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President Donald Trump defended his move to tear down part of the White House. The U.S. citizenship exam is getting harder. And a woman played the clarinet while getting brain surgery. That's some of what we'll get to on the Seven from the Washington Post, I'm Hannah Jewell. It's Thursday, October 23rd. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. Number one, President Trump raised the estimated cost of his White House ballroom this week. The president sparked an outcry after images showed demolition crews knocking down much of the White House's east wing. That's to make way for Trump's planned 90,000 square foot dream Ballroom. Preservationists say there's not a lot that could be done to stop this project. The key panel slated to review the president's construction plans is now stocked with Trump allies ready to approve them. Yesterday, Trump defended the project.
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In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure. The way it was shown, it looked like we were touching the White House. We don't touch the White House. That's a bridge at last bridge going from the White House to the ballroom. Then you get into the lobby of the ballroom and then you go into the magnificent, the main room. And it's something that has gotten incredible reviews.
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When Trump says we don't touch the White House, he meant the main central structure. He also raised the estimated cost for the ballroom. Before, he claimed it would cost $200 million. Now he says it will cost 300 million. White House officials have previously said the project will be funded by private donations, including from wealthy individuals and large companies that have contracts with the federal government. Foreign forces killed five people on alleged drug boats in the Pacific Ocean. That's number two. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said two strikes took place on Tuesday and Wednesday in international waters. He did not specify exactly where the attacks occurred or identify the victims, but the strikes were off the coast of South America. Hexseth said only that they were terrorists and that their boats were known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling. President Trump said yesterday that his administration is preparing to expand its campaign against alleged drug boats, which started in September, to also encompass targets on land. He did not say when or where that could occur. The Trump administration has not made public any evidence verifying its claims that the targets of its attacks were confirmed drug smugglers. Former US Government officials and many experts have said the strikes are unlawful. Number three, Congress is running out of time to meet a crucial health care deadline. The government has been shut down for more than three weeks, and that's in large part due to a dispute between Democrats and Republicans over healthcare before they'll vote to reopen the government. Democrats want Republicans to agree to extend Affordable Care act subsidies, but Republicans are refusing to negotiate on that until Democrats vote to end the shutdown. November 1st is a key date. That's when people in the US can start signing up for their 2026 coverage. Already, millions are seeing their health insurance costs soar. If a deal is somehow reached in the coming days, there might be enough time to pass the savings on to marketplace consumers and prevent Americans on subsidized plans from paying higher costs. Russia secretly bought Western tech to protect its nuclear submarine fleet. That's number four. Reporters from the Post and news organizations in Europe and Japan worked together on this story. They found that Russia used front companies to buy technology from Europe and the US Then used that equipment to create a surveillance system called Harmony in the Arctic, where its submarines operate. Experts and officials have warned that Russia's acquisition of such sensitive technology has undermined the security of the U.S. and and its NATO allies. According to naval experts, if war broke out, the technology could make it harder for Western nations to destroy Russian nuclear submarines. Number five the federal government rolled out a harder US Citizenship exam. The Trump administration has said it plans to increase scrutiny of citizenship applications. And starting this week, those who apply for naturalization will face a revised civics test. It's longer and more difficult than the old one. Applicants are asked 20 questions chosen at random, and have to get 12 correct to pass. It has a greater focus on American history, and some revised questions require longer answers than before. One of the questions is why were the Federalist papers important? And another James Madison is famous for many things. Name one. If you're curious whether you could pass the new test, we have a quiz and the answers to those questions in our newsletter today. Find a link to that in our show. Notes A study found that MRNA Covid vaccines prolonged the life of cancer patients. That's number six. A new retrospective study examined the records of more than 1,000 patients with lung or skin cancer. It compared those who received coronavirus MRNA vaccines with those who had not. It found that the median survival length of patients who did have the shot nearly doubled. That's because the MRNA shots set off a kind of powerful alarm to rally the immune system against cancer. The findings raise hopes that scientists may be able to develop a universal, off the shelf vaccine for patients with different cancers. But it comes at a difficult time for research into vaccines that use MRNA In August, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Announced that the U.S. government was ending almost $500 million in funding for MRNA vaccine development. And at number seven, a Parkinson's patient played the clarinet while getting brain surgery. Deep brain stimulation is a procedure in which doctors pierce holes into the skull to implant electrodes. Those deliver electrical pulses to the brain to try and improve the motor skills of Parkinson's patients. It helps if a patient is using their brain during the surgery so doctors can see what's working in real time. That's why 65 year old Denise Bacon, wide awake on the operating table, played music to serenade her surgeons. Before you have nightmares about this, no, she could not feel a thing. Denise was given a local anesthetic to numb her scalp and skull and the brain itself does not have any pain receptors, thank God. And it seems to have worked. Doctors noticed an instant improvement in Denise's mobility. This treatment is not a cure for Parkinson's, but it can restore function and quality of life. As for Denise, she described what it's done for her. I can walk normally. I was walking normally straight after the surgery and life's just opened up again. It feels like there's a future foreign you're all caught up before you go. Make today the day you sign up for the newsletter version of the seven. It's where you can find links to all the stories I talk about here on the podcast and more. Better yet, it also has games to distract you from work. Find a link to sign up in our show notes or just Google the seven Morning briefing. I'm Hannah Jewell. I'll meet you back here tomorrow.
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