A US guided-missile destroyer reportedly spent four days adrift and without power in the South China Sea in July, furthering concerns about strain being placed on deployed military members. The USS Benfold, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer which had been sailing with the George Washington carrier strike group, was reported to have been towed to Subic Bay in the Philippines, according to the US Naval Institute News, an independent military publication. The 10,000-ton destroyer lost power after what a spokesperson with the US seventh fleet called "an engineering casualty involving its generators", resulting in a loss of power.
By lunchtime at a northern Virginia high school, the hallway outside the cafeteria buzzed with students finishing homework, joking with friends and playing video games. Off to the side, Tech Sgt. Omar Herrera, an Air Force recruiter, had arranged his table with the standard fare of glossy brochures, foam model fighter jets and Air and Space Force-branded water bottles students could earn with a round of pushups. The scene was strikingly low-key, almost at odds with the life-altering decision many of the teenagers wandering past his table were weighing.
... Sending people to the moon ...
All states require certain vaccines for children entering public school, but more parents are claiming religious examption from vaccination. During the 2025-26 school year, 4.2% of kindergarteners, about 155,000 pupils, had at least one vaccine exemption, up from 3.6% the previous school year. The vast majority of those exemptions were labeled as "non-medical," meaning that parents or caregivers were opting out of the shots for personal or religious, rather than health, reasons. Medical exemptions remained stable at .2%.
The Kremlin intends on weakening the larger US population
The wooden crates moving across the Caspian Sea are carrying more than trade goods. Russia has been routing explosives, drone components and battlefield ammunition to Iran through the inland sea, in a transfer operation that Western officials say is rebuilding the military arsenal Tehran depleted fighting the United States and Israel this year. A European government document obtained by NBC News, confirmed by a Western official, describes shipments that include trinitrotoluene, the explosive compound known as TNT, alongside drone parts and ammunition bound for Iran.
President Trump last week returned a mail-in ballot ahead of Florida's primary election on Tuesday, Politico reported Monday, the second time he has done so amid his unfounded claims that mail-in voting contributes to election fraud. The outlet added that Trump requested his ballot in late July and it was returned Aug. 13, citing Palm Beach County voting records. Trump notably spoke out against mail-in voting during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the last year of his first term, when more voters turned to mail-in voting amid the crisis. His condemnation later led to longstanding false claims that he won the 2020 presidential election, and not his successor, former President Biden.
One by one, stalwarts of the Democrats' old guard are falling. Members of Congress who have won elections time and again, collectively spending almost a century in office, are suddenly being ousted by challengers less than half their age. Six of the seven House members to have lost a primary this year have been forced out by younger rivals, some of them young enough to be their children or grandchildren. A generational shift is under way.
Locals are preparing for the possibility of ICE at the polls and contested election results.
Shasta County Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis bleated that he will be hiring 2020 election denier Tina Peters as an Assistant Registrar of Voters next month with a possible salary ranging between $43,368 to $62,232 per annum.
Shasta County population: 182,155; 83% white, 13.4% Latino; this MAGA county allows concealed firearms in state government buildings.
Trump approval falls from 35% earlier this month, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows. 64% of Americans disapprove of Trump's White House performance, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows. 80% expect US involvement in Iran to continue for an extended period, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows.
Donald Trump has again threatened to bomb Oman if it "gets in the way" of his effort to end the US-Israel war on Iran, as the two-month window to negotiate peace with Iran expired on Monday with no end to the conflict in sight. The latest threats against Oman, which is not a party to the war, have illustrated how Trump's unpredictable and often outrageous approach to diplomacy has upset US partners and failed to achieve the breakthrough that he has promised to end the war. "If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the shit out of them," Trump told Fox News on Monday, the second time he has directed such a threat at Muscat, a longtime US strategic partner that has traditionally served as a key backchannel between Washington and Tehran. Read more
President Donald Trump says vandals are to blame for large swaths of dead grass on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial -- in the spot where he had a stage built and hosted crowds for his July 4 celebration. Trump made the accusation in a social media post on Sunday without saying why he believes it's the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. The Republican president posted a photo showing a once-grassy area by the World War II Memorial, now patchy and brown across much of the sprawling turf.
President Trump on Monday warned Omani officials against getting "in the way" of the U.S. during negotiations with their Iranian counterparts over reopening the Strait of Hormuz. "If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the s" out of them," he told Fox News's Trey Yingst. The journalist did not provide audio of the conversation.
Senator Jon Ossoff criticized President Donald Trump's relationship with his aide Natalie Harp during a rally on Sunday, accusing him of preferring to "travel with Natalie" than performing his job. The Democratic Senator was discussing the duration of U.S. Navy sailors' deployments on aircraft carriers this year when he launched a sharp attack against Trump. "While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings," Ossoff said. "He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn't want to do the job; he wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie to their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar."
Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir publicly advocated for killing "30 to 40" people in Gaza each night. Ben-Gvir -- who can't wait to see young Palestinian convicts executed in Israeli Death Forces (IDF) concentration camps -- criticized the recent drawdown of homicidal airstrikes in Gaza. "It's no secret, I disagree with the prime minister," the blood-thirsty minister brayed. "I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat -- here are people who are not worthy of life. They shouldn't live. They're not even people."
Itamar Ben-Gvir is obviously not a good human being
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) stated he has heard "absolutely nothing back" from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) after requesting updates on the senator's condition. Beshear says while he wishes McConnell "good health," the US senator should address the public directly: "His boss are the people of Kentucky."
Absolute all around government malfeasance in Kentucky
