What it's like to be on a warship like the USS Abraham Lincoln
What it's like to be on a warship like the USS Abraham Lincoln. The KRAK 11 News hour: The World Desk, Criminal Intent, Happy Animals, Sports. Real stories from named sources, read by Chip Marlowe and Deb Sarkissian.
Aired 2026-08-18 07:00 UTC · 5 segments · 13 min · complete transcript below
Rundown
KRAK 11 NEWS
Good evening, Wexler County. It's ten o'clock, you're watching KRAK 11 News, and I'm Chip Marlowe.
I'm Deb Sarkissian. This hour: The World Desk takes you aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln after three months at sea. Criminal Intent with the Simon Levy verdict and what it reveals about who the justice system protects. Sports covers Amy Hunt's historic fourth gold medal. And Happy Animals.
Four segments, wall to wall coverage, the kind of breadth you expect from a major market station right here in Fairmont.
It's Fairmont.
Still ahead on The World Desk: what sailors on the Abraham Lincoln are saying about conditions three months into a deployment with no end date.
That's next.
Do you believe in prayer.
What.
Prayer. Manifestation. The power of positive thinking.
What did you do.
I sent an email.
To who.
The station owner.
What did it say.
It was meant for you.
Oh god.
Ya, it was late, I was drunk, what can I say.
THE WORLD DESK
Good evening. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian.
I'd like to try something tonight. A closer. I've been workshopping it.
We have a closer.
Around the world in eighty seconds. It's clean, it's memorable, it ties to the segment name—
We're at the World Desk for five minutes.
It isn't literal.
We begin tonight with concerns about conditions aboard a United States Navy warship deployed to the Middle East.
The USS Abraham Lincoln has been at sea since December eleventh, part of a carrier strike group operating in support of regional security operations in the Persian Gulf.
Reports from crew members describe extended deployment timelines, limited port access, and mounting concerns about morale as the mission extends into its fourth month without a scheduled return date.
The Lincoln is operating in one of the most strategically vital waterways in that part of the Mediterranean, and crew rotation has been delayed twice.
The Persian Gulf connects to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. The Mediterranean is two thousand miles northwest.
Thank you, Deb. The Navy has not yet issued a formal timeline for the carrier's return to home port in San Diego.
From Europe tonight, Russia has issued its twenty-fifth formal diplomatic protest to the United Kingdom this year over continued military support for Ukraine.
This latest warning specifically targets Britain's decision to supply long-range surveillance drones, which Moscow claims escalates the conflict beyond the original scope of the North Atlantic alliance.
Britain has been a member of NATO since nineteen forty-nine.
An expanded role within that alliance, Deb.
A spokesperson for the British Ministry of Defence responded tonight, saying the UK stands quote shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and will continue providing defensive equipment as Russia's invasion enters its third year.
From Los Angeles, testimony continued today in the trial connected to the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, with prosecutors presenting new forensic evidence linking the defendant to the nineteen ninety-six shooting.
A ballistics expert testified this afternoon that shell casings recovered from the Las Vegas intersection match ammunition seized during a twenty twenty-three search of a Nevada property connected to the case.
Defense attorneys challenged the reliability of the forensic analysis, arguing that the evidence had been stored improperly for nearly three decades before testing.
The trial is expected to last six weeks. Testimony resumes tomorrow morning.
From Britain, the Premier League season begins this weekend, and analysts are identifying breakout candidates who could define the year.
BBC Sport commentators have named thirteen players they believe could emerge as surprise stars this season, including several young prospects making their first top-flight appearances.
Among the names to watch: a nineteen-year-old midfielder from Manchester who scored seventeen goals in the Championship last season, and a defender who transferred from Serie A.
That's the Italian league.
I know what Serie A is, Deb.
The first match is Saturday.
Still ahead on KRAK 11 News, charges have been filed in a burglary that began as a dispute over lawn equipment, escalated to a three-hour standoff, and ended with a suspect attempting to flee on a riding mower.
That story and more in just a few minutes.
CRIMINAL INTENT is next.
Around the world in eighty seconds.
We were on for four minutes and thirty seconds.
It's aspirational.
It's arithmetically incorrect.
Gordo, did the closer land?
You didn't say it.
I said it off air.
Nobody heard it.
You heard it.
Gordo doesn't count as a focus group.
One person is a focus group of one.
CRIMINAL INTENT
Good evening. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian. Tonight: a registered sex offender receives a whole life sentence, a dispute over fiction versus fact in the Tupac Shakur murder trial, and first, a man who could not keep quiet about his own crime.
This is not how you get away with it.
Prosecutors in Las Vegas say Duane Davis, known as Keffe D, became a person of interest in the nineteen ninety-six killing of Tupac Shakur specifically because he would not stop talking about it.
Opening statements began Monday in Los Angeles. A prosecutor told the court that while few witnesses have been willing to speak about the killing over three decades, Davis is quote, the one person who has a hard time being silent.
Davis has given multiple interviews, written a memoir, and appeared in a documentary about the shooting. Prosecutors allege those statements place him in the vehicle from which shots were fired.
Defense attorneys argue the statements were fictional accounts told for entertainment value, not admissions of guilt.
The trial is expected to last six weeks. A man wrote a book about a crime he says he did not commit, and a jury will now decide which version he meant.
In the UK, Simon Levy has been sentenced to a whole life order for the murders of two women.
Levy, a registered sex offender, was convicted last week in the murders of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins. Both women were sex workers. The judge called the crimes calculated and brutal.
A whole life tariff is the most severe sentence available under UK law. Levy will not be eligible for parole.
And in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian American has returned to his property, which has been under siege by Israeli settlers.
The man, whose name has not been released for security reasons, traveled Monday to join family members who have been defending the home. Israeli settlers have reportedly blocked access to the property for several weeks.
The family says they have documented multiple incidents of intimidation and property damage. Israeli authorities have not commented.
That is the blotter. And still ahead: good news.
Still ahead on KRAK Eleven, Happy Animals. A story that does not involve a memoir, a lawyer, or someone who should have stopped talking.
That is refreshing.
That's next.
Gordo, shake my hand.
Why.
I've been practicing.
Practicing what.
The grip. The duration. The eye contact.
You're practicing handshakes.
It's the first thing people notice.
Did you wash your hands?
No.
ok, lets do it.
Wiat.. did you wash your hands?
HAPPY ANIMALS
Welcome back to KRAK 11 News. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian. Before we begin, Chip has been sitting differently for the last four minutes.
I am sitting the way I have always sat, Deb. Upright posture reads as engaged.
We begin with a story that has captivated the internet for three weeks. Punch the monkey has finally found love.
Punch is a Japanese macaque living at the Kyoto Primate Research Center. For twenty-one days, he attempted to court a female named Sakura, who rejected him repeatedly.
On Tuesday, Punch was observed grooming with a different female, Hana. Researchers say the pair has been inseparable for seventy-two hours.
Twenty-one days. He just kept trying.
Millions of people watched this happen. Live camera. Every single day.
The center says traffic to their website increased fourteen thousand percent in three weeks.
Also tonight, a dog in Seattle has learned to ride the city bus. Alone.
Eclipse is a black Labrador mix. She boards the D Line at her owner's stop, rides four miles to the dog park, and returns on the same route.
Drivers say she waits at the correct stop, boards when the doors open, and exits at the park. She has been doing this for two years.
The bus company issued Eclipse an honorary employee badge last month.
She has a badge.
And finally, a blind cat in Oregon has been adopted after spending eleven months in a shelter. His name is Stevie Wonder.
Stevie navigates his new home using whiskers and memory. His owner says he has already memorized the furniture layout and can find his food bowl from any room.
Still ahead, we have sports.
That's next.
Take that off.
It's called distinguished.
It's called a sweater vest.
George Will wears a sweater vest.
George Will is eighty-three years old.
Exactly. Timeless.
You look like you teach at a community college.
I could teach at a community college.
Chip, you look like you're about to explain why I got a C-minus.
Well maybe if you'd turned in your assignments on time, Deb.
SPORTS
Still ahead.
Deb. Before we get into the scores. The position of the banner.
What banner.
The Scoreboard banner. The graphic that appears behind us when we read scores. It should say 'The authoritative scoreboard for Wexler County sports.'
It says 'The KRAK 11 Scoreboard.'
Which does not communicate authority.
It communicates we have scores.
The Buss family has announced its intention to sell the Los Angeles Lakers, ending six decades of ownership. Sources say Jeanie Buss will be removed from her role as team governor as part of the transaction.
The family purchased the team in nineteen seventy-nine for sixty-seven and a half million dollars. Current valuation is seven point one billion.
That is a significant return on investment.
Ten thousand percent.
In college football, the SEC has announced a revised scheduling format for the twenty twenty-seven season. Teams will play nine conference games instead of eight, rotating opponents every two years instead of every six.
The change affects sixteen schools. Alabama plays LSU every year regardless of format.
Some traditions are non-negotiable.
It's contractual.
In mixed martial arts, lightweight champion Islam Makhachev has responded to comments from former featherweight champion Max Holloway questioning why Makhachev walks around with two championship belts.
Makhachev holds the lightweight title. He has not defended a welterweight championship because he has never won one.
He is carrying a ceremonial belt from a promotional event in Abu Dhabi.
It is not a championship belt.
Holloway says if you carry two belts you should have won two titles.
That is generally how belts work.
In auto racing, the Formula One World Championship resumes this weekend in Baku. Red Bull driver Max Verstappen leads the standings with two hundred and ninety-five points. McLaren's Lando Norris is second with two hundred and twenty-nine.
Sixty-six points separate first and second with eight races remaining.
Verstappen has won twelve of the fourteen races so far this season.
Twelve out of fourteen.
ESPN has released its Future Power Rankings for the National Football League's upcoming season. The Los Angeles Rams are now ranked fifth overall, up three spots from last year's eighth-place finish.
The rankings consider roster strength, coaching, front office performance, and salary cap management. The Rams improved in three of the four categories.
Which category did they not improve in.
Salary cap management.
Deb, before we go to the top of the hour.
We're at time.
We have ninety seconds.
We have seventy.
If someone were watching this segment with no prior knowledge of the format, would they understand that this is the authoritative scoreboard for Wexler County sports.
They would understand we cover scores.
Authoritative.
Chip.
And that's the Scoreboard.
It has been for six years.
The next KRAK 11 News is at the top of the hour. We'll have weather, breaking developments from the county commission meeting, and the story behind a Fairmont man who has built a working replica of the Eiffel Tower entirely out of coffee stirrers.
Seven thousand stirrers. Took him nine months.
That is dedication.
It's nine months.
I'm Chip Marlowe.
I'm Deb Sarkissian. Goodnight, Wexler County.
Stop spraying that shit.
It's cologne, Deb.
It's in my mouth.
Then you're standing too close to success.
I am six feet away from you and my tongue smells divorced.
It's called Timber Wolf.
Of course it is. You smell like a gas station condom machine became a stepdad.
Women happen to love it.
A woman called the station and asked if we were embalming somebody.
Jealousy is an ugly fragrance, Gordo.
Chip, my fucking coffee tastes like nightclub security.
That's the pheromones.
Those aren't pheromones. That's rubbing alcohol with a custody agreement.
Sixty seconds.
Don't you fucking—
JESUS CHRIST.
Weather radar just picked it up.
Little touch-up.
There are moths dying in the parking lot.
Means it's working.
Reporting behind this episode
- What it's like to be on a warship like the USS Abraham Lincoln
- Russia warns UK over supplying drones to Ukraine
- Watch: What we learned from opening statements in Tupac murder trial
- Breakouts & wildcards - 13 surprise stars for new season
- Tuesday briefing: What the Simon Levy case tells us about the women the justice system keeps failing
- Palestinian American returns to his West Bank home, under siege by Israeli settlers
- A dispute about fact vs. fiction at the trial over Tupac Shakur's 1996 killing