The House gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid early Friday as Republicans intensified their efforts to target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda.

The vote marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and the White House suggested it won’t be the last. Some Republicans were uncomfortable with the cuts, yet supported them anyway, wary of crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda.

The House passed the bill by a vote of 216-213. It now goes to Trump for his signature.

Opponents voiced concerns not only about the programs targeted, but about Congress ceding its spending powers to the executive branch as investments approved on a bipartisan basis were being subsequently canceled on party-line votes. They said previous rescission efforts had at least some bipartisan buy-in and described the Republican package as unprecedented.

No Democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate, 51-48, in the early morning hours Thursday. Final passage in the House was delayed for several hours as Republicans wrestled with their response to Democrats’ push for a vote on the release of Jeffrey Epstein files.

The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure.

The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending came just weeks after Republicans also muscled through Trump’s tax and spending cut bill without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase the U.S. debt by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade.

“No one is buying the the notion that Republicans are actually trying to improve wasteful spending,” said Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPB represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years.

The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense.

The corporation distributes more than two-thirds of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming.

Democrats were unsuccessful in restoring the funding in the Senate.

Lawmakers with large rural constituencies voiced particular concern about what the cuts to public broadcasting could mean for some local public stations in their state.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the stations are “not just your news — it is your tsunami alert, it is your landslide alert, it is your volcano alert.”

As the Senate debated the bill Tuesday, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the remote Alaska Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings on local public broadcasting stations that advised people to get to higher ground.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some money administered by the Interior Department would be repurposed to subsidize Native American public radio stations in about a dozen states.

But Kate Riley, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, a network of locally owned and operated stations, said that deal was “at best a short-term, half-measure that will still result in cuts and reduced service at the stations it purports to save.”

Max McNown is giving fans even more of his soul-baring sound. The 23-year-old singer-songwriter has released the deluxe edition of his sophomore album, Night Diving (The Cost of Growing Up), featuring 11 new tracks that chronicle themes of grief, healing, young love and self-discovery.

The expanded set, out now via Fugitive Recordings x The Orchard x Columbia Records, arrives as McNown continues a meteoric rise in the country-folk space. Led by the focus track “Forever Ain’t Long Enough,” the deluxe album also includes a new version of “Night Diving” featuring country artist Cameron Whitcomb.

Releasing the single “Better Me For You (Brown Eyes)” last November, McKnown recently told Billboard that he felt reluctant to share such a vulnerable single about his girlfriend of nearly two years. But the track quickly resonated with fans, becoming his first entry on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and the Billboard Hot 100 — and soon, the 23-year-old’s perspective changed.

“I wasn’t expecting a song that is so specifically about my girlfriend to do so well,” he reflects. “It gives me a lot of encouragement to keep writing personal songs about my life.”

McNown wrote “Better Me For You” in May 2024 during a session with Trent Dabbs, Ava Suppelsa and writer-producer Jamie Kenney, at the lattermost’s Nashville-area studio. At the time, McNown had a basic melody, a simple concept and the written phrase, “I didn’t know you’d have brown eyes,” which became central to the song’s chorus.

Produced by Jamie Kenney (Colbie Caillat, Laci Kaye Booth), the new tracks expand McNown’s signature blend of folk, country and indie pop, with earthy tones and introspective lyrics inspired by his Pacific Northwest upbringing. Tracks like “Same Questions” and “St. Helen’s Alpenglow” explore heartbreak and reflection, while “The Cost of Growing Up” provides a melancholic meditation on life’s challenges.

The Nashville-based artist will bring his new music to stages across North America on the Forever Ain’t Long Enough tour, kicking off Aug. 21 in Kansas City. He is also set to perform at Lollapalooza on Aug. 2.

Soccer Mommy (a.k.a. Sophie Allison) has shared a stellar rendition of Pavement’s “Gold Soundz” as part of her recent appearance on Like a Version, the long-running covers segment from Australian radio station triple j.

Recorded during Allison’s recent Australian tour in June, the two-song set began with a standard original, which in this case was “Abigail,” the final single from Soccer Mommy’s 2024 album Evergreen.

The cover portion of the set saw Allison and her band turn their attention to 1994, sharing a bittersweet version of “Gold Soundz” – the second single from Pavement’s second LP, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.

“I chose this song ’cause I love Pavement,” Allison said in a post-performance interview. “I’m a huge Pavement fan. I’ve actually covered another Pavement song before, but I just always really liked this one and I thought it fit my voice nicely.

“I think it’s just really catchy. It gets stuck in your head,” she added. “It has a nice melody and nice guitar parts. I really like the jangliness of the guitars in this song. I think that’s what drew me to it.”

Indeed, Allison has certainly shown her love of Pavement in the past. In 2022, Soccer Mommy was invited to perform at Pavements 1933 to 2022, the indie rock outfit’s New York City pop-up museum, where she shared covers of “Here,” “Gold Soundz,” and “Spit on a Stranger.”

The following year, Soccer Mommy’s Karaoke Night EP featured covers of Taylor Swift, Slowdive, Sheryl Crow, and R.E.M., while opening with a recorded rendition of Pavement’s “Here.”

“I do love Pavement,” Allison continued. “I really, really love Pavement. I first  discovered Pavement when I was in high school, and that’s kind of when I got really into them, and especially Slanted and Enchanted was my favorite album. But I’ve just always really liked them. 

“It was one of those bands that I got into in high school and never grew out of, and particularly there’s a little bit of a renaissance right now with them kind of touring again and doing stuff together. So I think that’s why it’s fresh in the mind.”

Pavement have been sporadically active since their 2022 reunion, with a run of international tour dates taking place since. More recently, they’ve also been the subject of the aptly-titled Pavements, an experimental semi-fictional biopic directed by Alex Ross Perry which was officially released in June.

For his part, Perry has expressed his love of Soccer Mommy’s nascent cover, commenting on triple j’s Instagram post of the track, “I extremely support this.”

Having first launched in 2004, the Like a Version series has gone from being a near-impromptu acoustic affair to featuring larger studio productions. Numerous artists have taken part over the past two decades, with the likes of Billie Eilish, Childish Gambino, Arctic Monkeys, and more reinventing classic tracks in the process.

View Soccer Mommy’s cover of Pavement’s ‘Gold Soundz’ below.

The Chef is cooking again. Raekwon is back with his first solo album since 2017’s The Wild as the Wu-Tang Clan spitter served up his The Emperor’s New Clothes LP on Friday (July 18).

The 55-year-old recruited a savvy group of talented MCs to join him on the project, with hard-hitting verses coming from fellow Wu members Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck and Method Man as well as Nas, Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher.

On the production side, Rae made sure to assemble the right crew to supply heat behind the boards with beats from Swizz Beatz, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and Nottz throughout the 17-track album.

It’s a busy and emotional week for Raekwon with the Wu-Tang Clan wrapping up their final tour collectively on Friday (July 18) in Philly. Rae and the Staten Island legends said goodbye to NYC on Wednesday night (July 16), which saw the iconic crew rock Madison Square Garden in front of a sold-out crowd.

The Wu treated the hometown show to plenty of special guests, as Redman, Lil Kim, Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, The LOX, SWV and Havoc touched the stage.

While this is the Wu-Tang Clan’s last tour, Raekwon isn’t ruling out another Wu album down the line.

“I mean, we tryna get it together, you know? Everybody’s spread out. Everybody’s doing something great in their life, so when it’s time for everybody to get in the room, it just seems like it’s the hardest s—t in the world,” Rae said in a video. “But it ain’t like we don’t want to.”

He continued: “And then you got so many minds. You throw a beat out and a n—a be like, ‘I like that, I don’t like that.’ It’s hard. It’s real hard, but don’t count us out. Don’t never count us out.”

Listen to The Emperor’s New Clothes below.

BTS may not be scheduled to reunite until 2026, but the band did just give ARMY a pretty big treat to tie fans over until then: Permission to Dance On Stage, aka the group’s first-ever live album.

Arriving Friday (July 18) with 22 tracks, the album compiles recordings of the BTS members’ performances on their 2021-2022 Permission to Dance On Stage tour. Included on the tracklist are live versions of Billboard Hot 100-toppers “Dynamite,” “Butter” and “Life Goes On.”

Along with the LP, BTS also shared a digital package titled Permission to Dance On Stage – Seoul, featuring footage of RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook performing at Olympic Stadium in Seoul on March 13, 2022. The package includes a 92-page interview photobook with behind-the-scenes snapshots from the show.

Permission to Dance On Stage arrives shortly after the members of BTS reunited on camera for the first time in years, as all seven Bangtan Boys had previously been unable to maintain full-band activities while they completed their mandatory service to the South Korean military. Squeezing in next to each other on a couch, the septet announced on a July 1 Weverse livestream that they had big plans for next year.

“Starting in July, all seven of us will begin working closely together on new music,” they said in a band statement at the time. “Since it will be a group album, it will reflect each member’s thoughts and ideas. We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.”

“We’re also planning a world tour alongside the new album,” they added. “We’ll be visiting fans all around the world, so we hope you’re as excited as we are.”

Listen to Permission to Dance On Stage below.