Kyiv, Ukraine, (AP) — Ukraine attacked more oil installations deep within Russia overnight, said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while Kyiv continued its campaign to embarrass Moscow and undermine the wartime economy.
Russians have been rattled by the repeated attacks. The Ukrainians have to endure regular air attacks that Kyiv’s depleted defenses can’t counter. This is despite Moscow’s four-year full-scale invasion.
Kyiv’s region held an official day for mourning on Thursday, after 17 people were killed by a Russian drone and missile attack the day before. This prompted Ukraine and partner countries to scramble more urgently in order to acquire new air defence supplies.
The United Nations in Kyiv reported Wednesday that 1,396 people were killed in the first half of the year and 7,978 others injured. It said that this was an increase of 37% from the same time last year, and 114% over 2024. They attributed the growth to the increased use by Russia of long-range air attacks.
Zelenskyy met with officials to discuss how Ukraine can develop its own ballistic weapons, in a similar fashion to the rapid innovation of drones during wartime.
In a post on social media, he stated that “only a small minority of countries have been able to develop their own ballistic capability and create a new system against the ballistic threat.” “Ukraine is able to do this.”
Zelenskyy stated that he expected the program to achieve results in this and the next year after it has overcome “key challenges” including the procurement of critical components, the technological cooperation with partners countries and the choice where to manufacture the armaments.
Ukraine claims it has hit Russian refineries at sea
Zelenskyy posted on social media that Ukrainian forces had hit refineries in Russia’s Bashkortostan Region, located more than 800 miles away from the frontline, and in Yaroslavl, which is about 700 km (400 miles), from the border.
Yaroslavl Governor Mikhail Yevrayev, in a Telegram message, confirmed the attack. He said that debris from a drone hit oil reservoirs at the refinery and caused a fire. He added that three private homes were also damaged and caught on fire.
Zelenskyy claimed that Ukrainian forces had attacked two Russian patrol boats and vessels from the so-called Shadow Fleet of Moscow, which Russia used to avoid Western sanctions on oil exports. Zelenskyy did not provide any further details.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, its air defences shot down 605 Ukrainian UAVs in the night over its territory.
Ukraine wants more interceptors missiles to boost air defence
Authorities said that drone and glide bomb strikes across Ukraine killed three civilians overnight and injured 22 others. Countries helping Kyiv to resist the invasion were scrambling for more air defenses in its battle.
In recent weeks, Moscow has bombarded Ukraine’s airspace with missiles. According to Kyiv authorities, only the Patriot system made by America can stop them. The Iran War has depleted Patriot missile stocks, which leaves Ukraine vulnerable to Russian air attacks that are looking to take advantage of the weakened defenses.
Zelenskyy posted on Wednesday night that “we are doing everything we can to secure interceptor missiles from all possible partners in order to prevent such insane Russian attacks targeting civilians, life and people.”
He claimed to have spoken with Mark Rutte, NATO’s chief of staff and Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president about urgently procuring interceptors. Zelenskyy stated that he, Rutte and other countries with the capability to assist “coordinated their efforts.”
Rutte told X that he and his allies were discussing “how to continue getting Ukraine the urgent air defenses it needs.”
Russian glide-bombs injure 12 people in Sumy
Russia seems determined to overwhelm Ukraine with sheer numbers of troops, armor and arms. Western officials and analysts say that Russian President Vladimir Putin is convinced that time will be on his side and the Western world will soon fade away, and that Ukraine will finally succumb to pressure.
Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia had fired 101 drones with long ranges, and four missiles. The air defences shot down or jammed 66 of the drones.
Vitalii Karabanov, the head of Kharkiv’s Military Administration, confirmed that three people had been killed in Balakliia, in northeastern Ukraine.
The National Police reported that Russian glide bombs injured 12 people in the nearby Sumy area. Oleh Hryhorov, the regional chief of military administration, confirmed that apartment buildings, infrastructure, and hundreds of broken windows were all damaged.
Authorities in Kherson, southern Ukraine reported that a Russian drone hit a farmworker bus, causing six injuries.
Ivan Fedorov, regional administration chief, confirmed that a Russian drone struck and injured four people in a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia in the south-east.
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You are not to blame if you mistakenly thought the QS90H was last year’s model QS700F. The QS90H and QS700F are identical from a design perspective, but the QS90H has a 3.5-inch wider screen. Samsung had to make more space for the additional five drivers (13 instead of eight) in this model. It also includes a compact, wireless subwoofer because its internal drivers aren’t powerful enough to be used alone. The QS90H also has the same horizontally-striped grille on top with dots around the front and sides of the soundbar.
The center mounted onboard controls are another similarity. They’re not only in the exact same place, they are also almost identical. The QS90H has the microphone mutes button on the left side of the display. This also turns Bluetooth on. Two volume buttons are in the center and there is a button called Multi on the right. When the speaker is in active mode, the Multi button will wake the soundbar up from standby and cycle through all the inputs including Bluetooth.
The QS90H has many of the same features as other Samsung soundbars. The list of features includes Wireless Dolby atmos, Q-Symphony Audio Expansion, SpaceFit sound Pro room calibration, and AI Dynamic bass Control. It also features the content-based Adaptive Sound feature, Active Voice Amplifier Pro dialog boost, Sound Elevation enhancement, and Game Mode Pro to improve 3D audio while gaming. Q-Symphony uses the TV speakers to enhance your soundbar’s audio. However, it is only compatible with Samsung TVs. Wireless Dolby Atmos won’t also work without a compatible TV. I didn’t test this feature because I did not have one.
It’s good to see that Samsung offers its SpaceFit Sound Pro built-in tool. The QS700H only supported the room calibration feature if the soundbar was connected to a Samsung compatible TV. The QS90H however allows you to use room calibration with any TV, thanks to its internal microphones. Soundbars can be calibrated to your room’s acoustics and in theory offer better sound quality than they would have out of the package.
Convertible Fit is perhaps the most impressive feature of the QS90H. Samsung introduced this feature on its QS700H soundbar, which allows the user to place the speaker flat and with the top up on a surface. The same thing happens when the speaker is mounted on the wall, with its top out. The soundbar’s gyrosensor detects your position and adjusts audio automatically. This feature is also advertised for the QS90H. I did not notice a big difference in the sound quality when the QS90H was oriented one way or the other. Convertible fit switches the duty of the drivers from the front to the rear depending on where the soundbar is placed. This lack of variation in performance shouldn’t be surprising but I’m glad to see it delivers.
Let’s talk about the QS90H soundbar before we get to its performance. It’s a 7.1.2 channel speaker. This means there are 7 front and side firing channels, plus 2 up-firing. This “1” is a subwoofer-only channel. In the QS90H’s case, this function is performed by the soundbar. The total number of speakers is 13. This includes up-firing drivers, side-firing drivers, and the “front wide-firing”.
Quad Bass is by far the most significant part of this baker’s dozen. This is actually four woofers – two each on either side of the speaker. Samsung has designed its components so that they can push air two ways instead of one. This is an all-in one soundbar which does not require a subwoofer.
The QS90H produces a shocking amount of low-end sound. It was a lot of bass, and it made me feel like I could hear the engines from For All Mankind right there in my living-room. The kick drum is loud and thumping whenever there’s an upbeat beat, whether it’s in Alexisonfire Crisis or a song from a television show. Since I started testing it, I have been surprised by how powerful the QS90H is. It’s not like I missed having a big box under the couch to do this. It’s been a good life without a subwoofer.
The QS90H handles directional audio quite well, too. As the F1 cars zoom around various circuits in episodes of Drive To Survive, the drivers of the soundbar can hear the car’s zoom. The QS90H can’t replace a set of surround speakers in a large room, but it is able to provide surprisingly immersive sound for smaller rooms.
The Sonos Arc Ultra is the most suitable alternative to a traditional all-in one soundbar. I have already discussed this. Sonos Sound Motion Technology provides more bass than a regular Arc Soundbar. This eliminates the requirement for a separate subwoofer to be used for music and TV. You also get an additional 9.1.4 channels, with two front and two height channels in comparison to the QS90H. Sonos’ highest-end model will set you back $99 extra than the QS90H, but you won’t have to deal with its buggy software. Sonos updates its software regularly, but social media users continue to complain about problems. Since its release, I have used the Arc Ultra intermittently and rarely ever use the Arc Ultra app. The app doesn’t get in the way after the initial set-up. The Apple TV remote works perfectly for controlling volume and AirPlay for music.
Bose is another contender. It’s possible that the company does not label its Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar (1,099) as an option for standalone use because they would rather you buy two Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofers for your home theater system. It does, however, have its own dedicated subwoofer (5.1.2) channel, and it promises that its CleanBass, QuietPort, and QuietPort+ technologies will provide “deeper and fuller bass than the previous Smart Ultra Soundbar.” The Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar will be reviewed soon. I’ve not verified this claim, yet.

Two people who are familiar with Hassabis’s thinking said that his departure from Google DeepMind, the CEO position he held since 2010, and the company he sold to Google back in 2014 had been planned for at least one year.
Hassabis was increasingly shifting his responsibilities for the Gemini AI model and consumer AI strategy to Koray Kvukcuoglu. He is the chief AI architect of the company.
Both people said Hassabis was not forced out of his job against his will. He struggled more to be satisfied in his role as a tech executive than that of visionary scientist.
Hassabis won the Nobel Prize for biotech in 2024. He is currently running Isomorphic Labs. He is passionate about using AI in solving scientific puzzles like discovering new materials and curing disease.
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The move coincided with Jeff Dean’s departure as chief scientist, sending Google’s share price down by 4% on Wednesday. It raised questions about Google’s position in the rapidly-moving AI race. The AI models of Google are about six months behind where the most compute power currently is consumed.
It reported a 24% increase in revenue to $120 billion and an 82% rise in cloud revenues. Like most large tech companies, its capital spending is at a record level. This has pushed the free cash flow to negative for the first since 2004.
According to a Google executive, the change in management will accelerate AI development, not slow it down. Hassabis was the new face of Google’s AI effort, but he didn’t focus on the area of the business most closely associated with the company’s standing in the race.
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A person with knowledge of the situation said that Dean was a major contributor to Google’s technology over the past two decades. His departure from the company was met with sadness, even by Sundar Pichai. Dean, unlike Hassabis had fewer direct reports than Hassabis and was not in charge of any major division.
Pichai said in an article on Google’s Blog that “we are at a moment of great opportunity.” With today’s updates, we will continue to drive our momentum.
Reed’s View
Hassabis has been interviewed a few times after the ChatGPT event. In June, I had my most recent interview with Hassabis and there was definite evidence that something changed. Google reoriented itself to increase the pace of AI product deployment. Some of these products have had great success, such as Notebook LM. Gemini, the only consumer-facing chatbot to rival OpenAI in the market is gaining in popularity. Hassabis, however, seemed to be uninterested by the topic.
One person told me that he will be happier in the future and probably even win another Nobel Prize.
Google still has the strongest position to dominate the AI consumer race. This is due to the computing power of its TPUs, its large consumer base, and the fact that it controls the most popular mobile OS in the world.
This raises a question, though: why hasn’t the company already developed some sort of AI super-app that will blow everyone away? This criticism assumes that the world changes faster than what it actually does. In recent years, the AI technology has advanced at an astonishing rate. Adoption is only just beginning to spread across the globe and economy.
The costs of AI are too high and there are not enough AI datacenters. Google will be able to launch services with less risk as more compute increases capabilities.
Google cannot afford to let up on the pedal and is under more pressure now than ever before. DeepMind has plenty more tread left on its tires and the race is not over.

Workers at the Kvitneva station, near Kyiv lift the white bags of dead bodies from the platform’s ragged surface and transport them to ambulances waiting on the other side.
Eight people died in the latest Russian aerial assault on Ukraine. They were killed by a massive attack that included shoes, glasses, and clothing.
Overnight, Moscow launched 115 drones as well as 24 missiles. The majority of drones have been shot down but Kyiv’s air defences, which are depleted, did not stop any missiles.
21 people died and scores more were hurt.
Russian missiles have destroyed logistics and storage facilities, from online retailers’ warehouses to postal sorting centres.
It is unclear if in Kvitneva the attack was on the rail itself, or if it was instead the nearby warehouse, which had also been hit, and was still burning hours after the incident. Another warehouse down the street was still on fire more than twelve hours after the incident.
It was a surprise attack that began just before midnight. The night of intense bombardment Kyiv endured was among the worst in recent months.
Anastasiia’s Dudley house, located nearby, was nearly completely destroyed. However both she and her mom survived the disaster – albeit shaken.
Anastasiia says that she has been a war veteran for many years, but the night of Wednesday February 20, 2022 was “her scariest” yet.
She stares up at her precariously leaning house. A drone, she claims, had struck it a few minutes before missiles hit the nearby station and warehouse.
She says, “You can see the two first-floor floors. But it was actually a house of three levels with a roof.” The top of the building has been cut off. The building has no roof and no third-floor, with extensive damage to the second-floor. “It’s pretty unsteady”.
Ukrainians, who have endured four and a half years of conflict, are now more vulnerable to air attacks, which can result in up to dozens of fatalities at once.
Since years, Ukraine relies on US Patriot missiles for the destruction of Russian ballistic missiles.
The US is not willing to part with more of their stockpiles, as they have used most during the war against Iran. In early July, President Donald Trump initially offered Ukraine the right to manufacture Patriots. Last week he denied that the US agreed to give away “that kind of technology”.
Without them, Ukraine is a wide-open sky.
Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine said that ballistic missile interceptors would have been able to save the lives those who were killed.
He warned last week that the lack of interceptors, after another deadly attack where only one of 27 missiles were shot down, “encourages Russia” to carry out such attacks which take lives.
Zelensky again made the link on Wednesday between delays in supplies and “horrible casualties and destruction”, which are seen regularly throughout Ukraine.
He said that “every single day the lives of the people in Ukraine are dependent on the decision-making of our European and American partners,” adding that he spoke to Nato Chief Mark Rutte regarding the acquisition of interceptor missiles.
The number of Patriot missiles in Ukraine is not disclosed, however the Patriot interceptor systems are short.
The system can have a maximum range of 160km and is difficult to place.
Russia uses between 20 to 30 ballistics missiles on average each time they launch a large-scale attack on Ukraine.
Ivan Stupak, a former officer of the Ukrainian intelligence service and military expert in Ukraine, says that the absence of interceptors has left Kyiv with a similar situation to having a Supercar in your garage without petrol.
He told the BBC: “Imagine owning a Lamborghini, but having no fuel.” You have the most expensive car in the world but can’t get anywhere. Patriot’s situation is very similar. “The systems exist, but no missiles are interceptors.”
The Patriot system, as well as the entire country’s valuable Patriot systems are at risk if Patriot missiles do not exist.
“Now, the question is to prevent the destruction of the systems themselves,” Stupak states. Because they may very well be priority targets of the Russian Federation.
These systems must be moved or hidden until we get more interceptor missiles so that the Russians can’t detect them and destroy. They’re very vulnerable right now.”
As the doctors leave, another team rushes in to fix the overhead power lines so that services can be resumed. Ukrainians are all too used to this rapid cleanup and recovery.

In one of its most deadly attacks in Kyiv, Russia has launched an unprecedented wave of missile and drone strikes against the Ukrainian capital. At least 17 people have been killed and 44 others injured.
Ukrainian drones continue to target warehouses owned by Wildberries, an online retailer similar to Amazon.
The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy sent condolences the families of the victims killed by the latest Russian attack. He said the “heavy-hit” included 24 ballistic rockets, four Zircon/Oniks and 115 unmanned aerial vehicles.
Zelenskyy stated that the main target of this attack was warehouses belonging to civil businesses. Infrastructure and a train station were also targeted.
Ballistic missile interceptors would have been able to save the lives of many who were killed in today’s attacks. “It is important for our partners to understand that a delay in supplying anti-ballistic system or a refusal to supply them leads directly to these horrific deaths and destruction,” Zelenskyy stated in X.
He added that “Partners not ready yet to take a more proactive role in the supply of interceptors” can be helped by new sanctions, noting that sanctions have not been applied yet to a large part of Russia’s production.
In recent weeks, Russian forces increased their number of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. This is likely part of an effort to take advantage of Kyiv’s lack of ballistic missile interceptors.
Ukraine is heavily reliant upon the American Patriot PAC-3 System to intercept Russian Ballistic Missiles. Ukrainian officials have consistently argued that home production of this system would ease an acute shortage in air defense.
Recently, U.S. president Donald Trump who recently seemed more willing to help Ukraine cast doubts on Washington’s willingness to accept one of Kyiv’s most urgent demands.
Trump told the Financial Times in a phone interview on July 30, that he hadn’t yet made a decision about whether or not to permit Ukraine to manufacture Patriot surface-to air interceptor missiles.