Thursday, August 13, 2026
The US and Iran are trading contradictory claims over who controls the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil passes. Trump insists the US has total control of the strait while Tehran holds firm on its demands, keeping one of the world's most consequential waterways in active dispute.
A newly released, unclassified Pentagon review has confirmed that US military strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen killed 153 civilians in 2025. The report offers the most detailed official accounting yet of civilian harm from the American campaign, and lands as Pete Hegseth separately warns that the ICC may investigate US boat strikes against drug cartels in Latin America.
A rare solar eclipse swept across Europe on Wednesday evening, with Spain and Iceland experiencing totality and more than 90% of the sun obscured over the UK — the most dramatic event of its kind in a generation. It marks the first time in a century that the Iberian Peninsula has fallen in the full shadow of the moon.
A compromised AI package has led to one of the more alarming supply-chain breaches in recent memory, with terabytes of credentials scraped and exfiltrated from 2,500 affected users. The attack highlights the growing security risk of pulling third-party AI libraries into production pipelines without rigorous vetting.
Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person ever to hold the White House press secretary role, is stepping down at the end of August after Trump announced her departure on social media. The 28-year-old, who returned from maternity leave just last month after giving birth to her daughter Viviana in May, framed the exit as a decision to spend more time with family.
