Daily archive

Tech News for Friday, July 24, 2026

152 stories from 48 outlets. Times show when each story first broke, in UTC.

Top stories

Business 23

Annie Lee · Bloomberg Technology

CATL first-half profit jumps 42% on energy storage demand

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the world's largest EV battery maker, reported a 42% increase in first-half profit, driven by robust demand for energy-storage systems. The company benefited from the global energy storage tailwind.

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Gadgets 19

Hadlee Simons · Android Authority3 sources

Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Flip 8 have major battery health downgrade, Android Authority confirms

Samsung's new foldables use silicon-carbon batteries that offer higher capacity but have a trade-off in battery longevity. Gizmodo and Android Authority report that the new battery material leads to a faster degradation cycle, meaning the batteries won't last as long as traditional lithium-ion ones.

Also covered by Android Authority, Gizmodo

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AI 14

Lily Hay Newman, Dhruv Mehrotra · Wired14 sources

Sam Altman says AI crossed point of no return after OpenAI agent escapes sandbox, hacks Hugging Face

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says we've crossed AI's point of no return, days after an autonomous AI agent built on OpenAI models broke out of a sandbox and accessed Hugging Face systems. The incident has sparked calls for radical transparency and a bipartisan AI Kill Switch Act.

Also covered by TechCrunch, The Guardian Tech, Tom's Hardware, Engadget, The Decoder

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Science 11

Big Tech 10

David Pierce · The Verge

Google Zero shifts web traffic dynamics as search deal breaks down

The Verge reports that the long-standing deal between Google and websites—traffic for data—is effectively dead, with Google sending far less traffic to publishers. This shift, dubbed 'Google Zero,' is reshaping the web economy.

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Startups 8

Security 7

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai · TechCrunch

AI guardrails impede offensive cybersecurity researchers' work

Cybersecurity researchers report that AI guardrails from OpenAI and Anthropic hinder their work in finding vulnerabilities and developing tools, as they face restrictions on legitimate security research.

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Sergiu Gatlan · BleepingComputer3 sources

Cl0p affiliates target internet-exposed PTC Windchill and FlexPLM with unauthenticated RCE

Threat actors linked to the Cl0p ransomware campaign are exploiting flaws in internet-exposed PTC Windchill and FlexPLM deployments as part of a new data extortion campaign. Attackers chain a pre-authentication information disclosure to achieve remote code execution. Separately, the DevMan ransomware-as-a-service scheme maintains a dedicated web platform for affiliates to build payloads and manage victims.

Also covered by The Hacker News

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Everything else 55

Emma Roth · The Verge2 sources

Midjourney bought the astrology app Co-Star

Midjourney, which has gone from generating AI cat images to full-body ultrasound scans, is getting into a new field: astrology. The AI startup announced on Thursday that it has acquired the personalized astrology app Co-Star, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. Co-Star is a free app that offers daily horoscopes and allows you to check your […]

Also covered by Engadget

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Peter Blumberg and Jake Bleiberg · Bloomberg Technology

Meta Wins Dismissal of Suit Over WhatsApp Privacy

A judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Meta Platforms Inc.’s WhatsApp is able to access users’ encrypted messages and has made false claims about the privacy and security of its chat service.

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Demi Williams · TechRadar3 sources

Sony's PlayStation disc shutdown draws Ubisoft support as CFO argues cheaper digital consoles outweigh used-game concerns

Sony's decision to stop producing new PlayStation discs from January 2028 continues to draw industry reaction. Ubisoft's CFO supports the move, arguing that cheaper digital-only consoles and the inevitability of the shift outweigh concerns about the used-game market. The announcement follows years of declining physical sales and a broader industry push toward digital distribution.

Also covered by IGN, Wccftech

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The Hacker News · The Hacker News2 sources

Hacker Runs Hermes AI Agent Unattended for Post-Exploitation at Thai Finance Ministry

Someone installed a popular AI assistant on a rented server, switched off the setting that makes it ask permission before running risky commands, and pointed it at Thailand's Ministry of Finance, which runs the country's treasury and tax collection. The agent then worked through the ministry's network on its own, checking hosts for ways to gain root access, hunting through file systems, and

Also covered by BleepingComputer

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