Apple proposes to take a 15% cut of purchases made outside the App Store

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories to start your morning

View this email online in your browser  August 14, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Apple proposes to take a 15% cut of purchases made outside the App Store: Apple is asking a federal judge to allow it to charge commissions of up to 15% on purchases made through external links in iOS apps. Read More If Apple sends you a push notification alerting you to a spyware attack, take it seriously: Apple now sends out push notifications to iPhone lock screens when the company identifies government spyware targeting someone's devices. Read More Hyperscalers might regret embracing natural gas if new forecast proves correct: Natural gas prices could triple in some parts of the U.S., which could saddle hyperscalers with massive bills to power their AI data centers. Read More A message from Alumni Ventures Invest in High-Potential Startups Like These Alumni Ventures is giving readers early access to high-potential startup opportunities across today’s most active sectors, co-invested alongside name-brand VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Bessemer, & Y Combinator. You Get: Curated deal flow of high-potential startups, Investing alongside name-brand vc firms, No cost to see deals, No obligation to invest. See Current Deals Morning Must-Reads Anthropic set AI agents loose on the same task. They started a turf war.: Anthropic researchers found AI agents can clash, collude, and coordinate in unexpected ways, raising new questions about whether today’s safety tests capture the risks of multi-agent systems. Read More US courts will start publishing how often the government uses spyware: The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts told TechCrunch that it will start disclosing how many times judges authorized the use of spyware to wiretap suspected criminals. Read More OpenAI introduces 'Ultrafast,' a new mode that makes GPT-5.6 Sol work at 14x the speed: OpenAI is launching a preview of a sped up version of its latest, most powerful model, in an effort to court enterprise users. Read More Investors sue Selena Gomez alleging fraud tied to her mental health startup: The plaintiffs say they invested nearly $1.2 million in the company, and are accusing Gomez of failing to build and market the startup. Read More OpenAI hires new CRO as executive shake-up continues: OpenAI has replaced chief revenue officer Denise Dresser after just nine months on the job, tapping Wiz president and chief operating officer Dali Rajic to take on frontier lab's top sales job. Read More Last but Not Least Flock says its new tool will help identify police abuse, but hasn’t explained how it works: The surveillance company announced it's making a tool called "Audit Assistance" mandatory for all customers, claiming it's already helped catch abuse. But the company has yet to explain how the tool works in detail, raising questions about its effectiveness. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107