The aircraft carrier USS George Washington has begun heading toward the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, as reports have circulated of mental health concerns aboard Lincoln.
The carrier switch, according to a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/u-s-sending-fresh-aircraft-carrier-to-middle-east-amid-iran-war-strain-d0d6e98d?eafs_enabled=false">report</a> published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, is part of a scheduled rotation to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln after more than eight months at sea with limited port calls. The extended deployment — since November 21, 2025 — has reportedly resulted in several sailors aboard Lincoln attempting to jump overboard.
The Navy Times reported on Tuesday that at least two sailors had made such attempts. Annabelle Loma told the outlet that her husband was one of them, and that he was on medical hold.
&#8220;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. That’s not fair, that’s not right. That’s not what he should be worrying about right now,&#8221; she said.
Maria Rodriguez told The Navy Times that her husband had been on watch when another attempt was made, and that he&#8217;d been able to stop the sailor from going overboard.
&#8220;He said he hadn’t felt adrenaline like that in his life, and he was just so thankful he was able to get to [the sailor] in time, to stop them from going overboard,&#8221; she explained.
The Navy has disputed the accounts, telling USNI News on Wednesday that it has &#8220;not identified an increase&#8221; in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard Lincoln.
Other reports have mentioned a number of issues, such as broken toilets, moldy showers, and water contamination — in addition to alleged food shortages and complications with the mail service that kept some care packages from reaching their destinations.
Democrats in Congress <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/08/13/poor-conditions-are-reported-uss-abraham-lincoln-democrats-demand-answers/">quickly blamed</a> President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration for creating the situation.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) fired off a letter to War Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao, demanding answers to several questions about conditions aboard the Lincoln and expressing concerns about Iran, claiming that the objectives had never been clear.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) posted a link to mental health resources for military service members, but <a href="https://x.com/SenMarkKelly/status/2087732648181366848">jabbed vaguely</a> at the administration as well: &#8220;The reports from the USS Abraham Lincoln about multiple sailors attempting to jump into the sea are disturbing. Long deployments are hard. They are a lot harder when the mission isn’t well defined and there is no end in sight.&#8221;
Over the last week, both Cao and Vice Adm. Joseph Cahill (commander of Naval Surface Forces) met with families either in person or virtually to address their concerns. Cao had said that the USS Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group would be deployed to replace Lincoln — but later reports suggest that it will be Washington instead.
&#8220;We hear you loud and clear [regarding] the impact this has on families, on service members and the long-term ability of us to stand, sustain our forces’ health,&#8221; Cahill said.
<a href="https://news.usni.org/2026/08/13/uss-george-washington-heading-west-lincoln-deployment-nears-9-months">Lincoln</a> has been at sea for 241 consecutive days — more than a month longer than the previous record of 206 days, set by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower during the COVID-19 pandemic. The last port call was December 11, 2025, in Guam. The deployment was supposed to end in May, but has been extended due to the ongoing war with Iran.
Secretary Hegseth said on Thursday that some of the reporting concerning the conditions on Lincoln had been &#8220;completely misrepresented.&#8221;
&#8220;Americans don&#8217;t understand what it&#8217;s like to do that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;As someone who&#8217;s — not been on a ship like that — but been on long deployments, I feel it. I want them home as soon as everybody else. I want folks rotated as quickly as possible &#8230; to that crew and to all those crews, we&#8217;re going to do everything we can for you and we are so grateful for their dedication.&#8221;

U.S. Conducts Blockade Operations Near Strait Of Hormuz

Two American Sailors Try To Jump Overboard From Ship Plagued By Food Shortages, Water Problems

USS George Washington To Replace USS Abraham Lincoln As Concerns Grow About Mental Health Of Crew

Iran

Military

Pete Hegseth

U.S. Navy

Lindsay Clancy used her phone to search the phrase &#8220;can you treat a sociopath&#8221; just four days before she killed her three children and then attempted suicide, a Massachusetts State Police investigator testified Thursday.
Sgt. Timothy Chiappini told jurors that a forensic review of Clancy&#8217;s phone revealed that the search was made on January 20, 2023. In the weeks leading up to the January 24 killings, the phone was also used to search terms related to mental illness, including &#8220;bipolar disorder,&#8221; &#8220;postpartum depression,&#8221; &#8220;hallucinations,&#8221; &#8220;schizophrenia,&#8221; and &#8220;psychosis.&#8221;
Clancy is on trial for the murders of her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months. She does not dispute killing them, but her attorneys argue that she had postpartum psychosis and was legally insane at the time. Prosecutors contend that Clancy deliberately planned the killings and understood what she was doing.
Under cross-examination Thursday, defense attorney Kevin Reddington questioned Chiappini about several other disturbing searches allegedly recovered from Clancy&#8217;s phone.
&#8220;Did you come across a search, &#8216;where is the carotid artery?'&#8221; Reddington asked.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t recall,&#8221; Chiappini replied.
Reddington also asked whether he&#8217;d found searches for &#8220;how to slit throat to die&#8221; and &#8220;how to turn airbags off on Kia Sorento,&#8221; but Chiappini said he could not recall those either.
&#8220;These all came from Lindsay&#8217;s phone, right?&#8221; Reddington asked as he held up posters showing blown-up screenshots of the searches.
Chiappini replied, &#8220;I can&#8217;t confirm that.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s a pretty good inference though, right?&#8221; Reddington pressed.
&#8220;Yes, sir,&#8221; was Chiappini&#8217;s response, and he noted that the phone number displayed on the screen matched the one he&#8217;d used for the forensic search.
Investigators also recovered notes from Clancy&#8217;s phone describing her struggles with motherhood and fears that she was failing her youngest child:
<blockquote>I am sad and depressed because I am not able to parent my third child like my 1st. I want to treat any one of my babies like my first, but I know that&#8217;s not a feasible possibility. I&#8217;m sad that I stopped breastfeeding. I feel not as connected with Cal now. I think I sort of resent my other children because they prevent me from treating Cal like my first baby, and I know that&#8217;s not fair to them. I know that.</blockquote>
Clancy also wrote that she had &#8220;fallen out of the habit of doing anything fun&#8221; and described being terrified that something would happen to her children or that she would make a mistake that negatively impacted their development.
&#8220;For the last 5 years, I&#8217;ve just filled my mind with all things parenting, and it&#8217;s just unhealthy,&#8221; she wrote.
State Trooper Kyle Pavao also testified on Thursday, stating that he&#8217;d reviewed a Surface Pro tablet and found searches for country musician Tom T. Hall — who died by suicide in 2021 — and stated that someone in the home had then clicked on a link that opened a page detailing &#8220;suicide methods.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
9:40 AM: The device accessed a Facebook profile page (Lindsay.969).
09:42 AM: A search was conducted on Spotify for the musician Tom T. Hall, leading to playing the song &#8220;That&#8217;s How I Got to Memphis&#8221; at 9:44:18 AM.
09:44:30 AM: A Google search for Tom Hall was performed, which…
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) <a href="https://x.com/cathyrusson/status/2087903299873989060?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Other search terms included:
<ul>
<li>What to do when a psychiatrist overprescribed</li>
<li>Lamictal / &#8220;Zolafi&#8221; [Zoloft])</li>
<li>Can bipolar disorder be temporary?</li>
<li>Can benzos reveal bipolar disorder?</li>
<li>What is mania?</li>
<li>How long are detox programs?</li>
</ul>
Patrick Clancy, Lindsay&#8217;s former husband and the children&#8217;s father, previously testified that he was the person who searched for Hall because he wanted to listen to his music. He said he opened Hall&#8217;s Wikipedia page and accidentally clicked a hyperlink that took him to information about suicide methods.

Nurse practitioner who treated Lindsay Clancy testifies about Duxbury mother’s desperation to improve amid postpartum struggles

SEE IT: What Lindsay Clancy Searched Online Days Before Killing Her 3 Children

SEE IT: What Lindsay Clancy Searched On The Web Before Murders, Suicide Attempt

Crime

Google

Lindsay Clancy

murders

postpartum depression

Suicide

Lindsay Clancy&#8217;s emotional outburst brought trial proceedings to a halt on Wednesday as she sobbed throughout the testimony given by the medical examiner who performed autopsies on two of her three children.
As medical examiner Barbara Olson delivered details about the autopsy performed on Cora Clancy (age 5), Clancy could be heard crying intermittently — and at one point, she cried out, &#8220;I can&#8217;t do this!&#8221;
Olson testified that Cora Clancy had died of asphyxiation, and she explained that the child had likely felt pain until she passed out from the lack of oxygen — which could have been as brief as ten seconds or as long as 30 seconds.
&#8220;There is a component of pain present until loss of consciousness occurs,&#8221; Olson said.
Olson testified a short time later that Dawson (3) had also died of asphyxiation.
Video showed Clancy&#8217;s lawyer, high-profile defense attorney Kevin Reddington, holding Clancy&#8217;s hand as she wept throughout the testimony, her head resting on her arms on the table.
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Credit: Lindsay Clancy Breaks Down In Court
</div>
Twice during Wednesday&#8217;s proceedings, as Clancy showed visible emotional reactions to the testimony, Judge William Sullivan brought the trial to a halt, sending the jury out as two women came in and tried to console the defendant.
Clancy is on trial for strangling all three of her young children with exercise bands — Cora (5), Dawson (3), and Callan (eight months) — before cutting her own wrists and throat and jumping from the second-story window. The fall did not kill her, but left her paralyzed from the waist down — and she has been attending court in a wheelchair.
The defense has not argued that Clancy did not strangle her three young children, but has instead argued that she is not criminally responsible for the killings by reason of insanity. Clancy, the defense says, was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis — made worse by a series of mood-altering medications — at the time of the killings.
Clancy had also been turned away after calling a suicide hotline twice because she reportedly did not have concrete plans at the time to act on her suicidal thoughts.

Patrick Clancy describes ex-wife’s mental health struggles leading up to children’s deaths in her murder trial

Lindsay Clancy’s Courtroom Outburst Brings Trial To A Halt

Courts

trial

Secretary of State Marco Rubio took a moment during a recent podcast interview to weight the merits of &#8220;Sharknado&#8221; vs. &#8220;Jaws,&#8221; laughing as he warned the host she&#8217;d never be able to air the clip: &#8220;This thing&#8217;s off the rails.&#8221;
Rubio and his wife Jeanette sat down with podcast host Katie Miller — wife of White House adviser Stephen Miller — for a wide-ranging interview, and the conversation turned to a visit from a nephew and his choice of movie.
&#8220;I have a little nephew who was visiting us here yesterday,&#8221; Rubio explained, and said that he&#8217;d jumped to the rescue when the boy had asked if they could watch &#8220;Jaws&#8221; together. &#8220;I said I have an even better movie than &#8216;Jaws,&#8217; &#8216;Jaws&#8217; is boring. &#8216;Sharknado.'&#8221;
Miller laughed as Jeanette shook her head: &#8220;Oh, my gosh, it was such a ridiculous movie! Such a ridiculous — who puts that — for kids?&#8221;
&#8220;Where the hurricane brings the shark to the shore?&#8221; Miller asked.
&#8220;It was awful,&#8221; Jeanette added, but she continued to laugh as Rubio described the movie.
&#8220;There&#8217;s a &#8216;Sharknado,&#8217; I think it&#8217;s number three, that&#8217;s in Washington, D.C., and the sharks are in the White House and there&#8217;s a president that&#8217;s shooting at them and all that — which all sounds crazy, but now you can see — actually, there&#8217;s a scene where the sharks are in the reflecting pool!&#8221; the secretary of State said, getting increasingly animated and prompting more laughter from Miller and his wife. &#8220;In the &#8216;Sharknado&#8217; movie, and this is ten years ago.&#8221;
&#8220;So I&#8217;m like, man, I gotta show this to the president,&#8221; Rubio laughed. &#8220;You know, we might have a feature here for people. Can you imagine? If we put sharks in the reflecting pool. Oh, gosh. Anyway.&#8221;
&#8220;This whole thing&#8217;s off the rails,&#8221; Rubio said to his wife — and then turned to Miller, adding, &#8220;You&#8217;re not going to be able to even air this thing.&#8221;

Screenshot

Rubio Dives Into ‘Jaws’ Vs. ‘Sharknado’ In ‘Off-The-Rails’ Interview

Marco Rubio Answers The Question On Everyone's Mind: 'Jaws' Or Sharknado'?

Marco Rubio

Media

Politics

Reflecting Pool

Sharks

The socialist frontrunner in Wisconsin&#8217;s Democratic gubernatorial primary hired a self-described &#8220;sex worker&#8221; to run her campaign and voted against a law that bans grooming children.
State Rep. Francesca Hong, who held a 20-point advantage in the polls going into Tuesday&#8217;s primary, was one of just six Wisconsin lawmakers to vote against a measure that bars adults from &#8220;engaging in a course of conduct, pattern of behavior, or series of acts with the intention to condition, seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child&#8221; to participate in sexual activity or pornography.
The bill overwhelmingly passed the Wisconsin State Assembly 93-6 and cleared the state Senate by voice vote before Democratic Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) signed it into law in March.
Hong, according to The New York Post&#8217;s <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/08/11/us-news/wisconsin-socialist-francesca-hong-voted-against-anti-child-grooming-law-responding-to-pervy-teacher-pursuing-14-year-old/">report</a>, has not publicly explained why she voted against the legislation. Others who voted against argued that it was redundant to existing state law.
The legislation initially came about as a response to the case of Christian Enwright, 31, — a teacher from Kenosha who pled guilty to 15 misdemeanor counts of &#8220;<a href="https://captimes.com/news/education/kenosha-teacher-scandal-spurs-legislation-new-policy-and-a-lawsuit/article_28fc8e7e-4328-4e32-9881-bda07e89388e.html">disorderly conduct</a>&#8221; in connection with his interactions with students, including a 14-year-old girl.
&#8220;[Enwright] engaged in classic grooming behavior, preying on the vulnerability of at least one female student, under the guise of being a mentor, to foster and further a predatory relationship with her,&#8221; a school district investigator said.
In addition to inspiring the new anti-grooming law, Enright&#8217;s actions sparked a lawsuit by a student&#8217;s parents against both him and the school district. Media outlets did not publish the names of either the girl or her parents because she still attended school in the district.
Hong entered Tuesday&#8217;s primary as the clear polling frontrunner. The democratic socialist has raised eyebrows during the campaign with a number of her old social media posts — in which she called for the cancellation of Thanksgiving and suggested abolishing the Senate.
She has also called for defunding the police — a position she&#8217;s tried to temper throughout her campaign — as recently as 2021, saying, &#8220;Police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.&#8221;
She also made headlines with her support for legalizing sex work, a point she punctuated by hiring an OnlyFans model to manage her campaign.

politics-election-2026-governor-hong-committee-1536×864

Socialist Voted Against Child-Grooming Bill. She Might Be Elected Governor.

Socialist Voted Against Law That Bans Grooming Kids. She Might Be Elected Governor.

Democrat

Democratic Socialists Of America

Francesca Hong

Socialists

Wisconsin

A criminal trial fanatic ambushed the attorney for Lindsay Clancy in her high-profile murder trial, asking one question that first got laughs — and then a detailed story.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington immediately recognized &#8220;CourtDawgDaniel&#8221; when he came out of the building, and agreed to walk with him down the street. Reddington&#8217;s reaction made it clear he was not prepared for the question that followed.
&#8220;I met you the other day,&#8221; Daniel said, after getting Reddington&#8217;s attention.
&#8220;Court Dawg!&#8221; Reddington replied, realizing he was on camera and adding, &#8220;At least my shirt&#8217;s tucked in.&#8221;
&#8220;Can I walk with you down to the —?&#8221; Court Dawg asked, gesturing toward the end of the street.
&#8220;Of course you can,&#8221; Reddington replied. &#8220;Whatever you want.&#8221;
Court Dawg went on to explain that he loved to attend criminal trials, traveling from court to court in his RV to see as many as he could: &#8220;So I&#8217;ve been coming to your trial and just really enjoying it, but I just have one question for you that probably has nothing to do with this case. Did you always know you wanted to be a lawyer?&#8221;
Reddington, clearly taken aback, laughed: &#8220;That&#8217;s a great question.&#8221;
&#8220;I have a distinct memory of when I was in high school, I think probably junior year,&#8221; Reddington continued, adding that he&#8217;d found himself in a bit of trouble and landed in the dean&#8217;s office. &#8220;And while I was sitting there waiting for him to come in and yell at me, I was bored so I happened to pull out a book — and it was careers, and I read the thing about lawyers, and it had a picture of Abraham Lincoln, and I said, &#8216;Hey, that might be fun.'&#8221;
&#8220;That was the only time I ever thought about it really,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;And you never went back [and changed your mind],&#8221; Court Dawg prompted.
&#8220;Nope, I went to Boston College, and back then everybody wanted to be a lawyer, so then you take the LSATs, you go to law school, and here we are,&#8221; Reddington replied.
Court Dawg admitted that he was trying to &#8220;live vicariously&#8221; through the attorneys he watched, saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m an engineer. I wish I had been a lawyer.&#8221;
Reddington interrupted then: &#8220;But can I tell you, I don&#8217;t want to live vicariously through you as an engineer.&#8221;
Reddington&#8217;s current trial — involving Massachusetts mother <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lindsay-clancy-diary-entries-puts-focus-on-psych-meds">Lindsay Clancy</a> — is expected to last six to eight weeks. The defense is arguing that Clancy, who was reportedly suffering from postpartum depression at the time, is not criminally responsible for strangling her three young children before attempting suicide herself.

Lindsay Clancy’s Attorney Asked Unexpected Question After Fiery Cross-Examination

Murder

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is scrambling to rewrite history — and reinvent himself — as his party lurches leftward and embraces candidate after candidate who&#8217;s younger and more extreme than the last.
Newsom, recognizing the appetite in his party for &#8220;insurgents&#8221; and agents of &#8220;change,&#8221; insisted that he could be all of those things while also bringing the experience that came with his more than two decades in elected office.
&#8220;I think what&#8217;s happening is there&#8217;s just a desire for change,&#8221; Newsom said. &#8220;I think this notion of insurgency over incumbency is the real message here, and people just want fighters — they want people with conviction, strength, clarity, people that get it and want to get things done. And they&#8217;re done with the status quo, and I totally respect that.&#8221;
Newsom went on to claim that despite his eight years as governor — and more than a decade in elected office prior to that — he was not an example of the &#8220;status quo&#8221; people were so desperate to leave behind. Instead, he still viewed himself as the &#8220;insurgent&#8221; rather than the &#8220;incumbent,&#8221; coining a new phrase to describe his position in the field: &#8220;established insurgent.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;ve long felt like I&#8217;ve been an established insurgent,&#8221; he explained, adding, &#8220;I&#8217;ve always had that mindset. I&#8217;ve been in elected office a long time, but I&#8217;ve never been naive about people&#8217;s desire for change, including my own desire for change.&#8221;
Newsom&#8217;s comments came as he traveled to Michigan, where Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed eked out a narrow victory over the more established Democrat Rep. Haley Stevens. The likely 2028 hopeful brushed aside concerns about El-Sayed&#8217;s more extreme views and alignment with far-Left streamer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hasan-piker-gloats-over-socialist-election-victories">Hasan Piker</a> — who is well known for praising Islamist terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, idolizing communist dictators like Mao Zedong, and making outlandish claims like &#8220;America deserved 9/11.&#8221;
El-Sayed, despite being given multiple chances to denounce Piker, has doubled down at every opportunity — but Newsom did not appear to be bothered by that, and instead argued that El-Sayed&#8217;s success was simply a manifestation of the people&#8217;s &#8220;desire for change.&#8221;
Responding to Republicans who have argued that El-Sayed is just more proof that the Democratic Party is embracing the extremes, Newsom said that was &#8220;nonsense,&#8221; adding, &#8220;He&#8217;s not even a member of the DSA.&#8221;
The California governor, whose term ends in January, is expected to launch a presidential campaign ahead of the 2028 election cycle — and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-new-2028-poll-just-shook-up-both-parties">recent polls</a>, which show democratic socialist darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) eclipsing him, might be the inspiration behind his attempts to reinvent himself.

Governor Newsom And San Francisco Mayor Lurie Announce New Funding For Homelessness And Mental Health Ffforts In The City

Gavin Newsom Has A New Buzzword For Believing In Nothing

Democratic Party

Gavin Newsom

Democrats in Montana have embarked on a desperate campaign to force their own U.S. Senate nominee to quit the race, and they&#8217;re willing to harass members of her family to make that happen.
According to Washington Reporter editor-in-chief Matthew Foldi, Democrats have become increasingly aware that independent candidate Seth Bodnar would stand a much better chance against the Republican nominee, Kurt Alme, a former U.S. Attorney backed by President Donald Trump. The only person standing in the way is Alani Bankhead — who won the Democratic Party&#8217;s five-way primary on June 2 with 43.7% of the vote — and the party appears ready and willing to throw out more than 48,000 votes to force a more favorable general election matchup.
The goal of the &#8220;project,&#8221; according to a series of <a href="https://x.com/MatthewFoldi/status/2086521870333923649">screenshots</a> Foldi shared, was to make the Montana Senate seat — and thus potential control of the upper chamber — &#8220;more winnable&#8221; by convincing Bankhead to drop out of the race. A call to arms sent out to activist groups around the state suggested that it was an &#8220;all hands on deck&#8221; situation because Bankhead, who had not responded to &#8220;gentler nudges,&#8221; had to drop out by August 10 in order to be taken off the ballot.
&#8220;Democrats want to push @AlaniBankhead out of the race in favor of &#8216;independent&#8217; candidate Seth Bodnar, who is backed by Chuck Schumer and former senator Jon Tester. These documents offer an inside look at how Democrats’ dark money apparatus will use any means, including intimidation to secure their preferred nominee,&#8221; Foldi posted, following that with a screenshot of a document titled, &#8220;Montana Senate Seat: How to Help.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The document is titled: Montana Senate Seat: How to Help. It urges Democrats “who have relevant relationships” to urge Bankhead to drop out of the race.
(3/xx) <a href="https://t.co/St1x4C0ng7">pic.twitter.com/St1x4C0ng7</a>
— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) <a href="https://x.com/MatthewFoldi/status/2086522798642524619?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Anyone with &#8220;relevant relationships&#8221; — meaning those who might have the ability to put pressure on Bankhead either directly or indirectly — was encouraged to use them to &#8220;encourage&#8221; Bankhead to exit the race ahead of the August 10 deadline. The document even included a list of people close to the candidate who could be targeted by their pressure campaign. The list included several family members, close friends, as well as current and former campaign staffers.
The document also contained <a href="https://x.com/MatthewFoldi/status/2086524470257123814">helpful tips</a> for those inclined to participate, from reminders to tag Bankhead in their posts to pre-written drafts that they were urged to alter slightly so as not to appear AI-generated.
Just one week prior, up against a nearly identical deadline, South Dakota Democratic Senate nominee <a href="https://www.thedakotascout.com/p/democrat-julian-beaudion-pulls-out">Julian Beaudion</a> withdrew from the race, citing a similar <a href="https://www.thedakotascout.com/p/left-wing-activists-urge-south-dakota">pressure campaign</a> orchestrated by left-wing activists who pushed him out in favor of former Democrat-turned-independent Brian Bengs.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/us/politics/julian-beaudion-drops-out-south-dakota.html?eafs_enabled=false">Beaudion</a> explained just after he exited the race that he&#8217;d done so in light of a recent &#8220;devastating house fire” — the cause of which is still under investigation — and “intimidating threats to drop out of this race.”
“The mental and physical safety of my family is my priority and for this reason alone, I step aside,&#8221; he said.

Democrat Alani Bankhead Campaigns for Montana Senate Seat

Inside Dem Dark Money Campaign To Harass Their Own Female Nominee Until She Quits

2026 elections

Dark Money

Democrats

Montana

Senate

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham pushed back after Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington blamed &#8220;WHITE PRIVILEGE&#8221; for her own ejection from Saturday&#8217;s game — a post Carrington later deleted.
Cunningham <a href="https://x.com/kareemcopeland/status/2086219526266556444?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2086219526266556444%7Ctwgr%5E6d9bb0378f30ffe86b5bba7a7baf000c6f030b5a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Foutkick-sports%2Fsophie-cunningham-speaks-out-against-dijonai-carrington-flagrant-foul-white-privilege-post">dismissed the accusation</a> outright, pointing to her own ejection last season for a similar foul.
&#8220;I think the league is taking care of that,&#8221; she said. &#8220;This has nothing to do with race. Last year, I did the same thing and I got kicked out. And I deserved to be kicked out. There&#8217;s no reason to even play that card.&#8221;
Of the foul itself, Cunningham <a href="https://x.com/kareemcopeland/status/2086220659319771185">said</a>, &#8220;Clearly, I think it was unnecessary. I&#8217;ve never really spoken to her and have no beef with her, but I guess she has  some pent-up stuff. So, get your [stuff] off. That&#8217;s fine — I can take it.&#8221;
She went further, calling the hit deliberate: &#8220;Yeah, it&#8217;s intentional&#8230; I do think when people play the Fever, we&#8217;re nationally televised, there&#8217;s a lot of eyes on us and people just want attention. And that&#8217;s her just trying to get attention.&#8221;
Video of the interaction — which showed Carrington clothes-lining Cunningham as she went in for a lay-up — spread quickly across social media. The foul — which landed Cunningham on her back on the court — was upgraded to a flagrant two after review, with officials citing &#8220;wind-up, impact, and follow-through&#8221; and a &#8220;high potential for injury for player in a vulnerable position.&#8221;
Fever Coach Stephanie White reacted to the hit, saying, &#8220;It was a hard foul. I don&#8217;t think that DiJonai intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did, but it did happen, and I thought it was the right call.&#8221;
Sky coach Tyler Marsh, when asked about Carrington&#8217;s locker-room reaction to her removal from the game, replied, &#8220;I have to get back to you on that because I&#8217;m just now hearing about that. So yeah, we&#8217;ll handle that.&#8221;
Cunningham made waves when she said in an <a href="https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/49306657/sophie-cunningham-finger-point-indiana-fever-wnba">ESPN interview</a> last month that she did not believe it was fair for women and girls to compete in athletics against biological males — and has been the target of protests and criticism ever since.
Sports Illustrated delivered <a href="https://x.com/ClayTravis/status/2086229865930297827">clear bias</a> in a headline covering the most recent incident, which read, &#8220;Sophie Cunningham Got A Bitter Taste Of Karma After Drawing Flagrant Foul In Fever-Sky.&#8221; The outlet appears to have since quietly <a href="https://www.si.com/wnba/sophie-cunningham-karma-flagrant-foul-fever-sky">changed the headline</a>.
Women&#8217;s sports advocate <a href="https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/2086418921914012058">Riley Gaines</a> responded to Carrington&#8217;s reaction, saying on Fox News that her post was more indicative of &#8220;black privilege&#8221; than anything else.
&#8220;I would actually say that this is BLACK privilege to be totally honest with you! Because her posting this white racist comment right after assaulting Sophie Cunningham on the court is actually black privilege, because she knows the WNBA won&#8217;t do a SINGLE thing of significance about it!&#8221; Gaines explained. &#8220;And imagine if the roles were reverse if Sophie made a comment similar to this — then she&#8217;d likely never play again!&#8221;

Sophie Cunningham

Sophie Cunningham Smacks Down Opponent’s ‘White Privilege’ Comment

Sports

Transgender

transgender athlete

WNBA

Women's Basketball

Women's sports

National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya stopped CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan cold during a Sunday morning interview, refusing to let her steer the conversation away from what he says was his censorship by former President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration.
Midway through the interview, Brennan turned to Bhattacharya&#8217;s trip to Atlanta that week, marking one year since the shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters that killed DeKalb County police officer David Rose — a Marine combat veteran and father of three who had graduated from the police academy five months earlier. Brennan asked whether enough was being done to counter that kind of &#8220;misinformation,&#8221; noting that the shooter&#8217;s father said his son had been &#8220;brainwashed&#8221; about the vaccine and thought it &#8220;was making him suicidal.&#8221;
Bhattacharya, the acting CDC director, pushed back, reminding Brennan that not everyone agreed on what constituted &#8220;misinformation&#8221; — and that had been weaponized to great effect during Biden&#8217;s administration.
&#8220;I think the key thing is there&#8217;s a loss of public trust in public health that happened in part because a lot of — frankly, even on this network and on other networks — there was a particular single point of view put across during the COVID pandemic that led to things that really did cause harm to people,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The school closures are probably the number one thing that the —&#8221;
Brennan interrupted, attempting to redirect the conversation: &#8220;This is not a productive line of claims. We covered COVID in depth on this program like no other Sunday show did.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m not blaming you specifically,&#8221; Bhattacharya replied. &#8220;What I&#8217;m saying is that you want to talk about misinformation — the kinds of decisions and the public, sort of the face of public health during the pandemic led to many people losing trust in public health.&#8221;
&#8220;The Trump administration officials,&#8221; Brennan interjected.
&#8220;No, I mean like Biden. So Biden, for instance, censored me,&#8221; Bhattacharya said.
&#8220;The pandemic began under the Trump administration, and we put those officials on our air,&#8221; Brennan said.
&#8220;Just so we&#8217;re clear, the Biden administration censored me,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They sent out direct attacks on people who disagreed on whether the COVID vaccine stopped — &#8221;
Brennan cut in to note that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had called the COVID vaccine &#8220;the deadliest vaccine ever made.&#8221;
&#8220;That is misinformation, and we&#8217;re not being clear about that,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And I think that is dangerous. Wouldn&#8217;t you agree?&#8221;
&#8220;People lost their jobs, Margaret, because the Biden administration censored people and said, &#8216;Look, you can&#8217;t even talk about COVID vaccine harms,&#8221; Bhattacharya responded.
&#8220;We&#8217;re talking about a shooting,&#8221; Brennan said.
&#8220;Yeah, and I&#8217;m talking about why you have the kind of distrust that&#8217;s led to the kind of problems that we were talking about earlier in public health,&#8221; Bhattacharya replied. &#8220;That distrust was not caused by President Trump, it wasn&#8217;t caused by Bobby.&#8221;

Jay Bhattacharya

NIH Director Reveals What Got Him ‘Censored’ By Biden Admin During COVID

NIH Director Stops Margaret Brennan Cold: 'The Biden Administration Censored Me'

CBS News

Margaret Brennan

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) bid a sad farewell to his longtime vacuum cleaner on Saturday, and even The New York Times took a moment to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/08/us/politics/beth-vacuum-chuck-grassley-iowa.html">eulogize</a> the legendary piece of machinery.
Grassley shared the sad news in a pair of posts on X — including a photo of his beloved &#8220;Beth&#8221; that showed damage to the cord from electrical sparks.
&#8220;U willl see Beth no more. See black that’s from electrical sparks. It’s not safe to use anymore. GOOD BYE BETH. U hv been a real workhorse. Ur namesake still is hard worker. I will miss u,&#8221; the senator wrote.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It’s a sad day at Grassley household…. For my 34 years and 15 yrs before that at my mother in law’s home Beth has worked dependably….
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) <a href="https://x.com/ChuckGrassley/status/2086183580594491507?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2026</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;It’s a sad day at Grassley household … For my 34 years and 15 yrs before that at my mother in law’s home Beth has worked dependably …&#8221; he added.
The New York Times took note of the occasion, publishing a brief tongue-in-cheek obituary for &#8220;Beth&#8221; on Saturday.
&#8220;Beth, a trusty tan Hoover vacuum cleaner with a burgundy cloth dust bag that for years tended to the floors of the Iowa farmhouse of Senator Chuck Grassley, earning admirers in both parties, has died. She was believed to be 49,&#8221; the obituary began — and then proceeded to document Beth&#8217;s history as portrayed by Grassley on social media.
In 2018, as others in the household prepared food for Thanksgiving, Grassley shared a photo of Beth and said that he&#8217;d be doing his part to get ready for guests as well: &#8220;Mrs G and daughter Wendy hv started big job of preparing meal for30 at farm Thxgiving. So my housework contribution begins. This is my machine (Beth).&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Mrs G and daughter Wendy hv started big job of preparing meal for30 at farm Thxgiving. So my housework contribution begins. This is my machine (Beth😄) <a href="https://t.co/DYJCkdrqzk">pic.twitter.com/DYJCkdrqzk</a>
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) <a href="https://x.com/ChuckGrassley/status/1064964569804783618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Beth made follow-up appearances in later social media posts, and even found a &#8220;fan&#8221; in Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV).
The Times also noted that Beth, at the time of her &#8220;passing,&#8221; was older than several lawmakers currently serving in the U.S. Senate — a group that includes Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Jon Ossoff (D-GA) — and had long outpaced the average eight-year lifespan of a Hoover upright vacuum.

Chuck Grassley

Chuck Grassley’s Vacuum Died, And Even The New York Times Took Notice

The New York Times

The United States military is reportedly close to a breakthrough in the development of high-energy laser weapons, opening the doors to a future battlefield where targets are destroyed at the speed of light.
Laser weapons would give the United States an obvious advantage with regard to defensive capabilities, especially because they would allow operators to target incoming enemy drones and missiles for almost immediate destruction. In addition, they would not be forced to deploy missile interceptors — such as the Patriot (MIM-104) or the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) — at a much higher cost.
The U.S. Army is close to awarding a contract for a laser weapons system: Enduring High Energy Laser (E-HEL), according to a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/inside-americas-laser-revolution-military-nears-big-battlefield-breakthrough">report</a> from Fox News.
Army acquisition executive Lt. Gen. Frank Lozano said that the service was negotiating a contract with AeroVironment for the E-HEL, saying that it had been tested recently at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, where it had shown &#8220;a lot of recent promise and capability.&#8221;
The initial goal is to implement E-HEL in a defensive posture so that the United States is not forced to put millions of defense dollars into traditional kinetic weapons that will be used to shoot down relatively cheap enemy drones — a move Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OLi34jNSBHk">likened to</a> &#8220;throwing Ferraris at frisbees.&#8221;
Lasers, in contrast, may only cost a few dollars each time they are fired — and they require no additional ammunition, only maintenance — meaning that the operational costs are almost nothing once the system has been installed.
The U.S. military has attempted to add lasers to its arsenal several times in the past, from a 747-mounted &#8220;ray gun&#8221; to a Humvee-mounted laser designed to target roadside bombs — but as WIRED <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/landmark-deal-would-officially-add-laser-weapons-to-us-army-arsenal/">reported</a>, none of those attempts were able to deliver on the promise of low-cost effectiveness.
The Army is not alone in its efforts to develop and implement laser-based weaponry. The U.S. Air Force has already implemented a compact laser weapon system as a defense against enemy drones, and the U.S. Navy has been slowly integrating HELIOS (high-energy laser with integrated optical-dazzler and surveillance) after years of testing.
Outside the United States, China has also put considerable time and money into laser-based counter-drone weapons and other laser weapon systems.
And in the United Kingdom, the <a href="https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news/2025/november/20/20251120-dragonfire-trials">Royal Navy</a> has already inked a £316 million (over $426 million) deal to develop a laser weapon after successful trials shooting down high-velocity drones. Until now, the Royal Navy has relied on a combination of kinetic weapons — including Sea Viper missiles and other traditional weapons — and the Phalanx system to defend against aerial attacks.

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Virginia Kruta