Eric Rich

Trump wants to cut down Washington DC's oldest grove of cherry trees along the Mall and eliminate the public biking path and picnic areas so he can build a Trump golf course on public land, using public dollars, and taking spaces away from the public.

The mood had pretty light over the past nine hours — until about 15 minutes ago when the crew brought out tarp. Mood changed immediately with boos and chants of “Shame!”

SCOOP with @nakashimae and @kemettler: CIA officer created a fake SAP - Special Access Program - that resulted in gold trove, people familiar with the investigation say washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

@factpostnews The work of digging up this footage and more was done by @joyceslee, @abtran and Salvador Rizzo, a day after @washingtonpost broke that story about Irizarry's hiring at the Pentagon. Link: washingtonpost.com/investigations…

Unearthed footage shows Elias Irizarry, who was recently appointed to a top counterterrorism job, climbing through a Capitol window on January 6th

Breaking news: The Pentagon is moving to recruit hundreds of troops to appear as spectators at President Trump’s UFC cage-fighting event on the White House lawn, and requiring those who attend to pay their own way and meet height and weight requirements. wapo.st/3RFxaIK

Breaking news: Trump administration officials have pressed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to design a $250 bill featuring the president’s portrait, in what would be the first appearance of a living person on U.S. currency in more than 150 years. wapo.st/4dQNsGj

whattttt is going on!!!! i’m floored that we won for our long form investigation — and so glad to reunite with my Visual Forensics colleagues tonight @osviz_jarrett @nadineajaka @ericrich

This is a great moment to encourage interested reporters to please apply for our open education beat here on Metro -- critical reporting we really do need more of. washpost.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/washingt…

I’ve got another opening on my team! Come work for the Washington Post as a Political Enterprise Reporter. We're looking for an “investigative-minded reporter to cover politics, someone who can report authoritatively and write the definitive stories of our political era.” 1/4

First look at clear images of officer shooting at the presidents would-be assassin in the @washingtonpost . A central question: Did Allen fire? If so when?

Public records appear to show the most prominent member of Vance’s closest circle with connections to Orbans Hungary is Chris Buskirk, head of the Rockbridge Network, the secretive fundraising credited with helping fuel Vance’s rise to the vice presidency washingtonpost.com/world/2026/04/…

@BWI_Airport can confirm

If you are traveling today or tomorrow, please arrive to the airport 4 hours early. We have not previously experienced checkpoint wait times similar to what we are seeing this morning. Travelers most impacted are those departing from Concourses A, B and C.

@JakeShindel 3.5 hour line at #bwi this morning. Got here at 5:30 am for a flight at 9, made it but barely. Lots of empty seats.

Flew out of BWI-Marshall this morning. Gate attendant said the flight is fully booked, but there are a LOT of open seats. I’d say around 30-40% of seats are filled. If you’re flying, get to the airport early. Took 2.5 hours to get through security.

@DenShtilierman here is the story washingtonpost.com/world/2026/03/…

The Washington Post published an article that, under normal circumstances, would have caused a political earthquake in Europe. But we live in a time when even such things no longer surprise anyone. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) seriously considered a scenario involving a staged assassination attempt on Viktor Orbán. Not metaphorically. Not an “information campaign.” But literally — to stage an attack to boost his approval ratings ahead of the election. An SVR document, obtained and verified by European intelligence, explicitly describes a strategy titled “the Gamechanger” — “the staging of an assassination attempt on Viktor Orban,” which would “shift the perception of the campaign out of the rational realm of socioeconomic questions into an emotional one.” The inspiration is obvious: the assassination attempt on Trump in 2024 sharply boosted his ratings. But that’s not the most interesting part. According to European security services, Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó regularly called Lavrov right during breaks in EU meetings and provided “live reports” on the negotiations, the parties’ positions, and possible decisions. In other words, Russia wasn’t “trying to gain access to information.” It already had it. Right at the table. “Every single E.U. meeting for years has basically had Moscow behind the table,” the publication quotes a representative of a European security service. Meanwhile, Szijjártó made 16 official visits to Moscow after the start of the full-scale invasion. But it is important to understand: this is not a Hungarian peculiarity and not a coincidence. It is the Kremlin’s systematic work over decades—within the EU and NATO. During the war in Georgia, Sarkozy was in constant contact with Medvedev and coordinated positions. The result was an agreement that effectively preserved the Russian occupation. After his chancellorship, Schröder joined Gazprom and Rosneft — this was a telling slap in the face and confirmation of Russia’s institutionalized influence on European energy policy. Berlusconi promoted Putin’s interests within the EU for years and also acted as an informant. Fico deserves a separate mention. The Prime Minister of Slovakia, who “miraculously” survived an assassination attempt in 2024, became an even more outspoken conduit for Kremlin narratives after his recovery. He blocks aid to Ukraine, travels to Moscow to pay homage, parrots Putin’s talking points word for word—and yet remains the prime minister of an EU and NATO member state. An interesting coincidence: after the assassination attempt, his approval ratings also rose. The question of “whether there are Kremlin agents in the EU and NATO” is no longer relevant. They exist. The question is: at what level and how many of them are there? Because when a minister from an EU member state calls Lavrov after every meeting—that’s no longer infiltration. That’s integration. And the worst part of this story isn’t even Orbán or Szijjártó. It’s that the system tolerates it. For years, the EU has been “expressing concern” while Russia literally sits at their negotiating table. And until this logic changes—the Kremlin won’t need to “break through the defenses.” It’s already open from the inside.

NEW for @newlinesmag, @ChrisOsieck and I investigated a March 5 air strike on an EMS base and recreational area in Zibashahr Park, Shiraz. 20 people were reportedly killed, including 3 medical workers. A review of post-strike videos and images, along with satellite imagery and mapping data, shows that this civilian park was directly hit, raising questions about whether the incident was a case of mistaken targeting. newlinesmag.com/spotlight/airs…

Knowing about the world is not a luxury. It is a necessity. After layoffs at @washingtonpost now AFP wants to reduce expatriate positions by 2/3. Don’t be surprised: Soon activists and lobbyists, living comfortably in the West, will replace foreign correspondents reporting from crisis regions. It’s already happening. lemonde.fr/en/opinion/art…

Picked up my notebook this morning — full of notes from a recent reporting trip — and got hit with another wave of grief over all the stories that now won't be told. I'm looking for work, preferably in Kyiv, should anyone need a dogged, empathetic reporter. DM/email.

SCOOP: A US disaster response firm submitted a plan to White House officials that would guarantee 300% profits and a seven-year monopoly over a new trucking and logistics plan for #Gaza @AramRoston and I report on the draft and its cash potential --> theguardian.com/world/2026/feb…

1) What “All schools are ready and we want our students to come back…however we are still closed to students.”?!? Then open up the schools!

Absolutely bewildering that @MCPS is closing schools tomorrow, eight days after the storm. Hard to see this as anything but a failure on multiple levels of government. Kids need to be in school.