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A version of this article first appeared in CNBC's Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

The European Union has given five Caribbean nations notice that they need to end their citizenship-by-investment programs or risk losing visa-free access to Europe's Schengen area by 2028.

The ability to enter the 29 countries in the Schengen area can be a substantial selling point for these golden passport programs. While some immigration attorneys told CNBC that the ultimatum will likely end in a compromise, it is possible the EU will stand its ground.

Currently, foreigners can obtain citizenship in one of the countries by making a qualified investment in its economy, such as buying real estate or contributing to a government fund. Passports from one of these nations allow visa-free travel to some 140 countries and territories. With costs starting around $200,000, these citizenship-by-investment, or CBI, programs provide vital revenue to the Caribbean nations.

The EU in late June sent letters to the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Kitts and Nevis. The countries are planning a coordinated response, including a mission to Brussels, according to a statement.

"Our citizenship-by-investment programs are critical pillars of our non-tax revenue base. They cannot simply be abandoned without viable, credible and sustainable replacement sources of revenue," said Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne in a subsequent statement.

The EU has cracked down on CBI programs in other nations before, including Malta. However, this request is unusual because it doesn't cite specific security concerns or propose remedies to address them, according to Ron Klasko, immigration attorney and co-founder of advisory Exodus Migration. He said he does not expect the EU to back down.

"There's always been pressure from the EU on on the Caribbean countries, mostly related to security issues, and all of them have bolstered their security issues in response to EU requests in recent years. The new thing is different," Klasko said. "They're saying we are opposed to the concept of a commercial transaction resulting in you getting a passport. That goes to the very core of their program, unlike if they're saying we want you to bolster your security, which is where they can do something."

Klasko said he is advising one of the five affected nations, which he declined to name, on possible changes to the program that may satisfy the EU.

Reaz Jafri, senior counsel at Charles Russell Speechlys, said he views the EU request as a starting point for negotiations rather than a firm ultimatum. Jafri, who also leads Dasein Advisors, a citizenship and residency consultancy, said a few clients have reached out, but they are still going through with their applications.

"This conversation has been going on as long as I can remember," said the immigration attorney of 30 years. "I think the EU is looking to maybe get more diligence or better handle on certain things with regards to who gets in and who doesn't come in, and I think they'll comply because they're not looking to skirt any rules."

In late 2024, the EU revoked visa-free travel to the Schengen region for citizens of Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific, due to security and migration concerns. In 2025, the European Court of Justice struck down Malta's "golden passport" program as illegal. Malta has since implemented a merit-based program with residency requirements.

Even if a compromise can't be reached, Jafri said the Caribbean nations rely too much on revenue from CBI programs to phase them out. More than half of his clients are Americans, who don't need a visa-free perk, he added.

"I've had clients take these passports because they don't want to travel with their American or Israeli or Chinese passport. It's a security issue for them," he said. "I work with very wealthy clientele around the world, and having alternate citizenships and residencies is part of the global planning they do. They're managing different risks: political, personal, commercial, financial and so forth.

"My clients are not doing this for easy access to the EU," he added. %!s()

Don't have a Netflix subscription? Do not fear. Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look will then become available to watch via YouTube, though not for another six hours. Its official debut to stream via YouTube will be at 6pm Pacific / 9pm Eastern on August 27, or 2am UK on August 28.

Netflix subscribers can already set an alert to remind them when the special event show becomes available to watch, over at netflix.com/GTAVI. The programme listing offers the following blurb: "Coming August 27: See an extended look at Grand Theft Auto 6, the next evolution the Grand Theft Auto series."

In a blog post on the event, Netflix described the Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look as a "first-of-its-kind partnership" between the streamer and Rockstar.

"The new iteration in the blockbuster series comes 13 years following the debut of GTA 5, the same year that Netflix was beginning its push into original programming," Netflix wrote. "This collaboration represents the next generation of storytelling and content on Netflix."

“Grand Theft Auto reveals have become cultural moments in their own right," said Brandon Riegg, Netflix's VP of Nonfiction Series. "The anticipation and fandom around Grand Theft Auto 6 is unprecedented, and we’re honored that Rockstar Games has partnered with us to debut the next part of the Grand Theft Auto story with Netflix members first. It’s a reflection of what we hope Netflix is becoming: a place where the most ambitious storytelling, from any medium, can find the biggest possible audience."

With GTA 6's long-awaited and much-delayed launch on November 19 now approaching, fans have been eager to see more of the game beyond the two straightforward trailers seen so far. In particular, there's a sense that now is the time to see actual GTA 6 gameplay — something this extended look seems likely to feature.

"Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them," reads GTA 6's official blurb. "But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive."

The past few months have seen a steady uptick in activity promoting GTA 6 after Rockstar revealed the cover art for GTA 6 back in June and opened the game's preorders. But while some fans had expected the game's third trailer to debut around the same time, Rockstar instead released a big batch of new GTA 6 screenshots, which tease all kinds of new details about the game, but no Trailer 3.

It's now been almost 500 days since the arrival of Trailer 2 back in May 2025 — so long ago that when you go back and watch it, the trailer still has GTA 6's previous release date attached to it. Some had thought that Rockstar would want a new trailer that advertises the correct release date on it alongside preorders, but that wasn't to be the case.

While we wait for more, GTA 6 preorders are already off to a stunning start, while analysts have been offering their opinion on what GTA 6’s $80 price point means for other video games. There has been controversy over Rockstar's decision not to sell GTA 6 on a disc, and there are some retailers who are refusing to sell GTA 6 due to the game being digital-only. Meanwhile, on a different note, we have the tech expert verdict on the 63 new screenshots.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social %!s()

But according to Athens-based Omilia, which has been working on automating voice calls and customer support since 2002, throwing AI at every process can be wasteful. The company’s CEO, Dimitris Vassos, says that a large proportion of incoming customer support queries involve basic information, such as account balances, and there’s little need to deploy large language models for such tasks.

“We will use any available weapon to win the battle for customer service. Companies like Sierra, Decagon, etc. identify as generative AI companies. Their sole purpose is to deploy generative AI and limit themselves. You may have a bazooka, but if your enemy is near you, you need a knife. This is the reality of the contact center, where you need multiple tools,” he said.

Omilia itself has expanded its operations to building self-learning agents that can work across different customer contact points. To build that out, the company has now raised a $67 million Series B led by Expedition Growth Capital.

This round is the company’s second time raising capital after it raised $20 million from Grafton Capital in 2020. Since then, it has managed to increase its annual recurring revenue by 10x to $60 million.

Vassos says Omilia’s key differentiation lies in having great unit economics for both itself and its customers, and thanks to this approach, it hasn’t needed large cash infusions as compared to its competitors.

“In the next few years, we will see the companies that can offer real ROI prevail. We don’t mind that we’re not as sexy as ElevenLabs and Sierra on LinkedIn right now. We care about growing steadily and building the foundations for a billion-dollar revenue company in the next three years,” Vassos said.

Omilia’s clients include Capital One, Discover, RBC, DWP, and PSEG, and Vassos said quick-service restaurants that have adopted voice-based ordering are now a big focus. The company already has Taco Bell as a client and has deployed its tech across more than 1,000 outlets. Vassos said that it is in talks with two more quick-service restaurants in the U.S.

But AI deployments can be quite hit or miss. In Taco Bell’s case, a snafu in its ordering system reportedly allowed a customer to order 18,000 cups of water last year.

Vassos maintains this incident never took place, and Omilia’s logs didn’t show it. We have reached out to Taco Bell to clarify, and we will update our story if we hear back.

Omilia will use the fresh cash to open a new office in the U.S., a market that accounts for a significant chunk of its revenue. It will also bolster its go-to-market team and is hiring a chief revenue officer, chief marketing officer, and a VP of revenue operations.

The company has around 500 employees at the moment and expects its headcount to reach 600 by the end of the year.

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Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web.

You can contact or verify outreach from Ivan by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at ivan.42 on Signal.

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The Destrier is the third project from the Solitaire team, following the Brouillard and the F.K.P. Hommage, and it's formed around the same carbon-fiber monocoque as the Bolide. But the Bolide's extreme styling, with huge intakes carved into the front end, dramatic X-shaped LED headlights, and a ginormous rear wing, has been smoothed out and replaced by bodywork that would look more at home in front of a chalet along the French Riviera than screaming around Circuit Paul Ricard.

Named for a type of horse that carried medieval knights into battle, the Destrier is a breathtaking machine. The roof stands less than 40 inches above the ground, and the sleek body looks shrink-wrapped around the mechanical elements. While the overall shape is reminiscent of its track-bred sibling, the Destrier has more ornate decoration. The signature Bugatti C-line is more pronounced and outlined in chrome trim, and it wraps around to the front end, where it meets a wider horseshoe grille than on the Bolide.

The grille gets its own chrome border, with another chrome line forming a spine that runs up the hood and over the roof. The X-shaped headlights have been replaced by ovoid units housing a series of horizontal dashes, and the aerodynamic appendages behind the front wheels have been simplified from a series of gill-like slashes to a single fin. While the Bolide used 18-inch wheels, the Destrier swaps in 20-inch wheels up front and 21-inch wheels, giving it a more purposeful stance.

At the rear, the towering wing and shark fin have been ditched in favor of a lower wing that flows unbroken from the powerful rear haunches and carries a vertical brake light. The taillights have also been reduced to a pair of thin lines, although when viewed from above, they reveal a dazzling array of tiny LEDs. While the Destrier is meant to be more elegant than the Bolide, it still features a sizable rear diffuser beneath the quad exhaust outlets.

Structurally, the cabin is nearly identical to that of the Bolide, but there are drastic changes to the materials. Brown leather covers the seats and center console; the latter is also adorned with a pinstripe design. The dashboard, door panels, and shoulder pads for the seats, meanwhile, are covered in a 3-D-knitted textile, which Bugatti says is inspired by performance sportswear. Copper yarns are woven through the textile in a circular "halo-line" pattern and create a sparkle effect as light hits it.

Important functions are handled via a panel of buttons that sits inside a brushed metal housing, itself set atop a carbon-fiber base that flows up and onto the dashboard. The Destrier also features a unique metal finish that looks as if it has been hammered repeatedly, a nod to medieval armor, which appears on the door handle, air vents, steering wheel, and sill plate.

Underneath the fresh bodywork is the same powertrain as the Bolide, a quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter W-16 that sends 1578 horsepower to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. There's no word on how much this one-off Bugatti costs, but given that the company built 40 examples of the Bolide at around $4.8 million a pop, we would expect the unique Destrier to cost at least a couple of million more. The Destrier will make its public debut during Monterey Car Week, appearing at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on August 16, 2026.

➡️ Skip the lot. Let Car and Driver help you find your next car.

Caleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan. %!s()

This is the latest in a miserable streak of bad tidings for the ongoing components crisis. It follows Samsung’s own admission that prices will continue to rise throughout 2027, as well as remarks from Valve – whose Steam Machine and Steam Deck OLED have suffered badly from shortages and cost hikes – that the situation is primed to get worse before it gets better.

DigiTimes reports that Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix, incidentally the three companies accused of price fixing in a recent US lawsuit, have sold out both their DRAM and HBM capacity - DRAM being the more common memory type to be found in conventional RAM modules and gaming-spec graphics cards, as well as higher-end SSDs. The article does say that NAND, storage hardware also made by all three firms, is in marginally better shape, with some 2027 output still available. This too, though, is expected to sell out before the end of this month, so even DRAMless SSDs could stay expensive for another two years. And don’t go expecting mechanical hard drives to offer an easy alternative, as they’ve also seen production selling out well in advance of the finished drives actually rolling off the line.

As we do the innately human thing of scrabbling around, excitedly pointing at longshot alternatives like they’re divinely promised saviours, many are looking to the growing Chinese manufacturing sector – particularly DRAM makers CXMT, who already have multiple fabrication facilities spun up. However, any trickle-down effect that diversified supply is likely to have on consumer PC parts will be slow at best. Only a few major PC manufacturers, namely HP, Asus, and Acer, have begun using CXMT memory, and only then in a handful of products for the Asia market.

Frankly, it’s also hard to see supply outpacing the demand of another growing field: the obscenely hardware-hungry AI industry that’s been driving these shortages to begin with. Data centres could very easily suck up those extra components just as they have with current DRAM stocks, as much as we (and plenty of the games industry) would like to see it, there’s nothing to suggest that bubble is about to pop. %!s()