The U.S. Navy welcomed its last littoral combat ship to active service Saturday, marking an end of a program beset by mechanical issues, ballooning costs and early retirements.The service commissioned the USS Cleveland during a ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio, the last of an LCS era that began on Nov. 8, 2008, with the introduction of the USS Freedom.“Today we celebrate the sailors who breathe life into this ship,” said acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, who spoke at the ceremony. “To the officers and crew of USS Cleveland, today is your day.”The Cleveland, which is the 16th and final Freedom-class littoral combat ship to join the fleet, is the fourth Navy vessel to be named after the Ohio city.The first in its lineage was a cruiser commissioned in 1903 that served in World War I, followed by a light cruiser that earned 13 battle stars during World War II and an Austin-class amphibious transport dock that participated in the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm between 1967 and 2011. The Cleveland will now travel to its new homeport at Naval Station Mayport, Florida.Littoral combat ships were designed to support asymmetrical combat operations, providing capabilities such as mine countermeasures, surface warfare and…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Democrats outnumbered Republicans more than 6-to-1 among commencement speakers at top U.S. colleges this year, according to a new report examining graduation ceremonies at elite universities across the country.The College Fix found that Democratic or Democratic-leaning speakers made up 86% of partisan commencement speakers at schools ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s top 100 universities.”The Fix reviewed public statements and donation records to determine the political leanings of speakers,” The College Fix reported Friday. “The numbers only include the speakers at either the main commencement ceremony, or if there are multiple events, the undergraduate ceremonies. Other speakers did not publicly indicate a political leaning and were counted as not applicable in the analysis.”GOP LAWMAKERS SEEK TO DEFUND HBCU AFTER IT CANCELED REPUBLICAN’S COMMENCEMENT SPEECH The six Republican or right-leaning commencement speakers that The College Fix identified include Arthur Brooks, former president of the American Enterprise Institute, who gave Vanderbilt University’s commencement address on May 7; Dario Gil, undersecretary for science at the Department of Energy under President Donald Trump, gave the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute commencement address on May 16; and former University of Texas quarterback and NFL player Colt McCoy gave The…

The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group on Saturday received the highest unit-level military decoration for extraordinary acts of heroism during its support of Operation Epic Fury, among other achievements.The strike group was honored with the Presidential Unit Citation on the same day the USS Gerald R. Ford returned to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, from a historic 11-month deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War.“The personnel of Carrier Strike Group Twelve distinguished themselves by outstanding warfighting prosecution while engaged in sustained combat operations against a determined enemy,” read the official citation, signed by Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao. “The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), Carrier Air Wing Eight, Destroyer Squadron Two, and USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) conducted continuous flight operations and maritime strike missions, delivering precise effects against enemy targets.”The USS Gerald R. Ford returned to its homeport after 326 days, during which the crew conducted 23 replenishments-at-sea and sailed over 57,713 nautical miles, according to the Navy. Embarked Carrier Air Wing 8 logged more than 5,760 flight hours and 12,200 flight launches.RELATEDThe strike group participated in operations for Operation Southern Spear and Operation Absolute Resolve in the Caribbean Sea, as well.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth read…

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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Stephen A. Smith is firing back at Jaylen Brown after the Boston Celtics star called the popular ESPN personality the “face of clickbait media” during a Twitch live stream over the weekend.Brown referred to Smith as a “clown” as well, but the veteran sports pundit took time on Monday’s edition of “First Take” to address those comments in a long rant of his own.”I’m not going to disrespect Jaylen Brown,” Smith said. “…He’s pointing the finger in the wrong direction. Point it at yourself, bro.” Smith had criticized Brown for saying this past season with the Boston Celtics, which ended in the first-round of the playoffs with a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, was his favorite with the franchise. Brown responded on Sunday night by telling the ESPN personality to “be quirt.””Did he just say I needed to be quiet? Be quiet for who?” Brown said Sunday night. “Man, f— Stephen A. Stephen A, Stephen B, Stephen C. My offer still stands. You want me to be quiet and stop streaming, well, I want you to be quiet and get off these networks because you’re not using your platform to do real…

The Department of the Air Force updated its religious accommodation request process in an effort to align with the Pentagon’s recent policy change to religious exemptions and grooming standards.Changes to the process for airmen and guardians are vast and include items such as the termination of the Religious Resolution Teams and changes to the application process and military chaplains’ involvement, according to a Friday Air Force release.“This updated guidance ensures a critical balance between accommodating the sincerely held religious beliefs of our airmen and guardians and maintaining the rigorous safety and readiness standards required for operational superiority,” Richard Anderson, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, said in the release. The Religious Resolutions Teams were previously used by the department to process, review and determine the result of a service member’s religious accommodation request.Now, unit commanders will assess the requests without calling on a formalized board through acquiring chaplain, legal and subject-matter input, per the release.In line with the March 11 Department of Defense memorandum, the DAF amended the application process to now require a sworn written statement from airmen and guardians that demonstrates that their belief is “sincerely held and religious in nature.”Airmen and guardians…

Canada has confirmed its first hantavirus infection after a cruise ship passenger tested positive for the virus. The infected person was on board the MV Hondius, the cruise ship where the initial outbreak occurred. According to a report by The Guardian, one of the four Canadians quarantining after being on the MV Hondius has tested positive for hantavirus. The test resulted in a “presumptive positive” test result for the virus, Canadian officials said Saturday. Results from the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg to confirm the case are expected to come over the weekend, said Dr. Bonnie Henry, the public health officer for the province of British Columbia. “Clearly, this is not what we hoped for, but it is what we planned for,” Henry said as reported by CNN.  “It is encouraging that symptoms were identified early, supportive care can be provided, and they will be monitored carefully over the next few days,” Henry said. The person who tested positive was one member of a couple in their 70s. The individual began showing mild symptoms, including a fever and headache, two days ago. Both people are in a hospital in Victoria. “The patient is stable, the symptoms remain mild at this…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A Washington man was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison after admitting to a pair of decades-old cold-case killings which investigators linked him to using a piece of gum. Mitchell Gaff, 74, was sentenced last week after he previously pleaded guilty to the murders of 21-year-old Susan Vesey and 42-year-old Judith “Judy” Weaver in Everett, according to FOX 13. Investigators linked Gaff to the 1984 murder of Weaver after detectives with the Everett Police Department visited his home while claiming to be researchers working within the gum industry and inviting him to try a free sample, USA Today reported. Gaff reportedly obliged, providing the undercover detectives with a sample that was subsequently sent through the federal database CODIS, where investigators ultimately linked him to Weaver’s murder.DAUGHTERS’ RELENTLESS SEARCH SHATTERS ‘OVERDOSE’ CLAIM, LEADS TO ARREST IN MOM’S 1992 MURDER He was arrested in May 2024 and was later charged with Vesey’s killing while behind bars, with investigators revealing she had been murdered inside her apartment the day after her 21st birthday on July 12, 1980, officials said. Speaking in court on Wednesday, Gaff offered an apology to the families of both victims seated in the…

There is no dearth of historic aircraft that helped to change the course of World War II — the B-17 Flying Fortress, the Vought F4U Corsair and the P-51 Mustang, to name a few. But scarcely any could be called heroic. In the case of the F4F Wildcat, usually outnumbered and almost always outclassed by its opponents, an exception can be made.Distinctive in that it was first designed as a biplane in 1935, the U.S. Navy soon realized that the first iteration, the XF4F-1, could not compete with monoplane fighters. Modifications continued throughout the next couple of years until the XF4F-3’s debut, which first flew on Feb. 12, 1939, about two months after the first flight of the Mitsubishi A6M1 Zero prototype in Japan.First combat with the Wildcat was not with any U.S. service, however, but with Britain’s Royal Navy. Its first victim was German. (The Royal Navy called the aircraft the Martlet until March 1944, when it adopted the Wildcat moniker.)According to historian Bruce Crawford, the British had shown great interest in the Wildcat as a replacement for the Gloster Sea Gladiator, and the first platforms were delivered in late 1940. On Christmas Day that year, the stubby plane…

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