Aldrich Ames, the Central Intelligence Agency spy who was sentenced to life in prison for selling secrets to Moscow, costing the lives of a dozen double agents, died Monday in custody, US authorities said.He was 84, according to the Bureau of Prisons.Ames worked as a counterintelligence analyst for the CIA for 31 years and, along with his wife Rosario, was convicted of selling information to the Soviet Union between 1985 and 1993 — compromising secret missions and costing lives — in exchange for more than $2.5 million.Ames had been head of the Soviet branch in the CIA’s counterintelligence group, and gave the Kremlin the names of dozens of Russians who were spying for the United States.The couple’s luxurious lifestyle at the time — they kept cash in Swiss bank accounts, drove a Jaguar and ran up $50,000 annually in credit card bills — drew suspicion. Federal prosecutors said Ames spied for the Soviet Union — and kept selling Russia information after its collapse — until he was exposed in 1994.Relying on bogus information from Ames, CIA officials repeatedly misinformed US presidents Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and other top officials about Soviet military capabilities and other strategic details. Ames’ prosecution heated up tensions between Washington and Moscow as Russia and the US were trying to normalize their relations after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.Then-CIA director James Woolsey resigned over the scandal, after refusing to fire or demote colleagues over it in Langley, Virgina, where the spy agency is headquartered. His successor, Belgian-born John Deutch, oversaw an overhaul of the spy agency, resulting in arrests and charges.  Then-US president Bill Clinton called Ames’ case “very serious” and suggested it could harm ties with Moscow, while the Kremlin downplayed the incident, with one Russian diplomat calling Americans “extremely emotional.”The White House eventually expelled a senior Russian diplomat, Aleksander Lysenko, who was accused of involvement with Ames, after Russia refused to withdraw him.Scandals have long bedeviled spycraft, as Washington and Moscow vie for secrets in quiet battles for power and diplomatic leverage. Despite their claims of innocence, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair in 1953, accused of selling atomic secrets to Moscow at the height of McCarthyism — an anti-communist movement characterized by political persecution of the left in the United States, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy.Former Navy communications expert John Walker was convicted after pleading guilty in 1986 to decoding more than a million encrypted messages for over 30 years, to feed information to the Soviets, and was jailed for life.

Washington on Tuesday marked five years since a mob overran the US Capitol, with rioters pardoned by Donald Trump retracing their steps even as Democrats revived hearings to hold the president accountable.The anniversary highlights a nation divided between irreconcilable accounts of an attack that reshaped American politics — one supported by official findings of a violent bid to overturn an election, the other portraying it as a protest unjustly criminalized.”Five years ago today, a violent mob brutally attacked the US Capitol on January 6. Their mission was to overturn a free and fair election. We will never allow extremists to whitewash their treachery,” top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries posted on X.Trump supporters gathered in Washington on January 6, 2021 after the president urged them to protest Congress’s certification of his election defeat to Joe Biden.Several thousand breached the Capitol grounds, overwhelming police lines and wounding more than 140 officers, smashing windows and doors, ransacking offices and forcing lawmakers into hiding as the electoral count was halted for hours.On Tuesday, the White House published a website attempting to rewrite that history, labeling the rioters “peaceful patriotic protesters” and accusing police of provoking the violent clashes. Democrats, meanwhile, convened an unofficial hearing inside the Capitol featuring police, former lawmakers and civilians who experienced the violence firsthand. And they later held a candlelit vigil, joined by relatives of five police officers whose deaths on the day and in the aftermath have been directly or indirectly linked to the violence.”While Donald Trump pardons insurrectionists, lets those who attack our police officers walk free, we stand here with our first responders. “We’ll make sure that your sacrifices that day are never forgotten, or will we ever, ever forget the lives of those we lost in connection with the attack.”- ‘Martyrs’ -Many involved in the original congressional investigation say the aim is not to relitigate the past but to prevent it from being erased — particularly after Trump returned to office and pardoned or commuted sentences for nearly all defendants charged in connection with the attack.A new Democratic report documents dozens of pardoned rioters later charged with new crimes — from child sexual assault and rape to conspiracy to murder FBI agents, robbery and reckless homicide — and the party warns that the clemency risks normalizing political violence.Outside the building Trump supporters, including figures linked to the far-right Proud Boys, staged a march retracing the route taken by rioters in 2021.A crowd of at most 200 marchers — a fraction of the attendance on the day they were commemorating — donned Trump’s trademark red “Make America Great Again” hats and waved banners demanding “justice 4 jan 6ers.”Tami Jackson, who flew from Texas, said she was rallying “in remembrance of the people that lost their lives that day” while her husband Brian called some of the rioters “martyrs.”The event was promoted by former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was serving a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy before Trump pardoned him.Organizers said they wanted to honor those who died, including pro-Trump rioter Ashli Babbitt, and protest what they describe as excessive force by police and politically motivated prosecutions.The competing events mirror a broader political dispute, with Democrats saying Trump incited the attack to overturn the election. Republicans reject that view, instead citing security failures and criticizing the Justice Department.Trump alluded briefly to the riot in remarks at a House Republican strategy retreat, accusing Democrats and the media of misrepresenting his role in the violence, while the White House published its own account of the riot that was riddled with inaccuracies. The Trump administration’s new website praised Trump for issuing the rioters sweeping pardons and labeled the investigation into the attack a “partisan witch hunt.” It repeated Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.Former special counsel Jack Smith has said the attack would not have occurred without Trump, but abandoned the federal case after the Republican leader’s reelection, in line with Justice Department policy barring prosecution of a sitting president. Trump was impeached soon after the riot by the Democratic-controlled House but acquitted by the Republican-led Senate.

Auto industry experts expect US car sales to moderate in 2026 after last year’s churn of trade announcements and environmental policy changes spurred increased sales.Analysts attribute some of 2025’s sales gains to President Donald Trump’s announcements early in the year of huge tariff increases. Although the president ended up striking deals that moderated levies from the threatened level of 40 percent or more, initial headlines led to a noticeable spring surge in sales.A similar uptick in electric vehicle sales occurred at the end of September after Trump signed legislation phasing out a tax credit. Again, consumers flocked to dealerships before the $7,500 EV tax credit went away.Such a landscape was treacherous for car executives like Ford CEO Jim Farley, who complained in February 2025 that Trump’s tenure was producing “a lot of cost and a lot of chaos.”But by the end of year, automakers still did okay. US auto sales for all 2025 came in at 16.3 million, up about two percent from 2024, according to Edmunds.com.”A lot of the activity we had in 2025 was driven by the president’s announcements,” said Cox Automotive economist Charlie Chesbrough.Ford on Tuesday announced final sales for the year of 2.2 million, up six percent from 2024 and the best year since 2019.- Higher prices? -But with the changing of the calendar, industry insiders expect a modest pullback in 2026 sales, pointing to tepid consumer confidence and a slowing job market, partly offset by more favorable factors like lower interest rates.Cox expects “the market to be similar to (2025) but just a little bit slower,” said Chesbrough, who described surveys of auto dealers as “very pessimistic.”Cox has projected 2026 sales to drop to 15.8 million, while Edmunds sees them coming in at 16.0 million.The new car market is heavily impacted by the split-screen nature of the US economy, with wealthier households strengthened by stock market records, while working-class consumers struggle with increased prices.Economists now speak of the US economy as “K-shaped” to reflect the opposite fortunes of these subsets, with new cars out of reach for lower-income shoppers.Average transaction prices for new autos approached $50,000 for most of 2025, compared with under $35,000 less than a decade ago, according to Edmunds data.One wildcard heading into 2026 is pricing. Even with lower tariffs, automakers still face billions of dollars in added costs from the levies — but with retail prices already so high, they are reluctant to pass them on to consumers.Carmakers have opted to charge more for delivery costs, reduce incentives or strip away features that might once have been included, a step Chesbrough likens to “shrinkflation.”Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights, described deep reluctance to raise retail prices further. “The sticker shock is kind of flooring,” said Drury, who notes that there are currently no new models under $20,000.The landscape is particularly difficult for first-time buyers, consigning many to the used car market, Drury said.While the cadence of tariff news has slowed in recent months, the Trump administration is set to negotiate a new version of the USMCA, a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, later this year.Given that Detroit automakers and other car companies have established much of their supply chains around the three countries, significant tariff changes could potentially impact prices. But Drury believes car consumers will be less tuned-in to tariffs in 2026.”At some point, it becomes a bit of a white noise,” he said.