Good evening. Another busy week of news, but before we get into it, I wanted to start with a note.
There are many who would prefer I stay quiet. There are those who have threatened me, pressured me, tried to intimidate me into silence. They’ve tried to shut down my platforms and discredit my work. They’ve done everything possible to push me out of the fight for truth. But here is my message to them, and I want it to be heard loud and clear: I am not going anywhere.
And this week proved exactly why that fight matters. Because of our reporting, the sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are coming home. That’s not a coincidence, and it’s not nothing. It’s what happens when people keep reading, keep sharing, and keep paying attention even when the people in power would rather you didn’t.
I’ve said it before, but I will say it again: your subscriptions are what make this possible. They keep the lights on, they keep the truth alive, and they ensure that what you read here is never compromised. If you are already a paid subscriber, I cannot thank you enough, you are the reason this work continues. And if you are not, your presence still matters deeply. Every reader, every voice, every set of eyes on this truth is part of the fight.
Now, to today’s news. Days after Stars & Stripes reported on the very conditions we’ve been covering aboard the Lincoln, the Pentagon fired the publisher and editor who ran that story, the latest move in Trump’s broader effort to control what service members are allowed to read. Meanwhile his own party is turning on him over his beef import deal, with a Republican senator revealing he warned Trump against it for a year and Trump allies calling it a “betrayal.” Plus the Supreme Court lets his ballroom construction continue, Ed Martin exits the DOJ pardon office at the center of a $1.7 billion scandal, DHS gets caught inflating noncitizen voter numbers by nearly a hundredfold, and a full rundown of everything else from Ukraine to a Nebraska school district banning shock gloves.
Let’s get into it.
Let’s get into it.
Pentagon Fires Key Journalist:
The Pentagon reportedly fired Stars & Stripes publisher Max Lederer and editor Erik Slavin on Friday, citing insubordination without detailing the alleged conduct, and gave them five days to appeal. The firings came just days after the outlet reported on troubling crew conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, coverage published the same day as similar reporting in Navy Times, and which Trump dismissed by claiming the Lincoln’s deployment “had not nearly been long enough.” Lederer, who’d served as publisher for 19 years and was already nearing a September retirement, wrote to staff that “my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of value and mission of the Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction of the leadership of the Department of Defense.” The Defense Department, led by Pete Hegseth, has not commented, and details of the alleged insubordination remain unrevealed.
This fits a broader pattern of the Trump-led Pentagon clashing with its own military press. Spokesperson Sean Parnell previously pledged to bring “Stars & Stripes into the 21st century” by refocusing content “away from woke distractions that syphon morale,” and the outlet’s ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, was fired back in January after writing critically about Pentagon press restrictions, a firing she’s since suing over as retaliatory. Slavin himself had warned in July that editorial independence was his line in the sand, saying “if we can’t do that, if we were turned into something other than that, if we were public relations? Yeah, that’s the foxhole,” notable since the Pentagon provides roughly 65% of the outlet’s funding. The Pentagon has separately restricted press access and demanded reporters not seek confidential sources, prompting journalists to turn in their badges and fueling a legal battle plus an influx of rightwing media voices into the press corps.
Stars & Stripes is a storied institution, first published during the Civil War in 1861 and turned into a daily under Gen. John Pershing’s orders during World War I, and it still reaches about 1.4 million readers daily online and through an overseas print edition. It’s historically been described as representing “the free thought and free expression of a free people,” a mission now in direct tension with an administration pushing to reshape its coverage. The firings mark an escalation beyond access restrictions and rhetoric into removing the outlet’s own leadership over specific unfavorable reporting. It leaves the publication’s editorial future, and its relationship with the military that funds most of its budget, notably uncertain.
MAGA Farmers Erupt:
The GOP is erupting over Trump’s beef tariff move, with cattle industry leaders and Republican lawmakers alike accusing him of selling out American ranchers. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall warned that “flooding the market with government-subsidized, below-market beef is not the way to rebuild the American cattle herd,” noting cattle markets “already turned sharply lower this morning” and that the timing couldn’t be worse since ranchers are making critical herd decisions right now. Wyoming’s Meriwether Farms called it a “betrayal” outright, and Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) said Florida ranchers will “feel this squeeze” and deserve a “long-term plan that doesn’t leave them in limbo” rather than short-term relief “at the expense of American ranchers, free markets and long-term solutions.” MAGA farmers called it a betrayal:
The sharpest break came from Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), who revealed he’d been privately warning Trump against this for a year: “I’ve advised President Trump against this course of action for a year because American ranchers have been struggling against the packer monopoly for decades, and this will further harm them, most of whom are MAGA Republicans.” He argued the move “will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people” and will “harm our ranching families who feed the nation.” Even Trump ally Tomi Lahren piled on, demanding mandatory country-of-origin labeling at minimum and accusing the plan of being “a giant gift to the meat packers” who’ll undercut ranchers with “cheap foreign” beef while American cattlemen get “driven out of business.” When asked what countries Trump made a deal with concerning beef, he refused to say:
Beyond the ranching world, critics say the episode is exposing a deeper contradiction in Trump’s economic messaging. Alex Jacquez of the Groundwork Collaborative said Trump is “once again explicitly admitting his broad-based tariffs raise prices for Americans,” while Cato Institute fellow Marian Tupy argued the reversal “once again exposes the absence of a coherent economic philosophy within MAGA,” since defenders can’t simultaneously claim tariffs don’t raise prices and celebrate their removal for lowering them. Tupy concluded flatly that “loyalty to Trump comes first and the economic rationale follows.” The backlash comes even as a White House official defended the 90-day, 300,000-metric-ton tariff suspension as a short-term fix for a cattle herd at its lowest level since 1951, with average ground beef prices now around $6.89 a pound.
Other news:
The Supreme Court, via Chief Justice John Roberts, issued a temporary stay Friday allowing Trump’s White House ballroom construction to continue while the full court weighs next steps, pausing lower court rulings that had blocked the aboveground work. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is suing, arguing Trump lacked authority to demolish the East Wing for the project, with one key question being whether the trust even has legal standing to sue over aesthetic objections from a member. As of August 14, the administration says the $400 million, privately funded project was 65% complete, with a 250-person crew working 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and includes an extensive underground component the administration calls vital for security. A federal judge had allowed underground work to proceed but blocked the ballroom itself pending litigation, a ruling the D.C. Circuit upheld on August 7 with a Friday deadline to halt construction absent Supreme Court intervention. The trust noted this stay isn’t a final ruling on the merits, and the White House had no immediate comment.
Trump announced Friday that Ed Martin, the “Stop the Steal” organizer and Jan. 6 defense attorney who most recently served as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, is leaving the administration to focus on “legal battles” ahead of the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race. Martin initially served as interim U.S. attorney for D.C. starting in January 2025, where he fired and demoted Jan. 6 prosecutors and opened a review of the office’s handling of the Capitol riot cases, but Trump withdrew his formal nomination in May 2025 after Senate Republicans, including Thom Tillis, balked at confirming him for that specific district. He was then named associate deputy attorney general and pardon attorney, and put in charge of a “weaponization working group” targeting prosecutors who’d investigated Trump and his allies, though NBC reported in February 2026 that he’d already been stripped of that role. Attorney General Todd Blanche called him “a patriot who loves this nation,” and Martin himself responded on X with “Proud to serve. Fight Fight Fight.” His exit comes as the same pardon office he ran is now the subject of the House Judiciary Committee’s report accusing Trump’s pardons of costing crime victims $1.7 billion.
Asked by a reporter whether he’d discussed another form of market intervention with Treasury Secretary Bessent as bond yields climbed back up, Trump responded, “The ultimate intervention is our military. And if we have to use that, we will,” an alarming suggestion that he’s open to deploying the military in response to bond market conditions.
The Trump administration is drawing sharp criticism after CNN reported, citing three sources, that the Navy is working to rename the USS Doris Miller, an aircraft carrier under construction to honor the Black Pearl Harbor hero, with two sources saying there have been internal talks about naming it after Trump instead, something no Navy carrier has ever done for a sitting president. NAACP president Derrick Johnson called it “a slap in the face to every war hero and every service member who has worn the uniform,” adding “Donald Trump only wants to serve himself” and that renaming it after Trump “while our armed forces are living in deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln” makes “a mockery” of Black Americans’ long military service. Miller, a mess attendant with no weapons training, shot down four to six Japanese planes at Pearl Harbor in 1941, earned the Navy Cross for shielding his mortally wounded captain and manning a machine gun under fire, and died in 1943 when the USS Liscome Bay sank; his family has long pushed for his Navy Cross to be upgraded to a Medal of Honor. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy officer, wrote that the carrier “shouldn’t be renamed at all, let alone for Donald Trump, who has denigrated servicemembers like Dorie Miller who have paid the ultimate price,” while the Navy declined to comment and the White House referred questions to the Pentagon, which also declined to comment.
A month after Trump claimed in a primetime address that DHS had found 278,000 non-citizens registered to vote across four states, records obtained by the Guardian show DHS has actually manually confirmed only 185 non-citizens on Nevada’s rolls out of the 15,903 it initially flagged, with more than 14,000 still needing review. DHS official Kimberley Vogt told Nevada officials the 15,903 figure was just a “preliminary” ceiling, not a vetted count, and even sent the state an additional 6,218 unreviewed names; Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said his office “will not risk disenfranchising eligible voters” without high-confidence proof of ineligibility. DHS said it compared Nevada’s public voter rolls to internal immigration data, with prominent election denier Heather Honey, now a DHS employee, on the review call, and officials confirmed they’ve made no criminal referrals despite Secretary Markwayne Mullin earlier threatening election officials with fines and prison time over noncompliance. David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation & Research said the episode fits a pattern: “every time, they refuse to show their work or justify their methodology,” and “when states demand evidence and transparency, the administration’s claims wither away to small numbers.” The meeting had a few tense moments too, including Nevada’s elections director correcting a DHS official’s pronunciation of “Nevada” and a DHS official insisting “we don’t name and shame” other states, only for a Nevada deputy secretary to reply, “Except in the press releases.”
Russian drones struck a shopping center in Kryvyi Rih, President Zelenskyy’s hometown, on Friday, killing 14 people and wounding 121, including 22 children, in what Zelenskyy called a “double-tap” strike, an initial drone wave followed by a second as rescuers responded, calling it a “terrorist act” and vowing a response. It came just 24 hours after Russia hit Kyiv with dozens of missiles and drones overnight, killing at least 16, part of an intensifying campaign exploiting Ukraine’s chronic shortage of Patriot interceptors, with the UN saying July alone saw 54 civilians killed and 202 wounded in Kyiv. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down or suppressed 107 of 135 Russian drones launched overnight, while separately Ukrainian drones reportedly struck an oil refinery in Perm (nearly 1,000 miles from the border) and a military airfield in Volgograd, and Russia said its defenses intercepted over 500 Ukrainian drones across the day. Long-range strikes on both sides have escalated as neither military makes meaningful progress along the roughly 780-mile front line, with Kyiv aiming to make ordinary Russians feel the war’s costs and pressure Putin toward negotiations, something he’s shown no sign of pursuing.
Nearly 40,000 bottles (39,060) of Clear Eyes Maximum Itchy Eye Relief, sold nationwide at retailers like CVS and Walmart, have been voluntarily recalled over a “lack of assurance of sterility.” The affected 0.5-fluid-ounce bottles, Lot 2552A with a September 30, 2027 expiration date, were distributed by Medtech Products, owned by Prestige Consumer Healthcare, which said the product wasn’t confirmed contaminated but it recalled it “out of an abundance of caution.” No injuries have been reported, and the FDA classified it as a Class II recall, meaning it could cause temporary or medically reversible health problems. The recall began July 29 and is still ongoing.
Omaha police agreed this week to stop having school resource officers carry “G.L.O.V.E.” electric shock gloves in Nebraska’s largest school district, after Superintendent Matthew Ray requested it following community backlash; the AP had first revealed ICE’s plan to equip officers with the same devices. At a school board meeting, roughly 30 speakers, including a student who said she couldn’t imagine seeing a peer “electrocuted” in what’s supposed to be a safe space, spoke against the gloves with no one speaking in favor, while Omaha police said the devices, used twice this past school year (once on a special-education student who threw a chair and punched a guard), were their “safest use-of-force option.” Not every district followed suit: the suburban Bellevue police department, which patrols two Omaha schools, says it will keep using the gloves it’s carried for three years, with its chief saying he’s “not comfortable” giving up “a tool that has repeatedly proven to be safe, effective, and less harmful than the alternatives,” and three other metro districts haven’t acted either. Omaha’s 34 school resource officers were mostly trained on the devices, which the department bought for about $66,000 for 40 units in 2025, and Omaha officers will keep carrying tasers, batons, OC spray, and firearms instead going forward.
New photo of Natalie Harp sprinting behind Trump’s golf cart after seemingly being denied a ride.
Federal authorities arrested 11 people after boarding two cruise ships in Boston, Holland America’s Volendam and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Breakaway, accusing them of receiving and distributing child sexual abuse material. The operation ran between last Friday and Sunday; nine of those arrested are Philippine citizens, one is Indonesian, and one is Nicaraguan, with authorities searching living quarters and electronic devices but not releasing identities or ship breakdowns. All 11 are being processed for removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act for crimes involving moral turpitude. The arrests are part of “Operation Tidal Wave,” a CBP and Homeland Security Investigations initiative targeting cruise ship crewmembers, run with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, though CBP didn’t confirm whether those arrested actually worked on the ships.
An 18-year-old attacked the Brinell School in Fagersta, Sweden, with a sword on Friday, killing one person and seriously injuring two others before being arrested; police confirmed shots were fired during the arrest. The attack happened during class hours at a school with roughly 400-500 students, and there’s no word yet on a motive, though police say there’s currently no indication of multiple perpetrators. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called it a violent act coming “right after the summer break” and said his thoughts are with those affected. Local authorities set up a crisis center in a nearby sports hall, locked down several surrounding schools, and put up roadblocks as police reviewed camera footage as part of their investigation.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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