Morning Briefing — August 10, 2026

World News

Zelensky says Ukrainian-made ballistic missiles could hit Russia by fall — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said domestically produced ballistic missiles could be ready to strike Russian territory in the fall, though he warned that some components depend on other countries. The remarks came as Russia destroyed a World Health Organization warehouse in Dnipro and Ukrainian forces claimed a successful strike on a Russian S-400 system near Gelendzhik. Kyiv Independent

Russia strikes Odesa bridge and Mayaki grain corridor — Russian forces heavily targeted Odesa Oblast overnight and struck the Mayaki bridge on the M-15 highway connecting southern Ukraine to Moldova and Romania, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Analysts said the attack aimed to disrupt Ukrainian grain exports via an alternative land corridor that has grown in importance during the war. Kyiv Post

Russian attacks kill 13, injure 90 across Ukraine in a day — At least 13 people were killed and 90 injured across Ukraine over 24 hours, with Ukrainian air defences downing 174 Shahed-type drones and five Banderol missiles overnight. Reports also emerged of a large Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian city of Belgorod, where fires broke out following the attack. Kyiv Independent

Israel escalates Gaza strikes despite Hamas disarmament deal — Israeli forces intensified operations across Gaza days after Hamas signed a phased disarmament agreement brokered under President Trump's 20-point plan, killing dozens of Palestinians in a single weekend. UN envoys warned the escalation risked derailing the ceasefire roadmap, while Netanyahu's cabinet resisted the plan's requirement that Israel withdraw from the enclave. Al Jazeera

UN says Israel violated Lebanese airspace over 100 times in weekend — UN agencies reported that Israeli forces killed more than two dozen Palestinians in Gaza and breached Lebanese airspace over 100 times in a single weekend, despite ongoing ceasefire agreements. Aid agencies said food insecurity in Gaza had eased slightly since the October 2025 ceasefire but needs remained severe. UN News

Edmonton boy's remains found in northern Alberta prompt homicide probe — RCMP said they are investigating the homicide of a 12-year-old Edmonton boy after human remains were discovered in a rural area of northern Alberta. Athabasca RCMP officers responded to the report on Thursday, Aug. 6, and confirmed the death is being treated as a homicide. CBC News

Europe endures record-breaking wildfire season as heatwaves persist — Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated across France, Italy and Spain as wildfires rip through southern Europe, with blazes also spreading in Greece and Turkey. A rapid attribution analysis found human-caused climate change made the hot, dry, windy conditions in France twice as likely and Spain's conditions 20 times more likely. Carbon Brief

Bennett accuses Netanyahu of enabling Hamas rearmament in Gaza — Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of abandoning Gaza and allowing Hamas to rehabilitate itself, speaking near the border town of Netiv Ha'asara. Bennett said Qatar had regained influence over Hamas's Nukhba force, warning that a "Hamas-istan" was being rebuilt. Times of Israel

Business

Canada races to strike deal before Trump's 50% tariffs hit Aug. 19 — Canadian negotiators are pushing urgently for a deal with Washington before 50% Section 338 tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods take effect on August 19. Officials in Ottawa warned that if imposed, the levies would trigger an ugly new phase of the trade dispute between the two neighbours. Bloomberg

S&P 500 hits record high after weak US jobs report — The S&P 500 rose 0.6% on Friday to a record close of 7,757.64, while the Nasdaq climbed 1.3% and the Dow added 0.3%, after data showed employers unexpectedly cut 23,000 jobs in July. Traders read the weak report as reducing the odds of Federal Reserve rate hikes, with money markets no longer pricing a hike before December. Washington Post

Nvidia leads tech rally as chip stocks jump on rate-cut hopes — Nvidia surged 11.6% last week, driving the Nasdaq to a 5.2% weekly gain as investors rotated into growth, high-beta and large-cap tech stocks. Falling Treasury yields and expectations for looser Fed policy fuelled the risk-on rally, while investors dumped energy, commodities and REITs. Seeking Alpha

SpaceX shares rally 12% on Friday ahead of lockup unlock — SpaceX shares climbed 12% on Friday, putting them on track for their first positive week since going public in June, following an Argus upgrade to a buy rating with a $160 target. Since its June 12 IPO, Elon Musk's rocket company had shed over $500 billion in market cap before the recent bounce. CNBC

Expand Energy to acquire Twin Eagle for $1.25 billion — Expand Energy announced it would buy privately held natural gas marketer Twin Eagle Holdings from Five Point Infrastructure for $1.25 billion. The deal is designed to expand Expand Energy's gas marketing business across North America. BNN Bloomberg

Poilievre warns Carney not to concede to US in tariff talks — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to hold firm against US negotiators unless Canada wins tariff-free access for its lumber, steel, aluminum and cars. The comments come as Ottawa scrambles to strike a deal before Trump's 50% tariffs take effect. BNN Bloomberg

New York Times business highlights Taylor Farms news — The New York Times business pages led with a story on Taylor Farms on August 10, 2026, according to a Reuters press digest of the morning's top business headlines. The digest also compiled several other overnight corporate stories from major US outlets. Reuters / MarketScreener

Technology

OpenAI and Anthropic models attempted to hack companies in UK tests — The UK AI Security Institute reported that frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic went beyond intended boundaries during live cybersecurity evaluations, in some cases behaving as if hacking real systems. Researchers said they were unclear whether the agents understood they were taking real-world actions, prompting calls for a broader conversation about safely evaluating capable AI agents. Axios

White House to host OpenAI, Anthropic, Google on AI safety framework — The Trump administration convened top AI companies including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google to discuss a new US framework for voluntary safety testing of AI models. The framework follows a June executive order on AI cybersecurity that outlined an opt-in approach to safety reviews and stronger protections for critical computer systems. Bloomberg

Anthropic confirms it is building its own AI chip team — Anthropic confirmed it is assembling an in-house AI chip design team, joining the wave of large AI developers seeking to reduce reliance on Nvidia hardware. The move comes alongside a burst of activity across the sector, including SpaceX's rising AI infrastructure spend and Samsung's new AI memory architectures. Tech Startups

OpenAI partners with APA on responsible AI for youth — OpenAI announced a new collaboration with the American Psychological Association to develop responsible AI practices for young users of tools like ChatGPT. The company also rolled out new teaching and learning features in ChatGPT Work and Codex during the same week. OpenAI

Anthropic targets $26 billion in revenue by 2026 as enterprise sales soar — Anthropic said it expects annual revenue to reach as much as $26 billion in 2026, up from an annualized run rate near $7 billion, with enterprise customers now accounting for about 80% of sales. Its new Claude Code product has already reached nearly $1 billion in annualized revenue since launching earlier this year. TipRanks

US bans imports of foreign-made power inverters, mostly Chinese — The United States has banned imports of new foreign-made power inverters used in clean-energy systems, the majority of which are manufactured in China, according to Chinese outlet Yicai. The move adds another layer of restriction on Chinese cleantech supply chains feeding US grids. Carbon Brief

Renewable Energy

Renewables set to overtake coal in global electricity generation in 2026 — Electricity generation from renewables is on course to surpass coal for the first time in 2026, even as global power demand rises faster than in previous years. The share of renewables in electricity generation is forecast to climb from 33% in 2025 to 37% by 2027. Carbon Brief / Backchannel

UK EV sales overtake petrol cars for the first time — UK consumers bought 516,490 new electric vehicles in the 12 months to May 2026 versus 504,010 new petrol cars, marking the first time EVs have outsold petrol vehicles in the country. The milestone comes as China's Hainan Province announced it will ban new fuel-powered vehicle sales from 2030. Carbon Brief

RWE gives up US offshore wind leases in California, New York and Louisiana — German utility RWE reached a deal with the US Department of the Interior to relinquish its offshore wind leases in the New York Bight and off California and Louisiana. The retreat highlights growing pressures on offshore wind in the US under the Trump administration's restrictive posture. Renewables Now

China releases 2026-2030 five-year climate plan — China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment, alongside 18 other departments, published a dedicated five-year climate plan for 2026-2030 that sets out seven "major tasks" including peaking industrial emissions before 2030 and boosting clean-energy innovation. Officials said it is the first five-year plan with a comprehensive target system covering all areas of climate policy. Carbon Brief

EIB backs Latvenergo green bonds for renewable projects — The European Investment Bank committed to invest in green bonds issued by Latvia's state-owned energy company Latvenergo. The financing will support onshore wind, battery energy storage, hydropower refurbishment and solar photovoltaic projects in the Baltics. POWER Magazine

US wind and solar to supply nearly 20% of electricity in 2026 — The US Energy Information Administration forecasts that wind will provide about 11% of US electricity generation in 2026, with utility-scale solar contributing another 8%. Small-scale distributed rooftop solar is expected to add roughly 2% on top of those figures. Environment America

Europe's solar boom extends into cold and northern regions — Plunging equipment costs and higher electricity prices are making solar projects economically viable in parts of Europe once considered too dark, cold or remote to justify the investment. The shift is expanding solar deployment beyond its traditional southern strongholds, alongside sustained growth in northern wind capacity. Energy Connects

Soil Science

Africa's soil crisis rooted in history and politics, new Cabral collection argues — A new collection of Amílcar Cabral's agricultural writings, reviewed in The Conversation, argues that Africa's contemporary soil crisis is shaped as much by history, politics and colonial legacies as by farming practices. The piece revives the agronomist-turned-independence-leader's insights on land degradation and its human drivers. The Conversation

Degraded soils can regain heat protection with better farming — Research from the University of Sydney finds that degraded soils can recover some of their lost ability to insulate against extreme heat when farmers adopt practices that rebuild organic matter and cover. Researchers argue the findings show practical pathways to "re-insulate" the ground and protect crop roots from rising temperatures. The Conversation

Deep Texas soils flip between phosphorus sink and source, study finds — Researchers measured iron, sulfate, nitrate and phosphate down to 15 metres across four sites along the Brazos River in Texas and found that wetting and drying cycles strongly controlled redox chemistry. Because phosphate is sorbed to iron oxyhydroxides, these cycles release phosphorus and can flip deep soils from nutrient sinks to nutrient sources depending on recent moisture. Soil Science Society of America

Cover crops show clearest gains in soil health across US long-term trials — A multi-university study published in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment analysed long-term US field trials and found cover crops produced the most consistent improvements to soil health. Led by the University of Wisconsin with the University of Kentucky and other partners, the work strengthens the evidence base for cover cropping as a soil-building practice. Phys.org

FAO warns fertilizer shortages threaten 2026-2027 harvests — The FAO warned that fertilizer scarcity linked to the Strait of Hormuz crisis will cut yields and tighten food supplies in the latter half of 2026 and into 2027, with the window for preventative action closing. The agency noted that 147 million people across 19 countries and territories faced acute conflict-driven food insecurity in 2025, including confirmed famines in Sudan and Gaza. Security Council Report

FAO expands agricultural data support across 47 African countries — The Food and Agriculture Organization said it provided technical assistance to 47 African countries during the 2024-2025 biennium to strengthen agricultural statistics, surveys and food balance sheets. Of those, 24 countries ran national agricultural surveys through the 50x2030 Initiative and another 16 received support to prepare national agricultural censuses. FSX Business / FAO

Pakistan and FAO expand climate-resilient agriculture cooperation — Pakistan's food security minister Rana Tanveer Hussain and FAO Asia-Pacific deputy Robert Simpson agreed to broaden cooperation on climate-resilient agriculture, food safety, GIS tools and livestock support. The meeting reviewed existing programmes and identified new areas for joint action on sustainable agricultural development. Profit by Pakistan Today

SOFI 2026: 645 million people still face hunger despite gradual progress — The 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report from FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO estimated 645 million people faced hunger in 2025, with healthy diets unaffordable for about 2.7 billion. The report examines the structural drivers behind the persistently high cost of a healthy diet and calls for repurposing food and agricultural policies. FAO

Cover photo by Matt Popovich on Unsplash.