WSJ What’s News - Trouble Scoring a Restaurant Reservation? Blame the Apps.

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

P.M. Edition for Aug. 13. The U.S. is sending a fresh aircraft carrier to the Middle East amid growing concerns over living conditions aboard the carrier currently stationed there, the USS Abraham Lincoln. Plus, seven months into the U.S. energy blockade against Cuba, everyday people are struggling to sleep in the heat and to afford food as blackouts persist. We hear from Journal reporter José de Córdoba about what he is hearing from people across the country. And the proliferation of restaurant reservation apps have made it a nightmare for diners to get a table at a buzzy restaurant. Reporter Heather Haddon explains why restaurants keep doing business with the apps. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Seven months into the U.S. fuel blockade, everyday Cubans are struggling to meet their basic needs without power. All the people that I talk to make a note of saying, you know, it's really difficult to sleep. I haven't slept. It's a zombie nation. Plus, the AI safety pitch that a Google scientist was making before a management shakeup. And can't get a dinner reservation at a buzzy restaurant for a time when people actually eat. blame the apps. It's Thursday, August 13th. I'm Alex O'Soulaf for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. We begin tonight's show with an exclusive. The U.S. is preparing to send the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Officials familiar with the matter say it's part of a previous. scheduled rotation plan. But the Lincoln has been under particular scrutiny because it's had such a long deployment. It's been deployed for 250 days and hasn't made a port call in 200. That's caused lawmakers to press the Pentagon for more information about the living conditions and reports of mental health issues for sailors aboard the carrier during the Iran war. A Navy official said the military is not experiencing an uptick in mental health issues aboard Lincoln and that the Navy takes every service member's well-being seriously. Also, today, a federal judge dismissed the government's lawsuit

alleging anti-Semitism at Harvard University, saying there isn't sufficient evidence of ongoing institutionalized discrimination there. Harvard has said it's taken steps to address anti-Semitism on campus. Neither the school nor the White House responded to request for comment. And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has signaled that Democrats would look to overhaul the Supreme Court if they regain control of Congress, as they hope to do this fall. Here he is speaking today at the National Association

of Black Journalist Convention in Atlanta. There's a variety of different options that are on the table, and I think that we can't foreclose any single one of them. The Supreme Court, the conservative right-wing majority on the Supreme Court, has become, you know, basically a subsidiary of the MAGA Republican Party. Even if Democrats do take control of the House and Senate in the midterms, passing any court-related legislation,

would require hitting a 60-vote threshold in the Senate, unless Democrats end or change the filibuster rule. And even if a measure does pass, Trump could veto it. Cuba has been dealing with a U.S. blockade of its oil since January. In those seven months, its economy has more or less ground to a halt. Residents frequently go without electricity, and there's practically no fuel for cars. Journal reporter Jose de Cordoba recently spoke with a number of residents on the island and joins me now. Jose, let's start with the basic Cuba. needs, food, water, sleep. How are people doing with all of these things? All the people that I talk to make a note of saying, you know, it's really difficult to sleep.

I haven't slept. It's a zombie nation. They all say that. The reason being that there are energy blackouts that go 20 hours a day, but some of the times, it stays at a time. So you don't have air conditioning, you don't have electricity for fans. And the heat becomes on. unbearable. The lack of electricity also makes getting water for a lot of people very difficult because that depends on pumps that are powered by electricity. There appears to be food, but it's very expensive. Getting the money to pay for it is very, very hard. Wow. What about people who need medical care? In your story, you highlighted a woman named Edis Marino. What's the situation she's in? Edis is an actress in Camusay, and she is having her second child any day now in terms of going to the hospital to give birth.

Because there are no medicines in Cuba, people get by hook or by crook. They ask their relatives. They go into the black market. They do everything to try to get every kind of medicine that they will need before they go to a hospital. hospital, basic stuff from aspirin to, in her case, she was getting sutures and tape to bring with her. She was trying to leave absolutely nothing to chance. So in the middle of all of this, the Cuban government is planning a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Fidel Castro. Is it expected to be sort of a low-key affair, given everything that's going on? Well, yeah, I call it

Fidelfest, and it's been going on all this week. It has to be lower because Cuba doesn't have the resources to really make a giant splash out of it. And also, because there is no television or radio or internet most of the day, not a whole lot of people know about it. So they've sent out invitations to foreign guests from all over the world. And they have been having a a symposium in the Palace of Conventions, which is a really nice air-conditioned place. That sort of thing upsets a lot of people because although it's not a giant expenditure, it's a very showy expenditure at a time when Cuba is on fumes. But it's something that's really aimed at an international public of Castro supporters.

So Qa can send a message saying, hey, we're resisting here. We need your solidarity. That was WSJ reporter, Jose de Cordoba. Thanks, Jose. You're very welcome. Coming up, open table, resi, credit card perks for restaurants, playing ball with all the different reservation providers is getting complicated and expensive. That story and more after the break. A few items from the world of artificial intelligence today.

There's been another high-profile departure from Open AI. Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dressor will be stepping down after less than a year at the company. Meanwhile, over at Google's AI unit, a recent management shakeup saw Demis Hasabas named as DeepMind's chairman and Alphabet's chief scientist. Now, we're exclusively reporting that in the weeks leading up to that, before he gave up his role as CEO of DeepMind, Hasabas held discussions with government officials and the leaders of other AI labs about forming a new independent industry safety. entity. That's according to people familiar with the matter. Journal Tech Policy reporter Amrith Ram Kumar told our Tech News Briefing podcast that those concerns are shared across much of Silicon Valley. All the top AI executives are very worried. They see these mounting threats from the

technology they're creating and they see a huge public backlash against AI. And they also see the U.S. government and other governments around the world largely not doing enough to rein in some of these risks. So the goal is to have industry, play a big role in setting the standards. And they want to do that so that they don't get saddled with some really burdensome regulation down the road. Hasabas didn't respond to requests for comment. A Google spokesperson said that the company sees ensuring the safety of advanced AI models as vitally important to society. And flock, which makes AI-enabled surveillance cameras to photograph the backs of passing vehicles and collect license plate data, says it'll add new safeguards to its products.

The move comes after months of public backlash and privacy concerns following reports of incidents where police officers have allegedly used flocks cameras for stocking. In markets, U.S. stocks rose and treasury yields retreated after new data on producer prices came in softer than expected. Along with yesterday's reading on consumer inflation, investors are more confident that the Federal Reserve won't hurry to raise rates. The NASDAQ gained 0.8%, while the S&P 500 added 0.7% to hit a new record. and the Dow rose 0.1%. And shares of Stubhub fell 10% after yesterday's earnings report.

The World Cup helped its revenue surge, but also wiped out its profit and left it battling customers who were angry about fraudulent tickets and slow refunds. We had a whole interview with journal reporter Hannah Kruger about that on yesterday's show, so check it out. And finally, we're getting close to the weekend. And once upon a time, I would have been planning for a deal. dinner out with friends, instead of reading green eggs and ham to my toddler for the thousandth time. But if you are one of those people headed out and lucky you, you may find that it's basically

impossible to get a table at your desired restaurant if you don't want to eat at 10 p.m. That's in part because of the growth of reservation apps like OpenTable and Rezi that lock in tables for top users. There are also membership clubs and credit card blocks and a whole secondary market of apps and bots. Journal reporter Heather Hadden told our Tech News Briefing podcast, If you just want a seat at your neighborhood restaurant, you're probably fine. But the frenzy is really for the people who want that special table at the peak time at a certain restaurant. So if you are one of those people, it's going to make finding one of these tables very hard. For restaurants, it means that they are increasingly having to juggle reservations coming from so many different platforms

because all these different platforms are offering different perks or types of customers. And so increasingly to run a restaurant on this kind of level, you need to have someone who's handling all this technology for you because it's just become so much. Paying for all that is worth it for many restaurants because of how tight their margins can be. Restaurants know this is where people are going to book reservations. And they need butts and seats. And if these are tools that are going to help fill their seats at all hours of the day and weekends, then they need to pay those service fees to be able to make sure their restaurants. for full. To hear more from Heather, including how social media is exacerbating these trends,

check out Tuesday's episode of Tech News Briefing. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Danny Lewis with Deputy Editor Chris Zinsley. I'm Alex O'Sullough for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.