The White House has made a controversial new change to who can report on President Trump.

For decades, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) has been responsible for creating a pool of journalists and news organizations that were able to access the president for press purposes.

But this is all set to change as the White House will now decide which news outlets can regularly cover the POTUS.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the changes would rotate traditional outlets from the group and include some streaming services.

She cast the change as a modernization of the press pool, saying the move would be more inclusive and restore ‘access back to the American people’ who elected Trump.

“Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team,” Leavitt said at a daily briefing yesterday (February 25).

“A select group of DC-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House.”

Her announcement came after the Trump administration won a temporary ruling that prohibits Associated Press (AP) from accessing many presidential events as a result of the news outlet refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its new name, Gulf of America.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made the announcement yesterday (NBC News)

After being banned from the events, AP sued Leavitt and two other White House officials, citing the First Amendment.

But US District Judge Trevor N McFadden said that AP had not demonstrated it had suffered irreparable harm.

He urged the Trump administration to reconsider its two-week-old ban, however, saying that case law in the circuit ‘is uniformly unhelpful to the White House’.

Judge McFadden’s decision is only temporary, and he told lawyers for the Trump administration and the AP that the issue required more exploration before ruling.

Another hearing was scheduled for late March.

The Trump administration took issue with AP for not calling the Gulf of Mexico by its new name (LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The WHCA has since reacted to the White House’s plans to take over its job to create a press pool — and it’s safe to say it’s not in favor of the change.

The organization’s president, Eugene Daniels, said, as per The Guardian: “It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.

“For generations, the working journalists elected to lead the White House Correspondents’ Association board have consistently expanded the WHCA’s membership and its pool rotations to facilitate the inclusion of new and emerging outlets.”

The Bishop of Washington, who called out Donald Trump regarding his rhetoric surrounding migrants and those in the LGBTQ community, has returned to social media with a new message.

After becoming president, Donald Trump wasted no time in signing off on new executive orders, perhaps most controversially, a policy stating there are ‘only two genders’ alongside many orders blocking migrants from being able to enter – and remain in – the country.

After this move, Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde decided to call this out during a service held on January 21 at the Washington National Cathedral when Trump was in attendance.

This resulted in a furious backlash on social media by some individuals with others defending the bishop, insisting she had not been unreasonable in her request of ‘mercy’.

Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde issued a ‘plea’ to President Donald Trump (CBS News)

In her initial ‘plea’, she said: “Mr President, millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.

“And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants… they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”

Following the service, Trump branded it ‘not too exciting’ and he ‘didn’t think it was a good service’, concluding: “They could do much better.”

Bishop Mariann later responded to Trump’s comment, telling CNN: “I wanted to counter, as gently as I could, with a reminder of their humanity and their place in our wider community.”

And now, posting on Instagram for the first time since November 2024, she has thanked all those that defended her and encouraged people to be brave, kind and support one another.

In the video, shared yesterday (February 25), Bishop Mariann said: “Hi friends, it is Bishop Mariann here. I stepped away from social media for a time but I wanted to step back in to say thank you.

“I cannot tell you how much it’s meant to me to receive the letters and phone calls and notes and gifts and expressions of gratitude, support and encouragement

“I am persuaded that there is a spirit of love and goodness in this land that flows through all of us and now is a time for us to stand together, to take courage from one another and learn together how we are to be brave now and hold on to the things that are good about us and about our country.

In her new message, the bishop sat in front of a pile of fan mail she had received (Instagram/@mariannbudde)

“We can do this especially when we remember that we are never alone and that when one of us falters we are hundred others that are standing strong.

“Sometimes we stand strong for the sake of those that can’t and that together God will work through us to bring about the kind of society, the kind of community that we all deserve and that we want to pass on to those who come after us.

“Take good care, have courage and remember together we can all be brave.”

The caption of Bishop Mariann’s post told her followers there was ‘more to come’.

New details about news reporter Adan Manzano’s death have been revealed after he passed away earlier this month aged 27.

Earlier this month, the news anchor was found dead in his New Orleans hotel room just days before he was due to cover this year’s Super Bowl.

In a tribute after his passing, Manzano was described as ‘an exceptional professional and a rising star whose dedication and talent reflected excellence in his work’.

The 27-year-old’s unexpected passing was quickly followed with a woman being arrested in connection with his death.

A woman named Danette Colbert — who has reportedly earned herself the nickname of ‘Bourbon Street Hustler’ — has been charged with fraud and theft after allegedly using Manzano’s credit card.

Colbert is accused of luring Manzano into a hotel room, New York Post reports. The pair were seen together on hotel CCTV footage, which was the last known footage of the sports anchor before he died.

Colbert has since confirmed that she was the woman in the video with Manzano. She denied using his credit card, however.

Now, as the investigation into Manzano’s death continues, police have revealed that the reporter was found to have Xanax in his system from a preliminary toxicology results.

Danette Colbert has been charged in connection to Manzano’s death (Kenner Police)

Kenner Police Detective Jeffrey Fritzmorris made the revelation during a bond hearing for Colbert yesterday (February 25).

Fritzmorris added that Manzano was not prescribed Xanax prior to his death and that it is unclear how or when he ingested the drug. Colbert’s home was alleged to have drugs in it, but her attorney argued that it doesn’t mean she supplied them to Manzano and that anyone could have given them to him.

The attorney further noted that CCTV footage doesn’t show who gave the late news reporter the drugs that have been found in his system.

It was also in Colbert’s home that police discovered Manzano’s stolen phone and credit card.

Adan Manzano was just 27 years old (Facebook/ Adan Manzano)

A judge has denied Colbert bond and dubbed her a flight risk, KCTV 5 said.

Manzano’s death follows his wife Ashleigh Boyd’s death last year.

Boyd tragically died at the age of 24 in April 2024 following a car accident.

Both she and Manzano are survived by their young daughter, Eleanor.

If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence,

Experts have issued an urgent warning as the ‘world’s fastest’ continent is on a collision course with Asia, which could have devastating consequences to Earth as we know it.

Scientists are constantly finding out new things about our planet and wider space, with the ‘city-destroying’ asteroid taking up the time of many boffins at NASA right now.

A bit closer to home, scientists are starting to become concerned about a natural but also potentially hazardous event that could happen in the future.

Experts have previously discovered that Australia is moving roughly 2.8 inches northwards every single year, which will see it eventually collide with Asia one day.

The whole process is due to the movement of plate tectonics, with Australia slowly moving North and separating from Antarctica over the years.

Australia is moving northwards (Getty Stock Photo)

The Indo-Australian plate will eventually hit Asia, according to scientists, which could lead to unprecedented changes to Earth.

Not only will the collision create significant climate change, experts have warned a rise in earthquakes, mountain formations, and volcanic activity could occur due to the tectonic movements.

Professor Zheng-Xiang Li, who looked into the movement back in 2009 with Curtin University, said: “Whether we like it or not the Australian continent is going to collide with Asia.

“Australia is moving northwards 7cms every year, towards Asia. It’s very real, that’s the same speed that our fingernails grow each year.”

The professor added: “The earth is a living thing, it is always evolving. We believe that the earth evolves in a cyclic pattern, where the continents move apart and now are moving back together.

“When the continents come together, the earth’s crust will form a sort of ‘ring of fire’ around the new super-continent. Inland, the super-continent will most likely be very dry in the middle, and the climate totally different.”

The collision could have devastating consequences to Earth as we know it (Getty Stock Photo)

Thankfully, if the collision is to happen – then it certainly won’t be happening in our lifetime.

Scientists predict the geographic event is millions of years away from becoming a reality.

Australia’s current rate of movement is enough to impact the country’s maps and GPS coordinates today though, despite the tectonic plate that sits underneath it moving minuscule amounts every single year.

These plates are moved by convection currents that sit deep inside our planet, with pressure from a massive underwater mountain range, aka the Indian Ocean Ridge, causing the plates to move.