Ukraine ‘proposes deal with Russia to halt attacks on civilian ships in Black Sea’

• Prof. Michel Chossudovsky and Drago Bosnic allege in a report dated August 13, 2026, that President Trump and the Pentagon are routinely targeting civilians worldwide. • The authors claim this military practice is a continuation of a pattern dating back to World War II and constitutes a crime against humanity.

• The UN Security Council held an open debate on Thursday to address escalating military clashes and deadly attacks in Yemen. • Recent Houthi missile strikes targeting Saudi Arabia and commercial shipping vessels have intensified regional tensions linked to the US-Iran conflict.

• A top adviser to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed in a rare interview that the U.S. military is weaker than previously perceived. • The adviser stated this assessment follows observations of U.S. and Israeli military actions since attacks began in February of this year.

• South Africa has been confirmed as the host country for the 2025 G20 Summit. • This event marks a historic milestone as it will be the first time the summit is held on the African continent.

• A Washington Post report reveals that the CIA questioned the validity of Israeli intelligence regarding a threat to Donald Trump prior to a plane switch in Turkey. • While the report indicates the threat was actually real, CIA officials reportedly deemed the intelligence "not compelling enough" to warrant a different response.

Higher education figures call on Labour to reverse tax on fees and warn institutions at risk of ‘going under’University leaders are warning of financial turmoil in British higher education after new figures suggested a collapse in international student numbers would deprive the sector of vital income and undermine its future.The sector’s leaders called on the government to rethink the levy on international student fees imposed under Keir Starmer, as a former universities minister warned there was a risk of a university “going under” because of the financial crisis. Continue reading...

Randall Lane left his job last month after accepting money from founder of firm that does business with magazineThe top editor of Forbes left his job last month and was reportedly dismissed for accepting $6m from the founder of a firm that does business with the magazine.The New York Times reported this week that Randall Lane was paid by RJ Shook, whose company, Shook Research, worked with Forbes since 2016 to publish rankings of wealth advisers. The payment was made after Shook sold a majority stake in the company to a private equity firm a year ago. Continue reading...

Need for Burnham to tackle regional inequality could not be clearer as London becomes ‘educational outlier’Andy Burnham has put regional inequality at the top of his agenda as prime minister, and nowhere is the need for doing so clearer than in education.As England’s A-level results were published on Thursday morning, students across the country were pictured celebrating a bumper crop of results, with record rates of As and A*s. Continue reading...

Study of 56m-year-old leaves counters claims from Trump administration members of ‘benefits’ of fossil fuel pollutionAdding huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is set to cause the Earth’s forests to wither and die rather than flourish, according to a new study that counters erroneous claims that fossil fuel pollution will green the planet.An analysis of fossilized leaf cells from a period known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (or PETM), which occurred about 56 million years ago, has helped reconstruct how the world’s forests responded when planet-heating gases were previously being released at a rapid rate. Continue reading...

State department says it has reached administrative settlement with company’s US arm to resolve breachesThe UK defence company BAE Systems is to pay a $36m (£26.7m) civil penalty after breaching US arms exports regulations more than 100 times.The US Department of State announced on Thursday that it had reached an administrative settlement with the US arm of BAE to resolve 104 violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Continue reading...

Greater use of private rental properties would form part of PM’s plan to spread accommodation more evenly across UKMinisters are considering paying higher prices for housing asylum seekers in private rental properties as part of Andy Burnham’s plan to spread accommodation more evenly across the country.The shift towards more private rental accommodation, known as “dispersal”, and the use of former military barracks, are cheaper than expensive hotels for asylum seekers. Continue reading...