August 2026
All columns and Brief analyses.
10 results
Houthi drones aim at Aramco in Jazan as the UAE tells people to take shelter
The UAE told people to take shelter after detecting missiles aimed at its territory. Houthi agency Saba said drones hit the Aramco refinery in Jazan; Riyadh has not confirmed it. Fighting spread across seven Yemeni provinces.
In three economies payroll employment fell by 78,000 over the year while retail sales growth stayed at 0.6 per cent and annual inflation rose to 3.0 per cent
In three economies payroll employment fell by 78,000 over the year, retail sales grew only 0.6 per cent in July, and inflation reached 3.0 per cent; employment, demand and price pressure are not moving together.
Jomon genomes carry UCP1, FTO and APOA5 variants far more often than later populations
DNA from 42 Jomon individuals, 25 newly sequenced, finds UCP1, FTO and APOA5 variants far above today's frequencies. Those gaps describe a population, not what the variants do in one person today.
Justice Department probes a16z board seats as Nvidia funds OpenAI's Ohio site
Andreessen Horowitz seats on rival data boards drew a Justice Department inquiry. Nvidia puts 1.5 billion dollars into OpenAI's Ohio developer plus 105 billion dollars of credit. Anthropic took most Vercel gateway spending on far fewer tokens.
JWST's triple black holes and Helix bow shocks reveal cosmic transitions
JWST resolved three feeding black holes in a distant galaxy, while a MOTHRA calibration image showed stellar debris mixing into surrounding gas through 22 bow shocks in the Helix Nebula.
Kabul school blast and Rakhine insecurity keep civilian safety unresolved
Several students were injured in a Kabul school explosion, while Myanmar verified 308,797 Rohingya in Bangladesh but set no return date until security improves in Rakhine State.
Korea's youth jobs fall by 285,000 as Jung Jin-wook moves to restrict invented-law citations
Bank of Korea says 15-29 jobs fell by 285,000, 268,000 of them in AI-exposed sectors. Jung Jin-wook would restrict invented-law citations; Upstage, SK Telecom and LG go through.
Long US yield reaches 5.29 per cent as rate expectations pull the dollar lower
The 30-year US Treasury yield hit 5.29 per cent even as June net capital inflows reached 133.5 billion dollars, while softer rate expectations pushed the dollar to a two-month low.
Models move into defence as OpenAI disbands its risk team
OpenAI dissolved its catastrophic-risk team as Greg Brockman urged companies to deploy models in cyber defence; Wiz's agent independently found and exploited a Snowflake flaw. Faster capability is sharpening questions about durable institutional oversight.
Moscow summoned Tokyo's envoy over Takaichi as Trump cited a positive reply from Kim Jong Un
Russia summoned Tokyo's envoy over Sanae Takaichi's Kurils remarks. Wang Yi is due in Seoul to meet Cho Hyun after Washington cut the drills. Trump said Kim Jong Un sent a very positive reply; Pyongyang has not confirmed it.