Evening Edition · 4 August 2026

Rubio and Bessent say a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is close, and Brent crude falls almost 5% to a three-week low

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent each said talks with Iran had progressed far enough that shipments through the strait could resume as soon as this week. Brent crude fell by almost 5% to under $80 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate dropped to $76, both their lowest since 13 July. Reuters reported that Iran is demanding control of inbound traffic through the waterway and oversight of what passes out.BBC, AP · Aug 4, 2026

Tankers riding at anchor in hazy light in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran.

Historical

Literary

Musical / Artistic

Politics

The modernist facade of the Embassy of Brazil on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, DC.

The United States revokes the visa of Brazil's ambassador, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, in a widening dispute with Lula's government

AP, ReutersAug 4, 2026

President Paul Biya surrounded by Cameroonian officials and his wife Chantal Biya at one of his last public appearances in Cameroon, in April 2026.

Cameroon's Paul Biya, 93 and unseen in public for nearly two months, reshuffles the military high command from abroad

Reuters, BBCAug 4, 2026

A young man with the words Gen-Z painted on his face at a Cockroach Janta Party protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

India's Gen Z 'Cockroach' movement says it will not contest elections after its protests forced out the education minister

Reuters, APAug 4, 2026

Conflict

A boy crouching beside rows of stretchers draped in Palestinian flags at the mass funeral in Gaza City.

Gaza City holds a mass funeral for 112 people from two families whose remains were pulled from the rubble more than two years after an Israeli strike

BBC, ReutersAug 4, 2026

A man in black running past a white van and a green parasol as a drone bears down on him, and the same scene an instant later as the drone detonates.

Ukraine calls a Russian drone attack on a Kherson vegetable seller a war crime after video shows the drone chasing him down the street

BBC, ReutersAug 4, 2026

Economy

A Falcon 9 rocket climbing on a column of flame at night, carrying a batch of Starlink satellites to orbit.

SpaceX reports a $541 million quarterly loss in its first results as a public company as revenue jumps more than 90% to $7.8 billion

AP, ReutersAug 4, 2026

Climate

The E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington, DC, home of the District of Columbia Circuit.

A divided full DC appeals court rules that the EPA likely broke the law in cancelling $20 billion in climate grants

AP, ReutersAug 4, 2026

A vaquita, the world's most endangered marine mammal, surfacing in the northern Gulf of California.

The Bezos Earth Fund and Re:wild commit $200 million to pull 100 critically endangered species back from extinction in 30 countries

Reuters, APAug 4, 2026

Science

The Volcan de Fuego in Guatemala erupting at night, incandescent rock streaming down its flanks beneath a glowing ash plume.

Guatemala raises its second-highest alert and evacuates 659 people from eight villages as the Fuego volcano erupts

Reuters, APAug 4, 2026

An Ebola treatment unit, its wards laid out under tarpaulins behind orange plastic fencing.

Ebola has killed 1,707 people in eastern Congo in the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease, with 3,802 cases and no first patient identified

AP, STATAug 4, 2026

Technology

A courtroom in the James R. Browning US Court of Appeals Building in San Francisco, seat of the Ninth Circuit.

A US appeals court lifts the ban on Perplexity's AI shopping agent using Amazon, the first appellate ruling on whether AI agents may act for their users

Reuters, Bloomberg LawAug 4, 2026

Culture

The Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the brick opera house Wagner built for the Ring, seen across its forecourt.

An artificial-intelligence staging of Wagner's Ring draws boos at the Bayreuth Festival's 150th anniversary

AP, WRALAug 4, 2026