TO BRIEF / news digest
Daily EU news digest
Eight stories per edition, selected from hundreds of European sources and written to be read in five minutes. TO BRIEF is a daily news digest that respects your time and shows its sources.
What a daily news digest is
A daily news digest is a different way to stay informed: instead of an endless scroll of front pages, alerts and repetition, you read one small, carefully selected set of stories once a day. At TO BRIEF that means eight articles per edition — not eighty. Selection is half the work: the system reads hundreds of articles from across Europe every day and keeps only what genuinely changes the picture.
Europe has a particular problem that a digest solves well: decisions made in Brussels, Frankfurt or a neighbouring capital affect you directly, yet most of us consume news inside national silos. Each digest story is written with that cross-border lens — what happened, how the same story reads in different countries, and why it matters beyond one border.
Every story is written from scratch with context and continuity: what led here, why it is happening now, what follows. We do not republish press releases and we do not chase clicks. The goal is that after five minutes you have the complete picture — not just more headlines.
The digest is published daily, and nothing disappears: the archive keeps every previous edition, day by day, so a missed morning costs you nothing.
How the digest is made
TO BRIEF is a newspaper written by artificial intelligence — stated plainly, not buried in the small print. The production line starts from same-day news feeds across European countries: the system detects which stories appear in multiple independent sources, opens research questions, and gathers material before the first sentence is written.
Each article then passes through a second model that re-reads it as a sceptic: claims, numbers and characterisations are checked before the text reaches you. The sources of every article are visible inside the article itself — you can always see where a claim came from and judge it yourself.
There is no prospective human review of each article before it is published, and we disclose that on every page. Whatever gets corrected, gets corrected in the open: there is a public corrections trail and a clear way to report an error. The whole production line is documented step by step on our methodology page.
Who is behind TO BRIEF
TO BRIEF was created by two technologists who go by their first names, Nikos and Vasilis — one works in AI privacy, the other in software engineering and cybersecurity. Their story, and the experiment of a newspaper without journalists, was covered by WIRED Greece.
Behind the product stands a registered company with public filings, a full transparency page, and a declared policy on the use of artificial intelligence. You will not find invented "editors-in-chief" — you will find an honest description of how the system works and who is responsible for it.
What you will find in every article
Every digest article has the same steady structure: what happened, the context that explains it, why you should care, and its sources. Most carry a timeline of how the story developed, and an audio edition for the hours when reading is not an option. If something is corrected after publication, the correction is noted on the article itself — errors are not silently erased.
The digest is an edition, not a feed: it has a beginning and an end, like a newspaper. You read it, you close it, you get on with your day — and tomorrow the next one is waiting. Below are today’s stories, exactly as published in the latest edition.
Today's stories
- Bratislava menace la liste noire russe
Les ambassadeurs de l’UE n’ont pas réussi à prolonger le cycle de renouvellement de la liste noire, exposant interdictions de voyage et gels d’avoirs avant l’échéance du 15 septembre. Les diplomates réessaieront le 9 septembre, tandis que Bratislava réclame aussi des retraits non divulgués et conserve le levier de l’unanimité requise tous les six mois.
- La Hongrie bloque Kyiv au marché unique
Kyiv a franchi l’examen technique de l’UE, mais Budapest refuse l’accord politique unanime nécessaire pour ouvrir deux grands blocs de négociation. La Hongrie exige des avancées visibles sur les droits des minorités, laissant les 26 autres gouvernements sans contournement juridique et suspendant l’alignement ukrainien sur le commerce, la fiscalité, le travail et les douanes.
- Meridiam face au test tarifaire
La majorité privée rend l’interconnexion de €1.9 billion plus attractive pour les prêteurs, mais son financement reste suspendu aux revenus régulés et à la contribution chypriote. La consultation de la RAAEY se clôt le 11 September, tandis que la due diligence de la EIB, l’engagement chypriote de €125 million et les relevés en eaux contestées restent ouverts.
- La Roumanie sommée sur la loi Fritz
La Commission européenne intègre l’amendement Fritz à l’examen du dernier versement du plan de relance roumain. Bucarest doit justifier la prévisibilité et la proportionnalité d’une exclusion d’élus pour des décisions antérieures à la loi ; les 770 millions d’euros évoqués couvrent toute la tranche finale, pas cette seule clause.
- Pevkur emporté par les obus fantômes
Le ministre estonien de la défense a démissionné après une commande de munitions jamais livrée, révélatrice d’un contrôle fragile du réarmement national. Les auditeurs n’ont pas pu vérifier €1.2 billion de stocks, tandis que presque tous les €72.1 million d’avances fournisseurs examinées posent question, au moment où Tallinn s’apprête à recevoir jusqu’à €2.34 billion via le programme européen SAFE.
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