In the 72 hours since the Trump administration used tear gas and other nonlethal force to violently clear Lafayette Square of peaceful protesters before President Trump's walk to St. John's Church, "the White House has been transformed into a veritable fortress," The Washington Post reports, with tall security fencing and concrete barriers erected to keep protesters from an expanded secure zone. "Armed guards and sharpshooters and combat troops are omnipresent." According to Google Maps, the new fencing stretches about 1.7 miles around the White House.

"The White House is now so heavily fortified that it resembles the monarchical palaces or authoritarian compounds of regimes in faraway lands — strikingly incongruous with the historic role of the executive mansion," known as "the People's House," the Post adds. "The resulting picture is both jarring and distinctly political — a Rorschach test for one's view of Trump's presidency. His supporters see a projection of absolute strength, a leader controlling the streets to protect his people. His critics see a wannabe dictator and a president hiding from his own citizenry."

"I think the need to fortify your house — and it's not his house; it's our house — shows weakness," said Deborah Berke, dean of the Yale School of Architecture. "The president of the United States should not feel threatened by his or her own citizens."

White House officials tell the Post that Trump wasn't involved in the decisions to ramp up security and put up the new fencing, and they noted he has left the White House twice this week, including the brief St. John's spectacle. "The president has been sensitive to the perception fanned by his critics that he is cowering in a bunker and fearful for his own safety," and he's "livid that the media found out" about him being rushed to the bunker last Friday, the Post reports. This probably won't help dispel that perception. Peter Weber

President Trump can't block a subpoena for his financial records from a New York prosecutor, the Supreme Court has ruled.

In a 7-2 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. can see financial records from Trump's accounting firm, The Washington Post reports. Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, who Trump nominated to the Supreme Court, sided with the majority, while Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, per CBS News.

"The president is neither absolutely immune from state criminal subpoenas seeking his private papers nor entitled to a heightened standard of need," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

Prosecutors in New York had subpoenaed eight years of the president's personal and business tax records as part of an investigation into hush money payments made to two women who allege they had affairs with Trump. Trump's legal team requested "temporary presidential immunity" while Trump is in office.

Vance in a statement celebrated the Supreme Court's ruling, saying it's a "tremendous victory for our nation’s system of justice and its founding principle that no one — not even a president — is above the law." Brendan Morrow

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sided with the court's liberals — and delivered a powerful decision — in a case over whether Native Americans can be prosecuted by states.

The court ruled 5-4 Wednesday in favor of the Creek Nation against the state of Oklahoma, saying they and other Native Americans cannot be tried in a state court for "major crimes committed in Indian country." Gorsuch wrote the court's majority opinion, channeling the history of how the Creek Nation was forced along the Trail of Tears to their current tribal lands and declaring that land was set to be "secure forever." Read some of the most standout pieces of Gorsuch's decision below. Kathryn Krawczyk

Italy has hit an incredible milestone in its fight against COVID-19.

As of Wednesday, Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo, Italy has no more COVID-19 cases in its ICU ward, Italy's wire service ANSA reports. It's the first time the hospital can say that since it admitted its first coronavirus case on Feb. 23, 137 days ago.

Bergamo is at the center of Italy's Lombardy region, which was one of the earliest and hardest hit areas in the coronavirus pandemic. Italy at one point had the most COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, and Lombardy led that count, ABC News notes. Nearly 35,000 people have died in Italy due to COVID-19, giving it the fourth highest death toll of any country.

Meanwhile the U.S. has taken over as the coronavirus capital of the world, and shows no sign of slowing down. Where Italy announced 193 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the U.S. reported a record 62,751 — and proportional differences between the two countries' populations don't explain away that yawning gap. Kathryn Krawczyk

Another 1.31 million Americans filed initial unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

This number of new claims was less than economists expected, as experts were projecting there would be about 1.39 million claims, CNBC reports. Last week, the number of new jobless claims was a bit more than economists expected, topping 1.4 million. This news on Thursday somewhat lessened "concerns of a renewed downturn in the labor market," Bloomberg writes.

Additionally, continuing unemployment claims on Thursday fell "sharply," CNBC reports, declining by 698,000 to 18.06 million. Still, CNBC notes that this is the 15th week in a row that new initial unemployment claims have topped one million; before the coronavirus pandemic, the record for most claims filed in a week was 695,000.

These new numbers come after last week, the Labor Department released a better-than-expected jobs report for June, which showed 4.8 million jobs were added and the unemployment rate declined to 11.1 percent. Experts were quick to note, though, that this unemployment survey was taken in June prior to COVID-19 cases surging in numerous states. Brendan Morrow

The total number of U.S. coronavirus cases reached 3 million on Wednesday as officials confirmed a record 60,000-plus new cases over the previous 24 hours, and the national death toll rose above 132,000. States in the South and West continued to report spiking new infections. California and Texas both reported more than 10,000 new cases on Wednesday. U.S. deaths, which had been trending downward, rose by more than 900 for the second straight day, the highest level since early June, Reuters reports. Hospitalizations also have increased in the states where infections have jumped, including Florida, where 56 intensive care units this week reached capacity, and Arizona, where ICUs are rapidly filling up, too. Infections have risen in 42 of the 50 states over the past two weeks, according to Reuters. Harold Maass

A "massive search operation" is underway for the mayor of Seoul, who has been reported missing, The Associated Press reports.

South Korean police on Thursday said they're searching for Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon after he was reported missing by his daughter, according to Reuters. She says Park left "a will-like" message before he left their home, and she called police after not being able to reach him on his phone, which officials say is turned off, the AP reports. A signal from Park's phone was reportedly last detected in Sungbuk.

A government official confirmed to the AP that Park, who was elected mayor of South Korea's capital in 2011, didn't come to work on Thursday and canceled his schedules. Police say the search operation for Park consists of 150 officers, as well as a drone and a police dog. Brendan Morrow