The US government already has a ballroom just down the street. The Andrew Mellon Auditorium is less than a mile away from the White House is beautiful and accommodates more people than the new ballroom will and is owned by the U.S. Government.
via Shelia Earl
My favourite moment from last night was when the audience at the Royal Albert Hall, including Prince William, sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Sir David Attenborough 🎶🥹💚
I'm sorry, but this is simply lovely, and I've no time for those who'll inevitably sneer at it as "Paddingtonism", or whatever. Like it or not, this is the version of Britain most British people identify with. Good on his M the K for participating, too.
The @nytimes added 310,000 net new digital subscribers in the first quarter, surpassing 13.1 million total, the largest paid audience in the history of the paper. @katie_robertson https://t.co/xcxr2SBsuz
When Trump leaves office:
The Department of War will go back to being the Defense Department.
The Trump Kennedy Center will go back to being the Kennedy Center.
The Gulf of America will once again be the Gulf of Mexico.
The unfinished East Wing (it won't be finished by the end of Trump's term) will be rebuilt by the next president, and it will not be a ballroom.
Federal agencies packed with unqualified loyalists will fire those people and rehire the career experts Trump fired.
The Department of Justice will go back to enforcing the law instead of protecting the president.
Scientific agencies like NOAA, the EPA, and the CDC will go back to publishing research without political interference.
The U.S. will re-align with its allies and not with its enemies.
The presidential pardon power will stop being used as a rewards program for loyalists.
Inspectors General will go back to investigating corruption instead of getting fired for it.
The White House press room will go back to having briefings, with real journalists and not podcasters.
U.S. foreign policy will stop revolving around flattering dictators.
And the world will progress as though Donald Trump never existed.
Charlottesville airport now: @Delta flight 4695 to Atlanta overbooked. One person handling rebooking AND says we can’t take off until she cleans the plane. May well miss connection to SFO. Thanks, @Delta!
The Epstein survivors. The citizens of Minnesota. The people of Ukraine. Three remarkable examples for all of us of courage, persistence, and resistance in dark times.
We will not merely endure, we will prevail.
I was standing on Khreshchatyk (Kyiv’s main street) and decided to film a short video for you.
A grey, busy city living through a hard winter.
Alive.
Alive.
Alive.
Army veteran in Minnesota:
“They lost Minnesota’s trust the minute they stepped in our state and started killing people, trampling on everybody’s rights…We have fallen far from what made America great.”
This is Alex Pretti, a VA ICU nurse, honoring a veteran he cared for at a VA hospital.
The son of the deceased veteran just posted this video on Facebook with the following message:
“RIP Alex Pretti,
he was my Dads ICU nurse, he read my dad’s final salute at the VA after he passed away. Never wanted to share this video but his speech is very on point. Also my Fathers final words to me was continue to fight the good fight. He would be honored in Alex’ sacrifice, and ashamed of this current administration. In my Dads words I encourage you all to continue to ‘fight the good fight’”
My son, Indy, is doing another epic fundraising walk for Ukrainian refugees and displaced families via the United Nations Refugee Agency @Refugees. In 2023, he walked the ancient Ridgeway path in high summer raising over £4k; this year, he is walking the 102-mile Cotswold Way in the depths of winter, photographing the Ukrainian flag in the changing landscape as he goes. If your New Year's resolution is to support the most vulnerable people in our world, the people at the frontline of geopolitical turmoil and aggression, then why not donate through Indy! Even the smallest amount makes a huge difference and shifts the balance in the world from despair to hope. https://t.co/IA8YLW3i0b
Ukrainians are simply among the best soldiers in the world, capable of inhuman levels of heroism under any circumstances.
That is particularly why Russia, despite its vastly superior forces and resources, has been unable to defeat them for years.
The free world has been fortunate to have people forged from pure steel like this — and corrupt arrogant dealers who sneer at them and grovel before the aggressor in the Kremlin are not really worth a fingernail from their hand.
Despite its proximity to the russian border, Kharkiv has preserved its traditions this year as well, delighting everyone with its New Year atmosphere. Undoubtedly, our enemies wanted to see a completely different picture in the cities of Ukraine. The russians intentionally targeted and continue to shell the infrastructure, but no one will give them even the slightest reason for gloating. Not a single chance to break what Ukrainians have nurtured in their souls and hearts.
All of this is a brief interval of glowing life on New Year's Eve, a gap between what was and what will be. After all, no one knows how 2026 will turn out for all of us in Ukraine. We are realists and slight optimists, though sometimes this optimism is very hard to find. Sometimes you just want to say "thank you" even for what we have right now.