massive

With a large-scale ICE operation now underway in the Chicago area, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has enacted a uniquely massive 15-mile radius prohibition against drone flights. The FAA told us the temporary flight restriction (TFR) for drones in this area was requested by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The no-fly zone lasts through Oct. 12.

Under this restriction, only drones operated in support of national defense, homeland security, law enforcement, search and rescue and other emergency response efforts, or commercially used drones with a valid statement of work are allowed to fly. In addition, media organizations can apply for an approved special governmental interest airspace waiver. Any drones violating this restriction can be seized or destroyed, the TFR explains. It also extends about 15 miles into Lake Michigan, without any explanation.

There have been no reports that drones have created major problems for federal agents. However, having uncrewed aerial vehicles flying during an ongoing operation like the one taking place in the Chicago area clearly raises concerns about operational security as well as the safety of helicopters and other aviation assets flying in support of it. Meanwhile, despite the possibility of waivers for commercial and journalistic purposes, the restriction is also drawing the ire of commercial drone operators and sparking worries about civil liberties violations.

The move comes as the Trump administration has followed through on its vow to bring federal forces into the nation’s third-largest city. Hundreds of federal agents have poured into the region. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump suggested responding to protests in Chicago and elsewhere would be a good way to prepare troops for combat.

“…we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military – National Guard – but military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon,” Trump told a room full of admirals and generals gathered at Marine Base Quantico.

In response to these actions, hundreds of people have taken to the streets in downtown Chicago. They are protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immigration arrests and Trump’s promised federal troop deployment. One hundred National Guard troops are being deployed to Illinois to protect federal facilities.

Early on Tuesday, about 300 agents from various federal organizations, “using drones, helicopters, trucks and dozens of vehicles, conducted a middle-of-the-night raid on a rundown apartment building on the South Side of Chicago, leaving the building mostly empty of residents by morning and neighbors stunned,” The New York Times reported. Sources said the raid targeted the Tren de Aragua cartel, which the Trump administration has declared a narco terrorist organization.

Federal officials say they have made nearly 1,000 arrests for immigration violations in what has been dubbed Operation Midway Blitz, according to the DHS.

In addition, many of the protests have been aimed at a federal facility in suburban Broadview, located about 10 miles west of Chicago. The facility is being used to detain hundreds of people arrested on immigration violations. At least five people have been arrested amid clashes between protesters and agents in which chemical agents have been deployed to disperse crowds.

Issuing TFRs for emerging security concerns is not uncommon. However, the area this one covers is unusually large. TFRs are more commonly much more focused geographically.

For instance, a previous TFR was imposed over the Broadview facility. There is also one that is active over the federal facility in Portland, Oregon, which is a hotpoint for protests, that is one mile in radius.

Last year, for example, dozens of drone no-fly zones were created in the New Jersey area following thousands of reported mystery drone sightings, most of which proved to be unfounded. However, unlike the Chicago-area TFR, those were imposed on a localized level, mostly over power infrastructure sites. The vast majority only covered a one-mile radius of airspace. The TFR imposed over the Picatinny Arsenal was an outlier with a three-mile radius, a fraction of the area covered by the Chicago restrictions.

Not surprisingly, the local drone industry, which relies on flying the skies of Chicago to conduct business, is not happy with the restriction.

“The airspace closure affects Chicago’s substantial commercial drone industry, including real estate photographers, construction inspectors, and infrastructure surveyors who rely on drones for daily operations,” wrote Haye Kesteloo, Editor in Chief of two drone tech publications: DroneXL.co and EVXL.co. “Part 107 commercial pilots cannot work in the restricted airspace, while recreational pilots face the same grounding through mid-October.”

The restriction “represents one of the most expansive non-emergency TFRs affecting civilian drone operations in a major U.S. city, comparable to airspace closures during major events like the Super Bowl but lasting significantly longer,” he added.

“There’s zero legitimate security reason for this TFR,” Charles Black, a Chicago resident who writes software, complained on X.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) asked for an unprecedentedly massive drone flight ban over Chicago due to a “credible threat” that law enforcement would be attacked by uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) amid large scale detentions and protests. Their statement was in response to our questions about why such a large Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) was requested. You can catch up with our original story about the TFR here.

“CBP requested a Temporary Flight Restriction due to a credible threat of small, unmanned aircraft systems being used against law enforcement during Midway Blitz,” CBP told us. Midway Blitz is the name of the operation taking place in the Chicago area. The flight restriction extends for a 15-mile radius over the greater Chicago area and into Lake Michigan.

The CBP statement did not mention any specifics, but referenced prior incidents of violence during protests against the ICE immigration enforcement wave that has resulted in more than 1,000 arrests in several cities around the country. 

“Our brave law enforcement is facing a surge in assaults and violence, including a domestic terrorist shooting in Dallas and Antifa riots in Broadview,” the statement read.

Last week, a sniper opened fire on an ICE detention facility in Dallas. The shooter died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, while two detainees were wounded.

In Broadview, as we mentioned in our previous story, protests against the ICE arrests have been aimed at a federal facility in this suburb located about 10 miles west of Chicago. The facility is being used to detain hundreds of people arrested on suspected immigration violations. At least five people have been arrested amid clashes between protesters and agents in which chemical agents have been deployed to disperse crowds.

“The Trump administration will utilize every tool to keep our law enforcement safe,” CBP added. “The TFR will be in effect until October 12th.” 

We asked CPB for proof of a threat from small drones, whether any officers had ever been attacked this way before, and if this was the first time they issued such an explanation. We also contacted a lawyer’s group representing protestors and the Chicago mayor’s office. We will provide updates with any pertinent details we get.

It is unclear if there have been any situations where protestors have used or attempted to use drones to attack officers. The proliferation of small and often commercially available weaponized drones for nefarious purposes is a story we have covered deeply over many years. There is increasingly concern that these systems could be used in kinetic attacks within the homeland by non-state actors. They are already in common use with drug cartels and foreign terror groups, for instance. Yet this is the first time we have heard of claimed intelligence linking them to protests or that these capabilities exist with groups participating in them.

We will continue to push for answers.

Contact the author: [email protected]

There are growing signs of a tectonic shift in U.S. President Donald Trump’s publicly expressed attitude toward Russia over the conduct of its war in Ukraine and its increasing belligerence toward the rest of Europe. Following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last month, Trump seemed far more amenable to Moscow’s point of view. However, the American leader’s messaging appears to be moving strongly in favor of Kyiv, calling Russia a “paper tiger,” and massive policy shifts could come very soon as a result.

Trump now says that with the proper support, Ukraine can win back the territory Russia has gained. He also appears more willing to provide Kyiv with long-range cruise missiles and has called for NATO to shoot down Russian aircraft intruding into alliance airspace. Whether all this represents a real change of heart or merely a negotiating tactic remains unclear, but either way, Trump has altered his public stance about the conflict dramatically.

The latest indication of a reversal in Trump’s position came on Friday after reports emerged that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Trump for Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAMs) during a meeting Tuesday between the two on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting. Axios reported that Zelensky said Trump had a positive reaction to his request for an unnamed long-range cruise missile.

Obtaining the TLAMs, with a range of about 1,000 miles and packing a 1,000-pound warhead, would give Ukraine a munition that can strike major targets deep into Russia, putting major cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg at risk. Providing these weapons would be in stark contrast to the Trump administration’s previous stance on denying Ukraine long-range cruise missiles. In addition, Trump has in the past also throttled the flow of armaments to Kyiv, though more recently the U.S. president worked out a plan to sell NATO weapons that it could then turn over to Ukraine.

The meeting with Zelensky seems to have had a large impact on Trump’s worldview. So too has a recent incursion into Estonian airspace by Russian MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors and a wave of drones into Poland, some of which were shot down. After spending time with Zelensky, Trump made a surprising post on his social media site, indicating a major change, at least publicly, in his attitude about the Russia-Ukraine war.

“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump exclaimed on Truth Social. “Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win. This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like ‘a paper tiger.’” 

“Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act,” Trump added. “In any event, I wish both Countries well. We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!”

Not surprisingly, the Kremlin pushed back on Trump’s paper tiger claim.

“Russia is in no way a tiger,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov, with a degree of levity, told a local radio station. “Still, Russia is more compared with a bear. There are no paper bears.”

Following Trump’s “paper tiger” comment, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“The meeting lasted roughly 50 minutes,” ABC News reported. “Lavrov didn’t respond to questions as he left, including whether he was concerned about the shift in tone from Trump or whether the U.S. president had turned his back on Russia.”

A spokesperson for Rubio released a short statement after the meeting, only saying that Rubio “reiterated President Trump’s call for the killing to stop and the need for Moscow to take meaningful steps toward a durable resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war,” the network noted.

A savvy traveller decided to use a very unique hack to stow some extra hand luggage on her return flight – and the flight attendants didn’t even bat an eyelid

A clever hack involving undergarments has gone viral after one traveller revealed how she “stuffed” her bra before a Wizz Air flight – saving her a fortune on baggage costs.

The cost of adding extra baggage onto flights can sometimes be more expensive than the ticket itself – with restrictions getting tighter on hand luggage.

Budget airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet notoriously make last-minute checks at the gate – sometimes resulting in extra fees for those who are slightly over the limit. But one woman has revealed a clever trick for sneaking in extra clothes – and it’s all in her bra.

READ MORE: Drunk Jet2 thug causes holiday flight to be diverted after spitting on passengerREAD MORE: EasyJet statement on major border change which will impact millions from October

Chelsea Dickenson was flying home from Lisbon with Wizz Air who only allow a tiny 40 x 30 x 20cm cabin bag for free.

And while she managed the outbound flight fine, she wanted to try out the clever hack for her return journey. Just before her flight, she bagged herself a giant bra – that was not her size – for less than £5 from a local shop.

“I’d never seen anyone use a bra for this purpose. And the logic was solid: airlines weigh and measure your bag, not your body. My coat pockets had been carrying overflow snacks and chargers for years, so why not give my chest a piece of the action too?,” she told the Metro.

After making it through security, she headed straight to the toilets to get changed into her bra – surprisingly fitting a lot of clothes inside.

“On the day of my flight, I wasn’t about to stroll through security looking like I’d got a Portuguese breast enlargement – this was about getting through the scales and bag sizers,” she explained.

Chelsea stuffed the bra with her gym kit, a bikini, and a fishing vest. But one thing she hadn’t prepared for was the intense heat the extra padding would provide.

“It was like a private heat wave,” she wrote. Her boyfriend James also found the sight amusing.

At the gate, the flight attendants didn’t bat an eyelid and let them board the plane smoothly. But while it worked, she admits she wouldn’t do it again and would opt for less invasive options.

Top packing hacks to avoid extra baggage fees

1. Roll your clothes

Rolling clothes like T-shirts, jeans and dresses can save a lot of space in hand luggage thanks to making the items more compact compared to simply folding.

2. Packing cubes

Investing in packing cubes can save space – especially those that are vacuum packed meaning you can get rid of excess air and flat pack your clothes with ease.

3. Wear bulky items

On the plane, opt to wear your more bulky items like coats, jackets, hoodies or tracksuits. While you might be warm layering clothes, you can always remove them onboard and stow them in the overhead lockers.

4. Place heavy items at the bottom of hand luggage

Strategically packing can save a lot of space, with heavy items helping to keep the bag’s structure while offering more room for lighter items on top.

Shop Charlotte’s bauble

This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more

£20.00

Charlotte Tilbury

Buy Now on Charlotte Tilbury

This limited-edition kit includes travel sizes of Charlotte Tilbury’s Lip Cheat lip liner and Collagen Lip Bath in either Pillow Talk Fair, Original or Medium for a fuller, jucier pout.

Emmerdale actress Katie Hill, who plays Sarah Sugden on the ITV soap, has hinted her character may not forgive her grandmother Charity Dingle’s betrayal amid a baby twist

One Emmerdale star has teased a family could face heartache if a sad betrayal is to come to light.

Katie Hill, who plays Sarah Sugden on the ITV soap, hinted that regardless of the outcome of her character’s surrogacy storyline, a family could be torn apart. Viewers know that Sarah learned the distressing news earlier this year that she could not carry a child.

After treatment following a cancer diagnosis, a complication meant that Sarah could not have a successful pregnancy. Her grandmother Charity Dingle then offered to be a surrogate for Sarah and her partner Jacob Gallagher, offering to carry their child.

Charity underwent an embryo transfer, but after suffering from bleeding she was left fearing it had been unsuccessful and she ended up drowning her sorrows. This led to her cheating on her husband Mack Boyd with her ex flame Ross Barton.

READ MORE: Coronation Street fans ‘know how Noah really died’ – and ‘who killed him’READ MORE: EastEnders fans ‘work out the real father’ of Zoe’s baby – and it’s ‘not Dennis Rickman’

When Charity found out she was pregnant, she had no idea if she was carrying Sarah’s baby or her own with Ross. Ross has demanded a DNA test, while Charity has not told Sarah that the child may not be her own.

Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, actress Katie confessed she is unsure how Sarah would react if the truth ever came out. With it yet to be confirmed if the baby is Sarah’s or not, either way it will leave Sarah feeling betrayed due to the lies amid what is such a “massive” thing for her.

Katie hinted Sarah might not be able to forgive Charity after everything that she has been through. Asked if she could move past it, she told us: “I don’t know, it is a massive thing. She is so set on having her own baby, it’s all she has gone on about.

“I think it could be a big moment for Charity and Sarah if she ever found out. We’ll have to wait and see cos I don’t know how she would react. I can’t say anything, but it is big stuff and fans should keep watching.”

Spoilers have revealed that Charity struggles to keep her secret in upcoming scenes, especially as Ross keeps pushing her about whether he is the father or not. Charity sparks suspicion with her husband Mack who notices she seems uneasy.

As Charity continues to hide the truth from her loved ones, how long will it be before someone finds out? At some point she will find out whether the baby is her child or Sarah’s, but whether she tells anyone remains to be seen.

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

At least three people have been killed and more than 30 injured in a “massive” overnight Russian aerial attack on Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky says.

He says regions across the country were targeted as part of a “deliberate strategy” to “intimidate civilians and destroy our infrastructure”, with one direct missile hit reported on a residential building.

Ukraine’s air force says Moscow launched 619 drones and missiles. Russia’s defence ministry says its “massive strike” used “precision weapons” and targeted military-industrial facilities.

Separately, Russia says four people were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Saratov region. Kyiv says it hit a major oil refinery there.

Ukraine also says another Russian oil refinery was damaged in the neighbouring Samara region.

The BBC has been unable to independently verify the claims made by the two warring sides.

Cross-border drone raids have become a prominent feature of the war. In July, a sustained Ukrainian drone attack forced the temporary closure of all of Moscow’s airports.

Kyiv has been systematically targeting Russian oil and other key industrial facilities, which play a key role in Russia’s continuing war effort in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Moscow has in recent weeks escalated its aerial assaults on Ukraine, while Kyiv and its Western allies – including the US – continue to call for a ceasefire.

Earlier this month, the main government building was hit in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv by what Ukraine said was a Russian Iskander cruise missile.

Zelensky said on Saturday that he planned to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), taking place in New York next week.

Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last month, hoping to secure a deal on ending the conflict. No such agreement was made.

Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The latest Russian aerial attack comes a day after Estonia requested urgent consultations with other Nato members after Russian jets violated its airspace – staying there for 12 minutes before being intercepted.

Russia denied violating Estonian airspace.

Tensions have been escalating recently after Poland and Romania – both Nato members – said Russian drones breached their airspace earlier this month.

Pro-Palestine demonstrators have repeatedly targeted the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team during the race in Spain.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Madrid have forced the abandonment of the Vuelta a Espana cycling race’s final stage, with Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard declared the overall winner as police fought with protesters.

Demonstrators blocked sections of the race route in the Spanish capital on Sunday, moving past metal barriers and stepping out onto the road. Police deployed in large numbers, but the race was abandoned.

Organisers confirmed the suspension of the event. “The race is over,” a spokesperson told Reuters.

Spanish authorities said that 100,000 pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of Madrid on Sunday.

The protests have repeatedly targeted the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team, owned by Israeli-Canadian property developer Sylvan Adams, over Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza.

Adams, the president of the Israel region of the World Jewish Congress, is referred to by that organisation as “committed to promoting Israel’s global image”.

Demonstrations disrupted multiple stages in recent weeks, with some riders threatening to quit after blockades caused falls on the course.

In Bilbao, stage 11 of the race was neutralised with no winner declared after protesters blocked the approach to the finish last week, while on Tuesday, hundreds of demonstrators forced stage 16 in Galicia to be shortened after confronting police near the route.

More than 1,000 police officers were deployed on Sunday in Madrid to secure the finale of the 21-day race in Madrid, which had been scheduled to finish at 7pm (17:00 GMT).

While race organisers denied they were considering cancelling earlier stages, they had suggested Israel-Premier Tech withdraw to protect the safety of other teams.

The participation of Israel-Premier Tech has drawn widespread criticism in Spain, where support for the Palestinian cause is strong.

Lily Mayers, a freelance journalist, told Al Jazeera: “This afternoon, thousands of protesters gathered … with flags and banners in support of Palestine. At around 6.30pm [16:30 GMT], crowds flooded onto the street, pushing down the barriers and clashing with police quite dramatically.

“Police in response used tear gas on protesters to push them back.”

The Spanish government this week recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv and barred two far-right Israeli ministers from entering the country, while it officially recognised a Palestinian state last year.

Sports Minister Pilar Alegria has previously argued that Israeli teams should be banned from international competitions, similar to restrictions imposed on Russian teams following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She said allowing them to compete showed a “double standard”.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly praised Israel-Premier Tech for continuing in the race despite the protests.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also voiced support for the pro-Palestine protesters. Speaking at a Socialist Party rally in Malaga on Sunday, he said: “Today marks the end of the Vuelta.”

“Our respect and recognition [is] for the athletes and our admiration for the Spanish people who are mobilising for just causes like Palestine,” he said. “Spain today shines as an example and as a source of pride, an example to an international community where it sees Spain taking a step forward in the defence of human rights.”

Ever since a massive immigration raid on a Hyundai manufacturing site swept up nearly 500 workers in southeast Georgia this month, Rosie Harrison said her organization’s phones have been ringing nonstop with panicked families in need of help.

“We have individuals returning calls every day, but the list doesn’t end,” Harrison said. She runs a nonprofit called Grow Initiative that connects low-income families — immigrant and nonimmigrant alike — with food, housing and educational resources.

Since the raid, Harrison said, “families are experiencing a new level of crisis.”

A majority of the 475 people who were detained in the workplace raid — which U.S. officials have called the largest in two decades — were Korean and have returned to South Korea. But lawyers and social workers say many of the non-Korean immigrants ensnared in the crackdown remain in legal limbo or are otherwise unaccounted for.

As the raid began the morning of Sept. 4, workers almost immediately started calling Migrant Equity Southeast, a local nonprofit that connects immigrants with legal and financial resources. The small organization of approximately 15 employees fielded calls regarding people from Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela, spokesperson Vanessa Contreras said.

Throughout the day, people described federal agents taking cellphones from workers and putting them in long lines, Contreras said. Some workers hid for hours to avoid capture in air ducts or remote areas of the sprawling property. The Department of Justice said some hid in a nearby sewage pond.

People off-site called the organization frantically seeking the whereabouts of loved ones who worked at the plant and were suddenly unreachable.

Like many of the Koreans who were working there, advocates and lawyers representing the non-Korean workers caught up in the raid say that some who were detained had legal authorization to work in the United States.

Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to emailed requests for comment Friday. It is not clear how many people detained during the raid remain in custody.

Atlanta-based attorney Charles Kuck, who represents both Korean and non-Korean workers who were detained, said two of his clients were legally working under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which was created under President Obama. One had been released and “should have never been arrested,” he said, while the other was still being held because he was recently charged with driving under the influence.

Another of Kuck’s clients was in the process of seeking asylum, he said, and had the same documents and job as her husband, who was not arrested.

Some even had valid Georgia driver’s licenses, which aren’t available to people in the country illegally, said Rosario Palacios, who has been assisting Migrant Equity Southeast. Some families who called the organization were left without access to transportation because the person who had been detained was the only one who could drive.

“It’s hard to say how they chose who they were going to release and who they were going to take into custody,” Palacios said, adding that some who were arrested didn’t have a so-called alien identification number and were still unaccounted for.

Kuck said the raid is an indication of how far reaching the Trump administration crackdown is, which officials claim is targeting only criminals.

“The redefinition of the word ‘criminal’ to include everybody who is not a citizen, and even some that are, is the problem here,” Kuck said.

Many of the families who called Harrison’s initiative said their detained relatives were the sole breadwinners in the household, leaving them desperate for basics like baby formula and food.

The financial impact of the raid at the construction site for a battery factory that will be operated by HL-GA Battery Co. was compounded by the fact that another large employer in the area — International Paper Co. — is closing at the end of the month, laying off 800 more workers, Harrison said.

Growth Initiative doesn’t check immigration status, Harrison said, but almost all families who have reached out to her have said that their detained loved ones had legal authorization to work in the United States, leaving many confused about why their relative was taken into custody.

“The worst phone calls are the ones where you have children crying, screaming, ‘Where is my mom?’” Harrison said.

Riddle writes for the Associated Press. R

The U.S. Air Force has awarded a contract for the development and production of a new Next Generation Penetrator (NGP) bunker buster bomb. NGP is the planned successor to the 30,000-pound GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), which became a household name after its first-ever real-world use against deeply-buried nuclear facilities in Iran during Operation Midnight Hammer earlier this year.

Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) recently announced that it had received the new NGP contract from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s (AFLCMC) Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. ARA will be working on the new bunker buster bomb in close cooperation with Boeing, the current prime contractor for MOP. The stealthy B-2 bomber is currently the only aircraft cleared to employ MOPs operationally, and can only carry two of them on a single sortie. The future B-21 Raider stealth bomber is smaller than the B-2 and is expected to be able to carry a single MOP. Both the B-2 and B-21 could be in line to carry NGPs depending on when that munition is fielded. You can read more about the history of MOP in this past TWZ feature.

Under the 24-month deal, ARA will “serve as the System Design Agent for the development of a prototype air-to-ground Next Generation Penetrator weapon system,” according to a company press release. “ARA will also produce and test sub-scale and full-scale prototype munitions. This effort will evaluate capabilities against hard and deeply buried targets that pose critical challenges to U.S. national security.”

In addition, “leveraging decades of experience in guided and penetrating munitions, ARA will lead design maturation, while Boeing will drive tail kit development and support all-up-round integration.”

A specialized tail unit, designated the KMU-612/B, which contains the GPS-assisted inertial navigation system (INS) guidance package and other systems, is a key component of the current MOP. A BLU-127/B penetrating “warhead” is combined with the KMU-612/B, as well as other components, including advanced fuzes designed to help produce the maximum destructive effect after burrowing deep down to a target, to create a complete GBU-57/B bomb.

Further details about the NGP’s expected capabilities remain limited. A contracting notice that the Munitions Directorate at Eglin put out in February 2024 called for a bomb with a warhead weighing 22,000 pounds or less and that would be “capable of blast / frag[mentation] / and penetration effects.” However, the notice did not specify a desired gross weight or prospective dimensions for the entire munition.

The notice also called for a “terminal accuracy” of “CE90 w/in 2.2m both in GPS aided, degraded, and denied environments.” In layman’s terms, this means the munition needs to hit within 7.2 feet (2.2 meters) of a specified impact point at least 90 percent of the time, which is a very steep demand. GPS-assisted INS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs, on average, can hit within 16.4 feet (five meters) of designated target coordinates under optimal conditions, but this can grow to nearly 100 feet (30 meters) if GPS connectivity is lost, according to the Air Force.

“The USAF will consider novel, demonstrated, or fielded Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC) technologies with viability for integration into a warhead guidance system design that can achieve repeatable, high accuracy performance in GPS aided, degraded, and/or denied environments,” the February 2024 contracting notice added. It also mentioned the “possible integration of embedded fuze technology,” but did not elaborate.

As TWZ regularly notes in reporting on the MOP, fuzing is a particularly important aspect of deep-penetrating munitions, especially if the exact location and/or layout of the target is not well-established ahead of a strike. Advanced fuzes with features like the ability to ‘count’ floors to determine depth and sense the ‘voids’ formed by underground mission spaces greatly increase the potential for maximum damage from a weapon like MOP or NGP.

Furthermore, “the prototype penetrator warhead design effort should allow integration of technologies acquired and lessons learned under previous penetrator warhead developments to meet performance requirements for the HDBT [Hard and Deeply Buried Target] target set.”

As TWZ previously reported, the Air Force has had an interest in an NGP bunker buster bomb since at least the early 2010s, which is when the MOP began to enter operational service. The service has notably expressed interest in a powered standoff capability, as well as enhanced and potentially scalable terminal effects in the past. An add-on rocket motor could also aid with penetration.

An NGP that can be employed from standoff ranges would offer extended reach, as well as help reduce the vulnerability of the launch platform. Unpowered MOPs have to be released close to the target, a key reason why the highly survivable B-2 is currently the only operational delivery method for those weapons. The Air Force has been separately warning about ever-growing air defense threats that will increasingly challenge even stealthy aircraft, especially in any future high-end fight, such as one against China in the Pacific.

As noted, the forthcoming B-21 is smaller than the B-2, and is only expected to be able to carry a single MOP rather than two at a time. Broadly speaking, the much larger planned size of the total Raider fleet will help mitigate the smaller payload capacity of those aircraft. At the same time, this could create a new incentive to, if possible, devise an NGP that is smaller and/or lighter while at least retaining similar effectiveness to the existing MOP.

During Operation Midnight Hammer, six B-2s dropped 12 MOPs on Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordow, six each on just two impact points, with the successive bombs burrowing deeper and deeper to the actual target. If the same operation had been conducted using MOP-armed B-21s, twice as many bombers would’ve been necessary. As it stands, the exact results of the strike on Fordow remain a point of significant debate.

Air Force officials have already, unsurprisingly, made clear that lessons learned from Operation Midnight Hammer have been factoring into work on upgrades for the GBU-57/B, as well as planning for a follow-on to MOP. That operation also underscored the value that a conventional munition like MOP offers against targets that might otherwise only be reachable using a nuclear weapon.

“We are constantly looking at, whether it be those [MOP replacement options], or an advanced technology, or advanced tactics, to be able to get ahead and make sure, as the threat moves to defend, we have the ability to put the kit together that we can continue to have events like last Saturday night happen if we’re called upon again,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said at a hearing before members of the Senate Appropriations Committee back on June 26, referring to the strikes on Iran. “It might be something different than the GBU-57, some advancement based on what the enemy might do.”

“This is not a static environment,” Allvin added at that time. “Now that we know that it was successful, I’m pretty sure that people who are potential adversaries might look at that and they may adapt.”

During the hearing in June, Allvin also said the Air Force was working to bolster its stocks of MOPs, which could continue to be an important part of the service’s arsenal even after the future NGP begins entering service.

Much still remains to be learned about the Air Force’s NGP plans, but with the new contract awarded to ARA, the service is set to have its first full-scale prototypes within the next two years.

Contact the author: [email protected]

China’s full military might was on display in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square where thousands of troops marched in parade.

China flexed its military muscle at a huge military parade in Beijing to mark 80 years since the end of World War II, displaying its latest generation of stealth fighters, tanks and ballistic missiles amid a highly choreographed cast of thousands.

The parade through Tiananmen Square on Wednesday morning was overseen by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also the head of China’s military and the Chinese Communist Party.

After greeting foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Xi moved on to welcome Chinese military veterans before taking his place at the centre of the event.

Xi watched on from the Gate of Heavenly Peace before making a speech to the 10,000 assembled members of the People’s Liberation Army, Navy and Air Force, stating that China would continue to “adhere to a path of peaceful development”.

“Humanity is again faced with a choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, and win-win outcomes or zero-sum games,” Xi said, according to an official readout of his speech.

“The Chinese people will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress, adhere to the path of peaceful development, and join hands with the rest of the world to build a community with a shared future for humanity,” he said.

Dressed in a grey Mao suit, Xi then toured Tiananmen Square, standing in a vehicle, before the parade finally commenced down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue, a major thoroughfare in the Chinese capital.

China’s most advanced weaponry took front and centre in the parade, including clearly labelled DF-5 intercontinental missiles – capable of delivering a nuclear warhead – alongside tight formations of military personnel.

“For Xi, the point is to reinforce the impression that the [People’s Republic of China, PRC] has arrived as a great power under his leadership,” said Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.

“Another is the array of leaders at the parade, which suggests that the PRC cannot be isolated and is unafraid of pressure and bullying, particularly from the United States,” he said.

Above the parade, the air force staged a flyover, including helicopters with banners declaring, “Justice will prevail”, “Peace will prevail”, and “The people will win”.

THIS is the dramatic moment Ukrainian drones destroy two Russian bridges used by troops as a key supply route.

The crossings in the Belgorood region were obliterated when two “cheap” drones struck a stash of Vlad’s mines hidden beneath them.

3

3

3

Video shows the device locking in its target before descending on the bridge.

As a whole stretch of the deck explodes, flames and clouds of thick smoke balloon into the air.

Surrounding trees and forest land are blown up in its path.

Ukraine’s 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade, which conducted the operation told CNN they had taken a closer look at the bridge after “it became clear that something was going on there”.

When they sent a drone to the area, they discovered a huge pile of anti-tank mines and other ammunition.

The bridges were mined as they were of key strategic importance to Putin.

Lining them with explosives gave him the option of suddenly blowing them up in case of a Ukrainian advance.

This isn’t the first time Ukraine has demolished Russian crossings.

Just a couple months ago, Ukraine blitzed Russia’s iconic Kerch bridge with more than a tonne of underwater mines.

The pre-dawn blast sent a plume of water erupting into the sky.

Ukraine‘s SBU intelligence service said the blast left the bridge in an “emergency state” after devastating its foundations.

It was at least the third attempt to destroy the key road and rail link from Russia to occupied Crimea.

The same SBU special forces unit behind Sunday’s historic drone strikes in Russia claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn attack.

They claimed their agents spent months mining the substructure of the 12 mile road and rail link.

This came as Ukrainian special forces blew Vladimir Putin’s bridges to pieces last year using US-made missiles.

Incredible footage showed a series of attacks with Himars rockets in Russia‘s border region as Kyiv marches on with its brave advance into Kursk.

According to Kyiv, important Russian equipment was destroyed along with Vlad’s bridges.

Video also showed Ukrainian Defence Forces demolishing Russian field munitions, fuel depots, a radio-electronic warfare complex, and a 152-mm D-20 gun, a Ukrainian military officer told the Kyiv Post.

Microsoft (MSFT +0.00%) is trading at over $500, but I believe it’s setting up for much bigger gains. With Azure’s 39% growth, artificial intelligence integration, and a $69 billion gaming bet, the company is positioning itself for explosive upside — despite fierce competition.

Stock prices used were the market prices of Aug. 26, 2025. The video was published on Aug. 29, 2025.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM 0.24%) is far from the flashiest artificial intelligence (AI) name out there. It doesn’t design chips like Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Broadcom, and, as such, it doesn’t tend to get the same hype.

However, all these chipmakers hand their designs to TSMC for large-scale manufacturing, turning them into real products. That’s why it’s not only one of the best, but one of the safest ways to invest in the AI infrastructure buildout. It wins no matter which chip designer takes the lead, and it’s generating a ton of cash doing it.

Even Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang went out of his way to praise the company. He called TSMC “one of the greatest companies in the history of humanity,” adding that “anybody who wants to buy TSMC stock is a very smart person.” That is not the kind of praise Huang throws around lightly.

Image source: Getty Images.

TSMC has a foundry nobody can catch

TSMC is the top foundry in the world, producing most of the world’s advanced chips. Rival Intel (INTC 2.20%) has been trying to build its own foundry business, but it is losing money and hasn’t been able to gain any ground. In fact, the U.S. government recently made a large investment in the struggling company, reportedly to help bolster it.

Samsung, meanwhile, has struggled with production yields. It also recently lost one of its advanced chip designs, as Alphabet switched to TSMC for its Tensor G5 chip used in its Pixel smartphones. Neither Intel nor Samsung has shown that they can match the scale or reliability of TSMC.

That’s why TSMC has locked in almost every large AI chipmaker as a customer. Chip designers are constantly looking to shrink node sizes, and TSMC is the only foundry that has shown it can consistently produce advanced nodes with strong yields. Nodes are a reference to the size of the transistors used on a chip, measured in nanometers. With smaller nodes, more transistors can be packed onto the chip, which improves performance and power efficiency.

Smaller nodes are becoming an increasingly larger part of TSMC’s mix. Chips built on 7-nanometer or smaller nodes are already nearly three-quarters of TSMC’s revenue, while its 3nm chips alone are almost one-quarter. Meanwhile, it is already preparing to move into 2nm.

TSMC is a cash flow machine

One of the most overlooked parts of TSMC’s story is its cash generation. In 2024, it produced more than $26.5 billion in free cash flow. That was after spending heavily on building new fabs. So far this year, it’s already generated over $15 billion in free cash flow despite continued heavy capex spending. It’s also paying a growing dividend off that mountain of cash.

Most people think of foundries as low gross margin businesses; however, TSMC is changing that narrative. Its leadership in advanced nodes has given it strong pricing power over the years. Nobody else can deliver chips at the same density and yield, so customers are willing to pay up. That’s why its margins have stayed strong and have been increasing.

TSMC is an under-the-radar stock

Investors don’t talk about TSMC with the same excitement they talk about Nvidia or AMD. That could be because it’s not a brand consumers recognize, or perhaps because the foundry business isn’t just quite as exciting. It’s also not a U.S.-based company, with its headquarters in Taiwan.

However, TSMC has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI buildout, and it should continue to be a big winner moving forward. Last quarter, its revenue climbed 44% to $30 billion, while its profits soared. Meanwhile, management expects AI chip demand to grow more than 40% annually through 2028. The company is working closely with its largest customers to increase capacity, so it should have good visibility into this growth.

Overall, TSMC is one of the most important companies in the AI supply chain. Without it, the current AI infrastructure buildout wouldn’t be possible. It’s growing rapidly, expanding margins, and generating a boatload of cash.

Despite that, the stock is one of the most attractively valued AI plays in the market, trading at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.5 times based on analysts’ 2025 estimates and a price/earnings-to-growth ratio (PEG) of less than 0.65. Stocks with PEG ratios below 1 are generally considered undervalued.

Investors would be smart to heed Jensen Huang’s advice and be a buyer of TSMC.

Ukrainian authorities describe Russia’s missile and drone attack as ‘massive’, with multiple areas of Kyiv hit.

An overnight Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has killed at least four people and wounded more than 20 others, officials said.

Powerful explosions rocked the city into the early hours of Thursday morning, illuminating the sky and leaving behind columns of smoke as Russian projectiles damaged and destroyed buildings in several districts of the city.

The attack was the first major combined Russian drone and missile attack to strike Kyiv since United States President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska earlier this month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city military administration, said a 14-year-old girl was among those reported killed, citing preliminary information.

A five-storey residential building in the city’s Darnytskyi district was hit directly. “Everything is destroyed,” Tkachenko said.

“Tonight, Kyiv is under massive attack by the Russian terrorist state,” he said.

Local media outlet The Kyiv Independent said at least four people were confirmed killed, and officials expect the number of casualties to rise.

Another strike in central Kyiv left a major road strewn with shattered glass, and rescue teams were working to pull people trapped beneath rubble from some 20 affected locations across the city.

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko also called it a “massive attack” by Russia, adding that two children were also among the injured.

Officials provided news organisations with a long list of buildings that had suffered damage, including several high-rise apartment blocks, and photos and video posted online showed apartments ablaze and smoke billowing from buildings.

The attack comes amid so-far failed efforts by President Trump to convince Putin to cease his war on Ukraine, and as both Moscow and Kyiv trade blame over a diplomatic impasse in efforts to end the fighting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that members of his administration would meet with US officials in New York on Friday.

The Ukrainian leader said he saw “very arrogant and negative signals from Moscow” regarding negotiations to end the war, urging extra “pressure” to “force Russia to take real steps” to cease fighting.

The biggest company on The Motley Fool’s updated list of the largest utility companies is in the United States. However, it is more than just a regulated electric utility, and that sets it apart from many of its U.S. peers that have made the list of largest utility companies.

And those differences are why NextEra Energy (NEE -0.54%) could be a huge long-term investment opportunity for growth investors, income investors, and (no shock) growth and income investors. Here’s what you need to know.

What does NextEra Energy do?

NextEra Energy is two businesses in one. The core of the company is its regulated electricity operations in Florida. The Sunshine State has long benefited from in-migration, as people seek out warmer weather, lower taxes, and a comfortable retirement. The company’s Florida Power & Light operation is one of the largest regulated utilities in the United States.

Image source: Getty Images.

Being regulated gives NextEra a monopoly in the areas it serves. In exchange for that monopoly, it has to have its rates and capital investment plans approved by the government.

The usual outcome is slow and steady growth over time, as regulators try to balance customer costs, reliability, and investor returns. All in all, this is a solid, slow, and steady growth foundation for NextEra.

Most utility businesses stop there. NextEra, however, has used this foundation to build one of the world’s largest solar and wind power businesses. It is a clean-energy giant, taking advantage of the world’s shift away from power based on dirtier carbon fuels and toward cleaner and renewable sources of energy. This is NextEra’s growth engine and will likely remain so for years to come.

One very big reason is that electricity demand is shifting into high gear. Between 2000 and 2020, demand increased 9%. Between 2020 and 2040, it is expected to expand by as much as 55%.

Driving that will be artificial intelligence and data centers, where demand is expected to increase 300% over a decade. And electric vehicles are expected to push another 9,000% in demand through 2050. All in, electricity is projected to grow from 21% of end power use to 32% of end use by 2050.

NextEra is positioned well on both sides of the equation

What’s exciting about NextEra Energy is that it isn’t just in the right place at the right time in one business. It is in the right place at the right time in two businesses.

Demand increases are going to push utility growth into a higher gear, helping the company’s Florida-based regulated operations. And the broader shift toward clean energy will also be a big boost to the company’s solar and wind operation. In many cases, it isn’t just more environmentally friendly to install clean energy than to build a power plant, it is also quicker and more cost effective.

This is where things start to get interesting. The average U.S. utility has a dividend yield of a little less than 2.7%. NextEra Energy’s yield is roughly 3%. In this respect, it looks like the stock is on sale right now and providing a yield well above the market on top of that.

But NextEra Energy is also growing its business by itself, in addition to outside forces. In the second quarter of 2025, revenue jumped 10% year over year, with earnings rising a little over 9%. That’s pretty impressive for a utility, since they are normally considered boring, slow growth investments.

And there’s likely more to come, highlighting that the clean energy business has 30 gigawatts worth of power projects in its backlog. Six gigawatts of that total are directly tied to technology companies and data centers.

On the dividend front, NextEra has increased its annual payout for over three decades. And the annualized growth rate over the past decade was a huge 10% a year. Management is currently projecting 10% dividend growth through at least 2026. So not only is this a high-yield story and a growth story, but it is also an attractive dividend growth story, too.

NextEra is the biggest utility and a big investment opportunity

If you are a dividend lover, a dividend growth lover, a growth lover, or a value lover, NextEra Energy will probably look attractive to you. That’s a huge amount of investment ground being covered by the world’s largest utility. And it highlights why you might just want to buy this industry giant today to take advantage of what looks like a huge long-term opportunity in the utility sector.

NEW YORK — An appeals court has thrown out the massive civil fraud penalty against President Trump, ruling Thursday in New York state’s lawsuit accusing him of exaggerating his wealth.

The decision came seven months after the Republican returned to the White House. A panel of five judges in New York’s mid-level Appellate Division said the verdict, which stood to cost Trump more than $515 million and rock his real estate empire, was “excessive.”

After finding that Trump engaged in fraud by flagrantly padding financial statements that went to lenders and insurers, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered him last year to pay $355 million in penalties. With interest, the sum has topped $515 million.

The total — combined with penalties levied on some other Trump Organization executives, including Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr. — now exceeds $527 million, with interest.

“While the injunctive relief ordered by the court is well crafted to curb defendants’ business culture, the court’s disgorgement order, which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the State of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” Judges Dianne T. Renwick and Peter H. Moulton wrote in one of several opinions shaping the appeals court’s ruling.

Engoron also imposed other punishments, such as banning Trump and his two eldest sons from serving in corporate leadership for a few years. Those provisions have been on pause during Trump’s appeal, and he was able to hold off collection of the money by posting a $175 million bond.

The court, which was split on the merits of the lawsuit and the lower court’s fraud finding, dismissed the penalty Engoron imposed in its entirety while also leaving a pathway for further appeals to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.

The appeals court, the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court, took an unusually long time to rule, weighing Trump’s appeal for nearly 11 months after oral arguments last fall. Normally, appeals are decided in a matter of weeks or a few months.

New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, who brought the suit on the state’s behalf, has said the businessman-turned-politician engaged in “lying, cheating, and staggering fraud.” Her office had no immediate comment after Thursday’s decision.

Trump and his co-defendants denied wrongdoing. In a six-minute summation of sorts after a monthslong trial, Trump proclaimed in January 2024 that he was “an innocent man” and the case was a “fraud on me.” He has repeatedly maintained that the case and verdict were political moves by James and Engoron, who are both Democrats.

Trump’s Justice Department has subpoenaed James for records related to the lawsuit, among other documents, as part of an investigation into whether she violated the president’s civil rights. James’ personal attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, has said that investigating the fraud case is “the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign.”

Trump and his lawyers said his financial statements weren’t deceptive, since they came with disclaimers noting they weren’t audited. The defense also noted that bankers and insurers independently evaluated the numbers, and the loans were repaid.

Despite such discrepancies as tripling the size of his Trump Tower penthouse, he said the financial statements were, if anything, lowball estimates of his fortune.

During an appellate court hearing in September, Trump’s lawyers argued that many of the case’s allegations were too old, an assertion they made unsuccessfully before trial. The defense also contends that James misused a consumer-protection law to sue Trump and improperly policed private business transactions that were satisfactory to those involved.

State attorneys said the law in question applies to fraudulent or illegal business conduct, whether it targets everyday consumers or big corporations. Though Trump insists no one was harmed by the financial statements, the state contends that the numbers led lenders to make riskier loans than they knew, and that honest borrowers lose out when others game their net-worth numbers.

The state has argued that the verdict rests on ample evidence and that the scale of the penalty comports with Trump’s gains, including his profits on properties financed with the loans and the interest he saved by getting favorable terms offered to wealthy borrowers.

The civil fraud case was just one of several legal obstacles for Trump as he campaigned, won and segued to a second term as president.

On Jan. 10, he was sentenced in his criminal hush money case to what’s known as an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction on the books but sparing him jail, probation, a fine or other punishment. He is appealing the conviction.

And in December, a federal appeals court upheld a jury’s finding that Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and later defamed her, affirming a $5 million judgment against him. The appeals court declined in June to reconsider; he still can try to get the Supreme Court to hear his appeal.

He’s also appealing a subsequent verdict that requires him to pay Carroll $83.3 million for additional defamation claims.

Peltz and Sisak write for the Associated Press.

In Nicholas Boggs’ lively and vigorously researched biography of James Baldwin, the great writer’s search for the source of his art dovetails with his lifelong search for meaningful relationships. Black, gay, born without the benefit of money or guidance, repeatedly harassed and beaten in his New York City hometown, Baldwin physically removed himself from the turmoil of America, living abroad for long stretches to find proper distance and see his country plain. In “The Fire Next Time,” “Another Country” and “Giovanni’s Room,” among other works, Baldwin gleaned hard truths about the ways in which white people, white men in particular, deny their own sexual confusions to lash out at those who they feel may pose a grave threat their own machismo codes and their absolute dominion over Black Americans. In his novels and essays, Baldwin became a sharp beacon of hard truths.

Baldwin was reared in an oppressive atmosphere of religious doctrine and physical violence; his stepfather David, a laborer and preacher, adhered to an quasi-Calvinist approach to child-rearing that forbade art’s graven images in the home and encouraged austerity and renunciation. Books, according to Baldwin’s father, were “written by white devils.” As a child, Baldwin was beaten and verbally lashed by his father; his brief tenure as a religious orator in the church was, according to Boggs, a way to “usurp his father at his own game.” At the same time, Boggs notes, Baldwin used the church “to mask the deep confusion caused by his burgeoning sexual desires.”

As a child, Baldwin is marginalized for being too sensitive, too bookish, a “sissy.” At school, he finds mentors like Orilla “Bill” Miller and the Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen, who introduced him to Dickens and the 18th century Russian novelists. When his stepfather loses his job, it is down to Baldwin to support his mother and eight siblings. Taking a job at a local army base, he is confronted with virulent race-baiting from his white supervisor and co-workers.

Baldwin leaves Harlem behind shortly thereafter and falls into the artistic ferment of Greenwich Village in the ‘40s. He shares ideas about art, music and literature with a fellow budding aesthete named Eugene Worth until he jumps to his death from the George Washington Bridge in the winter of 1946. His death “cast a pall over Baldwin’s life,” Boggs writes, “but it would also play a major and enduring role in his development as a writer.” Baldwin, who had developed strong romantic feelings for Worth but never made them plain to his friend, makes a promise to himself, vowing to adjoin his private life as a gay Black man to the public life of an artist, so that “my infirmities might be forged into weapons.”

Beauford Delaney, a respected painter and Village fixture, becomes Baldwin’s lodestar and encourages him to confront his sexuality head-on in his art. What that art might entail, Baldwin doesn’t yet know, but it would have something to do with writing. Delaney would become a lifelong friend, even after he began suffering from mental deterioration, dying after years of hospitalization in 1979.

Baldwin’s life as a transatlantic nomad begins in 1948, when he arrives in Paris after winning a scholarship to study there. More importantly, he meets 17-year-old Lucien Happersberger, a Swiss painter, and a relationship blossoms. Happersberger shares deep artistic and sexual affinities with Baldwin, but Lucien is also attracted to women and becomes a kind of template for Baldwin’s future partners, most notably the Turkish actor Engin Cezzar, that he would pursue until his death in 1987.

Baldwin held these romantic relationships in tantalizing suspension, his love affairs caught between the poles of desire and intimacy, the heat of passion and long-term commitment. The love triangles these relationships engendered became a rich source for his fiction. Boggs asserts that many of the author’s most enduring works, including “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and his breakthrough novel about gay love “Giovanni’s Room,” sprang from these early, formative encounters. “The structure of a not fully requited love was a familiar and even eroticized one for Baldwin,” Boggs writes, “and would come to fuel his art.”

Away from the States, Baldwin was freed “from the trap of color,” but he was pulled ever deeper into the racial unrest in America, taking on journalism assignments to see for himself how systemic racial oppression worked in the Jim Crow South. In Atlanta, Baldwin meets Martin Luther King Jr., who invites him to Montgomery to witness the impact of the bus boycott. Entering a local restaurant, he is greeted with stony stares; a white woman points toward the colored entrance. In Mississippi, he interviews NAACP organizer Medgar Evers, who is busy investigating a lynching. Baldwin notes the climate of fear among Black citizens in the city, speaking to him like “ the German Jews must have talked when Hitler came to power.”

Nicholas Boggs tracked down a previously unwritten-about lover of James Baldwin for his new biography.

(Noah Loof)

These eyewitness accounts would feed into Baldwin’s impassioned essays on race such as “Down at the Cross” and his 1972 nonfiction book “No Name in the Street.” For Boggs, Baldwin’s nonfiction informed his fiction; there are “continuities and confluences between and across his work in both genres.” The throughline across all of the work was Baldwin’s ire at America’s failure to recognize that the “so-called Negro” was “trapped, disinherited and despised, in a nation that … is still unable to recognize him as a human being.”

Baldwin would spend the rest of his life toggling between journalism and fiction, addressing racism in the States in articles for Esquire, Harper’s and other publications while spending most of his time in Turkey and France, where a growing circle of friends and lovers nourished his muse and satisfied his need for constant social interaction when he wasn’t wrestling with his work, sometimes torturously so. Boggs’ book finds Baldwin in middle age poised between creative fecundity and despair, growing frustrated with America’s failure of nerve regarding race and homosexuality as well as his own thwarted partnerships. Despite a powerful bond with Engin Cezarr and, later, the French painter Yoran Cazac, who flitted in and out of Baldwin’s Istanbul life across the 1970s, the picture of Baldwin that emerges in Boggs’ biography is that of an artist who treasures emotional continuity but creatively feeds on inconstancy.

In fact, Cazac had never been cited in any previous Baldwin biography. Boggs discovered him when he came across an out-of-print children’s book called “Little Man, Little Man,” a collaboration between Cazac and Baldwin that prompted Boggs’ search. After following a number of flimsy leads, he finally finds Cazac in a rural French village, and they talk.

The novels that Baldwin penned during his last great burst of productivity, most notably “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “Just Above My Head,” have been maligned by many Baldwin fans as noble failures lacking the fire and dramatic power of his early work. Yet Boggs makes a strong case for these books as successful formal experiments in which Baldwin once again transmuted the storms of his personal life into eloquent indictments of systemic racism. The contours of Baldwin’s romantic engagement with Cazac, in particular, would find their way into “Beale Street,” the first time Baldwin used a female narrator to tell the story of a budding young romance doomed by a gross miscarriage of justice. Boldly experimental in both form and content, “Beale Street” and “Just Above My Head” were, in Boggs’ view, unjustly criticized, coming at a time when Baldwin’s reputation was on the decline. Only novelist Edmund White gleaned something special in his review of “Just Above My Head,” Baldwin’s final novel, finding in his depictions of familial love a Dickensian warmth which “glow with the steadiness and clarity of a flame within a glass globe.”

A literary biography needn’t be an artful accretion of facts, nor should it traffic in salacious gossip and cheapen the subject at hand. Boggs’ even-handed and critically rigorous biography of James Baldwin is guilty of none of these things, mostly because Boggs never strays from the path toward understanding why Baldwin wrote what he did and how his private and public lives were inextricably wound up in his work. Boggs has dug much deeper than his predecessors, including Baldwin’s biographer David Leeming, whose book has been the standard bearer since its 1994 publication. “Baldwin: A Love Story” is superlative, and it should become the new gold standard for Baldwin studies.

Weingarten is the author of “Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown.”

“Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan and Paramount are going big in Texas, joining forces to open a 450,000-square-foot production campus in Fort Worth, in a boost to the Lone Star State’s growing entertainment economy.

The venture, announced Wednesday, comes on the heels of Skydance’s $8.4-billion takeover of Paramount and just as Texas has taken major initiatives to encourage more film production, having recently passed legislation increasing its film incentives program to $1.5 billion over the next 10 years.

The massive production hub will be situated on the Alliance Texas campus, a 27,000-acre development owned by billionaire Ross Perot Jr.’s Hillwood, a commercial and residential real estate developer and a partner in the project along with Sheridan’s and Paramount Television.

It will be the largest studio facility in the state, according to officials, and marks another step toward Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s goal “to make Texas the Film Capital of the World.”

“We are at a pivotal moment where Texas can become a global force in the film industry, and North Texas offers the location and resources to play a central role in this development,” said Hillwood President Mike Berry in a statement.

The film campus is composed of two buildings with six sound stages that can support four large-scale productions simultaneously. It is expected to be the home base for such Sheridan-produced shows as “Landman” and “Lioness,” which currently film in Texas.

The second season of “Landman” has been filming at the facility since March.

Taylor Sheridan at the premiere of Paramount+’s “1883” at Wynn Las Vegas in 2021.

(Greg Doherty / Getty Images for Wynn Las Vegas)

The move also marks a turning point for Sheridan’s productions.

In recent years, Sheridan, who grew up in Fort Worth, has filmed many of his hit television shows — including “1883” — across the state.

His productions have brought in hundreds of millions of dollars to local businesses and a stream of tourists in what some in the industry began calling “the Sheridan Effect.”

“SGS Studios isn’t just about sound stages or incentives — it’s about reclaiming the independence and grit that built this industry in the first place,” said Taylor Sheridan in statement about the new project.