Peggy Flanagan Unloads on GOP Rival for Saying ICE Treated Kids ‘Really Well’ During Minnesota Siege

“This agency is completely out of control,” said the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Minnesota.


Democratic candidate for US Senate, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, speaks during a primary election night party on August 11, 2026 in Minneapolis.
(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Brad Reed
Aug 13, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Fresh off a resounding US Senate primary victory, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan on Thursday castigated her Republican general election opponent for praising federal immigration agents’ treatment of children during their siege of Minneapolis.

During an interview on MS NOW, Flanagan highlighted GOP Senate nominee Michele Tafoya’s support for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose violent operations in the Twin Cities area last winter resulted in widespread protests, including an unprecedented one-day general strike.


‘Minnesota Is Not for Sale’: Peggy Flanagan Wins Senate Primary, Defeating Millions in Dark Money

“Michele Tafoya, my Republican opponent, she used footage of ICE in the streets of Minnesota during her launch video, and recently said... ‘ICE treated children really, really well,’” Flanagan said. “Tell that to Liam Ramos or to the children who have been separated from their parents. This agency is completely out of control.”

Five-year-old Liam Ramos in January was abducted by ICE agents during his walk home from school and sent along with his father, an Ecuadoran asylum seeker, to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, where family members said the child grew sick from eating spoiled food. In February, Ramos and his father were released and sent back to Minnesota.

Elsewhere in the interview, Flanagan was asked about Republican attacks on her and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for purportedly not doing enough to prevent healthcare fraud in their state, and she quickly turned the tables back on Tafoya and President Donald Trump.

“ Republicans are going to run against every Democrat on fraud, because they want to distract from what’s happening under the most corrupt president we’ve ever seen,” she said. “They want to talk about fraud, they have to talk about the fact that, right out of the gate, Donald Trump got rid of 17 inspectors general whose whole job it is to police fraud at the federal level.”

“He’s pardoned 70 white-collar criminals who have stolen billions of dollars in Medicaid and Medicare,” Flanagan continued. “And every day, this guy is making money hand over fist from the Oval Office, from his... cryptocurrency, through hundreds of millions of dollars in insider trading. And Michele Tayofa and Republicans up and down the ballot are going to have to answer for that. The grift has to stop.”

'Human Rights’

 DNC Advances 2 Resolutions on ICE, Aid to Israel

“Approval of the resolutions... point the way for the Democratic Party to move in directions consistent with what voters want.”

A mobile billboard sponsored by the progressive activist group RootsAction encourages voters at the Democratic National Committee meeting in Austin, Texas to vote in favor of a resolution committing to uphold the Leahy Laws on August 13, 

Stephen Prager
Aug 13, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

As the war for the future of the Democratic Party rages on, progressives took steps toward a pair of key victories at the Democratic National Committee on Thursday, advancing one resolution calling to abolish the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and another in support of barring US military aid for Israel.

The resolutions, which were both introduced by Louisiana DNC member Michele Johnson, were approved during a meeting in Austin by the DNC Resolutions Committee and are expected to be put before the full committee for a vote by Saturday.

Though resolutions passed through the DNC do not bind lawmakers or presidents to take particular actions, they play an important role in legitimizing positions once confined to the margins but which are fast becoming a consensus among Democratic voters.

“While it may not actually push Congress to do something, it sends a message that we believe these things,” Johnson said during an interview last week. “Ultimately, these resolutions can be used in the creation of a platform... to guide Democrats for the next four years.”

The first resolution “urges Democratic members of Congress to craft legislation abolishing ICE and enacting immigration reform that provides pathways to citizenship, protects workers, and ensures dignity for all impacted people.”

If passed, it would put the party in line with the majority of its voters, 73% of whom said in an Economist/YouGov poll last month that they believe ICE should be abolished.

It’s a position that has been adopted by increasing numbers of lawmakers in the party’s progressive wing, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), but has been resisted by party leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

As part of the “mass deportation” crusade during President Donald Trump’s second term, which has resulted in individuals being detained nationwide with little due process, ICE has increasingly relied on indiscriminate raids, warrantless arrests, and racial profiling while setting up a vast network of opaque detention camps with squalid conditions. Most of those rounded up have had no criminal convictions.

As of Thursday, more than 50 people have died in ICE custody since Trump retook office in January 2025, and several more, including multiple US citizens, have been shot during enforcement operations without clear justification.

The resolution “urges Democratic members of Congress to pursue civil and criminal accountability for any federal agent, attorney, or official who lied under oath, misrepresented evidence, or gave false testimony regarding DHS conduct, and to remove qualified immunity and other protections shielding DHS and ICE personnel and subcontractors who have injured protesters or journalists, fired into moving vehicles, or caused deaths in custody, whether of detained individuals, US citizens, or immigrants regardless of nationality or documentation status.”



The other resolution advanced on Thursday states that the DNC supports the “full, consistent, and impartial enforcement” of the so-called “Leahy Laws” to prevent military aid to Israel or any other countries that violate US human rights law.

These laws, named after their sponsor, former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), state that the US cannot provide training, weapons, equipment, or other assistance to a foreign military unit when the government has credible information that it has committed a “gross violation of human rights.”

Critics have argued that former President Joe Biden violated the Leahy Laws by continuing to provide unrestricted military aid to Israel as it waged a genocidal war in Gaza and escalated its assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank during his presidency. Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeatedly balked at calls, including from within his own State Department, to enforce the Leahy Laws despite mounting evidence of atrocities.

A classified State Department report whose findings were publicized in October 2025 found that the Israeli military had committed hundreds of human rights violations that may have warranted enforcement of the Leahy Laws, including many during the Biden administration.

The resolution advanced on Thursday “calls for strengthened vetting capacity, clear remediation standards,” referring to the process by which a military that violates human rights can restore eligibility for US funding, “and regular public reporting on the implementation of the Leahy Laws by the Department of State and the Department of Defense.”

The resolution also “encourages Democratic members of Congress to conduct robust oversight of Leahy Law implementation and to support legislative measures that close documented enforcement gaps.”

Like with ICE, a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are calling for the US to cut off support for Israel, but party leadership has been resistant. This is despite nearly three-quarters of Democratic voters saying in a May 2026 New York Times/Siena poll that they are opposed to sending more funding.

The passage of the Leahy Law resolution shows how the ground has shifted beneath the Democratic establishment since last August, when the Resolutions Committee blocked a resolution that would call for an arms embargo against Israel in favor of a more limited one pushed by DNC chair Ken Martin, calling for unrestricted aid to Gaza and a two-state solution. Martin later withdrew his resolution, leaving neither as the party’s adopted position.

In April, more resolutions, which called for the conditioning of military aid to Israel and the recognition of a Palestinian state, were deferred to a working group. Another resolution condemning the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was also killed by the resolutions panel.

Sam Rosenthal, the political director of the progressive advocacy group RootsAction, attended the committee meeting on Thursday. His group promoted both resolutions, including by sponsoring a mobile billboard that circled outside the conference, which read, “HEY DNC, UPHOLD THE LEAHY LAWS. SUPPORT HUMAN RIGHTS!”

“These were twin victories for human rights, at home and abroad,” Rosenthal said of the votes on Thursday. “Approval of the resolutions for abolishing ICE and upholding the Leahy Law point the way for the Democratic Party to move in directions consistent with what voters want.”

“Getting sufficient turnout from the party’s base at election time,” he added, “will require a change in the approach of the party’s national leadership so that it is clearly responsive to the views of Democrats nationwide.”

‘Outrageous’: Trump Officials Investigated Left-Wing Groups After Alex Pretti Killing in Minneapolis

One First Amendment advocacy group called the investigation a “disturbing, invasive, and utterly unjustifiable attack on freedom of expression and political dissent.”


People march during a protest after the killing of Renee Nicole Good on January 8, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Aug 13, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

“These are the actions of an authoritarian state,” said US Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Thursday regarding new reports of a broad investigation by the Department of Homeland Security into numerous left-wing groups in Minnesota earlier this year, in the wake of Border Patrol agents’ fatal shooting of Alex Pretti at a protest against the agency’s anti-immigration crackdown.

As The New York Times reported, days after Pretti was killed in the street as he tried to help a woman who had been violently pushed by the agents, the DHS office in St. Paul opened an investigation into groups including the climate-focused Sunrise Movement, major labor groups like the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Democratic Socialists of America, and a collective called Direct Action Minnesota (DAMN).

The Trump administration began the probe under the auspices of investigating whether the groups had provided “help and money,” as the Times reported, to people who had participated in protests across the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where tens of thousands of residents rallied against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and defended their neighbors from immigration raids last winter.

Newly released government documents, which were uncovered after an attorney filed a motion with the federal District Court in Minnesota demanding information about the DHS investigation, show that the agency characterized the protesters who opposed ICE as “violent opportunists and agitators.”

The investigation included DHS’ use of administrative subpoenas to obtain financial records from Sunrise Movement, Communications Workers of America, and the SEIU, scrutinizing what the agency called “domestic terrorist financing.”

Undercover agents also infiltrated Signal chats and meetings at libraries and churches, recording attendees’ comments criticizing ICE and calling for the agency to be abolished—a view held by roughly 50% of Americans, according to a recent poll by YouGov—as well as their names and license plate numbers. They also scoured the individuals’ social media accounts for images and information.

“None of these individuals did anything other than engage in protected First Amendment speech in a church meeting room,” wrote Kevin Riach, the lawyer who filed the motion. “Yet now their personal information is memorialized in a DHS dossier.”

The investigation “concluded, with no evidence (but obvious political animus), that numerous Twin Cities unions and nonprofit organizations were involved in a widespread conspiracy,” said Riach. “It surveilled and surreptitiously gathered financial records generated by these organizations despite the lack of any connection between those organizations and criminal conduct.”

As the Times reported, the indictment in June of 15 organizers who led direct actions against federal agents, announced by US Attorney Daniel Rosen, came out of the sprawling DHS investigation.

When Rosen announced the indictments, he cited National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), a memo issued last September and mandated a “national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts”—with an exclusive focus on left-wing groups.

Before the indictment, the Times reported, investigators showed a PowerPoint slide to grand jurors linking 18 groups including the AFL-CIO, Vets for Peace, and a local teachers union to a “conspiracy” against ICE agents.

The news of the indictment, said Paul Blest of the labor rights media organization More Perfect Union, “should be the biggest story in America.”



“Just so everyone clearly understands, the Trump administration’s approach to dissent is to exhaust every avenue to put dissenters in federal prison,” said Blest.

The First Amendment advocacy group Defending Rights and Dissent called the investigation a “disturbing, invasive, and utterly unjustifiable attack on freedom of expression and political dissent.”

“The inquiry comes amid President Trump’s escalating crackdown on freedom of speech across the United States,” Defending Rights and Dissent added. “Last year, Trump issued NSPM-7, a directive which tramples the First Amendment in weaponizing the federal government to root out his political adversaries and cast all activism against the administration as ‘domestic extremism.’”

“Defending Rights and Dissent calls for this investigation to be dropped immediately,” said the group, “and strongly condemns all attempts by the Trump administration to intimidate ordinary Americans exercising their freedom of speech.”

Porsche to end production of flagship electric car: report

AFP
August 13, 2026

Sales of Porsche’s electric Taycan have been sliding in recent years – Copyright AFP/File Chanakarn Laosarakham

Struggling German sports car maker Porsche plans to end production of the Taycan, its flagship fully electric model, by 2030 after steadily dwindling sales, a report said Thursday.

The manufacturer announced last year a major rollback of its electric vehicle (EV) plans due to weaker-than-expected demand, adding to challenges that range from falling sales in China to penalising US tariffs.

Launched in 2019, the Taycan was supposed to underscore the Stuttgart-based group’s embarkment on a major shift away from combustion engines.

But sales have been declining, from nearly 41,000 in 2023 to just 16,000 last year, and only 6,000 in the first half of 2026.

German business weekly WirtschaftsWoche reported that Porsche’s works council, which represents staff interests, had agreed in principle with management to end Taycan production.

“The company has decided to phase it out by 2030,” the magazine said, citing company sources.

Porsche did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

The Taycan is one of Porsche’s two fully electric models currently on sale, alongside the Macan Electric SUV launched in 2024.

The entire German car industry, including the major manufacturers like VW and BMW as well as their suppliers, is in crisis as it battles weak demand in Europe, volatile US trade policy, tepid demand for e-vehicles and fierce competition from Chinese rivals.

Porsche’s operating profit plunged by more than 90 percent last year and it has announced a series of job cuts.

'Historic': Data guru finds Trump tanking Republicans in slew of ex-Confederate states

Travis Gettys
August 13, 2026 

RAW STORY

Columbia, South Carolina - July, 10, 2017: Confederate activist attend a flag raising event held in protest of the the Confederate flag's removal from the S.C. State House in 2015. (Photo credit: Crush Rush /Shutterstock)

President Donald Trump's tanking popularity presents Democrats a "historic" opportunity to flip southern Senate seats they've been unable to claim for decades, according to an analysis by CNN's Harry Enten.

With less than three months until the midterms and Trump's approval rating sinking to new lows, polling shows Democratic candidates leading in three crucial states, according to the data analyst.

"So three southern states, three former Confederate states, and you see that Democrats are leading in them all," Enten said. "There has not been a Senate Democratic win in North Carolina since 2008, and in Texas, you have to go all the way back since 1988. So it could, in fact, be a historic year for Democrats in these three southern states."

Polls found Sen. Jon Ossoff up 13 points in Georgia, former Gov. Roy Cooper up nine points in North Carolina, and James Talarico holding a two-point lead in Texas, and Enten attributes much of the shift to white, college-educated voters moving away from the Republican Party.

In North Carolina, Trump won that group by 19 points in 2016, but polling now shows Cooper leading among the same demographic – a roughly 30-point swing.

In Texas, Trump's 31-point advantage among white college voters in 2016 has shrunk to just a one-point Republican edge.

In Georgia, a 41-point Trump margin in 2016 has narrowed enough that Ossoff now trails by only 13 points among that group.

Averaged across the three states, Enten pointed to roughly a 31-point shift among white college-educated voters toward Democrats.

Meanwhile, on Newsmax Thursday, Talarico's opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton received a warning on similar lines.

"With all due respect, AG Paxton, I mean, when are you going to expose James Talarico?" she demanded to know, noting there are only about 80 days until the midterms. "The clock's ticking. Many are worried that this might result in the Senate going to the Democrats."

GRIFT

Trump Freedom Fuel's 'unprecedented' deal alarms ex-State official: 'They want to hide'

Bennito L. Kelty
August 13, 2026 

RAW STORY

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum applauds next to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at an American Mining Industry Roundtable at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 7, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

President Donald Trump's touted Freedom Fuel gas-station network faces fresh scrutiny after a former State Department official questioned possible links to Venezuela.

During an episode of Court of History, former State Department expert on international crime Jonathan Winer suggested Freedom Fuel may be tied to Venezuela's opaque oil revenue and selling cheaper gas through an arrangement that's "literally unprecedented in American history."

Freedom Fuel appeared around Philadelphia in late June with regular gas priced at $3.47 a gallon, which was roughly 50 cents under local prices and below estimated wholesale costs. The White House has promoted the chain as proof that Trump's energy agenda is working without explaining how the stations undercut every competitor.

"People can't mysteriously get fuel at a lower price and continue to offer that," Winer said. "You could, of course, do a very short promotion, but you basically can't do it."

Since January, the administration has controlled Venezuelan oil revenue under what it called a custodianship and with almost no public accounting, Winer noted.

"It's all remarkably opaque," he said. "You would think we would know, but we don't."

The Trump administration led an operation to remove former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro from power and detain him for drug trafficking charges. Winer noted that Trump boasted shortly after, "To the victor go the spoils, and these are the spoils," referring to Venezuelan oil. According to Winer, Trump even added, "We're getting billions."

According to Winer, "Freedom Fuel is maintaining as much opacity as it can. It's not explaining anything." At the same time, "The White House is maintaining as much opacity as it can," except to say that Trump, his family, and their businesses have no financial stake in Freedom Fuel.

However, Winer suggested that Freedom Fuel is "a patronage network which the United States is sponsoring." He called on Congress to subpoena records from the Treasury, State, and Energy departments.

"When you have governments that are being opaque rather than transparent, it's usually because there's something they want to hide," he warned.

Leaked Trump loyalty test demands NATO allies praise him — or lose US protection

Travis Gettys
August 14, 2026 

RAW STORY


U.S. President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

A leaked questionnaire shows President Donald Trump's administration has been asking NATO members to demonstrate their loyalty to him before deciding if the U.S. will cut military support for the alliance.

Bloomberg News reviewed the document asking whether each country has "been publicly supportive" of U.S. foreign policy, including strikes in the Middle East and the Western Hemisphere that were carried out without NATO consultation. It also asks what "restrictions" allies have placed on American forces using their bases, and whether they'd be "willing to reduce or eliminate any such restrictions."

"Allies have balked at the move, seeing it as an attempt to strong-arm them into ideological alignment in exchange for U.S. protection, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss the private missive," Bloomberg reported

One question directly invokes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's demand that allies stay "strong, clear, and quiet" in alignment with U.S. interests.

When the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran without NATO's blessing, several countries, including Spain, barred Washington from using their bases for the operation, a restriction the questionnaire now asks about directly. Similarly, the U.S. raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January, widely viewed in Europe as a violation of international law, appears to be another test case buried in the document's questions about support for American "initiatives" in the Western Hemisphere.

The questionnaire probes whether allies are steering defense contracts toward American firms, whether they've publicly opposed "made in Europe" procurement policies, and, if not, whether they'd be willing to speak out. Given a growing European push to build up domestic defense industries, this line of questioning is likely to be especially contentious.

The document was leaked amid a six-month Pentagon review of the U.S. military footprint in Europe, expected to wrap up by December, and allies are already bracing for cuts.

The U.S. has said it will pull 5,000 troops from Germany, though it separately pledged to send 5,000 additional troops to Poland after a nationalist ally won that country's presidency, an apparent reward for political alignment that adds weight to concerns the loyalty questionnaire isn't an isolated incident.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has publicly defended the broader review as reasonable given rising European defense spending, calling it something that is "bringing NATO closer together."

But the questionnaire's explicit linkage of military protection to political fealty marks a sharp departure from the alliance's postwar foundation, one built on U.S. guarantees that were meant to hold regardless of individual policy disputes.

Allies and NATO officials are expected to discuss the review further at a Brussels meeting later this month.

Trump orders Navy to return to older system of launching jets off aircraft carriers

Copyright AP Photo

By Jerry Fisayo-Bambi

Published on 14/08/2026 - EURONEWS

According to a directive issued Thursday, the new mandate would likely cost billions of dollars and revert the Navy’s most advanced ships to a system that takes more sailors to operate and is more difficult to maintain.

US President Donald Trump has ordered the US Navy to remove the advanced system used to launch fighter jets from its newest type of aircraft carrier and return to using older steam catapults that he has long said he prefers.

The memo issued on Thursday directs the Pentagon and the Navy to present Trump with plans to remove the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, also known as EMALS, within two months. It also says the Ford-class carrier’s electromagnetic weapons elevators should be replaced.

According to the directive, the new mandate would likely cost billions of dollars and revert the Navy’s most advanced ships to a system that takes more sailors to operate and is more difficult to maintain.

The move follows years of Trump's criticism of the new, magnetically driven catapult technology that launches fighter planes off the carriers' decks even as some tech experts believe some of the key advantages of the system are its ability to launch aircraft at faster speeds while being easier to maintain, requiring fewer sailors to operate and using less space aboard the ship.

It also comes at a time when the Navy is having difficulty staffing its ships with enough sailors and the US military is attempting to secure financing from Congress for more equipment.

Trump’s memo directs the fourth Ford-class carrier, the USS Doris Miller, to be the first ship to include the new changes. That will leave the USS Gerald R. Ford, as well as the forthcoming USS John F. Kennedy and USS Enterprise, untouched.

Trump's ire with the latest tech dates back to 2017

During his first term, Trump, in an interview with Time magazine, claimed the new system is “not good” and “doesn’t have the power” of the older steam systems.

“You’re going to goddamned steam,” Trump said at the time. The topic has frequently come up since then at rallies and other events.

While the US president is looking to roll back the latest technology, the newest Chinese aircraft carriers employ electromagnetic catapults, and France said it plans to use the system on its new carrier.

However, redesigning an already finalised ship for such a major system change will not be an easy task. EMALS aboard the USS Ford cut the number of sailors needed to operate the catapults from about a dozen to two earlier this year.

Trump’s memo that mandates the removal of the system also noted that one of the issues facing shipbuilding is the Navy’s constant design changes, “which have resulted in cost growth, delays, and cancellations.”

According to General Atomics, the company that makes EMALS, the decision not to proceed with the system on the USS Doris Miller “warrants careful reconsideration".

General Atomics said the work on Doris Miller’s catapults and arresting gear was already halfway complete and said, "Changing course now would introduce significant cost, schedule, and integration risks.”

Relate

The move comes as Congress will weigh the necessary budget and funding bills that the Trump administration has said they need to fund the Pentagon and the Iran war.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth estimated last month that the war’s cost grew to $37.5 billion (nearly €32.6 billion) as Republicans prepared a $95 billion package (€82.7 billion) to fund the military, along with other White House priorities.

Hegseth said the supplemental war funding is an “urgent, necessary” injection of money, and with Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion (around €1.31 trillion) defense budget a generational investment in the military.

The House narrowly adopted both, but the Senate still must act when it returns in September.

US military pushes back on reports of mental health crisis aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln

Copyright 2022 The San Diego Union-Tribune

By Nathan Rennolds

Published on 14/08/2026 - EURONEWS

The USS George Washington aircraft carrier is reportedly now set to take over from the Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East.

The US military is pushing back on reports of a mental health crisis among crewmembers on board the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which has been at sea for more than 260 days as it takes part in Washington's operations in the Middle East.

In a post on social media, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said there had been "several false claims" and "rampant misreporting" relating to the carrier's deployment and that the crew remained "resilient and resolved."

Concerns have been growing in recent days over the welfare of the crew and the conditions on the ship, the US's fifth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier and one of the largest warships in the world.

US Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, wrote to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao on Wednesday listing the reported problems and demanding to know what action was being taken.

“There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months,” Blumenthal wrote, adding that "recent carrier deployments have repeatedly stretched beyond their originally anticipated durations."

Speaking during a trip to Panama on Thursday, Hegseth said the conditions - many of which had been reported by the military outlets the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes - were "completely misrepresented."

"We make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment," he said. "Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody.

CENTCOM has confirmed that one Sailor "fell overboard" on 3 August but said they were "quickly and safely recovered" from the water.

The USS George Washington aircraft carrier is reportedly now set to take over from the Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East.

An F/A-18 fighter jet taxis on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, Monday, June 3, 2019. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The US's Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are used to operate fighter aircraft and to help support ground troops overseas. They are also used for maritime security operations against terrorist threats or to protect merchant shipping.

The Abraham Lincoln has been taking part in Operation Epic Fury, US President Donald Trump's military campaign against Iran.

The operation began with a series of strikes in late February and aims to "dismantle the Iranian regime's security apparatus."

'Heartbreaking': Analyst aghast as Trump's war drives Navy sailors to rock bottom

Matthew Chapman
August 13, 2026 

RAW STORY

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth walks with Brigadier General John Fleet as he arrives to attend the closing ceremony of PANAMAX 2026, a multinational exercise focused on improving joint operational capabilities, enhancing regional security, and ensuring the protection and free flow of commerce through the Panama Canal, in Panama City, Panama, August 13, 2026. REUTERS/Aris Martinez

The mental health breakdown aboard the U.S.S. Lincoln as President Donald Trump's Iran war drags on is reaching the breaking point, Pentagon reporter Priya Sridhar told MS NOW's Katy Tur on Wednesday.

"Heartbreaking" reports have been flooding in about sailors jumping, or trying to jump, off the side of the vessel as their conditions and psyches deteriorate, she noted — and they "feel like there's no end in sight."

"This young woman who I spoke to said that her husband has been expressing to her that he's been struggling with this deployment for several months, basically since the middle of the deployment," said Sridhar.

An aircraft mechanic on the vessel, her husband "notified his chain of command multiple times and went to the medical team saying that he was having suicidal ideations, but they were basically dismissed." The Navy didn't confirm to her that he was the sailor who went overboard for nearly a week.

"She also shared with me the last text message that he sent to her prior to him jumping off the ship. And I want to read part of it to you," Sridhar continued. "He basically said, 'I think the boat is finally getting to me, and I really don't think I can keep up my peace act anymore. You are right that it all isn't okay. We were supposed to leave Fifth Fleet on July 15th, but then something had to come up, and my last hope of being home soon was gone.'"

His text continued, reiterating that it's "really getting me" and "I don't think I can do another deployment after this, and I don't even know if I can finish this deployment."


"[These are] really heartbreaking details, Katy," said Sridhar — as well as mounting scrutiny over why the Navy hasn't done anything about this.

"I did reach out to them for comment, and they basically said that they can't comment on individual service members' medical records for privacy reasons, but they are disputing the fact that there's any sort of uptick in suicidal ideation on this specific ship," she added.

US sailors report dire conditions as replacement carrier heads to Middle East


Issued on: 14/08/2026 - 
FRANCE24


Reports of declining mental health and supply issues have been flagged by US sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln deployed to the Middle East, with some attempting to throw themselves into the sea. The ship has so far spent a record 260 uninterrupted days at sea as it supports the war in Iran, and is expected to be replaced by the Pacific-based USS George Washington en route to the area.

Video by: Monte FRANCIS

Sailor leaped off Navy ship after worries he was risking crew's lives got ignored: wife

Tom Boggioni
August 14, 2026 

RAW STORY


A U.S. sailor, assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 14, conducts maintenance on an MH-60S Sea Hawk in the hangar bay of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during the ongoing conflict with Iran August 9, 2026. U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS

A distressed sailor who jumped off an aircraft carrier off the coast of Iran was having vision problems that impacted his work repairing helicopters — and his superiors didn’t care, his wife said.

In fact, they "yelled at him," the Navy serviceman’s spouse told MS NOW’s Priya Sridhar.

The unnamed 19-year-old sailor who jumped overboard and was in the water for more than an hour has become the focal point of complaints aimed at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is facing a firestorm over the excessive 9-month-long deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln.

According to MS NOW, ”Many family members are concerned about potential exhaustion, low morale and the mental health of those on board, as the aircraft carrier’s deployment at sea appears to have been extended twice during the ongoing Iran war, with no clear end in sight.”

According to the sailor’s wife, her contact has been spotty with her husband and, after he was rescued, it took the Pentagon over four days to let her know he had jumped.

She said that the young man had repeatedly gone to his superiors to express panic that he was suffering mental health issues related to the overlong deployment. According to Sridhar, he also complained that his vision was impaired to the point that he feared he’d make a mistake while repairing helicopters.

The report notes, she said her husband ”expressed concern that his prescription contact lenses had expired and that he was having trouble seeing and doing his job properly. He works on helicopters on the carrier’s flight deck, and told her he believes it had led to accidents there.”

“Every single time he would make a mistake, they would yell at him, and he would get into a lot of trouble,” the man’s wife elaborated. “He would explain to them that he can’t see because his prescription was expired, but they still allowed him to work.”

Trump sneers at suffering sailors stuck on USS Lincoln: 'Not nearly long enough'

David Edwards
August 14, 2026 

RAW STORY

FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln sails in support of the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran from an undisclosed location March 3, 2026. U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY/File Photo

Sailors suffering a mental health crisis aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln were told by President Donald Trump on Friday they hadn't been stuck on board "nearly long enough."

Trump made the remark Friday when a reporter asked whether the deployment had gone on too long.

The Lincoln's roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines are nine months into a deployment that was supposed to end in May, with no return date announced.

Multiple sailors have attempted to jump overboard during the extended deployment as doctors on the ship warn they are on the brink of "losing their minds."

Families of sailors have described moldy showers, broken toilets, weeks without laundry service, and a meal that came to two tortillas and a half-cup of rice.

Annabelle Loma told the Military Times her husband had tried to go overboard and was placed on a medical hold.

"He's scared. He thinks he'll get a dishonorable discharge, and just because he was burnt out his 13-year career is ruined, just like that," she said.

The Lincoln has now spent more than 260 days at sea without a port call — a modern record for a U.S. carrier, according to The Guardian.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed the reports of poor conditions and overboard attempts had been "completely misrepresented," ABC News reported.


"Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody," Hegseth told Newsmax.

Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) fired back directly at Hegseth's dismissal of the families' accounts.

"These men and women signed up to serve their country. The least their country owes them is hot water, a working toilet and a real meal. Hegseth cannot even manage that, and he has the nerve to look their families in the eye and call them liars," Levin said, according to the Guardian.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao demanding answers about the deployment, ABC News reported.

The USS George Washington left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week and is heading toward the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln, the Associated Press reported.

Hugh Hefner tried to warn the FBI about Epstein — new docs show they ignored him

Nicole Charky-Chami
August 13, 2026 
RAW STORY


Playboy's Hugh Hefner with Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt (Luke Ford/Wikimedia Commons)

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner notified the FBI of Jeffrey Epstein and reported that a Playmate was sexually abused and trafficked by the late financier, according to new court documents reported this week.

The FBI reportedly ignored several of Hefner's tips about Epstein for 15 years, according to NewsNation.

Court records show that Audra Christiansen, a former Playboy Playmate, told Hefner in 2005 that she was an Epstein survivor and asked Hefner to contact the FBI. She suggested that authorities would be more likely to take his call over hers because of his status.

Hefner died in 2017 at age 91.

Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown, in her Substack, reported on the legal complaint, which was filed by 34 Epstein survivors against the United States in the Southern District of Florida.

In the court document, the FBI agreed to assist Christiansen and investigate her claims. But Christiansen apparently did not hear from the FBI until October 2020.

"For about fifteen years, the FBI did not investigate Ms. Christiansen’s tips or follow up on her allegations," according to the court documents.

The documents revealed that Christiansen met the late convicted child sex offender, and "before she knew it she was naked and raped by Epstein" and "trafficked for 10 years."

"The complaint alleges the FBI did not investigate the model’s claim and by not doing 'violated mandatory policies and protocols requiring it to investigate claims, like Ms. Christiansen’s, of child sexual abuse and trafficking' and 'failing to investigate credible tips, such as Ms. Christiansen’s allegations, the FBI created a foreseeable zone of risk to future victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise, including Plaintiffs,'" NewsNation reported.