Washington, DC

1. Icing ballroom funding
2. Housing clears House
3. Castro indictment unveiled
4. Iran’s ‘triangular coercion’
5. Failed robot deal

Oil prices ▼ to $98 a barrel after three tankers passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

Republicans set to scrap Trump’s ballroom money

Senate Republicans are expected to delete some or all of the extra Secret Service security funding — including for President Donald Trump’s East Wing ballroom renovation — from their party-line immigration bill, which could pass within days, according to senators and aides. The reason: GOP opposition to one of Trump’s top priorities. “My understanding is it’s all out,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., after a two-hour party meeting today. “My understanding is it’s because the votes aren’t there.” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, told Semafor that her “preference is that we should go back to” funding just ICE and Border Patrol. Democrats had planned to target the ballroom with their amendments, but now they may shift to targeting Trump’s $1.8 billion fund of taxpayer money for his political allies. And it won’t speed things up: The Senate’s unlimited vote-a-rama on its immigration plan isn’t expected until tomorrow night.

House passes bipartisan housing bill

The House passed a bipartisan housing affordability bill this afternoon, and the chair of the House Financial Services Committee is optimistic that differences with the Senate version will be resolved. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., said at Semafor’s Banking on the Future Forum today that a strong vote would “give the Senate some confidence that once again we’ve narrowed the differences and perhaps they can take this bill up and pass it.” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the committee’s top Democrat, endorsed the housing package as “one of the more positive things that has happened in recent years.” The White House backed the House bill after last-minute changes reduced restrictions on major investors owning homes, though its Senate prospects remain unclear. “I know it shocks America, but that’s called legislating,” Hill told Semafor. “It’s a lot of fun … but you can’t be in a hurry.”

Raúl Castro indicted as US pressures Cuba

The Justice Department unsealed the indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro in Florida today on charges relating to the downing of two civilian jets in 1996, including four counts of murder and conspiracy to kill US nationals. Charges were also announced against five others accused of playing a role in the attack. The 94-year-old Castro remains influential within the Cuban government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also issued a rare address today, Cuban Independence Day, to the people of Cuba. Speaking in fluent Spanish, he blamed their government for the “unimaginable hardships” they face. Combined, the two events mark a new level of pressure from the Trump administration against the regime in Cuba. Though the indictment could set the stage for the US military to remove Castro, like Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, formal military action by the US does not seem imminent, as Semafor reported.

— Shelby Talcott

Iran threatens wider retaliation

If Trump makes good on his threat to renew attacks on Iran — a specter he raised during a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy today — Tehran could expand its retaliatory targets beyond its Gulf neighbors and the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard said this morning it would deliver blows “in places you cannot even imagine.” Western leaders were already growing more fearful of Iran using proxies to attack targets outside the region. Last week the Justice Department charged the leader of an Iran-aligned Iraqi militant group with plotting attacks in the US. Analysts believe the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which handles 10% of global maritime trade, could become a target. Iran has used a strategy of “triangular coercion” — attacking neighbors with ties to the US to gain an advantage in the conflict — and doesn’t appear to be changing course.

Worker backlash sinks Boston Dynamics robot deal

Boston Dynamics, the humanoid-maker owned by Hyundai, reversed course on selling its four-legged robot Spot to a firm that supplies equipment to police departments after employees protested fastening “flash bang” grenades to the machines, Semafor’s Rachyl Jones reports. Employees feared the feature would be used in protest control. A spokesman for Boston Dynamics said the company scuttled the sale because it risked “undermining our anti-weaponization pledge.” The case is a rare example of a tech company shifting after employees protested on moral grounds. Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Amazon have all maintained contracts with the US government and law enforcement following employee pushback.

Business

• Sweeping layoffs began today at Meta, as the company reorganizes around AI.
• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is looking into more than $800 million of oil future trades that were placed moments before President Trump’s postponed strikes on Tehran in March. — WSJ
• OpenAI is preparing to file confidentially for an initial public offering in the coming weeks, and the IPO could take place as soon as September.

Congress

• West Virginia Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice, along with Democratic Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Tim Kaine of Virginia, have co-sponsored a bipartisan deal to cap insulin prices at $35, bringing support for the measure to nearly one-fifth of the Senate.

Courts

• Police who responded to US Capitol riots in 2021 are suing to block the creation of President Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, alleging it’s “the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century.”

Politics and Campaigns

• President Trump threatened Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., in an interview with his fiancée, Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, saying he “likes voting against Trump,” which “doesn’t work out well.”
• The South Carolina House approved a new voting map early this morning designed to eliminate the state’s only Democratic-held seat, at Trump’s urging.
• OpenAI’s top lobbyist is pushing state legislatures to pass laws on AI safety, hoping to shape regulations at the state level amid congressional deadlock. — Politico

Media

• James Murdoch bought half of Vox Media, including its podcast network and New York Magazine, in a more than $300 million deal. — NYT

World

• EU negotiators said they’d reached a provisional agreement to remove some tariffs on US imports.
• Recent Ukrainian drone strikes have forced nearly all major oil refineries in central Russia to either cut back fuel production or suspend operations. — Reuters

Education

• Harvard’s faculty voted to cap the number of A grades given to undergraduates, pointing to grade inflation.

— Former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who died today at 86, in an interview with 60 Minutes in 2008.

Laura McGann, editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor, and Morgan Chalfant, Washington briefing editor

Graph Massara and Lauren Morganbesser, copy editors

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, Nicholas Wu, David Weigel