Kennedy Center will close for renovations after judge blocks returning Trump’s name to building
A sign is placed on a gate outside the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
By: STEVEN SLOAN and ASHRAF KHALIL
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning President Donald Trump’s name to the building.
In a social media post, Trump said the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building. A federal judge has twice said that can’t happen without the approval of Congress.
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the latest ruling Tuesday.
The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media he’d given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution.
FBI chief Kash Patel defends hiring policy changes on prostitution, bestiality at fiery hearing
FBI Director Kash Patel testifies during the Senate Judiciary hearing on Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
By: ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Kash Patel defended Tuesday a recent policy change to allow some applicants who have engaged in prostitution and bestiality to be considered for employment, insisting that the move was made to enable victims of those acts to apply for a job without fear of automatic disqualification.
The subject arose during a fiery Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which Patel clashed with Democrats over his firing of agents who participated in investigations of President Donald Trump and suggested that agents might be dispatched to the polls on Election Day amid Justice Department and White House concerns about voter fraud.
The hours-long hearing featured the name-calling and bitingly personal exchanges that have come to define Patel’s appearances on Capitol Hill, with Democrats characterizing the Trump appointee as unqualified, criticizing him for politically charged investigations into Trump’s enemies and highlighting travel that has included a trip to the Winter Olympics in Italy in which he partied with U.S. hockey players and a snorkeling excursion at the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii.
Building collapse in Gaza kills 21 as perilous conditions persist for Palestinians during truce
Palestinian civil defense crews carry a body from the rubble of a collapsed building that housed displaced Palestinians and was heavily damaged during the Israel-Hamas war, in Gaza City, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
By: JEHAD ALSHRAFI, WAFAA SHURAFA and TOQA EZZIDIN
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A building housing dozens of people collapsed in Gaza City early Wednesday morning, leaving rescuers clawing with bare hands through rubble until determining that 21 people, including 11 children, had been killed in their sleep.
The sudden collapse of the building, which was known to be unstable because of damage from Israeli strikes earlier in the war, underscored how perilous and desperate living conditions have grown for the majority of the enclave’s population as a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas stalls.
There’s been no reconstruction work since the ceasefire was agreed to almost a year ago. Israel has said that it won’t allow any rebuilding until Hamas disarms. Israel has allowed only a handful of excavators into Gaza.
COGAT, the Israeli military body charged with coordinating aid to the Gaza Strip, didn’t respond when asked if it would allow in machinery to help with the collapse.
