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Good evening, everyone. A very serious update to share tonight. Conditions aboard America’s aircraft carriers in the Middle East are deteriorating fast. Multiple service members have attempted to jump overboard amid an extended, grueling deployment, a mental health crisis playing out in real time. It’s horrific, and I have direct testimonials from family members. Meanwhile, the war in Iran is escalating, not de-escalating, and food recalls are surging across the United States.
I spoke with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker about all of this and more, and he made clear that he believes Donald Trump is suffering from serious mental health issues that should disqualify him from commanding America’s armed forces.
Unfortunately, most of this isn’t getting the coverage it deserves. That’s exactly why independent media matters. We report on the stories others won’t touch, and we get the interviews others refuse to pursue. I will never stop. There’s a reason we’re reaching more people than Fox News: it’s because of you.
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Here’s the news:
Karoline Leavitt is stepping down as White House press secretary at the end of August, moving into a role as an outside adviser to Trump; she says the decision comes down to wanting more time with her two young children, including a daughter born in May, after finding she couldn’t fully do the job while also being the mom she wants to be. Trump announced the move on Truth Social, calling her one of the best press secretaries in history and saying she’ll stay on as an influential voice in the party through the midterms. No successor has been named yet, and her departure lands less than three months before the midterm elections. Leavitt, now 28, was 27 when she took the job, making her the youngest White House press secretary ever.
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Service Members face horrific conditions, some try to jump overboard:
According to the Military Times, multiple sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have attempted to jump overboard during its more than eight-month deployment supporting US operations against Iran, which began November 21 and was expected to end in May but has been extended indefinitely with no announced return date. One sailor’s wife, Annabelle Loma, said her husband is now on medical hold and fears a dishonorable discharge after being “repeatedly overextended,” while in a separate incident a sailor on watch physically pulled a shipmate back from the edge before they went over, an event later confirmed to the crew via shipwide announcement per Stars and Stripes. Families raised these concerns directly with acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao and Vice Adm. Joseph Cahill at a San Diego meeting attended by over 200 relatives, where Cahill acknowledged the toll on sailors and families and pointed to counselors, chaplains, and Human Factors Councils as existing support, though the Navy hasn’t disclosed how many overboard attempts or self-harm incidents have occurred. Family members like Shelby Sanders and Manuel Guevara described exhausted, “down” loved ones and described the uncertainty of not knowing when their sailors will return home as an ongoing emotional burden.
Separately, families told MS NOW the carrier’s roughly 5,000 crew members are enduring severe supply shortages, including food scarcity (one sailor reportedly ate just half a cup of rice and two tortillas at one meal), weeks-long laundry outages, long stretches without hot water, and bare shelves at the ship’s store lacking basics like toothpaste and deodorant. The Lincoln has now set a naval record for continuous days at sea, over 200 with only two brief port calls in nine months, while sailors reportedly work 12-to-16-hour shifts with no days off, prompting even Navy veterans like Brett Snow to call the situation abnormal and warn it could hurt retention and operational safety. Parents including Bonnie York and Nicole Conrad called for troop rotations and better resupply, with Conrad arguing “it’s our government that’s not helping the morale.” Here is what one family member commented on my post today:
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The Navy’s 5th Fleet spokesperson, Cmdr. Joseph Hontz, confirmed the Lincoln’s flight deck has handled more than 10,000 aircraft sorties over eight months but said there are no holes in the deck and that expected wear and tear has been repaired as needed, insisting the ship “remains fully capable of meeting all mission tasking” despite acknowledging the deployment’s length is “challenging for the crew and their equipment.” The Navy says it’s preparing the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group to eventually relieve the Lincoln, though officials have not given a timeline, citing operational security. Meanwhile, families like Loma’s continue managing the fallout at home; she is raising the couple’s three children alone while her husband remains on medical hold, trying to stay strong for kids who “just want to know mommy and daddy are okay.”
More exclusive text messages from those aboard the carrier:
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More exclusive messages:
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Iran war:
Trump claimed Wednesday the US has “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz, writing “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!” and describing the naval blockade as a “wall of steel,” but shipping data undercuts the claim: vessel traffic fell to a one-week low of just eight ships Tuesday, far below the roughly 130 daily transits before the war began February 28. The blockade remains actively enforced, with CENTCOM confirming a US helicopter fired Hellfire missiles into the engine room of a Panama-flagged vessel, the Vela Nova, after its crew ignored warnings while trying to breach it, part of a campaign that has now disabled three vessels, boarded two, and redirected 55 attempting ships. Oil markets reflect the disruption too: the IEA sharply cut its 2026 global oil demand forecast, citing the “ongoing closure” of the strait and elevated fuel prices, while Brent crude sat near $89 a barrel and US gas prices ticked up to a $4.04 national average. Adding to the chaos, an oil spill from the grounded tanker Caroline Bezengi has now spread across roughly 155 square miles and reached both Oman’s mainland and Iran’s Qeshm island, with cleanup efforts hampered by seasonal monsoon conditions.
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Violence is spreading beyond the strait itself, with Iran-backed Houthi rebels killing six people in an attack on a cargo vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the first known shipping deaths since the current fighting began, part of a broader escalation that has also killed dozens of Yemeni government troops and civilians in strikes on the port city of Mokha. Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdul-Salam accused Saudi Arabia of exploiting the ceasefire to tighten its blockade and said the group remains open to negotiations only if that blockade is lifted, raising fears of a reignited Yemeni civil war and a new regional front. Meanwhile, an Iranian source told Reuters there are no talks to extend the collapsed US-Iran ceasefire since, in Tehran’s view, the US violated and abandoned the original agreement within days, though mediators are reportedly discussing a US return to that interim deal. Pakistan’s defense minister struck a more optimistic tone, telling Bloomberg the two sides are close to “some sort of an arrangement,” while Iran claims to retain more than 75% of its missile and drone capability despite the conflict.
Marco Rubio walked away when asked if he “put Americans at risk” by standing by while reporters were allowed to fly on Air Force One “while it was under threat.”
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly, continued reshaping the country’s military leadership this week with six senior appointments, including Ahmad Vahidi as IRGC commander and Mohsen Rezaei to the national security council, both figures wanted by Argentine police over a 1994 Buenos Aires bombing, plus Hossein Taeb to lead the Basij militia, an intelligence veteran seen as close to Khamenei who oversaw suppression of January’s protests. Iran’s foreign ministry separately accused the US of “unprecedented violations” of the Geneva Conventions on the treaty’s 77th anniversary, citing strikes on civilian infrastructure, while the EU and 26 other countries issued a joint call for Iran to halt executions of protesters after Amnesty International found Iran more than doubled its execution rate in 2025 to at least 2,159 people. Regionally, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed troops would remain in southern Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza despite a Lebanon ceasefire framework, while Turkey’s Erdogan pushed to expand a new Turkey-Saudi-Pakistan defense pact, with Egypt reportedly being courted to join.
Food Recalls:
A new Sedgwick Recall Index report found that while the total number of US food recalls actually fell from 877 in Q4 2025 to 785 in Q1 2026, the average size of those recalls nearly doubled, with recalled units jumping from 28.76 million to 57.4 million in the same period. Pre-made foods, supplements, baked goods, flavorings, and drinks were the hardest-hit categories, with undeclared allergens, foreign matter, bacterial and non-bacterial contamination, and labeling errors cited as the leading causes, based on FDA and USDA data. The trend suggests fewer distinct problems are occurring, but each one is contaminating far larger production runs, likely because recalling an entire line or batch turns a single error into a nationwide alert.
The scale matters most for people with allergies to common ingredients like peanuts, milk, eggs, or hazelnuts, for whom an undeclared allergen can be life-threatening, while foreign objects like plastic, glass, or stone risk immediate injury. Experts note that as recalled units grow, so does the likelihood that affected products are already sitting in consumers’ homes, and that the surge in size, even amid fewer incidents, can point to deeper issues like rushed labeling, weak oversight, or fragile supply chains in a food system built for speed and volume. Rapid alerts from the FDA and USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service remain the primary tool for limiting illnesses and injuries once a recall is issued.
Here is a list of recalls since the start of Trump’s second term:
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Other news:
18-year-old Alisa Hackett filed a federal lawsuit against Arkansas State Police trooper Moisses Arellano, alleging he slammed her to the ground and punched her in the face during an August 1 traffic stop for driving 71 mph in a 60 mph zone. According to the suit, Hackett was unarmed and posed no threat, but was struck after she talked back to Arellano and pulled her arm away during handcuffing; Arellano’s own use-of-force report confirms he delivered “one closed-fist strike to the left side of her face” after she didn’t comply with commands to roll over. Hackett was subsequently booked on five charges, including improper tags, no seatbelt, underage alcohol possession, and refusal to submit to arrest, which her attorney Benjamin Crump says were filed to shield the trooper from liability and deter her from complaining. Crump is calling for a use-of-force investigation, stating “if you cannot handle a teenage girl without taking her to the ground, cursing at her, and punching her in the face, you should not be wearing a badge.” Arkansas State Police have not responded to requests for comment, and NBC News was unable to reach Arellano.
House Judiciary Democrat Jamie Raskin escalated his scrutiny of Paramount Skydance’s proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, sending a letter Wednesday inviting CEO David Ellison to a transcribed interview about his “Donald Trump-enabled shopping spree to consolidate news organizations, movie studios, cable channels and streaming services.” As the committee’s top Democrat, Raskin lacks subpoena power now, but he’s expected to become chair if Democrats retake the House in the midterms, at which point he could compel Ellison’s testimony; he noted Ellison hasn’t responded to four prior letters over the past year. Raskin framed the probe as examining whether antitrust enforcement is protecting competition and free speech or being used to “distort the market and undermine freedom of speech and freedom of the press.” Paramount’s chief legal officer said the company has been “transparent” with lawmakers, while a company spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to the new letter.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is rallying behind Sen. Darline Graham ahead of her South Carolina primary runoff against Rep. Ralph Norman, with NRSC Chair Tim Scott publicly endorsing her Wednesday after officials called Graham’s defeated rivals, Rep. Russell Fry, former Gov. Mark Sanford, and businessman Mark Lynch, urging them to back her too. Scott, who had privately predicted Graham “will win,” said watching her in the Senate and on the trail made him “confident she’s the real deal.” So far Fry has declined to endorse either candidate, Sanford left the door open without committing, and Lynch’s team threw support behind Norman instead, calling him the only candidate serious about “draining the swamp.” Consolidating former rivals’ backing is seen as pivotal, since a similar strategy helped Attorney General Alan Wilson win his own runoff earlier this summer.
A bipartisan discharge petition led by Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, Mike Lawler, and Jared Moskowitz to cap federal student loan interest rates at 2% is stalling largely because Democrats, who blame the GOP’s domestic policy law for wiping out a Biden-era $0-per-month repayment option and worsening affordability, don’t want to help Republicans fix a crisis they created; only Moskowitz has signed on among Democrats so far. Rival Democratic proposals are competing for support instead, including Rep. Joe Courtney and Sen. Peter Welch’s plan to zero out interest on all federal loans via a self-funding trust, and a separate proposal from Rep. Bobby Scott tying new loan rates to the 10-year Treasury note with a 5% cap, while Senate Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim say they want more details before endorsing anything.
A new Siena poll of likely voters shows Gov. Kathy Hochul leading Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman by 10 points, 49-39, though that’s a narrower margin than her 20-point lead among registered voters in June and trails the 16-point Democratic edge on the generic congressional ballot, suggesting some underperformance relative to the broader ticket. Hochul dominates in New York City (64-19) while Blakeman leads the suburbs (49-41) and the two are essentially tied upstate; both candidates are largely holding their partisan bases, though independents favor Blakeman narrowly, 45-40. Her favorability has slipped slightly since June (46-49 unfavorable, versus 43-44 before), while Blakeman’s has improved (33-26 favorable). Down-ballot, Democratic AG Letitia James (54-36) and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (55-32) hold larger leads and posted record favorability numbers, and the poll also found DSA member Zohran Mamdani at 47-44 favorable statewide (69-24 in NYC) and broad bipartisan support (52-25) for Hochul’s one-year moratorium on data centers.
Most of the more than a dozen vulnerable House Republicans who received campaign cash from a PAC aligned with Rep. Max Miller, who faces domestic abuse allegations he denies, are staying silent on whether they’ll return the roughly $70,000 in donations. Only Rep. Brad Finstad’s campaign confirmed returning the money, while Rep. Mike Lawler’s team said he has no plans to give it back and instead attacked his Democratic opponent over an unrelated fundraiser, and Rep. Derrick Van Orden declined to address the issue directly, downplaying the allegations against Miller as things he’d only “heard about.” Democrats are seizing on the silence, with one opponent’s spokesperson accusing a GOP incumbent of being “open for business for whoever’s willing to pay up, no questions asked,” while the NRCC countered by pointing to Democrats who pledged to return donations from former Rep. Eric Swalwell but allegedly haven’t followed through. Sen. Jon Husted, who previously said Miller shouldn’t seek reelection after allegations from Miller’s ex-wife, has also not said whether he’ll return the money.
Attorneys for Tyler Robinson, charged with killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah Valley University event last September, argued in a Tuesday filing that he shouldn’t face the death penalty because the shooter “hit the intended target,” disputing prosecutors’ claim that other attendees were endangered, a potentially aggravating factor under state law. The defense also pushed back on the political-motive theory, noting that beyond Robinson’s alleged statement to his roommate that he’d “had enough of his hatred,” searches of his apartment, computer, and phone turned up no supporting evidence, and notably made no mention of the DNA evidence prosecutors say ties him to the murder weapon. Robinson, who turned himself in a day after the killing and has not yet entered a plea, previously failed to get the death penalty removed after prosecutors were held in contempt for talking to the media about the case. Prosecutors have until August 18 to respond, with closing arguments in the preliminary hearing set for September 1, when the judge will decide whether the case proceeds to trial and on what charges.
When Colombia’s 7.4 magnitude earthquake, the country’s strongest in over a decade, collapsed a five-story residential building in Cali, bystander Brian Osorio Zuluaga rushed to the rubble and called for silence, catching a faint voice replying “Yes, I’m here. I’m with a baby.” Osorio and other volunteers worked by hand to clear debris, then lifted a heavy concrete slab together to reach the trapped man and infant; the baby, initially purplish from lack of oxygen, began breathing again as rescuers freed him and handed him off to police. Search and rescue operations are now in their third day, with the death toll surpassing 200 and dramatic rescues also reported in Cali and Pereira, where volunteers formed human chains to clear debris. The European Union has mobilized satellite mapping and funding to assist, but in Chocó, Colombia’s poorest region and the quake’s epicenter, an indigenous leader said aid has yet to arrive, leaving his community sleeping outside among flattened homes. The disaster marks one of the first major tests for Colombia’s new far-right president, Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office last week and has since announced economic relief and temporary housing support for those displaced.
An unexpected hearing has been scheduled for Friday at 11am in Manhattan federal court in Luigi Mangione’s stalking case, requested jointly by prosecutors and his defense team, fueling speculation he’s pursuing a federal plea deal that could undercut his New York state murder prosecution for killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to both state and federal charges, and rumors of a possible plea have circulated since late June, when his lawyers met with federal prosecutors and then abruptly withdrew a planned “extreme emotional disturbance” psychiatric defense they’d floated in a sealed letter. New York prosecutors have warned that a federal guilty plea could “defeat a just outcome in the state prosecution” and said they’d lobby the federal court to weigh that consequence, along with any objections from Thompson’s family, before accepting such a deal. The news comes a day after a state court hearing cleared the way for Mangione’s murder trial to begin September 8, with the judge ordering an anonymous jury and an overflow courtroom given the intense public and media attention surrounding his court appearances.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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