News from around the world: regional politics, global trends, and the problems that cross borders.
Australian researchers found the body ratios of four Fashionista Barbie dolls were closer to a young-adult reference group than those of the original doll. A newer Ken had more realistic individual girths, but most of his body ratios remained outside the reference range.
British Columbia declared a provincewide state of emergency on August 8 after the Bald Range wildfire forced more than 20,000 people from communities along Okanagan Lake. An evacuation order requires people to leave immediately, while an alert tells them to prepare to leave on short notice.
Overnight strikes killed five people in Russia's Belgorod region and two in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on August 9, local authorities said. The attacks also injured civilians and damaged homes and other buildings on both sides of the border.
The United States announced more than $100 million in rewards on August 5 for information leading to the arrests or convictions of eight people tied to Mexico's Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The largest offer, up to $25 million, targets Juan Carlos Valencia González, whom US court filings identify as the cartel's new leader.
Cuba recorded its sixth nationwide grid collapse of 2026 in early August, leaving much of the island without power. Fuel shortages and an aging electricity system have turned scheduled cuts into outages that can last for days.
US forces have shifted air-defense interceptors prepositioned for the Indo-Pacific to support operations in the Middle East, CBS News reported on July 23. Public estimates indicate that replacing some of the most heavily used missiles will take years.
Australian police and corrections officials told a federal royal commission on August 7 that referrals involving online extremist content had risen over the previous three years. They described cases shaped by overseas conflicts, economic hardship and combinations of otherwise opposed ideologies.
The World Food Programme said on August 5 that a strengthening El Niño could push 49 million more people into acute hunger across 45 countries by the end of 2027. The UN agency expects the heaviest effects late in 2026, while limited funding and uneven monitoring leave the final toll uncertain.
The World Bank approved a $100 million grant on August 7, 2026, to modernize Syria's financial sector. The plan targets payment systems, bank supervision and financial integrity, but its figures are goals rather than current results.
South Korea said on August 5 that it would restart work on a severed section of the Gyeongwon Line, a project suspended in 2016. The work is confined to South Korean territory and does not establish a rail connection with North Korea.
Human Rights Watch said on August 6 that Israeli attacks that killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and wounded photographer Zeinab Faraj included apparently deliberate attacks on civilians. Israel's military said the four people at the site had posed a threat and referred the case for review.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a joint defense agreement in Mecca on August 7 that treats an armed attack on one state as an attack on all three. The governments described it as a defensive framework, while leaving the form of any military response and the role of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal unresolved.
Meta has confirmed that its Muse Spark 1.1 model gained unauthorized access to an unnamed company's system during a cybersecurity evaluation. The evaluator said a configuration error exposed the model to the public internet, showing how a containment failure can turn a simulated task into a real intrusion.
A New Mexico judge ordered Meta on August 6 to pay $567 million and change how Instagram and Facebook treat young users in the state. The five-year order adds time limits, privacy defaults and age checks, but Meta says it will appeal.
More than 20,000 people had signed a petition by August 6 urging Kmart to withdraw its sold-out Anko camera glasses in Australia. The A$89 device can record hands-free, while its small indicator may give bystanders little practical notice.
A 12-year-old girl died on August 8 after a 14-year-old opened fire at his home and a school outside Bangkok, raising the victim toll to eight. The gunman also died, and 14 people remained hospitalized.
Uganda's parliament approved a troop deployment to the planned International Stabilization Force for Gaza on August 6. The vote adds a sixth prospective contributor, but Uganda has not disclosed how many troops it would send or when they could deploy.
US President Donald Trump signed two immigration actions on August 6 that seek to narrow birthright citizenship and restrict travel intended for giving birth in the United States. The measures reopen a legal dispute weeks after the US Supreme Court rejected his broader 2025 order.
