WASHINGTON (AP) — Three staff members from the Stars and Stripes military news outlet are suing to challenge their recent firings by the Pentagon, accusing the Trump administration of violating their First Amendment free speech rights to speak out against government interference in their work.
Stars and Stripes publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and Middle East reporter Lara Korte are named as plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Washington, D.C.
The Pentagon, which partially funds the news outlet, fired them last week. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on the suit’s allegations.
Slavin says he was dismissed for insubordination after giving an interview to CBS News in which he objected to potential censorship by the U.S. military. Korte participated in the same interview. Their lawsuit says they were punished in retaliation for publishing a report on deteriorating conditions aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.
“Stripes’ historical editorial independence is critical to its core mission of gathering and providing unbiased, credible journalism to the U.S. military community, particularly servicemembers and their families stationed overseas,” the suit says.
Lederer was dismissed shortly after announcing his impending retirement, effective at the end of September. He said the Pentagon had installed a new deputy publisher, an active duty service member, under him at the newspaper without his prior knowledge.
The suit's plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers for Good Government, Government Accountability Project and a Yale Law School clinic.
The Defense Department and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are among the named defendants.
FILE - The Pentagon is seen from the air, July 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
U.S. officials said about 90 U.S. citizens remained unaccounted for Thursday, a day after catastrophic flash floods engulfed a border area of China and Nepal, killing hundreds of people.
In a statement, the U.S. State Department said it is not aware of any U.S. deaths, but three Americans have been rescued.
Many of the missing were on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus, Buddhists and others.
Social media posts were surfacing Thursday from loved ones pleading for people to provide updates or circulate information about Americans they had lost contact with — a Virginia woman traveling with a tour group, a Texas couple on a birthday trip, and a mother accompanying her 14-year-old daughter.
Among those on a guided tour was Venus Rajnikant Patel, a 45-year-old Indian-born U.S. citizen who recently moved from St. Louis to Cincinnati to help his family.
Patel’s brother, Dennis, said Venus called him and their parents a few hours before the floods, showing them his hotel room on the Nepalese side of the border and talking about how excited he was to cross into Tibet. He had been planning the pilgrimage for two years, his brother said.
Patel’s friend Jolene Gosha said she and her friends knew Patel was in Nepal and were devastated when they realized his hotel was right along the border where the floods swept through.
“We’re just hoping, hoping that by some chance he was able to climb his way out of it,” Gosha said. “I don’t want to give myself false hope because I know the reality is that he's probably not with us.”
Gosha described Patel as an avid traveler who loves dancing and frequently organizes surprise “flash mob” performances for his friends’ weddings and birthdays.
“He’s always smiling from ear to ear,” Gosha said. “He’d dance so goofily and didn’t care who was watching.”
Indian spiritual guru Jaggi Vasudev, also known as Sadhguru, said in a post on X that 77 people returning from Mount Kailash with groups organized by his Isha Foundation were at an immigration center in Gyirong, Tibet, when the floods struck. The Isha Foundation told ABC News that 22 of those 77 people were Americans.
The Isha Foundation is a spiritual organization based in India and has a U.S. campus called the Isha Institute of Inner-sciences, a yoga and meditation retreat center in the mountains near McMinnville, Tennessee.
Talking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, President Donald Trump said U.S. officials have spoken with Nepalese leaders and offered to provide “anything they want.”
Trump said there were 50 or 60 Americans in the area but added that a full accounting hasn’t been completed.
Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed to this report.
People walk past damage in the aftermath of flash floods in Devighat in the Nuwakot district in Nepal, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Damage is seen in the aftermath of flash floods in Devighat in the Nuwakot district in Nepal, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
A government helicopter conducts a rescue mission amidst the devastation left by flash flooding in Nepal's Nuwakot district, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
