Author: rpnadmin

President Trump’s plan to put weapons in space — pitched as a “Golden Dome for America” missile defense program — is estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over a 20-year period, according to a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, a far heftier sum than the initial $175 billion price tag he gave last year. The nonpartisan CBO report, published Tuesday, is described as an analysis that reflects “one illustrative approach rather than an estimate of a specific Administration proposal.” The futuristic system was ordered by Trump in an executive order during his first week in office. He said then…

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that immigration officers in Colorado have violated his order limiting when they can arrest people without a warrant. U.S. District Senior Judge R. Brooke Jackson said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have violated his November order that barred them from arresting anyone without a warrant unless they had probable cause to believe a person is in the country illegally and likely to escape before officers can get a warrant. Since then, Jackson said ICE agents have violated the order by continuing to make warrantless arrests “without individualized, pre-arrest probable cause determinations of flight risk.” The…

SAO PAULO — Brazil said Tuesday that the European Union has moved to block its animal product exports from September, just days after a mega deal between the South American trade bloc Mercosur and the EU on a trans-Atlantic market estimated at $22 trillion went into effect, at least provisionally. The deal, which is now before the European Court of Justice, has faced opposition from European farmers and environmental groups worried about unfair competition, threats to their livelihoods, price pressures and environmental standards. A statement from Brazil’s agriculture ministry said Europe’s decision was received “with surprise,” adding that the South…

NEW YORK — The estranged husband of a prominent New York City art dealer said he wished his spouse was dead before the co-owner of a contemporary art gallery was found stabbed to death in his Brazilian townhouse, a witness testified Tuesday as a murder-for-hire trial got underway in Manhattan. Angela Liriano, a retired pharmacist and the murder-for-hire trial’s first witness, said she was shocked at the way a “very mad” Daniel Sikkema spoke about his estranged husband, 75-year-old art dealer Brent Sikkema, when she told him that she heard that his spouse was going to Brazil. “He said: ‘Oh,…

An Iranian man who ran a smuggling ring that assisted illegal immigrants from Iran, including an associate of that nation’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, pled guilty to federal charges Tuesday. Sharon Gohari was also caught with a bundle of child sex abuse videos on his phone, as well as photos authorities said were taken while stalking and recording women in New York City. Prosecutors described Gohari, an Iranian who naturalized as a U.S. citizen, as a “professional alien smuggler” who helped Iranians get to Mexico, usually by way of Turkey. He then had a team in Tijuana that helped them…

The city of Austin will pay $35 million to three men and the family of a fourth who were wrongly accused of the 1991 rape and murder of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop, a case that initially sent one of the men to death row and another to life in prison, under a tentative settlement reached Tuesday. Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn and Maurice Pierce had all insisted they were innocent of one of the city’s most notorious crimes. They were finally declared innocent by a judge in February after investigators determined the crime was committed by…

Federal intelligence officials on Tuesday coordinated with law enforcement authorities to go over security protocols before the FIFA World Cup kicks off next month. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said more than 100 officers from across the intelligence community, as well as state and local law enforcement partners, joined in on the symposium that covered potential threats to the event spanning the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Some of those prospective challenges include safeguarding against drug trafficking, cyber attacks, said officials with the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) tasked with leading the appropriate response in case of a…

Skyrocketing inflation, rising gasoline prices and crushing housing costs have pressured Republicans in Congress to make an emergency pivot to affordability measures as they face an increasingly dissatisfied electorate that could boot them out of the majority in November. Lawmakers are weighing a suspension of the federal gas tax and a sweeping housing reform bill after arriving on Capitol Hill Tuesday to alarming economic news: Consumer prices rose to 3.8% in April, the highest level since May 2023. “Clearly, this is an issue that every American is dealing with. And some of it — the circumstances are beyond their control,”…

A Colorado man who breached the perimeter fence at Denver International Airport late Friday and walked onto an active runway has been identified as 41-year-old Michael Mott, airport officials and the city’s chief medical examiner announced Tuesday. Sterling McLaren, Denver’s chief medical examiner, ruled the manner of death a suicide. No note was recovered, and officials based their determination on the post-mortem examination. Denver police are continuing to investigate Mr. Mott’s motivations and are asking anyone who knew him to contact authorities.  Frontier Flight 4345, an Airbus A321, was departing Denver en route to Los Angeles and carried 224 passengers…

Instructure, the company behind the Canvas learning management system, said Monday it reached an agreement with hackers to recover recently stolen data. Instructure said it convinced the “unauthorized actor” behind the cyberattacks to return the data, adding the hackers confirmed they destroyed any data left on their end. The company did not name the party responsible or specify the terms of the agreement. “While there is never complete certainty when dealing with cybercriminals, we believe it was important to take every step within our control to give customers additional peace of mind, to the extent possible. We continue to work…