After two years frozen by one country's veto, the EU opens its door to Ukraine and Moldova

World

The EU formally launched membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova on Monday — a step blocked for two years by Hungary, and only unfrozen after Viktor Orbán lost power.

Finance

The Bank of Japan raised rates to a 31-year high, the last big central bank to leave near-zero behind.

Tech

Two Chrome updates this summer finish off Manifest V2 — the extension system that gave ad blockers like uBlock Origin their power.

Mind & body

Staying upright isn't a state you hold.

Climate

A year of extreme drought has pushed the West's biggest reservoirs toward levels not seen in decades, and the states that depend on them are now threatening to sue each other.

Space

A hidden swarm of tiny, dark moons is coming into view around the giant planets, and they hint the outer solar system is still being violently reshaped.

Biotech

A gene edit switched off red lettuce's pigment, but the molecules it was made from didn't vanish.

Money

The sticker price of a large cash purchase is the easy number to see — but the real price is what that same money would have become if you'd left it invested.

Sports

A US regulator is moving to ban wagers on player injuries and tiny in-game moments — the exact bets that pay a player more for failing than for winning.

Gaming

TBH: Task Bar Hero shows ~518,000 concurrent players on Steam, ranking it above almost every real game — but the players are mostly bots farming items to flip for cash.

Food

Trump reopened three protected Pacific marine monuments to commercial fishing, removing fences that let fish stocks rebuild — while out West, seven states still can't agree how to split a shrinking Colorado River.

Cyber

A state-backed group quietly compromised REDCap, a research-data tool trusted across hospitals, universities, and military health institutions, and stole credentials undetected from 2023 until late 2025.