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A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration can intervene in the NAACP lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI, but blocked the federal government’s attempt to dismiss the case. 

“We are pleased the Court saw through the Department of Justice’s deeply flawed arguments, which aimed to block communities from holding xAI accountable for the harmful air pollution being pumped out by its illegal power plant,” Patrick Anderson, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, one of the organizations representing the NAACP in court, said Tuesday.

The NAACP is suing the company, now known as SpaceXAI, over its use of 69 gas turbines to power its data center in Southaven. In the suit, the organization alleges that SpaceXAI is polluting the air and violating the federal Clean Air Act. It has asked U.S. District Judge Debra Brown to prohibit the company from operating the turbines unless they go through the state permitting process. 

In June, the Department of Justice filed a motion to join the lawsuit with SpaceXAI. The DOJ said it could intervene because the suit deals with a federal law, and that the company’s data center is “a matter of paramount national security.” The company’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, has helped launch missiles during the conflict with Iran.   

When the company first set up the turbines last year, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality told the company that it would not need air permits to operate because the turbines are “temporary” and “mobile.” 

The turbines are mounted on top of trailers and can operate for up to 12 months. However, MDEQ recently allowed the company to continue operating some of the generators for an additional five months due to a delay of the permanent turbines, which have air permits.

MDEQ maintains that the temporary turbines are operating in compliance with state regulations.

The Trump administration argued that it could dismiss the case because a federal agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, enforces the Clean Air Act. Brown denied the request to dismiss the case.

“The EPA’s role as a primary enforcer of the Clean Air Act does not mean that the federal government retains complete control over all Clean Air Act litigation,” Brown wrote in court filings.

“Congress intended to allow individuals to sue even when federal and state governments may, for whatever reason, decline to enforce the Clean Air Act,” Brown wrote. 

Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham leaned over the wooden barrier dividing the courtroom from the sparse audience inside the federal courthouse in downtown Jackson. 

“This is a waste of time,” Graham said of Tuesday’s hearing about the troubled Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond. 

Technical difficulties with a projector had just led U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to pause the proceedings. Reeves had been in the midst of unpacking a thorny dispute over the jail’s budget between his appointed receiver, Maryland-based public safety consultant Wendell France Sr., and Hinds County.

France contended the county was providing him with too little information about the jail’s budget, impeding his efforts to improve unconstitutional conditions at the Raymond Detention Center, the county’s most troubled facility and the one under his direct control. 

“My only recourse was to come to court and say we didn’t approve a budget,” France told the judge. “I’m not sure what else I’m supposed to do as the receiver.” 

Through Nick Morisani, a private attorney hired to fight the federal consent decree, the county claimed it had, in fact, provided France with adequate information and resources. 

But when the court finally got its projector working, Morisani presented Reeves with a spreadsheet showing France had received significantly less money than he requested for salaries and capital improvements. 

The back-and-forth ultimately concluded with Reeves suggesting he would order the county to move detainees out of the Raymond Detention Center if it continues to obstruct France’s efforts to improve the unconstitutional conditions. 

“I’m not sure that anybody needs to be in the RDC period right now,” Reeves said. 

Morisani defended the county, asserting that France had $2 million left over from last year’s budget that he hadn’t spent. To this, France said he had overspent the jail’s budget, citing a line-item for professional services the county spent $3 million on last year despite originally allocating $150,000. 

France said he did not know what caused the overspending. “Tell me what the money is for,” he said. 

The path forward, Morisani said, could be clearer if the receiver would spend the money the county already gave him. 

“Maybe cooler heads can prevail that way,” Morisani said. 

“I don’t know if there are uncool heads around, Mr. Morisani,” Reeves responded. 

Reeves, the county, and Christopher Cheng, an attorney with the U.S Department of Justice, also haggled over how to interpret a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order limiting the receivership’s scope. 

At one point, Morisani suggested the county would appeal if Reeves tried to direct its budget – an argument that drew a sharp response from the judge. 

“Well, I know we stayed at the 5th Circuit for over a year, and conditions got far worse,” Reeves said. “We can go back down that path again if that’s where Hinds County is going to drag the court.” 

The contentious hearing came more than a year after France finally assumed operational control of the Raymond Detention Center, a rare move that has occurred in a handful of jails and prisons around the country. 

In that time, the jail has continued to be crowded and deadly. 

“We should not get so tied up in the abstract budget issue that we miss the whole point,” Cheng said. 

In April, three men charged in a shooting at a south Jackson apartment complex were attacked within 24 hours of each other. Two of the suspects were housed in Raymond and a third suspect was housed at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in the Mississippi Delta. 

Over the summer, an 18-year-old was stomped to death in the Raymond jail, just days after he was booked and arrested in connection to a killing at the same south Jackson apartment complex. A video of the beating circulated on social media. 

The county also admitted to Reeves that it was going to miss yet another self-imposed deadline on its main solution to the problems at its Raymond jail: Finishing construction on a new detention center just south of downtown Jackson. 

Reeves asked the county if it was going to hire enough people to staff the new facility. The county admitted it did not have a plan. 

“It’s a national problem, but it seems like when it comes to Hinds County that it’s only a Hinds County problem,” John Hall, an attorney representing Sheriff Tyree Jones, said of staffing at jails and prisons. 

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the county alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with a list of changes to address jail conditions.

Leland has marked a year since a homecoming block party in the heart of downtown erupted in gunfire, claiming the lives of eight people and leaving grieving families and the community to process the tragedy. 

Families of the victims and residents returned to Main and Fourth Streets on the Oct. 11 anniversary of the nation’s deadliest mass shooting of 2025. Instead of chaos and people seeking cover from gunfire, the memorial offered music, prayer, candlelight and a balloon release. 

More people flock into town this week for Leland High School’s Friday homecoming festivities. Meanwhile, court records and statements from officials offer little indication of progress in the shooting investigation. No one’s been indicted, few have been charged and no motives have been established.

Leland Mayor John Lee said families and the community are still wondering why the tragedy happened and lacking the closure that only trials and convictions can begin to provide. 

“That’s going to be delayed,” Lee told Mississippi Today, noting that few cases have been brought forward in court. 

The eight who died are remembered: 

• William Sexton, 37, of Leland; Calvin Plant, 19, of Greenville; Kaslyn Johnson, 18, of Greenville; Amos Brantley Jr., 18; of Greenville; and JaMichael Jones, 34; all buried in Greenville. 

• Oreshama Johnson, 41, was a Leland High School alum who enjoyed working with children. Shelbyona Powell, 25, of Greenville, liked to sing, dance and spend time with family.  Ebanee Williams, 25, graduated fourth in her class from South Delta High School in Rolling Fork and was called a fearless, artistic free spirit. 

Sixteen other people were wounded.

Authorities have charged and publicly identified five people they say were involved. But state and federal court records show none has been indicted for murder, while one has pleaded guilty to a potentially related gun possession charge and is now in federal prison. 

Local, county, state and federal agencies have investigated the case, which remains active and open. It is a complex case with no established timeline to complete the investigation, said Alex Gibert, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety. DPS oversees the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Homeland Security and the Bureau of Narcotics, which are among agencies involved in the investigation. 

“We recognize the tremendous impact this tragedy has had on the victims’ families, the Leland community, and the state of Mississippi. We understand the desire for answers and appreciate the patience of those affected as investigators continue their work,” the department said in an statement to Mississippi Today. 

“Our priority remains conducting a thorough investigation and ensuring that any findings are supported by the evidence.”

An early theory the FBI gave for motive was that the shooting may have been “sparked by a disagreement among several individuals.”

Gibert, though, would not comment about a potential motive, any firearms evidence collected, whether any evidence has been tested or other details “that could compromise the integrity of the case.” 

FBI Jackson Field Office spokesperson Marshay Lawson referred comment to the Leland Police Department, which she said was the primary investigator who invited the bureau to assist. 

Leland Police Chief Isaac Morris Sr. reiterated that the investigation is ongoing. Morris, who became chief in August, said much of that investigation had already been done under the previous administration. Jimmy Myrick was the chief when last year’s shooting happened and he was the department’s leader until his termination in the spring.  

The FBI released five names of people allegedly linked to the mass shooting. Terrogernal S. Martin, 33; Morgan Lattimore, 25; Teviyon L. Powell, 29 and William Bryant, 29 were charged with capital murder. Latoya A. Powell, 44, was charged with attempted murder.  

Investigators contacted in the past two weeks did not say whether additional people have been charged in connection to the shooting. 

Five suspects have been held at the Washington County Regional Correctional Facility in Greenville since last year, according to court records. 

Meanwhile, grand juries have met four times in Washington County to consider cases for indictment. Grand jury proceedings are secret, so it isn’t known if anyone has been indicted in the case. But indictments are typically public once suspects are served, which is something that could be done in this case with most of the known suspects in jail. 

Detainee awaits indictment a year later

Among those arrested in the mass shooting is Morgan Lattimore, whom authorities identified as being 25, although arrest records show his date of birth in 2008 would have made him 16 at the time of the arrest. He was charged with eight counts of capital murder and one count of attempted murder.

The high school student has had no prior convictions, according to his attorney. Lattimore missed his entire junior year and what currently would be his senior year. 

Lattimore’s bond was initially set at a $3.05 million cash bond – a figure he cannot afford and his attorney asked to be reduced. 

It took until at least June for his bond to be brought down to a $500,000 surety bond and for him to be housed separately from adults at the jail, according to a bond motion filed by his attorney, Stephen Edwards Jr., the Washington County public defender. 

On Oct. 12, Lattimore had a second bond hearing in Washington County Circuit Court, which led to a second reduction of $250,000. 

A surety bond enables his family to use a bondsman who can pay the full amount while the family pays 10%. Lattimore’s initial cash bond meant his family would have had to pay the entire amount without help. 

Edwards declined to comment on his client’s case. But in a Sept. 28 motion for bond reduction, the attorney argued that a lower bond would help his family make the payment and bring him home to Leland to await trial should he ultimately be indicted. 

Other suspects from the shooting have also had bond hearings this year, resulting in bond reductions from the million-dollar cash amounts to surety bonds ranging from $50,000 to $250,000, according to court records. 

Edwards has questioned since last December what evidence exists to establish probable cause that Lattimore shot and killed eight people and attempted to kill another at the homecoming block party. 

The attorney wrote that the only evidence presented at a December 2025 preliminary hearing for Lattimore and five co-defendants was testimony from an MBI agent who saw video of the incident.

Edwards said the video wasn’t provided to him or the court. According to the agent’s testimony, the video showed shots were fired from north of the crowd and some returned fire. The agent testified that Lattimore ran, took cover and returned shots, firing off “less than five shots,” according to court records.

But Lattimore did not fire the initial shot, nor was he in the area where the initial shot took place, Edwards wrote. Testimony didn’t indicate who or what Lattimore shot at and if his bullets struck anyone. Lattimore also cooperated with the FBI, giving them a statement and his gun, according to his attorney. 

“The MBI essentially testified that Mr. Lattimore and others were charged because they chose not to keep running and taking cover, instead choosing to shoot back,” Edwards wrote in a December 2025 petition for writ of habeas corpus, a civil legal filing that allows people to challenge their detention. 

Washington County Circuit Judge Ashley Hines held a hearing in February at which a portion of surveillance video was played in court.  

The video showed Latimore in a crowd of people running after gunfire went off and how he fired fewer than five shots, court records state. That video also showed him among a group that took cover behind a vehicle and then running inside a building for safety. 

In April, Hines found probable cause to charge Lattimore with eight counts of capital murder. 

“Although he was not the only shooter or initial shooter, Lattimore had a gun which he shot multiple times,” Hines wrote in a March 12 order. “Eight people died and numerous people were injured during the shoot-out.”

Again, the video was not given to defense counsel, Edwards wrote in the September motion to reduce Lattimore’s bond.  

District Attorney Dewayne Richardson, whose district includes Washington County, did not respond to a request for comment about whether the Leland suspects have been indicted or if their cases are expected to be presented to a grand jury. 

Suspect convicted of federal gun charge

Court records show that William Bryant, one of the five the FBI identified was indicted on a federal gun possession charge and took a plea deal in exchange for the government agreeing not to charge him with related offenses, according to court records

The indictment states that he possessed a gun in Leland the day of the mass shooting, but it does not mention a location or time of day that Bryant had the weapon. 

A spokesperson from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District declined to comment because of an active investigation. Gregory Park, the federal public defender who represented Bryant, did not respond to a request for comment. 

To help determine how much prison time he should serve, the federal government submitted one exhibit: Video of the Oct. 11, 2025, mass shooting. Mississippi Today has not been able to obtain a copy of the video or view it, and it is unclear whether it’s the same video Lattimore’s attorney has referenced. 

By July, he was sentenced to serve three years.

Undercurrent of public mistrust

Two weeks after the mass shooting, the FBI arrested more than a dozen law enforcement officers accused of public corruption for accepting bribes and helping to move drugs from the Delta and Tennessee – the culmination of a years-long investigation. 

Those charged include Milton Gaston, the former sheriff of Washington County whose department has been involved in investigating the Leland shooting. 

Since the arrests, at least seven officers have pleaded guilty and one was acquitted. 

At an October 2025 news conference announcing the arrests, Robert Eikhoff, special agent in charge of the FBI Jackson Field Office, said his agents faced initial impediments responding to the Leland shooting because of broken trust in law enforcement. 

“We learned of the community’s distrust of select law enforcement officers due to concerns of corruption,” Eikhoff said. “Law enforcement is only effective when the communities they protect can trust that law enforcement officers are honest in serving the community’s interest. Mississippians deserve and rightfully expect officers to obey their oath.”

Leland to return for homecoming

Across the Delta, homecoming traditions such as pageantry, football, music and tailgating continued despite homecoming-related shootings last year in Leland and Rolling Fork. 

For Leland, homecoming celebrations this year will look different than years before, local leaders said. 

The parade was moved to 10 a.m. from the afternoon on Friday, and the football game will start at 2 p.m. Leland police officers and Washington County sheriff’s deputies plan to provide security at the game, said Mayor Lee. 

Lee said some of the most noticeable changes will be no more tailgating and large gatherings on school or city property. He said people can still celebrate at home, saying it’s a right the city can’t “(take) away from them.” 

Chief Morris said his department has worked with the school district on safety, and he credited the district for safety measures such as bag checks and metal detectors that have resulted in no issues at games this season. 

“This is the one year anniversary of the mass shooting and we want to make sure everyone feels safe and comfortable coming to the game,” he said. 

“We’ll be happy for them to come back,” Morris said, “and celebrate our homecoming, as always.”

Joseph Cranney is a reporter at Verite News. Mukta Joshi is a reporter at Mississippi Today. She is spending a year as a New York Times Local Investigations fellow. Eduardo Medina is a reporter covering the South for The New York Times. Devon Lum is a reporter on the Visual Investigations team at The New York Times.

Moments before a Mississippi police officer fired at a car in June, killing a toddler inside, five officers rushed out to a Walmart parking lot in pursuit of two women who were accused of stealing diapers and baby clothes.

Newly released videos show a gray sedan, carrying 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, his mother and another woman, reversing and slamming into a parked vehicle as police officers run toward the car and order the driver to stop.

As the car stops, the officers approach and surround the vehicle before the driver accelerates and lurches left, appearing to travel toward at least one of the officers before passing between two of them. At least one officer shoots into the vehicle.

The chaotic scene in Senatobia, captured on body cameras worn by two of the five officers and by surveillance cameras, provides the first glimpse of a shooting that has rocked the tiny city and raised questions about whether the officer was justified in opening fire at the vehicle.

The Mississippi attorney general’s office, which declined to comment on the video, announced on Monday that it would not bring criminal charges against the officer who fatally shot Kohen.

The compilation of several body-cam and surveillance clips was first published by a Mississippi news outlet, Darkhorse Press. A law enforcement official confirmed its authenticity on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to provide information about sensitive matters. A video analysis by The New York Times, Mississippi Today and Verite News showed the footage matched portions of video of the shooting captured by a bystander.

The body-cam footage released Tuesday is from the perspective of two of the law enforcement officers who responded to the scene in June, but not from the officer who fired. It does not show the entirety of the police response, nor does it clearly show Kohen, his mother and the other woman driving the vehicle.

The body-cam footage begins from the perspective of one of the officers, whose identity is unknown. It shows him rushing toward the gray sedan.

The footage then shows the vehicle move in reverse and hit a parked S.U.V. as officers approach, yelling at the driver to stop. When the sedan moves forward, at least one officer appears to be in front of it on the passenger’s side; a second officer also stands near the vehicle, closer to the driver’s side. Both have their guns drawn. As the vehicle approaches them, at least one of the officers opens fire. The officer appears to fire three more times while standing to the side of the vehicle.

Grainy surveillance footage included in the compilation published by Darkhorse Press also captures the moments from more of a bird’s-eye view. In that footage, two women — one holding a child — are seen running toward a vehicle and reversing in it as law enforcement officers chase them.

More video of the incident has yet to be seen by the public. Kohen’s family is scheduled to view it Thursday morning. Veronica Roberson, the toddler’s grandmother, said state officials had informed the family that the footage included surveillance videos from Walmart, along with five body-worn cameras.

Hunter Foster, an officer with the Senatobia Police Department, was placed on leave while state authorities investigated his actions at the Walmart. Although he has not been named as the one who opened fire, Officer Foster is the only officer among those present that day who was placed on leave.

The shooting death touched off weeks of protests and calls for transparency in Senatobia, a city of roughly 8,400 located roughly 40 miles south of Memphis. Activists and Kohen’s family had been calling on the authorities to release police body-camera or dashcam footage.

Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, said she had been holding her son in her arms in the front passenger seat when the driver, Latoya Ferrell, tried to back out of a space and then drive forward. Ms. Ferrell was seriously injured. 

In the hours after the shooting, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation issued a statement saying the police had fired at a vehicle when it drove toward an officer, “almost striking” one.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican who is running for governor next year, has been Mississippi’s top prosecutor since 2020 and a vocal supporter of law enforcement, even as the Legislature has delegated her office the duty of reviewing investigations of police shootings and deciding whether to seek criminal charges. In late September, Fitch said she had cleared police in 82 of 86 officer-involved shootings during her time in office.

In a 2024 statement, she said, “The good men and women who wear the uniform to keep us safe and maintain law and order in our communities need to know that their Attorney General will always have their back. We are their partners and whether we call it Back the Blue or Back the Badge or Blue Lives Matter, it all comes down to this: Supporting law enforcement is the right thing to do.”

Jerry Mitchell and Julie Lee of Mississippi Today and Aric Toler and  Alexander Cardia of The New York Times contributed reporting.

A top Democratic super PAC focused on U.S. Senate races announced Tuesday that it will spend $1.2 million on an ad campaign in Mississippi for Scott Colom.

The ad, paid for by the Senate Majority PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, marks the group’s first entry into Mississippi’s heated Senate race this cycle. Colom is challenging incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, whom the ad calls a “‘do nothing’ senator who voted to kick people off Medicaid while pocketing thousands from special interests.”

The ad buy from Schumer in the election’s homestretch is a notable development since Schumer had earlier been criticized by figures such as U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi’s only Democrat in Washington, and some other congressional Democrats for failing to spend more on Colom’s campaign.

“Scott Colom is the senator Mississippi deserves – and he can win,” Schumer said on social media after the ad campaign announcement.

Thompson had said Democrats were “missing a golden opportunity” by overlooking Mississippi. Those comments came after the official campaign arm of Senate Democrats excluded Mississippi and Colom’s campaign from a $40-million investment in 10 battleground states.

But multiple Democratic senators have visited Mississippi to campaign with Colom, and Schumer attended a fundraiser for him this summer. Mississippi’s Senate race has since gained national attention and attracted a steady stream of Democratic power players.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris will campaign with Colom in Columbus on Thursday, and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit cities along the Gulf Coast on Oct. 27.

The ad highlights Colom’s record as a district attorney and highlights his Christian faith. It also criticizes Hyde-Smith, saying she has failed to pass any meaningful legislation and that she voted for Medicaid cuts.

In a statement, Hyde-Smith’s campaign said the late investment from Schumer was evidence Colom was “too liberal” to win, pointing to issues such as immigration and transgender rights.

“It took Chuck Schumer and his Super PACs thirteen months to run a single ad for Scott Colom,” said Jake Monssen, Hyde-Smith’s Campaign Manager. “Team Cindy is confident that voters will reject this radical agenda at the ballot box on November 3rd.”

News of the ad campaign broke on the same day the Cook Political Report, a reputable election handicapper, moved the Senate race in Mississippi from solid Republican to likely Republican. Other national pundits and prognosticators say races in deep-red states including Mississippi are becoming more in play as the Trump administration’s approval ratings tank and consumer prices continue to rise.

In a statement, Gerard Henderson, Colom’s campaign manager, said Mississippi is in play “because thousands of Mississippians volunteered and chipped in.”

“We clearly have the momentum and resources to win on November 3rd and prove to the nation that Mississippi Matters,” Henderson said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S.-Ukraine alliance is careening toward a possible breaking point, with Moscow strengthened by President Donald Trump’s recent rejection of new Russia sanctions and Kyiv undermined by disruptions in satellite support for its drones during the war.

Trump’s relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has always been a moving target, while the Republican president has frequently boasted of his rapport with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. But relations between the U.S. and Ukraine appear to be at a new low, threatening to tip the balance of the war to Russia’s favor and imperil America’s security interests across the globe.

“At this moment in time, things look blacker than they ever had regarding this administration’s policy towards Russia and Ukraine,” said John Herbst, a former ambassador to Ukraine under President George W. Bush and now a scholar with the Atlantic Council.

Trump has been lobbing insults at Zelenskyy for over a week and turning to policies that benefit Putin, while Ukraine’s president has said he feels betrayed and worries for his country’s future. But the American president can still shift on Zelenskyy — especially as he faces bipartisan outrage from lawmakers — which Trump has done before.

Trump famously thrashed Ukraine’s leader in the Oval Office last year, warning him to “make a deal or we are out.” Washington briefly suspended intelligence sharing. But Trump was praising Zelenskyy by that July and said they “actually developed a good relationship.”

“Trump is a mercurial guy,” Herbst said. “He can wake up tomorrow morning, decide he’s done enough on this, and he might start to lean back in the other direction.”

No one has taken responsibility for satellite restrictions on Ukraine

Trump’s recent decisions have baffled experts and infuriated Democrats and some Republicans ahead of pivotal midterm elections in two weeks.

After The Wall Street Journal reported that Putin raised the prospect of a meeting with Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, Trump told reporters Monday that he was open to it but expected it to focus on denuclearization efforts. Asked whether he would be willing to negotiate the end of the war without Zelenskyy, Trump appeared to indicate yes.

“I think it’s time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine,” Trump said.

Trump decided Friday to waive sanctions on Russia in a bill that Congress overwhelmingly passed to support Ukraine. Named after late South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, the legislation targeted the flow of financial resources fueling Russia’s war.

That rebuke followed Trump’s announcement of a deal to import Russian diesel fuel in a long-shot effort to curb high gas prices. The agreement was pilloried by Republicans and Democrats alike who say it will help Russia without making a difference in global fuel prices, which are elevated mostly due to Trump’s war against Iran.

Then there were changes in SpaceX’s satellite support to Ukraine’s military, for which no one has taken responsibility.

Starshield is a military-grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service and the backbone of Ukraine’s drone operations and communication. Zelenskyy says his country is facing major speed restrictions, so Ukrainian drones have been unable to intercept Russia’s jet-powered drones.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk, a Trump ally, has said Starshield is controlled by the U.S. and any limits are decided by the military and ultimately Trump. But Trump told reporters Friday that he did not order restrictions and doubted that Musk did either.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that Ukraine wants access to Starshield but doesn’t have it. On Monday, he said the Pentagon controls Starshield, and “Ukraine has benefited from it” and wants to expand its use to conduct attacks beyond its territory.

The U.S. military has not responded to questions about its involvement.

And while Russia has launched new attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Zelenskyy said Monday that Kyiv once again received no early warning of the latest attacks from partners such as the U.S.

“Russia killed six people, including a mother and her child, who was just over a year old,” Zelenskyy said on X, adding that this “is how Russia responds to sanctions waivers and reduced pressure.”

Trump and Rubio say Washington hasn’t stopped providing intelligence to Kyiv that has helped Ukraine counter Russian attacks.

Experts say Trump is trying to appease Putin

Dan Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland and assistant secretary of state for European affairs under Bush, said he was mystified by the Trump administration’s shifting positions on Ukraine.

Fried said he first thought Trump’s diesel fuel announcement was aimed at trying to influence the midterms with cheaper fuel prices. But what followed has changed his opinion.

“It all seems designed to put pressure on Zelenskyy and curry favor with Putin,” said Fried, now a scholar with the Atlantic Council.

Fiona Hill, who was Trump’s Russia adviser on the National Security Council during his first term, said Trump could be trying to appease Putin over worries that Russia could do more to support Iran.

Since Trump launched the Iran war in February, Russia has sent drone technology to Tehran and information that could help it strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region.

“So maybe this is it — Putin’s just calling in a chit for not devastating Trump through Iran as he could do by helping the Iranians,” said Hill, now a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution.

Trump revealed his worries on social media Sunday, saying, “Russia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what they could be doing, and I want to keep it that way, and will, unless stupid people get in the way.”

Criticism grows in Congress

One factor that could nudge Trump toward a detente with Zelenskyy is the cascading criticism from Republicans. They are facing a surge of Democratic momentum in the final stretch of the midterms, which will determine control of Congress.

Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican in a competitive race, is calling for congressional hearings into the Starshield disruptions and “immediate harsh and punitive budget cuts to any responsible agency or agency head.”

Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said on X that he and retiring Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis organized a call with Zelenskyy and a bipartisan group of lawmakers Monday, including about disruptions to U.S. intelligence sharing.

Zelenskyy, in a video of the briefing posted online, also noted that Ukraine has “almost no Patriot interceptors left from the United States” and claimed “the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles that our partners have already paid for.”

Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged Trump to take up Zelenskyy’s pledge to stop attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in exchange for U.S. targeting assistance to stop Russia’s missiles.

“President Trump can lower prices at the pump today by simply agreeing to this deal!” Wicker posted on X.

Regardless of which political party controls Congress next year, lawmakers will likely revolt if Trump enters into a deal with Russia and China over Ukraine, said Fried, the former ambassador to Poland.

“It is clear that we are sitting on considerable leverage over Putin,” he said, “but also clear that we are not using it. It’s a mess.”

Associated Press writers Lynn Berry and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

Mississippi Today Ideas is a platform for thoughtful ideas to be shared about our state’s past, present and future. Opinions expressed in guest essays are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Mississippi Today. You can read more about the section here.   

Before I moved to Jackson for the summer, a New Yorker living in Montgomery, Alabama, told me to pay close attention to people’s reactions when I shared my summer plans.

I had just recently received nearly unanimous encouragement for my decision to study abroad in Madrid, so I was curious what she meant; this potential for contrast became a little game for me. I was a double agent, watching closely for the reactions I predicted: coastal elitism and disparagement.

What I noticed instead was more damning. A pause, a curious tilt, an eye squint. The subtle signs of drawing a blank. My friends and family in New York City and Boston didn’t condemn Mississippi. To have such strong opinions, they would have needed to observe, judge and then reject Mississippi. Instead, Mississippi sits outside their scope of consideration altogether.

I grew up in New York City, where a heavy dose of civic pride taught me that I hail from the center of the universe. College in Boston marked a departure down a well-blazed path for New Yorkers looking to expand their world, but only just so. In this universe, Mississippi is an abstraction, rarely registered beyond a childhood memory of spelling practice: MI-SS-I-SS-I-PP-I! It is scarcely acknowledged as a place to go, let alone stay or build a life.

It wasn’t until I talked with my professor, Gene Corbin, about his years living and working in Mississippi in the 90s that its inclusion in this universe—as much more than a thing to spell—became obvious and necessary.

Professor Corbin sent me to Jackson to work for Jake McGraw at Working Together Mississippi. My task was to join in their effort to research why Mississippi struggles to attract and retain college-educated people, a phenomenon known as “brain drain.”

Mississippi Today, in conjunction with Rethink Mississippi and the University of Mississippi Center for Population Studies, created a first-of-its-kind study dedicated to the state’s brain drain crisis. I began my job this summer by reading through the thousands of survey responses they had collected, placing myself at the “stay vs. leave” crossroads that many Mississippians perennially consider. Immersed in these fraught considerations, I found that most respondents reckoned with a home state where they don’t feel they have sufficient opportunities to stay, but they would, and they want to.

Ironically, I was analyzing an instinct that I recognize in myself and my friends: glancing toward the coasts, assuming that real life, real opportunity, happens there. The difference is that Mississippians must weigh the cost of outsourcing opportunity with what it costs to stay. Having started on this note, I was primed to spend the rest of my time in Jackson open to experiencing the full weight of either conclusion. Paradoxically, the more I studied leaving the state, the more I felt the value of staying. I was swimming against the current.

As the summer progressed, my understanding of Jackson grew beyond what I read in my research and rested instead on the experience of building a routine and community in this city. I listened to Blues at Hal & Mals on Mondays, learned about community organizing for a weekend in Louisville and wandered through the “L.V. Hull: Love Is a Sensation” exhibit at the Mississippi Museum of Art on rainy weekdays. I felt deep affection for a culture that I also recognized—one I had seen fragments of in New York City and pop culture my whole life.

Multiculturalism is a core part of New York’s identity, and most New Yorkers would balk at being called insular. But my time in one of New York’s great cultural wellsprings revealed just this: a blind spot in New York’s identity and proof that some constituent cultures are celebrated while others are forgotten.

So, let’s celebrate. You all know this better than I do, so forgive me for stating the obvious: Elvis Presley is from Mississippi, and so is Oprah. Robert Johnson, raised primarily in the Mississippi Delta, is the blues giant who inspired the 2025 film “Sinners.” And civil rights legend Medgar Evers is the namesake of a City of New York public college in Brooklyn, a fact I would fairly confidently state many Brooklynites could not explain. What happens in Mississippi does not stay contained behind a state line; it ripples throughout the rest of the country. The case for staying in this cultural wellspring is easily made.

Yet Mississippi is a real place, one whose challenges are concentrated and in their rawest forms – the brain drain didn’t come out of nowhere. And still the state remains unconsidered, even by those who claim to care passionately about social and racial justice. The instinct to engage injustice when it is exotic and geographically or historically distant keeps places like Jackson invisible. We should refuse to tolerate this hypocrisy.

Mississippians, the problem isn’t that coastal “elites” are judging you; it is that we ignore you. The message I will bring back with me is that if you, like me, desire a full understanding of the country you live in, and not just its wealthiest cities, come to Mississippi. If you don’t come, read; and if you won’t, at the very least, consider with curiosity.

Ella Caplan is a senior at Tufts University, studying sociology and Spanish. She grew up in New York City.

A state lawmaker pleaded with members of the Jackson City Council on Monday night to sell city-owned swampland along the Pearl River, a move that could advance a long-sought riverfront casino resort in Mississippi’s capital city.

Rep. Chris Bell, a Democrat from Jackson, expressed his dismay that the council had not yet approved an order allowing LeFleur Development to buy and develop 93 acres within the river’s floodplain.

“We have an opportunity to change the trajectory of the city of Jackson,” Bell said after thanking the council for letting him speak even though the project was not on the council’s work session agenda. 

Further delays, he asserted, would mean the potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in much-needed tax revenue for the cash-strapped city. Last year, the city’s tourism arm, Visit Jackson, estimated that the proposed resort could attract over 4 million visitors annually and create more than 6,722 new jobs. 

“I’m not saying we will, but we do not need to fumble a $600 million influx of funds to the city of Jackson,” Bell told the council.

The council had tabled the matter during an Oct. 6 meeting after Ward 1 Council Member Ashby Foote, who represents northeast Jackson and is the body’s lone Republican, had questioned if the proposed selling price of $110,000 was too low. The amount was based on two estimates LeFleur Development obtained from two Mississippi property appraisers.

LeFleur Development is supported by former Gov. Haley Barbour and attorney-developer Robert Gibbs, a key ally of Mayor John Horhn.

Jackson City Council President Vernon Hartley, who represents Ward 5 in west Jackson, told Bell the proposal was not dead but had been referred to a committee for further discussion.

While the council’s support is crucial for advancing the project, the development faces other hurdles.

Despite repeated attempts, Bell has yet to secure passage of the required legislation that would allow a casino to be built in Jackson. His bill faced opposition from lawmakers whose districts already have casinos. 

Under state law, casinos can only be built along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast, or on land owned by Native Americans.

It also remains to be seen how the Pearl River’s swampy banks will be converted into land suitable for development. In March, the Rankin Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District announced that it had approved a plan to widen and develop the river, though federal officials later clarified that no final decision has been made.

Libby Reuter watched the creek flow slowly, like she had done dozens of times before.

Mallard ducks rested on stones and cattails sprang out of the creek. The water ran parallel to a street busy with traffic and joggers, pooling behind the art museum in Springfield, Mo. 

Fassnight Creek is hundreds of miles from the banks of the Mississippi River, but that’s exactly what drew Reuter, an artist, there with her creative partner, Joshua Rowan. They wanted to tell a story about the creek and its changing environment. More importantly, the pair wanted to highlight its place in the larger story of the Mississippi River watershed. 

Here in Springfield, Reuter saw “an opportunity to show both the urbanization and the way the natural environment can contribute to it.”

Rowan, meanwhile, studied the scene. As a photographer, he was looking for a composition that could serve as a “gateway” into the themes surrounding water resources — in Fassnight Creek’s case, erosion, flooding. 

“Even in the background, the tall grass is the diversity of vegetation,” Rowan said. “If we can include even this rigid piece of concrete, forming at the far end of the photograph — that goes far to tell the story.”

The pair have followed this process more than 400 times over the past 15 years in states across the Mississippi River Basin, from Iowa to Wisconsin and Tennessee to Louisiana. 

The artists build cairns, which are normally stacks of stones raised to mark trails or a place of significance. But theirs are delicate, fleeting sculptures made out of found glassware, often recycled vases or antique dishes. Each one is custom-made to its location — rivers, creeks and wetlands in the basin — and placed at 40-mile intervals from one another.

The goal is to spark conversation about the state of the watershed and how each location is impacted by both nature and human activity. “There’s the common things,” said Reuter. “About stormwater, about flooding, about the soil and what it supports, and the history of the place.”

Each cairn’s construction and placement is inspired by the story of water the artists uncover there. For example, one of their many cairns sat on top of a levee in Rohwer, Ark., while another stood in the shadow of a grain silo in Warsaw, Ill., rising from an overgrown flowerbed on a no-till farm. In Mississippi, the artists created temporary cairns in Greenville bridge, Coahoma County, Natchez and Vicksburg.

We’re “trying to get a new metaphor of how we’re connected to the water and land and each other,” Reuter said.

Before the cairns are built, the pair meet with local stakeholders to get a better sense of the location’s past, present and future. In Springfield, they talked to Caleb Sanders, a parks supervisor for the city. 

Sanders told them that, before colonization, the area surrounding Fassnight Creek was likely a prairie with a series of buffalo wallows — places where native wildlife could find watering holes and rest. While this creek might not ever return to what it once was, he said, the city is making improvements to help the creek better manage stormwater and protect its soil from washing away. 

“It’s a space that, like an art installation, challenges expectations and norms and really serves to give that same feel that you would have when you’re walking into an art space,” Sanders said.

That mindset of connecting art and nature is why Joshua Best, museum educator at the Springfield Art Museum, commissioned the artists to create three cairns in a special series for the city. They met last year at an environmental conference and decided to work together on the local project. 

“Naturalization projects have been at the forefront of our civic thinking in Springfield,” Best said. “So it was one way that I saw to connect art with what we’re doing.” 

After viewing the site, the artists headed back to their cargo van. Inside were milk crates and plastic tote bags full of fragile glassware, cushioned with packing paper and styrofoam. The containers were labeled with descriptions like “swirly.” 

With help from Rowan, Reuter unboxed a long cylindrical vase with a small illustration taped to it: blueprints for the cairn that the artists would build.

The final product was a deep blue-green glass tower made of stacked platters and vases, its mismatched pieces evoking an otherworldly tea party set. For a brief moment, it rose from the bubbling Fassnight Creek, marking the many paths that intersected here across time: that of the buffalo, rainwater and visitors to the art museum.

True to the artist’s goal of sustainability, the sculptures are not meant to stay. “The photograph and the sculpture are both capturing a moment, and that moment doesn’t exist beyond that,” Reuter said.

After they’re photographed, the artists take the cairns apart, storing the pieces for possible reuse elsewhere in the basin. The artists log each cairn’s location and add the photos to their interactive map.

Occasionally, the glass sculptures might find themselves reconstructed at an art exhibition alongside Rowan’s photographs. In Chicago, the Watershed Art and Ecology Center is hosting the pair’s artwork through Oct. 31.

For Reuter, the connection between each community and the Mississippi River is why they’ve kept this project going.

“That’s what we’re trying to mark with the cairns,” Reuter said. “Not only the biological, ecological, but the history and the dynamics of the place. And the culture — the human culture — and how we all interact. None of it is independent of it.”

This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri.

Despite growing evidence that midwife-led birth centers improve outcomes for mothers and infants, Mississippi remains one of 10 states with no centers. Mississippi is also among the states with the fewest midwives per births in the nation, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund, a non-profit research organization focused on healthcare issues. 

Built in the communities they serve, freestanding birth centers employ midwives to care for people with low-risk pregnancies, according to the report released Tuesday. They focus on patient autonomy and cultural responsiveness, which can help reduce pregnancy and delivery disparities for Black and Indigenous communities. Birth centers also may lower unnecessary interventions and increase maternal satisfaction, the report authors said. 

“Birth centers offer the kind of continuous, midwife-led care, shaped around each family’s needs, that can be part of the response to our maternal health crisis,” said Laurie Zephyrin, senior vice president of the Achieving Equitable Outcomes program at the Commonwealth Fund, in a press release. 

Last year, Mississippi health officials declared a public health emergency over rising infant deaths, most of which were Black infants. Experts have said increased access to care is a vital part of the solution. But in February, state lawmakers failed to pass legislation that would have made it easier for midwives to practice without paying a collaborating physician a monthly fee. Advocates argue these arrangements provide little meaningful collaboration while creating financial barriers that discourage midwives from practicing or opening birth centers. 

Mississippi, along with Louisiana and Alabama, has fewer than 20 midwives per 10,000 births, according to the report. All three states have collaboration agreements for nurse midwives. 

In 2026, the American College of Nurse Midwives sued Mississippi for restricting access to midwives in a place with some of the worst outcomes for mothers and babies. That lawsuit is still pending. 

Beyond collaboration agreements, the Mississippi State Department of Health has regulated birth centers in a way that may put underserved, rural areas at a disadvantage, Zephyrin told Mississippi Today. 

For example, a Mississippi birth center can only open within 30 minutes of a hospital, according to state regulations. Nearly half the counties in Mississippi are maternity care deserts, where there are no obstetric clinicians or birthing facilities. 

“With hospital shortages and maternity deserts, there may not be a hospital nearby,” Zephyrin said, adding that state leaders need to be innovative to address gaps in care. 

The state Health Department did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. 

Across the country, access to birth centers remains limited. In addition to the 10 states without birth centers, eight states have only one. 

On the other hand, Texas leads the nation in this health model, with 90 birth centers. Between 2004 and 2024, the model grew significantly, according to the report. However, birth center deliveries still only account for less than one percent of all U.S. births.

Getty Israel, founder of a Jackson-based women’s health clinic called Sisters in Birth, has spent nearly six years trying to open a birth center in the state. She believes the state overregulates birth centers and midwives. She said lawmakers lack the will to integrate midwives and birth centers into the healthcare system. 

Israel said she feels lawmakers don’t pay attention to the growing research that supports midwifery as an integral part of the solution. 

“There’s a lot of evidence about the efficacy of birth centers,” Israel said. “But no one is helping me to build a birth center.”