August 2026
All columns and Brief analyses.
10 results
Yearly snakebite deaths estimated at 274,000 to 513,000, well above earlier figures
A peer-reviewed study in PLOS Medicine combined a literature review covering 79 countries with geostatistical modelling and estimated 2.1 million to 7.0 million envenomings and 274,000 to 513,000 deaths each year. Sub-Saharan Africa carries 45 per cent of both estimates. Ediriweera and colleagues drew on literature published between January 2007 and March 2025 and modelled incidence for places where direct counts are missing.
Young workers in the most AI-exposed jobs fall 19 percent behind as Cheshire Academy marks every assignment green, yellow or red
An updated Stanford study finds workers aged 22 to 25 in the most AI-exposed occupations sit 19 percent below less exposed peers, against 13 percent a year earlier. Cheshire Academy marks each assignment green, yellow or red.
Alibaba paid for its AI in shares, and the bill arrived the same morning
A share sale of 10.21 billion dollars funds the next round of AI capacity with no maturity date attached, and the cost showed up in the share price before lunchtime in Hong Kong.
Drivers paid for their own fuel discount while the refining margin turned into a dividend
Italy is holding 17 cents a litre off diesel and covering the cost with the extra value added tax that higher pump prices already collected. On the same day, Ampol reported a refining margin of 28.26 dollars a barrel and lifted its interim dividend from 40 to 185 cents. The same shock is a rebate on one side of the ledger and a distribution on the other.
Four in five kept the rectum; the cancer answer takes three more years
A randomised trial across five countries left four in five patients with their rectum after chemoradiotherapy at 12 months. That is an organ-preservation result, and the follow-up still running is what will say whether the cancer stays away.
Kampala has voted, Bujumbura is waiting
The list of countries pledging troops for Gaza is far behind the 20,000 target. Uganda and Burundi, two African states, are answering the call by different routes: one bound its contribution with a parliamentary vote, the other sent a delegation and signed nothing.
Mexico regained its lost quarter, and the core price index moved the other way
Output rose 1.4 per cent in the second quarter after a 0.3 per cent contraction in the first. The price release published the same morning put headline inflation at 3.26 per cent against core at 3.93 per cent. The gap is where the recovery's income is showing up.
Nineteen million observations, and the comparison rests on five regions
When Kazakhstan moved the whole country onto one clock, a natural experiment appeared. The 11.4 per cent rise in cardiovascular consultations carries a tight confidence interval, but the tightness comes from patient counts. The comparison itself is built between 15 eastern units and 5 western ones, and the authors report a p-value that reflects it.
Tehran turns Hormuz into a permit, and Rezaei aims at the way around it
Iran's strait authority now publishes a list of ships it will fine, detain or seize, and tells cargo owners to check it before they charter. The chokepoint moves from the water to the paperwork, and Mohsen Rezaei's warning to the neighbours says the lines built to avoid the strait will be priced as well.
The 950 billion dollar account changes the buyback clock
Treasury can buy long bonds with cash already at the Federal Reserve before it sells new bills. That changes when the market receives new debt, while leaving the eventual funding bill open.