North America ·
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Moderate confidence (74/100)
Brent crude climbs as renewed violence dampens hopes for a return to stability in energy markets.
Oil prices have jumped as attacks on shipping in the Middle East cast doubt on prospects for a breakthrough in negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude rose more than 2 percent overnight into Wednesday, taking the international benchmark to close to $90 a barrel.
Middle East ·
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High confidence (76/100)
Firefighters and residents of south Lebanon have accused the Israeli military of lighting wildfires in the region, as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Israeli bombing.
Environmental groups said the fires in recent weeks were part of a longstanding Israeli practice of targeting Lebanon’s natural environment.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military dropped flares in a wooded area outside Khiam, in south Lebanon, sparking blazes.
Asia-Pacific ·
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High confidence (76/100)
Former Australian Test opener Ed Cowan says some of Australia's batters are under pressure to make significant scores as the summer of cricket begins against Bangladesh in the Top End this week.
"If you're in the Australian Test team, and not performing regularly, there is just nowhere to hide," Cowan said on the ABC Cricket Podcast.
"And unfortunately, sometimes you get these weaker teams, and the expectation actually goes up.
Global ·
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Moderate confidence (73/100)
The concerns were highlighted in the 2026 Fiscal Transparency Report, which assessed Pakistan's public financial transparency and identified gaps in the country's budgetary and fiscal disclosure practi
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Moderate confidence (64/100)
Over 16,000 civilians captured by Russia during its conflict in Ukraine are still "deprived of their liberty," with many being held incommunicado and for reasons that violate international law, an informal UN security council meeting has been told.
According to Claudia Fuentes Julio, the UN assistant secretary-general for human rights.
“Widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment” of both Ukrainian civilian detainees and prisoners of war by Russia are continuing, including sexual violence.
Representational AI photoResearchers from Taiwan's National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) and TSMC Corporate Research have developed a new way to improve transistors made from atomically thin materials.
They focuses on the tiny boundary where two materials meet, which allowed them to build transistors with an extremely thin insulating layer while maintaining strong electrical performance.
According to Science Daily, atomically thin semiconductors have been studied for more than a decade because some can be just one atom thick while still showing useful electrical properties.
Asia-Pacific ·
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High confidence (76/100)
Thousands of people have been evacuated from areas at risk of flooding and landslides in Beijing, as the remnants of Typhoon Dolphin continue to bring torrential rain to northern and central China.
Forecasters warned on Tuesday that the Chinese capital could receive more than 150mm of rain over the following 24 hours, with some districts forecast to exceed 200mm – more than one-third of Beijing’s average annual rainfall of 528mm.
Beijing remained under an orange rainstorm warning, the second-highest level, on Wednesday, with the heaviest rainfall expected across the morning.
As the midterm elections are heating up, more and more Hollywood stars say they're putting a freeze on speaking out about politics, perhaps feeling burned by the 2024 White House race.
In recent months, entertainers from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to Jennifer Lawrence and Paris Hilton have said that they intend on keeping their political...
North America ·
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Moderate confidence (73/100)
Russian president Vladimir Putin is not looking to end the war in Ukraine, and is instead ramping up the production of ballistic missiles to break Kyiv’s resolve this winter, a Washington-based think tank has warned.
“The Kremlin will not enter serious negotiations or make meaningful compromises on its demands as long as Putin believes that he has a viable military path to achieving his full objectives,” the Institute for the Study of War said.
The ISW warned: “Russia’s reprioritisation of production efforts toward ballistic missiles will support Russian efforts to use the upcoming winter to bre
North America ·
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Moderate confidence (74/100)
Ukrainian president also says Russia will use its parliamentary election next month as a pretext to declare a new mobilisation.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Kyiv has handed the United States new proposals aimed at ending the four-and-a-half-year war with Russia.
The announcement on Tuesday came amid suggestions by both Ukraine and Russia that US negotiators would soon pay a visit to their two countries.
He's outlasted big names and seen many more games without the limelight but after nearly six decades looking after boots for Port Adelaide Football Club, Alfie Trebilcock is hanging up his own.
"I came down here [to Adelaide] in 1961.
My grandparents followed Port Adelaide so I started following them and used to go to their games and
Asia-Pacific ·
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Moderate confidence (74/100)
Export documents had been cleared, shipping schedules finalised, and growers in the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat reserved their best Alphonso and Kesar mangoes for export to Japan, one of Asia’s premium markets.
Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4‘It all depends on the crop’: Gulf
Australian prosecutors have dropped two assault-related charges against the man who became a national hero after disarming one of the gunmen during the Bondi Beach shooting last December.
Ahmed al-Ahmed, 44, was charged in June with domestic violence common assault, stalking, and intimidation following an alleged incident involving his father in southwest Sydney in March.
He denied the charges, saying they were “untrue” and that he was “shocked” by the situation.
NEW DELHI: The chairman of India's Tata Sons, N Chandrasekaran, said on Wednesday (Aug 12) that he has resigned in light of the lack of board approval for his reappointment amid tensions with the charity arm that controls the salt-to-aviation Tata Group.
Tata Sons controls more than 30 companies in the conglomerate, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Motors and Air India, but is in turn 66 per cent owned by Tata Trusts, the group's charitable arm.
Disagreements have been brewing between Chandrasekaran and Tata Trusts over the past few months, with the two sides clashing over board r
At least 15 people died and 27 remained missing after a passenger ferry capsized on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba on Tuesday.
(@zoleka_zw)At least 15 people died and 27 remained missing after a passenger ferry capsized on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba on Tuesday, while 77 people were rescued, authorities said.
Questions over possible overcrowding and incomplete passenger records have emerged as authorities work to establish how many people were actually aboard the vessel when it overturned.
North Korea’s recent missile launch may be a test of upgraded exports to Russia, observers say, as the war in Ukraine gives Pyongyang opportunities to improve its weapons.
At about 6am on Wednesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) detected a missile launched from the North’s southeastern port city of Wonsan.
It flew roughly 700km (435 miles) eastward before falling into the Sea of Japan, or East Sea.
North America ·
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Moderate confidence (73/100)
The US military fired on a Panamanian-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman yesterday after accusing it of trying to evade the American blockade on Iranian ports.
The military said the vessel had ignored warnings to stop, prompting an American helicopter to fire missiles into the engine room of the M/V Vela Nova, disabling the ship.
Details of the incident emerged as the US president told reporters late on Tuesday night that “we totally control the Strait of Hormuz ...
Multiple people are feared dead after a boat carrying 95 people sank on Kariba dam in Zimbabwe, with rescue operations under way.
Police said 90 passengers and five crew were onboard the vessel when it capsized on Tuesday, but it may have been overloaded, with other reports pointing to a higher number based on the registered ticket sales.
The vessel, which had left in the morning in bad weather according to a witness who spoke to AFP, may have been hit by a wave and overturned.
North America ·
Science ·
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Moderate confidence (73/100)
A vast belt of brown seaweed is stretching across the Atlantic Ocean, from the coast of West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, creating a phenomenon so extensive that it can be tracked from space.
Known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt (GASB), it has reached extraordinary proportions in 2026, about 5,000 miles in length.
Satellite measurements showed 37.5 million metric tons of sargassum across the Atlantic in May, while researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) recorded 33.6 million metric tons across the monitored Atlantic basin in June.
Photo: Jessica Hromas/AAP PHOTOSAt just three years old, Dusty Langby was already learning what it meant to be a caregiver.
After a tragic accident left his father with lifelong injuries, young Dusty stepped up to help around the family farm in Warren, a small town in central western New South Wales.
Now 12, Dusty is preparing for his biggest challenge yet.
20 hours agoJoe TidyCyber correspondent, BBC World ServiceGetty ImagesIt's a familiar experience: racing against masses of anonymous netizens online to get yourself on the list for an in-demand event.
For Andrew Bird, from Melbourne, in Australia, it was a spot in an often over-booked pilates class - but his solution had unexpected consequences.
He says he outsourced the "chore" to an AI agent - a tool that can carry out online tasks autonomously.
Asia-Pacific ·
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High confidence (76/100)
Trent Robinson won't be raging about the inequality of the tax breaks afforded to the PNG Chiefs, even if he believes the NRL's open market is no longer a "level playing field".
After Penrith winger Brian To'o became the sixth player wooed by the start-up franchise's tax-free wages, Panthers coach Ivan Cleary declared clubs "can't compete" with the bounty the Chiefs can provide from 2028.
Cleary revealed he was in tears when To'o informed him he would leave Penrith to join the Chiefs, who critics — led by South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett — have said now have an unfair advantage in attracting tal
North America ·
Science ·
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Moderate confidence (73/100)
Representative Image of a floating wind turbine monitored by fibre optic cables in deep ocean waters (AI-generated image)California's push into offshore wind energy faces a problem most coastal states never had to solve.
The state's strongest winds sit far from shore in water too deep for turbines fixed to the seafloor, meaning any large-scale project has to rely on floating structures instead.
Floating turbines bring their own headaches, since constant wave motion, shifting tidal loads and long distances from land make routine inspection and maintenance slow and expensive.
Football’s most famous current player wed his long-term partner Georgina Rodriguez after a decade together.
Cristiano Ronaldo, the world’s most followed athlete on social media, and his longtime partner Georgina Rodriguez married on Tuesday in a ceremony in the Portuguese resort of Cascais, the football superstar’s representatives said.
The wedding capped a decade-long relationship and came after days of intense media speculation in Portugal over the location and timing of the ceremony.
Latin America ·
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Moderate confidence (64/100)
Updated: 12/08/2026 - 9:18 GMT+2 A 7.4 quake in Colombia partially collapsed the Hospital Universitario del Valle in Cali on Monday, forcing patients outside as rescuers search for hundreds feared trapped.
CCTV footage shows people fleeing the building as debris fell, injuring one person who survived.
The hospital said around 90 patients were transferred after parts of its facilities, including emergency areas, became unusable.
Middle East ·
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Moderate confidence (73/100)
The tomb, a box-style sarcophagus built from stone slabs, was found in a previously unknown cemetery outside the city and is believed to date to between 475 and 300 BCE, placing it firmly within Aspendos's Classical period.
Alongside the skeleton, archaeologists recovered several silver coins bearing t
Image credits: itvNot all superheroes wear capes, some don tiaras and do the good work such as five-year-old Rosie.
After befriending Sid at a birthday party and learning he uses a wheelchair due to having spinal muscular atrophy type 1 (SMA1), a condition which causes muscle weakness and a lack of motor neuron function in infants, she wanted to help.
Rosie set herself a challenge, to scoot four miles in her favourite princess dress and so far, she has raised over £4,000, all to help her friend.
A coroner investigating an off-road racing crash that killed two people in Victoria's north-west is recommending stronger fire safety requirements for vehicles and competitors.
On September 4, 2022, Gerald Hoekstra, 46, and Ede Taric, 50, were competing in the Desert Enduro Race at Rainbow, about 400 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, when Mr Hoekstra lost control of their vehicle and crashed into a tree.
The vehicle rolled, landed on its side and was engulfed in flames.
Middle East ·
Health ·
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Moderate confidence (67/100)
Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Among the rubble of Khan Younis, 16-year-old Ahmed Hatem al-Mahabeel clutches his hand tightly under his chin – a repetitive movement he uses to calm his nervous system and cope with the memory of the sound of explosions.
Ahmed, who lives with autism, has had to face the loss of some of his favourite places – his bedroom, his school, the sports academy he would attend, all destroyed in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
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Middle East ·
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Moderate confidence (74/100)
Jericho, occupied West Bank – Where Palestinian homes once stood among orchards and swimming pools on the southwestern edge of Jericho, there is now only flattened earth.
Somewhere beneath the packed dirt lie entire houses, dumped into pits and smoothed over.
Only a few severed water pipes hint that anyone ever lived here – that, and the piles of rubble yet to be buried by an Israeli settler’s excavator.
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High confidence (81/100)
The swap, which happened after the NATO summit on July 8, wasn’t disclosed until this week.
United States President Donald Trump has confirmed that he secretly swapped planes due to a potential assassination threat from Iran during a NATO summit in Turkiye last month, and that he actually faced a “greater risk” on the decoy plane.
Asia-Pacific ·
Sports ·
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High confidence (76/100)
A former Hobart Hurricanes cricket player will serve 10 months in prison for sexually abusing a child.
WARNING: This story contains details of child sexual abuse.
Aaron William Summers, 30, pleaded guilty to two counts of penetrative sexual abuse of a young person and one count of grooming in June in the Supreme Court of Tasmania, after having previously pleaded not guilty.
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High confidence (78/100)
Singapore and South Korea have pulled Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel seasoning from e-commerce platforms because it contains poppy seeds.
While they do not naturally contain opiates, poppy seeds are banned in both countries because they can get contaminated with opiates by fluid in the poppy plant during harvesting.
More than 20 online listings of the popular seasoning have been removed, Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau said on Wednesday.
North America ·
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Moderate confidence (73/100)
Sitting in the open, untouched by the flames that had scorched the ground around it, was a gleaming metal sphere roughly the size of a bowling ball, eight inches across and weighing close to 22 pounds.
It showed no rust, no scorch marks and no obvious sign of where it had come from.
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Moderate confidence (74/100)
Russia’s Novorossiysk ‘endured a horrific night’, with a child killed and dozens of buildings damaged, says local mayor.
Russia and Ukraine have traded deadly overnight drone attacks, killing three people in Ukraine’s southern port city of Kherson and Russia’s Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk, according to regional officials.
A Ukrainian drone attack on Novorossiysk overnight Tuesday into Wednesday killed a child, injured another child and woman, and damaged dozens of buildings, including homes, reported mayor Andrei Kravchenko.
A long-horizon, open-ended research benchmark measuring frontier large language model (LLM) progress in discovery of new materials for the semiconductor industry.
New Dielectric Materials could unlock 10x chip performanceMost energy loss in GPUs/AI accelerators tod
North America ·
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Moderate confidence (74/100)
World’s largest contract electronics maker forecasts strong growth in 2026 amid AI boom.
Taiwan’s tech titan Foxconn has reported a forecast-busting second-quarter net profit, as exploding demand for artificial intelligence servers needed in data centres powers the company’s growth.
The world’s largest contract electronics maker said on Wednesday that net income rose 35 percent to $59.97 billion New Taiwan dollars ($1.86bn) in the April-June period.
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Moderate confidence (74/100)
As Reform UK is beset by financial scandals, the populist party’s rise is in doubt.
Several polls have shown the populist force lagging behind the governing Labour Party, while electorally, it has been defeated in by-elections in Makerfield and Gorton and Denton and in the race last month for mayor of Greater Manchester.