New aircraft carrier heads toward Mideast after reports of issues on long-deployed USS Lincoln<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington has begun heading toward the Middle East as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln.<\/p>\n
The Lincoln has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran, and its deployment has included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days. Several Democratic lawmakers are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the carrier, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said were \u201ccompletely misrepresented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Extended deployments of carriers during the Iran conflict have raised concerns about the impact on service members who are away from home for long periods as well as the increasing strain on the ship and its equipment. While renewed hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have calmed in recent weeks, the Navy has reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war.<\/p>\n
Hegseth told reporters that the U.S. can maintain the blockade \u201cindefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n
The USS George Washington left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week, a Navy statement said. The carrier, along with a cruiser and a destroyer, have since been spotted crossing the Singapore Strait.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty on Friday to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, admitting matter-of-factly that he trailed the executive to an investor conference and gunned him down on a New York City street in 2024. <\/p>\n
Mangione, 28, said he made a gun with the aid of a 3D printer, traveled to New York and used a ruse \u2014 posing as an investor at a multibillion-dollar firm \u2014 to contact the company for details on the event.<\/p>\n
“On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,\u201d Mangione told the Manhattan federal court, which he entered shackled at the feet but not handcuffed in his beige jail uniform. <\/p>\n
Listening in the audience, Thompson’s wife, Paulette, took several deep breaths and repeatedly wiped tears from her eyes. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors plan to seek a life prison term at Mangione’s sentencing, set for Dec. 18. When U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett asked whether he understood that he could spend the rest of his life behind bars, Mangione answered neutrally: \u201cYes.\u201d <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Trump asks Supreme Court to let White House ballroom construction continue during appeal<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s administration on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the White House to continue construction on its $400 million ballroom project while it appeals a lower court\u2019s order to halt the work.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s solicitor general petitioned the high court to suspend last week\u2019s decision by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Chief Justice John Roberts set a deadline of Tuesday for a response by plaintiffs challenging the ballroom project.<\/p>\n
The divided appeals court panel ruled last week Trump must stop the White House ballroom\u2019s construction because Congress has not approved the project. The panel\u2019s majority said Trump doesn\u2019t have the unilateral authority to build a 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom where the White House\u2019s East Wing stood before he ordered its demolition last fall.<\/p>\n
The lower court suspended its own ruling for two weeks to give Trump’s Republican administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to rule on its stay petition before the appeals court panel\u2019s decision takes effect on Aug. 21.<\/p>\n
“This case involves an extraordinary and unlawful injunction that will halt the ongoing construction of the integrated military complex, including a totally secure ballroom space, at the East Wing of the White House, which is vitally required by national security,\u201d Sauer wrote.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Suspect arrested in World War II Memorial vandalism in Washington<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A person has been arrested in connection with vandalism at The World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced Friday.<\/p>\n
Pirro announced on X that her office was filing two felony charges against Melissa L. Farris. Pirro said the felony charges are \u201cDepredation Against Property of the United States and Destruction of Veterans\u2019 Memorials.\u201d The offenses carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the words \u201cClean hands dirty $\u201d were found painted on the monument and bubbles filled a fountain.<\/p>\n
\u201cVandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom. Those Americans include my father and grandfather,\u201d Pirro wrote. <\/p>\n
A woman identified on her Facebook page as Melissa Lovewell posted a video Thursday in which she is seen taking cans of spray paint from her bag and then painting the monument. <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Trump focuses on violent crime reduction as he boosts GOP candidates at New York police academy<\/p>\n
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump highlighted 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.<\/p>\n
Trump was visiting the Nassau County police academy in suburban Long Island, where he was expected to promote new FBI crime statistics being released Friday showing a decrease in violent crime for 2025. But despite the setting and an array of uniformed local police officers behind him on stage, the event was overwhelmingly a political one, with Trump lashing Democrats and promoting his record and his party’s candidates.<\/p>\n
Trump’s visit aimed at boosting Republicans 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.<\/p>\n
Trump briefly touched on the new crime statistics, but before long he was returning to familiar attacking lines, calling his opponents \u201cRadical left Democrats\u201d and his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, \u201cSleepy Joe.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call them Dumb-ocrats now because their policies are so dumb. Fighting to defund the police. Does that play well in this room?\u201d Trump said at one point, turning around to look at the officers behind him. <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
With US-Iran talks stalled, diplomatic efforts expand to unlikely European players<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Faced with an increasingly bellicose Iran as talks to end the war have stalled, the Trump administration appears to be reaching out to a broader swath of countries that might be able to help pressure Tehran or ease its hardline position where traditional mediators have not succeeded so far.<\/p>\n
While discussions between Iran and Oman, as well as between Iran and Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar, persist at an uneven and unpredictable pace, the U.S. administration quietly has expanded its outreach to include perhaps unlikely interlocutors in Europe.<\/p>\n
Just this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met in person in Washington with the foreign minister of Austria on Tuesday and held a call with the foreign minister of Greece on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Those interactions were not notable beyond the normal course of relations between the U.S. and two close European allies. The official State Department readouts of the discussions were bland and vague and did not mention Iran by name as a topic of conversation.<\/p>\n
But it then emerged that both foreign ministers \u2014 almost immediately after their talks with Rubio \u2014 spoke Thursday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Trump says USS Lincoln’s record time at sea during Iran operations ‘not nearly long enough’<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the toll on American sailors enduring nearly nine months at sea on the USS Abraham Lincoln as concerns escalated about mental health and supply issues aboard the aircraft carrier supporting U.S. operations against Iran.<\/p>\n
In a brief exchange with reporters before flying to New York for an event to highlight falling violent crime rates across the U.S., Trump refuted that family members have raised concerns about the deployment\u2019s length and even said that the deployment \u2014 which includes a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days \u2014 is \u201cnot nearly long enough.\u201d <\/p>\n
“That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it\u2019s being replaced with another very similar ship,\u201d Trump said when asked about the lengthy deployment. The acting navy secretary, Hung Cao, said the Lincoln \u201cwill return home soon\u201d in a social media post on Friday.<\/p>\n
Trump strode into office for a second term vowing to avoid lengthy and expensive military entanglements. And after launching the Iran war, alongside Israel, Trump and his advisers said the conflict would last a matter of weeks. The war is now more than five months old.<\/p>\n
But on Friday, during his crime address in Garden City, New York, he acknowledged that he’s used the U.S. military \u201ca little bit more than I wanted to,” while asserting anew that the U.S. operation against Iran is going well. He even said, seemingly in jest, that \u201cpretty soon I\u2019ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
2 planes with the same flight number avoid possible disaster thanks to quick-thinking controller<\/p>\n
A potential disaster was averted Friday when a Phoenix air traffic controller recognized two American Airlines jets mistakenly were flying the same flight number and acted quickly to avoid confusion and keep them a safe distance apart.<\/p>\n
Audio of the incident shortly after midnight Friday shows how he found a solution to ensure the planes that were both called American 2482 maintained proper separation as one plane arrived from Chicago shortly after the other had taken off in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been working air traffic for 25 years. I\u2019ve never seen two aircraft pretty much merge with the same call sign. That\u2019s pretty incredible,\u201d the controller said after the departing plane had safely cleared the area. <\/p>\n
If both pilots thought the controller was telling them to fly at the same altitude as they headed toward each other, they might have collided, so it was crucial they knew which plane he was directing. <\/p>\n
The audio posted by ATC.com shows how the controller quickly started referring to \u201cAmerican 2482 on the arrival\u201d and \u201cAmerican 2482 on the departure\u201d to keep the two planes straight.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
2 UAE tankers attacked while transiting Strait of Hormuz, and other news from the Middle East<\/p>\n
The United Arab Emirates blamed Iran for firing drones at two tankers operated by a state-owned oil company as they sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, saying Friday that the attacks were acts of piracy. <\/p>\n
The attacks caused no casualties but underlined the dangers faced by vessels moving cargo through the critical waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open oceans, as Iran keeps a firm grip on the passage. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.<\/p>\n
Two tankers owned by Abu Dhabi\u2019s state-owned oil and gas company ADNOC were attacked Thursday evening while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the company said. It added that the attack caused no injuries and that \u201cthe situation has been brought under control.\u201d<\/p>\n
The British military\u2019s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said two vessels were reported to have suffered minor damage when attacked by drones while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. It did not identify them as the ADNOC ships, but it appeared to be the same incident. <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Exclusive: US military base schools put new emphasis on Western civilization and Christianity<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Department of Defense is introducing a course centered on Western civilization and Christianity this fall in the schools it operates for military families, part of an effort by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to redirect the education system toward patriotic values and classical learning. <\/p>\n
The Department of Defense Education Activity operates about 160 schools across 11 countries and educates roughly 70,000 students who are children of active-duty military or civilian service members. Conservatives have eyed the schools \u2014 which, unlike most public schools, are run by the federal government \u2014 as a testing ground for reshaping education.<\/p>\n
The Western civilization course planned for this fall will use a textbook published by Encounter Books, a conservative publishing house. Titled “The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume I: The Ancient World and Christendom,” it includes suggested lesson plans created in partnership with Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan that has also developed influential materials for K-12 schools.<\/p>\n
Historians and educators who reviewed excerpts of the text told The Associated Press it depicts points throughout history in misleading ways, representing Western civilization and Christianity as one and the same and casting Islam as a threat to both. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to wonder a bit whether Western civilization is a Trojan horse for classical Christian education,\u201d said Phil Gorski, a historical sociology professor at Yale University. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New aircraft carrier heads toward Mideast after reports of issues on long-deployed USS Lincoln WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington has begun heading toward the Middle East as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln has been supporting the U.S. war […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"guid":"4b562218-ea4c-4709-8a0a-15b26ec45895","source":"The Associated Press","byline":"","published":"2026-08-13 21:05:21","updated":"2026-08-14 20:05:35","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1303,1304],"tags":[],"region":[1301],"class_list":["post-6945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","category-world","region-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/6945\/ap-news-in-brief-at-1104-pm-edt-408\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT","url":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/6945\/ap-news-in-brief-at-1104-pm-edt-408\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/6945\/ap-news-in-brief-at-1104-pm-edt-408\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"International","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Associated Press"}],"creator":["The Associated Press"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"iNwheels","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-08-14T04:05:21Z","datePublished":"2026-08-14T04:05:21Z","dateModified":"2026-08-15T03:15:09Z"},"rendered":"