By René Marsh, Audrey Ash, CNN

(CNN) — A long-abandoned proposal at the Department of Homeland Security – one so ambitious the agency had never gone through with it before – was revived under the leadership of then-Secretary Kristi Noem.

Officials spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to buy the department its own fleet of aircraft and started laying the groundwork for shifting away from relying on charter airline companies for deportation flights, as it had for decades. Ultimately, they planned to start their own mini airline to help execute President Donald Trump’s aim to deport 1 million undocumented immigrants a year.

Now DHS tells CNN exclusively it plans to start using the planes for deportation flights soon – using contractors to operate the planes – after new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin reevaluated the plan. Mullin, who replaced Noem in March, had undertaken an agency-wide review of contracts signed during her tenure.

“We anticipate we will be able to integrate these planes into our deportation efforts in the coming weeks,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.

Under Noem, DHS officials argued the move would save taxpayers $280 million, in part by allowing the department to fly more efficient routes, though they didn’t give a timeframe for those savings.

But some current and former DHS officials, as well as aviation industry sources, question whether the unprecedented endeavor will be viable over the long-term and deliver the promised savings. Some critics point to industry data that suggests the department may have paid more than market value for at least some of the planes.

“It’s hard to see this as anything but a waste of public money,” an aviation industry executive told CNN.

DHS purchased 10 planes between January and March of this year, records show. The fleet has largely sat idle since then – in some cases, for months – at a maintenance facility in Louisiana, according to a source with knowledge of the matter and publicly available flight tracking data.

While some of the aircraft were used for evacuation flights in the early days of the Iran war, none have been used for deportations.

William Walters, the CEO of Daedalus Aviation, the company that sold the aircraft to DHS, told CNN they were sold at cost plus overhead, including the cost of retrofitting the passenger planes for immigration purposes.

Walters and DHS declined to provide a breakdown of the costs of the planes.

The DHS spokesperson said the planes will provide “vital support” to immigration enforcement but that “any decisions related to the purchase of these planes were made prior to the change in DHS leadership.”

The department added that while Mullin and his team worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “assess the operation plan for utilizing these aircraft,” the planes have been “undergoing maintenance and safety checks as well as any necessary make-ready modifications to meet the need of the deportation mission.”

“Secretary Mullin is 100% focused on ensuring the needs of our Department are met while being the best possible steward of taxpayer dollars,” DHS said in another statement to CNN.

Building the fleet

From the beginning of this endeavor, several aviation sources said they thought the plan was “crazy” and said it would “never work.” Some of the sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, while others offering an industry perspective wanted to avoid potential fallout from the White House.

“There’s an old saying in aviation: The fastest way to become a millionaire is to be a billionaire who tries to start an airline,” one industry veteran told CNN, citing a joke about the risks and high startup costs.

Last December, as DHS was assessing what it would take to carry out its plan, the agenc

Por Alayna Treene y Adam Cancryn, CNN

A medida que Donald Trump se sentía cada vez más frustrado con los esfuerzos diplomáticos para poner fin a la guerra con Irán, los funcionarios de la administración observaban atentamente si el viaje del presidente a China, una nación con estrechos vínculos con Teherán, produciría un avance significativo.

Pero Trump aterrizó en Estados Unidos el viernes sin que aparentemente hubiera ningún progreso que reportar.

En declaraciones a la prensa durante su viaje de regreso a Washington, Trump afirmó que el líder de China, Xi Jinping, había expresado su deseo de que se reabriera el estrecho de Ormuz y que estaba de acuerdo en que Irán no debería desarrollar un arma nuclear.

Sin embargo, esas declaraciones ya las había hecho China con anterioridad.

“Le gustaría que esto terminara. Le gustaría ayudar. Si quiere ayudar, estupendo. Pero no necesitamos ayuda”, declaró Trump a Bret Baier de Fox News sobre su homólogo chino en una entrevista que se emitió el viernes.

Varios funcionarios del Gobierno dijeron que querían ver cómo se desarrollaban las conversaciones entre Trump y Xi antes de determinar el camino a seguir con respecto a Irán.

Pero ahora el presidente tiene que decidir si lanzar más ataques contra Irán es su mejor opción para poner fin a un conflicto que se ha prolongado mucho más allá de las seis semanas que proyectó inicialmente, disparando los precios del gas y haciendo caer sus índices de aprobación en materia económica.

En una publicación de Truth Social realizada el viernes por la mañana, hora de China, Trump dijo que su campaña militar contra Irán “¡continuará!”.

Según fuentes cercanas a las conversaciones, dentro de la administración existen diferentes puntos de vista sobre cómo proceder.

Algunos, incluidos funcionarios del Pentágono, abogan por un enfoque más agresivo —que incluya ataques selectivos— con la esperanza de presionar aún más a Irán para que ceda.

Otros, sin embargo, abogan por mantener el enfoque en la diplomacia.

El propio Trump se ha inclinado por esta vía en las últimas semanas, con la esperanza de que la combinación de negociaciones directas y presión económica convenza a Irán de llegar a un acuerdo.

Pero Teherán no ha cedido mucho en sus condiciones para un acuerdo desde que Trump anunció un alto el fuego en abril.

“Bueno, lo revisé y si no me gusta la primera frase, simplemente lo descarto”, comentó Trump a los periodistas a bordo del Air Force One el viernes sobre la última propuesta iraní.

El vicepresidente J.D. Vance se mostró confiado a principios de esta semana, cuando declaró a los periodistas que había “pasado bastante tiempo hablando por teléfono con Jared Kushner y Steve Witkoff esta mañana, y con varios de nuestros amigos en el mundo árabe”, en referencia a los principales diplomáticos a quienes Trump ha encomendado la tarea de alcanzar un acuerdo con Teherán.

“Miren, creo que estamos progresando. La pregunta fundamental es: ¿Estamos progresando lo suficiente como para cumplir con la línea roja del presidente?”, manifestó Vance.

“El presidente nos ha encaminado por la vía diplomática por ahora, y en eso es en lo que me estoy centrando”, añadió.

Ante la negativa de Irán a abandonar su postura intransigente, Trump se ha impacientado cada vez más.

Le irrita especialmente el cierre continuo del estrecho de Ormuz, que ha disparado los precios del petróleo y el gas, así como las supuestas divisiones en el liderazgo iraní, que han complicado aún más las negociaciones, según las fuentes.

La última respuesta de Irán a la propuesta estadounidense y su retórica de los últimos días han llevado a muchos funcionarios a cuestionar el compromiso de Teherán con un acuerdo serio.

“Ha inten

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) - Carson Turnquist and Chris Downs combined on a three-hitter and six different players drove in runs as Cal Poly clinched its Big West baseball series against Long Beach State with a 6-2 victory Friday night before the largest crowd of the 2026 season inside Baggett Stadium.

Turnquist (7-2) struck out nine Dirtbags, six of them looking, over six innings, giving up two runs (one earned) and a pair of hits for his seventh victory of the year. Downs earned his second save with three scoreless innings of one-hit relief, notching a pair of strikeouts.

An RBI triple by Casey Murray Jr., run-scoring doubles off the bats of Dylan Kordic and Cam Hoiland, run-producing singles by Ryan Tayman and Dante Vachini and a grounder to second base by Alejandro Garza accounted for Cal Poly's six runs, all in the first three innings of the game.

In front of 2,923 fans, the ninth-largest Baggett Stadium crowd since the facility opened in 2001, Cal Poly clinched a Big West series for the ninth time in 10 tries this season. The Mustangs also won nine of 10 conference series in 2025 and have claimed 26 of 30 Big West series over the last three years.

Cal Poly also kept pace with UC Santa Barbara atop the Big West standings, both with 21-8 records. The Gauchos defeated UC Riverside 15-5 on Friday. Should the two Central Coast rivals remain tied after Saturday's games, both teams will be declared co-champions, but UC Santa Barbara will be the top seed for next week's conference tournament at UC Irvine.

UC San Diego (18-11) is the No. 3 seed while Hawai'i (16-14) has locked up the fourth seed. The fifth and final team in the field will be decided Saturday with Cal State Fullerton (14-15), UC Irvine (13-16) and UC Davis (14-16) still alive for the last berth. UC Davis owns the tiebreaker in a two-way tie with Cal State Fullerton by virtue of its sweep two weeks ago and the Aggies also own the tiebreaker if they finish in a three-way tie with the Titans and Anteaters.

Cal Poly jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back. The double by Kordic and Tayman's single up the middle accounted for the two tallies.

Both teams scored a run in the second frame. After Long Beach State trimmed the deficit to 2-1 on Ty Borgogno's single to right, singles by Gavin Spiridonoff and Nate Castellon set up Garza's run-scoring grounder to second base in the bottom of the inning.

The Mustangs scored three times in the third for a 6-1 advantage. Murray's triple down the left-field line notched the first run, Hoiland doubled to the same spot for the second run and Vachini singled to right field to cap the rally.

The Dirtbags scored the game's final run in the sixth on a two-out home run to left field by Conner Stewart, his second of the series and second of the year.

Cal Poly's bats were silenced by lefty Jaxon Baker, who pitched five scoreless innings in relief of starter Luke Howe and gave up just three hits and a walk with five strikeouts.

Turnquist was putting up a lot of zeroes on the scoreboard as well, with his final six strikeouts all looking in the fourth and fifth frames. Turnquist also hit three Dirtbag batters, but none was allowed to score.

Howe (5-4) suffered the loss, giving up all six

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) -

CIF-Southern Section Division 3: Dos Pueblos 14, Burroughs-Burbank 8: The Chargers erupted for 9 second inning runs to advance to the second round where they will play at Edison in Huntington Beach on Tuesday. Nick Salcido belted a grand slam and drove in five runs for DP in that second inning uprising.

CIF-Southern Section Division 5: Santa Barbara 5, Loara 4: The Dons scored all of their runs in the first inning to advance to the second round where they will host Paramount on Tuesday. Milo Winckler roped a 2-run double for the Dons.

St. Bonaventure 1, Mayfair 0: Seraphs are at Culver City on Tuesday in the second round.

CIF-Southern Section Division 7: Carpinteria 2, Flintridge Prep 1: Gabe Martinez ripped a 2-run single in the top of the sixth inning for the winning Warriors who will host #1 seed New Roads on Tuesday in the second round. Jonah Hernandez had a big day for Carp as he picked up the win in relief allowing just one hit in two scoreless innings. He also doubled and walked twice for the Warriors.

Santa Paula 5, Poly Pasadena 4: Cardinals host Fontana in the second round on Tuesday.

CIF-Southern Section Division 9: Dunn 16, Redlands Advent 4: Earwigs are at Lennox Academy for Tuesday's second round game.

Ojai Valley 16, San Luis Obispo Classical 0: Ojai Valley hosts San Bernardino on Tuesday in the second round.

Yucca Valley 8, Santa Maria Valley Christian 7

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By Sean Lyngaas, CNN

(CNN) — The USS Gerald R. Ford, America’s largest and newest aircraft carrier, is set to return to port in Virginia Saturday after nearly a year at sea that included participating in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Iran war, a shipboard fire, and repeated plumbing issues.

It will go down in history as the longest operational deployment by a carrier since the end of the Vietnam War, a voyage that has seen the ship serve as a focal point for a string of President Donald Trump’s military objectives overseas.

For families of the sailors, it’s a long-awaited end to what has been a nerve-wracking year when their service members were regularly participating in military operations that dominated the news.

“Now I can actually relax and breath and go back to a normal sleeping pattern,” Amini Osias, whose daughter is an aviation electrician who served on the Ford, told CNN. He said he planned to go out to eat with his daughter, hear her account of the deployment and just be a dad with her.

It was a rough journey at times. A fire broke out in the Ford’s laundry area in March that took the crew roughly 30 hours to put out, clean up and prevent from reigniting. Some 600 sailors lost access to their bunks due to the damage, but none were seriously injured. The damage meant the ship couldn’t do laundry for a stretch, adding to the challenges for the crew.

The fire happened months into the ships’ deployment after it had already experienced repeated issues with its toilet system that resulted in intermittent partial outages, a hassle for the crew that required a port visit for repairs.

Even though the Ford is technically advanced and the newest carrier in the fleet, Osias said, families of the sailors “still had those doubts that something can happen.” He cited the fire as a cause for worry.

Current and former military officials say the $13 billion ship has been indispensable in the US military operations in Iran and Venezuela. For the Venezuela operation the ship launched aircraft that participated in the capture mission, and in Iran the ship served as a platform to send wave after wave of fighter jets into action.

The ship’s electronic catapult system allows it to launch anything from small drones to big aircraft, giving commanders an array of firepower options, Brent Sadler, a 26-year veteran of the Navy and former submarine officer, previously told CNN. The other 10 US aircraft carriers don’t have that capability, according to Sadler.

After pulling away from Virginia last June, the Ford moved across the Atlantic, initially heading to the Mediterranean and up to Norway as part of its scheduled trip before being pulled to the Caribbean for the operation to capture Maduro in January. Then the ship was ordered to rapidly make its way to aid in a potential Middle East war, where it contributed to Iran war operations, until it began heading home and passed into the Atlantic from the Mediterranean Sea earlier this month.

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