US defence secretary Pete Hegseth's aides broke Eisenhower's WWII globe after skipping expert movers to haul it into his office

The 1930s relic, said to have helped Dwight D Eisenhower plot the D-Day landings, crashed onto its base in February, leaving a wide gash of several inches close to Antarctica. Army historians, who would normally handle such artefacts, had been stood down during a partial government shutdown — yet rather than wait for them to return, Hegseth's team brought in its own crew. The day the globe was damaged turned out to be the same day the shutdown came to an end.

An Army spokesperson admitted the sphere was knocked off its rotating metal mounting.

Impatience reportedly played a part in the botched move.