Donald Trump, who remains embroiled in tensions surrounding ICE’s presence in Minnesota, as well as scrutiny over the justice department’s latest release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, has made another announcement on Sunday evening: the temporary closure of the John F Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Trump, who overhauled the center’s leadership at the start of his second term and renamed it to include his own name, described the center as “tired, broken, and dilapidated,” adding that it has been in “bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years”.
The center’s closure comes as a growing number of performers cancel their shows in response to Trump’s shakeup. Last week, Philip Glass, the celebrated US composer, announced his withdrawal of the world premiere of his latest symphony, Lincoln, at the center, explaining that the “values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the symphony.”
Here are today’s top stories:
Trump announces two-year closure of the Kennedy Center
Trump announced a two-year closure of the Kennedy Center, citing construction needs to make the “finest performing arts facility of its kind, anywhere in the world”.
Writing on Truth Social on Sunday evening, Trump added that the center’s closure will pave way for a “new and spectacular entertainment complex”. The announcement comes as a slew of cancellations from performers in recent months, as well as record low ticket sales amid backlash towards Trump’s overhaul of the center’s leadership.
Review of Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking case ‘is over’, Blanche says
The deputy US attorney general, Todd Blanche, the point person on the Trump administration’s Epstein files release, told ABC News on Sunday that prosecutors’ review of the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking case “is over”. While Blanche acknowledged “there’s a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr Epstein or by people around him … that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody”.
Blanche’s comments took aim at survivors who met Friday’s release with calls demanding further accountability for the alleged clients of Epstein and Maxwell.
Two federal agents reportedly identified in fatal shooting of Alex Pretti
Government documents have identified the two federal officers who fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis as Jesus Ochoa, a border patrol agent, and Raymundo Gutierrez, an officer with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), according to ProPublica.
According to those records, Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, were the agents who fired their weapons during the confrontation last weekend that resulted in Pretti’s death. The shooting sparked widespread demonstrations and renewed demands for criminal inquiries into federal immigration enforcement actions. Immediately following Pretti’s killing, the Trump administration repeatedly pushed false claims about the shooting.
Five-year-old and his father released from ICE detention
A five-year-old boy and his father were back in Minneapolis on Sunday after being released from a Texas immigration detention center where they were held for more than a week, according to US House representative Joaquin Castro.
US in talks with Cuban leadership over potential deal
Trump said his administration was in talks with Cuban leadership over a potential deal, following his earlier threats to stop the country from importing oil.
“Cuba is a failing nation. It has been for a long time but now it doesn’t have Venezuela to prop it up. So we’re talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba, to see what happens,” Trump told reporters on Sunday.
“I think we’re going to make a deal with Cuba,” he added without disclosing details of a potential deal would include.
Partial US government shutdown likely to continue amid funding standoff
The ongoing partial US government shutdown is expected to continue into early next week, with no reopening likely before Tuesday, if what federal officials on both sides of the country’s political aisle are saying is any indication.
House Democrats have so far said they are refusing to guarantee the votes needed to speed passage of a funding measure that would restore government operations.
US committee is reconsidering all vaccine recommendations
All vaccine recommendations are being reconsidered by the US’s vaccines committee, according to its top adviser, who in recent interviews slammed the requirements for attending school and said vaccines should be taken on the advice of an individual’s doctor.
Democrat flips reliably red Texas district in victory that stuns GOP
Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a special election for the Texas state senate on Saturday, flipping a reliably Republican district that Donald Trump won by 17 points when he clinched a second presidency in 2024.
What else happened today:
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Recently demoted border patrol official Gregory Bovino, who served as the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in several US cities, was compared to a Confederate general in an email sent to him by a colleague in 2018, according to multiple reports.
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Amazon’s Melania Trump documentary has reportedly beaten box office expectations and recorded the strongest start of any documentary in over a decade, taking more than $8m at the US box office during its lavishly-promoted opening weekend. Simultaneously, though, Melania fell substantially short of turning a profit because it cost $40m to make and $35m to promote.
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A bomb cyclone produced freezing temperatures across a large portion of the US from the Gulf coast to New England, bringing heavy snow to North Carolina where two were killed in storm-related conditions, and setting records in Florida, where officials warned of ice and falling iguanas.
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A man identified in court filings as having an affair with former senator Kyrsten Sinema reportedly received almost $9,000 from Sinema’s former campaign committee in October, according to newly filed documents. The filings come just weeks after the man’s estranged wife accused Sinema of wrecking their marriage.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 31 January 2026.
