Brent crude has risen above $100 a barrel as war in Iran disrupts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, while the Houthis' capture of Mayun Island raises concerns over another major oil route through the Bab al-Mandeb. JD Vance insists US is'on top of' Houthi advance in Red Sea China rejects AI'threat narratives', urges global cooperation US may be'forced to intervene' in the Red Sea

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Is the war entering a new phase? 'Attacks will be fully autonomous': Russia, Ukraine race towards AI warfare Share'Attacks will be fully autonomous': Russia, Ukraine race towards AI warfare on social media Tetiana Bubynets collapsed on the asphalt after a Russian drone exploded at a gas station in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. Despite the violent shockwave and blast of drone shrapnel produced by the attack on July 6, the 18-year-old accounting student had no visible wounds except for a nosebleed. One of her lecturers, Tetiana Melikhova of Zaporizhzhia National University, said Bubynets was an only child and that her mother "lost the meaning of life" after she died. At the funeral, she just lay on the coffin; she couldn't let her child go," Melikhova told Al Jazeera. The strike that killed Bubynets was the first recorded case of Russia's use of a fully autonomous attack drone powered by artificial intelligence (AI), according to a New York Times analysis .

Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Look Up Say More Trending Now Mashable Selects Creator Playbook Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net Versus All Series Get ready for storm season. Lois Mackenzie is a freelance reporter at Mashable. Over the years she has written for many publications, covering everything from the local news to the best pair of running shoes. You can find bylines in publications including Fit&Well, Metro, and Coach magazine, usually covering deals on everything from earbuds to TVs, or guides on how to beat your half marathon time. All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers.

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Donald Trump's son-in-law represents the kind of Washington figure for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth. "Kushner is plagued with conflicts of interest," Virginia Canter, a former White House counsel, said. "He is supposed to be working for the American people, but in fact he has tremendous financial incentives to further the interests of his investors." In the waning hours before the U.S. went to war with Iran, this February, Jared Kushner held a meeting with Iranian negotiators in Geneva--one last chance to avoid a conflict that would plunge the region into chaos and shock the world economy. Afterward, Kushner dismissed his counterparts as unworthy of his time. "Lots of tricks," he told reporters. Kushner, the boyish-looking son-in-law of Donald Trump, has been given an extraordinary brief in recent years. Along with Steve Witkoff, the President's special envoy, he has been charged with ending wars in Gaza, Ukraine, and just about anywhere else they might break out. Kushner, who is forty-five, has little regard for the craft of diplomacy. In his view, it is less important to know a region's history or the details of the partisans' negotiating positions than to simply hear the sides out and split the difference. Peace deals are like real-estate deals, he has said. Both involve hard bargaining and, at times, bluffing. The fact that so many diplomats before him have struggled is a testament not to the intransigence of international problems but to the mediocrity of his predecessors. "I've been getting criticized for the last couple of years, by all the people who have tried and failed, for not doing this the same way that they have," he said in 2020, after Trump unveiled his first Middle East peace plan. "If somebody was successful, I wouldn't be dealing with this." When Kushner and Witkoff began meeting with the Iranian negotiators, in February, the two countries were on the brink of war. In 2025, American and Israeli forces had bombed Iran's nuclear-enrichment facilities, which Western leaders said were engaged in a decades-long drive to develop a nuclear weapon. Afterward, Trump declared that Iran's capability to enrich uranium had been "obliterated." Yet Trump and other Western officials wanted further concessions. The Iranians maintained a large stockpile of lower-grade uranium. It was buried under rubble from the bombing in 2025, but Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, insisted that the Iranians give it up and forswear any intention of enriching uranium in the future. Trump sent Kushner and Witkoff to present the Iranians with what amounted to a binary choice: turn over their entire stockpile or expect an attack. To emphasize his threats, he had dispatched an armada to the Middle East. "We have to have a meaningful deal, otherwise bad things happen," he said.

'Culture shift' needed in how UK does business, PM urges The UK needs a culture shift in how it does business, Andy Burnham has said ahead of a meeting with some of the UK's biggest bosses. The prime minister said those who take risks in business should be backed by government and local leaders should have the power to work with businesses. The current Labour government has been criticised for increasing costs for businesses, such as with the employer national insurance and minimum wage changes under Burnham's predecessor Sir Keir Starmer. Downing Street said Burnham will meet with the chief executives of BP, Shell, HSBC, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, BT, Vodafone, Rolls-Royce, and several others at Number 10. Ahead of the meeting, Burnham said he would give people the confidence that if they have a great idea, they'll get all the support they need to bring it to life.

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Silicon Valley is shifting away from chatbot queries toward a future filled with resource-intensive agentic AI--and it's driving the data center buildout. Welcome back to Power Play! Each week, senior writer Molly Taft tackles a topic around this midterm season's biggest issue: data centers. If you've got a question or thought for the column, feel free to shoot Molly an email at [email protected] or reach them securely on Signal at mollytaft.76. "What on earth are they building all of these data centers for?" an exasperated friend asked me recently.

Did Iran capture a US submarine? Iraq has closed some border crossings with Iran while investigating drone attacks on Saudi Arabia's East-West oil pipeline that it confirms were launched from its territory. The Iraqi government temporarily closed three of its crossings into Iran after drone launch sites were discovered in the country, an Iraqi security source told Al Jazeera on Saturday. He said that Iraq had primarily ordered the closure of the crossings over fears that the perpetrators of attacks could flee to Iran. Hewson also said the al-Tayyib border area of the southeastern province of Maysan had been shut after drone launchers were discovered there, and a search operation was under way.