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Aug 14, 2026 - World

CNN anchor Erin Burnett called the conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln "shocking" during a live broadcast on Thursday as new details emerged about dire troop morale.Burnett spoke with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who sits on the Armed Services Committee. The lawmaker wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asking for information about the troops on naval ships and pushed back on Hegseth's claims."Hegseth trying to characterize these powerful, credible reports as fake news is really a disservice and profoundly disrespectful to the sailors who are on the USS Abraham Lincoln and enduring these hardships," Blumenthal said. He explained how the lack of supplies, access to food, hot water, toothpaste and soap affects morale and increases stress, which he said contributed to a sailor reportedly going overboard."Anyone who's familiar with how an aircraft carrier operates knows that these jobs are highly stressful, requiring stamina as these fighter jets land on an area that looks like a postage stamp as they begin their descent," Blumenthal said. "And these sailors, whether they are on the deck or below, doing mechanics or at the surveillance systems, fending off possible attacks, are all under tremendous stress and doing work that can be highly dangerous if they are either distracted or demoralized. So it's a real strategic issue."Reports indicated Thursday that the USS Washington was on its way to replace or relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been at sea for a record 200-plus days without a port call — they haven't touched ground since the ship deployed from San Diego in November 2025.But that still doesn't solve the problem, Blumenthal explained."The USS Washington is being taken away from its forward position in the far east. So the endless war of impulse without strategy and exit plan is having a toll on our military readiness," he added.Burnett pointed out why this was problematic."When you hear this as an American and Americans rightly have pride in the greatest military in the world, but to hear that you have a premier military ship like this, right, a carrier where people aren't getting enough food, I think it's stunning," Burnett said. "It's hard to hear. And it's frankly shocking. And the conditions on the Lincoln appear to be in no small part because of the war with Iran." Blumenthal described another disturbing report: sailors have not been receiving their care packages."Anybody who's had sons or daughters in the military, I've had two, knows that a stale cookie can be worth its weight in gold," he said. "That kind of destructive impact to morale can have a ripple effect in the crew."

Aug 13, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump might have a particular motivation for blowing a gasket about recent leaks like his catering cart escape to a secret plane.National security journalist Marcy "emptywheel" Wheeler raised her new theory in a post about the incident, which involved reporters and even some White House staff traveling in a decoy Air Force One flight without their knowledge during the threat of an assassination attempt — and it comes back to the fact that the only other significant people on the real flight were Trump aides Natalie Harp, Walt Nauta, and Dan Scavino."The details about who was in that catering cart are useful," she said, and not just because of the fact that "Trump took his comfort blonde, Harp, with him but not Stephen Miller (or any other Cabinet official, to include Marco Rubio)," wrote Wheeler. Rather, it could actually explain why Trump is so angry and scared about the leaks coming out of the White House.At the same time that The New York Times was hit with subpoenas for its journalistic sources about the Air Force One security issues, Wheeler explained."Susie Wiles and Kash Patel started seizing phones almost immediately. They also had to learn who was traveling with Trump — who was in that catering cart," Wheeler wrote.The simple fact is, said Wheeler, the nature of this leak means only a small handful of people could have tipped off the press — and most of those options aren't good for Trump. Those options include "One of those closest aides in the catering cart, or the junior people they brought with them; A very small group of the big-ego people left back as bait on Old Air Force One; Someone inside the Secret Service, involved in the ruse; [or] Turkish sources, who learned of the transfer."This means that for all Trump knows, one of his most trusted aides, like Harp, could have betrayed him. And it's vital to him to know whether that happened, Wheeler wrote."None of that justifies the abusive way Kash and Susie Wiles started chasing down sources," she concluded. "But it does explain it."

Aug 13, 2026 - World

Jared Kushner drew immediate backlash for a social media post claiming President Donald Trump had opened a new chapter of 'peace' in the Middle East, as a U.S.-initiated war raged on.Kushner posted Thursday on X to mark what he called the six-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords — the 2020 diplomatic agreements that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states.The comments came despite a war that Trump began February 28 by launching strikes against Iran, igniting a regional conflict that has since drawn in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, according to the Council on Foreign Relations."Magical thinking is the new norm in this US administration," former diplomat Alan Eyre responded on X, quoting Kushner's post.Eyre spent 40 years as a U.S. Foreign Service diplomat and served as the sole career diplomat on the U.S. nuclear negotiating team that produced the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.In his post on X, Kushner claimed that Trump had delivered what many said was impossible."Six years ago, President Trump launched the Abraham Accords and opened a new chapter of peace, partnership, and prosperity in the Middle East," Kushner wrote."The Middle East is once again at an inflection point," the president's son-in-law added. "Now we have an opportunity to build an even broader movement around cooperation, shared prosperity and security."In the February 28 strike on Iran, the U.S. and Israel killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of senior military figures, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The war has not ended.Since March 2, Israel has also waged a separate war in Lebanon, where more than 4,300 people have been killed, including at least 253 children, according to the United Nations.Former Obama White House national security spokesman Tommy Vietor was among those who replied to Kushner directly on X."Yes the Middle East has been so peaceful since the signing of the Abraham Accords. No new wars. No slaughter of innocent people. Just good vibes and trade deals," Vietor wrote.Kushner, however, focused on the future."We surprised the world once. With the right leadership, focus, patience and courage, I believe we can do it again," he wrote.Andreas Krieg, a security analyst at King's College London, was less optimistic."Project 'Peace in the Middle East' is going very well indeed," Krieg replied to Kushner.The Strait of Hormuz — through which 20 percent of the world's oil once flowed — remained effectively closed as of Wednesday, with U.S.-Iran negotiations stalled, according to CNN.

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

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.