Category World News

On the site of what was the White House’s East Wing, US President Donald Trump has begun construction of a $ 300m ballroom.

The complex’s first significant structural change since 1948 was the beginning of the construction project, which started on Monday. The former East Wing, which was used for ceremonies and the first lady’s offices, is being torn down.

Concerning the level of access this might grant donors to the country’s most powerful man, the work is being funded by private donations from people, businesses, and tech companies, including Google and Amazon.

According to a pledge form seen by CBS News, donors may be eligible for “recognition” of their contributions. However, more information about this has not been made.

What will the cost of the new ballroom be?

Since plans were made public earlier this year, the estimated cost of building Trump’s ornate, 8 360 square meters (90, 0000 square feet) ballroom, which he claims will accommodate 999 people, has fluctuated.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the cost would be about $200 million in a statement released in August. Trump, however, increased that figure to $300 million this week.

The National Capital Planning Commission, the federal agency overseeing these operations, is shut down, and construction began during a US government shutdown.

Who provides the ballroom funding?

Every President has dreamed of having a ballroom at the White House to accommodate guests for grand parties, state visits, etc., Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday. I’m honored to be the first president to finally start this urgent project at no extra cost to the American taxpayer.

He added that “The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by numerous generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly” and that he himself would also contribute to the bill.

However, it appears that at least some of the donations were made as part of negotiations with Trump regarding other matters.

As part of a legal agreement with Trump, YouTube will contribute $22 million to the ballroom’s construction as part of a settlement in 2021 regarding the suspension of his account following the Capitol riots that year when his supporters seized Congress on January 6 in an effort to stop Joe Biden from assuming the presidency. Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube and Google, is the same.

How much money would be donated by the White House was not made public. On a list that the White House gave to the media included other well-known donors, some of whom have recently been involved in US legal battles. Among them are:

Amazon

The Federal Trade Commission settled with Amazon last month over allegations that Jeff Bezos-founded multinational tech company had enrolled millions of customers in its streaming service, Prime, without their knowledge and made it difficult to revoke the subscriptions.

In addition to fixing its subscription system, Amazon will pay $ 2.5 billion in penalties and refunds as a result of the settlement.

Apple

CEO Tim Cook serves as CEO of US-based multinational Apple, which produces the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.

Apple requested on Tuesday that a US appeals court overturn a federal judge’s April ruling that forbids it from collecting commissions on some app purchases.

Coinbase

The largest US cryptocurrency exchange is Coinbase. CEO Brian Armstrong serves as its leader.

A US federal judge upheld the company’s claim that it had the authority to file a narrowed lawsuit on September 30 and that it had the authority to sue the company for allegedly hiding significant business risks, including the possibility of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit and the possibility of losing assets in bankruptcy.

Google

A significant antitrust lawsuit against Google was brought by the US Department of Justice last month. The tech giant unlawfully monopolized online search and search advertising, according to a federal court ruling.

Lockheed Martin

President and CEO Jim Taiclet serves as the company’s president and CEO.

Lockheed Martin agreed to pay $ 29.74 million in February to settle federal claims that the business had overcharged the US government by providing inflated cost estimates for F-35 fighter jet contracts from 2013 to 2015.

Microsoft

Satya Nadella, the tech group’s CEO, made a record $ 96.5 million in 2025 as the company’s CEO.

Family of Lutnick

The Family of Lutnick is associated with businessman Howard Lutnick, who is also Trump’s commerce secretary.

The investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald is led by Lutnick. His business, Cantor Gaming, has previously been accused of repeatedly breaking state and federal laws, according to Politico’s report from February.

Twins Winklevoss

There are separate donors for Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

The brothers are known for cofounding the Gemini and Winklevoss Capital exchanges as well as US investors and entrepreneurs.

The SEC agreed to settle a lawsuit involving Gemini’s unregistered cryptocurrency lending program to retail investors last month.

Who else is there?

The list also includes:

• Altria Group
• Booz Allen Hamilton
• Caterpillar
• Comcast
• Emilia Fanjul and J. Pepe
• Hard Rock International
• HP
• Meta Platforms
• Micron Technology
• NextEra Energy
• Palantir Technologies
• Ripple
• Reynolds American
• T-Mobile
• Tether America
• Union Pacific
• Adelson Family Foundation
• Stefan E. Brodie
• Betty W. Johnson Foundation
• Cascarillas Charles and Marissa
• Shari and Edward Glazer
• Harold Hamm
• Benjamin Leon Sr.
• Foundation for Laura and Isaac Perlmutter
• Stephen A. Schwarzman
• Konstantin Sokolov
• Jeff Sprecher and Kelly Loeffler
• Paolo Tiramani

Is Trump’s ballroom’s private funding moral?

Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer, claimed that the private funding is in violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act.

The executive branch of government is required by the US federal law to not accept donations from private individuals for official government purposes unless Congress has given them a legally enforceable consent.

According to Fein, the act safeguards the “congressive power of the purse.”

Consider the following analogy: Congress won’t fund a wall with Mexico. Could Trump proceed with the construction of the wall that Congress rejected funding with funding from Elon Musk or another billionaire friends?

All six people on board a maritime vessel have been killed as a result of the US’s 10th missile strike on it.

The total number of dead since the start of the bombing campaign is 43, with Friday’s attack adding to that number.

The US government has announced three strikes this week in as many days, which is also a rapid escalation of the air strikes.

Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, identified the victims as Tren de Aragua members and shared the news about the most recent bombing on his social media account.

He further claimed that President Donald Trump had once more granted permission for the alleged strike in Caribbean Sea waters.

Hegseth wrote that despite providing no proof, “the vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling,” and that it was moving along a known narco-trafficking route.

Hegseth added that this was the first nighttime military attack on a boat.

He then made a second, stronger, point, repeating the assertion that drug traffickers should not be treated similarly to armed organizations like al-Qaeda.

Hegseth remarked, “We will treat you like we treat al-Qaeda, if you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere.” We will track your people, hunt you down, and kill you, whether it be day or night.

Legal concerns grow.

Latin American cartels have traditionally been referred to as “foreign terrorist organizations” by the Trump administration, but they have started doing so this year.

Legal experts also contend that using military force alone does not support the use of terrorism.

Colombia and Venezuelan leaders have already condemned the bombing campaign as “murder,” and UN human rights experts have also criticized the killings as potential violations of international law.

Treaties like the UN Charter, which forbid the use of force in self-defense, are largely exceptions.

In response to the strikes, UN human rights experts, including Ben Saul, wrote that “international law does not permit the unilateral use of force abroad to combat terrorism and drug trafficking.”

11 people were killed when a missile strike on September 2st, which started the bombing campaign. In the same month, two more attacks were carried out.

However, the strikes have increased in frequency and their scope expanded in October.

While the majority of the known strikes were concentrated in the Caribbean, two were carried out for the first time last week in the Pacific Ocean.

Two survivors and a first come to mind when an attack on October 16 targeted a submersible.

Since then, those survivors have been re-admitted to Ecuador and Colombia, their home countries. The government in Ecuador let the man go shortly after his arrival, claiming that there was no evidence to charge him with a crime.

The bombing campaign has drawn criticism from opponents of extrajudicial killings. Some of the victims have been named as their loved ones by families in Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago, an island nation off the coast of Venezuela.

According to the families, the men were fishermen and not drug traffickers.

Trump asserts authority.

The Trump administration has nonetheless stated that it has no intention of halting its drug trafficking campaign.

The US president has also repeatedly threatened to expand his bombing campaign to include targets overland, a promise that hasn’t yet been fulfilled.

Trump was asked on Thursday at a White House roundtable about his plan to crack down on illegal drugs and why he hasn’t asked Congress for military authorization as the bombing campaign progresses.

Why not just ask for a declaration of war if you are going to fight these cartels and Congress is likely to support it? The president was questioned by one reporter.

Although it has previously issued “authorizations for the use of military force” or AUMFs for the president to carry out specific attacks, Congress still has the exclusive authority to authorize military action under the Constitution.

Critics claim that US presidents’ unilateral decisions have been increasingly used to justify military campaigns.

Trump was clear that he needed no such approval when the reporter inquired about it.

“I don’t believe we’ll need to request a declaration of war.” I believe that we will simply murder those who enter our nation with drugs. OK? We’re going to murder them. At Thursday’s roundtable, Trump responded, “They’re going to be, like, dead.”

Trump had claimed that the number of fatal drug overdoses supported his decision to launch the deadly bombing campaign at a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte the day before.

According to him, “This is a national security issue,” claiming that 300,000 US citizens have lost their lives as a result of the drug trade. And that gives you authority.

However, US government data does not support those statistics. According to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 73, 690 overdose deaths occurred in the US between April and April.

A new international security force, led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will only be able to support countries that Israel is “comfortable with.” He reiterated that UNRWA would not play a role in Gaza’s governance and that Hamas would not be involved.

Hiba al-Yazji and her husband Mohammad have endured hell and reincarnation in recent years. Different family members were killed in Israeli attacks, and they have lost dozens. They no longer reside in them. They have repeatedly been forced to relocate. They are now anticipating what the future holds for them and their 10-year-old daughter Iman.

Just one day before Israeli attacks threatened to scuttle the ceasefire, the family returned to northern Gaza last Saturday.

Hiba claims that she was sorting through the items she had gathered near her tent when she heard distant explosions and wondered if the conflict had broken out. The family would likely have to travel back to the south, making repeat trips throughout the conflict.

As she sat atop the sand mound where her family’s tent was pitched, Hiba told Al Jazeera, “We honestly don’t understand anything any more.”

killed in a family

Since last Sunday’s intense fighting, when at least 42 people were killed by Israel, the ceasefire has largely been in place.

However, Hiba and Mohammad’s future uncertainty is understandable given how severely they have suffered over the past two years.

When the conflict broke out, the couple had resided in northern Gaza. However, that choice cost them a lot less than two months afterward.

My entire family, including my mother and siblings, disappeared. She cried as Mohammad sat beside her in silence, his eyes red, as he explained that my husband, who is also my cousin, had lost his entire family.

Their four-story family home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, which also provided shelter for several relatives who had fled to other regions, was bombed on December 3, 2023.

Only the only survivors who were saved from beneath the rubble were Hiba, Mohammad, their daughter Iman, and Hiba’s younger brother, who all suffered minor injuries.

60 members of their extended family were killed in the strike.

My mother, father, my six siblings, their spouses, and their children were all left out of my entire family, according to my mother, father, and I. My wife’s family includes her parents, siblings, and children. All of my uncles and their families were murdered, according to Mohammad.

Mohammad lost 36 relatives, including those of his parents, six of his siblings, and their wives and children.

In the same strike, Hiba lost her parents, four siblings, and two nieces.

buried with a deceased brother

To complicate matters further, Hiba’s younger brother, who survived the initial attack, was killed a month later in particularly agonizing circumstances.

After the initial attack, Hiba and Mohammad had moved into a house where Israeli tanks had advanced close to their relative’s residence.

We hid in the basement of a nearby house with my husband, my daughter, and my brother. The tanks were firing at anyone moving at the time. My brother was shot in the backwards.

As she went on, Hiba wept out.

“We dragged my injured brother to the ground so the tanks wouldn’t see us, or we all would die.” My brother bled in front of me for four days straight before he died. I was unable to cry, scream, or move. Because the tanks surrounded us, I was unable to call for assistance.

Her voice trembled as she said, “His body stayed with us, beside us, for four more days while we were trapped.”

No food, water, or anything else. However, fear was such a complete force that we couldn’t imagine anything else. We were “waiting to pass away at any moment.”

The family moved out of their hiding place and dug up her brother’s body nearby when the tanks finally withdrew.

Do you believe we still want to live, after all this? Hiba pressed, her tears freely leaking.

Bulldozed graves

The suffering Hiba and Mohammad have endured is almost incomprehensible to an outsider. They can’t just move on from the war, even though it has been declared over.

She said, “I wanted to die.” Like branches being ripped off of a tree, my husband and I. We endure intolerable pain. I wish we had also been hit. It feels like punishment to survive.

As Israeli tanks approached in Gaza City in September, the couple left the area and headed south. But they discovered that life was intolerable in the displacement camps, far from everything they knew.

And they made a decision to return after the Israeli advance on Gaza City was halted due to the ceasefire.

Nothing, however, made them aware of what they would discover.

“My wife’s family’s home, which we recently moved into, was destroyed, as well. Our cars and our wedding venue business all fell apart, according to Mohammad, whose family owned real estate in Gaza.

The couple’s biggest shock was when they learned that their relatives’ graves had been bulldozed and their remains had been dispersed close to their home.

With his finger pointed to a levelled patch of sand, Hiba said, “Imagine spending the entire night collecting the remains of our loved ones, those we buried with our own hands.”

“My family and some of my husband’s are lying here. I repeatedly advise passing passengers not to cross them.

She cried once more. This healed a wound that had never healed. During the war, my heart broke. No life or nerves are left in me. My parents were rescued from the rubble by me. Without a head, my mother was. The body of my young nephew was ripped apart.

“The rest of my husband’s bodies are still missing,” my husband continues. Their remains are still buried beneath the rubble, she said, pointing to the nearby, demolished building where their final tent is now abutting.

What follows?

We are now just bodies without souls, said Mohammad mumbling softly. The crossings will open immediately if I stay alive. There is no existence in this place.

No water, no electricity, no services, just destruction all over. Beyond the imagination’s wildest thoughts. What is the proper way of life?

It’s fragile and meaningless, according to the so-called ceasefire that is being discussed. Every moment, according to Mohammad, Israel abstains from it.

Hiba nodded in agreement. She claimed that her only hope is the future of her daughter, one of her last remaining children.

“My daughter hasn’t attended school in three years. She has watched her uncle pass away in front of her, been pulled from under the rubble, and repeatedly fled. How is her mind recovering? What does she have for the future?”

She has seen enough, she claimed. She simply needs a better life, please.

When questioned about his fear of a repeat of the war, Mohammad yelled bitterly.

“I won’t move this time,” I said. I’ll actually die here if it returns. In any case, there is no life or future left. I’d rather die with my family if the war never really came to an end.

Hiba and Mohammad frequently share their grief and are unable to explain why this happened.

Changpeng Zhao, the owner of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, was pardoned by US President Donald Trump last year for using his platform to launder money connected to child sex abuse, “terrorism,” and drug trafficking. Zhao was the subject of a legal order last year.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed in a statement on Thursday that Trump “exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was a Biden Administration prosecutor in their cryptocurrency war.”

Binance and Zhao have a frank relationship with the crypto companies owned by the Trump family. Some people see the president’s pardon of Zhao as a conflict of interest because of this. Robert Reich, a former labor secretary and economist, described Trump’s action as a “Pay-to-Pardon Scheme.”

Zhao responded to the announcement by saying, “Deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to justice, innovation, and fairness.” Following Trump’s decision, a Binance-related token, BNB, increased by 8%.

What crimes did Zhao commit?

After serving a four-month sentence for breaking the US Bank Secrecy Act, Zhao was released from prison in September 2024. He was the first person to violate the 1970 law, which was enacted, and serve time in prison for it.

Financial institutions must be aware of their customers, keep an eye on their transactions, and file reports on suspicious customer behavior in accordance with the law. No one has ever broken the law in the way that Zhao did between 2017 and 2024, according to the prosecution.

The judge for the Western District of Washington said in his ruling that Zhao’s choice to ignore any US banking regulations that appeared to have impacted Binance’s expansion had disturbed him. According to prosecutors, Zhao’s approach to US law was “better to ask for forgiveness than to grant permission.”

During the course of seven years, prosecutors claimed Binance had facilitated roughly $900 million in virtual currency trades, including those involving al-Qaeda and Iran.

Additionally, according to investigators, Binance was used to transfer and exchange illicit funds in secret by drug traffickers and networks linked to child sexual exploitation. They claimed that the exchange became a hub for illegal operations because of its weak customer verification system and tolerance for high-risk transactions.

Zhao, 47, pleaded guilty to one count of failing to stop money-laundering at his business in November 2023, and was prohibited from operating in the US. Additionally, the company consented to pay $4.3 billion to settle other Department of Justice allegations.

Zhao told the court during sentencing last year, “I failed here.” “I’m sorry for my mistakes, and I regret them.”

Before his family immigrated to Canada following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Zhao was raised in rural China. He continued to study computer science at McGill University in Canada as a teenager because of his fascination with the technology sector. In 2017, he cofounded Binance.

The pardon will remove the restrictions that Zhao was unable to resume his ventures in the US. It might help him in particular to return to Binance, which has been around since Zhao’s arrest.

He is best known for founding FTX, the second-largest crypto exchange in the world before it collapsed in 2022, alongside Sam Bankman-Fried, who was the original archrival. Bankman-Fried was found guilty of extorting customer funds worth $10 billion and given a 25-year prison term.

Trump pardoned Zhao, but why?

At a White House briefing on Thursday, Trump claimed that “many people said he wasn’t guilty of anything.” They claim that he was not guilty of anything and that he spent four months in jail. He added that he had been told that what he did was not even a crime had been done.

Trump responded, “I granted him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.”

The White House counsel’s office “thoroughly reviewed” the request, according to Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, who announced the pardon.

Leavitt claimed that Trump “wants to correct this overreach” and that the administration of former president Joe Biden was “very hostile to the cryptocurrency industry” in Zhao’s case.

How does Trump view the crypto industry?

Trump pledged to approach the crypto industry with more friendliness than his predecessor during his campaign for president last year. He received significant campaign contributions from cryptocurrency traders.

Trump has relaxed regulations in the sector since taking office in 2025, sought to establish a national cryptocurrency reserve, and disbanded the government’s crypto-related enforcement team.

The White House has just recently granted clemency to convicted crypto-entrepreneurs in the US with Zhao’s pardon. Justin Sun, a crypto entrepreneur with ties to World Liberty Financial, was the subject of a fraud investigation by the Trump administration in February. Trump has also pardoned the co-founders of the US Bank Secrecy Act, who were facing charges in 2022.

However, Joe Lonsdale, cofounder of Palantir, a data software company, reported on X on Thursday that while he had backed Trump, the president had been “terribly advised” regarding recent pardons. He claimed that it gives the impression that there is a lot of fraud going on in this area.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren also criticized the president’s handling of Zhao’s case in a statement as a “kind of corruption.” She has been outspoken about her criticism of the president’s connections to the crypto industry.

Does this represent a conflict of interest?

Trump’s pardon of Zhao is in conflict of interest, according to his critics. According to Robert Reich, an economist and former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, the pardon “comes after Zhao helped boost the Trump family’s crypto business,” and it is an “example of Trump’s Pay-to-Pardon scheme.”

Changpeng Zhao, a billionaire crypto mogul and Binance founder, both admitted to being guilty to money laundering charges under Trump’s pardon.

Zhao helped expand the Trump family’s crypto business, which Zhao did not.

The Pay-to-Pardon Scheme, which Trump has just introduced, is just the most recent example. pic. twitter.com/WS6vZEsxZB

The president and his family have close ties with Binance, and they own a crypto company called World Liberty Financial.

World Liberty Financial launched its own “stablecoin” in March 2025, a dollar-pegged cryptocoin supported by US treasuries called USD1. This was distributed using the decentralized, digital ledger blockchain used by Binance. Binance also promoted USD1 to its 275 million users.

Additionally, MGX Fund Management Limited, an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates, used $ 2 billion worth of World Liberty stablecoin to purchase a stake in Binance.

The Trumps could make tens of millions of dollars from that deal, the New York Times claims. However, according to previous White House statements, Trump and Binance have no conflicts of interest because they are not under his control.