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Aug 13, 2026 - World

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s out-of-the-blue announcement that she is abandoning her current job to become an off-the-books adviser to the president raised eyebrows on Thursday.During a panel discussion on MS NOW’s “On The Line” with host Alicia Menendez, it was noted that the imminent departure of President Donald Trump’s spokesperson comes on the heels of an unexpected and controversial memo from Attorney General Todd Blanche released on Tuesday, after he was sworn in.According to the Blanche memo, the executive privilege that shields White House advisors will now extend to private citizens who advise the president.“It remains to be seen whether a court will say that its construction of who is entitled to executive privilege is valid or not,” MS NOW legal correspondent Lisa Rubin told the panel. “But, at least as the DOJ considers it, is Karoline Leavitt, an outside adviser when she leaves the presidency, the presidential administration, and continues to talk to Trump on the phone and give him advice?" "Absolutely,” she elaborated. “Because that memo defines the term private adviser in a breathtakingly broad way, it's basically anyone that the president calls or anyone that even his direct staff calls and solicits advice from can be a private adviser to the president.”Host Menendez, pointed out, “I think what is interesting to me is the fact that it is happening in the shadow of this memo, where now it feels a little bit like that Oprah moment: ‘You get a car, you get a car, you get a car.’”“Now it's like ‘You're a private advisor, you're a private advisor, you're a private advisor,’ because they now have a legal shield that they did not previously have,” she added.Conservative Amanda Carpenter, a Trump critic, suggested, “What Trump is trying to do here, and through this memo is shield any kind of accountability that may come later. I view this as a kind of preemptive strike against any accountability that might come after the midterm elections.” - YouTube youtu.be

Aug 13, 2026 - World

A small town in Andalusia has become the center of a national dispute after its Socialist-led council voted to move a centuries-old local holiday off the date tied to its patron saint's festivities, drawing accusations from the opposition that the change is designed to strip the celebration of its religious character.

Aug 13, 2026 - World

Fireworks burst over Pakistan's capital at midnight as jubilant crowds poured into streets across the country to mark the 79th anniversary of independence, waving national flags and chanting "Long Live Pakistan."

Aug 13, 2026 - World

The State Department on Thursday called a joint Chinese naval maneuver with an Indonesian warship in waters east of Taiwan a destabilizing act, while Taipei denounced the maneuver as "dangerous."

Aug 13, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump has a crack problem — and America is paying the cost of it, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.Krugman argued on Substack Thursday that Americans are unlikely to see gas prices drop because, as he put it, "Donald Trump is not a well man. He is, unfortunately, also President, which means that we all pay a price for his inability to accept reality."That "reality," according to Krugman, is that Iran has outmaneuvered him and the war is lost.The former New York Times economist argued oil prices are higher than is generally understood because of the difference between the cost of a barrel of crude and that of the products refined from that barrel — or "crack spread." Since the beginning of the war, that crack spread has "exploded," rising by roughly $35 per barrel, Krugman wrote. Refining capacity worldwide has been significantly constrained because much of the world's refining capacity is either trapped inside the Strait or offline as a result of Ukraine's drone campaign against Vladimir Putin, according to Krugman's analysis.Therefore, the shortage of refining capacity has held crude prices down, as buyers are not willing to pay extremely high prices for crude oil they cannot refine, explained the economist.The cutoff of oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz has required a large rise in global oil prices to ration demand, but much of that rationing has taken place through a rise in "the crack spread" rather than a rise in crude oil prices.For the United States, the implications are immediate, the economist warned. Inflation, which was held down in recent months by falling fuel prices, is set to rise again in upcoming economic data. Gasoline prices have risen back above $4 per gallon, while diesel prices have returned above $5 per gallon.