The US National Debt Has Passed $40 Trillion. What Changes Now?
US debt has crossed $40 trillion as interest costs outrun defence spending and long-term Treasury yields test two-decade highs.
Aisha Verma 5 min read
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The US National Debt Has Passed $40 Trillion. What Changes Now?Broadcom Is Lining Up as Much as $100 Billion for AI Chips. Who Carries the Risk?Did a Humanoid Robot Really Beat Usain Bolt? Lightning's 9.32 Seconds Needs ContextIowa's Open Senate Race Is Set: Ashley Hinson Faces Josh Turek in NovemberNorthwest Indiana Is Still Without Power. Why Is Recovery Taking So Long?Alisa Goods Was Found Near Las Vegas Airport. How Did the Search Miss Her?Texas Is Baking Above 100F. Why Does a 112F Heat Index Matter More?Who Will Be the Next James Bond? Villeneuve's August Auditions Are the Real StoryThe US National Debt Has Passed $40 Trillion. What Changes Now?Broadcom Is Lining Up as Much as $100 Billion for AI Chips. Who Carries the Risk?Did a Humanoid Robot Really Beat Usain Bolt? Lightning's 9.32 Seconds Needs ContextIowa's Open Senate Race Is Set: Ashley Hinson Faces Josh Turek in NovemberNorthwest Indiana Is Still Without Power. Why Is Recovery Taking So Long?Alisa Goods Was Found Near Las Vegas Airport. How Did the Search Miss Her?Texas Is Baking Above 100F. Why Does a 112F Heat Index Matter More?Who Will Be the Next James Bond? Villeneuve's August Auditions Are the Real Story
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Texas Is Baking Above 100F. Why Does a 112F Heat Index Matter More?
Texas faces dangerous triple-digit heat, with Houston heat-index readings forecast as high as 112F and extreme heat warnings around Dallas.
Priya Nair 5 min read
Who Will Be the Next James Bond? Villeneuve's August Auditions Are the Real Story
Denis Villeneuve is personally calling actors back for the next James Bond audition round, but Amazon MGM has not signed a new 007.
Ananya Iyer 5 min read
Tokyo and Kanto Shaken by Magnitude 5.9 Quake as 37 Are Injured
A magnitude 5.9 quake under southern Ibaraki injured 37 people and rattled Tokyo, with JMA urging caution for similar shaking this week.
Priya Nair 5 min read
Seven Die on the A66 After Wrong-Way Passat Collides With Police Car
Seven people, including two Cleveland Police constables, died after a wrong-way Volkswagen Passat struck a marked police vehicle on the A66.
Priya Nair 5 min read
Iran Says Its Military Doctrine Has Shifted From Defensive to Offensive
Iran’s army says its doctrine has moved towards an offensive posture, a shift that may alter response planning without automatically meaning pre-emption.
Priya Nair 5 min read
US Petrol Prices Reach Their Highest August on Record as Crude Stays Above Seasonal Norms
US regular petrol is averaging about $4.10 a gallon, the highest level recorded for late August as expensive crude offsets softer seasonal demand.
Aisha Verma 5 min read
Connecticut Starter Homes Hit $300,000 as July’s US Sales Bounce Runs Into a New Rate Squeeze
Connecticut starter homes have doubled to about $300,000 in a decade just as Zillow’s forward indicators point to a softer US housing market.
Aisha Verma 5 min read
Brazil Splits a R$2.3 Billion AI Compute Push Across Chinese and US Technology
Brazil is committing about R$2.3bn to AI compute in Rio and Rio Grande do Norte, deliberately sourcing technology across Chinese and US ecosystems.
Arjun Nair 5 min read
Brentford Thrash Tottenham 3-0 as Sangare’s Midfield Control Exposes Spurs’ New-Look Side
Brentford beat Tottenham 3-0 at the Gtech as Mamadou Sangare drove a performance that exposed Spurs’ problems in duels, structure and transition.
Vikram Rao 5 min read
Charles Melton Is in Final Talks to Play Kakashi in Lionsgate’s Live-Action Naruto
Charles Melton is in final negotiations to play Kakashi in Lionsgate’s live-action Naruto, with Team 7 casting still open and no deal announced.
Ananya Iyer 5 min read
San Andreas Fault May Be Slipping Faster Than Assumed, but the New Finding Is Not an Earthquake Countdown
Unpublished San Jose State research suggests the Santa Cruz Mountains San Andreas segment slips faster than estimates, without predicting a specific quake.
Arjun Nair 5 min read
US Hits Canada With 50% Tariffs as Trade Deal Collapses at the Deadline
US tariffs of 50% on $20bn of Canadian goods are now in force after talks failed, with Ottawa planning retaliation from 8 September.
Aisha Verma 5 min read
Politics
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Trump Opens a 90-Day Beef Import Window as Grocery Prices Become a Midterm Problem
Trump plans a 90-day expansion of low-tariff ground beef imports as record prices collide with ranchers’ effort to rebuild the US herd.
Kavita Desai 5 min read
Trump's Endorsement Losses Reach Double Figures After Defeats in Florida and Wyoming
Three more Trump-backed Republicans lost on Tuesday, taking his 2026 primary defeats into double figures - matching 2018, 2020 and 2024 combined.
Kavita Desai 5 min read
A Historic Wave of CIA Retirements Leaves Former Officers Waiting Months for a First Pension Cheque
More than 1,000 of an estimated 22,000 staff have gone, and the agency's retirement branch says it is processing an unprecedented caseload.
Kavita Desai 5 min read
Aisha Wahab Wins the East Bay Special Election and Becomes the First Afghan American Elected to Congress
The state senator took California's 14th District 53% to 47% over Melissa Hernandez, despite millions in outside spending against her.
Kavita Desai 5 min read
Business
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Mexican Cattle Exports Are Set to Resume on 24 August Under Tight Screwworm Controls
The Douglas, Arizona livestock gate will reopen on 24 August, restoring Mexican cattle exports under tighter New World screwworm screening.
Aisha Verma 5 min read
The Global Bond Rout Tests Scott Bessent's Buybacks as the 30-Year Yield Holds Above 5.2 Per Cent
Long-dated borrowing costs hit levels unseen since 2007 in the US and 1996 in Japan, and a doubled Treasury buyback has only briefly slowed the sell-off.
Aisha Verma 5 min read
Warren Buffett, Not Greg Abel, Initiated Berkshire Hathaway's Alphabet Bet
Eight months after handing over as chief executive, Buffett is still making Berkshire's biggest stock calls while Abel runs the operating companies.
Aisha Verma 5 min read
Walmart Will Cut Prices on 11,000 Items Using a $2.9 Billion Tariff Refund
The refund followed a Supreme Court ruling against the import levies, and it arrived as US comparable sales grew at their slowest pace in six years.
Aisha Verma 5 min read
World
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Pezeshkian Claims Iran Has Defeated the United States as Tehran Tries to Define the War
Iran’s president says global opinion has accepted Tehran’s victory over the US, casting control of Hormuz and resistance as the measure of success.
Priya Nair 5 min read
Pope Leo XIV Holds Up San Marino as a Small-State Model of Freedom and Human Dignity
Pope Leo XIV praised San Marino’s republican tradition while warning that political and economic power must remain subordinate to human dignity.
Priya Nair 5 min read
The US Military Takes Its Counter-Narcotics Campaign From Boats to Land in Latin America
More than 200 people have died in over 60 boat strikes. Pete Hegseth now says Washington will seek the same effect on land, with partners signed up.
Priya Nair 5 min read
Ukrainian Drones Set Fire to the Novokuibyshevsk Refinery and an Ozon Warehouse in Samara Oblast
Overnight strikes 900km from the front line halted a Rosneft refinery and forced 500 workers out of Russia's second-largest online retailer's hub.
Priya Nair 6 min read
Technology
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ChatGPT Can Now Read and Send Apple Messages on Macs - but the Permission Model Is the Real Story
OpenAI’s Apple Messages plugin can read, draft and send Mac messages, putting Full Disk Access and send approvals at the centre of its privacy model.
Arjun Nair 5 min read
Nvidia Pays Poolside $6 Billion to License Its Model Factory and Hire 109 Engineers
The third such deal in eight months hands Nvidia a rival's core technology and staff without a purchase, and without the antitrust review a takeover draws.
Arjun Nair 5 min read
Anthropic's IPO Prospectus Will Name Public Backlash Against AI as a Risk Factor
Polling now puts opposition to AI data centres at 75 per cent, and the filing is expected to tell investors that hostility could slow the company's growth.
Arjun Nair 5 min read
Tesla Quietly Discontinues the Solar Roof, a Decade After Elon Musk Unveiled It
The tile product has been pulled from Tesla's website and from installer supply, with the company concluding it was not financially viable.
Arjun Nair 5 min read
Sport
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Quévin Castro Dies at 25 After Collapsing During a Friendly in Portugal
Former West Bromwich Albion midfielder Quévin Castro has died aged 25 after collapsing during a friendly in Portugal, with no cause announced.
Vikram Rao 5 min read
Hull City Beat Manchester United 2-0 on Their Return to the Premier League
Semi Ajayi and Nobel Mendy scored from set pieces at the MKM Stadium as Michael Carrick lost his first league match as United's permanent manager.
Vikram Rao 5 min read
The Vuelta a Espana Opens in Monaco With a 9.4km Time Trial on the Grand Prix Circuit
Twenty-five corners, the Fairmont hairpin and the Louis II tunnel decide the first red jersey of a race that ends in Granada on 13 September.
Vikram Rao 5 min read
Rybakina Retires With an Achilles Problem as Swiatek and Pegula Set Up a Cincinnati Semi-Final
The Kazakh stopped at 4-1 down in the first set, ending a run that could have taken her to the top of the world rankings this week.
Vikram Rao 5 min read
Entertainment
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Spider-Man Is Poised for a Fourth Box-Office Weekend at No 1 After Insidious Wins Friday
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is projected to win a fourth weekend despite Insidious topping Friday, while Sony controls the top two spots.
Ananya Iyer 5 min read
Madonna Leads the 2026 MTV Video Music Award Nominations With Eleven
Taylor Swift follows with nine and Best Dance returns after seven years, ahead of a 27 September ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Ananya Iyer 5 min read
Jason Statham's Mutiny Opens to Mixed Reviews and a 51 Per Cent Rotten Tomatoes Score
Jean-Francois Richet's cargo-ship thriller landed on 21 August with a B+ CinemaScore and critics split over whether the formula still works.
Ananya Iyer 5 min read
Four Antonello da Messina Panels Vanish From a Sicilian Museum on Italy's Biggest Summer Holiday
Thieves entered the Messina regional museum during the Ferragosto procession and left with works valued at up to 80 million euros.
Ananya Iyer 5 min read
Lifestyle
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A Deep Partial Lunar Eclipse Arrives on August 27, and Nearly All of the Americas Get a Front-Row Seat
About 96% of the Moon slips into Earth's shadow next Thursday night, with maximum eclipse at 12:12am Eastern and no equipment needed to watch it.
Sara D'Souza 5 min read
America's Summer of Flight Disruption Deepens, With Storms, Staffing Gaps and Rebooking Waits Stretching to Three Days
Nearly 10,000 US flights were delayed in a single day this week, and thinner airline schedules mean cancelled passengers can wait days for a seat.
Sara D'Souza 5 min read
Chick-fil-A Turns Chicken and Waffles Into a Sandwich, Nationwide From August 24
The chain's autumn line-up pairs maple waffles, bacon and honey butter in breakfast and entree sandwiches, joined by s'mores-flavoured shakes and frosted coffee, after a 2025 regional test earned a national rollout.
Sara D'Souza 4 min read
The Perseids Peak Under a New Moon, and the Sky Put On Its Best Show in Years
With no moonlight to wash them out, this year's Perseid meteor shower delivered rates of 50 to 75 meteors an hour at dark sites on the night of 12-13 August, on the same date as Europe's total solar eclipse.
Sara D'Souza 4 min read
Opinion
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The world economy is not slowing. It is splitting in two
The IMF's July update shows a world economy splitting in two, as an AI investment boom rewards some nations and a war shock punishes the rest.
The NE Times Editorial Board 4 min read
Air conditioning is saving lives this summer. It is also deepening the crisis
Record July heat pushed air conditioning to the rescue and the power grid to the brink. Cooling that runs on fossil fuels is a trap, not a fix.
The NE Times Editorial Board 4 min read
The Real Story in NYT v OpenAI Is No Longer Copyright. It Is Candour.
Publishers now accuse OpenAI of misleading the court about what it could search. Whoever wins, the discovery fight will define trust between AI and journalism.
The NE Times Editorial Board 3 min read
The Biggest World Cup Ever Is Also the Most Exclusionary. That Is a Choice.
Record attendance and a dream Argentina-Spain final cannot hide it: travel bans and $8,000 tickets have turned a global festival into a gated one.
The NE Times Editorial Board 3 min read
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