Trump admin ramps up effort to strip citizenship from naturalized Americans

2026-06-18 5:45 PM EDT / CNN Politics

Trump admin ramps up effort to strip citizenship from naturalized Americans

The Lead

https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/18/politics/video/birthright-citizenship-denaturalization-supreme-court-lead-tapper

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez reports for The Lead.

2:25 • Source: CNN

66岁的袁松彪（Chung Biu Yuen，音译）涉嫌协助外国情报机构罪名，星期四被判监八年。图为袁松彪5月6日在伦敦出庭作证。 （路透社）

两名男子因被裁定为中国从事间谍活动、监视居住在英国的民主运动人士，被判处最高长达10年的监禁。

综合路透社和英国广播公司（BBC）报道，英国伦敦一名法官星期四（6月18日）以协助外国情报机构罪名，判处66岁的袁松彪（Chung Biu Yuen，音译）八年监禁。

41岁的卫志良（Chi Leung Wai，音译）则因相同罪名，外加在担任英国边防部队官员期间公职人员行为失当的指控，一共获刑十年。

41岁的卫志良（Chi Leung Wai，音译）星期四被指控涉嫌协助外国情报机构罪，外加担任英国边防部队官员期间公职人员行为失当，一共获刑十年。（路透社）

审理此案的格鲁布（Cheema-Grubb）法官在法庭上说，两人的行为是“蓄意、协同且严重的”，涉及“影子警务行动”。她指出，他们造成了“真实而重大”的伤害，使被针对的目标陷入恐惧与痛苦之中。

根据法庭文件，被判刑的两人拥有中英双重国籍。

检察官指出，曾在香港驻伦敦经济贸易办事处担任办公经理的袁松彪，接受了香港当局的指示，指派卫志良和私家侦探特里基特（Matthew Trickett）对居住在英国的异见人士进行间谍活动与监视。证据显示，袁松彪为这些任务向卫志良和特里基特支付了报酬。

检察官指控，卫志良涉嫌利用职务之便，访问英国内政部的计算机系统，为联系人追踪目标人物的下落。

2024年，这三名男子根据英国《国家安全法》被起诉。然而在被控一周后，特里基特被发现死于伦敦郊外的一个公园内，死因疑似自杀。

伦敦反恐警察部门负责人、指挥官弗拉纳根（Helen Flanagan）表示：“这起案件应对任何可能从事私人调查工作的人起到严厉的警示作用：你必须非常确定，自己所做的一切绝非是在为外国政府效力。”

英国安全事务国务大臣伊格尔（Angela Eagle）说，政府“将继续追究中国的责任，并针对任何危及我国人民安全的行为采取行动”，这其中包括香港警方发布通缉令和悬赏金的行为。

判决下达后，中国驻英国大使馆未立即回应置评请求。此前，在陪审团于5月7日裁定两人有罪时，中国驻英国大使馆发言人曾发表声明称，此案是一场旨在为潜藏在英国的反华分子撑腰打气的“政治操弄”。

香港政府发言人则称，相关定罪涉及“毫无根据的指控和抹黑”，并指责英方基于“无端指控”发起该案，“滥用法律和操纵司法程序以确保定罪”。

间谍指控屡次导致英中关系紧张。最近，英国警方逮捕了三名男子，其中包括一名工党国会议员的丈夫，理由是涉嫌为中国从事间谍活动。

Air Force unit in Texas faces flu outbreak weeks after vaccine requirement dropped

June 18, 2026 / 5:54 PM EDT / CBS News

Dozens of service members at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas have fallen ill with the flu in the weeks since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rescinded the vaccine mandate, sources familiar confirmed to CBS News.

“Over the last three weeks, the 37th Training Wing, in close coordination with the 59th Medical Wing, has been managing a localized influenza outbreak among trainees at Basic Military Training,” an Air Force spokesperson told CBS News in a statement.

The New York Times first reported on the outbreak at the training wing in Texas.

The unit has implemented mitigation measures to isolate and treat symptomatic trainees, according to the Air Force spokesperson, and is monitoring trainees who may have been exposed. The trainees who are symptomatic are receiving antiviral medications such as Tamiflu.

In April, Hegseth issued a memo that rescinded the decades-long mandate and said in an accompanying video that the Pentagon was “seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our warfighting capability.”

In a statement on Thursday, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said that under the updated guidance, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness granted exceptions to this policy for the departments of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and National Security Agency and Defense Health Agency if there were needs to make the vaccine mandatory.

“The decisions were based upon thorough risk assessments and are designed to maximize operational readiness, lethality, and force generation, while safeguarding at-risk populations. The Army, Navy, Air Force, NSA, and DHA are responsible for implementing the ETPs,” Parnell said in the statement, referring to exceptions to policy. “The Department remains committed to the health and readiness of our warfighters and civilian personnel.”

The sources familiar confirmed that only about 40% of Air Force trainees have opted to take the flu vaccine since the mandate was rescinded.

The 37th Training Wing at Lackland is the largest training wing in the Air Force and provides the basic military training of all enlisted recruits entering the Air Force, Space Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, according to an Air Force fact sheet.

On Wednesday, the unit in a release said Keon McDaniel, a trainee who was in his sixth week of basic military training, died following a medical emergency. He died June 16 at Brooke Army Medical Center, where he had been transported on June 12 for care related to the emergency.

The cause of the medical emergency is currently under investigation, the release said.

Secret US-Iran proposals reveal fragile path toward broader nuclear deal

2026-06-18T20:11:14.125Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/18/politics/secret-us-iran-proposals

• The US and Iran have been developing secret written proposals to implement their recent 14-point memorandum of understanding, sources say.
• The proposals include details on Iran’s nuclear program, but Iran has not signed any additional documents beyond the original MOU.
• Critics say the secret negotiations mirror the Obama-era approach that Trump once criticized as secret side deals with Iran.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

The US and Iran have been working on laying out secret proposals for implementing the 14 points that were signed this week, including details on how to address the future of Iran’s nuclear program, according to three US officials familiar with the negotiations, a regional official, and one former US official.

In response to a question from CNN on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance indicated that at least some of what administration officials have been calling “gentleman’s agreements” with Iran that go beyond the memorandum of understanding are written agreements.

But the sources emphasized that they are far from final. Iran has not signed any additional documents, as it did the 14-point memorandum of understanding, raising questions about whether the administration has overstated the commitments it has extracted from Iran and further emphasizing how quickly the fragile political effort to reach a final deal could fall apart.

“Some of them are written down, but fundamentally, whether they’re written down or spoken, this is why we structured the deal that we did, because we don’t trust words, we trust action, and we trust conduct, and so we’re going to reward conduct, and we’re not going to reward any words, whether they’re written on a sheet of paper or not,” Vance said.

US negotiators opted to move forward with releasing the signed MOU, without waiting for Iran’s senior leadership to sign off on the more detailed proposals on how to implement the 14 points, in part, because they did not want to delay the next phase of negotiations, according to one of the sources who is familiar with what Trump officials briefed to top congressional lawmakers.

It would have required additional time to secure Iran’s formal sign off on those still-secret proposals, so the US side decided to move forward with just releasing the signed MOU and working through the rest of the details during subsequent talks, the source said.

While the Trump officials told lawmakers they are not aware of any “side deals” related to the MOU, they did acknowledge that there are some relevant documents that have not been publicly released — including a “letter from the Iranian government” inviting the head of the IAEA to conduct inspections, begin work on uncovering where the enriched material is located and giving the international agency approval to invite American nuclear experts to join the process, the source added.

CNN asked the Iranian mission to the UN for comment on the letter.

CNN was unable to learn many details of the contents of the working proposals. The regional official described the written-down portions of the proposals as “working” documents that both sides have agreed to formalize as a next step. The sources said they include more specifics on what US negotiators are pursuing as the way forward for talks on Iran’s nuclear program, among other issues. A 60-day period of technical talks is slated to begin on Thursday.

“There are discussions on next steps but there are no finalized agreements beyond the MOU, and the U.S. negotiating team hopes to reach more agreements in the upcoming talks,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said in a statement to CNN.

But the mere existence of these secret proposals highlights the incredibly narrow path of maneuver that US negotiators have to reach a deal that will allow both sides, at least publicly, to claim victory — underscoring the possibility that the two sides may never be able to reach an agreement that goes beyond the relatively vague terms of the MOU.

It may also offer critics of President Donald Trump’s Iran strategy further ammunition to suggest he is doing exactly what he railed against then-President Barack Obama for doing in 2015, when Obama struck the original nuclear deal that Trump tore up in 2018. At the time, Republicans railed against what they termed “secret side deals.” Congress even passed a law requiring any nuclear agreement with Iran, including any side deal or spoken understanding, be submitted to the Hill.

Included in the auxiliary proposals is some mutual understanding around the question of whether Iran will be allowed to continue to enrich uranium at any level, according to the sources — a key point of not only technical contention during the original negotiations but among the most controversial political issues in the domestic imbroglio surrounding the deal.

Trump officials have argued that the MOU and the associated “gentleman’s agreements” surrounding it are “performance-based,” designed only to reward Iran for good behavior; critics have said that it provides Iran immediate benefits in the form of sanctions relief without any enforceable agreement on concessions on its nuclear program or other US priorities.

The decision to keep the proposals secret is almost certainly aimed at avoiding domestic political embarrassment for either side in the service of allowing a deal to go forward, noted arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis. Much of the relevant technical information that any potential deal might contemplate was already made public under the original nuclear deal President Barack Obama struck with Iran in 2015, he said.

“There is no national security reason to keep secret the kind of information that was public under the JCPOA,” Lewis said. “The devil is in the details and somebody does not want us to see one of the devils.”

A senior US official on Wednesday said that “the motto that we want to have with this deal is no side deals, full transparency.”

Trump has been particularly sensitive to any suggestion that the tentative deal he has struck with Iran bears any comparison to the 2015 Obama deal.

“The Obuma Deal was a road to a Nuclear weapon for Iran, cash and all, one of the worst and dumbest (hence Dumocrats!) Deals ever made by the U.S.,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday. “Our Deal is a WALL against Iran ever having a Nuclear weapon, the complete opposite of Obuma.”

In 2018, when he withdrew the United States from that agreement, he said in a speech that it “lifted crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for very weak limits on the regime’s nuclear activity.”

But at least so far, Trump has not, in fact, reached a nuclear agreement with Iran. The proposals –- the “gentleman’s agreements” — have yet to be signed, according to the regional source and one of the US officials.

In 2015, Lewis said, negotiators found “extraordinary technical solutions to let both parties claim victory. It was remarkable that there was any trade space to be found.”

Without public access to the negotiating parameters laid out in the proposals, it’s not clear how Trump will be able to thread the same needle that will be substantively different than the agreement Obama struck in 2015.

It’s possible that negotiators are never able to reach a final agreement — much less in the 60-day period stipulated by the MOU. The primary function of the MOU may simply be the cessation of hostilities in Iran, rather than fulfilling any grander ambitions of setting the conditions for a nuclear deal.

Both sides have drawn such firm public red lines around dealing with the other that any meaningful compromise may now be out of reach — or, Lewis suggested, too politically damaging domestically to make public.

If negotiators want to reach a final deal, “Someone has to eat shit,” he said. “Which makes sense why you would want to classify.”

Dems raked in millions from employees at firms newly identified as ‘Chinese military companies’

June 18, 2026 6:00pm EDT / Fox News

Senior employees at Alibaba, Baidu and BYD donated roughly $2.6M to Democratic committees since 2020

By Robert Schmad Fox News

Fox News’ Bryan Llenas reports that Chinese government communist agent Harry Lu Jianwang has donated up to $32,000 to top Democratic leaders since 2006.

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Democrats, among them some of the most recognizable names in politics, have accepted millions of dollars in campaign contributions from top employees at firms the Pentagon recently designated as “Chinese military companies” operating in the U.S.

The Department of War on June 8 designated Alibaba, Baidu and BYD as “Chinese military companies,” meaning that the three firms, in the eyes of the U.S. government, are providing assistance to the People’s Liberation Army through its military-civil fusion strategy or other means. Senior employees at these companies, including executives, have donated roughly $2.6 million to Democratic political committees since 2020, a Fox News Digital review of campaign finance filings has found.

Notable individuals and organizations that received contributions from top staffers at these firms include Sen. Adam Schiff, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, former President Joe Biden, Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic National Committee.

Donors to Democratic committees from the trio of firms include executives, top-level lawyers, lobbyists and, to a much lesser extent, rank-and-file employees working in areas such as engineering or management. The staffers made some contributions to Republicans as well, though the overall sum was far lower than what Democrats received.

PLATNER’S ANTI-CORPORATE CRUSADE HITS AWKWARD SNAG AS RECEIPTS TELL ANOTHER STORY

Rep. Nancy Pelosi speaks to members of the media after a classified briefing on TikTok at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 12, 2024.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The review included direct contributions, earmarked contributions and donations to joint-fundraising committees reported in campaign finance filings. It did not identify corporate donations from Alibaba, Baidu or BYD to the federal committees.

“American politicians should no longer accept campaign cash from any Chinese companies. Politicians who have been taking campaign cash from companies like Baidu, Alibaba and BYD now realize they were supported by blacklisted Chinese Military Companies,” Michael Lucci, CEO of the national security organization State Armor, told Fox News Digital. “The reason the Pentagon’s list of sanctioned CCP companies keeps expanding is because the Chinese Communist Party imposes a ‘civil-military fusion’ mandate upon all Chinese companies, forcing them to assist in modernizing China’s military with the goal of defeating America.”

“They all end up working to support the PLA. They should all be cut off from U.S. politics,” he added.

The Pentagon’s Chinese military company designation via its 1260H list does not function as a traditional sanction, as Americans can continue to do business with the company.

Biden-linked committees and joint fundraising vehicles were by far the biggest beneficiaries of the funds, taking in roughly $850,000 from employees at the trio of firms between 2020 and 2024. The DNC, meanwhile, had a haul of around $500,000 while Harris-linked committees brought in roughly $140,000.

TOP CALIFORNIA DEM RUNNING FOR OFFICE TIED TO CHINESE SCHOOL ACCUSED OF US DIPLOMA SCANDAL

Former first lady Dr. Jill Biden gave an update on former President Joe Biden’s cancer on Saturday, saying that the 83-year-old will live with cancer for the rest of his life, he maintains a busy schedule but has slowed down.(Grant Baldwin/Getty Images)

Various state Democratic parties also received five-figure support from employees at Baidu, BYD and Alibaba. Newsom, per state campaign finance records, accepted $50,000 from an executive at BYD, an electric-vehicle manufacturer that his administration later awarded a contract.

Fox News Digital reached the offices of Biden, Harris, Schiff, Pelosi, Newsom and the DNC on Sunday for comment and has not heard back as of publishing.

Pentagon officials are legally required to release a list of what it determines to be Chinese military companies every year. The first such list was released in June 2021 under President Joe Biden.

The Pentagon’s 1260H list identifies Chinese companies the Defense Department says are “Chinese military companies” operating directly or indirectly in the United States. Required by the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, the list is intended to warn U.S. businesses and investors about firms tied to China’s military-civil fusion strategy, though inclusion does not automatically trigger sanctions.

New defense laws, however, have given the list more bite in recent years.

The Pentagon will be barred from directly contracting with companies on the list starting June 30 and is currently banned from contracting with companies who lobby on behalf 1260H-listed firms. In 2027, the ban will be expanded to prevent indirect procurement of goods manufactured by Chinese military companies through supply chain intermediaries.

WALL STREET BANKS HELPED CHINESE MILITARY-LINKED FIRM RAISE BILLIONS DESPITE RED FLAGS, LAWMAKERS FIND

Former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during her “107 Days” book tour at the Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in downtown Miami.(Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

While Alibaba, Baidu and BYD only recently earned formal designations as Chinese military companies, their links to the CCP have been widely reported for years.

The Wall Street Journal, for instance, reported in 2017 that Alibaba was assisting the Chinese government in its surveillance efforts against dissidents, and Chinese state media reported in 2018 that the firm had a large CCP presence within it. Some sources within the company told Reuters in 2019 that the firm had developed an app designed specifically to increase ideological alignment with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Alibaba, however, has come out strongly against its inclusion on the Pentagon’s list of Chinese military companies.

NATIONAL SECURITY EXPERTS RAISE CONCERNS AFTER MICROSOFT PROGRAM EXPOSED AS POSSIBLE AVENUE FOR CHINESE SPYING

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping represent the world’s two most powerful economies.(Brendan Smialowski – Pool/Getty Images)

“There’s no basis to conclude that Alibaba should be placed on the Section 1260H List,” a company spokeswoman told Fox News Digital. “Alibaba is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy. We will take all available legal action against attempts to misrepresent our company.”

That statement also appears in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made by Alibaba shortly after it was added to the Pentagon’s list.

“Inclusion in the CMC List will not affect the Group’s ability to conduct business as usual in the United States or anywhere in the world because the Group does not do business related to U.S. military procurement,” the SEC filing adds. “The CMC List does not impose any other export controls or sanctions, nor does it prohibit any persons (other than the U.S. Department of Defense) from business dealings with the Group or transacting in the securities of the Company.”

A person walks past a sign at Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. headquarters in Hangzhou, China, on May 8, 2021. Alibaba is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on May 13.(Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)

RICKETTS, FETTERMAN TEAM UP FOR CRACKDOWN ON CHINA’S ATTEMPTS TO PURCHASE US FARMLAND

As early as 2015, outlets like Bloomberg News were reporting that the Chinese government was heavily subsidizing BYD. Wang Chuanfu, the founder and CEO of the firm, is a member of the Chinese Communist Party and an ally of Xi.

BYD did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Monday.

In Baidu’s case, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology named the company as part of the country’s “national team” for AI development in 2017, with it later appointed by the CCP’s National Development and Reform Commission to lead China’s first national lab on deep learning technologies, according to state media. The firm, which primarily operates a search engine, reportedly assists the Chinese government in carrying out censorship.

“We categorically reject the inclusion of Baidu on the list, and there is no credible justification for adding Baidu to the list,” a Baidu spokesperson told Fox News Digital “The suggestion that Baidu is a military company is entirely baseless. We will not hesitate to use all options available to us to have the company removed from the list.”

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The Pentagon has defended its additions to the list.

“After the Department conducted its due diligence, it identified 188 entities that meet the statutory requirement for inclusion on the most recent 1260H List,” a Department of War spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

美两党参议员敦促贝森特联手G7施压人民币升值

2026年6月19日 07:48 / 联合早报

美国政府长期指控中国人民币的汇率被严重压低，以获取不公平的贸易优势。 （档案照）

美国两名跨党派参议员呼吁美国财长贝森特加强与七国集团（G7）的合作，向中国施压要求解决“为获取商业优势而蓄意压低汇率”的问题。

据彭博社报道，参议院银行委员会最高民主党人沃伦与佛罗里达州共和党参议员斯科特在6月18日致贝森特的一封信中写道：“我们的G7盟友对中国货币问题有着共同的担忧，而此次峰会之后正是协调统一应对措施的良机。”

他们呼吁采取行动，“迫使中国允许由市场驱动的人民币升值，并在汇率操作上实现充分透明。”

美国总统特朗普长期以来一直指责中国实行不公平的重商主义汇率政策，在他第一个总统任期内，美国政府曾短暂将中国列为汇率操纵国。但在当前政府与中国的双边贸易谈判中，汇率问题并非关键议题。特朗普转而依靠关税和谈判来管理贸易关系。

沃伦和斯科特在信中引用多项分析报告，指出相对于经济基本面，人民币被低估了。在过去四年的时间里，尽管中国保持着巨额贸易顺差，但人民币对美元汇率基本持平，对欧元则贬值了约9%。

与此同时，中国决策者致力于保持人民币汇率基本稳定，包括在中国人民银行上个月发布的最新季度货币政策报告中也重申了这一点。

斯科特和沃伦还呼吁贝森特在财政部下一份半年度外汇报告中，重新考虑将中国列为汇率操纵国。在最近一份评估美国贸易伙伴货币政策的报告中，美国财政部称中国人民币被“大幅低估”，但没有说汇率被操纵。

信件写道：“蓄意低估的货币在变相补贴（中国）进口商品成本的同时，也让美国的出口产品变得更加昂贵。这种操纵行为对美国工人造成的后果是迫在眉睫的。”

信件说，G7发表联合声明“呼吁中国允许市场驱动的升值并在汇率操作上实现全面透明，可以作为通过贸易和其他权限协同遏制中国行为的第一步”。

States aren’t required to provide community-based care for people with disabilities, new DOJ opinion claims

2026-06-18T18:21:54-0400 / CBS News

By

June 18, 2026 / 6:21 PM EDT / CBS News

The Justice Department released a new legal opinion Thursday that civil rights experts said represents a significant attack against people with mental, physical and intellectual disabilities who receive state-funded services.

The Office of Legal Counsel opinion said states are not actually required by law to integrate mentally disabled patients with their peers by providing community or home-based care, a finding experts say runs counter to long-standing legal precedent and would lead to greater rates of institutionalizing people with disabilities.

The OLC opinion, authored by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora Pettit and posted on the DOJ’s website, reinterprets a long-standing Supreme Court case that has served as a cornerstone of America’s disability rights law.

That 1999 case, Olmstead v. LC, held that people with disabilities are entitled to receive services in their communities, rather than an institution.

“The Olmstead decision itself said that why community integration is so important is so children can be part of their families, so they can go to school, so people can be part of their communities,” said Alison Barkoff, a former DOJ attorney who was in charge of supervising Olmstead civil rights enforcement and now works as a professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. “That’s what’s at stake with this re-interpretation of Olmstead.”

The Olmstead case was brought by two women with mental and intellectual disabilities who were each repeatedly institutionalized at facilities in Georgia because they could not get coverage for the support they needed to live independently at home.

The Supreme Court held that the state had violated their civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Many in the disability rights community have considered the decision the civil rights equivalent of the famed 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which found that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional.

In its opinion on Thursday, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel suggested that the DOJ’s enforcement of the law has gone above and beyond what the Supreme Court intended.

“Over the past two decades, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division (“CRT”) has relied on its integration mandate and Olmstead to pressure states into discharging individuals from mental-health institutions,” the opinion says. “By threatening or bringing federal enforcement action, CRT has successfully elicited consent decrees, remedial orders, or out-of-court agreements in nearly a dozen states, obligating the participants to meet DOJ’s deinstitutionalization benchmarks.”

The opinion added that the Olmstead opinion by the Supreme Court did not in fact impose any integration mandate. Rather, it says, the finding was narrower in scope and held that “unjustified institutional isolation of persons with disabilities is a form of discrimination” under federal law.

CBS News has reached out to the Justice Department for comment on the new OLC opinion.

The OLC’s new opinion does not change the law, nor does it serve as any legal precedent.

But it could fundamentally change the way both the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services enforce allegations of discrimination by patients who received state-funded care.

“For decades, courts have recognized that people with disabilities have the right to live, work, and learn in their communities rather than being unnecessarily segregated from society,” said Regan Rush, a former civil rights attorney at the DOJ who now serves as director of a Democracy Forward project called Red Line for Civil Rights. “This opinion does not change the law, but it is a clear warning shot aimed at the legal framework that has protected those rights for decades and at the Department’s longstanding role in enforcing it.”

The DOJ’s new opinion Thursday marks the latest action in a series of efforts by the Trump administration to scale back civil rights protections and upend long-standing missions of the Civil Rights Division.

Earlier this month, the OLC authored another opinion which held that “disparate impact” — a legal theory of discrimination that holds employers liable for discrimination for policies that disproportionately harm protected groups based on race, ethnicity or gender — is unconstitutional.

Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, has also shifted the focus of enforcement efforts away from protecting historically marginalized groups such as people of color and members of the gay, lesbian and transgender communities.

She has launched dozens of investigations into universities over allegations of unlawful race-based admission policies and created a new section within the division that is solely devoted to enforcing Second Amendment gun rights.

Last year, Dhillon angered the disability rights community when she posted a photo of a hat she was knitting online and wrote: “This hat is an hour behind schedule thanks to influencer retards.”

That word is widely considered to be an insulting slur against people with intellectual disabilities.

Blue material peeling off bottom of Reflecting Pool, days after costly renovation

2026-06-18 6:21 PM ET / CNN

By Abigail Roedersheimer, Michael Williams, Kit Maher

Summary

• Blue material is peeling off the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool days after its refilling.
• The pool’s renovation was ordered by President Trump and cost about $14 million, far exceeding initial estimates.
• The iconic pool has struggled with algae and leaks for decades despite multiple renovations.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

Some blue material at the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is peeling off, days after the pool was painted blue and refilled as part of a multi-million dollar renovation ordered by President Donald Trump.

On Thursday at the National Mall, CNN observed a flap of blue material that was partially attached to the bottom in one area of the pool and floating toward the top. It is unclear if the material is paint or sealant, and it’s unclear what caused it to come up.

The Department of the Interior did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Shown pictures and videos of the material, Eddie Wood, who owns Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia-based firm hired to renovate the pool, said the images do not provide enough information “to tell exactly what that is.”

“There’s several things that we’ve got to address when we come back for maintenance, and anything like that will be addressed, if it’s a problem,” Wood said.

Tim Auerhahn, a pool infrastructure expert and the chairman of the Aquatic Council, said it’s difficult to tell from the videos what was causing the “apparent delamination.”

“A coating system can fail for several reasons, including substrate preparation, surface contamination, application conditions, adhesion issues, product selection, mechanical damage, environmental exposure, or a combination of factors,” Auerhahn said.

CNN observed a flap of blue material partially attached to the bottom in one area of the Reflecting Pool.

Blue object floating in reflecting pool in Washington, DC.

The larger question, he added, is whether this represents a localized issue in that part of the pool or a larger, more systemic issue with the coating.

“If the coating is losing adhesion in multiple locations, that could indicate a more significant concern,” he said.

The issue is the latest to plague the iconic body of water since Trump ordered the pool, which has served as the centerpiece of the National Mall for decades, to be renovated in April.

Issues with algae and leaks have bedeviled various presidential administrations nearly since the pool was first opened a century ago.

In 2012, President Barack Obama’s administration spent $34 million on an 18-month renovation of the pool which was meant to address ongoing issues with algae blooms.

However, shortly after that renovation was completed, the pool again became a murky, smelly mess, filled with algae, bird waste and dead ducks.

That apparent failure to adequately address the issues with the pool became political fodder for Trump when he ordered his own renovation, seeking to repaint the bottom of the pool a color which he referred to as “American flag blue.”

The renovations were initially estimated to cost $1.8 million. It appears the cost of the project is now up to $14.7 million, according to a contract summary of the Interior Department’s award to Atlantic Industrial Coatings.

But it didn’t take long for many of the same issues to resurface. Not long after the newly renovated pool was filled with water earlier this month, algae again discolored the water.

The surface of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool remains green in large sections with algae visible on June 18, 2026.

CNN

The surface of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 18, 2026.

CNN

Earlier this week, in an apparent effort to remediate that discoloration, workers were seen pouring jugs of hydrogen peroxide into the pool and deployed what an Interior spokesperson described as “advanced nanobubbler technology.” As of Thursday afternoon, the pool was still green in large sections, with algae visible.

The pool renovation is one of several projects ordered by the president to “beautify” Washington, DC. Trump has also sought to build a ballroom at the East Wing of the White House; build a towering arch near Arlington National Cemetery; and has proposed constructing a “National Garden of American Heroes,” with 250 lifelike statues of several prominent Americans throughout the country’s history.

伊朗最高领袖称持不同意见 但批准伊美谅解备忘录

2026年6月19日 07:16 / 联合早报

穆杰塔巴6月18日在致伊朗人民公开信中称，美国总统特朗普是在“困境和无奈”之下“动用各种手段”推动达成美伊谅解备忘录。 （路透社档案照片）

伊朗最高领袖穆杰塔巴说，尽管他持不同意见，但在获得总统佩泽希齐扬和最高国家安全委员会有关维护伊朗利益及“抵抗轴心”权益的保证后，批准了伊朗与美国签署的谅解备忘录。

综合路透社和法新社报道，穆杰塔巴星期四（6月18日）在致伊朗人民公开信中确认，佩泽希齐扬与美国总统特朗普已签署这份谅解备忘录。他说，在达成当前阶段成果的过程中，伊朗有关负责人付出了大量努力。他同时称，特朗普是在“困境和无奈”之下动用各种手段推动达成相关安排。

穆杰塔巴说，佩泽希齐扬作为最高国家安全委员会主席，已承担起确保谅解备忘录保障伊朗利益的责任，并承诺，如果华盛顿提出他所谓的“过分要求”，伊方绝不会妥协。

穆杰塔巴还说，未来与美国举行面对面谈判，并不意味着“接受敌方立场”，伊朗将继续关注协议相关条件和承诺落实情况。

同日，伊朗伊斯兰议会主席卡利巴说：“伊朗最高领袖赋予我们的任务是努力落实谅解备忘录的各项条款。”

Trump awards Medal of Honor to 3 veterans of the Vietnam, Afghanistan wars

June 18, 2026 / 6:40 PM EDT / CBS News

By

Faris Tanyos News Editor
Faris Tanyos is a news editor for CBSNews.com, where he writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He previously worked as a digital news producer at several local news stations up and down the West Coast.

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President Trump on Thursday conferred two Vietnam War veterans and one veteran of the Afghanistan War with the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award.

In a ceremony at the White House, the president paid tribute to retired Marine Corps Maj. James Capers Jr., retired Army Maj. Nicholas Dockery and Marine Col. John W. Ripley, who died in 2008.

Among those who attended the ceremony were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Retired Marine Corps Maj. James Capers

President Trump awards the Medal of Honor to retired Marine Corps Maj. James Capers Jr. in the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 18, 2026. Ken Cedeno /AFP via Getty Images

Capers, now 88, was part of a four-day reconnaissance patrol in Vietnam in March and April of 1967, according to the White House. On the final day of the patrol, his battalion was ambushed by a claymore mine and came under heavy enemy fire, during which he suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

“Shrapnel peppered his body in 17 places,” Mr. Trump said during the ceremony. “… Every one of his fellow Marines went down wounded, but Jim rose, pushing forward on a leg that shouldn’t have been able to carry any of his weight. After a shot of morphine, Jim asserted command of the firefight.”

Capers successfully led his team to an extraction site, where he refused to evacuate before all his men were safely aboard the rescue helicopter.

“When the helicopter groaned under the weight of the entire team, too many people, he attempted to deplane, but his team physically held him back, refusing to leave their leader behind,” Mr. Trump said.

Marine Col. John W. Ripley

President Trump presents the Medal of Honor posthumously to the family of Marine Corps Col. John W. Ripley in a ceremony at the White House on June 18, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

In April 1972, Ripley halted a North Vietnamese assault while serving as an adviser to the South Vietnamese army, the White House said.

As part of what became known as the Easter Offensive — then the largest ground invasion since the start of the Vietnam War — the North Vietnamese army had pushed south in an attempt to capture a bridge in Dong Ha.

“As North Vietnamese forces surged through the north river bank, it became clear that the assault could only be stopped by destroying the bridge,” Mr. Trump said.

Ripley, the only soldier with sufficient demolition experience, single-handedly moved 500 pounds of explosives beneath the bridge over the course of several hours.

“Hand over hand, he climbed, dangling beneath the bridge, and over the rushing water…Completely exposed to withering enemy gunfire, John completed, not one, not two, but five such trips,” Mr. Trump said.

Ripley then successfully detonated the charges, destroying the bridge and preventing the North Vietnamese army from advancing.

“When John detonated the explosives, the bridge collapsed into the river, crushing the advance, and saved the hope of a free Vietnam for Easter morning,” Mr. Trump said.

Ripley was previously awarded the Navy Cross for his actions that day. His three sons and several other family members attended Thursday’s ceremony.

Retired Army Maj. Nicholas Dockery

Retired Army Maj. Nicholas Dockery is awarded the Medal of Honor by President Trump in the White House on June 18, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Al Drago / Getty Images

Dockery was serving as a platoon leader in the Kapisa Province of Afghanistan in October 2012 when his platoon was ambushed by dozens of Taliban fighters, the White House said.

“The enemy unleashed overwhelming torrents of fire from machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades,” Mr. Trump said during the ceremony. “Without concern for his own life at all, Nick raced across the open ground to rally his scattered team.”

Over the next four hours, Dockery fought the Taliban forces in urban terrain, risking his life several times. No one on his team was lost that day, the White House said.

When he realized that one of his team members was missing, “Nick rushed through the compound until he found the sergeant being dragged through an alleyway by two Taliban fighters,” the president said.

Dockery killed the two Taliban fighters and rushed the sergeant to safety. When he discovered the sergeant was not breathing, Dockery began CPR, resuscitating the sergeant, Mr. Trump said.

He successfully evacuated three wounded members of his platoon after he climbed onto an open roof, making himself vulnerable to more enemy fire, and signaling U.S. military aircraft to “come to the platoon’s rescue.”

“He signaled enemy positions with smoke grenades, allowing American gunships to come to the platoon’s rescue,” Mr. Trump said, noting that Dockery was the “last man to depart the battlefield that day.”