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Several Democratic senators, including one who remains the preacher at Martin Luther King Jr.’s church, joined several clergy members for a vigil in opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on the Capitol steps Tuesday.

‘Clergy and leaders in robes, collars and religious vestments will offer prayers, sing songs, read scripture and testify to the Gospel, providing a moral reckoning at this critical moment in history,’ read an advisory announcing the vigil obtained by Fox News Digital.

Rev. Jim Wallis, who advised the Obama administration on faith and neighborhood partnerships, told the crowd they ‘come today in spiritual procession – singing, reading Scripture and coming for a vigil on the Senate steps.’

‘Some say that we should keep faith out of politics – we’re saying while the Bible doesn’t give us detailed legislation, it tells us who to care for,’ Wallis went on. ‘We don’t want to let Jesus Christ be left outside the Senate chamber for this vote.’

Wallis called Republicans’ budget a ‘big bad bill’ that will purportedly ‘take 60 million [people] off of health care.’

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., cited Luke 10, recalling the passage where a lawyer – ‘and it’s always a lawyer causing trouble,’ he quipped – asks Jesus who qualifies as a neighbor and who one ought to care for.

Coons claimed the GOP bill ‘literally takes the food from the mouths of hungry children to pass an enormous tax cut for the very wealthiest [and] is the definition of an immoral bill before this Congress.’

Later, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. – reverend of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta – said the vigil felt like ‘déjà vu.’

Warnock recounted protesting via prayer and singing in the Capitol rotunda in 2017 – alongside former North Carolina NAACP president William Barber II – and said he ‘drew the short straw’ when he, but not Barber, was arrested.

‘As I stood there, I said then what I want to say today: That a budget is not just a fiscal document, it’s a moral document.’

‘Show me your budget and I’ll show you who you think matters and who does not – who you think is dispensable. Right. And we stood there in 2017 making the same point,’ he said, crediting the Capitol Police for arresting them in a professional manner. Warnock recounted that when he was warned of being arrested, he said he had ‘already been arrested.’

‘My mind and my imagination and my heart had been arrested by the heartbeat of children who should not lose their food and who should not lose healthcare in order to give wealthy people a tax cut,’ he said, suggesting the same was true with Republicans’ latest budget bill.

‘Here I am eight years later, having transformed my agitation into legislation.’

‘I’m here today because I still know how to agitate – I still know how to protest. I’m not a senator who used to be a pastor. I’m a pastor in the Senate.’

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Expect the House of Representatives to make ‘technical corrections’ to President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ Wednesday.

But if you blink, you might miss it.

Senate Republicans are now in the middle of the ‘Byrd Bath’ with Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. This is a process, named after late Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., to exclude provisions from budget reconciliation packages that don’t comport with special Senate budget rules. 

The Senate must use this special process to avoid a filibuster.

Some items in the House bill don’t fit into the bill under those special budget rules. So, they are tossing them out. But the House must essentially alter the bill and send it back to the Senate.

The House will embed those changes into a ‘rule’ Wednesday to tee up the spending cancellations bill to trim money for USAID and public broadcasting for debate and a vote on Friday.

So, the ‘altered’ bill, with the technical corrections, goes back to the Senate.

‘I think it’s going to be nothing that was unexpected. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said.

‘I’m trying to defend my product that was sent over there. As you all know, it took a long time to get that balance.’

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President Trump’s tariffs will remain in effect for now after a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday to pause a lower court decision that had blocked them. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted the stay and scheduled an expedited review of the case, which centers on whether Trump exceeded his authority under federal law.

The case involves challenges from five small businesses and a coalition of states who argue that President Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs was unlawful. 

The U.S. Court of International Trade sided with the plaintiffs earlier this year, issuing an order to block the tariffs. That decision is now on hold pending further review.

The Federal Circuit found that both sides raised substantial arguments and that a stay was appropriate under the legal standards used to evaluate such motions. 

The court’s brief order noted that the stay was necessary to preserve the status quo while the appeal proceeds. The case will now be heard by the full bench of active judges in an en banc session, a rare move reserved for matters of exceptional legal significance.

Oral arguments are scheduled for July 31 at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom 201 at the Federal Circuit courthouse in Washington, D.C.

The Liberty Justice Center, which represents the five businesses, criticized the court’s decision to allow the tariffs to remain temporarily but welcomed the accelerated review.

‘We’re disappointed the federal circuit allowed the unlawful tariffs to remain in place temporarily,’ said Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel and Director of Litigation at the Liberty Justice Center. 

‘It’s important to note that every court to rule on the merits so far has found these tariffs unlawful, and we have faith that this court will likewise see what is plain as day: that IEEPA does not allow the president to impose whatever tax he wants whenever he wants. We are glad the federal circuit recognized the importance of this case, and agreed to hear it before the full court on an expedited schedule.’

The full opinion can be read here.

White House spokesman Kush Desai defended the Trump administration’s executive powers in a statement to Fox News Digital, saying it welcomed the US Circuit Court of Appeals’ stay order.

‘The Trump administration is legally using the powers granted to the executive branch by the Constitution and Congress to address our country’s national emergencies of persistent goods trade deficits and drug trafficking. The US Circuit Court of Appeals’ stay order is a welcome development, and we look forward to ultimately prevailing in court,’ Desai said.
 

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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took a shot at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for how he handled the 2020 riots in his state, claiming that the Trump administration wouldn’t let history repeat itself in Los Angeles amid immigration protests. 

Noem, who previously served as governor of South Dakota, defended the Trump administration’s decision to deploy thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to address the protests in Los Angeles, using Minnesota as an example of what happens when a ‘bad governor’ is in charge. 

‘I was a governor of a neighboring state to Tim Walz and watched him let his city burn,’ Noem told reporters Tuesday. ‘And the president and I have talked about this in the past, and he was not going to let that happen to another city and to another community where a bad governor made a bad decision.’ 

Walz was first elected governor of Minnesota in 2019, leading the state as protests broke out after the death of Black man George Floyd at the hands of a White police officer in 2020. While Walz has said he takes the blame for a delayed response activating the National Guard in his state, he has also said he is proud of how Minnesota reacted. 

‘I’m proud of Minnesota’s response. I’m proud of Minnesota’s first responders who were out there, from firefighters to police to the National Guard to citizens that were out there,’ Walz said in a 2022 gubernatorial debate. 

Walz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is dispatching a total of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles after protests broke out Friday stemming from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in the city. 

President Donald Trump has gone head-to-head with California’s governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, over the activation of the troops. While Trump has argued the National Guard troops are necessary to prevent destruction in Los Angeles, Newsom said most of the troops ‘are sitting, unused, in federal buildings without orders.’ 

Additionally, Newsom argued that the move violates state sovereignty because state governors typically oversee National Guard troops. However, Trump invoked a law to place the troops under federal command to bypass Newsom. 

‘This isn’t about public safety,’ Newsom said in a post on X on Monday. ‘It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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The majority of House Democrats voted in favor of allowing non-citizens to participate in Washington, D.C. elections on Tuesday.

The House of Representatives passed a bill led by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, to prohibit non-U.S. citizens from voting in elections in the nation’s capital.

It passed 266 to 148, with 56 Democrats joining Republicans in passing the measure. One Democrat voted ‘present,’ while 148 voted against the bill.

‘I believe strongly in not having federal overreach, but we have jurisdiction, Congress has jurisdiction over Washington, District of Columbia…and we don’t like to utilize our jurisdiction and our authority, but in this case, they’ve gone too far,’ Pfluger told Fox News Digital in an interview before the vote.

D.C.’s progressive city council passed the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act in 2022, granting non-U.S. citizens the ability to vote in local elections if they’ve lived in the district for at least 30 days.

Noncitizens can also hold local elected office in the D.C. government.

The local measure has been a frequent target of GOP attacks, with Republican national security hawks raising alarms about the possibility of hostile foreign agents participating in D.C. elections.

But progressive Democrats like Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., who spoke out against the bill on Tuesday afternoon, have dismissed that as an implausible scenario. 

‘Republicans claim that Congress has a constitutional duty to legislate on local D.C. matters, but this is historically and legally incorrect. Republicans legislate on local D.C. matters only when they think they can score political points, such as by demonizing immigrants,’ Frost said during debate on the House floor.

‘They only bring it up to the floor when they think they can score political points, taking away the democratic rights of people here in D.C. and home rule.’

Frost also argued that it was ‘highly unlikely’ foreign officials would vote in those elections, claiming they would have to ‘renounce their right to vote in their home country’ and because ‘D.C. has no authority in federal matters.’

But Pfluger, who spoke with Fox News Digital before the vote, was optimistic that it would get at least some Democratic support.

He noted that 52 Democrats voted for the bill when it passed the House in the previous Congress. It was never taken up in the formerly Democrat-controlled Senate, however.

‘It’s hard to go back to your district as a Democrat and say, yeah, I want foreign agents to be able to vote in our elections – ‘Oh yeah, it’s not federal elections,’ some may say. But it has an impact on the way the city is run,’ Pfluger said.

‘This could be Russian embassy personnel, they could be Chinese embassy personnel – a number of folks. It’s just wrong. It goes against the fabric of our society,’ he added.

Another bill receiving a vote on Tuesday is legislation that would grant D.C. police the ability to negotiate punishments via collective bargaining, and would help shield the capital’s police force from at least some liability by installing a statute of limitations against the Metropolitan Police Department. 

That legislation was introduced by New York Republican Rep. Andrew Garbarino.

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President Donald Trump has escalated his sudden rupture with Elon Musk by implying the government could sever ties with the tech titan’s businesses.

‘The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it,’ Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social.

Various estimates have been put forward about just how much Musk’s firms, primarily SpaceX and Tesla, benefit from U.S. government contracts and subsidies. The Washington Post has put the figure at $38 billion, with SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell estimating that company alone benefits from $22 billion in federal spending. Reuters has reported that the true figure is classified because of the nature of many of the contracts Musk’s firms are under.

NASA relies on SpaceX to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The agency’s only other option at the moment is to pay around $90 million for a seat aboard Russia’s Soyuz capsule.

Last year, SpaceX was selected to develop a vehicle capable of safely de-orbiting the International Space Station in 2030, when NASA and its partner space agencies agreed to end operation of the orbiting laboratory. SpaceX is also expected to play a major role in NASA’s efforts to return astronauts to the moon and eventually travel beyond to Mars.

Later Thursday afternoon, Musk posted that he would begin ‘decommissioning’ SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which regularly flies astronauts and cargo to the ISS, in response to Trump’s threat.

NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens said the agency ‘will continue to execute upon the President’s vision for the future of space.’

‘We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the President’s objectives in space are met,’ she said in a statement on X.

Tesla, meanwhile, has benefited from approximately $11.4 billion in total regulatory credits aimed at boosting electric-vehicle purchases, though that figure also includes state-level subsidies. Musk has claimed he no longer needs the credit, which he says now primarily benefits rivals.

Following Trump’s threat, shares in Tesla, which had already fallen 8% on Thursday as the tit-for-tat escalated on social media, declined as much as 15% following Trump’s post. SpaceX is privately held and its shares do not trade on the open market.

Trump’s warning came as part of a stunning exchange with Musk — who spent more than $250 million to help him get elected — that erupted into public view.

Earlier in the day, president told reporters in the Oval Office that he was disappointed in Musk’s criticism of the Republican policy bill that is making its way through Congress. Musk has blasted the bill, calling it a ‘disgusting abomination,’ amid concerns it would worsen the U.S. fiscal deficit.

Musk, who officially left his White House role last week to spend more time on his companies, spent much of Thursday launching into a tirade on X, his social media platform, where he posted a variety of critiques of Trump, the bill and other Republican politicians.

A make-good on Trump’s threat would come at a sensitive time for Tesla, which has seen global sales plunge partly in response to Musk’s very involvement with the Trump campaign. Year to date, its shares are down some 25%.

Trump’s warning also raises the specter that Trump could resurface pending government investigations into Musk’s firms. According to a report in April from Democratic staff of the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Musk’s firms were facing $2.37 billion in potential federal liabilities when Trump took office in January.

Since then, many of those actions have been paused or outright dismissed alongside the rise of the previously Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency, which gutted many of the agencies looking into Musk’s businesses.

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One day after seeing their largest-ever one-day drop, Tesla shares recovered some losses Friday as the spat between CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump that exploded into public view Thursday took appeared to take a breather heading into the weekend.

Shares in the electronic vehicle maker gained as much as 5% amid broader market gains following a report showing the U.S. added more jobs in May than forecast.

Even with Friday’s rally, Tesla shares are still down approximately 21% in 2025 — a decline that accelerated last week following Musk’s departure from the Trump administration.

Musk, the world’s richest person and until recently Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief, said last week he was leaving as the head of his Department of Government Efficiency project to refocus on his businesses.

Those companies — Tesla, the satellite and space-launch company SpaceX, the social media platform X and the brain tech startup Neuralink — have faced growing criticism as Musk oversaw deep cuts to the federal workforce. Tesla sales around the world have fallen sharply this year.

Trump and Musk traded escalating insults Thursday afternoon, with the president threatening on his Truth Social platform to ‘terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.’ Yet there was no sign of any follow through on the threat Friday. At the same time, a senior White House official told NBC News that Trump is “not interested” in a call with Musk.

Tesla stock closed more than 14% lower Thursday. The automaker is Musk’s only publicly traded company — and one that the president tried to boost as recently as March, drawing sharp criticism on ethical grounds for turning the White House driveway into a car showroom just as the company’s stock was plunging.

The Trump-Musk rift has dented Tesla’s stock anew after Musk slammed the GOP spending bill as ‘a disgusting abomination” in a post on X last week.

‘Bankrupting America is NOT ok!’ he wrote in another post, part of an ongoing barrage of public ridicule.

Musk began speaking out after an electric-vehicle tax credit that would help incentivize Tesla purchases was not included in the bill, which is estimated to add $2.4 trillion to the national debt over 10 years. Musk has lobbied congressional Republicans for that tax credit, NBC News reported Wednesday.

‘I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, doesn’t decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,’ Musk told ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ over the weekend.

As Trump spoke about the former DOGE chief in the Oval Office on Thursday alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Musk began firing off dozens of posts on X.

‘Whatever,’ he wrote. ‘Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill. In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this!’

Trump pushed back further on Musk’s criticism.

“Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people. He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it,” he said during the meeting with Merz. “All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate because that’s billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair.”

As Trump continued speaking, Musk posted another comment: ‘False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!’

Tech analyst Dan Ives said the EV tax credit isn’t the main factor behind Tesla’s stock slide. “The reason Tesla stock’s off the way it is — and I think overdone — is because of the view that this means that Trump is not going to play nice when it comes to regulatory” issues, he told CNBC on Thursday. The feud between the two men is “not what you want to see as a Tesla shareholder,” Ives added.

‘Where is this guy today??’ Musk added Thursday in yet another post, resharing a compilation of Trump’s past tweets including one in which Trump called the federal debt ‘a national security risk of the highest order.’

‘Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,’ Musk added on social media. ‘Such ingratitude.’

Musk is the richest person on the planet, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index. His net worth of $368 billion is $125 billion more than that of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is ranked second. Musk spent $250 million supporting Trump’s most recent campaign.

The president quipped from the White House that he thinks Musk ‘misses the place.’

‘I think he got out there and all of a sudden he wasn’t in this beautiful Oval Office,’ Trump said. ‘He’s got nice offices too, but there’s something about this one.’

The president’s own publicly traded company, Trump Media & Technology Group, has also suffered in the market. Shares of the Truth Social parent company fell more than 8% Thursday and are down over 41% so far this year.

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LONDON — Wherever Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang goes, excitement follows — this time, all the way to London Tech Week.

The Nvidia boss — whom Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives dubs the “godfather of AI” — is more like a rockstar these days, given his wide-spanning effect on the AI industry.

“The amount of infrastructure required for AI wouldn’t be possible without that man,” one attendee at London Tech Week said.

“He’s like Iron Man,” the attendee added, referencing the popular Marvel superhero who is a tech billionaire inventor under the name of Tony Stark.

The lines to get into the Olympia auditorium were already building around 40 minutes before Jensen was set to take the stage alongside U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Not everyone managed to get in — but there were helpfully screens around the venue where people could catch a glimpse of Huang’s talk.

The Nvidia CEO gave his continued bullish assessment of artificial intelligence, calling it an “incredible technology” and saying it should be seen as infrastructure, just like electricity.

There weren’t any multi-billion-dollar investments touted at London Tech Week. But the biggest win for Starmer and the U.K. by far was Huang’s lavish praise for the country.

Wearing his trademark leather jacket, Huang called the U.K. the “envy of the world” that is in the midst of a “Goldilocks circumstance,” boasting a vibrant venture capital ecosystem, as well as budding AI entrepreneurs from leading firms including Google DeepMind, Synthesia, Wayve and ElevenLabs.

Speaking alongside Huang, Starmer spoke in an animated manner as he touted Nvidia’s investments in the U.K. Earlier in the day, the U.S. chipmaker announced a new “U.K. sovereign AI industry forum,” as well as commitments from cloud vendors Nscale and Nebius to deploy new facilities containing thousands of its Blackwell GPU chips.

Starmer spoke at length about AI’s promise and the ways in which it could ease the burdens faced by the U.K.’s public sector institutions, from hospitals to schools.

Huang added that the U.K. is “such a great place to invest,” noting that Nvidia plans to partner with the country to upskill tech workers and build out domestic AI infrastructure.

“Infrastructure enables more research — more research, more breakthroughs, more companies,” the Nvidia chief said. “That flywheel will start taking off. It’s already quite large, but we’re just going to get that flywheel going.”

Starmer thanked Huang for his point, commenting that “the confidence it gives when you explain it that way is huge.”

“From our point of view, we’re really pleased to be seen that way,” the U.K. leader said.

The pair shook hands at the end.

Altogether, there was a lot of energy in the room. Huang said he was “excited” for London Tech Week, and he was met with a round of applause from the audience.

Huang has become the CEO everyone wants to be seen with. Nvidia has positioned itself as central to the AI revolution, which many commentators say is in the early innings.

Nvidia wants that revolution to be built on its chips. And for countries like the U.K., these moments provide a chance for the country to tout its investment potential and for its leader to publicly share a stage with the man seen as powering the AI push.

London was Huang’s first stop in a broader European tour.

The Nvidia boss will travel to Paris later this week, where the chipmaker will host its GTC conference. Politicians including President Emmanuel Macron, who has driven France’s ambition to become a European AI hub, will also likely want some face time with Huang.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill is hoping that Americans’ love for ranch will boost its sales.

On June 17, the burrito chain is launching Adobo Ranch, a spicier take on the iconic condiment that has transcended salads to adorn pizza, chicken wings and chips. The menu item is Chipotle’s first new dip since queso blanco, which launched in 2020.

The debut comes as Chipotle tries to recover from a rough start to the year. In the first quarter, the company reported its first same-store sales decline since 2020. Executives cited a pullback from consumers who had become more concerned about the economy.

The company also lowered the top end of its outlook for full-year same-store sales growth and said traffic wouldn’t grow until the second half of the year.

Shares of Chipotle have fallen 12% this year, dragging its market cap down to $71 billion.

But Adobo Ranch could help to boost the company’s sales if it draws cautious diners back to the chain’s restaurants.

The dipping sauce is made with adobo peppers, sour cream and herbs and spices, according to the company. Adding Adobo Ranch to an order will cost an extra 75 cents.

Ranch outsells ketchup, although NIQ retail sales data shows that mayo still holds the top spot as the favorite condiment of U.S. consumers.

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Walmart’s majority-owned fintech startup OnePay said Monday it was launching a pair of credit cards with a bank partner for customers of the world’s biggest retailer.

OnePay is partnering with Synchrony, a major behind-the-scenes player in retail cards, which will issue the cards and handle underwriting decisions starting in the fall, the companies said.

OnePay, which was created by Walmart in 2021 with venture firm Ribbit Capital, will handle the customer experience for the card program through its mobile app.

Walmart had leaned on Capital One as the exclusive provider of its credit cards since 2018, but sued the bank in 2023 so that it could exit the relationship years ahead of schedule. At the time, Capital One accused Walmart of seeking to end its partnership so that it could move transactions to OnePay.

The Walmart card program had 10 million customers and roughly $8.5 billion in loans outstanding last year, when the partnership with Capital One ended, according to Fitch Ratings.

For Walmart and its fintech firm, the arrangement shows that, in seeking to quickly scale up in financial services, OnePay is opting to partner with established players rather than going it alone.

In March, OnePay announced that it was tapping Swedish fintech firm Klarna to handle buy now, pay later loans at the retailer, even after testing its own installment loan program.

In its quest to become a one-stop shop for Americans underserved by traditional banks, OnePay has methodically built out its offerings, which now include debit cards, high-yield savings accounts and a digital wallet with peer-to-peer payments.

OnePay is rolling out two options: a general purpose credit card that can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted and a store card that will only allow Walmart purchases.

Customers whose credit profiles don’t allow them to qualify for the general purpose card will be offered the store card, according to a person with knowledge of the program.

OnePay hasn’t yet disclosed the rewards expected for making purchases with the cards. The Synchrony partnership was reported earlier by Bloomberg.

“Our goal with this credit card program is to deliver an experience for consumers that’s transparent, rewarding, and easy to use,” OnePay CEO Omer Ismail said in the Monday release.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Synchrony to launch a program at Walmart that checks each of those boxes and will help serve millions of people,” Ismail said.

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