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The Iran war and the billion‑dollar fund for Trump’s allies are eroding the president’s grip on Republicans in Congress

The vote in the House of Representatives on Wednesday to limit Donald Trump’s authority to continue his war in Iran will not bring that conflict to an end. But it does represent a symbolic setback for the U.S. president on an issue — the Middle East — that has become, both domestically and in foreign policy, the most painful stone in the shoe of his return to the White House. Meanwhile, the weeks go by and, with the peace deal with Tehran stalled, it seems clear that Washington has no idea how to extract itself from a quagmire of its own making.

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© Alex Brandon (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump on Wednesday in the Oval Office displays a chart comparing the length of the Lincoln Memorial pool with the height of iconic skyscrapers.
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The order to remove Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center leaves the institution’s closure in limbo

Since his return to the White House, Donald Trump has put into practice that old maxim that it’s better to ask for forgiveness than for permission — except that the president of the United States never apologizes. The order issued on Friday by a federal judge in Washington to remove the Republican’s name from the Kennedy Center (KC), the capital’s major center of music and opera that Trump renamed without permission, has left the cultural institution in a state of uncertainty after more than a year of political meddling from the White House.

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© Kevin Lamarque (REUTERS)

A worker placed Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center’s façade in December.
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Trump, mayor (and emperor) of Washington

Portrait of Trump on a sign that last week covered works at the roundabout in front of the train station.

Rare is the day Washington residents do not wake up to a new jolt courtesy of U.S. President Donald Trump. And it is not only — though it is also — because of the war with Iran, his use of the press to poison public opinion, or his disrespectful posts on Truth Social. It is because of the unilateral renovations that Trump is undertaking in the U.S. capital, like a mayor with unlimited budget and power, like a Roman emperor or a king obsessed with a city.

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Works in the park facing the north side of the White House.Renovation of the pond in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.National Guard soldiers deployed by order of Trump in front of the Lincoln Memorial in WashingtonBanner bearing the president’s face unfurled over the Department of Justice.Meridian Hill Park in Washington, where fountains and pools are flowing again.'King of the World,' a statue depicting Trump and Epstein, installed in March in front of the Capitol.
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Secrets, UFOs, and smokescreens: Why Washington is obsessed with extraterrestrials

Stephen Bassett, ufologist, political activist and lobbyist, in Washington, May 14.

Let’s start with the proven facts: Disclosure Day is the most anticipated film of the summer. Its director and screenwriter, Steven Spielberg, revealed details about its plot this week on one of Stephen Colbert’s final shows: he says it tells the story of the theft by officials, “committed to the truth,” of all information held by the government “about UFOs and extraterrestrial visits,” and the system’s desperate attempts to prevent it being revealed.

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Front pages of the 'Roswell Daily Record' for July 9 and 10, 1947.Emily Blunt, in a promotional still from Steven Spielberg's film ‘Disclosure Day.’Screening of the documentary ‘The Age of Disclosure’ at the Capitol for members of Congress.Dan Farah, director and producer of ‘The Age of Disclosure,’ alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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Faustino Oro: The second-youngest chess grandmaster in history

Faustino Oro during the Chess World Cup in Goa, India, in November 2025.

Three years and four months after Alejandro Oro and Romina Simondi resigned from their well‑paid jobs as accounting experts in Argentina and moved to Spain to boost their son’s chess career, Faustino Oro has inscribed his name in a very special chapter of chess history. He has earned the grandmaster title — more demanding than a black belt in judo — at 12 years, six months, and 26 days. He is the second‑youngest of all time, surpassed only by the U.S. player of Indian descent Abhimanyu Mishra, who set the record by two months.

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Oro and Pepe Cuenca discuss one of the games from the second semi-final of the Magistral Ciudad de León tournament, held last July at the León Auditorium.
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Welcome to r/bald, providing an online safe space for receding hairlines for over 15 years

Last year, The Cut announced in an article written by journalist Cat Zhang that being bald was — finally — cool. “Just when it became normal to drop five figures on a thicker hairline, a new cultural vanguard rose up and said: “Fuck it, we bald,’” she asserted.

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© James Devaney (GC Images / Getty Images)

Stanley Tucci during the filming of ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ last August.
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