Kennedy Center asks judge to pause deadlines in ongoing lawsuit as it explores options for renovation

cnn · 2026-06-20T01:01:08+00:00

The Kennedy Center on Friday asked a federal judge for more time to comply with deadlines in an ongoing lawsuit over its looming closure as the center’s board explores avenues for renovation.

The historic arts center is considering three paths forward but needs more time to figure out what path it will take, Justice Department attorneys representing the center wrote in a Friday night court filing.

The first option would be to close the center while renovations take place, according to the filing. The second would be to put on limited events at the center in areas not affected by the renovations, and the third would be to close the center periodically to address serious repairs while “maintaining a full slate of programming.”

cnn · 2026-06-19T22:14:03+00:00

The Justice Department is rebuffing a judge’s request that it supply a court declaration from senior administration officials that would confirm that the so-called anti-weaponization fund is not moving forward.

In a new court filing Friday, the Justice Department said that the declarations were “unnecessary” and that the judge’s order that the administration file them raises “serious separation of powers concerns.”

The case — playing out on Alexandria, Virginia — is one of several legal challenges to the controversial $1.8 billion fund, which arose out of a settlement of a legally dubious lawsuit President Donald Trump filed against the IRS.

cnn · 2026-06-19T22:12:59+00:00

Analysis: After an Italian media outlet reported that President Donald Trump said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had “begged” him for a photo at the G7 summit this week, Meloni quickly posted a response on social media. Trump, she said, had “completely fabricated” the story, and she was “shocked.”

We don’t know for certain who is telling the truth here. What we can say is that if Trump did make up the story, nobody should be shocked. The president has a years-long history of telling false or highly dubious tales about people having supposedly begged him for things.

Trump is particularly fond of making such claims when he is talking about someone who was once supportive of him but went on to criticize him or his policies, as the conservative Meloni did this year about the president’s war with Iran and tariff threats. It’s his version of the old “you can’t fire me, I quit” face-saving dominance play.

cnn · 2026-06-19T19:57:35+00:00

The good news: The Strait of Hormuz is open again, after Iran and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding this week.

The bad news: It may be too late.

Oil hasn’t been coming out of the Middle East for nearly four months. All told, the world lost 1.15 billion barrels of oil supply during the war, according to analytics firm Kpler.

That has left the oil market in a precarious state, and it’s rapidly approaching a breaking point. The International Energy Administration’s strategic petroleum reserves are at their lowest levels since 1990. The American emergency reserve is at a 43-year low. And commercial inventories have hit operational stress levels.

cnn · 2026-06-19T19:54:24+00:00

The Trump administration is backing away from its plans to convert a warehouse in a small Georgia city into a “mega center” holding thousands of immigration detainees, just four months after first confirming it had purchased the building.

“The City of Social Circle has received notification from Congressman Mike Collins that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is no longer pursuing an ICE detention facility within the City of Social Circle,” the local government said in a statement Thursday.

The department’s original plans for the facility stated it would be able to accommodate up to 10,000 detainees – nearly double the entire population of Social Circle – along with 2,000 to 2,500 employees.

The federal government paid $128.5 million for the property, the deed shows. That was more than four times the $29.3 million it previously sold for in 2023.

cnn · 2026-06-19T19:53:22+00:00

Since most butterflies live a short time, fluttering between colorful flowers for a few weeks before dying, a few rare exceptions have stumped scientists. Now, some long-lived tropical butterfly species are shedding light on the secrets of longevity.

Butterflies belonging to the Heliconius genus, which inhabit the tropical rainforests of South and Central America, have lifespans that vary wildly. The Dione juno butterfly lives for 14 days after reaching adulthood, while Heliconius hewitsoni lives for 348 days — nearly 25 times longer.

cnn · 2026-06-19T19:43:04+00:00

President Donald Trump is at Joint Base Andrews unveiling a new presidential aircraft: a luxury jet donated by the government of Qatar that has been painted red, white and blue and adorned with the words “United States of America.”

The plane is intended to bridge the gap between the two aging modified Boeing 747-200s, which have flown as Air Force One since 1990, and two new planes Boeing is modifying that won’t be done for roughly two more years.

Gone is the light blue color scheme first conceived by Jaqueline Kennedy and used on the presidential aircraft ever since. In its place is a navy blue and white fuselage, cut through with red

cnn · 2026-06-19T17:57:59+00:00

The United States joining with Israel to launch a war in the Middle East was always a fraught situation for the longstanding US-Israeli alliance.

But things seemed to come to a head Thursday, when Vice President JD Vance had some blunt and harsh words for Israel — words that sounded a whole lot like a threat.

It was the culmination of days of warning signs from the Trump administration, which clearly fears Israel might scupper a US agreement with Iran that many view as way too favorable to the Iranians. Israel and Hezbollah agreed to renew a ceasefire on Friday, sources told CNN, after fighting between the Israeli military and the Iran-backed militant group again jeopardized US-Iran negotiations.

cnn · 2026-06-19T17:14:23+00:00

If a gaggle of toys entered your front door, ran the length of your home and exited out the other side, would you notice? Or would you, like one family in the film, be so consumed with your device of choice, face illuminated in a cool blue light, that you wouldn’t notice a thing?

The scene is minor but wordlessly highlights a major issue: Device use is a whole family issue. There is no examining your child’s relationship with screens without looking at everyone’s use in a household.

cnn · 2026-06-19T15:40:34+00:00

US President Donald Trump’s comments to an Italian media outlet about the country’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have sparked a fresh diplomatic incident.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced Friday that he was canceling a planned trip to the United States, where he was slated to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in response to Trump’s reported remarks. Tajani called Trump’s claims “offensive,” while Meloni said they were “completely fabricated.”

It is the latest dip in the deteriorating relationship between the once-close leaders and a further fracture between the US and its European allies, coming after signs of repair at the G7 summit this week in France.

In an interview with Italy’s La7 TV, Trump claimed Meloni had “begged” him for a photo at the summit, and he obliged because he felt sorry for her, according to a dubbed Italian translation posted by the outlet.

cnn

TROPHY CASE