pelespirit

"Now the military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed. But ​the military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that's ​under construction," Trump said.

"The ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what's being built under ... including from ‌drones ⁠and including from any other thing."

The 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) ballroom will replace the East Wing, which Trump ordered demolished in October. Underneath that building was the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, an emergency bunker for the president.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman expressed concerns at a hearing in Washington that the Defense Department's revised restrictions for journalists covering the seat of U.S. military power went even further than earlier rules he had blocked.

"Is this Kafka? ​What's going on here?" the judge asked after reading a declaration by the New York Times describing reporters' ​difficulty accessing areas of the Pentagon. He did not issue a ruling but said the ⁠government must respond to the newspaper's declaration.

The Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in October that journalists could be ​deemed security risks and have their press badges revoked if they solicited unauthorized military personnel to disclose classified, and in ​some cases unclassified, information.

Of the 56 news outlets in the Pentagon Press Association, only one agreed to sign an acknowledgment of the policy, with reporters who did not sign surrendering their press passes to the Pentagon.

Just before New Year’s Eve 2024, as many Russians were calling family and friends with holiday wishes, a 21-year-old computer science student living in Moscow received a very different kind of greeting.

“Fate keeps steering you away, from criminal persecution, from the army. I hope everything works out for you,” the caller said. The well-wishes then took a darker turn: “Don’t forget your homeland. And share more information.”

The student — who we have agreed to call Ivan because of fears for his safety — felt intimidated, but not surprised.

Throughout the previous year he’d been harassed by the same man and his colleague, both Russian intelligence officers. It had begun 16 months earlier, after Ivan had been detained by them and offered a deal: Inform on his acquaintances in anti-Kremlin circles, many of whom had fled abroad, or go to prison.

Republican Party delegates on Sunday attempted to undo an earlier vote to strip absent incumbent officials of the Republican brand as critics including the governor called it unenforceable.

The debate originally came as all statewide elected officials, including those not on the ballot, skipped the convention, a move political observers have called unprecedented. A total of 707 delegates participated Saturday, about half the size of the crowd two years ago.

Jerol Gohrick, chair of the District 2 GOP, proposed to strip the Republican Party brand from any incumbent elected officials who did not attend the convention. Supporters of the motion called incumbents RINOS, or Republicans in name only, and said their absence showed they don’t care about their constituents.

U.S. Army officials have ordered an investigation into the activities of two AH-64 Apache attack helicopters that flew over Saturday's "No Kings" protest in downtown Nashville, then engaged in low-altitude maneuvers near the home of Kid Rock just north of the city.

The initial investigation appears to be focused, for now, on the maneuvers at the entertainer's so-called “Southern White House” in the Nashville suburb of Whites Creek.

"Fort Campbell leadership is aware of a video circulating on social media depicting AH-64 Apache helicopters operating in the vicinity of a private residence associated with Mr. Robert Ritchie (also known as ‘Kid Rock’)," said a statement by Maj. Jonathon Bless, public affairs officer for the 101st Airborne Division.

Fifteen years after she lost her first baby to a rare and devastating birth defect, Andrea Lopez takes comfort in knowing that other Latina mothers might finally avoid the same pain.

In January, California became the first state to require food makers to add folic acid, a crucial vitamin, to corn masa flour used to make tortillas and other traditional foods widely used in her community.

It's a long-delayed move aimed at reducing Hispanic infants' disproportionately high rates of serious conditions called neural tube defects, which claimed Lopez's son, Gabriel Cude, when he was 10 days old.

The move came after Trump rejected bipartisan congressional efforts to fund the TSA while negotiations continue with Democrats, who have refused to approve more funding without restraints on Trump’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations. The order left other DHS employees unpaid.

Democrats are demanding better identification for the officers, judicial warrants in some cases and for agents to refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places. Republicans and the White House have been willing to negotiate on some points, but the sides have yet to reach a final agreement.

TSA workers told union leadership Monday that they received some — but not all — of their back pay, according to Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the TSA union. He said the rest, from a partial paycheck at the start of the shutdown, is expected by next week.

The TSA chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees also raised concerns that some employees reported incorrect backpay amounts, including missing overtime and improper tax withholdings.

In a 2025 deposition of John Harding, the Vice President of Engineering for YouTube Music and YouTube Premium, lawyers representing more than 10,000 plaintiffs confronted Harding about the apparent admission.

"Goal is not viewership, it's viewer addiction,” an unnamed YouTube employee noted in the email to others. The note appeared to be part of a collection of thoughts from something called “iOS Creator App review.”

After reviewing these sources and additional reporting, we found that Trump has authorized the highest number of strikes and targeted the most countries compared with other 21st century presidents

On Saturday millions of people around the country took part in more than 3,000 No Kings protests opposing the presidency of Donald Trump, whose approval ratings have plummeted to 36 percent, a record low since his return to the White House.

Saturday’s rallies were the third major No Kings protest, with organizers saying that 8 million people took part. That estimate has not been independently verified. But to put this weekend’s anti-Trump protests in perspective: about 300,000 people attended the April 2009 Tea Party protests against the Obama administration that were heralded as a seismic political event.

It marks the third such settlement by a major bank, after JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank agreed to pay out $290m and $75m respectively.

The lawsuit also points to more than $150m paid to Epstein by billionaire Leon Black, co-founder of Apollo Global, for "purported 'tax and estate planning advice'", via Black's Bank of America account.

Black, who stepped down from Apollo amid scrutiny over his ties to Epstein, has denied wrongdoing. He was questioned as part of the case last week.