Most frightening and/or depressing story:

• The Darling, a major river system in Australia, has essentially dried up.

Most hopeful story:

• There is progress on carbon capture technology. Also, just restoring soil on previously degraded farm and grazing land could provide large benefits worldwide. There may also be real progress on fusion power.

Most interesting story, that was not particularly frightening or hopeful, or perhaps was a mixture of both:

• Google claims to have achieved “quantum supremacy“. This may allow us all to live lives of Fully Automated Luxury Communism.