Tuesday, 15 September 2026
221 stories · 12 beats · 3 signals
Signals
Donald Trump blamed the Russia-Ukraine war for most of the rise in US diesel prices, while analysts said the war with Iran did more of the damage. Syria's government raised the price of diesel by 40%, and people blocked roads in protest.
The world's main oil price rose as much as 5% on Monday, to $109.80 a barrel. Buyers are paying far more for oil they can have now than for oil delivered in the coming months.
US diesel averaged $6.05 a gallon on Friday, in the middle of the corn and soybean harvest. Farmers are paying more just to bring the crop in.
A barrel of oil has gone from about $72 in February to over $100. China is likely to reach its goal of 70% electric car sales early, because high oil prices are pushing buyers to switch.
Dario Amodei, head of the AI company Anthropic, wrote that AI should get more capable more slowly. The heads of OpenAI and Google DeepMind backed him within hours.
An index of US chipmaker shares fell 5.9% after the bosses of big AI companies called for slower development.
Anthropic did not let Britain's government testers check its newest model before release, the Financial Times reported. Microsoft wrote rules for the AI models it builds, and named no outside body to check them.
The US health department is backing projects in which AI programs diagnose patients and prescribe treatment. Some of its own officials worry there is too little evidence that this is safe.
Blocking small arteries in the knee eased pain no more than a fake procedure after 12 months. A fresh look at a major trial for glaucoma, an eye disease that slowly blinds, found its benefit vanished once every eye was counted.
AstraZeneca, a big drugmaker, tested its new breast cancer pill added to a common drug. It did not hold the cancer back significantly longer than the usual pair of drugs.
12 editions
World
The truth: Donald Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop hitting each other's energy sites, and by Monday evening neither government had confirmed it.
Finance
The truth: Bank of America's boss said on Monday that his bank's income from deals will fall at least 10%, and shares in Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Barclays fell too, though those banks gave no forecast.
Tech
The truth: Microsoft wrote the rules for its own AI, and decided they cover only the models it builds, not the OpenAI and Anthropic models it also sells.
Mind & body
The truth: Grief that will not ease was added to the WHO's list of diseases in 2019 and to the American manual in 2022.
Climate
The truth: Japan pays some power plants for up to 20 years to burn wood, and its imports of Indonesian wood pellets rose about six times between 2023 and 2025.
Space
The truth: Europe launched two satellites on one Vega-C rocket because FLEX, its new plant-glow satellite, needs Sentinel-3C's readings of the clouds and haze above the same fields.
Biotech
The truth: Scholar Rock's Isembyld does not fix the gene fault behind spinal muscular atrophy.
Money
The truth: Australia now guarantees delivery riders a rate for each hour spent on a job, but not for the time between jobs.
Sports
The truth: The NBA found the Clippers had paid Kawhi Leonard through the club's sponsors to get around the salary cap.
Gaming
The truth: Valve once planned to sell its new headset for less than $999, and on Monday it priced it at $1,059.
Food
The truth: England's Department for Education is changing what children eat by rewriting the menus of the school meals and free breakfast clubs the state already pays for, from 2027, with no new money for school kitchens.
Cyber
The truth: Unnamed attackers are taking full control of Cisco's email-screening boxes with a single email, and Cisco says they can wipe the signs it told customers to look for.