The USS Abraham Lincoln has been at sea for over 260 days, marking a record deployment for a modern aircraft carrier. There have also been allegations of grim conditions aboard the 5,600-person vessel. Things on the ship reportedly got so bad that multiple sailors have attempted to jump overboard. But the Defense Department is denying these reports, even as it moves to replace the ship.

What are conditions like?
Widespread reports describe “deteriorating living conditions and worsening mental health,” said CNN. They indicate a dearth of basic supplies and food on the ship, which has been deployed since November 2025, starting on a path for the South China Sea before being rerouted to the Middle East at the outbreak of the Iran war. 

The USS Abraham Lincoln has seen “water contamination, plumbing issues, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages en route to the ship to be lost in transit for months,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in a letter. And these issues, particularly those regarding mental health, are corroborated by family members of the ship’s sailors, who met with officials in a “combative face-to-face confrontation” during which they “expressed concerns directly to Navy leaders about the well-being and safety of their loved ones,” said MS NOW. At least two sailors tried to jump overboard in suicide attempts, according to military news outlets the Military Times and Stars and Stripes.

What’s the Pentagon doing?
The Pentagon has denied all accusations of poor conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln. Accounts of problems are “completely misrepresented,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reporters. And the White House is standing behind the Pentagon’s assessment. 

The military plans to “replace the USS Abraham Lincoln with the USS George Washington as part of a scheduled Middle East deployment,” said The Wall Street Journal. However, President Donald Trump believes the replacement is unnecessary. It was “not nearly long enough,” he said to reporters of the ship’s stationing.

Long-range Ukrainian drones have continued to hit Wildberries warehouses across Russia since last month, as Ukraine claims the e-commerce giant is aiding the Russian war effort by allowing its logistics hubs to be part of the Kremlin’s military supply chain. But the retailer known as Russia’s Amazon denies all claims.

What did the commentators say?
Wildberries is also an “obvious target” because it’s a “linchpin of Russia’s consumer market,” said Nataliya Vasilyeva at The New York Times. Russia’s most popular marketplace platform is used every month by 79 million people — more than half of the country’s population — and can access even the “most remote corners of the country.”

In a fractured nation whose vast size poses significant business challenges, Wildberries’ 95,000 pick-up points “represent a sense of economic normalcy” for both retailers and consumers, which the Kremlin has been “eager to preserve” amid sanctions and economic pressure from the war, said Vasilyeva. Since the outbreak of the conflict, Wildberries has been championed as a “symbol of Russian ingenuity and resilience despite Western sanctions,” said The Wall Street Journal.

Ukraine insists the platform is a “legitimate” target because of its involvement in Russia’s “wartime logistics,” said The Independent. But the overwhelming motivation is financial. Alongside its smaller competitor Ozon and other rivals, Wildberries accounts for about 8.5% of Russia’s GDP and supports about 4 million jobs, “more than 5% of Russia’s workforce.”

What next?
This latest Kyiv tactic is making the “economic costs of the war harder for ordinary Russians to ignore,” said Yerzhan Tokbolat at The Conversation. The significance of the Wildberries strikes may not just be the destruction of warehouses but also their effect on the “millions of Russians whose incomes” and shopping habits “depend on them.”

Support for Putin will not “automatically weaken,” but the “greater political risk is cumulative,” said Tokbolat. Along with the current fuel shortages and price increases, the strikes will make it harder to maintain the impression that the war can “continue without significantly changing everyday life in Russia.”

A Welsh corgi competes in the fifth annual Corgi Race in Vilnius, Lithuania. A total of 150 small dogs battled for best costume, “smartest nose” and “loudest bark,” said The Associated Press. Participants hailed from nine countries including Britain, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine and the U.S.
Mindaugas Kulbis / AP Photo

What we know about Italian food in the U.S. is a mere snapshot of the country’s grand diversity. These cookbooks unveil that scope, expanding the mind and guiding the hands in the myriad delicious ways Italian cooking exists.

‘Pasta e Verdure: 140 Vegetable Sauces’ 
Jack Bishop’s book is like an infinity mirror, with a collection of more than 100 sauces organized alphabetically by vegetable base and with flavors and variations that go on and on. The “simple recipes” combine “common ingredients into gourmet vegetarian meals,” including asparagus with mushrooms and shallots, leeks with white wine and parmesan, spinach with melting gorgonzola, said Midland Daily News. ($27, ThriftBooks)

‘The Talisman of Happiness’ 
Ada Boni published this compilation of more than 1,500 recipes in 1929. She’s the “most important forgotten culinary icon in Italian cooking history,” said the book’s publisher to NPR.

As of 2025, it’s finally available in English. “Regional home cooking was essential to maintaining Italy’s national culture, and the book evolved along with the cuisine,” said The New York Times. ($60, Voracious)

‘La Terra Fortunata’ 
In the U.S., we know well the red-sauce extravagances of southern Italian cooking. But a culinary blind spot for most Americans is the cooking of the far north.

Fred Plotkin’s book captures the food and wine culture of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy’s northeasternmost region. It’s a locale where gnocchi are stuffed with plums, and penne with cinnamon and ricotta sauce turns the “palate upside down,” said the Times. ($35, ThriftBooks)