Searchable News & Info From Reliable Online Sources.
- Air Force Base Hit by Flu Outbreak After Pete Hegseth Ends Vaccine Mandate
AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko A flu outbreak has swept through an Air Force basic training facility in Texas just two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ended the military’s longstanding requirement that service members receive annual flu vaccinations, according to a Thursday report from ABC News. Per the scoop, at least 159 recruits at Lackland Air Force Base, part of Joint Base San Antonio, have contracted influenza in recent weeks. Two recruits have been hospitalized, though sources familiar with the situation told the network the actual number of cases and hospitalizations could be higher. The Air Force confirmed the outbreak in a statement to ABC, describing it as a “localized influenza outbreak among trainees at Basic Military Training.” “Medical professionals and Public Health officials have implemented mitigation measures to isolate and treat symptomatic trainees to reduce further exposure and continue to monitor the situation,” the statement said. “Medical personnel are also monitoring trainees who were in close contact with sick members in case they become symptomatic.” It added that affected recruits are receiving treatment, including antiviral medication, and that they will return to training “once they are cleared by medical professionals.” The outbreak follows a policy change announced by Hegseth in April, making the flu vaccine voluntary for military personnel. The shot had previously been required across the armed forces. At the time, Hegseth characterized the mandate as “overly broad and not rational.” “Our new policy is simple: If you, an American warrior entrusted to defend this nation, believe that the flu vaccine is in your best interest, then you are free to take it; you should. But we will not force you,” he said at the time. ABC reported that flu vaccination rates among recruits at the San Antonio training base have dropped to roughly 40% since the mandate was lifted. Before the policy change, compliance was nearly universal.The post Air Force Base Hit by Flu Outbreak After Pete Hegseth Ends Vaccine Mandate first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.13 hours ago - ‘The Algae Seems To Be Winning’: Trump’s New Reflecting Pool Paint Is Peel...
A major algae bloom and peeling paint are already plaguing President Donald Trump’s new Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool just days after its completion, with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl writing via X on Thursday, “The algae seems to be winning.” According to The Washington Post, the algae bloom is the largest “at any recorded point in the month of June for at least five years.” It comes as the memorial just underwent a $14 million renovation, with Trump complaining in June that its water was “filthy dirty.” Alongside pictures of floating pieces of paint and National Park Service employees on clean-up duty, Karl wrote of their efforts, “So far, the algae seems to be winning. As for the American flag blue paint, it’s starting to peel from the bottom of the pool — a short-lived $14 million paint job.” National Park Service employees and contractors to trying hard to clean the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial. So far the algae seems to be winning. As for the American flag blue paint, it’s starting to peel from the bottom of the pool — a short-lived $14 million paint job. pic.twitter.com/32cGQqLXaQ — Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) June 18, 2026 Also on Thursday, MS NOW’s John Heilemann chimed in, describing a recent visit to the memorial. “I took my malaria pills before I went down there,” he told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace and Cornell Belcher of the pool’s swampy nature. “And went down like, you know, mosquito-netted. Fairly soon, there are gonna be, like, alligators and crocodiles and like, you know, hippopotamuses are gonna be breeding because that swamp situation is so bad.” He continued: And it’s such a great metaphor for the whole Trump administration because it’s like, having this crazy idée fixe where we’re gonna do this thing — number one. Number two — doing it really just because, “I got a pool guy! I wanna write him a contract for a few million dollars.” Dismissing any expert who said, you know, “The blue is gonna absorb more heat and there’s gonna be an environmental problem that’s gonna lead to this algae bloom.” He was told that. People were like, you know, “This is gonna be a problem.” He didn’t listen to them. Watch the full clip above via MS NOW.The post ‘The Algae Seems To Be Winning’: Trump’s New Reflecting Pool Paint Is Peeling Off first appeared… [TheTopNews] Read More.14 hours ago - UFC Fighter Who Called Michelle Obama a Man Posts ‘Apology’ That Seems to Be...
Alex Brandon/AP photo UFC fighter Josh Hokit posted on his Instagram account what appeared at first glance to be an apology for comments he made calling former First Lady Michelle Obama a man, but it seems like it might in fact be more trolling. The controversy arose from the moments just after Hokit won his match Sunday evening at the “UFC Freedom 250” event held on the White House South Lawn on the same day as President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. After the heavyweight fighter won via TKO, leaving his undefeated UFC career intact, he had a triumphant interview with podcaster Joe Rogan. “And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man! Am I right, America?” Hokit yelled as a grinning Rogan held the microphone and the crowd offered a mixture of cheers and boos. Hokit got a lot of swift and loud condemnation, including from UFC President Dana White, who emphasized he supported free speech, “but I hate that kind of nonsense,” and was “completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families.” Barstool’s Dave Portnoy blasted Hokit for being among the “idiots” and “lunatics” who give UFC a bad name, and called on Trump to denounce what he’d said — but thus far, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung just dodged the question when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper, only offering praise for Hokit’s prowess in the octagon. Fox News host Greg Gutfeld defended Hokit’s comments by downplaying it as the fighter just being a “troll,” and added that the right enjoyed it when the left was “upset.” On Thursday, Hokit shared an image he posted as a Story on his Instagram account. Such posts will usually expire after 24 hours, but a screenshot is below. Screenshot via Instagram. The image showed Hokit and Obama smiling at each other and a caption that said, “I spoke with former first lady Michelle Obama to apologize for my distasteful comments following my win. I have pledged $50,000 of my earnings to the Obama Foundation. I will be an active spokesman for Black Women in America.” The post originally came from the Show Me The Money podcast, an account that literally says “Don’t take us too seriously” in the bio. (The @showmethemoneypod username can be seen in the lower left corner of the above screenshot and the live version of the Story includes a link to the post. A Community Note on this… [TheTopNews] Read More.14 hours ago - ‘Firstclass Groveling’: Explosive Book Details Musk And Trump Mocking Bezos ...
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) Hugo Lowell, who covers the Trump White House for WIRED, published shocking new details from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s upcoming book on how tech titans Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos tried to suck up to Donald Trump, only to get “mocked” by the president and Elon Musk behind their backs. Swan and Haberman’s book titled “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” has already grabbed dozens of headlines as it detailed the Trump White House’s panic-driven crisis management meetings on how to deal with Trump’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Based on tapes of conversations from inside the White House Situation Room, Swan and Haberman pulled back the curtain on Vice President JD Vance’s attempts to distance the administration from reporting connecting the president to Epstein in the summer of 2025. Lowell’s latest details from the deeply reported book focus on Bezos and Zuckerberg’s attempt to “ingratiate themselves to Trump after the 2024 election.” “You would not believe the texts I got from these tech guys,” Trump reportedly told some of his allies about the tech titans, ahead of ribbing them. Lowell shared some of the details from his report on social media, writing: — Zuckerberg sent Trump a photo of a letter one of his grade-school kids wrote that looked forward to the “golden age of america” — Bezos denigrated The Washington Post to Trump and described the newspaper as one of his worst financial investments — Trump showed off texts from Zuckerberg and Bezos to other guests, including to Elon Musk, who mocked them as “Firstclass groveling” — Months after their dinner, Bezos tried to get a favor from Trump, telling him it was a risk for SpaceX to dominate govt space contracts — Bezos suggested Trump tell Deputy Defense Secy Feinberg to ensure “contractor diversity,” opening the door for Blue Origin to get contracts — But Trump ultimately screwed over Bezos after he reconciled with Musk, and instead expanded SpaceX’s access to US space launch sites Read Lowell’s full report here.The post ‘Firstclass Groveling’: Explosive Book Details Musk And Trump Mocking Bezos And Zuckerberg first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.15 hours ago - ‘They’re P*ssies!’ Megyn Kelly Calls Out Iran War Hawks Blaming Vance for ...Megyn Kelly called out Iran war hawks who are blaming Vice President JD Vance for the controversial memorandum of understanding instead of President Donald Trump. To close out the 52nd G7 Summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, Trump told reporters he signed the Iran deal at the Palace of Versailles in the presence of President and First Lady Macron. Kelly discussed the deal with After Party host Emily Jashinsky in Wednesday’s episode. Jashinsky played a clip from Trump’s press conference at the end of the summit, during which Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Trump if there’s “some element” to the deal process in which “you send the vice president, if it works out, great, you look like a genius for sending him. And if it doesn’t work out, it’s the vice president’s fault.” “I like that idea, sure,” Trump responded, garnering laughter from the audience. “What? This way, if it works out, I’m going to take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD. You better be careful, JD. He’s going to turn his plane around and get the hell out of here. Yeah, I like that idea.” Kelly offered her take on Trump’s commentary as she attacked critics who have been going after Vance for the deal: Of course Trump is joking. Trump knows that the buck stops with him, and everybody on earth knows that the buck stops with him. But it’s fine. To me, it’s actually been very amusing to watch the President’s critics try to lay this at the feet of JD Vance because, well, I’m just going to say it, I don’t normally use this word, but they’re p*ssies, sorry. That’s the problem here. If you have a problem with the deal, just say it outright. It’s like they won’t because they are afraid of looking inconsistent because they were so like, ‘Get ’em Trump, stick ’em, launch the war, do it, do it.’ And now they’re like, ‘Oh sh*t, we hate this,’ and so they don’t want to say that because they have been spending the last four months attacking people like me and others who are President Trump’s supporters but disagreed with him on this war. She challenged them to be willing to blame Trump outright if they disagree with the deal, instead of cowering behind criticism of Vance. “They’re so scared to be like, ‘This sucks, we hate it,’ because they don’t want to look… [TheTopNews] Read More.15 hours ago
- JD Vance Blasts Israel’s ‘Freakout’ On Iran Deal: ‘You Can’t Kill Your...Vice President JD Vance joined New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat on his Interesting Times podcast this week to discuss his upcoming book, “Communion,” but ended up speaking primarily about the Trump administration’s deal with Iran. Vance swiped at Israel during the conversation and said he didn’t understand the “freakout” in the Jewish state and warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “you can’t kill your way” out of conflict. “In the best case, do you think that this deal changes how Hezbollah works?” Douthat asked Vance at one point. “Oh, absolutely. I mean, there is this weird panic almost in the Israeli system that I’ve picked up on, where they assume that everything that is contemplated that is good for Iran will happen — but that will happen without the Iranians changing any behavior. And I just don’t know why anybody would think that’s true,” Vance replied, adding: That’s not how the deal is written. The United States has all the financial leverage. The president of the United States or the secretary of the Treasury has to release all these sanctions. Do they actually think we’re going to release sanctions on the Iranian system if they’re still funding a terrorist organization? The answer is: Of course not. So I find this whole freakout in Israel a little bit odd because I think that it comes from a place of mistrust, and I think that America has earned the trust of that region of the world. We’ve done a very good job by that particular country and that particular government, and I think that the idea that we’ve made a terrible deal is not supported by the facts, but just doesn’t make any sense if you consider the broad length of the relationship. After some more back and forth, Douthat asked, “So I’m just curious: Do you think there’s a misalignment between the U.S. and Israel?” “Do you think Israel has incentives not to want this deal to continue? And is there a vision for how you get to a point where Iranian support for Hezbollah isn’t sending rockets into Israel on the regular?” he added. “What I’d say here is: It’s clear that large segments of the Israeli political system and population are very sensitive about this deal. But I also think they’re picking up on some misinformation about the deal and running with it and sort of panicking… [TheTopNews] Read More.15 hours ago
The Searchable USWebDaily.com and TheTopNews NewsBank Helps You Be Better Informed, Faster! Spread The Word.
