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The Surprising Health Benefits of Reading for Pleasure
There are neuroimaging studies to back up that finding, she continues. “When you read fiction, particularly stories that are rich in social content, it activates areas in the brain that we know are involved in social cognition, areas that always come up when you’re doing studies of theory of mind or understanding things from other people’s point of view,” she says.
Surveys indicate a link to stress reduction as well. “With reducing stress, it seems to happen really quickly,” Sahakian says. “If you get engrossed in a book, then your mind and your attention are really focused on reading and the content, which means it takes your attention away from other things. You don’t start ruminating about problems that you have…you forget all of that. So it’s a little bit like mindfulness in that regard, because the attention is so focused.”
The benefits of reading in older age
Some of the research Sahakian finds most exciting focuses on older people’s reading habits. She refers to one study in Taiwan that followed people over age 64 for 14 years. “People who just read once a week had a significantly reduced risk of cognitive decline over that 14-year period, and importantly, it didn’t relate to educational levels,” she says. “What is so good about reading is that you get these benefits regardless of socio-economic background or educational level. It will improve your brain. It will improve your cognition. It will improve your well-being,” she says.
Italy is probing the Revolut-linked breach after its cyber agency reported more than 650 cases involving abused or illicit certified email accounts.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh speaks to reporters during his first news conference since taking the helm at the central bank on June 17, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
This is a comparison of Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee statement with the one issued after the Fed’s previous policymaking meeting in July.
Text removed from the July statement is in red with a horizontal line through the middle.
Text appearing for the first time in the new statement is in red and underlined.
Black text appears in both statements.
According to a new investigation, validators are accepting payments starting at 10 SOL ($1,000) a month to leak early access to Solana trades they receive for block production.
Maximal extractable value (MEV) is on allegedly sale to quants via an incredibly valuable, realtime feed of pre-execution transactions.
Corvus Labs’ Andrei Vacariu traced payouts through a vault where Everstake, led by former Grayscale founding general manager David Kinitsky, sells a $4,000/month private data feed of pending trades.
He also claimed that Everstake salespeople are soliciting more validator node operators to join the scheme with offers of over 10 SOL a month.
With this valuable information, sophisticated traders can allegedly front-run and sandwich-attack common orders on DeFi exchanges.
‘Every trader on Solana’
Vacariu spelled out the implications of his allegation for average users of Solana applications: “Every trader on Solana hits these slots, can’t tell which leaders mirror their traffic, and can’t opt out.”
Everstake, which runs one of Solana’s larger validators, with about 7.4 million SOL delegated to it, claims that it uses “filtering mechanisms specifically to prevent this type of activity,” and that it doesn’t encourage front-running or sandwiching.
Thanks to this largesse, Everstake’s traffic priority enjoys institutional “stake-weighted quality of service,” a service tier that it repackages via Blockspace.
No public mempool, just high-priced, private mempools
Blockspace’s high-priced service only exists in the first place because Solana has no public mempool.
Unlike common memory pools of pending transactions that are free and easy to access on other blockchains, most Solana transactions travel straight to the validator scheduled to build the next block without queueing in any public mempool.
That design was supposed to be net positive. Only the scheduled validator would see a trade before it executed, which should minimize MEV.
However, MEV opportunities haven’t disappeared under this model. Instead, they’ve consolidated into a high society of customers who can afford to pay thousands of dollars for slices of MEV opportunities directly from validators with over 15,000 SOL staked on Solana’s blockchain.
Customers can run Everstake’s software, mirroring incoming traffic to Everstake servers before a block exists and rushing through new transactions earlier (or right after) retail orders.
Read more: Solana validator decentralization under scrutiny
Solana validators on the payroll
Everstake isn’t a single validator but rather an association of 39 validators who collectively have staked more than 50 million SOL.
Payouts from Blockspace’s revenue-sharing wallet, according to Vacariu, have disbursed to Prostaking, RockawayX, Staking Facilities, and Stake.org.
Staking Facilities allegedly took more than 950 SOL in such payments since July, while Prostaking allegedly collected over 200.
Other major players in the Solana ecosystem, Blockspace noted, run MEV infrastructure through different architectures.
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The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter point on Wednesday, lifting the target range to 3.75% to 4.00%. All 12 voting officials backed the move, the first increase since 2023.
Forecasts released alongside the decision went further than the hike itself. A total of 16 of 18 policymakers now expect at least one more increase before the year ends.
The Statement Dropped Its Explanation for Inflation
The wording moved further than the rate did. In July, the Fed pinned part of high inflation on supply shocks in sectors including energy. That line is gone.
One claim replaced it. Wednesday’s increase will support a “timelier” return to the 2% goal. The closing promise survived intact, that the committee will deliver price stability.
Officials also raised their assessment of business investment and swapped a reference to the Middle East conflict for broader geopolitical developments.
Projections Show 16 Officials Want Another Hike
The dot plot, a chart where each of 18 policymakers marks where they think rates should sit, turned sharply hawkish.
Officials put core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation, the Fed’s preferred price gauge, at 3.4% in December 2026 and 2.5% a year later. They cut the unemployment forecast to 4.1% for both years, from 4.3%.
BeInCrypto reported in June that nine officials had broken ranks. That count has now nearly doubled.
Bitcoin Climbed While Gold Gave Up Gains
Bitcoin traded near $76,152 after the release, up 0.7% over 24 hours. Prices jumped from roughly $75,350 to above $76,100 within minutes of the announcement.
Gold went the other way. Spot prices spiked toward $4,368, then sold off hard and settled near $4,333.
The hike landed in a week already going badly for crypto. Bitcoin and XRP slid after the CLARITY Act’s failure in the Senate, a bill that would have set out which US regulator oversees digital assets, wiping out more than $300 million in leveraged bets.
White House adviser Christopher Phelan warned against a hike this week, citing falling inflation data. Chair Kevin Warsh has delivered zero cuts since Powell left.
Traders are keeping their bets on another increase this year. Warsh’s press conference decides whether that holds.
The post Fed Hikes to 4%: Why Are 16 Officials Still Not Done? appeared first on BeInCrypto.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved its first interest rate hike in more than three years and indicated another is to come, as part of an effort aimed at combating inflation brought on by spiraling oil prices and other factors.
In a move that markets widely anticipated, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee voted 12-0 to increase its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point, or 25 basis points. The move brought the overnight funds rate to a target range of 3.75%-4%.
“Inflation remains elevated,” the committee said in its brief post-meeting statement. “Today’s policy action will support a timelier return to the Committee’s 2 percent goal. The Committee will deliver price stability.”
During a news conference, Chairman Kevin Warsh said inflation has been “too high … for too long.”
“We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective clearly and at sufficient speed,” he said. “Today, the FOMC decided that this standard has not been satisfied.”
Warsh further explained that recent economic reports showed the economy, including the labor market, was strong. However, inflation remained above the central bank’s target, and added that tension in the Middle East also contributed to the decision.
“All three of of those things lend themselves to a firm unanimous decision today,” he said.
Highly anticipated
Despite a raft of conflicting recent statements from policymakers, markets had priced in a better than 90% chance that the FOMC would approve the increase, though there was chatter about the possibility of multiple dissents.
Persistently high inflation readings coupled with statements from Warsh a few weeks ago had convinced Wall Street that the Fed would OK its first rate increase since July 2023.
Updated projections the committee released Wednesday showed that a strong majority of officials think another hike is possible later this year.
The dot plot grid of individual officials’ expectations indicated that 16 of the 18 participants – Warsh has chosen not to submit a dot since taking the position – expected another rate increase, with four of those seeing two more as possible. Two participants expected the committee to stop at one hike.
However, there are no increases penciled in for subsequent years, with one cut each indicated for 2028 and at least one for 2029.
Officials also nudged up their expectations for inflation this year.
They see the headline personal consumption expenditures price index at 3.7% and core excluding food and energy at 3.4%, both 0.1 percentage point higher than the last update in June. The Fed doesn’t expect to reach its inflation target until 2029, though it sees both measures dropping off sharply in 2027 – 2.3% for headline and 2.5% for core.
The committee had been on hold all year and was expected to stay there, until the tide began turning towards a hike in late August.
Fed rarely moves once
The Fed rarely only moves once, as policymakers generally eschew incremental decisions when they think inflation is too high and needs elevated rates, or when growth is too slow and the Fed tries to boost demand with lower rates.
While the Fed’s action was expected, the rationale behind the hike was unusual.
The Fed generally looks through the kind of inflation the economy is experiencing now, with the higher fuel costs from the Iran war and the lingering impacts from tariffs. However, officials in recent days have weighed the cost of continuing to look through the price increases, particularly in light of a stabilizing labor market. The committee lowered its outlook for the unemployment rate to 4.1%, down 0.2 percentage point from June.
The worry now is that the duration of the energy prices could raise inflation expectations and start to spread through the economy. Economists also see expanded investment in artificial intelligence as a potential inflationary factor.
Also, the “transitory” episode from a few years ago is still fresh in policymakers’ minds, as Fed officials thought the supply-and-demand shock from the Covid pandemic eventually would fade. Instead, inflation readings hit 40-year highs before the Fed decided to act.
In July, the debate generated considerable dissent on the policy view, with three FOMC members voting against the decision to hold, preferring instead a quarter-point hike.
At this week’s meeting, 2027 was a fairly close call, with eight officials pointing to another hike, six seeing the funds rate holding steady and four envisioning cuts.
Markets already have been pricing in higher rates across the spectrum. The S&P 500 rose after Wednesday’s announcement.
Treasury yields have been surging. The 10-year note has risen about a quarter percentage point since Warsh’s remarks at the Fed’s Jackson Hole, Wyoming, symposium on Aug. 28. The benchmark is up about a full percentage point since its February low. The 2-year note, which is most sensitive to rate expectations, has seen even sharper gains.
Borrowing costs also have been on the move. A 30-year fixed rate mortgage had soared to 7.19%, up some 38 basis points since the Jackson Hole speech and more than a full percentage point from a year ago, according to Mortgage News Daily.
In the wake of the decision, Treasury yields were lower, a signal that investors were encouraged by the central bank’s attempt to tamp down inflation. Yields and prices move in opposite directions.
“Today’s FOMC could mark the moment when the FOMC regained a measure of spine,” Brad Conger, chief investment officer at Hirtle & Co. said. “There were many arguments for standing still. But for once, the committee sided with main street.”
“Inflation is a pervasive concern, and its uncertainty is impeding decision making among all businesses. One swallow doesn’t make a spring, but we might have just caught a glimpse of Volckerian decisiveness as opposed to the eternal sycophancy of the Powell era,” Conger added.
Crypto World
Both Democrats and Republicans Are Increasingly Worried About AI’s Environmental Impact
There are currently 1,287 data centers in operation in the U.S., with more than 2,000 planned projects, according to Clearview, a market intelligence company tracking U.S. power infrastructure and data center development. Virginia and Texas currently have the most data centers in operation, but many new developments are planned in rural areas in the South and Midwest. The growth is driven by the rise in hyperscale data centers, which are larger, more powerful, and often used to train and run large-scale AI models.
Despite the boom, Americans seem to be increasingly supportive of measures to regulate growth. About 6 in 10 Americans said they would support limiting the number of new data centers that can be built—including most Democrats and Republicans—the survey found.
Democrats seem to be the most concerned by the environmental impacts of data center growth. About two-thirds say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about how AI will affect the environment, the poll found, compared to about half in 2025. By contrast, about half of Independents and 4 in 10 Republicans are highly concerned about the environmental impact of AI.
Ethiopia has reportedly reduced electricity delivered to Bitcoin miners to 23% of contracted levels as lower water inflows strain the country’s hydroelectric reservoirs.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that El Niño intensified dry conditions in the east African country, reducing water inflows into its reservoirs by 20%. Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) CEO Ashebir Balcha said the company cut power to miners to prioritize households and manufacturers.
Balcha said EEP initially reduced deliveries to 75% of contracted levels, easing to 50% and then 23%. The company will reassess conditions in October and could impose further reductions or even restrict electricity exports to neighboring countries, according to the report.
Bitcoin miners reportedly accounted for 35% of EEP’s revenue last fiscal year and consume almost one-third of Ethiopia’s electricity output. The country’s inexpensive hydropower has attracted international miners, including Phoenix Group, which expanded its Ethiopian mining capacity to 132 megawatts in April 2025.
Bitcoin mining power growth faces pressure from halvings and AI
Separately, economist and The Bitcoin Standard author Saifedean Ammous said in a Tuesday X post that global Bitcoin mining electricity consumption and capital expenditure may have peaked in 2024 to 2025.
Ammous said Bitcoin’s price would need to rise more than 18.92% a year just to keep the dollar value of newly mined coins growing, even before accounting for dollar depreciation. Under Bitcoin’s halving mechanism, the amount of Bitcoin awarded to miners is cut in half about every four years.
The price of the biggest crypto by market cap is down by more than 35% over the last 12 months, Yahoo Finance data shows.
“Given this decline in mining rewards, it would be expected that bitcoin mining would slow down, or even contract,” Ammous said. “Unless there is a major turnaround in this metric, this trend may continue indefinitely.”
Related: Bitcoin miner Phoenix Group adds 52 MW of mining capacity in Ethiopia
He also cited competition from artificial intelligence data centers, which gives miners an alternative way to monetize their electricity connections and infrastructure. Citing VanEck data, Miner Weekly estimated in June that public miners could require around $50 billion to develop their planned AI infrastructure as weaker mining economics encourage companies to redirect capacity.
Ammous said his conclusion as a testable hypothesis, acknowledging that substantially higher transaction fees or a sustained recovery above Bitcoin mining’s previous electricity-consumption peak could invalidate it.
Magazine: AI may already use more power than Bitcoin — and it threatens Bitcoin mining
The UK Financial Conduct Authority has issued final guidance outlining when crypto activities may require authorization under the country’s incoming regulatory regime.
The guidance covers activities such as issuing qualifying stablecoins, operating crypto trading platforms, dealing and arranging transactions, safeguarding cryptoassets and arranging crypto staking. It is intended to help firms determine whether their activities fall within the regulatory perimeter and which permissions they will need to operate under the new framework.
Existing registrations and permissions will not automatically convert under the new regime, meaning firms will need to determine whether they require FCA authorization or a variation of permission.
Firms covered by the FCA’s new crypto authorization guidance. Source: Financial Conduct Authority
“Getting ready for regulation starts with understanding how the regime applies to your business,” said David Geale, the FCA’s executive director of consumers, payments and competition. “This guidance gives firms the clarity they’ve asked for so they can prepare with confidence.”
The FCA will open applications on Sept. 30, with a Feb. 28, 2027 deadline for firms seeking transitional arrangements ahead of the new regime taking effect on Oct. 25, 2027. The regulator also plans to consult on further changes to its perimeter guidance later this year.
Related: US, UK launch joint alliance targeting crypto scam centers
UK crypto regulatory framework takes shape
The FCA’s latest guidance comes as the UK moves toward implementing a broader regulatory framework for digital assets.
Parliament approved regulations bringing cryptoassets within the FCA’s regulatory remit in February, while the regulator finalized a package of rules and guidance in June.
Last week, the House of Lords voted 194–138 to add an amendment to the Financial Services and Markets Bill requiring the Treasury to develop a digital asset strategy covering cryptoassets, stablecoins, tokenized securities and digital financial infrastructure within 12 months of the bill becoming law.
The FCA has also been advancing its work on tokenized assets. On Monday, the regulator sought feedback on whether some tokenized gold products should be exempt from UK fund rules, while the FCA and Bank of England said they plan to publish a roadmap for tokenization in wholesale financial markets later this year.
Magazine: Why are AI’s biggest companies suddenly asking to slow down?
The hackers behind a data breach at Revolut are demanding $3 million worth of monero (XMR) within 24 hours, threatening to sell the stolen customer data to other criminal groups if the bank refuses to pay, according to the Financial Times.
The group, which calls itself “iamnotavillain,” posted the demand Wednesday alongside a countdown clock, the FT reported. It asked Revolut to send 6,000 XMR, a cryptocurrency designed to obscure transaction details.
At least 680 Revolut customer accounts were affected by the breach, according to the report.
The hackers told the FT they chose their targets using blockchain analysis to find Revolut accounts with significant crypto holdings.
The group sent the FT a 60-second screen recording that appeared to show some of the data it obtained. The video included passports, driving licences, photos used for know-your-customer checks and transaction histories, according to the newspaper.
The breach came after attackers posed as government officials and sent requests for information that passed Revolut’s checks. Revolut handed over customer records before discovering the requests were fraudulent, according to notices previously sent to affected customers.
If we assume that full-blown bull-market conditions return between now and the end of 2026, Microsoft Copilot AI predicts that Chainlink (LINK) will hit $35 by January 1, 2027.
Currently, LINK is trading around $11–$12, so a move to $35 would be roughly a threefold increase from current levels. I believe $35 is a compelling target because it would place LINK above its 2024 peak while remaining well below its all-time high of approximately $52.70.
LINK has a history of being highly cyclical. During the 2020–21 bull market, it surged from around $1.77 at the beginning of 2020 to an all-time high of $52.70 in May 2021. However, it then endured a substantial bear-market drawdown and closed 2022 around $5.57.
This historical performance matters because LINK has already shown that a $20–$30 range is not unusual during a strong crypto market.
The key question now is what will happen if the overall market transitions from the current relatively weak environment into a genuine altcoin bull market.
Microsoft Copilot AI Predicts Chainlink: Technical Analysis Supporting the LINK Thesis
The 2026 chart currently indicates a substantial recovery from a capitulation low. LINK dropped from about $14.40 at the beginning of the year to around $7.00 in June, before rebounding into the $11–$13 range.
Recent data show increases of 13.5% in July and 38.2% in August, with August taking LINK from approximately $8.19 to over $12.50 at one point during the month. This change indicates a significant shift in momentum.
A recent golden cross occurred in the moving averages, with the 50-day average crossing above the 200-day average in late August. Current estimates place the 50-day average at about $9.60 and the 200-day average at about $9.00.
The immediate technical progression to watch is as follows: $12.50 to $14.40, then a run toward $17.50 and $20. $27–31 to $35 completes the move.
The first major hurdle is approximately $12.50–$14.40, where LINK needs to establish itself above this zone. Recent analysis has identified $12.50 as the key breakout level, with $13 as the next target if resistance breaks.
Once LINK surpasses the $17–$18 range, the chart becomes much more interesting, as this area incorporates the swing structure from 2025/2026. The next crucial zone to watch is $27–$31, which includes LINK’s significant highs from 2024–2025.
A clean breakout through this range would indicate that LINK is entering price discovery territory relative to the most recent cycle, making the $35 target plausible.
Supercharge Your Trading in 2026 With BloFin AI Trading Bots
Historical Price Action Supports the $35+ Possibility
LINK’s past bull-market moves illustrate just how explosive it can become when momentum builds:
2019: ~$0.30 → $3.04
2020: ~$1.77 → $20.11
2023: ~$5.13 → $17.67
2024: ~$9.49 → $30.94
2026 low to current: ~$7 → ~$11–12
LINK’s most substantial annual gain occurred in 2020, when it rose over 500%. Even 2023 yielded approximately 165% annual growth.
While past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, it provides a useful framework for a bull-market scenario: LINK has historically responded disproportionately when the crypto liquidity cycle turns positive.
A move from around $11.50 to $35 would be about +204%, a notable increase but not historically extraordinary for LINK during a significant crypto expansion.
Make Your Prediction Count With $25 For Free on Kalshi
Maxi Doge Targets Early Mover Upside as LINK Tests Key Levels
A steady price with two major catalysts still pending is exactly the kind of setup that tests conviction. LINK holders aren’t wrong to stay positioned, as the fundamentals case is intact, but at an $8Bn-plus market cap, even the most bullish price action isn’t going to double anyone’s stack overnight. That math pushes some capital toward earlier-stage plays with more room to run.
Enter Maxi Doge ($MAXI), an Ethereum-based meme token built around leverage-trading culture rather than passive holding. The project has raised $4.8M in its presale at a current price of just $0.0002839 per token. Staking offers a huge 65% APY.
Standout features include holder-only trading competitions with leaderboard rewards and a Maxi Fund treasury earmarked for liquidity and partnerships. The pitch is blunt: 1000x-leverage energy, gym-bro marketing, and a stated goal of outpacing original DOGE on the charts.
Get Ahead of Next Meme Coin Launch Here
Discover: The Best Token Presales
The post Microsoft Copilot AI Predicts Chainlink Could Hit $35 by 2027 appeared first on Cryptonews.
Italy investigates government email breach linked to Revolut data leak
The Skincare Brand Battle Getting Ugly Online
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