CIA Director Goes to Russia for Secretive Visit

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CIA Director Goes to Russia for Secretive Visit

(Headline USA) The Kremlin said Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe held talks in Moscow with his intelligence counterparts, a rare and secretive visit at a time when relations with Washington remain strained over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ratcliffe did not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was informed of the contacts that were “on the intelligence agencies’ level.”

“Of course, President Putin is immediately informed of everything,” Peskov added, refusing to say what was discussed.

The CIA declined to comment, and there was no immediate comment from the White House.

Russian state news agencies reported that a U.S. military plane landed in Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Tuesday and departed later that day.

A senior Ukrainian official told The Associated Press that Washington informed Kyiv a delegation would be traveling to the Russian capital and asked it to suspend strikes until it left. The official said the request did not apply to all Russian territory, but specifically to Moscow, St. Petersburg and some northern regions. Strikes on other parts of Russia continued, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk publicly.

CBS News first reported on the visit.

Kremlin says US-Russia relations are in a ‘profound crisis’

Peskov said that “contacts between intelligence agencies are, in and of themselves, a positive phenomenon, a positive process,” but he stressed that Russia-U.S. relations remain in a “profound crisis.”

He added that it was “too early to say” what impact Ratcliffe’s visit would have on the ties between the two countries.

Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russia’s security services, told AP that visits like the one by Ratcliffe do not “happen every year.”

Official channels of communication between Moscow and Washington have been kept alive since the 1980s and exist so both sides can talk if American or Russian lives are in danger or for other reasons, Soldatov said.

In 2021, Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Putin’s Security Council, met CIA Director William Burns in Moscow months before Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Burns later met Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, in Turkey in November 2022 to warn Russia not to deploy a nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

Details of Tuesday’s discussions have not been revealed but such meetings normally take place only when there is a matter of pressing national security and when it is in “American national interests,” Soldatov said.

Russia-U.S. relations sank to Cold War lows after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but appeared to warm after President Donald Trump returned to office. He had promised to end the war swiftly, holding multiple phone calls with Putin and even hosting him in Alaska a year ago.

The efforts to negotiate a peace deal have largely stalled since then, however, with U.S. attention turning to its war with Iran and both Moscow and Kyiv stepping up their long-range attacks on each other. Putin has rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s push for an immediate ceasefire, arguing that Russia wants a comprehensive settlement, not a temporary truce.

Russia has proposed to mediate in the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran, Moscow’s important ally in the Middle East.

Russia and Iran have a partnership treaty

After Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Tehran provided Russia with Shahed drones and later licensed their production in Russia. In January 2025, Moscow and Tehran signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty. But even as it has built ties with Iran, Russia also has remained friendly with Israel, and analysts have described its relations with Iran as complex and challenging.

In March, AP reported that Russia provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region, according to two officials familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter. The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that the U.S. intelligence has not uncovered that Russia is directing Iran on what to do with the information.

Asked at the time whether Russia would go beyond political support and offer military assistance to Iran, Peskov said there has been no such request from Tehran. Pressed on whether Moscow provided any military or intelligence assistance to Tehran since the Iran war’s start, he refrained from comment.

Soldatov said it’s possible Tuesday’s meeting involved discussion of protecting U.S. personnel, bases or facilities in the Middle East that have been targeted by Iran. Ratcliffe could have traveled to Moscow to try to influence this relationship, he added.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Massive Fentanyl Bust Rattles New Jersey Gang

Jose Nino
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Massive Fentanyl Bust Rattles New Jersey Gang

(José Niño, Headline USA) A raid carried out last month in Newark, New Jersey turned up a fentanyl cache large enough to theoretically claim roughly 8 million lives, according to a report from Breitbart News. Homeland Security Investigations linked the narcotics to the Trinitarios, a gang whose ranks are largely made up of Dominican-American members.

HSI’s Newark office executed the search warrants that ultimately produced two arrests. Prosecutors have since charged both men with conspiring to distribute controlled substances, possessing fentanyl and cocaine with intent to distribute, and running a property used for drug operations.

Government officials briefed Breitbart on the specifics of what agents recovered, listing 16 kilograms of fentanyl, over a kilogram of heroin cut with fentanyl, close to 900 grams of cocaine, and a firearm equipped with a 51 round extended magazine. Considering that a single kilogram of fentanyl is potent enough to kill as many as 500,000 people, the haul represented a mass casualty event narrowly avoided.

According to investigators, much of the supply had been stashed inside a concealed cabinet that opened only via a remote key fob, evidence of the lengths traffickers go to hide their product from law enforcement.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin marked the occasion, which fell on National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day, by praising the agents behind the operation. “I want to thank the brave men and women of the Department of Homeland Security who work so hard to hunt down fentanyl traffickers and smugglers, get them out of our communities, and get their poison off of our streets,” Mullin said.

He tied the success to the administration’s broader enforcement posture, contrasting it with prior border policy. “We have lost too many American lives to fentanyl, especially after years of disastrous open border policies that made it even easier for the cartels to bring their drugs to our country,” Mullin said. “Thanks to President Donald J. Trump’s strong leadership, we are bringing the hammer down on drug traffickers and smugglers, putting them out of business and behind bars.”

Breitbart’s reporting also covered a wider investigation into a Mexico-based trafficking ring that pushed narcotics through more than a dozen cities across California, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Illinois. That inquiry netted 53 kilograms of drugs, fentanyl pills among them, and investigators believe the organization has funneled over 2,200 kilograms of narcotics into American neighborhoods over time.

HSI Executive Associate Director John Condon highlighted his agency’s continuing role in combating these networks. “HSI special agents stand on the front lines of the fight against fentanyl, working tirelessly with our Homeland Security Task Force partners to disrupt the criminal networks that traffic this deadly poison into our communities,” Condon said. “Their dedication, skill, and courage are putting dangerous drug dealers behind bars while saving American lives. Every seizure, every arrest, and every investigation reflects HSI’s unwavering commitment to taking deadly drugs off our streets.”

A separate operation involving HSI, the Homeland Security Task Force, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service revealed close to 80 pounds of methamphetamine along with another kilogram of fentanyl obtained through undercover buys. Federal agents teamed up with Iowa’s Division of Narcotics Enforcement this month to arrest those tied to the purchases, seizing nearly 1.4 million dollars in suspected drug proceeds during the operation.

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino

Secret Service Officials, Including Spox, Put on Leave Pending Probe

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Secret Service Officials, Including Spox, Put on Leave Pending Probe

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Three Secret Service officials were removed from the federal agency’s headquarters and placed on administrative leave amid a shocking investigation into alleged leaks to the media, several news outlets reported Tuesday evening.

RealClearPolitics journalist Susan Crabtree first reported Tuesday that the officials were walked out of their offices and placed on a banned list pending the criminal investigation. The FBI and CIA were part of the investigation, the outlet added.

CNN, in a separate report, noted that one of the removed officials is USSS Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi.

Guglielmi joined the federal agency in March 2022 following a long career as a police spokesperson for the Chicago, Baltimore and Fairfax County police departments. He became the subject of controversy after the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. There, he falsely denied that the Biden administration withheld security resources from Trump’s campaign—a denial that the agency later had to walk back.

CNN said sources revealed that the three sanctioned officials had their security clearances and work cellphones revoked. All three reportedly worked in the agency’s communications department.

An agency spokesperson did not name the individuals in a press statement but confirmed that three employees had been placed on administrative leave pending the probe.

“Three non-law enforcement personnel at the U.S. Secret Service have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into potential misconduct. Per policy, this incident is being investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility. We are unable to comment further at this time.”

Both RealClearPolitics and CNN noted that the suspensions come as the USSS investigates potential leaks of sensitive security information concerning President Donald Trump to the media.

Most recently, media reports revealed that Trump switched planes in Turkey due to purported Iranian threats. The move was made at the request of intelligence and Secret Service officials. Despite the sensitive and secretive nature of the operation.

The Secret Service has been embroiled in numerous scandals this year alone.

For instance, a Secret Service agent and two others were criminally charged for nearly paddling someone to death in a fraternity hazing ritual. The charges against that agent came on the heels of another agent being put on leave for leaking info about Vice President JD Vance’s travel schedule.

Additionally, another Secret Service guard on Vance’s detail was recently arrested for a drug deal with an undercover cop. Crabtree reported the arrest in July, saying that she’s withholding the agent’s name “until more details emerge about the alleged drug-related arrest.”

A mother earlier, a Secret Service officer was reportedly in May arrested for public masturbation at a DoubleTree hotel near the Miami airport. And in April, a married Secret Service agent was revealed to have been having an affair with an OnlyFans star and making pornographic videos with her. Around the same time, ABC News revealed that a Secret Service trainee was arrested for spying on his roommate, also an agent-in-training, with a hidden camera.

Before that, a Secret Service agent protecting former First Lady Jill Biden shot himself in the buttocks last month at the Philadelphia International Airport.

And earlier in the month, Crabtree reported that agent Myosoty Perez, who is a lesbian, has been suspended and is under investigation for marrying a foreign national—possibly an illegal immigrant—without declaring it. Perez was one of the agents responsible for nearly getting President Donald Trump killed at his July 13, 2024, campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Additionally, in January a Secret Service recruit shot and killed a 16-year-old in Tamarac, Florida. The 16-year-old victim was identified as Orlando Wedderburn. A woman was also grazed. The Secret Service recruit, for his part, is claiming self-defense.

According to Crabtree, Secret Service Director Sean Curran is receiving internal criticism for not doing enough to eliminate the agency’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies, which were implemented starting in the Obama era.

Meanwhile, the agency is looking to hire 4,000 new employees by 2028.

Dems Abruptly Abandon Hasan Piker After He Becomes a Liability

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Dems Abruptly Abandon Hasan Piker After He Becomes a Liability

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) And Hasan Piker is out… sort of.

A group of Democratic lawmakers have formally ditched the accused antisemite and leftist activist following his disturbing tirade against Jewish Americans, just as the Democratic Party’s prospects for 2026 continue to dim.

Democratic leaders condemned Piker after he appeared to suggest that some individuals may justify violence against Jewish Americans if they support Israel.

“If Jews in America keep putting this—this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews,” he said during one of his livestreams.

Piker, an icon of left-wing activism, has risen to the upper echelons of the Democratic Party’s activist class and was viewed as a king-maker following the electoral victory of Zohran Mandami in New York City.

He even previously campaigned alongside embattled Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed during the primary.

But Piker may now be persona non grata within Democratic circles.

The lawmakers rebuking him include House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Cory Booker, D-N.J.; and Reps. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., Brad Schneider, D-Ill., Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., and Haley Stevens, D-Mich.

“The malicious claim that American Jews are inviting violence against themselves is dangerous and antisemitic,” Jeffries wrote without naming Piker. There is zero justification for threats against the safety of our Jewish brothers and sisters at a moment of rising hate.”

Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary for Senate, urged her party to stop engaging with Piker. She had previously rebuked him while facing El-Sayed in the race.

Slotkin echoed Jeffries’ comments, adding:  “In a time where political violence and anti-semitism has been spiking— and where just 6 months ago Michigan had a nearly deadly event of anti-semitic mass violence at Temple Israel — no one should causally be suggesting that anyone, Jews or otherwise, are to blame for being targeted.”

Rosen chimed in: “Hasan Piker has been trafficking in antisemitic tropes for a while but even this is a new low. Blaming Jewish Americans for the violence and hate they’re facing is not just wrong, it provides an excuse to those perpetuating these anti-Jewish hate crimes.”

Booker similarly condemned Piker, writing: “Hasan Piker’s dangerous and hateful language targeting Jewish Americans has no place in our civic discourse. Suggesting that Jewish Americans bear responsibility for hatred or violence directed against them is wrong, dangerous, and antisemitic.”

Scholten called Piker’s remarks “disgusting” and referred to him as a “hack.”

Schneider, Gottheimer and Auchincloss raised similar concerns in their remarks.

El-Sayed, meanwhile, issued a vague statement in response to the growing Democratic backlash, attempting to distance himself from Piker while avoiding alienating his supporters.

The Democratic retreat from Piker comes as political commentators warn that the party’s antisemitism, humiliating fundraising numbers, multimillion-dollar debt, mounting scandals and failure to counter the Trump administration could jeopardize its bid to retake the House and Senate in the 2026 midterm elections.

Poll: Republicans’ Chances of Controlling Congress in 2027 Appear Shaky

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Poll: Republicans’ Chances of Controlling Congress in 2027 Appear Shaky

(Thérèse Boudreaux, The Center Square) Four months out from the 2026 midterm elections, Republicans’ chances of maintaining control of Congress appear slim, new polling shows.

The Center Square’s newest Voters’ Voice Poll revealed that 47% of U.S. registered voters surveyed would vote for a Democratic candidate if elections were held today, while 42% would vote for a Republican. Nine percent of voters haven’t made up their minds yet.

The poll was conducted by Noble Predictive Insights from Aug. 12-16, surveying 2,533 registered U.S. voters. The sample was comprised of 930 Republicans, 930 Democrats, and 673 Independents. Among independent voters, 330 respondents were classified as True Independents, or individuals who do not lean toward either major party when given the choice. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 2.0%.

While the leanings of members in either of the two major political parties remain relatively stable, swing voters’ choices pose a growing threat to Republicans’ control of both chambers, as they do today with slim margins in both the U.S. House and Senate. Only 33% of Independents total chose a Republican candidate, while 40% chose a Democratic candidate and 20% are still unsure.

Although more than half of True Independents remain undecided, those who have decided are veering to the Democrats, with 20% choosing the Democratic candidate versus 10% choosing the Republican.

Critical bipartisan legislation funding farmers and road infrastructure has lagged in Congress, and Republicans in both chambers initially blocked War Powers Resolutions to halt military hostilities in Iran that are driving up gas and food prices.

Notably, groups particularly sensitive to the rising costs of living are turning to Democrats, who have criticized recent price increases due to the Iran conflict, President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, and Republican infighting or inaction in Congress over cost-of-living issues like healthcare and housing.

The median annual household income in the U.S. was $83,730 in 2024, according to the United States Census Bureau.

The August Voters’ Voice Poll showed that Americans earning under $50,000 per year favored Democrats over Republicans, 50% to 37%.

The median income for Black households was about $32,000 less than that, while the median income for Hispanic voters was approximately $18,000 less than the overall median income. Over two-thirds of Black voters and 59% of Hispanic voters chose a Democratic candidate in the poll.

Younger voters ages 18-29, who typically have the lowest salaries of any nonretired age group, also leaned left, with 54% supporting a Democrat and 36% supporting a Republican. Just one of the four age groups polled favored Republicans — 30 to 44-year-olds, 51% of them.

Mike Noble, founder and CEO of Noble Predictive Insights, told The Center Square that the generational differences displayed in the poll most likely reflect each group’s economic concerns.

“You see that younger voters, especially 18 through 29, who Trump definitely made inroads with last time, they’ve really fallen away. Economically, they’ve been hit the hardest,” Noble said. “And then 30 to 44, they usually get a little better income earnings at that point, they’re doing decently better. They prefer the Republican candidate – they’re kind of the populous crowd that [President Donald] Trump really dug into from the beginning.”

Female voters, whose median income in 2024 was about $14,000 less than males’, supported a Democratic candidate by 52% and a Republican candidate by 35% in the poll, with 11% remaining unsure.

By contrast, 51% male voters surveyed supported Republicans, while 40% supported Democrats and 7% remained unsure.

Even without Republicans’ political woes, political parties in power generally perform poorly during midterm elections.

“The main takeaway in the environment right now is that the Democrats really have that edge, and the race is still a little bit fluid with the True Independents,” Noble said. “People care more about these economic issues right now, and that’s where the pain point is.”

Arizona GOP Chair Slams Mayes for Not Charging Hobbs

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Arizona GOP Chair Slams Mayes for Not Charging Hobbs

(Zachery Schmidt, The Center Square) Arizona Republican Party Chair Sergio Arellano criticized Attorney General Kris Mayes’ decision not to press charges against Gov. Katie Hobbs in an alleged pay-for-play scheme.

On Friday, Mayes announced her office would not pursue criminal charges against the governor after an investigation into allegations that Sunshine Residential Homes made political donations that influenced the state’s approval for Sunshine’s rate increases.

The approval came after Sunshine made donations benefiting Hobbs and the Arizona Democratic Party in 2022. Both Hobbs and Mayes are Democrats who are running for reelection this year.

Sunshine Residential Homes, which is a private foster-care provider for Arizona children, gave $200,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party and $100,000 in 2022 to Hobbs’ fund in for her inauguration, according to various media reports.

This story has been updated with more details about the 2023 approval for a rate increase at Sunshine Residential Homes.

In May 2023, Sunshine saw its bed-per-day rate increase from $149.99 to $195, according to the attorney general’s office. The office’s legal analysis said the rate increase was approved by David Lujan, director of the Arizona Department of Child Safety. Hobbs appointed him in March 2023.

Three months later, Sunshine Residential Homes donated another $100,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party. In April 2024, the company got the state’s approval for a rate increase from $195 to $234.

This represents a 56% increase in its rates from 2019 to 2024.

In its legal analysis, Mayes’ office said it did not find any evidence “to substantiate a pay-for-play scheme involving Governor Hobbs and Sunshine.”

Mayes’ office noted two other providers “received 85% and 60% increases respectively, but their per-day rates were lower.”

The office said Sunshine Residential Homes received a rate increase because it was the Arizona Department of Child Safety’s biggest provider of congregate-care beds. The attorney general’s staff also said the DCS feared losing the company to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which pays more per bed.

“After two years of investigation, consisting of 12 interviews, reviews of campaign-finance records, procurement records, bank documents, and State emails and chats, totaling over one terabyte of data and more than 100,000 documents, the investigation has not uncovered any evidence of the necessary quid pro quo to support a bribery charge,” Mayes’ office wrote.

The attorney general’s office said Hobbs declined to be interviewed by the office for its investigation. Instead, Hobbs submitted two written responses to the attorney general’s office through her lawyers. According to the attorney general’s office, Hobbs said she never discussed Sunshine’s rates or the Department of Child Safety contracts with anyone connected with Sunshine and never ordered such discussions on her behalf. Hobbs also denied that Sunshine’s donations influenced any state agency decision.

Despite declining to prosecute the governor, Mayes said legislative reform is needed.

“The Legislature and the governor have the power to ensure greater transparency with regard to political donations made by state contractors. I am urging them to work together and try again to pass legislation that does so,” she explained.

The Center Square reached out to Hobbs’ office for an interview, but it did not respond before publication time.

According to Arellano, the attorney general dropping her investigation into the governor “isn’t just business as usual — it’s a masterclass in how corruption works in Arizona.”

“For months, Hobbs looked Arizonans in the eye and claimed she was ‘in touch’ with the [attorney general’s] office. That was a straight-up lie. She explicitly refused to sit for an interview,” the state Republican Party chair told The Center Square via email on Monday.

“No interview. No accountability. No consequences. Just same-party protection timed perfectly for election season,” Arellano said. “This is the Arizona Democratic Socialist playbook, plain as day: Delay, deny, delete the evidence, and declare ‘no quid pro quo’ when the political calendar gets tight.”

“When the people sworn to enforce the law protect their own instead of the public, the system isn’t broken. It’s working exactly as the insiders designed it,” he added.

Arellano said Arizonans deserve “better than this cartel of convenience.”

Mayes is running for reelection in the Nov. 3 general election against Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert. Petersen, the Republican nominee, said Mayes’ decision on Hobbs was “predictable in an election season.”

“She shamefully shifted accountability and protected her political ally, turning a blind eye to Hobbs’ conduct,” Petersen said on social media.

“Once again, Mayes has proven herself unfit to lead the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, putting politics ahead of enforcing the law,” he added.

Trump Claims All Mines Cleared from Strait of Hormuz

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Trump Claims All Mines Cleared from Strait of Hormuz

(Kyle Anzalone, Antiwar.com) President Donald Trump said that all mines have been removed from the Strait of Hormuz. 

“I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” the President wrote on Tuesday. “Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed. There is a Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement in full force and effect.”

The Strait of Hormuz has become a major issue in efforts to end the Middle East war. Before the conflict, the crucial waterway was treated as international territory, allowing vessels to enter and exit the Persian Gulf freely. 

After the US and Israel attacked Iran in February, Tehran seized control of the Strait. Tehran says that ending the war requires the US to recognize the Strait as Iranian and Omani territory. Iran plans to charge a “service fee” to ships transiting the waterway.

US officials claim that the Navy is assisting several tankers in transiting the Strait each day with a fighter jet escort near the Omani coastline. Last week, Washington said that 15 million barrels of oil exited the waterway on a single day. However, tracking agencies have not recorded a substantial number of vessels successfully transiting the Strait. 

On Saturday, President Donald Trump posted an image on Truth Social showing the Strait of Hormuz as “new US territory.” It is the second time he posted the graphic this month.

Over the past month, Oman and Iran have engaged in direct negotiations to come to an agreement on new shipping protocols for the Strait. The deal would give Iran full control over ships entering the Persian Gulf, while exiting ships would be subject to joint oversight between Tehran and Muscat. 

Additionally, the two nations would change service fees for ships using the Strait. The funds would be split between Iran and Oman. 

Trump threatened to bomb Muscat over negotiations with Tehran. Trump told Fox News journalist Trey Yingst: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the sh*t out of them.” Muscat has been negotiating with Tehran about the future of the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is a narrow waterway that lies between Iran and Oman. The waterway is the only entrance or exit for the Persian Gulf. About a fifth of the world’s energy crosses the Strait. 

Trump believes that the US blockade and economic war on Iran will cause significant pain and force Tehran to comply with his demands. 

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.

Elon Musk’s Space Company to Build New Rocket Launching Site in Louisiana

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Elon Musk’s Space Company to Build New Rocket Launching Site in Louisiana

(Headline USA) Elon Musk’s space company plans to spend $100 billion to build a massive new spaceport in Louisiana to launch rockets, state officials and the company announced Tuesday.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the deal was a big win for the state and country, likening the impact of the new launch site to the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

“Today is nothing short of a transformational moment,” he told lawmakers and others at a special event to celebrate the deal.

Musk was not there, but he appeared with Landry in a promotional video that played before the Republican governor’s speech. SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell also spoke at the event.

The spaceport would be located on 125,000 acres (50,600 hectares) of land formerly owned by Exxon along Louisiana’s southern coast about 200 miles (322 km) west of New Orleans in Vermilion Parish. The location provides key advantages, state officials said, including access to abundant natural gas and the ability to launch to a wide range of trajectories.

It would be the company’s fourth and largest launch site, playing a key role in ramping up missions of its reusable Starship launch system, according to a news release from 

Louisiana Economic Development. SpaceX wants to dramatically increase rocket launches as it aims to put more satellites in orbit. The Louisiana site could support thousands of launches each year, the news release said.

State lawmakers had approved sizable tax incentives for the project.

Anne Rolfes, director of the environmental advocacy group, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, said she was worried the state was moving too fast with a project that would “irrevocably alter” the state’s fragile coastline. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with the first launch targeted for as early as 2029, according to state officials.

“It should be thoughtfully done – with public hearings, and a public process that is transparent and gives people time to understand and consider the project,” Rolfes said in a statement. “The speed of the project and the fanfare and bombast make it all highly questionable.”

Shotwell said SpaceX planned to keep much of the site undeveloped and would help with restoration and protection efforts, including working to reverse land loss from erosion and “careless use.”

“We are committed to doing our part to ensure that this land doesn’t disappear,” she said.

The company plans to host town halls and other community engagement events in the coming months. State officials said the project would generate 3,000 jobs over a decade.

In June, Musk sold SpaceX shares to the public for the first time in the biggest initial public offering ever. Shares jumped as high as $225 a share, briefly making Musk a trillionaire.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

 

US Consumer Confidence Falls to Lowest Level in 7 Months with Gas Stuck Above $4

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US Consumer Confidence Falls to Lowest Level in 7 Months with Gas Stuck Above $4

(Headline USA) Americans’ confidence in the economy declined again this month as the ongoing conflict in Iran continued to push U.S. gasoline prices above $4 per gallon.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index dipped to 89.4 in August from 90.2 in July. That was the lowest level in seven months but was essentially within the same lukewarm range it has been in since the beginning of the year. In late 2024 and early 2025, readings were consistently above 100.

Respondents’ views of their present situation improved, but their short-term outlook soured.

Americans remain frustrated with the economy after five years of elevated inflation, potentially posing a risk to President Donald Trump and Republicans in the midterm elections, which are less than 70 days away.

Write-in responses to the board’s survey, collected from Aug. 3 to Aug. 16, were slightly more pessimistic this month. References to prices in general—and oil and gas prices specifically—remained elevated. Comments about war and geopolitics, food prices, trade and jobs rose in August.

Trump continues to blame high prices on his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, yet inflation has risen since Trump’s inauguration last year.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge—the personal consumption expenditures price index—was up 3.7% in June from a year earlier. That was down from May’s 4.1% year-over-year increase but up from 2.8% before the Iran war began on Feb. 28. It was 2.5% when Trump was inaugurated in January 2025.

The government issues its July PCE data Wednesday.

Consumers’ views of the current labor market improved in August, with 27% saying jobs were “plentiful,” up from 24.4% in July. However, respondents were more negative about the labor market over the next six months, with just 14.6% expecting more jobs to be available, down from 16.4% last month.

The U.S. job market stalled unexpectedly in July as employers cut 23,000 jobs. To make matters worse, Labor Department revisions erased 103,000 jobs from previously reported May and June payrolls.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, but for the wrong reason: Thousands of people dropped out of the labor market, leaving fewer people competing for work.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

ICE Arrests Jumped to Nearly 50,000 in July, the Highest Monthly Total of Trump’s Second Term

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ICE Arrests Jumped to Nearly 50,000 in July, the Highest Monthly Total of Trump’s Second Term

(Headline USA)  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 50,000 illegal aliens in July, the highest single monthly arrest total during the second Trump administration, according to new figures.

The spike in illegal immigration arrests shows that the administration has continued to advance its mass deportations agenda despite a shift in approach earlier this year from high-profile operations in large American cities that sparked a public outcry to arrests that have garnered less attention. 

The July arrest tally of 49,571 marks a 15% jump from 43,021 arrests a month earlier and a 70% increase from 29,241 in February, in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in Minnesota, according to government data that was provided by ICE to the Deportation Data Project based at U.C. Berkeley and UCLA and analyzed by The Associated Press.

As part of the surging arrest numbers over recent weeks and bolstered by a hiring surge, ICE has made arrests at traffic stops. The agency has increasingly relied on state and local law enforcement partners who are assuming illegal immigration enforcement duties. 

The new arrest numbers show the administration “didn’t stop the enforcement,” said Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies.

“They changed the tactics and are, if anything, being more effective.”

Illegal immigration arrests the month before President Donald Trump returned to office hovered a little over 8,000, a figure largely made up of illegal immigrants transferred from city or state jails and prisons and turned over to ICE to remove from the country. 

During Trump’s first year back in office, the numbers started climbing as the administration loosened restrictions on where and whom ICE could arrest while it also infused the agency with billions of dollars.

By December, the number of arrests jumped to more than 40,177, according to the data, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Homeland Security largely stopped reporting illegal immigration enforcement data at the beginning of the second Trump administration, making the data from the Deportation Data Project one of the few insights into how the agency is operating.

In the aftermath of two fatal shootings in Minnesota in January that sparked protests and an uproar from Democratic lawmakers, arrests began to fall in February. After remaining stagnant for months, the numbers surged in June and then again in July.

The number of arrests made by state and local police departments who partner with ICE has dramatically increased over the last year. Those partnerships, which ICE has grown with the help of generous financial incentives for participating agencies, accounted for 6,500 arrests in July, or about 13% of the total, the data showed. A year earlier, they accounted for less than 5% of ICE’s monthly arrests.

Texas and Florida accounted for nearly 20,000 of the July arrests, in a sign of how important those states have become to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. Both states have leaned heavily into those cooperation deals with ICE, known as 287g agreements, that allow local and state law enforcement to essentially operate as arms of federal illegal immigration enforcement.

That close cooperation is increasingly resulting in arrests like one last week in Florida’s Key West. The manager at the Half Shell Raw Bar said Tuesday that one of his staff members, a 36-year-old asylum seeker who fled Haiti in 2017 after receiving death threats, was arrested by local police and turned over to ICE.

The manager, Bobby Kuchinsky, said the man had worked as a cook and supervisor at the restaurant and was the main provider of his family. Kuchinsky declined to identify the man out of concern for his safety while in custody.

“He was an excellent worker, he learned very fast, he never had any problem with the law,” Kuchinsky said in an interview with the AP, noting that it will be a challenge to replace him. “He was a nice kid, he was a family man.”

In his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pledged to keep ICE out of the headlines, suggesting that the administration’s illegal immigration crackdown might take a softer approach. 

Under Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem, illegal immigration enforcement was often characterized by high-profile operations that targeted specific Democratic cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Operations, often led by former Border Patrol agent Greg Bovino, were blasted out on social media videos showing officers bursting out of moving vans to chase people or rappelling from helicopters onto apartment rooftops.

The administration has often said its illegal immigration enforcement operations target people who have committed crimes in the U.S. and as a way to make the country safer.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

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