China tests the line around Taiwan, ship by ship

World

Chinese coast guard vessels questioned foreign merchant ships east of Taiwan for the first time, and Beijing banned the Philippine defense chief — small, deniable steps that each nudge a contested line a little further.

Finance

The ECB hiked for the first time since 2023, not to cool a hot economy but to stop a war-driven oil shock from becoming a lasting belief that prices keep rising.

Tech

Seoul issued its largest-ever data-breach penalty against the US-based retail giant after a former employee walked off with 34 million people's records.

Mind & body

Your body runs glucose on a feedback loop that sometimes corrects too hard.

Climate

NOAA declared El Niño on Thursday, with a 63% chance it grows into a "super" event that pours extra heat onto an already-warmed planet — likely making next year the hottest ever measured.

Space

The FCC waived Amazon's July deadline to launch half its broadband satellites after it managed only 331 of 1,616.

Biotech

Researchers turned a suite of AI tools loose on the search for new antibiotics, while a separate study found that the breakdown products of old ones drive resistance nearly as hard as the drugs themselves.

Money

Lifestyle creep is the quiet process where spending rises to match every pay rise, so a bigger income leaves the same gap between what you earn and what you keep.

Sports

Mirra Andreeva won her first Grand Slam at Roland Garros not by out-hitting a 500-1 qualifier, but by handling the weight of being expected to win — the load that grows heavier the more talent you carry.

Gaming

Bungie shipped Destiny 2's last content update and the players flooded back in droves, hitting a two-year high and burying Bungie's new game in the process.

Food

A first-of-its-kind study in Nepal measures the human-health bill of disappearing pollinators.

Cyber

A growing share of breaches now start not with a missed clue but with a clue that was buried under thousands of others.