May 27 2025

Senate Faces Tough Fight on Massive GOP Bill After Narrow House Win

Tanks and Troops to March in D.C. as Pentagon Greenlights Army Parade

Toyota to Debut In-House Software in RAV4, Chasing Tesla's Tech Lead

Xenon Gas Fuels Record Everest Ascent, Igniting Ethics Debate

Beijing Considers New "Made in China 2025"-Style Plan, Prioritizing Tech

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1. Senate Faces Tough Fight on Massive GOP Bill After Narrow House Win

House Republicans barely passed a massive bill last week containing much of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda after months of tense negotiations between feuding factions. Now it’s the Senate’s turn. Republicans are rushing to pass the bill — which would cut taxes and spending, raise the debt limit and increase defense and border security funding — by July 4. The true deadline might be later this summer, when the federal government expects to exhaust its borrowing capacity. But getting the bill through the Senate won’t be easy. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) can lose no more than three Republican votes because no Democrat is expected to support it — and more than three Republicans have voiced serious concerns with the bill. Some of them have balked at the spending cuts the House included in its version. Others are pushing for much more aggressive cuts. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has vowed to oppose the bill unless Republicans strip out a provision to raise the debt limit by trillions of dollars.

Washington Post

2. Tanks and Troops to March in D.C. as Pentagon Greenlights Army Parade

In President Trump’s first term, the Pentagon opposed his desire for a military parade in Washington, wanting to keep the armed forces out of politics. But in Mr. Trump’s second term, that guardrail has vanished. There will be a parade this year, and on the president’s 79th birthday, no less. The current plan involves a tremendous scene in the center of Washington: 28 M1A1 Abrams tanks (at 70 tons each for the heaviest in service); 28 Stryker armored personnel carriers; more than 100 other vehicles; a World War II-era B-25 bomber; 6,700 soldiers; 50 helicopters; 34 horses; two mules; and a dog. The Army is not calling the event a birthday parade for Mr. Trump. It is the Army’s birthday parade. The Continental Army was officially formed on June 14, 1775, so June 14 will mark 250 years.

NYT

3. Toyota to Debut In-House Software in RAV4, Chasing Tesla's Tech Lead

Toyota will deliver a homegrown operating system with one of its best-selling vehicles by next March, in a bid by the world’s largest carmaker to catch up with Tesla and Chinese rivals’ software lead. The in-house system, known as Arene, will provide over-the-air updates to help drivers with manoeuvres such as lane keeping and parking, as well as multimedia and entertainment features.⁴ It will debut in the next-generation RAV4 sport utility vehicle. The software platform is central to Toyota’s efforts to lay the groundwork for autonomous driving, accumulate driving data and catch up with competitors that have banked on the provision of digital services — paid and unpaid — to add value to cars.⁵ It is the first fruit of seven years of labour by the entity that became Woven by Toyota, a subsidiary established by the automaker to boost software development competitiveness and break from its slower-moving car manufacturing culture.

FT

4. Xenon Gas Fuels Record Everest Ascent, Igniting Ethics Debate

Climbing Mount Everest typically takes weeks, with most of that time spent at the foot of the mountain adjusting to the thin air. But four British men last week shrank that timeline dramatically, traveling from London to the summit and back in less than a week, according to the organizer of their expedition.⁶ They skipped the adjustment period, in part, by inhaling a secret weapon: xenon gas. Their feat has roiled the world of mountaineering and prompted an investigation by the Nepalese government, as use of the gas is fiercely debated. Some research has shown that xenon can quickly acclimatize people to high altitudes, even as some experts say the benefits, if any, are negligible and the side effects of its use remain unclear. Organizers said the gas was key to the speed of the climb, but their approach has prompted a broader debate that strikes at the core of mountaineering: Should scaling Mount Everest, one of sporting’s greatest accomplishments, be made easier — available to more people during a quick vacation — with the help of a performance enhancer?

NYT

5. Beijing Considers New "Made in China 2025"-Style Plan, Prioritizing Tech

President Xi Jinping’s government is considering a new version of its master plan to boost production of high-end technological goods, according to people familiar with the matter, signaling its intention to keep a firm grip on manufacturing as President Donald Trump looks to bring more factories back to the US.⁷ Officials are drawing up plans for a future iteration of Xi’s flagship “Made in China 2025” campaign, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing deliberations that aren’t public.⁸ The plan over the next decade would prioritize technology including chip-making equipment, one of the people said, adding that it may not carry a similar name to avoid drawing criticism from Western countries. Policymakers who are separately preparing Beijing’s next Five-Year Plan starting in 2026 are looking to maintain the share of manufacturing in gross domestic product at a stable level over the medium to long-term, one of the people said, underlining how the rebalancing of China’s economy sought by the US may prove elusive.

Bloomberg

May 27, 1937: Golden Gate Bridge opens

In contrast to the Golden Gate Bridge—which secured the War Department’s final construction permit on August 11, 1930, and then erection in just 4½ years (January 1933–May 1937)  — Seattle’s SR 520 Evergreen Point Floating Bridge replacement endured approximately 14 years of environmental review and multi-agency approvals from the start of planning in 1997 until the Final EIS and Record of Decision in 2011, before construction began in 2011. The basic pontoon-style bridge opened in 2016.

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Sources

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/27/senate-reconciliation-big-bill/
2. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/us/politics/military-parade-trump.html
3. https://www.ft.com/content/9c3fe4fa-0fd9-473e-b3a9-bacf0332c614
4. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/world/europe/mount-everest-xenon-gas-nepal-uk-climbers.html
5. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-26/xi-plans-new-made-in-china-effort-even-as-trump-aims-to-boost-us-manufacturing