President Donald Trump holds up a floor plan for where tables could be set up inside the new White House ballroom as he meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Oct. 22, 2025. (Doug Mills/The New York Times) By LUKE BROADWATER As roaring machinery tore down one side of the White House, President Donald Trump acknowledged earlier this week that he was having the entire East Wing demolished to make way for his 90,000-squa

The intruder, a wild black bear about 1 1/2 years old, was going “nose-to-nose” with the captive bears, one at a time, through the fencing of their zoo habitats. (Instagram via thebananaspodcast) By CHRISTINE HAUSER There have been plenty of children’s stories about animals breaking out of zoos. But at one zoo in Northern California, a young black bear broke in. That’s what happened last week at Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka, California, when a zoo employee found a wild black be

Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who has said in a social media post that her department “is unnecessary,” at a hearing before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee in Washington, June 3, 2025. The government shutdown means there is, essentially, no Education Department, with the latest round of layoffs leaving few workers to enforce special education and civil rights laws. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times) By SARAH MERVOSH and MICHAEL C. BENDER What could it look like if P

President Donald Trump holds baseball bats during an event to welcome the 2025 Louisiana State University and LSU Shreveport national champion baseball teams in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Doug Mills/The New York Times) By SHAWN McCREESH The facade of the East Wing of the White House came crumbling down on Monday as construction began on President Donald Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom, a project that will transform one of the m

By MATTATHIAS SCHWARTZ Federal officials defended their use of tear gas and other crowd-control munitions against protesters in the Chicago area, asserting Monday that they had limited their use to whenever there was an immediate threat to agents. The officials also told a judge, in a court hearing, that they had complied with her recent order requiring federal agents to give warnings to protesters and others before using tear gas. The hearing, before Judge Sara L. Ellis of U

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) speaks during a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee in Washington on June 12, 2025. “President Trump and his administration continue to fail to answer pressing questions regarding the president’s orders to carry out lethal U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea,” Smith said in a statement on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times) By ERIC SCHMITT The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee earlie

By JENNY GROSS President Donald Trump has posted a fake video on social media that showed him wearing a crown and flying a jet labeled “King Trump” that dumps brown liquid on protesters. The short video, shared on Trump’s Truth Social account late Saturday, was posted on the same day that protesters participated in a daylong mass demonstration, known as “No Kings,” against the Trump administration. The protests were held in cities and towns in all 50 states, with participants

An information desk on SNAP benefits at a food bank in Fort Collins, Colo., Sept. 19, 2025. If the government shutdown continues into November, about 42 million low-income people could face severe disruptions to their food stamp benefits, the Agriculture Department warned in a letter to state agencies last week, saying that the federal government would have “insufficient funds.” (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times) By LINDA QIU and TONY ROMM If the government shutdown continues