By DAVID KLEPPER and MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says a classified meeting planned with a key U.S. spy agency was called off after it was criticized by Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist.

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The cancellation of Sen. Mark Warner’s visit with career intelligence staffers at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency represents an escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to block Congress from exercising oversight over the nation’s intelligence agencies.

“Is congressional oversight dead?” Warner, of Virginia, said Wednesday, questioning Loomer’s authority over the intelligence community. “Is she now the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence?”

Loomer has taken credit for the State Department suspending visas for wounded Palestinian children seeking medical treatment in the U.S. and several staff changes in the administration, accusing some officials of not being not sufficiently loyal to Trump. Loomer has a history of making racist and anti-Islamic attacks on social media, and once shared a video on X that said “9/11 was an Inside Job!”

While not as well known as the CIA or NSA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency handles the collection and analysis of imaging information, including satellite imagery, used for military and intelligence operations. Its director reports to both the director of national intelligence and the secretary of defense.

Warner said he has had more than a dozen similar meetings with the NGA and other spy agencies under Republican and Democratic presidencies, including during Trump’s first term. He said he was hoping to ask the NGA about its use of artificial intelligence and other matters.

In a social media post Sunday, Loomer detailed plans for the meeting and criticized Warner and Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, the NGA’s director, who was tapped to lead the agency by former President Joe Biden.

“I’m told NGA is infested with Trump haters,” Loomer wrote.

In a post Tuesday, Loomer took credit for exposing the meeting and called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to fire Whitworth.

Warner said he believes the meeting was canceled by Hegseth’s office. The Pentagon said the visit was not canceled but rescheduled “to accommodate bipartisan participation in the town hall event.”

Spokespeople for the NGA and for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declined to comment. Loomer did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Trump has downplayed Loomer’s influence, but a growing list of administration officials have resigned or been dismissed following her criticism.

They include former Food and Drug Administration vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad, who announced his departure in August; Jen Easterly, former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who was dismissed from a post at the U.S. Military Academy; as well as Air Force Gen. Tim Haugh, former director of the NSA and the Pentagon’s Cyber Command.

The State Department also announced last month that it would suspend all visitor visas for people from Gaza, pending a review, a day after Loomer posted videos on social media of children from Gaza arriving in the U.S. for medical treatment and questioned how they got visas. The administration announced a new, restrictive visa policy for Gaza this week.

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil giant ConocoPhillips is planning to lay off up to a quarter of its workforce, amounting to thousands of jobs, as part of broader efforts from the company to cut costs.

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A spokesperson for ConocoPhillips confirmed the layoffs on Wednesday, noting that 20% to 25% of the company’s employees and contractors would be impacted worldwide. ConocoPhillips currently has a global headcount of about 13,000 — meaning that the cuts would impact between 2,600 and 3,250 workers.

“We are always looking at how we can be more efficient with the resources we have,” a ConocoPhillips’ spokesperson said via email, adding that the company expects the “majority of these reductions” to take place before the end of 2025.

ConocoPhillips’ shares fell 4.3% Wednesday. The Houston-based company’s stock now sits at under $95 per share, down nearly 14% from a year ago.

News of the coming layoffs was first reported by Reuters, with anonymous sources telling the outlet that CEO Ryan Lance detailed the plans in a video message earlier Wednesday. In that video, Reuters reported, Lance said the company needed “fewer roles” while he cited rising costs.

Last month, ConocoPhillips reported second-quarter earnings of $1.97 billion. That beat Wall Street expectations, but was down from the nearly $2.33 billion the company reported for the same period last year.

In its latest earnings, reported on Aug. 7, ConocoPhillips continued to point to cost cutting efforts — noting that it had identified more than $1 billion in cost reductions and margin optimization. The company also said it had agreed to sell its Anadarko Basin assets for $1.3 billion.

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that New Orleans could be his next target for deploying the National Guard to fight crime, potentially expanding the number of cities around the nation where he may send federal law enforcement.

Trump has already said he plans to send the National Guard into Chicago and Baltimore following his administration deploying troops and federal agents to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., last month.

“So we’re making a determination now,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki. “Do we go to Chicago? Do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad.”

Trump now frequently boasts about turning Washington into a “safe zone.” The White House reports more than 1,760 arrests citywide since the president first announced he was mobilizing federal forces on Aug. 7.

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But Washington is a federal district subject to laws giving Trump power to take over the local police force for up to 30 days. The decision to use troops to attempt to quell crime in other Democratic-controlled cities around the country would represent an important escalation.

“So we’re going to be going to maybe Louisiana, and you have New Orleans, which has a crime problem. We’ll straighten that out in about two weeks,” Trump said. “It’ll take us two weeks, easier than D.C.”

Trump’s latest comments came a day after he declared “We’re going in” and suggested that the National Guard might soon be headed for Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, and Baltimore. That’s despite state and local officials, as well as many residents, both places staunchly opposing the idea.

But New Orleans is a predominately Democratic-leaning city in a red state run by Landry, a Republican — and reflection of Trump floating federal intervention along ideological lines.

“Crime is down in New Orleans,” City Councilmember Oliver Thomas, who is also a mayoral candidate, said via text message. “That would seem to be very political or a major overreaction!”

Councilmember Jean-Paul Morrell said it is “ridiculous to consider sending the National Guard into another American city that hasn’t asked for it.”

“Guardsmen are not trained law enforcement. They can’t solve crimes, they can’t interview witnesses and they aren’t trained to constitutionally police,” Morrell said in a statement. “NOPD is doing a great job with the existing resources they have. Marching troops into New Orleans is an unnecessary show of force in effort to create a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”

Landry, though, posted on social media, “We will take President @realDonaldTrump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!” while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, whose district includes the conservative suburbs outside of New Orleans, praised Trump’s efforts in Washington.

“The citizens of New Orleans, and the millions of tourists who come here, deserve that same level of security,” Scalise wrote in a social media post. “We should all be in favor of increased safety for our citizens and lower crime.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement that people “continue to die in New Orleans because ‘leaders’ refuse to accept the resources that are available to them.”

“If your gut reaction is to reject the President’s offer for assistance without condition, perhaps you’re the problem – not him,” Murill said.

The City of New Orleans struck a more conciliatory tone, staying in a statement, “our federal and state partnerships have played a significant role in ensuring public safety, particularly during special events” and that local officials “remain committed to sustaining this momentum.” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted last month on federal fraud charges and is set to be arraigned in the coming weeks.

Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly railed against Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for not requesting that the National Guard be deployed.

“We could straighten out Chicago. All they have to do is ask us to go into Chicago. If we don’t have the support of some of these politicians, but I’ll tell you who is supporting us, the people of Chicago,” Trump said Wednesday.

Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have been adamant in saying Chicago doesn’t need or want military intervention. In Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore have remained similarly opposed.

In Washington, Mayor Muriel Bowser has said Trump’s decision to take over her city’s police force and flood streets with hundreds of federal law enforcement agents and National Guard troops has succeeded in reducing violent crime — but she’s also argued that similar results could have been achieved simply by having more city police officers in service.

She said Wednesday that Trump’s law enforcement powers in the city don’t need to be extended beyond 30 days, saying, “We don’t need a presidential emergency.”

Associated Press writer Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed to this report.

By MATTHEW BROWN

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man suspected of killing four people at a bar then evading capture for a week was charged on Wednesday with additional crimes, including attempted arson.

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State District Judge Jeffrey Dahood ordered Michael Paul Brown to be held without bail after the defendant’s attorneys said mental illness could be an issue in the case.

Brown’s family has said the 45-year-old former soldier long struggled with mental illness before allegedly shooting a bartender and three patrons at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, Montana, on Aug. 1.

Brown, who lived next door, also tried to damage or destroy the building by lighting objects inside it on fire, according to newly-released court documents.

The owner of The Owl Bar, David Gwerder, said Wednesday he was told by investigators that Brown lit a cardboard pizza box on fire hoping to use it as a “fuse” to ignite a bucket of flammable or explosive material. But the bucket did not ignite, Gwerder said he was told, and the suspect allegedly left the bar then returned a minute later with a gun and shot everyone who was there.

Defense attorney Walter Hennessey pleaded not guilty on Brown’s behalf to charges that also include four counts of murder, theft and eluding police. Brown appeared by video from jail in Butte, Montana.

A conviction for murder, known in Montana as deliberate homicide, can be punishable by death in the state. However, executions in Montana have been on hold since 2015 under a court ruling regarding a drug used in lethal injections.

A decision on whether to seek the death penalty against Brown is pending, Deer Lodge County Attorney Morgan Smith told the court Wednesday.

Bail for Brown previously had been set at $2 million. But Dahood on Wednesday sided with a prosecution request to hold Brown for now without the possibility of bail. The judge cited public safety and the mental health issues raised by Brown’s attorneys.

This image made from video provided by the Anaconda Deer Lodge County Justice Court shows Michael Paul Brown, who is accused of killing four people in a bar, during a virtual court appearance, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, in Montana. (Anaconda Deer Lodge County Justice Court via AP)

The judge set trial for Jan. 12.

Anaconda, about 25 miles northwest of Butte, is home to roughly 9,000 people. It is surrounded by mountains. Following the shooting, Brown allegedly stole a truck that he ditched several miles outside of town at the base of a mountain before escaping into the forest.

He hid for a week in that area west of Anaconda where he was eventually apprehended, moving locations while helicopters and drones circled overhead and officers and dogs searched on the ground, officials said. Brown was captured on Aug. 8 inside an unoccupied structure near a bar in the small community of Stumptown, authorities said.

Investigators also have been examining whether he had any contact with individuals or property owners who might have helped him while he was on the run.

Authorities have not commented on a possible motive, and much of the case against Brown has been sealed by the judge.

Brown had patronized the bar over several decades and knew the victims, Gwerder said.