August 2026
All columns and Brief analyses.
10 results
Iran’s truce dispute and Yemen attacks keep two sea lanes under pressure
Mediated efforts to revive the June Iran-US truce have stalled as rival claims persist over Hormuz, while renewed Houthi attacks on shipping have brought Yemen back before the Security Council.
JD.com, Tapestry and Applied Materials find different paths from growth to profit
JD.com's revenue slipped as operating income turned positive, Coach carried Tapestry while Kate Spade shrank, and Applied Materials lifted its outlook after a record quarter.
July retail sales fell 0.6 per cent and the dollar hit a May low
US retail and food sales fell 0.6 per cent in July, the dollar slipped to its lowest since May, and preliminary consumer sentiment came in at 51.0.
Juno catches an escaping ion as new telescopes target atmospheres and early black holes
Juno measured an ion escaping Jupiter's aurora in place, a 900-telescope design targets Earth-like atmospheres in one transit, and Webb found the closest confirmed early black-hole pair.
LG ties its humanoid robot to Nvidia while TIER IV opens an autonomous-driving chip
LG is building its first bipedal robot on Nvidia's humanoid foundation model, while TIER IV plans to open its autonomous-driving chip logic, exposing two critical layers of physical AI.
Malaysia grows 6 per cent as housing demand weakens in Australia and Türkiye
Malaysia's economy grew 6 per cent in the second quarter. Meanwhile, investor housing loans in Australia fell 10.2 per cent and home sales in Türkiye dropped 17 per cent; headline growth did not erase housing weakness.
Microphones, reservoirs and smoke maps put environmental stress into numbers
A reef’s 3,567 blasts, a 16 per cent reservoir drop, 106 million person-days of smoke and butterflies shifting 218 kilometres expose environmental pressure across very different scales.
Mosquito bites, tissue ages and cell signals expose biology’s timing
Malaria-blocking compounds and vaccine nanoparticles alter immune timing in mice, while tissue images show organs ageing at different rates and heart-failure work identifies a brain-vessel signal.
Netanyahu rejects the Gaza plan as Kushner re-enters the talks
Netanyahu rejected staged Hamas disarmament; Kushner will travel to Israel with Mladenov and Blair. The same week he mocked British media while Jordan Valley water diversion continued.
New maps expose how hidden structures direct matter and light
Neutrons locate water in a Martian meteorite, tracers separate lithium’s routes through battery particles, and theory gives disordered materials directional optical control. Each study makes an unseen structure actionable.