CNN’s Wolf Blitzer apologized Monday after inaccurately indicating that US service members stationed overseas could be affected by the Trump administration’s push to restrict mail-in voting.

The remark came during Friday’s episode of “The Situation Room,” where Blitzer interviewed Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger about a lawsuit filed by Virginia and other Democratic-led states seeking to block President Donald Trump’s March executive order targeting mail-in voting. A federal judge last week temporarily halted the order for 14 days.

Spanberger argued that the administration’s actions were meant to discourage participation. “The continued attacks that we’re seeing from the Trump administration is really just an effort to get people fearful, to get people to stay home, and, in many cases, to eliminate what is a valid, safe, secure way for people to be able to have their voices heard and to vote,” she said.

Blitzer then told the governor, “And in Virginia, you have a lot of military personnel who totally rely on mail-in ballots if they want to be able to express their opinions.”

Spanberger agreed with the broader point, saying, “That’s true. It’s members of the military service, of our diplomatic service, intelligence services, people serving overseas in service to our country who get their ballots mailed to them at the various postings throughout the world.”

However, Blitzer made a “quick note of clarification” at the end of Monday’s program in reference to his exchange with Spanberger.

“We discussed legal challenges to the Trump administration’s directives for the Postal Service on mail-in voting. A comment I made suggested that US military and overseas voters’ ballots would be impacted by these directives. I want to be clear right now: those ballots are exempt from the Postal Service’s new rules implementing the president’s March executive order,” Blitzer told viewers.

“Those groups are covered under the Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act, just to be specific on that point,” he added.

A spokesperson for CNN pointed to Blitzer’s comments and declined to comment further.

Outgoing Army Secretary Dan Driscoll appeared to make a decisive break with Pete Hegseth as he prepared to leave office, reportedly criticizing the defense secretary directly to Donald Trump after months of speculation about tension between the two men.

Driscoll became the latest high-profile Washington figure to exit on Monday, when the White House confirmed that his departure was imminent.

According to The Atlantic, Driscoll met with President Trump last week and laid out a series of concerns about Hegseth’s handling of the Army.

People familiar with the conversation told the magazine that Trump was taken aback by the number of senior military officials and generals who had either been dismissed, pushed aside or blocked from promotions under Hegseth’s leadership.

Trump was also reportedly unsettled by Driscoll’s description of sweeping reductions across the Army’s senior ranks, as well as the service’s struggles to carry out a long-needed transformation.

Driscoll ended the meeting by telling the President that he was set to resign. 

A person familiar with Driscoll’s resignation said the secretary ‘brought up concerns with the administration surrounding Army transformation and readiness and Hegseth’s blocking those efforts specifically by firing the Generals who were responsible.’

One defense official believes Driscoll will be replaced by a Hegseth loyalist and will allow the Pentagon chief to do ‘generational damage.’ 

Sources also suggested Driscoll and Hegseth clashed over their ambitions, with Driscoll reportedly often telling people that he was close with Vice President JD Vance and even wanted to run for president himself someday. 

Hegseth himself denied reports he was preparing to run in 2028 late last week. 

The Secretary of Defense also reportedly disliked that Driscoll fostered good relationships with the media and tech executives, which garnered him additional roles within the Trump administration.  

‘The United States Army is more powerful than ever thanks to his work alongside the Commander-in-Chief and Secretary of War,’ Anna Kelly told The Atlantic in a statement, while adding that Driscoll had been ‘highly effective’ in his service. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House and the Pentagon for comment.

Driscoll is an Iraq war veteran, tech investor and former adviser to Vance, whom Driscoll met at Yale Law School. When nominating Driscoll in 2024, Trump called him ‘a disruptor and change agent.’ 

As Army secretary, Driscoll was tapped for the unusual role of key negotiator to try to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. 

He was also a major force behind trying to cut the red tape for military contractors to quickly develop more drones and counter-drone capabilities as warfare rapidly changes around the world.

The Senate confirmed him in February 2025, voting 66-28, following an Armed Services Committee hearing that was largely unconfrontational and focused on how the Army could modernize its systems, improve recruiting and beef up the military industrial base.

Driscoll noted that his father and grandfather served in the Army, and he vowed to be a secretary focused on the needs of soldiers. 

According to the Army, Driscoll served as an armor officer from August 2007 to March 2011, deploying to Iraq from October 2009 to July 2010.

He also ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for a North Carolina congressional seat in 2020, getting about eight percent of the vote in a crowded field of candidates.

Driscoll had been rumored to step down at some point between now and the end of the year but the White House announced his departure Monday.

‘Secretary Driscoll has been highly effective in advancing President Trump’s agenda to Make America Strong Again at the Department of the Army by providing outstanding leadership during historic military operations, restoring an emphasis on readiness and lethality, assisting with negotiations between Russia and Ukraine , and more,’ White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told The Daily Mail in a statement.

The Wall Street Journal added that Driscoll is set to officially depart at some point in the coming days.

Driscoll has disagreed with Hegseth on a number of issues, including the Defense Secretary’s moves to block the promotion of several Army officers and the April ouster of a key Driscoll ally.

The firing of Chief of Staff Randy George earlier this year by Hegseth means the Army will no longer have a Senate-confirmed leader, as Donald Trump has yet to nominate a replacement for George.

The news comes amid Trump’s own clashes with Hegseth, with the Pentagon chief rumored to have been sidelined within the administration.

Both Driscoll and George’s jobs require majority approval from the Senate. A former Hegseth aide, General Christopher LaNeve, has been working as the interim replacement for George.

The New York Post reported in April that Driscoll caused George’s firing because the two are close.

George was Driscoll’s top aide and an official said that Hegseth has been worried Driscoll would replace him ever since the infamous March 2025 group chat fiasco, when Trump administration officials used the Signal app to discuss sensitive info.

‘This is all driven by the insecurity and paranoia that Pete has developed since Signal-gate. Unfortunately, it is stoked by some of his closest aides who should be trying to calm the waters,’ a source told the paper.

The White House backed Driscoll in a statement at the time and a source said Hegseth ‘can’t fire’ Driscoll for the time being.

‘He is very concerned about being fired and he knows that Driscoll is one of the top contenders, or a natural contender, to succeed him,’ the source added.

The firing of George was reportedly an attempt to get rid of anyone perceived to be an ally of Driscoll, who is also said to be close to Vice President JD Vance.

In April, one senior Pentagon official argued to the Washington Post that Driscoll focused too much on his political future instead of his role managing soldiers’ training and equipment.

Three others, though, disputed the suggestion that Driscoll has been performing poorly in the role.

One said Driscoll, who worked in venture capital and led an Army cavalry scout platoon during the Iraq War, has ‘made a ton of institutional changes and stayed out of things that the military shouldn’t touch, especially with culture wars.’

George, a Biden appointee, is understood to have clashed with the Trump Administration’s vision for the Army.

Yet those familiar with the situation say Driscoll intervened when Hegseth previously tried to fire General George, who was confirmed by the Senate in 2023.

The general had long been seen as a target for firing within the Trump administration not only because he was selected to lead the Army by the previous administration, but also because he served as a senior military assistant to former President Joe Biden’s defense secretary, Lloyd Austin.

George has also spoken out in favor of diversity training for military personnel, telling lawmakers during his confirmation hearing that it is just one component in a broader effort to build cohesive teams.

During his tenure, he worked closely with Driscoll, who reportedly backed the general’s effort to continually experiment with and adopt drones and other emerging technology.

The two even traveled to Ukraine last year in an effort to gather lessons learned from the war.

‘There have been multiple instances where Secretary Hegseth has tried to remove George and Driscoll has said, “No he’s done nothing wrong. He’s good,”‘ one official said, adding that the Army Secretary ‘has been very clear that merit should speak for itself.’

It remains unclear exactly why George was removed from his position.

But his ouster came after he faced two major issues: Hegseth’s decision to block the promotion of two black and two female officers to one-star generals and the controversial appearance of Apache helicopters outside Kid Rock’s home.

Sources told the Washington Post that George tried to meet with Hegseth to discuss the blocked promotion, but was rebuffed.

Hegseth has purged more than a dozen senior officers, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General CQ Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Air Force Vice Chief of Staff General James Slife and the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse.

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

A retired Massachusetts Superior Court judge says a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict would not amount to an easy path for Lindsay Clancy, noting that “prosecution doctors” would help determine when she could be released — and may be more likely to recommend that she remain confined.

Clancy, 36, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children — Cora, Dawson and Callan, all younger than 6 — who were found strangled inside the family’s home in January 2023.

Retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Jack Lu told News Media that even if Clancy were found not guilty by reason of insanity, she would probably spend a substantial period of time in a mental health facility.

He said a group of mental health officials would be responsible for periodically reviewing her commitment at the facility, but noted these are people who overwhelmingly side with prosecutors and usually testify on their behalf.

“They’re viewed as an arm of the prosecution,” Lu said of the officials. “I’m going to be very frank, they kind of view this through the lens of if in doubt, lock them up…The people making release decisions have a prosecutorial mindset.”

Lu said, if Clancy is committed to a mental hospital, “I imagine she’d be committed year after year after year for some period of time.”

“If you are committed on a mental health basis because of a major criminal case in Massachusetts, it is hard to get out… It is very difficult,” he said.

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He said there is another way for Clancy to be released from a mental institution if found not guilty by reason of insanity, which would be through the courts.

“The other way she could get out is if the government kept moving to commit her and the doctors did not really decide that she should be released, and then it goes to court and then a judge would decide whether she is a danger to herself or others,” Lu said. “It could be more of a contested hearing, and if she were to win that contested hearing, that is the second way that she gets out.”

Clancy’s case has drawn parallels with Constance Fisher, a then-24-year-old Maine woman who drowned her three children in a bathtub in 1954, according to the New York Times.

She was committed to a mental hospital, and after several years, she returned home. She was accused of drowning three more children in 1967 and was sent back to the mental hospital, before she escaped and was found dead in the Kennebec River.

The jury in Clancy’s case, consisting of nine women and three men, led by a female foreperson, concluded a third day of deliberations on Monday without coming to a verdict.

The jurors asked Judge William Sullivan around 4 p.m. to be dismissed for the day, and will return on Tuesday morning to continue deliberations.

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A Georgia mother preparing to fly back to the United States after a once-in-a-lifetime spiritual journey has disappeared after deadly floods swept through the Nepal-Tibet border region on Wednesday, her family said.

Mary Sorenson, 60, who lives just north of Atlanta, had traveled to the area for a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, where she joined a group to practice yoga, pray and meditate, her son, Riley Wildeman, told ABC News.

Sorenson had finished the long-dreamed-about trip, a bucket-list journey she had hoped to make for years, before she vanished amid the catastrophic flooding. The disaster’s death toll has since risen to more than 900 people.

Her family last heard from the adventurous, deeply spiritual mother as she was starting her descent from the mountain and making her way back toward Atlanta, the outlet reported.

“My brother likes to say that she walks to the beat of kind of her own drum,” Wildeman told the outlet. “She’s so able to find good in everything and find good in everyone and to enjoy every moment.”

“The last thing that she sent to us was Tuesday morning, and she was on her way down the mountain,” Wildeman said.

Sorenson last told her family that she was looking forward to her long trip back to the US to reflect on her pilgrimage and, chillingly, ended a text letting them know she was “so grateful” for them.

“She ended that text by saying, ‘I’m so grateful that you guys are my family,’” he recalled.

The catastrophic floods struck the Nepal-Tibet border region on Wednesday morning, after Sorenson last contacted her family.

Rescue teams have been working tirelessly around the clock at the border to search for a total of more than 4,700 missing people in the muddy ground, Nepal’s disaster agency said Monday.

Of the missing, 592 are foreigners, including at least 85 Americans, officials said.

Long Island, New York locals Amita Amin, 67, and Jitendra Manubhai Patel, 63, along with New Jersey resident Tejal Vyomesh Patel, 64, were also taking part in a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash when they vanished in the disaster.

Wildeman, who is a public school teacher, revealed that his father called him at work after the organizer of Sorensen’s trip contacted the family with the harrowing news.

“There was really very little about where they were, about where the flood had hit, about how severe the flood was,” he said. “And then all the news coverage and all the videos and all of the social media popped up, and so that’s how we kind of understood the severity of the situation.”

The terrified family has reached out to the US State Department and government agencies in Nepal and China in hopes of finally reaching Sorenson.

“We’ve called in every favor and every possible thing that we can call in,” Wildeman said.

“We feel so much heartbreak and so much sadness and pain, like a deep, guttural pain,” he said, noting his family feels “the grief of the situation, not the grief of the loss.”

“My whole family and my mom all believe in a God that does miracles, and that the miracle that we’re gonna get out of this is gonna be something that we might not necessarily understand right now, but it’s gonna be something that we look back on and we feel.”

One person is still unaccounted for after powerful flash floods tore through the Grand Canyon, prompting the rescue of 80 hikers and the recovery of two bodies, officials said.

The sudden flooding struck sections of the iconic canyon around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, sending torrents of water across areas near the Colorado River and sweeping hikers and backpackers from trails.

As conditions worsened, search teams deployed night-vision goggles and other specialized equipment to locate people trapped or stranded by the fast-moving floodwaters, Incident Commander Dave Black said during a Monday night news conference.

By Saturday evening, rescuers had brought 45 people to safety. Another 37 were evacuated Sunday as authorities continued searching for 15 hikers initially reported missing.

Throughout Monday, park rangers used the Grand Canyon permit system and cross-checked vehicle license plates in an effort to confirm who remained missing and guide the ongoing search operation.

‘As of right now, they have no reason to believe, from the tips we´ve been through so far, that there’s anybody besides the one’ missing person, Black said.

Yet dangers remained, as the flash flooding severely damaged the only water pipeline into the canyon and forecasters warned more flooding could be possible throughout the night.

As a precaution, officials have now barred tourists from staying at lodges and hotels inside Grand Canyon National Park and issued emergency water restrictions for year-round residents.

The flood occurred deep in the canyon near where the Colorado River flows, around popular lodges and camping areas where people hiking from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the other stop for the night.

About half an inch to an inch of rain fell within just half an hour in the rocky area where there’s a steep drop in elevation, said National Weather Service meteorologist Justin Johndrow in Flagstaff.

‘Most of it ran off instantly,’ Johndrow said.

Horrific videos from the scene in the Grand Canyon showed mudslides tearing through the landscape, as hikers filmed from a suspended bridge above. 

Large mounds of debris were also seen floating on the brown water.

Scores of visitors then had to be evacuated from the area by helicopter. They talked of a massive deluge and rangers warning of rockslides, and saw huge pools of logs and debris rolling down the river as they stood nearby awaiting rescue.

Hiker Daniel Evans said it rained several times before the worst 30-minute downpour Saturday afternoon. He had been planning to rest through the hot day and spend the night near the hard-hit Bright Angel campground area.

Earlier, rangers told him it looked to be safe. Then, as the rain poured, they told him it was time to go. He thought of Nepal and the massive floods and landslides that poured down mountain valleys last week.

‘The entire time it was raining – the entire time I´m going through all this and packing – I’m just keeping my eyes upstream, just praying that a wall of water isn’t coming toward us,’ Evans said.

Gabe Bergemann also told how he and his family were at the Phantom Ranch when he told CBS News what looked like a ‘whole monsoon basically hit the campground in the cabins area.’ 

His family was then among the 60 people told to flee their cabins and cross a footbridge as the waters rose.

But just about 10 minutes after they got across, the flood destroyed the footbridge and Bergemann and his family had to be rescued hours later.

Looking back, David Gregory, who was traveling with Bergemann’s family, said if the park rangers hadn’t ordered everybody to evacuate when they did, all of the campers could have been left trapped on the other side of the creek.

‘It was like a whirlpool in there, with all the debris circling around, cabins and other equipment from the maintenance work site,’ he recounted.

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‘I don’t think we would have made it out alive… I think it would have been game over.’ 

But the massive flooding did take the life of John Giusti, 53, a Texas chiropractor who set out Thursday on a trip he dreamed of with his two buddies – Texas martial arts studio owner Brent Rosenkranz, 42, and Wyoming pilot Timothy Smith, 53.

Giusti was living out ‘a lifetime dream exploring the majesty of the Grand Canyon when tragedy struck,’ his wife, Janet, said in an online fundraiser.

‘While our grief is as vast and profound as the canyon itself, we find a small comfort in knowing he spent his final moments surrounded by breathtaking beauty, living life to the fullest,’ his wife added. 

Giusti shared photos on Friday showing himself smiling against scenic canyon backdrops during the hike.

A second body was recovered on Monday, Park Service officials said, but have not yet released any information about the victim.

Meanwhile, authorities are continuing to comb through the park to determine the full extent of the damage.

But already Grand Canyon Deputy Superintendent Brian Drapeaux said officials anticipate ‘miles of the pipeline being destroyed.’ 

He described the park’s Transcanyon Waterline, a 12-and-a-half mile water pipeline constructed in the 1960s as ‘battered, bruised and decimated in certain areas.’

The pipeline that serves visitors and roughly 1,600 residents of Grand Canyon Village had been undergoing a $208 million rehabilitation, with upgrades to the associated water delivery system started in 2023.

Park Service officials have called it a crucial investment to ensure the park can meet the needs of residents and visitors. The project was expected to be completed next year.

While the Grand Canyon has large storage tanks for potable water on the South Rim, they won´t be refilled while the pipeline is out of service.

In the meantime, Drapeaux said, there is enough water to last about two weeks in storage. 

But conditions at the scenic canyon may only worsen with more wet weather expected throughout the night that can cause even more flooding.

Visiting the Grand Canyon can be particularly dangerous in the summer because of the risk of flash flooding that accompanies the monsoon, or rainy season. Clear days can quickly give way to thunderstorms and downpours.

Rain also fell on part of the Dragon Bravo fire scar, a burn area left by a lightning-caused wildfire in July 2025. It burned for days before exploding into a fast-moving conflagration that forced evacuations and consumed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, some cabins and other structures.

Without vegetation, a barren burn scar allows runoff to flow more quickly.

The steep, rocky nature of the canyon itself funnels water rapidly. What might be a normal summer downpour somewhere else can become a charging wall of water in the canyon.

This year’s heavy monsoon rains are especially intense because there is a higher amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, mostly because of a strong El Nino, said A Park Williams, a hydroclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The natural warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean can warp weather globally. That extra water vapor in the southwest US gets wrung out in the storm in the form of rainfall, he said.