By Sunlen Serfaty, CNN

(CNN) — Whenever President Donald Trump gets an idea for a major project or renovation in Washington, DC, a pattern has emerged: move forward and ask questions later.

Public sagas over Trump’s proposed “triumphal arch,” the East Wing ballroom construction and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation have followed this playbook – provoking outcry and numerous legal challenges.

Now, the greenways of a manmade peninsula just south of the National Mall is next on Trump’s quest to remake the nation’s capital in his style, and they’re poised to be made over in a way that’s par for the course for this president.

The administration is on track to push ahead with turning the 300-acre East Potomac Park and its public golf course into a championship course without first getting approvals from two key agencies that have oversight of DC public spaces.

Neither the National Capital Planning Commission nor the Commission on Fine Arts have received any golf course plans from the Trump administration to review, officials from both told CNN. Neither agency meets in August, and ground is supposed to be broken by the start of the following month.

And based on what has been publicly reported, a project of this complexity and ambition would typically require months of regulatory reviews to examine environmental impact, questions over historical preservation, planning and design, the officials at each agency said.

On Friday, the administration provided a federal judge overseeing a legal challenge to the project with new information about the venture. It included a disclosure that the government did not finish testing soil from the demolition of the East Wing that was deposited onto the golf course before deeming it was safe.

The revelation opens the door to allowing plaintiffs to question administration officials under oath.

The DC Preservation League and two local golfers are pressing US District Judge Ana Reyes to issue an order that would bar the Trump administration from moving ahead.

Critics worry that proper approvals and legal battles have hardly handicapped the president before.

“There is really this ability to ignore regulatory guardrails, rules and protocols that have existed in the past. And we just see it again and again, and the golf course, sadly, is yet another example of that,” said Charles Birnbaum of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, which has filed lawsuits against several other Trump projects.

Trump announced last month on Truth Social that renovations to East Potomac Golf Links will start on September 1.

The Interior Department, which oversees the project as it’s on National Service land, did not answer CNN’s questions as to when they will seek approval – or if they will. A spokesperson said: “President Donald J. Trump is fulfilling his commitment to make D.C. Safe and Beautiful as shown by the working fountains, clean parks and safe streets across the district for the first time in decades.”

The agency is committed to “continuing the relationships we have built with the local golf communities to ensure these courses are safe, beautiful, open, affordable, enjoyable, accessible, and world-class for people living in and visiting the greatest capital city in the world,” they added.

A wide range project

Trump, an avid golfer, first publicly proposed the idea of taking over and expanding the municipal golf course in May.

Por Mostafa Salem, CNN

Mientras el presidente de Irán, Masoud Pezeshkian, caminaba junto al féretro del líder supremo Alí Jamenei, en Teherán la semana pasada, algunos de los dolientes vestidos de negro que lo rodeaban coreaban no en homenaje al líder fallecido, sino directamente contra él: “muerte al conciliador”.

No muy lejos de ese lugar, Abbas Araghchi, el principal diplomático de Irán que negoció un alto el fuego con el Gobierno de Trump y consiguió se levantaran algunas sanciones sobre la República Islámica, se vio obligado a huir del funeral después de que una turba le arrojara piedras en medio de cánticos de muerte que lo acusaban de ser un “vendido traidor”.

La hostilidad dirigida contra altos funcionarios durante el funeral refleja una teoría que ha ido ganando tracción dentro de las facciones más radicales de la República Islámica durante meses: que los líderes iraníes en tiempos de guerra que negociaron y firmaron el acuerdo con Washington están llevando a cabo un golpe blando contra la República Islámica y sus ideales revolucionarios mientras el nuevo líder supremo permanece en gran medida invisible por temor por su vida —o, como algunos han sugerido, porque está incapacitado—.

Las facciones de línea dura que asistieron al funeral en gran número creen que, en lugar de vengar la muerte de Jamenei, los funcionarios iraníes se han rendido al firmar un acuerdo que desafía las órdenes del líder supremo Mojtaba Jamenei, hijo y sucesor del líder fallecido. Pero Jamenei ha permanecido oculto de la vista pública, sin dirigirse a la nación directamente ni afirmar visiblemente su autoridad, incluso mientras los funcionarios negocian o gobiernan en su nombre.

Los sectores duros han acusado al liderazgo visible de Irán —quienes dirigen y representan al país mientras Jamenei permanece oculto— de conspirar para consolidar el poder suspendiendo el Parlamento, desafiando sus órdenes en las negociaciones e intentando dispersar las concentraciones callejeras nocturnas que se habían convertido en una potente base de poder para los fundamentalistas.

“Advertencia al pueblo de Irán: ¿¿Se acerca un golpe??”, preguntó en X Mahmoud Nabavian, un legislador radical y combativo, días antes del funeral de Jamenei.

“En estos momentos de despedida del Imam [Jamenei] martirizado, alzamos la bandera de la venganza por su sangre y nos mantenemos firmes contra el golpe”, escribió días después.

En ausencia de Mojtaba, el jefe negociador Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Pezeshkian y Araghchi se han convertido en los rostros más visibles al mando del Irán de posguerra. Sin acceso al nuevo líder supremo, los sectores duros que están descontentos con su desempeño han acusado en su lugar a estos de estar planeando un golpe, dijo a CNN Arash Azizi, experto en Irán radicado en EE.UU. y autor del libro “Lo que quieren los iraníes”.

“La ausencia continuada de Mojtaba significa que no tienen acceso a él y también que Ghalibaf y sus aliados están, en la práctica, a cargo del país… los ultraduros han acusado así a Ghalibaf y a Pezeshkian de estar planeando un ‘golpe’ contra Mojtaba”, dijo Azizi.

A pesar de los llamados generalizados a la unidad en tiempos de guerra en todo Irán, el gran funeral de una semana de duración por Jamenei, muerto a finales de febrero en ataques aéreos israelíes coordinados con Estados Unidos, se convirtió en una poderosa vitrina para los partidarios más intransigentes de la República Islámica. Aprovecharon la ocasión para amplificar las demandas de vengar a su líder mediante una guerra renovada con Washington y para declarar su rechazo a cualquier acuerdo con Trump.

Ahora, parece que su deseo se ha cumplido. Un frágil alto el fuego entre Irán y EE.UU. estuvo a punto de colapsar esta semana después de que la Guardia Revolucionaria lanzara ataques contra la navegación en el estrecho de Ormuz para afirmar el control sobre la vía marítima. Eso p

By Maureen O’Hare, CNN

(CNN) — In our roundup of travel news this week: how Asia is coping with hyper-hot weather, a terrifying incident on board a budget airline, plus the world’s busiest airports of 2025.

Why Atlanta?

Last year, global air travel reached a record-breaking 9.8 billion passengers, according to a report on the world’s busiest airports released Wednesday by Airports Council International (ACI). The organization released its preliminary figures in April.

The busiest airport of all in 2025, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, has held the title of the world’s No. 1 for passenger traffic for 27 of the last 28 years. It slipped just once in 2020, due to air travel being largely halted by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Atlanta isn’t a big world-class travel destination like Hong Kong or Paris or Los Angeles; it’s not even one of the world’s biggest population hubs. Geographical good fortune and effective long-term leadership are just two of the reasons Atlanta’s plucky airport has made it to the top and stayed there: Here are some of the secrets of its success over the years.

As for the rest of the top busiest airports of 2025, they are: Dubai (DXB) at No. 2; Tokyo (HND) at No. 3; Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) at No. 4; Shanghai (PVG) at No. 5.

Dallas/Fort Worth has climbed six places in the ranking since 2019, so it’s definitely one to watch.

Iowa is for book-lovers

Continuing our countdown of America’s Best Towns to Visit in 2026, we have Iowa City, Iowa, at No. 8.

Iowa City is America’s engine room of literature — a lively college town where everyone including taxi drivers seems to have ink-stained fingers, and legendary authors like Kurt Vonnegut walked the streets.

But books are only half the story in this laid-back Midwestern haven. From a presidentially approved vintage diner selling legendary pie-shakes to a neighboring town entirely dedicated to “Star Trek,” it’s a culture-packed destination where stories are waiting to be told around every street corner.

Take a look too at Roanoke, Virginia, at No. 10 and Lawrence, Kansas, at No. 9.

Heat and wildfires

Wildfires have been blazing in Canada and Europe. A train evacuating Canadians was overtaken by flames as wildfires raged near Ontario on Tuesday, and wildfire smoke is pouring into the US and damaging air quality for millions.

A years-long drought in Chile has forced ski resorts in the Andes mountains to close up to 90% of their slopes, which is bad news for the million-plus tourists who like to ski there and for the local business people relying on that income.

Hyper-hot weather is also changing Asia’s travel map. The continent is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe, meaning extreme summer heat is scrambling traditional vacations and driving travelers towards alternative plans. (This story’s for CNN subscribers only).

Southern hospitality

For a lot of people, Scottsboro, Alabama, is probably most famous

By T.M. Brown, CNN

(CNN) — This week, the English model Alexa Chung posted a carousel to her Instagram page with a series of photos from a security camera mounted outside her home in London. Even through the tiny, grainy fisheye lens, she looks chic and unbothered by the glass eye watching her come and go. In one photo, she wears a green short sleeve blouse from Miu Miu — the label is discernable even in the photo’s low resolution — and a taupe skirt with white ballet flats. Even though the camera is pointed out towards the street, the angle of the photo is such that the viewer can peer into her front room and see her welcome mat and floorboards.

It’s become a series of sorts for Chung who has posted a few doorbell camera galleries in recent months. It is also, perhaps, a commentary on her life already being surveilled by hungry paparazzi and tabloid photographers. People are always watching her, so why not take a little control?

Surveillance cameras, like selfies, are everywhere, and it was only a matter of time before people started putting the two together. The surveillance selfie has started emerging everywhere: people take photos of themselves being watched by the self-checkout line cameras at Target, and others take self-portraits with their car’s backup cameras. A programmer named Morry Kolman even set up a website that helped people use the publicly available feeds of New York City traffic cameras to take pictures of themselves.

About a fifth of American households have some sort of video-enabled doorbell, which has made those cameras an especially enticing medium for snapshots and fit check videos. Jada Warren-Evans, who works in influencer marketing in Los Angeles, posted a series of videos taken from her Ring camera in December 2025. The shots are unassuming; in one of the clips, she’s coming home from running an errand, untroubled by the watchful eye of her doorbell. Warren-Evans said that when she and her roommates host parties, they will post a sign outside their apartment encouraging guests to pose for the camera.

A few weeks ago, Liv Darcey, a London-based content creator, posted a video on TikTok that featured footage taken from her own doorbell camera. “She’s always watching,” Darcey wrote in the caption.

“People might be reading into it a bit too much,” Darcey said in an email. “These posts are using something that already exists in a creative way. I don’t think it’s making surveillance aspirational, it’s more about playing with frames and angles that feel less curated.”

Ruby Lin, a designer and art director in New York, posted a Ring camera selfie series on TikTok back in 2024. Lin had originally purchased a smart doorbell camera after her car was broken into in front of her apartment. “It was about feeling safer, but I still feel really torn about it,” she said.

Lin said she originally got the idea of using her security camera for self-expression by seeing people post selfies from vehicular backup cameras. The perspective was aesthetically interesting, she thought. Like Darcey, Lin paired her video with a sarcastic caption: “daily greetings (and fit checks) for my assigned FBI watcher.”

Behind that joke is a widespread concern that all these surveillance selfies are helping to inure people to being constantly watched by cameras controlled by private companies. Ring, which is owned by Amazon, has sold tens of millions of smart doorbells, but has Read more

By Davis Winkie, Zachary Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has tentatively agreed to allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium without enacting international safeguards intended to prevent nuclear weapons development, according to sources familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by CNN.

The draft nuclear accord that outlines US support for Riyadh’s civilian nuclear program is awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature despite US-Saudi negotiations concluding in October 2025.

Two sources familiar with the matter indicated that the ongoing war with Iran — which according to Trump was launched in part to prevent Tehran from using its enriched uranium to build nuclear weapons — has played a role in delaying Trump’s signature. Some on Capitol Hill also believe the Trump administration is delaying sign-off because it could face a bipartisan disapproval resolution blocking the deals from going into effect, said one of the sources.

Experts told CNN the deal could potentially provide Saudi Arabia with a path to nuclear weapons unless stringent safeguards are put in place. The country’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has previously threatened to build his own nuclear weapons should Iran, his country’s principal regional rival, acquire the bomb.

Four sources said the agreement, which includes a civil nuclear cooperation deal known as a 123 agreement and a mandatory nuclear safeguards agreement, still have not been sent to Congress for review, as federal law requires the White House to do once signed.

The White House did not answer questions regarding the agreements and instead referred CNN to an October 2025 statement from Energy Secretary Chris Wright announcing the end of negotiations.

“We’ve come together on a deal for civil nuclear cooperation,” Wright said at the time. “Together, with bilateral safeguard agreements, we want to grow our partnership, bring American nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and keep a firm commitment to nonproliferation.”

The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington, DC did not respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration briefed some on Capitol Hill on the basic outlines of the Saudi nuclear accords earlier this year and even then, it was previewed as having a special arrangement allowing for a degree of domestic uranium enrichment and/or plutonium reprocessing, according to a source familiar with the matter. The source said that would be “unprecedented” for such a deal.

The uranium enrichment provision includes stipulations imposed by the US, two sources told CNN, but details of potential limitations are unclear.

The 123 agreement also will not provide the final word on whether Saudi Arabia gets sensitive technology and material.

The agreement is a baseline legal framework for US companies (or the government) to transfer nuclear material and technology to the recipient country’s civilian nuclear program. Those transfers are subject to additional review.

Uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing are the two main pathways to create the core material necessary to build nuclear weapons. Most countries whose civilian nuclear reactors require enriched uranium don’t produce it domestically — they instead purchase the material from vendors like the US or Russia and receive it in sealed shipments under strict international supervision.

But the draft agreement also does not require Saudi Arabia to adopt a standard enhanced nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, known as the Additional Protocol, accor