TV News LIES

Thirty US universities could lose federal funding unless they review and cut foreign academic partnerships the Pentagon considers a national security risk within the next two weeks, under a Pentagon directive aimed largely at ties to Chinese institutions.

Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown and Cornell are among the institutions ordered to conduct and report the reviews – and end partnerships deemed problematic – by 31 August, according to a US official who provided the full list to the Guardian.

“The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security,” Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, said in a news release from Monday.

The Pentagon said the reviews are intended to protect taxpayer-funded research from unauthorized technology transfers, intellectual-property theft and exploitation by foreign adversaries.

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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 beMore...en 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.

That loss of power meant sailors were without galley services, toilets and air conditioning, Commander Matthew Comer told USNI News in a statement. Another vessel, USS Robert Smalls, the cruiser attached to the strike group, had to help provide meals for the crew.

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President Donald Trump denied that family members of sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln ‒ now being replaced in the Middle East ‒ have concerns about the ship after reports of suicide attempts and declining moral amid extended deployment.

"Well, no, that ship is moving. No, they're not," Trump said on Aug. 14 in a response to a reporter who began a question by stating families are concerned about the conditions on the USS Lincoln.

Asked whether the deployment of the ship's sailors has gone too long amid the war in Iran, Trump responded: "No, not nearly long enough."

Trump's remarks came after two military-focused outlets, the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, this week reported on suicide attempts aboard the ship, exhaustion among the crew of 5,000 sailors and sharply declining morale.

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Military families and Congress members are sounding the alarm about an intensifying mental health crisis onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as its 5,000 sailors and marines endure a record-breaking deployment at sea tied to the war with Iran.

Two leading specialist military papers, the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, are reporting that there have been multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard as poor conditions and mental stresses on the Lincoln reach the breaking point. The crew is in its ninth month at sea, and has spent 250 days consecutively without making land – a record for an aircraft carrier in modern times.

Worried families vented their anxieties about loved ones onboard the Lincoln at an emotional town hall meeting with navy leaders in San Diego last Thursday, Stars and Stripes reported. One spouse among the 200 or so family members said that her husband had texted her that day saying “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow”.

The families’ worries were expressed directly to navy leadership, represented at the town hall by the acting navy secretary, Hung Cao, and other top officials.

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Two soldiers were killed on Aug. 12 when a U.S. Army helicopter crashed in a field in central Texas, sparking a large grass fire and prompting evacuations, authorities said.

Authorities received 911 calls at about 1:34 p.m. local time reporting a helicopter crash in an area south of Salado, a community about 30 miles southeast of Fort Hood, the Bell County Sheriff's Office said. Responding deputies found the wreckage of a helicopter and a grass fire that was "out of control," according to Cliff Coleman, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.

The two soldiers aboard the helicopter were pronounced dead at 2:30 p.m. local time, Coleman said. Officials are withholding the soldiers' names until their families have been notified.

"It crashed into a field, and you could tell it was a violent crash," Coleman said during a news conference, adding that the helicopter did not strike any homes or other structures, and no other injuries were reported.

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The Pentagon revoked former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s eligibility for access to classified information, accusing him of “unauthorized disclosure of classified information regarding Air Force One’s capabilities” to a news outlet, it announced Friday evening.

Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said the Defense Department (DOD) also yanked Kendall’s “ability to hold any sensitive position,” he wrote in an X post.

“Safeguarding classified information is a non-negotiable duty,” Parnell added. “Those who violate that trust forfeit the privilege of access and any role requiring it.” 

Kendall did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment. 

Kendall, a trained lawyer and engineer, served as the Air Force secretary from 2021 to 2025 during the Biden administration and spent decades in national security roles prior. He is currently a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American progress.

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