Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
The Navy is working to strip a Black Pearl Harbor hero’s name from an aircraft carrier so it can slap Trump’s on instead. ICE let the Iranian government help pick which Iranians to deport, even while the U.S. was bombing Iran. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy used his new reality show to warn his teenage daughter that Harvard would corrupt her mind. And the Trump administration wants to drill for oil next to a thousand-year-old World Heritage site in New Mexico.
**Before we get to the news, a brief ask: **AlterNet America was launched as a direct response to MAGA billionaires buying up networks like CBS and newspapers like the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. We’re going all-in on the bet that reader-supported journalism can compete directly with the billionaires by being the one thing they can’t buy.
We’re incredibly grateful to all the free subscribers who have signed up to receive our newsletters in recent weeks. But if you’ve been thinking about making the leap to become a paying subscriber, this is the time when it matters the most. Please upgrade today.
The Navy has found a way to deny Doris Miller recognition for his service twice in the same century.
Navy leadership has decided that the future USS Doris Miller will not carry the World War II hero’s name once commissioned. The aircraft carrier, which *was *slated to be the first named for an African American, is instead being referred to by its hull number and has been dropped from internal documents.
Two sources familiar with the matter say there have been internal conversations about renaming the ship after Trump, which would also be unprecedented, as no aircraft carrier has ever been named for a sitting president.
Doris Miller was a mess attendant aboard the USS West Virginia during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Denied the right to train on weapons because of his race, he grabbed an unmanned anti-aircraft gun and fired back at Japanese planes, then dragged wounded sailors to safety.
He was awarded the Navy Cross, becoming the first Black service member to receive one. He was killed in action two years later when his ship was sunk by a torpedo.
The Navy announced the carrier would bear his name in January 2020 during Trump’s first term at the recommendation of retired Black admirals. Former Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said at the time that the nation’s most powerful warships should bear the names of sailors like Miller to highlight what makes the Navy great.
The U.S. and Iran finally found something they could agree on during the war: which Iranians to get rid of.
Hundreds of internal emails obtained by the National Iranian American Council and made public this week show that ICE worked directly with Iranian government officials to arrange the deportation of more than 100 Iranians on three flights in late 2025 and early 2026.
One ICE agent said he was asked by the Iranian Embassy to add certain names to the deportation manifest. Another described having an encounter with an embassy director who asked him to expedite the removals. These demands continued right up until takeoff time.
At least one person was not even supposed to be on the plane. One ICE official wrote that an Iranian not on the final list somehow got deported anyway, and another responded that they had no idea how that person got through.
Eleven Iranians in immigration detention testified in a separate lawsuit that they were forced to meet with Iranian government officials who knew intimate details about their asylum claims. The administration insists it did not share asylum records with Iran, which would be more reassuring if Iran didn’t already seem to have them.
Sponsored Kalshi Prediction: Who will be Trump’s next Press Secretary?
Every parent loses an argument to their teenager eventually, but most of them don’t put it on a government YouTube.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy debuted a six-episode reality series called Great American Road Trip on the Department of Transportation’s YouTube channel this week. The show, which follows his family’s travels through Arizona, Texas, Montana, and other states, was privately funded by companies that Duffy regulates.
In the second episode, titled “Boston: College Dreams and a Homecoming,” Duffy sits down with his teenage daughter Paloma, who expresses interest in attending Harvard. He tells her that the school supposedly takes good young girls and corrupts their minds, and that she won’t get a well-rounded education because institutions like Harvard are biased towards liberalism (also known as facts).
Paloma pointed out that she was raised in an extremely conservative family and attended a conservative high school, and that going to a liberal school would actually give her a more well-rounded education.
Duffy pushed back, telling her that Harvard is “so good at” pulling students away from conservative beliefs, making them “perverted and contorted.” But by the end of the episode, after meeting Harvard’s Catholic campus chaplain and attending a baseball game at Fenway Park, Duffy conceded that a smart, good girl could navigate the school just fine.
The episode aired around the same time a federal judge dismissed the Trump administration’s civil rights lawsuit against Harvard. Between that ruling and Duffy’s daughter, the administration is 0 for 2 against the university this week.
Chaco survived a thousand years of conquest, colonization, and desert weather, but the Bureau of Land Management might be what finally gets it.
The federal Bureau of Land Management has proposed eliminating a 10-mile buffer zone that protects Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico from industrial activity, including oil drilling and uranium mining. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to the remains of a civilization built by the Ancestral Pueblo people more than a thousand years ago.
Tribal leaders, environmental groups, and archaeologists have all warned that removing the buffer zone could cause irreparable damage. During a 12-day public comment period earlier this year, the government received close to 100,000 comments, with the vast majority opposing the change.
Chaco is one of 27 World Heritage sites in the United States, a list that includes Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Statue of Liberty. The only American site currently on UNESCO’s endangered list is Everglades National Park, but if the buffer zone comes down, Chaco could join it.
The administration also wants to build roads through Big Bend National Park in Texas, drawing rare bipartisan backlash. The last time both parties united this quickly on something, it was a pay raise.
There is a reason the stories above may not reach you through your television. Too many media outlets are being hollowed out from within by billionaire owners who want to censor journalism to curry favor with the administration. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. The LA Times is owned by a MAGA billionaire. But AlterNet America remains committed to calling it like it is.
This is all because we’re entirely funded by readers. We don’t have an owner to please, advertisers who get spooked when we show a spine, or an FCC license to maintain. But we’re behind on our fundraising numbers.
If just one in 20 people who read this become paying subscribers, we can fund our entire reporting budget. Will you be one of the five percent?
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tonight.
Aisha Wahab Wins Special Election, Becomes First Afghan American in Congress. California state Sen. Aisha Wahab has won a special election runoff for the House seat formerly held by Rep. Eric Swalwell, in the state’s 14th District. She defeated fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez, 53 percent to 47 percent. Wahab, the first Muslim to be elected to the California state Senate, bested about $4.8 million worth of spending from AIPAC and other pro-Israel super PACs that supported Hernandez. Wahab, a progressive, said she was campaigning to make healthcare and childcare more affordable, prevent companies from price gouging, and protect safety net programs. She will serve until the next Congress is sworn in at the beginning of 2027, and will run again for the full two-year term in November.
DNC Sues Trump Administration Over Records on Ballot Seizures. The DNC filed suit against the Trump administration for failing to comply with FOIA requests for documents regarding any plans to confiscate ballots in the upcoming midterm election. The DNC filed the original FOIA requests following the FBI’s seizure of archived ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, and nearly five months later has not received a single document. The DNC also previously filed suit over the administration’s refusal to provide documents regarding plans to send federal agents to polling places, resulting in a court order that forced the administration to produce thousands of pages of records.
River Otter Spotted in the Bronx for the First Time in 100 Years. The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo announced this week that a North American river otter has been documented along the Bronx River for the first time in approximately a century. Local scientist RJ Hawkins captured the otter on a motion-activated camera on June 23, 2026, while conducting long-term wildlife monitoring overseen by the zoo’s Education Department. River otters became extinct in the Bronx River generations ago when the waterway was polluted with industrial discharge and raw sewage, making it one of the most contaminated rivers in the U.S. The return of the otter is considered a sign that years of river cleanup, habitat rehabilitation, and grassroots organizing are having positive effects.
** California Becomes First State to Set Tire Efficiency Standards.** The California Energy Commission unanimously voted to approve the first tire efficiency standards for replacements anywhere in the country. Automakers typically equip new vehicles with low-rolling-resistance tires to enhance fuel economy, but replacement tires aren’t as efficient. That means drivers may be burning more gas or using more electricity without realizing it. Under the new rule, replacement tires sold in California would need to meet minimum efficiency levels and feature a leaf-rating system like the Energy Star label that helps shoppers make smarter choices. The state expects to save motorists around $1 billion a year in fuel expenses and cut carbon dioxide output by 2 million tons annually, the equivalent of taking about 400,000 cars off the road.
