🎂 Just Desserts

Enjoy your trophy, forget your balance.

6 mai 2026

It cost Robinhood exactly $7.5M to learn that showering digital confetti on a 22-year-old who just leveraged his student loan into Tesla options might not qualify as acting in a client’s best interest. The Massachusetts Securities Division thought so, at any rate, when it settled with the trading app in January 2024 over what regulators politely termed « digital engagement practices » and everyone else calls turning the stock market into Candy Crush. The confetti has gone. The scratch-card mechanic for revealing free stock rewards has gone. Robinhood’s 25.9 million users and $255B in platform assets, however, have very much stayed.

The confetti was never really the problem. The problem is an entire industry built on the insight that if people feel like they’re playing a game, they’ll keep playing, and the house always wins on volume. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority ran experiments showing that push notifications and prize-draw mechanics boosted trading volumes by over 10%. A French academic study commissioned by the AMF went further: hand investors a bronze, silver, or gold trophy for taking progressively bigger risks, and they’ll chase the gold like Pavlov’s dog chasing a bell. Copy-trading platforms like eToro, now freshly listed on NASDAQ with $20.8B in assets under administration, let users follow « Popular Investors » whose returns glow in neon green on their profile page. The researcher found something bleaker than expected: even the participants who chose not to copy anyone traded more aggressively, simply because they’d been placed in a competitive frame. The leaderboard doesn’t need followers. It just needs eyeballs.

The beauty of the arrangement, from the platform’s perspective, is geometric. Every transaction generates a fee, a spread, a commission, a data point to sell. More dopamine means more clicks means more revenue. eToro pulled in $931M in revenue in 2024, up 48% year-on-year, and its own regulatory fine print cheerfully discloses that between 50% and 76% of retail CFD accounts on the platform lose money. The platforms carry none of the liability that a wealth manager would. They’re classified as execution-only brokers: they provide the slot machine, not the advice. If the confetti made a client feel like a winner ten seconds before they became a loser, that was the client’s emotional journey to manage.

European regulators published guidelines in late 2023 stipulating that gamification features must not push clients toward costlier products or excessive trading. No platform in France has yet been sanctioned under these rules. Not one. Over 1.5M new French investors have entered the markets since the pandemic, a disproportionate share of them under 35, raised on interfaces designed to make swiping feel like deciding. Somewhere in Brussels, a regulator is presumably drafting a strongly worded framework about badge distribution. Somewhere else, a 24-year-old is watching their portfolio drop 12% and receiving a notification that says « You’re on a streak! »

🎂 Just Desserts

🗞️ Top Story

🇮🇹 Fake Till You Break. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni denounces AI-generated sexualized deepfakes of herself, warning that manipulated images threaten public trust and anyone could be next. (Le Figaro)
🇪🇸 Viral Voyage. The MV Hondius, facing a deadly hantavirus outbreak, is set to dock in the Canary Islands after three deaths and emergency evacuations from Cape Verde. (BBC)
🇷🇴 Strange Bedfellows. Romania’s government collapses after an unprecedented alliance between Social Democrats and the far-right AUR ousts Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan with a no-confidence vote. (El Pais)
🇪🇺 Mine the Gap. The ICBL says Europe’s anti-landmine consensus is crumbling as five countries break from the Ottawa Treaty under Russian threat. (Le Temps)
🇬🇧 Red Alert. Keir Starmer faces a political cliff in Thursday’s elections with Labour bracing for heavy losses and rivals circling for his job. (El Pais)
🇬🇧 Pipe Dreams. Scottish elections revive hopes for independence, with Aberdeen’s oil boom turning every ballot into a referendum on the nation’s future. (Le Figaro)
🇬🇧 Blue Shield. The Met Police unveils a special team to bolster security for Jewish Londoners, aiming to counter a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents. (Le Monde)
🇺🇸 Poll Position. Donald Trump hits a new record for unpopularity, with 62% of Americans disapproving of his presidency six months before the midterms. The Republican Party is feeling the heat. (Le Temps)
🇺🇸 Deal or No Sail. Trump pauses the operation to escort vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, claiming talks with Iran are progressing and the blockade stays. (BBC)
🇧🇷Lula Land. Brazilian President Lula will meet Donald Trump on Thursday to discuss economic and security issues, proving diplomacy thrives on plot twists. (Le Figaro)
🇧🇷 Class Dismissed. After a 13-year-old killed two staff with a handgun at a school in northern Brazil, all classes statewide were suspended for three days. (Le Temps)
🇨🇳 Statue Quo. Gao Zhen remains trapped by Chinese authorities over old Mao sculptures while his family awaits possible intervention during Trump’s May visit. (Le Monde)
🇨🇳 Bang Bang. A fireworks plant blast in Liuyang left 26 dead, 61 injured and China’s leadership calling for urgent industry-wide inspections. (Boursier)
🇮🇳 Exit Polls. After a sweeping victory West Bengal, Modi’s BJP leaves Congress and regional rivals nearly powerless, edging India toward single-party dominance. (New York Times)
🇮🇷 Prize and Punishment. Nobel Peace winner Narges Mohammadi faces life-threatening illness in Iranian custody, as her advocates sound the alarm about her declining health. (Le Figaro)
🇲🇱 Kidal and Error. An alliance of jihadists and northern separatists ousts Russian mercenaries from Kidal, exposing the military junta’s hollow security promises. (Le Monde)
🇹🇩 Control, Allegedly. After Boko Haram’s deadly attack killed at least 24 at a Chadian military base, officials reassure that order has been restored. (Le Figaro)

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

🇬🇧 Deeds of Doubt. When pressed, Laure Ferrari refuses to specify how she financed her Clacton home purchase after Farage claimed he was the buyer, leaving the public with more questions than answers. (The Guardian)

🏛️ Economy

🇩🇪 Green New Dealish. Germany unveils a €5B fund to help heavy industry cut emissions, softening rules to keep steel and cement jobs at home. (Boursier)
🇪🇺 Flight Club. Brussels and Kyiv officially join forces on drone tech, hoping a little coordination will go a long way against shared threats. (Le Figaro)
🇪🇺 Fossil Habit. ECB President Christine Lagarde warns Europe’s 60% energy import reliance is « unsustainable » and economically costly, especially with most of it coming from fossil fuels. (Le Figaro)
🇬🇧 Yield Signs. UK 10-, 20-, and 30-year bond yields broke above 5% as speculation over Starmer’s leadership and Labour’s election risks spooked markets. (Cnbc)
🇨🇭 Swiss Missed. Swiss inflation hit its highest point since 2024 in April, climbing to 0.6% as energy costs surged thanks to Middle East turmoil. (Wall Street Journal)
🇳🇴 Gaslighting. Oslo plans to reopen Albuskjell, Vest Ekofisk, and Tommeliten Gamma in 2028, positioning itself as Europe’s friendly fossil supplier while fending off climate critics. (Financial Times)
🇻🇪 Bond Voyage. Venezuela gets US approval to begin restructuring $60B in defaulted government and oil bonds, as Washington slowly loosens the purse strings. (New York Times)
🇭🇰 Back in the Black. Hong Kong’s GDP jumped 5.9% year-on-year in the first quarter, delivering its strongest growth since 2021 while the region frets over war fallout. (Wall Street Journal)
🇮🇷 Current Events. Over 1,550 ships are stuck in the Persian Gulf due to escalating regional tensions, causing global trade delays and widening the supply gap. (Bloomberg)

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

🇬🇧 Tax and Rewind. After UK banks report £14B in Q1 profit, the TUC wants the windfall tax rate put back to 8 percent from the current 3 percent. (The Guardian)

🇺🇸 United States

🇺🇸 Gap Year. The trade deficit hit $60.3B in March as imports outpaced exports, making « mind the gap » more than just transit advice. (Bloomberg)
🇺🇸 Time Out. The SEC moves forward with a Trump-backed plan to let public firms ditch quarterly earnings reports and report just twice a year instead. (Cnbc)
🇺🇸 Name Dropout. Vladimir Sklarov posed as a friend of the Astors and lent to billionaires, but prosecutors say he just borrowed credibility for a $450M scam. (Wall Street Journal)

🏢 Real Estate

🇸🇬 Tower Bidding. CapitaLand and Hongkong Land 🇭🇰 are both eyeing Singapore’s Marina One office complex, setting up a high-stakes property contest. (Bloomberg)

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

🇬🇧 Rate Expectations. Mortgage repayments now eat up 21.3% of UK homebuyers’ income, matching 2008 pain levels and making affordability a distant dream. (The Guardian)
🇬🇧 Gilt Trip. UK 30-year bond yields hit their highest level since 1998, as Middle East conflict and election jitters send borrowing costs soaring for the government. (BBC)

🇺🇸 United States

🇺🇸 Home Stretch. new-home sales jumped in March, reaching their fastest pace of 2024 as buyers rushed to lock in available inventory. (Bloomberg)
🇺🇸 House Party. U.S. new home sales hit 682,000 in March, a jump from February’s 635,000, as spring brings more buyers to the table. (Wall Street Journal)

🔗 On-chain

🇪🇺 Euro Vision. Sabadell and Bankinter will join Qivalis, a consortium building a stablecoin tied to the euro, as Europe eyes digital currency sovereignty. (Boursier)
🇺🇸 Odds Family. Polymarket and Kalshi let users bet on global events, but their ties to Donald Trump Jr. are now drawing regulatory suspicion and unwanted press. (Le Temps)
🇺🇸 HODL the Phone. Strategy drops its famous “never sell” mantra, with CEO Phong Le now open to selling bitcoin to juice shareholder returns. (Cnbc)
🇺🇸 DeFi Summer, Winter Chill. Investors have pulled nearly $14B from the decentralized finance sector after two major hacks triggered bailouts and exposed serious vulnerabilities. (Financial Times)
🇨🇦 Maple Peg. Tetra Digital Group launches CADD, the first regulated Canadian dollar stablecoin, backed 1:1 and approved by Alberta regulators, with support from Shopify and National Bank of Canada. (FinExtra)

💱 Listed Markets

🇫🇷 Total Recall. LFI MP Clémence Guetté suggests nationalizing TotalEnergies to fight soaring fuel prices, proposing the state take over refining and distribution for instant public profit. (Le Figaro)
🇩🇪 Class Action. Deutsche Bank faces a £12M lawsuit from ex-trader James Vorley, who claims the bank trained him in banned trading strategies. Deutsche denies any such lessons. (Financial Times)
🇬🇧 Middle Yeast. HSBC 🇬🇧 cooked up a $1.3B profit hit, kneaded by private credit fraud and the spreading conflict with Iran, leaving shareholders feeling flat.
🇺🇸 Beta Blockers. The Commerce Department will test AI models from Google, Microsoft, and xAI before launch, putting a federal lock on Silicon Valley’s favorite sandbox. (Washington Post)
🇺🇸 Siri Not Sorry. Apple will pay $250M to iPhone 15 and 16 buyers after lawsuits accused it of falsely advertising AI features that never arrived. (BBC)
🇺🇸 PayPalgorithm. PayPal’s new CEO promises to use AI for faster cost cuts after a disappointing Q1 profit, because nothing says turnaround like automation. (Wall Street Journal)
🇰🇷 Chip Happens. Samsung Electronics rockets past $1T in market capitalization as investors pour into AI-linked stocks and memory chips become strategic gold. (Financial Times)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

Keyrus 🇫🇷 acquires NetPartners 🇧🇷, a consulting firm in Enterprise Performance Management (EPM).
Dome Solar 🇫🇷 acquires Mounting Systems 🇩🇪’s strategic assets, including brand and technologies.
Doctolib 🇫🇷 acquires Medicus 🇬🇧 for £100M as part of its UK expansion plans.
LegalPlace 🇫🇷 raises €70M and acquires Legalstart 🇫🇷, positioning itself as a significant player in company creation and management.
EW Group 🇩🇪 enters exclusive negotiations to acquire Olmix 🇫🇷, a specialist in biosourced solutions for livestock and crops.
UniCredit 🇮🇹 launches a $40B hostile bid for Commerzbank 🇩🇪.
Henko Partners 🇪🇸 is exploring a sale of its 49.5% stake in Quadrante 🇵🇹 at an over $350M valuation.
PZU 🇵🇱 acquires MetLife 🇺🇦’s Ukrainian unit.
EQT 🇸🇪 raises its takeover bid for Intertek 🇬🇧 to £8.93B ($12.08B) for the provider of testing, inspection, and certification services.
Vodafone Group 🇬🇧 acquires full ownership of its joint venture with CK Hutchison 🇭🇰 for $5.8B.
Barclays 🇬🇧 acquires Best Egg 🇺🇸 for $800M.
WisdomTree 🇺🇸 acquires Atlantic House Holdings Limited 🇬🇧, enhancing its capabilities in active ETFs and defined outcome strategies.
Bullish 🇺🇸 acquires Equiniti 🇬🇧 for $4.2B, enhancing its infrastructure in capital markets.
eBay 🇺🇸 reviews GameStop 🇺🇸’s $56B takeover offer.
General Atlantic 🇺🇸 backed Long Lake 🇺🇸 will take-private American Express Global Business Travel 🇺🇸 in a $6.3B cash deal.
Hubbell 🇺🇸 acquires NSI Industries 🇺🇸 from Sentinel Capital Partners for $3B.
Lattice Semiconductor 🇺🇸 acquires AMI 🇺🇸 from THL Partners 🇺🇸 for $1.65B in cash and stock.
Carlyle 🇺🇸 acquires a majority stake in healthcare RCM firms Knack RCM 🇺🇸 and EqualizeRCM 🇺🇸.
LCI Industries 🇺🇸 and Patrick Industries 🇺🇸 terminate merger talks.
Platinum Equity 🇺🇸 acquires Infratech 🇺🇸, a leader in infrared electric heating solutions.
Lupa Systems 🇺🇸 is in advanced talks to acquire Vox Media’s 🇺🇸 New York magazine and podcast division.
MSA Safety 🇺🇸 acquires Autronica Fire & Security 🇳🇴 for $555M.
James Murdoch 🇺🇸 is in advanced talks to acquire New York Magazine 🇺🇸, marking his first major media investment after a family succession battle.
Meloche 🇨🇦 acquires Rossi Aero 🇫🇷 for approximately €40M, specializing in aerospace components.
Hazelview Investments 🇨🇦 will combine its real estate business with Presima Securities 🇨🇦, adding over $370M in listed real estate assets.
Biva 🇲🇽 receives serious interest from potential bidders in its sale process.
MBK Partners 🇰🇷 is considering selling its stake in Pierre Marcolini 🇧🇪 for $100M.
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp 🇸🇬 acquires HSBC 🇬🇧’s retail and wealth assets in Indonesia.
OCBC Indonesia 🇮🇩 acquires HSBC Indonesia 🇮🇩’s wealth management and retail banking assets for $5.6B.
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. 🇮🇳 is exploring financing options for its proposed $12B acquisition of Organon & Co. 🇺🇸.
Regis Resources 🇦🇺 merges with Vault Minerals 🇦🇺 in a $7.7B all-stock deal.
Navigator Global 🇦🇺 acquires a portfolio of revenue-share interests in 17 alternative asset managers from Stable Asset Management 🇺🇸 for $195M.
Atlas Arteria 🇦🇺 rejects a $5.3B takeover bid from its biggest shareholder IFM Investors 🇦🇺.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

🇪🇸 Hola, Monzo. With new offices in Barcelona and Madrid, Monzo 🇬🇧 is betting big on Spain after its recent Irish launch. (FinExtra)
🇪🇺 Myth Busters. The has contacted Anthropic 🇺🇸 about concerns that its Mythos AI model could pose risks, inviting the company to explain itself before regulators step in. (Bloomberg)
🇬🇧 Founders Unchained. A wave of ex-Revolut employees have founded dozens of startups, proving the real product was a pipeline of future bosses. (Sifted)
🇺🇸 Credit Crusade. KKR’s CFO defends private credit’s allure despite declining flows, reminding everyone that conviction can be recession-proof. (Bloomberg)
🇺🇸 Broker Bots. Anthropic launches AI agents for finance, pitching software that can analyze data and draft reports with less coffee than the average analyst. (Bloomberg)
🇺🇸 Quick Flip. New Mountain Capital’s private credit fund touts fast profits from snapping up loans at steep discounts and cashing in early. (Bloomberg)
🇮🇳 Dreams Deferred. Krutrim’s shift to cloud services marks the end of its bold AI model push, following layoffs and lackluster updates. (TechCrunch)

Fundraising

Linkerbot 🇨🇳 (Robotics): $6B
Enter 🇧🇷 (Legal Tech): $1.2B
Sierra 🇺🇸 (AI): $950M (Tiger Global, GV)
Blitzy 🇺🇸 (Software): $200M (Northzone, PSG, Battery Ventures, Jump Capital, NFX, Link Ventures, Flybridge, Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, Erie Strategic Ventures, BAL Ventures)
Quantware 🇳🇱 (Quantum Computing): $178M
Panthalassa 🇺🇸 (Tech): $140M
Reserv 🇺🇸 (Insurance): $125M (KKR, Bain Capital Ventures, Flourish Ventures)
RadixArk 🇺🇸 (AI Infrastructure): $100M (Accel, Spark Capital, NVentures, Salience Capital, A&E Investments, HOF Capital, Walden Catalyst Ventures, AMD, LDV Partners, WTT Investment, MediaTek, Igor Babuschkin, Lip-Bu Tan, Hock Tan, John Schulman, Soumith Chintala, Olivier Pomel, Thomas Wolf, William Fedus, Robert Nishihara, Eric Zelikman, Logan Kilpatrick)
ETZyG 🇺🇸 (Tech): $60M
Smartness 🇮🇹 (Hospitality): $55M (United Ventures, CDP Venture Capital)
Moment Energy 🇨🇦 (Energy Storage): $40M (Evok Innovations, Liberty Mutual Investments, W23 Global Fund, Acario, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Voyager Ventures, In-Q-Tel)
Citius Oncology, Inc. 🇺🇸 (Biopharmaceutical): $36.5M
CopilotKit 🇺🇸 (AI): $27M (Glilot Capital, NFX, SignalFire)
Qutwo 🇫🇮 (AI): €25M (Yuri Milner, Xavier Niel, Ilkka Paananen, Max Junestrand, Thomas Wolf)
Nace.AI 🇺🇸 (AI): $21.5M (Walden Catalyst, General Catalyst)
Enzo Health 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $20M (N47)
Rosi Solar 🇫🇷 (Renewable Energy): €20M (InnoEnergy, CMA CGM, Conseil européen de l’innovation, G3T)
Barocal 🇬🇧 (Heating & Cooling): $10M (World Fund, Breakthrough Energy Discovery)
Village 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $9.5M (Upfront Ventures, Bling Capital, GTMFund, Perceptive Ventures)
Moritz 🇺🇸 (LegalTech): $9M
LakeFusion 🇺🇸 (Data Management): $7.5M (Silverton Partners, Carbide Ventures)
Altara 🇺🇸 (AI): $7M (Greylock, Neo, BoxGroup, Liquid 2 Ventures, Jeff Dean)
XCaliber Health 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $6.5M (ManchesterStory, Benhamou Global Ventures, Arka Venture Labs)
Spring Labs 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $5M (BankTech Ventures, Haymaker Ventures)
Astrada 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $3.8M (Bain Capital Ventures, QED Investors, Nyca Partners, Mastercard, Visa)
Faactopi 🇫🇷 (Deeptech): €3M (Innovacom, Soverency)

Fund Watch

Carlyle 🇺🇸: $8.5B (structured financing, seeding buyout fund)
THL Partners 🇺🇸: $6.35B (Fund X, private equity fund for middle-market growth companies)
OpenAI 🇺🇸: $4B (The Deployment Company, $10B JV for AI tools)
a16z crypto 🇺🇸: $2.2B (5th fund, focused on crypto)
Anthropic 🇺🇸: $1.5B
SingAuto 🇸🇬: $1.2B (merging with Blueport Acquisition, green logistics tech & EVs)
Haun Ventures 🇺🇸: $1B (2 funds, early & late-stage blockchain and AI)
Twin Bridge Capital Partners 🇺🇸: $855M (Pacific Street Fund VI, lower middle market buyout fund)
Bridge Growth Partners 🇺🇸: $790M (continuation vehicle for Solace, tech investment)
Yaron Elad and Elik Etzion 🇺🇸: $100M (AlphaDrive, cyber and AI investments)

🔔IPO

Tenneco 🇺🇸 (Auto Parts): selected banks for an IPO that could fetch a $14B valuation.
Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust 🇺🇸 (Infrastructure): seeking to raise $1.75B in an IPO.
Fervo Energy 🇺🇸 (Energy): seeking to raise $1.33B at a $6.5B valuation in its IPO.
GMR Solutions 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): seeking to raise $800M at a $4.7B valuation in its IPO.
EagleRock Land 🇺🇸 (Energy): seeking to raise $346M at a $2.6B valuation in its IPO.
Odyssey Therapeutics 🇺🇸 (Biotech): seeking to raise $240M at an $810M valuation in its IPO.
Mobia Medical 🇺🇸 (Medical Devices): seeking to raise $160M at a $530M valuation in its IPO.
Three-Circle 🇭🇰 (Electronics): aims to raise $1B in a Hong Kong listing with a $24B valuation.
UzNIF 🇺🇿 (Investment): launching a $2.4B portfolio of equity stakes set to trade in London and Tashkent this month.

🧳 Debt

VOLTA 🇫🇷: finalized €15.6M mezzanine debt with Zencap AM to support its solar energy projects.
Clearwater PACE 🇺🇸: closed $33M in C-PACE financing for Ameyalli Wellbeing Resort.
Cambridge Wilkinson 🇺🇸: closed a $300M senior lender finance credit facility for an institutional specialty real estate lender.
Supersede 🇺🇸: secured a $5M catalytic loan from Closed Loop Partners to expand production of high-performance structural materials.
Morgan Stanley 🇺🇸: leading a $13B financing package for a Meta data center in Texas.
Carlyle 🇺🇸: launched a $2.3B junk bond sale to finance its $9.1B LBO of BASF’s coatings business.
First Eagle Investments 🇺🇸: looking to sell $575M in junk bonds to fund its acquisition of Diamond Hill Investment.
Boyd Corp 🇺🇸: offering a $530M loan for refinancing after a $9.5B divestiture to Eaton.
Greenbrier 🇺🇸: entered into a new $425M term loan to finance the growth of its lease fleet.
Buyerlink 🇺🇸: secured a $40M senior secured credit facility with California Bank & Trust.
Alphabet 🇺🇸: raised C$8.5B in a surprise megadeal in the Canadian bond market.
High Tide 🇨🇦: executed a term sheet for $40M of credit facilities with a Canadian chartered bank.
Bolivia 🇧🇴: gauging investor interest for its first dollar bond sale in four years.

❌ Failures

BioNTech 🇩🇪: the biotechnology group is cutting 1,860 jobs due to falling Covid-19 vaccine sales and reported a net loss of €532M in Q1 2026.
Coinbase 🇺🇸: the cryptocurrency exchange announced the layoff of 700 employees, representing a 14% reduction in workforce to manage operating expenses.
Fortress 🇺🇸: creditors holding $1.8B in bonds extended a deadline for the firm to raise more cash for its LA-to-Vegas project.
KPS Capital Partners 🇺🇸: the PE firm is purchasing $585M of debt in Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope for 50¢ on the dollar.
Spirit Airlines 🇺🇸: the airline will liquidate in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Saks Global 🇺🇸: the company sent its bankruptcy plan for a vote, aiming to restructure by wiping out all equity and transferring control to senior lenders.
Nissan 🇯🇵: plans to cut 900 jobs, about 10% of its European workforce, amid restructuring to ease financial difficulties.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

🇫🇷 Let It Beer. Yoko Ono forced the Breton brewery to stop selling its « John Lemon » beer, but the legal spat only made it sell out faster. (Libé)
🇺🇸 Flipper Denial. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted Iran does not have « kamikaze dolphins, » dismissing reports that Tehran could weaponize marine mammals in the Strait of Hormuz. (Cnbc)
🇺🇸 Space Oddity. NASA is actively preparing for the day it might announce evidence of extraterrestrial life, just in case we are not alone after all. (Le Parisien)
🌏 Gone in a Flash. The newly discovered comet C/2025 R3 PANSTARRS will light up skies in New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, then fade until the year 172,025. (New York Times)