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--:-- Will Jarvis: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Will Jarvis, in for Tracy Mumford.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Today's Tuesday, May 27th. Here's what we're covering. We are mortgaging our children's future. It's wrong. It's immoral. It has to stop.
--:-- Will Jarvis: In Washington, President Trump's major domestic policy agenda, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, is facing pushback in the Senate after narrowly being passed by the House last week. Its fate could now be determined by a handful of Republican lawmakers, some of whom are pushing for the bill to include more cuts to federal spending.
--:-- Will Jarvis: How many other Republican senators do you think share your concerns and are willing to work to make major changes to this bill?
--:-- Senator Ron Johnson: I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit.
--:-- Will Jarvis: In an interview on CNN, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin echoed a concern that almost derailed the bill in the House. That the legislation would significantly add to the federal deficit.
--:-- Will Jarvis: The bill includes major cuts to Medicaid and other welfare programs, but also expands tax cuts and boosts military spending.
--:-- Senator Rand Paul: Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky also criticized the bill, calling it, quote, not a serious proposal.
--:-- Senator Rand Paul: He said Republicans should make more cuts to Medicaid, Social Security, and food assistance programs to drive down the national debt.
--:-- Will Jarvis: That could set up a clash not only with Democrats in the Senate, but with some of their Republican colleagues who have been trying to back away from cutting popular programs like Medicaid.
--:-- Senator John Thune: The Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there will be changes to the bill passed by the House, but he said how long it takes to hash that out is an open question.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Meanwhile, the Times has been looking into what the legislation could mean for immigrant families.
--:-- Will Jarvis: As it currently stands, the bill would cut some health benefits and a tax credit from people without permanent legal status, including refugees and those who've been granted asylum.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Republicans say the goal is to remove incentives for people trying to immigrate, even though unauthorized migrants generally don't get federal benefits.
--:-- Will Jarvis: But immigration experts and advocates say the changes will largely be felt by American children.
--:-- Will Jarvis: That's because there are millions of kids with U.S. citizenship who have at least one parent who isn't a citizen.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Currently, kids can get many benefits even if their parents don't have full legal status.
--:-- Will Jarvis: But under the new legislation that could change.
--:-- Patrick Kingsley: Experts tell the Times that the effort to target immigrants benefits could create a chilling effect and make people hesitant to seek out support over fears that their family members could be deported.
--:-- Will Jarvis: A series of deadly aerial attacks in Ukraine has prompted President Trump to issue a sharp and rare criticism of Russia's president.
--:-- Will Jarvis: On Saturday and Sunday, a swarm of long-range drones, along with missile barrages, killed at least 12 people.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Then, before dawn yesterday, Russia launched hundreds more armed drones and more missiles.
--:-- President Trump: I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all, okay?
--:-- President Trump: Amid the surge of violence, President Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin had, quote, gone absolutely crazy and that he was needlessly killing a lot of people.
--:-- Will Jarvis: But the intense new round of attacks comes as the U.S., which has supplied much of Ukraine's weaponry, has been pulling back, both militarily and diplomatically.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Since taking office, Trump has not approved any new military aid to Ukraine, or said if he'll spend the billions of dollars that Congress has already approved for new weapons shipments.
--:-- Will Jarvis: He's also refused to join Europe in putting new sanctions on Russia.
--:-- Will Jarvis: And last week, he said that Russia and Ukraine would have to find a solution to the war themselves, even though he'd previously promised he could end the conflict in 24 hours.
--:-- Will Jarvis: In response to Trump's rebuke, Putin's spokesman downplayed the sharp comments, calling them a, quote, emotional reaction.
--:-- Will Jarvis: In Gaza, an effort to completely overhaul how Palestinians get humanitarian aid is moving forward, even as controversy around the project has flared.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, aid has been handed out by the UN and other established humanitarian groups at hundreds of sites across the territory.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Now, Israel is turning over the distribution of aid to a new and untested group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, that is set to distribute aid at just a few sites in the south.
--:-- Patrick Kingsley: Patrick Kingsley is the Times' Jerusalem bureau chief. He says supporters of the plan, including the Israeli and U.S. governments, say it will prevent Hamas from taking control of humanitarian aid and stockpiling it for itself.
--:-- Patrick Kingsley: But the new strategy to distribute aid has also set off widespread concerns.
--:-- Patrick Kingsley: Critics are very wary of the plan for a number of reasons, including the fact that it will force guards and civilians, Palestinian civilians, to cross Israeli military lines in order to find food, and that could put them at risk of being detained or perhaps even shot in some cases.
--:-- Patrick Kingsley: And in addition, there are fears that this could be part of some broader Israeli plan to displace civilians from northern Gaza to southern Gaza.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Because if the only place where they can find food, at least initially under this plan, is in the south, then they will have to move themselves to the southern end of Gaza in order to avoid starvation.
--:-- Will Jarvis: At offices across the country, the rise of artificial intelligence hasn't, at least for the moment, kicked off the mass layoffs that some people worried were imminent.
--:-- Will Jarvis: But the Times has been tracking how AI is transforming the way people do their jobs, particularly in one of the fields where it's been most widely adopted, coding.
--:-- Will Jarvis: At Google, the company says 30% of its code is now suggested by AI before being accepted by developers.
--:-- Will Jarvis: At Shopify, using AI is now a baseline expectation for engineers.
--:-- Will Jarvis: And at Amazon, a new AI tool is generating large portions of a computer program completely on its own.
--:-- Amazon CEO: Amazon's CEO said that working faster is crucial for staying ahead of the competition, and that just in terms of upgrading old software, AI tools have saved the equivalent of 4,500 years of developers' work.
--:-- Will Jarvis: But software engineers the Times talked to have described a profound change in the quality of their work, saying their jobs have become more routine and less thoughtful, and also much faster paced.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Three Amazon engineers said that as the company leaned into AI, it raised output goals for the human employees became less forgiving about deadlines.
--:-- Will Jarvis: One labor expert told the Times that overall the shift for workers is mirroring what happened in the 19th and 20th centuries when artisanal crafts were replaced by factory assembly lines.
--:-- Will Jarvis: And finally, the Hollywood box office seems to be bouncing back.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Ever since the pandemic, people have largely been streaming at home instead of heading to theaters.
--:-- Will Jarvis: But a slew of new movies released leading up to Memorial Day weekend are turning the tide.
--:-- Will Jarvis: What exactly is your plan?
--:-- Will Jarvis: Looking at the top movies in the country, box office revenue is up almost $100 million from last year.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Analysts say theaters need a handful of big studio films to get people in the door, and enough variety to keep them coming back.
--:-- Will Jarvis: That could finally be happening.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Right now in theaters, there's the final installment of the Mission Impossible franchise, the superhero flick Thunderbolts.
--:-- Will Jarvis: What the hell?
--:-- Will Jarvis: And the top performer, a live-action remake of Lilo and Stitch, one of the most successful films ever released on the holiday weekend.
--:-- Will Jarvis: His name is Stitch.
--:-- Will Jarvis: The original Lilo and Stitch came out back in 2002 and wasn't immediately a Disney classic.
--:-- Will Jarvis: But it did turn out to be something of a surprise cash cow for Disney because of its merchandise.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Stitch, the destructive but adorable blue alien, became a kind of cult hero.
--:-- Will Jarvis: and Disney licensed everything from Stitch squeaker toys for dogs to Stitch-themed berry-flavored yogurt.
--:-- Will Jarvis: It's currently one of the company's top licensed properties, up there with more mild-mannered fuzzy icons like Winnie the Pooh.
--:-- Will Jarvis: One content creator who highlights Stitch products on TikTok told The Times that Stitch is appealing because he's different from Mickey or Donald or Goofy.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Saying, quote, Disney characters, for the most part, are all about being proper or about being royal.
--:-- Will Jarvis: But Stitch is just a rebel from birth.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Today on The Daily, why the number of abortions in the U.S. has gone up since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
--:-- Will Jarvis: That's next in the New York Times audio app or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Will Jarvis: I'm Will Jarvis. We'll be back tomorrow.
