local Tax deduction(SALT) from $10,000 to $40,000 for incomes up to $500,000
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Creates Trump accounts - an account with a $1,000 bonus(payment) for children born over the next four years, paid for with tax dollars. Contributions made to these accounts cap at $5,000 a year and would go tax free until the beneficiary(the receiver, in this case, the baby) turns 18.
What is cut to compensate for loss in tax revenue?
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Supplemental nutrition and assistance program - $267 billion would be cut from food aid spending over the next 10 years
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Medicaid - $700 billion cut
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The proposed new requirement to receive medicaid would be a minimum of 80 hours per month in employment, education, or service for able-bodied individuals and recipients would need to verify eligibility twice a year
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These new regulations are estimated to reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the next 10 years according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
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Prohibit Medicaid from funding Planned Parenthood
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Potential downsides
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Eliminates the $200 tax on gun silencers - originally enacted in the 1934 National Firearms act to incentivize against gun silencer ownership. Silencers make it harder to locate the source of gunshots and harder to hear/recognize the sound of a gunshot posing risk to law enforcement responders to shootings.
Judicial Updates
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Election in Wisconsin : Liberal candidate Susan M. Crawford won the April 1 election, defeating conservative Brad Schimel. Her victory was as a result of the court's 4–3 liberal majority, with the race becoming the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history, with nearly $100 million total in spending.
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Trump's Immigration Laws Facing Backlash: President Trump's proposal to offer U.S. permanent residency for a $5 million investment has been facing severe backlash, even being called “legally flawed”. Reporters argue that this proposal lacks Congressional approval and contradicts existing visa programs.
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Transgender Passport Issues: A federal judge issued a court order in order to prevent the enforcement of changes to passport policies that were targeted at individuals who identify as “transgender”. The ruling cited constitutional violations, including equal protection concerns.
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Anti-Trump Protests Across the United States: The "50501" movement organized over 600 protests across the U.S. in response to those who oppose President Trump's policies. Protestors called for his impeachment and restoration of diplomatic relations with foreign countries.
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/article/house-gop-tax-bill-trump.html
https://taxfoundation.org/blog/one-big-beautiful-bill-pros-cons/
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/us/politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-crawford-schimel.html
https://www.aol.com/went-anti-trump-protests-heres-215013001.html
Global Affairs
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March 6th: In his first few weeks in office, Trump has expressed a desire to bring Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal, and the Gaza Strip under direct American control.
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“Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada—AND NO TARIFFS!” he wrote on Truth Social.
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It took the Trump administration four weeks to break Moscow’s international isolation and bring Russian officials to Riyadh for negotiations on Ukraine’s future—without the involvement of the Ukrainian government or European allies. Prior to that, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth dismissed the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO or receiving U.S. security guarantees—effectively shifting the responsibility for Ukraine’s defense onto Europe. President Trump has motioned to stop all U.S. aid to Ukraine.
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The UN Human Rights Council has just alleged Israel of commiting violations such as sexual assault in Gaza during the Israel Gaza war. These allegations partially stem from the destruction of maternity wards and fertility clinics in Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has rejected all allegations and criticized the Human Rights Council as “an antisemitic, rotten, terrorist-supporting and irrelevant body”.
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May 5th: Xi Jinping(the president of the Peoples Republic of China) visited Moscow to discuss economic and political cooperation with Russian president Vladmir Putin. For the past month, Xi has visited European and SEA(Southeast Asia) leaders to discuss economic cooperation and signed deals on supply chain cooperation against Trump’s tariffs
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Satellite images show that the U.S. Seventh Fleet has deployed Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in Chinese sovereign waters and violating Chinese sovereignty.
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May 6th: India launches missile strikes on Pakistan border towns claiming they are targeting terrorist entities, the missile strikes killed 24 civilians. Pakistan responds by shooting down 5 Indian jets and one Indian drone using Chinese missiles.
Technology
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Engineers are starting to use AI to preserve indigenous cultures that are rapidly decaying because of the globalized state of the current world.
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Chinese AI assistant Deepseek is performing at a greater scale, according to professionals, than other current AI companies. Deepseek rose to the #1 spot on the app store.
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February 25th: Microsoft released a new quantum computing chip, along with it inventing a new state of matter, shortening the expected use of quantum computing to happen in the next few years instead of next few decades.
Environmental
News
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Dozens who failed to escape were killed in Los Angeles, CA wildfires. With fires spreading at a rate of five football fields a minute, hundreds of families were deeply devastated.
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Wildfire and climate scientist at Yale school of the environment, Jennifer Marlon believes there were many great factors that contributed to the cause of the wildfires. One being the warmest summer recorded in California which led to the drying out of vegetation that fueled the flames
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Tory Fielder, Red Cross disaster mental health manager, states that a majority of survivors often feel a sense of guilt and helplessness after disasters, especially ones of such great magnitude like the CA wildfires, from inability to help others
Trump’s First Month in Office:
- The Trump Administration, specifically Elon Musk and his DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team, have begun the mass firing of federal employees. More than 110,000 workers have been fired by the Trump Administration. These firings were made to cut federal government spending.
- The annual inflation rate is currently 4.5% which is considered “a sign that inflation is heating up again after having cooled for much of 2024.” according to The Labor Department and The Federal Reserve
The Economy
- The stock market is typically a reflection of the current economic state of the country. In the Month of February, Indexes (a collection of stocks that track the performance of companies) had shown the following: NASDAQ has fallen 4% and Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 1.4%.
- Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average are considered two of the most well recognized Indexes in the market. The reason why the Nasdaq has fallen more than Dow Jones is because the Nasdaq has more representation of riskier tech companies. Dow Jones is more of a representation of lower risk economic staples so the price doesn’t vary as much.
Persecuted Communities
The persecution committed against the Sikh people, both within India and worldwide, is becoming increasingly prevalent; to cite current events such as the assassination of Sikh Canadian leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023. After his killing in Canada, Prime Minister Trudeau had accused the Indian government of being involved. India has denied these allegations further contributing to pre-existing Sikh-Indian tensions.
The Indian army launched Operation Blue Star on June 5, 1984, which aimed at arresting and even killing militants holed up in the Golden Temple in Amritsar. This resulted with the murder of thousands of Sikh pilgrim. Anti-Sikh violence broke out in various parts of India after that, further straining relations. This has left an indelible mark on the Sikh psyche and hence their continuing grievances and enormous burden of injustice.
In India, Sikhs have been persistently excluded from mainstream political and social life because of their radical demands for autonomy. This desire began the time of their spiritual teacher, Guru Nanak. In spite of being a sizable minority, they feel disenfranchised to the point of a separate state, Khalistan. And to the Indian government, such demands aroused suspicions and hope of repression especially during the 1980s.
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autonomy - to right of a nation to self-govern
Sikhs are one of the most contributory populations to Indian society. Making up only 2% of the population in India, Sikhs make up most of the Indian army. The Sikh majority state, Punjab, covers about 2% of India's land, yet the state supports the Indian agricultural market produces nearly 20% of the nation's wheat and 12% of its rice. Further, Punjab sources 95% of India's woollen knitwear production. Despite this, Sikhs remain brutally persecuted.
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