Brent crude settled at $91.62 a barrel (up 0.7%) and U.S. West Texas Intermediate settled at $85.83 (up 1.1%)—both at the highest since July 24—as Middle East tensions escalated after the UAE suspended financial and economic transactions with Iran and Strait of Hormuz ship traffic stayed slow.
Aug 19, 2026 ·
Yahoo Finance
OpenAI revoked some security researchers’ access to its TAC (Trusted Access for Cyber) program and said the problem was caused by an error, requiring affected users to re-verify to regain access to the Daybreak Blue tier it launched on August 10.
Aug 19, 2026 ·
TechCrunch
LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 (ZQ-3) ZQ-3 Y2 reusable rocket successfully inserted a satellite into orbit and performed a first-stage propulsive landing on four landing legs, achieving a “soft landing” and China’s first successful land recovery of an orbital-class booster.
Aug 19, 2026 ·Ars Technica
Traffic deaths in the U.S. rose by 15% in the days immediately after major music album releases, with about 182 additional fatalities across 10 observed release dates (~18.2 excess deaths per surge day).
Aug 19, 2026 ·
Engadget
More than 7,000 Merck put contracts traded at the $135 strike—about 10% below MRK’s ~$149.83 price—expiring Nov. 20 (93 days away), nearly 70x the prior number outstanding.
Aug 19, 2026 ·Yahoo Finance
T-Mobile identified a Salt Typhoon intrusion in 2024 and avoided a wider network breach by physically cutting the cable to a compromised system in a Bellevue, Washington, data center.
Aug 19, 2026 ·TechCrunch
Comcast added an opt-in “Wi‑Fi Motion” feature to Xfinity Gateway routers that detects changes in a home’s radio-frequency signal between the gateway and Wi‑Fi devices and alerts users via the Xfinity app, without recording video or identifying individuals.
Aug 19, 2026 ·
ZDNet
OpenAI said it has paused reinforcement learning training for models intended for deployment for two weeks and delayed its “largest planned frontier RL run,” while it tightens security and safeguards and conducts broader development only on a “pacing” basis rather than a full stop.
Aug 19, 2026 ·
The Verge
Three leaked GTA VI clips show Jason Duval gameplay, including a six-star Wanted system and a sequence of driving, punching people, using a taser, and stealing a truck, with two clips pulled after copyright claims and one remaining live with “CyberLeek” watermarking and crypto/QR links.
Aug 19, 2026 ·The Verge
Capital One shut down 385 bank accounts tied to Donald Trump in 2021 after its AML process flagged activity “characteristic of money laundering.”
Aug 19, 2026 ·Yahoo Finance
A 3-0 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived Sjunde AP-Fonden–led investor claims over Signature Bank’s 2023 collapse, holding that the FDIC seizure did not eliminate shareholders’ right to sue for securities fraud-related alleged misstatements.
Aug 19, 2026 ·Yahoo Finance
Flock is testing an AI system (OS Investigate, previously reported as Nightshift) that can locate people by driving behavior using a network of cameras in 6,000 communities and then cross-reference police and identity records to potentially identify names, home addresses, relatives, and friends of people matching a specified description.
Aug 19, 2026 ·Engadget
X grouped more than 36,500 posts in two days about a “De-Flock America” campaign encouraging people to vandalize Flock’s automated license plate readers on Halloween 2026, wear costumes, leave smartphones at home, and disable nearby ALPRs while concealing identities.
Aug 19, 2026 ·
The Register
Caroline Ellison was banned from trading for five years and prohibited from registering with the CFTC for 10 years, while Gary Wang received a five-year trading ban and an eight-year registration prohibition in the CFTC settlement.
Aug 19, 2026 ·Yahoo Finance
A newly discovered star, S301, was found to make the closest known approach to the Milky Way’s central black hole, Sgr A*, with an inferred orbit period of 8.7 years and eccentricity of 0.9832.
Aug 19, 2026 ·Ars Technica
Meta ran ads for Kromix, an AI porn-generation tool that promoted creating deepfaked videos resembling female U.S. politicians and urged users to upload photos for scenarios including “bedroom rape,” despite Meta policies banning sexual imagery and nonconsensual intimate imagery.
Aug 19, 2026 ·Ars Technica
September WTI crude oil (CLU26) is up +1.42 (+1.67%) to a 3-week high while September RBOB gasoline (RBU26) is down -0.0122 (-0.37%), as a falling dollar index ($DXY) and Middle East tensions support crude prices.
Aug 19, 2026 ·Yahoo Finance
OpenAI said it is pausing the research and development of its newest AI models, citing cybersecurity risks as models become more capable and noting that its upcoming model Astra may only be allowed once it meets its internal “critical cybersecurity capabilities” threshold.
Aug 19, 2026 ·
CNET
A federal civil RICO case filed by 22 independent drivers against FR8 Solutions over alleged rate-sheet changes and hidden revenue was dismissed with prejudice in Florida on July 28, with the filings not disclosing settlement terms.
Aug 19, 2026 ·Yahoo Finance
US states suing Meta say potential civil penalties could total about $200bn, pending what the court finds and what remedies it orders.
Aug 19, 2026 ·Yahoo Finance
