CLARITY Act Vote Slips to September as Senate Breaks for Recess
The Senate delayed voting on the CLARITY Act digital asset framework until September after Democrats refused to bring it to the floor before August recess. Majority Leader John Thune confirmed the vote on H.R. 3633 will occur when lawmakers return from their break.
On the front lines of conservation in Sumatra: Rangers safeguard Batutegi forest
Forest rangers patrol nearly 60,000 hectares of Batutegi forest in southern Sumatra to protect its ecological and economic resources. Wandi Harmoko has walked the forest's ridges and valleys for over fifteen years as one of only a handful of officers assigned to this territory.
FIS Expands Commercial Banking Platform to APAC Region
FIS has completed a global rollout of its Digital One Commercial platform by launching it in the Asia-Pacific region, following earlier launches in the United States and Europe, Middle East and Africa. The platform is now available across all three major geographic regions.
Stripe Integrates CareCredit to Expand Online Health and Wellness Financing
CareCredit financing can now be embedded directly into Stripe's online checkout for U.S. health and wellness providers. Synchrony, which operates CareCredit, enabled this integration to allow providers to offer the financing option through platforms they already use.
The RealReal’s AI Overhaul Helps Drive 22% GMV Growth
The RealReal's AI system Athena automates authentication and cataloging while a pricing algorithm analyzes over 100 data points per item. These AI upgrades helped drive 22% GMV growth over the past year.
Bacterial enzyme switch could weaken antibiotic defenses in MRSA and other pathogens
A bacterial enzyme switch has been identified that could weaken antibiotic defenses in MRSA and other pathogens. Researchers at the University of Delaware discovered this mechanism that allows pathogenic bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotic treatments.
How social media and parrotfish poop are protecting the Maldives
Shaha Hashim discovered through social media posts that protected species including giant clams, Napoleon wrasse, and parrotfish were being illegally fished and sold in Maldivian fish markets. This discovery six years ago led to conservation efforts targeting vulnerable species in the atoll islands.
No cloud, no GPUs, no problem: Liquid AI's new model LFM2.5-2.6B brings powerful AI agents to devices as small as a Raspberry Pi
Liquid AI released LFM2.5-2.6B, a 2.6 billion parameter language model designed to run on local devices including Raspberry Pi without cloud or GPUs. The model handles agentic tasks like tool calling, document management, and workflow automation in connectivity-limited environments.
Charting the galaxy: Milky Way Mapper survey releases latest all-sky spectra
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey released its 20th public data containing spectra from the Milky Way Mapper, the most detailed spectroscopic map of stars in our galaxy. The release represents a significant expansion of the survey's coverage and data availability for astronomical research.
Decoding the North American bison's genome to better inform conservation efforts
Researchers at UC Santa Cruz used paleogenomics to create a genetic roadmap for bison conservation by analyzing ancient DNA. The study aims to guide restoration efforts for the North American bison species, which nearly went extinct.
How Google Is Rewriting Search — and What Entrepreneurs Must Do Before Their Competitors Do
Google rebuilt Search around AI-generated answers and published official guidance for maintaining visibility within them. The company is fundamentally changing how search results appear to users through artificial intelligence integration.
AMD Buys Taalas to Put Hard-Wired AI Models in Its Accelerator Roadmap
AMD acquired Taalas, a Toronto-based startup that designs custom chips built around individual AI models. The three-year-old company specializes in inference silicon, which AMD will integrate into its accelerator product lineup.
Microsoft Opens 26 Open Models to Startups Through Fireworks AI on Foundry
Microsoft made 26 open models available to startups through Fireworks AI on its Foundry platform, with qualified participants able to apply up to $150,000 in Azure credits toward model deployments. The integration reached general availability on August 4, 2026, and includes a reference architecture for running open models on Microsoft Foundry.
Bitcoin Network Warning: Developers Find Nearly 5,000 Vulnerabilities
The Bitcoin Red Team identified 4,962 security findings across 390 projects within 30 hours following the Coldcard hack. The vulnerabilities were discovered during a coordinated security assessment of the Bitcoin network's ecosystem.
Disney’s partnership with TikTok aims to blur the line between scrolling and streaming
Disney and TikTok announced a deal to bring fan-made TikTok videos to Disney+ through a pilot program launching in a few months, featuring short videos using scenes from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars. TikTok users share an average of 6.5 million pieces of movie and TV content daily, with nearly half of viewers watching shows or films after discovering them on the platform.
DeepSeek Resumes Funding Round to Raise $8 Billion
DeepSeek resumed its second funding round seeking approximately $8 billion at a valuation of about $74 billion. The Chinese AI startup's funding discussions are ongoing and details remain subject to change.
Wintermute Lands US Broker License and a 5-Year Plan to Rival Citadel
Wintermute's US division registered as a broker-dealer, enabling trading in commodities, crypto ETFs, and tokenized stocks. The company outlined a five-year strategy to compete with Citadel.
Anthropic’s Silicon Team Is Hiring for Tapeout and Production Ramp
Anthropic's custom silicon team is hiring engineers to develop chips from initial design through production manufacturing, including tapeout and first-silicon bring-up stages. The company posted job listings for a Silicon Engineer and Technical Program Manager to execute the complete program from architecture definition to production readiness.
Uniswap's New Launchpad Out-Launched Pons On Its First Day On Robinhood Chain
A launchpad called Pools.trade launched on August 5 with zero fees and created 10,506 tokens in one day, surpassing competitor Pons which created 7,210 tokens. PONS token declined 49% over the week following the new launchpad's debut on Robinhood Chain.
Why do people actually prefer AI-generated stories to human writing? New study reveals surprising insights
Participants in a Cambridge University study read six short stories and rated AI-generated versions as more engaging and higher-quality than human-written counterparts, despite showing preference when believing stories were human-authored. The study of 1,682 adults involved three human-written stories and three ChatGPT-generated stories with similar topics and styles.
Senate Whip Barrasso Becomes Latest Lawmaker to Support Crypto Clarity Act, But Time May Be Running Out
Senate Whip Barrasso joined other lawmakers in supporting the Crypto Clarity Act. Time remains limited before the Senate recesses, with Republicans pushing to pass the bill before that deadline.
a16z's Miles Jennings Says Banks Fighting the CLARITY Act Are 'Accelerating Their Own Obsolescence'
Six banking trade groups are pushing senators to tighten the CLARITY Act's prohibition on interest-like rewards for stablecoin holdings. Miles Jennings argues banks fighting the bill accelerate their obsolescence because such payments would continue under an alternative called GENIUS if CLARITY fails.
GUARDD Meets with SEC to Discuss Secondary Trading of Tokenized Exempt Securities
GUARDD met with the SEC to discuss secondary trading of tokenized exempt securities. Sherwood Neiss, GUARDD's founder and co-author of the JOBS Act, led discussions about facilitating token-based transactions for securities that qualify for regulatory exemptions.
Japanese Team Develops ‘Eco-Fireworks’ with Water-Soluble Shells to Cut Back on Debris
A Japanese university professor and fireworks company president developed water-soluble fireworks that dissolve in water to reduce debris. The eco-friendly fireworks represent what may be the world's first commercial water-soluble fireworks product.
SEC Boosts Enforcement Division With New Financial Reporting Unit
The SEC established a new Financial Reporting and Accounting Unit within its Enforcement Division to ensure alignment across all agency divisions in enforcing securities laws. The unit works across the agency to coordinate enforcement of SEC goals related to financial reporting and accounting matters.
From radar blobs to bird species, AI helps transform migration tracking
Scientists developed AI models to identify specific bird species from weather radar data that previously showed birds only as indistinct blobs. The system can now distinguish individual species during their annual migrations across the United States using radar reflectivity measurements.
Suno Lays Out AI Music Principles After Copyright Fight
Suno announced operating principles including artist imitation blocking, stricter download rules, and watermarking technology rollout within weeks. The framework was published August 6, 2026, as the company settled one major-label copyright lawsuit while facing additional legal challenges.
Solana (SOL) Real-World Assets (RWAs) Market Tops $3.73 Billion
The Solana blockchain's real-world assets market reached $3.73 billion in total value, marking a new all-time high. This expansion reflects growing institutional participation in the tokenization of traditional financial instruments on the network.
Qwen 3.8-Max and Claude Opus 5 show why raw benchmark scores don't predict the bill
Alibaba's Qwen 3.8-Max was tested with a five to sixteen hour timeout per run, while the independent VulcanBench harness used 45 to 60 minutes, explaining performance differences. Cost per successful task completed should replace price-per-token comparisons as the meaningful metric, with explicit time and token budgets specified upfront.
Locals Succeed in Tripling Protected Seascapes Along 300 Miles of Turkiye’s Breathtaking Coastline
Protected marine areas along 300 miles of Turkey's Mediterranean coast were tripled through collaboration between local conservationists, fishermen, and an NGO. The expansion built upon existing marine sanctuaries that previously lacked adequate funding and enforcement mechanisms.