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CBS News
21 minutes ago
- CBS News
Trump visits Kennedy Center and announces 2025 honorees. See the full list.
Washington — President Trump visited the Kennedy Center Wednesday and announced this year's list of Kennedy Center Honorees, after his administration took steps to overhaul the D.C. cultural institution in recent months. "This is a very exciting project," Mr. Trump said. "We're going to do something that will go rapidly, relatively inexpensively, and we'll make it better than it ever was." The president said he was "delighted to be here as we officially announce the incredible talented artists who will be celebrated later this year at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors." He added that he had been asked to host the 48th annual Honors this year: "I have agreed to host — do you believe what I have to do?" The president then announced the honorees, saying the board selected a "truly exceptional class" this year. "The 48th Kennedy Center Honorees are outstanding people, an outstanding group — incredible," Mr. Trump said. "We can't wait to celebrate the Kennedy Center Honors." The Kennedy Center previewed the announcement Tuesday, writing in a post on X: "A country music icon, an Englishman, a New York City Rock band, a dance Queen and a multi-billion dollar Actor walk into the Kennedy Center Opera House..." The Kennedy Center Honors, a televised gala, take place annually in December. The Kennedy Center Honors ceremony is directed and produced by CBS and airs on the network. Last year's honorees included singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, the Grateful Dead, composer Arturo Sandoval and the Apollo Theater. In recent months, the president and his allies have broadened their influence over the Kennedy Center. After the White House accused the institution of being "woke" and scrutinized its finances earlier this year, Mr. Trump ousted Kennedy Center board members appointed by former President Joe Biden, replacing them with his allies. Soon afterward, the new board replaced the center's chairman, David Rubenstein, with Mr. Trump, and Richard Grenell became the Kennedy Center's interim president. The Kennedy Center was designated by Congress as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy in 1964. Along with efforts to reshape the center's governing body and performances, the president outlined during a visit to the famed opera house in March that "we're going to make a lot of changes — including the seats, the decor — pretty much everything. It needs a lot of work." In July, House Republicans advanced a measure that would rename the Kennedy Center's opera house after first lady Melania Trump. The president said Wednesday that in the months since he became chairman, "we have completely reversed the decline of this cherished national institution," claiming "it was being run down" and "money wasn't spent properly." "With a little fix-up and a little work, we can make it unbelievable," the president said of the space. "The bones are so good." In a post on Truth Social Tuesday, Mr. Trump said work is being done to bring the Kennedy Center "back to the absolute TOP LEVEL of luxury, glamour, and entertainment." The president, who broke with tradition during his first term by skipping the Honors shows after several award recipients criticized him, touted the "GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER, AWARDS." The president on Wednesday also mentioned another project — a White House renovation — and his effort to "fix up" Washington, D.C., including the deployment of federal law enforcement and the National Guard in the District of Columbia this week to address crime. "I'm determined to make Washington safe, clean and beautiful again," he said.
Fox News
22 minutes ago
- Fox News
Trump warns Putin of 'very severe consequences' if he doesn't end war in Ukraine
President Donald Trump issues warning to Russia and its President Vladimir Putin ahead of their meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025.
New York Times
22 minutes ago
- New York Times
U.K. Secretly Spent $3.2 Million to Stop Journalists From Reporting on Data Breach
The British government spent $3.2 million on a secret legal order preventing journalists from reporting a data breach that put almost 19,000 Afghans and their families at risk, according to records obtained by The New York Times. The breach, which happened in 2022, exposed the personal details of thousands of Afghans who had worked with British forces before the Taliban takeover in 2021. The government, led by the Conservative Party at the time, went to England's High Court to obtain an order barring anyone from disclosing the breach, even to the people whose lives were feared to be at risk from the Taliban as a result. Journalists were also prevented from reporting on the existence of the court order itself. The government's legal action began in August 2023, when journalists first asked the Ministry of Defense about the breach, and continued until the order was lifted last month. It cost the British government 2.4 million pounds, or over $3.2 million, according to information disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information request. Government ministers involved in the decision have since defended the stringent legal order, which is known in Britain as a 'super injunction,' arguing that it was necessary to protect the people whose personal details had been disclosed. As a direct result of the data breach, Britain spent at least £400 million on a secret program to relocate 4,500 Afghans to Britain. But the government's unprecedented use of a super injunction has intensified questions about freedom of the press in the country. The State Department's annual publication of reports on international human rights on Tuesday criticized Britain's record, describing 'credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression,' while Vice President JD Vance has also argued that free speech is under threat. The British government has said it upholds free speech, but that it balances that right with the need to prevent violent disorder, hate crimes and the swaying of trial juries. Justice Martin Chamberlain, the judge who lifted the order relating to the Afghan data breach last month, said that it was the first super injunction ever granted 'contra mundum,' meaning 'against everyone,' and that it interfered with freedom of expression and Britain's democratic processes. When Labour entered government last year, it commissioned an independent review into the super injunction and the resettlement program, which led to the lifting of the injunction and the public disclosure of the data breach. Critics argued that the government's legitimate interest in protecting the safety of Afghans was supplanted over time by a desire to avoid an embarrassing headline during an election year. The breach happened in February 2022, when a member of the British military accidentally emailed an external contact a spreadsheet containing the details of 18,700 Afghan servicemen, police officers and others seeking refuge in Britain after the Taliban takeover. The disclosure was not discovered until part of the spreadsheet was posted on Facebook in August 2023. Within days, journalists approached the Ministry of Defense about the breach, prompting the government's application for an injunction. Holly Bancroft, the home affairs correspondent for the Independent newspaper, was among the first journalists to be served with the order. She told The New York Times that she was unaware of the data breach and had asked the Ministry of Defense why many Afghans who had previously been denied permission to travel to Britain were suddenly being approved — decisions she now knows were part of the emergency response. Ms. Bancroft said she had been invited into a room inside the ministry's headquarters, handed a paper copy of the super injunction and told not to 'talk to anyone about it' other than a lawyer. Ms. Bancroft estimates that over the next 18 months, she attended more than 20 hearings at London's High Court, where The Independent and other news organizations, including The Times of London and Associated Newspapers, were campaigning for the injunction to be lifted. The government fielded a roster of senior lawyers to argue against them. Asked for comment on Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense pointed to the statement made by John Healey, the defense secretary, while disclosing the breach last month. He said he felt 'deeply concerned about the lack of transparency' and had chosen to 'reassess' the basis for the injunction when he entered government. Steve Kuncewicz, a specialist media lawyer from Glaisyers Solicitors, said that no legal power comparable to super injunctions existed in the United States and 'couldn't be considered' because of the First Amendment. 'They are a creature of the U.K. courts,' he said. The orders had previously been sought to prevent the disclosure of 'embarrassing details of people's private lives,' he noted, such as the order obtained in 2010 by a former England soccer player, John Terry, over allegations of an extramarital affair. The use of super injunctions has long been contentious in Britain but, Mr. Kuncewicz said, the Afghan data breach case was 'unique.' 'These orders are only meant to stay in place for the shortest amount of time, and be granted in the narrowest terms possible,' he added. 'They are really chilling to free speech.'
