Trillion Dollar Trial, Sky Radiation, & Mouth Geometry

News without the noise

Adam Rogers
August 19, 2026

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A coalition of 29 states went to trial against Meta yesterday, accusing the company of deliberately designing Instagram and Facebook to keep young people hooked while concealing risks to children. The federal jury trial in California is expected to last six to eight weeks.
The states point to features including infinite scrolling, recommendation algorithms, notifications and "likes," arguing Meta engineered them to maximize engagement among young users. They also accuse the company of illegally collecting data from children under 13 without parental permission. Meta denies the allegations and says the states have failed to prove its products caused the alleged harms.
The stakes could be enormous. Meta says it could face as much as $1.4 trillion in penalties if found liable, nearly matching the company's market value. They are also seeking court-ordered changes to Facebook and Instagram, including age restrictions and the removal of features such as infinite scrolling.

Pilots and flight attendants had a higher rate of deaths from radiation-associated cancers than workers in more than 500 other occupations, according to a new study.
The likely culprit is cosmic radiation: commercial jets fly above much of the atmosphere that normally shields people from high-energy particles from space, leaving crews who spend hundreds of hours flying each year with unusually high exposure. Despite their high occupational exposure, U.S. aircrews have no federal radiation limits or monitoring requirements.
For passengers, the exposure is far smaller. Someone taking 10 cross-country round trips in a year would receive about one-seventh to one-fifteenth the annual cosmic-radiation dose of an aircrew member, and researchers said occasional or even frequent leisure flying shouldn't meaningfully change a person's cancer risk.

Disney and ABC sued the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, seeking to block an early license-renewal process imposed on eight ABC-owned television stations. The companies argue the Trump administration is using the FCC to retaliate against ABC over programming it dislikes, calling the action a violation of free-speech protections.
The FCC ordered the stations in April to seek renewals years ahead of their normal schedules and gave them 30 days to submit applications that Disney says typically take months to prepare. The order came amid FCC scrutiny of The View and Disney's diversity practices, as well as criticism from Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr of ABC programming and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
Disney is asking a federal court to immediately prevent the FCC from taking action against the stations while the case proceeds. Carr has denied the process is retaliatory, arguing broadcasters receive access to public airwaves and must demonstrate that they operate in the public interest.

Republican Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly won Florida’s gubernatorial primaries, setting up a November showdown as Democrats seek their first victory in a governor’s race since 1994. (More)

The Justice Department plans to send roughly 1,000 poll monitors to elections this fall, significantly expanding an effort that has already covered more than 200 polling locations this year. (More)

The Trump administration proposed ending protections for 44 million acres of national forests, potentially opening previously protected land to logging, mining and drilling. (More)

The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ebola outbreak became its deadliest ever, surpassing 2,325 deaths and nearly 5,000 confirmed cases. (More)

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema won reelection with 60% of the vote after an election marred by polling station violence, opposition arrests and the temporary suspension of vote counting. (More)

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for regaining wartime control of the country’s forces from the U.S. and accelerating nuclear-powered submarine plans after Trump reduced joint exercises. (More)

US stock markets closed lower on Tuesday (S&P -0.69%, Nasdaq -1.33%, Dow -0.22%), as the S&P fell for a third straight session. (More)

U.S. borrowing costs reached their highest level since 2007 as rising oil prices fueled inflation fears, threatening to keep mortgage, credit card, and other loan rates elevated. (More)

Apple will introduce new EU app fees in October, including a 5% commission for apps distributed outside its App Store, as it seeks to comply with Europe’s digital competition law. (More)

Ohio State opens the college football season ranked No. 1, followed by Oregon and Georgia. The SEC placed five teams in the top 10, including No. 5 Texas. (More)

Jeanie Buss’ attorney says a family vote to sell the remaining 17.8% Lakers stake is invalid, arguing the family trust requires Buss to remain the franchise’s controlling owner. (More)

Madonna leads the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards with a career-high 11 nominations, marking the first time since 1998 that she has topped the field. (More)

OpenAI launched a version of ChatGPT for teens with stronger safety protections, parental controls, and educational features that encourage students to work through problems rather than use AI to cheat. (More)

A 2023 image from NASA’s Curiosity rover has gone viral after viewers spotted a mysterious jellyfish-like object on a Martian ridge that disappears from an image taken moments later. (More)

Researchers found signs of microbial life in a 3.5-billion-year-old rock from India, potentially making it the oldest directly dated rock containing confirmed evidence of ancient life on Earth. (More)

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Can’t whistle? It might be your mouth geometry.

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