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Much of the White House East Wing was torn down yesterday. That's where we're starting the seven from the Washington Post, I'm Hannah Jewell. It's Wednesday, October 22nd. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. That was the sound of a demolition job at the White House. Yesterday. We told you about the disappearance of the White House's eastern entrance, but it turns out the job is much more extensive than it first appeared. By yesterday, much of the East Wing was destroyed. The East Wing houses office space for the first lady and it is one of the most well known parts of the White House. That's because it has been used for decades as the entrance for almost all visitors coming for tours. A White House spokesman clarified that the entirety of the East Wing would eventually be, as he put it, modernized and rebuilt. The move to knock it down has shocked preservationists and raised questions about White House overreach and lack of transparency. It's also sparked complaints from Democrats that President Donald Trump was damaging the People's House to pursue a personal priority. That priority is building a massive ballroom to host state visits and big parties. Trump spoke more about the project at the White House yesterday.
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You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back. You hear that sound? Oh, that's music to my ears. I love that sound. Other people don't like it. I love it, Josh. I think when I hear that sound, it reminds me of money. In this case, it reminds me of lack of money because I'm paying for it. So it's the opposite. But it's going to be one of the most beautiful ballrooms anywhere in the world.
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The ballroom is expected to cost $250 million. Dozens of companies, including Apple, Coinbase and Microsoft have made donations to pay for the project. Number two, President Trump said he will not meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future. Last week, Trump said he planned to meet Putin in Hungary soon. But a phone call with the Russian leader last Thursday and a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday made it clear that the warring countries were unlikely to find common ground. Russia's top diplomat also suggested there were big differences between Moscow and Washington's approach to ending the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for more than three years. The postponement could delay the president's efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Trump said he didn't want to have a wasted meeting. Health insurance costs are soaring for millions of Americans during the government shutdown. That's number three. It's day 22 of the shutdown. Democrats are refusing to vote on government funding legislation unless Covid era Obamacare subsidies are extended, but Republicans say they want to negotiate on that after the government reopens. And now healthcare premiums are set to rise by 18% nationwide. That's according to an analysis from the nonpartisan health policy group the Kaiser Family Foundation. As Americans who buy insurance through the Affordable Care act begin to see higher costs, lawmakers may face greater pressure to act. Early next week, the federal website used by 28 states is expected to post plan offerings. In most of the other 22 states that run their own online marketplaces, people can already browse through prices and see higher costs. According to the Kaiser Family foundation analysis, the average marketplace consumer will pay over $1,900 in annual premiums next year. That's up from $888 in 2025. 4. A Trump nominee withdrew from his confirmation hearing following reports of his racist text messages. Paul Ingracia is Trump's pick to lead the Office of Special Counsel. Or he was until he withdrew his nomination. That's according to a White House official. The move followed reports that the 30 year old texted other Republicans racist slurs and said he had a Nazi streak. At least five Senate Republicans said they opposed his nomination. That means he wouldn't have enough votes to be confirmed. The special counsel office investigates whistleblower complaints and allegations of political interference in the civil service. The agency has largely been led by nonpartisan lawyers with decades of experience. Ingrassia was admitted to the New York bar just last year. Number five the Post tested the tech industry's fake video warning system and found that it's broken. As the videos created by artificial intelligence have become more and more realistic, tech companies developed a plan that was supposed to stop people getting confused. Companies like OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, pledged to put a tamper proof marker on every fake video, and social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok said they would make those labels visible to viewers. But when the Post uploaded an AI video to eight major social media platforms to test this, only one added a warning. That was YouTube. But even that warning was hidden inside a description attached to the clip. And that's not all. The Post also found that all the platforms removed a digital marker which flagged that the video was AI generated. Foreign the future of CNN appears uncertain. That's number six. Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of CNN and hbo. The media conglomerate has announced that it's open to a sale. David Ellison is the CEO of Paramount Skydance. He has reportedly expressed interest in buying it. Such a sale could place CNN and CBS under one parent company. Ellison and his father, Larry, a Trump ally, have assembled an unprecedented array of old and new media in recent months. The younger Ellison recently spent $150 million to buy the website the Free Press and named its founder the conservative writer Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News. Larry Ellison, meanwhile, is set to own a piece of the US spinoff of TikTok. And at number seven, Gen Z is resisting the Concept of the workplace emergency As a bitter old millennial, I will never be okay with low waisted jeans or being afraid of phone calls, but this is one zoomer trend I can fully support. Some Gen Z workers are setting a clear boundary between work and life. They're questioning the false sense of urgency that's ingrained in many workplaces. They're rejecting after hours work pings, last minute projects, and a panicked approach to jobs that aren't actually that important. One expert attributed the change in attitudes to the coronavirus pandemic as a sort of wake up call about what really matters in life. The philosophy shows up in quips like it's PR, not the ER, or we're saving PDFs, not lives. One that I like to use is there's no such thing as a podcasting emergency. To those younger people who have managed to keep boundaries between work and life, I say good for you. Unless you literally do work in the er, in which case I hope you guys are still open to attending to literal emergencies. Alright, you're all caught up. This week I have been very obsessed with the story of the Louvre jewel heist. In case you missed it, thieves stole thousands of gems from the Paris Museum in a matter of minutes. If, like me, you can't wait for the movie version of this brazen daylight burglary, go and listen to the latest episode of Post Reports. It tells the story of how it happened and what might become of the jewels. As for this jewel, I'll meet you back here tomorrow.
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