US Coast Guard to add heavy icebreaker amid shipbuilding overhaul
The new vessel — the first heavy polar icebreaker to be built in the U.S. in about five decades — will be constructed by Bollinger Shipyards.
Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards, hailed the move in a release as 'a historic achievement not only for Bollinger Shipyards but also for American shipbuilding.'
'Securing the green light for full production underscores the confidence the U.S. government places in Bollinger to deliver the nation's first heavy polar icebreaker in nearly 50 years,' he said.
The U.S. Coast Guard currently fields a single heavy polar icebreaker, the USCGC Polar Star, and a single medium polar icebreaker, the USCGC Healy.
The Healy was put out of action by an electrical fire last July and the Polar Star is nearly five decades old.
To compensate for a dearth of existing icebreakers, the service in December purchased a commercially available light polar icebreaker — which was renamed the USCGC Storis — that became the first to be added to the service's fleet in a 25-year period.
The green light for the heavy polar icebreaker, meanwhile, comes as the U.S. military has observed a recent surge in foreign maritime activity in the Arctic region, including a joint Chinese-Russian air patrol near Alaska last summer.
In an April 9 executive order, President Donald Trump called for a new strategy to improve maritime security in the Arctic. Resources to ramp up Coast Guard vessel production are part of the reconciliation bill currently being considered by lawmakers.
The bill would provide over $9 billion for Coast Guard vessel manufacturing, which could see the construction of up to 30 new cutters of various sizes and operational capabilities, as reported by USNI News. Those new vessels could include three or more Arctic security cutters, two polar security cutters, eight heritage-class offshore patrol cutters and up to 15 fast response cutters.
The legislation also includes provisions to increase Coast Guard aviation capacity, with funding for fixed and rotary wing aircraft and maintenance.
Additional vessels are only one facet of sweeping changes now being introduced to the U.S. Coast Guard, which is currently being restructured according to a recently announced initiative called Force Design 2028.
'We are executing transformational change to renew the Coast Guard,' said Acting Commandant Kevin Lunday in a statement.
Changes would include the addition of a Coast Guard service secretary, a move that has already been proposed in legislation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
It's Trump's economy now. The latest financial numbers offer some warning signs
WASHINGTON (AP) — For all of President Donald Trump's promises of an economic 'golden age,' a spate of weak indicators this week told a potentially worrisome story as the impacts of his policies are coming into focus. Job gains are dwindling. Inflation is ticking upward. Growth has slowed compared to last year. More than six months into his term, Trump's blitz of tariff hikes and his new tax and spending bill have remodeled America's trading, manufacturing, energy and tax systems to his own liking. He's eager to take credit for any wins that might occur and is hunting for someone else to blame if the financial situation starts to totter. But as of now, this is not the boom the Republican president promised, and his ability to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for any economic challenges has faded as the world economy hangs on his every word and social media post. When Friday's jobs report turned out to be decidedly bleak, Trump ignored the warnings in the data and fired the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs figures. 'Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can't be manipulated for political purposes,' Trump said on Truth Social, without offering evidence for his claim. 'The Economy is BOOMING.' It's possible that the disappointing numbers are growing pains from the rapid transformation caused by Trump and that stronger growth will return — or they may be a preview of even more disruption to come. Trump's economic plans are a political gamble Trump's aggressive use of tariffs, executive actions, spending cuts and tax code changes carries significant political risk if he is unable to deliver middle-class prosperity. The effects of his new tariffs are still several months away from rippling through the economy, right as many Trump allies in Congress will be campaigning in the midterm elections. 'Considering how early we are in his term, Trump's had an unusually big impact on the economy already,' said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist at Firehouse Strategies. 'The full inflationary impact of the tariffs won't be felt until 2026. Unfortunately for Republicans, that's also an election year.' The White House portrayed the blitz of trade frameworks leading up to Thursday's tariff announcement as proof of his negotiating prowess. The European Union, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and other nations that the White House declined to name agreed that the U.S. could increase its tariffs on their goods without doing the same to American products. Trump simply set rates on other countries that lacked settlements. The costs of those tariffs — taxes paid on imports to the U.S. — will be most felt by many Americans in the form of higher prices, but to what extent remains uncertain. 'For the White House and their allies, a key part of managing the expectations and politics of the Trump economy is maintaining vigilance when it comes to public perceptions,' said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist. Just 38% of adults approve of Trump's handling of the economy, according to a July poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. That's down from the end of Trump's first term when half of adults approved of his economic leadership. The White House paints a rosier image, seeing the economy emerging from a period of uncertainty after Trump's restructuring and repeating the economic gains seen in his first term before the pandemic struck. 'President Trump is implementing the very same policy mix of deregulation, fairer trade, and pro-growth tax cuts at an even bigger scale – as these policies take effect, the best is yet to come,' White House spokesman Kush Desai said. Recent economic reports suggest trouble ahead The economic numbers over the past week show the difficulties that Trump might face if the numbers continue on their current path: — Friday's jobs report showed that U.S. employers have shed 37,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump's tariff launch in April, undermining prior White House claims of a factory revival. — Net hiring has plummeted over the past three months with job gains of just 73,000 in July, 14,000 in June and 19,000 in May — a combined 258,000 jobs lower than previously indicated. On average last year, the economy added 168,000 jobs a month. — A Thursday inflation report showed that prices have risen 2.6% over the year that ended in June, an increase in the personal consumption expenditures price index from 2.2% in April. Prices of heavily imported items, such as appliances, furniture, and toys and games, jumped from May to June. — On Wednesday, a report on gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the U.S. economy — showed that it grew at an annual rate of less than 1.3% during the first half of the year, down sharply from 2.8% growth last year. 'The economy's just kind of slogging forward,' said Guy Berger, senior fellow at the Burning Glass Institute, which studies employment trends. 'Yes, the unemployment rate's not going up, but we're adding very few jobs. The economy's been growing very slowly. It just looks like a 'meh' economy is continuing.' Trump's Fed attacks could unleash more inflation Trump has sought to pin the blame for any economic troubles on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, saying the Fed should cut its benchmark interest rates even though doing so could generate more inflation. Trump has publicly backed two Fed governors, Christoper Waller and Michelle Bowman, for voting for rate cuts at Wednesday's meeting. But their logic is not what the president wants to hear: They were worried, in part, about a slowing job market. But this is a major economic gamble being undertaken by Trump and those pushing for lower rates under the belief that mortgages will also become more affordable as a result and boost homebuying activity. His tariff policy has changed repeatedly over the last six months, with the latest import tax numbers serving as a substitute for what the president announced in April, which provoked a stock market sell-off. It might not be a simple one-time adjustment as some Fed board members and Trump administration officials argue. Trump didn't listen to the warnings on 'universal' tariffs Of course, Trump can't say no one warned him about the possible consequences of his economic policies. Biden, then the outgoing president, did just that in a speech last December at the Brookings Institution, saying the cost of the tariffs would eventually hit American workers and businesses. 'He seems determined to impose steep, universal tariffs on all imported goods brought into this country on the mistaken belief that foreign countries will bear the cost of those tariffs rather than the American consumer,' Biden said. 'I believe this approach is a major mistake.' Josh Boak And Christopher Rugber, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
27 minutes ago
Rural US high schools are offering more college-level classes, but college can still be a tough sell
PERRY, N.Y. -- As a student in western New York's rural Wyoming County, Briar Townes honed an artistic streak that he hopes to make a living from one day. In high school, he clicked with a college-level drawing and painting class. But despite the college credits he earned, college isn't part of his plan. Since graduating from high school in June, he has been overseeing an art camp at the county's Arts Council. If that doesn't turn into a permanent job, there is work at Creative Food Ingredients, known as the 'cookie factory' for the way it makes the town smell like baking cookies, or at local factories like American Classic Outfitters, which designs and sews athletic uniforms. 'My stress is picking an option, not finding an option,' he said. Even though rural students graduate from high school at higher rates than their peers in cities and suburbs, fewer of them go on to college. Many rural school districts, including the one in Perry that Townes attends, have begun offering college-level courses and working to remove academic and financial obstacles to higher education, with some success. But college doesn't hold the same appeal for students in rural areas where they often would need to travel farther for school, parents have less college experience themselves, and some of the loudest political voices are skeptical of the need for higher education. College enrollment for rural students has remained largely flat in recent years, despite the district-level efforts and stepped-up recruitment by many universities. About 55% of rural U.S. high school students who graduated in 2023 enrolled in college, according to National Clearinghouse Research Center data. That's compared to 64% of suburban graduates and 59% of urban graduates. College can make a huge difference in earning potential. An American man with a bachelor's degree earns an estimated $900,000 more over his lifetime than a peer with a high school diploma, research by the Social Security Administration has found. For women, the difference is about $630,000. A lack of a college degree is no obstacle to opportunity in places such as Wyoming County, where people like to say there are more cows than people. The dairy farms, potato fields and maple sugar houses are a source of identity and jobs for the county just east of Buffalo. 'College has never really been, I don't know, a necessity or problem in my family,' said Townes, the middle of three children whose father has a tattoo shop in Perry. At Perry High School, Superintendent Daryl McLaughlin said the district takes cues from students like Townes, their families and the community, supplementing college offerings with programs geared toward career and technical fields such as the building trades. He said he is as happy to provide reference checks for employers and the military as he is to write recommendations for college applications. 'We're letting our students know these institutions, whether it is a college or whether employers, they're competing for you,' he said. 'Our job is now setting them up for success so that they can take the greatest advantage of that competition, ultimately, to improve their quality of life.' Still, college enrollment in the district has exceeded the national average in recent years, going from 60% of the class of 2022's 55 graduates to 67% of 2024's and 56% of 2025's graduates. The district points to a decision to direct federal pandemic relief money toward covering tuition for students in its Accelerated College Enrollment program — a partnership with Genesee Community College. When the federal money ran out, the district paid to keep it going. 'This is a program that's been in our community for quite some time, and it's a program our community supports,' McLaughlin said. About 15% of rural U.S. high school students were enrolled in college classes in January 2025 through such dual enrollment arrangements, a slightly lower rate than urban and suburban students, an Education Department survey found. Rural access to dual enrollment is a growing area of focus as advocates seek to close gaps in access to higher education. The College in High School Alliance this year announced funding for seven states to develop policy to expand programs for rural students. Around the country, many students feel jaded by the high costs of college tuition. And Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value of college, polls have shown, with Republicans, the dominant party in rural America, losing confidence in higher education at higher rates than Democrats. 'Whenever you have this narrative that 'college is bad, college is bad, these professors are going to indoctrinate you,' it's hard,' said Andrew Koricich, executive director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. 'You have to figure out, how do you crack through that information ecosphere and say, actually, people with a bachelor's degree, on average, earn 65% more than people with a high school diploma only?' In much of rural America, about 21% of people over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree, compared to about 36% of adults in other areas, according to a government analysis of U.S. Census findings. In rural Putnam County, Florida, about 14% of adults have a bachelor's degree. That doesn't stop principal Joe Theobold from setting and meeting an annual goal of 100% college admission for students at Q.I. Roberts Jr.-Sr. High School. Paper mills and power plants provide opportunities for a middle class life in the county, where the cost of living is low. But Theobold tells students the goal of higher education 'is to go off and learn more about not only the world, but also about yourself.' 'You don't want to be 17 years old, determining what you're going to do for the rest of your life,' he said. Families choose the magnet school because of its focus on higher education, even though most of the district's parents never went to a college. Many students visit college campuses through Camp Osprey, a University of North Florida program that helps students experience college dorms and dining halls. In upstate New York, high school junior Devon Wells grew up on his family farm in Perry but doesn't see his future there. He's considering a career in welding, or as an electrical line worker in South Carolina, where he heard the pay might be double what he would make at home. None of his plans require college, he said. 'I grew up on a farm, so that's all hands-on work. That's really all I know and would want to do,' Devon said. Neither his nor Townes' parents have pushed one way or the other, they said. 'I remember them talking to me like, `Hey, would you want to go to college?' I remember telling them, 'not really,'' Townes said. He would have listened if a college recruiter reached out, he said, but wouldn't be willing to move very far.
CNN
37 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump wants to talk business with Africa in hopes of countering China. But a US summit excluded Africa's big players
The White House hosted an 'African leaders' summit of sorts this week. But only five countries from the continent of more than 50 nations were welcome to join. US President Donald Trump hosted a working lunch in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, bringing together the presidents of Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Senegal, and Gabon for a discussion focused on 'commercial opportunities,' a White House official told CNN. 'This discussion and lunch dialog with African heads of state was arranged because President Trump believes that African countries offer incredible commercial opportunities which benefit both the American people and our African partners,' the White House official said. The multilateral lunch is scheduled for noon in the State Dining Room of the White House. Going into the meeting, Liberia said that the 'high-level summit' intends 'to deepen diplomatic ties, advance shared economic goals, and enhance security cooperation' between Washington and 'select African nations.' However, none of Africa's big players, such as its largest economies South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia, were asked to attend. These nations are allied to BRICS, a group of emerging economies founded by Brazil, India, and America's adversaries, Russia and China. BRICS members face the threat of being hit with new tariffs from Trump for supporting 'anti-American' policies. During the meeting, the five African leaders heaped praise on Trump as they encouraged him to invest in their countries and develop their plentiful natural resources. The leaders joined the US president for lunch in the State Dining Room, where each leader went around the table thanking Trump for his invitation. 'I didn't know I'd be treated this nicely. This is great. We could do this all day long,' Trump said in response to the flattery. Christopher Afoke Isike, a professor of African politics and international relations at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, describes Trump's handpicked guests for his US summit as 'low-hanging fruit' in his quest to counter Chinese and Russian influence in Africa. 'On one hand, Trump is desperate for some deal to show to his base that he is getting results for America. But some of these also align with his focus on countering Chinese influence in Africa and malign Russian activity which undermines US interests on the continent,' he told CNN. 'Most of the regional powers in Africa are either in BRICS as key members or are aspiring to join as key partners,' Isike said, adding that 'these five countries (attending the US summit) do not fall into that category and as such are a kind of low-hanging fruit.' China is Africa's largest bilateral trading partner while its ally Russia has expanded its footprint on the continent, emerging as a major supplier of military hardware. This is not the first time Trump has hosted a small group of African leaders in the US, deviating from the approach of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who hosted fuller gatherings of African heads of government while in the White House. During his first term in office — viewed by some as 'dismissive toward Africa' — Trump hosted a 'working lunch' in 2017 with nine African heads of state, whom he described as 'partners for promoting prosperity and peace on a range of economic, humanitarian, and security issues.' 'Africa has tremendous business potential,' Trump said in that meeting, which included the leaders of Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa. Now in his second term, Trump has kept an eye on Africa's mineral wealth, with the US keen to challenge China's access to critical minerals in the region. However, he advocates a transactional policy that swaps charity for strategic US investment. When a peace deal brokered by Trump was signed last month by Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which harbors large deposits of minerals critical to the production of electronics, Trump told reporters that the accord allows the US to get 'a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo.' While the signed peace agreement does not specifically forfeit any mineral rights to the US, the document includes a framework 'to expand foreign trade and investment derived from regional critical mineral supply chains,' specifically to 'link both countries, in partnership, as appropriate, with the US government and US investors.' In a statement July 1, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the end of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which delivered US humanitarian aid overseas, saying that 'the countries that benefit the most from our generosity usually fail to reciprocate' and that future US aid and investment 'must be in furtherance of an America First foreign policy.' The Trump administration had previously canceled more than 80% of programs at USAID and has imposed 'reciprocal' tariffs on several countries, including many in Africa which Trump said had trade deficits with the US. South Africa has described the 'reciprocal' tariff which is due to take effect on August 1 as not based on 'an accurate representation of available trade data.' Trump has also banned travel for 12 mostly African and Middle Eastern nations – citing security risks – amid an aggressive clampdown on immigration by his administration. A mooted expansion of the travel restrictions would halt travel to the US for swathes of West Africa, if implemented. China, meanwhile, is softening the impact of US tariffs on Africa, announcing last month it would halt charges on imports for nearly all its African partners, except Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) which is friendly toward Taiwan — which China's ruling Communist Party claims as its own, despite never having controlled it. Although small economies, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and Liberia are rich in mineral resources including oil and gas, gold, iron ore, and rare earth elements. At the White House meeting, Gabon's President Brice Oligui Nguema underscored the mineral wealth of their countries and encouraged the US to partner with them to develop their resources. 'We are not poor countries. We are rich countries when it comes to raw materials. But we need partners to support us and help us develop those resources with win-win partnerships,' he said. Nguema also pushed Trump to purchase from Gabon rather than through companies. 'I'm sure that it's more expensive compared to when you can come and buy directly from us,' he said. Discussions at the Trump-hosted summit extended beyond commerce. Nguema addressed his country's efforts to curb piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. 'We can't do it alone. We need a reliable and strong partner that is committed and that takes real action,' he added. The West and Central African nations are also a common departure point for would-be migrants to the US. 'There may be other stakes: migratory trends from West Africa to Nicaragua and then the US,' as well as 'security, as all of those (five) countries have an opening on the Atlantic Ocean,' Ousmane Sene, who heads the Senegal-based research organization, the West African Research Center (WARC), told CNN. Last year, the New York Times reported, citing government data, that the US was seeing an increasing number of African migrants at its southern border — rising from just over 13,000 in 2022 to 58,462 in 2023. Nationals from Mauritania and Senegal were top of the list, the report said. For Dakar-based journalist and political analyst Mamadou Thior, who covered the first US–Africa Leaders' Summit hosted by Obama in 2014, the leaders of the five African nations must 'be as clever as Donald Trump' in talks with the White House. 'Trump is a businessman. So only the interests of America interest him,' Thior said. 'The USAID, which was a key partner for countries like Senegal, no longer exists. It's up to them to talk to Trump, to see what new cooperation they can put forward.' In Isike's view, 'this meeting is going to inaugurate a new US diplomatic model — one that is transactionally tied to economic reform (and) trade outcomes for the US.' Nonetheless, the five African nations 'can expect to leverage private sector partnerships, investment, infrastructural development, and security cooperation with the US,' he said. These nations are not new to high-stakes relations with global powers. They have each been courted by China, which has boosted trade volumes between them and funded infrastructure in Gabon and Senegal. When Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embaló met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing in September, the former had kind words for the host nation. 'For Africa,' Embaló said, according to a statement by Chinese foreign ministry, 'China represents the future and is a brother.' 'Guinea-Bissau is willing to be a trustworthy friend and partner of China,' he added. Last month, Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko was also full of praise for China, thanking it for awarding dozens 'of preparation scholarships' to his nation's athletes and coaches ahead of next year's Summer Youth Olympics. In the same statement, Sonko expressed frustration with the US decision to deny visas to 'several members of the Senegal women's national basketball team' — a leading force in African women's basketball — forcing them to cancel a training camp they had scheduled in the US. With a wider African leaders' summit mooted by the White House for later in the year, Trump has made one thing clear, according to Isike: an urgent shift 'from traditional aid to strategic commerce-driven engagement.' However, the shift is 'a high-stakes gamble that aligns with America's goal to reset its influence in Africa through investment but also to counter China and foster economically self-reliant African partners,' Isike added. 'Enabling Africa to be self-reliant is not because he (Trump) loves Africa, but because he doesn't have patience with countries that only want handouts from the US,' Isike said, adding that 'these trade deals and the meeting (this week) aligns with the US' priority to favor countries that are able to help themselves.' CNN's Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to this report.
