Zero's Briefs

Foreign Affairs and Geopolitics — Russian drones over Ukraine and a power plant hit in Shchastia — On the night toward August 28, Russia attacked Ukraine with attack drones: the overnight roundup by the Ukrainian outlet TSN reports a widespread power outage in the occupied territories after a strike on the Shchastia thermal power plant, and states that Sweden will transfer ten vessels to Kyiv. On the opposite front, Lenta.ru reports statements by the governor of Sevastopol, released via Telegram, about a Ukrainian attack carried out with drones loaded with metal balls. The two accounts do not corroborate each other.

Foreign Affairs and Geopolitics — Lula asks the Senate for a fast track on rare earths — On August 28, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva urged the Senate to urgently approve the bill regulating the exploration of critical minerals and rare earths, citing the advance of foreign investments in projects considered strategic, according to the roundup by Venceslau Notícias. Brazil holds presidential elections this year: Lula’s candidacy for re-election, with Geraldo Alckmin as running mate, was registered with the Superior Electoral Court on August 7 (Brasil de Fato).

Europe — A meeting in Chișinău reported by a single Russian outlet — According to Ukraina.ru, an editorial roundup by the Russian agency Rossiya Segodnya, a meeting was reportedly held on August 28 in the Moldovan capital between Volodymyr Zelensky, Maia Sandu and Nicușor Dan on grain, drones and European integration. The same outlet claims that Ukraine has reduced the flow of Dniester water to Moldova. The story currently comes from a single source; no independent confirmation is available and the claim about the water remains a one-sided attribution.

Culture — A room at the Musée d’Orsay for works never returned — Since May 2026, the Paris museum has been displaying, on a rotating basis, thirteen works from the Musées Nationaux Récupération in a room within the permanent collection titled “À qui appartiennent ces œuvres ?”. After the war, the French State entrusted national museums with about 2,200 recovered works; at Orsay alone, 225 remain with no rightful owner identified, eight of which have been confirmed as looted, according to the museum’s official page and the report by Tenoua.

Italy — Meloni meets Lebanese President Aoun in Taranto — On the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Mediterranean Games, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni held talks with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, according to statements from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The content of the bilateral meeting is not detailed in the available communications.

News — July 2026 among the hottest ever measured — The Copernicus Climate Change Service reports the hottest June-July period ever recorded for Western Europe, with four heatwaves since May; NOAA ranks July 2026 tied with July 2024 as the hottest July on record, and the ten hottest Julys have all occurred since 2016. As of early August, wildfires in the European Union were the fourth most severe ever recorded. The data are compiled in a report by Greenpeace International: the only available source, no independent confirmation.

News — The Australian numbat exits the “endangered” category — The 2026-1 update of the Red List, published on July 9, reclassifies the Australian marsupial from “endangered” to “near threatened”: the population, which had fallen to about 300 individuals by the late 1970s due to feral cats and introduced red foxes, has recovered to 2,000-3,000 thanks to predator control and captive breeding. The species, however, still occupies about 0.04% of its original range (IUCN).

Sport — Champions League: Inter draws Liverpool and Real Madrid — The draw for the 2026/27 league phase was held on August 27 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco: a single league table of 36 clubs, eight matches per club. Inter will face Liverpool and Real Madrid, an opponent Roma also drew; Napoli will meet Arsenal and Manchester City; Como, in its first-ever appearance, will play Psg, Barcelona and Manchester United. Matchday one is set for September 8-10, with the final on June 5, 2027 in Madrid (Sportmediaset, Il Messaggero).

Sport — Taranto opens the Mediterranean Games with 26 committees — The twentieth edition of the event is taking place in the Apulian city with the participation of 26 national Olympic committees; the Italian Prime Minister attended the opening ceremony, according to statements from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and coverage by the sports desk of Sky TG24. The event schedule is not detailed in the available sources.

Health — EMA recommends six new medicines — At its June 22-25 meeting, the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use adopted six positive opinions: these include the influenza vaccine Aujemflu for people aged 50 and over, Hopledo for adult patients with Parkinson’s disease and moderate to severe motor fluctuations, Onswik (efsitora alfa insulin) for type 2 diabetes in adults, and, following re-examination, Daybu (trofinetide) for the neurobehavioral symptoms of Rett syndrome from age five. Twelve indication extensions were also recommended, along with the revocation of Tavneos’s marketing authorization (EMA, sole source, primary institutional source).

Health — One in 27 children dies before age five — Estimates from the United Nations Inter-agency Group indicate that 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2024, nearly half of them in fragile or conflict-affected settings; in 1990 the ratio was one in eleven. However, the annual rate of reduction has fallen from 3.9% in the 2000-2015 period to 1.5% in 2015-2024 (UNICEF Data, sole source).

Tech & AI — ChatGPT links multiple Google accounts within the same conversation — On August 28, OpenAI announced support for multiple accounts for Gmail, Calendar and Contacts within the same conversation, allowing users to consult personal and work inboxes and calendars together. The feature is available globally on paid plans, on web, desktop, iOS and Android; the day before, additional controls for temporary chats had been introduced (OpenAI release notes, sole source).

Culture — Thirteen novels in the Booker Prize’s first selection — Announced on July 28, the list includes 13 titles chosen from 163 published in English in the United Kingdom or Ireland between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026. It includes two previous winners, Douglas Stuart and Marlon James, three debut novels, and authors of seven nationalities; the jury is chaired by Mary Beard. If M. John Harrison, 81, were to win, he would be the oldest laureate: the record currently belongs to Margaret Atwood, 79 in 2019 (The Booker Prizes).

The Number of the Day — 847 million people in extreme poverty in 2024 — This is the estimate from the March 2026 update of the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform, equal to 10.4% of the world’s population, with a projection of 10.0% for 2026. The figure was revised upward by about 8 million compared to September 2025, mainly due to the inclusion of a new survey on Pakistan, and the projections do not factor in the effects of the most recent trade and energy turmoil (World Bank Data Blog).

On This Day — On August 29, the Bayreuth orchestra departs for Spain — Three days after the close of the 150th edition of the festival, which ended on August 26 with a performance of “Rienzi,” the orchestra begins a Spanish tour today that will conclude on September 6, as stated on the official website of the Bayreuther Festspiele.