Seth Meyers on Trump’s White House demolition: ‘This is insane’

Late-night hosts dissected Donald Trump’s kingly behavior, from the destruction of the White House’s East Wing to his demand for payment from the justice department.“We have warned for years that Donald Trump is destroying American institutions,” said Seth Meyers on Wednesday evening, “but of course when we said ‘destroying’, we meant metaphorically speaking. We didn’t mean that he was literally destroying buildings.”“But I guess Trump heard that and thought, ‘On it.’ Because now he’s literally destroying the East Wing of the White House,” the Late Night host continued

Toe-curling fashion: how did toe shoes become so popular?

Caitlin, I am a big proponent of not yucking someone else’s yum. But this is testing me. What are on those girlies’ feet?They’re toes, Cait. They’re toes. More specifically, toes encased in rubber to create a kind of foot-glove-trainer

Stephen Colbert on Trump’s White House East Wing demolition: ‘So deeply unsettling’

Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s partial demolition of the East Wing of the White House for his proposed $250m gilded ballroom.“At this point, we’re nine months into this, you’d think it would be impossible for us to be shocked by Donald Trump,” said Stephen Colbert on Tuesday’s Late Show. “But give the man credit – every so often, he takes the time to attach the electrodes to our nipples. And then it feels like the first time.”Case in point: on Monday, as part of his White House renovation project to construct a gilded ballroom, Trump sent out a backhoe to rip off a part of the East Wing

Jon Stewart on Donald Trump: ‘He’s the imitation crab of kings right now’

Late-night hosts recapped the record-breaking No Kings rallies against Donald Trump and mocked Republican attempts to dismiss the protests.Jon Stewart returned to his Daily Show post on Monday night, riding high from the energy of the No Kings rallies against Trump over the weekend, which Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, dismissed as the “hate America rally, and Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, called participants “the farthest left, the hardest core, the most unhinged in the Democratic party”.“So, this weekend, we sat in our bunkers, doors locked, windows boarded, muskets and cyanide pills at the ready, prepared for whatever the hardest core had in store,” Stewart joked. “Do your worst, display your Marxism to its fullest!”In truth, the peaceful protests drew more than 7 million people in 2,700 locations in all 50 states, for the largest single-day protest against a sitting president in US history. “It was kind of an incredible turnout that was somewhat inspiring,” Stewart said

Repair bills could force hundreds of UK churches to close within five years

Hundreds of Britain’s churches may be forced to close in the next five years as the cost of maintaining heritage buildings becomes unmanageable, a conference at the V&A in London has heard.Many of the UK’s 20,000-plus listed places of worship contain important heritage treasures, such as stained glass windows, and monuments of historic significance. They are also hubs for community groups and social action projects.But, according to a survey by the National Churches Trust, one in 20 churches say they will definitely or probably not be used as a place of worship by 2030. Rural churches are most at risk, with about 900 in danger of closing in the next five years

London museum identifies black Waterloo veteran in rare 1821 painting

He fought in the Napoleonic wars and is one of only nine Black soldiers known to have received the Waterloo Medal, the first British medal awarded to soldiers regardless of their rank.Yet the story of Pte Thomas James has been overlooked for centuries.Now the National Army Museum in London has identified James as the likely subject of an “extraordinarily rare” painting from 1821, which it has attributed to the artist Thomas Phillips, whose more typical sitters were Georgian luminaries such as the Duke of Wellington and Lord Byron.The portrait will be unveiled to the public on Tuesday at the museum’s “Army at Home” gallery in Chelsea, where it will be placed on permanent display to highlight the service of James and other Black soldiers during the Napoleonic wars.“There’s this misconception that there weren’t any Black soldiers at Waterloo,” said the museum’s art curator, Anna Lavelle