Chinese AI startup MiniMax has launched H3, a video-generation model it says costs about 70% less than rivals such as ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 and Kuaishou's Kling 3.0. H3 can generate 15-second 2K videos with native stereo sound, and supports video editing using multimodal prompts. MiniMax plans to release H3's model weights, allowing developers to download, modify and customise the model.

A 48-year-old barbecue chef named Ma Jianping in China has gone viral for his striking resemblance to billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk. A video showing Jianping serving barbecue in Shaanxi province went viral, drawing huge crowds to the eatery he co-owns. Although Jianping went viral earlier, he said his recent fame doubled his business but made him "shy and nervous".

The US imposed fresh sanctions on six entities and individuals from India, China, Russia and Iran, alleging they provided logistical, commercial and financial support to sanctioned Iranian airline Mahan Air. The US accused Mahan Air of serving as a transport arm for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. US said Mahan Air has been used to move weapons and personnel.

India's gold demand fell 6% year-on-year to 131 tonnes in June quarter as record prices discouraged people from jewellery purchases, World Gold Council said. However, the value of demand surged to a record ₹1.98 lakh crore as compared to ₹1.32 lakh crore during the same period last year. Jewellery demand dropped 15%, while bar and coin demand rose by 9%.

Apple warned that supply chain constraints are expected to significantly affect the availability of its Mac, iPhone and iPad products. Outgoing CEO Tim Cook said shortages of key chip components and unexpectedly strong demand are driving the issue. iPhone and Mac sales rose 22% and 29%, respectively, in the June quarter, reflecting the strong demand for both products.

India's billionaire-led family offices are increasingly offering profit-sharing to attract top investment professionals amid intense competition in the wealth market, Bloomberg reported. They include Azim Premji and consumer tycoon Harsh Mariwala. Such incentives were rare until recently. Globally, fewer than one-third of family offices offer long-term incentive plans to their investment teams.

Failing to file an ITR by July 31 can attract interest at 1% per month, calculated from the due date, along with late fees. Since interest is calculated monthly, even a one-day delay in filing ITR may attract interest on the full tax due. Filing ITR after the deadline may still attract late fees, even if no tax is due.

Leopold Aschenbrenner's AI-focused hedge fund, Situational Awareness, reportedly grew 439% in the first six months of 2026 before suffering massive losses in AI infrastructure stocks. Dubbed the "Nostradamus of AI", Aschenbrenner previously worked on OpenAI's Superalignment team. He enrolled at Columbia University at 15 and graduated at 19 with a degree in mathematics and economics.

Innov8 Coworking Founder Ritesh Malik has purchased a 5,175-square-foot bungalow in Delhi's Golf Links for ₹85 crore. Malik reportedly plans to demolish the existing structure, which is in a dilapidated condition, and redevelop the site into a 6,000- to 7,000-square-foot residence. Innov8 was acquired by OYO for around ₹220 crore in 2019.

Amazon announced that it received $600 million (₹5,700 crore) in tariff refunds from the Donald Trump administration in April-June and said it'll automatically issue refunds to consumers under a "limited set of circumstances". It noted that it wasn't hit as hard by tariffs as it had stockpiled inventory. In most cases where prices did rise, Amazon absorbed the tariff impact.