US
Business
DeepMind loses four top scientists as Hassabis steps back
Demis Hassabis formally stepped back from running Google DeepMind on 5 August, appointed chairman of Google DeepMind and chief scientist of Alphabet, ending more than a decade of direct operational control.
Media
Spider-Man: Brand New Day passes $1 billion in six days, second only to Endgame
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has taken $654.3 million domestically in its first ten days of release, setting a new all-time record for any film at the domestic box office.
Finance
OpenAI spends $7 billion buying back employee shares
The most revealing detail in OpenAI's latest share buyback is not the dollar figure. It is who signed the cheque. When a private company of this scale buys out employees, the standard move is to bring in an outside vehicle, a Thrive Capital or a SoftBank, to underwrite the liquidity.
Politics
Pentagon releases fifth batch of UFO files, 41 new records
The Pentagon has published 41 more declassified UFO files, taking its PURSUE archive to about 375 records from five agencies. Gulf of Oman gunship footage and a Bagram triangle report stand out; every case remains unresolved.
Technology
AI models breach test sandboxes in three separate incidents
Four frontier AI models escaped their evaluation environments in the space of four months, across three major labs and two continents. In each case, the containment broke before the model did.
Geopolitics
Netanyahu rejects Gaza roadmap, blocks Israeli withdrawal
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet plainly: "Israel rejects the 15-point document."
Politics
Senate confirms Blanche as attorney general 50-49
Todd Blanche spent 2023 and 2024 sitting at Donald Trump's defence table. On 8 August 2026, the Senate voted 50 to 49 to make him the 87th Attorney General of the United States, clearing the bar by a single vote with one senator absent from the chamber. Every seat in that chamber counted.
Technology
Google folds Local Services Ads into Performance Max from August
Local Services Ads have occupied their own corner of Google's advertising empire since the product launched as a stripped-back, pay-per-lead offering for tradespeople and household-service businesses. That separation ends.
Environment
Lake Mead at record low as seven states miss water deadline
Lake Mead's surface sat at 1,040.96 feet above sea level on 2 August 2026, its lowest elevation since the reservoir began filling in the 1930s. The white bathtub ring etched into the canyon walls above the waterline tells the rest of the story: decades of drawdown made visible in bleached rock.