Headlines: 10-16 August 2026

Friday, 14 August 2026

US to roll out 'economic isolation' plan for Iran next week (LINK) — 14 August 2026

U.S. FDA approved the first mRNA flu vaccine for use in older adults last week: reactions (LINK) — 14 August 2026

Italian police recover stolen Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse paintings worth millions: stolen earlier this year from a private museum near the northern city of Parma (LINK) — 14 August 2026

— A statement from the Italian Carabinieri's art recovery squad said the paintings were discovered during searches ordered by prosecutors, but no details were given. The investigation is ongoing.

U.S.: Kennedy Center votes to restore Trump's name and close for 2 years, challenging a judge's order (LINK) — 14 August 2026

Washington WWII memorial vandalism. Trump: 'We are on their trail' (of spraypainters) (LINK) — 14 August 2026

— On Friday, the White House posted photos on the social platform X that showed orange, pink and green graffiti sprayed throughout the World War II memorial and thick layers of bubbles around the fountain in the center. The photos posted partially show a message written in orange graffiti by one of the entrances: "Clean hands Dirty $."

Thursday, 13 August 2026

U.S.: Gun rights groups capitalize after judge reverses decades-old silencer restrictions (LINK) — 13 August 2026

U.K.: Nigel Farage easily wins election in which his main rival was a self-described intergalactic space warrior dressed as a trash can, plus 32 other fringe or novelty candidates: ballot paper 3 feet (1 m) long: almost all the half-dozen major political parties declined to participate (LINK) — 13 August 2026

US carries out first triple execution in 16 years: on same day in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama through lethal injection (LINK) — 13 August 2026

Wednesday, 12 August 2026

Greenland forces Trump-linked US oil firm to delay drilling (LINK) — 12 August 2026

WHO says Trump's vaccine overhaul goes against 'decades of evidence' (LINK) — 12 August 2026

Israel and Lebanon agree Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Indonesia could send peacekeeping troops (LINK) — 12 August 2026

Ukraine war latest: 4 Russian warships damaged in strike on Black Sea Fleet port in Novorossiysk (LINK) — 12 August 2026

Russian economy rebounds in second quarter thanks to consumer demand despite Ukrainian strikes (LINK) — 12 August 2026

Swiss government to reject initiative "for a sustainable and forward-looking Swiss financial centre", without putting forward a counter-proposal (LINK) — 12 August 2026

Swiss bankruptcies rose sharply in first half of year partly due to economic factors and partly to a change in the law: corporate insolvencies rose by just under 55% to 7,496 cases in the first six months — the highest level since 1994 (LINK) — 12 August 2026

U.S. Feds bust one of largest alleged marriage fraud schemes in US history involving 1,000-plus Chinese sham unions:U Chinese nationals paid up to $100,000 each to marry US citizens (LINK) — 12 August 2026

Crypto bridge Coreum loses nearly all of 200,000 XRP in 97 minutes on 9 August, exploiting a flaw in how the bridge confirmed deposits (LINK) — 12 August 2026

Tuesday, 11 August 2026

Ukraine, Zelensky: 'Zaporizhzhia attacked with North Korean missiles, 6 dead' (LINK) — 11 August 2026

Over 16,000 civilians detained by Russia during the war in Ukraine are still held, UN estimates (LINK) — 11 August 2026

Swiss government rejects proposed stricter definition of neutrality: rejects the initiative to be put to a nationwide vote on September 27 (LINK) — 11 August 2026

— The initiative, tabled by Pro Suisse and members of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, seeks to define Swiss neutrality as "perpetual and armed". It also requires that Switzerland not join any military or defence alliances, not take part in foreign wars, and not impose economic or diplomatic sanctions against a belligerent state, subject to its obligations towards the United Nations.

Death toll rises to 132 in western Colombia afters strongest earthquake in years: tremor was felt strongly in capital (LINK) — 11 August 2026

Indonesia races to contain fires as haze spreads across six priority provinces (ground news LINK) — 11 August 2026

Ousted Syrian President Assad and brother sentenced to death in absentia (ground news LINK) — 11 August 2026

China, Indonesia navies to hold drills in sensitive waters to east of Taiwan this month (ground news LINK) — 11 August 2026

US appeals court voids Biden-era efficiency rule for stoves, ovens, saying Department of Energy improperly bypassed public comment procedures (LINK) — 11 August 2026

Newsweek: Trump allies are linked to controversial Greenland oil drilling plan (LINK) — 11 August 2026

— Government having given no permission for transfer or for the start of exploratory drilling. Greenland Energy is involved with several individuals who boast indirect links to the administration and the president.

California to phase out paraquat, a powerful weedkiller associated with serious health issues (LINK) — 10 August 2026

Trump hid in catering truck for secret plane swap after Nato summit in Turkey last month over Iran threat, reports say (LINK) — 11 August 2026

— The US president boarded Air Force One in view of television cameras before being transported to a military aircraft with the help of a catering truck, the Washington Post said. Journalists and some White House staff on board did not know he had been smuggled out. The White House has not confirmed the secret switch.

Taylor Swift's Trump TikTok takedowns show the White House isn't above copyright law (LINK) — 11 August 2026

Nieman Lab: We analyzed 6,400 New York Times stories to find out how comments change when you give readers more information: the same stories that produced sharper, more analytic conversation also produced less conversation. (LINK) — 11 August 2026

— "The more analytically a story was written, and the more statistics it contained, the fewer people commented on it. Emotional stories did the opposite, drawing bigger crowds."

The largest known galaxy, IC 1101, is wider than 17 Milky Ways: it grew to 1.7 million light-years wide by gobbling up other galaxies (LINK) — 11 August 2026

Monday, 10 August 2026

New transmission from animals likely caused Congo-Uganda Ebola outbreak, study says: previously unseen variant of the rare Bundibugyo species of the virus (LINK) — 10 August 2026

China evacuates one million from homes as massive storm arrives in eastern China including the financial capital Shanghai: nearly 1,000 flights cancelled in Shanghai (LINK) — 10 August 2026

Ukraine drone strike on Russian oil-refining city in Tatarstan kills 13 in one of the deadliest attacks carried out by Kyiv since the war began more than four years ago (LINK) — 10 August 2026

Ukraine destroys air defences guarding Putin's holiday home near Gelendzhik, southern Russia (LINK) — 10 August 2026

Putin pressures Russian regions to find 409,000 soldiers for war (LINK) — 10 August 2026

UN calls for urgent action to protect children from online information risks: more than eight in 10 young people aged 15 to 24 worldwide are now online (LINK) — 10 August 2026

Trump signs executive order calling for fewer childhood vaccines, falsely linking shots to autism (LINK) — 10 August 2026

Fox News: President Donald Trump notched a legal victory on Monday when a district judge granted his Leave to File First Amended Complaint in Trump v. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), allowing the president's legal team to amend his complaint against the global broadcaster. (LINK) — 10 August 2026

Top economist — Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok — warns that the AI math doesn't make sense: 'Profits are currently being funded by investors rather than earned from customers' (LINK) — 8 August 2026

Venezuela quake death toll rises to 6,301 (ground news LINK) — 10 August 2026

— Tremors measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude struck on June 24, destroying around 190 buildings and leaving 24,000 people homeless in makeshift camps. Estimates regarding missing persons vary significantly: the United Nations initially estimated around 50,000 missing, while independent initiatives documented approximately 40,000, and La Guaira Governor Jose Alejandro Teran reported around 1,400.

IAEA set to remove nuclear material from Syrian site in US-brokered deal (ground news LINK) — 10 August 2026

Car bomb kills eastern Libyan military intelligence chief (ground news LINK) — 10 August 2026

— His Libyan National Army, commanded by Khalifa Haftar, controls significant portions of eastern and southern Libya and aligns with authorities in Benghazi, while the Government of National Unity controls Tripoli. Separately, Central Bank Governor Naji Issa submitted his resignation to rival legislative chambers, citing sensitive reasons in documents confirmed Monday. Libya remains divided between rival eastern and western factions since 2014, despite a 2020 ceasefire that halted major warfare.

UK probes major Muslim charity, the Al-Khair Foundation, over alleged Hamas funding during Gaza War (LINK) — 10 August 2026

Fantom backer Harry Yeh dies after falling from Paraguay tower (LINK) — 10 August 2026

— His naked body was found under a black plastic bag. When the local police reached his apartment, they found it ransacked with the door wide open and nobody else present.

Three-quarters of England in drought as summer's fifth heatwave looms: 27 million people under restrictions on water use (LINK) — 10 August 2026

Fire bans tighten across Switzerland in new heat wave: Geneva, Basel regions impose strict fire restrictions as MeteoSwiss warns temperatures could reach 36C (LINK) — 10 August 2026

Nearly 70 percent of France under water restrictions amid record heat (LINK) — 10 August 2026

The U.S. just had its hottest month in 132 years of records (LINK) — 10 August 2026

North Korean hackers build AI tools for cyberattacks: report (LINK limited) — 10 August 2026

DRC's Ebola outbreak began months before it was officially declared, says WHO: earlier cases were wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid (LINK) — 10 August 2026

Russia's top court bars anti-war Yabloko party from parliamentary vote (LINK) — 10 August 2026

— The court ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by the small pro-Kremlin nationalist party Rodina, which sought Yabloko's exclusion from the election. Rodina alleged that Yabloko had received undeclared campaign support, including from Western sources, among other accusations.

South Australia is home to the only mass cuttlefish gathering in the world. This year these giants didn't return: but the cuttlefish life cycle lasts only a year (LINK) — 10 August 2026

— Crucially, after mating, all adult cuttlefish die, meaning the next generation is dependent on the mating success of the previous year

'98% of ads are a waste of money': former marketing chief of Mastercard Raja Rajamannar says marketing needs a reset, slams YouTube 'blackmail' & dumb money: says AI technology will eventually be creating a "sea of sameness" (LINK) — 12 August 2026