Alleged assault follows report of gang-rape at frat house at Cornell, which ignited national uproar and criticism online

A 21-year-old woman reported being sexually assaulted last weekend at a fraternity house near the University of Chicago, as Greek life nationwide faces renewed scrutiny for recurrent misconduct.

The incident allegedly took place on Sunday at about 1.50am at the off-campus Alpha Epsilon Pi residence, according to a university daily crime log.

Image of state flag incorporating KKK hoods was sent to other schools participating in regional tennis tournament

The University of Maryland (UMD) has indefinitely suspended its club tennis team after a graphic featuring Ku Klux Klan imagery was circulated to other universities before a regional tournament, prompting widespread condemnation.

The controversy erupted after Toni Rachal, president of Howard University’s club tennis team, spotted the offensive material in a shared Google document sent to participating schools before last weekend’s tournament, WUSA9 reported.

Ukraine's parliament registered a bill on minority-language schooling on 1 October to lift Hungary's block on the country's European Union membership talks, Ukrinform reported. Kyiv acts first with the legislation. Budapest reciprocates by letting the EU push the stalled accession process forward. Hungary's government welcomed the text within a day.

Ukraine's route into the European Union turns on unanimous votes, so one member state's leverage can stall the entire queue—and Kyiv is trying to pry the clusters open one bargain at a time before the window for this year's progress closes.

A tightly timed swap

European Pravda, citing unnamed sources, reported that the two capitals agreed to move in parallel after a public standoff, with neither side willing to go first on trust alone. Ukraine registers and passes the bill. In return, Hungary is to let the Council of the EU presidency send Kyiv, on 6 October, the requests needed to open two negotiating clusters—stages of the membership process. The Rada plans an extraordinary session on 12 October to adopt it, and European Pravda says the votes are there. A Council of the EU decision is due on 13 October, ahead of a European Council summit two days later. Deputy Prime Minister Vsevolod Chentsov said rebuilding trust will take concrete steps from both governments.

What the bill changes

Lawmakers filed Bill No. 16119, which creates a national minority school status: a school qualifies when over half its pupils—50% plus one—study in a national-minority language that is also an official EU language. By Education Ministry estimates, that fits about 149 schools, roughly 1.2% of Ukraine's general secondary institutions. Ukrainian stays the language of instruction, and the bill does not return Russian to classrooms.

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Pupils at qualifying schools could use the minority language with teachers and classmates, not only in lessons, and parents could petition to add subjects taught in Ukrainian. The text also covers Ukraine's indigenous peoples, such as Crimean Tatars, and drops a Ukrainian-language certificate requirement for the heads of 29 private schools for as long as they stay in their posts. Education committee head Serhii Babak said the solution protects Ukrainian while meeting an EU accession commitment.

What changed in Budapest

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar posted on Facebook that the bill strengthens legal guarantees for Hungarian-language education and the school network, and wrote that he expects those rights honored in practice. European Pravda framed the outcome as a win Magyar's own voters can read as delivering what the previous government never secured. Foreign Minister Anita Orbán said the new government had achieved more in a few months for the Hungarian minority in Zakarpattia than Viktor Orbán's cabinet managed in ten years. Under Magyar, Hungary agreed in June to open the first accession cluster but kept slowing the rest. Only in recent weeks, European Pravda wrote, did Budapest abandon Orbán-style unconditional blocking. This bill is meant to free the next two.

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Serhii Plokhii, a renowned scholar of Ukrainian history, is stepping down as director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University (HURI) after 12 years of leadership, the institute announced on June 30.

"It has been a privilege and an honor to lead the Institute over the past 12 years,"  Plokhii said in a farewell message.

Plokhii is one of the leading experts on the history of Eastern Europe. Born to a Ukrainian family in Russia, he has lived in Ukraine for 35 years and has written several best-selling books on the subject, including "The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine" and "The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union."

Plokhii expressed gratitude to colleagues, staff, and supporters and offered best wishes to historian Terry Martin, who will assume the role of director in the upcoming academic year.

"Years marked by the anxiety and challenges of war, but also by the opportunities that institutions like HURI offer to advance what Harvard’s motto calls 'good knowledge' about Ukraine and the region."

The Ukrainian Research Institute, founded in 1973 through the support of the Ukrainian-American community, is the leading academic institution in the United States focused on Ukrainian studies.

Based at Harvard, HURI promotes research and scholarship on Ukraine's history, culture, and politics through fellowships, conferences, digital initiatives, and its flagship journal, Harvard Ukrainian Studies.

Under Plokhii's leadership, the Institute expanded its programming significantly, including the establishment of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program in 2019, an initiative that became central to HURI's academic response following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The incoming director, Martin, is a scholar of Soviet history and professor of Russian studies.

Warfare in Ukraine has changed… again

The Kyiv Independent’s Francis Farrell explains a new modification of the standard first-person view (FPV) drone that already once transformed the way war is fought. Fiber optic cable now used to connect drone operators to FPVs ensures a perfect image and control experience all the way to the target — and cannot be spotted by enemy drone detectors.

The Kyiv IndependentFrancis Farrell