US acknowledges for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has confirmed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space, a remarkable revelation after previous warnings about countries such as Russia possibly weaponizing a global frontier long agreed in treaties to be used for only peaceful purposes.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told the Air and Space Cyber Conference in Maryland on Monday that the U.S. has fielded “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.”

Meink did not detail what the weapons were, how they work or if they were targeting other objects in space or on Earth. The U.S. had warned two years ago that Russia was developing a new space-based, anti-satellite weapon, though the White House said the danger wasn’t imminent at the time.

But reports of the anti-satellite weapon reflected longstanding worries about space threats from Russia and China, given that much U.S. infrastructure is dependent on satellite communications. The U.S. has also previously demonstrated its own abilities to shoot down satellites from Earth.

In his remarks, Meink also said the Air Force was adding more autonomous systems to its capabilities and predicted the service would look “radically different” by 2032. For example, he foresaw one-way attack drones replacing artillery as the “primary killer.”

“We are increasing readiness against existing threats," he said.

The revelation comes as the Trump administration puts a growing focus on space.

In 2019, during his first term, Trump created the Space Force as a separate military branch. In his second term, he has announced the “Golden Dome” missile defense system, which includes plans to put U.S. weapons in space.

Trump said last year that he expected the system would be “fully operational before the end of my term,” which ends in January 2029, and have the capability of intercepting missiles “even if they are launched from space.”

Trump also has directed the Pentagon to pursue the space-based interceptors, in an executive order during the first week of his presidency.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that just the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years.

The Biden administration announced in 2024 that Russia was developing a space-based nuclear weapon that could loiter in space for long durations, then release a burst that would take out satellites around it.

That kicked off a renewed debate on the idea of weapons in space at the United Nations.

In April 2024, Russia vetoed a joint U.S.-Japanese resolution that would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that included the U.S. and Russia.

The treaty also declared that outer space was a global commons that could be used for only peaceful purposes.

The Russian delegation called the resolution hypocritical and a double standard and instead proposed a rival resolution to ban all weapons in space “for all time.” It ultimately failed.

Russia had argued that the United States and its allies opposed a ban on all weapons in outer space because they planned to deploy weapons there.

FILE - Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink speaks during the United States Air Force Academy Graduation Ceremony at Falcon Stadium, Thursday, May 28, 2026, at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal authorities charged a dozen people Tuesday for fraudulently collecting more than $10 million in government childcare payments, when the operators had few or even no actual children attending their facilities.

The charges, jointly announced in San Diego by the Justice Department and the criminal investigations division of the IRS, are the latest effort by the Trump administration to investigate and charge alleged cases of fraud and waste in government programs.

The 12 defendants said they operated licensed, at-home childcare facilities in Southern California, submitting attendance records and documenting when each child attended and for what times, in order to collect payments from government childcare subsidy programs. However federal prosecutors say these at-home facilities rarely, if ever, had children. Defendants fraudulently collected from government programs for months or, in some cases, years, prosecutors said.

All 12 defendants were arrested Thursday and the charges against them were unsealed Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors say that some of the defendants were not even in the country when they were submitting claims for childcare payments. One defendant, Turkiya Alawad, 63, was found to be outside the U.S. between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 30, 2024, but at the same time, submitted and collected for childcare payments for the dates they were not away, prosecutors say.

Another defendant, Abdulrahman Alawad, 25, claimed to provide childcare to children in March and April but surveillance footage allegedly shows children entered Alawad’s facility only once, on the day a state inspector showed up. Alawad is alleged to have received more than $300,000 in payments from childcare programs in 2025.

Other defendants collected more than $1 million in childcare subsidy payments, prosecutors said.

The case has similarities to what happened with Minnesota-based Feeding Our Future. Federal prosecutors charged Feeding Our Future with scamming Minnesota and federal taxpayers out of millions of dollars of childcare and meal subsidies.

The alleged daycare fraud case in California is larger than the one with Feeding Our Future, which submitted roughly $4.6 million in claims to the childcare Assistance Program. However, the Feeding Our Future case was much more focused on fraud in meal subsidy programs than childcare.

The operator of the Feeding Our Future’s childcare facility, Fahima Mahamud, 50, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges in July. The facility's leader, Aimee Bock, was convicted and sentenced to 41 years in prison in May for fraud and conspiracy charges. She has appealed her conviction.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations Division had been investigating these childcare facilities for the past several months. While the IRS is mostly known for the enforcement of tax law, the investigations division is one of the arms of the federal government that often focuses on white-collar crimes.

The Trump administration has put a heavy emphasis on investigating and charging alleged fraud and abuse of government benefit programs. Vice President JD Vance chairs the administration’s task force on the effort.

U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon announces charges against a dozen individuals for fraudulently collecting childcare payments during a press event, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)