Fort McMurray floods: Evacuation orders lifted some areas

Evacuation orders will be lifted in some areas of Fort McMurray Friday afternoon, after water levels receded significantly in the Lower Townsite.

At 2 p.m. Friday, residents in the following areas will be allowed to return home:

Suspected fentanyl, taser seized, 4 arrested during drug bust in Kelowna

Kelowna RCMP say four people were arrested and that suspected fentanyl was seized during a drug bust in the Lower Mission on Thursday.

According to police, officers from the Community Safety Unit executed a search warrant at a residence along the 600 block of Cook Road.

Regina police report 5 overdoses and 1 death within a day

The Regina Police Service is reporting five overdoses, including one death, within a day as officials continue to see a spike in overdoses within the city.

According to police, the apparent drug overdoses all occurred on Friday. Police believe the death was also a result of drug use.

UN-recognised Libya gov't advances against Haftar's forces

It conducted air raids after rejecting calls for a ceasefire during the holy month of Ramadan.

The forces of Libya’s United Nations-recognised government in Tripoli have made significant gains in their fight against renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar.

It conducted air raids after rejecting calls for a ceasefire during the holy month of Ramadan.

It has been more than a year since Haftar launched his campaign to take control of the capital.

Al Jazeera’s Leah Harding has the latest.

Construction spending edges up in March, escaping early coronavirus impacts

Pause on residential construction during coronavirus promotes safety: NAHB CEO

NAHB CEO Jerry Howard discusses the pause being put on residential construction sites and home building being excluded from coronavirus stimulus programs.

WASHINGTON — U.S. construction spending edged up 0.9% in March as building activity escaped the early impacts of the coronavirus shutdowns.

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The Commerce Department said that the increase followed a 2.5% drop in spending in February. Economists had been forecasting another decline in March as the efforts to contain the spread of the virus started to take hold.

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While the overall figure did not decline in March, analysts believe big drops in activity will start showing up in the April report given the impacts already seen in other parts of the economy.

US HOME CONSTRUCTION COLLAPSED 22.3% IN MARCH

For March, residential construction rose up 2.3% as strength in apartment construction offset a drop in single-family homes.

Nonresidential construction fell 1.3%, with spending for hotels and office buildings both declining.

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Spending for government projects was up 1.6% in March.

Oil Futures Settle Higher For 3rd Straight Day

Crude oil prices moved higher on Friday despite persisting worries about the outlook for near to medium term energy demand amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Reports about OPEC and its allies beginning to cut outputs supported oil prices. OPEC and its allies led by Russia had last month agreed to reduce output by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for May and June.

West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended up $0.94, or about 5%, at $19.78 a barrel, after moving between $18.07 and $20.48 a barrel.

June WTI crude oil futures gained about 21% in the week.

Brent crude futures for July settled lower by about 0.6% at $26.31 a barrel. Brent crude futures have shed around 60% so far this year.

Oil was also supported by a report from Baker Hughes that said the number of active rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. dropped by 52 to 325 this week, declining for a seventh successive week. The total active rig count fell by 57 to 408 in the week, the report added.

Data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday said crude stockpiles rose by about 9 million barrels in the U.S. in the week ended April 24, lower than an expected rise of about 11.7 million barrels.

According to the data, crude production in the U.S. fell by 100,000 barrels per day last week.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos Win NASA Contracts For Moon Missions

Nasa has awarded Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos contracts to develop landers to send astronauts to the Moon’s surface.

Bezos’ Blue Origin, Musk’s SpaceX and Alabama-based Dynetics were selected to work on landers under the space agency’s Artemis program, which will land the first woman and next man on the surface of the Moon by 2024. NASA is on track for sustainable human exploration of the Moon for the first time in history.

The total combined value for all awarded contracts is $967 million for the 10-month base period.

“With these contract awards, America is moving forward with the final step needed to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024, including the incredible moment when we will see the first woman set foot on the lunar surface,” said Nasa’s administrator Jim Bridenstine.

“This is the first time since the Apollo era that Nasa has direct funding for a human landing system, and now we have companies on contract to do the work for the Artemis programme.”

Blue Origin, founded by Amazon president and CEO Jeff Bezos, is partnering with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to develop its lander. The Integrated Lander Vehicle is a three-stage lander to be launched on its own New Glenn Rocket System and ULA Vulcan launch system.

Dynetics is developing the Dynetics Human Landing System, which is a single structure providing the ascent and descent capabilities that will launch on the ULA Vulcan launch system.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is developing the Starship, fully integrated lander that will use the SpaceX Super Heavy rocket.