Low level poses risk: The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, stored in underground salt caverns along the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast, has fallen below 300 million barrels for the first time since the early 1980s. Experts warn that continued drawdowns could damage the caverns, reduce the SPR’s ability to respond quickly to future emergencies and potentially threaten the integrity of the storage system. The Government Accountability Office has found that repeated drawdowns and refills can deform caverns and reduce their long-term viability, raising particular concerns for Louisiana and the broader Gulf Coast during future emergencies such as hurricanes. CNBC has the full story.
Claude’s watermark: Some Claude users are canceling paid subscriptions after Anthropic announced that future Claude models will embed invisible watermarks in AI-generated text to comply with new transparency rules. Critics fear the watermark could expose students, journalists and writers who use Claude for even minor assistance, while Anthropic says it contains no identifying information and can generally be removed only through a complete rewrite. Inc. has the full story.
Privacy penalty stands: The Supreme Court rejected Verizon’s request to recover the $47 million it paid after the FCC accused the company of privacy violations involving customers’ location data. The court’s June ruling found that telecom companies cannot immediately demand a jury trial over FCC forfeiture orders, while also suggesting those orders are preliminary and may not require payment until later court proceedings. Verizon argued it was misled into paying and should be allowed to seek a refund, but the justices declined to reopen the case. Bloomberg has the full story.
