Trump Declares Ceasefire "OVER!" in the Same Post Agreeing to Continue Negotiations; U.S. Strikes 170 Targets to Enforce Agreement Nobody Has Seen; Iran Says the Talks Were Never Requested and the Deal Never Existed; The Strikes Exist

WASHINGTON — The National Capital Planning Commission granted preliminary approval this week to a 259-foot triumphal arch, proposed by President Trump, to be built at Memorial Circle directly facing Arlington National Cemetery. The commission is chaired by Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary. "I think commemorating America's 250th anniversary is important," Scharf said, and voted to advance the project proposed by the man who employs him. The vote was not close.

The arch exceeds the limits of the Height of Buildings Act, the federal statute restricting construction heights in the capital. It would stand more than twice the height of the Lincoln Memorial and taller than the Arc de Triomphe, on which it is modeled. The Act has not been amended. It has been outvoted. The National Park Service projects construction at twenty hours per day for two to three years. The final vote is in September.

Dozens testified against the project. Linsay Burnett, an Army sergeant and combat photographer who served in Iraq, told the commission: "I come to you as the person this arch claims to honor. It betrays both." Cynthia Morrison, a Gold Star mother, said the arch would block the view of the cemetery. The commission heard the testimony in full and voted to proceed. Triumphal arches commemorate victory in war. The wars available for commemoration number seven, per the President's Nobel filing, of which six are ongoing and one did not occur. Construction is scheduled to finish before any of them.

WASHINGTON — The largest housing affordability bill in decades became law Saturday without President Trump's signature, after he refused to sign it and also declined to veto it. Under the Constitution, a bill the President neither signs nor vetoes within ten days becomes law. It did. The bill, containing more than forty provisions on homebuilding and corporate ownership of homes, passed the Senate 85 to 5 and the House 358 to 32.

Trump announced he was withholding his signature "in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT," his elections-overhaul bill. The protest was leverage. The bill it was leveraged against is now law. The bill it was leverage for has still not passed. The leverage produced nothing on either end. The White House described the outcome as the President making his position clear.

The position is now a historical footnote to a law it opposed. The law does not mention it. The housing programs take effect on the same schedule they would have taken effect on with the signature, which remains the only item the protest successfully withheld. Aides said the President "remains committed" to the SAVE America Act. It has not been scheduled for a vote. Its prospects were described by one senator as unchanged by the protest, "which is to say, none."

WASHINGTON — The administration finalized a rule this week removing language from the Endangered Species Act's implementing regulations that directed federal agencies to avoid destroying the habitats of threatened and endangered species. The Act, passed in 1973, protected species primarily by protecting the places they exist. The rule removes the places. The list of protected species is unchanged.

An Interior Department spokesman described the change as "modernization" that would "reduce regulatory burden." Asked whether a species could survive the development of the land it lives on, the spokesman said the Act "still lists the species." Asked where a listed species would be while its habitat was developed, he said the question was outside the scope of the rule.

Conservation groups said the rule voids the Act while leaving it technically in force — a list of protected animals with no protected place to keep them. The department responded that listed species remain "fully protected on paper." The paper is the only habitat the rule guarantees. The rule takes effect in thirty days. The Fish and Wildlife Service lists roughly 1,300 domestic species as threatened or endangered. The list will be maintained. It is the last thing that will be.