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The Senate is heading toward dueling partisan votes on health care this week after Republicans said Tuesday that they had united around a plan, for now, that would allow COVID-era health care subsidies to expire.Both the Republican plan, which would replace the subsidies with new savings accounts, and a Democratic bill to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years lack the bipartisan support needed for passage. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Tuesday that the Democratic legislation does not include enough reforms to curb fraud or limit high-income recipients. That legislation “will fail,” Thune said.At the same time, Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called the Republican plan “phony” and said the bill is “dead on arrival.”The burden is on Republicans “to vote with us,” Schumer said of Democrats, who forced a 43-day government shutdown over the issue.With Republicans and Democrats unable to agree or even really negotiate with each other millions of people could see increases in their premium payments when the tax credits expire in January. Both sides blame the other for the increasingly likely failure of Congress to act, bringing the issue into the midterm election year with political talking points but little in the way of compromise on the subsidies that have helped keep costs down for many of the more than 24 million Americans. Tentative GOP unity after years of disagreement The Republican unity around a single plan, in the Senate at least, comes as the party has wrangled for more than a decade over how to replace former President Barack Obama’s signature law, also known as Obamacare.The legislation by Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, the chairman of the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee, and Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, emerged this week from many different proposals from Republican senators, including some that would have extended the tax credits with new limits.Despite those differences, Republicans worked to project unity as they emerged from a lunch meeting Tuesday. Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, who had just recently proposed legislation to extend the subsidies with new income caps, said he is now “hyper-focused” on Cassidy and Crapo’s legislation. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who had his own bill to reduce taxes on health care, said the consensus bill “isn’t perfect, but I’m willing to give it a go.”“I just think that Republicans can’t do nothing,” Hawley said after the meeting. “I think we ought to be doing everything we can to try and get down the cost of health care.”Thune said there will now be “something out there that Republicans will be able to talk about and support and vote for, and then we’ll see.”There was less consensus in the House, where moderate Republicans who are up for reelection have been pushing Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to extend the subsidies with new reforms while the right flank of the party has demanded deeper reforms to the ACA. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters that GOP leadership will present options to members on Wednesday for potential votes next week. Proposed health savings accounts The bill by Cassidy and Crapo would let the current subsidies, first put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, expire. The legislation would then make payments to the new health savings accounts for the next two years, for enrollees making less than 700% of the federal poverty level who pick lower-cost, higher-deductible bronze or catastrophic health insurance plans.Eligible enrollees between the ages of 18 and 49 would get $1,000 per year, while those between 50 and 64 would get $1,500. The money could be spent to defray out-of-pocket expenses like copays and deductibles, or to purchase other qualified health-related items directly from companies, but not to cover monthly premiums.Cassidy and Crapo say their bill provides better support to Americans than the expiring subsidies do because it hands money directly to the people, giving them the power to decide how to spend or save it a message President Donald Trump has echoed in recent weeks. Republicans say the plan could also cut down on fraud in the health care system, pointing to a Government Accountability Office report that found some fake recipients were able to get coverage.The bill also includes new language limiting the use of Affordable Care Act money for abortion a dealbreaker for moderate Democrats who say they would have been willing to negotiate on the issue. Uncertainty over costs Health analysts warn that the plan won’t do much to help lower-income Affordable Care Act enrollees who rely on subsidies to afford their monthly insurance fees.The Republicans’ plan also requires enrollees to pick higher-deductible plans to be eligible for the payments meaning heavy users of health insurance may end up saddled with out-of-pocket costs far higher than the new influx of cash in their pockets.Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the GOP proposal “leaves middle-class Americans saddled with sky-high premiums, and Big Insurance makes out like bandits by selling junk plans to families that desperately need health coverage.”“Instead of working with Democrats to stop this health cost crisis, Republicans are selling snake oil,” Wyden said. Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press reporter Kevin Freking contributed to this report. Mary Clare Jalonick and Ali Swenson, Associated Press
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Reading the news, it can feel like no one is partying anymore. People seem more excited to stay home than go out. Gen Z is drinking less than any other generation. Wellness clubs have replaced night clubs as the go-to spots to socialize. But partying is not dead — priorities have simply shifted, as highlighted in the Evites Pregame Report 2026 released today. The online invitations platform surveyed more than 5,000 party enthusiasts to uncover the hottest trends and the biggest pet peeves for party planning in 2026. As it turns out, partying no longer happens only at the club. It has shifted to smaller, connection-focused affairs. After birthdays and holiday celebrations, watch parties came in as the third-most-popular event types at 49%, followed by book clubs at 43% and celebrating pets at 35%. After all, a dogs birthday party is still a party. Gen Z has been declared generation stay-at-home. But that doesnt mean they arent inviting people over. According to Evite, home-based celebrations are booming as hosts prioritise comfort and intimate celebrations over big blow outs. Post-pandemic, people discovered they prefer deeper, more meaningful connections over crowded events, and as a result their homes have become more central to their identity and social lives, Olivia Pollock, Evites Etiquette & Hosting Expert, tells Fast Company. Theres also a practical component at play. Hosting at home helps keep budgets manageable, 67% of respondents say they prefer affordable, personalized experiences. If they arent going out, a new generation of hosts is instead getting creative at home, turning their apartments into makeshift coffeehouses and planning elaborate themed dinners designed with TikTok and Instagram in mind. If they are hosting outside the home, 69% favor outdoor and nature-based locations, with over half (52%) seeking unconventional venues. In 2025, social media isnt just a tool, it’s the unofficial co-host at gatherings, says Pollock. Nearly a quarter of respondents plan to host content-friendly gatherings specifically designed to share online. That might mean a unique spin on a charcuterie board, a themed tablescape, or even personalized touches like namecards, knowing that guests will definitely want to take a post on their socials. Partying, in whatever form, is more important than ever, particularly at a time when 57% of Americans are lonely. Younger generations are feeling it worse than older Americans, a recent Cigna survey shows. Those figures are unsurprising given that in 2023, only 4.1 percent of Americans attended or hosted social gatherings on a given weekend or holiday, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows. The antidote would be a nationwide effort to get out and party more. Even if that looks like hosting a wine and cheese night at home or a watch party for the finale of your favorite show rather than shaking ass at the club. It also means showing up. Evite found 62% of respondents cited guests RSVP-ing “yes” and then bailing as a top pet peeve, with ignoring RSVP deadlines just behind at 57%. Hosts also have a role to play. Being underprepared with a lack of details about the dress code or schedule is the cause of headaches for 67% of guests. Not enough food or drinks (49%) and poor scheduling or timing (39%) also are etiquette faux pas. Alcohol, once a party staple, is now less of a go-to, as the sober-curious movement continues to gain ground. Those aged 34 and under are drinking about 10 percent less now compared with two decades ago, according to a 2023 Gallup poll. Half of hosts now strive to offer a variety of beverage options, with soda (48%), crafted mocktails (39%), and tea or coffee (37%)topping the list of preferred guest beverages. In 2026, partying isnt going anywhere. It just looks a little different. The common thread is that people just want to connect, said Pollock. Regardless of the occasion, or the venue.
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E-Commerce
Consider this: You want to book a multicity, international trip with flights from New York City to London, then Paris, and then back to New York City. There are numerous variables in the mixdifferent airlines, various ticketing levels, and morethat make the booking more complicated than anticipated. Accordingly, you may end up booking several separate flights, with multiple tickets and confirmation codes to keep track of. If you travel a lot, that can be a lot to manage. But Navan, a corporate travel and expense platform, says it has smoothed the whole process out for booking flights. Navanwhich went public less than a month and a half ago, and mainly competes in the same space as companies such as Ramp and Concurannounced on Wednesday that it has unveiled a huge upgrade to its multicity booking process, making it easier than ever to book complex travel itineraries. Thats something that amounts to a rather large engineering breakthrough, its team says. While users previously could use Navan for exactly these types of complicated, multicity bookings, doing so, following the upgrades, is now much simpler. These types of itineraries amount to around 10% of bookings on the platform, says Ian Fette, vice president of Engineering at Navan, but it wasnt the feature that got all the attention and love. However, the process has been massively upgraded, he says, although it took some time. Navan started working on the improved process during the second half of 2024. And, as noted, its the myriad variables that come into play when booking multicity trips that made it such a daunting task for engineers. Whats hard about multicity [itineraries]is not all airlines can handle all the itineraries you can throw at them, Fette says. Some airlines have partnerships and can sell one ticket that covers the whole journey, or you can construct itineraries where one airline can fulfill all the routes, he continues, but it may not be price competitivewe try to break it up and see if we can fill it as one ticket, and get a good price. Previously, balancing simplicity and pricing for multicity bookings has been the goal for travelers, and it generally involved a one-ticket approach (comprising all flights) or a series of one-way flights. Navans upgraded system spares travelers from trying to do all that mental work of trying to put it together. Fette says users are already lauding the changes, and that the upgrades lay the foundation for future enhancements to the Navan platform. This unlocks our ability to continue to iterate our ticketing intelligencehow we use the knowledge and data we have to drive you to the best pricing, he says. This is an ongoing area of investment for us, and its a huge step up.
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