Heavy

• NASA is scheduled to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on August 30, 2026, using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. • The telescope features a mirror similar in size to Hubble's but possesses a field of view approximately 100 times wider, allowing it to map dark energy and search for exoplanets. • By monitoring roughly 200 million stars for gravitational microlensing, the mission aims to discover over 1,000 planets, specifically targeting cold, distant worlds that current detection methods often miss.

• Pakistan held the second phase of legislative assembly elections in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK) on Sunday. • The voting process took place amid significant unrest, particularly in Muzaffarabad, where residents reported rock-strewn roads and burnt vehicles. • Heavy security was deployed across the region following violent clashes between local protesters and security forces.

• The European Union has opened bidding for the development of seven AI gigafactories, supported by a funding package of €10 billion ($11.4 billion). • This massive investment signals a strategic shift in viewing artificial intelligence as a "heavy industry" requiring physical infrastructure rather than just software development. • The initiative aims to bolster the EU's technological sovereignty and computing capacity to compete with global AI leaders.

Chair of judges Mary Beard said each of the 13 books in contention for the £50,000 award ‘takes the reader to new places’• Comment: This Booker longlist may have two previous winners, but it’s keen to experimentDouglas Stuart and Marlon James, two previous winners of the Booker, have been named on this year’s longlist, alongside three-time nominee Elizabeth Strout, in a collection that “rewards risk”.The 13 novels selected for the 2026 prize, announced on Tuesday, feature authors of seven nationalities across three continents, with almost half from the UK. Ten of the writers are appearing on a Booker longlist for the first time, including three debut novelists: Kenan Orhan, Rebecca Perry and Djamel White. Continue reading...

• Asian stock markets experienced a broad decline, highlighted by South Korea's Kospi index plunging nearly 11% due to heavy selling of chipmaking stocks. • Other major indices fell, including Tokyo’s Nikkei 225, which dropped 4% to 62,364.92, and Taiwan's Taiex, which skidded 4.7% as TSMC shares fell 3%. • The sell-off is driven by growing investor fears that the current boom in artificial intelligence may be a bubble, leading to a correction in semiconductor valuations.

PM’s team can be seen as backward step even though in some ways it is more diverse. Yet its makeup points to wider access to powerRace, school, gender: the makeup of Andy Burnham’s cabinet – in chartsLike 20 British prime ministers before him, Andy Burnham’s new cabinet minister for AI, Kanishka Narayan, went to Eton. After graduating from the country’s most elite private school, Narayan attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied – what else? – PPE (politics, philosophy and economics), like David Cameron, Rishi Sunak, Ed Miliband and a host of other senior politicians. An MBA at Stanford and a career in the City followed.But Narayan’s background is hardly typical of the British ruling class. Born in Behar in eastern India, he moved with his family to Cardiff when he was 12. He and his younger brother were sleeping on the floor of their one-bedroom home when a teacher at his local high school suggested the bright young boy apply for some private schools. His parents, who had joined the Labour party almost as soon as they arrived in Wales, ran a petrol station. Eton was possible only thanks to a full scholarship. Continue reading...

• President Lee Jae Myung held a dinner meeting on the 24th in San Francisco with global AI leaders, including NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and heads of Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor Group, and SK Group. • During the event, President Lee announced the ‘San Francisco AI Declaration’ at the San Francisco AI Summit to strengthen South Korea's role in the global AI supply chain. • The meeting brought together industry giants with a combined market capitalization of 1.7 gyeong (approximately 17 quadrillion won), highlighting the immense economic scale of the AI sector.