Despite president’s promise to preserve it, the eastern section of the building is now completely destroyed

The East Wing of the White House has now been completely destroyed to pave way for Donald Trump’s $300m planned gilded ballroom, just days after the administration announced it would happen and contradicting Trump’s earlier promise that the existing building would not be touched.

Satellite images on Friday showed the historic building’s eastern section reduced to rubble, to the outrage of historians, former White House officials and much of the public.

National Petroleum Reserve lease sales and permitting for road through Izembek wildlife refuge were also approved

The Trump administration has approved more oil and gas drilling across Alaska’s Arctic national wildlife refuge (ANWR), prompting widespread criticism from environmental conservation organizations.

On Thursday, the interior secretary announced the opening of 1.56m acres across ANWR’s coastal plains, which is home to various wildlife including polar bears, caribou and moose, as well as whales and seals.

Adams revealed decision in a New York Times interview a month after calling Cuomo a ‘snake and a liar’

The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, will endorse Andrew Cuomo in the city’s mayoral race, following months of tension between the two Democrats turned independents.

Adams revealed his intention in an interview with the New York Times a month after he ended his own re-election campaign which saw him register poor polling numbers.

Women reported miscarriages, delayed care, being shackled, as well as held in solitary confinement, letter says

Pregnant women have reported bleeding, miscarriages, being shackled and other instances of medical neglect while in US immigration custody, according to a group of prominent civil rights organizations.

The groups – which include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its Louisiana chapter, the National Immigration Project, Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, Sanctuary of the South and Sanctuary Now Abolition Project – sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Senate committees on Wednesday, describing interviews with more than a dozen women.

Fortnite, Roblox, SnapChat, Lloyds Bank, Ring doorbells and Amazon’s own shopping site among services hit by online outage

Full story: Amazon Web Services outage hits dozens of websites and apps

Heads-up: UBS have upgraded their view on global equities to ‘attractive’, a sign that they think investors should be putting more money into shares.

Despite the angst in parts of the market that valuations have risen too high, UBS reckon share prices have further to climb.

“We think investors should review current allocations to equities and ensure they are at least consistent with, or modestly higher than, their long-term strategic asset allocation targets. If investors are currently under allocated to equities, we believe they should reallocate excess cash, bond, or high yield credit holdings toward stocks.”

“We prefer areas that are exposed to secu­lar growth, like the US, China, (particularly China’s tech sector, which we rate among the Most Attractive sectors globally), as well as global technology, transformational inno­vations (AI, Power and resources, and Longevity), and pockets with clear catalysts that could drive earnings upgrades (Japan and global banks).”

Ukrainian president repeats call for weapons but US president insists they’re ‘not easy for us to give you’ and says ‘Putin wants to end the war’

‘The key to success is in the sky’: the Ukrainian defenders struggling to stem Russia’s air assault

First came the sound of drones. Then a boom that rattled windows. Shortly after that, two columns of black smoke rose over the Shebelinka gas processing plant in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Towering flames threatened storage tanks.

Plaintiffs had ‘overwhelming evidence’ of climate crisis but a court injunction would be ‘unworkable’, ruling says

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by young climate activists that aimed to halt Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel executive orders.

The dismissal by US district judge Dana Christensen on Wednesday came after 22 plaintiffs, ages seven to 25 and from five states, sought to block three of the president’s executive orders, including those declaring a “national energy emergency” and seeking to “unleash American energy” – as well as one aimed at “reinvigorating” the US’s production of coal.

Subramanyam Vedam, 64, was recently exonerated for murder after being sentenced to life in prison in 1983

A Pennsylvania man who was recently exonerated after spending more than four decades behind bars has now been taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and faces possible deportation to India.

Earlier this month, Centre county’s district attorney dismissed murder charges against 64-year-old Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam. However, shortly after his exoneration, Vedam was detained by Ice based on a 1988 deportation order tied to his now-vacated convictions.