First on CNN: Trump picks Kristi Noem to serve as his Homeland Security secretary – CNN

  1. First on CNN: Trump picks Kristi Noem to serve as his Homeland Security secretary  CNN
  2. Kristi Noem Is Emerging as Trump’s Nominee for Homeland Security Secretary  The New York Times
  3. Ex-Trump official predicts ‘entire mindset change’ at southern border, hails ‘fantastic’ pick to lead DHS  Fox News
  4. Kristi Noem’s 5 Most Bats**t Moments Ranked  The Daily Beast

Trump’s Cabinet: Here Are His Picks For Key Roles—Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Pete Hegseth And More – Forbes

  1. Trump’s Cabinet: Here Are His Picks For Key Roles—Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Pete Hegseth And More  Forbes
  2. Trump rolls out his most MAGA picks for new White House term  CNN
  3. Trump’s picks the clearest path yet to power consolidation  Sydney Morning Herald
  4. Trump’s Cabinet: Here Are His Picks And Finalists For Key Roles—Mike Huckabee, Kristi Noem And More  Forbes
  5. Trump’s picks so far: Here’s who will be advising the new president  Fox News

How will Donald Trump’s plans for education affect Chicago Public Schools? – Chicago Tribune

  1. How will Donald Trump’s plans for education affect Chicago Public Schools?  Chicago Tribune
  2. Trump pledged to close the Education Department. What would that mean?  The Washington Post
  3. So You Want To Abolish The Department Of Education? Here’s What You Need To Know.  Forbes
  4. Trump Gears Up for Assault on Wokeness With Education Overhaul  The Wall Street Journal
  5. How Trump’s pledge to scrap the Department of Education could impact America’s children  CNN

WordPress 6.7 Brings New Power and Flexibility

Welcome to the latest in WordPress innovation with the release of WordPress 6.7! This update brings a wave of new features, design flexibility, and performance enhancements to elevate your WordPress experience, whether you’re building your first site or fine-tuning a complex project.

From the introduction of the Twenty Twenty-Five theme to powerful new editing tools and developer capabilities, WordPress 6.7 empowers you to create a site that’s dynamic, engaging, and uniquely yours.

As always, WordPress.com sites are updated automatically, so you may already see these new features live. Read on to discover what’s new and how these updates make it easier than ever to build, design, and manage a standout site on WordPress.com.

Table of contents

  1. The basics
  2. Twenty Twenty-Five theme release
  3. Expanded block customization options
  4. Streamlined creation with Zoom Out
  5. Simplified Query Loop block
  6. Improved font management tools
  7. Customizable Data Views
  8. Developer features
    1. Template Registration API
    2. Data Views API
    3. Block Bindings improvements
  9. And more

The basics

WordPress 6.7 brings a host of new features, design tools, and bug fixes to enhance your website creation experience. WordPress.com updates sites automatically, so there’s nothing you need to do before you can enjoy these benefits.

As a WordPress.com user, you may have already enjoyed early access to some of these improvements, reflecting our commitment to keeping you equipped with the most up-to-date features. If you experience any issues, our Happiness Engineers are here to help at wordpress.com/help.

Let’s look at some new enhancements that can help take your site to the next level.

Twenty Twenty-Five theme release

As part of the annual tradition, WordPress 6.7 introduces a new default, block theme: Twenty Twenty-Five

Twenty Twenty-Five is designed for bloggers of all scales—from hobbyist writers to major news sites—capturing a balance between simplicity and versatility. It allows you to intuitively create a site that feels truly personal while offering the flexibility for complex designs. With a diverse array of patterns and templates for everything from landing pages to photo blogs, the theme is tailored to enable seamless storytelling for any purpose. Natural, universal imagery and thoughtfully chosen typography bring warmth and a timeless aesthetic that resonates on a global scale.

Built to support multiple languages and visual styles, Twenty Twenty-Five includes a curated selection of color palettes and font pairings, ensuring both accessibility and elegance in design. Whether you lean toward a minimalist personal blog, a striking photo gallery, or a content-rich magazine layout, the theme’s templates and design tools empower you to build a site that is uniquely yours

Expanded block customization options

WordPress 6.7 also introduces even more styling flexibility, adding additional options for borders, backgrounds, shadows, and spacing across numerous blocks. These updates allow you to create custom designs without extra code. Notably, the Group block now supports shadow effects and the Content block allows for a background image, while blocks like Paragraph, Heading, and Buttons offer additional options for borders, color, and padding.

Streamlined creation with Zoom Out

The new Zoom Out feature offers a fresh way to view and design your content at a high level. By toggling to this zoomed-out perspective, you can easily style entire sections or adjust the arrangement of blocks across a page, all without getting caught up in the details of individual blocks.

With Zoom Out, you can make broader edits using patterns, giving you control over top-level containers and block groups. Click or drag-and-drop to add patterns and use the arrows to the left to rearrange them. When you’re ready to dive back in, simply double-click the content area or click the Zoom Out icon to return to the standard editor view. This feature is a game-changer for efficient layout creation, whether you’re building pages or fine-tuning templates.

Simplified Query Loop block

The Query Loop block, known for its power and complexity, has been refined to make it more user-friendly. A new toggle allows you to choose between “Default” and “Custom” modes, simplifying the creation of content-rich sections on your site. In Default mode, the block automatically inherits settings from your template, so posts display instantly without extra configuration. This means you can drop in the Query Loop block and see your content right away, saving setup time. For more specific use cases, switch to Custom mode for precise control over what content is displayed.

Additional refinements include a cleaner layout of the Settings Sidebar on the right, making it simple to adjust display options in one place.

Key features and updates to take note of:

  • Quick preview when adding the block from the inserter
  • Display controls moved from the toolbar to the sidebar
  • New post format filter for customized content display (on select themes)
Screen shot of updated Query Loop settings

Improved font management tools

The latest updates bring powerful new options to font management for block themes, making it easier to customize typography across your site. In the Global Styles section, you can now create, edit, and delete custom font size presets. These presets let you define reusable font sizes site-wide, with options to customize names, base sizes, and fluid scaling, which automatically adjusts font size based on screen dimensions.

Additionally, fonts are now grouped by source (theme or Google Fonts), giving you a clear view of where each font originates. A convenient “Select All” option lets you quickly activate or deactivate fonts as needed, with active fonts visibly highlighted for easy management.

Customizable Data Views

Data Views, a powerful tool for managing pages, patterns, and templates in the Site Editor, now features several enhancements to simplify navigation:

  • Grid Layout Preview Size: Choose the view that works best for you.
  • Customizable Columns: Reorder columns based on your preference.
  • Bulk Actions on Grid Layout: Select multiple items and take action quickly.

These refinements make it easier than ever to organize your site, whether you’re handling a few pages or hundreds.

Developer features

WordPress 6.7 introduces several enhancements for developers, making it easier to create unique site experiences.

Template Registration API

This release allows developers to register custom block templates directly within plugins, simplifying the process of creating and managing front-end template outputs. The Template Registration API enables developers to define default content for custom post types, taxonomies, and virtual pages—all built on the block system, so both themes and users can customize templates to their needs.

Data Views API

Developers can now use a new API to register and unregister Data Views actions, offering more flexibility in managing project-specific actions. Learn how to use Data Views in your own plugins and for adding images to the Media Library. This update is part of ongoing work in Gutenberg’s Phase 3 and the Admin Redesign project, providing expanded tools for custom workflows.

Block Bindings improvements

Building on Block Bindings introduced in previous releases, this update adds a user interface for admins and editors to connect block attributes with custom field data directly in a block.

And more

There are too many great updates to cover them all here, but here are a few smaller yet valuable enhancements worth noting:

  • Block inserter: The block inserter now stays open while you interact with the editor canvas, making it easier to navigate your content as you add blocks.
  • Editor topbar: The action icons in the top right corner have been reordered for improved accessibility.
  • Pre-publish check buttons: The second Publish (or Save) button has been repositioned within the pre-publish panel, so you won’t need to move your mouse after clicking the initial Publish (or Save).

WordPress 6.7 brings hundreds of improvements, developer features, and bug fixes. The above highlights are only a taste of what’s available. If you’d like to dive deeper, the official WordPress 6.7 Field Guide has all the technical details.

Click below if you’re a developer and want to leverage the benefits of hosting your sites with WordPress.com:

New Zealand’s leader formally apologizes to survivors of abuse in state and church care – The Associated Press

  1. New Zealand’s leader formally apologizes to survivors of abuse in state and church care  The Associated Press
  2. New Zealand offers ‘unreserved’ apology to 200,000 survivors of ‘horrific’ abuse in care  The Guardian
  3. New Zealand’s leaders formally apologize to survivors of abuse in state and church care  CNN
  4. New Zealand government apologizes for ‘horrific’ abuse in state care  The Washington Post
  5. ‘A hollow and limited apology.’ New Zealand survivors of abuse in care speak in their own words  The Hill

Haiti: Airlines suspend flights as Spirit plane hit by gunfire – BBC.com

  1. Haiti: Airlines suspend flights as Spirit plane hit by gunfire  BBC.com
  2. Spirit Airlines flight from Florida hit by gunfire while trying to land in Haiti  Fox News
  3. Haiti’s main airport shuts down as gang violence surges and a new prime minister is sworn in  The Associated Press
  4. Spirit Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale to Haiti diverted to Dominican Republic after being struck by gunfire  WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale

Trump asks Rep. Mike Waltz, China hawk, to be his national security adviser – The Associated Press

  1. Trump asks Rep. Mike Waltz, China hawk, to be his national security adviser  The Associated Press
  2. Trump asks Mike Waltz to serve as his national security adviser  CNN
  3. Donald Trump picks Mike Waltz as US NSA: What it means for China and India  The Times of India
  4. GOP Rep. Mike Waltz tapped to be Trump’s national security adviser  Fox News
  5. Trump’s Security Advisor Pick Sees China as ‘the Greater Threat’  Bloomberg