Apple becomes second ever $5tn company as investors flee AI stocks

• Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif warned that Pakistan would go to war against India if its water security is threatened. • The threat is tied to the potential suspension of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, which governs the sharing of river waters between the two nations.

• The Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen has escalated attacks to exploit a period of vulnerability within Saudi Arabia. • The group aims to leverage this conflict to secure significant political concessions regarding the ongoing war in Yemen.

• Intensified hostilities in Ukraine and surrounding areas are devastating civilians and threatening global food security, according to senior UN officials. • The conflict has led to a 20 per cent spike in wheat prices since the start of July, as well as attacks on third-party merchant vessels.

• UNESCO has identified six World Heritage sites at risk due to conflict, insecurity, and environmental pressures. • The Palestinian site is under threat from the ongoing Middle East conflict, development, and plans for a national park that may divide the property.

• The Houthi threat to Saudi oil exports is worsening the energy crisis in Asia. • Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines are already reeling from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, exacerbating the issue.

• A new war in Yemen is looming, with signs indicating a re-eruption of conflict is imminent. • Recent developments have strengthened anti-Houthi forces in the country, potentially altering the balance of power.

• Tensions exist between Armenia and Azerbaijan over a disputed border region. • A joint declaration of peace has been agreed upon, along with a request to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group.

• Tensions are rising in Ethiopia's Tigray region due to the incomplete implementation of the Pretoria Agreement. • Key sticking points include the failure to fully disarm Tigray Defense Forces and the continued presence of Eritrean troops on Ethiopian soil.

Company supplying drones said Ukraine-war inspired effort, where technique was effective in face of Russian attackSeveral schools across the US are set to install pepper-spraying drones as part of a new effort to respond to school shooting attacks – a Ukraine war-inspired approach that is bound to put off those who would prefer leaders focus on preventing the violence in the first place.Campus Guardian Angel of Austin, Texas, which describes itself as a response capability company, is providing the drones in question to multiple schools across the country, including at least four schools in Georgia, three in Florida and one in Colorado. Continue reading...

In recordings made in 2016 and 2017 former president also appears to describe possessing classified informationFormer US president Joe Biden appeared to discuss sensitive information and describe possessing classified documents in audio recordings released on Monday by the Oversight Project, a conservative activist group.The heavily redacted transcripts and recordings were made in 2016 and 2017, while Biden was working with a ghostwriter on his 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose. No classified material was ever alleged to have appeared in the book. Continue reading...

Pharmaceutical company’s move to new £400m research centre accompanied by encouraging news for shareholders“A vote of confidence in British business,” trumpeted Andy Burnham, seizing the political gift of GSK splashing out £400m on a shiny new research and development centre in Cambridge.For positive vibes, it definitely beats the early pharma news his predecessor as prime minister received. That was the painful tale of how AstraZeneca, frustrated by indecision in the Treasury, cancelled its intended £450m expansion of a vaccine plant in Speke in Liverpool. Continue reading...

Political leaders honor the longtime Republican senator, whose hawkish foreign policy shaped decades in WashingtonUS politics live – latest updatesWorld leaders and senior political figures convened in Washington for the memorial of long-serving US senator Lindsey Graham, remembering the “swashbuckling” South Carolina Republican “a true American original” whose embrace of “America First” never softened his advocacy for a staunch interventionist US foreign policy.Prominent Republicans paid tribute to Graham, a polarizing figure and onetime rival turned stalwart ally of Donald Trump who championed the US-Israel war on Iran. He was a prominent voice in the anti-abortion movement and a unwavering supporter of Israel, serving as one of Capitol Hill’s most outspoken foreign policy hawks. Continue reading...