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The Daily Briefing

YOUR MORNING NEWS ROUNDUP

Wed May 21 2025

Nicole Fallert | Newsletter Writer

@nicolefallert

Good morning!🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert. Among her many talents, Selena Gomez excels at making Oreos.

Get ready for Wednesday with the news:

•	The House Rules Committee held an unusual 1 a.m. hearing involving Trump's major tax bill.
•	Five escapees from a Louisiana prison are still on the loose.
•	A civil suit against Sean "Diddy" Combs had fabricated rape kit evidence.

A late night session on Trump's major bill

President Donald Trump's tax cut and spending bill faces a critical stress test Wednesday as Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives try to overcome internal divisions about cuts to the Medicaid health program and tax breaks in high-cost coastal states.

Lawmakers see the sunrise: The House Rules Committee started work just after midnight Wednesday with a hearing that is expected to run well into daylight hours as members debate details of the measure.

•	If the bill clears the sleep-deprived committee, House Speaker Mike Johnson could push for a vote on the House floor as soon as Wednesday
•	Trump was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to persuade GOP holdouts within his party to get in line on what he calls a "big, beautiful bill," but the visit failed to sway the wide array of lawmakers who object to specific features.
•	What's in Trump's "big, beautiful bill"? It's packed with GOP priorities, spanning from energy and border security to taxes and new restrictions on popular benefit programs that could see more than 7 million people denied federal health care coverage.

Fifth inmate recaptured after New Orleans jail break

A fifth inmate was captured Tuesday after last week's New Orleans jail break, Louisiana authorities announced. The capture comes the same day a maintenance worker was arrested in connection with the case that has sparked a massive manhunt. A jail employee has admitted to investigators he complied with a demand from one of the inmates to shut off the water to a cell, allowing the escapees to rip out a toilet and sink unit and climb through the hole in the wall that was created, authorities said. The inmates had an 8- to 10-hour lead before their absence was discovered.

Jail employee arrested after New Orleans jailbreak

Louisiana's top cop said a maintenance worker helped 10 inmates break out.

Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office via Storyful

More news to know now

•	Trump will meet with South Africa's president Wednesday amid clashes on trade and refugees.
•	Federal prisons are falling short of standards on colon cancer screening and treatment.
•	Elon Musk says he's going to spend "a lot less" money on politics.
•	The GOP's SAVE Act has "poison pills" for Native American voters.
•	Inside the $175 billion "Golden Dome" missile defense plan.

What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.

Weed killer in your child's lunchbox?

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again commission report is set to release by Thursday, gathering data on how toxins may be contributing to widespread diseases. The report will offer a comprehensive look at how Americans have become sick from exposure to toxins in food, environment and pharmaceutical drugs. For instance, it will highlight a 2022 Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention study, which found that 87% of 650 children tested had herbicide glyphosate in their urine. Most of our exposure to glyphosate, which is used in weed killers like Roundup, occurs through food.

Caregiving on the brink

"I would love to be married someday. I don't know if that's something that will happen for me, just because caregiving is a full-time responsibility and not everyone has the capacity to understand what caregiving means, what it looks like and the sacrifice that it takes, and that they can't always be your No. 1 priority."

~ Aisha Adkins, 40, a full-time caregiver in Georgia who went several years without a job and without health insurance while caring for mother. Adkins told USA TODAY she also found it difficult to maintain friendships and other relationships while caring for her parents. Adkins' story illustrates how nearly half of America's states are on the brink of a caregiving emergency, with the worst conditions being in the South.

Today's talkers

•	Angel Reese responded to the WNBA's hate speech investigation.
•	Emilie Kiser's son Trigg's death shows how little privacy influencers get.
•	This trend has students destroying school laptops.
•	"The Bear" is so back.
•	NFL players are cleared to play flag football at 2028 Olympics.
•	Wore sunscreen, got burned anyway.

USA TODAY Exclusive: Civil suit against Sean 'Diddy' Combs had fabricated rape kit evidence

Claims of a sexual assault and a backlogged rape kit that resulted in a $100 million default judgment against Sean "Diddy" Combs are not true, USA TODAY has confirmed. And as the rap mogul's criminal trial unfolds in New York, his lawyers have succeeded in having the civil award thrown out. The civil suit against Combs was filed by a Michigan prison inmate who alleged Combs sexually assaulted him in 1997. The inmate, Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, claimed his rape kit – like hundreds of thousands of others around the country – had sat untested for years. USA TODAY exclusively confirmed Cardello-Smith's allegations were false.

Photo of the day: Kate wears butter

Pale yellow is all the rage for fashion this spring, and Princess Kate was no exception to the trend. The Princess of Wales donned a buttery tailored dress for the Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. Wills switched it up with a beard.

Kate, Princess of Wales, greets guests during the Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in London on May 20, 2025.

WPA Pool, Getty Images

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here . Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com.