SmartNews

A donor to President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project is riding a “remarkable winning streak” after landing approval for a business deal and a role overseeing $201 million in public money, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest.

Talking Points Memo investigative reporter Josh Kovensky examined Russian-American investor Konstantin Sokolov’s rise, including his business interests in the region where he now oversees a government-backed investment fund.

“He hardly would be my first choice,” said Daniel Fried, a former State Department sanctions coordinator....

The United States was one of just three nations to vote against a declaration on “pandemic prevention, preparedness and response” that was adopted by the United Nations, drawing alarm from public health advocates.

“They are going to kill us,” advocate Laura Miers, best known for her commentary on COVID-19, wrote in a social media post on X Tuesday.

Adopted in a vote of 153-3, with two abstentions, the declaration outlines how countries can improve their response to future pandemics and includes 64 recommendations such as expanding access to vaccines, committing to protect vulnerable populations, and strengthening international coordination. The declaration is not legally binding....

The Supreme Court granted a Justice Department request to review an order that could expose how much power the White House’s cost-cutting office wielded over firings and spending cuts across the government.

The justices granted the petition Tuesday, according to the court’s docket. The government is fighting a lawsuit by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington seeking records from the Department of Government Efficiency, officially known as the U.S. DOGE Service.

CREW argues the office wielded enough independent power to fall under the Freedom of Information Act. It’s the second time the case has reached the justices, who last year reined in an earlier order, the Associated Press reported....

Eric Deters is threatening a lawsuit against outgoing ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle.

The former northern Kentucky attorney and Donald Trump donor, whose allegations helped prompt the White House to seek her resignation as ambassador to Greece, says he’s not done with her. He told CNN shortly after the White House announced that the president had asked for her resignation that he welcomed the move and promised to take her to court.

“I think it’s a good move, I did not think she would be able to survive it,” Deters said. “I think she could have survived what was going on in Greece ... But I don’t think she could have survived my allegation.”...

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was left searching for words after President Donald Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, wrapped up her first White House briefing after taking only three questions.

“It was kind of bizarre because it was a press briefing, but there was only two questions that were taken by the new press secretary,” said Collins, CNN’s chief White House correspondent. “Actually, let me adjust my count. She took three questions.”

Zacharia took one question from the Trump-friendly “new media” seat and two from reporters in the briefing room. She then abruptly ended the briefing, noting that Trump would be leaving the White House in 45 minutes and would take questions then....

Complaints about new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia after her first nationally televised press conference were not limited to critics of the Donald Trump administration.

MAGA fans were not pleased in the least, with many hoping it was just “nerves.”

Promoting a stream of the press conference, MAGA influencer Nick Sortor, fresh off hyping a debunked James Talarico mental health story, told his followers, “New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia holds her FIRST briefing Katie is going to absolutely KlLL it!”...

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) suggested over the weekend that a Trump administration official may have quietly contacted a federal appeals judge to stall a contempt inquiry, and the legal analyst interviewing him declared that if so, “people are going to jail.”

In a clip flagged by political video aggregator Acyn Torabi from the Legal AF podcast, Whitehouse laid out a hypothetical involving D.C. Circuit Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee.

“If some MAGA official communicated to Judge Rao or her chambers and that resulted in the administrative stay that held the door open and kept the facts from the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation and stalled investigation into misconduct by the DOJ,” Whitehouse began, “ask any judge how big a deal that is.”...

President Donald Trump cut off reporters and walked away after they repeatedly demanded evidence for his claim of widespread mail-in voting fraud in California.

Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House on Monday as he prepared to board Marine One for campaign events.

The midterm elections are less than a month away, on Nov. 3....

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) bragged about a road salt win at a Maine Senate debate, and her challenger's comeback had observers cheering.

On Tuesday, Collins faced Democratic challenger Troy Jackson in a debate weeks before the midterms. Asked what she would do about President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada, Collins pointed to a specific victory.

"I was successful at getting road salt removed from the tariff list," Collins said. Jackson responded by pouncing on the answer....