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Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Times
The Times Saturday Quiz: June 28, 2025
1 The 'check and send' service is used to apply for which travel document? 2 Which US state owes its name to the Virginia governor Thomas West, 3rd and 12th (the title was created twice because of a legal dispute) Baron De La Warr? 3 Michael Wolff created the red rose symbol of which British political party? 4 Which two-word French term means a blunder in etiquette or conduct? 5 In which epic poem does John Milton refer to Eve as the 'Mother of Mankind'? 6 Which Steve Coogan character was introduced as a sports reporter in the Radio 4 comedy On the Hour? 7 The anticoagulant hirudin is extracted from which type of blood-sucking worm? 8 Hosted by Rob Brydon, which TV comedy panel show is known by the abbreviation WILTY? 9 Margaret and Alice are the first names of the title characters in which Shakespeare comedy? 10 In a 2024 TV series, Daniel Brühl plays the title role in Becoming … which German fashion designer? 11 The High Roller is an aptly named observation wheel on which American 'strip'? 12 In 1880, the barrister John Maule was appointed the first holder of which office? 13 Making up 27.7 per cent by mass, what is the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust? 14 Which former King Crimson member wrote the lyrics for Bucks Fizz's No 1 single The Land of Make Believe? 15 On her death in 1954, who became the first French female writer to be given a state funeral? 16 The Arts and Crafts-inspired garden Hidcote Manor is in which county? 17 The Vridi Canal connects which former national capital to the Atlantic Ocean? 18 Which queen founded Ascot Racecourse in 1711? 19 South African athlete Esther Brand won which field event at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics? 20 Which Wes Anderson film is pictured? Scroll down for answersAnswers1 Passport 2 Delaware 3 Labour 4 Faux pas 5 Paradise Lost 6 Alan Partridge 7 Leech 8Would I Lie to You? 9 The Merry Wives of Windsor. They are also known as Mistress Page and Mistress Ford 10 Karl Lagerfeld 11 Las Vegas Strip 12 Director of public prosecutions (England and Wales) 13 Silicon 14 Peter Sinfield 15 Colette 16 Gloucestershire 17 Abidjan, Ivory Coast 18 Anne 19 High jump 20 The Royal Tenenbaums
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
How's It Playing? POTUS Wants to Know.
There's a question President Trump likes to ask people around him when he's facing a major challenge or considering a big decision. It's not 'Why did this happen?' or 'What are my options?' or anything so straightforward as 'How does this affect American interests?' It's a more impressionistic question; any answer might sound equally authoritative, even if only one answer is preferred. 'How's it playing?' Trump posed it soon after Israel launched its first attacks against Iran. The president 'asked an ally how the Israeli strikes were 'playing,'' The Times reported. 'He said that 'everyone' was telling him he needed to get more involved.' Trump made the same query shortly after surviving an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., last summer. Dan Scavino, the president's deputy chief of staff, later recalled that it was the first thing Trump asked him when Scavino went to the hospital and showed him the iconic photograph of a blood-streaked presidential candidate pumping his fist in the air. 'Hey, Dan, how's it playing?' Trump asked. It was also his question after his 2023 indictment — the first ever of a former U.S. president — on charges of falsifying business records to hide a payments to a porn star. In his recent book, 'All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America,' Michael Wolff reports that Trump asked his lawyers, before the drive to the courthouse, 'How's it playing?' (In her testimony in the case, Hope Hicks, a former aide to the president, acknowledged that though she did not recall exactly what Trump said to her after The Wall Street Journal reported on the hush money, 'I'm almost certain he would've asked me how's it playing.') According to Wolff, Trump tried to rank the relative play of two events normally considered disastrous for a politician. 'Do you think indictment is bigger than impeachment?' he asked an aide. The aide tried to distinguish the legal jeopardy of indictment versus the political risk of impeachment, which wasn't what Trump had in mind. 'Everyone understands that by 'bigger,' Trump means is it playing bigger — more drama, more attention?' Wolff writes. 'That's the answer he wants: It's bigger because it's bigger!' There is nothing wrong with a president gauging public reaction to or support for administration policies or actions. The people are his constituents, after all. It makes sense to assess popular perceptions through, say, polling, or to canvass opinions from trusted advisers, or to rally national sentiment through speeches, posts or some other communications strategy. (When presidents or political candidates insist that they don't pay attention to polls, all that means is that they saw the polls and didn't like what they said.) Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
This Cabinet Member Is in Trump's Crosshairs for Iran Leak: Author
Tulsi Gabbard is on thin ice. Michael Wolff, the Trump biographer who has long studied the president, revealed on The Daily Beast Podcast this week that the Director of National Intelligence might become the next former Director of National Intelligence if she isn't careful. On Saturday, the U.S. launched an attack on three nuclear enrichment sites in Iran. But despite Trump's declared victory, early intelligence assessments suggest that the strikes did not destroy the facilities at all. 'It's always important in the Trump script, the fallback is always who to blame, who to blame,' Wolff told The Daily Beast's Joanna Coles. 'Just have to have someone to blame. Tulsi is in the line of fire.' To Trump, he added, she is a 'stooge' at this point. Reports of the still-existent nuclear sites are at odds with Trump's repeated claims that the strikes 'completely and totally obliterated' the facilities. The leaked report became a big PR nightmare for Trump, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN: 'This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as 'top secret' but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community.' But now that the assessment is available for the public to judge for themselves, Wolff said that Trump is in search of someone to throw under the bus. 'There is an investigation that is going on,' said Wolff. 'They will try to find someone to blame. Within the White House, within the West Wing, what they are saying as of this morning, who this is being pinned on, is Tulsi.' White House staff have confirmed that the leak is already being investigated. 'President Trump's Peace through Strength foreign policy is a tried-and-true approach that keeps America safe and deters global threats,' White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast in a statement. 'Efforts by the legacy media to sow internal division are a distraction that will not work. President Trump has full confidence in his entire exceptional national security team. DNI Gabbard is an important member of the President's team and her work continues to serve him and this country well.' On Tuesday Trump raged against anyone that questioned the rocky ceasefire between Israel and Iran for which he took credit. The 79-year-old president exploded in a tirade—complete with a dropped f-bomb—against the 'fake news.' 'These networks and these cable networks are real losers. You really are,' Trump said. 'You're gutless losers. I say that to CNN.' Wolff said that Trump was upset because he could no longer claim 'bragging rights' for solving the problem. 'What we saw... with the f-bomb, was the fact that this truce that he claimed he put in place, [that] he was the peacemaker... was coming apart. And so he was p----d,' Wolff said. He continued: 'Believe me, in private there are many, many, many f-bombs going off. The leak of this intelligence, and the intelligence is devastating. The intelligence basically says that this was all for nothing... It accomplishes nothing.' Instead of being a few weeks away from assembling a working nuclear device, said Wolff, Iranians are now 'a few weeks plus.' 'So this contradicts the entire narrative that he's tried to establish,' he said. And who's to blame? Gabbard, of course. 'Trump is not going to say, 'Oh yeah, this is a problem, we have to figure this out, how to continue this campaign if we truly want to end the Iranian nuclear ambition,'' said Wolff. 'He's not going to do that. He's going to instead blame someone for the fact that this alternative and probably correct version of reality is now in the public.' Gabbard was awkwardly snubbed by President Donald Trump this week after he dismissed her Congressional testimony that countered the administration's justification for bombing Iran. 'The intelligence community continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003,' she said in March. But this month, Trump publicly slammed Gabbard when her comments resurfaced. 'I don't care what she said,' Trump said of Gabbard's comments. 'I think they were very close to having them.' Trump later doubled down, telling reporters that Gabbard was 'wrong' about the issue. Gabbard bowed down to Trump's assertions, quickly posting on X that the 'dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division.' White House sources suggested that although Gabbard has directly said that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, other parts of what she has said, including in testimony to the House Intel Committee in March, pointed to the country being very close to building one. Gabbard's recent statements are a blatant contradiction to a post she made in January 2020 while she competed for the Democratic presidential nomination. 'To all who voted for Trump bc of his antiwar rhetoric, it's time to realize he lied to u,' she wrote. 'Stand with me against Trump's Iran War!'
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump has brutal two-word nickname for Stephen Miller, report claims
President Donald Trump famously has a penchant for making up nicknames to mock his enemies. There's Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe, Lyin' Ted Cruz, and Little Marco Rubio. There's now another to add to the list: 'Weird Stephen.' The epithet has been applied to the deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, according to biographer Michael Wolff. 'There is an awareness that Stephen Miller is a problem,' Wolf said on The Daily Beast podcast. 'And even Trump calls him 'Weird Stephen.' Because he is weird, by the way. I mean, you can't spend a moment with him and not say, 'Oh, something's off here.'' 'He doesn't make eye contact,' Wolff added. 'And then he talks to you in this monotone voice, and it feels very revvy, you know, the engine of his voice keeps going, and you kind of step back.' Wolff was discussing the possibility that Miller might lose his standing in Trumpworld if his efforts to deport large numbers of immigrants fail. Miller has called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest at least 3,000 migrants a day. However, Trump at one point wavered in his stance on the removals. The Washington Post reported on Monday that the administration was reversing a planned pause on immigration raids on worksites connected to the agricultural, hotel, and restaurant industries. The Department of Homeland Security announced that raids would resume at such worksites during a Monday morning call with representatives from 30 ICE offices. Miller battled the initial pause on the raids. Wolff noted that the president's spectacular falling out with Elon Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency, is what can happen if someone within Trump's orbit acquires too much power. 'Trump, who is lazy, lets other people be in charge, until they're perceived as being in charge. Then they're no longer in charge,' said Wolff. 'Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s*** and has been proven to be a fraud,' a White House spokesperson told The Daily Beast in response to the claims regarding the nickname. 'He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination—only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.' Top ICE officials had a heated discussion with Miller late last month as the Trump adviser berated them for falling short on the number of arrests. 'Miller came in there and eviscerated everyone. 'You guys aren't doing a good job. You're horrible leaders.' He just ripped into everybody. He had nothing positive to say about anybody, shot morale down,' an official who spoke to those in the room during the meeting told the Washington Examiner. 'Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested. 'Why aren't you at Home Depot? Why aren't you at 7-Eleven?'' the official added, recounting what happened. 'Stephen Miller did not say many of the things you state,' ICE deputy assistant director of media affairs Laszlo Baksay told the Examiner. Following the ouster of National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Trump said he was considering Miller for the role. Secretary of State Marco Rubio currently serves as the national security adviser in an interim capacity. "I think he sort of indirectly already has that job. Because he has a lot to say about a lot of things, he's a very valued person in the administration, Stephen," Trump said last month. A former Trump adviser told NBC News last month that 'Stephen is the president's id. He has been for a while. It's just now he has the leverage and power to fully effectuate it.' Trump told NBC News that it would be a 'downgrade' to appoint Miller to be national security adviser. 'Stephen is much higher on the totem pole than that,' said Trump. 'I don't know that there is any policy area where his guidance is not sought,' the adviser added. 'The president might not always go with exactly what he wants, but his input is always listened to.' A top Trump adviser added to NBC News that 'President Trump built much of his current political success by standing with the American people on immigration, and doing what others have been unwilling or unable to do — close the border.' 'There has been no bigger advocate of that in the history of the country than Stephen Miller,' the adviser said. 'That, at its core, is why the president trusts him so much and relies on him to a degree that is matched by very few.'
The Independent
17-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump has brutal two-word nickname for Stephen Miller, report claims
President Donald Trump famously has a penchant for making up nicknames to mock his enemies. There's Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe, Lyin' Ted Cruz, and Little Marco Rubio. There's now another to add to the list: 'Weird Stephen.' The epithet has been applied to the deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, according to biographer Michael Wolff. 'There is an awareness that Stephen Miller is a problem,' Wolf said on The Daily Beast podcast. 'And even Trump calls him 'Weird Stephen.' Because he is weird, by the way. I mean, you can't spend a moment with him and not say, 'Oh, something's off here.'' 'He doesn't make eye contact,' Wolff added. 'And then he talks to you in this monotone voice, and it feels very revvy, you know, the engine of his voice keeps going, and you kind of step back.' Wolff was discussing the possibility that Miller might lose his standing in Trumpworld if his efforts to deport large numbers of immigrants fail. Miller has called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest at least 3,000 migrants a day. However, Trump at one point wavered in his stance on the removals. The Washington Post reported on Monday that the administration was reversing a planned pause on immigration raids on worksites connected to the agricultural, hotel, and restaurant industries. The Department of Homeland Security announced that raids would resume at such worksites during a Monday morning call with representatives from 30 ICE offices. Miller battled the initial pause on the raids. Wolff noted that the president's spectacular falling out with Elon Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency, is what can happen if someone within Trump's orbit acquires too much power. 'Trump, who is lazy, lets other people be in charge, until they're perceived as being in charge. Then they're no longer in charge,' said Wolff. 'Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s*** and has been proven to be a fraud,' a White House spokesperson told The Daily Beast in response to the claims regarding the nickname. 'He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination—only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.' Top ICE officials had a heated discussion with Miller late last month as the Trump adviser berated them for falling short on the number of arrests. 'Miller came in there and eviscerated everyone. 'You guys aren't doing a good job. You're horrible leaders.' He just ripped into everybody. He had nothing positive to say about anybody, shot morale down,' an official who spoke to those in the room during the meeting told the Washington Examiner. 'Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested. 'Why aren't you at Home Depot? Why aren't you at 7-Eleven?'' the official added, recounting what happened. 'Stephen Miller did not say many of the things you state,' ICE deputy assistant director of media affairs Laszlo Baksay told the Examiner. Following the ouster of National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Trump said he was considering Miller for the role. Secretary of State Marco Rubio currently serves as the national security adviser in an interim capacity. "I think he sort of indirectly already has that job. Because he has a lot to say about a lot of things, he's a very valued person in the administration, Stephen," Trump said last month. A former Trump adviser told NBC News last month that 'Stephen is the president's id. He has been for a while. It's just now he has the leverage and power to fully effectuate it.' Trump told NBC News that it would be a 'downgrade' to appoint Miller to be national security adviser. 'Stephen is much higher on the totem pole than that,' said Trump. 'I don't know that there is any policy area where his guidance is not sought,' the adviser added. 'The president might not always go with exactly what he wants, but his input is always listened to.' A top Trump adviser added to NBC News that 'President Trump built much of his current political success by standing with the American people on immigration, and doing what others have been unwilling or unable to do — close the border.' 'There has been no bigger advocate of that in the history of the country than Stephen Miller,' the adviser said. 'That, at its core, is why the president trusts him so much and relies on him to a degree that is matched by very few.'
