News Pulse

As millions prepare to travel this holiday weekend, the average price of regular gas has climbed to $4.55 per gallon, up sharply from $3.18 at the same time last Memorial Day.

The Memorial Day travel rush is about to begin, with nearly 45 million Americans expected to travel by road or air during the long holiday weekend.

A U.S. Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter patrols near a commercial vessel transiting regional waters as American forces enforce the maritime blockade against Iran. As of May 20, U.S. forces have redirected 90 ships and disabled 4 to ensure compliance.

The IRGC is threatening a major extra-regional escalation if President Trump resumes strikes on Tehran, warning of “crushing blows” that would extend far beyond the Gulf region.

CENTCOM: “CENTCOM forces continue total enforcement of the U.S. blockade against Iran, stopping the flow of commerce into and out of Iranian ports. 89 commercial vessels have been redirected to ensure compliance.”

❝A stronger NATO, with a healthier, more sustainable division of responsibilities to deliver the security we all need.❞ — @SecGenNATO during his pre-ministerial press conference ahead of this week’s #ForMin in 🇸🇪

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In medicine, there’s a concept called sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity is how reliably a test identifies what it’s looking for. Specificity is how reliably it avoids false positives. Every diagnostic test involves a tradeoff between them. Improve one, and you typically worsen the other. The COVID PCR tests were designed with maximum sensitivity—to miss no cases of infection. The result: so many false positives that large portions of the population concluded the tests were a joke. Sensitivity without sufficient specificity produces noise.

In the 1930s to the early 60s, Americans were convinced smoking was healthy. Doctors proudly appeared in cigarette ads. “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.” The public was given a clear message: If physicians smoked themselves, how dangerous could it possibly be? At its peak, more than 42% of American adults smoked, with rates among men climbing as high as 57%. Business was booming. But behind the scenes, tobacco companies already knew smoking was linked to deadly disease. Internal research pointed to the dangers early, yet the industry spent years funding doubt, attacking critics, and delaying public awareness long enough to keep the machine running. Then came January 11, 1964. The U.S. Surgeon General released the report that changed everything: smoking causes lung cancer and other deadly illnesses. Almost overnight, one of the most trusted health narratives in America began to collapse. And it wasn’t the only one. In the 1940s and 1950s, lobotomies were celebrated as a revolutionary treatment for mental illness. Walter Freeman traveled the country performing thousands of “ice-pick” procedures, sometimes in minutes, sometimes on children. The technique even earned a Nobel Prize. Years later, it was widely condemned as barbaric, after leaving countless patients permanently damaged. Today, we look back at both eras with disbelief and wonder how entire generations came to trust ideas that later proved so catastrophically wrong. But the more uncomfortable question is harder to escape: How many medical “certainties” we trust today will future generations one day look back on the same way? 🧵

Under a sea of stars 🌌 The Milky Way Galaxy appears in the sky over the flight deck of the Blue Ridge-class command and control ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) while underway in the Mediterranean Sea.  Mount Whitney is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations to support the warfighting effectiveness, lethality and readiness of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, and defend U.S., Allied and partner interests in the region. 📸 MCC Chad M. Butler