Trump’s name removed from Kennedy Center website branding

2026-06-08 4:00 PM ET / CNN

By Kit Maher
Updated Jun 8, 2026, 4:51 PM ET

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on March 12, 2025.

Jason Andrew for The Washington Post/Getty Images

Summary

• The Kennedy Center has removed President Donald Trump’s name from its website branding following a federal judge’s ruling.
• Trump’s name is still on the facade of the building.
• Staff must remove Trump’s name from all branding by June 12 to comply with the court order, according to a memo from the center’s general counsel.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

The Kennedy Center website logo no longer includes “Trump” after a federal judge ruled President Donald Trump’s name had to be removed from the institution’s branding.

For now, the large lettering on the building’s facade still features “Donald J. Trump.” But the Kennedy Center’s general counsel said in a memo to staff that they have until June 12 to remove it to comply with the court order.

Staff were also instructed to immediately update some Kennedy Center documentation — including their email signatures and marketing materials — to remove Trump’s name, according to the memo.

“To comply with this order, you must immediately change email signatures, letterhead, and other documents to reflect the name as ‘The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,’ or ‘Kennedy Center.’ Other changes, such as to templates and forms, signage, brochures, and website pages, must be completed no later than Friday, June 12, 2026,” the general counsel wrote in the memo, obtained by CNN last week.

Shortly after Trump’s loyalist board voted to change the name in December, the website’s logo read: “Trump Kennedy Center.”

The president has expressed frustration with the judge’s ruling, indicating in a Truth Social post shortly after the decision that he planned to transfer full control of the storied performing arts center to Congress. But he’s walked back those remarks since then, indicating last week that he would stick with plans to renovate the center.

“I’m the chairman, so we’ll just keep it going. Somebody has to do it,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “Everybody, they want me to stay very badly, so we’re going to take a look at it.”

Later this month, the Kennedy Center will honor comedian Bill Maher with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor “at a gala performance featuring some of the biggest names in comedy,” according to the website.

Louis C.K., Whitney Cummings, Woody Harrelson, Arianna Huffington, Jay Leno, John Mellencamp and Stephen A. Smith will appear at the Mark Twain Prize award ceremony, according to an email giving a “first look” at the event.

Performance-only tickets start at $99 and more expensive packages sell for $750 and $1500.

This story has been updated with additional details.

Obama-appointed judge who blocked Trump birthright citizenship order strikes again, throws out visa overhaul

June 8, 2026 5:02pm EDT / Fox News

Judge Leo Sorokin sided with a coalition of 20 states that challenged the September 2025 proclamation

By Elaine Mallon, Fox News

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

An Obama-appointed federal judge who previously blocked President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order has again dealt a major setback to the administration by striking down Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa payment requirement and declaring the policy unlawful.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin of Massachusetts ruled Monday that the Trump administration lacked the authority to impose the hefty payment on employers seeking new H-1B visas, finding that the requirement amounted to a tax that only Congress has the constitutional power to impose.

In Monday’s 42-page decision, Sorokin sided with a coalition of 20 states that challenged Trump’s September 2025 proclamation creating a new $100,000 payment requirement for employers filing petitions for foreign workers under the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. employers to hire skilled foreign workers. Approximately 65,000 foreign workers are issued a H-1B visa each year.

TRUMP’S $100K H-1B VISA OVERHAUL COULD HIT TECH GIANTS LIKE AMAZON AND MICROSOFT HARDEST

U.S. President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, June 3, 2026.(Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Before Trump’s proclamation, employers typically paid between $2,000 and $5,000 in filing fees to sponsor an H-1B worker, depending on the type of application and the size of the company.

The administration had argued that the measure was necessary to curb abuse of the visa system and protect American workers.

Trump’s proclamation stated that the H-1B program had been exploited to replace U.S. workers with lower-paid foreign labor and that the new payment would help address those concerns.

Sorokin rejected the administration’s legal justification, finding that the Immigration and Nationality Act gives presidents broad authority over the entry of noncitizens but does not authorize them to impose taxes.

“While the Executive has broad discretion over the admission and exclusion of aliens, … that discretion is not boundless,” Sorokin wrote, referring to previous case law.

Top DHS official says current citizenship test is ‘too easy,’ needs a revamp
Video

Sorokin concluded that the payment functioned as a tax rather than a permissible immigration restriction.

TRUMP IS DOWN BUT NOT OUT IN COURT BATTLE OVER HARVARD’S FOREIGN STUDENT VISAS

“The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” Sorokin wrote.

He further rejected the administration’s argument that the payment requirement was simply another immigration restriction, bluntly stating: “Taxes are not ‘restrictions.’”

Beyond the constitutional concerns, Sorokin also found that federal agencies violated the Administrative Procedure Act by implementing the policy without notice-and-comment rule making and concluded that the agencies exceeded their statutory authority.

As a remedy, Sorokin declared the policy unlawful and vacated it in its entirety.

Signage for the U.S. Department of State is displayed outside its headquarters in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2025.(Jim Watson/AFP)

Sorokin, a Yale and Columbia Law School graduate, was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2013 and confirmed by the Senate in 2014. Last year, Sorokin was the fourth judge to issue a nationwide injunction blocking Trump’s executive order seeking to limit birthright citizenship. He ruled that the policy is likely unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. That dispute has since reached the Supreme Court, and a ruling is expected in the coming weeks.

The administration is expected to appeal Sorokin’s decision, setting up another legal battle over the scope of presidential authority in immigration matters and the limits of executive power.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America’s best interests, and that is exactly what he did,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital. “The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it. A federal judge in Washington already upheld a nearly identical order, and the Administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal.”

In a separate challenge filed in December 2025, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington declined to block the policy after dismissing claims from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that the additional H-1B charge violated federal immigration law.

Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6376397427112

Can an AI agent cover for you while you’re at the beach?

June 8, 2026 4:21 PM EDT / CBS News

By Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

Read Full Bio

Summer means fun in the sun for employees on vacation, but it also often means more assignments to juggle for their coworkers back at the office. To compound the stress, those returning from time off frequently face a mountain of catch-up work, instantly undoing the good vibes.

Artificial intelligence can help, according to the management consulting firm Korn Ferry. The firm said some companies have started using AI agents, or custom bots, to lighten the summer scheduling load by handling basic correspondence, scheduling meetings and performing other administrative tasks while employees are on break.

For employers, that approach also helps them balance their business needs with ensuring that workers get the downtime they need to recharge.

“There is a productivity dip when someone is out, so this is about the team taking the smallest hit by having AI make clear what’s due while someone is out,” Bryan Ackerman, head of AI strategy and transformation for Korn Ferry, told CBS News. “It’s also a huge help when that person returns to dig out from vacation.”

AI is good at summarizing emails and documents, and the technology can perform that task on behalf of a vacationing manager or even a senior leader. That avoids leaving team members in the lurch while the person is out, Ackerman said.

“AI can make everything that was on my plate visible to colleagues while I’m gone,” he said.

For example, Ackerman said that Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, an AI agent the company has designed for “knowledge work,” can synthesize research and prepare documents.

“Coordinating documents, light email writing and summarizing meeting transcripts when the host is on vacation — this is all within the realm of what AI happens to be good at right now,” Ackerman said. “In their current iteration, these tools provide data insights for teams compensating for me being out.”

To be sure, firing up an AI agent for the summer months could well fuel employee fears that they may be expendable — especially in some industries where increased corporate investment is leading to layoffs and reduced hiring.

Meanwhile, using AI in this manner could raise privacy concerns, while for an organization, deploying and using the technology is also costly.

Mark Beare, head of consumer business at cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes, also notes that employees would need to have confidence that an AI agent responding to coworkers and clients on their behalf can be counted on to act competently and professionally.

“If you give administrative control to an AI agent while you’re not present, allowing it to do things for you and make decisions, that brings concerns with it,” he said.

Beare added, “If it does something you ask it to poorly and there’s no human in the loop to correct it, eventually these systems decay.”

Edited by Alain Sherter

Trump formally nominates his former personal lawyer Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general

2026-06-08T21:01:50.385Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/08/politics/todd-blanche-trump-attorney-general-nomination

• President Donald Trump has formally nominated Todd Blanche, his former personal lawyer, to serve as attorney general.
• Blanche faces Senate scrutiny over his handling of Epstein files and a controversial fund for Trump allies.
• The nomination comes after Pam Bondi was fired and amid Republican concerns about the Justice Department’s direction.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

President Donald Trump has formally tapped acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to take on the top law enforcement job on a more permanent basis, sending his nomination to the Senate on Monday.

Blanche – formerly one of Trump’s personal lawyers – would succeed Pam Bondi, who was fired in April.

The formal nomination now tees up the Senate confirmation process. Blanche will need just a majority vote to get confirmed, though his role in handling the Jeffrey Epstein files and in the attempt to create a controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to benefit Trump’s allies could complicate the vote.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley indicated he will support Blanche and move quickly on the nomination.

“Blanche is well-qualified and has shown his dedication to restoring law and order across our country. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s work to process Blanche’s nomination is underway,” Grassley said in a statement.

But just how quickly Blanche’s nomination could advance remains in question. Asked Monday how swiftly he could move the nomination through his committee, Grassley wouldn’t say.

Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the committee, indicated to CNN that he plans to ask Blanche questions about the “anti-weaponization” fund.

“I have a lot of questions, including that,” Cornyn said when asked if he wanted to hear more specifically about Blanche’s role in the fund.

GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana – whose recent primary defeat has led him to become one of the most critical Republican voices on Trump’s recent push for the DOJ fund – is signaling that he still has major issues with Blanche.

Asked repeatedly on Monday night whether he could support Blanche, the senator offered the same line: “I have to be convinced that Todd is not the president’s personal attorney who happens to be attorney general – but that Todd is attorney general who used to be the president’s personal attorney.”

Asked by CNN about Trump’s recent remarks reiterating his support for that fund – despite Blanche’s own insistence that the fund is dead – Cassidy said: “Of course, that’s concerning.”

Cassidy said “we shall see” when asked what he could do to rein in the White House on the matter.

Why Sen. Fetterman is a ‘no’ on Todd Blanche for Attorney General
https://www.cnn.com/

Serving as acting attorney general, Blanche has secured indictments against some of Trump’s personal foes like former FBI Director James Comey, rolled back gun control measures and issued subpoenas to journalists for their sources. He’s also announced sweeping fraud initiatives across the country, which work hand-in-hand with the White House’s “war on fraud.”

But critics, citing those same efforts, say that Blanche has effectuated the president’s personal and political agenda to use the Justice Department as his own attack mechanism.

The nomination comes in amid pushback against Trump and Blanche over the proposed $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to compensate people who say they were wrongly prosecuted by the government. The fund was initially announced as part of a settlement between the Internal Revenue Service and the president, his adult sons and the Trump Organization.

Republicans on Capitol Hill revolted over the fund — with many especially anxious over the potential for January 6, 2021, rioters to get payouts.

Blanche essentially had to disavow the idea last week, and the Justice Department told two federal judges the plan is dead. However, several lawsuits are ongoing against the settlement.

Blanche, for his part, has vociferously stated his desire for the job and his support for the president. In a press conference just after he was appointed acting attorney general, Blanche told reporters that working for Trump is “the greatest honor of a lifetime.”

“If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say: ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir,’” he said.

Epstein files and Maxwell interview

Blanche will also face questions about how the Justice Department handled the Epstein files and his interview with Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.

According to a transcript of her recent interview with the House Oversight Committee, Bondi repeatedly said that Blanche was responsible.

“He was in charge of the process and the entire release of the Epstein files,” Bondi said when asked for her role in the department’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

DOJ has released approximately 3 million files compelled by Congress, but Bondi was pushed to explain why another 3 million still have not been released.

Blanche also will be asked about his interview with Maxwell he conducted last year. Shortly after, Maxwell was transferred to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas. The Justice Department has said the Bureau of Prisons is responsible for the move.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz, Kristen Holmes and Manu Raju contributed to this report.

How to buy SpaceX shares as its blockbuster IPO readies for liftoff

June 8, 2026 / 6:04 PM EDT / CBS News

SpaceX is set this week to launch as a publicly traded company, giving ordinary investors a chance to participate in what is expected to be the biggest initial public offering of all time.

While SpaceX will be held primarily by CEO Elon Musk, company employees and private investors, the Texas-based company will set aside a sizable chunk of stock to retail investors, which experts say is unusual. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that as much as 30% of the shares of the rocket and AI company will go to individual investors, three times the usual allocation.

SpaceX shares are scheduled to price on Thursday and begin trading the following day on the Nasdaq Composite Index under the ticker symbol “SPCX,” according to SpaceX’s IPO website.

SpaceX said in a recent regulatory filing that it expects to price its shares at $135 each. However, the company could increase or decrease the price before trading begins, said Matthew Kennedy, a senior market strategist at Renaissance Capital, which tracks IPOs.

The company expects to raise $75 billion in the offering, nearly three times the amount raised when Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned national oil company, went public in 2019, in what remains the largest-ever IPO.

SpaceX’s offering would value it at $1.77 trillion, larger than many major U.S. companies that have been around for years. That includes Musk’s electric car maker, Tesla, which has a market value of $1.5 trillion; Meta Platforms ($1.4 trillion); and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway ($1.04 trillion)

How do I buy SpaceX stock?

As SpaceX explains on its website, retail investors will need a brokerage account or a participating digital investing app to participate in the IPO.

“Your brokerage account or investing app will confirm whether you’re eligible when you submit your request to participate,” SpaceX says on its website.

SpaceX is offering shares to retail investors through Charles Schwab, E*TRADE by Morgan Stanley, Fidelity Investments, Robinhood and SoFi.

Kennedy of Renaissance Capital said that for most retail investors, those will be the five go-to platforms. High-net-worth individuals may also have access to the IPO through their own banking institution, he noted. “There might be some accredited investors that can access it through, say, JPMorgan.”

After SpaceX shares begin trading publicly, anyone can buy them on the open market. People with index-based exchange-traded funds may also soon find that SpaceX stock has been added to their investment portfolio, experts explained. That means Americans may eventually see exposure to SpaceX through their 401(k)s.

Investors can normally access shares of a company before an IPO through so-called private-market transactions, which involve purchasing stock from an existing shareholder, such as a company employee. Participation is limited to accredited investors with certain asset thresholds, said Karthik Krishnan, an associate professor of finance at Northeastern University.

However, at least two platforms for such secondary trades — Forge Global and Rainmaker Securities — said they are no longer offering access to SpaceX shares.

“Opportunities for new private secondary transactions in SpaceX shares have become increasingly limited as market participants seek to hold their shares and shift attention to the company’s performance in the public markets,” Glen Anderson, CEO of Rainmaker Securities, told CBS News in an email.

Still, Ritter cautioned that such transactions can be complex, amplifying the risks.

“At this point, I would recommend, if you’re not already an experienced investor on those platforms, this is not the time to start,” he said.

How do I buy SpaceX shares through a brokerage account?

Each brokerage platform offers its own instructions for how retail investors can participate in SpaceX’s IPO. That generally involves setting up an investor profile, confirming your eligibility and submitting a request for the number of shares you want to buy.

“So you might say I want to buy up to 100 shares. Then the day before the company begins trading, you will get a confirmation,” Kennedy said. “You’ll have to confirm that you’d still like to buy up to 100 shares, and then the morning of the deal, the morning of the listing, you’ll either get 100 shares or less.”

As some brokerage sites note, requesting shares doesn’t guarantee you will receive them — availability depends on supply.

“If you ask for 100 shares, maybe you’ll get 100,” said Jay Ritter, a professor and Director of The IPO Initiative at the University of Florida. “More likely… you’ll probably only get a fraction of the shares that you asked for.”

Here are the requirements for buying SpaceX shares after it goes public, according to leading brokerage firms:

• Charles Schwab. The financial service firm’s IPO platform requires investors to have a “minimum liquid net worth” of $100,000, according to The Motley Fool, an investing advice company.

ETRADE. There is no account minimum to participate, per The Motley Fool.

• Fidelity. The company said anyone with a retail brokerage account with $2,000 or more is eligible to participate.
• Robinhood. No minimum account balance, according to The Motley Fool.
• SoFi. The digital finance company said anyone with an active investing account is eligible to participate in the IPO, with no minimum account balance required.

How many SpaceX shares will be available for average investors?

According to a recent SEC filing, SpaceX is offering 555,555,555 class A common shares as part of its “public float,” the number of shares a company makes available for public trading. That’s about 4.25% of the company’s total stock.

Reuters, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported in late May that as much as 30% of SpaceX’s IPO could be set aside for retail investors. The remaining 70% would go to large institutional money managers such as hedge funds or mutual fund managers, according to Kennedy.

Is hopping on the bandwagon a good idea?

Getting in on SpaceX shares at the offer price could yield higher returns, Ritter said. According his research, which analyzed more than 9,200 IPOs from 1980 to 2024, the average return for a newly public company on its first day of trading is about 19%.

Yet such investments are far riskier over the long term. The average three-year market-adjusted return for investors who buy shares at the closing price on a company’s first day of trading is -21%, according to Ritter’s research.

Kennedy said it may be wiser for investors to wait and see how SpaceX’s stock trades before taking the plunge, noting that shares can be volatile in the days immediately following an IPO.

Morningstar also thinks investors may be better off biding their time. The global investment research firm said in a research note earlier this month that it believes SpaceX has been “significantly overvalued” and that investors will have a chance to buy stock at “more attractive levels” after the IPO.

Nithya Raman will advance over Spencer Pratt to face Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in November, CNN projects

2026-06-08T23:54:31.812Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/08/politics/nithya-raman-spencer-pratt-karen-bass-los-angeles-mayor-election

• Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman will secure second place in the June 2 mayoral primary, CNN projects, pass former reality-TV star Spencer Pratt.
• Raman will face incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in November after gaining ground on Pratt as more mail-in ballots were counted in the days following the primary.
• The progressive Democrat is expected to pose a tougher challenge to Bass than Pratt would have in a city where Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

Nithya Raman will advance to the November election in the Los Angeles mayoral race, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, after overtaking Spencer Pratt for second place as more votes were counted in the days after the June 2 primary.

Raman will face incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, who CNN projected on election night would advance to November.

She defeats Pratt, a Republican former reality TV star who generated buzz with a focus on homelessness and Bass’ response to the devastating Palisades fire.

| CANDIDATE | VOTES |
| — | — |
| Karen Bass* Non-Partisan | 34.3% 275,992 |
| Nithya Raman Non-Partisan | 28.5% 229,576 |
| Spencer Pratt Non-Partisan | 25.8% 207,757 |

Raman, a city councilmember, may be a tougher opponent for Bass in November than Pratt would have been. While the mayoral election is officially nonpartisan, Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans in Los Angeles, and Raman has campaigned as a progressive outsider against Bass.

“Right now, we have a city that feels rudderless,” Raman told CNN’s Elex Michaelson before the primary. “So many positions that haven’t been filled, places where Angelenos feel abandoned on some of the most important issues facing this city. I will bring that urgency, I will bring that accountability, I will bring that focus that Los Angeles needs and that Angelenos need.”

Pratt was in second behind Bass on election night, but he lost ground to Raman as the vote count progressed. California elections often take several days to resolve, a function of the nation’s most populous state running a largely mail-in election in which properly postmarked ballots received up to seven days after Election Day can be counted.

Raman overtaking Pratt was becoming increasingly likely in recent days.

Votes reported after election night in California tend to shift toward Democrats, as they typically include mail ballots that were cast closer to Election Day itself.

Across all votes reported in the June 2 primary since the close of election night counting, Raman had outperformed both Bass and Pratt through Sunday, gaining 43,000 votes on Pratt and increasing her overall share of the vote by about 5 points.

Reports this weekend were her strongest of the contest, with Raman winning about 40% of each batch and Pratt around 18%.

On election night last week, Pratt said that he appealed to any city resident “that just wants basic quality of life,” regardless of party.

“I’m an Angeleno who said, ‘Enough is enough,’ and I had to step up,” he said. “I’m going to show everybody that I’m their mayor.”

In recent weeks, Pratt, the one-time villain of MTV’s “The Hills,” gained national praise from Republicans and those in President Donald Trump’s orbit. A filmmaker who supports Pratt created an artificial intelligence video that portrays Pratt as Batman and Bass as the Joker, and features Los Angeles residents pelting the state’s best-known Democratic figures with tomatoes.

Pratt’s supporters – and Trump – criticized how the city and state run elections in recent days as Pratt’s lead over Raman narrowed. Trump ended an interview Sunday with NBC’s “Meet the Press” after accusing local officials of “cheating.”

California has long had a reputation for being slow to report the results. That’s because a significant number of the total votes come in as mail ballots are dropped off on Election Day, according to the California Voter Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the election process.

First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli, a Trump appointee who leads the Los Angeles-based US attorney’s office, posted last week that there was “evidence of election fraud in California,” adding that “investigations are underway.”

But Essayli later Friday also affirmed that it was untrue that a vote-count update on election night showed Pratt receiving zero new votes. Several conservatives, including Elon Musk, had shared that theory.

“There was a claim circulating on social media about an election night ballot update at the Los Angeles Registrar of Voters where one candidate received zero votes,” Essayli wrote on X. “We reviewed official county records. The claim is false. Each candidate received votes in every update.”

The November matchup now features a battle between left-leaning leaders in the nation’s second-largest city. Raman was an advocate targeting homelessness before being elected to the City Council and has vowed to reduce the number of people sleeping in tents or encampments by half before Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Olympics.

Bass argued before the primary that her experience set her apart from both Pratt and Raman.

“You cannot run the nation’s second-largest city without intimate knowledge, long-standing relationships, and collaboration on every level of government,” she said.

In an early May debate, Bass and Pratt attacked Raman repeatedly, to which Raman responded that “each of them thinks that running against each other is what’s going to help them win.”

Pratt shot back that he’d rather run against Raman.

“You think it’s easier to run against the incumbent mayor with all the unions, or a random city councilmember who’s been a failure for six years?” he asked.

CNN’s Eric Bradner contributed to this report.

New US-Canada bridge nears opening despite earlier Trump threat

2026-06-08 21:30:37 UTC / Reuters

By Reuters

June 8, 2026 9:30 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

The Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Detroit to Windsor Ontario Canada is under construction in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. February 10, 2026. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

June 8 (Reuters) – A new $4.7 billion bridge connecting ​Detroit and Windsor, ‌Ontario is on track to open ​in the ​coming weeks despite a ⁠threat made ​in February by ​U.S. President Donald Trump, a bridge authority said ​on Monday.

A ​formal ribbon cutting is ‌expected ⁠later this week, a source told Reuters. Detroit ​media outlets ​reported ⁠on Monday the Gordie ​Howe International ​Bridge ⁠is expected to open to traffic ⁠on ​June ​15.

Get weekly news and analysis on U.S. politics and how it matters to the world with the Reuters Politics U.S. newsletter. Sign up here.

Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing ​by Chris Reese

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

美国五角大楼更新中国涉军企业清单

2026年6月9日 07:06 / 联合早报

美国五角大楼更新中国涉军企业清单

五角大楼在美国总统特朗普访问北京不到一个月后公布中国涉军企业更新清单。 （法新社）

美国五角大楼星期一（6月8日）更新了协助中国军方的中国企业清单，取代2025年初发布的清单。

路透社报道，被列入更新清单的中国企业包括电商巨头阿里巴巴、互联网搜索引擎百度、汽车制造商比亚迪、中国顶级存储晶片制造商长鑫存储（CXMT）、中国半导体制造企业长江存储 （YMTC）、中国机器人公司宇树科技（Unitree）、生物技术公司药明康德（WuXi AppTec）、AI机器人技术公司速腾聚创科技（RoboSense Technology）等。

五角大楼说，这些被列入“中国涉军企业”清单并在美国开展业务的公司“符合‘中国军工企业’的认定标准”。根据美国法律，五角大楼每年至少提交一次。五角大楼说，这些公司可以申请从清单中移除。

这份清单在美国总统特朗普访问北京，与中国国家主席习近平会晤不到一个月后公布。在习特会期间，双方维持脆弱的贸易休战状态。

今年2月特朗普访华行程尚未确定时，五角大楼曾短暂公布一份更新中国涉军企业清单，但随后迅速撤回，且未多做解释。

周一发布的更新清单与2月撤回的清单基本相同，唯一区别在于新增了长鑫存储和长江存储。这两家公司未被列入2月份清单，令华盛顿对华鹰派感到愤怒。

其他被列入清单的中企包括药明康德、速腾聚创科技以及宇树科技。美国AI制造商英伟达6月1日表示计划与宇树科技合作为研究人员开发机器人。

中国驻华盛顿大使馆尚未回应置评请求。

Voters about to decide Graham Platner’s Senate fate amid scandals

2026-06-08T23:45:16.352Z / CNN Politics

Voters about to decide Graham Platner’s Senate fate amid scandals

Published 7:45 PM EDT, Mon June 8, 2026

https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/08/politics/video/ebof-arlette-saenz-maine-senate-primary

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Voters about to decide Graham Platner’s Senate fate amid scandals

Erin Burnett Out Front

Democrats are weighing whether to stand behind Graham Platner in the Maine Senate primary amid his growing list of scandals. Arlette Saenz reports on OutFront.

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Minnesota fraud report accuses state AG of ‘incompetence, willful blindness or worse’

2026-06-08 16:55:01 EDT / Fox News

Report links Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison’s alleged inaction to $300M stolen through Feeding Our Future and $9B in Medicaid fraud

By Charles Creitz, Fox News

Published June 8, 2026 4:55pm EDT

The House Oversight Committee unveils a bombshell report detailing rampant fraud in Minnesota, accusing Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison of ignoring warning signs and retaliating against whistleblowers since 2019. The report alleges state officials failed to act, fearing accusations of racism, and highlights a $90 million fraud against autism centers.

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The House Oversight Committee’s Republican majority accused Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison of repeatedly contradicting public accounts of Minnesota’s massive Feeding Our Future fraud scandal in a 205-page report released Monday.

The scandal, which thrust the Land of 10,000 Lakes into the national spotlight, set off a chain of journalistic and congressional investigations that exposed a wider web of waste, fraud and abuse, including allegations that members of Minnesota’s Somali community exploited the social services framework to funnel millions of dollars to unqualified recipients, including Mogadishu-area terror groups.

The report describes several instances that investigators said show Ellison and Gov. Tim Walz were aware of fraud concerns earlier than they publicly acknowledged.

“The governor and the attorney general knew about fraud in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) as early as April 2020, despite contrary claims made to the media,” the committee said.

WALZ ADMINISTRATION IGNORED FRAUD WARNINGS AS BILLIONS VANISHED, HOUSE OVERSIGHT REPORT ALLEGES

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6389137598112

“The governor and the attorney general knew about fraud in the Child Care Assistance Program as well as Non-Emergency Medical Transportation program as early as spring 2019. The Governor and the Attorney General also became aware of fraud in 13 additional high-risk Medicaid programs at various times during their tenure and failed to act.”

Interviews with education, human services and executive-office officials led investigators to conclude Ellison was aware of fraud concerns years before they became public.

Those interviews found Ellison was aware of fraud in “high-risk Medicaid programs” administered by the state as early as 2019 and tied that timeline to more than $300 million in Feeding Our Future fraud and what federal prosecutors estimate could be up to $9 billion in fraud involving high-risk Medicaid programs.

MASSIVE MEDICAID FRAUD SCHEME PUTS MINNESOTA’S FEDERAL FUNDING AT RISK — AND FALLOUT COULD WIDEN

The committee said it was unable to determine whether Ellison’s alleged failure to protect Minnesota taxpayers was “incompetence, willful blindness or worse.”

Ellison’s office pushed back hard on Republicans’ findings, calling the report “riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations in order to politicize the issue of fraud.”

In one example, the committee recounted how Ellison issued a press release in September 2022 that “misrepresents the timeline” of his office’s knowledge of alleged impropriety by Feeding Our Future (FOF), and a threat of litigation from the nonprofit against the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6393317885112

Ellison claimed he stepped in during the “Fall of 2020” to advise and support MDE against the legal threat from FOF. However, the committee found that MDE had been confronted by FOF in April 2020, leaving what the committee described as months of delay by Democrats.

MDE Assistant Commissioner Daron Korte testified to the committee that it wasn’t until the following year that his agency declared “serious deficiency” in FOF’s compliance with federal program rules – and placed a stop-pay order against them.

Korte said MDE always had the authority to do so, but resumed payments and hedged for fear of being taken to court.

The report found Ellison and Walz showed knowledge of alleged fraud much earlier than they admitted or announced.

MINNESOTA DHS WHISTLEBLOWER DETAILS ‘SMEAR CAMPAIGN’ AFTER REPORTING FRAUD CONCERNS TO STATE

“[They] claimed to know very little about the widespread fraud occurring in Minnesota until long after potentially billions of dollars had gone out the door, and believed that the child care fraud that predated the beginning of their terms in 2019 had been resolved by the time they took office,” the report said.

The committee accused Ellison of slow-walking oversight of FOF and other concerns and characterized the former congressman as instead waiting for the federal government to do his job for him.

They wrote that despite his spring 2020 knowledge of the situation, his corrective actions did not come until after news of the FBI’s pandemic-fraud investigation emerged two years later.

During the trial of FOF leader Aimee Bock, the defense presented Exhibit 710, which included a nearly hour-long recording of AG Ellison meeting with several defendants in the case in 2021.

They included the owner of a now-defunct Somali restaurant, Salim Said, who was convicted of 20 felonies, and others, including Shakur Abdinur Abdisalam, who pleaded guilty in March to defrauding the federal government of millions of dollars.

According to the report, Ellison originally told a reporter that he was prepared to meet with Mohamed Omar, a friend of his who is the Imam of Bloomington, Minnesota’s Dar al-Farooq mosque, and that he was surprised the other attendees were there when he arrived.

AUDIO OF ELLISON MEETING WITH CONVICTED FRAUDSTERS RESURFACES AS LAWYER ALLEGES WALZ, AG SHARE BLAME

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 12, 2026.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg)

But the committee contended that account contradicted what Ellison told Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., during the hearing, when he described the group as coming to him and seeking solutions to “difficult[ies] with the bureaucracy.”

Ellison told Luna that he investigated what they told him, and then worked with the feds to prosecute suspects, tallying 57 that were convicted of crimes.

“They were not what they claimed to be,” Ellison said.

The report found some at the meeting had “pledged the Somali community’s political and financial support to Ellison” if he intervened in their claims they were being racially profiled or discriminated against by government agencies.

Ellison responded that he would help “fight these people.”

When Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., confronted Walz about that exchange during a hearing, the governor said it was his first time hearing it and that he would not “speculate” on it.

GREGG JARRETT: IF WALZ IS CHARGED IN MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL, HIS BEST DEFENSE IS INCOMPETENCE

The committee further found that, when asked about his prosecutorial authority, Ellison said he has jurisdiction over Medicaid fraud probes but that other criminal cases must be referred by county attorneys.

The panel contended that this was an obvious omission from prior testimony before the Senate, when Ellison said non-Medicaid criminal cases may also be referred to him by the governor’s office.

Ellison spokesman Brian Evans told Fox News Digital that the House would be better served by “actually helping Minnesota protect tax dollars and go after fraudsters.”

“The record is clear that Attorney General Ellison fought fraud wherever possible and as soon as he was able to,” Evans said.

“In areas where Attorney General Ellison has the authority to file criminal charges, he has charged and convicted over 340 Medicaid fraudsters. In fact, Attorney General Ellison’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit regularly ranks as one of the most effective Medicaid fraud-fighting units in the nation.”

GOP LAWMAKER UNVEILS WALZ ACT AFTER BILLIONS LOST IN MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6390425606112

As for the jurisdictional divisions mentioned in the report, Evans said that when Ellison didn’t have proper jurisdiction to go after fraudsters, he defended Minnesota from frivolous litigation by those trying to hide schemes.

Ellison recently introduced legislation in St. Paul to broaden his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, his office said, while adding that the House report does not properly distinguish between authorities of the AG’s office and other agencies.

Ellison’s office said they remain solely empowered to prosecute Medicaid fraud and that other social services fraud is the purview of counties or the feds.

Walz spokesman Teddy Tschann told Fox News separately the report shows the committee has proven itself “time and time again to be nothing more than a joke” by “rehash[ing] COVID-era fraud to distract from endless wars, gas prices, ICE and President Donald Trump’s alleged insider trading.”

The House report noted both Walz and Ellison were given an opportunity to explain their actions during the March 2026 hearing but failed to provide what the committee considered sufficient answers.

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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., was so alarmed by the investigation’s findings, he sent a letter Monday to Vice President JD Vance — in the Ohioan’s capacity as chair of the White House Task Force to eliminate fraud — to conduct its own thorough review of Minnesota’s social services programs.

Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.