Science & Technology — August 23, 2026

Apple lays off Vision Pro and Siri staff. The company is cutting more than 200 jobs, largely shutting down a Vision Pro gaming team and shrinking its Siri organization, Bloomberg reports—a rare retrenchment for Apple.

The Verge · Read more →

China orders Tesla's biggest recall yet. Chinese safety regulators told Tesla to fix nearly 3 million vehicles over doors that fail to open in a crash; most repairs will arrive via software updates.

Ars Technica · Read more →

SpaceX test-fires next Starship. The company completed a single-engine static fire of its next Starship megarocket ahead of a coming test flight—the first intended to reach orbit.

Space.com · Read more →

TikTok settles child privacy case for $400 million. The Justice Department said Friday the payment resolves a 2024 lawsuit alleging TikTok and parent ByteDance collected data on millions of users under age 13 -- a violation of federal children's privacy law.

The agreement ranks among the largest settlements ever reached in a children's privacy case, according to the BBC. The underlying suit accused the platform of gathering vast amounts of information on young users in breach of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, and the Justice Department's Friday announcement brings that litigation to a close.

BBC World · Read more →