First Thing: Defense department bars reporters from Pentagon press room

The Washington Post reporter Tara Copp saves the name plaques from various news organizations as she and members of the media pack up their belongings in the press area in the Pentagon. Photograph: Kevin Wolf/AP View image in fullscreen The Washington Post reporter Tara Copp saves the name plaques from various news organizations as she and members of the media pack up their belongings in the press area in the Pentagon. Photograph: Kevin Wolf/AP First Thing: Defense department bars reporters from Pentagon press room Spokesperson claims Trump administration has ‘the most transparent war department in history’ despite ban on journalists using Pentagon facility. Also, more than 1,000 Marilyn Monroes descend on Palm Springs 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’ View image in fullscreen 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’ View image in fullscreen 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. In other news … View image in fullscreen Barack Obama’s White House account was among those targeted in a hack. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images Hackers used Meta’s AI-powered support chatbot to infiltrate high-profile Instagram accounts, including Barack Obama’s White House account, the company confirmed on Monday, saying it had resolved the problem. Authorities in Iowa are investigating the fatal shootings of six people who they believe were killed by a relative who took his own life. Transgender troops can remain in the US military but the armed services can continue to block their enlistment, an appeals court ruled on Monday. Google has asked the US government for permission to release up to 32 million sterilized mosquitoes in California and Florida, in order to lower their numbers. The bugs kill more people than any other creature in the world every year by spreading lethal diseases Stat of the day: ‘Like a Klingon prison’ – inside Barack Obama’s audacious, near-windowless, $850m presidential library View image in fullscreen The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Illinois. Photograph: Tannen Maury/UPI/Shutterstock He may have seemed humble in office, but in his post-presidential, Netflix-producing afterlife, Barack Obama has erected the largest, costliest and most audacious presidential library complex of them all, Oliver Wainwright writes in his review of the $850m Obamalisk – or, as it sometimes feels morbidly like, the Obamausoleum. Culture pick: Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult review – wildly juicy TV about the guru possessed by an alien View image in fullscreen Frederich von Mierers in Bring Me the Beauties. Photograph: HBO Don’t miss this: Tripe soup and bitter coffee in the dining car: a nostalgic ride through Poland on a communist-era train View image in fullscreen The unhurried train to Poznan with Caroline Eden. Photograph: Caroline Eden Every weekend over the spring and summer, a fully refurbished train from the 1980s, with livery matching the era, departs from a different region in Poland. Caroline Eden took a journey, experiencing communist-era catering and the beauty of the Polish landscape along the way. … or this: Tonight the Music Seems So Loud by Sathnam Sanghera review – a heartbreaking portrait of George Michael View image in fullscreen George Michael performing on stage in 1988. Photograph: Michael Putland/Getty Images Alexis Petridis reviews the new book by Sathnam Sanghera, which he says is “not a biography so much as a miscellany, a set of themed essays that tend to digress in all kinds of intriguing directions” about George Michael. The narrative traces Michael’s progress from acne-ridden teen to gay icon, and Sanghera is very good on the climate of homophobia in the 80s, which might have given any gay public figure qualms about coming out. Climate check: Prepare for imminent return of El Niño, UN warns View image in fullscreen El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño/La Niña Southern Oscillation (ENSO) that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean. Illustration: Science Photo Library/Alamy The world must prepare for the imminent return of El Niño and the supercharged weather extremes it brings, the UN has warned. The powerful natural weather pattern, which raises global temperatures and worsens some rainfall, has an 80% chance of forming before September and a 90% chance before November, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday. Last Thing: Some like it hot with over 1,000 Marilyn Monroe lookalikes View image in fullscreen People dressed as Marilyn Monroe pose during the Marilyn Monroe 100th birthday celebration. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images Fans of Marilyn Monroe set a new world record as 1,034 people descended on the California desert town of Palm Springs to celebrate what would have been her 100th birthday. Briana Ellis-Gibbs has curated some of the best images from the day. 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