Top Stories; Epstein survivors push back on Melania Trump hearing call as Comer vows ‘we will have hearings’
Top Stories — Saturday, April 11, 2026
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- Epstein survivors push back on Melania Trump hearing call as Comer vows ‘we will have hearings’ — Fox News
- Zelensky Sees Small Window for Peace — nyt News
- Trump's 250-foot 'triumphal arch' would loom over Potomac, new renderings show — CNBC
Epstein survivors push back on Melania Trump hearing call as Comer vows ‘we will have hearings’
Source: Fox News • Published: 4/11/2026, 7:25:42 AM
Some Jeffrey Epstein abuse survivors are pushing back on first lady Melania Trump’s call for public congressional testimony, as House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., confirmed Friday "we will have hearings," following a rare public statement Thursday by Trump at the White House where she came out swinging at those who have linked her to Epstein.
The first lady also called on Congress to conduct hearings "specifically centered around the survivors."
"Give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony," Trump said. "Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the Congressional Record."
But a group of 15 Epstein victims released a joint statement Friday against the move.
"First Lady Melania Trump is now shifting the burden onto survivors," they said. "Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving testimony," they added. "Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility, not justice."
First lady Melania Trump delivers a statement Thursday at the White House denying any link to Jeffrey Epstein, while calling for a congressional hearing to allow survivors of his abuse to share their stories. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Comer said such hearings have always been on his radar.
"I agree with the first lady and appreciate what she said. We will have hearings," Comer told Fox News' Sandra Smith. "I've always planned on having hearings with the victims.
"My attorneys on the Oversight Committee have been communicating on a constant basis for months with the attorneys representing Epstein victims," he added. "There are some victims who are willing to come in, [but] most victims aren't, and I completely understand that, but we have always planned on having a hearing with Epstein's victims once the depositions have been completed."
Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were both deposed by the Oversight Committee earlier this year for questioning related to Epstein in February, with planned depositions forthcoming for Microsoft founder Bill Gates in June.
House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., says "we will have hearings" with Jeffrey Epstein abuse survivors. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images; Neil Rasmus/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images)
"The first lady accomplished three things [Thursday] as it relates to the disgraceful Epstein," the first lady's senior advisor, Marc Beckman, told "Fox & Friends" Friday. "First, she cleared her record; she set the record straight, she debunked all of the lies surrounding her and Epstein."
Epstein abuse survivor Teresa Helm speaks during a news conference with lawmakers on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Nov. 18, 2025, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images, File)
"Second, she became a champion for these women, for the victims, and finally, third, she's a real leader in Washington, D.C. She's calling on Congress to act now."
It is unclear when or how many of the survivors will come forward to testify.
"Survivors have done their part. Now it’s time for those in power to do theirs," the survivors said in the statement.
Jasmine Baehr is a Breaking News Writer for Fox News Digital, where she covers politics, the military, faith and culture.
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Zelensky Sees Small Window for Peace
Source: nyt News • Published: 4/11/2026, 7:21:00 AM
The cease-fire that Iran and the United States announced this week opens a window to resume talks on ending the war in Ukraine, but that window will soon close, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in comments made public by his office on Thursday.
Talks on the fighting in Ukraine have been underway for more than a year with little to show for them, except for brief cease-fires last year. The negotiations stalled last month after their host, the United Arab Emirates, was hit by Iranian airstrikes. Iran struck targets in the Emirates and other Gulf nations as part of its response to attacks by Israel and the United States.
Late Thursday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced a two-day cease-fire to coincide with the Orthodox Easter holiday. Mr. Zelensky has called for an Easter cease-fire for more than a week. Asked by reporters on a messaging app, his spokesman did not immediately respond to questions about whether Ukraine would also abide by a truce.
Mr. Zelensky, in comments to reporters on Wednesday, said any new Ukraine talks would have to make headway before summer, when campaigning starts in earnest for midterm elections in the United States.
“The United States will become even more focused on its internal processes,” Mr. Zelensky said. He spoke under the condition that his remarks would not be published until his office gave permission, which it did on Thursday.
Separately on Thursday, Mr. Zelensky told a gathering of local officials that he had held a video call with U.S. negotiators and expected peace talks to resume in the near future. That could be in the form of a three-way meeting with Russia or a round of shuttle diplomacy.
Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s envoy to the talks, has also said that there would have to be progress before the end of May, because of the U.S. election cycle.
Ukraine is bracing for a difficult spring and summer, Mr. Zelensky said, expressing skepticism about the prospects for a breakthrough even if talks resume soon.
The United States, he said, had a “domestic political deadline” for the Ukraine talks to progress. “There may be pressure on Ukraine,” he said. “There will also be pressure on the battlefield.”
Recently, Mr. Zelensky has highlighted his disagreements with the Trump administration. In an interview with a podcast, The Rest is Politics, released on Thursday, he said he had tried to draw the administration’s attention to intelligence assistance that he said Russia was providing to Iran. Mr. Zelensky said he made public the schedule of Russian satellite flyovers of U.S. bases in the Middle East that preceded Iranian strikes. Mr. Zelensky said he received no response. “The problem is they trust Putin. And it’s a pity.”
He said unspecified “partners” of Ukraine had objected to its stepped-up drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and other assets. Those strikes are meant to cut into the profits Russia is making on its exported oil, with the Iran war having driven prices higher. The United States has also eased its sanctions on Russian oil, hoping to bring prices down.
“We were asked to scale back strikes — meaning our responses to Russian attacks,” Mr. Zelensky said. “They believed this would have an impact on energy prices.”Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine was open to halting attacks if Russia stopped its strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. With a cease-fire in effect, he said, the United States should reimpose the sanctions on Russian oil sales.
Andrew E. Kramer is the Kyiv bureau chief for The Times, who has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014.
Read the full story at nyt News.
Trump's 250-foot 'triumphal arch' would loom over Potomac, new renderings show
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/11/2026, 7:11:53 AM
New architectural drawings of President Donald Trump's controversial proposed "triumphal arch" released on Friday show a 250-foot structure standing across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The drawings, submitted by Harrison Design to the Commission of Fine Arts ahead of that independent agency's April 16 meeting on the proposal, show a large white structure, topped with a gilded Lady Liberty statue and the words "One Nation Under God."
Four golden lions surround the arch at its base.
The arch, according to its renderings, would be more than double the height of the Lincoln Memorial. Trump told reporters earlier this year that the arch would be "the most beautiful in the world."
The monument, which Trump has teased since last year, is slated to be built in Memorial Circle, a roundabout near Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, which leads into downtown D.C.
"I am pleased to announce that TODAY my Administration officially filed the presentation and plans to the highly respected Commission of Fine Arts for what will be the GREATEST and MOST BEAUTIFUL Triumphal Arch, anywhere in the World," Trump said in a statement. "This will be a wonderful addition to the Washington D.C. area for all Americans to enjoy for many decades to come!"
The renderings are the first official plans the Trump administration has filed for the arch, one of several projects aimed at celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this summer.
Trump on Feb. 1 told reporters, "For 200 years, they wanted to build an arch."
"Close to 57 cities around the world have triumphal arches, and Washington, DC — the only major city — still doesn't," he said.
On Feb. 2, the president posted on social media an image showing India Gate, with the message: "India's beautiful Triumphal Arch. Ours will be the greatest of them all!"
Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., blasted the arch project in a social media post on Friday.
"While Americans worry about skyrocketing costs and another endless war, President Trump is focused on a taxpayer-funded vanity project that would choke traffic, block our skyline, and tower over sacred ground where those who served our nation are buried, including my own parents and sister," Beyer wrote in his post on Bluesky.
"This isn't about America's 250th or honoring our veterans," Beyer wrote. "It's about Donald Trump's ego —and we're going to stop it."
The Commission of Fine Arts, which will consider the proposal, is stacked with Trump allies.
The agency in February approved the president's $400 million, 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom renovation.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on March 31 blocked the ballroom renovation, for now, saying no law "comes close" to giving Trump legal authority to build such a structure at the White House without Congress authorizing it.
The news outlet NOTUS reported this week that the Trump administration planned to use taxpayer funds to pay for the arch. According to the National Endowment for the Humanities' fiscal 2026 spending plan, $2 million in special initiative funds and $13 million in matching funds are reserved for the project.
Vietnam War veterans and a historian filed a lawsuit in February in U.S. District Court in Washington to stop construction of the arch, arguing that it would obstruct views of the Vietnam War and Lincoln memorials from Arlington National Cemetery.
Judge Tanya Chutkan last week declined to issue a preliminary injunction that would block the arch, MS Now reported.
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