As temperatures soared across Europe, we look back at the hottest stories from August – so if you were too busy dodging the heat to soak up the news, here’s our take on what happened this month.

One of the biggest – and still-evolving – stories has been the TikTok saga. Earlier in August, POTUS essentially banned TikTok from America unless it’s sold to an American company by September. This would put a significant dent in TikTok’s audience numbers, and Microsoft emerged as one of the potential buyers, although in Firefly’s opinion, it’s tough to see how it’d fit into Nadella’s laserfocus on ‘productivity’ – quite the opposite in fact. Twitter is also in the running, although this has only just materialised– and as for the ethics of forcing a company to sell itself to continue to do business in a country; well, we’ll leave that to you to think about.

It’s good and bad news for Google Pixel fans – a new Pixel is coming! The 4a will be available to pre-order from September 10^th at a mere £359 – although remember that the ‘a’ is the budget side of the Pixel range. Supplies may also be limited due to Covid, but if Google’s track record is anything to go by, the 4a will be worth looking into.

Better broadband in Britain may be slower than expected as bureaucracy slows things down, according to the Telegraph. However, it’s good news for the environment, as Waitrose and John Lewis promise to increase their use of electric delivery vans by 2030.

Amidst being nice to the environment comes poor treatment of workers, as authorities in California investigate potential mistreatment of workers by Amazon – and despite the company claiming it would shut down if drivers were classed as employees, they have now been designated as such. For more on this story, take a look at the Guardian. Finally, Revolut has seen a massive $80m in funding, accelerating its rollout and development across Europe – for more details, see City AM.