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USS George Washington reportedly en route to replace USS Abraham Lincoln after accounts of mental health crises and food shortages
The USS George Washington is en route to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, according to reports. This comes after accounts about mental health crises onboard the Lincoln, including attempts from service members to jump overboard and chronic food shortages.
The vessel has been on a record-breaking deployment for more than 200 days, after it was redirected to assist with the military operation in Iran.
Democrats have been demanding answers from the Pentagon in recent days to glean the extent of the issues on board and what is being done to address them. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the reports are “completely misrepresented”.
In response, Democratic lawmakers have pushed back. Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona said that he is in communication with the wife of a service member who has forwarded her husband’s text messages about the conditions on board. “Stop lying and fix the problem,” Gallego wrote on social media, in response to Hegseth’s recent comments.
Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat and navy veteran, told MS NOW on Thursday that he spoke with a woman who is concerned about her grandson, who works as an electrician on board the USS Abraham Lincoln. “He’s lost 20 to 25 pounds and is struggling with depression. And so-called leaders like Pete Hegseth aren’t doing a thing about it,” Kelly said, while repeating calls for an investigation.
Key events
Trump will be in Washington for closed-press meetings until he heads to New York, to deliver his remarks in Garden City at 3pm ET. We’ll bring you the latest as that gets under way.
The United States wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly condemn a siege imposed by Jewish settlers in a Palestinian village, US and Israeli officials said on Friday, as settlers pressured residents by pitching a new tent before Israeli soldiers arrived and it was taken down.
Settlers have been besieging homes in Qusra in the occupied West Bank for almost a week, trapping Palestinians in an area where rights groups say settlers are mounting a concerted effort to seize more land, further eating into territory where Palestinians aim to establish a state.
The siege has drawn public US criticism: the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee – a strong supporter of Jewish settlement in the West Bank – on Thursday condemned settlers besieging a Palestinian home as “Israeli terrorists”.
A US official and an Israeli official said on Friday White House officials are pressing Netanyahu to publicly condemn the siege.
This week’s Politics Weekly America looks at Trump’s plane ruse. The President departed on a secret military flight from Turkey to Britain last month, prompted by an Iranian assassination threat. Almost everyone believed he was on Air Force One, turns out he wasn’t.
You can hear all about the elaborate scheme to protect the President here.
US firms that kept DEI policies despite ‘go woke, go broke’ threats thrived
Gaya Gupta
Conservative backlash was supposed to put an end to the diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) movement as companies were warned “go woke, go broke”.
In January 2025, Donald Trump delivered a death knell, ending DEI within the federal government with executive orders and threatening to target companies that still supported it. Companies including Google, Goldman Sachs, McDonald’s and Walmart that had embraced DEI years earlier fell into line and announced an end to their policies.
But new research published Friday and shared exclusively with the Guardian found that companies that resisted the pressure and kept their DEI practices, including Costco, Apple and Delta Air Lines, performed just as well as their competitors who pulled back.
You can read the full story here.
American special operations forces are ready to step up warfighting-readiness exercises with counterparts in the Philippines and other countries in Asia to further strengthen a security alliance and help deter a major conflict in the region, a US military official said Thursday.
Admiral Frank Bradley, commander of the US Special Operations Command, is in the Philippines after a trip to South Korea. He will then head to Japan for talks with military officials.
He is the latest American military top brass to visit key Asian allies in recent weeks to reassure them of Washington’s commitment to the region given the US preoccupation with the war in Iran .
Bradley’s command, which has about 80,000 personnel and is based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, undertakes the US military’s most sensitive and dangerous covert operations. The majority of his forces are deployed in more than 80 countries worldwide, Bradley said.
Russia believes the United States is deeply involved in Ukrainian attacks against it and has raised the issue with Washington, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in comments broadcast on Friday.
He said that the alleged US support included the supply of intelligence.
“We have submitted a series of questions to the State Department requesting comment, including on the matter of intelligence data and the fact that the U.S. is far more deeply involved in organizing and executing strikes deep within Russian territory against civilian targets. We await a response,” Lavrov told state TV.
No immediate comment was available from the US.
Donald Trump to give speech on crime and safety during New York visit
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
President Donald Trump plans to highlight his record on crime and safety during a visit to New York on Friday, pivoting to one of his strongest issues as he looks to boost Republicans in battleground races ahead of the November midterms.
Trump is visiting the Nassau County Police Academy in suburban Long Island, where the White House said he will release new FBI crime statistics showing a decrease in violent crime for 2025.
“President Trump promised to make America safe again and the data proves he has done just that,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said. “Unlike Defund-the-Police Democrats, President Trump will always stand with our law enforcement officers and deliver safer American neighborhoods.”
Trump’s visit is aimed at boosting Republican candidates in closely contested races across his home state, but just how much his presence will help is in question as he faces lagging approval ratings and a deeply unpopular war in Iran with no end in sight.
Trump narrowly won Nassau County in 2024, flipping it for Republicans for the first time in more than two decades. It’s home to two Democratic House seats that Republicans now see as winnable this fall, and it’s home turf for Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman, the Trump-endorsed Republican challenging Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul.
In other developments:
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Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down a health insurance executive, is due in federal court on Friday for a hearing where he is expected to plead guilty to stalking or similar charges. There is more on the story here.
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The battle over the Kennedy Center’s future escalated Thursday as President Donald Trump’s allies on the board took new steps to commemorate him with physical changes to the iconic performing arts institution that could defy a federal court order.
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The Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington began heading toward the Middle East, according to reports. This comes as Democratic lawmakers have demanded answers of about mental health crises and supply issues aboard the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln.
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White House deputy national security adviser Andy Baker is leaving the Trump administration in the coming weeks, Axios reported on Friday. The White House did not respond to a request for comment outside business hours. The report has not been independently verified.
