Judge blocks Trump's Kennedy Center rename and $1.8B Anti-Weaponization Fund | Reuters Wold News

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Hi, I'm Jonah Green in New York. It's Saturday, May 30th. Today, Trump suffers a pair of legal setbacks over the Kennedy Center and his weaponization fund. What that blue origin explosion means for Jeff [music] Bezos's space ambitions.

[00:00:18]And why one country is benefiting from the chaos at the Straight of [music] Hormuz.

[00:00:23]This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, [music] 7 days a week.

[00:00:39]A federal judge has ordered the removal of President Donald Trump's name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, ruling that only Congress can rename the iconic Washington venue.

[00:00:52]Judge Christopher Cooper gave the administration 14 days to remove all Trump signage and references, saying the center is to be named for President Kennedy and cannot be changed by quoteun unilateral says so. The ruling also stops Trump's planned 2-year closure of the building. In response, Trump says his administration will transfer control of the center to Congress.

[00:01:18]In another legal setback, a judge is putting the brakes on the Trump administration's so-called anti-weaponization fund. That's the nearly 1.8 billion fund designed to compensate people Trump says were victims of government weaponization.

[00:01:34]The temporary order blocks any further steps while the court weighs additional legal arguments. The Justice Department announced the fund's creation last week as part of a deal to settle Trump's lawsuit over the leak of his IRS tax records. Its creation has sparked a backlash in Washington, even from some Republicans who expressed anger that January 6th riers could be eligible.

[00:02:00]Major setback for Jeff Bezos's space ambitions. A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded on a Florida launchpad during a ground test, erupting into a fireball during what's known as a hot fire test. The rocket was uncrrewed, and Bezos said there were no injuries reported. But the explosion comes just days after NASA awarded Blue Origin a new contract tied to its moon program. And as the company was gearing up for a key satellite launch, aerospace editor Joe Brock says for Bezos, it's another reminder of how hard it's been to close the gap with SpaceX.

[00:02:43]It's a major setback for Blue Origin for its a number of its programs. Its plan to get an Amazon LEO uh constellation to rival Elon Musk's Starlink. Its plans for to help the NASA Arteimus mission for moonlanders for you putting humans back on the moon. This rocket was central to everything that Jeff Bezos wanted to achieve with Blue Origin. It is a setback for NASA's program. They want it. They want quick wins. Isaacman is the new header of NASA. Trump wants wins in space. So, they don't want to see these setbacks. For Jeff Bezos, he has obviously extremely deep pockets. He is committed to, you know, Blue Origin and the space program. But this is a vast amount of money and every setback, you know, months going on to, you know, years of setbacks on New Glenn, it starts to take a serious hit on the company's finances.

[00:03:38]New Jersey and Texas are both making moves on immigration enforcement, but in opposite directions.

[00:03:48]>> In Newark, after a week of daily clashes between anti-ICE protesters and federal agents outside the Delaney Hall detention center, Democratic Governor Mikey Cheryl is sending state police to take control of the perimeter with ICE agents agreeing to pull back. I will not give ICE the pretext to expand operations in our state.

[00:04:12]>> Detainees inside are staging a hunger strike over what they describe as inhumane conditions.

[00:04:20]Meanwhile, in Texas, a federal appeals court is clearing the way for the state to arrest and deport people suspected of crossing the border illegally under its own state law. The ACLU says it will keep fighting, but for now, the law can be enforced.

[00:04:38]US President Donald Trump says he'll soon make a final decision on extending the ceasefire with Iran by 60 days, but major gaps remain. Trump is demanding Iran open the Straight of Hormuz and dismantle its nuclear program. Tran says those conditions aren't part of any deal. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegth says the US is ready to restart strikes if no deal is reached, telling reporters in Singapore the military stockpiles are quote more suited for that.

[00:05:18]A Kenyan court has temporarily halted a controversial plan for the US to set up an Ebola quarantine facility in the country. a facility meant for Americans exposed to the virus in Congo and Uganda. It's drawn fierce opposition from Kenyans who say it endangers public health. According to the World Health Organization, there have been more than 1,000 suspected and confirmed cases of Ebola since the outbreak was confirmed in midmay. The WHO has identified experimental drugs and vaccines for urgent trials. But as Reuters global health correspondent Jennifer Rigby explains, getting them tested in the middle of an outbreak has its challenges.

[00:06:04]>> So for this Ebola virus when we do Joe, there aren't any approved vaccines or treatments at the moment, which means there really aren't kind of medical counter measures to to fight the outbreak. And so the priority now is to see if anything can be used. Right?

[00:06:18]There's there's a handful of options.

[00:06:20]Some of them are vaccines or treatments that have shown promise in the lab um or work for other Ebola viruses. Um some are totally new. And it's going to be tricky in lots of ways. Lots lots of people have said because you know while there are some of these options, they're quite a long way away from production months um at least in some cases. And setting up the trial will also be complicated because it's you know the the epicenter of the outbreak is really complicated place kind of affected by conflict. Um and a lot of the community are understandably really frightened about you know the disease spreading and and also about you know interventions from from foreigners that they've never seen before coming and saying we want to try this treatment that's that's you know new and experimental. So there's there's a lot of work that's going to have to happen to make sure that people understand that that's safe and and could help them and and sort of how that's going to work is I think being worked out right now by people you know on the ground and the WHO and and all sorts of different partners. Former US Attorney General Pam Bondi testified to lawmakers behind closed doors Friday over her handling of the Epstein investigation >> and she refused to answer any questions about President Trump. In fact, she said that she would not speak or or respond to any questions that had anything to do with President Trump. The ranking Democrat on the committee, Robert Garcia, said Bondi refused to answer whether President Trump knew about Epstein's criminal activities or directed redactions of the files.

[00:07:50]Bondi did say that she delegated the release of the files to acting attorney general Todd Blanch.

[00:07:56]>> [music] >> The USIsraeli war on Iran has caused one of the largest energy disruptions in history, but it's also created an unlikely beneficiary, the South American country of Guyana. It's already the world's fastest growing economy. And as our energy reporter Sheila Deng explains, Guyana's hoping to turn this economic windfall into stability down the road >> with the effective closure of the straight of poor muse really blocking off access to so much of the world's supply that comes from that region.

[00:08:34]What that has done is put more of a spotlight on countries around the world that have both vast oil resources but also geopolitical stability. And Guyana is just one of the great examples of that because they're right next door to Venezuela. There has been so much upheaval there. That hasn't happened in Guyana. It is relatively stable. They have um uh democratic elections and they have this 11 billion barrels of oil that uh Exxon and its partners are are taking out of the ground. So that is just really brightening Guyana's future.

[00:09:13]>> That's meant economic growth for Guyana's economy. But it hasn't come without some growing pains. Since oil production started in Guyana in 2019, there has been massive development on the ground. I got to go in February, and you can just see that there are construction cranes and road construction and new buildings popping up all over Georgetown, the capital. And despite the fact that this is an energyrich c country, there are still electrical outages that happen pretty regularly. and can last for hours at a time. So, as we're seeing these billions of dollars that Guyana is expected to get right now um from higher oil prices, the big challenge is they really want to use this money to develop their nono economy and really set themselves up for a better future for when oil prices lower and go back down.

[00:10:17]And for today's recommended listen, check out our latest on assignment in which our journalists investigate what happened during the assault on Alashir, a besieged city in Darur.

[00:10:29]We'll put the link in the [music] pod description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast [music] player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters 7 days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.