Why there’s a giant golden toilet near the Lincoln Memorial

A towering golden toilet statue has taken a seat near the Lincoln Memorial, the latest Trump‑themed art installation to appear on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

The nearly 10‑foot sculpture, unveiled March 30 by the anonymous group The Secret Handshake, was inspired byPresident Donald Trump's recent renovation of theWhite House's Lincoln Bathroom. The group says the installation uses humor and spectacle to prompt political discourse.

In an emailed statement to USA TODAY, The Secret Handshake said visitors are allowed to take photos by sitting on the golden throne. The installation is titled "A Throne Fit For a King."

The statue appeared almost a month after the same group installed a separate sculpture on the National Mall depictingTrump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epsteinas characters from "Titanic." The group is also behind another Trump‑Epstein statue that appeared in Washington, DC, in September.

Meaning behind the statue

The Secret Handshake said it created the piece as a tribute to Trump during what it described as a time of "unprecedented division,escalating conflictand economic turmoil." In that context, the group said, the president focused on what "truly mattered": remodeling the Lincoln Bathroom.

The statue, the group added, is meant as a reminder that Trump "isn't just a businessman," but is "taking care of business."

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"It's a tribute to a visionary," the group said in its statement, "who looked down, saw a problem and painted it gold."

White House renovations

Trump revealed amarble‑and‑gold makeover of the Lincoln Bathroomin October, according to previous USA TODAY reporting. The cost of the renovation has yet been disclosed.

"I renovated the Lincoln Bathroom in the White House," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post at the time. He said the bathroom's previous 1940s art‑deco green tile was "totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era."

The bathroom overhaul is one of several renovation projects Trump has pursued during his second term. Since his inauguration, the president has paved over the Rose Garden lawn,demolished the East Wingand moved forward with plans for a 90,000‑square‑foot ballroom —a project a federal judge ordered haltedTuesday, March 31.

The golden toilet statue, however, is expected to remain on the National Mall for several days, according to The Secret Handshake.

Michelle Del Rey is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at mdelrey@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Giant golden toilet statue appears near Lincoln Memorial

byCosmopolite

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April 01, 2026

Why there’s a giant golden toilet near the Lincoln Memorial

A towering golden toilet statue has taken a seat near the Lincoln Memorial, the latest Trump‑themed art installation to a...

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Thousands more US troops are heading to the Middle East

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of additional U.S. troops are heading to the Middle East as the Trump administration has insisted thatprogress has been madein talks with Iran and hasthreatened to escalate the warif a deal is not reached soon.

The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush deployed Tuesday and is slated to go to the Middle East along with three destroyers, two U.S. officials said. The carrier strike group consists of more than 6,000 sailors.

It comes as thousands ofsoldiers from the 82nd Airborne Divisionalso have begun arriving in the Middle East, according to two other U.S. officials, who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.

While the majority of those troops are part of a rotation of forces planned before the war, some are among roughly 1,500 paratroopers the Trump administration decided to surge into the region last week.

The Trump administration has not said what those troops will be doing, but the 82nd Airborne is trained to parachute into hostile or contested territory to secure key territory and airfields. A U.S. Navy ship carrying about2,500 Marines recently arrivedin the Middle East, and another 2,500 Marines also are being deployed from California.

The extra forces, on top of tens of thousands of service members already in the region, come as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other administration officials have avoided questions about whether or not the U.S. military will deploy ground troops against Iran.

"You can't fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do or what you are not willing to do to include boots on the ground," Hegseth told reporters Tuesday.

He added, "Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 different ways we could come at them with boots on the ground. And guess what? There are."

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But he also said the goal is to reach a deal with Iran through talks because "we don't want to have to do more militarily than we have to."

Additional resources are heading in as the war has strained the troops and assets already in the region.

The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, had a fire in a laundry room on March 12, which forced it to return from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to undergo repairs at a naval base in Crete.

According to a Navy press release, the fire damaged seven berthing compartments aboard the ship, likely forcing hundreds of sailors to find new sleeping arrangements, and damaged personal effects.

While Ford is now in Croatia for time off, Navy leaders said the aircraft carrier will likely set records for the length of its deployment. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier alsoarrived in the regionin January.

"You're going to see a recordbreaking deployment by Ford," Adm. Daryl Caudle, the Navy's top officer, said during a Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion Tuesday.

Caudle said the aircraft carrier would probably go into the 11th month of deployed operations — a length of time that would put the ship returning to Norfolk, Virginia, around the end of May. The Ford wasin the Mediterraneanbefore beingsent to the Caribbeanto take part in the military operation in January thatousted Venezuela's leader, Nicolás Maduro, and then was deployed to support the Iran war.

"For those that are not in the Navy, that's an extraordinary thing to even think about something of that kind of deployment length," Caudle said.

byCosmopolite

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April 01, 2026

Thousands more US troops are heading to the Middle East

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of additional U.S. troops are heading to the Middle East as the Trump administration has insi...

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Diaries of Mao Zedong aide can stay at Stanford rather than return to China, U.S. court rules

HONG KONG — Thediaries of an aide to former Chinese leader Mao Zedongcan stay at Stanford University, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, ending a yearslong legal battle that had raised concern they could be censored if returned toChina.

Li Rui, a senior member of China's ruling Communist Party, became Mao's personal secretary in 1958. In diaries he kept for eight decades starting in 1938, Li left a rare record of Chinese history from an insider's perspective, including a firsthand account of the military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing'sTiananmen Squareon June 4, 1989.

The diaries also included criticism of the Great Leap Forward, an industrialization program championed by Mao from 1958 to 1961 that caused a famine estimated to have killed as many as 40 million people.

According to Stanford, Li had directed that the diaries, along with correspondence, meeting minutes, photographs and other materials, be made publicly available for study at the university's Hoover Institution for fear they might otherwise be destroyed by Chinese authorities. His daughter Li Nanyang, a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party who lives in the United States, made the donation official shortly before Li's death in 2019 at the age of 101.

Soon after, Li's second wife, Zhang Yuzhen, sued for the return of the original diaries, saying they contained deeply personal information about her relationship with Li and that they were rightfully hers. A Beijing court ruled in Zhang's favor, but Stanford said it was denied the opportunity to appear in court and sued Zhang for control of the diaries in California.

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In his ruling Tuesday, Judge Jon S. Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said the court was declining to enforce the Beijing ruling and that Li Nanyang's "possession and donation of the Li Materials was lawful and in accordance with Li Rui's wishes."

The Hoover Institution, which has an extensive collection on modern Chinese history, welcomed the ruling.

"This decision ensures one of the most valuable firsthand accounts on the history of modern China will be freely available for study," Condoleezza Rice, director of the Hoover Institution and a former U.S. secretary of state,said in a statement.

According to the institution, witnesses for both sides testified during the trial that if the materials were returned to China, they would at the least be censored and more likely be banned.

The court said it had determined that Zhang, who is in her 90s, did not initiate the Beijing case and that her defense in the California case was most likely being funded by the Communist Party. A lawyer for Zhang, who did not testify, did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours.

"Li Rui was very clear in his diaries and conversations that he intended for his historic documents to be preserved and maintained by Hoover's Library and Archives," said Mark Litvack, one of Stanford's lawyers. "We are very pleased with the court's decision, that Mr. Li's wishes will be honored."

byCosmopolite

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April 01, 2026

Diaries of Mao Zedong aide can stay at Stanford rather than return to China, U.S. court rules

HONG KONG — Thediaries of an aide to former Chinese leader Mao Zedongcan stay at Stanford University, a federal judge rul...

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Hiker's dog lost in a wild New Zealand forest rescued by helicopter after strangers fund search

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — When a hiker fell from a 55-meter (180-foot) waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which couldn't be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite pet and owner.

New Zealand Dog Rescue

A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island's West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24 but they were forced to leave without her pet.

Molly was bedraggled and hungry when she was found Tuesday, just a few meters from the spot where the hiker had been lucky to survive.

"I contacted her in hospital and said I'd go for a look for it," said Matt Newton, the owner-operator of Precision Helicopters New Zealand, which is based at Hokitika Gorge near the Arahura River where Molly went missing. "I went and looked for the dog several times and no avail."

Unwilling to give up, Newton and his family launched a fundraiser to pay for more flying hours and advanced search gear. Offers of help and donations poured in, with strangers pledging more than 11,000 New Zealand dollars ($6,300) for a search.

It was enough to fund three more hours in a helicopter using thermal imaging equipment. On Tuesday, Newton took to the skies with a veterinary nurse, volunteer searchers and a dog named Bingo in a renewed search for Molly.

"We struck jackpot within about an hour," he said. "As we made our way up the river, we could see the dog in the thermal and then we could visually see it."

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There had been no sign of Molly at the waterfall when Newton previously searched the spot, he said. It wasn't clear if the dog had also fallen from the waterfall or if she had eventually made her way to the spot where her injured owner landed.

The helicopter dropped low enough for a volunteer to disembark with the rescue dog Bingo to help coax Molly to safety and keep her calm.

Newton thought the dog had survived by eating feral animals during her week in the wilderness.

"She knew what we were up to, I think," he said. "She behaved real well. She didn't run away and she was pleased to be rescued."

The dog was in "surprisingly good condition", the pilot said. He sent word back to the helicopter base, where other volunteers waited to take turns in the search. "Instead we just had a big barbecue and all had a cuddle with Molly."

Hours after the dog's rescue, her owner, still battered from her fall, arrived for a tearful reunion.

"I think that'll speed up her healing process somewhat," Newton said. "Having your dog back, that's for sure."

byCosmopolite

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April 01, 2026

Hiker's dog lost in a wild New Zealand forest rescued by helicopter after strangers fund search

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — When a hiker fell from a 55-meter (180-foot) waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers ...

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Lost dog reunited with owner one week after she fell down a waterfall

When Jessica Johnston fell 180 feet down a waterfall in New Zealand, she was lucky to survive. She got even luckier a week later, when a helicopter crew found her missing dog Molly,shivering and alone, in the wilderness.

Molly, a border collie, had been hiking with Johnston across mountainous terrain in a remote area of the Arahura Valley on the west coast of the country's South Island. Johnston had been posting photos to Facebook of their adventures, camping and traversing snowy mountain peaks.

However, when Johnston lost her footing atop a waterfall on March 24, she became separated from Molly. Rescuers arrived to take Johnston to hospital, but her loyal companion was nowhere to be seen.

News of the missing dog quickly spread in New Zealand and by Sunday thousands of dollars had been raised through a crowdfunding campaign by a helicopter company that offered to look for her.

"HUGE thank you to so many people who have donated to get a search underway for Molly the dog," Precision Helicopters posted to its Facebook page. "Plan is to first search Tuesday in fine weather conditions with some sophisticated thermal imagery tech coming over from (Christchurch) and a good team of Volunteers."

Enough money had been raised for three hours of flight time. And within that window, they miraculously found her, wet and cold, at the base of the waterfall.

"MOLLY HAS BEEN FOUND!!" they posted to Facebook.

Video showed a soaked Molly among a pile of rocks as a crewman picked her up and carried her to the helicopter.

On landing, Molly ran towards her owner in excitement as a visibly emotional Johnston, impeded by a cast on her right arm, slowly lowered herself to the ground to embrace the canine.

"She's been (through) a bloody rough week. But with both of us back home I can add this adventure to the list," Johnston wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday, adding: "Still a great trip before our lives got turned upside (down)."

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Pilot Matt Newton said the mission to rescue Molly had been challenging and that the crew had tried to find the dog earlier, from the air.

"We'd been in the area on three occasions looking for her, with no luck," he said.

The team then realized they needed better equipment, so they turned to a thermal imaging camera.

"Once we got the right people on board with that gear, and the perfect day for it, we hit the jackpot," he recalled.

Newton believed Molly had survived by eating small animals, possibly possums – marsupials considered a pest in New Zealand.

He said Molly was already playing fetch with the crew as soon as she arrived at the helicopter base.

"She was in pretty good nick, a little bit subdued, but I think she looked like she knew she was being rescued," he said.

Now that Molly is home, he wished Johnston the best.

"I think she'll heal a lot better having the dog by her side," he said.

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Lost dog reunited with owner one week after she fell down a waterfall

When Jessica Johnston fell 180 feet down a waterfall in New Zealand, she was lucky to survive. She got even luckier a wee...

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World Cup qualifying marathon ends with Iraq securing the 48th and final spot

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — The 48-team field forFIFA's biggest everWorld Cupis complete after a qualifying process that spanned more than two and a half years.

Iraq Bolivia WCup Soccer

Iraq edged Bolivia 2-1 in an intercontinental playoff at Monterrey in northern Mexico on Tuesday to secure the 48th spot, hours afterBosnia and Herzegovinaupset four-time champion Italy on penalties in European playoffs.

Eight teams from Europe were competing for four places on the last day of qualifying. The new intercontinental tournament staged in Mexico determined the other two remaining places. The next-to-last nation to advance was Congo, which edged Jamaica 1-0 in extra time atGuadalajara, Mexico.

Sweden, Turkey and the Czech Republic each qualified in European playoff finals.

Sweden beat Poland 3-2; Turkey edged Kosovo 1-0; and the Czech Republic beat Denmark in a penalty shootout.

The World Cup kicks off June 11 and will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

With its big upset victory of Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina qualified to join Canada, Qatar and Switzerland in Group B.

Sweden will play in Group F with the Netherlands, Japan and Tunisia. Turkey will be in Group D with the United States, Paraguay and Australia.

After reaching its first World Cup since 2006, the Czech team will play in Group A with Mexico, South Africa and South Korea.

The World Cup qualifiers for the 2026 tournament started Sept. 7, 2023 with matches in South America.

World Cup groups

Czechia, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea

Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qatar and Switzerland

Brazil, Haiti, Morocco, Scotland

Australia, Paraguay, Türkiye and United States

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Curacao, Ecuador, Germany and Ivory Coast

Netherlands, Japan, Sweden and Tunisia

Belgium, Egypt, Iran and New Zealand

Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Uruguay

France, Norway, Senegal and Iraq

Algeria, Argentina, Austria and Jordan

Colombia, Jamaica, Portugal and Uzbekistan

Croatia, England, Ghana and Panama

AP soccer:https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

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March 31, 2026

World Cup qualifying marathon ends with Iraq securing the 48th and final spot

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — The 48-team field forFIFA's biggest everWorld Cupis complete after a qualifying process that...

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Holiday scores 30, Avdija adds 28 to help Trail Blazers beat Clippers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Deni Avdija had 28 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, Jrue Holiday hit seven 3s and finished with 30 points, and the Portland Trail Blazers snapped the Los Angeles Clippers' five-game win streak, 114-104 on Tuesday night.

Trail Blazers Clippers Basketball

The Clippers (39-37) are eighth in the Western Conference, a half-game in front of the ninth-place Blazers (39-38). Los Angeles leads the season series — which wraps up April 10 in Portland — with the Blazers 2-1.

Toumani Camara scored 17 points and Scoot Henderson added 15 for the Trail Blazers.

Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with 23 points. Darius Garland scored 20, Brook Lopez 18, John Collins added 17 and Jordan Miller 16 points.

Leonard has scored at least 20 points in 52 consecutive games, the second-longest active streak of its kind in the NBA (Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has a 136 game streak).

Matisse Thybulle hit a 3-pointer that made it 31-29 with 1:06 left in the first quarter and the Blazers led the rest of the way.

Garland made a bucket in the lane that trimmed the Clippers' deficit to eight with 3:44 left in the third quarter but they got no closer. Henderson hit a step-back 3 at the buzzer to cap a 16-5 run that made it 91-74 going into the fourth.

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Portland had 18 offensive rebounds and 32 second-chance points. The Blazers went into the game leading the NBA in second-chance points (18.2 per game) and are second in offensive rebounds (14.1 per game).

Avdija made 11 of 12 from the free-throw line and has 31 games this season with at least 10 free-throw attempts, second most in the NBA behind Luka Doncic.

Portland's Jerami Grant (calf) missed his second consecutive game.

Up next

Trail Blazers: Host New Orleans on Wednesday.

Clippers: Host San Antonio on Thursday.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

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March 31, 2026

Holiday scores 30, Avdija adds 28 to help Trail Blazers beat Clippers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Deni Avdija had 28 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, Jrue Holiday hit seven 3s and finished with ...

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