President Trump is backing away from his plan to establish a $1.8 billion fund to pay people who say they have been politically persecuted, according to people familiar with the president\u2019s thinking.<\/p>\n
A sign of Trump\u2019s retreat came today<\/a> when the Justice Department announced that it would abide by a judge\u2019s order not to move toward activating the fund until at least June 12, when a hearing on it is scheduled. Privately, some administration officials expressed relief that the judge\u2019s ruling offered a way out of the situation.<\/p>\n Trump could change his mind. But he has been leaning for days toward scrapping the fund, which has prompted widespread backlash from both Republicans and Democrats. Critics characterized the fund as a scheme to reward the president\u2019s political allies with taxpayer money.<\/p>\n In other Trump administration news:<\/p>\n Trump says Israel and Hezbollah will stop fighting<\/p>\n Early today, the war in the Middle East seemed likely to worsen. The U.S. said it had intercepted Iranian attacks against its forces. Israel\u2019s prime minister called for new strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Tehran threatened retaliation if Israel did attack. And Iran\u2019s semiofficial news agency said the country would stop its negotiations with American officials and seek to close the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Then, this afternoon, Trump declared that there would be a halt in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. He said he had spoken with both sides and that they would not attack each other.<\/p>\n Lebanon\u2019s government said it had \u201creceived confirmation that Hezbollah has agreed to the U.S. proposal for a mutual cessation of attacks.\u201d But Netanyahu issued a statement leaving it unclear whether he had agreed to a truce or not. We\u2019re following the diplomatic exchanges here<\/a>.<\/p>\n In related news: Global oil prices jumped today<\/a>. In the U.S., elevated gas prices have led some Trump voters to question whether the war in Iran is worth the cost<\/a>.<\/p>\n An A.I. giant joins the I.P.O. party<\/p>\n Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the chatbot Claude, filed paperwork today with the Securities and Exchange Commission, setting it on track to go public as soon as this fall<\/a>. The company\u2019s private valuation has ballooned to $900 billion largely because it makes A.I. tools that can automatically write computer code.<\/p>\n Two other private tech giants \u2014 SpaceX and OpenAI \u2014 are also making plans to go public, setting the stage for a record-breaking I.P.O. season and a tsunami of investment and employee wealth.<\/p>\n For more on A.I.:<\/p>\n Take a look inside the epicenter of an Ebola breakout<\/p>\n The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which aid groups warn could become the deadliest in history, is believed to have begun in Mongbwalu, a remote gold mining town with few of the resources needed to fight the spreading virus.<\/p>\n My colleague Declan Walsh went there to see the front lines of the outbreak and found the health system to be completely overwhelmed<\/a>. Testing is rare and delayed. The hospital is lacking supplies, so families bring food, risking infection. Doctors there are furious: \u201cThis is the best we can do?\u201d one asked.<\/p>\n More top news<\/p>\n Media: In an explosive staff meeting, the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Scott Pelley accused Bari Weiss, the head of CBS News, of \u201cmurdering\u201d the show<\/a>.<\/p>\n Britain: Two progressive U.S. commentators who have criticized Israel, Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur, were denied entrance to the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n Politics: Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, was defiant over reports that he had sent sexual messages to women outside his marriage<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hawaii: A magnitude-6.0 earthquake destroyed water catchment systems across the Big Island\u2019s Kona district<\/a>, a crucial piece of infrastructure for farmers and coffee growers.<\/p>\n Fires: According to a new analysis, 2025 was the most economically damaging wildfire year on record<\/a>.<\/p>\n Canada: In October, Albertans will vote on a referendum that could move their province toward secession. My colleagues asked them why<\/a>.<\/p>\n Science: Thousands of massive stone urns scattered across Laos have stood as one of archaeology\u2019s most baffling enigmas. Archaeologists now think they know their purpose<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jeffrey Epstein: Emails and records in the Epstein files indicate that the disgraced financier banked his sperm, and suggest it\u2019s still being stored<\/a>.<\/p>\n Young audiences turn \u2018Backrooms\u2019 into a box-office hit<\/p>\n A few years ago, when the filmmaker Kane Parsons was 17, the movie studio A24 asked him to turn his YouTube series about a man trapped in an unnerving realm of mazelike hallways into a feature-length movie. That film, the $10 million \u201cBackrooms,\u201d sold an astounding $82 million worth of tickets at North American theaters this past weekend. Read our review<\/a>.<\/p>\n Parsons\u2019s movie was the latest box-office hit from a popular online creator, like \u201cIron Lung\u201d and \u201cObsession\u201d earlier this year. It also helped resolve a long-running question in Hollywood<\/a> over whether young people will go back to the theaters: roughly 86 percent of the \u201cBackrooms\u201d audience was under 35.<\/p>\n At 44, Serena Williams is making a comeback<\/p>\n Nearly four years after announcing that she was \u201cevolving away\u201d from tennis, Serena Williams is returning to the court<\/a> to compete in doubles at next week\u2019s Queen\u2019s tournament, the prestigious grass-court warm-up for Wimbledon.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a huge moment for the sport because Williams, perhaps the greatest women\u2019s player ever, transcends the game. Now, we might get to see her in action against the sport\u2019s new cadre of top talent.<\/p>\n We tried George Washington\u2019s beer recipe<\/p>\n In 1757, a young militia commander named George Washington wrote down the step-by-step process of making \u201csmall beer\u201d: A low-alcohol drink that he served to the troops when potable water was hard to find. And now, in celebration of America\u2019s 250th birthday, the New York Public Library has teamed up with a craft brewery to recreate the first president\u2019s brew.<\/p>\n