Governing on the edge. U.S. President Donald Trump’s massive tax-cut and spending legislation cleared its final hurdle in Congress on Thursday, as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the package in a 218-214 vote. The legislation— dubbed oddly, if in a distinctively Trumpian idiom, the “One Big Beautiful Bill”—contains trillions of dollars in tax cuts and enhanced immigration-enforcement spending, offset by significant reductions in spending on Medicaid—the U.S. government’s health-insurance program for low-income Americans—and other programs. The bill would add US$3.4 trillion to America’s $36.2 trillion debt over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The final push was dramatic. The Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, broke records with a nearly nine-hour filibuster speech—the longest in the chamber’s history—decrying the bill before the final vote. Despite concerns within Trump’s own party over the bill’s price tag and health-care cuts, only two of the House’s 220 Republicans voted against it, following an overnight standoff. Trump signed it into law at 5 p.m. ET on Friday, the United States’ Independence Day.

The scope of the new law is staggering. It represents the most significant U.S. domestic-policy overhaul in decades. But as such, it also raises the question of what it means to American democracy for such massive changes to pass by a handful of votes in what’s at the moment—and foreseeably—a deeply divided country.

Well?

‘Vladimir, STOP!’ Russia launched its largest drone attack of the war in Ukraine against Kyiv on July 3-4, killing one person and injuring at least 23 others in a massive assault involving 539 drones and 11 missiles. The attack lasted from early evening until dawn, forcing families to shelter in underground metro stations as acrid smoke hung over the city center. Kyiv officials reported damage to about 40 apartment blocks, railway infrastructure, five schools and kindergartens, and numerous vehicles across six districts.

The attack happened just hours after a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which Trump said there was “no progress at all” on efforts to end the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “deliberately massive and cynical,” noting that air-raid sirens began blaring at the same time as news of the Trump-Putin call came out.

It’s a striking sequence of events—that pose a fundamental question about the American president’s approach to ending the conflict: Can diplomatic engagement with his Russian counterpart effectively de-escalate the war, or is the outreach to Putin just providing cover for more escalation?

Which is it?

‘8.’ Michael Gordon is a prolific classical composer based in New York City. Here, back in 2021, he collaborated with the European ensemble Cello Octet Amsterdam. In the studio, they played in a circle—an arrangement they seemingly ended up reflecting in the album’s cover art. Best experienced with good headphones. And if you happen ever to have heard of the influential art-music collective Bang on a Can, Gordon is one of its founders.

What is Bang on a Can?

—Brendan Hasenstab

Looking east. In the West, people invoke “the West” so often, you might take it for granted. If you’re from Colorado or Cornwall, you might be unlikely to stop and think about what it really means. But when you think about it, it’s kind of a strange term. And if you’re from Chongqing or Chennai, what it really means might not feel so obvious. The French call it “L’Occident,” but imagine saying that in English—“the Occident.” The very word would raise the question of what it meant. But in the West, the simplicity and habit of the term “the West” help that question go unnoticed.

So what does it mean?

—Gustav Jönsson

‘Carved From.’ The decorated New York City jazz guitarist and bandleader Mary Halvorson has a new record out, About Ghosts—a cause to rejoice for fans of contemporary jazz. This song from the album is rich in guitar and horns, trading lines in a way that feels like a game of beanbag. Notable: The eclectic American jazz magazine DownBeat rated her as the best guitarist in her field from 2017 to 2019.

—Brendan Hasenstab

‘Into Dust (Still Falling).’ The U.K. electronic mastermind Kieran Hebden, who records as Four Tet, is back with a single that turns a sample from Mazzy Star’s So Tonight That I Might See from 1993 into the loop in a dance track. It’s uptempo; it’s also nice to hear Hope Sandoval’s sleepy tones on a club track. For anyone who happens to have made it to the Barcelona Music Festival Primavera Sound earlier this month, Jamie xx played this tune there in his set.

—Brendan Hasenstab

‘Dear June.’ A native of Rio de Janeiro, Amon Tobin now lives in Montreal, after living, well, literally all around the world. His father is Irish, and at the age of two, he and his family moved to Morocco, the Netherlands, London, Portugal, and Madeira. As a teenager, he then settled in the United Kingdom—where, in Brighton, he started composing his own takes on downtempo, breakbeat, and trip-hop styles of music. It’s all given him an extremely eclectic set of influences. Still, against it, you can hear the lope of samba drums—particularly the pandeiro—ticking behind it on this track.

What’s a pandeiro?

—Brendan Hasenstab

Quiet luxury. You’ll have seen them if you’ve been to Miami or Monaco, or perhaps you’ve read of Russian billionaires having theirs seized off the coast of Greece or Spain: the superyachts. They’re huge—and hugely expensive: Jeff Bezos’s 127-meter Koru cost him half a billion dollars and has a mast so tall that after its construction it couldn’t sail under Rotterdam’s iconic Koningshaven Bridge. Dissemble the bridge, Bezos suggested. Locals replied, threatening to pelt Koru with eggs.

And there are now more and more of them. Since 1990, the number of yachts longer than 250 feet (76.2 meters) has gone from less than 10 to more than 170. In the past 20 years, the average length of a yacht has grown by a third, to 160 feet. But they’re terrible assets. As the Financial Times once put it, “Owning a superyacht is like owning a stack of 10 Van Goghs, only you are holding them over your head as you tread water, trying to keep them dry.”

So why buy them?

—Gustav Jönsson

‘Blister.’ Off to New Zealand for some A-grade indie rock by Yumi Zouma, a Christchurch-based four-piece. Someone has mistreated their singer, Christie Simpson, and she’s not taking it lying down. To the offending party, “Blister,” she wails, “Why you gotta do me like that?”

—Brendan Hasenstab