![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6628.jpg\")
People attend a dedication ceremony for the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Photograph: Octavio Jones\/Reuters<\/p>\nDedication ceremony for Obama Presidential Center under way in Chicago<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in Chicago, thousands \u2060of invited guests, led by former presidents and heads of state, converged on a lakefront park to dedicate the Obama Presidential Center, a sprawling campus of granite, nature and art designed as a hub of civic life and culture honoring the 44th president of the United States, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n
People attend a dedication ceremony for the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Photograph: Octavio Jones\/Reuters<\/p>\n
Former president Barack \u2060Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama were \u2060joined at the event by the other \u200bthree living former presidents \u2014 former presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Joe Biden \u2014 and their wives, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Jill Biden.<\/p>\n
Obama\u2019s two daughters, Malia and Sasha, sat with their parents on the main stage of the ceremony.<\/p>\n
Reuters reports that the roster \u2060of VIPs in attendance also included former vice-president Kamala Harris and her spouse, Douglas Emhoff, former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi and such foreign dignitaries as former German chancellor Angela Merkel and former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.<\/p>\n
The occasion, under partly cloudy skies, marked the ceremonial opening of the Obama Center, an $850 million development that local historians say \u2060marks the greatest single investment in a century in Chicago\u2019s long-neglected South Side.<\/p>\n
Key events<\/p>\n Trump said his reflecting pool renovation ‘could last for 100 years’; images show it lasted less than a week<\/p>\n While Donald Trump insisted earlier this month<\/a>, that his $14.2m resurfacing of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool floor with \u201cindustrial strength\u201d, \u201chighly sophisticated\u201d sealant \u201ccould last for 100 years\u201d, composite images of the pool taken by Reuters photographers over the past week, suggest that it took only a few days for the algae to return and the sealant to peel away and float to the surface<\/a>.<\/p>\n A combination of pictures showed the renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on 12 June, 16 June 16 and 18 June 18. Photograph: Reuters<\/p>\n It has been just eight days since the president invited the crew that performed the work to the Oval Office, where he presented them<\/a> with signed hats and challenge coins.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a020.02 EDT<\/p>\n Tourists stop by Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to pick up souvenir chunks of failed waterproof lining<\/p>\n Tourists in Washington DC discovered a new kind of souvenir to take away from the nation\u2019s capital on Thursday, reaching into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to pocket chunks of the recently applied \u201cAmerican flag blue\u201d waterproof sealant that has spontaneously peeled away from the floor, just weeks after it was applied as part of Donald Trump\u2019s $14.2m renovation.<\/p>\n Social networks filled with video images<\/a> of the blue sealant floating to the surface of the pool on Thursday, including a clip<\/a> of ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl dipping his hand in the algae-ridden water to grab a piece of the detached sealant.<\/p>\n The HuffPost correspondent Jen Bendery reported<\/a> from the water\u2019s edge that passersby were stopping to rip off of chunks of the sealant to remember the president\u2019s grand project by.<\/p>\n Chunks of \u201cAmerican flag blue\u201d sealant have peeled away from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after recent renovations and were floating on the surface on Thursday. Photograph: Annabelle Gordon\/Reuters<\/p>\n As our colleagues Callum Jones and Rachel Leingang report<\/a>, the Trump administration, apparently without irony, continues to insist that its war against algae in the pool is going just as well as its war on Iran:<\/p>\n double quotation markFor days, the pool has been fluctuating between various shades of green, frustrating efforts to ensure it adopts the US president\u2019s preferred color. And by Thursday parts of the coating laid by Atlantic Industrial Coatings in an effort to turn the monument \u201cAmerican flag\u201d blue had appeared to start peeling off.<\/p>\n Workers were seen on site in waders, attempting to fish out algae and eliminate patches of deep green across the pool.<\/p>\n Hours earlier, the US Department of the Interior \u2013 which oversees the National Park Service \u2013 had claimed the water was \u201ccrystal clear\u201d, and blamed the \u201cFake News Media\u201d for reports to the contrary.<\/p>\n In a statement<\/a> on X, after eyewitnesses saw the pool looking distinctly murky, the department went so far as to liken the administration\u2019s purported victory against algae to its purported victory against Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool \u2013 just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf,\u201d the department\u2019s press office said.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a019.12 EDT<\/p>\n Trump awards Medal of Honor to three service members who fought in Vietnam and Afghanistan<\/p>\n Donald Trump is currently speaking at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House to award the Medal of Honor, the country\u2019s highest military honor, to three US service members<\/a> who fought in the American wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n After boasting about the stock market, Trump said that he was there to award \u201cour country\u2019s highest military distinction, the Congressional Medal of Honor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to give it to myself, but I was informed I couldn\u2019t do it\u201d, he joked, as he has in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cBut today we present this award, it\u2019s the greatest of awards, to three new recipients: Marine corps Major James Capers; Marine Corps Colonel John W Ripley deceased; and Army Major Nicholas Dockery\u201d, Trump read aloud, accidentally saying the word \u201cdeceased\u201d as if it was part of the late colonel Ripley\u2019s name.<\/p>\n Donald Trump grinned as he presented the Medal of Honor to Tom Ripley, who accepted on behalf of his late father, Marine Colonel John W Ripley, in the East Room of the White House on Thursday. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin\/AP<\/p>\n The first two awards were for service in Vietnam, a war Trump famously dodged through a medical exemption, thanks to a diagnosis of bone spurs<\/a> in his heels in 1968 from a podiatrist who rented his office from Trump\u2019s father. The third award was for service in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n There was no immediate explanation of why the service members were not recognized in previous decades, but Trump joked to Major Capers, who was, the president said, recommended for the Medal of Honor in 1967, that \u201cmaybe this is better\u201d.<\/p>\n While the president referred to the congressional award as \u201cthe greatest\u201d, two summers ago, he was widely criticized<\/a> for suggesting that another award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, is \u201cmuch better\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking at a campaign event in 2024<\/a>, Trump mentioned that, during his first term, he had awarded that medal to one of his donors, Miriam Adelson. Hew then said: \u201cIt\u2019s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor but civilian version. It\u2019s actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, the soldiers, they\u2019re either in very bad shape because they\u2019ve been hit so many times by bullets or they\u2019re dead.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a017.32 EDT<\/p>\n Donald Trump has just arrived, nearly an hour late, for the Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House.<\/p>\n He started by boasting about the stock market, and joking that he wanted to award the Medal of Honor to himself.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Trump White House continues near daily attacks on Biden, six years after the 2020 campaign<\/p>\n We are still waiting for Donald Trump to turn up for a Medal of Honor ceremony<\/a> at the White House, which was scheduled to start more than 40 minutes ago.<\/p>\n The president just returned early this morning from the G7 conference in Evian, France, where he appeared nearly an hour late for the final day\u2019s session, and told the assembled world leaders waiting on him: \u201cI\u2019m the boss.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House was so proud of that wisecrack that it posted video of the moment<\/a> on YouTube, side by side with a misleading clip of Joe Biden at a G7 event in 2024, under the headline \u201cChoose YourFighter\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The White House edited video of Donald Trump at the G7 this week together with a misleading clip of Joe Biden at a prior event in 2024.<\/p>\n The video of Biden walking away from other world leaders after a parachute demonstration during the G7 in Italy in June 2024, went viral at the time largely because it was misleadingly described in the rightwing media as evidence the 81-year-old president was confused and had wandered off.<\/p>\n In 2024, the New York Post claimed on its front page that Joe Biden had wandered off during the G7 in Italy. Photograph: New York Post<\/p>\n As Reuters reported<\/a> at the time, Biden, in fact, just walked over to a group of parachutists who had just performed a demonstration to congratulate them after a flags ceremony in which paratroopers bearing member-countries\u2019 flags landed near the leaders.<\/p>\n Apparently still stung by his loss to Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Trump has made attacking Biden a near daily theme of his second term in office.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a016.54 EDT<\/p>\n The day so far<\/p>\n JD Vance defended the US-Iran deal as a \u201cwin-win\u201d for the United States, while several Republicans slammed it as \u201ccompletely out of step with the president\u2019s goals\u201d. Vance defended<\/a> Trump\u2019s U-turn on Iran\u2019s right to have \u201csome\u201d ballistic missiles in the name of self-defence (having previously stated that the destruction of Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles as one of the key goals of the war) and insisted<\/a> that the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil would somehow benefit the US.<\/p>\n GOP critics, however, expressed concerns that the deal left the US in a worse position than when it launched the war against Iran three months ago. The chair of the Senate armed services committee, Roger Wicker, said he was \u201cconcerned that the memorandum of understanding negotiates away the victories of Operation Epic Fury in ways that are completely out of step with the president\u2019s goals.\u201d The $300bn fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran included in the memorandum, \u201cthough not funded by US taxpayers, would make Iran\u2019s payoff under President Obama\u2019s 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison,\u201d he added in his statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n A handful of other GOP lawmakers also spoke out<\/a> against Trump\u2019s deal, arguing that the deal had proven to Iran that flexing its leverage over the strait of Hormuz could deliver significant geopolitical results and that there was no guarantee that Tehran\u2019s nuclear ambitions had been curbed. After Trump admitted yesterday that he had changed course on Iran in order to avoid a \u201cworldwide depression\u201d, one House Republican said the president had \u201ceffectively acknowledged he lost the war. It\u2019s no longer worth the economic price.\u201d<\/p>\n Vance also issued an extraordinary rebuke for Israeli cabinet members critical of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding. \u201cIf I was in the Israeli cabinet, I might not be attacking the only powerful \u2060ally that I have anywhere left in the entire \u2060world,\u201d Vance told<\/a> reporters at the White House press briefing. He warned that Israel \u201chas to respect this peace process\u201d and \u201cnot be going wild in Lebanon\u201d, and said the civilian deaths as a result of Israeli strikes were \u201ctotally unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n Donald Trump said the \u200bUS expects \u201ca \u2060complete ceasefire on all fronts, including \u2060Lebanon, Hezbollah, \u200band Israel,\u201d adding in a Truth Social post, \u201cWe \u200cencourage everyone \u200cin the \u200cMiddle East Region to maintain their commitment to allowing our negotiations \u200cto beautifully unfold.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Trump administration reverses decision to scrap ocean monitoring system<\/p>\n Maya Yang<\/p>\n The Trump administration<\/a> has reversed its decision to dismantle a $368m deep-sea observation system following an outcry from lawmakers<\/a> and ocean experts<\/a>.<\/p>\n The National Science Foundation announced<\/a> today that it would halt plans to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative, stating: \u201ceffective immediately, [it] will not proceed with further removal or descoping of equipment from the remaining arrays and will continue operations including planned maintenance.\u201d<\/p>\n The agency added that it \u201cappreciates the concerns raised by the range of stakeholders that have informed us they rely on data\u201d from the OOI.<\/p>\n The NSF also said it would \u201cissue a Dear Colleague Letter to collect input from stakeholders and convene an expert panel to assess observational needs, evaluate available data sources, consider responses \u2026 and help the agency identify a sustainable path for NSF\u2019s ocean observing systems\u201d.<\/p>\n The OOI comprises more than 900 instruments that collect data on ocean health, including current patterns, climate variability and marine biodiversity. Its observation arrays are located off the coasts of North Carolina, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, as well as in the Irminger Sea, a marginal sea between Greenland and Iceland.<\/p>\n The NSF\u2019s announcement follows widespread backlash from scientists and ocean experts who depend on the OOI\u2019s data for research,<\/a> including estimates of ocean heating rates amid the climate crisis. Experts warned that losing the system could undermine forecasts and early-warning systems for storms and other severe weather events.<\/p>\n In this 2018 image provided by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a buoy used to gather data floats in the Pioneer Mid-Atlantic Bight off the coast of North Carolina. Photograph: Darlene Trew Crist\/WHOI\/AP<\/p>\n The reversal also came a day after the Senate passed a bipartisan bill introduced<\/a> by the Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley and Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski that sought to halt what they described as the \u201creckless dismantling\u201d of the OOI.<\/p>\n According to the bill, no federal funds may be used to decommission the OOI until the NSF \u201cconducts a thorough review and assessment of the network with robust stakeholder engagement\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cDismantling the [OOI] is supreme stupidity, costing taxpayers millions of dollars and destroying a vital source of climate data. Our simple, bipartisan bill blocks this incredibly shortsighted decision and preserves these critical ocean monitoring sensors that keep coastal communities and fishers safe,\u201d Merkley said yesterday.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Trump administration quietly shifts $352m in federal funds for White House ballroom<\/p>\n Joseph Gedeon<\/p>\n Donald Trump\u2019s administration has quietly redirected $352m in federal funds designated for the Secret Service toward the president\u2019s controversial White House ballroom project, despite repeated promises by Trump that the construction would be financed by private donations<\/p>\n The funds were drawn from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump\u2019s signature tax legislation passed last summer on Republican-only votes. The law stipulates<\/a> the money may only be spent on Secret Service personnel, training facilities, technology and related costs, not construction.<\/p>\n About $340.8m of the funding was placed into an account<\/a> labeled \u201cProcurement, Construction, and Improvements\u201d on 12 June, according to the office of management and budget (OMB) database. Another account labeled \u201cOperations and Support\u201d was also approved<\/a> the same day, adding another $10.75m to the budget.<\/p>\n The move came after Congress explicitly refused<\/a> to provide $1bn in funds for the \u201cEast Wing Modernization Project\u201d, the Trump administration\u2019s official name for a 90,000-sq-ft ballroom being built on the site of the White House\u2019s demolished East Wing.<\/p>\n The administration argued the funds were needed for legitimate security upgrades, pointing to recent threats against Trump, including an alleged plot to attack<\/a> Sunday\u2019s UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House south lawn.<\/p>\n Donald Trump at the site of ongoing construction of the planned White House ballroom on 19 May. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque\/Reuters<\/p>\n \u201cThe East Wing Modernization Project is inextricably tied to the security of the president, the White House grounds and the certain security infrastructure assets,\u201d White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said. \u201cPresident Trump and generous American patriots are funding the ballroom to the tune of approximately $400m, which will be a secure and appropriate venue for presidents for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Those disrupted attacks, Ingle said, \u201cproves exactly why\u201d the project is needed for events at the White House, which include \u201cdrone-proof structures and drone ports among other critical security enhancements\u201d.<\/p>\n Senior legislators were unconvinced. \u201cThat\u2019s a big problem,\u201d Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina who is retiring at the end of the year, told Notus<\/a>.<\/p>\n double quotation markThat sounds like a different way to fund the East Wing project. On its face it doesn\u2019t sound right.<\/p>\n Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii on the appropriations committee, also told the outlet:<\/p>\n double quotation markI don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s the ballroom, but it sounds like the ballroom.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>The art of the fail? Trump’s Iran deal – podcast<\/p>\n Donald Trump is claiming his Iran peace plan is a victory for Washington, despite the 14-point agreement revealing significant concessions to Tehran. Under the deal, Iran will reopen the strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief and the release of frozen assets, while talks will continue over the fate of Iran\u2019s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s edition of The Latest podcast, Nosheen Iqbal speaks to the Guardian\u2019s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour.<\/p>\n Iran has announced plans to introduce a system of maritime fees in the strait of Hormuz in two months, after the 60-day period of negotiation that has been triggered by the signing of the memorandum of understanding, my colleague Patrick Wintour reports.<\/p>\n Claiming a historic victory over the US, Tehran said the strait was under its control and a European plan for a naval mission to escort ships though the strait would not be welcome.<\/p>\n It comes as the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reports that Israel\u2019s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel \u201cwill maintain the security zone in south Lebanon as long as our security needs require it\u201d, referring to the more than 600 sq km of Lebanese territory occupied by Israeli troops along the border.<\/p>\n On Iran, Netanyahu stated that Israel would continue to \u201cadhere to the supreme objective\u201d of not allowing Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n Iran insists the deal referring to territorial integrity of Lebanon requires a full Israeli withdrawal, making Donald Trump<\/a> accountable for Israel\u2019s withdrawal.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Patrick\u2019s report:<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Politico also quotes<\/a> Senate majority leader John Thune as saying he anticipates an administration briefing on the US-Iran memorandum of understanding \u201cearly next week\u201d.<\/p>\n Thune said he felt the deal is \u201cgood for Americans\u201d because it opens up the strait of Hormuz, but warned on the $300bn fund:<\/p>\n double quotation markI don\u2019t think there ought to be any financial incentives or any financial relief given to Iran absent their commitment to end the nuclear program.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n As they gear up to face tough midterm elections in November, some Republicans are relieved at the memorandum of understanding with Iran – though many are still privately questioning what the purpose of Trump\u2019s war actually was.<\/p>\n After the president said yesterday that if he had not struck a deal, \u201cthe alternative would be a worldwide depression\u201d, one House Republican told Politico<\/a>:<\/p>\n double quotation markThe president didn\u2019t mean to, but he effectively acknowledged he lost the war. It\u2019s no longer worth the economic price.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>GOP Senate armed services chair slams US-Iran deal as ‘completely out of step with the president\u2019s goals’<\/p>\n While JD Vance was briefing reporters earlier, Republican senator Roger Wicker, who is chair of the Senate armed services committee, said he was \u201cconcerned that the memorandum of understanding negotiates away the victories of Operation Epic Fury in ways that are completely out of step with the president\u2019s goals.\u201d<\/p>\n The $300bn fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran included in the memorandum, \u201cthough not funded by US taxpayers, would make Iran\u2019s payoff under President Obama\u2019s 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison,\u201d Wicker added in his statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n He also said it would be an \u201cerror\u201d to \u201cforce\u201d Israel to stand down against Hezbollah, and added: \u201cI also oppose the US lifting of any sanctions on Iran, or unfreezing Iranian funds, in exchange for Iran\u2019s mere agreement to negotiate for another 60 days.\u201d<\/p>\n He joins a handful of other Republican senators speaking out against Trump\u2019s deal (see my earlier post<\/a>). When asked about that criticism<\/a> earlier, Vance said those Republicans should \u201chave a little bit of faith in the president of the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that he is going to strike a deal that\u2019s bad for the American people, it\u2019s preposterous\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a014.30 EDT<\/p>\n Back to Donald Trump for a second (sorry), the president has reiterated that the \u200bUnited States expects \u201ca \u2060complete ceasefire on all fronts, including \u2060Lebanon, Hezbollah, \u200band Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe \u200cencourage everyone \u200cin the \u200cMiddle East Region to maintain their commitment to allowing our negotiations \u200cto beautifully unfold,\u201d Trump wrote \u200bon Truth Social.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The Associated Press reports that Michelle Obama spoke directly to her husband when she stepped up to the podium.<\/p>\n \u201cEight years in the crucible and not once did you melt in the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence,\u201d she said. \u201cYour stubborn optimism and unflinching courage. Your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency. Your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber. And to do it all as a first.\u201d<\/p>\n She ticked off highlights from her husband\u2019s eight years in office, including ordering the raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, \u201cstanding up for marriage equality\u201d and \u201clistening to science.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you did it all with such grace and class and cool,\u201d she said. \u201cYou made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park.\u201d<\/p>\n Obama appeared to wipe away a tear as she praised him, the AP reported.<\/p>\n Michelle Obama also referenced the current \u201canxious and divisive times\u201d and warned against being cynical or complacent as \u201ceverything feels so upside down.\u201d She pitched the center as \u201ca respite from all that.\u201d<\/p>\n Michelle Obama speaks during a dedication ceremony for the opening of the Obama Presidential Center. Photograph: Brendan McDermid\/ReutersShare<\/a>![\"Fomer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6277.jpg\")
Fomer US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama arrive at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Photograph: Kent Nishimura\/AFP\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Trump\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781828051_179_1920.jpg\")
Trump\u2019s Iran deal: the art of the fail? – The LatestShare<\/a><\/p>\n