Daily digest · Saturday, August 29, 2026
Oil, fuels, and LNG import costs are projected to have surged by as much as $330 billion over March–August due to the Iran-U.S.-Israel conflict. Elsewhere, stories cover ways to cut phone bills with MVNOs, an appeals court ruling involving Kalshi, and estimates that GTA 6’s budget could top $1 billion.
1 · Engadget
MVNOs like Mint Mobile, Visible, US Mobile, and Google Fi lease network access from major carriers, letting customers pay less while still using the same underlying AT&T/T-Mobile/Verizon networks (with potential slowdowns during congestion).
2 · Yahoo Finance
The Iran-U.S.-Israel conflict swelled global oil, fuels, and LNG import costs by as much as $330 billion over March–August compared with analysts’ forecasts, with the bill still at risk of growing further.
3 · Yahoo Finance
IYK charges a 0.38% expense ratio versus FTXG’s 0.6% while both ETFs target about a 2.5% trailing-12-month dividend yield.
4 · CNET
Windscribe’s Back to School deal cuts a full year of Pro VPN access to $39 instead of $69 (64% off), which works out to a little over $3 per month and stays locked for the lifetime of the subscription.
5 · Engadget
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals overruled Kalshi’s attempt to block Nevada from overseeing its prediction market platform.
6 · Yahoo Finance
72% of the 1,000 people surveyed by Neighbors Bank have paused their home search waiting for lower mortgage rates, and 41% of those holdouts already regret it.
7 · Engadget
OpenAI plans to cut Cursor off from its models on November 12, 2026, and will stop providing future OpenAI models to Cursor after that date unless Cursor terminates earlier.
8 · Engadget
Clearing cache can slow apps and websites temporarily because you delete the “shortcut” they reuse until the cache is rebuilt by re-downloading or re-creating data.
9 · Yahoo Finance
A 78-year-old’s $5,300-a-month cash target equals $63,600 per year in dividends, which the article estimates would require about $2.19M in SCHD, $1.18M in NNN, or $589,000 in HTGC at the stated yield levels.
10 · Engadget
Analysts estimate Grand Theft Auto VI’s budget at well over $1 billion, with some figures putting it around $1.5 billion—potentially making it the most expensive game ever made.
