• A US Navy carrier strike group that's fought the Houthis for months is finally returning home.
• The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group left the Middle East on Saturday, the Pentagon said.
• It will soon be replaced by the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group.

The US Navy carrier strike group that's been battling the Houthis in the Red Sea is finally heading home after spending months in the region protecting shipping lanes from relentless attacks by the Iran-backed rebels.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group left the Middle East on Saturday and will remain briefly in the US European Command area of responsibility before returning stateside. It will not see its deployment extended for a third time.

Its departure follows "more than seven months deployed in support of US regional deterrence and force protection efforts," Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder announced in a statement.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, operating in the Indo-Pacific region, will soon head to the Middle East to replace the strike group.

The Eisenhower strike group — which consists of the aircraft carrier Ike and several other warships — originally deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean in October but was quickly redirected to the Middle East to defend shipping lanes from unrelenting Houthi attacks.

Since then, the Eisenhower strike group has intercepted scores of missiles and drones — both in the air and in the water — and also targeted the rebels directly in Yemen. These have been a mix of joint strikes alongside the British military and preemptive strikes designed to eliminate a threat before the Houthis can launch it.

"During its deployment, the IKE CSG protected ships transiting the Red Sea, Bab-el-Mandeb and the Gulf Aden, rescued innocent mariners against the unlawful attacks from the Iranian-backed Houthis, and helped to deter further aggression," Ryder said.

The reshuffling of American naval assets comes amid concerns over the long-term sustainability of the counter-Houthi operations. US intelligence suggested last month that the Houthi threat is likely to remain active for some time, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had already extended the Eisenhower strike group's deployment twice.

During its time in the Red Sea, the strike group fired off more than 500 munitions, totaling some $1 billion, and sailed more than 55,000 miles. Its aircraft have also flown over 30,000 hours.

Despite the Eisenhower's presence, the Houthis continue to attack shipping lanes. The rebels have already struck multiple commercial vessels in June alone, including one with a naval drone for the first time since they began their campaign in the fall.

Ryder, meanwhile, said the Roosevelt strike group will leave the Indo-Pacific region next week upon completion of a scheduled exercise and sail for the Middle East "to continue promoting regional stability, deter aggression, and protect the free flow of commerce in the region."

• Trump on Saturday is headlining a rally at Temple University in deep blue Philadelphia.
• The former president hopes to make inroads with Biden's base of Black voters.
• Trump has focused his campaign message on the economy. But Biden retains deep ties to the city.

For former President Donald Trump, few states anchor his potential path back to the White House more than Pennsylvania.

The former president lost the Keystone State to Biden by 1% in the 2020 election after narrowly winning the state over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

And a huge part of why Biden won in 2020 was his strong margins in the Philadelphia area — the city and its affluent suburbs — which offset the substantial edge Trump enjoyed.

But Biden has struggled over the past year to reactivate the liberal-leaning coalition that sent him to the White House four years ago. Support among Black and Hispanic voters is particularly shaky.

It's part of why Trump will speak at Temple University on Saturday in Philadelphia. He hopes to woo voters who may not have considered him in the past and may be up for grabs in November. He'll also be joined by Pennsylvania GOP Senate nominee David McCormick, who'll face veteran Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. in the fall.

Here's a look at how Trump is looking to win over these voters and the deep challenges that he faces in doing so.

It's all about the economy…

Pennsylvania's unemployment rate has sat at 3.4% for eight consecutive months as of May 2024, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

That's below the current US unemployment rate of 4%.

But similar to most national polls, Trump leads Biden on the question of which candidate would better handle the economy. In the most recent New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College poll conducted in late April and early May, Trump had a 12-point advantage over Biden on the issue among registered voters. And only 21% of respondents said the US economy was "good" or "excellent," while 78% described it as "fair" or "poor."

Trump is banking that many Democratic-leaning voters, who rate inflation and elevated housing costs as major concerns, could give him a lift in Philadelphia — a city where voters gave 81% of their votes to Biden in 2020.

In 2020, Biden won Pennsylvania by roughly 80,000 votes out of more than 6.9 million ballots cast. And over 604,000 of those ballots cast for Biden came from Philadelphia voters. So any small movement toward Trump, especially among Biden's base of Black support in the city, could have dramatic implications for the statewide results.

… but Biden's Philly ties run deep

There's perhaps no city outside of Delaware that Biden loves to visit more than Philadelphia.

He's lavished attention on the City of Brotherly Love — paying particularly close attention to its Black voters and union workers — before and during his presidency. As a US Senator from Delaware who resided in Wilmington, he was only miles away from Pennsylvania's largest city.

So he has a natural relationship with many elected Democrats and union leaders. He can easily find himself among receptive audiences in the city's numerous Black churches, where a loyal base of older Black voters are overwhelmingly supporting his bid for a second term.

Biden has stumbled with younger Black voters over issues like the conflict in Gaza and student-loan debt relief. And many young voters overall are largely unaware of his work on climate issues. But it would take a huge electoral shift — which can often take several cycles to come to fruition — for Biden to be seriously in danger of losing a large chunk of his Philadelphia base.

So far, many down-ballot Senate Democratic candidates like Casey are outperforming their GOP challengers in critical races across the country. It's something that the Trump campaign is surely noticing as they look to flip Pennsylvania.

Right now, the statewide race is incredibly tight. And Philadelphia is poised to once again have its say in the outcome.

• The Justice Department is cracking down on anticompetitive uses of artificial intelligence.
• The DOJ has been investigating RealPage for using AI algorithms to set high prices since 2022.
• The investigation comes amid the Biden administration's wider antitrust crackdown on Big Tech.

AI can make many things easier for companies, including price fixing.

The Department of Justice is now cracking down on such anticompetitive uses of the buzzy new technology.

That means practices like setting prices above the market rates, colluding with rivals, and striking exclusionary deals are unlawful — whether humans or algorithms are behind them.

The Justice Department has been concerned about AI's impact on antitrust litigation for at least the past few years.

Since 2022, it has been investigating RealPage, a rental property management software company, for instance, for using AI algorithms to set prices above competitive levels.

The Justice Department says the company used sensitive and private data in an algorithm under the expectation that its competitors would do the same. That practice, it says, should be judged under the same guidelines as humans. "Automating an anticompetitive scheme does not make it less anticompetitive," the agency said in a statement from 2023.

This focus on anticompetitive uses of AI comes amid a broader spate of investigations and antitrust lawsuits the Biden Administration has launched against major tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft.

In the long term, algorithms will likely be even more important to litigate because they can process more information than humans.

"If your AI fixes prices, you're just as responsible," Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter told The New York Times in reference to the RealPage probe. "If anything, the use of AI or algorithmic-based technologies should concern us more because it's much easier to price-fix when you're outsourcing it to an algorithm versus when you're sharing manila envelopes in a smoke-filled room."

That means stricter regulations around the use of AI — and stricter penalties for its misuse — could be coming.

At the American Bar Association's annual gathering on white-collar crime this March, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the Justice Department's focus on AI means prosecutors will impose "stiffer sentences" on individuals and corporations that misuse AI for white-collar crime, according to the Associated Press.

And compliance officers, who ensure companies adhere to legal regulations, should "take note," she said. "When our prosecutors assess a company's compliance program — as they do in all corporate resolutions — they consider how well the program mitigates the company's most significant risks. And for a growing number of businesses, that now includes the risk of misusing AI."

• Dozens of Tesla Cybertrucks were vandalized in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this week.
• The Cybertrucks were spray painted with a message attacking Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
• Cybertrucks have become a symbol of ire for Elon Musk's many critics.

Tesla Cybertrucks have become symbolic. But probably not in the way Tesla CEO Elon Musk hoped.

Nearly three dozen Cybertrucks were vandalized this week in Florida with disparaging messages aimed specifically at Musk.

A 35-second viral video showing the aftermath of the vandalism spree in a Fort Lauderdale parking lot first gained traction on Instagram on Friday.

The footage — shared to the Only in Broward account — showed a fleet of Cybertrucks with the phrase "Fuck Elon" spray painted across the metallic exteriors. The man filming the video said Tesla recently leased the parking lot, and Cybertrucks began arriving three days ago.

"Looks like someone doesn't like Elon…" the caption read.

Local authorities told NBC Miami that 34 vehicles had been vandalized within the parking lot, which housed Cybtertrucks and other Tesla models.

The person who called the authorities said the vehicles were in fine condition on Thursday night but were damaged by Friday morning, the outlet reported.

The vehicles were quickly cleaned or taken off the lot.

Representatives for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Tesla began delivering Cybertrucks to the general public in November 2023. Cybertrucks start at $60,990 for rear-wheel drive and increase to $79,990 for all-wheel drive. The Cyberbeast, which can reach 130 mph and tow 11,000 lbs, costs an estimated $99,990.

While Tesla Cybertrucks have received a decidedly mixed response in the United States, they have been embraced elsewhere.

The Dubai Police General Command added a Cybertruck to its fleet of patrol vehicles this month. Musk and the official Cybertruck account applauded the decision on X.

"Very cool to see — thanks for the trust!" the Cybertruck account wrote.

Tesla has faced a string of bad news in recent months. The automaker slashed 10% of its global workforce in April and laid off more workers in the weeks after. And some traders say the company's stock is overvalued. One short-seller recently called Tesla's stock was one of the "biggest stock market bubbles" in history.