Urgent.News

What's breaking now, across thousands of outlets.

Continued

Finance & Markets

Middle East War Triggers New Global Refining Boom

For the second time this decade, a war has upended global oil markets and sent oil prices and refining margins to multi-year highs, benefitting the world’s biggest oil companies and top refiners.

  • Iran war disrupts global oil markets, causing record-high prices
  • Strait of Hormuz becomes crude oil bottleneck, reducing refining throughput
  • Shell, TotalEnergies report highest Q2 profits since 2022

AI

New release of LLM adds support for reasoning traces, OpenAI Responses, server-side tools, and smarter logging

I released LLM 0.32 this morning, the most significant new version of LLM since the initial launch of the project. The new version includes support for visible reasoning traces, server-side provider…

  • Version 0.32 of LLM released on August 4, 2026
  • Adds reasoning traces, server-side tools, content-addressable logs
  • llm-anthropic plugin enhanced with WebSearch, WebFetch, CodeExecution

World

Ollivant projected to win GOP primary in battleground Virginia district

Republican Douglas Ollivant will run against Democratic Rep. Eugene Vindman in November.

  • Douglas Ollivant set to win GOP primary in Virginia's 7th Congressional District.
  • Former White House National Security Council official and West Point graduate.
  • Vindman, Democratic incumbent, leads in campaign funds, $12 million vs. Ollivant's under $1 million.

Tech

CarPlay is Coming to Pontoon Boats

MasterCraft Boat Holdings today said it is adding CarPlay to its upcoming Crest and Balise Pontoons. The company is working with Savvy Navvy to bring ‌CarPlay‌ and on-water navigation to…

Tech

Facebook obliterated 20 years of my online life for no apparent reason

Meta’s automated moderation systems can erase decades of personal histories in seconds, exposing the severe risks of relying on unaccountable algorithms to safeguard digital memories.

  • Facebook erased 20 years of writer's online life without explanation.
  • Appeal button failed to restore account, leaving writer unseen.
  • Meta's algorithms criticized for lacking transparency and oversight.

Business

EA Is Now Officially Privately Owned

Longtime Slashdot reader neoRUR shares a report from Game Developer: EA Sports FC and Battlefield publisher EA has been taken private by an investor consortium led by Saudi Arabia's sovereign Public…

  • EA taken private by Saudi Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, Affinity Partners
  • $55 billion deal financed by cash, PIF stake roll-over, $20 billion debt
  • Acquisition approved without major opposition in EU, US markets
Continue reading →