Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Trump pushes back on USS Lincoln conditions, Group develops 'Marshall Plan' to build renewable Ukraine power grid and Summit to confront Big Tobacco's exploitation of Black communities.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast for Tuesday, August 18, 2026.

I'm Joe Ulori.

President Trump is pushing back on reports of mounting problems aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln after more than 240 straight days at sea.

Reports have raised concerns about sailors' mental health and supply shortages during the record-setting stretch.

Trump says an unnamed retired admiral assured him the carrier remains well-maintained and its sailors are receiving proper care.

A group of former elected officials and clean energy advocates say Ukraine's energy security depends on deploying renewable power rather than expanding fossil fuels.

Mark Richardson has the latest.

During its brutal invasion of the Eastern European Republic, Russia has targeted Ukraine's power grid, destroying fossil fuel and nuclear generators and leaving civilians in the dark.

But with private investments, Ukraine is using distributed solar, wind and battery storage to keep services running.

Ukraine's former deputy minister of economy, Alexander Romanysian, says renewables are making Ukraine energy independent.

We are building under the attack the decentralized system.

We are building renewables because when you hit some parts of the city and distribute some energy sources, other distributed energy, solar, winds will separate.

Romanysian says Russia has funded its brutal assault by selling oil and natural gas to the international market.

In response, the group elected officials to protect America developed a Ukraine Energy Security Marshall Plan, a framework for distributed clean energy across Ukraine.

Grassroots organizations and labor unions in Minnesota are gathering today for what they call a show of unity.

It follows revelations that federal agents infiltrated protest planning meetings at churches and union halls during the recent immigration crackdown here.

That information surfaced in court documents from last week in a case the federal government is pursuing against 15 protesters.

Milia Gonzalez-Avalos with UBITOS MN says there was no widespread conspiracy to unlawfully target the government.

The vast majority of people, regardless of age, subcode or race that were involved in protecting their neighbors, they just wanted peace.

A new Gallup-Charles F. Kettering Foundation poll found more than 70% of Americans say they're worried about different parts of the election process.

Derek Barker, Senior Research Initiatives Program Officer for the foundation, says elected leaders must take these results seriously.

If large numbers of people start to doubt this fundamental process, you could see authoritarianism, political violence become more acceptable.

Last month, a federal judge dismissed a case brought against the Commonwealth by the Trump administration over the state's refusal to hand over voter information.

According to Campaign Legal Center, the Department of Justice continues to pressure states agreements that would require them to remove voters from the voter rolls if they're flagged as ineligible by the federal government.

This is Nadia Ramlagan for Kentucky News Connection.

This is Public News Service.

Wyoming ranchers have been selling off pairs of cows and calves after this winter's record low snowpack led to widespread drought, according to a new WIOFile report, in part because they didn't know how they would feed them.

Eric Galatas has more.

When it became clear that water would be scarce, farmers in Carbon County were forced to grow hay instead of feed.

Climate and energy reporter Dustin Blyseffer says warmer than normal temperatures in spring sent snowpack downstream early, and it's been mostly dry ever since.

The kind of low snowpack situation in the winter really set the stage for low-flowing streams, reservoirs not filling.

Roughly 80% of the Cowboy State is experiencing severe drought, and nearly half of the state is experiencing extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The Wyoming State Engineer's Office is enforcing water restrictions dating back to the 1800s.

Many small reservoirs have reached deadpool levels where water no longer flows downstream.

New Medicaid eligibility rules passed by North Carolina last spring go further than what President Donald Trump's spending package required, Health advocates are distraught by the compounding effects of the policies.

Trump's H.R. 1 budget bill targets Medicaid recipients who receive benefits under the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion.

Starting next year, adults between the ages of 19 and 64 will have to work or volunteer for 80 hours a month to qualify for benefits.

While federal rules require applicants to verify one previous month of work history, North Carolina's Medicaid funding bill increases the verification period to three months.

Rebecca Cerise with the North Carolina Justice Center says lawmakers are failing to recognize that life isn't always clean cut.

People's lives are complicated.

People in rural areas sometimes have lower employment opportunities.

People can get sick or have an accident that can complicate matters or make it that there's a month that you can't work.

Black-led organizations will gather in Massachusetts this week to find ways to counter tobacco marketing in their communities, which has contributed to higher use and more tobacco-related disease.

For decades, Big Tobacco has used retail promotions, music events, and advertising in publications popular with Black audiences to promote menthol cigarettes, which are considered easier to smoke but harder to quit.

Kendrick Dardis, with the nonprofit public health organization Truth Initiative, says more than 45,000 Black Americans die from smoking-related disease each year.

We know that if this did not happen by accident, that these results are decades of targeted marketing and other practices that have disproportionately affected black communities.

Darda says the health impacts of smoking are compounded by the discrimination black Americans often face, which can increase both stress and tobacco usage.

He says his organization is partnering with BET, Essence and the NAACP to spread greater awareness about these risks and the tools available to quit tobacco for good.

I'm Catherine Carley.

This is Joe Ulori for Public News Service.

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