How to produce a statistic for a White House news release
Every presidential administration hypes the numbers in economic deals. Bill Clinton, for instance, claimed the North American Free Trade Agreement would create 1 million jobs. Well, that was a mistake, a placeholder figure that was accidentally left in his prepared remarks, but it's emblematic of the phony math behind the figures that often dominate the headlines.
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Washington Post
29 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Live updates: Nationwide protests planned ahead of Trump military parade for Army's birthday
Thousands of Americans are gathering Saturday in cities across the country for an organized day of protests — dubbed 'No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance' — ahead of President Donald Trump's grand military parade in Washington. The parade celebrates the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and falls on Trump's 79th birthday. It is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time after other festivities. Weather could be an issue both in Washington and at protests across the nation. Roads in Washington will be closed to vehicles roughly between Seventh Street NW and the Potomac and from E Street to Independence Avenue. That includes the entire area encompassing Lafayette Square, the White House, the Ellipse, the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and West Potomac Park. For more details on street, Metro and waterway closures, click here. Roads in Washington will be closed to vehicles roughly between Seventh Street NW and the Potomac and from E Street to Independence Avenue. That includes the entire area encompassing Lafayette Square, the White House, the Ellipse, the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and West Potomac Park. For more details on street, Metro and waterway closures, click here. Nearly two-thirds of American adults, 64 percent, oppose using government funds to throw a military parade to celebrate the Army's 250th anniversary on Saturday, according to a new poll from NBC News Decision Desk and SurveyMonkey. Opinions differed sharply between parties. Most Democrats and independents — 88 percent and 72 percent, respectively — said they opposed the use of government funds for the parade, while 65 percent of Republicans said they supported it. In the hours before tanks barrel down the streets of Washington for President Donald Trump's grand military parade Saturday, thousands of Americans will gather across the country in defiance of what they call his dangerous brand of authoritarianism. A little over a week ago, thousands of veterans from across the country poured onto the National Mall to rally against the Trump administration's slashing of staff throughout the government and handling of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Mentions of today's parade largely stirred frustration among the crowd. Among the event's speakers was Cecil Roberts, a sixth-generation coal miner and combat veteran of the Vietnam War.
CBS News
30 minutes ago
- CBS News
Trump's military parade today isn't the first in the U.S. — but they're rare. Here's a look back.
Washington — President Trump is hosting a parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army today, bringing tanks and soldiers to the streets of Washington, D.C., for the capital's first major military parade in more than three decades. The event — which is expected to cost between $25 million and $45 million — follows a years-long push by Mr. Trump to host a parade, dating back to his first term. The festivities coincide with Mr. Trump's 79th birthday, which the president says is unrelated. The U.S. has held military parades throughout history, but they're not especially common, and they're typically held to celebrate the victorious end of a war or the return of military personnel from fighting. "There are historical comparisons to be made, but size and scale is tremendously different," Arizona State University history professor Brooks Simpson told CBS News. Here's a look back at past military parades: When was the last U.S. military parade? The U.S. marked the end of the Gulf War with parades in New York City and Washington in the first major military display on the streets of D.C. since the early decades of the Cold War. The festivities in the capital featured around 8,000 military personnel, tanks, missile launchers, fireworks shows and an address by then-President George H.W. Bush. Some 800,000 people attended the event, which cost around $12 million, The Washington Post reported in 1991, or just under $29 million in today's dollars. Hunter Ledbetter, a Marine reservist who was deployed to Iraq during the war, told the Post at the time that it was "the most exciting moment of my life." The parade — which recognized the U.S.'s campaign to drive Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait — was largely uncontroversial, Simpson said: "No one objected to that parade." Troops march over the Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., as they head towards the Pentagon during the National Victory Day Parade on June 8, 1991. DOUG MILLS Still, the parades drew some pushback. Some critics questioned the D.C. Gulf War parade's price tag, and D.C. officials said the procession of heavy tanks had left tread marks on the city's streets. New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis criticized the New York parade since it followed an uprising by Iraq's Kurds that Hussein's regime brutally suppressed. "Honor is due the soldiers who were in the gulf," Lewis wrote at the time. "But for other reasons — reasons all too painfully evident — it is clear now that a celebratory parade would be inappropriate. Fireworks while Kurdish babies die?" Cold War inaugurations Presidential inaugural parades often include some military personnel, dating back to the first inauguration of President George Washington in 1789. In the early decades of the Cold War, the festivities also sometimes featured tanks and missiles on the streets of the capital. Some military equipment appears in photos from the 1949 parade after President Harry Truman's swearing-in, President Dwight Eisenhower's 1953 and 1957 inaugurations and President John F. Kennedy's 1961 festivities. Kennedy's inauguration featured a replica of the PT boat that the new president served on during World War II. The entire event cost around $1 million in 1961 dollars — or more than $10 million today — paid for by private donors, The New York Times wrote at the time. A Navy PT boat rides high above Pennsylvania Avenue on January 20, 1961 as the inaugural parade passes the presidential reviewing stand. President John Kennedy waves to sailors aboard. Anonymous / AP Army tanks move along Pennsylvania Avenue during the Inaugural Parade for President Dwight D. Eisenhower on Jan. 21, 1953. Anonymous / AP Simpson says inauguration parades sometimes included a few tanks as an exhibition, but they were typically "much more limited" than the parade planned for this weekend. "It wasn't like Pennsylvania Avenue was lined with tanks," he said. Parades with military equipment became less common after the 1960s. That could be due to the Vietnam War, which was deeply unpopular in its later years, and the eventual easing of Cold War tensions. "After Vietnam, parades get complicated because [parades are always] linked to the outcomes of the wars and the conduct of them," said Aaron O'Connell, a history professor at the University of Texas, Austin. "And that makes it more difficult to cheer and throw a ticker tape parade, when people are coming home in ones and twos, and they're not coming home in large units, and the war hasn't gone as well as we would've liked." World Wars I and II New York City marked victory in World War II with a massive military parade on Fifth Avenue in early 1946. The event included thousands of members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division and dozens of tanks and howitzers, requiring planners to close off the Manhattan Bridge and carefully bring heavy equipment over the East River from Brooklyn. The New York Times reported millions of spectators attended the parade. In mid-1942, months after the U.S. formally entered World War II, the city hosted a morale-boosting "New York at War" parade that the Times said was meant to "give a realistic picture of what the American armed forces and their machines of destruction look like." Soldiers stand rigidly at attention in their vehicles which carry 8-inch Howitzers during the Victory Parade of the 82nd Airborne Division on Fith Avenue in New York on Jan. 12, 1946. HARRY HARRIS / AP Thousand of people line the streets to cheer on military units in New York on June 13, 1942. Anonymous / AP The end of World War I was also celebrated by victory parades in New York and D.C. in 1919. It could've gone smoother: Dozens of artillery tractors that participated in the New York parade took a wrong turn after the event and got lost in Brooklyn for hours, the Times wrote at the time. The 1st Division of the U. S. Army parades beneath an arch at 14th and Pensylvania Avenues in Washington D. C. on Sept. 17, 1919. Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images Civil War and 19th century celebrations Washington hosted a massive two-day parade in May 1865 to celebrate the Union's victory in the Civil War, featuring over 100,000 troops, according to the National Park Service. The event — called the Grand Review of the Armies — was made up of military volunteers who passed through the capital on their way home from the former Confederate states, Simpson says. The event featured Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and President Andrew Johnson, taking place months after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. "The place was packed," said Simpson. People watch soldiers on horseback, followed by those on foot, parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington during the "Grand Review of the Armies" on May 23-24, 1865. Matthew Brady / AP Other countries Mr. Trump may have drawn inspiration for Saturday's parade from abroad. The president first hinted at hosting a military parade after attending France's annual Bastille Day parade in 2017. He called it "a tremendous thing," and added, "We're going to have to try and top it" on the Fourth of July. His administration began planning a Veterans' Day parade a year later, but it was called off, with Mr. Trump blaming city officials for driving up the cost. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron attend the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on July 14, 2017. AFP Contributor France has hosted its Bastille Day military parade every July for over a century, recognizing the anniversary of the start of the 1789 French Revolution. Several other countries host regular military parades, including India, Pakistan, Russia and North Korea. But similar events have been fairly rare in the United States. O'Connell says that's probably due to a "long, long strain in American culture, on both left and right, of being healthily suspicious of state power and of military power in particular." "It's certainly deep in the American military character to be nervous about a garrison state, a militarized society," O'Connell said. Mr. Trump's plans to host a military parade this weekend have drawn criticism, with some Democrats calling the idea wasteful and self-aggrandizing. But the White House has defended Saturday's event, calling it "a fitting tribute to the service, sacrifice, and selflessness of all who have worn the uniform."
CNET
30 minutes ago
- CNET
Should You Buy or Rent Your Router? The Wrong Choice Set Me Back Nearly $1,000
I've been writing about the internet for six years, and for most of them, I carried around a shameful secret: I rented a Wi-Fi router from Xfinity. Even though I've always advised readers to buy their own equipment, my rented modem and router worked fine. But all that time, in the back of my mind, I knew it was a waste of money. A monthly charge of $15 for internet equipment doesn't seem too bad when you're first signing up for internet, but after a few years of paying that monthly fee, you'll quickly rack up hundreds of dollars for a cost you could have avoided. When I looked through my old bills and added up the cost of renting internet equipment, I found I spent $873 on Xfinity's equipment fees over those six years. Buying your router and modem may seem like a hefty upfront cost, but it will likely pay for itself in the first year. With the money I've spent renting Xfinity equipment, I could've bought the most advanced router CNET's ever tested and then bought another as a backup. I could've doubled the internet speed I was getting. I could've booked a flight to Oslo. I was finally ready to enter the world of modem and router ownership. Locating local internet providers As satisfied as I was with my Xfinity gear, owning your own equipment is almost always the better option. You'll often get better performance -- my upload speeds increased by more than 2,000%. As I said, it'll usually pay for itself within the first year or two. The average internet bill in the US comes in at $78 per month -- and that's before you add the extra taxes and fees, which you should be able to see on your ISP's broadband nutrition label. Some of these are unavoidable, but equipment rental fees don't fall into that category. You might be perfectly content to pay a bit extra for the convenience of not having to buy and set up your own equipment. But if you're looking to save money in the long run and are comfortable purchasing and managing your own gear, it's a far better deal to shell out for your own router and modem. You may also be able to take advantage of any low-income discounts available in your state if you qualify. Here's what I've learned about making the switch from rented equipment to my own, and here's how you can make a similar change as painless as possible. How to choose the right modem and router The best internet is the internet you never notice, and I can't remember the last time my connection went out or I saw a buffering wheel in my home. And this is all with a device from 2017 that Xfinity describes as an "old Wireless Gateway with limited speeds and functionality." This goes to show how much the type of internet user you are has to do with what kind of equipment you need. I live in a 750-square-foot apartment, and my internet needs are mostly limited to video calls and TV streaming. If you live in a larger home with multiple floors, the same router likely won't cut it. Similarly, activities like online gaming hinge on split-second reactions. If this instantaneous responsiveness is important to you, it's probably worth investing in a gaming router that minimizes lag. Wi-Fi routers run the gamut from entry-level models like the TP-Link AC1200 for $30 to ultra-advanced mesh systems like the Netgear Orbi 970 Series for $1,500. To test each Wi-Fi router, CNET runs three speed tests in five different rooms in our testing facility, logging results for download speed, upload speed and latency. That process is repeated six times, accounting for variations in network performance at different times of the day. Ry Crist/CNET After consulting our picks for the best Wi-Fi routers, I decided to go with a budget pick: the TP-Link Archer AX21, of which my former CNET colleague and router connoisseur Ry Crist wrote, "It's nothing fancy, but it offered near flawless performance for small- to medium-size homes in our tests, and it's a cinch to setup." I get only 200Mbps through my Xfinity plan, so the 700Mbps speed the TP-Link hits at close range is more than enough juice and only cost $85 when I bought it. (Several government agencies have since opened investigations into TP-Link for ties to Chinese cyberattacks. But I don't have any plans to replace my TP-Link router just yet.) A cable modem like the Hitron CODA connects your home to your internet provider through a coaxial cable. Hitron Do you need to buy a modem? Depending on your internet connection, you may need to purchase a cable modem in addition to your router. Some ISPs, like Spectrum, include the modem for free but charge extra for a router. The main thing to look for in a modem is compatibility. Your internet provider will have a page on their website that lists all the models that it works with, and you shouldn't stray from this. You may also have a choice between DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1; the newer standard provides faster speeds, but DOCSIS 3.1 modems are typically more expensive. (Note: Although some ISPs have DOCSIS 4.0 modems available to rent, most are not yet widely available for purchase.) Other things to consider are the modem's speed limits -- make sure they're equal to or above your internet plan -- and the number of Ethernet ports. Xfinity doesn't provide a free modem, so I had to buy one in addition to a Wi-Fi router. I opted for the Hitron CODA Modem -- a DOCSIS 3.1 model that's one of the cheapest Xfinity-compatible models I could find for $100 at the time I purchased it. It supports download speeds up to only 867Mbps, but that's still far more than my Xfinity plan. How to set up your new modem and router Ordering the equipment is the easy part; the ordeal of setting up third-party equipment is what keeps many customers on the hook for years. The process is largely the same whether you're starting service fresh with a new provider or swapping out old equipment. Here's everything you'll need to do. 1. Activate your new modem with your ISP The modem is the piece of equipment that brings the internet to your home through a coaxial cable connected to your internet provider's network. Before it can work, ISPs need to tie your specific modem to your account. If you're replacing old equipment, they will also turn this off as they activate the new modem. ISPs do this by logging your MAC (media access control) number, which can be found on the bottom of the modem. You can typically do this through your internet provider's app, in a live chat or by calling a customer service number. 2. Connect the coax cable to your modem After your new modem's MAC address is registered with your ISP, you'll be prompted to connect your modem to the cable outlet in your wall and plug it into a power outlet. You may have to wait up to 5 minutes, and your modem's lights will tell you when it's receiving the internet signal. Once the indicator lights are on, you're ready to set up your wireless router. This TP-Link router offers wireless access to your modem's connection with the web (hence the antennas). Ry Crist/CNET 3. Set up your Wi-Fi router Each Wi-Fi router has its own setup process, so you'll want to follow the instructions provided. In the case of the TP-Link Archer AX21, that meant unplugging the modem's power, connecting the modem to the router's WAN port via an Ethernet cable, powering on the modem and then plugging the router into a power outlet. From there, I set up my new network through the TP-Link app. That's the short version. There's a lot more to consider when setting up a wireless router, including choosing the optimal location, setting up parental controls and protecting your privacy. For my purposes, though, I was ready to start testing out my new internet connection. Speed comparison: Which setup is fastest? I wanted to see how my new modem and router would compare with my old equipment, so I ran speed tests before and after I was connected: one from my desk next to the router and one from the furthest corner of my apartment (regrettably, the bathroom). My old modem and router returned 164/5Mbps speeds from my desk and 143/5Mbps from the bathroom -- not bad for an internet plan that advertises 200/10Mbps speeds. But the speeds with my new equipment were eye-popping: 237/118Mbps at both my desk and my bathroom. I didn't just save money by purchasing my own equipment -- I'm actually getting a significant speed boost, too. Joe Supan / CNET I have no idea why my new equipment picked up 10 times the upload speeds of my old one. I subscribe to Xfinity's Connect More plan, which is supposed to get only 10Mbps upload speeds. In 2022, Xfinity announced that it was increasing upload speeds on my plan to 100Mbps -- but only for customers who pay for its $25-per-month xFi Complete equipment. Apparently, I'm reaping those same benefits with my new modem and router. My best guess is that the upgrade from a DOCSIS 3.0 to a 3.1 modem is the main reason for the jump in upload speeds. How to save yourself some headaches I eventually got my modem and router set up properly, but I made plenty of mistakes along the way. Here's what I would do differently: Buy your modem and router on day one. Moving is a pain, and no one wants to make their to-do list even longer, but this is one task where the extra effort pays off (nearly a thousand dollars in my case). A technician Use your ISP's list of compatible modems. Routers aren't tied to specific providers, but if you have to purchase your own modem, you'll need to make sure that it works with your ISP. Don't cut corners here. I searched Amazon for a modem that said it was compatible with Xfinity and ended up having to return it a week -- and several hours of phone calls -- later. Your provider should have a page where it lists all the modems that it works with -- don't stray from this. Pay for only the speed you need. Internet equipment is expensive, and there's no reason to pay for a modem certified for 2,000Mbps when you're getting only 200Mbps with your plan. The same goes for routers -- you don't need to pay top dollar for a gaming router with exceptional latency if you're just streaming TV and scrolling the internet. My final thoughts Setting up a new modem and router is not fun, but it's absolutely worth it. My internet speeds have dramatically improved, and I'm paying significantly less for them. I'm saving $15 per month on equipment, and somewhere along the line, an Xfinity agent bumped my plan price down for the following year. My monthly bill went from $78.54 to $50. That's far more than I expected to save, and my new equipment paid for itself within the first six months. My only regret is that I didn't make the leap sooner.
