2026/08/12 Daily Edition

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine had been under pressure from Republican leaders, including President Trump.

U.S. employers cut 23,000 jobs in July, and job gains for the two previous months were weaker than initially reported, according to a report Friday from the Labor Department.

Businesses are reckoning with the financial toll of this year’s brutal climate shocks.

Extreme conditions in Washington and Oregon have fueled fast-moving fires, leaving the region draped in toxic plumes – and the danger isn’t over Piles of twisted metal and ashen debris line the cul-de-sacs where the tranquil suburbs of Spokane, Washington, once stood. The scale of devastation from a historic wildfire season in the Pacific north-west has come into sharper focus as firefighters wrangle a trio of blazes that consumed at least 846 structures on the eastern side of the state...

The response to this summer’s record heat and drought should be led by ministers – not left to the emergency services The wildfire that began on protected heathland in the New Forest in Hampshire on Sunday was reported to be under control on Tuesday. But with temperatures forecast to reach 36C or higher in parts of England on Thursday, the risk of further outbreaks remains high. Firefighters responded to 185 wildfires in the first 10 days of August. In coastal Suffolk, conservationists and locals are counting the cost of the blaze that devastated Dunwich Heath. Its vegetation and rare bird populations are expected to take decades to recover. Although the immediate cause of many wildfires is litter, the risks are elevated by heat and drought, and repeated warnings from climate scientists do not necessarily lessen the shock and distress caused. As people and governments across Europe assess this summer’s damage, experts including the UN climate chief, Simon Stiell, hope that the fires will focus minds on the urgent necessity of cutting emissions – as well as investing in emergency planning. Europe is currently heating up faster than any other continent, due in part to proximity to the melting Arctic...

With gas prices high, people in developing countries are lining up to buy battery-powered bikes. We took a spin around Lahore, Pakistan, on a small-but-mighty one.

Observers express concern that the division has lost its independence and commercial reality has taken over When Sir Demis Hassabis said AI had brought the world to a “pivotal moment in human history” last month, he knew another big change was imminent. This shift was closer to home. The Nobel prize-winning head of Google DeepMind, Google’s AI unit, announced this week he was relinquishing his day-to-day duties as chief executive and becoming chair. He is also taking on the role of chief scientist at DeepMind’s parent, Alphabet...

Agent found to be able to find and exploit vulnerabilities without human intervention, and to carry out cyber-attacks OpenAI will pause some work on an artificial intelligence model because of security concerns, the company stated on Friday, following a series of incidents in which AI agents have escaped containment. The company had evaluated the agent, Astra, and found “significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity”, which had moved to a “critical” threshold where it can find and exploit vulnerabilities without human intervention, or devise and execute cyber-attacks when given only a “high level desired goal”...

State department informs Congress of planned closures in Canada, Grenada, Japan, Indonesia and Cameroon The US state department is to shut five foreign consulates and missions across Asia, Africa, North America and the Caribbean, drawing criticism that it is leaving a diplomatic vacuum at risk of being filled by China. The US Congress has been served notice of the impending closures, which are being justified on cost grounds and follow a reassessment of the US’s bilateral relationships with a range of countries since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025...

David Owori, who played for the national team, died in hospital after he tried to stop robbers taking his phone The Ugandan football community is in mourning after the death of a player who was fatally injured during a robbery in the capital, Kampala, on Tuesday night. David Owori, who captained Sports Club Villa, a Uganda Premier League club, and represented the national team, was attacked after resisting an attempt to steal his mobile phone and other belongings near his home in Makindye division...

Polls show most Americans think young adults today have it harder financially than past generations. A majority of parents help their grown children with expenses, even if it hurts their own finances.

Russia released Robert Gilman on “a humanitarian basis,” President Trump said. Mr. Gilman’s family had said he was in dire physical condition.

On their first earnings call since SpaceX's June public offering, executives said the company is pouring funds into rocket development, Starlink satellites and AI.

A woman who paid £400 for a Prada handbag on Vinted later discovered it was a fake.

Uefa, Concacaf and AFC working together on system Fifa has ignored calls for an independent review Gianni Infantino’s opponents are working together to produce a new framework for running world football to replace what they regard as a system of patronage that Fifa has adopted since he replaced Sepp Blatter as president 10 years ago. Repeated calls from Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation for an independent review of Fifa’s governance have been ignored by Infantino since his plan to sell off 21% of the World Cup was made public a fortnight ago, and the rebels are now understood to have taken matters into their own hands...

An overloaded ferry capsized on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba, killing at least 15 people and leaving 27 missing.

Police charged Ahmed al Ahmed in June after an alleged incident with his father at a Sydney home.

Christopher Luxon says he has "full support" of his party, after a vote of confidence 12 weeks before a general election.

Syrians in Idlib gathered in celebration after a court sentenced ousted President Bashar al-Assad

Iran's top security official says the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen unless the US meets its conditions.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile Wednesday, its second test in less than a week, as Seoul and Washington prepare to begin annual military drills next week. The launches appear to signal Pyongyang’s opposition to the exercises, which it views as a rehearsal for an invasion.

The Comac C919 will fly from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, although experts say it could take generations for it to challenge the west’s dominance of the industry China hopes to break into the world of commercial aviation with the first international flight of a Chinese-made passenger jet scheduled for Wednesday. The Comac C919 will take off from Beijing capital international airport at 3pm, landing in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, just over two hours later...

The president says the Secret Service wanted him to go on a different flight after the Nato summit in Turkey.

Hundreds of rescue workers have been deployed in hardest hit cities trying to free victims still trapped under the rubble. Hundreds of people are still missing.

Reporting from the rubble of an apartment building, Al Jazeera’s Latin America Editor Lucia Newman describes the scene.

Debt restructuring, inflation and copper revenues are emerging as key issues in the vote.

Prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul calls for tighter gun controls and ‘decisive penalties’ after nine dead in school shooting Thailand has suspended firearms licences after last week’s deadly school shooting, as the bodies of the teenage attacker and the grandparents he killed were cremated. The prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, said he had ordered the interior ministry and police to stop issuing licenses to possess, purchase and carry firearms, and called for “tighter controls and decisive penalties”...

In 32 of the countries included in a recent study, at least a quarter of the native butterfly species had moved to new areas.

Pyongyang conducts second weapons test in less than a week as Seoul, Washington gear up for annual military exercises.

The prime minister tells the Guardian that last year’s diplomatic rift with ally New Zealand could be on voters’ minds as they head to the polls As voters in the Cook Islands prepare to head to the polls in a high-stakes general election, they will have much to reflect on. Over recent years, politics in this small island nation has been defined by fierce debates about deep-sea mining, diplomatic rifts with ally New Zealand and a major reshaping of the country’s foreign partnerships. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, days before Wednesday’s poll, Cook Islands prime minister Mark Brown defended his four-year term and the decisions he made that have seen this South Pacific nation of 17,000 people pushed into the international limelight, turning it into a battleground for influence between Beijing and western powers...

Up to 96% of the Sun will be covered by the Moon in the UK, while parts of Spain, Greenland, Iceland, Portugal and Russia will see a total eclipse.

It marks another striking episode in the turbulent history of his relationship with Iran, writes Anthony Zurcher.

In tonight's program, Nigerian returnees are trying to forget the trauma they experienced during months of xenophobic protests in South Africa that have frayed diplomatic ties between the two African powerhouses. Also, Chad says teaming up with General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army has made the country's shared border safer. Finally, Liberia's got a new drug enforcement tsar as the country levels up its crackdown on drugs weeks after two record-breaking cocaine busts.

Footage shows an Egyptian-owned cargo vessel in flames in the Bab al-Mandeb strait after a suspected Houthi attack.

The Portuguese superstar has posted an image of two hands - presumed to be his on top of his wife's - both wearing wedding rings.

Libya's eastern-based army said Tuesday that a car bomb killed its military intelligence chief, Fawzi al-Mansouri, in Benghazi. The assassination raises fresh questions over security in the stronghold of military commander Khalifa Haftar as efforts continue to reunify the divided country.

US forces disable a Panama-flagged cargo ship attempting to sail towards an Iranian port.