First Thing: Defense department bars reporters from Pentagon press room

First Thing: Defense department bars reporters from Pentagon press room

Good morning. In another apparent affront to press freedom from the Trump administration, journalists may no longer enter the Pentagon’s press office, which has been designated as a classified space. The defense department began rolling out new restrictions to press access in September, when the military demanded journalists pledge not to gather any information – including unclassified documents – that had not been authorized for release, or else risk revocation of their press passes. Joel Valdez, the acting defense department press secretary, said in a social media post: “This is the most transparent war department in history. No amount of spin from the Fake News media will change that.” He claimed the redesignation was because “speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War” shared the facility. How have the media reacted? After the defense department announced sweeping restrictions in October, many longtime reporters refused to agree and began turning over their press passes. The department then announced a “next generation of the Pentagon press corps” featuring 60 journalists from far-right outlets. The New York Times sued the Pentagon over those policies, which designated journalists as “security risks”, and a federal judge found in the Times’s favor in March. More doubt cast on prospect of Donald Trump’s ‘nearly $2bn Maga slush fund’ Allies of Donald Trump have been pressing for him to appear on a $250 bill. Illustration: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump is reconsidering whether to keep pressing for a $1.8bn fund to compensate his allies, a person familiar with his thinking said on Monday, as the justice department paused the program. Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund has faced legal setbacks since it was announced, and even some Republicans are pressing the White House to commit to giving up on the fund, concerned by a lack of oversight and the possibility of payouts to participants in the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol. The US district judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia on Friday temporarily blocked the administration from transferring money from the fund. What is making the fund controversial? The terms of the fund do not require the disclosure of how much is paid to whom. Chuck Schumer, the US Senate minority leader, said: “Trump’s nearly $2bn Maga slush fund is his most brazen act of self-dealing yet and one of the most corrupt schemes ever launched by a president.” Trump says Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to ‘stop all shooting’ People inspect the damage in the aftermath of an Israeli strike that hit near a hospital in Tyre, Lebanon, on Monday. Photograph: Aziz Taher/Reuters Donald Trump has said Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to mutual de-escalation and to scale back fighting. The US president said in a social media post that he spoke to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and representatives of Hezbollah and both agreed that “all shooting will stop”. “There will be no troops going to Beirut and any troops that are on their way have already been turned back. Likewise, through highly placed representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed all shooting will stop,” Trump said in a post. What have the warring parties actually said themselves? Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah MP, said the group refused a partial truce offer to spare Beirut in exchange for an end to Hezbollah attacks on Israel, while Netanyahu said Israel would attack Beirut if Hezbollah did not stop attacking Israel and its citizens, adding that Israel would continue to operate “as planned” in southern Lebanon.