New Delhi, Aug. 1 -- Plenty of headlines this week deserve attention, but four stand out for their potential long-term impact: a slowing US economy, President Donald Trump's approval rating falling to a record low for his presidency, Saudi Arabia's announcement of a new maritime coalition to secure a critical global shipping route, and fresh evidence that frontier AI models can breach supposedly secure systems on their own, underlining growing national security risks.

The US's economic growth slowed in the second quarter, with increasing imports widening the trade deficit. The world's most powerful economy had grown by 1.5% in the second quarter, down from 2.1% in the first three months of 2026. Analysts had earlier forecast growth to re...