Indian Markets Feel the Chill in Trump-Modi Ties
Trump set a frosty tone to the much-anticipated rendezvous when shortly before receiving Modi, he announced reciprocal tariffs worldwide: The US will tax foreign goods at the same rate other nations apply to its products.
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Newsweek
10 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Major SALT Deduction Cap Boost Passes Senate. Here's Who Would Benefit
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The U.S. Senate has passed a significant expansion to the federal deduction for state and local taxes (SALT), more than tripling the cap from $10,000 to $40,000 starting in 2025. Senators voted 50-50 on President Donald Trump's broad tax and spending bill on Tuesday, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote. The increased SALT deduction cap would phase out for those earning above $500,000 and increase 1 percent annually until 2029, then revert to the current $10,000 limit in 2030. Why It Matters The move marks a dramatic reversal in policy on SALT deductions, one of the most contentious features of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and has implications for millions of taxpayers, especially those living in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey, Illinois and California where property and income taxes often far exceed the old $10,000 cap. Analysts have said the provision will most likely benefit wealthier Americans who have high property taxes, as taxes paid on income and property ownership are typically the largest for those who itemize their taxes. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (center), shown with Senator John Barrasso, the GOP whip (left), and Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, speaks to reporters after Senate passage of the budget reconciliation package of President Donald... Senate Majority Leader John Thune (center), shown with Senator John Barrasso, the GOP whip (left), and Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, speaks to reporters after Senate passage of the budget reconciliation package of President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts, at the Capitol in Washington on July 1, 2025. More J. Scott Applewhite/AP What To Know Prior to 2017, taxpayers who itemized deductions could fully subtract the amount paid in state and local income, property and sales taxes from their federal taxable income. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act imposed a $10,000 cap on these deductions, a limit that mostly affected residents of states with higher tax rates. Along with raising the cap to $40,000 until 2029, the Senate bill also increases a tax break for pass-through businesses to 23 percent while clamping down on a frequently used tax loophole for certain pass-through businesses. The House bill had proposed the same higher limit and $500,000 income phaseout but for a longer period of time, rising 1 percent each year from 2026 to 2033. The House also blocked certain white-collar professionals from being able to use a popular SALT deduction workaround. While the Senate version appears to be cheaper for the federal government, given its shorter time frame, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) said that "it's actually far more generous." The CRFB said the Senate's direct SALT relief is "roughly 10 percent larger than the House," adding that it estimated the Senate changes would cost $325 billion while the House bill would cost roughly $200 billion. Affluent homeowners and high-income individuals stand to benefit the most from the expanded cap, according to the Tax Foundation's May analysis. The Tax Foundation also warned that the Senate's provisions would cost about $320 billion more than an extension of the existing cap, and cost $150 billion more than a $30,000 cap. "The bill is already suffering from a math problem," Tax Foundation analysts wrote. "This is a recipe for worsening deficits at a time when Congress needs to be more concerned about the country's fiscal outlook." What People Are Saying Owen Zidar, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, told Newsweek: "The broader bill and the SALT cap increase are a boon for high-income taxpayers, especially high-income private business owners who got a special loophole that lets them avoid the SALT caps. Millions are estimated to lose health insurance coverage. The bill is very irresponsible fiscally. It's mortgaging our future for our children. "The increase in the deficits will put pressure on interest rates and crowd out productive investment, hurting economic growth." What Happens Next After being passed by the Senate, the GOP tax bill will now head to the Joint Conference Committee for reconciliation of differences between the Senate and House.
CNN
10 minutes ago
- CNN
Fact check: Trump lies again about gas prices, falsely claiming five states are at $1.99
The president's imaginary list keeps getting longer. In April, President Donald Trump claimed gas prices in 'a couple' unspecified states had just fallen to $1.98 per gallon. That wasn't even close to true. But the next day he said it was 'three states' that had just hit $1.98 per gallon, which also wasn't remotely accurate. Trump used the 'three' figure on multiple occasions in subsequent weeks, again with no factual basis. Then, during an immigration-focused visit to Florida on Tuesday, Trump made it five states with supposed sub-$2 gas. 'Gasoline just hit $1.99 today in five states – $1.99, isn't that a nice sound?' he said, adding moments later, 'We just hit, in five states, $1.99, $1.98.' Once more, this was a lie. The lowest state average price on Tuesday for a gallon of regular gas was about $2.71 in Mississippi, according to data published by AAA. The state with the fifth-cheapest Tuesday average, Louisiana, was at about $2.79 per gallon, per the AAA data. And the national average was about $3.18 per gallon, AAA reported. GasBuddy, a firm that tracks prices at tens of thousands of stations around the country, did not find a single station selling regular gas for below $2.26 per gallon on Tuesday. (There are sometimes individual drivers who get special discounts.) And GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, told CNN that the last time his data showed any state average below $2 per gallon was more than four years ago, in January 2021, when demand was unusually weak because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The White House did not respond to CNN's Tuesday request to explain Trump's claim. The president has a long history of using inaccurate statistics even when he could make a similar point using accurate statistics. His false Tuesday boast was especially needless given that he could have correctly said that – as CNN reported in an article earlier in the day – gas prices for this Fourth of July weekend are expected to be the lowest for the holiday since at least 2021, according to GasBuddy.
The Verge
14 minutes ago
- The Verge
Tesla reports 14 percent drop in second-quarter vehicle deliveries
Tesla sales hit a new low, with the company reporting a 14 percent drop in second-quarter vehicle deliveries compared to a year ago. The company said that it produced a total of 410,244 vehicles between April–June of this year, including 396,835 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, as well as 13,409 'other vehicles' like the Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck. That represents a minor 0.1 percent drop compared to the second quarter of 2024, when the company produced 410,831 vehicles. Tesla also said that it delivered a total of 384,122 vehicles, including 373,728 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, as well as 10,394 other vehicles — a 14 percent decline compared to the second quarter of 2024, when it delivered 443,956 vehicles. (For a direct-to-consumer company like Tesla, deliveries are a proxy for sales.) Expectations were pretty grim for this quarter, with UBS predicting an 18 percent decrease in deliveries year over year, and Barclay estimating 375,000 vehicles sold. Tesla may have outperformed these expectations, but the company is still on a steady decline since reporting its first year-over-year sales drop since 2020 last year. It was another troubling sign for the once high-flying EV company as it continues to struggle with rising competition, stagnant demand for electric vehicles, and a growing backlash against Elon Musk's political activities within President Donald Trump's administration. The Tesla Takedown protest movement, which began earlier this year, has targeted hundreds of Tesla dealerships around the world in an effort to erode the company's sales even further. Last month, Musk announced that he was stepping away from his position at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) amid a bitter feud with Trump — but insisted that DOGE's controversial cost-cutting efforts would continue. Still, his reputation in the US has plummeted, with a majority of people saying they have a negative view of him. His claims to have saved the government a trillion dollars by slashing 'waste, fraud, and abuse' seem to have been mostly overstated. There were other worrying signs ahead of the Q2 report. Tesla's sales in Europe have been in a serious slump with five straight consecutive months of decline, according to registration data from the European Union. In China, the company's sales continue to decrease as domestic brands like BYD grab more market share. (Tesla does not break out sales regionally, so registration data from Europe and China are watched closely.) During Q1, Tesla attributed some of the drop in sales to design and production changes for the newly refreshed Model Y. But now the revamped EV is widely available, and the automaker's numbers are still going in the wrong direction. There's been inner turmoil at Tesla, too. Last week, Omead Afshar, Tesla's VP of manufacturing and a longtime Musk ally, left the company — with some reports suggesting he was fired. His departure follows that of Milan Kovac, head of the Optimus humanoid robot project, earlier this month. The launch of Tesla's long-delayed robotaxi service was also a bit of a bust. Instead of the 'unsupervised' vehicles that Musk had promised at the beginning of this year, the robotaxis featured Tesla-employed safety monitors in the front passenger seat. Several videos of the service in action showed significant safety lapses, including a robotaxi driving over the double yellow line into the opposite lane of traffic and braking hard in the middle of the road for no reason.
