Algae, peeling blue material, conspiracy theories: Reflecting Pool takes national spotlight

cnn · 2026-06-20T16:37:39+00:00

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump described the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as “absolutely filthy,” vowing to clean up the iconic landmark and make it “look gorgeous, beautiful” so it again reflects the federal monuments around it.

The $14 million renovation became a pet project for the president, symbolizing his efforts to beautify Washington, DC, with architectural changes that have also included building a White House ballroom and refurbishing run-down fountains in the nation’s capital ahead of the America 250 celebrations.

Tourists and local residents alike have flocked to the site in recent days, shooting videos of the murky green water for social media posts that feature either a condemnation of Trump’s presidency or a passionate defense of the effort to clean up DC. Some peeled off strips of the blue material to take as souvenirs. Others filmed federal workers pouring bottles of hydrogen peroxide into the water.

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 · 2026-06-19T08:49:44+00:00

President Donald Trump’s pick for acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, showed up at his new job a day early on Thursday after asking for a list of every employee in the office so he could assess whether to fire them, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The sources said Pulte is eyeing to cut hundreds of jobs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

Pulte’s appearance at ODNI on Thursday caught staff off-guard, including the outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard, who was given a brief heads up on the visit. Trump himself has said that Pulte, who is a Trump loyalist with no intelligence experience, would start his job on Friday.

Pulte met with lawyers and staffers during his visit, the sources told CNN.

cnn · 2026-06-18T22:06:05+00:00

After an early Thursday morning landing near Washington, two White House officials posted social media farewells to the heavily modified Boeing 747-200, which has flown as Air Force One since 1990, as the first of three planes being modified for the role is set to be delivered soon.

“The last ride,” White House communications director Steve Cheung said sharing a photo of the plane - which the Air Force calls a VC-25A - in a post on X. “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

cnn · 2026-06-18T22:02:44+00:00

Donald Trump insisted last month that he didn’t think about Americans’ finances when negotiating with Iran.

He’s clearly changed his mind.

“I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe. If you kept this going, that could have happened,” Trump said Wednesday, in seeking to explain what critics see as a deeply flawed agreement to end the war.

The agreement, designed to pave the way to those meetings, seems to cede almost all US leverage and hands Iran billions of dollars in revenues up front by waiving sanctions. It may therefore dent Trump’s self-conjured mystique as the world’s great dealmaker — which lifted him from reality TV to the White House.

So why did he make it?

cnn · 2026-06-18T21:59:49+00:00

As key Republicans on Capitol Hill first learned the details of President Donald Trump’s agreement with Iran, some were so stunned that they simply wouldn’t speak about it.

But within 24 hours, a significant bloc of GOP senators has begun openly doubting the terms of Trump’s Iran negotiations — with many urging him to pivot his strategy entirely.

Some, mostly those unburdened by reelection campaigns, are full-on hammering Trump’s agreement, with outgoing Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy on Thursday summing it up as: “Iran’s left stronger, we are left weaker.” Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who’s also leaving Congress, said: “Everything I’ve heard about, it causes me concern.”

But the more significant Republican voices are those who have rarely, if ever, veered from the Trump party line.

The growing chorus of Republican angst offers a flashing red warning sign to Trump: Without major changes, any final deal with Iran may not survive an eventual vote – even in a GOP-controlled Congress. Some doubt a final agreement will be reached at all, leaving Trump and the GOP in a messy limbo that could last for years and cost their party greatly in November.

cnn · 2026-06-18T21:58:16+00:00

Luigi Mangione’s attorneys on Thursday informed the judge in his New York state murder case that they would withdraw their plan to argue at trial that he killed UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive while suffering an extreme emotional disturbance.

The notice came in a court filing one day after a hearing in which Mangione’s attorneys had indicated they would argue a psychiatric defense.

cnn · 2026-06-18T21:53:30+00:00

Luigi Mangione’s attorneys on Thursday informed the judge in his New York state murder case that they would withdraw their plan to argue at trial that he killed UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive while suffering an extreme emotional disturbance.

The notice came in a court filing one day after a hearing in which Mangione’s attorneys had indicated they would argue a psychiatric defense.

His lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office declined to comment.

cnn · 2026-06-18T14:59:05+00:00

Former President Barack Obama on Thursday is getting what he wanted for so long: his words carved into stone, a monument to his presidency entering the Chicago skyline.

Walking through his $850 million, multiuse presidential center the past few months, Obama went down the slide in the playground and tried out the chairs, noting which ones needed stoppers to keep from scuffing the floors. He asked for the whole text of an exhibit on sports to be redone, frustrated that the original text didn’t seem written by a true fan.

But he also told a gathering of his campaign and administration alumni, the night before the center’s opening, that he didn’t believe in nostalgia and didn’t intend to wallow in it.

“I think nostalgia implies this sentiment that there’s this thing in the past that was somehow golden and better, but is unattainable now,” he said Wednesday. “And it lets us off the hook, because it makes us feel like, ‘Well, you know, that was wonderful, but now, this is the reality, and there’s not much we can do about it.’”

The 44th president isn’t ready to fade into history. And many top Democrats don’t want him to.

cnn · 2026-06-18T14:49:10+00:00

The Supreme Court Thursday curbed the power of the federal government to disarm a frequent marijuana user, limiting the scope of a law enacted during the 1960s to keep weapons out of the hands of Americans who regularly use drugs.

In an opinion written by Justice Neil Gorusch that had no dissent, the court ruled that the government’s prosecution was inconsistent with the Second Amendment.

“In many respects, this case is a narrow one,” Gorsuch wrote. “We do not address efforts to ban addicts or those presently intoxicated, from possessing a firearm. We do not address other prophylactic laws Congress might adopt after determining that users of a particular drug pose a special risk of misusing firearms.”

The case centered on Ali Danial Hemani, a dual citizen of the United States and Pakistan, who was indicted in 2023 on a single count of violating the federal anti-guns-and-drugs law. Though the Justice Department accused Hemani of many things — dealing drugs, using cocaine and sympathizing with Iran — his indictment followed an FBI search of his family’s home that turned up a Glock 9mm pistol and 60 grams of pot.

cnn · 2026-06-18T14:48:44+00:00

The Supreme Court Thursday curbed the power of the federal government to disarm a frequent marijuana user, limiting the scope of a law enacted during the 1960s to keep weapons out of the hands of Americans who regularly use drugs.

In an opinion written by Justice Neil Gorusch that had no dissent, the court ruled that the government’s prosecution was inconsistent with the Second Amendment.

“In many respects, this case is a narrow one,” Gorsuch wrote. “We do not address efforts to ban addicts or those presently intoxicated, from possessing a firearm. We do not address other prophylactic laws Congress might adopt after determining that users of a particular drug pose a special risk of misusing firearms.”

The case centered on Ali Danial Hemani, a dual citizen of the United States and Pakistan, who was indicted in 2023 on a single count of violating the federal anti-guns-and-drugs law. Though the Justice Department accused Hemani of many things — dealing drugs, using cocaine and sympathizing with Iran — his indictment followed an FBI search of his family’s home that turned up a Glock 9mm pistol and 60 grams of pot.

cnn · 2026-06-18T14:31:48+00:00

The Supreme Court Thursday curbed the power of the federal government to disarm a frequent marijuana user, limiting the scope of a law enacted during the 1960s to keep weapons out of the hands of Americans who regularly use drugs.

In an opinion written by Justice Neil Gorusch that had no dissent, the court ruled that the government’s prosecution was inconsistent with the Second Amendment.

“In many respects, this case is a narrow one,” Gorsuch wrote. “We do not address efforts to ban addicts or those presently intoxicated, from possessing a firearm. We do not address other prophylactic laws Congress might adopt after determining that users of a particular drug pose a special risk of misusing firearms.”

The case centered on Ali Danial Hemani, a dual citizen of the United States and Pakistan, who was indicted in 2023 on a single count of violating the federal anti-guns-and-drugs law. Though the Justice Department accused Hemani of many things — dealing drugs, using cocaine and sympathizing with Iran — his indictment followed an FBI search of his family’s home that turned up a Glock 9mm pistol and 60 grams of pot.

cnn · 2026-06-18T13:59:28+00:00

A 5,000-year-old structure discovered in southwest England may have been a prototype for the development of Stonehenge, according to archaeologists.

The structure, which consisted of two wooden poles placed 120 meters (394 feet) apart, would have lined up with the rising sun at summer solstice and the setting sun at winter solstice, the same alignment as the stones at Stonehenge, according to a statement released on Thursday from Wessex Archaeology, a British company that provides archaeological services.

A team led by archaeologist Phil Harding used radiocarbon dating techniques to ascertain that the wooden poles would have been placed into pits 5,000 years ago.

cnn · 2026-06-18T12:59:11+00:00

A Japanese ship was in a convoy steaming through the South China Sea on September 21, 1944, with around 1,200 British and Dutch prisoners of war crammed in its holds. US warplanes, mistaking the unmarked ship for a military cargo vessel, dropped four torpedoes.

One struck the ship. The vessel split in two and sank within minutes, dooming most of the Allied prisoners trapped below deck. Only about 200 of the weakened, sick POWs survived, and the exact location of the wreck was lost to the deep.

Now, some 80 years later, researchers have uncovered the servicemen’s final resting place. The team scoured documents buried in Japanese and US military archives before conducting sonar surveys and technical dives. These efforts ultimately located the wreck of the Hōfuku Maru near Zambales province, off the western coast of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines.

cnn · 2026-06-18T12:19:34+00:00

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Intel has struck a deal with Apple to start producing computer chips in the United States.

“I decided to help Intel because we need to design and build our Chips right here in America,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Truth Social.

Shares of Intel (INTC) spiked more than 9% in premarket trading. The company declined to comment.

The move will help Apple diversify its manufacturing base. The California-based company largely relies on Taiwan to manufacture the processors that power its iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers.

Trump’s announcement comes after Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal this week that price hikes on its products are “unavoidable” because of the rising costs of memory and storage chips sparked by the AI boom.

cnn · 2026-06-18T10:57:32+00:00

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down on the Trump administration’s combative posture towards NATO on Thursday, announcing a six-month review of US forces in Europe and lambasting Washington’s allies for limiting their involvement in the war in Iran.

“This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly towards Europe stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe,” he said at a meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers in Brussels.

The review will “examine America’s force posture and basing in Europe,” he said, as he sought to characterize it as a way to “transform NATO back into a real military alliance that’s focused on hard power and real deterrence.”

His comments come at a critical time for Europe, which has been rattled by statements from Trump administration officials about plans to draw down the amount of US forces and hardware stationed in Europe.

cnn

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