Trump's ballroom bulldozes East Wing; Cuomo, Mamdani clash in final debate

A demolition controversy. President Trump promised to respect the White House. Now the East Wing is coming down for his new ballroom

Plus, the final face-off. Cuomo and Mamdami go toe-to-toe in New York's last mayoral debate

And one shocking moment leaves the crowd gasping. And after review, the play stands. The NFL doubles down on Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl halftime show

The stories that matter, clear and credible, from across the country to around the world

These are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow News. Good morning, I'm Craig DeGrelli

This morning, the White House is losing part of its history as crews begin tearing down the entire East Wing

What started as a promise to respect the existing building is now a full demolition to make way for President Trump's now $300 million grand ballroom

The New York Times was first to report on the expanded demolition, demolition that Trump said in July would not touch the existing White House

It won't interfere with the current building. It won't be. It'll be near it, but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of

It's my favorite place. I love it. But the plan has clearly changed

The entire East Wing, built in 1942 and long used by the First Lady's office, is coming down

The White House says it's simply modernizing and rebuilding and calls the criticism, quote, fake outrage

But that criticism is loud, including from former First Lady Hillary Clinton, who wrote on X

it's not his house, it's your house, and he's destroying it. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is calling for a halt

warning the new ballroom could overwhelm the White House itself. Trump, who is personally raising money for the project

calls it a visionary addition that will host nearly 1,000 guests and stands as a beacon of American excellence

The White House is turning up the pressure on Moscow with President Trump

announcing the most sweeping sanctions yet of his second term. The move slaps new restrictions on Lukoil and Rosneft Russia two biggest oil companies along with dozens of subsidiaries that helped fund the Kremlin war machine against Ukraine Asked why now Trump said simply it was time

These are tremendous sanctions. These are very big. Those are against their two big oil companies

And we hope that they won't be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled

I think that they'll certainly have an impact. They're massive sanctions and sanctions on oil

The two biggest oil companies, among the biggest in the world, but they're Russian

They do a lot of oil. And hopefully it'll push. Hopefully he'll become reasonable and hopefully Zelensky will be reasonable, too

You know, it takes two to tango, as they say. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson called the move a clear message to Vladimir Putin

saying the U.S. is ready to take further action, if necessary, to end yet another war

The sanctions are expected to cut deeply into Russia's economy, which relies heavily on oil exports

The UK and EU have imposed similar measures, while European leaders prepare a new $200 billion package to keep Ukraine armed through next year

NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda, who was alongside the president, praised the move, saying the sanctions changed the calculus

and turned up the heat on Putin to negotiate a ceasefire. The U.S. has taken out two more suspected drug boats in the eastern Pacific

the latest in a widening campaign to target cartels at sea. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strikes in posts on X

saying the vessels belonged to a designated terrorist organization and were moving along a known narco-trafficking route in international waters

You see it there? The first strike hit Tuesday off Colombia's coast, killing two people

The second followed Wednesday morning. Three more dead. That brings the total to nine strikes since last month

At least 37 suspected traffickers killed. Every one of these strikes involves boats and shipments that were tracked from the very beginning

From the moment these things were put together, the moment they were coordinated, we know where they're headed, we know where their drop-off points are

we know what organizations they're involved in. These things are tracked very carefully

There are hundreds of boats out there every single day and there are many strikes that we walk away from and that the Department of War walks away from because it didn meet the criteria Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking to reporters before boarding a plane to Israel this morning praised what he called a precise carefully tracked operation

The strikes marked the first time U.S. forces have hit cartel vessels in the Pacific since the strikes began

Less than two weeks until Election Day in New York City and the final mayoral debate was anything but polite

Front runner Zoran Mondani and former Governor Andrew Cuomo faced off last night and it got personal

Cuomo hammered Mondani as untested and unqualified. You have never had a job. You've never accomplished anything

There's no reason to believe you have any merit or qualification for eight and a half million lives

You don't know how to run a government. But the night's biggest moment came when Mondani fired back telling Cuomo one of his sexual harassment accusers

Charlotte Bennett was in the crowd. The audience gasped, then cheered. Watch

One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening

You sought to access her private gynecological records. She cannot speak up for herself because you lodged a defamation case against her

I, however, can speak. What do you say to the 13 women that you sexually harassed

Cuomo defended himself, saying multiple DAs reviewed the allegations and dropped the cases

Then he tried to shift topics to foreign policy. On Substance, both men agreed ICE has no place in New York City, but split on how to deal with President Trump

Cuomo said he would confront him. Mamdani claimed Trump wants Cuomo to win

And Curtis Sliwa, he says you can't beat Trump, you negotiate. Election Day in New York City is November 4th

North Carolina, now the first swing state to sign off on a new congressional map

one drawn to give Republicans an edge heading into next year's midterms

Protesters had to be removed from the House gallery before Wednesday's vote, which passed 66 to 48

The state Senate approved the plan Tuesday, also along party lines. The new boundaries put Democratic Congressman Don Davis at risk His northeastern district would lose several counties and pick up more Republican territory along the coast Election data suggests the GOP could now win 11 of North Carolina 14

seats, up from the 10 they currently hold. And under state law, Democratic Governor Josh Stein

cannot veto congressional maps. North Carolina joins Texas and Missouri, both of which have

already passed new maps favoring Republicans ahead of 2026. Finally this morning, the NFL

is sticking with its headliner, no matter how loud the backlash gets. Commissioner Roger Goodell

says Bad Bunny is still your Super Bowl halftime act, even after President Trump slammed the choice

saying he'd never heard of him. The commissioner says the decision has been given lots of thought

and that he cannot please everyone. It's carefully thought through. I would say that I'm not sure

we've ever selected an artist where we didn't have some blowback or criticism. It's pretty hard to do

when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching

But we're confident it's going to be a great show and that he understands the platform that he's on

And I think it's going to be exciting and a united moment

Bunny, who has been openly critical of Trump, is expected to perform in Spanish when he takes the stage February 8th at Levi's Stadium

So like it or not, the Puerto Rican rapper, also known as El Conejo Malo

is bringing the beat to the big game. See, I knew that four years of high school Spanish would pay off

even 40-plus years later. All right, before we head out, here's a look at what's happening today

The National Association of Realtors releases September home sales numbers this morning at 10, followed by Freddie Mac's weekly update

on mortgage rates at noon. Later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to arrive in Israel

with plans to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tomorrow. At three, President Trump is set to make an announcement from the White House

No word yet on what it's about. Be sure to sign up for our Unbiased Updates newsletter

It's the only thing more reliable than your alarm. Go to san.com slash newsletters

Those are your Unbiased Updates for this Thursday. We'll see you back here tomorrow, Friday

We love that. For all of us here at Straight Arrow News, I'm Craig DeGrelli. Have a great day