Ridley Scott’s new movie is about the end of the world, but he’s far from done

MOVIES

Director Ridley Scott, photographed in London in August.

(Oliver Mayhall / For The Times)

By Emily Zemler

Aug. 26, 2026 3 AM PT

• In a wide-ranging conversation, Ridley Scott, 88, the director of ‘Alien,’ ‘Blade Runner,’ and ‘Gladiator,’ turns his eye toward AI, global warming and kindness. 
• Scott ventures into sci-fi once more with ‘The Dog Stars,’ a postapocalyptic thriller that trades zombies for pandemics and asks whether hope can outlast catastrophe. 
• As he storyboards a new version of ‘Treasure Island’ and preps several projects, this fall’s honorary Oscar recipient insists he’s nowhere near finished.

Russian-American heads Trump's planned Caucasus trade route

BUSINESSARMENIA
Arshaluys Mgdesyan
9 hours ago

A Russian-born businessman heads the investment fund financing the so-called "Trump Route," a planned corridor through Armenia linking Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan. Who is Konstantin Sokolov, and what role does he play?

Iran trade falls as Supreme Leader Khamenei urges less reliance on the U.S. dollar

Politics & Policy
Published Sat, Aug 29 20268:06 AM EDT
Azhar Sukri

Key Points

• President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iranian imports and exports have fallen between 25% and 35%, with imports declining more.
• Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei calls for gradually reducing the U.S. dollar’s role and relying more heavily on domestic production.
• Iran’s August crude export loadings are down more than 80% from August 2025, according to Kpler.

Carnage in Kyiv: If Zelenskyy Didn’t Know, Who Put an Ammunition Depot Among Civilians?

August 29, 2026

Edited by Yiannis Damellos

“If Zelenskyy didn’t know the depot was there, but the Russians did, who knew—and who is actually running Ukraine's War?”

A Russian drone strike on a Ukrainian ammunition depot near Kyiv killed at least 37 people and devastated nearby civilian areas. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the storage of explosives near homes “terrible negligence” and promised an investigation. But his condemnation raises an uncomfortable question: Who authorized the depot, who knew it was there, and how could the president of a country at war not know?

The Census Bureau’s Unorthodox Foray Into Voter Roll Investigations

By Stephen Richer
August 28, 2026 10:39AM

Last week, President Trump used the official White House social media account to once again claim that he’d won the 2020 election (“I WON THE ELECTION!”). This time, his declaration stemmed from a seven-page Census Bureau report alleging at least 24,000 noncitizens voted in the 2020 general election (in which 154.6 million Americans voted).

At the risk of indulging the absurd: Trump’s claim isn’t supported. Even if we accept the report’s findings as facts (more on that below), it still doesn’t change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Of the states with the closest margins of victory for Joe Biden: Arizona (10,457 votes), Georgia (11,779), Wisconsin (20,682), Nevada (33,596), the Census report only alleges 1,100 (AZ), 400 (GA), 500 (WI), and 250 (NV) alleged noncitizens. And of course, we know that not every alleged unlawful noncitizen vote went for Biden.

The Himalayas are unpredictable. But countries are building there like never before

By Simone McCarthy
Updated 9 hr ago
Beijing - Deadly flooding along the China-Nepal border has put a sharp spotlight on how risks from natural disasters in the Himalayas are growing, at the same time that countries in the region are rapidly building out their high-altitude infrastructure footprints.

There’s no indication that the latest disaster, which has killed more than 600 people and left around 3,000 more missing on both sides of the border, was linked to manmade development. But the devastation could be a reality check for governments driving a boom in dams, tunnels, highways, railways and bridges across the Himalayas as they aim to harness the region’s vast hydropower potential and resources –– and fortify their borders there.

Western Commanders and Veterans Warn NATO Can’t Fight a Ukraine-Style War with Russia

North America, Western Europe and Oceania, Ground

MILITARY WATCH MAGAZINE 

Editorial Staff

August-27th-2026

U.S. Marines in Arctic Warfare Gear During Exercises in Norway

A senior Norwegian commander has warned that Western societies are fundamentally unprepared for a prolonged conflict on the scale and intensity of the war in Ukraine. Brigadier Atle Molde, who commands the Norway-led Task Force Legio responsible for training Ukrainian military personnel, recently warned: “We are not prepared. No Western country’s prepared.” He described avoiding a prolonged war of attrition as one of the most important lessons Norway and other Western countries should draw from Ukraine.

“No One Has Seen Anything Like It Before”: Mystery Surrounds Ancient Stone Structure Unearthed in Scotland

Archaeologists have made a baffling Iron Age discovery near Dornoch in northern Scotland. 

Micah Hanks

August 27, 2026

An unusual stone-lined structure containing human remains was unearthed during work by Highland Archaeological Services, a commercial archaeology company, in preparation for expansion at a local quarry in the area. The structure has left experts with a 2,000-year-old mystery on their hands, as they work to understand the purpose behind the unusual feature, which they say is unlike anything previously uncovered in the country.

US immigration officials arrest British far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos

Yiannopoulos was arrested on Thursday and accused of overstaying after entering the US legally in May 2019 through NYC.

Friday 28 August 2026 23:04, UK

US immigration officials arrested controversial British far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos on Thursday, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Yiannopoulos was arrested at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and accused of overstaying after entering the US legally in May 2019 through New York City

Trump says U.S. now has majority control of over 60 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves

By Joe Walsh, Ibrahim Aksoy

Updated on: August 28, 2026 / 8:28 PM EDT / 

CBS News

President Trump announced a deal Friday to grant the United States majority control of over 60 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan oil reserves — as the Trump administration angles to get oil companies to return to the country after a U.S. military operation replaced the country's leadership earlier this year.

IBM Built the Cold War’s Most Powerful Code Breaker for the NSA

Workers install Harvest (IBM 7950) at the NSA's headquarters. The two consoles configured settings on both Stretch, the system's general-purpose mainframe, and Harvest's streaming coprocessor, designed for high-speed analysis of intercepts, ciphers, and codes.

IT RAN ITS JOBS 200 TIMES AS FAST AS ANY OTHER COMPUTER ON EARTH

Peter Capek

25 AUGUST 2026

12 MIN READ

At the height of the Cold War, one very specialized computer was so secret that the world didn’t know it existed. It ran its jobs up to 200 times faster than any other computer of its time. It was the U.S. National Security Agency’s main cryptographic processor in operation from the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 through the Vietnam War and on past the 1975 Helsinki Accords. The machine stopped running only when its moving parts finally gave out.

Number of people missing after Nepal flash floods jumps significantly to nearly 2,000

Live Reporting
Edited by Kieran Kelly and Ben Hatton, with reporting from BBC Nepali, Azadeh Moshiri in Kathmandu, and Laura Bicker in Beijing

Summary

• At least 1,924 people are missing in Nepal following Wednesday's flash floods, the Nepalese disaster relief agency says
• Among them are at least 517 foreign nationals - but the situation is fast-moving and different authorities have produced different figures
• The death toll in Nepal has risen to 579, the disaster relief agency says, and at least five people have died in Tibet, with 558 reported missing there
• We are relying on reports from Chinese state media about the situation in Tibet - our China correspondent explains why
• "Please help us find her" - the brother of one of the missing Britons appeals to local officials to help locate his sister
• A collapsed glacier caused the huge flood wave, local officials tell the BBC. The surge tore through houses and roads, and destroyed a key Nepal-Tibet border crossing

Judge pauses US Postal Service plan to implement Trump’s new mail voting restrictions

By Dan Berman, Tierney Sneed
Updated 1 hr 52 min ago

A federal judge in Boston has temporarily blocked the US Postal Service from carrying out a plan, issued under an executive order from President Trump, that could limit mail voting.

Democratic states and voter advocacy groups challenging the recently released USPS rules were granted a temporary restraining order for two weeks late Thursday night.

U.S. Patriot missile stocks ‘beyond critical’ due to Iran war, officials say

World

By Emma Burrows and Ben Finley  

The Associated Press

Posted August 27, 2026

The U.S. military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe largely driven by President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, a U.S. defense official in Europe and a NATO official told The Associated Press, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in NATO countries to a potential Russian attack.

Canada reveals newly added items to list of U.S. counter-tariffs

By Spencer Van Dyk, Stephanie Ha

Updated: August 27, 2026 at 5:30p.m. EDT

Published: August 27, 2026 at 12:56p.m. EDT

OTTAWA — The federal government is replacing its counter-tariffs on seafood with 50 per cent levies on a series of other American goods, according to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s office.

“This decision was made in the interest of strengthening Canada’s sectors and our tariff response — and to better match the American tariffs dollar for dollar, rate for rate,” Champagne’s press secretary John Fragos wrote in a statement to CTV News, adding the federal government has been consulting with stakeholders and provinces when it comes to counter-tariff options.

Trump Is Asimov’s Mule and I Can Prove It

Authored and Curated by Yiannis Damellos

August 27, 2026

There are moments in history when a political system changes because an institution fails, a war is lost, an economy collapses or a revolution overturns the old order. And then there are moments when something stranger happens: The system continues to exist, but the assumptions that made it intelligible begin to disappear. That is the feeling I have watching the United States in 2026.

30 Canadians missing after catastrophic Nepal-Tibet floods, Anand says

By Ariel Rabinovitch
Global NEWS
Posted August 27, 2026 5:39 am
Updated August 27, 2026 10:35 am
3 min read

The number of Canadians missing in Nepal and the Tibet region after a series of catastrophic flash floods has climbed to 30 from 25 on Wednesday, according to the latest update from the federal government.

The floods occurred in a border area of Nepal and Tibet, an autonomous region of China, killing at least 353 and leaving more than 1,300 people missing as of Thursday. Many were foreigners in the area for trekking, guided tours or a pilgrimage to a sacred Hindu site.

Trump vs. Reality: If Everything Else Fails, Rename the Furniture

Edited and Curated by Yiannis Damellos

Illustration by Adobe Firefly

August 27 2026

There are presidents who can change the world, leaders like FDR who dictated policy, commanded a World War, and transformed his country into a superpower; and then there is Donald Trump, who has apparently decided that if reality refuses to cooperate, the next sensible step is to rename the furniture.