NEWS - TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2026 - NEWS
In an era of even more bitter divisions in the state and nation, political and governmental reforms face severe threats. LA Times
VOA VIEW: Liberal media stupidity.
Green hydrogen has gone bust in California, with project cancellations, ongoing fuel disruptions and station build-outs at a standstill. LA Times
The House Ethics Committee is investigating Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) for “inappropriate sexual contact with a House staffer” — after he admitted to cheating on his wife. New York Post
VOA VIEW: His admission means guilty.
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Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment of hard-line loyalists to top jobs suggests he is prepared to keep the country on a war footing and to quash domestic dissent. New York Times
VOA VIEW: When will Trump wake up to the fact.?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has refused to pull back the country’s military until Hamas fully disarms. But the Trump administration is under pressure to show progress. New York Times
The armed group, based in Yemen and backed by Iran, said it had launched missiles near the vital maritime trade route, in a conflict that shows no sign of abating. New York Times
VOA VIEW: Trump should hit the Houthis hard.
The court declined President Trump’s long-shot request that it reconsider his appeal. He has separately asked the court to overturn a much larger 2024 award. New York Times
Educators are worried that many students can no longer write essays without A.I. And it’s costing more than just grammar skills. New York Times
VOA VIEW: AI is hurting many students.
Weight-loss drugs, peptides, I.V.F. As sharps migrate out of doctors’ offices, even needle-phobics are willing to embrace shots. New York Times
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Digital Brands Group (DBG), an e-commerce and apparel business, packed up its headquarters in Los Angeles to relocate to Round Rock, Texas, just north of Austin. OANN
VOA VIEW: As they should.
Iran is offering a $30,000 reward to its citizens who kill or capture United States service members, vowing that U.S. bases in the Middle East will not be able to return to their pre-conflict state. OANN
VOA VIEW: Iran is mad and should be hit very hard.
United States Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander Brad Cooper praised the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed in the Middle East for months amid the ongoing conflict with Iran. OANN
After surviving being shot four times, a 13-year-old girl, the sole survivor of a shooting spree in rural Michigan, managed to reach her phone and dial 911, local police reported. OANN
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Republicans are accusing Democrats of wanting to raise senior citizens' taxes in a new ad campaign targeting the most important Senate races in the midterm elections. Washington Times
VOA VIEW: As they should.
Hate crime charges have been filed against a man who disrupted Shabbat services in Manhattan's Central Synagogue and struck two people while being hustled outside Friday night. Washington Times
A federal judge refused on Friday to block the Trump administration from taking steps to build 62 miles of international border wall along part of a Native American tribe's reservation without its consent. Washington Times
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A shooting at Virginia State University Sunday sent five to the hospital, with four suffering non-life-threatening injuries and the fifth in critical condition. Officials at the school, a historically Black university in Ettrick, Virginia, said on social media that the shootings took place at around 1:30 a.m. outside some of the school's residence halls. Washington Times
A woman was running alone on a path called the Wolverine Bowl Trail when the brown bear attacked her, officials said. CBS
Lala was weakening but still packing a punch as it moved away from the islands, forecasters said. CBS
69% of Americans are not satisfied with how the economy is working. With the Iran war in its sixth month, there's still pain at the pump. CBS
VOA VIEW: Trump is playing too much with Iran.
Nearly 130,000 utility customers statewide remained without power as of Sunday afternoon. CBS
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The 14oz soup kits were distributed at Walmart stores in 29 states between June 30 and July 7, according to the FDA. CBS
The summer of 1936 saw a heat wave so dangerous at least five thousand people died. It also saw the popularization of a cooler fashion alternative – shorts – which, in some jurisdictions, were illegal. CBS
Shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz sank to a new low as a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to expire on Monday with no deal in sight. CNBC
VOA VIEW: Trump is looking bab.
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Russia struck port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, damaging a Togo-flagged civilian vessel near Izmail after Kyiv launched a major drone attack on Moscow. CNBC
The OCC conditionally approved World Liberty Trust Co.’s national trust bank charter. That would allow the Trump family-backed firm to issue stablecoins. CNBC
VOA VIEW: Trump is using his presedentcy.
A man allegedly shot his wife at a park in Louisiana and drove her body through multiple states before a traffic stop in Memphis led to his arrest. FOX News
Security footage and three suitcases led Orlando investigators to charge Jose Proano with the murder and dismemberment of his 71-year-old stepfather. FOX News
Gregory Henderson Jr. was captured three days after being added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted list for alleged drug trafficking tied to the Sinaloa Cartel. FOX News
A Florida man allegedly called police to confess to a 1987 Jacksonville murder, describing crime scene details that had never been publicly released. FOX News
Arjun Aravind allegedly used ChatGPT to explore scenarios involving killing his family before the murders of his mother and brother in Acton. FOX News
A California Highway Patrol canine officer stopped a Honda CR-V in Merced County and allegedly found 30 pounds of suspected cocaine worth $817,200. FOX News
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the scaling back of the Pentagon's joint military exercises with South Korea over Seoul's stance on Iran. UPI
VOA VIEW: SK made a foolish mistake.
Iran has accused Qatar of holding three of its pilots for half a year in violation of international law, heightening tensions between the two nations. UPI
VOA VIEW: Iran is lying and no one cares.
The commander of CENTCOM visited the USS Abraham Lincoln days after reports of poor conditions on board and attempted suicides of sailors. UPI
NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Romania's airspace without authorization, the Romanian defense minister said Sunday. UPI
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When it comes to personal finance, artificial intelligence gives advice that can be inaccurate or demographically biased, and can range widely depending on the particular program that consumers use, according to a new academic research study. Don't count on AI financial advice.
The research — which studied seven “widely available” generative AI platforms — found “significant variation” in how GenAI answered prompts about emergency savings, asset allocation and withdrawals from a retirement portfolio. Researchers examined free-access versions of ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek, Gemini, Meta AI and Perplexity.
“GenAI-driven responses may sound confident but can still be incomplete, misleading, or incorrect,” according to the paper, published last month in the Journal of Financial Planning and authored by finance professors at the University of Georgia and University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy. Its “suboptimal” or biased outputs raise questions “about the consistency and fairness of GenAI-driven recommendations,” according to authors Swarn Chatterjee, Brenda Cude and Gianni Nicolini.
The findings come as a large share of Americans are turning to AI to help manage their money. Two out of three Americans — 66% — who have used GenAI said they’ve leveraged it for financial advice, according to an Intuit Credit Karma survey published in September. The share is higher for Gen Z and millennials, at 82% for each cohort.
Experts said that AI is generally good at providing high-level overviews of financial topics: For example, why it’s important to diversify investments, or why exchange-traded funds may be better than mutual funds in some cases but not others. However, it has limitations that mean users shouldn’t trust its output blindly, they said.
