Trending
Trump seeks OK to resume
construction of ballroom
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the White House to continue construction on its $400 million ballroom project while it appeals a lower court's order to halt the work.
Chief Justice John Roberts has set a deadline of Tuesday for a response by plaintiffs challenging the ballroom project. Trump's solicitor general on Friday petitioned the high court to suspend last week's decision by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The divided panel ruled last week the Republican president must stop the White House ballroom's construction because Congress has not approved the project.
Suspect arrested in WWII
Memorial vandalism in DC
WASHINGTON -- A suspect has been arrested and will be charged in connection with the vandalism of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall. Melissa L. Farris will be charged with "Depredation Against Property of the United States and Destruction of Veterans' Memorials," according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who announced the arrest on Friday on her X account.
The offenses carry penalties of up to ten years in prison. The Memorial, one of the most popular in Washington, was vandalized with bubbles filling a fountain and "Clean hands dirty $" written in red paint. The vandalism comes weeks after President Donald Trump said the nearby Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was deliberately damaged.
Trump touts lowering of
violent crime at academy
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. -- President Donald Trump has highlighted his record on crime and safety during a visit to New York, pivoting to one of his strongest issues as he looks to boost Republicans in battleground races ahead of the November midterms.
Trump was visiting the Nassau County police academy on Friday in suburban Long Island. But despite the setting and an array of uniformed local police officers behind him on stage, the event was overwhelmingly a political one, with Trump lashing Democrats and promoting his record and his party's candidates.
The new FBI statistics released Friday showed the homicide rate in the United States dropped to the lowest it's been in 75 years. The report on 2025 crime statistics also showed that overall violent crime dropped 9.3% last year.
Planes with the same flight
number avoid disaster
Potential disaster was averted when a Phoenix air traffic controller recognized two American Airlines jets mistakenly were flying the same flight number and acted quickly to avoid confusion and keep them a safe distance apart. Audio of the incident shortly after midnight Friday shows how he found a solution to ensure the planes that were both called American 2482 maintained proper separation as one plane arrived from Chicago shortly after the other had taken off in Phoenix.
Normally the same plane flies both legs of the round trip, but American employed a second plane after the flight out of Chicago was delayed. The incident will be investigated.
UAE tankers attacked while
transiting Strait of Hormuz
The United Arab Emirates has blamed Iran for firing drones at two tankers operated by a state-owned oil company in the Strait of Hormuz.
The attacks, described as acts of piracy, caused no casualties but highlighted the dangers in this critical waterway. The UAE's Foreign Ministry called on Friday the attacks a violation of the United Nations' principles of freedom of navigation.
Meanwhile, activists marched through the occupied West Bank to bring food and water to Palestinians under siege by Israeli settlers. In Yemen, the military claimed to have thwarted Houthi attacks amid ongoing fighting.
The Associated Press