Part of the Kennedy Center’s ceiling collapsed after a powerful storm swept through Washington, DC, causing damage at the landmark performing arts venue.

The severe weather tore through sections of the cultural center’s roof, leaving a visible hole in the building.

In the wake of the damage, the White House renewed its push for renovations at the Kennedy Center, pointing to what it described as “decades of neglect.”

A source told The Daily Mail that staff first saw pieces of the ceiling falling into the grand foyer at about 5pm on Friday.

Photos from inside the Kennedy Center showed debris scattered across the carpet after the intense overnight storm battered the nation’s capital.

Outside, high winds downed trees and knocked out power to tens of thousands of people with many still in the dark.

No one was injured when the main hall’s ceiling collapsed but Kennedy Center leaders used the situation to amplify President Donald Trump’s calls for modernization. 

‘Another example of the urgent need to close for renovation and revitalization, as our Chairman President Trump has championed,’ VP of Public Relations for the Kennedy Center Roma Daravi told The Daily Mail. 

‘This structural failure stems from decades of neglect and deferred maintenance by the previous leadership, and there’s no justification for further delays in restoring America’s cultural center,’ she added. 

Kennedy Center employees received an email Friday announcing the Main Building would be closed for the remainder of Friday night. 

‘This closure is necessary to ensure the safety of staff, contractors, and any other personnel who may otherwise access the facility while O&M evaluates and addresses the identified conditions,’ the email said.

While the Main Building is slated to open again on Saturday, the Grand Foyer will remain closed through the weekend. 

The cultural center has been a flashpoint of debate during Trump’s second term, with the president attempting to revitalize the structure and even temporarily putting his name on it.

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A source noted that the collapse happened in nearly the same place Democrat Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, one of the chief opponents to Trump’s renovations and renaming plans, held a photo shoot.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Congresswoman Beatty for comment. 

The Kennedy Center has been at the center of a long-running saga after Trump overhauled the board of trustees to install his own allies.

The board has since been fighting in court for the right to plaster the president’s name on the Kennedy Center. 

His name was first added in December last year, before it Judge Christopher Cooper deemed it unlawful.

The signage remained on the historic building for 176 days after the ruling until it was finally chiseled off, than six months after it was affixed to the historic performing arts center dedicated to President John F Kennedy.

Since then, the Democrats have fought tooth and nail to prevent any more of Trump’s changes.

In a court filing on Monday, Justice Department attorneys painted a grim picture of the state of the Kennedy Center saying it is, ‘a financially insolvent facility, housed in a decrepit, dilapidated, crumbling building’ that ‘continues to race toward physical and financial ruin.’

Renovations were required they argued, but ‘an order blocking the Board from appropriately recognizing President Trump will cause donors to flee, financial contributions to dry up, and structural rehabilitation to stop.

‘There will simply not be the expertise or funding necessary to rebuild and renovate this decimated structure.’

On Wednesday, officials at the center took down a sculpture known as Blue, the latest change at the Kennedy Center that stirred some pushback. 

The changes fall within a broader effort to reshape Washington to Trump’s liking, including demolishing the White House’s East Wing to build a ballroom, a proposed triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery and a renovated golf course.

Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal faced sharp criticism from Black lawmakers on Friday after describing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as an “AIPAC monkey.”

The remark came during Jebreal’s appearance on left-wing commentator Wajahat Ali’s podcast, “The Left Hook,” where she condemned Jeffries’ support for Israel and accused the Black Democratic leader of serving the interests of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC.

“His name is Hakeem. ‘Hakeem’ is an Arabic name which means ‘healer.’ He’s not a healer, he’s a divider,” Jebreal said during the discussion.

She then escalated her criticism, saying, “He is a bought and paid by AIPAC monkey,” before adding, “With all due respect — and I don’t mean it in a racist way.”

Jebreal also called Jeffries “an errand boy,” saying critics of his stance on Israel were “done and tired.”

After Jabreal’s rant, Ali interjected to note that using the term “monkey” has “terrible racial connotations … but I think you caught yourself and said you didn’t mean it with any racial animosity.” 

Jabreal attempted to clarify: “There are these three monkeys – one, I cannot hear, I cannot see, I cannot speak – it reminds me of these three monkeys.” 

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) rejected Jebreal’s defense. 

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“To be clear, there isn’t a non-racist way to call Leader Jeffries—a Black man—a ‘monkey’ or ‘errand boy,’” the group posted on X. 

The caucus also slammed Ali, a critic of Israel, writing, “this is what happens when we hold ourselves to such low standards for what’s allowable in our discourse — people get comfortable being openly bigoted.”

“We have to stop platforming and trafficking in anti-Black racism, whether it’s on the political right or the left,” the CBC added. 

Rep, Ritchie Torres (D-NY) similarly argued in an X post that “calling a Black man a ‘monkey’ is racist. Full stop.”

“If Wajahat Ali and Rula Jebreal were on the far right, no one on the far left would have any trouble condemning them for dehumanizing a Black man in racist terms,” the black congressman added. “The silence is deafening.” 

Jebreal later issued a backhanded apology on X. 

“I am disgusted and horrified that Hakeem Jeffries is taking money from AIPAC amidst Israel’s genocide in Palestine,” she wrote. “That said, a term that I used to describe him was inappropriate and offensive and should never have been used.

“I apologize unconditionally.”

Jeffries’ office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment. 

Getty family heiress Isabel Getty has wed British financier Faris McKinnon in an elegant London ceremony, choosing a crisp white skirt suit paired with striking cobalt-blue heels for her big day.

The marriage opens a joyful new chapter for Isabel, 32, the great-granddaughter of legendary oil magnate J. Paul Getty, who was once regarded as the richest man in the world with a fortune estimated at $6 billion. Her celebrated family name has also long been shadowed by personal heartbreak and tragedy.

The former Tatler cover star exchanged vows with Faris, 41, at Chelsea Old Town Hall, before the newlyweds continued the celebrations with loved ones at Harry’s Bar, the exclusive private members’ club in Mayfair.

Isabel, who is based in London and works as a gallery owner and singer, welcomed her son Viggo with Faris last year. The couple’s Thursday wedding was an intimate affair, attended by a close circle of family and friends, some of whom later posted glimpses of the celebration on Instagram.

A source close to the couple told the Daily Mail: “It was a beautiful day celebrating a wonderful couple. Everyone is so happy for them.”

For the ceremony, Isabel opted for a fitted white jacket with fringed edging and a matching short skirt, teamed with a white pillbox-style hat and pointed cobalt blue heels. Faris wore a blue double-breasted suit and a patterned tie.

Their young son was part of proceedings too, with Faris carrying Viggo as the couple emerged from the town hall.

Friends and relatives gathered on the steps beneath a large floral arch and showered them with white confetti and red petals, while Isabel carried a bouquet of pink, peach and lilac flowers.

The newlyweds then left in a vintage black Rolls-Royce convertible, while their guests were ferried to the reception on a privately hired red Routemaster bus.

Celebrations continued at Harry’s Bar, where long dining tables were dressed with pink flowers and guests were handed instant cameras to snap photos of the day.

It was a joyful milestone for a family whose immense fortune has been overshadowed by a succession of personal tragedies over the years.

The most notorious came in 1973 when J. Paul Getty’s 16-year-old grandson, John Paul Getty III, was kidnapped in Rome and held for five months as his captors demanded a multi-million-dollar ransom.

His billionaire grandfather initially refused to pay the ransom, and the kidnappers cut off part of the teenager’s ear and sent it to an Italian newspaper before a reduced sum was eventually paid and he was freed.

John Paul Getty III later struggled with drug addiction and suffered a stroke at 25 that left him severely disabled. He died in 2011, aged 54.

The heartbreak did not end there. J. Paul Getty’s youngest son Timothy died of a brain tumour aged just 12, while his eldest son George died in 1973 after an overdose of pills.

Talitha Getty – the actress and model who married J. Paul Getty Jr and became a 1960s style icon – died in Rome in 1971, aged 30, following a suspected heroin overdose.

The extraordinary Getty saga has since reached both the big and small screens.

Christopher Plummer portrayed the patriarch in Ridley Scott’s 2017 film All the Money In The World, which dramatised the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III.

Donald Sutherland then took on the role in the 2018 television series Trust, which similarly focused on the abduction and its fallout, also starring Hilary Swank and Harris Dickinson.

The Getty name is now familiar around the world through photography, too. Isabel’s father’s cousin, Mark Getty, co-founded Getty Images in London in 1995, although the family’s original fortune was made in oil.

Isabel is the daughter of business leader Christopher Getty and film producer Pia Getty, and her lineage is doubly gilded.

While her great-grandfather J. Paul Getty built Getty Oil into an empire to become one of the richest men of the 20th century, she comes from another billionaire dynasty on her mother’s side.

Her maternal grandfather is Robert Miller, the business leader who co-founded the duty-free empire DFS Group.

Her mother’s sisters made high-profile unions of their own: Isabel’s aunt Marie-Chantal Miller is married to Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, while Alexandra Miller was previously married to Prince Alexander von Furstenberg.

Isabel, though, has carved out her own path in Britain in the worlds of art and music.

After studying music and business at New York University, she returned to London, where she now runs The Graduate Gallery in Fitzrovia and fronts the rock band Jean Marlow.

She has spoken candidly about how the Getty surname can colour people’s first impressions of her.

‘Some people bring a prejudice beforehand about meeting me – socially, professionally,’ she said. ‘Which is fine, but after a while hopefully that goes. It’s just my family.’

The wedding comes two months after Isabel celebrated her hen weekend in Copenhagen.

The group took a boat out on the harbour and played games wearing masks bearing Faris’s face, while Isabel wore a white veil for the festivities.

They stayed at the five-star 1 Hotel Copenhagen, where rooms can cost up to £600 a night.

Tommy Paul is set for another Grand Slam showdown with Carlos Alcaraz.

This time, the American will be chasing the kind of statement win that has eluded him in three previous major meetings with the reigning U.S. Open champion.

Alcaraz, seeded second, defeated Paul in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January. The result came in straight sets, but the match was far tighter than the scoreline suggested.

“We’ve had some good matches — one really, really bad beatdown at the French Open. But, I mean, he’s the best, him and [Jannik] Sinner,” the 20th-seeded Paul said after battling past No. 15 Alexander Bublik 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-3. “They have been playing great, and I guess Carlos we haven’t really seen too much [due to injury], but obviously doing pretty well coming right back to competition.

“I mean, I’m going to have to play some pretty good tennis if I want to win that match, but I’m going to do my best. Hopefully I can.”

Only a few weeks ago, Paul knocked off Alexander Zverev, the top seed here, in the Cincinnati Open. He’s certainly capable. 

“It helps, but at the same time, I like to think of myself as somebody who always thinks I can beat those players,” Paul said. “I mean, I don’t like to step on the court not thinking I can win. So I try to always go out there like that. 

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Third-seeded American Jessica Pegula faced adversity for the first time of the tournament. She dropped the first set in decisive fashion to No. 31 Leylah Fernandez of Canada, but rallied for a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 win at Arthur Ashe Stadium. 

“That’s pretty much the summary right there: slow start, strong finish,” Pegula said. “I mean, the [first] set I played today, I can’t honestly be that much worse. It was pretty not great on all those stats and everything. So I was, like, ‘It can’t be that much worse, I’m going to have to kind of find something here,’ and I think I always tell myself just to try and hang on to my serve.” 

Pegula saved eight of nine break points in the final two sets, and advanced to meet Romanian Sorana Cirstea in the fourth round. 

Unseeded American Alex Michelsen cruised past Daniel Merida Aguilar 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-3 to advance into the fourth round of the U.S. Open.

He will face No. 27 Tomás Martín Etcheverry in the Round of 16 on Sunday.