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The UK prime minister will meet the US president for the first time in New York on Tuesday. With Trump at his weakest in the polls, could this be a perfect moment for Andy Burnham to charm the president and avoid a very public political spat? The Guardian’s political editor Pippa Crerar has packed her bags ready to follow the PM in New York. Pippa and policy editor Kiran Stacey discusses some of the potential high-risk topics Donald Trump and Andy Burnham might try to avoid

President to meet Ukrainian counterpart in New York as Ukraine steps up attacks on Russian energy sector

Donald Trump is expected to press Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on an energy ceasefire during a face-to-face meeting this week during United Nations high-level week, as world diesel prices have soared due to the war in Iran, as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Ukraine stepped up its attacks on Russia’s energy sector over the weekend, launching its largest reported strike yet on the Moscow region in a barrage that struck a major Moscow oil refinery and killed three people.

In honor of Don Jr’s oligarch-funded wedding fireworks and my long-delayed explanation of how I think of corruption as a process, LOLGOP and I are reissuing our Ball of Thread Series from a few years back. We did about a dozen episodes that began before 2016 and ended with Kash Patel’s confirmation in early 2025, tracing how the polarization seeded in 2016 led us to the brink of fascism.

Episode 1 covers how I understand the 2016 Russian attack to include not just several attempts to recruit Americans and stoke polarization, but also laying the groundwork for three parallel attacks on the Deep State.

By the time Kash visits Moscow this October, we should be past the point in the series where he enters the story with his MAGA-career-making effort to make the entire Trump/Russia investigation about the Steele dossier and the fucking pee tape.

Here’s more context for why we’re doing this now:

As we roll this out we want to foster more discussion about this, in conjunction with a LOLGOP Studio pledge drive (so he and I can keep doing these videos).

We’re going to see if this will work: Every week, we’ll post a re-released episode on my YouTube channel, if we can manage it, before end of day Friday. Then, we’ll post a YouTube short promoting the episode with some context like the one above. I’ll put up a post here with the video and the short. And you can comment with your questions or “more of a comment than a question.”

Then LOLGOP and I will record a conversation on that episode about what I got right, what we missed, and what matters most now — kind of like we did with a discussion of whether you should get the fuck off Xitter (you should, but I have not). We’ll also answer your questions about any other videos, current Trump/Russia nonsense, and Michigan in general. Maybe we’ll do episode by episode or in batches. There is an election going on. 

This effort also supports the first LOLGOP Studios Pledge Drive.

Members of the LOLGOP Studios Patreon will get the episodes first, though they will all end up on the emptywheel YouTube eventually. 

The post “If It’s What You Say I Love It,” Especially If You Bring Ball of Thread Back appeared first on emptywheel.

In honor of Don Jr’s oligarch-funded wedding party, we’re reissuing the Ball of Thread Series from a few years back. Episode 1 covers how I understand the 2016 Russian attack to include not just several attempts to recruit Americans and stoke polarization, but also laid the groundwork for three devastating attacks on the US intelligence community. Produced by LOLGOP Studio. https://www.patreon.com/cw/LOLGOPStudios

The post How Russia Grabbed Trump and His Cronies by the Nuts in 2016 appeared first on emptywheel.

Iowa senator Chuck Grassley calls for embargo on diesel exports as tariffs and Iran war drive up costs for sector

Donald Trump is facing growing calls, including from within his own party, to boost support for US farmers as his administration faces mounting anger over its treatment of the agricultural sector.

Republican senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa called on the US president to place an embargo on diesel exports this weekend and help farmers grapple with high prices.

US president reportedly changed his mind over Saudi Arabia’s pleas for assistance as bombs were being loaded

Houthi fighters are moving to seize strategic heights in Yemen that would cut the Red Sea coast off from areas held ​by Saudi-backed forces after Donald Trump called off US strikes on the group at the last minute, reportedly as bombs were being loaded on to aircraft.

Amid increasingly heavy fighting in Yemen, which has displaced tens of thousands of people in recent weeks, the New York Times reported on Monday that the US president had flip-flopped wildly in recent days after a call from Saudi Arabia for US strikes on the Houthis.

The Canadian prime minister’s remarks before the European parliament outlined a vision of the west without its most powerful member

The speeches keep coming, each building on the previous one, as the Canadian prime minister builds a case for a new world order that has strikingly little to do with the United States of America, the country that has led the west since the second world war.

On 20 January, in Davos, Mark Carney proposed that the world’s middle powers do more to support each other, in light of a “rupture” in the global order. That was clearly a reference to the destabilizing policies of Donald Trump, who had been inaugurated exactly one year earlier, and had spent most of that year insulting the US’s allies.

The UK prime minister will meet the US president for the first time in New York on Tuesday. With Trump at his weakest in the polls, could this be a perfect moment for Burnham to charm the president and avoid a very public political spat? Pippa and Kiran discuss what the two leaders might discuss in policy terms, and some of the potential high-risk issues

Please keep sending your comments and questions to Pippa and Kiran on politicsweeklyuk@theguardian.com

Watch this episode and subscribe to our YouTube channel here

CNN, MS Now and Politico accurately call last week’s sudden lockout ‘a direct assault on the first amendment’. That’s right

On Monday, the three news organizations that had been kicked out of the White House because of Donald Trump’s latest fit of pique sued the president and three top advisers.

An accompanying statement by CNN, MS Now and Politico accurately calls last week’s sudden lockout “a direct assault on the first amendment”.

As the White House doles out threats and insults, it would be easy to hold out for better times. Mark Carney is right to court the EU instead

The absurdities of the Trump administration and its hangers-on could be written off as a distraction if the stakes weren’t so high. People might be used to banal trolling on social media platforms, but the global hegemon has forced this petulance onto hundreds of millions of people who are worried about their future and the future of the world. That makes the trolling something worse than distracting.

The White House’s online personality is at once extremely disconcerting and extremely juvenile. It’s easy to be stunned by the scale and brazenness of it. During a trade dispute with Canada, and feeling insulted by the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, the president of the United States decides to rename Lake Ontario Lake America, and then proceeds to share memes showcasing the renamed body of water – which remains Lake Ontario outside US borders (and inside it, for some states, such as New York). Not to be outdone, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, posted an attack against a Canadian cadet and her instructor, mocking them and the Canadian armed forces.

The press is abuzz with the aftermath of Trump’s decision on Friday to ban CNN, MS-Now, and Politico from the White House, a buzz largely focused on the lawsuit the three outlets will file today.

It is a big deal.

But rather than focusing on Trump’s three tweets about the attack on the press — the initial announcement, a meme suggesting someone took them out of the White House as trash, and a follow-up invoking national security behind the ban (just as, over the weekend, he invented a national security purpose for his Nazi arch, both likely attempts to give legal cover for an assault on the country) — I want to focus on the mechanics of it.

In a story reviewing how weepy Trump is that his bullying is not having the effect it used to at the beginning of this term, WSJ described that he made the decision after Natalie Harp showed him bad news.

The president has objected in public and private to media coverage of his presidency for months. But his frustrations reached a fever pitch on Friday, when one of his closest aides, Natalie Harp, showed him clips of anchors on the cable network MS NOW criticizing his administration, according to people familiar with the matter. Hours later, Trump banned the network and two other news organizations from the White House.

[snip]

The president has been briefed on the headwinds facing Republicans in the midterms, and advisers have told him that the Iran war is a drag on his conservative base’s enthusiasm ahead of the election, though his team maintains they are cautiously optimistic about November.

The president’s frustrations mounted in the past week as two key advisers were away: White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was in Florida, where on Wednesday she announced that she is cancer-free, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently left the White House.

Trump’s decision to ban MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House caught many White House officials by surprise, according to people familiar with the matter. But the president’s aides moved quickly to implement their boss’s directive, barring the outlets’ reporters from entering the White House on Saturday. A White House official said senior staff were with the president when he made the decision to ban the outlets.

One senior administration official reacted with exasperation to the decision, arguing that the move would do little to achieve the president’s goal of improving press coverage. The president has discussed banning news outlets from the White House before, according to people close to the White House. But aides have persuaded him to take less aggressive measures, such as blocking reporters from the Oval Office or limiting their participation in the pool of reporters that covers the president when he conducts events in spaces that are too small for the entire press corps.

It focuses on MS-Now, which has been focused on how badly Trump is doing in the polls, including a Katy Tur piece focused on shitty Latino polling in Texas in the hour before the ban. CNN was telling the same story, with a typically animated Harry Enten showing a up to 60-point swing in Latino support.

Both of these took place in the wake of María Salazar’s ad calling out Trump’s immigration policies.

CNN’s version of this story describes that Harp showed Trump some graphic Politico had posted.

[A] graphic from Politico was among the material that is believed to have infuriated the president and helped inform his decision to bar the three outlets from the White House grounds. The president also viewed clips from television, a second source said.

Whatever the content of these clips, consider the import of them.

Natalie Harp showed Trump bad news.

That’s not her job. Her job is to show him good news, to always feed his narcissism.

But last week, she showed him bad news, and partly because Karoline Leavitt has moved on and Susie Wiles was out of the office, Trump responded by banning three outlets, and no one thought to simply stall (as Trump’s staffers have done in the past, especially in the first term). Over the weekend, one after another credentialed journalist from the three outlets showed up at the White House, only to have Secret Service agents that know them well pull their hard pass.

Of note: Kaitlan Collins — who for better or worse has become the grande dame of the White House Press Corps in recent years, even as she suffers through harassment if she doesn’t smile at Trump — did not attempt to enter the White House in this period.

The effect of this, though, is that CNN was kicked out of the press corps days before its turn on as the TV pooler, and per Weijia Jang (former WHCA President), Brian Stelter, and even News Nation’s Kellie Meyer, there will be no TV pool today, even as Trump travels to NY for the UN General Assembly meeting. Some of his meetings — like that with Zohran Mamdani and Emmanuel Macron — are listed as closed press. But the UNGA is the kind of event where Trump has been known to exchange loaded comments in passing and he is expected to have one such meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The rest of the week includes potentially momentous meetings as well, with Xi Jinping’s visit starting Wednesday. And in the background, Trump is equivocating about whether to fulfill US promises of security to Saudi Arabia.

To be clear, the pool is one of the few areas where you can get solidarity (not least because the pool outlets pick up the costs of the coverage and then provide it free to anyone who participates in the pool). But all this is happening in a week where, with no exaggeration, the direction of the world could change dramatically.

Several news outlets were, truthfully, making the case that Trump is a loser. Unusually, Natalie Harp showed Trump that proof he’s a loser. And as a result the press will be partly blinded during a potentially momentous week.

Update: CNBC confirms the other poolers will halt coverage.

The post In Advance of a Key Foreign Policy Week, Natalie Harp Blinds the Press appeared first on emptywheel.

Three news outlets filed lawsuit in attempt to regain access to the White House after having badges disabled

In what will be one of the largest battles yet between the press and Donald Trump’s administration, three news organizations – CNN, MS Now (formerly MSNBC) and Politico – that have been denied access to the White House have sued to regain their ability to enter the building, accusing the president of violating the US constitution.

The suit was filed on Monday morning in the US district court for Washington DC.

NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox News, the fourth other networks that make up the White House TV pool, decided they would cease coverage in solidarity with banned CNN

• Sign up for US Breaking News emails

The three news outlets President Trump banned from the White House last Friday have filed their anticipated lawsuit against his administration to restore their access.

In the new complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, CNN, MS Now and Politico alleged that Trump had violated the First Amendment and due process by stripping the outlets of their White House access in a blatant act of retaliation for coverage he disliked.

In When America Roared, Pulitzer-winning reporter Jonathan Kaufman looks back to a decade of greed and excess, and uses it to explore where we are today

Donald Trump is “so much a creature of the 80s but even in the 80s, everyone made fun of him,” Jonathan Kaufman said. General Electric CEO Jack Welch, “the most prominent business figure in the country, maybe in the world, mocked him. No one took him seriously.

“Even today, if you look at the [White House] ballroom, you look at all the things he’s doing, it’s this 1980s aesthetic, right? You can just see the way he looks at the world: the glitz, the cheapness, the gold brocade everywhere. That screams 1980s. All he needs is big hair and leg warmers and listening to, I don’t know, synthetic pop, and he’d be right back in 1985.”

Media workers are grappling with increasingly volatile press climate in US, with some detained and even deported

• Banished: Trump’s secret deportation deals

• What is Trump’s third-country deportation policy?

As hundreds of masked and armed US federal agents besieged the streets of Minneapolis, turning the midwestern city into the frontline of the Trump administration’s unprecedented crackdown on immigration, the independent photographer John Abernathy was documenting one of the protests that had become a daily occurrence when Immigration and Customs Enforcement tackled him.

A photograph of him on the ground, pepper spray running down his face, captured the violence with which ICE agents had for weeks treated immigrants and the thousands of US citizens who had come to their defence. It was also a stark reminder that journalists were not immune to the agency’s aggressive tactics.

After a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle of Africa in a country she did not know existed. She is one of thousands deported from the US on the back of shadowy deals made with dozens of countries. An in-depth investigation reveals the ‘show of force’ costing American taxpayers millions

No one would tell the shackled detainees onboard the US immigration plane where they were going. The officers in charge would taunt them when they asked, they said. It was only when the seat-back video screens finally showed a map that the 18 migrants worked it out.

Key questions answered about scheme that has sent more than 25,000 people to countries that are not their own

• Banished: Trump’s secret deportation deals

• Freedom oppressed: journalists caught up in Trump crackdown

Since returning to office in 2025, Donald Trump’s administration has deported more than 25,000 migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to countries that are not their own.

Human rights lawyers describe these so-called third-country national arrangements as a “show of force”, intended to make people fear the consequences of entering the US without permission.

While world leaders prepare for annual UN gathering, shifts in the global order continue in the face of a disruptive American president

In the event of a midterms election battering, it is possible that a deflated Donald Trump, constrained by a Democrat-controlled Congress, will gradually have to face up to the indignity of irrelevance.

While continuing to sign off Truth Social posts with his usual, “Thank you for your attention to this matter”, no one will actually be paying much attention. His meandering press conferences will no longer be carried live by TV networks. The Republican party will move on to the question of his successor. Trump could announce he had changed the name of the Champs-Élysées to Sunset Boulevard and even Google Maps will stifle a yawn. He would become that most pitied of political animals, the lame duck.

Washington DC—Veterans and supporters stood in the middle of Memorial Circle during afternoon rush hour on Friday with banners and signs urging commuters to join their opposition to a 250 foot Triumphal Arch construction plan. Several groups were involved in the action, including chapters of Veterans For Peace from Washington DC and another from Hawaii; Third Act-DC-MD-VA, and Code Pink Women Against War.

The Triumphal Arch is planned to be built inside Memorial circle, a heavily traveled commuter route, which is just outside the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery. Construction would last several years at minimum and disrupt a major commuter artery, including shut down Memorial Bridge, one of four major bridges linking Washington DC to Virginia. The planned site falls directly under the flight path of hundreds of commercial aircraft flying in and out of National Airport. The height and proximity of the arch to the commercial flight path will pose a risk during inclement weather days.

The Veterans and supporters have been mobilizing against the proposed 25 storied memorial since before Memorial Day when they erected at replica arch near the Lincoln Memorial as thousands of motor cycles rode through for Rolling Tribute (previously known as Rolling Thunder). Their message then as it is now: ‘No Arch.’

A message posted by a spokesperson for the group gave several reasons why they were protesting the proposed arch construction by the Trump White House. It read, in part:

“We are protesting to protect and defend the solemnity and honor of this hallowed ground. To place a memorial that would obstruct the unbroken viewshed from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington Cemetery would totally destroy all that this space represents. It is unconscionable to suggest that this space could be, and would be [emphasis added], redefined by any one person, let alone someone totally consumed by his own vanity.”

One Veteran among the group was so agitated about the rushed plan that she said she flew all the way from Hawaii on a moment’s notice to join the Veterans’ opposition group.

Retired Colonel Ann Wright, an Army officer with 27-years of service, and a member of the Hawaii Chapter of Veterans for Peace, brought the chapter banner with her for the action. “Over our dead bodies,” she said about the Triumphal Arch plan at Memorial Circle. “It’s for him, Mr. Bonespurs with five deferments from the military.” Col. Wright was emphatic that there would be opposition to the Arch, saying, “A cold day in hell this thing is going up.”

Col Wright was joined by another Retired Air Force Colonel as well as Veterans from other periods of service, including a Vietnam Era Veteran.

The height of the arch would rise 250 feet and at that height it would break the line of sight view between the Arlington House, a property once owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and the Lincoln Memorial. President Abraham Lincoln and General Lee are seen historically as the protagonist and antagonist of the Civil War and the symbolic meaning of reconciliation between two opposing forces splitting the Republic during the Civil War. This symbolism would be destroyed by the Triumphal Arch. An arch built inside the circle would interpose Trump’s image as somehow significant in the design of that area of the city.

Then there is the significance of the proximity of the Arch to Arlington National Cemetery, resting place of over 250,000 war Veterans and many Veterans’ spouses. Many of these Veterans served in the wars since the Civil War, and gave their lives in battle. The Veterans expressed deep concern that the arch would overpower the significance of the full final measure given by 100,000s in every war and conflict fought since the Civil War.

The group of Veterans plans afternoon watches of Memorial Circle from 4:00 to 6:00 pm, Monday through Friday, September 21 through September 25. Several other Veterans plan early morning watches starting at 6:00 am. Memorial Circle is about a 5 minute walk from Arlington National Cemetery metro stop and the group has invited anyone to join them with interest in standing in opposition to the Triumphal Arch.

The group is also planning for the possibility that the construction may begin anytime and is planning to mobilize further if it begins.

A late breaking story on Sunday afternoon revealed Trump had added a plan to militarize the Triumphal Arch with sniper positions and drones. But it was unclear if this was a troll or if it was a bonafide preparation for some kind of expected attack. The last time any threat occurred in the area was on 9-11 when American Flight 77 impacted the Wast side of the Pentagon.

Trump has already been flustered by a court ordered removal of his name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The latest incident at the Kennedy Center involving a Board vote to close the iconic building and a initiative to demolish the arts center drew over 10,000 just hours after the Triumphal Arch demonstration.

Trump’s attempt to refurbish the reflecting Pool was also a disappointment and an embarrassment for the White House. The White House, vis-vis the National Park Service, struggled to explain why or how the refurbishing went wrong, blaming innocent observers for damaging the Reflecting Pool which is itself a memorial. The contractor eventually took responsibility for a bad patch paint job.

Economic and trade policy missteps have created rampant inflation and crushed his approval polling to the lowest levels of any president at this time in their term.

The besieged president, is gaining few allies if any among Veterans as his attempt to build the Triumphal Arch which is set to begin construction anytime now.

The combination of all these factors have a knock on effect potential to draw many to oppose the Triumphal Arch as well.

The post Veterans Condemn Memorial Arch As A Vanity Project To Trump And Plan To Fight Construction appeared first on DCMediaGroup.

This week’s Judicial Notice is sponsored by

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Last week was busy for me and Zach, with the second annual SCOTUSblog Summit as the highlight. Zach conducted a fireside chat with former U.S. solicitor general Elizabeth Prelogar, now head of the large and growing Supreme Court and appellate practice at Cooley, while I moderated a panel of three top in-house lawyers: Brian Callanan of TD Bank US, Brett Gerry of Boeing, and Jeffrey Taylor of ExxonMobil. Thanks to the sponsors who made this wonderful event possible: Cooley, Latham & Watkins, Williams & Connolly, Weil Gotshal, Pacific Legal Foundation, Gibson Dunn, DRC Litigation Strategies, Davis Polk, and MoloLamken.

Speaking of conversations about the Supreme Court, please join me, Zach, and Andrew DeVooght, a former SCOTUS clerk (to the late Chief Justice Rehnquist) and current partner at Loeb & Loeb, for a webinar about the Court’s upcoming Term. The event is taking place on Wednesday, September 23, at 2 p.m. (EDT), and it offers one hour of CLE credit in California, Florida, Illinois, and New York. To sign up for this free webinar, please visit the registration page. Thanks to Loeb for sponsoring (and if you’d be interested in having me and Zach work with your firm on a similar event, please feel free to drop me a line).

Every now and then in Judicial Notice, I provide some piece of practical advice—e.g., track down your unclaimed property or freeze your credit to prevent identity theft. Here’s my latest: go into your Uber and Lyft accounts and make sure you’ve set things up so that whenever you take a ride, you’re earning points or miles with one of their partners (e.g., Marriott Bonvoy or Hilton Honors—I’ve earned enough Bonvoy points from my Uber usage to get a free night at a Westin). Also, as a general matter, you should check both Uber and Lyft every time you need a ride; you’d be surprised at how much they can differ in terms of both cost and speed of getting a driver.

Now, on to the news.

Lawyers of the Week: Larry Krasner and Matthew Stiegler.

Since taking office in January 2018, Philadelphia District Attorney Lawrence “Larry” Krasner has been one of the nation’s most prominent progressive prosecutors. His supporters praise him for tempering justice with mercy, while his critics castigate him for being soft on crime.

It’s certainly the prerogative of a progressive prosecutor to go after crime less aggressively. Krasner hasn’t hidden his view that prosecutors must wield their power “compassionately”—and with knowledge of his approach, the people of Philadelphia have voted Krasner into office three times.

But Krasner must go about his work in a manner that’s consistent with his legal and ethical duties. And in the span of four months, two courts—one state, one federal—have raised serious questions about whether he has been doing that.

In June, I mentioned that Krasner got badly benchslapped by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. I won’t repeat that discussion here, but will simply note that the majority criticized Krasner for numerous instances of “untrustworthy concessions, lack of candor, misrepresentations of fact, [and] lack of adequate investigation.” The court ordered that going forward, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday’s office will independently review any case under the state’s Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) in which Krasner’s office seeks to “concede relief”—i.e., claim that because of mistakes by the prosecution, the defendant is entitled to some benefit (such as a new trial or release from custody).

Alas, things have gotten worse for Krasner since then. Last Tuesday, Judge Paul Diamond (E.D. Pa.) disqualified Krasner and one of his top deputies, Matthew Stiegler, from Johnson v. Nickelson—a federal habeas case in which Dennis Johnson is challenging his 2009 murder conviction. And not only that, but Judge Diamond referred Krasner and Stiegler to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for possible investigation and prosecution, after raising the possibility that they violated federal law. Yikes.

This news received widespread coverage, from outlets including the Associated Press, CNN, and ABC. One of the more detailed write-ups was that of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via How Appealing):

[I]n 2022, Assistant District Attorney Jaclyn Mason, who worked under Stiegler, filed a brief saying she had discovered problems with Johnson’s case, and recommended the conviction be overturned. Diamond scheduled an evidentiary hearing on the matter this spring.

Ahead of that hearing, Mason’s colleagues in the office’s law division reviewed the filings in the case and found what they called “material misstatements” in the brief. They sought to withdraw Mason’s filing, and apologized to Diamond.

Mason resigned. Diamond called a hearing on the matter. Mason, during the first of a series of explosive hearings in front of Diamond, said she filed the brief only because Stiegler had pressured her to do so.

Stiegler, she said, had been “colluding” with Johnson’s defense attorneys from the Federal Community Defender Office and the Pennsylvania Innocence Project on the most effective paths to secure Johnson’s release. Neither of them had reviewed key evidence in Johnson’s case before seeking to overturn his murder conviction, she said.

“Matt told me: ‘If it’s good enough for the Innocence Project, it’s good enough for me,’” Mason said. Stiegler denied this and said he has reviewed every case carefully.

In a subsequent hearing, supervisors in the law division testified that Stiegler, in an attempt to avoid blame, then suggested they review Mason’s cases to look for other errors in her work to paint her as a “rogue” prosecutor who was routinely making mistakes.

At some point, Krasner got looped in—and allegedly said the following to four of his prosecutors, according to Judge Diamond’s 40-page opinion (which captures the saga in all its sordid detail—this is only a capsule summary):

[S]omeone gave me a really good idea. Actually, it was Matt, Mr. Stiegler, that gave me this really good idea. I think that we should go through Ms. Mason’s cases, find mistakes that she made in other cases, say that this was a pattern by her, and then file something with the Court saying that.

But instead of going along with Krasner’s “really good idea,” the four colleagues of Krasner and Stiegler blew the whistle on them to Judge Diamond, who then dug into the situation. And instead of cooperating with the judge’s investigation, Krasner and Stiegler allegedly “attempt[ed] to impede the Court’s hearing and inquiry into the [conduct of the District Attorney’s Office (DAO)] in Johnson.”

Krasner’s prosecutors reported the alleged cover-up to Judge Diamond as well, making the situation even worse for Krasner and Stiegler. This led the judge to make factual findings suggesting that the two lawyers might have engaged in “conduct that may constitute false statements, false declarations made under oath, perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy.” (Note that the possible perjury relates only to Stiegler, who testified before Judge Diamond; Krasner never testified.)

In the wake of all this, Stiegler stepped down from his role as head of the conviction-integrity unit (but will stay on as a prosecutor in the DAO). As for Krasner, he’s now facing calls for his ouster. Some have appeared in right-leaning outlets—but even the editorial board of the Inquirer, which previously endorsed Krasner, expressed the view that he “has created an untenable situation that could impact the treatment of crime victims and wrongdoers.”

It doesn’t appear that Krasner will step down voluntarily. “I respectfully and vigorously disagree with the court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to appealing to the higher court as soon as the law allows.”

Other lawyers in the news:

• U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche “has repeatedly participated in campaign events and spoken in partisan terms about the coming midterm elections since his confirmation last month, despite criticism that he violated a longstanding Justice Department principle of steering clear of electoral politics,” per Charlie Savage of The New York Times. But as Professor Stephen Gillers, an expert on legal ethics, told Savage, Blanche’s political statements and activities are protected by the First Amendment (even if they might be ill-advised).

• Blanche is also getting criticism from career DOJ prosecutors “about politically motivated firings and low morale,” including on a recent visit to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta (N.D. Ga.), as reported by Ben Penn of Bloomberg Law.

• In a follow-up on last week’s Lawyer of the Week, Joseph diGenova provided more information about his abrupt resignation as head of the Trump administration’s “grand conspiracy” investigation. As diGenova told Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney of Politico, “I take my time when I bring cases…. Sometimes it takes longer than some people want, and they want things done faster, and that’s just not possible sometimes. So, as a result, there are disagreements about timing, and that happens all the time in the Department of Justice.”

• If you’re a major rainmaker at your firm who’s planning to defect to a rival, who you gonna call? For many, the answer is Lisa Solbakken of Arkin Solbakken, profiled by Mike Vilensky for Bloomberg Law. Described by one of her clients as “a lioness,” she advises departing partners on issues such as “demanding deferred compensation, how to tell clients they’re leaving without violating solicitation rules, and how to prevent the firms they’re departing from trying to keep their clients and violating those same rules.”

In memoriam:

• Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)—who practiced law for two decades in Phoenix, represented Arizona in both the U.S. House and Senate, and worked as a lobbyist for Covington & Burling—passed away at 84.

• Thomas Graham Jr.—who served as chief counsel of the (now disbanded) Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, playing a key role in negotiating nuclear arms treaties for almost 30 years during the Cold War and beyond—passed away at 92.

May they rest in peace.

Judge of the Week: Judge Patrick Schiltz.

Back in February, then-Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz (D. Minn.) was a Judge of the Week. During the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and St. Paul, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” Judge Schiltz repeatedly benchslapped the administration. Specifically, he claimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to comply with “dozens of court orders,” “has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence,” and “is not a law unto itself.” (By the way, he’s no longer Chief Judge Schiltz; in July, he took senior status and was replaced by Chief Judge Eric Tostrud.)

Judge Schiltz’s words carried more weight than certain other judges’ critiques of the Trump administration because he was appointed by a Republican president (George W. Bush). And not only that, but Schiltz clerked for a conservative icon, the late Justice Scalia—twice, on both the D.C. Circuit and SCOTUS—and served on the faculty of Notre Dame Law, where he was a mentor to Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

It appears that Judge Schiltz isn’t done saying his piece. Last Thursday, the New York Times published an article based on what reporter Mattathias Schwartz accurately described as “a rare 90-minute interview.” It’s highly unusual for a sitting federal judge to speak on the record, at such length, with a leading media outlet—and although Judge Schiltz was careful not to discuss pending cases, he did discuss substantive subjects that are still in the news. Here are some highlights:

• What happened in Minnesota’s federal court during Operation Metro Surge “created a grave threat to the rule of law…. I would say aloud to myself, ‘This just never happens.’”

• Schiltz was constantly checking his phone during that tumultuous time: “The cost of me enjoying a movie could be somebody waking up in New Mexico the next day when they shouldn’t have.”

• “The rule of law to democracy is like oxygen to a human body. It is something that you absolutely need to survive, and yet it’s something that people just take for granted.”

• “You walk down the street, and you assume you’re generally safe because of the law. It’s the rule of law. If you don’t have it, you have either anarchy or you have authoritarianism. You have Russia or you have China or you have North Korea.”

Judge Schiltz wasn’t the only judge who spoke with the Times. A total of seven judges from the District of Minnesota, including both Democratic and Republican appointees, agreed to be interviewed. But Schiltz’s remarks were the most extensive.

When asked about Judge Schiltz’s comments, DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels said she found it “remarkable that sitting federal judges are giving on-the-record interviews” criticizing the administration—and said they should consider recusing themselves if they “have made public comments on pending or related matters.”

As noted, Judge Schiltz didn’t comment on any specific pending matters, and I don’t believe anything he did say violated any rule of judicial ethics. Canon 4A(1) of the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges explicitly provides that judges “may speak, write, lecture, teach, and participate in other activities concerning the law, the legal system, and the administration of justice.” And the commentary adds that “[a]s a judicial officer and a person specially learned in the law, a judge is in a unique position to contribute to the law, the legal system, and the administration of justice.”

But one could still argue that interviews like the ones that Judge Schiltz and his colleagues gave to the Times, even if permitted by the canons of judicial ethics, are unwise as a prudential matter. As Professor Josh Blackman wrote at the Volokh Conspiracy, “judges are supposed to voice their opinions in, well, judicial opinions, not the New York Times.” (For a counterpoint, check out Joyce Vance at Civil Discourse, praising Judge Schiltz for “rais[ing] the alarm” about recent threats to the rule of law.)

Readers, what do you think? Take my poll below.

In other news about judges and the judiciary:

• Ahead of their return to the bench on October 5, U.S. Supreme Court justices were on the speaking circuit (coverage via Howard Bashman’s How Appealing):

  • Justice Sonia Sotomayor at the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa (“My greatest fear is that people don’t understand our system of government…. Some of my colleagues don’t either, by the way, and I’m not joking.”);

  • Justice Amy Coney Barrett at the University of Virginia (“I don’t want to talk about anything that the president has said in particular.”); and

  • Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson at the Philadelphia Bar Association (accepting an award named in honor of the late Justice Brennan, citing his powerful dissents—and arguing that they reflected his “faith in the future”).

• Speaking of justices, Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald resigned from the New Hampshire Supreme Court amid claims of judicial misconduct. MacDonald allegedly orchestrated a personnel move that allowed Dianne Martin, his former chief of staff back when he was New Hampshire’s attorney general, to collect nearly $50,000 in unused vacation and sick time (to which she wasn’t entitled).

• Representative Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill that would allow Judge Pauline Newman (Fed. Cir.), 99, to resume hearing cases. As explained by Fix the Court, Fitzgerald’s proposal “would limit the length of ‘temporary’ suspensions of judges permitted under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act to two years,” at which point “a subject judge would be reinstated, though the complaint record would ultimately be sent to the House to decide whether to proceed with impeachment.”

• Judge Newman would like to return to the bench—while Judge Judith B. Sheindlin, 83, is hanging up her robes. Although Judge Judy’s CBS show ended in 2021, after more than 20 years, she continued to appear on an Amazon Prime spinoff series, Judy Justice. But that show will air its last episode on October 22.

In nominations news, the Senate confirmed two district-court picks, Ohio state appellate judge Matthew Byrne (S.D. Ohio) and Kirkland & Ellis partner Kasdin Mitchell (N.D. Tex.). Mitchell was Trump’s 55th confirmed Article III judicial nominee in his second term, compared to 68 confirmations at around this point in his first term.

In memoriam: Justice Joyce Kennard—the second woman and first person of Asian descent to join the California Supreme Court, where her 25 years of service made her one of its longest-tenured justices—passed away at 85. May she rest in peace.

Job of the Week: an opportunity for a midlevel to senior real estate associate in Houston.

Lateral Link is assisting a prestigious Am Law firm in Houston in its search for a midlevel to senior real estate associate (4–8 years). The firm’s Chambers-ranked real estate team handles sophisticated matters across a broad range of asset classes, including data centers, energy infrastructure, and sports facilities. The role offers significant responsibility, meaningful client interaction, and mentorship from highly respected partners, with exposure to complex transactions for institutional investors, developers, and lenders. Experience drafting and negotiating purchase and sale agreements, joint venture agreements, and loan documents is ideal. For a confidential conversation, please email Wendy Boone Jaikaran at wendyboone@laterallink.com.

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The CEOs of tech firms issue stark warnings over the rate of change, with AI capability doubling every four months

Recently, Jacob Coxon, a researcher at Anthropic, quit his job over concerns that AI was on a collision course with humanity. A flurry of headlines put the spotlight on the current crisis: unregulated competition between technology companies and between the US and China is putting our global infrastructure at risk at the very least, and threatening human existence at worst.

One’s mind fills with pictures of robot armies or systematic blackmail.

President’s latest order expected to bring NIH funding under control of Trump administration to align with agenda

Donald Trump’s latest executive order is expected to establish a board responsible for approving National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding, marking another attempt by the Trump administration to censor topics that do not align with the president’s agenda.

The executive order, reported by outlets including the Washington Post and Politico, was discussed in a meeting on Friday in which senior administration officials accused the NIH of funding “woke” initiatives that went against Trump’s political priorities.

PM hopes to be firmer with US leader than his predecessor without provoking diplomatic warfare, as the Iran war weighs on the UK economy

No international relationship has more power to determine the success of Andy Burnham’s premiership. So you might imagine the stakes for the prime minister’s first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump on Tuesday would be high.

Yet Burnham may prove to be a lucky general. The balance of risk has shifted. Trump is unpopular at home, where inflation remains high, and is mired in an intractable conflict in Iran that has the potential to sink his midterm dreams.

Florida’s María Elvira Salazar warns Trump that advisers are ‘compromising his legacy’ and not showing ‘whole picture’

María Elvira Salazar, the Republican congresswoman who has accused the president of going too far on immigration enforcement, doubled down on her criticism of the administration on Sunday, warning Donald Trump that some of his advisers were “compromising his legacy”.

In an interview with CBS News’s Face the Nation, the Florida representative who is locked in a tight race for re-election pleaded with the US president not to “squander” his relationship with Hispanic voters. Though she couched her remarks as criticism of top administration advisers, it was clear that her focus was on Trump’s much-vaunted ambition to carry out the largest mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in US history.

We are now just over six weeks to Election Day, and polling continues to show Democrats surging in the midterms.

A new NYT/Sienna poll shows Democrats’ generic ballot lead at above 8 points, a new high in this poll.

This follows several strong generic ballot leads for Democrats this month.

The poll also has other bad news for Republicans.

And hoo boy.

It was a strong week in polling for Democrats all around.

With Democrats now favored to sweep both the House and Senate in November.

I mean, just look at these Senate race polling averages.

And these House race ratings changes.

Polls show Democrats surging in Texas.

In Ohio…

And Iowa!

And now Democrats are expanding the map into deep red Trump country, such as Nebraska…

Florida…

And Kansas!

Where JD Vance actually campaigned this week. And it did not go well.

Read more

As the organisation meets this week, it remains the best hope for restoring order. But it relies on goodwill from the US president – and that is lacking

If all goes to plan, at some stage in the coming weeks 15 diplomats will emerge from a small sound-proofed room deep in the bowels of the United Nations headquarters in New York and announce the organisation’s next secretary-general.

The person they choose will face a combination of challenges unlike any that their predecessors have had to deal with. Two of the security council’s permanent members, the US and Russia, are engaged in wars of choice that have no end in sight. A UN commission of inquiry has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, but the UN has effectively been reduced to the role of bystander, pushed out by Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. The climate crisis is creating a cascade of new humanitarian disasters, while every day now seems to bring a new security threat caused by the unregulated rise of AI.

Steve Bloomfield is the former international editor of the Observer and a previous winner of the Orwell prize

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

US president on Truth Social claims his new plan for the 250ft arch comes at the ‘strong request’ of the US military

Donald Trump is proffering a new argument for building his triumphal arch in Washington DC: it will be converted into a “top grade military complex” replete with drone and ammunition storage space and customised sniper facilities on the roof and plaza.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday morning, Trump claimed that his new plan came at the “strong request” of the US military. He said the 250ft structure would be able to “house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage”.

David Sacks convinced Trump against any restrictions on AI – putting the White House out of step with its own party

As lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in the US have joined together calling for the regulation of powerful artificial intelligence models, one of the few vocal naysayers has been Donald Trump. He’s called the perceived dangers of the technology a “hoax” and a “scam”, arguing that the government already has “tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies”.

It’s a starkly different stance from those of his former adviser Steve Bannon, the Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz and even the heads of the world’s leading AI companies. But it’s directly in line with the opinion of David Sacks – a prominent billionaire venture capitalist and Trump’s onetime AI and crypto czar, who has pushed back publicly and forcefully against recent claims of an impending AI apocalypse.

The erratic escalations and climbdowns by the US president have made covering trade disputes a high-octane affair. We spoke to some of our business reporters and our correspondent in Toronto about how they keep up with it

Reporting on international trade disputes is challenging enough at the best of times. But how do you cover a chaos-riven trade war launched against the whole world by a US president who acts as if he doesn’t understand how trade and tariffs work?

With the recent showdown between the US and Canada, our reporters have been reflecting on how they’ve kept our audience properly informed during the 15 months since Donald Trump dramatically announced a slew of tariffs in the White House Rose Garden.

Coming midterm elections are starting to be framed not as right versus left but instead the ‘well-fed versus the fed-up’

Brian Leeland, a 79-year-old Democratic voter in Detroit, had enough. Frustrated by the way the US media covers this febrile political era, from Donald Trump’s Washington to political campaigns across the country, he contacted the Guardian.

“Your decision to frame the race here as a simple progressive versus establishment choice is overly simplistic verging on lazy,” he wrote to this reporter, after our coverage of progressive Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign in the Democratic US Senate primary in Michigan. “As an electorate, we are not binary for the convenience of the media.”

It’s not clear that financial interests are driving White House policy, but they run parallel even as resistance mounts

Donald Trump’s sons, through a series of AI-linked defense and technology ventures, have picked up a $620m Pentagon loan, a Marine Corps robotics contract and an undisclosed air force drone deal in the past year. His longtime friend Michael Dell won a Pentagon contract worth nearly $9bn. And this week, as public support for artificial intelligence sinks to some of the lowest levels ever recorded, the president went to bat for the industry.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades,” he posted on Truth Social Monday. “There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers.” It was the first of many aggressively pro-AI posts he would make this week.

Bridget Phillipson says Burnham’s past criticisms of US president not an issue as PM prepares to meet Trump at UN

Next month’s budget will be made more difficult by Donald Trump’s war with Iran, one of Andy Burnham’s cabinet ministers has said, while adding she did not expect the prime minister’s previous disparaging comments about the US president to be an issue.

Burnham is expected to meet Trump early next week at the UN general assembly summit in New York, the pair having previously spoken twice by phone since Burnham entered No 10.

Today’s Report

1. Overview

2. White House News

3. Truth Social Posts

4. Government Department News

5. Selected Democratic Officials

6. AI & Tech Company News

7. Congressional Watch

1. Overview

Trump criticized the United States Supreme Court for lacking the “Courage to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” alleging that the court’s decisions regarding tariffs and birthright citizenship have “cost the United States of America Trillions of Dollars.” Regarding technology, Trump stated he will form an “AI Force” and appoint an “AI ‘Czar’” to manage the industry, which he claims is part of the “next Industrial Revolution.” Additionally, Trump proposed that “Artificial Intelligence” is “inaccurate, and very ineloquent,” suggesting alternative terms such as “Superior Intelligence (SI)” or “Supreme Intelligence (SI).”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated the people of Saint Kitts and Nevis on their 43rd anniversary of independence. Secretary Rubio stated that the United States values its partnership with the nation and highlighted collaborative efforts to improve regional border security. He affirmed that the United States remains a “steadfast partner” and intends to continue strengthening the friendship between the two countries.

Governor Newsom signed a legislative package aimed at defending elections, including laws creating felony penalties for interference with ballots and measures addressing AI-generated misinformation. Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber stated the measures protect the constitutional right to vote against “an all-out assault” by the Trump administration. Governor Newsom also signed SB 795 to expand E15 gasoline access, AB 2319 and SB 186 to expand film and TV tax credits, and SB 1354 to restrict unauthorized out-of-state military deployments within California.

No news for the AI & tech companies was provided in the source material.

The Congressional Watch for September 18, 2026, reports that the Senate met in a pro forma session with no legislative business or committee activity. The House of Representatives was not in session, and no legislative actions or votes took place. The Senate was scheduled to meet again on September 22, 2026, to resume consideration of the nomination of Angela Veronica Colmenero, while the House was scheduled to meet in a pro forma session on September 21, 2026.

2. White House News

No White House news found.

3. Truth Social Posts

Trump criticized the United States Supreme Court for lacking the “Courage to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” alleging that the court’s “faulty, political, and ridiculous decisions” regarding tariffs and birthright citizenship have “cost the United States of America Trillions of Dollars” and “forever damaged the way people become Citizens.” He described the situation as a “sad chapter in the life and times of America,” while stating that “we will prevail.”

Regarding technology, Trump stated that he will “not stand by and let” the “decimation, or destruction, of AI” occur, characterizing such efforts as part of a series of “Hoaxes, all generated by the Radical Left Dumocrats.” He declared his intention to “cherish” and “help” the AI industry, asserting that he will form an “AI Force” and appoint an “AI ‘Czar’” to manage the sector. Trump maintained that AI represents the “next Industrial Revolution” and claimed that “we are leading China, and the rest of the World,” which he intends to ensure continues.

Additionally, Trump proposed that the term “Artificial Intelligence” is “inaccurate, and very ineloquent,” suggesting that “Superior Intelligence (SI),” “Extreme Intelligence (EI),” or “Supreme Intelligence (SI)” would be more “elegant and accurate” descriptions. He invited the public to vote on these alternatives to name the “ever growing ‘Revolution.’”

Reference: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump

4. Government Department News

State Department (state.gov)

Saint Kitts and Nevis National Day

Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated the people of Saint Kitts and Nevis on their 43rd anniversary of independence. Secretary Rubio stated that the United States values its partnership with the nation, citing “shared priorities that advance stability and economic prosperity.” He referenced his February visit and collaborative efforts with Prime Minister Drew to improve regional border security and combat transnational criminal organizations. Secretary Rubio affirmed that the United States remains a “steadfast partner” and intends to continue strengthening the friendship between the two countries.

5. Selected Democratic Officials

Gavin Newsom (gov.ca.gov)

California Leaders Praise Governor Newsom’s Election Protection Actions

California leaders expressed support for Governor Newsom’s legislative package aimed at defending elections from potential interference by the Trump administration. Lawmakers, including Assemblymembers Marc Berman, Jacqui Irwin, Dr. Corey Jackson, and Gail Pellerin, along with Senators Sabrina Cervantes, Laura Richardson, and Tom Umberg, and Congresswoman Aisha Wahab, praised the measures for enhancing election integrity, protecting voter data, and addressing AI-generated misinformation. SEIU California President Arnulfo De La Cruz described the legislation as a “victory for working people.”

Governor Newsom Signs Bill Expanding E15 Gasoline Access

Governor Newsom signed SB 795, which removes regulatory barriers to the sale of E15 gasoline in California. The administration states this move aims to provide lower-cost fuel options amid rising prices attributed to the “Trump administration’s Iran war.” Citing academic studies, the Governor’s office suggests E15 could lower prices by up to $0.20 per gallon. The announcement also noted that California has reached 2.5 million electric vehicle sales and continues to expand its charging infrastructure network.

Governor Newsom Expands Film and TV Tax Credits

Governor Newsom signed AB 2319 and SB 186 to bolster California’s entertainment industry. AB 2319 establishes a new tax credit for post-production activities, including sound, editing, and visual effects, while SB 186 enhances the existing Film and TV Tax Credit Program by increasing refundability and supporting independent productions. The Governor noted that previous expansions have led to 170 projects expected to generate $6.6 billion in economic activity. Representatives from the Motion Picture Association and the Editors Guild expressed support for the legislation.

Governor Newsom Signs Laws to Penalize Election Interference

Governor Newsom signed a legislative package creating felony penalties for interference with ballots and election systems. The laws include AB 282, which prohibits the unauthorized seizure of ballots or technology, and SB 259, which targets interference with vote-by-mail ballots. Additionally, the package addresses AI-generated deceptive content and establishes the Engaged California Program. Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber stated the measures protect the constitutional right to vote against “an all-out assault” by the Trump administration.

Governor Newsom Signs Law Restricting Out-of-State Military Deployments

Governor Newsom signed SB 1354, which prohibits military personnel from other states, territories, or the District of Columbia from performing duty or law-enforcement functions in California without the Governor’s permission. The law includes an exception for forces acting under federal Title 10 authority. The Governor stated the bill “secures the rule of law” and protects California’s sovereignty. The legislation aims to prevent federalized or state-controlled military forces from operating within California borders without state consent.

JB Pritzker (gov.illinois.gov)

Daily Public Schedule: Saturday, September 19, 2026

Governor Pritzker has no public events scheduled for Saturday, September 19, 2026.

6. AI & Tech Company News

No relevant AI & tech company updates found for this date.

7. Congressional Watch

Covers the 2026-09-18 session — the Congressional Record is published with a one-day delay.

Senate

The Senate met briefly in a pro forma session. No legislative business or committee activity occurred during this time.

• None — No legislative actions or votes occurred [None]

House of Representatives

The House of Representatives was not in session on this day. No legislative or committee activity took place.

• None — No legislative actions or votes occurred [None]

Committee Highlights

• None - None — No committee meetings were held.

Coming Up

The Senate will meet at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, to resume consideration of the nomination of Angela Veronica Colmenero. The House of Representatives will meet in a pro forma session at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, September 21, 2026.

Reference: Congressional Daily Digest — 2026-09-18

President had brushed away suggestions to slow down AI technology, even as his own party counseled caution

Donald Trump on Saturday said he would appoint an artificial intelligence czar and create an “AI Force” to help monitor the technology, though he gave almost no details about either plan.

As global fears over AI have grown, especially in the past week in the face of multiple industry figures sounding the alarm about its dangers, the president has been critical of calls to slow down development of the fast-moving industry.

Hands Off The Arts organized a massive rally to resist the closure and demolish of the ionic Kennedy Center.

Washington, DC—The Organization ‘Hands Off the Arts,’ called on DC, Maryland and Virginia artists and supporters to stand in opposition to a plan by the White House to demolish the Iconic Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Memorial. Several prominent speakers told of the threat that destruction posed to the freedom of expression that for over 55 years has been a central national venue for the arts community. At one point as many as 10 thousand circled the iconic white marbled landmark. They joined hands and chanted “Hands Off The Arts!”

While the numbers of concerned citizens continued to grow far past the number which had signed up online to attend, the area outside the Kennedy Center became impassable and police were forced to withdraw from the area and allow the crowd to occupy the driveway. There was no real threat to the Arts Center as the crowd only came to make a point: they intended to stand against any plan to raze the memorial.

Then the organizers did what they do best—they put on a show. The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC performed ‘Make Them Hear You,’ a song about resistance and liberation from the play Ragtime. The song was previously performed at the Kennedy Center in 2019 by Brian Stokes Mitchel.

Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman in the TV series 1975-1979, spoke to the audience for several minutes, telling them that the arts were a vital part of living. “I see you,” she said. “I hear your hearts and you hear mine. Music and the arts is how we survive. It is how we learn. It is about vibration in the universe. It is about who we are.”

Tara Hoot, the emcee and a drag queen who previously performed at the Kennedy Center, kept the rally lighthearted though many were worried the arts venue could be in its last days. “Our message with Hands Off The Arts today is to bring hope to the American people. The people have the power to say no. Enough is enough. Donald Trump tried to slap his name on this building. It is a living memorial to an assassinated President John F. Kennedy and that’s how it needs to stay.”

Friday night’s action sent a clear signal that any attempt to demolish the memorial would be met with strong resistance at both the street level of energetic activism with mainstream enthusiasm in support, as well as from influential artists and supporters of the venerable arts institution.

It is extremely rare in Washington DC for an issue to rupture the peace which naturally occurs in the nature of performance and visual art, for it stands alone in its attraction for a diverse range of individuals, uniting them in spirit, presence, and purpose in some unexplainable way. But the White House has somehow managed to do just that. Never has the Kennedy Center drawn to its white marble facade a solitary of resistance as was seen Friday night.

As plans of the White House intentions to begin major renovations on the memorial, were challenged in federal court, a ruling by Judge Christopher Cooper that any major renovation would require 30 days notice, triggered shock that it could come down. Throughout the arts community and beyond that shock spread and reached the activist community. Judge Cooper ruled the name change as the result of major renovations would “buck” his previous order to remove Trump’s name as well as go against existing Congressional legislation which names the arts center after John F. Kennedy.

Hands Off The Arts, has rallied at the Kennedy Center on Fridays since Donald Trump first took over the institution in February 2025. Hands Off The Arts, is an organization founded by Chris Raleigh after Donald Trump fired its Board and installed his own group of loyalists while appointing himself as the Board President. The purpose of the grassroots group, is to protect the center and reopen it to its previous state of grandeur.

After Trump took over the Board, funding began to dry up as performers canceled their shows and benefactors no longer wanted to be associated with the Trump appointed Board policies of restricting the types of venues which would be allowed. The Washington National Symphony, which had made the Kennedy Center its home for many decades, severed ties and move its operations elsewhere, a major blow to the ability of the Arts Center to draw support and donations.

With it, more and more artists, performers, and supporters canceled performances or turned away from the Arts Center altogether. Financial support began drying up beginning a downwards cycle. The Kennedy Center was virtually out of money for operations by this month. The Trump appointed Board closed the Center lasted week and announced he would begin “renovations.” One not look much further than the East Wing of the White House or the Reflecting Pool to see what renovations actually look like in terms of what the White House means when it begins a project.

The history of the KC is a splendid tale of how interest in preserving the arts as a living national memorial inspired U.S. allies to gift portions of the construction materials to build a unique memorial, both functionally and artistically.

Italy donated over 3500 tons of white marble sheets which gave the memorial its unique outer appearance. Sweden donated 18 crystal chandeliers which remain hanging from the ceiling of the Grand Foyer. Japan donated the curtains adorning the stage of the Opera House, the second largest room in the Kennedy Center. Weaving the giant red and gold silk curtains required construction of a special hand operated loom, a one of a kind device, no longer in use. Illuminating the Opera House is a the Lobmeyer Crystal chandelier, a centerpiece with 12,000 crystals. France donated Henri Matisse tapestries which hang in the Opera House lobby. An 8-foot bronze bust of John F. Kennedy rises on a white marble pedestal in the Grand Foyer. Cast by Robert Burks, the bust weighs 3000 lbs. The Ministry of Culture of China donated murals which hang in the China Room, which abuts from the Opera House.

Built between 1964 and 1971, the Kennedy Center Memorial first opened on September 8, 1971 in a star-studded event televised nationally. Leonard Bernstein opened the Arts Venue with his production of Mass, a play involving hundreds of performers and dances. That night, hundreds of actors and performers from across the world traveled to Washington DC for the inauguration of the Kennedy Center.

The Kennedy Center was built to be a living memorial to the spirit of artistic creativity and diversity as well as a memorial to 35th President John F. Kennedy. It has since then been expanded with additional buildings near its main hall through the generous donations from many benefactors as well as from allies from around the world.

The post Thousands Join Hands At The Kennedy Center As Word Spreads Of Planned Demolition appeared first on DCMediaGroup.

In the wake of ProPublica’s blockbuster story revealing that a corrupt Russian oligarch paid for Don Jr’s wedding party in May, several things have happened.

“It was everything we dreamed of and more,” his wife later wrote on Instagram.

That dream was heavily funded by a secret benefactor: Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin.

Kremlev footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses, according to records reviewed by ProPublica and interviews with three people familiar with the event. The oligarch paid to rent out one of the private islands, where a reception was held and where guests slept. He also covered other big-ticket items, like the fireworks show, and his team helped plan the event. Kremlev is the head of the International Boxing Association, a scandal-plagued sports group that has been financed by the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom. The wedding payments came from an IBA-affiliated entity in Dubai that the boxing association uses for financial transactions.

The guest list numbered around 50. It included Trump Jr.’s brother-in-law Jared Kushner, Eric Trump — and Kremlev, an imposing man with a shaved head who speaks limited English. The oligarch was part of a large group whose presence puzzled other attendees. They sometimes stood off by themselves, speaking Russian.

“It was really small, like, just really close friends,” Trump Jr. later said on his podcast. “Tried to keep it really tight. And it was just awesome.”

Kremlev’s previously unreported relationship with Trump Jr. represents an extraordinary development: a member of Putin’s circle financially supporting the president’s son and gaining intimate access to the Trump family.

First, Julie Ioffe provided context on who Umar Kremlev is. He’s the bagman for Putin’s bodyguard, Alexei Rubezhnoy.

With Kremlev, things are much more straightforward. He has advertised his proximity to Vladimir Putin, who bestowed several state medals on him. And as the independent outlet Proekt has meticulously documented, he is also the business partner of Alexei Rubezhnoy, the head of Putin’s presidential security service and chief bodyguard. “Kremlev is the ‘wallet’ of the person closest to Putin,” said Mikhail Zygar, the Russian journalist and author of All the Kremlin’s Men, using Russian slang for a front. Even Kremlev’s last name, which he chose for himself in 2010 at the age of 28, says it all: kreml in Russian means Kremlin. His last name literally means “the Kremlin’s.”

Meanwhile, Bettina’s description of Kremlev as “a dear friend” strains credulity. Kremlev, the longtime head of the scandal-plagued International Boxing Association, met Trump Jr. last September, in Istanbul, at an event he organized with Manny Pacquiao. Trump Jr., a boxing fan, appeared on a panel with Kremlev and Pacquiao where he praised Kremlev for fighting “corruption” and returning “purity” to the sport—by which he meant banning transgender women. (Both Pacquiao and Kremlev have taken vociferously anti-LGBT positions in public.)

[snip]

While riding with the Night Wolves, Kremlev met Rubezhnoy, who had risen through an elite F.S.B. unit into the Federal Security Service (F.S.O.), Russia’s analogue of the Secret Service. Both were avid boxers, as was the president they served, who has referred to the sport as “the most spectacular and masculine.” Kremlev became a boxing promoter and, through Rubezhnoy, secured his client, American boxer Roy Jones Jr., an audience with Putin in occupied Crimea. During the meeting, Jones requested—and received—Russian citizenship.

Rubezhnoy soon helped install Kremlev as head of the International Boxing Association, which was bankrolled until recently by Gazprom, the Russian state gas giant. Kremlev built boxing gyms and organized tournaments across Russia and Central Asia. More importantly, he helped lead the charge against the International Olympic Committee to reinstate Russian athletes, barred from competing under their flag because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine and various doping scandals. (International athletic competitions are of utmost importance to Putin.)

[snip]

Although Rubezhnoy is a federal employee with a fixed income, his wealth has been documented in other ways, such as when his wife or daughters buy luxury real estate in Rublyovka, Moscow’s Beverly Hills. And as for those other companies, well, Rubezhnoy doesn’t technically run or own them: Kremlev does.

Then, Trump made a bullshit statement to try to make it go away. Not only did he claim Don Jr had or would pay back the lavish gift, but he insinuated that Don Jr simply didn’t do a background check.

President Donald Trump on Friday claimed his son, Donald Trump Jr., paid back the Russian billionaire who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund parts of Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration in the Bahamas.

“As I understand it, he paid him back,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to Umar Kremlev, the Kremlin-connected businessman who ProPublica reported paid for aspects of the party.

The assertion by Trump is the most serious sign from the administration of possible discomfort with the payment, although the president also said it was common for someone’s friend to pay for a celebration connected to their wedding.

“A person that he knows — I guess, a friend of his — gave him a wedding party. That’s very common. I’ve heard of many people giving wedding parties,” Trump said.

When asked if it was appropriate for Kremlev to fund the celebration, Trump said, “it’s totally allowed” and dismissed concerns about Kremlev’s ties to the Kremlin, saying “maybe (Trump Jr.) didn’t do a background check.”

But it’s not just Don Jr who is supposed to do background checks of the Russians he lets buy him lavish parties.

That’s true for reasons laid out in a different ProPublica story published days after the wedding. Don Jr is no longer just Daddy’s failson. He’s looting the government. More specifically, a company funded by Don Jr investment fund got a $620 million loan from the Defense Department to develop drone magnets, a crucial technology.

When the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan last year to a small North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., defense officials and the company tried to tamp down suspicions of cronyism.

[snip]

In August 2025, Vulcan announced $65 million in investments, including from 1789 Capital, the venture firm that Trump Jr. joined as a partner after his father was elected to a second term. Neither 1789 nor Vulcan has publicly disclosed how much of a stake the venture firm has taken.

Staff in the Office of Strategic Capital learned of the White House request to give a loan to Vulcan around September or October, an official involved said. It’s unclear how the White House request was delivered or if it was presented as an order or a recommendation. Companies considered for funding are generally vetted for many months, the person said, but this deal was completed in a matter of weeks because they were told it was a White House priority.

Asked about the Vulcan deal being expedited, the Pentagon spokesperson said defense officials balance “lightning speed with rigorous diligence to close high-impact deals that directly strengthen America’s defense and empower our warfighters.”

In November, the Pentagon announced its plans to lend $620 million to the company and another $80 million to its partner, ReElement. The company would also get $50 million in incentives from the Commerce Department. In exchange, the government would take a $50 million stake in Vulcan with the right to buy more later.

Vulcan, which at the time had fewer than 50 employees, said it would use the windfall to build a large new facility that would churn out thousands of tons of magnets a year. It said it planned to ramp up in the coming years, adding hundreds of new jobs.

The deal was good news for Vulcan’s investors, including Trump Jr.’s firm. Estimates of Vulcan’s valuation went from around $200 million near the time 1789 Capital first invested, according to Bloomberg, to around $2 billion.

Bloomberg first reported on the importance of Vulcan’s deal in March.

Rare-earth magnets are part of the invisible warp and weft of modern life. They help seat belts fasten, wind turbines spin and missiles launch. But China has long had a choke hold on their production.

Vulcan Elements, a three-year-old startup, aims to build the largest rare-earth magnet factory in the world outside China. These powerful parts—much stronger than the ceramic kind loaded into household appliances—are fashioned from difficult-to-isolate elements and act as a linchpin for satellites, drones, robotics and a range of other defense technologies. Vulcan’s operations will transform a once-mainly agricultural corner of central North Carolina—and, even more, US industrial policy.

Two important changes bolstered Vulcan’s prospects last year. First, a cadre of venture capital firms invested in the company in August. The group included 1789 Capital, a fund that counts the president’s eldest child, Donald Trump Jr., as a partner. Then, three months later, the US government unveiled a deal backing Vulcan with a loan of more than half a billion dollars. Under the terms of the arrangement, the Department of Commerce will also hold a $50 million stake in the company.

Donny acquires his stake in a NatSec critical company in August, he meets his new oligarch handler in September at the same time DOD is considering this deal, in November Donny’s company gets $620 million, and just as this is becoming public, Donny excludes long-term friends from his wedding but instead invites the bagman for Putin’s bodyguard.

This is not just a scandalous failure on Donny’s part (Russia pegged him as the best combination of venal and stupid to get to Trump a decade ago). It’s a scandalous lack of vetting at DOD, to entrust a key national security investment with a guy being bribed by Putin’s closest cronies.

It’s not just Don Jr who needs to answer some questions. So does Whiskey Pete Hegseth.

The post Putin’s Bagman Bought a Party for DOD Drone Contractor Don Jr appeared first on emptywheel.

Statement sought to clarify Trump’s announcement that US will have ‘permanent control’ over Greenland’s security

Denmark and Greenland have said any agreement with the US to develop a significant military presence in the strategic Arctic territory will not compromise Greenland’s sovereignty.

In a statement on Saturday clarifying an announcement by Donald Trump that an agreement had been reached to give Washington “permanent control” ⁠over Greenland’s security, Denmark and the semi-autonomous territory ⁠expressed hope that a deal would end friction with the US over the issue.

President said he was banning journalists from those organizations, saying of their coverage: ‘You get sick of it.’

Journalists from three US outlets were denied access to the White House grounds on Saturday morning a day after Donald Trump said he would ban them from the executive branch complex in a move that has prompted outrage and shock from free-speech advocates.

The outlets were television broadcasters MS Now and CNN as well as the political news website Politico.

The president has threatened to block renovations and suggested the landmark could be demolished after courts ruled against his bid to rename it

It was born with the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. “Young people will come here and they will see this cultural centre,” Rose Kennedy, the mother of slain US president John F Kennedy, said at that opening night gala. “They will carry some of these ideas back to their different communities.”

More than half a century later, the potential death knell came just after 4.30pm on Tuesday with a perfunctory announcement on the public address system: “The centre is now closed to the public. Please exit the centre by way of the Hall of States.” Soon barricades had been erected and security guards were blocking access.

Polls show voters who helped elect president unhappy – and may be willing to vote Democrat in midterms

Hispanic voters who helped re-elect Donald Trump in 2024 are discontented with his second-term economic and immigration policies, according to recent polling – indicating they may not be willing to support the president’s party in the midterm elections.

Despite a record number of Hispanic voters casting their ballots for the Republican president, more than 65% said they are displeased with Trump’s handling of his job and 78% said they would prefer to see the Democratic party in control of Congress, according to a September poll from the New York Times/Siena University.

Fed chair presided over unanimous decision to raise interest rates despite intense campaign from White House

In the end, Kevin Warsh’s Federal Reserve acquitted itself well. For all the uncertainty he had sparked at the previous meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, when he refused to provide any indication of what he was prepared to do to tame stubborn inflation, the chair on Wednesday presided over a unanimous decision to raise interest rates for the first time in three years.

“Today’s action starts to show that we’re serious about this,” he said at the press conference after the meeting, with “this” meaning inflation in excess of the Fed’s 2% target for over five years. Welcome though it was, his embrace of economic orthodoxy nonetheless did little to dispel the Keystone Cops quality of governance in Donald Trump’s US.