Big Beautiful Bill ලෙස නම් කර ඇති පනතට අමෙරිකානු ජනපති ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප් අත්සන් තබා තිබේ.

ඒ එම පනත අමෙරිකාවේ පිළිගත් නීතීයක් බවට පත් කරමින් ය.

ධවල මන්දිරයේ පැවති මෙම උත්සවය සදහා ට්‍රම්ප්ගේ ආධාරකරුවන් විශාග පිරිසක් පැමිණ සිටියේ ය.

එම පණතට ආරක්ෂාව සඳහා ඩොලර් බිලියන 150 ක අයවැය වැඩිවීමක් ඇතුළත් වෙයි.

2017 වසරේ ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප් පළමු ධුර කාලය තුළ සිදුකළ බදු කප්පාදු දීර්ඝ කිරීමද ඇතුළත් ය.

අඩු ආදායම්ලාභීන් සහ ආබාධිතයන් සඳහා රජය විසින් සපයනු ලබන සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා යෝජනා ක්‍රමය සඳහාද දැඩි කප්පාදු සිදුවනු ඇති.

අතිකාල සහ සමාජ ආරක්ෂණය සඳහා නව බදු සහනද ඊට ඇතුළත් වෙයි.

ආගමන සහ රේගු බලාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා මෙම පනත මගින් වෙන් කර ඇති මුදල ඩොලර් බිලියන 100 කි.

කැපිටල් හිල්හි පැවති දීර්ඝ සැසිවාරයකින් අනතුරුව මෙම පනත පසුගියදා සම්මත විය.

පනතට පක්ෂව ඡන්ද 218ක් ලැබී ඇති අතර විරුද්ධව ලැබුණු ඡන්ද සංඛ්‍යාව 214කි.

එරට ඩිමොක්‍රටික් පක්ෂයේ සියලු දෙනා මෙන්ම අමෙරිකානු ජනපති ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප්ගේ පක්ෂය වන රිපබ්ලිකන් පක්ෂයේ දෙදෙනෙකුද ඊට විරුද්ධවූවන් අතරට ඇතුළත් ය.

Namibia reportedly spent 30m Namibian dollars ($1.7m; £1.25m) on transport costs during founding President Sam Nujoma’s funeral

The Namibian government has announced a temporary ban on state funerals amid criticism over the rising costs of these burials.

Only President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has the power to exempt funerals from the moratorium, the government said.

Minister of Information and Communication Technology Emma Theofelus made the announcement following a Cabinet meeting earlier this week.

She said the moratorium would last until April 2026, while a review committee looks into the “criteria and processes associated with bestowing official funerals”.

Ms Theofelus told the BBC that a committee consisting of “no more than seven members” would be established to lead the review.
The government has not said whether the decision was related to mounting criticism of the increasing costs of the numerous state funerals as reported by local media.

The BBC has asked the presidency for comment.

The Windhoek Observer, a privately owned publication, said calls for the moratorium had been made as far back as 2021 when the rising cost of official burials came under scrutiny, especially at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It quoted Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare, who earlier this year revealed that official funerals had cost the government 38.4m Namibian dollars ($2.2m; £1.6m) in the 2024/2025 financial year.

By comparison, only 2.1m Namibian dollars was spent on 23 funerals during the 2022/2023 financial year, according to the news site.

The Observer said the state had spent 30m Namibian dollars just to transport the body of founding President Sam Nujoma around the country ahead of his state funeral in February this year.

Nujoma, who died at the age of 95, led the long fight for independence from South Africa after helping found Namibia’s liberation movement, the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), in the 1960s.

After independence, Nujoma became president in 1990 and led the country until 2005.

(BBC News)

The US Congress has passed Donald Trump’s sprawling tax and spending bill in a significant and hard-fought victory for the president and his domestic agenda.

After a gruelling session on Capitol Hill, the House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 218 to 214 on Thursday afternoon. It was approved in the Senate on Tuesday by one vote.

Trump had given the Republican-controlled Congress a deadline of 4 July to send him a final version of the bill to sign into law.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill could add $3.3tn (£2.4tn) to federal deficits over the next 10 years and leave millions without health coverage – a forecast that the White House disputes.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday evening, Trump said the bill would “turn this country into a rocket ship”.

“This is going to be a great bill for the country,” he said.

He is expected to sign it into law at a ceremony on the 4 July national holiday at 17:00 EDT (22:00 BST).

A triumphant Republican Speaker Mike Johnson emerged from the House after the vote and told reporters “belief” was key to rallying support within his party.

“I believed in the people that are standing here behind me… Some of them are more fun to deal with,” he said. “I mean that with the greatest level of respect.”

Among those he had to convince was Representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican who was a firm “no” just days ago when the Senate passed its version of the bill. He called the Senate version a “travesty”, but changed his mind by the time voting had begun.

(BBC News)