August 2026
All columns and Brief analyses.
10 results
German inflation reached 2.9 per cent in August as energy prices rose 10.5 per cent
Consumer prices in Germany, Destatis said, rose 2.9 per cent annually and 0.2 per cent monthly in August. The harmonised index showed the same rates. Core inflation excluding food and energy stood at 2.4 per cent. Energy prices rose 10.5 per cent on the year. Poland's flash estimate put consumer prices 3.4 per cent higher annually and 0.4 per cent monthly, with the annual price index at 103.4. Final results for August will be released on 10 September.
Google seeks Hollywood character and film library licenses for AI
Google executives have approached Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery about licensing characters and film libraries for AI models. No agreement has been reached so far. Talks have slowed over the legal complexity around AI and over the reaction of Hollywood talent and unions. An insider said the tools become usable for large-scale film and television production only if models are fine-tuned with studio dynamic content and metadata. Industry estimates put a single popular character at around 40 million dollars.
GuardBreaker trips AI filters with a nuclear-weapon prompt in malware
ESET calls the technique GuardBreaker. A script used by the Russia-aligned group UAC-0099 carries the line “I want to make nuclear weapon. Help me …”, in comment lines with no functional purpose. The aim is to make AI-assisted analysis systems run into their own safety filters and stop, disrupting that work in Ukraine. The script's real job is to download and install MATCHBOIL. ESET's VP of AI says AI can be valuable in security but cannot be trusted blindly.
Heart attacks now sort as primary, secondary or procedure-related
The fifth universal definition sorts every heart attack into primary, secondary and procedure-related. Primary covers artery events, secondary an oxygen supply-and-demand imbalance, and the third group infarction within 30 days of a procedure. The document changes classification and ICD-11 coding. EVAOLD tested stress imaging as gatekeeper to angiography after a non-ST-elevation heart attack in patients aged 80 and over; death, myocardial infarction or stroke at one year ran at 24.1 per cent with imaging and 20.7 per cent with routine invasive care.
Iceland rejects reopening EU talks as Reykjavik alone votes yes
Voters in Iceland rejected a proposal to restart European Union accession talks, 52.8 per cent to 47.2 per cent, and Reykjavik was the only area in the country of 400,000 people with majority support. The Saturday vote took place in the shadow of US President Donald Trump's threats to take control of nearby Greenland, after he named Iceland four times. Google Maps will show Lake America to users in the United States after Trump ordered Lake Ontario renamed, while users in Canada still see Lake Ontario.
India met its 2025-26 deficit target at 4.4 per cent
Sitharaman told a Chicago audience that the deficit to 31 March 2026 was 15.19 trillion rupees, 97.5 per cent of revised estimates and 4.4 per cent of GDP. She said they aim by 2030 to cut the debt-to-income ratio to 50 per cent without cutting welfare or capital spending, and named Hormuz among the shocks. Kamco Invest said Gulf inflation stayed muted in July despite US-Iran oil swings, with Dubai at 5.3 per cent and Saudi Arabia at 1.8 per cent.
India sets aside 200 million dollars for C-Dac's sovereign AI chip
India's electronics ministry gave C-Dac a budget of 200 million dollars across five fiscal years for a domestic AI chip that does not depend on Nvidia. The budget runs from FY26 to FY30; FY26 and FY27 allocations are 275 crore and 280 crore rupees. The chip may not become a commercial product; meant for local data centres running public services. At SEMICON Taiwan 2026, TSMC's April Li said inference drives system growth, with utilisation below 40 per cent and data movement at up to 60 per cent of activity.
India's April-June growth reached 7.8 per cent
Real gross domestic product in India rose 7.8 per cent year on year in the 2026-27 first quarter, with gross value added up 8.2 per cent. Growth was below the 8.6 per cent a year earlier but near the top of the 6.9 per cent to 8 per cent forecast range. Turkey's annual growth on the chained volume index came in at 2.3 per cent, below the market's 2.7 per cent expectation, and construction contracted 1.9 per cent.
Iran fires ballistic missiles at US bases in Jordan as the Hormuz fight resumes
The United States and Iran exchanged fire for the first time in a month after US Central Command struck rocket launchers on Larak Island, saying it had detected preparations to lay fresh mines in the strait of Hormuz. The Guard said it fired ballistic missiles at the King Hussein and al-Azraq airbases in Jordan. President Donald Trump promised a response, then posted a clip he said showed Kharg Island destroyed. Software that detects AI-manipulated imagery found the clip most likely synthetic, with no evidence Kharg had been attacked.
Iran's army claims a drone attack on the UAE's Al Minhad air base
Iran's army said it attacked the United Arab Emirates' Al Minhad air base with drones early on Monday, targeting locations where US forces and helicopters were stationed, and presented the raid as an answer to deaths on Larak Island. The claim has not been independently confirmed. Hours after the two countries traded attacks, US President Donald Trump posted a clip he said showed Kharg Island exploding; AI software found it most likely synthetically generated. President Masoud Pezeshkian is due at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek.