Trump's Threat to Kill SpaceX Presents One Hidden Safety Concern
And it's the fate of the International Space Station that is actually the number one reason why an utterly defunded SpaceX might be a very dangerous thing. In 2024, NASA awarded SpaceX a contract valued at $843 million. The purpose? To deorbit the International Space Station by the end of the decade. Basically, the ISS is not designed to stay in orbit forever, and before it is replaced by something more permanent, it will have to be safely moved to a low Earth orbit. This means that SpaceX is currently tasked by the U.S. government to build the United States Deorbit Vehicle (USDV).
"Selecting a U.S. Deorbit Vehicle for the International Space Station will help NASA and its international partners ensure a safe and responsible transition in low Earth orbit at the end of station operations," Ken Bowersox said in a NASA statement last year.In a hypothetical world in which Trump decides to rescind all government contracts for SpaceX, that would presumably include killing the all-important job of SpaceX building the USDV. And if SpaceX doesn't build the USDV, who will help mitigate the very real fallout of a large space station?
Again, hypothetically, there are other organizations that have spacecraft, but as the stranding of Wilmore and Williams recently demonstrated, SpaceX has proven to be the most reliable way for the U.S. to get people in and out of space. In fact, the whole reason that Wilmore and Williams were stranded was because the Boeing Starliner — a rival aerospace venture to SpaceX — was unable to complete a return trip because of safety concerns.
Concurrent with all of this, Blue Origin's New Glenn craft isn't even close to being ready. Notably, Blue Origin's other craft, the New Shepard, isn't designed to go far enough into space to be useful to the ISS.
One might wonder if SpaceX really needs the money. And it's possible the company doesn't. As Musk pointed out on June 3, the entirety of what NASA pays to SpaceX ($1.1 billion) is dwarfed by SpaceX's current revenue ($15.5 billion). Basically, SpaceX's Starlink services are making plenty of money for the company, so if Trump rescinded even just that contract valued at roughly $800 million, it wouldn't come close to putting SpaceX out of business.
Legally, Trump might be able to try and sever ties between SpaceX and the U.S. government, specifically, NASA. But practically speaking, this seems very unlikely long-term. Right now, SpaceX is the best bet for creating a safe deorbit for the ISS. And, if any more astronauts get stranded — from any country — it seems like Musk's Dragons are still the most reliable space taxi.Trump's Threat to Kill SpaceX Presents One Hidden Safety Concern first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 6, 2025
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Trump administration will release more than $5 billion in frozen education funding
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'Am I dreaming?': Soccer coach who says he was deported over his tattoo celebrates his release from CECOT
On Wednesday, more than a dozen children in lime green soccer uniform surrounded Jerce Reyes Barrios, hugging and jumping on their former coach as onlookers cheered. Earlier in the week, hundreds of residents of the Venezuelan town of Machiques de Perija lined the street and cheered as a Venezuelan National Guard truck pulled into town to drop Reyes Barrios off at his home. The crowd threw confetti, jumped up and down, and joyfully roared as he exited the vehicle. The exuberant homecoming was in stark contrast to the welcome he received in March at El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison, where he says he and over 200 other Venezuelan nationals, accused by the Trump administration of being members of the gang Tren de Aragua, were violently ushered into the facility. "Welcome to hell on earth, where you will be condemned and spend the rest of your life, where I will make sure you never eat chicken or meat again," Reyes Barrios recalled one prison guard allegedly telling the men. "That was when I shed my first tear and thought, wow -- my first time being psychologically abused," he told ABC News in an interview Friday, speaking in Spanish from his home in Venezuela, after being released from CECOT in a prisoner swap last week. Reyes Barrios and his fellow detainees were deported from the U.S. when the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act -- an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process -- by arguing that Tren de Aragua is a "hybrid criminal state" that is invading the United States. An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged shortly afterward that "many" of the men deported on March 15 lacked criminal records in the United States -- but said that "the lack of specific information about each individual" actually "demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile." In March, ABC News reported about Reyes Barrios' imprisonment after his attorney, Linette Tobin, submitted a sworn declaration and documents in court she said backed up her claim that her client had no criminal record in Venezuela or the United States, was employed as a professional soccer player and youth coach, and was falsely accused of being a gang member because of his tattoo which showed a crown on top of a soccer ball with a rosary and the word "Dios," meaning "God." Reyes Barrios' family echoed what his attorney said in court filings, and told ABC News that his tattoo was modeled after the Real Madrid soccer team logo. "I got the tattoo because my favorite team is Real Madrid, which has a crown on top of a circle symbolizing the ball, that's why I got it," Reyes Barrios told ABC News. "For me, soccer is the king of sports so it correlates with the soccer ball with the crown." Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement to ABC News, said, "DHS intelligence assessments go beyond tattoos, and we are confident in our findings. We aren't going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one. That would be insane." 'We were practically lied to' Reyes Barrios crossed the U.S.-Mexico border legally through the CBP One app in September 2025, but was accused of being a Tren de Aragua member and was detained at a facility under maximum security, court records show. "The investigator ... sees my tattoos and tells me this tattoo belongs to the Tren de Aragua gang. I was unaware of (the gang) because in Venezuela you don't really see that," Reyes Barrios said. DHS accused Reyes Barrios of having a gang-affiliated tattoo and also claimed there were photos showing him displaying gang signs. According to Tobin's declaration, those alleged gang signs were the hand symbols for "rock and roll" and "I love you" in sign language. After Tobin presented information about his lack of a criminal record and the source of the tattoo, which included a sworn declaration from the tattoo artist who designed it, Reyes Barrios was transferred out of maximum security. Despite having a court hearing set for April 17, he was transferred to a detention facility in Texas and was promptly deported to El Salvador on March 15, along with over 200 other men. He says ICE officials did not tell the men where they were being sent before they boarded the plane. "There were three planes, everyone clapping because we were going to Venezuela," he said. On the plane, ICE officials ordered the men to keep the windows closed. "The surprise for us -- when we landed in San Salvador," he said. "We were practically lied to." 'We could hear screams' The violent intake process at CECOT was caught on camera and published on social media by Trump administration officials and El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele. Reyes Barrios said that once inside the prison, their heads were shaved and they were stripped naked and given prison uniforms. He claims guards beat the men throughout the entire process -- but the real terror started when the men were ushered into "Module 8." "You felt the tension entering that module because we could hear screams. We saw blood, we saw vomit ... people were fainting," he said. It was at that moment that he said a prison official welcomed the men to "hell on earth." From that moment on, Reyes Barrios said the men were not only isolated from other prisoners, but were also cut off from the world. They were unaware, he said, that a federal judge had unsuccessfully ordered the Trump administration to turn their planes around when the ACLU filed an emergency motion in court. "We couldn't see the sun, I mean, we didn't know anything. We said that we had been forgotten, that we were literally going to die there, that no one was fighting for us," he said. The men were regularly beaten, he said. Their beards grew long and unkept. He said the lights inside their crowded cells were kept on and the guards would regularly beat their batons against the bars to keep the men from sleeping during the day. When members of the Red Cross or other officials would visit the prison, Reyes Barrios says the prisoners were handed clean clothes and allowed to shower. They were given better food to maintain the appearance that they were being treated well, he said. "They would take one cell to supposedly go play soccer," he said. "They would have us pretend to play for five minutes, record a video, take a photo, and then back inside. No one else would go out. " The men passed the time playing games and exercising. Reyes Barrios said he read the Bible as he fell into depression. "I read a lot about Job's story because just as God gave Job the patience to endure everything that happened to him, I asked God to give me patience." Then, more than three months into their imprisonment, the men began to suspect something strange was happening when they were given haircuts. At two in the morning, a guard told the men they had 20 minutes to shower. They started to suspect they were about to be released, Reyes Barrios said. "We start clapping, because they never send us to shower at two in the morning," he said. They were each given plain clothes, sneakers, and a sweater. "Some started crying and that moment was beautiful," he said. On July 18, more than 250 Venezuelan migrants were freed by El Salvador and transported to Venezuela. In exchange, the Venezuela's Maduro regime agreed to release 10 American prisoners from their custody. 'Am I dreaming?' A video taken by Reyes Barrios' sister showed the tearful moment he hugged his father after arriving back in his hometown of Machiques de Perija. "Could it be true or am I dreaming?" he says he asks himself now that he has been freed. "I pinch myself, yes it's real." "That welcome the people gave me, I didn't expect it, but that shows the U.S. government that I'm not a criminal," he said. Reyes Barrios says he has no plans of returning to the United States at the moment, but he fears being detained again. A team of lawyers is advising him on filing a potential lawsuit, but he has not yet made a decision. He said he's focused on spending time with his daughters and with God. "At night I would ask God to show me my future in dreams -- what will become of my life," Reyes Barrios recalled of his time in CECOT. "I dreamed of being in my town with my daughters with my parents, and I'd head straight to the soccer field," he said.
UPI
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- UPI
Tesla shareS end week in decline amid third straight quarterly loss
Guests attend the opening of the retro-futuristic Tesla Diner & Drive-In in Los Angeles on Monday to view a prototype for a new form of deluxe Tesla charging stations. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo July 24 (UPI) -- Tesla's shares price declined 1.74% for the week on Friday, two days after posting declining profits for a third straight quarter amid increased competition and a pending loss of federal tax credits. On Friday, the stock price closed at $316.06, up $10.76, or 3.52%, from the day before, when the stock slumped 8.2%. Its market capitalization slumped to $984.73 billion. Tesla earnings report was released after the market closed on Wednesday. Tesla is down 16.7% year to date but up 43.5% from one year ago, according to NASDAQ. Tesla's price was as low as $284.70 on June 5 when Elon Musk's feud with President Donald Trump intensified and $221.85 on April 8 when stock indexes and bond market were tumbling before Trump announced a pause on harsh tariffs on trading partners. The company's stock price reached a record of 479.86 on Dec. 17 before Trump entered the White House as president again on Jan. 20. Tesla first began trading on June 29, 2010, with an initial price offering of $17 but opened trading at $19 per share. Back then the only car for sale was the Roadster and two years before the Model S hit the market. The top-selling cars are now the Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan. Musk wasn't Tesla founder but he invested early and served as chairman and took over as CEO in 2008. The conference call Thursdsay was light in earnings information and more focused on robotics and artificial intelligence. "The company offered remarkably little detail on some of the most important factors" - like its mysterious new lower-priced model - "making our outlook lean more on imagination than realistic targets," Truist's William Stein, who has a hold rating on Tesla, said in a note after the call in a report by CNN. "I wouldn't say it was a conference call that should be put in the Hall of Fame," Dan Ives of Wdbush Securities, told CNN on Thursday, but said he is still bullish on Tesla's robotics future with Musk in charge. "Communication on the call was less than stellar in terms of details, and I think that definitely played into the selloff that we're seeing." Tesla later told staff Thursday it plans to launch its Robotaxi service in San Francisco this weekend, according to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider. Tesla has a permit for testing its self-driving software in California with a driver behind the wheel. Earning report Looking back, Tesla sold $22.5 billion worth of products during the second quarter, which is $3 billion less than the $25.5 billion in sales during the same period in 2024. Tesla reported $1.2 billion in earnings profit from April to June, which is down from $1.4 billion a year earlier. The earnings drop is the third straight quarter for the EV maker that last reported an earnings gain during the third quarter last year. Driving much of the loss is a decline in Tesla vehicle sales, which totaled $16.7 billion during the second quarter -- down by 16% from a year ago. Tesla delivered 384,000 vehicles during the second quarter, which is 14% fewer than a year ago, the company announced in July. Several factors have contributed to the decline in Tesla sales, including the end to federal tax credits for buying electric vehicles and increased competition for EV makers in China and elsewhere. Musk recently cautioned investors about the approach of a "few rough quarters" due to the loss of the federal EV tax credits. A recently signed budget bill that Trump dubbed "one big, beautiful bill" eliminates a $7,500 federal tax credit after September. Trump said he does not intend to eliminate federal subsidies for Tesla, though. "I want Elon and all businesses within our country to thrive ... like never before," Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday. "The better they do, the better the USA does, and that's good for all of us," Trump added. Tesla also posted a decline in new vehicle registrations in Europe in July and only sold 4,300 units of its Cybertruck during the second quarter. Tesla sold about half as many Cybertrucks during the second quarter than it did a year earlier, according to Cox Automotive. Musk has announced Tesla will soon offer a new EV that costs less after beginning production in June. Industry analysts anticipate it will be similar to Tesla's electric Model Y SUV. Tesla's declining EV sales come as demand for EVs has grown by 1.5% so far in 2025 in the United States and by 32% and 26%, respectively, in China and Europe, Cox Automotive and Rho Motion reported. China's BYD EV maker is growing its market share there, while JATO Dynamics reported Volkswagen has overtaken Tesla as the top EV seller in Europe. Recent political turmoil also has led to negative publicity for Musk and Tesla by extension. Musk's recently controversial activities as the former director of the Department of Government Efficiency, subsequent fallout with Trump and recent announcement of founding a third political party have preceded declines in sales and Tesla's share price.
