Law due to expire at midnight tonight following unhappiness over Trump’s pick for intelligence chiefA key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) is due to expire on Friday night amid a backlash to Trump’s announcement that Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a major Republican donor, would be acting DNI.While Trump has moved to contain the furor – announcing his nomination of another top official, Jay Carney, to take the role on a permanent basis – US Congress has so far failed to extend section 702 of Fisa in time for Friday’s deadline.Pulte has to go. He cannot be in the DNI role. It’s too important.Donald Trump declared “a great settlement” with Iran, which could be signed soon “maybe in Europe, over the weekend”.Trump’s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday. The board voted on Thursday to seek a stay of US district judge Christopher Cooper’s 29 May ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.Congressman Robert Garcia, who is in line to chair the House oversight committee next year if Democrats win back the majority in November, called for testimony from vice-president JD Vance and other senior officials over what he called “the White House cover-up” of the Epstein files revealed by the New York Times.US federal authorities are investigating what appears to be a massive etching of “8647” into the grass of the National Mall. Live webcam footage from atop the Washington Monument as of Thursday afternoon shows the markings, with a highly visible “8,” along with less visible “6”, “4” and “7”. Continue reading...