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Demolition crews started tearing down part of the White House. The search is on for the thieves who pulled off the Louvre heist. And we asked experts, do cannabis products really help you sleep? That's some of what we'll get to on the 7 from the Washington Post, I'm Rennie Swarnofsky in for Hannah jewel. It's Tuesday, October 21st. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. Number one, construction teams started demolishing a portion of the East Wing of the White House yesterday. President Donald Trump has long wanted to add a ballroom to the White House to accommodate more people for grand parties and state visits. His plan for a 90,000 square foot structure would nearly double the footprint of the main building and its east and west wings. Trump had pledged that construction of this $250 million addition wouldn't interfere with the existing building. But photos circulated yesterday showed a backhoe ripping through a portion of the East Wing. Trump hyped up the project in remarks at the White House yesterday.
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So you'll have drinks, cocktails, everything on this floor, and then they'll say, welcome to dinner. You walk into the ballroom, Mr. Senators, and you're going to see a ballroom the likes of which I don't think will, I don't think it'll be topped. It'll be, it'll be the finest. So it's going to be a lot of fun.
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Democrats have largely panned the project. They've argued that Trump's priorities and preferences are not aligned with average Americans. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is reeling from a bruising meeting with President Trump. That's number two. In a meeting at the White House on Friday, Trump tossed aside Zelensky's maps of the front line and urged Ukraine to concede its entire Donbas region to Russia. A European diplomat briefed on the exchange described it as a mess. The diplomat said Trump also, quote, went on and on about his grievances of not having gotten the Nobel Peace Prize. Since the meeting, Zelensky has been rallying the support of his European partners. He said yesterday that it was very important that the Europeans have a unified position with Kyiv and that he planned to meet with European allies this week at an EU summit. Trump's latest swerve on the war appeared to stem from a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. Putin demanded that Kyiv surrender the region of Donbas as a condition to end the war. Number three, police are still searching for the thieves who stole priceless jewels from the Louvre. More details are emerging about the headline stealing heist, with people asking how the thieves managed to pull off such a brazen theft in broad daylight. Well, according to French officials, alarms located on the museum's exterior window and and on the two displays holding the jewels were triggered when thieves broke into the museum's Apollo Gallery. However, when an alarm gets triggered inside the museum, it rings in the building's security headquarters, not in the room itself. France's culture minister said that officials had been working to improve the museum's security for years, but that that would take time and money. You can see how the theft took place step by step in graphics and maps on our website. Just click the link to the newsletter in our show Notes A Joe Rogan Mel Gibson podcast episode inspired Florida's cancer research focus that's number four. When Casey DeSantis, the first lady of Florida, recently disclosed how the State would distribute $60 million for cancer research, she mentioned Hollywood actor Mel Gibson. Gibson had appeared on Joe Rogan's popular podcast early in 2025. During the conversation, he touted the supposed cancer curing powers of ivermectin. Ivermectin is the antiparasitic drug that gained a following during the pandemic touted by Trump as a possible Covid treatment. That's despite research showing that it's ineffective against the coronavirus. Desantis said that a portion of Florida's research money would go to study the drug as a potential cancer treat in laboratory settings, studies have shown ivermectin could have anticancer effects, but oncologists and medical experts caution that there's not yet evidence that it's effective to treat cancer in humans. Despite that lack of evidence, a growing number of patients are asking doctors about using the drug. Physicians told the Post they fear that patients might eschew traditional treatment that could help them in favor of following an unproven path. Number five do you know your climate hoof Print Researchers have documented for years that eating beef, pork and chicken has a significant environmental impact, especially when it comes to heating the planet. But that impact can vary widely depending on where you live. For the first time, researchers have calculated the planet warming pollution emitted from raising the animals that people eat for every town and city in the U.S. u.S. They're calling it your carbon hoofprint. Across the country, eating beef is a bigger contributor to harmful pollutants. But eating a steak or a burger in Milwaukee, for example, where the meat comes from nearby dairy cows, generates fewer emissions than eating the same thing in Oklahoma City, where beef tends to come from feedlots. The top three emitting cities in the analysis were New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Discover your carbon hoofprint and advice for lowering it by following the link in Our Newsletter. Nearly 1 in 5 young adults use cannabis products to get to sleep. That's number six. People have long experimented with natural products to get better sleep, from chamomile and lavender to hops. And now that marijuana is legal in many states for medical or recreational use, more people are using it to aid in their sleep. A recent study showed that some 18% of people ages 19 to 30 in the United States say they use marijuana to sleep. But does it work? We asked the experts. They told us that cannabis contains dozens of compounds like the well known CBD and thc. CBD does not cause the high typically associated with marijuana. Meanwhile, THC does have mood and mind altering effects. Products that consist primarily of CBD along with low doses of THC may help some people fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. But the mixture, dose, delivery system and various individual factors are important too. And at number seven, baseball's World Series is set the Los Angeles Dodgers versus The Toronto Blue Jays. Last night, a late homer from George Springer lifted the Blue Jays to a 43 win over the Seattle Mariners in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. Here's that dramatic moment from the fox broadcast. The 10 pitch high fly ball left field arose. Arena watches it goes that sets the stage for the World Series. Toronto will host Game 1 of the Fall Classic against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday. It will be the first World Series game played in Canada in more than three decades. The Dodgers are trying to become the first baseball team to repeat as champions since the New York Yankees in 1999 and 2000. They top the Milwaukee brewers to reach the World Series, but powered by Shohei Ohtani's unreal performance on the mound and at the plate. Alright, you are all caught up. But before you go, a reminder that if you're a subscriber to the Washington Post, you can get access to our shows ad free in Apple Podcasts. All you have to do is find the Washington Post channel in Apple Podcasts and connect your post subscription. Then stay tuned for more subscriber only audio benefits like exclusive and early access episodes. If you're not a subscriber, this is a great time to start. You can sign up at our channel in Apple Podcasts or through the link in our show Notes. I'm Rennie Sranofsky. Hannah will meet you back here tomorrow.
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