Good evening and happy Sunday. Another end to another long week and weekend. Today’s agenda includes the Navy attacking my reporting (I won’t budge, my reporting is accurate), Trump furious at the BBC for trying to depose his children, Todd Blanche confirming the DOJ will not be independent from the White House, McConnell news, and more.
This next week is shaping up to be a busy one. I’m working on more exclusive stories from America’s service members, and we’re heading back into the Epstein files to review more documents. Stay tuned.
I did not have the Pentagon calling me a liar and Pete Hegseth saying I misrepresented the experiences of service members on my bingo card this week. But that just means our reporting is breaking through.
Here’s the news:
President Trump announced Sunday that the U.S. will scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his “very good relationship” with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s refusal to help with the U.S. war against Iran, saying Seoul told him “No thanks!” when asked to join efforts to denuclearize Iran. The Ulchi Freedom Shield drills were set to begin Monday for 10 days, and Trump argued the exercises are costly to the U.S. and send a “hostile” signal to North Korea, which has long criticized such drills. This echoes his first-term approach, when the U.S. and South Korea similarly scaled back exercises in 2018-2019 amid nuclear negotiations with Kim, with Trump citing the same cost concerns at the time.
NORTHCOM Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. Joseph Jarrard issued a stark warning that North Korea has successfully flight-tested ICBMs capable of delivering a nuclear payload anywhere in North America. He also cautioned that China and Russia are rapidly developing advanced weapons designed to evade U.S. defenses, concluding that threats to the homeland are “real and persistent” and “radiate from every point of the compass.”
Service Members:
Today, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command denied our reporting about shortages of feminine hygiene products aboard the USS Boxer. We’re standing by it. This is the same pattern of blanket denials we saw for months over dire conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, and our reporting held up then too. We’ll keep reporting what service members and their families are actually experiencing, regardless of how many times the administration tries to deny it.
Our reporting got an admiral to the USS Abraham Lincoln. Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, visited the carrier after a wave of reporting from us, other outlets, and Sailors’ family members warning of a mental health crisis onboard. In his statement, Cooper claimed the Lincoln “currently has among the lowest number of cases related to mental health” of the Navy’s 11 active carriers. The Lincoln remains deployed to the Arabian Sea as part of the fleet enforcing the blockade against Iran.
Democrats Demand Answers on USS Abraham Lincoln
Democrats intensified demands for accountability over conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, now nearly nine months into deployment with over 200 days without a port call. Senator Ruben Gallego blamed the crisis on the Trump administration’s failure to plan for or exit the Iran war it started in February, calling it a “deep, deep, deep problem.” He also warned that dismissive comments from Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could discourage future military enlistment. Democratic lawmakers are pushing for a formal investigation, citing reports of low morale among the carrier’s roughly 5,000 sailors and marines.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a military veteran, said Trump’s response “pisses me off,” criticizing the president for lacking compassion toward military families despite never having served in uniform himself. Moore added that “nobody understands” the ongoing Iran war that Americans are funding. His comments echoed broader Democratic frustration with how the administration has handled the fallout from the extended deployment.
Trump and Hegseth have repeatedly dismissed the concerns, with Trump saying the deployment is “not nearly long enough” and claiming families “are not” worried, while Hegseth called the reports “completely misrepresented.” Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper praised the crew as “high-achieving Americans standing tall with immense, justified pride,” calling the deployment one of the most consequential of the modern era, during a visit that was part of a broader 10-day Middle East trip.
Navy Families Denounce Trump and Hegseth
Naval families with loved ones deployed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Tripoli reacted with fury to Trump and Hegseth’s dismissal of their concerns, speaking anonymously to the Guardian for fear of retribution against active-duty relatives. They described insufficient food that led to relatives losing 20-30 pounds since deployment began five months ago, along with low-quality drinking water and scarce mental health support. The Lincoln, carrying more than 5,000 sailors and marines, has been at sea for nearly nine months since November, with multiple reported suicide attempts including sailors jumping overboard.
When asked Friday whether naval families were worried, Trump replied “No, they’re not,” and called the deployment “not nearly long enough,” while Hegseth said conditions had been “completely misrepresented.” The sister of a Lincoln crew member said the remarks left her feeling betrayed, accusing the commander-in-chief and defense secretary of “dismissing their experiences and calling them liars.” A sailor’s mother on the Lincoln asked why her son signed up to serve his country “but why isn’t his country serving him,” citing inadequate food, water and living conditions.
Text messages shared with the Guardian described worsening conditions aboard the Lincoln, including drinking water so bad that scuttlebutts were removed, and a mental health system stretched thin after the deployment resilience counselor quit, leaving a five-week wait to see the ship’s only psychiatrist. CNN reported that a sailor who went overboard earlier this month had to be rescued by helicopter. The USS George Washington is reportedly being sent to replace the Lincoln, though the crew member’s sister said she wouldn’t believe relief was real until it happened, given a previous relief ship was diverted to Guam. An even more extreme case came from the mother of a USS Tripoli sailor, who lost over 30 pounds during five months of deployment and appeared “emaciated” in before-and-after photos; his texts described running low on energy, being “burnt out,” and coworkers sharing food to get by.
Sunday Shows:
US Attorney General Todd Blanche declined on NBC’s Meet the Press to pledge that the Justice Department would always act independently of the White House, telling host Kristen Welker “no attorney general should ever pledge that,” while insisting Trump would never ask him to do anything unethical or illegal. Legal scholar Barb McQuade called Blanche’s position “an appalling departure” from the department’s post-Watergate independence, saying he’s turned it into “Trump’s private law firm.” Blanche, Trump’s former personal defense lawyer who was narrowly confirmed 50-49 along party lines, also defended Trump’s pardons of roughly 1,500 January 6 Capitol attack defendants, including over 170 who pleaded guilty to assaulting police, while declining to say whether pardoned attackers might still receive federal settlements. He confirmed a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for Trump allies had been rescinded, and said the department would continue “election integrity” efforts to obtain voter rolls despite more than 20 consecutive court losses ahead of November’s midterms. Blanche has also faced ongoing scrutiny over his defense of moving Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security prison and his handling of the Epstein files.
Outgoing Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor who voted to confirm RFK Jr. as health secretary, publicly denounced Trump’s “crazy, stupid” claims about the MMR vaccine after the president called for replacing the combined two-dose shot with six separate vaccinations, describing MMR as “sort of like a nuclear weapon” that could be “quite lethal.” Cassidy told CNN that Trump’s plan would burden parents with six doctor visits and jabs instead of two, driving up insurance premiums, and said “there’s a lot of bad things that will come out of this.” Cassidy, who lost his re-election bid to a Trump-backed primary challenger and has been on Trump’s enemies list since voting to convict him in 2021, has faced criticism for voicing objections to Trump’s actions while still casting key confirmation votes, including the decisive vote to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general. When Cassidy backed Kennedy’s confirmation, he said he’d secured a promise that the CDC would not remove statements affirming vaccines don’t cause autism, but the agency’s website was later altered to add asterisks and conspiracy-tinged caveats undermining that consensus. Cassidy said Trump’s MMR comments would do nothing to address the long-discredited vaccine-autism link, which originated from a single retracted study.
Other news:
Donald Trump has accused the BBC of harassing his family after the broadcaster’s lawyers asked a Florida court for authorization to subpoena Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to testify in Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit over a Panorama documentary. Trump’s legal spokesman called it an attempt to “harass him, his family, and supporters by abusing the deposition process” and distract from the BBC’s own liability, while the BBC argues the family members have direct knowledge of Trump’s intentions during his January 6 speech, which the documentary had edited to make him appear to encourage the Capitol riot. Attempts to physically serve the subpoenas have failed because the Secret Service bars access to the president’s immediate family, and court documents say Trump has refused to accept the subpoenas on their behalf or direct the Secret Service to allow access. The BBC previously apologized for an “error in judgment” over the editing, which prompted then-director-general Tim Davie’s resignation, and pulled the documentary from its platforms, but denies defaming Trump and is seeking to have the case dismissed; it also recently admitted the episode was viewed 34 times in Florida after initially claiming otherwise. A judge ruled this week that Trump can amend his lawsuit, and a trial is set for February 2027 in Florida.
President Trump was spotted dining at his Bedminster golf club this weekend with daughter Ivanka, while former personal attorney Alina Habba, 41, dined at a nearby table. Habba is reportedly among the contenders to become the next White House press secretary after Karoline Leavitt announced her resignation last week, and she’s publicly praised Leavitt while hinting whoever takes the podium next “better come ready for a fight.” Habba, a longtime Trump defender, previously had a chaotic, brief tenure as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey that a federal appeals court ruled unlawful, leading to her ouster and reassignment as a senior adviser to the attorney general; she later signaled interest in replacing Pam Bondi as attorney general after Trump fired her in April. It’s unclear what Habba was doing at Bedminster, though she recently sold her New Jersey home following a divorce and relocated to Palm Beach, Florida, near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
Vladimir Putin has reportedly been avoiding Moscow as Ukrainian drone attacks intensify, with independent Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnit claiming he’s “fled beyond the Urals” toward Siberia and the Russian Far East, even as the Kremlin continues listing “Moscow” as the location for his closed-door meetings. Putin allegedly used a decoy plane during a recent trip to Novosibirsk and had residents along his motorcade route ordered to stay indoors, according to independent outlet Novaya Gazeta. The reports come after Ukraine launched a massive drone assault on Moscow overnight Sunday, killing an 83-year-old man and injuring several others when drones struck a warehouse belonging to Russian retailer Wildberries, which Ukraine has targeted for allegedly supplying Russia’s military; Russia’s Defense Ministry said it downed 822 Ukrainian drones. Even Putin’s allies are souring on the war’s trajectory: Andrei Klepach, a former Putin appointee and chief economist at Vnesheconombank, said Russia is “losing” the technological and economic competition, including to Ukraine, and was reportedly fired within days of making those comments public. Putin has nonetheless doubled down, recently touring Siberian cities on a charm offensive to shore up support for the conflict he originally described nearly five years ago as a brief “special military operation.”
Hurricane Lala weakened to a tropical storm after skirting Hawaii’s Big Island without making landfall, but still battered it with hurricane-force gusts and nearly 3 feet of rain on higher slopes, causing flash floods, mudslides and widespread damage. At least one person died in a car accident on the Big Island, 19 roofs were lost, and a search-and-rescue mission was launched after flash floods swept several occupied homes off their foundations near the island’s southern tip. More than 130,000 households lost power across Hawaii’s three largest islands, with at least three hospitals running on generators. As of Sunday, Lala was moving northwest at about 15 mph with 70 mph winds, and tropical storm warnings extended to Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Oahu, Kauai and Niihau as the storm pushed westward, with forecasters expecting it to regain hurricane strength midweek. Residents, many still recovering from devastating March floods, prepared with generators, water storage and fuel stockpiles ahead of the storm.
Five people were shot, one fatally, during summer festivities at Charles Young Park in downtown Lexington, Kentucky, on Saturday evening, with the deceased identified as 16-year-old Di’Zhon Robertson. Among the injured were a 14-year-old and a 4-year-old, along with two adults with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Police Chief Lawrence Weathers, who said witnesses have come forward but no suspects have been identified and the incident doesn’t appear to pose a wider threat to the community. Mayor Linda Gorton asked residents to pray for the wounded and announced free mental health resources would be available Monday at the Dunbar Community Center for those affected by the trauma. Gun violence prevention advocate Devine Carama, who was shielding children just feet from where someone was shot, called the daytime shooting at a peaceful event “unacceptable,” saying it happened with women and children present.
Days of storms and record-setting flooding in Indiana have killed at least six people, including a 4-year-old boy, since the storms began Aug. 11, with floodwaters on the White River peaking in Indianapolis Sunday morning. The river crested at more than 24 feet in Anderson and Noblesville, surpassing records set in 1913, and Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett called it the worst flooding the capital has seen in more than 30 years. Hundreds of homes along the river and its canals were evacuated, city shelters remained open, and first responders used boats to rescue people stranded by rapidly rising water, while more than 350 evacuations and numerous rescue and welfare checks occurred elsewhere in the state. About 130,000 utility customers remained without power statewide by midday Sunday, down from a peak of around 300,000, and roads and bridges across Indiana were damaged or washed out. President Trump approved Gov. Mike Braun’s request for federal disaster assistance, as the flooding was part of broader severe storms, including tornadoes, that caused damage from Illinois to western Pennsylvania.
Wildfires driven by hot, dry conditions are burning across several European countries, with the most severe in eastern Belgium, where a blaze in the High Fens nature reserve has scorched about 30 square kilometers, now the country’s largest wildfire on record, surpassing a 2011 fire, and prompted evacuations near the German border, plus assistance from Belgium, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. In Greece, two people were killed on the island of Salamina near Athens as gale-force winds rapidly spread a fire toward residential areas, with over 260 firefighters and multiple aircraft responding. France is battling its third major wildfire of the summer in the Landes pine forests, with about 650 people evacuated and 17 square kilometers burned, following an earlier blaze in Gironde that burned 420 square kilometers and displaced roughly 220,000 people. The UK is fighting 14 wildfires in South Wales with military support after its hottest day of the year, and fires destroyed over a dozen homes in England’s West Midlands. Germany, meanwhile, has made progress containing a separate fire in the Hürtgen Forest, allowing about 2,000 evacuated residents to return home.
Thieves bypassed alarm and security systems Saturday evening to steal four works attributed to Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina from the MuMe museum in Messina, Sicily, while crowds gathered nearby for Ferragosto holiday celebrations. The stolen pieces include three of the five surviving panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated to 1473, and a double-sided panel depicting the Virgin Mary and the dead Christ in Pietà, which was removed from an armored display case, though thieves abandoned two other polyptych panels behind a wall while fleeing. Art expert Alberto Fiz estimated the stolen works’ value at 70 million to 80 million euros ($81 million to $92 million), and museum director Marisa Mercurio and Messina’s culture official Enzo Caruso called the loss devastating to the region’s cultural identity. An art-crime analyst noted the works are so recognizable that selling them through legitimate channels will be difficult, meaning they may instead circulate among criminals as collateral. The heist comes just months after police in Parma recovered three stolen paintings by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth about 10 million euros, in a case where five people were
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” continued to dominate the North American box office in its third weekend, adding $70 million domestically to reach $785.8 million and surpassing $2 billion globally, making it just the eighth movie ever to hit that mark and the second-fastest after “Avengers: Endgame.” Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” held second place in its fifth weekend with $23.2 million, pushing its global total past $1.2 billion, aided by a strong opening in China. Two new dinosaur-themed films fought for third: “The End of Oak Street,” an original PG-13 thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor, edged out family favorite “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” with about $21 million to $20.5 million, though “Paw Patrol” earned a stronger A CinemaScore from audiences versus a B for “Oak Street.” Rounding out the top five was the Katseye documentary “Wild Hearts” with $4 million, while several smaller films, including “Six: The Musical Live” and the Tamil-language “Vishwanath & Sons,” also debuted in the top 10. The now-completed summer box office season topped $4.2 billion, about 5.7% ahead of pre-pandemic 2019 and on track to be a top-five summer of all time.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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