Baseline

The US is sending a replacement aircraft carrier to the Middle East following accounts of poor conditions, low morale and even attempted suicide aboard the one there. The disturbing reports come from the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed for eight months — and not had a port call in over six. The carrier is supporting the US war and blockade on Iran. The Pentagon is now sending the USS George Washington to relieve the Lincoln, reassigning it from the Pacific — and leaving a temporary void in that theater.

▶ More at  The Wall Street Journal 

▶ More on ship conditions at  Military Times 

Iran struck two Emirati ships in an apparent attack on the shuttle trade in the Hormuz Strait. The strikes on vessels belonging to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company come less than a week after another attack on one of its ships. ADNOC has reportedly taken a leading position in the shuttle trade — moving oil out of the Persian Gulf surreptitiously and transferring it to other ships in the Gulf of Oman. The operations are thought to be moving upwards of 5 million barrels of oil per day to world markets. ADNOC has gone on a ship-buying spree since the war began, and has begun moving some Iraqi crude as well.

▶ More on the attacks at  Reuters 

▶ More on the shuttle trade at  Bloomberg 

▶ More on ADNOC at  Reuters 

Settler violence against Palestinians has prompted a rare rebuke from the US ambassador to Israel. Mike Huckabee denounced a “horrific act of terror” after settlers beseiged and threatened the homes of Palestinians and Palestinian-Americans in the northern West Bank. The settlers were evicted by the Israeli military, but later returned. Attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank have spiked since the Gaza war; Israeli human rights group B'Tselem reports that more minors were killed in 2025 than in any year since 1967, the year Israel first occupied the territory.

▶ More at  The New York Times 

▶ More on attacks against Palestinians at  B'Tselem