Meta Settles Mid-Trial for $17 Billion

CIA Director's Secret Moscow Trip Opens Backchannel

Trump Order Targets Foreign-Made Grid Equipment

Nvidia's $96 Billion Quarter Deepens AI Boom

Secret Service Reviews Iranian Video Threatening Barron Trump

Meta Settles Mid-Trial for $17 Billion

Meta Platforms agreed Aug. 26 to settle state attorneys general claims that it designed Facebook and Instagram to keep children using the apps, misled the public about their safety and improperly collected minors' data, allegations the company contested. Reports valued the 10 annual payments at roughly $17 billion, with estimates ranging from $16.7 billion to $18 billion and California due at least $1.5 billion. The deal ended a federal trial in Oakland, California, without a jury verdict and still requires court approval. For users under 18, Meta agreed to impose a default two-hour daily limit across both apps, overnight lockouts, muted notifications during school hours, stronger age checks, expanded parental controls and limits on visible like counts and other social-comparison features. The settlement matters because it would turn a long-running debate over adolescent social media use into enforceable product rules while leaving the claims against Meta unresolved by a jury.

NPR / PBS NewsHour / CNBC / CBS News / NBC News / The Hill / Axios

CIA Director's Secret Moscow Trip Opens Backchannel

CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Moscow on Aug. 25, spending about 8½ hours there after a U.S. government aircraft traveled from Joint Base Andrews through Latvia, according to flight-tracking data cited by several news organizations. The Kremlin said Ratcliffe met Russian intelligence officials but not President Vladimir Putin, who was briefed afterward. The trip was Ratcliffe's first publicly known visit to the Russian capital and the first by a CIA director since William Burns went in November 2021.

Ratcliffe traveled to warn Russia against attacking a NATO country after new U.S. intelligence assessments concluded that Putin could test the alliance with a limited assault in the next few years, according to people briefed on the visit who spoke to The Wall Street Journal. U.S. officials reportedly believe such an attack could range from a cyberattack to a small land incursion, most likely against a Baltic country, and that shortages of some Western munitions after transfers to Ukraine and expenditures in the Iran war could influence Putin's calculations. U.S. officials also notified Ukraine before the trip and asked Kyiv to delay strikes until the delegation had left, making the mission significant both as a private warning about NATO and as an intelligence backchannel during stalled public negotiations over Ukraine.

Wall Street Journal / CBS News / CNN / NBC News / Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty / Euronews / UPI / Yahoo News

Trump Order Targets Foreign-Made Grid Equipment

President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14420 on Aug. 26, declaring a national emergency over foreign-made equipment in the power grid, which carries electricity from power plants toward homes, hospitals, data centers and military bases. The order bars future purchases of equipment and software when the Energy secretary determines that they are tied to a covered foreign entity and pose an undue risk of sabotage or unauthorized access. It also authorizes the government to monitor, isolate, disconnect, replace or remove equipment already in service, while permitting mitigation agreements and lists of prequalified vendors. Federal agencies must weigh national security in energy-infrastructure purchases and favor equipment made in the United States, even as large transformers and other heavy components are often sourced abroad and can take years to replace. The order matters because utilities could face costly replacement mandates that may affect customers' rates, while the Energy Department gains broader control over the electric-grid supply chain as power demand rises.

White House / Reuters / Fox Business

Nvidia's $96 Billion Quarter Deepens AI Boom

Nvidia reported $96.2 billion in fiscal second-quarter revenue, or more than $1 billion a day, as sales more than doubled from a year earlier. Data centers generated $89 billion, accounting for more than $9 of every $10 in revenue, while the company's gross margin reached 75% and adjusted earnings were $2.22 a share. Nvidia forecast about $108 billion in current-quarter revenue without assuming any data center sales in China. Its roughly one-seventh weight in the S&P 500 gives one company's outlook unusual influence; the closest historical comparison is the railroad sector, which represented almost three-quarters of New York Stock Exchange value by 1900, though that dominance was spread across many companies. The results matter because the forecast points to continued AI spending by U.S. and allied buyers and raises expectations for the chip, memory and power suppliers serving that expansion.

Nvidia / SEC / CNBC / Fortune / CFA Institute

Secret Service Reviews Iranian Video Threatening Barron Trump

The U.S. Secret Service said it is reviewing a video aired by Iranian state media that appears to threaten Barron Trump, President Donald Trump's 20-year-old son. The nearly three-minute broadcast reportedly opened with an English-language graphic asking where to kill him, showed publicly known locations associated with him and appeared to offer a $10 million bounty, according to CNN. The agency said it investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat to a protectee but would not discuss its assessment or any security changes. Iranian or Iran-linked media had previously circulated a video purporting to map President Trump's movements, while other material depicted Trump, Melania Trump, Barron Trump and Ivanka Trump as targets; public reporting has not established that every item came from the same source or reflected an operational plan. The threat could further narrow the already limited room for a U.S.-Iran deal because Trump has publicly described himself as Iran's top assassination target and threatened overwhelming retaliation if Tehran kills him, making a message aimed at his son personally significant even though Trump has not said the video changed his negotiating position.

AP / CNN / Nextgov/FCW / Moneycontrol / Axios

AUGUST 27 1883: KRAKATOA ERUPTS WITH CATACLYSMIC FORCE

One of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history blows apart the island of Krakatoa, hurling ash 50 miles into the sky and generating colossal tsunamis up to 120 feet high. The explosions, heard 3,000 miles away and likely the loudest sound ever recorded in human history, devastate nearby coasts, kill an estimated 36,000 people, and send ash into the atmosphere that cools global temperatures and creates vivid sunsets worldwide.

This article was written using our proprietary AI system, Cronkite. The final decision to publish this article was made by a human. For more info, read our AI policy.

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Sources

1. NPR / PBS NewsHour / CNBC / CBS News / NBC News / The Hill / Axios
2. Wall Street Journal: Moscow visit / Wall Street Journal: NATO warning / CBS News / CNN / NBC News / Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty / Euronews / UPI / Yahoo News / Wikimedia Commons image and license
3. White House executive order / White House fact sheet / Reuters / Fox Business
4. Nvidia / SEC filing / CNBC results / CNBC outlook / Fortune / CFA Institute railroad comparison
5. AP: Barron Trump video / AP: Trump's response to Iranian threats / CNN transcript / Nextgov/FCW / Moneycontrol / Axios: current U.S. policy toward Iran