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International Business Times

August 2026

Stocks Fell On Monday As U.S.-Iran Tensions Flare Up Again, But End August In The Green

The Dow Jones Industrial Average underperformed, falling 0.70%

Tim Hawkinsu.S. Central Command spokesperson
Last week, CENTCOM completed clearing sea mines from the strait's international shipping routes. U.S. forces are monitoring the area closely and remain prepared to protect the free flow of commerce through this essential waterway,
This is going to be financial violence if we have to,

Michael Saylor’s Strategy Stopped Buying Bitcoin For 10 Weeks. Now It’s Back With A $370M Purchase.

Michael Saylor's Strategy has resumed buying Bitcoin after a 10-week pause, spending nearly $370 million as the cryptocurrency's recovery toward $80,000 gives the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder more room to continue its accumulation strategy

Neither Democrats Nor Republicans Have Won Over the Working Class. A New Poll Shows Deep Distrust of Both Parties.

Working-class voters have become one of the most fiercely contested groups in American politics, but a new survey suggests neither Republicans nor Democrats have convinced them that their promises are genuine

Jim Kessleramerican basketball coach
We've struggled with the working class for quite a while and it's been a combination of being out of touch with working class values on a lot of culture issues and being seen as either not helpful or not helpful enough on economic issues,

Bessent Addresses His Mentor’s Criticism Of U.S. Debt Buybacks, Defends Intervening In The Market

Stanley Druckenmillermentor
Every basis point of artificial yield suppression is a subsidy to procrastination,
Scott Bessenttreasury Secretary
Stan's a great investor, but what I would point out is that again, the U.S. bond market has been the best performing market since the president came in,
Governments defending prices against fundamentals always lose,
They're flat since the president came in,

Trump Warns Cities Against Rejecting Data Centers: China ‘Could Not Be Happier’ With Growing Opposition

Trump described data centers as a "Golden Goose" for the U.S. economy and framed the growing opposition to their construction as a potential advantage for China

Donald Trumppresident
The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,
Donald Trumppresident
The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them,

Bessent Wants a Global Response to China’s Export Boom, Tells G20 Countries to Reconsider Terms of Trade

The Trump administration has already erected substantial barriers against Chinese imports, including high tariffs and restrictions on certain products

Scott Bessenttreasury Secretary
The world cannot have a China with a $1.2 trillion trade surplus,
Scott Bessenttreasury Secretary
The rest of the world is going to have to examine their terms of ‌trade with China,

Russia Promises To Increase Hits On Ukrainian Energy Infrastructure. Concerns Of a Winter Offensive Grow.

In accordance with the received instructions, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation began preparing to launch massive strikes against Ukrainian energy facilities as a response to the continuing attacks of the Kiev regime against the Russian civil infrastructure and fuel and energy facilities,
Volodymyr Zelenskyyukrainian President
Work continues in the village of Myla in the Kyiv region to eliminate the consequences of the Russian strike. Rescuers managed to extinguish most of the fires,

Bessent Acknowledges The World Is ‘Awash In Debt,’ Claims Only Way Past Is ‘To Grow Our Way Out’

Scott Bessenttreasury Secretary
Our goal here today is to reiterate that our message of growth. The world is awash in debt post [global financial crisis], post Covid, and the only way for us to get out of this is to grow our way out of this... I'm confident that a lot of the leaders are very receptive to this,
Joe Biden46th President of the United States (2021–2025)
I say sometimes that I feel like an emergency room doctor, and the economy is the patient, and the American people were backed over by the Biden Mack truck."
We have stabilized the patient, and now we're in the healing portion, and real incomes are increasing,

Music Publishers Sue Anthropic, Claim The Company Pirated Copyrighted Material To Train AI Models

Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music describe Anthropic's activities as "one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history."

We disagree with the publishers’ claims and we intend to defend ourselves robustly in court.”
Anthropic has benefited immensely from exploiting the copyrighted works of Music Publishers and others in connection with its AI models,
Anthropic collects and stockpiles its harvested data into a vast central 'library' that it maintains and exploits for a range of commercial and research purposes, including but not limited to training Claude models,
Anthropic could immediately stop infringing Music Publishers' musical compositions and remove all of Music Publishers' lyrics from its training data and central library. Anthropic refuses to do so in order to grow Anthropic's business and reap enormous financial gains from the uncompensated labor of Music Publishers and their songwriters,

Reported Documents Reveal An Expanding Deportation Campaign. ICE Is Sending Afghans and Latin Americans to Africa.

The flights included people from Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Nepal, Nicaragua, Turkey and Venezuela, as well as African nationals sent to countries other than their own

If an illegal alien chooses to file a claim in court refusing to go to their home country, we are required by law to find a safe and secure nation for them to go to. If an illegal alien chooses to go home, we will give them a free flight home and a $3,000 check,
We have to keep that promise,

The U.S. Struck a Deal To Control Venezuela’s Oil. Trump Says It Will Be Used To Replenish The SPR.

Venezuela's interim government, which has had a cozy relationship with the Trump administration since the operation where authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro was caught in January, would benefit from the pouring of resources to increase productivity

As everyone knows, our country has the biggest oil reserves in the world. But having resources underground isn't enough. We need investment, technology, infrastructure [and] production capacity to convert this wealth into wellbeing for our people,
This is going to be financial violence if we have to,

OpenAI Says Its Ad Business Hit a Major Milestone, Says It Proves a ‘Diversified Business Model’

They are now available in dozens of countries, and has begun showing them to some users in India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa

Our next phase of growth will bring ChatGPT Ads to more markets and introduce additional formats, objectives, buying options, and measurement capabilities,

Pete Hegseth Warned That Extending The War In Iran Is Unsustainable And Could Weaken U.S. Forces Elsewhere: Report

The warning came in an assessment that included the input of many top U.S. commanders, including four-star commanders overseeing operations in Europe, Asia and Latin America

Putin Reportedly Believes He Will Be Killed If He Doesn’t Achieve War Goals: ‘They Will Hang Me’

Putin could also mobilize hundreds of thousands of additional troops even as life expectancy in the battlefield is less than an hour

We are clearly signaling that, if needed, we will be defending ourselves
Robertas Kaunaslithuanian Defence Minister
We are not naive, we see the information, we read between the lines and we are doing our homework,
We are increasing the security of our critical infrastructure, we constantly exchange information with our intelligence on what to do next,
Ratcliffe sees his Russian counterpart once every six months or once every year. They have a very good relationship. There was no message and there was nothing unusual,

U.S.-Iran Hostilities Resume. Trump Again Threatens To Target Key Island For Tehran’s Oil Exports.

President Donald Trump threatened a key island for Iranian oil exports after the U.S. and Iran again exchanged strikes for the first time in more than a month during the weekend

Tim Hawkinsnavy Captain
U.S. forces are monitoring the area closely, and remain prepared to protect the free flow of commerce through this essential waterway,
We're not looking to meet or anything,
This is going to be financial violence if we have to,

Job Growth Could Slow Significantly In The Next Decade, With AI And Automation Cited As Major Factors: Report

Electricity demand is expected to grow significantly over the projections decade, leading to strong employment growth for solar photovoltaic installers (+36.5 percent) and wind turbine service technicians (+29.5 percent), both of which rank among the five fastest growing occupations from 2025 to 2035,
This strong growth is expected to account for about 37.0 percent of all new jobs projected to be added through 2035,
Although the growing adoption of AI is expected to support demand for some occupations, associated productivity gains may dampen employment demand for others,
This occupational group is projected to decline at the fastest pace (-4.0 percent) and to shed 752,100 jobs over the 2025-35 decade, the most of any major occupational group,

Minnesota Supreme Court Kills Lindell Recount: He Asked for Wrong Legal Remedy

The ruling locks in House Speaker Lisa Demuth as the certified Republican nominee for governor

Natalie Hudsonchief Justice of Minnesota
But Lindell’s focus on alleged anomalies confuses the purpose of a manual recount with an election contest,
Natalie Hudsonchief Justice of Minnesota
In other words, after all votes are sorted and counted, Lindell would know whether he is the winner over Demuth,
Mike LindellmyPillow founder
Even if this recount and audit does not overturn my election for governor of Minnesota,... I believe this is the gateway to getting rid of these electronic voting machines."