Rightwing lawmakers derailed Donald Trump's signature legislation in the House of Representatives on Friday, preventing its passage through a key committee and throwing into question whether Republicans can coalesce around the massive bill. The party has spent weeks negotiating a measure dubbed the “one big, beautiful bill” that would extend tax cuts enacted during Trump's first term, fund mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, and temporarily make good on his campaign promise to end the taxation of tips and overtime. To offset its costs, Republicans have proposed cuts to the federal safety net, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It does not do what we say it does, with respect to deficits,” said Chip Roy, a Texas representative who opposed the bill alongside fellow Freedom Caucus members Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Ralph Norman of South Carolina. Trump has said he would like to have the bill on his desk by the 4 July Independence Day holiday, and earlier on Friday attempted to pressure conservative holdouts. “Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL! “We don't need ‘GRANDSTANDERS' in the Republican Party. But the GOP is split over what to include and what to cut in the expensive legislation, which Congress's non-partisan joint committee on taxation estimates will cost $3.7tn through 2034. Rightwing lawmakers want to see big reductions in government spending, which has climbed in recent years as Trump and Joe Biden responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and pursued their own economic policies. “We're … committed to ensuring the final package is fiscally responsible, rightsizing government and putting our fiscal future back on track. Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning Others in the GOP dislike parts of the bill that would cut green tax credits created by Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. And a small group of Republicans representing districts in blue states such as New York and New Jersey are demanding an increase in the deduction for state and local taxes, saying it will provide needed relief to their constituents. The GOP can afford to lose no more than three votes in the chamber, a historically small margin that has made passing legislation a tightrope walk.

On Thursday, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk — a far-right federal judge in the Northern District of Texas with a record of aligning with the GOP's most extreme legal positions — issued a ruling declaring that Title VII no longer protects LGBTQ+ people from workplace discrimination. The decision directly contradicts the Supreme Court's landmark 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is, by definition, sex discrimination. Kacsmaryk's ruling marks one of the most alarming judicial rollbacks of LGBTQ+ rights in recent memory — and sets up a direct legal challenge to one of the foundational civil rights protections for queer and trans people in the United States. In siding with the plaintiffs, Judge Kacsmaryk pointed to the Texas Department of Agriculture's current employee policy, which requires “employees to comply with this dress code in a manner consistent with their biological gender,” specifying that “men may wear pants” and “women may wear dresses, skirts, or pants.” The ruling also upheld the department's policy banning transgender employees from using restrooms that align with their gender identity. The judge reached a verdict that Title VII only protects “firing someone simply for being homosexual or transgender,” but that it does not protect transgender or gay people from “harassment”: It's a circular logic designed to mask exclusion as neutrality. It also flies in the face of the fact that Texas allows people assigned female at birth to wear gender “pants, skirts, and dresses” but denies that same right to people assigned male at birth. Ultimately, Judge Kacsmaryk ordered the complete removal of all references to sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes under Title VII from EEOC guidance. His ruling declares that “all language defining ‘sex' in Title VII to include ‘sexual orientation' and ‘gender identity'” must be stripped from federal employment policy. Specifically, it targets and nullifies Section II(A)(5)(c) of the 2024 EEOC guidance, which states: “Sex-based discrimination under Title VII includes employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.” In a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that firing someone for being gay or transgender is inherently sex-based discrimination, and thus violates federal civil rights law. While Bostock focused on wrongful termination, it strains credulity to suggest that the same protections wouldn't also apply to workplace harassment or other forms of discriminatory treatment under the very same statute. This isn't Judge Kacsmaryk's first foray into far-right legal activism — it's his trademark. He's become the go-to jurist for plaintiffs looking to turn extremist ideology into binding precedent. He's the one who tried to revoke FDA approval of mifepristone, a safe and widely used abortion medication. Now, he's taking aim at Title VII itself, effectively inviting employers to harass and discriminate against LGBTQ+ workers by pretending Bostock never happened. This piece was republished with permission from Erin In The Morning. Under pressure from an array of McCarthy-style tactics, academics, activists and nonprofits face significant threats for speaking out or organizing in resistance. Truthout is appealing for your support to weather this storm of censorship. We've launched a fundraising campaign to find 386 new monthly donors in the next 6 days. Erin Reed is a transgender journalist reporting on LGBTQ+ legislation, news and life every day. Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day. We've set a goal to add 386 new monthly donors in the next 6 days – will you be one of them?

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would not confirm or deny that the talks in Azerbaijan took place, but did say that there have not been any direct talks between IDF officials and representatives of the Syrian government. CNN has reached out to the Turkish government for comment. Related article Syrian president says his government is holding indirect talks with Israel Interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said last week that his government was holding indirect talks with Israel to bring an end to its attacks on his country “so matters don't reach a point where both sides lose control.” There's been no word from Damascus on any direct talks with Israel. This week, US President Donald Trump met Sharaa – a former jihadist who was designated a terrorist by the US in 2013 – in Saudi Arabia. Trump pledged to remove crippling sanctions imposed against the regime of Bashar al Assad. Since the Assad regime fell, Israel has taken more territory in Syria and staged multiple attacks that it says are aimed at preventing the reconstitution of military capabilities and rooting out militancy that could threaten its security. Israel's move into Syrian territory was initially described as temporary but officials have since said that the military will remain indefinitely. Israel has also declared a buffer zone in the south of Syria with the stated aim of protecting Syria's Druze minority. It added in a post on X that the “Treasury's actions can help rebuild Syria's economy, financial sector, and infrastructure and could put the country on a path to a bright, prosperous, and stable future.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio clarified that the US will issue waivers to Syria sanctions and is not fully repealing them for the time being. An Israeli official told CNN earlier that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked Trump not to remove sanctions on Syria, saying he feared it would lead to a repeat of the events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel. CNN's Mostafa Salem, Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.

Lawyers hired by Venezuela have been unable to confirm ‘proof of life' for 252 migrants imprisoned in El Salvador Lawyers for 252 Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration and imprisoned in El Salvador for two months have alleged that the migrants are victims of physical and emotional “torture”. The lawyers are seeking “proof of life”, but say they have come up against a wall of silence from President Nayib Bukele's administration and the Central American nation's justice system. “They are treating them like common criminals,” lawyer Salvador Ríos said, after the migrants were shown dressed in prison clothing, shackled and with shaved heads. “This is torture,” both physically and psychologically, Rios said in an interview with AFP. The lawyers delivered a letter in early May to Bukele, a key ally of Donald Trump, requesting authorization to visit the Venezuelans, but so far without success. Félix Ulloa, the Salvadorian vice-president, told the French media outlet Le Grand Continent that his government merely provides a “service that we could call prison accommodation”. Trump's administration has paid Bukele's government millions of dollars to lock up migrants it says are criminals and gang members. The Venezuelans, as well as 36 deported Salvadorian migrants, are being held in a maximum-security prison built by Bukele to house thousands of suspects arrested during his sweeping crackdown on street gangs. “The damage is not only physical, but also psychological,” Ríos said. In their letter to Bukele, the lawyers sought permission to interview the prisoners, either in person or virtually, which could serve as “proof of life”. A Venezuelan identified in US court documents as “Cristian” was also mistakenly expelled. Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, said this week that the situation “raises serious concerns regarding a wide array of rights that are fundamental to both US and international law”. “Families we have spoken to have expressed a sense of complete powerlessness in the face of what has happened and their pain at seeing their relatives labelled and handled as violent criminals, even terrorists, without any court judgment as to validity of what is claimed against them,” he said in a statement. Isael Guerrero, another lawyer with Grupo Ortega, described the detentions as “completely illegal” because the Venezuelans “are not being legally prosecuted in any court” in El Salvador. In April, Bukele offered to trade the 252 Venezuelans for an equal number of political prisoners held by President Nicolás Maduro's government.

In South Africa, a pregnant woman arrives for an HIV test – and possible treatment, if needed – only to find the clinic shuttered. Further north in Sudan, where millions are suffering from starvation, 80 per cent of the country's community kitchens are closed weeks after funding cuts announced by the U.S. Half a world away in Vancouver, home ownership dreams have been dashed, with deposits being returned on presale condos. In Ottawa, a dad attending a hockey game with his young son must explain why fans are booing the other team's national anthem. A Canadian family's promised trip to Disneyland is cancelled. A duty-free shop at the Canada-U.S. border goes into receivership. Harvard University is threatened with debilitating federal funding cuts which, experts warn, pose a threat to crucial research. In a corporate office somewhere, a diversity, equity and inclusion team receives pink slips; their services are no longer required now that DEI is suddenly out of fashion. At an appliance store off in Middle America, a manager tries to explain the inexplicable to his sales staff: the reported planned dismantling of the very popular (and effective) environmental Energy Star program. In Windsor, Ont., autoworkers receive notices of temporary layoffs. On LinkedIn, a furry red guy named Elmo posts that he's looking for work. Living, breathing, non-Muppet employees of PBS and NPR update their resumés as they fear losing the jobs they love – and that feed their families. In a wild outcome, the Liberal Party under its new leader, Mark Carney, wins Canada's federal election – which polls just a few months earlier had indicated was the Conservatives' to lose. Similarly, in Australia, the incumbent left-of-centre Labor Party wins an election once projected to go to its conservative opponents, whose leader loses his own seat, just as Pierre Poilievre did here. Welcome to the past four months of life with Donald Trump in power. Anyone who has had the great misfortune of being raised by or married to an abusive person knows how the energy in a room can change with his every twitch (and yes, it's usually a man): how he might blow up at the slightest provocation, his volatile mood permeating the home or the event, cowing everyone as they walk on eggshells. This is what we are living through in the Donald Trump 2.0 era. A stock-market rollercoaster, lost jobs, a dismantled federal civil service and the possibility of a global recession have caused everything from fears of toy shortages at Christmas to a proliferation of yard sales in the Washington, D.C. region as laid off workers pack up and move away to less expensive regions – or, for reasons beyond the economy, Canada. “Make America great again?” More like “throw the Earth into chaos.” In a matter of weeks, Mr. Trump has upended the world order. Under the leadership of one nasty, incoherent narcissist, the U.S. has gone from its decades-long role as a great (if flawed) democracy – one that was seen, generally, as trying to use its powers for good – to a nation to be feared, not respected. One can imagine that, rather than feel shame or guilt as lives are upended everywhere, Mr. Trump is the kind of person who would get a kick out of it. Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

The Trump administration argues that judges at that level of the federal court system should not be allowed to issue nationwide injunctions (even though Trump and his allies have celebrated such rulings when they have happened under Democratic administrations). During the Supreme Court hearing on Thursday, justices seemed to express little doubt that Trump's executive order was unconstitutional. However, on the question of nationwide injunctions, there appeared to be a split between the justices concerning how restrictions on them would work in a practical manner. Solicitor General John Sauer, who was arguing in favor of the administration's position, how a blatantly unconstitutional law or order could be blocked in an expedient way, if an injunction can only affect a certain group of people or jurisdiction. “There are all kinds of abuses of nationwide injunctions…[but] if one thinks that it's quite clear that the EO is illegal, how does one get to that result, in what time frame on your set of rules without the possibility of a nationwide injunction?” Kagan asked. Sauer's position was that a wider injunction affecting more parties could come through a class action lawsuit — a notion that Justice Sonia Sotomayor said “makes no sense whatsoever,” as those types of lawsuits take much longer time to organize and argue, and the end result still might not reach the Supreme Court. Conservative justices who have expressed dismay with nationwide injunctions in the past also spoke up, sometimes by agreeing with misleading statements made by Sauer. Justice Clarence Thomas, for example, appeared sympathetic to Sauer's claims that nationwide blocks like these were a relatively new phenomenon. “So we survived until the 1960s without universal injunction?” Thomas asked Sauer, who responded affirmatively. (In fact, the start of nationwide injunctions date back several decades before that time.) Justice Samuel Alito also compared injunctions affecting the whole country to an illness in need of curing. “Although several justices are skeptical of nationwide injunctions, Sauer failed at offering up alternatives, a fact that was especially relevant in a case where many justices were questioning the underlying validity of Trump's EO to end birthright citizenship,” Law Dork's Chris Geidner said. “The five male justices sound eager to rein in universal injunctions or abolish them … but also appear split on what could replace them, which is a really messy problem,” Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern wrote on Bluesky, noting in a previous post that he finds it “very, very difficult to anticipate where the Supreme Court will come down on the universal injunctions currently protecting birthright citizenship from Trump's assault.” “I have to be honest about what I didn't hear at oral argument at the SCOTUS today in President Trump's challenge to nationwide injunctions issued by district courts that have kept him from enforcing his anti-birthright citizenship EO: How delays & partial injunctions would hurt the true victims,” Ifill wrote. The Trump administration is cracking down on political dissent. Under pressure from an array of McCarthy-style tactics, academics, activists and nonprofits face significant threats for speaking out or organizing in resistance. Truthout is appealing for your support to weather this storm of censorship. We've launched a fundraising campaign to find 386 new monthly donors in the next 6 days. As independent media with no corporate backing or billionaire ownership, Truthout is uniquely able to push back against the right-wing narrative and expose the shocking extent of political repression under the new McCarthyism. Your support during our fundraiser (6 days left) will help us continue our nonprofit movement journalism in the face of right-wing authoritarianism. He can be found on most social media platforms under the handle @thatchriswalker. Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day. We've set a goal to add 386 new monthly donors in the next 6 days – will you be one of them?

Russia and Ukraine wrapped up talks in Istanbul, Turkey. The sides agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war from each country and present a vision of a potential ceasefire. TASS has put together key facts about the meeting. According to Medinsky, Ukraine requested direct talks between the leaders of the countries and Russia took this "under advisement." Moscow and Kiev would present their vision of a possible ceasefire, with each side "spelling it out in detail." The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, said Kiev primarily discussed a ceasefire. He also announced an agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners of war from each side. Umerov did not disclose further plans for talks. The meeting at the Dolmabahce Palace started at 1:35 p.m. on May 16 and lasted about two hours. It followed a three-way meeting between Turkey, the US and Ukraine and an engagement between the head of the Russian delegation, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, and the US team. The Ukrainian delegation was led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.

Stand behind Ukrainian independent journalism when it's needed most. Ukrainian and Russian delegations concluded their talks in Istanbul on May 16 after speaking for less than two hours, with no agreement reached on a full, 30-day ceasefire, and Moscow demanding Kyiv withdraw completely from Ukraine's four oblasts that President Vladimir Putin claims to have annexed. A source in the Ukrainian President's Office briefed on the talks confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that Moscow's delegation insisted that Ukraine retreat from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, despite Russia not controlling any of them in their entirety. According to the source, during the talks, Ukraine offered an immediate ceasefire, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and to hold a face-to-face meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin. In one positive development, Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement for the exchange of prisoners of war (POWs) on a 1,000-for-1,000 basis, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who was leading Ukraine's delegation, told reporters after the talks on May 16. Soon after, Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, confirmed the agreed exchange in comments to Russian state media. After the talks ended, Zelensky and several top European leaders held a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, the Ukrainian leader announced on Telegram. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk joined Zelensky during the call. "Ukraine is ready to take the fastest possible steps for real peace, and it is important that the world holds strong positions," Zelensky wrote. "If the Russians refuse a complete and unconditional stop to the fire and killings, there must be strong sanctions. "The Russians in Istanbul have de facto broken off negotiations and refused to cease fire," Tusk wrote on X. According to the source, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Keith Kellogg see the situation as it is. The same source said that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is, in turn, "overpromising." After Moscow proposed to hold peace talks in Turkey this week, Zelensky agreed and invited Putin for a face-to-face meeting. Zelensky commented that Moscow has dispatched a "sham delegation," while Western officials presented the move as an indication that Putin is not serious about peace efforts. Though Zelensky has since then left for Albania, a Ukrainian delegation, including Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, and Umerov, has arrived in Istanbul to meet the Russian delegates. The Ukrainian delegation also held meetings with U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier in the day. Kyiv and its allies have urged Moscow to adopt an unconditional ceasefire starting May 12 as the first step toward peace talks — a proposal Russia has ignored. We're working hard to show the world the truth of Russia's brutal war — and we're keeping it free for everyone, because reliable information should be available to all. Our goal: reach 20,000 members to prove independent journalism can survive without paywalls, billionaires, or compromise.

A composite image of five photographs show former members of Canada's 2018 World Juniors hockey team, left to right, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube and Carter Hart as they individually arrived to court in London, Ont., Wednesday, April 30, 2025.Nicole Osborne/The Canadian Press Justice Maria Carroccia has dismissed a jury for the second time in the sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada's world junior hockey team. The note read: “Multiple jury members feel we are being judged and made fun of by lawyers Brown and Hilary Dudding. Every day when we enter the courtroom they observe us, whisper to each other and turn to each other and laugh as if they are discussing our appearance. During legal arguments on Thursday, both lawyers, who are representing Alex Formenton, categorically denied the accusation and Justice Carroccia said she has not witnessed any inappropriate conduct. After Justice Carroccia made her ruling, Mr. Brown released a statement in which he called the allegations against him and Ms. Dudding an “unfortunate misinterpretation.” Mr. Brown said that he and his co-counsel have “found ourselves involved in the unusual chain of events that led to this outcome. In short, a juror came to somehow believe that our courtroom demeanor was disrespectful of her.” Daniel Brown (centre), lawyer of Alex Formenton, is seen arriving at the London Courthouse in London, Ont., Friday, May 16, 2025.Nicole Osborne/The Globe and Mail He added that “no defence counsel would risk alienating a juror, and nothing could be further from the truth in this instance. While it is true that co-counsel will speak with one another from time to time during a trial, this is commonplace. The very idea of counsel making light of a juror is illogical and runs directly counter to our purpose and function.” Seven of those days were spent under what was often gruelling cross-examination by five defence lawyers. Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Mr. Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote have each been charged with sexual assaulting E.M. in a downtown London hotel room after a Hockey Canada gala in June, 2018. That incident also involved the defence counsel for Mr. Formenton. Hilary Dudding (L), lawyer of Alex Formenton, is seen arriving at the London Courthouse in London, Ont., Friday, May 16, 2025.Nicole Osborne/The Globe and Mail On April 23, shortly after Crown attorney Heather Donkers finished making the prosecution's opening remarks, court was recessed for the noon break. Ms. Dudding, who is an experienced trial litigator, emphatically denied this account. In Ms. Dudding's version of events, she was standing in line and realized a juror was standing closely behind her. In a reflexive reaction, she told the court she said something to the affect of “Oops, I'm sorry” and “It's awkward.” Justice Carroccia adjourned court early, explaining that an issue had come up over the lunch hour that she needed time to consider and that she needed to discuss with the lawyers. However, defence lawyer Megan Savard, who spoke for the lawyers representing the accused players, said there was no way that court could move forward. Ms. Savard stated that while she believed Ms. Dudding's version of events, it didn't matter because there was now a credibility contest between the juror and a defence lawyer. Ms. Savard also argued that the juror's account — and apparent propensity to gossip — raised questions about their ability to hear and consider facts. In reaching her decision, Justice Carroccia found that she had no choice but to declare a mistrial. “Justice requires that I declare a mistrial in this case and begin the trial again. Accordingly, the motion for a mistrial is granted.” Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following. © Copyright 2025 The Globe and Mail Inc. All rights reserved.

The British government has appointed General Gwyn Jenkins as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff. Approved by King Charles III on Thursday, the decision follows unresolved allegations that Jenkins had failed to report suspected war crimes in Afghanistan and later obstructed the relocation of key witnesses. The general succeeds Admiral Ben Key, who stepped down last week amid an ongoing misconduct investigation. Media reports suggest that the probe centers on Key's alleged affair with a more junior female colleague. Jenkins came under scrutiny two years ago when the BBC reported that the then-Vice-Chief of the Defense Staff had failed to forward evidence of Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers executing handcuffed detainees in Afghanistan to the Royal Military Police. The UK Ministry of Defense stated that it was “not appropriate for us to comment on allegations which may be within the scope of the statutory inquiry.” In April 2024, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed Jenkins—then Vice-Chief of the Defense Staff—as National Security Adviser. While Starmer declined to comment on individual appointments, he emphasized the need for an “open and transparent process” for future nominations. Earlier this month, BBC Panorama reported that Jenkins had overseen the rejection of hundreds of relocation applications submitted by Afghan commandos who had served alongside British forces and possessed direct knowledge of UK military operations. Read RT Privacy policy to find out more.

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. The Russian delegation in Istanbul is in constant contact with President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin Sspokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "Our negotiating team [in Istanbul] is in constant contact. The president receives all information online, there are constant reports," the spokesman said when asked whether presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky additionally consults with the Kremlin. On May 11, Vladimir Putin, speaking to reporters in the Kremlin, suggested that the Kiev authorities resume without preconditions the direct talks Ukraine broke off in 2022, proposing to launch a dialogue on May 15 in Istanbul. On May 14, Putin approved the composition of the Russian delegation. It is headed by Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who represented the country at the talks in 2022. The delegation also includes Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Igor Kostyukov, and Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin.

Stand behind Ukrainian independent journalism when it's needed most. President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Albania on May 16 to attend a summit of the European Political Community, presidential spokesperson Serhii Nykyforov said, according to the state news channel Freedom TV. The sixth meeting of the European Political Community will focus on Europe's security, including Russia's ongoing full-scale war against Ukraine, among other topics. The summit comes as Ukrainian and Russian delegations are expected to hold talks in Istanbul for the first time since 2022. Turkish and U.S. officials will also reportedly join the series of discussions. Zelensky's visit follows his trip to Turkey, where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Although a face-to-face meeting between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin was anticipated in Istanbul, Putin instead sent a delegation led by his aide, Vladimir Medinsky. Kyiv and its partners have urged Moscow to adopt an unconditional 30-day ceasefire as the first step toward a broader peace deal, a move that Russia continues to reject. We're working hard to show the world the truth of Russia's brutal war — and we're keeping it free for everyone, because reliable information should be available to all. Our goal: reach 20,000 members to prove independent journalism can survive without paywalls, billionaires, or compromise.

Since its founding in 1922, Foreign Affairs has been the leading forum for serious discussion of American foreign policy and global affairs. The magazine has featured contributions from many leading international affairs experts. Around 300 million companies worldwide connected by an estimated 13 billion supply links now face unprecedented uncertainty. Production slowdowns and shortages of goods as varied as hand sanitizer (which required speciality chemicals imported into the United States during the pandemic) and airplanes (Airbus faced delays in meeting demand because of shortages of important components in 2024) have exposed the vulnerabilities of a global economic system in which goods cross borders multiple times at successive stages of production and assembly. They have also challenged conventional understandings of how best to measure growth and productivity. A new framework that wrestles with what standard statistics cannot is not just an academic matter; it is the only way leaders can make sound economic policy in uncertain times. The current international framework for measuring economic growth and productivity is the System of National Accounts, a set of statistical standards agreed on every ten to 20 years by a United Nations–led committee of official statisticians. It includes GDP, long considered by economists and policymakers to be the single best measure of economic progress. The System of National Accounts was established by American and British economists, including John Maynard Keynes, during World War II. As Allied countries dedicated resources and productive capacity to the war effort, they needed to strike a balance between consumption and war production and devised the SNA to measure, among other things, domestic demand. The revision process is intentionally slow and incremental, requiring consensus among UN member countries before any changes are adopted. Today's SNA is a sophisticated measure of the mid-twentieth-century economy, in which the manufacturing sector dominated, production took place within the borders of single countries, and broadband networks and data did not yet power economic growth. Recent updates to the SNA have made modest, modernizing changes. It has not, however, kept pace with changes in economic activity enabled by globalization and technological advances. Whereas global trade once meant completed cars or refrigerators being shipped between countries, it now entails the transport of highly specialized components across borders at each stage of production and assembly. New business models have flourished as the global economy has become more elaborate and entangled. Contracted-out manufacturing accounts for some 15 to 20 percent of output in sectors such as electronics and pharmaceuticals in the United States and the United Kingdom, and the bundling of services with products (Rolls-Royce, for example, sells real-time monitoring services for its airplane engines) has become a popular practice among large companies. These shifts have led to broad economic growth as specialization and the division of labor increase productivity in an ever-widening global market. But the trade-offs have become clear: goods have become cheaper, more accessible, and of higher quality, but companies have grown overly reliant on a few overseas suppliers for key components, making them more vulnerable to global economic shocks that are only becoming more common. Traditional economic statistics were not designed for this complex network of interdependence. Traditional stalwart measures such as GDP are not capable of accounting for the effects of cost-saving and productivity-increasing infrastructure such as cloud services on growth. They also underestimate, for example, the value of data to large companies, accounting only for the cost of building data centers and not the less tangible productivity enabled by data collection and use. What is more, statisticians cannot agree on how to record the value of widely used free digital services such as open-source software. But statisticians—and therefore policymakers—still lack sufficient metrics for measuring the risks to supply chains for specific products, even high-profile ones such as the iPhone. Put simply, they are attempting to craft policy without a useful statistical guide to current and future production in today's economy. Developing statistics about global production networks is not impossible. Academic experts in this area, such as the University of Cambridge economist Vasco Carvalho, have explained how tax and payments data could be used to understand and track the flow of product components. But a truly effective update of economic statistics must go beyond mapping production networks and the new business models enabled by technology. It must also focus on capturing the economic resilience and future potential of an economy while better detailing its current patterns of production. The economic concept known as comprehensive wealth is key to this reimagining. Comprehensive wealth broadly describes a country's balance sheet, including conventional productive capacity, such as the condition of the buildings and equipment owned by businesses, and its national infrastructure, from roads to ports. A national balance sheet needs a measure of human capital to quantify how the skills and health of the workforce contribute to productivity and earnings. It should also take into account a country's natural capital: although some of the natural resources that enable economic activity, such as the rare earths and other critical minerals needed in cutting-edge technology, are partially valued by current statistical frameworks, a fuller account must also consider undervalued resources, such as the national parks that provide leisure services and the soil quality and biodiversity that enable agricultural productivity. Finally, a truly comprehensive statistical account should include what economists such as the Nobel Prize winners Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson have identified as the contribution that a country's legal and governmental institutions make to its prosperity through confidence in the rule of law, the security of contracts, and economic freedoms. Available metrics do not distinguish between productivity in countries with “extractive” institutions that concentrate wealth among elites at the expense of the broader population, discouraging private investment and individual skill acquisition, and countries in which institutions provide the stability that allows all people to thrive in their jobs or businesses. Switching from traditional economic surveys of consumers and businesses to novel data sources will be a cultural revolution for traditionally cautious statisticians. Collecting the volume of data needed to build a more complete picture of a country's productivity and its economic vulnerabilities will take considerable planning by national statistical agencies, whose resources have been steadily reduced in most countries since the global financial crisis of 2008 tightened government budgets worldwide. It will also require an international effort to develop a consensus on definitions and data standards. The very revolutions in data collection and technology that have necessitated a new statistical paradigm will be useful in creating it. Much of the underlying data already exists or could be collected, from the payment and tax numbers needed to track global production networks, to employers' payroll figures, information collected from store scanner systems, and the many new sources of sensor and satellite data. Pilot data initiatives such as the Anthropic Economic Index can help statisticians track the adoption and use of artificial intelligence across society, a defining technological shift that is currently invisible in economic statistics. Our editors' top picks, delivered free to your inbox every Friday. * Note that when you provide your email address, the Foreign Affairs Privacy Policy and Terms of Use will apply to your newsletter subscription. Our editors' top picks from the week, delivered on Friday. * Note that when you provide your email address, the Foreign Affairs Privacy Policy and Terms of Use will apply to your newsletter subscription.

He captioned the post: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” To “86” is a slang term used in the hospitality industry and the military, meaning to ban someone from an establishment or scrap a piece of equipment. However, it can also mean to kill someone. Mr Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr also posted: “Just James Comey casually calling for my dad to be murdered. Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem said her department was investigating the post. “Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS,” she wrote on X. Other senior Republicans labelled the post “despicable” in the wake of previous attempts on Mr Trump's life and called on Mr Comey to explain his actions. “This is a direct THREAT against President Trump, who has already survived two assassination attempts,” Alabama Senator Tommy Tubberville wrote on X. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn added: “James Comey is posting cryptic messages online alluding to getting rid of President Trump. Following the online backlash, Mr Comey removed the post from Instagram and released a statement saying it had “never occurred to me” that the message would be interpreted as a call for violence. Mr Trump, 78 was shot in the ear last July during a failed assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left one person dead and two others seriously injured. Two months later, Secret Service agents foiled another would-be assassin who hid in the bushes with a rifle at the president's golf course in Palm Beach, Florida. The president has a long-running feud with Mr Comey, whom he sacked as FBI director during his first term. The former bureau chief, who now writes thrillers, was held responsible by many Democrats for helping Mr Trump win the 2016 election after he reopened an investigation into Hillary Clinton's email affairs just 11 days before polling day.