Link to the show
FRONTLINE VOICES with Rebecca Myles July 2, 2025
GOP PRESSES TRUMP BILL TO CUT HEALTHCARE FOR 17 MILLION WHILE IRAN EXITS IAEA
In Part I, of this episode we get an analysis on the impact on working families from Trump's "Big Beautiful' bill from Sarah Anderson with the Institute for Policies Studies.
In Part 2, India Walton discusses her unsuccessful run for Mayor of Buffalo as a democratic socialist and what it portends for Assemblyman Zohran Mmdani run for Mayor of New York City.
But first, here are the stories we are tracking:
Today, debate on President Trump's so-called "Big Beautiful" budget bill, that would cut healthcare for 17 million Americans to fund tax cuts for the top one percent, continues in the House of Representatives. THE HILL newspaper reports the bill's fate is still very much uncertain. According to multiple reports, GOP budget hawks could still derail House Speaker Mike Johnson's effort to deliver the legislation to President Trump's desk by July 4th, the arbitrary deadline set by the president.
Meanwhile, this week in Trenton, Governor Phil Murphy and the Democratically controlled state legislature advanced an almost $60 billion dollar budget that critics say fails to account for the $3.6 billion in Medicaid cuts which translates into 360,000 New Jersey residents being stripped of their healthcare including 47,000 children.
Medicaid covers 1.8 million New Jersey residents while covering the costs of close to a third of all births and the healthcare for 60 percent of the Garden State's nursing home population.
Back in May, New York State lawmakers produced a $254 billion spending plan even as they conceded it failed to account for the cuts on the way from Washington. More than 4 million New York City residents count on Medicaid.
Public healthcare experts predict nationally, 300 mostly rural hospitals will close as a consequence of the federal government's rollback which also includes cuts to the healthcare insurance subsidies available from the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare.
IRAN EXITS IAEA
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has signed a law suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog agency, amid growing tensions between Tehran and the agency following Israeli and US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities last month.
Iranian State TV made the announcement. It comes a week after Iran's parliament passed legislation to suspend cooperation with the IAEA citing Israel's June 13 surprise attack on Iran and later strikes by the United States on Iranian nuclear facilities. According to the resolution IAEA inspectors will not be allowed to visit nuclear sites without approval from Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
"We are aware of these reports," the IAEA said in a statement. "The IAEA is awaiting further official information from Iran."
Israeli Foreign minister Gideon Saar has called on Germany, France and the UK - three European signatories to the nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 which Trump pulled out of - to impose new sanctions on Iran.
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi earlier this week said IAEA's chief Rafael Grossi, whom Iranian officials have sharply criticized for failing to condemn Israeli and US strikes during the conflict and was no longer welcome in the country. Officials have also criticized Grossi over a June 12 resolution passed by the IAEA board accusing Tehran of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations. Iranian officials said the resolution was among the excuses for the Israeli attack that began on June 13 and lasted 12 days. Iran has also rejected a request from IAEA chief Grossi to visit nuclear facilities bombed during the war. At least 935 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Iran, according to judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir, citing the latest forensic data. The deceased include 132 women and 38 children.
GAZA and the West Bank
Israel forces have killed at least 43 Palestinians across Gaza today as they target aid seekers and displace people sheltering in tents. More than 600 people have been killed in just five weeks while waiting for food parcels at the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites.
Officials at al-Shifa hospital, the largest medical center in northern Gaza, say hundreds of patients are facing death as the hospital runs out of fuel due to Israel's blockade.
US President Donald Trump says Israel has agreed to a 60-day ceasefire and has urged Hamas to accept the proposal.
In the West Bank, the PLO Wafa news agency reports that 14 Palestinians have been arrested in Israeli raids across the Bethlehem governorate in the occupied West Bank, where about 400 families would be made homeless by an Israeli army's order to demolish more than 100 homes.
Special Rapporteur on OPT latest report
The latest report submitted by Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, entitled From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide — lists 48 corporations and institutions, including Palantir Technologies Inc., Lockheed Martin, Alphabet Inc., Amazon, International Business Machine Corporation, Caterpillar Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), along with banks and financial firms such as Blackrock, insurers, real estate firms and charities, which in violation of international law are making billions from the occupation and the genocide in Palestinians.
The report, which includes a database of over 1,000 corporate entities that collaborate with Israel, demands these firms and institutions sever ties with Israel or be held accountable for complicity in war crimes.
NYC PRIMARY VOTE UPDATE
Queens Democratic Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani secured a majority of the vote after just two rounds of ranked choice tabulations according to the Board of Elections results released yesterday. Mamdani emerged as the clear winner with 56% or a total of 545,334 votes beating out former NYS governor Andrew Cuomo who secured 44% of the votes or 428,530. Mamdani picked up 99,069 votes and Cuomo added 53,493 votes.
In a statement Mamdani said he was "humbled by the support of more than 545,000 New Yorkers who voted for our campaign and am excited to expand this coalition even further as we defeat Eric Adams and win a city government that puts working people first."
On Tuesday, Andrew Cuomo's team has not committed to campaign fully for the general election, according to The City. We will have more on the race as Mamdani now faces current Mayor Eric Adams in the November elections as well as Republican candidate Curtis Silwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, and former federal prosecutor Jim Walden.
