Morning Skim

AI

OpenAI buys NextSlide to turn prompts into finished slide decks

OpenAI acquired presentation startup NextSlide, whose tool turns prompts, notes, and documents into polished, editable decks. Deal terms were undisclosed and the team is folding into ChatGPT's product work.

Why it matters: It signals OpenAI wants ChatGPT to hand back finished work products, not just text answers.

Dive deeper → TechCrunch

An Amazon AI data center in Texas could become the biggest polluter in the US

Amazon is building a natural gas plant at a planned Pecos County, Texas data center that would emit about 33 million tons of CO2 a year, more than any other single US source. Its emissions already rose 16% last year on AI infrastructure demand, straining a 2040 carbon-neutral pledge.

Why it matters: It shows the AI boom's power hunger colliding head-on with corporate climate goals.

Dive deeper → TechCrunch

Tech

A new CSS trick breaks webmail defenses to steal passwords in Gmail and Outlook

PortSwigger researcher Gareth Heyes showed that malicious CSS can escape an email's boundaries to capture passwords and tokens across Outlook, Gmail, Fastmail, Proton Mail, Yahoo, and AOL. Presented at Black Hat USA 2026, it can also hijack trusted UI actions and manipulate AI tools that read email.

Why it matters: It turns a styling language most people ignore into a broad credential-theft vector in the world's biggest inboxes.

Dive deeper → The Hacker News

Atlassian's Rovo AI can be tricked into leaking Jira and Confluence data

Researchers showed Atlassian's Rovo assistant can be manipulated into exfiltrating Jira and Confluence data a user can reach. PromptArmor found a prompt-injection attack via poisoned uploads still unpatched as of August 5, while Varonis's 'RovoBlast' URL flaw was fixed server-side in July.

Why it matters: It is another sign that AI assistants wired into company data open a fresh path for theft.

Dive deeper → The Hacker News

Business

Nvidia's forward valuation is its lowest in a decade even as AI demand roars

Bank of America kept a Buy rating on Nvidia, noting it trades at about 16 times projected 2027 earnings, its cheapest forward multiple in ten years. BofA expects Nvidia to beat guidance with roughly $94 to $95 billion in Q2 revenue and to hold 65 to 70% of the AI accelerator market through 2030.

Why it matters: It sharpens the market's central debate over whether Nvidia is overhyped or quietly cheap for its growth.

Dive deeper → Investing.com

European stocks hit records as earnings post their best growth in four years

The Stoxx Europe 600 notched its longest winning streak since June as corporate earnings rose 17% year over year, with Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 at record highs. Fund managers swung from net 15% underweight European equities in June to net 2% overweight.

Why it matters: Money is rotating into Europe as its profits and economy outrun years of investor pessimism.

Dive deeper → Investing.com

Science

A meteorite that crashed through a New Jersey roof holds ingredients for life

A meteorite that punched through a New Jersey home in July 2024 preserved salty fluids, organic compounds, and amino acids from a primitive asteroid, per SETI Institute research in Science Advances. The rare carbonaceous specimen suggests briny asteroid chemistry could have seeded early Earth with life's building blocks.

Why it matters: It is fresh, hands-on evidence for how the raw materials of life may have arrived from space.

Dive deeper → ScienceDaily

Astronomers spot tiny whirlpools on the Sun no one had seen before

Using the Inouye Solar Telescope, researchers at the NSF National Solar Observatory and the Max Planck Institute found previously invisible plasma vortices on the Sun, some just 20 kilometers wide. The whirlpools may help explain how magnetic fields twist and release energy through nanoflares.

Why it matters: Decoding these micro-vortices could sharpen forecasts of the solar storms that threaten satellites and power grids.

Dive deeper → ScienceDaily

World

A car bomb hits Colombia days after a hardline president takes office

A car bomb exploded at a toll plaza on Colombia's Pan-American Highway in Cauca on August 8, injuring two security guards. President Abelardo de la Espriella's government blamed FARC dissident groups and vowed a harsh crackdown.

Why it matters: It is an early, violent test of the new president's promise to restore security by force.

Dive deeper → Al Jazeera

Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan sign a mutual-defense pact

The three countries signed a trilateral defense agreement pledging to treat an armed attack on any one of them as an attack on all. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the pact does not name Iran or any country as a common threat, despite Iranian skepticism.

Why it matters: A new mutual-defense bloc spanning the Gulf and South Asia could reshape the region's security map.

Dive deeper → Al Jazeera

Culture

Madonna pays tribute to Ray of Light producer William Orbit

Producer William Orbit, who shaped Madonna's Grammy-winning 1998 album Ray of Light, died July 23 at age 69. In a weekend tribute, Madonna called him 'singular' and 'otherworldly' and credited him with pushing her to reinvent her sound.

Why it matters: Orbit helped define an era of electronic pop, and his death closes a landmark creative partnership.

Dive deeper → Consequence

Billy Strings returns in a hockey helmet after a fan throws an object at him

After an audience member hit bluegrass star Billy Strings in the head with a thrown object at an Indiana show, he snapped back at the crowd mid-set. The next night he walked out in a hockey helmet, turning the moment into a joke.

Why it matters: It is the latest flashpoint in a run of objects hurled at performers that has become a real safety headache for live music.