WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts on Thursday approved the design for the triumphal arch that President Donald Trump wants built at an entrance to the nation's capital, a key step in the project's process.
Commissioners, all appointed by Trump, acted despite overwhelming public opposition to the 250-foot arch, one of several projects that Trump is pursuing alongside a White House ballroom to leave his imprint on Washington.
“The building is beautiful,” the commission's chairman, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., said shortly before the vote on a design revised slightly from what was presented to the federal agency in April.
The arch would stand 250 feet tall (76 meters) from its base to a torch held aloft by a Lady Liberty-like figure on top of the structure. The statue would be flanked on top by two gilded eagles, but the four lions envisioned as guarding the base are now gone. The phrases “One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All” would be inscribed in gold lettering atop either side of the monument.
A public observation deck on top would provide 360-degree views of the surroundings.
The commission’s vice chairman, architect James McCrery II, said in April that he preferred the arch without the figures on top, which would have reduced the arch's height by about 80 feet (24.4 meters). Critics of the project argue that the arch would dominate the skyline and disrupt views from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery.
The arch would dwarf the Lincoln Memorial, which is 99 feet (30 meters) tall, and be close to half the height of the Washington Monument, an obelisk that is about 555 feet (169 meters) tall.
Commissioners were told at Thursday's meeting that Trump considered the suggestion to remove the statue “but elected not to pursue such an option.”
McCrery recommended doing away with the lions on the base and objected to plans for an underground tunnel for pedestrians to get to the arch, which would be built on a traffic circle. Both design elements have been removed.
Preliminary surveys and testing of the site began last week.
A group of veterans and a historian have sued the Trump administration in federal court to block construction on grounds that the arch would disrupt the sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery, among other reasons.
The Republican president and his interior secretary, Doug Burgum, have argued that Washington is the only major Western world capital without such an arch. Burgum's department includes the National Park Service, which manages the plot where Trump wants to put the arch.
The president has said some of his other projects, such as adding a blue coating to the interior of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, will beautify the city in time for July 4 celebrations of America’s 250th birthday.
Trump's rehab of the Reflecting Pool is also the subject of a court challenge brought by The Cultural Landscape Foundation, which said the administration’s moves to repaint the bottom of the Reflecting Pool blue without first undergoing relevant reviews ran afoul of federal preservation laws governing historic sites.
The nonprofit group argued in a lawsuit filed last week that the changes at the Reflecting Pool are part of Trump’s broader effort to push through dramatic renovations in Washington without proper reviews and undermine the tone of the area.
A hearing in the case was scheduled for later Thursday in federal court in Washington.
Flags placed by workers are pictured in the Memorial Circle, where President Donald Trump has proposed building an arch to commemorate the United States' 250th anniversary, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The Memorial Circle, where President Donald Trump has proposed building an arch to commemorate the United States' 250th anniversary is seen, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
BUNIA, Congo (AP) — People set fire to an Ebola treatment center in a town at the heart of the outbreak in eastern Congo on Thursday after being stopped from retrieving the body of a local man, a witness and a senior police officer said, as fear and anger grow over a health crisis that doctors are struggling to contain.
The arson attack in Rwampara reflects the challenges of health workers trying to curb a rare Ebola virus by using stringent measures that might clash with local customs, such as burial rites. The disease has been spreading for weeks in a region lacking in health facilities and where armed conflict has displaced many people.
There are 148 suspected deaths and nearly 600 suspected cases in the outbreak. The World Health Organization has declared it a public health emergency of international concern.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UP-DATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Healthcare workers and aid groups in eastern Congo said Thursday they are in dire need of more supplies and staff to respond to a growing Ebola outbreak linked to a rare virus, as armed groups continue to threaten a region already grappling with a displacement and humanitarian crisis.
“The situation is worrying because this is gaining momentum,” Hama Amado, a field coordinator in the city of Bunia for the Alima aid group, told The Associated Press. “This is spreading in many areas. So everyone must mobilize.”
He added: “We are still far from saying that the situation is under control.”
There is no available vaccine or medicine for the Bundibugyo strain responsible for the outbreak, which spread undetected for weeks following the first known death while authorities tested for a more common Ebola virus.
Healthcare workers and aid groups are struggling to respond as experts say the outbreak is much larger than what has been officially reported. Authorities have so far announced 139 suspected deaths and nearly 600 suspected cases.
On Thursday, the M23 rebel group that controls parts of eastern Congo reported a confirmed case near the major city of Bukavu, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of the outbreak’s epicenter in Ituri Pronvince. The person died, M23 said in a statement.
As well as Ituri, other cases have been confirmed in North Kivu province and two in Uganda. But the announcement by M23 was the first confirmation of a case in South Kivu.
Health officials have not yet found “patient zero,” according to the World Health Organization, which has said that the threat of a global spread of the outbreak is low.
The outbreak in Congo has had wider repercussions.
India and the African Union said Thursday that the India-Africa Forum Summit, scheduled to be held next week in New Delhi, had been postponed due to the “evolving health situation in parts of Africa.”
On Wednesday, Congo’s soccer team canceled a three-day World Cup preparation training camp and a planned farewell to fans in the capital Kinshasa because of the Ebola outbreak.
While almost 20 tons of aid has been airlifted to Bunia, the site of the first known death last month, doctors using out-of-date facemasks were tending to suspected Ebola patients in general wards because of the lack of isolation space.
Early detection of the virus is key in saving lives, but the region's already weak health infrastructure and surveillance capacity has been further weakened by international aid cuts, experts say. There are over 920,000 internally displaced people in Ituri, according to the U.N.
“Communities in eastern DRC are already facing immense pressure from conflict, displacement, and a collapsing health system,” said Dr. Lievin Bangali, Senior Health Coordinator for the International Rescue Committee in DRC. “Years of underfunding, compounded by recent cuts to front line health and outbreak preparedness programming, have weakened the ability to detect and respond to outbreaks quickly.”
The group said it had to stop its surveillance activities in three out of five areas in Ituri over the last year because of funding cuts.
At a treatment center in Rwampara, near Bunia, healthcare workers in protective gear handled the bodies of suspected Ebola victims.
Families who tend to wash loved ones’ bodies themselves watched on as workers disinfected the corpses and placed them into coffins to be taken to secure burial sites. Some relatives burst into tears.
The disease struck suddenly, they said, describing a rapid deterioration after symptoms were mistaken for illnesses such as malaria.
“He told me his heart was hurting,” said Botwine Swanze, who lost her son. “Then he started crying because of the pain. Then he started bleeding and vomiting a lot.”
The Ebola virus is highly contagious and spreads in people through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, feces or semen. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.
Schools and churches remain open in Bunia. Some residents have started wearing facemasks, which have become harder to find.
“It’s truly sad and painful because we’ve already been through a security crisis, and now Ebola is here too,” said Justin Ndasi, a resident.
A Doctors Without Borders team identified suspected cases over the weekend at the city’s Salama hospital but found no available isolation ward in the area, Trish Newport, an emergency program manager, said on social media.
“Every health facility they called said, ‘We’re full of suspect cases. We don’t have any space.’ This gives you a vision of how crazy it is right now,” she said.
In Bambu General Hospital elsewhere in Ituri, suspected Ebola patients shared a ward with others.
In Mongbwalu, where the body of the first known death was taken, the nearby border with Uganda remains open and gold mining continues, said Chérubin Kuku Ndilawa, a civil society leader, highlighting the difficulty of containing the virus.
At Mongbwalu General Hospital, Dr. Didier Pay said they were treating around 30 Ebola patients. A student from the local medical technology institute died on Wednesday.
“The patients are scattered here and there in rather unusual conditions,” Dr. Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, told the AP. He said if they didn't get help setting up new facilities they could be “completely overwhelmed.”
WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. The organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic” and it's likely much larger than the official case count. WHO’s chief in Congo said the outbreak could last at least two months.
Investigations are continuing into the source of the outbreak, but “given the scale, we are thinking that it has started probably a couple of months ago,” said Anaïs Legand, a viral hemorrhagic fevers expert at the WHO.
The London-based MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis estimates that cases have been substantially undercounted and that the actual number could already exceed 1,000.
Long the scene of attacks by an array of armed groups, the region’s volatility now further complicates efforts to handle the crisis. Local leaders said an attack by militants linked to the Islamic State group killed at least 17 people on Tuesday in Alima, a village in Ituri.
Fighters with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which has ties to IS, killed civilians with machetes and firearms, burned down houses and business and took several people hostage. Civil society groups warned of other villages in the region facing a threat of attack.
The number of ADF fighters in Congo is unclear, but they are a significant presence in the region and regularly attack civilians. Another armed group that is active in the region is CODECO, a loose association of militia groups.
Ladd Serwat, a security analyst, said he would be “especially worried about an opportunistic attack on healthcare workers” if the outbreak spreads into rebel areas.
Pronczuk reported from Dakar, Senegal and Imray from Cape Town, South Africa. Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo; and Wilson McMakin in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.
For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse
The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
A U.S. doctor, who was in contact with people infected with Ebola in Uganda, arrives in a hospital in Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
A convoy of emergency vehicles in Schönefeld, Germany, transports the family of a U.S. national who tested positive for Ebola in Congo, from the airport to where the patient is being examined in a special isolation ward of the Charite hospital in Berlin, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Michael Ukas/dpa via AP)
Red Cross workers carry the body of a person who died of Ebola into a coffin at a health center in Rwampara, Congo, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
A woman cries as Red Cross workers carry the coffin of a person who died of Ebola from a health center in Rwampara, Congo, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
