Transcript of Poor Conditions on USS Lincoln, Economic Warfare on Iran, Ukraine's Drone Campaign New

Sailors aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier have been at sea for nearly 9 months.

Lawmakers want the Pentagon to investigate reports of food shortages, poor sanitation and lack of mental health care.

I'm Leila Fadel. That's Michelle Martin. And this is Up First from NPR News.

All-out war with Iran did not bring the regime to its knees, and negotiations are at an impasse. The administration now says it's gearing up for economic warfare.

We are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country.

What will it mean for ordinary Iranians already suffocating under high inflation?

Plus, Ukraine is using drones to challenge Russia's grip on Crimea. Can Ukraine win back territory it lost more than a decade ago? Stay with us for the day's news.

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Democratic lawmakers are calling for the Pentagon to investigate conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier have been at sea for more than 250 days and are reportedly dealing with poor living conditions leading to deteriorating mental health. And we want to warn you, this story mentions suicide.

Steve Walsh covers the military for WHRO and joins us from Norfolk, Virginia. Steve, what are you hearing?

Hey, Leila. So we know that the carrier's time at sea has set a record, that 250 consecutive days is longer than the time that deployments during the COVID era when ships were intentionally kept away from port. After leaving San Diego in November, USS Lincoln had one brief port visit. Since then, it has been positioned in the Middle East supporting the war effort in Iran. That is a grueling pace for a carrier with more than 5,000 sailors on board. Lawmakers are now demanding answers about the conditions on the Lincoln. MSNOW and others have been reporting that sailors have attempted to jump from the carrier, which NPR has not been able to independently confirm. Senator Richard Blumenthal and other Democrats are demanding that the Pentagon investigate shortages of food, toilets not working, and lack of mental health care on board the ship.

Has mental health been an issue for sailors on these carriers in the past?

Oh, it has. The Navy dramatically changed how it handled mental health after a rash of suicides in 2022 on board the USS Washington while it was in Newport News. Lawmakers want to know if the Navy is still following those policies. The Navy says that it has seen no increase in suicidal ideation or attempts aboard the ship and that mental health professionals are on hand, CENTCOM says one sailor was quickly rescued August 3rd after falling overboard.

Now, you broke the story of the carrier USS Ford, its lengthy deployment, and its chronic sanitation issues. How unusual is what we're seeing with the crew of the Lincoln?

Well, being out at sea takes a toll on sailors. Normally, they would come into port after a month or so to resupply and let sailors spend time off the ship. The war in Iran has made that impossible. Shortly after the war began in late February, Iran attacked the Navy's main hub in the region in Bahrain. This has meant the Navy has not been able to use its traditional supply hub in the region. Instead, they've had to scramble to find ways to keep ships stocked. I recently talked with the Admiral in charge of Navy Sealift Command. Rear Admiral Benjamin Nicholson was at a ceremony honoring the crews that supplied the Navy ships at the start of the war.

There's always been logistics hubs that have been relatively close by that we could call on to get the parts and get the food and get the fuel that we needed. In this conflict, those logistics hubs were not available to us, so we had to adapt our strategy of how we would resupply the fleet.

So what does this mean for the crew?

Mail deliveries and care packages arrive slowly. After a few weeks at sea, the first thing to run out are the freshies, which are things like fresh fruit and vegetables. Morale suffers. Most sailors live their lives below deck. They may not see the sun for weeks. The Associated Press is reporting that the Navy will move the carrier USS Washington into the region to replace USS Lincoln. Navy officials tell me that the Washington is still in the Pacific right now, but I do know that Navy planners have talked about the possibility of swapping the two carriers even before the latest round of damning public reports.

That's Steve Walsh of WHRO. Thank you, Steve.

Thanks, Leila.

If you or anyone you know is in crisis, text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. President Trump's military campaign against Iran has not gone the way he promised it would.

Iran's government survived weeks of all-out war, and it's still refusing to give up control of the Strait of Hormuz. The administration now says it's getting ready to wage economic warfare. Here's what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessin said in an interview with Newsmax Thursday: "We are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country." Iran's economy was in dire straits even before the war started, with ordinary Iranians bearing the brunt of that pain. Now they are bracing for that pain to deepen.

NPR's Adil Elshadji Has been speaking to Iranians in the city of Van, Turkey. It's a place many Iranians visit because of how close it is to the border with Iran. Hadeel, good morning.

Good morning.

So you've been talking to Iranians, spending time in Van. What are you hearing?

So the main thread of what I heard is that things are super expensive. While you can find goods in stores to shop and you can still fill up your tank with gas, many people aren't doing either. A 30-year-old woman who works in a beauty salon and who had been back in Iran just a week ago told me that the price of eggs was going up day by day. I was told a tray of 30 eggs is now about $5, double what it was a month ago. Cooking oil is about $3 for a 30-ounce bottle. That jumped about 30% in a month. Yesterday, a train from Tehran brought dozens of new visitors, and I met a woman at the station who's a personal trainer. She says she just can't afford many things now. Like travel, like buying clothes. Like, for example, I eat a lot of protein a day, She says life is still oppressive. Iranian authorities forced her to take down her personal training Instagram page after questioning her because they deemed it provocative. And both women told me that the atmosphere was tense in their cities. People were stressed, they were on edge because of the uncertainty.

Here's the beauty salon worker. People are constantly checking the news, she says. What has been targeted? What is happening to the price of the dollar?

What's it like being in Van for some of these Iranians?

So Van is dusty and crowded. People bump into each other on the sidewalks. You hear a lot of Persian on the streets. A lot of the store signs are in Persian also. Many Iranians come here for a respite from the war. They can shop, party, they can go to Lake Van. I met a 53-year-old commercial manager who came here to meet a friend. He described Van this way.

A pill, you know, you just have a pill and it's No more pain for just 2, 3, 4 days.

No more pain, he says. But the beauty salon worker I spoke to says the situation in Iran was becoming so desperate for people that she knew some women here who had been forced into prostitution.

How do Iranians feel about their government surviving?

There were some who struck a defiant tone. Here's a woman I met resting while taking a shopping trip. She says people are willing to put up with the war or even a if that's what it takes to bring the regime down. But she did say that as the U.S. puts more pressure on the Iranian government, it meant more pressure on the Iranian people. The personal trainer I talked to said there was a glimmer of hope, but now young people who see no future in Iran. Things have gotten worse and worse, she says, and now we have to emigrate. In fact, she said she was in Vaughan to take a personal training test to hope to immigrate to Australia. So, you know, Iranians are paying the price literally for the broken promises of this war. At the grocery store, surviving bombings, and now a more paranoid and repressive regime.

And Pierre Sadiq El Shalchi in Van, Turkey, on the border with Iran. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Russia had maintained an iron grip on Crimea since it seized the territory in its initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

But Ukraine is now waging a sustained drone campaign that's upending daily life on the peninsula. Russia and Ukraine are also attacking ships in the waters off Crimea.

For more, we're joined by NPR's Greg Myre in Kyiv. Good morning, Greg.

Hi, Leila.

So how serious are these Ukrainian attacks against Crimea?

Well, quite serious. Uh, early Thursday, Ukrainian drones knocked out electricity in Sevastopol, the biggest and most important city in Crimea. Now, power was restored after several hours, but these are now everyday events. Electricity and cell phone service is going out for days at a time. Water also gets is cut off. Fuel is scarce and has been rationed. Uh, people say shops are often closed. Now, after Russia captured Crimea 12 years ago, an estimated 1 million Russians—troops and civilians—poured into the peninsula. Many Ukrainians also fled the territory, and it has been securely in Russian hands. But the Ukrainians are now causing major disruptions, and the Russians have just not been able to stop them.

Now, Crimea is a place that resonates with both Russia and Ukraine. Can you just explain its significance?

Sure. Crimea's location and its climate have made it a prize that's been fought over for centuries by many different countries. The peninsula sits between two important bodies of water, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. And for Russia's military, Crimea is this warm-weather port to the south, so very critical there. And tourists are drawn to the mild weather and these picturesque views of the sea and the mountains. and normally it would be packed this time of year with families taking summer beach vacations, but the tourists have stayed away because of all this turmoil.

Now, these Ukrainian attacks are not just taking place in Crimea, but also in the waters off the territory. What impact is that having? Yes, quite an impact.

Crimea is a peninsula connected to the mainland, but only by a narrow strip of land, so it's almost like an island, and Russia needs to send many supplies for its troops and its civilians—food, fuel, military military gear. And Ukraine has also been pounding Russian ships and ferries. Ukraine hits them with its increasingly powerful drones from the air and drones at sea. And these include surface drones and underwater drones. Ukraine says it's hit more than 200 Russian ships in the past month. And this is also contributing to these widespread shortages. Some civilians appear to be leaving and returning to Russia, But we should note the Russian military is still entrenched in Crimea, though it's being hit very hard. And how is the Russian military responding? Yeah, the Navy, the Russian Navy, is striking international cargo ships that pick up Ukrainian corn and wheat and sunflower oil in the Ukrainian port of Odessa. We should stress Russia is attacking civilian cargo ships. These are ships from other countries, not from Ukraine, and these ships have no way of defending themselves. 10 sailors were killed in one attack, and this has really scared away almost all international ships.

And this is coming at harvest season, so Ukraine doesn't have any way to export by sea. Now, Ukraine has also struck some Russian grain facilities and ships. These two countries are both major grain growers, and if they can't export, this could really put pressure on global food prices.

That's NPR's Greg Myre. Thank you, Greg.

Sure thing, Leila.

That's Up First for Friday, August 14th. I'm Leila Faldun.

And I'm Michelle Martin. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Lindsay Totty, Arzu Rezvani, Andrew Sussman, and James Heider. It was produced by Ziyad Bunch and Milton Guevara. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynes. Our technical director is Eoin Faine, and our executive producer is Jay Shaler. Join us again on Monday.

This week on Consider This, stories about the Trump administration. Hear how a former Olympian was targeted by the Justice Department over damage to the Reflecting Pool. Plus, inside Trump's secret decoy flight out of Turkey that left press and Cabinet officials on Air Force One without him. Listen for those stories and more of the week's biggest news, this week on Consider This from NPR. For years, Black capitalism has been sold as Black excellence. One of its biggest proponents is Jay-Z.

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